Now That Trump's President... (not any more!)

Use this website to analyze Orange Julius' tweets: http://analyzewords.com/

here's some stuff that won't matter i guess... 

trump received loans cosigned by russian billionaires. 

https://www.inquisitr.com/5603123/donald-trump-loans-russia/

deustche bank has his tax returns

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ywav3x/deutsche-bank-basically-just-confirmed-they-have-trumps-tax-returns-that-should-make-him-nervous?utm_source=reddit.com. 

epstein's lawyers, like the rest of us, are skeptical of suicide ruling. 

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/27/jeffrey-epsteins-lawyers-skeptical-of-suicide-ruling.html

he probably cares more about this picture than anything though. 

  On 8/28/2019 at 7:52 AM, ignatius said:

here's some stuff that won't matter i guess... 

trump received loans cosigned by russian billionaires. 

https://www.inquisitr.com/5603123/donald-trump-loans-russia/

deustche bank has his tax returns

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ywav3x/deutsche-bank-basically-just-confirmed-they-have-trumps-tax-returns-that-should-make-him-nervous?utm_source=reddit.com. 

 

Expand  

i've been hoping the pig statue may be brought down with a combo including a financial revelation punch. all along it seemed like something stinks in those financials, and likely to do with russia. now it looks like we will have proof that trump is owned by putin's oligarchs. other banks stopped giving him loans, but DB kept doing it, even without getting paid back for previous loans. it looks like that's because trump got himself involved in russian organized crime.

russian oligarch rybolovlev bought trump's florida mansion valued at under 50M for almost 100M in 2008. trump was fawning over putin as early as 2013, at his moscow pageant. at a 2008 conference, Trump Jr. said, "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets." Trump Sr. had to later disavow that statement.

it makes all the stuff later with flynn, manafort, carter page, sater, etc more concerning if you consider that trump started out with his balls in putin's fist.

• flynn lied to the fbi about discussing sanction relief with kislyak
• manafort passed polling data to the russians
• carter page visited moscow in 2016, after having already been cultivated by russian spies and brought into the trump campaign, and was unable to tell mueller the purpose of the trip, or who he met with
• sater tried to set up a secret back-channel between the campaign and the russian government (the erik prince / felix sater / kirill dimitriev meeting in seychelles). good article on that here. it's also gone over in Episode VI of the podcast series The Report

here's a list of things trump has done to help russia, since being president

• arguing to let russia back into G7 (after they were removed for forcefully taking crimea)
• ending intermediate nuclear weapons treaty (like nuclear powered cruise missiles with nuclear warheads that could fly under the radar around the world)
• lifting sanctions on russian oligarch deripaska
• leaving iran deal (iran is RU's ally and iran's adherence to the deal constitutes iran entering the fold of the western alliance)
• reducing troops in afghanistan (RU's backyard)
• leaving syria (assad is a russian puppet)
• not countering election disinfo/hacking
• tarif trade war, weakening US economy and isolating US (RU benefits from a weaker US)
• spreading propaganda and disinfo within US (RU benefits from a weaker US)
• attacking justice institutions of the US (RU benefits from a weaker US)
• leaving paris accord (russia's big revenue source is oil)
• offered to pay france to leave EU (a weaker europe is in RU's interest)
• applying leverage against May's brexit deal (a weaker UK is in RU's interest)
• congratulating vlad on winning reelection (legitimizing a fixed election)
• ending war games in SK (russia's backyard)
• negotiating lifting sanctions against russia
• not enacting new sanctions congress mandated (link: Trump declines to implement new Russia sanctions)
• calling nato obsolete, other actions and statements weakening strength of the coalition whose main purpose is to counter the russian threat
• suggesting the US would not abide by Article 5 of NATO (coming to the aid of allies)
• hollowing out the state department and appointing the guy with a "friend of russia" award as the sec of state. (a US with virtually no anti-RU diplomacy for 4 years is very good for RU)

i'd like to see a trumper make a list that long of things he's done to help the US. 

sure, he wouldn't mind doing a tower in moscow. he had cohen lie to congress about those negotiations ending. cohen later testified that the negotiations never ended, and trump wanted him to lie. but we shouldn't assume that trump is only corrupt to the level of wanting a business deal after he leaves office. honestly that seems more like a cherry on top and a distraction. trump simply seems to be in bed with the russians and, to some extent, at their mercy.

i legitimately wonder if trump has flipped, and is cooperating with US intelligence, to draw the russians into a honey pot.

i legitimately wonder if putin has trump compromised so thoroughly that he is coaching him on how to topple the US. 

i guess i've been watching too much of the liberal media. 

donnie's reckless decisions are negatively impacting some of his base:

https://www.newsweek.com/iowa-farmers-corn-ethanol-trump-rfs-1456470

  Quote

"It's time for President Trump to make rural America and the RFS great again. He made promises to American farmers and now it's time for him to keep them."

this is the sort of thing that SHOULD cause a good chunk of his base to stop supporting (and voting) for him. I mean what will it take to get the hardworking, blue collar folks to realize he duped them all into believing he actually gives a shit about their livelihood's? 

