Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Okay . . . let's try this again.

Moderators: Shirley, Sabo, brian, rass, DaveInSeattle

User avatar
Nonlinear FC
The Dude
Posts: 10742
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 2:09 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Nonlinear FC »

Well, time travel aside, it's pretty remarkable that Fred Trump was so renowned for being a shitbird. I mean, we all know the family history, but I for one didn't realize it was part of what constituted popular culture to this extent.
You can lead a horse to fish, but you can't fish out a horse.
User avatar
brian
The Dude
Posts: 27740
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:52 am
Location: Downtown Las Vegas

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by brian »

Nonlinear FC wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 10:54 am Well, time travel aside, it's pretty remarkable that Fred Trump was so renowned for being a shitbird. I mean, we all know the family history, but I for one didn't realize it was part of what constituted popular culture to this extent.
I don't think it was based on Fred Trump, just a coincidence. Even in 1958 I don't think it was quite that big of a deal yet. There's a Snopes article about it.
Bandwagon fan of the 2023 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!
User avatar
Nonlinear FC
The Dude
Posts: 10742
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 2:09 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Nonlinear FC »

Are you calling The Sex Machine a liar?

Syb, you gonna put up with this shit?
You can lead a horse to fish, but you can't fish out a horse.
User avatar
The Sybian
The Dude
Posts: 18867
Joined: Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:36 am
Location: Working in the Crap Part of Jersey

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by The Sybian »

Nonlinear FC wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 10:54 am Well, time travel aside, it's pretty remarkable that Fred Trump was so renowned for being a shitbird. I mean, we all know the family history, but I for one didn't realize it was part of what constituted popular culture to this extent.
My parents are from Brooklyn, and Fred Trump was a well known as a scumbag as early as the 1950s. I doubt his infamy was known outside of New York, maybe not even known outside of Queens and Brooklyn until Donald forced himself into Manhattan society and the tabloid pages in the early 1980s, then into movies. He was always desperate for fame and stature. He hated being known as an outer-borough slumlord, which led him to make his name and brand synonymous with wealth and opulence. I almost wrote class, but Trump was never about class, just garish opulence.
An honest to God cult of personality - formed around a failed steak salesman.
-Pruitt
User avatar
The Sybian
The Dude
Posts: 18867
Joined: Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:36 am
Location: Working in the Crap Part of Jersey

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by The Sybian »

Nonlinear FC wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:09 am Are you calling The Sex Machine a liar?

Syb, you gonna put up with this shit?
Heh, I had already written my reply. I think it's too big of a coincidence, it's not like Trump is a common name. I'd bet the writer who came up with the name was from New York, and chose the name because of Fred. I don't think the episode was written about Fred Trump, but I would bet Fred inspired the name.
An honest to God cult of personality - formed around a failed steak salesman.
-Pruitt
User avatar
brian
The Dude
Posts: 27740
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:52 am
Location: Downtown Las Vegas

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by brian »

The Sybian wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:15 am
Nonlinear FC wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:09 am Are you calling The Sex Machine a liar?

Syb, you gonna put up with this shit?
Heh, I had already written my reply. I think it's too big of a coincidence, it's not like Trump is a common name. I'd bet the writer who came up with the name was from New York, and chose the name because of Fred. I don't think the episode was written about Fred Trump, but I would bet Fred inspired the name.
Yeah, could be.
Bandwagon fan of the 2023 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!
User avatar
Nonlinear FC
The Dude
Posts: 10742
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 2:09 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Nonlinear FC »

brian wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:41 am
The Sybian wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:15 am
Nonlinear FC wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:09 am Are you calling The Sex Machine a liar?

Syb, you gonna put up with this shit?
Heh, I had already written my reply. I think it's too big of a coincidence, it's not like Trump is a common name. I'd bet the writer who came up with the name was from New York, and chose the name because of Fred. I don't think the episode was written about Fred Trump, but I would bet Fred inspired the name.
Yeah, could be.
I'm a terrible instigator.
You can lead a horse to fish, but you can't fish out a horse.
Johnnie
The Dude
Posts: 16732
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 7:31 pm
Location: TUCSON, BITCH!

