I felt that mentioning that a shitty podcast's fan club getting banned was off topic for this thread.
At 700 pages, I think we’ll be ok. It’s not like the on-topic discussions are that in-depth anymore anyway.
They made a mistake when reporting about about the Russian Bounties on US and US solders. The White House knew in March 2019 https://apnews.com/425e43fa0ffdd6e126c5171653ec47d1
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/29/senate-republicans-trump-russia-345160 "A Western defense official confirmed to POLITICO on Monday that Russia’s GRU put out bounties for American and British coalition fighters in Afghanistan. The New York Times first reported on the U.S. intelligence assessment, adding that Trump was briefed on the matter earlier this year. The White House has offered conflicting responses in the wake of the initial reports, which were followed by stories from the Times and Washington Post that at least one and possibly several U.S. service members were killed as a result of the bounties. Trump has since denied that he was ever briefed, and John Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence, backed up that claim. The president later said his intelligence officials told him the bounty offers were not credible, but White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Monday that there was “no consensus within the intelligence community” due to dissenting views on the accuracy of the assessment — a view some GOP lawmakers emphasized. “I don't think it should be a surprise to anybody that the Taliban’s been trying to kill Americans and that the Russians have been encouraging that, if not providing means to make that happen,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who sits on the Intelligence Committee." Only in Trump World is the media the problem here, not Russia, not a president whose attention span is so breathtakingly short he can't be reliably asked to understand that a nation has put out bounties on our military thus costing lives, not a handful of Senators so fucking cowardly the best they can muster is "we need a briefing". Wasn't there a time where this would mean war? If we had done this to Russia, wouldn't there have been consequences? Does no one there have any balls at all? Fuck these people. Regardless of affiliation, this is beyond the pale. Trump's history with the military has been utterly shitty, but this is a new low.
This is the part of the show where the president loudly yells for the whereabouts of someone 3 years dead.
Ailes also left the earth with a Weinstein-like reputation. It’s like giving shout-outs to Roman Polanski on what a great babysitting job he did for you. Add the to pile on Fuck-Up Mountain.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/02/democrats-ads-trump-341903 I think this is fascinating: "But there was one significant difference from the 2016 attack on Trump. Four years ago, said Tad Devine, who was a senior strategist to Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, issues of character proved irrelevant in general election advertising “because people weren’t voting on it” — there was no connection to draw between Trump’s character and a record of governance that did not yet exist. This year, he said, “That is absolutely the weakest front for Trump … Things have changed so dramatically, and the connection between the character of the president and that president’s ability to protect people, whether it’s from economic collapse or pandemic, is really important.” The contrast works, Devine said, because “people are so desperate to turn the page from what’s happening in America today.” The strategy of focusing on Trump's actions, his governance rather than his racism, sexism, etc. seems to be a positive development, from the perspective that calling Trump sexist/racist wasn't a dealbreaker in 2016. If the election was held in May, I could see how people would say "yeah, but every country had those issues, that's not his fault." Now that we're in a resurgence (50,000 cases in ONE DAY), where Texas is spreading faster than Italy was when they were the pity of the world, and several GOP leaders are essentially in denial...this could be the central issue, and the #1 citation under "Trump Failures". There's a deep list of missteps, you can literally see by scrolling through Trump's Twitter feed. I also think with this resurgence, it's hitting home for people in places that Trump needs. Everyone seeing the ICU beds fill up in Texas, or the packed funeral calendars in Florida, contrasting with what the governors and White House is saying...they feel betrayed. "You told us this would go away. You said this was a hoax. You said this wasn't a big deal. My doctor isn't a Democrat and he's scared shitless." They realize the risks they were exposed to for political battles with NO purpose, and them and their loved ones were sacrificed for the economy....it's POWERFUL anger. Also, as places re-open, there's a good photo or two of a crowd, but the vast majority of places that have opened back up are at low capacity. So, you might see crowded bars in the news, but your local taco stand is empty, your local bar isn't filled, and more than a few places remain closed. Also, it prevents him from holding rallies (and diminishes the size of the ones he can hold), and I think that will definitely hurt him. He needs that energy, he needs that pulpit. I also think that those rallies were the counterweight to the fear, embarrassment and stigma associated with supporting Trump: you can go there, and feel reassured. Sitting at home, watching him on the news, watching him tweet, seeing shit openly collapse, it's harder to overcome the stigma, the embarrassment. Those rallies are critical to maintaining the emotional attachment to Trump, similar to church...you ever watch the people in those evangelical churches? They look and act hypnotized. The power of those crowds is massive. Without them, his campaign is crippled. Speaking of that stigma, he's not exactly doing himself any favors with the white power tweet. You're seeing companies scurry to get ahead of the BLM movement (in cringe-inducing fashion). Some of his supporters might not give a shit about being seen as racist if they are Trump supporters, but I can imagine some companies, business owners, donors, etc. getting outed for their support, and as shit heats up....that will cost them. Being a Trump supporter can be as private as you, God and your vote. But being a donor isn't, and as the apocalypse wears on, I can imagine some of his backers fearing a backlash for supporting him too publicly. Putting it simply, Trump's supporters are a minority, but a tightly cohesive and intolerant one (to borrow a phrase from Taleb). They fear the majority. And the business owners among them will see their prospects shrink when people refuse to do business with them over political affiliation. The Ken and Karen waving their guns around are lawyers, for example. Maybe there's enough Trump supporters in their area to keep them in business, or maybe they don't care because they are retiring. But that won't be the case for a lot of these entities, and the risks of supporting this guy (who is wildly, historically unpopular) will start to creep up.
We need to start including more links to articles when new things happen. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/loc...axwell-arrested-jeffrey-epstein-aide/2495762/ And better get this in early Ghislaine Maxwell did not kill herself.
Won't it be a race to see who gets there first? Trump's guys, Bill Clinton's guys, Prince Andrew himself, Alan Dershowitz, Bill Barr and the rest of these fine people
I feel like had Clinton been involved in blackmailable activity with Epstein it would have come out sometime over the past 30 years when it would have hurt him or Hillary the most. Clinton being implicated now can do the least amount of damage politically. Because he is nearly as irrelevant as Hillary. Andrew is just as fucked today as he was yesterday. But Trump and Barr have a bunch to lose, especially if Maxwell's stash of blackmail is secure.
The Bill Barr connection is a bit of a stretch, though. Kirkland and Ellis is one of the biggest and most prestigious law firms in the world. It’s not unlikely that Epstein would have picked that one to represent him anyway. As far as not recusing himself currently, I have no idea. But the description above isn’t much of a connection. The least surprising name on that list: Harvey Weinstein. The most surprising name: Stephen Hawking.
Bit of a non-sequitur but I came across this article and couldn't stop reading it: https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/For-the-forgotten-men-of-1st-Platoon-Trump-s-15381879.php