10 minutes ago, Die Hard said:

Except not really though. If you listen to any interview of a MAGAt, they’re already under the impression that the USA is ruled by/under an authoritarian (Biden) regime.

 

The persecution of political opponents is one of the bedrocks of their argument.

 

They’re fine with an authoritarian regime though, as long as it’s theirs.

It's that appeal to fear: "If they're coming for ME now, they'll be coming for YOU next." No one stops to think that nobody will be coming for "YOU" at all if you're not involved in massive crimes like election fraud, corruption, sexual assault, etc. It seems that fear short-circuits the brain's ability to process logic.

News sites like WaPo regularly post all of the lies and inaccuracies that tRump says, as if that's going to change anyone's mind. As if anyone voting for tRump even reads anything by the WaPo because they believe that are funded by Biden.

Biden is behind the 8-ball on understanding tRump's appeal, and just being logical and boring isn't going to get it done. tRump supporters don't believe our election system has integrity, but just getting up and saying that's not true will not convince anyone.

Running for POTUS must be purely an ego thing for tRump. Many people believe he is running to stay out of jail...well, I don't think he will ever see the inside of a jail cell even if he's NOT the POTUS, especially with this trial. It's clear there are two tiers of justice in the US, one for us and one for rich people.

1 minute ago, LadySkinsFan said:

It's right out there in public now. Trump's an unrepentant Nazi, he learned at the knee of his Nazi father. He's never changed, he's hidden it from the public for a long time. He's going for broke now. 

Unfortunately it seems like his supporters don't care, just like supporters of Mussolini didn't mind it when he had the manager of a train station shot..."well, he made the trains run on time." Remember Marge Schott? She praised Hitler saying he "did a lot of good but went too far."

We also have a lot of migrants here from countries that don't support democracy in the first place, so they don't see the big deal in electing an authoritarian.

39 minutes ago, The Evil Genius said:

I suspect Trump doesn't sue. Espeiclly since he already has a civil ruling of already sexually assaulting someone. 

 

Discovery is a ****. 

Agreed, but he will keep bloviating about it in public, because to a narcissist there is no such thing as bad publicity...just publicity!

17 minutes ago, The Evil Genius said:

Hopefully Dan and Donnie can share a helicopter ride soon. 

Sorry, that made me think of this from Scarface:

10 hours ago, tshile said:

Literally like talking to a child 

😂

Funny how everyone who ever worked for Trump or works for him now turns into a petulant child, like Giuliani, Navarro, Bannon, etc.

12 minutes ago, Renegade7 said:

 

It's a rape scene.

 

The victim has refuted it and died, there was no conviction or criminal trial.

 

Why is this scene in the movie like it's fact? 

 

Something feels off about this. Jus because no one likes Trump shouldn't give it a pass.

Creative license.

2 hours ago, ixcuincle said:

he's Europe's problem now

Is he? I know there were rumors he was moving to the UK, but there's been no confirmation. The UK press will be all over this creep if he tries to buy into a soccer club...if he thought the US press was unfair to him he ain't seen nuthin' yet!

2 hours ago, LadySkinsFan said:

That ****er needs to see the inside of a jail.

He'd be very popular there, especially with all the convicts who were in the Mafia. Does a Whitey Bulger ending for Giuliani seem more likely now...I think so.

1 hour ago, Larry said:

Kinda surprised he's letting them come home at all. Would have thought he'd be making them stay there till they die. 

He probably only allows Russians to come home, since he can keep sending ethnic minorities from Siberia and central Asia into the meat grinder.

37 minutes ago, LadySkinsFan said:

Receipts and Trump signed checks. That's enough for me to determine that the man condoned and approved the illegal scheme to hide the payoff paynents as "legal services" when they weren't, they were actually election fraud. That's a crime, "boss".

While there's no 'smoking gun' proof, there's more than enough circumstantial evidence to convict Trump...just like in mafia boss cases when a former wise guy turns into a stool pigeon...if they needed written receipts and other hard proof of a mafia conspiracy (something mafia bosses, like Trump, avoid for obvious reasons), rather than a pile of circumstantial evidence, then no mafia boss would have ever been convicted of a crime EVER.

2 hours ago, Riggo-toni said:

These are just shorts, but if you listen to the entire interview, this woman is fascinating and informative.... despite the nitwit doing the interview.