FOX showing some integrity for once - something I never thought I'd say.

  On 8/30/2019 at 6:02 PM, ambergonk said:

FOX showing some integrity for once - something I never thought I'd say.

shepard smith has done the same thing quite a number of times. what happens is those guys are eventually labelled as RHINO's while the rest of faux continues to champion the #forevertump with hannity and doocy steadily at the helm

also let's not forget that climate change doesn't exist because obama purchased some beach front property

It will probably be a small storm, like Trump's toad penis

Hannity is the port-in-storm hiding spot for Donnie's limp mushroom

what is this thing

Imagine wanting to nuke a hurricane. “Hey you know what would be a great thing to throw into something that has the force of a 200megaton explosion but is moving? RADIATION!”

as if Florida doesn’t have enough problems. 

As FEC Nears Shutdown, Priorities Such As Stopping Election Interference On Hold

  Quote

Barring some kind of miraculous last-minute reprieve, Friday will be the last business day that the Federal Election Commission will be able to function for quite a while, leaving the enforcement of federal campaign finance laws unattended ahead of the 2020 election.

The commission's vice chairman, Matthew Petersen, announced his resignation earlier this week, to take effect at the end of the month. With Petersen gone, the FEC will be down to three members and won't have a quorum.

In addition to collecting campaign finance data, the FEC investigates potential campaign finance violations, issues fines and gives guidance to campaigns about following election law — but not without a working quorum of at least four commissioners.

"To not have the FEC able to take action right now is deeply concerning," says Daniel Weiner, a former senior counsel at the FEC, who's now with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University law school.

In particular, Weiner is concerned about another attempt by Russia or other actors to interfere in the 2020 election.

"After 2016, it's become very clear that it is almost certain that the Russian government and potentially other U.S. rivals will seek to interfere in the U.S. election, including through online propaganda, cybersecurity incursions and other tactics," Weiner told NPR. As the regulator for campaign spending, he describes the FEC as one of the "front-line" agencies combating foreign interference.

The FEC has been in the midst of strengthening disclosure and transparency requirements for online political ads of the sort that Russian operatives used to manipulate voters in 2016.

The lack of a quorum, Weiner says, "will make that impossible until that seat is filled."

It's not clear how long the FEC will be effectively shut down. President Trump nominated Republican Trey Trainor to serve on the commission, but the Senate has not yet acted on the nomination. In the past, nominees have been paired, with one from each party. Congressional Democrats have yet to announce any nominees from their party.

Former FEC chair Michael Toner says he fears there is a "real possibility" the FEC could lack a quorum through the 2020 election.

But that doesn't mean the agency will completely go dark. "Public disclosure reports will continue to be due and will need to be filed by campaigns and PACs and committees, and those reports will be reviewed by the FEC staff just as they always are. So that's important," said Toner. Similarly, the agency's popular website will continue to operate, allowing people to get information on campaign fundraising and spending.

Toner argues the agency's inability to act without four commissioners won't mean that campaign finance will become a "legal free zone." There's a five-year statute of limitations on campaign finance violations, and FEC complaints can still be filed with the agency.

"At some point, presumably, the agency will regain a quorum," said Toner, "and will be able take action on enforcement cases. So campaigns and committees still have to follow the law."

But Meredith McGehee, executive director of Issue One, a campaign reform group, isn't so sure they will.

"It's kind of like saying there's a law against robbing banks," she said. "Ninety-nine point nine percent of the population will still not rob a bank if there wasn't a policeman. But there's always that element there that's going to be looking for an opportunity to get away with it.

"And I think what's really different about politics is that there's both so much gray area and there is political disagreement about the laws anyway."

The FEC is not the only government agency unable to act because of a lack of a quorum. The Merit Systems Protection Board, which investigates allegations of violations of federal personnel practices, including the Hatch Act, hasn't had one for over two years.

Expand  

it'll be fine

  On 9/1/2019 at 3:30 PM, very honest said:

As FEC Nears Shutdown, Priorities Such As Stopping Election Interference On Hold

 

 

it'll be fine

jfc

  On 9/3/2019 at 12:42 AM, luke viia said:

jfc

it's absurd. really and truly. this is the cosmic comedy. the people in the universe who subscribed to the earth channel are lol'ing real hard. 

*alleged billionaire

  On 8/31/2019 at 5:28 AM, ambergonk said:

Expand  

  Quote

The Defense Department has identified $12.8 billion in possible funding that it could use to fulfill President Trump's call for a border wall.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/pentagon-finds-12-8-billion-for-trumps-border-wall

https://www.reed.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Milcon Wall Project.pdf

welp: i guess mexico is not paying for the wall

When all them greenbacks could be used for disaster relief from imminent destruction by Dorian...ok.

good interview