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Johnnie »

mister d wrote:Couldn't have pegged me better.
EnochRoot wrote:I mean, whatever. Johnnie's all hot cuz I ride him.
User avatar
brian
The Dude
Posts: 27740
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:52 am
Location: Downtown Las Vegas

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by brian »

Cohen going to testify in public re: Trump/Russia investigation in the House.
Bandwagon fan of the 2023 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!
User avatar
The Sybian
The Dude
Posts: 18867
Joined: Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:36 am
Location: Working in the Crap Part of Jersey

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by The Sybian »

brian wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 3:19 pm Cohen going to testify in public re: Trump/Russia investigation in the House.
Well, that should be fun. Of course, Trump and the RW media will discredit Cohen as a convicted liar, so we can't believe anything he says. I love how Trump can so easily say that Cohen is a dirty snake, felon and supreme liar, meanwhile he was Trump's closest confidant for 10+ years. At some point, are Trump supporters going to realize Trump only hires the absolute worst people when Trump eventually turns on all of them and calls them all sorts of names? Yes, Cohen is a lying piece of shit, but he seems to have kept really good documentation of his and Trump's crimes, so yeah, I'll believe his confessions when they are backed by solid documentation.
An honest to God cult of personality - formed around a failed steak salesman.
-Pruitt
User avatar
Pruitt
The Dude
Posts: 18105
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2013 10:02 am
Location: North Shore of Lake Ontario

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Pruitt »

The Sybian wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:15 am
Nonlinear FC wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:09 am Are you calling The Sex Machine a liar?

Syb, you gonna put up with this shit?
Heh, I had already written my reply. I think it's too big of a coincidence, it's not like Trump is a common name. I'd bet the writer who came up with the name was from New York, and chose the name because of Fred. I don't think the episode was written about Fred Trump, but I would bet Fred inspired the name.
I'd buy that.

But also, "Trump" is such a great name for a con man (even if the writers had never heard of Fred Trump) - it just sounds so right for the character in that piece.

And there's this...

"beautiful, with an exotic-yet-familiar facial structure and an arresting gaze."
User avatar
Nonlinear FC
The Dude
Posts: 10742
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 2:09 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Nonlinear FC »

You know, one year ago, were all in wonderment that a party that controlled all three branches of government was inches from shutting down said government. Over the same issue.

Is it really such a shocker that we're likely going to see this stretch into the longest shutdown in modern history now that there is reasonable representation of the people's will in one chamber of Congress?

Trump is a horrible negotiator. He is uninformed, pushing a terrible proposal, and he's taken any leverage he might've had by backing out of a number of immigration deals in his time as president. Ann Coulter has a hissy fit and now we're moving on to Day 20 of this bullshit.

There's no incentive for Dems to capitulate at this point, as has been noted. And Trump thinks comparing dick size is a valid means of getting what he wants. Pinning this on Pelosi is a joke. He said he'd be proud to shut things down. That's on him.

Fucking moron.
You can lead a horse to fish, but you can't fish out a horse.
User avatar
Nonlinear FC
The Dude
Posts: 10742
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 2:09 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Nonlinear FC »

And, btw, declaring a national emergency is obviously going to get wrapped up in court.

There is no national crisis. Even if there was, it's EXTREMELY dubious that a crisis would allow him to take over the purse strings to this extent. As a reminder, that is a very basic tenet of the Constitution... Madison wasn't fucking around by separating the President from the appropriations process.

Maybe some of the smart folks at the Federalist Society can hip the most patriotic person on the planet to some of the most basic aspects of how our govt works.
You can lead a horse to fish, but you can't fish out a horse.
User avatar
Pruitt
The Dude
Posts: 18105
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2013 10:02 am
Location: North Shore of Lake Ontario

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Pruitt »

How hard is it to proof read a tweet?

"beautiful, with an exotic-yet-familiar facial structure and an arresting gaze."
Johnnie
The Dude
Posts: 16732
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 7:31 pm
Location: TUCSON, BITCH!

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Johnnie »



F.B.I. Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of Russia is the title of that article.

I just wanted to have a blah Friday night. I guess not.

