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The Robert Mueller Investigation


Hugo Stiglitz

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20 minutes ago, krutov said:

and they say irony is dead.

I’m laughing that Republicans are spending so much time and effort defending a group of people that seemed to keep hanging out with Russians. 

I can remember when it was the Dems who were the Russian-lovers. 

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I was born in a cross-fire hurricane
And I howled at the morning driving rain
But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas
But it's all right. I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash
It's a gas, gas, gas
I was raised by a toothless, bearded hag,
I was schooled with a strap right across my back
But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas
But it's all right, I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash
It's a gas, gas, gas
I was drowned, I was washed up and left for dead
I fell down to my feet and I saw they bled , yeah yeah
I frowned at the crumbs of a crust of bread
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I was crowned with a spike right through my head
But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas
But it's all right, I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash
It's a gas, gas, gas
Jumping Jack Flash, its a gas
Jumping Jack Flash, its a gas
Jumping Jack Flash, its a gas
Jumping Jack Flash, its a gas
Jumping Jack Flash, its a gas
Jumping Jack Flash, its a gas
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1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

I’m laughing that Republicans are spending so much time and effort defending a group of people that seemed to keep hanging out with Russians. 

I can remember when it was the Dems who were the Russian-lovers. 

cool.  i was laughing at some imbecile 82 pages into a thread full of half assed turgid fantasy projection (and 100+ page deep on shaggy) complaining that the other side is too credulous.

i'll stop laughing when one of you douchebags does an honest list and review of all the half baked speculation and idiocy about trump just that has been taken seriously in this thread (we can do the trump thread later)

 

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17 hours ago, triplehorn said:

Over the past year, in one stroke you howl and lament in response to the specter of Trump/GOP corruption coming to light, 'burn it all down', 'we deserve ourselves', and other tripe.  Then in the next stroke you flip the script to become Blavatnik's shine boy and launch whataboutism at Queen Elizabeth.  The internal inconsistency is striking. 

You're either wantonly full of it, or wear Cyrillic labeled peejays.

 

Did you say Russian pajamas?

 

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And since you bring up the last year, let's talk about that triple.  Here is what I have seen over the last year or so, to my great amusement.

  • The machines were rigged
  • We demand a recount!
  • flip the electors
  • 25th amendment is our only hope
  • Russia planted the emails on Weiner's laptop!
  • oh I love the intelligence community and the military industrial complex
  • impeach him before he's even sworn in!
  • Secret SCOTUS master at arms initiated the impeachment protocol
  • Impeachment by Easter!
  • Military coup imminent
  • Mitch and Ryan perp walk by June
  • President Hatch!

So in the grand scheme of things, I can see why you think that suggesting maybe we should slow the roll on the US/UK dual citizen who sits on boards at Harvard and Cambridge and was knighted by the Queen of England for his philanthropy work is really outlandish.

At this end of this whole thing, I am quite certain that some nefarious shit will be revealed, and you will find some kernel of alignment to the ridiculous conspiracy nonsense you've been pushing for the last year to hang your hat on.  And when Blavatnik sits at the middle of the conspiracy, please feel free to call me out for suggesting that the connectivity in your conspiracy webs is stronger for the Queen of England than it is to Vladimir Putin.   

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1 hour ago, Anastasis said:

And since you bring up the last year, let's talk about that triple.  Here is what I have seen over the last year or so, to my great amusement.

  • The machines were rigged
  • We demand a recount!
  • flip the electors
  • 25th amendment is our only hope
  • Russia planted the emails on Weiner's laptop!
  • oh I love the intelligence community and the military industrial complex
  • impeach him before he's even sworn in!
  • Secret SCOTUS master at arms initiated the impeachment protocol
  • Impeachment by Easter!
  • Military coup imminent
  • Mitch and Ryan perp walk by June
  • President Hatch!

So in the grand scheme of things, I can see why you think that suggesting maybe we should slow the roll on the US/UK dual citizen who sits on boards at Harvard and Cambridge and was knighted by the Queen of England for his philanthropy work is really outlandish.

At this end of this whole thing, I am quite certain that some nefarious shit will be revealed, and you will find some kernel of alignment to the ridiculous conspiracy nonsense you've been pushing for the last year to hang your hat on.  And when Blavatnik sits at the middle of the conspiracy, please feel free to call me out for suggesting that the connectivity in your conspiracy webs is stronger for the Queen of England than it is to Vladimir Putin.   

So you can take the outliers, and throw them out there to make the reality seem less shitty.  Well the fact fucking is, we have a crooked president with crooked people who are indicted and convicted for crooked things, but, it’s all a big nothingburger.  

