Trump blew it by opening his mouth about confronting Putin regarding election meddling. He should have listened to his people on how to handle this and say very little. He is in a tough spot and made himself look bad.

The tough position he is in is that he needed to stand up for the US. But if he does then he has to admit that Russia meddled in our election and if the Dems take the house  this year then impeachment might become easier. And they will demand he steps down even if they don’t take the house. Notice he has never admitted Russia meddled in our election. He should have (and he might have in the closed door meeting) warned Putin about the meddling and not even listen to Putin’s excuses. Then come out and say what he did and back it up with some sanctions and say nothing more.

Congress should now pass sanctions on Russia and Trump should sign it immediately.

Trump blew it by opening his mouth about confronting Putin regarding election meddling. He should have listened to his people on how to handle this and say very little. He is in a tough spot and made himself look bad.

The tough position he is in is that he needed to stand up for the US. But if he does then he has to admit that Russia meddled in our election and if the Dems take the house  this year then impeachment might become easier. And they will demand he steps down even if they don’t take the house. Notice he has never admitted Russia meddled in our election. He should have (and he might have in the closed door meeting) warned Putin about the meddling and not even listen to Putin’s excuses. Then come out and say what he did and back it up with some sanctions and say nothing more.

Congress should now pass sanctions on Russia and Trump should sign it immediately.

You're referring to the press conference, right?  Yeah, that was one aspect that was a head scratcher for sure.  Even many of Trump's staunchest supporters are like, "uh, WTF". 

Gotta think chess guys.  Trump is 4 moves ahead.

Dems already state that Russia interfered and believe this hole heartily. So if Trump acknowledges this, but the intel states Russia helped Hillary, then it can only help Trump.

I don't think the president of a country (Putin) would put himself out there and make him look stupid if what he stated was not true.

Why do you think Rosensteins report about the 12 Russians was released a few days prior to the meeting.  Why are all the dems saying he should not meet with Putin at all.  They don't want the truth to be exposed.  Remember the server that was "hacked" was never handed to the FBI or any government agency.  So no one could fully scan it for cookie crumbs.

MAGA!

Listening to all of the former Obama admin members talking about how bad everything was. Do they know what was discussed or agreed? No. Simply based on some comments of Russian ambassador.

We have to remember that all these same Obama admins said we would be at war with N. Korea, in WWIII, economy will fall, etc...

Trump probably isn't buddy buddy with Putin, but treats him cordial. Like a business partner trying to make a deal.

Just because someone is trying to play chess, doesn't mean they don't make boneheaded moves. 

He may be playing chess and I think he is playing the long game in many regards and winning many of those.  That said, I still think he does things from time to time that I think even he in private thinks to himself "damn, I should have handled that differently".  And this morning he's admitting he misspoke. . .

We have to remember that all these same Obama admins said we would be at war with N. Korea, in WWIII, economy will fall, etc...

Trump probably isn't buddy buddy with Putin, but treats him cordial. Like a business partner trying to make a deal.

Yeah, was pretty much what I was thinking as I was listening to those "experts".

Just because someone is trying to play chess, doesn't mean they don't make boneheaded moves. 

He may be playing chess and I think he is playing the long game in many regards and winning many of those.  That said, I still think he does things from time to time that I think even he in private thinks to himself "damn, I should have handled that differently".  And this morning he's admitting he misspoke. . .
Yeah, was pretty much what I was thinking as I was listening to those "experts".

Agreed.  Pretty much everything that comes out of his mouth isn't PR friendly.  But that's one of the things I like about him.  Bluntness.  I did watch a few Obama speeches and he is a very good speaker, but dances around the hard questions.  To me Trump is more on my level of thought.

That's why his press secs work overtime trying to "clarify" what he meant.  They deserve much kudo's. 

Agreed.  Pretty much everything that comes out of his mouth isn't PR friendly.  But that's one of the things I like about him.  Bluntness.  I did watch a few Obama speeches and he is a very good speaker, but dances around the hard questions.  To me Trump is more on my level of thought.

That's why his press secs work overtime trying to "clarify" what he meant.  They deserve much kudo's.

Yeah.  I do like the Trump seems to speak his mind and is pretty much unfiltered.  That said, I wish he would handle some things a bit more, well, polished.

Speaking of polished, that's one thing that drive me nuts when people sing all sorts of praises for Obama.  That he was well mannered, spoke well, etc.  I don't care if he is the most articulate and refined gentleman alive, but if his actions are damaging, then that's what is important to me.  And I feel many of Obama's actions and policies were damaging. 

Yeah.  I do like the Trump seems to speak his mind and is pretty much unfiltered.  That said, I wish he would handle some things a bit more, well, polished.

Speaking of polished, that's one thing that drive me nuts when people sing all sorts of praises for Obama.  That he was well mannered, spoke well, etc.  I don't care if he is the most articulate and refined gentleman alive, but if his actions are damaging, then that's what is important to me.  And I feel many of Obama's actions and policies were damaging.

"Sheeple", but most American's don't do research, that's why so many high praises for Obama.  And they don't want to be called a racist.


While watching Zero Dark Thirty, I was thinking, what would Trump have done?  We probably would have gotten OBL at most 2 yeass if he were president at the time.  Or would have sent all our guys into Syria to get him.  And if Syria complains, then F-em. They either knew about OBL or are to dumb to know he was there (Casino movie reference).  Either way, we're going after him even if it's only a 10% chance he was ID'd.

I’m glad trump came back and clarified his words this morning. He can be a bit of a bonehead at times.

To me this Russian meddling is not that big of a deal since there is no proof that the outcome was changed. However we should not let our guard down and we should hit Russia up side the head for attempting to do this.

