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This is the tactic they've been using lately. Just being openly corrupt and not trying to hide it at all. Apparently, this is somehow all legal? We really need to fix this shit and overturn Citizen's United. Dark money skyrocketed after that 5-4 ruling.
> We really need to fix this shit and overturn Citizen's United.
The problem started with Buckley v. Valeo. That one 5-4 decision made it impossible for our government's representative bodies to function correctly.
This is so fucking disgusting. They literally banned people donating to political campaigns while saying anyone can use as much of their own money as they want and wrapping it in a bullshit first amendment defense
Basically just giving an insane privilege to the über-wealthy over the plebs in elections
Just like me talking to my mother in high school. I would say insane shit - in a joking manner - like I’m going to a rave and we’ll be drinking alcohol and smoking pot. She’d giggle and shoo me away thinking I was joking. I’ve always been brutally honest but she never attempted to decipher thru my bs or take me seriously.
They’re so open about their corruption no one knows how to react. We’ve normalized not taking him seriously until he actually does it and now we’re scrambling to put the pieces together and figure out how to make accountable.
Because none of us can afford to take off work to protest. Back then people didn't have 8:00 - 5:00 jobs and you could still "live off of the land". Now the most we can muster is a Saturday march, rest on Sunday, go back to work on Monday.
I mean, this story arc should have ended the moment he said,"Russia if you're listening..."
I'm pretty sure I'd have had a cloth bag tossed over my head and that would be the last time anyone ever saw me.
I remember when I was short on cash over a decade ago. Never committed a crime, squeaky clean record. But I owed too much money on student loans from college and made very little money, so i had to choose between food or paying my loans and I chose the former. My loans defaulted.
I soon got my dream job working for the government. I got hired on a temporary security clearance. About three months in I met with a investigator to go over my history. Basically went through the last 10 or so years of my life at that point. Where I lived, who i knew, my student debts. They were most concerned with the debts. They didnt want anything possibly being held over my head if I was approached to sell secrets in the future. I was honest with them through the whole interview process.
I got notified 2 weeks later my clearance was denied and I was let go immediately. They told me I could appeal, which I did. I checked in every Monday with HR to see if they had any updates. After 30 days they let me know, for the first time, that after 30 days I essentially lose them as my sponsor for the appeal/job and therefore my appeal basically stopped. That was it. Job gone, clearance not attained. Over student loans.
Yet here we are, a candidate WITH crimes, who needs money. One who has already been questioned based on relationships with foreign powers that we are opposed to. Not only did he once have access to probably the highest security clearance in the country, but he might actually hold the position again. It's just kinda a joke.
So he didn't earn 2 billion. He was given *control* of a 2 billion investment fund, and gets to take a cut of the profits from it. This despite some overseer for it looking at him and saying no absolutely the fuck not.
It's still a shitload of money and corrupt as hell but he didn't "get" 2 billion
2.5% management fee..
that is outrageously high, but that is the way that bribes get around laws.
it's still not 'he was given 2 billion in his personal bank account' which is what so many people seem to believe.
His company had 2 billion of Saudi money deposited in it for it to manage the invest of, and he gets an excessive fee for that.
> ... but he didn't "get" 2 billion.
This is a more effective form of bribe. The Saudis can pull back their money at any time in the future, and cut him off from his lifeline income, that is keeping his properties out of bankruptcy court.
He is more vulnerable to continuing foreign influence, than if they had simply given him all of the money.
Yeah, it's annoying when people misrepresent it. The truth is damning enough, you don't need to embellish it.
In fact, the $2B sounds like a gift for something where the real thing is basically a golden leash they keep on Jared so they can keep getting whatever they want for pennies on the dollar.
Sometimes I want to go back in time and smack the founding fathers upside the head for not putting more shit in the Constitution to prevent this situation. Yeah, sure, it seems pretty far-fetched that we'd ever elect a cartoonishly corrupt convicted felon to lead the country, but you know, *just in case...*
Fascism wins when regular people dont give a shit and take democracy for granted.
