US Politics Thread |OT| SAD TRUMP

[Joe Molotov]

[agrajag]

I can see the bloodnliterally draining. Is he a vampire? 

[Boredfrom]

Woah, Ted Cruz is such a scumbag and Zuckerberg has no idea that he could fuck him with just saying “Peter Thiel”.

Why the fuck is Ted Cruz even aware of Palmer Luckey?

[Boredfrom]

Woah, Ted Cruz is such a scumbag and Zuckerberg has no idea that he could fuck him with just saying “Peter Thiel”.

Why the fuck is Ted Cruz even aware of Palmer Luckey?

They hang out at Gamergate HQ.

I mean, is kind of alarming he is using Palmer Luckey shit because “censorship” while Tiel is(was?) in the Facebook board.

How he phrased the question was totally a Gamergate talking point.

I don’t even think Palmer should have been fired but is clear the cause was corporate PR than “censoring republicans”.

[etiolate]

- Mr Zuckerberg, are you a robot?

-In general, I have a human existence.

[kingv]

Watching Trump and his conservative media buddies squeal about this raid [and everything else that Mueller has done] will never stop amusing me.

Wish I found it amusing instead of enraging. I guess it’s kind of both. They’re going fucking nuts. But it’s clear they’re willing to damage our institutions to try to stay ahead of this.

To be fair, the Ukrainian payment to his charity is basically the same thing Crooked Hillary did.

[thehunter116]

I will cackle like Ted Cruz did coming out of the womb if a friggin pornstar helps nail a president in a federal investigation.

[Nintex]

 

https://twitter.com/News_Executive/status/983845357489676289

[Great Rumbler]

 

[benjipwns]

Like us on Facebook

 

protet our privacy

[FStop7]

Tbh this whole thing with the porn star is pretty absurd since who gives a shit if he cheated on his wife or gave her hush money? Especially before he was even president. The whole Monica/Clinton thing was absurd as well and there was actually abuse of power in that situation.

the issue is using campaign funds for paying off said porn star.

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/PardesSeleh/status/983851015379267585

Zuckerberg vs. Ted Cruz.

Someone get a time machine and change history so we don't end up in this dumb as shit timeline please 

[Nintex]

I'd be more shocked if Donald Trump and his cronies actually didn't commit fraud during the campaign. 

[Boredfrom]

Tbh this whole thing with the porn star is pretty absurd since who gives a shit if he cheated on his wife or gave her hush money? Especially before he was even president. The whole Monica/Clinton thing was absurd as well and there was actually abuse of power in that situation.

the issue is using campaign funds for paying off said porn star.

  who gives a shit really

It's not even necessarily illegal according to the FEC's own rules. Using campaign funds for legal expenses is looked at on a case by case basis, and the worst that happens is you pay a fine anyway. None of this shit matters.

He did threatened her and his lawyer claims that the money comes from his own pocket (is not clear if is actually campaign money)

[thehunter116]

Tbh this whole thing with the porn star is pretty absurd since who gives a shit if he cheated on his wife or gave her hush money? Especially before he was even president. The whole Monica/Clinton thing was absurd as well and there was actually abuse of power in that situation.

the issue is using campaign funds for paying off said porn star.

  who gives a shit really

It's not even necessarily illegal according to the FEC's own rules. Using campaign funds for legal expenses is looked at on a case by case basis, and the worst that happens is you pay a fine anyway. None of this shit matters.

To be fair the issue is using the money to buy political sway...which is illegal and can get jail time.

[Mandark]

For what it's worth, my boy John Edwards was indicted and went to trial because some of his backers had been funneling money to his baby mama.

[thehunter116]

The issue with Stormy Daniels is over buying political sway?

By using an NDA to silence a story that could sway an election (reach or weight is irrelevant) yes it is illegal.

He's actually in the clear if this was done before the election(or intent to run) but during? Nah he's guilty as all hell if he knowingly did it.

[Mandark]

hunter, no offense but the more confident you are in talking about legal stuff the less I'm inclined to believe you.

[thehunter116]

hunter, no offense but the more confident you are in talking about legal stuff the less I'm inclined to believe you.

Law and economics(also now water/wastewater treatment) are what I studied so I'd be shit if I didn't know what I was talking about.

Everything else yeah sure. 

To add on, he used supposedly campaign funds. He'd actually be ok if it was just his own money.