 

She's spot on. Putin used NATO's expansion (which stopped in 2004) as an excuse for his actions saying that Russian 'culture' is being threatened back in 2022. Since then, he's pivoted to saying he wants to reestablish the Russian Empire, basically, and that all countries that used to be a part of the USSR must be part of it. The fact that NONE of these countries wants to willingly be a part of that either escapes Putin completely or doesn't matter.

I'm betting on he doesn't care, since Russian leaders don't care much about their own population's happiness in the first place, why would they care whether Ukraine/Baltics/etc. citizens want to be closer to the West that to Russia?

I fear that Putin's view of Russian culture being 'threatened' means they can't expand their borders without consequences. And looking at Russia's demographics, they are dying off...he's living in a pipe dream if he thinks Russian women are going to go back to having 5 to 9 kids...less cannon fodder for the Red Army...who by the way are currently sending troops from minority cultures in Siberia to die in Ukraine...NOT Moscow-born Russians.

Talk about unintended consequences...Sweden and Finland have joined NATO, and Gazprom just suffered its first multi-billion loss due to sanctions. But I guess he will keep doubling down on stupid.

3 minutes ago, @DCGoldPants said:

 

From CNN's tracker

"

Analysis: There's been a "tonal shift" in court as defense attacks Michael Cohen

From CNN's Aditi Sangal

There’s been a “tonal shift” today as Donald Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche continued cross-examining Michael Cohen, CNN’s Audie Cornish said.

CNN reporters saw Blanche walking back into the courtroom after a break side-by-side with Trump, which has only been seen once before. Trump is usually walking out front solo with his lawyers trailing.

“I think you could interpret for that to Donald Trump giving an 'attaboy' to Todd Blanche,” CNN’s Gloria Borger said.

This comes as defense continued its attempt to discredit Cohen in front of the jury, which CNN analyst Elie Honig deemed to be successful.

“I don't think I've ever seen a star cooperating witness get his knees chopped out quite as clearly and dramatically as what just happened with Michael Cohen,” he said.

- I can't find the knees chopped out moment in all the other updates.

 

 

 

 

Blanche is trying to save his job by morphing into a Rottweiler. It remains to be seen whether that approach helped or hurt Cohen with the jury...at least Cohen remained composed throughout.

17 minutes ago, @DCGoldPants said:

 

If you're the jury and notice this, what are you thinking? Is this an act? Or were the times he looked upset or sleepy because he wanted the jury to be fooled into it not being important? I'd think its an act for me on the jury. Also, I'm still not sure what the defense is doing here. They aren't disputing the stuff with Daniels, and the NDA right before the election anymore? Wasn't the point of the defense to say that it was all a lie, there was no sex, but also the agreement was done without Don's knowledge.....AND it was done to protect his marriage? 

 

 

That's all the defense team can do, attack Cohen's credibility. Because they have nothing otherwise. Cohen can be a total scumbag, AND be telling the truth...both things can be true, something Trump Chumps have a hard time understanding.

Cohen's testimony has mostly confirmed what previous witnesses said, too. It's going to be hard for the defense team to keep claiming that Cohen made everything up.

I think tRump paying attention was an attempt to intimidate Cohen, nothing more.

I also feel that if a verdict is reached quickly, then tRump is cooked. If they deliberate for days, then that means there's some Trump Chumps on the jury.

46 minutes ago, China said:

 

 

No, next time she should be held in contempt and jailed.

Agreed, but it will just feed into their current narrative that "If they're coming for ME, then they're going to come for YOU!" B.S.

It continues to enrage me that people don't see through this. No one is going to come for YOU if you're not engaging in all these illegal activities tRump is charged with.

13 minutes ago, Captain Wiggles said:

 

They would have been primaried out same as the other GOP moderates have over the past two decades. More money to be made in the private sector as a former representative and far less headaches. See John Boehner and his venture into being a cannabis pitchman for example. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Yeah I kinda figured that, but I also felt some of them just got too scared over all the death threats, which in my opinion seems to come with the job these days. It's really the MAGA nut jobs that are in control, not Trump...there was even a report where Trump supposedly said he was scared of his MAGA followers.

Too little, too late. The former Republican party has become the Trumpublican party. Maybe they would have had a chance if they hadn't all RESIGNED from office.

https://www.outkick.com/sports/give-espn-crediting-for-quickly-ending-disastrous-rgiii-monday-night-football-ends-experiment-bobby-burack

"Monday Night Countdown" was the weakest of the many NFL pregame shows last season. And RGIIII was the main reason why.

