Well there’s some kind of word from jungle drums that the Saudi’s payed one of the sons a cool $2billion for some as yet undisclosed reason. I mean it could be coincidence though I struggle to think of a single thing they have personally or in non-Government business that is worth that much or that the Saudi Government would want.
Mar-A-Lago Raid
- Thread starter thebobmaster
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I would suggest two main reasons:
1) To make himself feel powerful
2) Because he believed they settled scores with people he had beef with; possibly not to the point of leverage he'd actually use, just to prove he was right.
Quite a few related to the military. I think Trump had quite a hard-on for the military, probably because he liked to bask in the reflected machismo and imagine himself a strongman.
It does make for a strange circumstance that we can see classified documents being so grossly and inappropriately removed from their proper place AND a mysterious and obscenely huge payment from frankly a suspect government and still think “But are we sure it wasn’t for anything else?”
They invested $2 billion into Jared Kushner's private equity firm - not quite the same as giving it to him in the sense they expect it back with profits, although it's undoubtedly means for Kushner to potentially make a lot of money.
There are allegedly some very shady aspects to this, not least that the Saudi investment fund's own assessment of this investment was that Kushner's firm was "unsatisfactory". They invested anyway.
Needless to say, this doesn't appear to be on the radar of Republicans as meriting investigation.
Absent
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It's circumstancial evidence, and we must not jump to conclusion.
In other news, folded banknotes feature a symbol reminiscent of the logo of a pizzeria where a democrat ate just during the covid crisis. Get your rifles.
While crying that the legal system is being used as a political weapon, vows to use legal system as a political weapon.
www.independent.co.uk
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The ex-president ranted on Truth Social that he planned to use the power of the federal government, should he be elected to the presidency in 2024, to personally target Mr Biden’s family.
“I WILL APPOINT A REAL SPECIAL ‘PROSECUTOR’ TO GO AFTER THE MOST CORRUPT PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE USA, JOE BIDEN, THE ENTIRE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY, & ALL OTHERS INVOLVED WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR ELECTIONS, BORDERS, & COUNTRY ITSELF!” fumed Mr Trump in an all-caps rant posted around noon.
It was a stunning declaration that throws the future of America’s justice system into question as such a move would wholly eliminate the independence and integrity of the Department of Justice, should he be successful.
Trump vows to ‘go after’ Biden’s family as he boards Miami arraignment private jet
Former president faces two separate criminal indictments
www.independent.co.uk
The ex-president ranted on Truth Social that he planned to use the power of the federal government, should he be elected to the presidency in 2024, to personally target Mr Biden’s family.
“I WILL APPOINT A REAL SPECIAL ‘PROSECUTOR’ TO GO AFTER THE MOST CORRUPT PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE USA, JOE BIDEN, THE ENTIRE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY, & ALL OTHERS INVOLVED WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR ELECTIONS, BORDERS, & COUNTRY ITSELF!” fumed Mr Trump in an all-caps rant posted around noon.
It was a stunning declaration that throws the future of America’s justice system into question as such a move would wholly eliminate the independence and integrity of the Department of Justice, should he be successful.
Oh, well never mind then. The situation might have shitty optics and just devastating timing but if all there is to it is that the Saudi government made a risky investment and some dipshit might lose then $2billion then who am I to complain.
I'm just going to point out that if the Republicans want to get het up about Hunter Biden, the activities of Jared Kushner merit a great deal more attention.
Kushner was of course US envoy to the Middle East under Trump. Kushner's company had made a bad deal prior to the financial crash, and one of their properties needed heavy financing (upwards of $1 billion). Qatar appears to have lent a large proportion of that. Then, Saudi Arabia bungs him $2 billion shortly after he leaves post.
Dersh says Trump may be in trouble now, mostly due to his own mouth. (mentions a joke about a plague with a fish on it and an engraving reading, "I wouldn't have been caught if I kept my mouth shut".) The way the deep state weaponized to get him on something, anything, could be a major defense for him. Very typical for Defense to put the prosecution on trial (ie OJ trial). It can work. We'll see.
I find this reasoning very hard to accept as valid.
No amount of talk about the "deep state" can obscure that the accusation against Trump here is very significant. Trump had a substantial number of documents he shouldn't - some likely extremely sensitive. It strongly appears he knew he had them, stored them insecurely, talked about them and maybe even showed them to people who lacked clearance, and then obstructed returning them.
This isn't combing through tax records to uncover a few thousand underpaid or other random low-level issues like how they paid off a porn star to sneak in a charge. You can talk all you like about the state being out to get someone, but if that person really did commit a significant crime and it's flagged up, then what defence is there really? "They wouldn't have noticed my client murdered someone if they weren't investigating him so hard" doesn't exactly sound like a good justification in a court case.
Given his authority as POTUS, Dersh up to now has still been describing everything you note as at best a minor process issue... until he opened his mouth. Appears he was telling people that he had NOT declassified this stuff. In court, he may say he was lying then for reasons. We'll see.
