First blood to Trump

Saul on his way to Damascus was struck down by a great light and heard God say "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" and from that moment he changed his name to Paul and went from persecuting Christians to becoming the most fervent follower.

Perhaps if we all pray?

Surely a person can't be all bad?
Is he nice to his dog?
His children?

Totally agree rosesarered.

I have been very surprised that those posters who often post well thought through and somewhat researched points of view, should be so blinded by a person's possible bad history, that truth and facts no longer mattered. They became so blinkered.

Good transcript here of a discussion by PBS

www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/credible-reports-alleged-russian-dossier-trump/

Scroll down if you don't want to read it all to:

We take a closer look at Russia, the president-elect, and these latest revelations with former attorney at the National Security Agency Susan Hennessey. She is now a fellow at the Brookings Institution and is managing editor for the Web site Lawfare about the intersection of the law and national security. And John Sipher, he served almost 30 years at the CIA, both in the agency’s clandestine service and executive ranks. He was stationed in Moscow in the 1990s and he ran the CIA’s Russia program for three years. He’s now at CrossLead, a consulting firm.

And welcome to both of you.

So let’s start, Susan Hennessey, but I just want to ask both of you in brief, what do you make of this report?

As he's earning his living from providing this sort of information, it has to be credible as no one else will employ him I would have thought?

Thank you Anya... rational is the key here. He won't take questions from CNN reporters? Says CNN is all fake news? So much for freedom of the established press!

He will likely want to eliminate any federal help for PBS radio and TV as well. They don't get much, but he will want to kill that dead.

I can't think of any ax the mi6 might be grinding

Trumps hard attitude to China was discussed on the Daily Politics Show today as well,
It was a more interesting show today I thought, more listening to each other and discussion and no real point scoring.

POGS The Newsweek (a proper magazine) seems to not let you post a direct link... I had to Google it again to get it to show for me as well. So you can Google Newsweek and Trump and get to the story. However... the link below to the International Business Times reports it as well.

www.ibtimes.com/golden-shower-gate-latest-russia-has-audio-video-donald-trumps-alleged-sex-acts-2474008

The main issue at the moment is that it was not leaked by the US intelligence agencies, but came to them via a British former intelligence officer. So that makes the source creditable. Whether this actually took place... time will tell perhaps.

Russia has evidently done sexual blackmail before to its own people to keep them in line. There was a short clip of this on cable news TV this morning.

When someone in authority says they have seen the video and can verify it's him and not a look-alike, then I will believe it. Until then, it's not verifiable. However, I doubt the British Intel guy made it up. He said he was told of it...why, that's anyone's guess. Trump was in Moscow for Miss Universe and nothing to do with his candidacy at that point.

I noticed yesterday when watching the nominee for Secretary of State his comments on China and thinking "blimey" and today on the radio the opinion seems to be that that is probably the most worrying thing at the moment re Trump.

Just expressing appreciation for such good advice, Anya.

In 2016 some people believed:
We were going to have a recession: didn't happen
We were going to hell in a handcart: we didn't
The £ was going to fall off a cliff: it didn't.
Thousands of migrants were going to leave the country: they didn't
The world was going to disown us: they haven't
Saved the best to last: WW3
Let's not forget that the CIA believed a newsagent in Baghdad when he told them that Sadamm had weapons of mass distruction.

The new reports about Trump in Russia may well be crap, equally they may not, and yes, strangely, lots of people believe any old thing.

DD cannot help herself ........ in fact her dislike of me is now colouring her judgement,
I rest my case m'lud.

Was there any need for that DD?

Well, blow me down!

Do you really mean that people believe things which aren't true? Who would have thought it, despite 2016?

Thank you so much for such wise counsel, roses. I'll be sure to bear that in mind next time anybody comes up with cr*p.

Agree with your post POGS about dislike ,colouring views ,and people being prepared to accept anything against somebody because they dislike/ hate them, it happens in RL and in this forum too.
We have to stand back and be objective about reports, wait for the truth to come out.
I think it sounds extremely iffy ( new salacious reports) and there are more important concerns ( about what Trump may do once President) than give immediate credence to any old thing.

I just checked that John Le Carré is still alive (I wasn't sure). I think he might have written the script for this. If not, I wonder if he's starting on his next novel and sold the film rights.

Any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

No animals were harmed in the making of this motion picture (hopefully).

Yes, Anya and putting his trust in Russian security forces (which don't exactly have a blameless past record themselves) shows either a strange naivety or the knowledge that if he doen't show trust in them they have ways of making him regret it. It comes back to the leader of a leading country possibly having pressure put on him. It is an unsavoury thought that he has a personality which could put him in that position, even if the current story is never substantiated. Like Caesar's wife, he should be above suspicion.

Sorry my post was so impenetrable, so I will try to simplify things. Also in response to POGS'point.

I don't know if these charges are real or not. My point was though that I find it very worrying that Trump completely dismisses his own security experts but trusts the Russian ones.....*without keeping an open mind and trying to ascertain the facts*.

Any rational person would have worked with his own people to get to the bottom of this and that way prove his innocence.

iam64 yes I agree

The individual who prepared the report is said to be a former MI6 employee. He now runs a business where employees respond to requests for information on individuals or companies. I read that the company were first approached by republicans who did not support Trump as a presidential candidate and in fact supported another Republican candidate. It's said the report was passed to the FBi by an American senator (I think it was McCain, a republican opposed to Trump) who passed it on to the FBI last October time, on the basis he said "any responsible person would have done".
The fbI chose not to publish this information but they did publish allegations about Hilary Clinton's email, only to report within days there was no concern about those emails. Interesting times we're living in.
I don't know whether any of these recent allegations about Trump have any validity. I wish he'd been less dishonest in the past as that would make it easier to accept his denials.
I'm not reaching a conclusion, what do I know, no more than any of us. The only conclusion I stand by is that imo Trump is an unstable man, with narcissistic personally traits. His claim to have handed his business interests over to his sons is another disgrace. He'll have inside information, he'll be able to influence share prices as I'm sure someone as "smart" as he is would have done before. It stinks. Ethics - I don't believe so.

The allegations are not from a Russian source but from at least 2 British intelligence officer.

Thank you daphnedil

I will stick with my thoughts and note theses passages from your link.

'An uncorroborated report circulated by U.S. intelligence alleges Russian security agents watched Trump engaging in "perverted sexual acts."'

'The veracity of the report and its sourcing have not been verified. CNN reported only that a two-page summary of the report “was presented last week to President Barack Obama and President-elect Trump [and] included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.” It cited “multiple U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the briefings,” and said the FBI was investigating. BuzzFeed published what it said was the full report ”compiled by a person who has claimed to be a former British intelligence official.”'

'The memos originated as opposition research, first commissioned by anti-Trump Republicans, and later by Democrats," CNN reported. But the channel added that the FBI “is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources.”'

The latter is of more interest to me than any story of Trump peeing on a bed .

europe.newsweek.com/trump-russian-spies-infamous-golden-shower-memos-541315?rm=eu