Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Felya]

Well, when you're locked and loaded your energy is self-contained within the gun itself between the bullet and the firing pin. It's a perfect analogy!...if you're grasping for the most distant of straws.

If only wind didn’t cause cancer, imagine how energy independent we would be.

[Edge-]

If only wind didn’t cause cancer, imagine how energy independent we would be.

Noise, it's the noise of the turbines that cause cancer. Wind, after all, is a finite resource.

[Paranoid Android]

So the Orange Moron ranted on Twitter (shocking) about being investigated for his corruption. Well, of course he needs deflect and says want House Judiciary to investigate "Obama Netflix!", as he tweeted it. Yes, claiming the left is corrupt for giving Obama a pass.

I shouldn't have to explain this and I believe everyone here on MMO-C gets it. Obama is a private citizen and Trump is President.

Oh here comes the Trumpkins talking about how many millions the Obama's are making off the Presidency. Sure, but again they are private citizens and it seems to be the new move to ex-Presidents. I can't go too far back, but probably Clinton has profited the most from it. Bush, Jr. is such a disgrace and idiot that he can't make as much money as if he didn't screw up as much. Obama is a beloved President and I will admit that doing private speeches for some corporations is not the best. Jimmy Carter is about is humane projects but I don't have much info on his speeches or appearance. Reagan had onset of dementia, so that eliminates him.

[Edge-]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/16/u...stigation.html

Oh look, McConnel, sorry, O'Donnel's wife, Secretary of Transportation, still looks like she's trying to enact policies to help her family business. Thankfully Congress has largely rejected them as they'll hurt the US maritime industry, but it sure doesn't seem like an, "AMERICA FIRST" approach.

[Breccia]

Oh look, McConnel, sorry, O'Donnel's wife, Secretary of Transportation, still looks like she's trying to enact policies to help her family business. Thankfully Congress has largely rejected them as they'll hurt the US maritime industry

That's very progressive! I never would have guessed Sen. Mitch O'Connell would have married Wilbur Ross, the Secretary of Commerce who has conflicts of interest with a shipping company. More credit to the tortoise, for a Republican being wed to another man is...

...waaaaaaaaaaait a minute! Do you know what I did? I misread a Trump appointee with conflicts of interest with a shipping company with another Trump appointee with conflicts of interest with a shipping company. My goodness, that's embarrassing.

But at least that resolves the whole "Two Republican dudes married" issue getting confused with all the conflicts of interest mixing things up. After all...

(sunglasses)

...it's hard to keep them straight.

- - - Updated - - -

No new measles cases last week.

"What's special about that?"

It hasn't happened since January. Trump now has more measles cases in one year than any year since 1992, and within a stone's throw from as many cases as Obama had total.

[Paranoid Android]

Oh this is why he is ranting about Obama Netflix.

Breaking:
8 years of Trump's tax returns have been subpoenaed by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
It’s examining payments to Stormy Daniels.
https://t.co/mxgV25yZcZ

https://twitter.com/cliffordlevy/sta...389519362?s=19

[Breccia]

Oh this is why he is ranting about Obama Netflix.

He shouldn't worry. True, NYState is out for blood. But they'll limit their investigation to the specifics of the case. Remember, NYState has had his taxes for a while, because he files them. If they were gonna leak, they'd have leaked by now.

The real issue is if these end up as evidence in an ongoing public court case. Barring a gag order, they effectively become public. I can't imagine the mess a sitting President pleading out would cause.

[Paranoid Android]

He shouldn't worry. True, NYState is out for blood. But they'll limit their investigation to the specifics of the case. Remember, NYState has had his taxes for a while, because he files them. If they were gonna leak, they'd have leaked by now.

The real issue is if these end up as evidence in an ongoing public court case. Barring a gag order, they effectively become public. I can't imagine the mess a sitting President pleading out would cause.

Yes. I know and not bothered about tax returns. This should find out if he used campaign finances. I believe the other is tax fraud or something since he misrepresented the payments to Michael Cohn.

Basically enough to bring down any sitting President but just tip of the iceberg for Trump.

[Breccia]

Oh look, McConnel, sorry, O'Donnel's wife, Secretary of Transportation, still looks like she's trying to enact policies to help her family business. Thankfully Congress has largely rejected them as they'll hurt the US maritime industry, but it sure doesn't seem like an, "AMERICA FIRST" approach.

TheHill bypasses paywall.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee on Monday launched an investigation into Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao over whether she is using her office to benefit herself and her family.

The investigation follows a series of reports alleging that Chao used her role in the Trump administration to boost Foremost Group, a shipping company founded by her father.

“The Committee is examining your misstatements of fact, your actions that may have benefitted the company in which you continued to hold shares, and your compliance with ethics and financial disclosure requirements,” Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), chairman of the Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, wrote in a letter to Chao requesting documents.

