I wonder how our President's playmate, Мистер Putin feels about this?

[dan_bgblue]

Just to be clear, NATO defense spending has jumped over $100 billion a year from 2016 to 2019. Over the next few years, the projections are that President Trump’s efforts will lead to a further half-trillion dollars in defense spending by NATO members.

This is an increase of strength that is a powerful signal to President Vladimir Putin’s Russia and other potential aggressors.

Difficult for me to reconcile this with the opinion pieces shared with the American people by many of the pundits in the main stream media and their supporters in places of power in DC

[Doc]

There is no evidence, or should I say credible/nonmanufactured evidence that Trump is beholden to Russia. That hoax was, is plan A of a multitude of plans to discredit him. Of course you know that

Much of that increase is him getting other NATO countries to kick in financially

[Catfan73]

Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, Rex Tillerson, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Don Jr., Ivanka, and Jared Kushner all have about two degrees of separation to Putin. Trump himself has less than that. He could sweep away any hint of being beholden to Putin and/or connections like Deripaska by simply releasing his tax returns and proving there’s no money laundering or anything else going on but it’s pretty obvious he knows he can’t do that.

[CitizenBBN]

Everyone in Washington has 2 degrees of separation from Putin. Bill Clinton took $500,000 in cash from a bank controlled by him. Hilllary's campaign manager, Podesta, has a brother who is a registered Russian lobbying agent.

What people should have learned from this nonsense is just how corrupt ALL of Washington is, not Trump.

But the idea this would just stop if he released his tax returns is hysterical. He's had a 2 year rectal exam by a special counsel that spent $40 million dollars, had a team of dogged attorneys that wanted his head on a spit, and they HAVE his tax returns as well as wiretaps, access to NSA data, endless subpoena powers, and every other tool of the US government, and they found NOTHING.

Think about that. They sweated white collar guys in solitary, raided one guy's house with freakin' SWAT, went after people's families, you name it.

And in the end they found that NOT ONE PERSON on Trump's team colluded with the Russians, despite them finding offers from Russians that were turned down.

And yet, somehow Trump is still a suspect until he just does this one more thing.

Please. If the Mueller investigation didn't convince someone that Trump isn't a Putin agent, absolutely nothing within the powers of Man on God's green earth will do it.

[Catfan73]

Wel when people say “tax returns” what they really mean are “financials” and it’s debatable that Mueller ever looked at Trump’s. There’s no mention of them in the report. It might have been the line he wasn’t willing to cross.

Besides Deutsche Bank they need to be looking into the Bank of Cyprus. Most of the money laundering goes thru Cyprus and Wilbur Ross (vice chairman of the Bank of Cyprus and US Commerce Secretary) and Donald Trump go way back. I think it’s funny how all this stuff these guys did when they were Democrats is all overlooked now that they’re Republicans. To be fair it was overlooked then also but if it stunk then, it stinks now.

[CitizenBBN]

Yes, I'm sure the special counsel, having thrown people in solitary confinement for bank mortgage mis-reporting, never thought to look at Trump's financial records.

They weren't in the report b/c they found nothing, and revealing them without them having any actual relevance to his investigation is legally questionable.

It's just become a Shakespearean comedy at this point.

Heck, the aid Trump temporarily withheld from Ukraine was military aid, aid which Obama refused to even give to the Ukraine. So even in the country where he supposedly has done something wrong he has actually been more anti-Russia than Obama.

There is not a single policy initiative of this administration that supports him being beholden to Putin in any way, and a massive and invasive investigation of him and everyone around him found ZERO, absolutely no collusion. We're 3 years in and he's done nothing to make himself king, or otherwise in any way usurp the Constitution.

Yet this nonsense continues. Confirmation bias may be the strongest of all human psychological conditions.

Is there any point when people just admit they are wrong? You hate Trump, I don't blame you, he's not likeable. He's an ass, he's petty, childish, boorish and ill behaved. But he's also not a Russian spy or a traitor or out to declare himself Emperor. He is the duly elected President, and while his personal behavior is grating, he hasn't done anything outside the bounds of any other Administration that warrants this kind of pathological concern.

You can hate the guy without him actually being guilty of a crime. That's OK, but just b/c people hate him doesn't mean he committed one either.

[CitizenBBN]

This goes to the point somewhat. Quotes by Alan Dershowitz, lifelong Democrat and maybe the last prominent civil libertarian left in America.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/alan-d...he-crime-maxim

As he points out, this entire investigation is more of a search for a crime to pin on a man versus a search for truth. Normally you start with a crime and find the suspect. This is picking the man you want to 'Get" and then searching vehemently for a crime to pin on him.

It's a Soviet way of doing things, not an American one.