[Nola]

Tbh this whole thing with the porn star is pretty absurd since who gives a shit if he cheated on his wife or gave her hush money? Especially before he was even president. The whole Monica/Clinton thing was absurd as well and there was actually abuse of power in that situation.

I could honestly give a shit about the morality of it, I just love the absurdity of it. And as I said before, what it suggests about Trump and what he would theoretically do to cover his image. Since clearly he gives more of a shit about this stuff than people liked to assume. Plus Michael Cohen is a piece of shit, so fuck him.

Though from a legal standpoint(as I've tried to understand it) I guess it supposedly matters because if it was an in-kind contribution meant to help elect Donald Trump(which that may be hard to prove, like was the case with John Edwards) it would violate campaign finance laws that cap that sort of thing. Or if Cohen used a bank loan designated for something else for this payment.


As a side note, something I wasn't explicitly aware of, but from the Special Counsel's perspective they have to by Attorney General rules act on crimes that come up in the course of an investigation. Even if it isn't in any way related to their investigation. The example I heard given was if a special counsel was tasked at looking up bank fraud and in the course of that they found evidence of a drug trafficking ring. It would be ridiculous to just ignore that crime because it wasn't the specific crime being looked at, you are mandated to pass on the evidence and knowledge to the acting attorney general or the person overseeing the investigation.

[Mandark]

The other thing I've seen mentioned is that Mueller has some leeway in pursuing unrelated crimes as a way of compelling potential witnesses to cooperate. So even an unrelated matter could fall under his jurisdiction if it's a way of squeezing Cohen.

[thehunter116]

Mueller isn't pursuing this though, he immediately handed the case over

Although if the FBI happened  upon relevant information Mueller couldn't or didn't have access to...

[Nola]

I don't think Mueller can pursue unrelated things in the sense of like building a case, but if he finds something that looks fishy he can look into it and forward it off to someone else

Looking at 28 CFR 600 4(a), which is specifically mentioned in the letter outlining the special counsel's appointment, it does say:

(b)Additional jurisdiction. If in the course of his or her investigation the Special Counsel concludes that additional jurisdiction beyond that specified in his or her original jurisdiction is necessary in order to fully investigate and resolve the matters assigned, or to investigate new matters that come to light in the course of his or her investigation, he or she shall consult with the Attorney General, who will determine whether to include the additional matters within the Special Counsel's jurisdiction or assign them elsewhere.

So I guess technically if Rosenstein had made the determination that Mueller could or should pursue it, he could of done that.

[Mandark]

I don't think Mueller can pursue unrelated things in the sense of like building a case, but if he finds something that looks fishy he can look into it and forward it off to someone else

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4429556/Response-to-motion.pdf

But in deciding when additional jurisdiction is needed, the Special Counsel can draw guidance from the Department’s discussion accompanying the issuance of the Special Counsel regulations. That discussion illustrated the type of “adjustments to jurisdiction” that fall within Section 600.4(b). “For example,” the discussion stated, “a Special Counsel assigned responsibility for an alleged false statement about a government program may request additional jurisdiction to investigate allegations of misconduct with respect to the administration of that program; [or] a Special Counsel may conclude that investigating otherwise unrelated allegations against a central witness in the matter is necessary to obtain cooperation.”

That's from a filing by Mueller's team in the Manafort case (Manafort's lawyers filed a motion to dismiss), so they at least feel they can investigate other matters in order to pressure witnesses. I don't think the judge has ruled on it yet.

The people I follow who seem to know their onions aren't sure whether the case has fully been given over to a different office, or if they needed someone else for the raid and to provide a taint team.

[seagrams hotsauce]

Dawg the leader of the free world fucked a pornstar and then failed to shut her up with an embarrassingly low sum of hush money. Asking 'who gives a shit' about the one of the most salacious ledes in history 

[kingv]

Tbh this whole thing with the porn star is pretty absurd since who gives a shit if he cheated on his wife or gave her hush money? Especially before he was even president. The whole Monica/Clinton thing was absurd as well and there was actually abuse of power in that situation.

My guess is that the payment is, ironically, the lesser part of the crime. The “real” part of the crime was the cover up of said payment and perhaps the source of said funds.

I think the writing was on the wall as soon as Cohen said he used his own funds to pay Stormy which doesn’t really make logical sense. He wouldn’t have came up with a story that was obviously illegal unless he was actually covering up something that was worse.

At this point, only the investigators really have enough data to make sense of this whole thing, and they must have evidence that Cohen broke the law in an intentional way and made moves that were illegal on their own to hide the true source of the payments.