Foremost has received hundreds of millions of dollars in loan commitments from a bank run by the Chinese government. Reports of Chao making joint public appearances and planning to travel to China to meet with government officials with her father since becoming Transportation secretary led lawmakers to investigate whether she has been using her position to further her family's business.

The Oversight and Reform panel also asked Chao to investigate her failure to immediately divest stock in Vulcan — one of the nation's largest construction companies — where she served on the board of directors before becoming transportation secretary.

Chao did not sell her Vulcan shares until June 2019, after The Wall Street Journal reported that she had yet to divest from the company despite pledging to do so.

Chao had signed an ethics agreement in 2017 stating that she would receive a "cash payout" for the stocks in case of a real or perceived conflict of interest. After Chao sold the stock, Transportation Department ethics official Judith Kaleta said in a letter to the Office of Government Ethics that the agreement “contained inadvertent misstatements of fact … based on information provided by the nominee’s accountant.”

Hey look! Trump was right, the media does vet his people! And they're being caught being blatantly corrupt!

- - - Updated - - -

I believe the other is tax fraud or something since he misrepresented the payments to Michael Cohn.

Ah, yep, you have a good point.

President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is formally cooperating with an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office into whether Trump’s company falsified business records, a source familiar with the situation told NBC News.

Cohen, who is serving a three-year federal prison sentence for multiple crimes, is helping prosecutors in their probe of the Trump Organization as part of an effort to get a federal judge to reduce his sentence, another source familiar with the situation told CNBC on Thursday.

“He figures as much as he can help, the better,” said CNBC’s source of Cohen, whose proffer agreement allows him to share information with prosecutors without fear of having that information being used to file criminal charges against him.

On Aug. 20, representatives from the prosecutors’ office, which is headed by DA Cyrus Vance Jr., went to meet with Cohen at the prison in Otisville, New York.

“Cy wants to go after the Trump Organization,” the source said. “They’re trying to get as much [evidence] as they can.”

Cohen, who worked for Trump for years, has knowledge about hush money payments that he made to porn star Stormy Daniels and that American Media Inc., then-publisher of The National Enquirer, made to Playboy model Karen McDougal. The payments were made to keep the women quiet before the 2016 presidential election about their purported affairs with Trump years before.

See...most of us already knew this lesson. But it seems others still need to learn. When you have a literal partner in crime who knows all your secrets, never ever sell them out.

P.S. Cohen still says Trump owes him a million dollars because Trump promised to pay Cohen's legal bills and didn't follow through.

[Poopymonster]

But Obama Netflix!

Hmmm, is that a code for stocks?

Oh, buy muh Netflix?

Investment in Netflix confirmed!

[Blur4stuff]

There's a 100% chance Trump has committed fraud. Once he's out of office he's going to spend the rest of his life in a courtroom and jail.

[Demolitia]

I mistyped "Ebay" last night in Chrome.

A search page came up. And well... this is what resulted.

I laughed. Its too fitting.

At least the virus symptoms go away after after a few weeks. I'd pick the virus over living in the US at the moment.

[Edge-]

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1173701601883820032

I wonder if Mattis is going to be happy that Trump is apparently making up statements for him.

Because Mattis doesn't strike me as the guy that would say, "Sir, we're very low on ammunition." because...that's literally a meaningless statement.

[Thekri]

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1173701601883820032

I wonder if Mattis is going to be happy that Trump is apparently making up statements for him.

Because Mattis doesn't strike me as the guy that would say, "Sir, we're very low on ammunition." because...that's literally a meaningless statement.

Low on Ammunition? Really? I think Mattis must have meant he personally was low on ammunition or something, because Ammunition shortages haven't been a thing since the Vietnam War.

Trump is a really bad liar.

[Edge-]

Low on Ammunition? Really? I think Mattis must have meant he personally was low on ammunition or something, because Ammunition shortages haven't been a thing since the Vietnam War.

Trump is a really bad liar.

I mean...Mattis is a pretty precise guy from what I know.

What kind of ammunition are we low on?
Where are we low on ammunition?
Is it a supply issue? Budget issue? Logistical issue?
Does this impact the whole military, or just a certain branch?

This is the kind of thing that sounds amazing if you're completely ignorant. But the second you scratch beneath the surface it's dumb as sin.

[Thekri]

I mean...Mattis is a pretty precise guy from what I know.

What kind of ammunition are we low on?
Where are we low on ammunition?
Is it a supply issue? Budget issue? Logistical issue?
Does this impact the whole military, or just a certain branch?

This is the kind of thing that sounds amazing if you're completely ignorant. But the second you scratch beneath the surface it's dumb as sin.