Edit:

Wittes' latest:

What if the Obstruction Was the Collusion? On the New York Times’s Latest Bombshell
mister d wrote:Couldn't have pegged me better.
EnochRoot wrote:I mean, whatever. Johnnie's all hot cuz I ride him.
User avatar
L-Jam3
The Dude
Posts: 5949
Joined: Wed Mar 13, 2013 8:43 am

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by L-Jam3 »

Guys, I think he’s going to win this shutdown. If a normal person is the president they would understand the crunch that the federal workers are going through and eventually they would come to the table and try to work something out for their sake.

But this doesn’t work when one side is led by a sociopath. He simply desnt give a shit about what people are going through. He sees them as mere pawns. Even if McConnell sees continuing the shutdown as political suicide he won’t be able to convince Trump because he just doesn’t care.
My avatar corresponds on my place in the Swamp posting list with the all-time Home Run list. Number 45 is Paul Konerko with 439.
User avatar
brian
The Dude
Posts: 27740
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:52 am
Location: Downtown Las Vegas

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by brian »

L-Jam3 wrote: Sat Jan 12, 2019 9:42 am Guys, I think he’s going to win this shutdown. If a normal person is the president they would understand the crunch that the federal workers are going through and eventually they would come to the table and try to work something out for their sake.

But this doesn’t work when one side is led by a sociopath. He simply desnt give a shit about what people are going through. He sees them as mere pawns. Even if McConnell sees continuing the shutdown as political suicide he won’t be able to convince Trump because he just doesn’t care.
Doesn’t seem to be any signs of Dems caving though. Doing so when polls put the blame on Trump by 20 points would be foolhardy and political suicide.

No, this is gonna stay ugly though you’re right about that. This is basically the battle of Stalingrad in WWII and the Dems are the Red Army (Ha!). Trump has no path forward and no plan and it’ll be a battle of attrition until he’s finally forced to retreat.
Bandwagon fan of the 2023 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!
User avatar
The Sybian
The Dude
Posts: 18867
Joined: Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:36 am
Location: Working in the Crap Part of Jersey

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by The Sybian »

L-Jam3 wrote: Sat Jan 12, 2019 9:42 am Guys, I think he’s going to win this shutdown. If a normal person is the president they would understand the crunch that the federal workers are going through and eventually they would come to the table and try to work something out for their sake.

But this doesn’t work when one side is led by a sociopath. He simply desnt give a shit about what people are going through. He sees them as mere pawns. Even if McConnell sees continuing the shutdown as political suicide he won’t be able to convince Trump because he just doesn’t care.
The Senate can end the shutdown without Trump. They had a 100-0 vote, but pulled it because McConnell is a pussy and afraid of Trump. Pass it again, and override Trump's veto. Only takes a small number of Republicans to do it, which is why McConnell won't let it go to a vote. It is going to take enough pressure to get a handful of GOP Senators to stand up and fight.
An honest to God cult of personality - formed around a failed steak salesman.
-Pruitt
TT2.0
The Big Lebowski
Posts: 1339
Joined: Mon Mar 11, 2013 4:06 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by TT2.0 »

brian wrote: Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:24 am
L-Jam3 wrote: Sat Jan 12, 2019 9:42 am Guys, I think he’s going to win this shutdown. If a normal person is the president they would understand the crunch that the federal workers are going through and eventually they would come to the table and try to work something out for their sake.

But this doesn’t work when one side is led by a sociopath. He simply desnt give a shit about what people are going through. He sees them as mere pawns. Even if McConnell sees continuing the shutdown as political suicide he won’t be able to convince Trump because he just doesn’t care.
Doesn’t seem to be any signs of Dems caving though. Doing so when polls put the blame on Trump by 20 points would be foolhardy and political suicide.

No, this is gonna stay ugly though you’re right about that. This is basically the battle of Stalingrad in WWII and the Dems are the Red Army (Ha!). Trump has no path forward and no plan and it’ll be a battle of attrition until he’s finally forced to retreat.
they will give him a small bone and a way to spin it to his ego that he singlehandedly restored pay to thousamds of workers in spite of the dems and we will all move on. only thing to do is to decide what bone they can live with...if you give him an out that makes him look good to him he will take it...if you try to bull him into submission he is simply too stupid to ever quit. you see the entourage movie? there is a scene where rhonda rousey has turtle in an arm bear and tells him to tap or hes gonna get a broken arm....he wont tap, she breaks the arm. he still wont quit. moral of the story even if they snap trumps arm he wont tap. you have to let him "win" or the government will still be shutdown on election day 2020
Gunpowder wrote:you transcend douchedom.
MOTHERFUCKING 2017 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!!
User avatar
Pruitt
The Dude
Posts: 18105
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2013 10:02 am
Location: North Shore of Lake Ontario

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Pruitt »

Who needs staff anyway?

