US Politics Thread |OT| SAD TRUMP

[Mandark]

Trump's also gotten rolled on almost every single issue where he disagreed with Republican orthodoxy so it doesn't really stand out.

I don't think the Cohen stuff looks like direct bribery until there's some evidence of either Trump getting money from the LLC, or Trump having never reimbursed the hush money.

[Nola]

Trump's also gotten rolled on almost every single issue where he disagreed with Republican orthodoxy so it doesn't really stand out.

I don't think the Cohen stuff looks like direct bribery until there's some evidence of either Trump getting money from the LLC, or Trump having never reimbursed the hush money.

Oh I think it certainly has all the appearances of being bribery given the nature of how Trump and Cohen operate, but you are right that it doesn't prove anything conclusively. Didn't mean to seriously infer that. Certainly the necessary question that needs answering for anyone is, like with Stormy, was Trump aware and more importantly did he participate and profit off it? Clearly, like before Giulianni gave away the game on Stormy, we don't know right now. This could just be Cohen being unethical and savvily gutting big businesses for self enrichment, and Trump capitulating to the industry because he does that stuff, sure.

But like Stormy I would be shocked if Trump was completely in the dark.

There is a pattern of Trump where some of that capitulating makes a kind of sense with what we are starting to see though. Trump who has made a living off using other people's money to fund his lifestyle and wealth, who preaches taking a brash hardline early on in negotiations to better leverage people to capitulate, using that to fund self-enriching transactional deals, often doing the shady stuff through intermediaries he gives a cut of the profits.

[Mandark]

Who here thinks the US is fixing the Middle East, or supports our wars there? You're ranting about phantoms.

Take a Manichean view of MENA conflicts, brehs.

[Brehvolution]

trump just pardoned martin skrelli and appointed him head of the task force to lower drug prices.

[Great Rumbler]

trump just pardoned martin skrelli and appointed him head of the task force to lower drug prices.

Just seeing the first half of that sentence I honestly thought it was true.

[Nola]

https://twitter.com/DionKansas/status/994963628775403520

Well, there's officially no reason to visit Kansas now.

[Nintex]

It seems like the corporations were shook that Trump won and wanted to know what his policies would be. Would he really invade Iraq again to get their oil, would he fight the establishment by locking up Clinton.
Cohen and the other characters were close to Trump, so they were used(read: paid) to figure out what he was going to do while he was actually in office.

However, they soon discovered that none of those jokers had anything to do with policies (or knew what Trump was going to do and neither did Trump have any plans thought out).
This changed over the months, with different staff replacing the likes of Banon and Priebus, Trump actually figuring out how being president works and discovering it was better to work with the GOP than against hem.
 
Even if Cohen got paid to change Trump's position it would be a tall order to make the case that Trump changed positions based on those pay-offs and not just because he felt like it, was mad at CNN or Lou Dobbs, Roger Stone or Alex Jones talked to him on the phone.

It seems that from everyone in Trump world, the guy that stuck around the shortest (The Mooch) gets the most airtime on TV to give an insight in the Trump administration. That kinda tells you everything you need to know about how effective 'lobbying' Trump is through his cronies. 

[Nola]

It honestly gets kind of dark though, and apparently this is still technically legal in 33 states.

The investigation in that case led to multiple affidavits alleging that the detective who made the arrest, Roger Golubski, had a long history of coercing sex from women in Kansas City's black community by threatening to arrest them or their relatives if they didn't comply.

[TakingBackSunday]

jesus christ

[Mandark]

There was a case with an 18 year old in Brooklyn last year that made some headlines and of course there was Daniel Holtzclaw. Really, really bad stuff.

[Nola]

It seems like the corporations were shook that Trump won and wanted to know what his policies would be. Would he really invade Iraq again to get their oil, would he fight the establishment by locking up Clinton.
Cohen and the other characters were close to Trump, so they were used(read: paid) to figure out what he was going to do while he was actually in office.