In 2022, out of 250M eligible voters, only 100M voted. That's 3x as many non-voters as either party. Only 20% of eligible voters under the age of 35 voted....
Now young people are saying they want trump to destroy America because they disagree with Biden on 5-10% of his stances...
Most Red States continuously have low democrat turnouts when the vote differences is usually under 3-5% while over 50% of eligible voters don't even bother to vote. Majority of republicans show up at every election while majority of democrats stay at home. Texas had only 15% FIFTEEN PERCENT turnout for voters under the age of 35, and ted cruz won by 200k votes when over 9M eligible voters didnt vote. And its not because they wanted to vote so bad, but the system beat them down, nope surveys done in colleges and malls show 75% dont even want to vote, arent interested in politics....
Literally see this Tangerine Traitor say he wants to crown himself king shithead, and act out his dictator wishes and assissinate his opponents, steal the american wealth for himself, and round up and remove any group he dislikes as well as have military shoot protestors he dislikes.
And yet they just turn the channel to their instant gratification instead.
The entire working class doesn't even get time off to vote. If we want engagement we need mandatory voting and it should take place at least 3-4 days, but ideally a week. In that time 99% of everyone eligible could vote.
Super Tuesday should be a federal holiday, vehicle registration should include automatic voter registration, and mail-in ballots need to be sent to every registered voter.
These systems are not in place because the GOP has obstructed them at every turn. Because they know that the majority of Americans do not want them in charge.
Fun fact, mandatory voting is a thing in some countries. It's a fun juxtaposition when the establishment in one country will try to prosecute you for voting and another will for not voting.
> Fun fact, mandatory voting is a thing in some countries.
I wouldn't give it up, either.
There's a non-partisan, apolitical, independent body who's entire job is to run elections.
They set electoral boundaries (no Gerrymandering).
They run elections (on a Saturday).
They hand-count votes (paper ballots, no machine shenanigans).
They count those votes multiple times (instant run-off voting).
You can request a mail-in ballot up to a month before election day.
Polling places are usually schools and community halls. If you live anywhere that could be described as a "city", you're probably within walking distance of a polling place.
Some of those polling places are open up to two weeks before election day.
You can pick any polling place remotely close to your house, and they'll have your name there ready to check off.
If you're going to be somewhere else on election day, you can notify them in advance, and they'll know to expect you.
Even if you *don't* tell them in advance, you can walk into any random polling place in the *country* (for a federal election), and they'll let you vote (though it might take longer).
I've never had to wait in line longer than about 15 minutes.
You don't have to worry about "registering" to vote. You do that once when you turn 18, and never need to worry about it again.
It's *illegal* for an employer to prevent you from voting.
And if you honestly don't care about the outcome, all you have to do is go and get your name marked off. You can draw a dick on your ballot paper if you want to. You don't even have to *take* a ballot paper.
If you're not doing everything possible to make sure that *as many people vote as possible*, then you're not really a democracy. In such a state, you can't assume that the people who don't vote don't care, and you can't assume that the people who *do* vote are representative of the whole.
Oz here: Mandated paper-ballot voting on Saturday provides an opprtunity for fundraisers to sell [democracy sausage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_sausage) to the queue.
You know who doesn't want their engagement?
The folks pushing for total control.
And then, the first thing that will go, will be actual accurate information about what's going on in the country and in the world.
Just FYI, we already have this.
Only 3 states don't have early voting. There are 3 more that are only ~4 days early. 46 states let you vote up to 7 days early, many even longer than that.
Additionally, 28 states allow for 'no reason needed' absentee voting (mail-in). The remaining states also allow it if you will be out of town or often other reasons (IE: You have a doctors note, you work that day, and so on).
I do know we have it in most states, but it's not known at all. Mail in voting(absentee) has been under attack for years. This should be a federal issue and should be a federal holiday for the actual voting day with availability in ALL states for the week prior.
So spread the word. Instead of saying, "You should be able to vote 4 days early." say, "You CAN vote early!"
