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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#241626: May 9th 2018 at 5:27:07 AM

Morning Tweets:

The Republican Party had a great night. Tremendous voter energy and excitement, and all candidates are those who have a great chance of winning in November. The Economy is sooo strong, and with Nancy Pelosi wanting to end the big Tax Cuts and Raise Taxes, why wouldn’t we win?

The Fake News is working overtime. Just reported that, despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else, 91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake). Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#241627: May 9th 2018 at 5:41:52 AM

In good news for everyone involved, CNN is reporting that Pompeo is returning from North Korea with three imprisoned American nationals.

Not really a surprise, given that returning political detainees is a common early step in talks to show good faith.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#241628: May 9th 2018 at 5:54:45 AM

Hey, Scrooge at least had empathy and deep down was a good person and evolved as a person...I mean duck, over the years.

Donald, not the duck, however managed to become even worse.

Inter arma enim silent leges
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#241630: May 9th 2018 at 6:16:10 AM

And Scrooge was legitimately wealthy and a savvy businessman. Glomgold was not.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#241631: May 9th 2018 at 6:27:59 AM

On a different note, the US finally send a diplomat to Germany after having none in the position for over a year...and he has already managed to offend the Germans per tweet by threatening German business leaders if they should continue to deal with the Iran.

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#241632: May 9th 2018 at 6:29:13 AM

Iran just called Trump an idiot.

Officially.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-rouhani/trump-does-not-have-mental-capacity-to-deal-with-issues-iran-parliament-speaker-idUSKBN1I92T7?il=0

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
PhysicalStamina i'm tired, my friend (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
i'm tired, my friend
#241633: May 9th 2018 at 6:32:36 AM

If we ever get a Democratic government/president, we seriously need to impose some harsh restrictions on who can and can't run for president. We cannot let someone like Trump get elected a second time.

i'm tired, my friend
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#241634: May 9th 2018 at 6:33:59 AM

Unfortunately, any change to the qualifications for President, Vice President, Senator, or Representative would require a Constitutional amendment. It is probably unconstitutional to impose any legislative restrictions.

Hell, if it were possible to do so, you know that Republicans would pass laws making only wealthy, white Christians eligible for public office.

edited 9th May '18 6:35:24 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#241635: May 9th 2018 at 6:35:20 AM

I wouldn't be opposed to candidates for the presidency being restricted to people who have already held at least one post in the US legislature or executive branch. It's damn near impossible, though.

edited 9th May '18 6:37:35 AM by CrimsonZephyr

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#241636: May 9th 2018 at 6:37:21 AM

And aside from demanding financial records and stuff like that, putting in more restrictions is opening a can of worms/rolling back democratic progress. The requirements for POTUS (namely the natural born citizen and minimum age) are already pretty strict by global standards. You can't just write up a rule that amounts to "No Assholes and Impulsive Idiots Allowed".

In an ideal world, you could manage to get a rule in demanding prior experience in electoral politics, or in administrative public or military service. But I don't see that happening any time soon.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#241637: May 9th 2018 at 6:38:25 AM

It seems like the simple solution is, "Don't vote for a scumbag."

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
TrashJack Confirmed Doomer from beyond the Despair Event Horizon (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Confirmed Doomer
#241638: May 9th 2018 at 6:45:38 AM

[up] It certainly seems simple, doesn't it? Unfortunately, there are far too many people out there who either don't know the first thing about scumbags when one is being as publicly scumbaggy as humanly possible, who actually like scumbags (and are highly likely to be scumbags themselves), or who are both.

"Cynic, n. — A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." - The Devil's Dictionary
Reflextion from a post-sanity world (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
#241639: May 9th 2018 at 6:55:26 AM

Yeah, the problem isn't with stupid people being allowed to seek public office, it's stupid people being allowed to vote.

(not that the first one is improving society either, mind)

Someone did tell me life was going to be this way.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#241640: May 9th 2018 at 6:55:50 AM

[up][up][up][up] I'm okay with cementing public disclosure of Tax Returns into law, and maybe a few other things.

edited 9th May '18 6:56:20 AM by megaeliz

AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#241641: May 9th 2018 at 6:57:14 AM

The requirements for POTUS (namely the natural born citizen and minimum age) are already pretty strict by global standards.