However, they soon discovered that none of those jokers had anything to do with policies (or knew what Trump was going to do and neither did Trump have any plans thought out).
This changed over the months, with different staff replacing the likes of Banon and Priebus, Trump actually figuring out how being president works and discovering it was better to work with the GOP than against hem.
 
Even if Cohen got paid to change Trump's position it would be a tall order to make the case that Trump changed positions based on those pay-offs and not just because he felt like it, was mad at CNN or Lou Dobbs, Roger Stone or Alex Jones talked to him on the phone.

It seems that from everyone in Trump world, the guy that stuck around the shortest (The Mooch) gets the most airtime on TV to give an insight in the Trump administration. That kinda tells you everything you need to know about how effective 'lobbying' Trump is through his cronies. 

This is a guy that just blatantly moved a US embassy in one of the most fragile tinderbox's in the world because his biggest donor cut off funds to him, that has invited his properties to be a money laundering hub as a business model, who's lawyer was explicitly employed to primarily be an intermediary, paid by a percentage of the generated revenue, to make him and his company money and fix hot political situations like Stormy Daniels. Who Trump is reportedly more fearful than anyone of seeing crack. It's really not that tall of an order to think that Trump was aware of at least some of these payments and was even complicit or encouraging of them....Now proving that is an entirely different ballgame, same with determining if those explicitly were what changed his position.

[Nintex]

I think Mueller is going at this the wrong way and he should just catch them red handed.

Release everyone, drop the investigation. Loiter around the White House like that Michael Wolff guy did or get a membership at the Mar-a-lago and presto.
I'm surprised these guys haven't been caught handing over bribes by the White house press pool.


As I was saying earlier about the EU

According to European diplomats and Israeli officials the French and other member states wanted to publish the statement today as a statement by the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini supported by all 28 EU members.

But earlier today, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Romania announced they object to the statement and made it impossible to reach the consensus needed to publish it.
A senior European diplomat told me with a lot of frustration: "The Hungarians didn’t want to poke Trump in the eye and the Czechs and the Romanians are considering to move their embassies to Jerusalem against the EU position. This is the state of the EU these days". 

 

[benjipwns]

It honestly gets kind of dark though, and apparently this is still technically legal in 33 states.

reminds me of this story from a few years ago: http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/22/nation/la-na-nn-hawaii-police-prostitution-20140321

But police in Hawaii have said they need the flexibility to have sex with prostitutes and have fought to save a state law that has allowed them to do so.

...

“Other states such as Illinois, California, New York, Washington, D.C., Texas, and Georgia — states with high rates of sex trafficking and prostitution — do not allow sexual penetration to be used by law enforcement during prostitution investigations yet have no problem completing successful investigations and arrests,” the group wrote. They expressed worries about the possibility of officers abusing their power, assaulting prostitutes and having to navigate conflict-of-interest issues.

The Honolulu Police Department argued that if the law enforcement exemption is deleted, prostitutes would engage in "cop checking." In other words, they would demand that sex occur before money changes hands so they could filter out officers.

written testimony to the House Judiciary Committee dated Feb. 13 and signed by Chief of Police Louis Kealoha and Capt. Jason Kawabata of the Narcotics/Vice Division asks lawmakers to keep the legal protection for police to have sex with prostitutes.

“As written, this bill would nullify the exemption if the officer agrees to pay a fee for sexual penetration or sadomasochistic abuse. This would limit the type of violations law enforcement officers are able to enforce. Even if the intent of the amendment is merely to limit actual conduct by the officer, we must oppose it. Codifying the limitations on an officer‘s conduct would greatly assist pimps and prostitutes in their efforts to avoid prosecution.”

[Maiden Voyage]

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/995078184575094784

[agrajag]

Rudy will get his facts straight

[Skullfuckers Anonymous]

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/995078184575094784

Christmas in July motherfuckers!

[Oblivion]

Are we absolutely positive that Optimus is not actually Glenn Greenwald?

Hey, let's not insult Glenn Greenwald here.

