Before Trump's Ohio rally, he tweeted to tell people to vote Steve Stivers. Stivers isn't running. Trump deleted, posted a Vote Troy Balderson tweet.
Then, at the rally, he pretended his own error was a media error for which he was owed an apology. The crowd chanted CNN SUCKS. pic.twitter.com/thmGfTyxW7
In the eighteenth century they called that "a sinecure." It was one of the complaints that American revolutionaries made against British, aristocratic corruption. https://t.co/Qawb6xidKX
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"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis D. Brandeis
"Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are." ~ S. Gecko
$15,000 a month seems to be the going rate for former Trump White House officials who worked closely with the president. According to federal election filings reviewed by ABC News, the Trump campaign, Republican National Committee, or pro-Trump America First PAC are also paying former Oval Office security chief Keith Schiller's private firm $15,000 a month for "security services" tied to the 2020 GOP national political convention, $14,000 per month for "payroll" to Trump "body man" John McEntee, and $15,000 a month to former ad director Gary Coby — all of whom, presumably, signed restrictive nondisclosure agreements.
According to the Lara Trump tape, that money comes straight from donors — and some major donors are getting irked "by the revelations that the campaign may have been used as a slush fund to pay fired or troublesome employees," The New York Times reports. "It's diverting donor money that could be used to wage the midterm election battle or store resources for Trump's re-election," said Dan Eberhart, Trump donor and America First adviser. "Instead, it's an elongated hush payment."
Eberhart goes on to make clear that the rich, disgusting fucks that were contributing aren't stopping their contributions, because Trump will maintain the status quo of bilking the poor to make the obscenely rich even richer.
Excuse me while I go and weep for the rich oil and drilling magnates who gave money to a know fraudster and are now enraged that they too are being taken for a ride. Trump was only supposed to defraud the little guys on their behalf, it's unfair that he's now defrauding the rich.
'But we're on the same side, he's not supposed to screw over *me* like I wanted him to screw over everyone else!' - Rich conservatives.
Rudy 9ui11iani took a massive, steaming, noisy, extraordinarily malodorous dump on Meet the Press yesterday. Not that it'll matter or anything.
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"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis D. Brandeis
"Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are." ~ S. Gecko
I especially liked that he admitted the meeting was in fact to try and get dirt on Clinton but they didn't get that dirt so it shouldn't count. Yes your honor my client did try to arrange a murder with the mob but it turns out the person he met was in charge of other activities and so was unable to commit the murder. Since no murder occurred it's clear that my client is innocent, it's not illegal to fail at murder is it?
Can we get these fuckers in a court room already?
Rudy "No terrorist attacks under republican presidents" 9ui11iani will clearly say anything and everything on talk shows where he knows he can get away with it, I want to see him in a setting where words actually maybe mean something.
I especially liked that he admitted the meeting was in fact to try and get dirt on Clinton but they didn't get that dirt so it shouldn't count. Yes your honor my client did try to arrange a murder with the mob but it turns out the person he met was in charge of other activities and so was unable to commit the murder. Since no murder occurred it's clear that my client is innocent, it's not illegal to fail at murder is it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sideshow Rudy 9iu11ani
"Attempted conspiracy", now honestly, what is that? Do they give a Nobel Prize for Attempted Chemistry? Do they?
(unfortunately, I can't find the original clip anywhere on the internets)
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
The first black president made it harder to segregate housing and end discriminatory housing practices, something that's plagued black people for decades, and the black brain surgeon turned HUD secretary ended it. Let that sink in...
It starts off well (except for the John Oliver bit at the very top) gets better and then breaks through the stratosphere with a critique of Peter Navarro beginning at about 13:30. Enjoy!
(Those haters who prefer to read the transcript are welcome to find it and post links).
A couple thoughts on the linked opinion piece above.
It paints former intelligence chiefs as unsung heroes who Keep America Safe(TM);
Quote:
They are telling us this is a dark and dangerous time. And they have spent their lives, devoted their entire careers, to protecting the country from just these sorts of events overseas.
That's Michael Hayden, who approved the NSA's illegal warrantless domestic wiretapping program in the NSA in 2003; openly supported torture, requested and supported drone strikes based on the behavior of ground vehicles (without any other intelligence basis), who lied about the CIA torture program to Congress in 2007.
