OT: Twitter Thread on 3 Decades of Russian & Mafia Relationships with Trump

[BKlutch]

"The oncoming storm."

Watch on YouTube

[HarthorneWingo]

"The oncoming storm."

Watch on YouTube

They were originally known as the DaLeks. Really into psychobilly. Great sound. Great look.

[PeoplesChamp]

The last thing democracy needs is a gestapo like agency that can destroy people’s lives and operates independently without elected officials.

I know you were referring to the FBI but it also describes ICE. Are you fine with one but not the other?

Gestapos for brown people are ok in Trumpworld.

[BKlutch]

"The oncoming storm."

Watch on YouTube

They were originally known as the DaLeks. Really in psychobilly. Great sound. Great look.

Yep, I do understand exactly what you mean.

[Clyde_Style]

Our president the patriot can't even get the flag's colors right

Melania got it right though

Trump appeared to color in the American flag wrong

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-american-flag-wrong-colors-twitter-2018-8

[ChilledAlex]

Our president the patriot can't even get the flag's colors right

Melania got it right though

Trump appeared to color in the American flag wrong

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-american-flag-wrong-colors-twitter-2018-8

You want him to speak better language than 6 year old, you want him to know colors of the flag of his country, you want him to be less arrogant and immoral, you want him to not lie all the time. Come on, man! Give him a break, he is just the president of the United States of America!

[Clyde_Style]

Our president the patriot can't even get the flag's colors right

Melania got it right though

Trump appeared to color in the American flag wrong

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-american-flag-wrong-colors-twitter-2018-8

You want him to speak better language than 6 year old, you want him to know colors of the flag of his country, you want him to be less arrogant and immoral, you want him to not lie all the time. Come on, man! Give him a break, he is just the president of the United States of America!

Considering Trump spends so much time watching this:



I would at least expect him to be able to carry on a converstation with Koko the Gorilla

[Clyde_Style]

Poll: Trump is as strongly disliked now as Nixon was before he resigned

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/11/politics/poll-of-the-week-trump-nixon/index.html

QUOTE:

The love and dislike Trump elicits has proven to be a positive and a negative for him. It's been a positive because so few Republican lawmakers have been willing to abandon him given they feel he is beloved by the base. Additionally, it has helped Trump from falling too far below an overall approval rating of 40%.

The number of Americans who hold strong negative feelings towards Trump is, however, significantly greater than the number who hold strong positive feelings.

In fact, it's record breaking how many give Trump a poor rating this early in his presidency.

[HarthorneWingo]

Lanny Davis, Cohen's lawyer, is now backing off statements he made this past week that Cohen has information on the Russia meeting in Trump Tower. Says he should've gotten more details first, blah, blah, blah.

I wonder how the fck that happened. Davis has been around long enough to know not to go out on a limb like that on such an issue.

[Clyde_Style]

Lanny Davis, Cohen's lawyer, is now backing off statements he made this past week that Cohen has information on the Russia meeting in Trump Tower. Says he should've gotten more details first, blah, blah, blah.

I wonder how the fck that happened. Davis has been around long enough to know not to go out on a limb like that on such an issue.

Sounds like he's dialing it back because this is a historically epic situation and he allowed himself to fall into boasting when he should have been more circumspect publicly.

Doesn't much matter though. It came from Cohen's mouth originally, not Davis:

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/26/cohen-trump-tower-meeting-russians-745123

[Clyde_Style]

This is why the GOP is going into the toilet after the mid-terms

Scoop: Republicans secretly study their coming hell

https://www.axios.com/2018-midterm-elections-republicans-preparation-investigations-180abf7b-0de8-4670-ae8a-2e6da123c584.html

ARTICLE:

Spoiler:

Congressional Republicans are getting ready for hell. Axios has obtained a spreadsheet that's circulated through Republican circles on and off Capitol Hill — including at least one leadership office — that meticulously previews the investigations Democrats will likely launch if they flip the House.

Why this matters: Publicly, House Republicans are putting on a brave face about the midterms. But privately, they are scrambling to prepare for the worst. This document, which catalogs requests Democrats have already made, is part of that effort.

