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If I claim my investigative work turned up lots of proof you committed a murder before you were even born what would you say about that?
originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
a reply to: rnaa
I think Trump should have demanded that non-existent company Mueller indicted send a reply to the indictment.
Concord Management and Consulting (Russian: Конкорд Менеджмент и Консалтинг) is a member of the Concord company group, which is half owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin.[1][2] Based in St. Petersburg, Russia, it owns and operates several restaurants. It is also the parent company of Concord Catering.[2]
The company was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin in 1995.[3] He was the listed owner until 2009. His mother, Violetta Prigozhin, has been the listed owner since 2011.[4]
"North Versailles" (Russian: Северный Версаль) is a luxury housing development in the Lahti-Primorsky district of St. Petersburg built and managed by Concord Management and Consulting.[5] The development closed a section of Novaya Street to the public by erecting gates with armed guards. This was controversial because city records showed the street as still a public right of way.[6]
Concord Management and Consulting owns 50% of LLC Megaline (Russian: Мегалайн).[7] Megaline received most of the capital construction contracts for the Russian military in 2016 in what appears to have been a rigged bidding process.[8][9] Concord Management and Consulting's lawyers provided a package of amendments to the Ministry of Defense to change the laws in a way that would allow Megaline to bid for the contracts since it otherwise wasn't qualified. The amendments were submitted to the Duma by the government on February 11, 2014, and adopted on April 16, 2014.[10]
On June 20, 2017, The United States Treasury Department added Concord Management and Consulting to the list of companies sanctioned for Russia's military interventions in Crimea and the Ukraine.[11]
Dmitry Utkin (ru), also under sanctions,[11] became the CEO of Concord Management and Consulting on November 14, 2017.[2][12] Utkin is the founder of Wagner Group a private military contractor. He replaced Anastasia Sautina.
Indictment
A February 2018 indictment by the United States Justice Department alleged that Concord Management and Consulting began operations in 2014 with the intention to financially support a group known as the Internet Research Agency which allegedly interfered with the 2016 United States Presidential election won by Donald J. Trump.[13][14]
An initial hearing was in May 2018.[15
In fact, in 1948 there was a law created, called the Smith-Mundt Act, which made it illegal for the press to lie to citizens or to propagate fake news to deceive....Obama overturned that in 2012.
Section 501(a) of the Act (care of the Voice of America Web site) provides that
"information produced by VOA for audiences outside the United States shall not be disseminated within the United States … but, on request, shall be available in the English language at VOA, at all reasonable times following its release as information abroad, for examination only by representatives of United States press associations, newspapers, magazines, radio systems, and stations, and by research students and scholars, and, on request, shall be made available for examination only to Members of Congress."
"This means that VOA is forbidden to broadcast within the United States." In reality, of course, any American with a shortwave receiver or an Internet connection can listen to VOA. This is incidental, however. VOA cannot direct or intend its programs to be "for" Americans. This distinction is often lost on experts who see the letter of the law, but with no real understanding of the media. George W. Bush-era State Department official James K. Glassman has called for directing VOA at American audiences.
The agency wants to reach diaspora communities, such as St. Paul, Minnesota’s significant Somali expat community. "Those people can get al-Shabab, they can get Russia Today, but they couldn’t get access to their taxpayer-funded news sources like VOA Somalia," the source said. "It was silly."
Lynne added that the reform has a transparency benefit as well. "Now Americans will be able to know more about what they are paying for with their tax dollars — greater transparency is a win-win for all involved," she said. And so with that we have the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, which passed as part of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act, and went into effect this month.
...
That of course doesn’t leave the BBG off the hook if its content smacks of agitprop. But now that its materials are allowed to be broadcast by local radio stations and TV networks, they won’t be a complete mystery to Americans. "Previously, the legislation had the effect of clouding and hiding this stuff," the former U.S. official told The Cable. "Now we’ll have a better sense: Gee some of this stuff is really good. Or gee some of this stuff is really bad. At least we’ll know now."
