Two Years of Wasted Time and Money

[_canpakes]

[_subgenius]

[Guest]

Well if Richard Burr says he hasn't seen any evidence "so far" of collusion, then that's it. Game over.

Mr. Burr may have overlooked an argument made in court this week by for the Special Counsel's Office. In justifying their case, an argument was made concerning a meeting between Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and Konstantin Kilimnik in August of 2016. The meeting was held at a the private Havana Cigar Club at 666 5th Avenue (the billion dollar albatross owned by the Kushers).

Now perhaps to a person with a half a brain it was a totally innocuous meeting between Trump's campaign manager, his deputy campaign manager, and Konstantin Kilimnik. Perhaps a person with half a brain thinks that all of this had nothing to do with the decidedly soft plank Trump's agents crafted about Russian interference in the Ukraine for the GOP convention. Perhaps Manafort's eagerness to supply briefings on the campaign to Oleg Deripaska was just what buddies do for buddies.

And maybe Gates and Manafort lying to investigators about the meeting was just a 'gotcha' investigation done by the deep state. Perhaps Trump's defense of Manafort, and saying 'witch hunt' when his top 2 campaign deputies were meeting with a Russian agent was a noble defense of very proud American who had spent the last decade as an unregistered foreign agent.

But for people with an entire brain, it becomes increasingly difficult to believe such a scenario. Manafort was up to his eyeballs in debt with Russian Oligarchs, so he goes to work as Trump's campaign manager for free? Offers to give briefings to Deripaska? Has a meeting with Gates and Deripaska in Kushner's building, the same Kushner who wanted to set up back-channel communications with the Russians? And after that meeting, all of the participants agree to leave by separate exits? Why so shy, fellas?

[_huckelberry]

Trump may be dumb and self centered but due to self centeredness he may well be careful enough to avoid making any direct links for collusion. Mob bosses usually are able to manage the trick.

There is a possibility that Trump is just being played by Putin and there is no collusion from Trump' personally.

Leaving the subject of Russia out of things entirely we are left with the operative awful quality of Trump himself.(I suspect that is more important anyway)

[_moksha]

Trump takes aim on America:

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Well if Richard Burr says he hasn't seen any evidence "so far" of collusion, then that's it. Game over.

Mr. Burr may have overlooked an argument made in court this week by for the Special Counsel's Office. In justifying their case, an argument was made concerning a meeting between Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and Konstantin Kilimnik in August of 2016. The meeting was held at a the private Havana Cigar Club at 666 5th Avenue (the billion dollar albatross owned by the Kushers).

Now perhaps to a person with a half a brain it was a totally innocuous meeting between Trump's campaign manager, his deputy campaign manager, and Konstantin Kilimnik. Perhaps a person with half a brain thinks that all of this had nothing to do with the decidedly soft plank Trump's agents crafted about Russian interference in the Ukraine for the GOP convention. Perhaps Manafort's eagerness to supply briefings on the campaign to Oleg Deripaska was just what buddies do for buddies.

And maybe Gates and Manafort lying to investigators about the meeting was just a 'gotcha' investigation done by the deep state. Perhaps Trump's defense of Manafort, and saying 'witch hunt' when his top 2 campaign deputies were meeting with a Russian agent was a noble defense of very proud American who had spent the last decade as an unregistered foreign agent.

But for people with an entire brain, it becomes increasingly difficult to believe such a scenario. Manafort was up to his eyeballs in debt with Russian Oligarchs, so he goes to work as Trump's campaign manager for free? Offers to give briefings to Deripaska? Has a meeting with Gates and Deripaska in Kushner's building, the same Kushner who wanted to set up back-channel communications with the Russians? And after that meeting, all of the participants agree to leave by separate exits? Why so shy, fellas?

The most significant of ManafArt's lies affirmed by the court today are those regarding Russian Intelligence Officer Konstantin Kilimnik and the meeting at the Havana Club and the key points highlighted by a Washington Post article follow:

► The meeting happened while Manafort was Trump's Campaign Chairman, and was with a person he knew to be a Russian Intelligence Officer.

► The purpose of the meeting was discussion of a "Ukrainian Peace Plan" which would have involved splitting Ukraine in two and removing all US sanctions. This is obviously part of Russia's long-term geopolitical strategy. Not ours.

► Manafort gave Kilimnik extremely detailed, private internal polling data. This happened after Manafort attended the Trump Tower Meeting, and clearly knew that Russia was actively engaged in an effort to get Trump elected.

► The Special Counsel explicitly notes that Manafort's lies on these points was motivated by a desire to secure a pardon, implying that telling the full truth would be highly damaging to Donald Trump personally.

► It's worth noting that Kilimnik was funnelling money into the Trump Inauguration through GOP operative Sam Patten, who continues to cooperate.

- Doc

[_Jersey Girl]

Mueller Investigation as of 12/14/2018:

According to this first report, the Mueller investigation spent $3.2 million directly during that period. The biggest category was $1.7 million for staff salaries and benefits, while the second-largest was for equipment. Smaller categories included travel, rent, utilities and supplies.

The second report was released in May 2018, covering the next six months of the probe, from Oct. 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018.

This report showed that the investigation spent $4.5 million directly in this second period, making the total in direct costs so far $7.7 million.

Then, on Dec. 14, the office released its data covering April 1 to Sept. 30, 2018.

This report showed that the office spent $4.6 million, bringing the total to $12.3 million.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-mete ... g-updated/

Five Week Gov't Shutdown:

The five-week federal government shutdown took a significant economic toll, costing the United States economy $11 billion, with nearly a quarter of that total permanently lost, the Congressional Budget Office said on Monday.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/us/p ... -says.html

President tossed away roughly twice the 5.7 billion he wanted for the wall. He still hasn't got the wall. Now he'll likely declare a state of emergency.

Money wasted indeed.

[_subgenius]