Thursday, July 13, 2017

Five Questions to Ask About the Current Trump Kerfuffle

CHARLIE MARTIN@PJM - Of course, everyone already knows that the current legacy media furor is over Donald Trump Jr.'s 20-minute meeting with a Russian. Of course, some Democrats were out with their favorite T-word, "treason. " Hillary Clinton's erstwhile running mate, Tim Kaine (D-Irrelevancy), said: We are now beyond obstruction of justice. This is moving into perjury, false statements and even potentially treason. (Of course, there is no way this would be treason. For crying out loud, not even Vox believes it could have possibly been treason.)

Still, lots of fuss about this.  I have to admit I'm a little puzzled about it, though. I'm not getting why this is such a big thing. So here are five questions I'd like someone to answer for me. As far as I can tell, what really happened is that Natasha Nogoodick, er, Natalia Veselnitskaya, contacted Trump Jr, offering damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr. had an email chain saying they thought this information was via the Russian government because they favored Trump. The meeting was held, it lasted perhaps 20 minutes, and it turned out to be someone lobbying about international adoption. No damaging information about Clinton was offered. 

Question One. Does agreeing to meet with any Russian constitute collusion? Does lobbying by a Russian constitute collusion?

Question Two. What criminal statute covers meeting with Russian private citizens? For that matter, what criminal statute covers accepting opposition research about a candidate?

Question Three. What is the massive ethical breach involved here? Was it more unethical than these?

Question Four. Does this photograph indicate collusion with the Russians? Is it only collusion when your name is "Trump"?


Question Five. What the hell is is wrong with these people?

[SNIP]

The way the media is howling you'd think Donald Jr. had sold American Uranium reserves to the Russians for personal profit while his was Secretary of State or something......