"beautiful, with an exotic-yet-familiar facial structure and an arresting gaze."
User avatar
Nonlinear FC
The Dude
Posts: 10742
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 2:09 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Nonlinear FC »

The Dems have already won.

Here's how this shit works... Hundreds of thousands of Feds just had their paycheck show up with a bunch of zeros. Those people are represented in Congress. Those congresspeople can only take so much of the local and national news showing their constituents in true financial peril, they can only take so many instances of protests outside their offices, only take so many more days of their ph lines being flooded, of thousands of emails telling them they are losing thousands of votes keeping this thing going.

Trump doesn't give a shit. But there are enough Repubs that have HEAVY federal worker districts (they've been in power long enough to have funneled appropriation dollars their way.. don't forget that for a second) and those workers are gonna start going ape shit if this looks like it's going to stretch to the 31st and another missed pay check.

The pressure on GOP in Congress is going to be INSANE if we get to the end of next week without a resolution in sight.

And Trump declaring an Emergency isn't going to be a quick fix, as noted above.
You can lead a horse to fish, but you can't fish out a horse.
User avatar
EnochRoot
The Dude
Posts: 6190
Joined: Tue Dec 01, 2015 6:18 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by EnochRoot »

TT2.0 wrote: Sat Jan 12, 2019 12:08 pm
brian wrote: Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:24 am
L-Jam3 wrote: Sat Jan 12, 2019 9:42 am Guys, I think he’s going to win this shutdown. If a normal person is the president they would understand the crunch that the federal workers are going through and eventually they would come to the table and try to work something out for their sake.

But this doesn’t work when one side is led by a sociopath. He simply desnt give a shit about what people are going through. He sees them as mere pawns. Even if McConnell sees continuing the shutdown as political suicide he won’t be able to convince Trump because he just doesn’t care.
Doesn’t seem to be any signs of Dems caving though. Doing so when polls put the blame on Trump by 20 points would be foolhardy and political suicide.

No, this is gonna stay ugly though you’re right about that. This is basically the battle of Stalingrad in WWII and the Dems are the Red Army (Ha!). Trump has no path forward and no plan and it’ll be a battle of attrition until he’s finally forced to retreat.
they will give him a small bone and a way to spin it to his ego that he singlehandedly restored pay to thousamds of workers in spite of the dems and we will all move on. only thing to do is to decide what bone they can live with...if you give him an out that makes him look good to him he will take it...if you try to bull him into submission he is simply too stupid to ever quit. you see the entourage movie? there is a scene where rhonda rousey has turtle in an arm bear and tells him to tap or hes gonna get a broken arm....he wont tap, she breaks the arm. he still wont quit. moral of the story even if they snap trumps arm he wont tap. you have to let him "win" or the government will still be shutdown on election day 2020
Fuck Trump and his ego. This is a man who is testing the constitution like the raptors testing the fences in jurassic park. He has no fucks to give. He’s a sociopath completely devoid of empathy.
Noli Timere Messorem
User avatar
EdRomero
Donny
Posts: 2359
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2014 9:39 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by EdRomero »

Nonlinear FC wrote: Sat Jan 12, 2019 4:03 pm The Dems have already won.

Here's how this shit works... Hundreds of thousands of Feds just had their paycheck show up with a bunch of zeros. Those people are represented in Congress. Those congresspeople can only take so much of the local and national news showing their constituents in true financial peril, they can only take so many instances of protests outside their offices, only take so many more days of their ph lines being flooded, of thousands of emails telling them they are losing thousands of votes keeping this thing going.

Trump doesn't give a shit. But there are enough Repubs that have HEAVY federal worker districts (they've been in power long enough to have funneled appropriation dollars their way.. don't forget that for a second) and those workers are gonna start going ape shit if this looks like it's going to stretch to the 31st and another missed pay check.

The pressure on GOP in Congress is going to be INSANE if we get to the end of next week without a resolution in sight.