My guess is that Cohen was committing some sort of fraud to solicit the funds and hide their source, and that THAT crime is actually where the real “penalty” lies.

[kingv]

Dawg the leader of the free world fucked a pornstar and then failed to shut her up with an embarrassingly low sum of hush money. Asking 'who gives a shit' about the one of the most salacious ledes in history 

Also potentially paid some dude to try to shake her down with threats.... and then maybe pulled this same act more than once during his campaign.

[Nola]

Also this was reported just a couple hours ago.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/983849860397871106

Given his comments last night, I have to imagine a third incident will probably get confirmed pretty soon. Trump really doesn't want people looking at his money, business dealings, or people that are intimately familiar with it. Wonder why that might be?

Also as the adults he will listen to continue to dwindle down, I get the sense a Saturday Night Massacre is just a matter of time.

[agrajag]

That's why I don't look to 16 year olds who donate their money to starbucks patrons for political analysis 

[Nola]

In early December

Trump would have to be lobotomized to do something as astronomically stupid as firing the special prosecutor who was appointed specifically because he fired the director of the FBI. It is unfathomable, even given Trump's CV.

Turns out he had done it TWICE by the time I said this.
 

As a consolation, I'm sure Kid Rock will very much appreciate the campaign donation. 

[agrajag]

I just don't understand how someone can be that dumb

Really? This is a thing one still says a year into Trump's presidency?

[thehunter116]

I just don't understand how someone can be that dumb unless he really did do something mega illegal besides paying off pornstars with Cohen's mortgage money.

I mean you still think he didn't do anything illegal?

I just don't understand how someone can be that dumb

Really? This is a thing one still says a year into Trump's presidency?

This statement applies to both the one I just said and shosta's.

[Nola]

I just don't understand how someone can be that dumb unless he really did do something mega illegal besides paying off pornstars with Cohen's mortgage money.

He's a reactive trust fund narcissist with strong authoritarian tendencies, with no respect for the institutions or the office he holds, that has never paid a real price for anything he has ever done in life. That almost certainly has additional skeletons in his closet(besides the ones we know of like Taj Mahal, Trump Uni, etc.) that he doesn't want people to stumble upon(even if it only has to do with things like his shady deals in India or money laundering through his businesses). That on top of that is being fed reinforcement for his most dangerous tendencies by propaganda outlets on a daily basis.

As I said then, it's not hard to imagine this scenario taking place.

[thehunter116]

https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/983866773798903808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs9e.github.io%2Fiframe%2Ftwitter.min.html%23983866773798903808

Hire security because people think your policies are dumb brehs.

 

[agrajag]

I think Trump's behavior is equally explainable if he is guilty or innocent. He's just a moron.

 

[agrajag]

https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/983866773798903808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs9e.github.io%2Fiframe%2Ftwitter.min.html%23983866773798903808

Hire security because people think your policies are dumb brehs.

 

He also fired the aide that approved that inquiry.

[thehunter116]

I think Trump's behavior is equallyy explainable if he is guilty or innocent. He's just a moron.

 

He can be both 

[Nola]

I think Trump's behavior is equallyy explainable if he is guilty or innocent. He's just a moron.

 

I go back and forth on this the more I learn about Trump.

I do think there is a bit of savviness to Trump that he doesn't get credit for. He knows shit all about how to do his current job effectively, and he's all those things I listed off in my first sentence above, but the guy has seemingly made a career out of straddling either side of legal boundaries to make money and never getting caught. Be it Trump Uni, his treatment of contractors, his brazen violation of building ordinances, His Scotish Golf Course, or the slew of questionable licensing deals he has internationally of which some almost certainly run afoul with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act....Then again part of why he gets away with this stuff may just be how poorly we do enforcing or even investigating these types of crimes.

 Like I would imagine if there was a Mueller type looking at Kalpesh Mehta, the walls on that charade would probably come crashing down. But as is the arrangement is sort of savvy. He puts a guy in charge of finding deals in India for his company, enticing him with a 12% cut, but also putting the responsibility of vetting the legality of deals on his shoulders. Which does two things, it creates separation from any illegal pay-to-play that likely has to go on to secure those deals(India real estate being incredibly corrupt), but the way he structures it actually incentivizes Kalpesh to do these things. Other companies would never conflate the two, but Trump does. You could call it incompetence, but if you are someone that's niche seems to be seeking deals and business partners more reputable firms would avoid(by choice or circumstance), as a way to earn new money, but also because that corruption may provide some unique advantages, it is sort of savvy in a way

[agrajag]

You hit the nail on the head when you said these types of crimes aren't investigated strongly enough. I feel like a lot of his machinations haven't been properly looked into before now.