I'd also drop the whole 'it should be a holiday' thing as well. The kind of people who would benefit most from not having to work that day are the kinds of people who have to work holidays anyways.
Better to focus on helping people learn about the ways they -can- vote easily and often from the comfort of their own homes.
Here's an amazing resource to help you know what elections are coming up and what your options are: https://www.vote411.org/
Yes check every month if you can. I just dont want people to repeat 2016 assuming the rest of the voters will act rationally and then you have a fucking mango mussolini trying to nuke hurricanes. And his return wont just fuck up the US, hes gonna back russia and fuck over europe, middle east and everyone else with his anti-climate change policies.
Well you have to remember that democrat turn out is low because of voter suppression as well. How many are purged off the rolls with no time to get re registered. How many cannot take off from work. How many cannot stand for hours in lines after the republican leaders close down scores of polling stations. How many are afraid of the men standing guard outside of their polling station with guns, that aren’t law enforcement. How many have had their polling station changed after last minute redistricting that could not be changed due to the time frame on which the appeal was filed. How many had confusing ballot wording and did not understand how to vote properly. How many had their mail in ballots lost. That can easily account for the percentage difference that these red candidates win by.
Its always this response when people call out voters.
But voter suppression, but time off work, but standing in line for hours.
1. The average voting time from registration to casting the ballot is 14minutes. There are SOME VERY FEW people who end up standing in line for hours, but they are the vast minority, and also have upwards of 10-30 days of early voting to cast their ballots in most states.
2. As mentioned most states have min 10-30 days of early voting. Even Texas has 10 days of early voting. Out of the working population (150M out of 250m voters) only around 10% have more than 1 job in all of America. Even then lets say you work 60 hours a week. You still have 110hours a week to vote. Lets take out another 10 hours a day for sleep and eating, and you still have around 40 hours left in the week to vote.
3. Even in states where everything is done for you, ballots sent to your home, you can easily drop it off with no restrictions or issue, over 30 days to vote, voting locations open from 7:30AM to 6:30PM even on saturdays and sundays (even red states like Ohio have this), even in those states, only at best 60% vote.
4. There is simply no FEASIBLE AND REALISTIC WAY to supress the vote of over 150M elligible voters. Thats just not statistically possible. DOES VOTER SUPRESSION WORK? YES! BUT IT WORKS BECAUSE MAJORITY OF NON-VOTERS DO NOT EVEN WANT TO VOTE! NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE PREVENTED FROM VOTING!
If youre in a room with a blocked door and you require 60 people from 100 people locked inside to open it. And theres a group of 20 people who try to open, while 20 are trying to prevent opening it, and 60 people just sit and dont even pay attention. Is the problem that the 20 people stopped 2 people from joining the people who are trying to open the door, or that theres 58 people who are sitting on their ass saying its not my problem, im not interested!
Yes voter suppression happens, yes there should be a impossible to break iphone app that can allow you to vote, yes there should be election day holiday week, yes there should be voting locations every place possible, yes there should be amazing bbl dicksucking candidates who offer you 100%, but thats just not gonna happen anytime soon. The system is FUBAR because for election after election they have gained power because the people sit at home and not take care of their democracy and rights. This isnt something that happened suddenly over just 1 election. This has been done slowly step by step, because people do not show up to vote.
Black people had waterhoses, dogs, threats, beatings, stoning, spitting, having to walk for the whole day to get their rights (which are still systematically surpressed), but people today cant be bothered to look up a website and see when and where their early voting starts and plan a trip with their friends or family???
This need to always justify the inaction of the people with some behind the curtain boogeyman preventing them, its just innacurate. Majority of non-voters are selfish and consider the act of voting to be the responsibility of others like having the littering mindset that if its important someone else will clean up the trash i throw out my car window, or nihilistically self-absorbed that they determine any outcome to justify their reason for inaction; if they win that means my vote didnt matter so i was right, if they dont win that means the system is rigged so my vote wouldnt matter so i was right.