And Trump declaring an Emergency isn't going to be a quick fix, as noted above.
And then him and Mitch will come up with something else sinister, and it will work well enough to get them to the next piece of bullshit.

Trump has been investigated for well over a year by the FBI for helping the Russians, but turn on CNN or listen to NPR and hey there's a shut down where BOTH SIDES can't work it out. This country is fucked, and when it's all said and done, Mitch McConnell may go down as the number one fool that allowed it to happen, closely followed by the mainstream media who is unwilling to plainly call a corrupt scumbag a corrupt scumbag because politics coverage is just horse racing and both side-ism
User avatar
Nonlinear FC
The Dude
Posts: 10742
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 2:09 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Nonlinear FC »

Polling shows pretty clearly that Trump and the GOP are getting blamed for this shutdown.
You can lead a horse to fish, but you can't fish out a horse.
User avatar
DaveInSeattle
The Dude
Posts: 8386
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 5:51 am
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by DaveInSeattle »



Perfectly normal behavior, I'm sure...
User avatar
EnochRoot
The Dude
Posts: 6190
Joined: Tue Dec 01, 2015 6:18 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by EnochRoot »

Fun stuff down a Reddit rabbit hole:
The KGB facilitated his 1987 Moscow trip at a time they were trying to recruit prominent Americans in business, culture and politics, and they specifically targeted vain, egotistical men who were prone to infidelity and also had political ambitions.

Just months after that trip, he spent $100k on full-page US newspaper ads bemoaning US foreign policy - specifically our support for allies.

The Trump family had been followed by Czech/Soviet intelligence since at least 1977 when he married Czech Ivana.

Trump was first compromised by the Russians back in the 80s in the days of the Soviet Union. In 1984, the Russian Mafia began to use Trump real estate to launder money and it continued for decades. In 1987, the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations, Yuri Dubinin, arranged for Trump and his then-wife, Ivana, to enjoy an all-expense-paid trip to Moscow to consider possible business prospects. Only seven weeks after his trip, Trump ran full-page ads in the Boston Globe, the NYT and WaPO calling for, in effect, the dismantling of the postwar Western foreign policy alliance. The whole Trump/Russian connection started out as laundering money for the Russian mob through Trump's real estate, but evolved into something far bigger.

In 1984, David Bogatin — a Russian mobster, convicted gasoline bootlegger, and close ally of Semion Mogilevich, a major Russian mob boss — met with Trump in Trump Tower right after it opened. Bogatin bought five condos from Trump at that meeting. Those condos were later seized by the government, which claimed they were used to launder money for the Russian mob. (NY Times, Apr 30, 1992)

Felix Sater is a Russian-born former mobster, and former managing director of NY real estate conglomerate Bayrock Group LLC located on the 24th floor of Trump Tower. He is a convict who became a govt cooperator for the FBI and other agencies. He grew up with Michael Cohen--Trump's former "fixer" attorney. Cohen's family owned El Caribe, which was a mob hangout for the Russian Mafia in Brooklyn. Cohen had ties to Ukrainian oligarchs through his in-laws and his brother's in-laws. Felix Sater's father had ties to the Russian mob. This goes back more than 30 years.

Trump was $4 billion in debt after his Atlantic City casinos went bankrupt. No U.S. bank would touch him. Then foreign money began flowing in through Bayrock (mentioned above). Bayrock was run by two investors: Tevfik Arif, a Kazakhstan-born former Soviet official who drew on bottomless sources of money from the former Soviet republic; and Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman who had pleaded guilty in the 1990s to a huge stock-fraud scheme involving the Russian mafia. Bayrock partnered with Trump in 2005 and poured money into the Trump organization under the legal guise of licensing his name and property management.

Semion Mogilevich was the brains behind the Russian Mafia. Mogilevich operatives have been using Trump real estate for decades to launder money. That means Russian Mafia operatives have been part of his fortune for years, that many of them have owned condos in Trump Towers and other properties, that they were running operations out of Trump's crown jewel. (Mogilevich's role today is unclear).

One of the most important things that is often overlooked is that the Russia Mafia is part and parcel of Russian intelligence. Russia is a mafia state. that is not a metaphor. Putin is head of the Mafia. So the fact that they have been operating out of the home of the president of the United States is deeply disturbing.