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Jury determined that after charging a police deputy with clenched fists, the deputy had no right to detain and frisk the man, so it is OK that he tried to murder her. Finding the prosecution/cops/investigators did something bad 1st can result in a lot of crazy findings. https://www.foxnews.com/us/californ...puty-found-not-guilty-despite-video-of-attack
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Absent
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No accusation on the messiah is significant. Berlusconi was known to be a gangster, and it only served him all the more to get constantly re-elected. Evil is a virtue for conservatives : it's framed as "anti-system", "tough", "cunning", by people who, to put it (very very) mildly, want a "likeable scoundrel" at the head of the state. It's, again, religiously circular. The messiah defines good and bad, good guys and baddies, rules o follow or not, and if he does it then it's nice, if the enemy reproach it then it's no big deal. Until they switch messiah, as if the holy spirit jumped to possess another.
The main difference between conservatives and progressive is the direction of the reasoning. Conservatives think "conclusion up" (hence conservation, and hence the distorsion of all positive values, bent to match their pre-decided incarnations). The very ways of reasoning fail to operate across the political divide. You cannot go "this thing is bad, and trump did it, therefore trump was wrong" in front of "trump is right, therefore he either didn't do it or was right to". The fixed premises are too different.
It's like conspiracy theories. The axiom is "aliens are here", "god exists", "earth is flat" or "9/11 was an inside job". Everything else (events, interpretations, morals, even the very notion of scientific reasoning) can be questioned, redefined, reshaped, calibrated by these yardsticks.
His authority as ex-POTUS is extremely questionable, and numerous comments he has made suggest his attitude to classification and declassification are at best lax or confused. The man is an outright liability and should be nowhere near high office.
I agree there is a fundamental problem that many people don't seem to view doing the right thing and proper process as important.
This is the bizarre irony: people throwing their vigorous support behind people who gleefully trample all over systems designed to combat corruption are often doing so from a position of disenchantment with politics and perceived corruption.
Swap corruption for any number of other problems (say, endangering children, that's popular at the moment) and it still works, sadly.
"My life sucks because the system is against me, not because I'm an idiot, and they'll tear down the system and make all those other people suffer and then everything will be great for me!"
In some cases, the system in ways is against them. A system that increasingly left them with poorly paid, undignified and insecure jobs, destroyed their communities and left them little hope of progress or feeling that politicians care or that they can make themselves heard. Of course, a healthy chunk are people who are well paid in good jobs with nice communities, they think it's a sign democracy isn't working every time the centre or left wing wins an election.
In that sense, falling in behind someone who plays to that is very natural: and of course the Berlusconis and Trumps piggyback on, give voice to and amplify that dissatisfaction. "I'm an outsider, I'll sort it out, I represent you where these other guys don't". This accelerates the loss of faith in the political system. Corruption can also be excused on the grounds that the system is corrupt: tackling the populist's vices and errors is merely the hated elites and bureaucrats attempting to keep control - hence "deep state" (USA) or "the blob" (UK). This then creates an unassailable fortress of circular logic. It will only fail when the populist fails to deliver promises.
Youtuber personality aside he goes through with a highlighter on the indictment....It's not good. I attached a couple amusing bits.
It seems like a mixed bag. I think there's a strong chance that this was largely fueled by his own ego. That he just loved having all these cool secrets, but he also couldn't help showing them off, which is his whole personality, his desperation for attention. That's gonna hurt him pretty bad.
At the same time, I just don't see a world where he wasn't "selling" secrets. Not for money. Not straight up, but $20 easy money that he was having dignitaries and political people over and showing them stuff in return for favors like the Ukraine thing.
"Hey, I have this crazy map of surveillance from some folks pretty interested in what you're doing in this region, just really silly stuff, anyhoo, what do you think about a Trump golf resort next to the Etihad Arena? Wouldn't that be great?" I 100% believe he's already done this. He's had a ton of questionable meetings with enemies of the US.
It seems like a mixed bag. I think there's a strong chance that this was largely fueled by his own ego. That he just loved having all these cool secrets, but he also couldn't help showing them off, which is his whole personality, his desperation for attention. That's gonna hurt him pretty bad.
At the same time, I just don't see a world where he wasn't "selling" secrets. Not for money. Not straight up, but $20 easy money that he was having dignitaries and political people over and showing them stuff in return for favors like the Ukraine thing.
"Hey, I have this crazy map of surveillance from some folks pretty interested in what you're doing in this region, just really silly stuff, anyhoo, what do you think about a Trump golf resort next to the Etihad Arena? Wouldn't that be great?" I 100% believe he's already done this. He's had a ton of questionable meetings with enemies of the US.
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Dont assume for a second that foreign spies haven't bought or stolen other documents. His lawyers even admit they can't find all the documents he's claimed to have had.