[benjipwns]

I've seen that argument quite a bit over the last few years, especially post-Ukraine (WHICH IS GAME TO YOU?), regarding how stuff is within Russia's "sphere-of-influence" and so on like it's the 19th Century Great Powers era. Normally, I see people argue against the very concept what with it being totally stupid, but I think that if I ever find myself in such an argument due to a series of bad life choices I'm going to accept the premise and argue that everything within Low Earth Orbit is the U.S.'s "sphere-of-influence" thanks to modern logistics.

Catch me on Conversations with Bill Kristol next month for more on this bold and brave new foreign policy paradigm.

[kingv]

Cops need to advertise that better.

Serious recruitment boost.

[Mandark]

It's kinda funny that the two arguments I've seen for a Russian sphere of influence come from either Kissinger types who believe that diplomacy is about finding stability by balancing the interests of a handful of great powers, or from people who are so anti-imperialist that they circled all the way around again.

[Optimus]

Are we absolutely positive that Optimus is not actually Glenn Greenwald?

Hey, let's not insult Glenn Greenwald here.

haha, sure

 

Starts at 2:44.

Hey thebore, he's calling you neocons and authoritarians

[seagrams hotsauce]

u guys are better than this don't engage queen doppleploptomis

[seagrams hotsauce]

*insert apoplectic screed about how i'm fat*

[Optimus]

Stop following me around like a lost little puppy, seagram beaks.

[seagrams hotsauce]

"stop following me around, guy who i couldn't stop thinking so much about i went out of my way to find their pictures of"

[Optimus]

"stop following me around, guy who i couldn't stop thinking so much about i went out of my way to find their pictures of"

Or, you know, I just saw the thread and I don't give a shit about you and your pathetic life. If I really cared I would have checked your post history early on when I was calling you fat.

[seagrams hotsauce]

No, he actually went looking for it after assy put him on the trail lol http://www.thebore.com/forum/index.php?topic=25046.msg2423885#msg2423885

[Optimus]

Actually, that was assimilate. Somehow that thing caught on with the worst posters on this whole forum.

You're such a hypocritical bitch and this isn't the first time you do this shit. This lunatic has been stalking me for months throwing shitty insults without a hint of an actual argument but now we're mocking him it's "oh poor seagram beaks, these alt-right nazis are harassing him!"

[seagrams hotsauce]

or maybe, occams razor, you're just a total idiot who everyone here actually thinks sux

[Mandark]

Which countries should have spheres of influence?

[Optimus]

or maybe, occams razor, you're just a total idiot who everyone here actually thinks sux

or maybe, occams razor, you're a pathetic ugly loser who funnels his frustration about his sad life into stalking people on the internet with the same fucking insults for months.

[seagrams hotsauce]

dont b mad at me cuz i shit on u in the 2 threads you post in bb. when u are not a cool teen anymore u will find love i'm sure

[kingv]

Glenn Greenwald is so principled he can’t figure out how to stick a cunt hair between Putin and Obama.

[curly]

"US offers to help rebuild N Korea economy if it denuclearises"

uhhh we did? Why did we do that?

because we want them to denuclearize? also we use american spelling here

[Mandark]

Yeah, offering economic relief in exchange for abandoning nuclear weapon ambitions is a cool idea, MAYBE WE SHOULD TRY THAT WITH IRAN!?!?

[Madrun Badrun]

Which countries should have spheres of influence?

Canada

[Mandark]

Just a bit of sloppy headline writing.

“If North Korea takes bold action to quickly denuclearize, the United States is prepared to work with North Korea to achieve prosperity on the par with our South Korean friends,” Pompeo told a news conference after talks with his South Korean counterpart in Washington.

“If Chairman Kim chooses the right path, there is a future brimming with peace and prosperity for the North Korean people,” he said, adding that the United States had a track record of support for the Korean people that was “second to none.”

The gist of what he's saying is clear, but since this is the Trump admin there's no reason to think anyone's worked out the details of what they're willing to offer or accept, and even if they had it could change with a single Fox & Friends segment.