From Craig Unger's AMA: "Early on, a source told me that all this was tied to Semion Mogilevich, the powerful Russian mobster. I had never even heard of him, but I immediately went to a database that listed the owners of all properties in NY state and looked up all the Trump properties. Every time I found a Russian sounding name, I would Google, and add Mogilevich. When you do investigative reporting, you anticipate drilling a number of dry holes, but almost everyone I googled turned out to be a Russian mobster. Again and again. If you know New York you don't expect Trump Tower to be a high crime neighborhood, but there were far too many Russian mobsters in Trump properties for it to be a coincidence."

So many Russians bought Trump apartments at his developments in Florida that the area became known as Little Moscow. The developers of two of his hotels were Russians with significant links to the Russian mob. The late leader of that mob in the United States, Vyacheslav Kirillovich Ivankov, was living at Trump Tower.

According to a Bloomberg investigation (March 16, 2017) into Trump World Tower, which broke ground in 1998, “a third of units sold on floors 76 through 83 by 2004 involved people or limited liability companies connected to Russia and neighboring states.”

Here is the most prominent example: In July 2008, the height of the recession, Donald Trump sold a mansion in Palm Beach for $95 million to Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian oligarch. Trump had purchased it four years earlier for $41.35 million. The sale price was nearly $54 million more than Trump had paid for the property. Again, this was the height of the recession when all other property had plummeted in value.

As an example of the Russian mob operating out of Trump Tower, in 2013, Federal agents busted an “ultraexclusive, high-stakes, illegal poker ring” run by Russian gangsters out of Trump Tower. In addition to card games, they operated illegal gambling websites, ran a global sports book and laundered more than $100 million. A condo directly below one owned by Trump reportedly served as HQ for a “sophisticated money-laundering scheme” connected to Semion Mogilevich.

It has been widely known for decades that Russia often used videotaped "honey traps" to compromise influential visitors. General Oleg Kalugin, former head of counterintelligence for the KGB, told Craig Unger (Author, "House of Trump, House of Putin") they probably did this with Trump during his visit to Russia in 1987--long before the events in the Steele dossier. "I can't tell what is inside Trump's mind, but everyone who traveled to Russia knew this."

Rudy Giuliani famously prosecuted the Italian mob while he was a federal prosecutor, yet the Russian mob was allowed to thrive under his tenure in the Southern District and Mayor. And now he's deeply entwined in the business of Trump and Russian oligarchs. Giuiani appointed Semyon Kislin to the NYC Economic Development Council in 1990, and the FBI described Kislin as having ties tot he Russian mob. Of course, it made good political sense for Giuliani to get headlines for smashing the Italian mob.

A lot of Republicans in Washington are implicated. Boatloads of Russian money went to the GOP--often in legal ways. The NRA got as much as $70M from Russia, then funneled it to the GOP. The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee lead by McConnel got millions from Leonard Blavatnik. The big white shoe law firms--Jones Day, for example-- represent powerful Russian oligarchs who have billions and billions of dollars. Much of this is legal even though it appears to have compromised huge parts of the GOP. Unger's book alleges that most of the GOP leadership has been compromised by RU money. In the 90s, the Russians began sending money to top GOP leaders, like Speaker of the House Tom Delay.

At the Cityscape USA’s Bridging US and the Emerging Real Estate Markets Conference held in Manhattan, on September 9, 10, and 11, 2008, Trump Jr. was frank about the tide of Russian money supporting the family business, saying "...And in terms of high-end product influx into the US, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets."

Eric Trump told James Dodson, a golf reporter, in 2014 that the Trump Organization was able to expand during the financial crisis because “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.”

Trump's first wife, Ivana, was under surveillance by the STB, the Czech secret police, and they reported to the KGB. Ivana got out of Communist Czechoslovakia in the 70s which was not easy to do.

Regarding the Steele dossier, while not everything in the dossier has been corroborated, some of it has and none of it has been disproven. Christopher Steele has a terrific reputation in the intelligence world. For reference, Jeb Bush's opposition research included paying a US based intelligence firm (GPS Fusion), who reached out to Steele. This same intelligence firm was later hired by Clinton during her campaign. All of this was above-board and verifiable.