It has churned Republican stomachs. Here are some of the probes it predicts:

President Trump’s tax returns
Trump family businesses — and whether they comply with the Constitution's emoluments clause, including the Chinese trademark grant to the Trump Organization
Trump's dealings with Russia, including the president's preparation for his meeting with Vladimir Putin
The payment to Stephanie Clifford — a.k.a. Stormy Daniels
James Comey's firing
Trump's firing of U.S. attorneys
Trump's proposed transgender ban for the military
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's business dealings
White House staff's personal email use
Cabinet secretary travel, office expenses, and other misused perks
Discussion of classified information at Mar-a-Lago
Jared Kushner's ethics law compliance
Dismissal of members of the EPA board of scientific counselors
The travel ban
Family separation policy
Hurricane response in Puerto Rico
Election security and hacking attempts
White House security clearances

The spreadsheet — which I'm told originated in a senior House Republican office — catalogs more than 100 formal requests from House Democrats this Congress, spanning nearly every committee.

The spreadsheet includes requests for administration officials to be grilled by committee staff, requests for hearings to obtain sworn testimony, efforts to seize communications about controversial policies and personnel decisions, and subpoena threats.
These demands would turn the Trump White House into a 24/7 legal defense operation.

The bottom line: Thanks to their control of Congress, Republicans have blocked most of the Democrats’ investigative requests. But if the House flips, the GOP loses its power to stymie. Lawyers close to the White House tell me the Trump administration is nowhere near prepared for the investigatory onslaught that awaits them, and they consider it among the greatest threats to his presidency.

[Clyde_Style]

'The Greatest Intelligence Operation of Our Time': Investigative Journalist Details How Trump Has Been Compromise by Russia for Years

https://www.alternet.org/greatest-intelligence-operation-our-time-investigative-journalist-details-how-trump-has-been

WATCH THE VIDEO. IT'S FASCINATING

Watch on YouTube

ARTICLE:

Spoiler:

An investigative journalist explained on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that President Donald Trump’s real estate business was essentially a money laundering front.

Craig Unger alleges in his new book, “House of Putin, House of Trump,” that the president had been compromised by Russian intelligence for years through his ties to mobsters who pumped money into his family’s real estate empire.

“I go back nearly 40 years, and I see essentially the greatest intelligence operation of our times,” Unger said. “It started off in 1984 with a man who has ties to the Russian mafia, and he meets with Donald Trump in the Trump Tower, the supreme moment of Donald Trump becoming a master of real estate in the United States — and what we end up seeing is Trump Tower become sort of a cathedral of money laundering.”

That mob associate paid $6 million in cash for five condominiums, and Unger tracked hundreds of similar transactions over the following three decades.

“That sets off a pattern that goes on for the next 30 years or so, in which over 1,300 condos are sold in what appears to be money laundering,” Unger said. “They have two characteristics. One, they are all cash purchases. Two, they are shell purchases, they’re anonymous purchases. The records don’t show who the true owners are.”

Unger said the illegal transactions had made Trump an asset of the Russian government and its president, Vladimir Putin — a former KGB operative — because he said there was no meaningful difference between the country’s organized crime network and its intelligence agencies.

“I can’t get inside Donald Trump’s mind, but he’s meeting with this guy,” Unger said. “We know there are about 1,300 other operations in which he’s profiting heavily from that. If he can go through that and doesn’t figure that out, he’s either inexplicably stupid or there is a legal concept of willful blindness, and perhaps that’s what’s going on.”

[Sedale Threatt]

I wish I could find it -- for all I know, this guy wrote it -- but Esquire or the New Yorker or one of those types of magazines had a pretty extensive breakdown within the last year or so on all the money laundering that very likely has taken place over the decades between Trump and the Russians, particularly as it relates to Trump Tower.

The author made clear that it was only educated speculation rather than smoking-gun definitive, but the amount of detail he went into was pretty staggering. That was the first time I remember reading about money laundering in regards to Trump. I really wish I could find it again, but it certainly was eye-opening.

There can be little reason why Trump was so dead-set against releasing his taxes (yet another safeguard/norm his deranged base let him slide on.) The amount of dirt he's been into over the years would no doubt boggle the mind.

EDIT: Found it! It was indeed written by the same dude.

