The common thread through all these seemingly reckless, nonsensical actions is that they 1) benefit Trump financially and/or 2) advance Russian geopolitical goals.
I'm not suggesting we put on our tinfoil hats, but it would probably be a good idea to have a detailed understanding of his finances and contacts with Russia that he is absolutely desperate to conceal to at least kick the tires.
I think Epstein might have been an equal opportunity pedo/blackmailer of both parties and other billionaires like Prince Phillip and the like, and that might be why the media is wanting to push it under the rug. Trump was his friend and don't forget the allegations that suddenly disappeared regarding the woman who claimed Trump raped her when she was underage. The case seemed to have steam then she all of a sudden dismissed it. One wonders how much she ended up getting.
It's too bad this might disappear. Epstein's lawyers believe he didn't commit suicide but who cares? Why Maxwell is still at large is baffling. Prince Andrew should be hauled into court, too. This is probably the supposed swamp that should be cleaned. Trump just talks about it for political gain but won't do anything about it, because he is probably connected to it. Instead, he wants to give tax breaks to his wealthy buddies and cut food stamps and ask for huge, unnecessary military budgets, yet rashly changes military policy on a whim. No, this is could be the heart of the swamp but probably too many powerful people are caught in this net and we cannot afford to go after our beloved 1% rulers.
"Religion is about providing human community in the guise of solving problems that don’t exist or failing to solve problems that do and seeking to reconcile these contradictions and conceal the failures in bogus explanations otherwise known as theology." - Kishkumen
subgenius wrote:Speaking of distraction...how are things going with the whole Epstein situation...seems like the press lost interest when the trail of names started going more down the Blue path...
Send that idea into Fox News.
why? i already sent it to you.
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires...seek discipline and find your liberty I can tell if a person is judgmental just by looking at them what is chaos to the fly is normal to the spider - morticia addams If you're not upsetting idiots, you might be an idiot. - Ted Nugent
The common thread through all these seemingly reckless, nonsensical actions is that they 1) benefit Trump financially and/or 2) advance Russian geopolitical goals.
I'm not suggesting we put on our tinfoil hats, but it would probably be a good idea to have a detailed understanding of his finances and contacts with Russia that he is absolutely desperate to conceal to at least kick the tires.
There's no need for tinfoil. It's all laid bare for the world to see:
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
The commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces told a senior US diplomat, "You are leaving us to be slaughtered," demanding to know whether the US is going to do anything to protect Syrian Kurds as Turkey continues its military operation targeting America's Kurdish allies in Syria.
"You have given up on us. You are leaving us to be slaughtered," Gen. Mazloum Kobani Abdi told the Deputy Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, William Roebuck, in a meeting Thursday, according to an internal US government readout that has been obtained exclusively by CNN. "You are not willing to protect the people, but you do not want another force to come and protect us. You have sold us. This is immoral," Mazloum added.
It's already happening. Probably our best allies in the area and we leave them high and dry. It's just insanity.
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
I believe I read about this in an issue of FP a little while back. I'm being more specific in that post, though. People are scratching their head at Trump's behavior because it seems all over the map. It doesn't seem all over the map if you assume he's acting in some interrelated combination of advancing Russian and personal enrichment goals. Then all those actions become coherent and easily understood. I'm hesitant to say that does tie all these disparate acts together because Trump is also dumb, reflexively contrarian, and easily manipulated. But it's an obvious enough explanation with all sorts of smoke around it that it'd make sense to want as much information as possible about it.
Following his roast on Comedy Central (What? You forgot our President took the bottom of the barrel cash grab that is a CC roast?) a comedian who participated remarked that the one thing Trump demanded be off limits were jokes about his net worth being less than he claims. For all of his faults, Charlie Sheen at least had the decency to ask his mother be off limits.
That's a stupid but apparently powerful bit of leverage anyone who has knowledge of his actual financial status can use against him. It also suggests that there could easily be nothing more in common between the various outrageous behaviors Trump exhibits than his gut tells him it will protect his ego from whatever threatens it at the moment. Suppose Erdogan simply saw the impeachment investigation as a sign Trump was weakened and ripe for manipulation, called him up and simply told him he was going to move in on the Kurds who were threatening the Turkish border and it would be unfortunate if the US troops there were to become casualties. So he was giving Trump the opportunity to move US forces out of the way so he didn't end up looking weak or bad, and could claim to be doing so for reasons of his choosing. Whatever the specific details, it seems the root cause will always be Trump's ego and constant lies to make himself seem like more than he is make him vulnerable in predictable, manipulatable ways. Outside of the US where no one cares about his base, that makes him a puppet. Here it's almost impossible for politicians to make use of the same vulnerability because as soon as they do, Ann Coulter or Hannity will taunt him and provoke his base like they did last year over immigration and the budget/wall/government shutdown fiasco. Graham and McConnell aren't effective in using it against him because they lack the inherent loyalty of his base that is above all else the overriding point of leverage to ensure he's wild but controllable to those in position to do so.
The world is always full of the sound of waves..but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows it's depth? ~ Eiji Yoshikawa
An unprovoked Turkish assault on US troops would almost certainly produce a rally-around-the-flag effect and help Trump's numbers in the short term. Not that Trump would have that perception, but that's what would happen.
honorentheos wrote: Graham and McConnell aren't effective in using it against him because they lack the inherent loyalty of his base that is above all else the overriding point of leverage to ensure he's wild but controllable to those in position to do so.
McConnell could tear Trump down with the snap of his fingers if he wanted to. He doesn't because what McConnell cares about is transactional pursuit of power and Trump is aligned with his goals.
honorentheos wrote: Graham and McConnell aren't effective in using it against him because they lack the inherent loyalty of his base that is above all else the overriding point of leverage to ensure he's wild but controllable to those in position to do so.
McConnell could tear Trump down with the snap of his fingers if he wanted to. He doesn't because what McConnell cares about is transactional pursuit of power and Trump is aligned with his goals.
Systemically I agree. If the Senate were to take a stand against Trump he'd be finished.
The issue is politically the Republican party has created a monster over decades that Trump gained control over. Republicans and conservative talk radio have feed a generation of right wing voters the line that government is the problem ala the Reagan quote, instilled the belief that the increasing wealth gap is a liberal tool to excuse people being lazy while so-called makers know they can get rich by working hard and taking risks, and offered up culture-war based political "wins" here and there while otherwise not being able to change the reality on the ground for many right wing voters who are finding their middle class lifestyle is disappearing, threatened or providing less security no matter what they do or how hard they work. To explain why, the overwhelming view of folks like our ajax is that the Republican party and the Democrats are basically the same once they get to Washington, so they don't trust politicians anymore because they never do what they promised they would while still maintaining the false narrative that was sold to them in the first place. It isn't apparent to them that the story they were told was a lie. Instead, they needed someone who wasn't supporting the narrative and promising to drain the swamp to come in and appear to be fighting for them while benefiting from a good economy they don't understand well enough to be able to detach from the guy in the White House finally doing something good for a change. Republicans made a doomsday device they never thought anyone would try to actually use, and then Trump did. I simply disagree that the Republican party can go back to business as normal now. That option, once played, is off the table.
The world is always full of the sound of waves..but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows it's depth? ~ Eiji Yoshikawa