At the end of 2018, Putin and his allies started making a strong push for a resolution that would justify their country’s 1979 invasion and reverse an 1989 vote backed by Mikhail Gorbachev that condemned it. The Putinists’ goal was to pass the resolution by Feb. There is no one on this side of the Atlantic who thinks the USSR was justified in invading Afghanistan. And out of nowhere, on January 2nd, Trump came out strongly supporting Russia's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.

We don't know who may be prosecuted with Deutsche Bank, but Russian money laundering is a huge part of this and how they compromised Trump. Trump was $4 billion in debt and the Russians bailed him out. They own him.
Noli Timere Messorem
Johnnie
The Dude
Posts: 16732
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 7:31 pm
Location: TUCSON, BITCH!

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Johnnie »

You wanna go down a Reddit rabbit hole? Go to the subreddit ShitPoppinKREAMsays.

It's an ungodly meticulously detailed account of everything everywhere.

Also, watch the documentary Active Measures. It's crazy.
mister d wrote:Couldn't have pegged me better.
EnochRoot wrote:I mean, whatever. Johnnie's all hot cuz I ride him.
User avatar
brian
The Dude
Posts: 27740
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:52 am
Location: Downtown Las Vegas

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by brian »

I’m going to just stay off Reddit altogether. Twitter gets me stressed out enough as it is.
Bandwagon fan of the 2023 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!
User avatar
Pruitt
The Dude
Posts: 18105
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2013 10:02 am
Location: North Shore of Lake Ontario

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Pruitt »

Mueller Is Investigating Trump as a Russian Asset

Chilling...
Now we already know Mueller is not merely looking into crimes, but trying to ascertain the foundational loyalties of the President of the United States.
"beautiful, with an exotic-yet-familiar facial structure and an arresting gaze."
User avatar
A_B
The Dude
Posts: 23319
Joined: Mon Mar 11, 2013 7:36 am
Location: Getting them boards like a wolf in the chicken pen.

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by A_B »

brian wrote: Sat Jan 12, 2019 9:55 pm I’m going to just stay off Reddit altogether. Twitter gets me stressed out enough as it is.
Like
You know what you need? A lyrical sucker punch to the face.
User avatar
The Sybian
The Dude
Posts: 18867
Joined: Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:36 am
Location: Working in the Crap Part of Jersey

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by The Sybian »

Republican Congressman and former FBI supervisory agent calls out Trump, defends FBI investigating Trump, and calls out the GOP for keeping the government shutdown... Props to this guy for speaking the truth, but fuck, how does someone with this integrity and understanding remain a Republican?


An honest to God cult of personality - formed around a failed steak salesman.
-Pruitt
User avatar
brian
The Dude
Posts: 27740
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:52 am
Location: Downtown Las Vegas

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by brian »

I think a very underrated thing now is the reasons Democrats cave are because ultimately they care about people. Like I’m 100 percent dead nuts certain if you could somehow measure sleep lost about this shutdown the Dems are more upset than the GOP. But I think Dems are running out of fucks to give. For better or worse.
Bandwagon fan of the 2023 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!
tennbengal
The Dude
Posts: 11975
Joined: Wed Apr 17, 2013 7:07 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by tennbengal »

NOW can we all agree...collusion? JoeK?
Joe K
Walter Sobchak
Posts: 4754
Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2013 4:37 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Joe K »

tennbengal wrote: Sun Jan 13, 2019 3:49 am NOW can we all agree...collusion? JoeK?
Serious question, but based on what new revelation? The NYTimes story about the FBI investigation? If so, I think the bolded from that article is significant and has gotten lost:
The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, took over the inquiry into Mr. Trump when he was appointed, days after F.B.I. officials opened it. That inquiry is part of Mr. Mueller’s broader examination of how Russian operatives interfered in the 2016 election and whether any Trump associates conspired with them. It is unclear whether Mr. Mueller is still pursuing the counterintelligence matter, and some former law enforcement officials outside the investigation have questioned whether agents overstepped in opening it. ...

No evidence has emerged publicly that Mr. Trump was secretly in contact with or took direction from Russian government officials. An F.B.I. spokeswoman and a spokesman for the special counsel’s office both declined to comment.
I don’t think that an egotistical jackass like Trump firing Comey is suggestive that he had to have been working for Russia. I mean, the guy literally had a smash-hit TV show that was based around him firing people he didn’t like.