The very nature of Trump’s businesses—all of which are privately held, with few reporting requirements—makes it difficult to root out the truth about his financial deals. And the world of Russian oligarchs and organized crime, by design, is shadowy and labyrinthine. For the past three decades, state and federal investigators, as well as some of America’s best investigative journalists, have sifted through mountains of real estate records, tax filings, civil lawsuits, criminal cases, and FBI and Interpol reports, unearthing ties between Trump and Russian mobsters like Mogilevich. To date, no one has documented that Trump was even aware of any suspicious entanglements in his far-flung businesses, let alone that he was directly compromised by the Russian mafia or the corrupt oligarchs who are closely allied with the Kremlin. So far, when it comes to Trump’s ties to Russia, there is no smoking gun.

But even without an investigation by Congress or a special prosecutor, there is much we already know about the president’s debt to Russia. A review of the public record reveals a clear and disturbing pattern: Trump owes much of his business success, and by extension his presidency, to a flow of highly suspicious money from Russia. Over the past three decades, at least 13 people with known or alleged links to Russian mobsters or oligarchs have owned, lived in, and even run criminal activities out of Trump Tower and other Trump properties. Many used his apartments and casinos to launder untold millions in dirty money. Some ran a worldwide high-stakes gambling ring out of Trump Tower—in a unit directly below one owned by Trump. Others provided Trump with lucrative branding deals that required no investment on his part. Taken together, the flow of money from Russia provided Trump with a crucial infusion of financing that helped rescue his empire from ruin, burnish his image, and launch his career in television and politics. “They saved his bacon,” says Kenneth McCallion, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Reagan administration who investigated ties between organized crime and Trump’s developments in the 1980s.

It’s entirely possible that Trump was never more than a convenient patsy for Russian oligarchs and mobsters, with his casinos and condos providing easy pass-throughs for their illicit riches. At the very least, with his constant need for new infusions of cash and his well-documented troubles with creditors, Trump made an easy “mark” for anyone looking to launder money. But whatever his knowledge about the source of his wealth, the public record makes clear that Trump built his business empire in no small part with a lot of dirty money from a lot of dirty Russians—including the dirtiest and most feared of them all.

https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate

[Clyde_Style]

What's up Sedale?

Yeah, that New Republic article is like the gold standard of past articles.

Trump supporters won't read it, but they should. It's mind-blowing. Trump has been a money launderer for decades.

It is why he really is nothing more than a mafia figure. Americans need to WTF Up.

Mueller surely has his tax returns, but after the mid-terms the Democrats will use their control of congressional committees to get their hands on them too and it seems more than likely sometime in 2019 the whole world will know what's on them.

[HarthorneWingo]

I wish I could find it -- for all I know, this guy wrote it -- but Esquire or the New Yorker or one of those types of magazines had a pretty extensive breakdown within the last year or so on all the money laundering that very likely has taken place over the decades between Trump and the Russians, particularly as it relates to Trump Tower.

The author made clear that it was only educated speculation rather than smoking-gun definitive, but the amount of detail he went into was pretty staggering. That was the first time I remember reading about money laundering in regards to Trump. I really wish I could find it again, but it certainly was eye-opening.

There can be little reason why Trump was so dead-set against releasing his taxes (yet another safeguard/norm his deranged base let him slide on.) The amount of dirt he's been into over the years would no doubt boggle the mind.

EDIT: Found it! It was indeed written by the same dude.

The very nature of Trump’s businesses—all of which are privately held, with few reporting requirements—makes it difficult to root out the truth about his financial deals. And the world of Russian oligarchs and organized crime, by design, is shadowy and labyrinthine. For the past three decades, state and federal investigators, as well as some of America’s best investigative journalists, have sifted through mountains of real estate records, tax filings, civil lawsuits, criminal cases, and FBI and Interpol reports, unearthing ties between Trump and Russian mobsters like Mogilevich. To date, no one has documented that Trump was even aware of any suspicious entanglements in his far-flung businesses, let alone that he was directly compromised by the Russian mafia or the corrupt oligarchs who are closely allied with the Kremlin. So far, when it comes to Trump’s ties to Russia, there is no smoking gun.