[seagrams hotsauce]

Fucked a porn star a decade before he was president, not like he's railing porn stars in the Oval Office

Since when has the character on the president only been judged on their actions in office?

[thehunter116]

Russia vetoes UN Resolution to investigate Syria gas attack

wow optimus looks like they really want to get to the bottom of who did it

You would link to the biased mainstream media Shosta you globalist cuck.

[agrajag]

Russia vetoes UN Resolution to investigate Syria gas attack

wow optimus looks like they really want to get to the bottom of who did it

Yeah and of course you would trust the neoliberal globalist UN cucks, grow a brain moran

[Mandark]

I just don't understand how someone can be that dumb unless he really did do something mega illegal besides paying off pornstars with Cohen's mortgage money.

Honestly, I take the Russia story more seriously than I did a year ago (where it felt like faithless electors or those fake "rogue" federal Twitter accounts) just because he's been acting guilty as shit.

agrajag's right though, you can also explain his behavior just from him being dumb, vindictive, insecure, unethical, etc.

[thehunter116]

I just don't understand how someone can be that dumb unless he really did do something mega illegal besides paying off pornstars with Cohen's mortgage money.

Honestly, I take the Russia story more seriously than I did a year ago (where it felt like faithless electors or those fake "rogue" federal Twitter accounts) just because he's been acting guilty as shit.

agrajag's right though, you can also explain his behavior just from him being dumb, vindictive, insecure, unethical, etc.

I would argue only dumb if it weren't for all the meetings with Russians plus this recent spat of paranoia with Mueller.

Dude's hiding some shit.

[Nintex]

 
https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/983720452412575744

https://twitter.com/evacool_f/status/983810354387054592

Trump's going to be pissed that aviation safety spoiled his Master Strategy.   

[warcock]

I am tense. Wasnt the last strike pretty unexpected or was there a similar diplomatic buildup?   

[Great Rumbler]

Paul Ryan is retiring. 

[Madrun Badrun]

LOL

[Brehvolution]

Paul Ryan is retiring. 

As a lobbyist and occasional fox news 'expert'.

[agrajag]

Bye bitch!

[Optimus]

Paul Ryan is retiring. 

Good fucking riddance.

[Brehvolution]

Ryan doesn't want to be crushed by the #BlueWave coming this November.

[Skullfuckers Anonymous]

Ryan doesn't want to be crushed by the #BlueWave (Image removed from quote.) coming this November.

No, Ryan doesn't want to spend the last 5-10 years of his life babysitting Republicans.

[FStop7]

I still think Ryan could run in 2020.  We'll see what happens after the midterms.

[Joe Molotov]

I want to see Paul Ryan, Ron Paul, Rand Paul, and Paul Rudd throw down for the Republican nomination.

[Freyj]

This is definitely him distancing himself from the current shiticane / tax bill fallout.

[Coitus]

The beautiful dream of ending social security, Medicaid, and Medicare, is dead.  It's time for Ry-ry to go to K-street and get that Koch bros money while the gettin's good. 

[Nola]

This means he's for sure running for prez again in 2024


Maybe even trying to set himself up to primary Trump if the Republican party does that

Thinking this will be the last you see of this rat fuck

All the heartstring pulling revisionism interviews that will frame Ryan as the good guy victim of runaway Trumpism. Not the POS who's life's work was taking away healthcare from old people and food from poor people to give to rich people and who's entire strategy was to use Trump as his patsy 

[ToxicAdam]

Paul Ryan was the assistant manager of a suburban retail store that reluctantly took the manager position of a nearby store in the failing urban mall.

[Joe Molotov]

This means he's for sure running for prez again in 2024


Maybe even trying to set himself up to primary Trump if the Republican party does that

Thinking this will be the last you see of this rat fuck

All the heartstring pulling revisionism interviews that will frame Ryan as the good guy victim of runaway Trumpism. Not the POS who's life's work was taking away healthcare from old people and food from poor people to give to rich people and who's entire strategy was to use Trump as his patsy 

Just waiting for the Resetera/NeoGAF/EvilSweetNicole threads in a couple of years about how Paul Ryan was one of the good ones, not like this new jerk Speaker Louie Gohmert.