That is practically the default standard, of nearly every democratic country, compared to some other countries, the American presidency is fairly lax by only requiring being a natural born citizen and being at least 35 years old.

Other countries put the restriction on being a citizen, but then being naturalized as a citizen depending on the country is very difficult as the Jus Sanguinis tends to be the default norm for citizenship. So anyone who doesn't have blood ties to the country can't be a citizen with full political rights. Which makes most foreigners have either limited political rights or being classified as residents, thus not eligible for the presidency.

On the whole thing of who is allowed to vote or be voted for

Be really careful with what you wish for. Wishing for that backfires horribly and historically it never really worked as well as it was intended, except when it did.

If more than anything, the US doesn't need voting restrictions, just hold your politicians to an higher standard.

edited 9th May '18 7:00:32 AM by AngelusNox

Inter arma enim silent leges
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#241642: May 9th 2018 at 7:19:03 AM

Firm Tied to Russian Oligarch Made Payments to Michael Cohen

A shell company that Michael D. Cohen used to pay hush money to a pornographic film actress received payments totaling more than $1 million from an American company linked to a Russian oligarch and several corporations with business before the Trump administration, according to documents and interviews.

Financial records reviewed by The New York Times show that Mr. Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer and longtime fixer, used the shell company, Essential Consultants L.L.C., for an array of business activities that went far beyond what was publicly known. Transactions adding up to at least $4.4 million flowed through Essential Consultants starting shortly before Mr. Trump was elected president and continuing to this January, the records show.

Among the previously unreported transactions were payments last year of about $500,000 from Columbus Nova, an investment firm in New York whose biggest client is a company controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, the Russian oligarch. A lawyer for Columbus Nova, in a statement on Tuesday, described the money as a consulting fee that had nothing to do with Mr. Vekselberg.

Other transactions described in the financial records include hundreds of thousands of dollars Mr. Cohen received from Fortune 500 companies with business before the Trump administration, as well as smaller amounts he paid for luxury expenses like a Mercedes-Benz and private club dues.

References to the transactions first appeared in a document posted to Twitter on Tuesday by Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stephanie Clifford, the adult film star who was paid $130,000 by Essential Consultants to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Mr. Trump. The lawyer’s seven-page document, titled “Preliminary Report of Findings,” does not explain the source of his information but describes in detail dates, dollar amounts and parties involved in various dealings by Mr. Cohen and his company. Most of the transactions involved two banks: First Republic Bank and City National Bank.

The Times’s review of financial records confirmed much of what was in Mr. Avenatti’s report. In addition, a review of documents and interviews shed additional light on Mr. Cohen’s dealings with the company connected to Mr. Vekselberg, who was stopped and questioned at an airport earlier this year by investigators for Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel examining Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Taken together, The Times’s findings and Mr. Avenatti’s report offer the most detailed picture yet on Mr. Cohen’s business dealings and financial entanglements in the run-up to the election and its aftermath. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating Mr. Cohen for possible bank fraud and election-law violations, among other matters, according to people briefed on the investigation. Stephen Ryan, a lawyer representing Mr. Cohen, declined to comment.

Ms. Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels, is suing Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump to break her nondisclosure agreement related to the $130,000.

It is unclear whether that or any of the other transactions were improper, but Mr. Avenatti has asserted that Mr. Cohen’s use of Essential Consultants potentially violated banking laws. The financial records indicate that at least some of the money that passed through Essential Consultants was from sources and in amounts that were inconsistent with the company’s stated purpose.

Mr. Cohen also used the company to collect $250,000 after arranging payments in 2017 and 2018 by a major Republican donor, Elliott Broidy, to a former Playboy model he allegedly impregnated, according to news reports last month.

Among the other payments to Mr. Cohen’s company described in the financial records were four for $99,980 each between October and January by Novartis Investments S.A.R.L., a subsidiary of Novartis, the multinational pharmaceutical giant based in Switzerland. Novartis — whose chief executive was among 15 business leaders invited to dinner with Mr. Trump at the World Economic Forum in January — spent more than $10 million on lobbying in Washington last year and frequently seeks approvals from federal drug regulators. Novartis said in a statement that its agreement with Essential Consultants had expired.