During the season, we labeled the addition of RGIII to "MNF" ESPN's "worst decision since handing Bomani Jones a television show," which ended in abrupt cancelation.

An NFL pregame is not "First Take." Viewers don't turn on "Countdown" for hot takes and clownish behavior. "Countdown" leads into ESPN's most expensive property, "Monday Night Football," for which Disney pays $2.7 billion annually.

Griffin represented both ESPN and the NFL as an analyst for the program. And he made a fool of himself. And, in return, a fool of ESPN and the NFL.

Boeing only has itself to blame, by putting profits over quality. That may be OK if you're producing calculators, but not OK when you're making planes carrying hundreds of paying customers.

I honestly hope someone goes to jail for this. Leaving information about the MCAS out of the flight manual just to avoid FAA scrutiny (and cost more $$$) was a criminal conspiracy.

It seems that "too big to fail" is used as an excuse by many companies to engage in illegal behavior.

10 minutes ago, China said:

I see that they will be debating without an audience.  Nobody for Trump to try and play to.  
 

After the debate Trump will probably claim there were HUGE numbers of people in the audience cheering for him.

 

I hope that whoever the moderator is keeps a tight rein and doesn’t allow Trump to continuously interrupt and talk over Biden.

YUGE.

Boeing Crash Families Told They're Crime Victims in New DOJ Letter

https://www.newsweek.com/boeing-crash-families-crime-victims-doj-letter-1901060

A letter sent to families of those who died following two Boeing airliner crashes says they are victims of fraud.

The letter, which appears to originate from the U.S. Department of Justice reveals that Boeing faces possible criminal prosecution over two fatal crashes involving its aircraft.

The letter states that a federal criminal case is pending against Boeing, as the DOJ says that Boeing breached its obligations from a Deferred Prosecution Agreement.

A DPA is an agreement between a prosecutor and a corporation under criminal investigation, which allows the corporation to avoid prosecution by meeting certain specified conditions, such as reforming the company.

The DOJ said in the letter that Boeing breached its DPA obligations by "failing to design, implement and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations."

Is there anything in the law (not that Trump cares) that says he even HAS TO select a VP? He's a micromanager and probably thinks he can do it all himself. Matter of fact, why not just get rid of the hierarchy and leave him in charge? The GOP won't stop him.

5 hours ago, Simmsy said:

As its been pointed out (and I agree), Trump wants someone the opposite of him: boring, "uncharismatic", scandal-less,  and some kind of minority. Noem was it, then it was Scott, but I think it will be a woman. Either way, it will be hard for a woman to sell abortion, thats all she's going to be used for.

Trump wants someone he can control completely. What's to keep him from nominating one of his own children? It's not like he needs the GOP's approval, since he's pretty much taken over the party anyway.

13 hours ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

Another useful idiot...and I though Rodgers had more brains than that.

And all of this is the result of Putin believing what the FSB was telling him, that Ukrainians would welcome Russian troops, etc. Telling the boss what he wants to hear may prolong a career for a little while, but when the stuff hits the fan the boss will look for scapegoats...but then again, that's what most authoritarians (like Trump) want, to be told what they want to hear.

1 hour ago, Cooked Crack said:

They coordinating outfits to defend their boy

Those outfits will be as popular as SS uniforms were after WW2. 😁

Russia keeps losing colonels (O-6s) because they don't train junior officers or NCOs fearing they could eventually become a threat to them if they're competent. Whenever things bog down, the battalion commander (an O-5 or O-6) has to go forward to figure things out, and promptly gets whacked because he's too close to the front line. This wouldn't happen if they actually trusted people below them to do their jobs. Sergeants in our military typically have more authority to do their jobs and freedom of action than junior officers in the Russian military do.

Russia wants a competent military leader...but not TOO competent. Zhukov (who won WW2 for them) was immediately ostracized by Stalin and sent to a military command in some backwater area...can't have someone competent too close to leadership, or people will start getting ideas!

I for one hope the Russians never figure this out, and I hope that their military pulls a WW1 and just refuses to fight any more. It may take awhile, since ethnic Russians aren't the ones being killed like in that video above...most of their combat deaths are minorities, and certainly not the sons of families in Moscow!!