I still think there's almost no chance the DPRK actually gives up its weapons, and the real question is what happens when Trump realizes that. Note John Bolton is publicly trying to raise expectations of a deal, presumably so it will seem like more of a betrayal when those don't pan out.

[curly]

The South Koreans have made similar pledges to help build North Korean infrastructure. The NY Times was saying that SK's president Moon thought Kim was modeling himself after Deng Xiaoping, an economic reformer who opened up his economy but maintained tight political control. Of course to do that he'd need the sanctions lifted.

[benjipwns]

Also: you can't "rebuild" something that didn't exist in the first place so the term of art here is "build".

The North used to be the prosperous industrial region of the peninsula, especially after Japan took over, the South was mainly subsistence farming by sparsely populated peasant communities. Even after the War halted this was the case for some time until the 1970s when the North adopted Juche. It had a very similar economic trajectory to the Soviet economy. South Korea didn't boom until after Park was assassinated. For most of that post-War halt the South did just as much Five Year Planning with industrial fetishism and lots of military spending as the North. They just copied Japan in having large megacorporations that were interchangeable with the state rather than purely nationalizing everything and also had better trade partners.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

It was also originally the heavily Christian part, they all fled South from the Soviets, set up questionable megachurches and purchased conservative American newspapers.

[close]

[benjipwns]

Which countries should have spheres of influence?

Canada

aka Alberta and Quebec

[kingv]

Also: you can't "rebuild" something that didn't exist in the first place so the term of art here is "build".

The North used to be the prosperous industrial region of the peninsula, especially after Japan took over, the South was mainly subsistence farming by sparsely populated peasant communities. Even after the War halted this was the case for some time until the 1970s when the North adopted Juche. It had a very similar economic trajectory to the Soviet economy. South Korea didn't boom until after Park was assassinated. For most of that post-War halt the South did just as much Five Year Planning with industrial fetishism and lots of military spending as the North. They just copied Japan in having large megacorporations that were interchangeable with the state rather than purely nationalizing everything and also had better trade partners.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

It was also originally the heavily Christian part, they all fled South from the Soviets, set up questionable megachurches and purchased conservative American newspapers.

[close]

Now the south makes the worlds shittiest refrigerators. Never buy a Samsung fridge.

[Oblivion]

Are we absolutely positive that Optimus is not actually Glenn Greenwald?

Hey, let's not insult Glenn Greenwald here.

haha, sure

 

Starts at 2:44.

Hey thebore, he's calling you neocons and authoritarians

Yes, that clip is unfortunate, but he at least criticizes Republicans once in a while (or at all, really).

[Optimus]

Yes, that clip is unfortunate, but he at least criticizes Republicans once in a while (or at all, really).

It seems that you people will never get it. I don't care about republicans because republicans are gonna republican, they're irrelevant to me. It's not the party that pretends to be left and is demanding my vote. It's not the party whose shills are bitching at us because we voted for Jill Stein instead of their war criminal. It's not the party that has consistently tried to embrace our movements just so that they can destroy or take them over from inside like they tried to do with Bernie. I find it amusing that they're destroying these fucking hypocrites and that some of their supporters have become more anti-status quo than fucking liberals but in the end of the day I don't give a flying fuck about them or would ever support them because, you know, the vast majority of their policies are cancer to society. 

[VomKriege]

Glenn-senpai noticed us ? 
Talk dirty to me daddy.

[agrajag]

Jill Stein

 

[Mandark]

It seems that you people will never get it. I don't care about republicans because republicans are gonna republican, they're irrelevant to me. It's not the party that pretends to be left and is demanding my vote. It's not the party whose shills are bitching at us because we voted for Jill Stein instead of their war criminal. It's not the party that has consistently tried to embrace our movements just so that they can destroy or take them over from inside like they tried to do with Bernie. I find it amusing that they're destroying these fucking hypocrites and that some of their supporters have become more anti-status quo than fucking liberals but in the end of the day I don't give a flying fuck about them or would ever support them because, you know, the vast majority of their policies are cancer to society.