As for the Manafort-Klimnik story, as has happened countless times with Russia stories, the original headlines got a lot more attention than the significant correction/retraction that followed:


And frankly, with all due respect to people on this board, I find the theory that the Trump-Russia conspiracy goes back to the 1980s to be asinine. The USSR must’ve had a crystal ball or a time machine to plot the seeds of a decades-long conspiracy that could withstand the major subsequent political changes on both sides of the Atlantic, including you know, the whole Fall of the Soviet Union. I would love to see the KGB memo hatching this plot:

“Our entire political system is on the verge of collapse, and the reorganization of our economy is about to be turned over to the West. In 5 years, there won’t even be a KGB. But let’s talk to this buffoonish real estate magnet about some hotel deals so that in the event that American politics destabilizes as a result of lost manufacturing jobs, endless wars, and crippling income inequality, we can make our move.”

I think it’s evident that Mueller is running a thorough investigation and I’ll change my mind if he actually charges any criminal conduct between Trump’s campaign and Russia. But, for all the breathless headlines and conspiracy theories, that hasn’t happened yet.
tennbengal
The Dude
Posts: 11975
Joined: Wed Apr 17, 2013 7:07 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by tennbengal »

Okey dokie.
User avatar
Pruitt
The Dude
Posts: 18105
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2013 10:02 am
Location: North Shore of Lake Ontario

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Pruitt »

Joe K wrote: Sun Jan 13, 2019 7:33 am
And frankly, with all due respect to people on this board, I find the theory that the Trump-Russia conspiracy goes back to the 1980s to be asinine. The USSR must’ve had a crystal ball or a time machine to plot the seeds of a decades-long conspiracy that could withstand the major subsequent political changes on both sides of the Atlantic, including you know, the whole Fall of the Soviet Union. I would love to see the KGB memo hatching this plot:

“Our entire political system is on the verge of collapse, and the reorganization of our economy is about to be turned over to the West. In 5 years, there won’t even be a KGB. But let’s talk to this buffoonish real estate magnet about some hotel deals so that in the event that American politics destabilizes as a result of lost manufacturing jobs, endless wars, and crippling income inequality, we can make our move.”

I think it’s evident that Mueller is running a thorough investigation and I’ll change my mind if he actually charges any criminal conduct between Trump’s campaign and Russia. But, for all the breathless headlines and conspiracy theories, that hasn’t happened yet.
I would think that if these allegations are true, it wasn't done as an overarching plot to destroy a country, rather as an effort to make cash - lots and lots of cash.
"beautiful, with an exotic-yet-familiar facial structure and an arresting gaze."
User avatar
EdRomero
Donny
Posts: 2359
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2014 9:39 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by EdRomero »

After reading Masha Gessen's book on Putin (The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin), I'd think the capabilities and motivation were there, and Trump always seemed to be an easy mark. And I agree that money was the first motivating factor
User avatar
duff
Donny
Posts: 2745
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 3:36 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by duff »

Money has been and will always be the only motivating factor. Nothing else matters to the man. Nothing.
To quote both Bruce Prichard and Tony Schiavone, "Fuck Duff Meltzer."
Johnnie
The Dude
Posts: 16732
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 7:31 pm
Location: TUCSON, BITCH!

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by Johnnie »

Man, I mean it's interesting to still see that there is an argument to be made that Trump isn't compromised.

I completely and totally disagree with it because I'm reading everything I can just to see how intricate the network is and looking at things like "indictments and convictions within Trump's circle by Mueller" as a testament of things to come.

But it's still interesting to see.

I mean, sure you could slice the president firing the FBI director because of "the Russia thing" and then inviting Russians into the oval office the next day and only allowing Russian media into it as a bunch of circumstantial evidence -- amongst literally everything else.

But as a dude with a security clearance who has to be investigated to maintain it, the slightest hint of impropriety could sink me. Seeing every single red flag exist and it not lead to something at this point is unthinkable to me.
mister d wrote:Couldn't have pegged me better.
EnochRoot wrote:I mean, whatever. Johnnie's all hot cuz I ride him.
tennbengal
The Dude
Posts: 11975
Joined: Wed Apr 17, 2013 7:07 pm

Re: Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

Post by tennbengal »

Pretty much.
Post Reply