"Low on Ammunition" is one of the least presidential problems I have ever heard. It would be like the Department of Education telling him they are out of printer paper.

Unless... Trump told Mattis to assassinate Justin Trudeau and Mattis told him we couldn't because we didn't have any bullets left.

[Edge-]

https://twitter.com/JasonSCampbell/s...28757221019651

Everyone...fair warning, this link contains a video with Ben Shapiro talking about Kavanaugh's dick.

Because according to him, if these claims were credible...people would be able to describe his dick, and I guess Shapiro really wants to know what Kavanaugh's dick looks like.

The vanguard of the conservative intelligentsia never disappoints.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/...ojects-1499466

The Defense Department is no longer moving forward with three border barrier projects in California and Arizona, according to a court filing Monday.

The move is reversal of an earlier Pentagon authorization for about 20 miles of fencing, lighting and other border infrastructure that would have used $2.5 billion in funds redirected from a counter-drug fund. That authorization, announced Aug. 27, was based on what was then determined to be "lower-than-expected contract costs." But the Defense Department revealed in the Monday filing that the department would not be able to cover the costs of the project.

...

The Supreme Court gave the green light in July for the administration to use $2.5 billion in Pentagon funds to replace already extant border infrastructure in California, Arizona and New Mexico, overturning blocks imposed by lower courts.

Well then...I guess there's less of "THE WALL" being built than we even though.

[Blur4stuff]

Really shows how clueless some people are about sexual assault. But, assault doesn't just happen to non-republicans. This means there are both women and men on the right that hear bullshit like that from Shapiro and they see first hand how their side is in a seriously fucked up place. It will be enough to get them to either vote dem or just not vote at all.

[Orbitus]

https://twitter.com/JasonSCampbell/s...28757221019651

Everyone...fair warning, this link contains a video with Ben Shapiro talking about Kavanaugh's dick.

Because according to him, if these claims were credible...people would be able to describe his dick, and I guess Shapiro really wants to know what Kavanaugh's dick looks like.

The vanguard of the conservative intelligentsia never disappoints.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/...ojects-1499466



Well then...I guess there's less of "THE WALL" being built than we even though.

$2.5 billion for only 20 miles of wall? Now, I know the whole wall wouldn't cost that much, but isn't the southern border like some 1950 miles long? And there is still like 1000 miles not covered by wall? Even at that price for 1000 miles at $2.5 billion per 20 miles, for 1000 miles, thats $125 billion just for 1000 miles, since it is 50x$2.5 billion. Didn't Trump say that the entire border wall, all nearly 2000 miles, was going to cost less than $25 billion? How is that possible if there is only one 20 mile section, that is going to cost $2.5 billion alone?

[Breccia]

Didn't Trump say that the entire border wall, all nearly 2000 miles, was going to cost less than $25 billion?

Trump said a lot of things. My favorite is still "I will shut down the government until it costs $11 billion, and still not get Wall funding". Forbes bookmarked that one for me so I can continue to use that as a benchmark.

Which means, at time of writing, it's possible Trump will get 0 Wall for -$11 billion dollars, also known as "negative eight-seven bazillion infinity dollars per mile". It's harder to think of a more Trumpian result than that: costing the US taxpayers enough money to buy the NFC East and the AFC North. All eight of them. And get nothing in return.

Officially, the OMB asked for $5.7 billion for 234 miles, which is $24.4 million per mile and still doesn't include maintenance or government overrun. If you're looking for earlier content, John Oliver's video is still the standard about what Trump said the Wall would cost at various times. His lowest was $4 billion.

I'm taking price per square foot and price per square, you know, per mile, and it's a very simple calculation

This is the most recent article I could find about the Wall's status. It says 60 miles of replacement barrier have been built. Near as I can tell, the total amount of new Wall fence Pelosi's flower garden is still zero. But even if that 60 miles counted -- and Trump will claim it does, because if my record was as bad as his I'd blatantly lie too -- Trump claimed construction started March 28th, 2018. Let's pretend Trump is telling the truuuhuhuhuhahahahahHAHAHAHA oh God, almost got through that with a straight face. Anyhow, using those numbers as random examples, that's 60 miles in 18 months. For Trump to finish his newest, most refined, most goalposts are now in the visiting team's stadium promise he wants 500 miles by 2020, yes that is a FOX News link from last week. Looking at the clock, I see the end of 2020 is 15.5 months away. His construction crews will have to work 8.8 times as quickly to make that deadline, which considering there's new oversight and lawsuits, seems highly unlikely.

And just so we're clear: none of this Wall is the concrete and rebar 30 foot construction he promised.



I would like to thank former DHS Nielsen for standing so close to the Wall, and having a height so easy to verify. That fence is 22 feet, 4 inches.

Oh, and not even FOX News is buying the "Mexico will pay for it" anymore.