In addition, Korea Aerospace Industries paid Mr. Cohen’s company $150,000 last November, according to the records. The company, an aircraft manufacturer, has teamed with the American defense contractor Lockheed Martin in competing for a multibillion-dollar contract to provide trainer jets for the United States Air Force that is expected to be awarded this year. A representative for Korea Aerospace declined to comment.

AT&T made four payments totaling $200,000 between October 2017 and January 2018, according to the documents. AT&T, whose proposed merger with Time Warner is pending before the Justice Department, issued a statement on Tuesday evening confirming that it made payments to Mr. Cohen’s firm.

“Essential Consulting was one of several firms we engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration,” the statement said. “They did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017.”

The payments by Columbus Nova occurred between January and August of last year. Andrew Intrater, the company’s American chief executive and Mr. Vekselberg’s cousin, donated $250,000 to Mr. Trump’s inauguration, campaign finance records show. He and Mr. Vekselberg attended the event together and met with Mr. Cohen there, according to a person briefed on the matter. Columbus Nova retained him as a consultant soon afterward.

The consulting deal was worth $1 million and was supposed to last for a year, according to documents reviewed by The Times. But Columbus Nova decided to end the agreement midway through after it yielded a few investment ideas but no actual deals.

A person close to Mr. Intrater said that the executive had no idea Essential Consultants was used for the separate payment to Ms. Clifford, and that he hired a number of other consultants at the time for similar prices.

“Columbus Nova is an investment management company solely owned and controlled by Americans,” said Richard Owens, a lawyer for Mr. Intrater and Columbus Nova, adding that Mr. Vekselberg has never owned the firm. “After the inauguration, the firm hired Michael Cohen as a business consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures.

“Reports today that Viktor Vekselberg used Columbus Nova as a conduit for payments to Michael Cohen are false. The claim that Viktor Vekselberg was involved in or provided any funding for Columbus Nova’s engagement of Michael Cohen is patently untrue,” Mr. Owens said. “Neither Viktor Vekselberg nor anyone else outside of Columbus Nova was involved in the decision to hire Cohen or provided funding for his engagement.”

A lawyer for Mr. Vekselberg did not respond to a request for comment.

In addition to questioning Mr. Vekselberg, Mr. Mueller’s investigators have also interviewed Mr. Intrater, though there is no indication that either man is suspected of wrongdoing, The Times reported last week.

The person close to Mr. Intrater said that he was encouraged to attend the inauguration by an American friend, unrelated to Mr. Cohen, and that he had wanted to use the trip as an opportunity to meet with business associates in Washington.

Mr. Vekselberg has invested in Columbus Nova’s private equity funds through his sprawling Russian-based conglomerate, the Renova Group, which operates in the energy sector and elsewhere. Mr. Vekselberg was one of seven Kremlin-linked oligarchs hit with sanctions in April by the Trump administration, which also imposed the penalties on the Renova Group.

Renova has had a financial relationship with VTB, one of the largest state-owned banks in Russia, according to documents that were part of the “Panama Papers” leak of files from an offshore law firm. The documents show that Mr. Vekselberg’s companies received at least $350 million in loans or investments from VTB and a subsidiary, VTB Capital. The current state of the debt is unclear, though one document suggests it was discharged in 2010.

Mr. Cohen created Essential Consultants in Delaware less than two weeks before he completed his deal with Ms. Clifford, who is now contesting her contract with Mr. Cohen as invalid. Mr. Cohen initially said he paid her out of his own pocket by way of a home equity line of credit.

But last week, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York said that Mr. Trump had reimbursed Mr. Cohen through several $35,000 monthly transactions that amounted to more than $400,000 — covering the payment to Ms. Clifford and, he said, other “incidental expenses.”