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3 hours ago, krutov said:

cool.  i was laughing at some imbecile 82 pages into a thread full of half assed turgid fantasy projection (and 100+ page deep on shaggy) complaining that the other side is too credulous.

i'll stop laughing when one of you douchebags does an honest list and review of all the half baked speculation and idiocy about trump just that has been taken seriously in this thread (we can do the trump thread later)

 

OK, I'll start.

 

LOL.  Oops, I lied!  Fuck you.

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59 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

So you can take the outliers, and throw them out there to make the reality seem less shitty.  Well the fact fucking is, we have a crooked president with crooked people who are indicted and convicted for crooked things, but, it’s all a big nothingburger.  

The reality is shit my friend. I am not sure where you divine my perspective as being anything but aligned with that. 

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28 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Wait. Mueller's team has a powerpoint? This changes everything!

 

Jesus this twitter shit is bringing down society. 

It’s a link to a WSJ and nowhere did it claim it CHANGED EVERYTHING.  Lighten up Francis. 

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32 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Wait. Mueller's team has a powerpoint? This changes everything!

 

Jesus this twitter shit is bringing down society. 

You are certainly predictable Anastasis. 

The Powerpoint that Mueller has is the Psy-Group equivalent of this. 

 

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WASHINGTON—Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators have obtained a presentation prepared by an Israel-based private intelligence firm that outlines ways in which Donald Trump’s 2016 election was helped by fake news and fake social-media accounts, according to people familiar with the presentation and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Mueller’s interest in the presentation suggests his investigation is focusing on the role of social-media manipulation during the 2016 campaign. Intelligence officials have said that cyber-influence campaigns, sometimes covertly sponsored by foreign governments, are expected to become a major part of political campaigning in the coming years.

The presentation consists of nine slides and was prepared by the Psy-Group, a firm that boasts of ties to elite Israeli intelligence agencies. It isn’t clear who received the Psy-Group presentation, but it appears to have been created sometime after the 2016 election.

People familiar with the presentation describe it as an internal analysis drawn up by the firm to drum up U.S. political business—saying that it was essentially used as marketing material for the firm’s operation and analytical capabilities. It also represents a “proof of concept” of how a firm like Psy-Group would have manipulated the 2016 campaign as well as future campaigns, people said.

It is unclear how much of the presentation consists of the firm’s analysis of online activity during the campaign and how much is a hypothetical pitch.

Marc Mukasey, a lawyer for Mr. Zamel, said the presentation copy that Mr. Mueller has obtained was a “sample type analysis of what they could do.” 

A spokesman for Mr. Mueller declined to comment.

The presentation outlines the ways in which social media “bots” and fake online content were used to help energize voters supportive of Mr. Trump. One slide entitled “Trump Campaign Components” outlines a timeline where “fake news sites/avatars/content” were created during the early part of the election year and then leveraged to spread “uncertainty” by midyear. The final stage was “using fake bots to react to real life situations & further polarize the TA,” or target audience, the slide says.

Another slide says the firm identified 140 pro-Trump websites linked to a man in Macedonia. The websites “had American-sounding domain names such as WorldPoliticus.com” and “published aggressively pro-Trump content aimed at conservatives and Trump supporters in the USA.” WorldPoliticus.com is no longer active.

A person familiar with Trump campaign’s operations said it has “absolutely no knowledge of what this firm was referring to” in the slideshow.

Another slide outlines a Facebook strategy where fake online profiles or “avatars” engage real people online and encourage them to share content. The result is a “multiplier effect with mass people spreading lies,” the slide says.

In September, Facebook disclosed that it identified about 500 “inauthentic” accounts with ties to Russia that bought $100,000 worth of ads during a two-year period encompassing the presidential campaign. 

Mr. Mueller is investigating whether anyone in the Trump campaign colluded in Russian efforts to interfere in the election. Moscow has denied meddling and Mr. Trump has denied any collusion by his campaign.

The Psy-Group’s founder, Joel Zamel, is under scrutiny from U.S. investigators because of his close relationship with the government of the United Arab Emirates and his involvement in a meeting with Mr. Trump’s eldest son shortly before election day, the Journal has reported. 

Mr. Zamel met with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in the weeks before the 2016 election along with George Nader, a top adviser to the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, to discuss an offer to help boost the campaign, according to people familiar with the matter. Erik Prince, a U.S. defense contractor who specializes in the Middle East and had close ties to the campaign, attended the meeting, the Journal previously reported. People involved in the meeting say nothing came of it and the Psy-Group didn’t perform any work for the Trump campaign.