But even without an investigation by Congress or a special prosecutor, there is much we already know about the president’s debt to Russia. A review of the public record reveals a clear and disturbing pattern: Trump owes much of his business success, and by extension his presidency, to a flow of highly suspicious money from Russia. Over the past three decades, at least 13 people with known or alleged links to Russian mobsters or oligarchs have owned, lived in, and even run criminal activities out of Trump Tower and other Trump properties. Many used his apartments and casinos to launder untold millions in dirty money. Some ran a worldwide high-stakes gambling ring out of Trump Tower—in a unit directly below one owned by Trump. Others provided Trump with lucrative branding deals that required no investment on his part. Taken together, the flow of money from Russia provided Trump with a crucial infusion of financing that helped rescue his empire from ruin, burnish his image, and launch his career in television and politics. “They saved his bacon,” says Kenneth McCallion, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Reagan administration who investigated ties between organized crime and Trump’s developments in the 1980s.

It’s entirely possible that Trump was never more than a convenient patsy for Russian oligarchs and mobsters, with his casinos and condos providing easy pass-throughs for their illicit riches. At the very least, with his constant need for new infusions of cash and his well-documented troubles with creditors, Trump made an easy “mark” for anyone looking to launder money. But whatever his knowledge about the source of his wealth, the public record makes clear that Trump built his business empire in no small part with a lot of dirty money from a lot of dirty Russians—including the dirtiest and most feared of them all.

https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate

Hey Sedale. What's the temperature like over on the Current Affairs page? Do they miss me yet?

Thanks for the link.

[Sedale Threatt]

I wish I could find it -- for all I know, this guy wrote it -- but Esquire or the New Yorker or one of those types of magazines had a pretty extensive breakdown within the last year or so on all the money laundering that very likely has taken place over the decades between Trump and the Russians, particularly as it relates to Trump Tower.

The author made clear that it was only educated speculation rather than smoking-gun definitive, but the amount of detail he went into was pretty staggering. That was the first time I remember reading about money laundering in regards to Trump. I really wish I could find it again, but it certainly was eye-opening.

There can be little reason why Trump was so dead-set against releasing his taxes (yet another safeguard/norm his deranged base let him slide on.) The amount of dirt he's been into over the years would no doubt boggle the mind.

EDIT: Found it! It was indeed written by the same dude.

The very nature of Trump’s businesses—all of which are privately held, with few reporting requirements—makes it difficult to root out the truth about his financial deals. And the world of Russian oligarchs and organized crime, by design, is shadowy and labyrinthine. For the past three decades, state and federal investigators, as well as some of America’s best investigative journalists, have sifted through mountains of real estate records, tax filings, civil lawsuits, criminal cases, and FBI and Interpol reports, unearthing ties between Trump and Russian mobsters like Mogilevich. To date, no one has documented that Trump was even aware of any suspicious entanglements in his far-flung businesses, let alone that he was directly compromised by the Russian mafia or the corrupt oligarchs who are closely allied with the Kremlin. So far, when it comes to Trump’s ties to Russia, there is no smoking gun.

But even without an investigation by Congress or a special prosecutor, there is much we already know about the president’s debt to Russia. A review of the public record reveals a clear and disturbing pattern: Trump owes much of his business success, and by extension his presidency, to a flow of highly suspicious money from Russia. Over the past three decades, at least 13 people with known or alleged links to Russian mobsters or oligarchs have owned, lived in, and even run criminal activities out of Trump Tower and other Trump properties. Many used his apartments and casinos to launder untold millions in dirty money. Some ran a worldwide high-stakes gambling ring out of Trump Tower—in a unit directly below one owned by Trump. Others provided Trump with lucrative branding deals that required no investment on his part. Taken together, the flow of money from Russia provided Trump with a crucial infusion of financing that helped rescue his empire from ruin, burnish his image, and launch his career in television and politics. “They saved his bacon,” says Kenneth McCallion, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Reagan administration who investigated ties between organized crime and Trump’s developments in the 1980s.

It’s entirely possible that Trump was never more than a convenient patsy for Russian oligarchs and mobsters, with his casinos and condos providing easy pass-throughs for their illicit riches. At the very least, with his constant need for new infusions of cash and his well-documented troubles with creditors, Trump made an easy “mark” for anyone looking to launder money. But whatever his knowledge about the source of his wealth, the public record makes clear that Trump built his business empire in no small part with a lot of dirty money from a lot of dirty Russians—including the dirtiest and most feared of them all.

https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate

Hey Sedale. What's the temperature like over on the Current Affairs page? Do they miss me yet?