But for BBG officials, the references to Pentagon propaganda efforts are nauseating, particularly because the Smith-Mundt Act never had anything to do with regulating the Pentagon, a fact that was misunderstood in media reports in the run-up to the passage of new Smith-Mundt reforms in January.
One example included a report by the late BuzzFeed reporter Michael Hastings, who suggested that the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act would open the door to Pentagon propaganda of U.S. audiences. In fact, as amended in 1987, the act only covers portions of the State Department engaged in public diplomacy abroad (i.e. the public diplomacy section of the "R" bureau, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors.)
But the news circulated regardless, much to the displeasure of Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), a sponsor of the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012. "To me, it’s a fascinating case study in how one blogger was pretty sloppy, not understanding the issue and then it got picked up by Politico‘s Playbook, and you had one level of sloppiness on top of another," Thornberry told The Cable last May. "And once something sensational gets out there, it just spreads like wildfire."
This is a fact, look it up...
but you didn't hear THAT on your free press did you?
originally posted by: CigaretteByrnes
originally posted by: Blarneystoner
originally posted by: CriticalStinker
originally posted by: Blarneystoner
So y'all would rather that the US looks weak and unable to defend our own elections from outside interference? It shouldn't matter which party the meddling benefited from.
Talking points aside... Trump acts like a boot licking pussy while Putin sabotages our democracy and y'all just think it's great! It doesn't take much common sense to understand that we're being sold down the river for a few dollars to line Trump's and his buddies bank vaults.
Yes... he's a traitor. Plain as the nose on your face.
You mean when Russia played both sides to cause division and unrest? Just as they continue to do online on a host of different issues? You mean like what both sides have been doing for 50+ years?
I think the only way we look weak is if we fall into their trap, or raise such a big stink over it as if it hasn't been happening for decades.
You are entitled to your opinion, but mine is the more we bitch about what they did the more they laugh.
As I've asked many other people projecting the same sentiment as you, what do you suggest we do?
Admit the meddling occurred and take steps to prevent in the future.
Stop attacking our own intelligence orgs
Stop taking the word of those accused of meddling
Demand extradition of the 12 indicted.
Impose sanctions if not extradited
Stop licking Putin's boots
Too late, man. His supporters have breached the threshold and believe all those things to be positives. They're in here celebrating it.
Obama DID NOT 'overturn' the law in 2012. Yes, of course Obama signed the law, but the law was written and passed by the Republican controlled House of Representatives and Senate. And it was NOT overturned, it was amended to allow VOA material to be made available to American broadcasters.
www.motherjones.com...
n fact, Smith-Mundt’s origins were rooted in a desire to censor the State Department on the home front, placating members of Congress who distrusted it on ideological grounds. In the lead-up to the bill’s passage in 1948, conservative Democrats and Republicans alike argued that the US government’s foreign affairs staff had been infiltrated with communists and couldn’t be trusted. Rep. Christian Herter (R-Mass.) demanded guarantees from a State Department official that VOA was “not being used as a vehicle for distribution of left-wing philosophy and social and other ideas that many Republicans regard as dangerous.” Eugene Cox (D-Ga.) attacked State as “chock full of Reds” and “the lousiest outfit in town.”
originally posted by: seeker1963
originally posted by: Blarneystoner
originally posted by: CriticalStinker
originally posted by: Blarneystoner
originally posted by: seeker1963
a reply to: shawmanfromny
If McCain is upset? Trump did the right thing, Schumer goes without saying and who cares what the Communist Brennan thinks?
Oh the irony... LMAO.... you realize that all of Russia is Communist right?
That is a valid statement if you have a time machine.
Yep... mistaken. I do find it ironic that people here are defending and siding with Russia/Putin against their own country. Maybe they should expatriate...
No one is sticking up for Putin but you and the Deep state shills we are discussing!
Would you rather have WAR or Diplomacy to prevent a WAR????
Your Trump hatred is blinding you from using some common sense.