Well crap. Yeah , that was a shit show, and LP clearly can’t speak to a crowd like that. His inability to adjust to the adversarial reaction was appalling.
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FSB is domestic intelligence (~ FBI), GRU part of the military (dunno if there’s a real US equivalent, in Germany it would be the MAD).
The other important Russian secret services are FSO (mostly protection of politicians etc, comparable to the USSS) and SWR (foreign intelligence, ~CIA). I believe Russia has also something similar to the NSA (signals intelligenece), but forgot the name and I’m too lazy to search.
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Which ones were those? Where can I read them?
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As far as I am aware, no war is needed, Treason is “the crime of betraying one’s country, especially by attempting to kill or overthrow the sovereign or government.”
I would need to dig around more. The way the U.S. Code explains it is:
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 807; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(2)(J), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2148.)
So it is phrased in terms of war, but is then vague on other points. Such as actually defining the scope of what may constitute “enemies” of the US. I did not find much on this in a cursory search of the Code. In any case, since there are trade relations with Russia and people are free to travel to and from it currently, I think it’s a safe guess that the two states are not currently enemies, in any formal sense.
Not to say that Trump eliciting help in hacking the Democrats could not be in conflict with other laws, such as espionage and possibly election processes.
Not as defined in the US. Assassination, treason, insurrection, sedition, etc are treated as all distinct if related infractions. See here for more:
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The execrable Roy Cohn[sic], who was a HUUGE influence on Trump; they were best buds in the 70s.
Cohn wrote a book sometime after, How to Stand Up for Your Rights and Win!, which was basically tips for being a jackass, things like why you should always cut in line. I haven’t looked at it in years, but I suspect it would look today like a manual for Trumpish behavior.
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Why not go ALL the way and ask for her birth certificate @lolipop_jones?
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I thought he went with Pence for VP. Is McCarthy even available?
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What utter horse manure. Are you throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks?
[reviews thread]
Oh, good chance that’s exactly what you’re doing.
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Wow, that’s a lot of qualifiers there. And as far as getting money from outside of the countries, didn’t Shrub do that?
The way Reagan negotiated with Iran, implicitly encouraging them to keep the embassy hostages until he was inaugurated was a lot worse treason IMHO, but he got away with it.
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This really deserves a thread all its own. As far as I can see, the United States had three options:
First, supply the Crimean people with the resources needed to resist the Russian army.
Second, accept the Crimea as not strategically important to the United States (just like Iraq) and recognize the de facto reality.
Third, loudly and repeatedly whinge about the evils of the Russian action while doing nothing of consequence to stop it.
Those who have observed the Obama administration’s foreign policy since 2009 will be completely unsurprised at its choice of door number three.
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It would be hard to make an espionage charge stick when the owner of the server in question has repeatedly denied to Congressional investigations, the FBI, and the American public that said server contained any classified information.
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That’s pretty much correct.
Since the issue of Hillary’s personal integrity was first raised by conservative politicians and media, his brain was hard wired to steer clear of the issue. By definition everything ever said by a conservative has to be not only wrong, but off limits for discussion.
Many boingers, whose brains are similarly wired, were forced to accept the assumption of Hillary’s honesty and would have attacked Bernie had he questioned it.
There was precedent for that:
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Comparable doesn’t mean identical.
They ARE comparable.
Off the top of my head: Both countries suffered an undeclared invasion by a growing power led by a strongman leader relying on butt-hurt nationalistic pride, corruption, and scapegoating to maintain power. In both cases, “referendums” and “protecting speakers of the mother tongue” were used as excuses, and both invaders exhibited a disregard of world condemnation regarding the annexation. Most importantly, both events shone a light on the ambitious and dangerous expansionism of the superpowers involved.
And if President Trump were indeed to do a Chamberlain-like appeasement, that would be one more point of valid, constructive comparison between the two. Not equation. Comparison.
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In what meaningful way has Putin’s expansionism been rolled back by the current, non-Trump, administration?
The US Constitution has a clause that dramatically limits the scope of a treason charge.
In America, you can fuck the spouse of the monarch.
(article iii, section 3) Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.
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In what meaningful way would Trump’s policies roll back that expansionism?
Putin’s goal is to influence our elections to get the weakest leader in the White House. He’s chosen Trump to play that role. To be fair - it’s just typecasting.
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Where can I get one of those hats!?!? 
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