That's James Clapper, who lied to the US Senate, under oath, about NSA domestic spying, in 2013; the same James Clapper who in 2003 defended the Iraqi invasion by stating publicly that the WMDs- the false justification for invasion- had been secretly transferred to Syria, right before the invasion.
That's John Brennan, who publicly supported "Extraordinary Rendition"- world-wide kidnappings to move suspects to secret overseas prisons for torture, with no judicial oversight. Brennan oversaw much of the use of drone warfare and wrote the Kill Lists. He publicly claimed there were no known civilian casualties from drone strikes in 2011, which was demonstrably false; He was in charge of the CIA when they hacked the Senate Intelligence Committee's computers to spy on the senators and their staff.
William McRaven is more of a soldier than a spy chief, and he retired to go on to focus on education, which is great. I don't have much criticism for him, other than that I don't think of the Osama bin Laden raid and execution in Pakistan (that McRaven planned and executed) as a moment of glory for our nation, as some seem to think; I am confused as to why he lionizes Brennan.
Quote:
These officials are not—repeat not—monetizing their security clearances by being on cable TV.
Possibly; I'm pretty sure they still get paid when they go on TV; and as well when for example they go speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference(CPAC), like Hayden did in 2015.
My argument is this: former military and intelligence chiefs should have their security clearance sunset exactly the same as the rest of the military; and I have every reason to never believe the former head of the CIA, NSA, or any other spy agency is doing anything but spreading propaganda, and furthering their own agendas.
I also think that half of the criticism of Trump from the intelligence chiefs is because Trump does a couple simultaneous things that piss them off:
1. He doesn't package his lies the way former intelligence chiefs and former administrations have; they want to give a shine of legitimacy and jingoism and gravitas to the war machine of America; Trump's fucking up their good thing.
2. Trump doesn't read off the same script regarding our foreign occupations and wars, and openly suggests things that scare the shit out of these war hawks- Democrats and Republicans alike- things like removing the 30,000 US troops from Korea, that have been stationed there for six decades, or pulling the US entirely out of Afghanistan, where the US has had troops for 16 years.
3. Trump scares them because he is deeply, profoundly ignorant person who doesn't understand basic concepts about warfare and diplomacy and chooses to remain ignorant; in this I am in agreement- that's scary as fuck.
I'm likely missing a couple other angles, but the Trump Administration's open corruption PLUS their lack of respect for the government mandarin class, makes the "Deep State" strangely sounding the same alarms as Obama/ Clinton liberals, and I find it deeply disturbing when these spy chiefs- or Mueller, or Comey- get presented as bastions of truth and justice; those fuckers are not your friends and not even really your allies; and after Trump they will still be involved in nefarious shit that will more than likely help keep the War on Terror and the US war machine in continual forward motion. They will continue to target muslim citizens in the US, continue to saber-rattle about Iran, continue to support Israel unquestioningly, continue to support Saudi Arabia killing children with US-supplied weapons in Yemen- don't buy what they are selling.
I also think that half of the criticism of Trump from the intelligence chiefs is because Trump does a couple simultaneous things that piss them off:
1. He doesn't package his lies the way former intelligence chiefs and former administrations have; they want to give a shine of legitimacy and jingoism and gravitas to the war machine of America; Trump's fucking up their good thing.
2. Trump doesn't read off the same script regarding our foreign occupations and wars, and openly suggests things that scare the shit out of these war hawks- Democrats and Republicans alike- things like removing the 30,000 US troops from Korea, that have been stationed there for six decades, or pulling the US entirely out of Afghanistan, where the US has had troops for 16 years.
3. Trump scares them because he is deeply, profoundly ignorant person who doesn't understand basic concepts about warfare and diplomacy and chooses to remain ignorant; in this I am in agreement- that's scary as fuck.
A few stray thoughts on this part.
-Can't find the source but read somewhere a spook described Trump thus (Paraphrase): He pissed off the wrong people and will die in jail.
-Around that time was the Steele Dossier thing. Everyone remembers the Pee Pee tapes but there was so much more in there. Much of it looks more and more true as time goes on. According to a friend of mine who grew up with some second hand contact with Intelligence Community (IC) spookery described that as a beautiful piece of IC work. A mixture of probably true things and plausible bullshit. My friend said the Steele Dossier was the IC's way of wagging their dick at Trump by way of warning. A reasonable man with some shady connections would take heed. But this is Donald Trump. The kind of man who would take the Evil Overlord List and misinterpret it as a kind of to-do list.