Mueller of course is laughing at getting excited over something he found out months ago.

edited 9th May '18 8:04:24 AM by megaeliz

Nikkolas from Texas Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#241643: May 9th 2018 at 7:35:42 AM

Nevermind, I'm just tired.

edited 9th May '18 7:38:07 AM by Nikkolas

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#241644: May 9th 2018 at 8:07:18 AM

On my end, the risks of democracy are the public voting for an idiot, a villain, or both.

It's still better than the alternative.

edited 9th May '18 8:07:49 AM by CharlesPhipps

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
JerekLaz Since: Jun, 2014
#241645: May 9th 2018 at 9:48:49 AM

Watching this, and also the state of things here in the UK, it really does put the lie to all that media that says "look, we just need to get that information to the press / public / authorities".

Y'know, the message that the powerful will be held to account, that corruption, when shown, is immediately vilified.

And the fact that the people who should, ideologically, be opposed to all this consolidation and screech conspiracy theories are actively supporting the people actually acting out bloody conspiracy theories in front of them: covering up crimes, acting in the interests of shadowy lobbyists, funnelling cash all over the place!

The cognitive dissonance just.... hurts so much.

And the scary thing is, with this North Korea situation he seems to have actually come out looking "competent". And it's just so bleh. At least your leader is elected separately. Our P Ms are just chosen by the party and we're stuck with them as the fish faced leaders of whichever xerox copy party is in power here.

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#241646: May 9th 2018 at 9:55:41 AM

My rebuttal is, "Trump being an idiot is not the reason all of the ills are happening, it is the army of entirely competent cronies behind him."

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
danime91 Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#241647: May 9th 2018 at 9:59:00 AM

Trump is claiming Obama wasn't able to release the three prisoners, when two of them were imprisoned in 2017. Of course his base is eating it all up, the goddamn gullible sheep.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#241648: May 9th 2018 at 10:00:45 AM

These people blame Obama for 9-11. They believe he's not a born US citizen.

They're fucking idiots.

Disgusted, but not surprised
TheWanderer Student of Story from Somewhere in New England (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
Student of Story
#241649: May 9th 2018 at 10:30:53 AM

Rogue Penguin posted:

In 2018, Harris attacked Pittenger as part of the "Washington swamp." The challenger blasted Pittenger's vote for the omnibus spending bill in March, “which we hung around his neck because he voted to fund sanctuary cities and it gave no money for the president’s wall,” said Andy Yates, a spokesman for the Harris campaign.

I posted:

He also used to be an extremely powerful baptist minister and the leader of a large baptist group, and was instrumental in getting North Carolina's amedment to ban same-sex marriage. Which probably means he is also involved with NC's treatment of trans people in more recent years.

Here’s a bit more detail, now with a source

Harris, a conservative former senior pastor of Charlotte’s First Baptist Church and former president of the North Carolina Baptist Convention, won the contentious Republican primary in North Carolina’s Ninth District, in what was a rematch of a close 2016 race.

Two years ago, Pittenger managed to hold on to the district by just over 130 votes. Despite some early favorable polling, the North Carolina Republican, who has served in the House since 2013, wasn’t able to hold on to the district again.

His loss is a story of both North Carolina’s heavy gerrymandering and the tensions between the establishment Republican Party and more conservative base.

NC-9 is a heavily suburban and gerrymandered district around Charlotte; the district lines were redrawn just before the 2016 elections, opening the race to not only a challenge from Harris but also a strong third challenger that ate away at Pittenger’s voter base.

This year, Pittenger largely outspent Harris but still fell short to the conservative challenger, who tried to paint the incumbent as a “Republican liberal” and attacked him for voting for Congress’s massive spending deal, “mortgaging the future of our kids and our grandkids.”

Harris, who was a leader in the successful 2012 push to pass a state constitutional amendment reaffirming North Carolina’s same-sex marriage ban (which was rendered moot by the US Supreme Court decision), has been a name in North Carolina politics for a while. He ran a failed bid for US Senate in 2014 and for the district House seat in 2016.

| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |
Raptorslash Since: Oct, 2010
#241650: May 9th 2018 at 10:37:46 AM

It's ironic that a lot of conspiracy theorists support and defend Trump, where there's increasing evidence that he's complicit in a real conspiracy.

It's not surprising that they like him, though, since he openly courted them with the birther nonsense.


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