A lawyer for Mr. Trump Jr. said Messrs. Zamel and Nader had pitched his client on “a social media platform or marketing strategy” and that “he was not interested and that was the end of it.” 

The presentation reviewed by the Journal wasn’t related to the Trump Tower meeting nor was it prepared for Mr. Nader, said Mr. Mukasey, Mr. Zamel’s attorney.

Mr. Mueller has been investigating Mr. Zamel’s work and has interviewed Mr. Zamel about his business relationship with Mr. Nader, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Mukaseyhas said investigators have told him his client isn’t a target of the probe. A subpoena concerning Mr. Zamel’s work, but not issued to Mr. Zamel, was reviewed by the Journal.

Mr. Nader has been cooperating with investigators since January, when investigators stopped him at Dulles Airport and served him with a subpoena.

A lawyer for Mr. Nader said his client has “fully cooperated with the special counsel’s investigation and will continue to do so.” The lawyer declined to answer further questions.

The Psy-Group was formed by Mr. Zamel, the son of an Australian mining magnate who moved to Israel to study counterterrorism. There, Mr. Zamel founded several companies beginning in 2010 and became increasingly close to the government of the U.A.E., the Journal has previously reported. One of his companies, Wikistrat, did war games and analysis for the U.A.E. in 2014 and say he was close to the national security adviser there, according to people familiar with Mr. Zamel.

People familiar with the Psy-Group’s operations say it provided intelligence services for political and corporate clients. 

After the 2016 election, the firm started to pitch for business in the U.S., including for the 2018 midterms. As part of its pitch to potential political clients, the Psy-Group said it had the capability of leveraging fake social-media accounts, which they call avatars, on behalf of political campaigns.

“Psy excels at the use of online avatars that appear natural, unbiased and object. These avatars are highly effective at directing political messaging to target audiences,” marketing materials reviewed by the Journal say. These fake social accounts could be used for “narrative warfare” or to “echo campaign messaging,” the firm said.

No political entity has made any payments to the Psy-Group since 2015, according to Federal Election Commission records. The participation of foreign firms or individuals in U.S. elections is tightly controlled.

Write to Byron Tau at byron.tau@wsj.com and Rebecca Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com

 

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33 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

I mean, if I am going to commit treason, I would hope that it could be reduced to nine ppt slides. 

Before the election, Trump Jr. met with Joel Zamel, the CEO of Psy-Group, as well as Erik Prince and George Nader. Zamel pitched Trump Jr on a social media campaign based off of fake news and social media fraud. Trump Jr. was reportedly receptive. 

Quote

Erik Prince, the private security contractor and the former head of Blackwater, arranged the meeting, which took place on Aug. 3, 2016. The emissary, George Nader, told Donald Trump Jr. that the princes who led Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were eager to help his father win election as president. The social media specialist, Joel Zamel, extolled his company’s ability to give an edge to a political campaign; by that time, the firm had already drawn up a multimillion-dollar proposal for a social media manipulation effort to help elect Mr. Trump.

Quote

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/us/politics/trump-jr-saudi-uae-nader-prince-zamel.html

WASHINGTON — Three months before the 2016 election, a small group gathered at Trump Tower to meet with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son. One was an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation. Another was an emissary for two wealthy Arab princes. The third was a Republican donor with a controversial past in the Middle East as a private security contractor.

The meeting was convened primarily to offer help to the Trump team, and it forged relationships between the men and Trump insiders that would develop over the coming months — past the election and well into President Trump’s first year in office, according to several people with knowledge of their encounters.

Erik Prince, the private security contractor and the former head of Blackwater, arranged the meeting, which took place on Aug. 3, 2016. The emissary, George Nader, told Donald Trump Jr. that the princes who led Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were eager to help his father win election as president. The social media specialist, Joel Zamel, extolled his company’s ability to give an edge to a political campaign; by that time, the firm had already drawn up a multimillion-dollar proposal for a social media manipulation effort to help elect Mr. Trump.

The company, which employed several Israeli former intelligence officers, specialized in collecting information and shaping opinion through social media.
Image
Donald Trump Jr. was said to respond approvingly to a proposal for a social media manipulation effort to help elect his father as president.CreditDamon Winter/The New York Times
It is unclear whether such a proposal was executed, and the details of who commissioned it remain in dispute. But Donald Trump Jr. responded approvingly, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting, and after those initial offers of help, Mr. Nader was quickly embraced as a close ally by Trump campaign advisers — meeting frequently with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, and Michael T. Flynn, who became the president’s first national security adviser. At the time, Mr. Nader was also promoting a secret plan to use private contractors to destabilize Iran, the regional nemesis of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.