Okay, but which countries should get spheres of influence?

[Oblivion]

Yes, that clip is unfortunate, but he at least criticizes Republicans once in a while (or at all, really).

It seems that you people will never get it. I don't care about republicans

I....I know. That was kind of the point.

[Optimus]

Yes, that clip is unfortunate, but he at least criticizes Republicans once in a while (or at all, really).

It seems that you people will never get it. I don't care about republicans

I....I know. That was kind of the point.

No it wasn't, you claimed that I don't criticize republicans. The criticism against them is by default, I know they suck and I know they're not gonna change that's why I don't give a shit about them as far as the party is concerned. Liberals don't believe they're gonna change either, the only reason they spam Trump drama is to indirectly support and advertise their own party because they're as ideologically bankrupt as republicans so shitting on their opponents is the only way for them. Instead of making their own party more attractive to voters (GEE, I WONDER HOW?!?!) they're trying to take the competition down, a successful strategy that totally worked for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

[benjipwns]

This is a wee bit of a nonsensical rant, electoral politics have never been a place for principled ideological ramparts. Both of the American political parties platforms have long been an incoherent mishmash derived from internal interests rather than an unifying inherent ideological thread.

Even if all of say, Bernie's support was principled and not just anti-Clinton he still only got 20% of the people who wound up voting for Hillary. And 9% of the people who voted in the general. Which is 5% of registered voters.

[benjipwns]

John McCain is the single greatest political leader of our time

In Phoenix for a wedding last weekend, I made a pilgrimage north, past the turnoff for Prescott and on to McCain’s beloved Sedona. Driving and walking among its red-rock hills, I reflected for hours on the man who had so often spoken of that beautiful place, and who so often had been my antidote to cynicism. As I write this, there are tears on my cheeks.

Godspeed, John McCain. You were not to be president, but you are my hero.

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/995078184575094784

"The Last Witness"

That's the movie title right there.

THIS IS THE DARKEST MOST AWESOME TIMELINE
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/995001619258527746


Geo-politics is reduced to trolling, Twitter feuds, throwing shades, talking BS and playing golf.
 

[Optimus]

#ImWithHer


WaPo Positions Support for Torturer as Vote for Feminism


https://twitter.com/WellsDunbar/status/973543534711238658

[Great Rumbler]

Okay.

[Nintex]

Equal opportunity torture.

[Great Rumbler]

Equal opportunity torture.

I saw what this post was before you changed it.

[Mandark]

https://twitter.com/Slate/status/800131510665932800

What Iran (where gays are prosecuted, put in jail, have their assholes glued shut, shot, hung from cranes and perhaps worse) can teach America (or any other civilized nation for that matter)... buhahahaha 

*reads the actual article*

Wow, you're an asshole.

[Nintex]

Equal opportunity torture.

I saw what this post was before you changed it.

I didn't see it was from 2016, @comfortablysmug got me again, hook line and sinker. 

https://twitter.com/comfortablysmug/

https://twitter.com/Slate/status/800131510665932800

What Iran (where gays are prosecuted, put in jail, have their assholes glued shut, shot, hung from cranes and perhaps worse) can teach America (or any other civilized nation for that matter)... buhahahaha 

*reads the actual article*

Wow, you're an asshole.

That is very much true.

[Mandark]

It's not the date of the article that's the problem.

Also I'm fucking amazed that ComfortablySmug gets a pass from everyone. That's the dude who was tweeting fake info during Hurricane Sandy when people were panicked, because... reasons.

[Mandark]

Article: Iran shows us that a country can backslide on LGBT rights, so we shouldn't be complacent and assume that it could never happen in our own country.

Fucking idiots: HAW HAW THEY THINK IRAN CAN TEACH US ABOUT RESPECTING GAY PEOPLE

[Great Rumbler]

Wow, how embarrassing for Nintex.