Thanks for the link.

I've cut back posting drastically. It just pisses me off too much.

I got into it pretty hard-core with a Magic mod who wanted to do the "both sides guys" nonsense, earning a brief suspension that I definitely deserved but was kind of the last straw for me.

I'm not going to lose my posting privileges trying to convince these idiots that Trump is unfit for office.

[Sedale Threatt]

What's up Sedale?

Yeah, that New Republic article is like the gold standard of past articles.

Trump supporters won't read it, but they should. It's mind-blowing. Trump has been a money launderer for decades.

It is why he really is nothing more than a mafia figure. Americans need to WTF Up.

Mueller surely has his tax returns, but after the mid-terms the Democrats will use their control of congressional committees to get their hands on them too and it seems more than likely sometime in 2019 the whole world will know what's on them.

Keeping my fingers crossed, for sure. But as I learned the hard way in 2016, you can never trust Democrats/liberals to do a job. Case in point: We've still got a few progressives over on the CA board who seem more interested in infighting than amputating the disease-ridden limb that is Trump, and it makes me want to smash my head in with a hammer.

Lots of positives, though. Trump's approval ratings are about as bad as they can realistically get, and they're holding steady. And I just saw somewhere that under-35 voters have surpassed over-65s in Pennsylvania, which has to be a good thing. Seems like a long shot that Georgia (where I live) could actually turn blue, but I'm still going to do my part.

[Clyde_Style]

What's up Sedale?

Yeah, that New Republic article is like the gold standard of past articles.

Trump supporters won't read it, but they should. It's mind-blowing. Trump has been a money launderer for decades.

It is why he really is nothing more than a mafia figure. Americans need to WTF Up.

Mueller surely has his tax returns, but after the mid-terms the Democrats will use their control of congressional committees to get their hands on them too and it seems more than likely sometime in 2019 the whole world will know what's on them.

Keeping my fingers crossed, for sure. But as I learned the hard way in 2016, you can never trust Democrats/liberals to do a job. Case in point: We've still got a few progressives over on the CA board who seem more interested in infighting than amputating the disease-ridden limb that is Trump, and it makes me want to smash my head in with a hammer.

Lots of positives, though. Trump's approval ratings are about as bad as they can realistically get, and they're holding steady. And I just saw somewhere that under-35 voters have surpassed over-65s in Pennsylvania, which has to be a good thing. Seems like a long shot that Georgia (where I live) could actually turn blue, but I'm still going to do my part.

Thanks for keeping the hope alive. There will be more ugliness to come, but something this bad can have a silver lining and produce a reaction that makes a difference. One thing should be pretty clear already is the GOP's grip on power has peaked and is now subject to real opposition and the possibility of real changes being made.

Hope the progressives dragging their feet do get their heads out of their asses and work first to kill the cancer before it kills them. I want a progressive president too, but you have to survive first by working together.

[Clyde_Style]

I've cut back posting drastically. It just pisses me off too much.

I got into it pretty hard-core with a Magic mod who wanted to do the "both sides guys" nonsense, earning a brief suspension that I definitely deserved but was kind of the last straw for me.

I'm not going to lose my posting privileges trying to convince these idiots that Trump is unfit for office.

I can't visit those forums anymore after being banned, but I know they know I was right and it must be driving those trolls crazy.

[Sedale Threatt]

I've cut back posting drastically. It just pisses me off too much.

I got into it pretty hard-core with a Magic mod who wanted to do the "both sides guys" nonsense, earning a brief suspension that I definitely deserved but was kind of the last straw for me.

I'm not going to lose my posting privileges trying to convince these idiots that Trump is unfit for office.

I can't visit those forums anymore after being banned, but I know they know I was right and it must be driving those trolls crazy.

To be frank, many if not most of them are gone. Even Red Sox Fan finally got banned. There are always some new guys that pop up here or there -- such as this complete maniac who posts on the Wizards forum, Still Droping 20 (lol, he couldn't even spell his handle correctly; you should look him up if you want some fun encounters) -- but they seem to either get whacked or lose interest after they get dog-piled with reason. There have been at least 100 of those over the past few years.

Otherwise, just kicking back, waiting to see how this all shakes out. I'll feel a lot better if we can take the House, which will be the last bit of assurance that he's going to be held to account for all his nonsense.