After Mr. Trump was elected, Mr. Nader paid Mr. Zamel a large sum of money, described by one associate as up to $2 million. There are conflicting accounts of the reason for the payment, but among other things, a company linked to Mr. Zamel provided Mr. Nader with an elaborate presentation about the significance of social media campaigning to Mr. Trump’s victory.

The meetings, which have not been reported previously, are the first indication that countries other than Russia may have offered assistance to the Trump campaign in the months before the presidential election. The interactions are a focus of the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, who was originally tasked with examining possible Trump campaign coordination with Russia in the election.

Mr. Nader is cooperating with the inquiry, and investigators have questioned numerous witnesses in Washington, New York, Atlanta, Tel Aviv and elsewhere about what foreign help may have been pledged or accepted, and about whether any such assistance was coordinated with Russia, according to witnesses and others with knowledge of the interviews.

 

Now we have their after the fact confessional. 

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1 hour ago, Anastasis said:

yes, the ppt will surely be the lynch pin in the whole affair. 

I never said it would, but if anything ever actually does prove to be the lynchpin to the whole affair, you'll be right there to try to downplay and minimize it. 

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I never said it would, but if anything ever actually does prove to be the lynchpin to the whole affair, you'll be right there to try to downplay and minimize it. 



And meanwhile you’ll still be waiting on president hatch I guess.
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This Israel connection has opened up a window to see more clearly what Trump did to get elected. Even though Trump is an idiot, he did understand that he needed support from others to get elected.

So what did he do? He went out and sold favors for Russia and Israel in exchange for election support. This recent Israeli evidence makes that obvious. For Russia, it was to remove sanctions. For Israel, it was support for the move to Jerusalem.

I doubt Mueller can make a strong enough case to get him indicted. It also raises a bigger question. Hasn’t every President sold favors in exchange for support? Did Saudi money help Bush get elected, for example?

The thought of such corruption in our government really hits hard. It shakes the fundamental foundation of our belief systems. I think we all have known that our government has elements of corruption, but I think many felt it was not as pervasive as elsewhere in the world. The reality that is now emerging is that the corruption is probably just as bad, it’s just been more sophisticated and concealed than elsewhere.

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12 hours ago, Anastasis said:

And since you bring up the last year, let's talk about that triple.  Here is what I have seen over the last year or so, to my great amusement.

  • The machines were rigged
  • We demand a recount!
  • flip the electors
  • 25th amendment is our only hope
  • Russia planted the emails on Weiner's laptop!
  • oh I love the intelligence community and the military industrial complex
  • impeach him before he's even sworn in!
  • Secret SCOTUS master at arms initiated the impeachment protocol
  • Impeachment by Easter!
  • Military coup imminent
  • Mitch and Ryan perp walk by June
  • President Hatch!

So in the grand scheme of things, I can see why you think that suggesting maybe we should slow the roll on the US/UK dual citizen who sits on boards at Harvard and Cambridge and was knighted by the Queen of England for his philanthropy work is really outlandish.

At this end of this whole thing, I am quite certain that some nefarious shit will be revealed, and you will find some kernel of alignment to the ridiculous conspiracy nonsense you've been pushing for the last year to hang your hat on.  And when Blavatnik sits at the middle of the conspiracy, please feel free to call me out for suggesting that the connectivity in your conspiracy webs is stronger for the Queen of England than it is to Vladimir Putin.   

Evidence of your claims?  

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2 hours ago, Bevo VIII said:

Anastasis getting triggered it’s because it’s getting harder to play the both sides to this?

Yeah, I mean its so hard to come up with a #bothsides example of Ukrainian foreign actors trying to influence the outcome of the election.    

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Yeah, I mean its so hard to come up with a #bothsides example of Ukrainian foreign actors trying to influence the outcome of the election.    

Are you equating the Ukrainians investigating Manafort to the Russians infiltrating political campaign servers and instigating civil unrest? JFC, that’s some outstanding bothsiderism.
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3 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

This Israel connection has opened up a window to see more clearly what Trump did to get elected. Even though Trump is an idiot, he did understand that he needed support from others to get elected.

So what did he do? He went out and sold favors for Russia and Israel in exchange for election support. This recent Israeli evidence makes that obvious. For Russia, it was to remove sanctions. For Israel, it was support for the move to Jerusalem.

I doubt Mueller can make a strong enough case to get him indicted. It also raises a bigger question. Hasn’t every President sold favors in exchange for support? Did Saudi money help Bush get elected, for example?