I’m glad trump came back and clarified his words this morning. He can be a bit of a bonehead at times.

To me this Russian meddling is not that big of a deal since there is no proof that the outcome was changed. However we should not let our guard down and we should hit Russia up side the head for attempting to do this.

For Russia to have any outcome even if there was "interference", wouldn't they have to persuade our electoral voters directly?  As in got Tulsi to vote for Trump, etc...

It's not like the USA has ever interfered with anyone else's elections/dictatorships.

For Russia to have any outcome even if there was "interference", wouldn't they have to persuade our electoral voters directly?  As in got Tulsi to vote for Trump, etc...

It's not like the USA has ever interfered with anyone else's elections/dictatorships.

I'm sure you're familiar with PSYOPS. All it would take would be to spread negative info, true or not, against one candidate and suppress negative information, true or not, about the other. Basically do what our media does every single day.  In a close race, it can make a big difference.  In 2016, the polls helped Trump.  Voters (anti-Hillary & pro-Trump) turned out to overcome a huge projected deficit.

Hillary received the most votes when you add the state results. Yet, Hillary had the most faithless electors of any presidential candidate in almost a century.  That means she actually did get fewer electoral votes than she won.

So, if anyone "interfered" with Hillary's electoral outcome, it was Hillary and the DNC. Hawaii had one of four electoral votes cast for Bernie, and another would have been if the elector knew she was allowed to. If Hawaii was split between Hillary and Bernie, that says something about whether Democrat voters are as blind to her lying and unindicted crimes as it would appear.

I’m glad trump came back and clarified his words this morning. He can be a bit of a bonehead at times.

To me this Russian meddling is not that big of a deal since there is no proof that the outcome was changed. However we should not let our guard down and we should hit Russia up side the head for attempting to do this.

I'm something of a political Junkie.  I think Trump played it right other than some word confusion.
Spitting in Putin's face would not be the best way to proceed. Our elections were messed with by
every country such as  China, Israel, France, UK, et al. that is how the world works.  I have more fear of American
Liberals than I have of any Russian. Liberals will/have enslave(d) me, Russians at best MAY kill me.
Who is costing you guys on Ohau more money, Democrat HARP or Putin?
Bottom line is,  between Russia and the USA we can obliterate the earth,  Best to deal fairly and above all from
a position of strength.  It is better to  get an understanding than to protect "Deep state" power.
I'm happy Trump threw  the Liberal run intelligence agencies "under the bus".
Admittedly he walked that back a bit, but America is very sick and we need to fix it.
The disease is Liberalism.

Hope you guys have preparations for when when SHTF.

 

*wouldn't

Just saw a video where Trump believes Russia didn't hack our elections because Putin said so, plus he sees no reason why Russia would want to influence our election?!

Is Trump that stupid or am I really missing something?

Video in link.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/jul/16/key-moments-from-the-trump-putin-press-conference-video

Why would Russia want to influence an election to have a candidate who is a nationalist, wants to build up the military and overall strengthen the United States? If I was a peer adversary in any sense I would back the weaker candidate - one who is good at giving excuses to the People and is easily manipulated by foreign actors. Sound familiar?
If Russia did have an influence in our elections, Hillary would be President. This would mean that Russia's attempts to influence our elections have failed - and we have President Trump.

Dont forget they could blackmail HRC about the payments received by her foundation.

So if anything, russia wanted HRC to win.

Why would Russia want to influence an election to have a candidate who is a nationalist, wants to build up the military and overall strengthen the United States? If I was a peer adversary in any sense I would back the weaker candidate - one who is good at giving excuses to the People and is easily manipulated by foreign actors. Sound familiar?
If Russia did have an influence in our elections, Hillary would be President. This would mean that Russia's attempts to influence our elections have failed - and we have President Trump.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Why would Russia want to influence an election to have a candidate who is a nationalist, wants to build up the military and overall strengthen the United States? If I was a peer adversary in any sense I would back the weaker candidate - one who is good at giving excuses to the People and is easily manipulated by foreign actors. Sound familiar?
If Russia did have an influence in our elections, Hillary would be President. This would mean that Russia's attempts to influence our elections have failed - and we have President Trump.

That assumes that Russia was intent on trying to get a particular candidate elected but that is not the only tactic they might try.

It is possible they preferred one candidate over another but all the known meddling from Russia appeared to be more to just destabilize the USA. The hack into the DNC helping Clinton over Sanders certainly didn't help so it would be hard to say they were pushing for Clinton. I think Russia tried to create strife to disrupt our society and the whole facebook ads and groups they created seemed to be very effective given how little money they spent on it. The more infighting we have in America the less attention and energy America can spend dealing with Russia. They don't have to beat us with their military if we all turn on ourselves and had a civil war or big unrest. Remember that we didn't beat the USSR with our military, we beat them by outspending them and making them spend till they were destabilized. More complicated than that of course but that was a factor.

We have all (nearly all) of our intelligence agencies saying Russia meddled in our elections but Trump believes Putin over them because Putin said they investigated/will investigate themselves?

Just saw a video where Trump believes Russia didn't hack our elections because Putin said so, plus he sees no reason why Russia would want to influence our election?!

Is Trump that stupid or am I really missing something?

Video in link.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/jul/16/key-moments-from-the-trump-putin-press-conference-video

"just saw a video"?
that happened yesterday...

"just saw a video"?
that happened yesterday...

Wait until this weekend. He'll get around to seeing the video of Trump correcting his statement today.

This is why I have him muted.  He sucks away too many of your braincells, like a cerebral black hole.