The thought of such corruption in our government really hits hard. It shakes the fundamental foundation of our belief systems. I think we all have known that our government has elements of corruption, but I think many felt it was not as pervasive as elsewhere in the world. The reality that is now emerging is that the corruption is probably just as bad, it’s just been more sophisticated and concealed than elsewhere.

Both sides!!!! Oh noes!  You are a Trump apologist!  You equivocator, you!

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Are you equating the Ukrainians investigating Manafort to the Russians infiltrating political campaign servers and instigating civil unrest?


No Tuco, keep up. I’m comparing the Ukrainians attempting to influence our election to a Ukrainian born philanthropist making a donation to a republican, which places him at the center of a massive international Slavic conspiracy involving one of political parties going all in on treason.
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53 minutes ago, JukeJointJunkie said:

You could go back and look on Shaggy, but you might step in some shit while you're there. But he ain't making it up.

Triple said some of those things relaying Mensch posts. He's pretty much the only one. I never have posted a Mensch exclusive, because I think she's a loon who occasionally gets good tips and misinterprets them.

Anastasis is being disingenuous and trying to paint the rest of us with the same brush. He's also being extremely hyperbolic about it and inflating even the things triple posted to try to discredit it.

It's the exact same thing Anastasis always does when he's trolling. 

 

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There’s really only two of those that were directly mensch related. The Russia planted Hillary emails on wieners computer, and the scotus imaginary impeachment notice thing. At least I think those are the only two she really pushed. The rest had pretty good main stream traction.

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On tapa rereview, more like 4 or 5 not two. There were a couple homegrown ones sprinkled in there too. I don’t recall much conversation about a military coup. That may have been a shag original. A number of the others were fairly broad and mainstream.

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Natasha’s sources must have gone to the mattresses because she’s not getting the juicy new shit like she was.

Don’t get me wrong, her timeline article is valuable and newsworthy because to understand Trump-Russia at all, you have to have near timeline mastery.

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1 hour ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Natasha’s sources must have gone to the mattresses because she’s not getting the juicy new shit like she was.

Don’t get me wrong, her timeline article is valuable and newsworthy because to understand Trump-Russia at all, you have to have near timeline mastery.

Yeah, her mastery of the timeline is top-tier for reporters, but she hasn't broken anything in a bit.

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5 hours ago, Anastasis said:

There’s really only two of those that were directly mensch related. The Russia planted Hillary emails on wieners computer, and the scotus imaginary impeachment notice thing. At least I think those are the only two she really pushed. The rest had pretty good main stream traction.

I have heard/read almost none of those claims.   Maybe your mainstream traction is really a view from a bubbled echo chamber where straw men are defeated with gusto.  

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There’s really only two of those that were directly mensch related. The Russia planted Hillary emails on wieners computer, and the scotus imaginary impeachment notice thing. At least I think those are the only two she really pushed. The rest had pretty good main stream traction.*

*not really


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54 minutes ago, Nivek said:

I have heard/read almost none of those claims.   Maybe your mainstream traction is really a view from a bubbled echo chamber where straw men are defeated with gusto.  

It’s exactky this. As per usual he is carrying water for the administration. 

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Seems to be a lot of early onset dementia setting in around here. You guys just happened to tune out 4Q2016. 

 

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The machines were rigged and everybody knows it. There's not enough Trump voters, half of you trump apologists are Russian hacks.

Trump deserves to be executed.

Look, somebody says the above, it's therefore a mainstream meme.

Also, most of your memes are just impatience for the inevitable. Trump will be found guilty. What is done about it is unsure, as he is protected by unique circumstances and by accomplice criminals like "the Senate" and "Russia" and about 35% of America. Which I rightly call "deplorables", as they deserve a lifetime in hell as the racist American traitors they are.

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48 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Seems to be a lot of early onset dementia setting in around here. You guys just happened to tune out 4Q2016. 

 

Incredible.  You cited Jill Stein - who demanded a recount based on claims there was something wrong due to 75,000 votes lacking a presidential choice.  Which the article points out is not required.   So then you extrapolate this to the left.   Of course your boy’s claims of rigging elections in this country preceded any voting, including the primaries.  

Since you led with stupid, I will just stop there. No need to turn this into an Orca (me) seal (you) party.  Unless we get a little crazy.    

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1 hour ago, Anastasis said:

Seems to be a lot of early onset dementia setting in around here. You guys just happened to tune out 4Q2016. 

 

You didn’t read much of the articles you posted I bet.

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