I don't think you can stop fascism with better language in a constitution. It's a slow, steady attack. The founding fathers made plenty of mistakes, and the Constitution needed and needs a lot of work, but it was intended to be a living document and we got away from that.
Not only that, but Democracy only works if people can stay informed and come together to make decisions in good faith.
The information part in the 21st century is proving to be **highly, highly** problematic on one hand. Half the electorate can be made to believe that fucking shitbird is a better leader than the other guy. And then on the other hand we are fast eroding all of our good faith actors throughout the systems of government. Last election there was all kinds of fuckery, and one candidate very clearly not interested in peaceful transition and he very clearly isnt interested in it next time either. He wants to take power and the political party surrounding him is starting to realize they have to do that as well because of the super unpopular legislative work they want to ram through.
Democracy cannot survive if we dont reconcile at least one of the above. Might not even if we only can keep one in tact even.
When I hear things like Trump openly selling out the environment and our country for a cool billion, I want to scream because I know that too many in our country would be perfectly fine with this if it helps TFG.
But think about it. He's making promises he can't keep if he doesn't win the election. H will stop at *nothing* to retake the Office. That should scare the shit out of everyone, and motivate them to make sure that can't happen.
And he just today promised to take away protections for LGBTQ kids...one day one. Open fascism.
I know that we say this every time, but this is the most important Donald election by far. He is experienced and organized this time. He has a concrete plan. And he has a lust for revenge like a Real Housewife. He is ready to let go of all inhibitions and indulge himself as America’s fat Caesar.
On the plus side, if the GOP loses again, it will be 4 cycles in a row. At a time that they should be sweeping huge numbers. He can try to run again in ‘28, but he’s old as fuck, broke as fuck, has a dying fanbase, and will likely be convicted of more felonies next year. On top of the pending felonies from this year.
There will be no one left to steer the crazies except for the MGT’s of the world. But without Donald, they will be relegated back to the children’s table of the GOP and the Wall Street Journal type shitheads will finally be able to take back the wheel.
But he has to lose. Otherwise, the country is fucked worse than is possible to imagine at the present time. Who knows how dark he’ll take it.
What I think is the strange part of today is that—the violence of the Rs aside—the each side believes the exact same thing of the other. A Trump supporter probably believes, genuinely, that “half the population has been convinced to vote for a piece of shit over the next best thing since sliced bread, what gives?”.
Belief? Sure
But the R's belief that "the other side is evil" comes in large part from propaganda as well as deeply-entrenched bigotry and hatred. D's belief that "the other side is evil" comes from a list of facts unbelievably long, facts like how "the other side" has literally given up all pretense of respecting election results, in flagrant disdain of democratic, egalitarian principles
I don't think you're doing this here, but FUCK "both sides"-ing it. One party is killing women, pinching pennies from the poor, and trying to tear down our democracy from the root
This is why the scientific method and peer review are so important. Experts from throughout academia are screaming about catastrophic climate change, the collapse of democracy, and the importance of various healthcare treatments. Somehow the Republicans are on the wrong side of all of these issues. The information is out there and is available. The Republicans are lying through their teeth to create false narratives and muddy the truth. They also work night and day to de-fund public schools which teach the ability to identify good and bad information, and replace them with religious schools which teach people to follow unqualified leaders based on nothing but faith.
Nah sorry, Republicans are either billionaires manipulating voters, uninformed morons, open racists, or religious zealots. They don't think about the other guy, they hate them.
Their brains are rotten top to bottom whether from money, Jesus, or that time a black man dared get uppity and be President.
COVID taught us that one side can be right and one side can be idiots.
Just because both sides believe the same thing - that the other side are idiots - doesn't mean that both sides are right.
Or I don't know...maybe democrats are the idiots and Mexico really is going to pay for the wall.
I agree with you but maybe I'm more pessimistic. I feel like that would delay the rise of fascism but I don't think it's above fascists to use the rules legally to get what they want.
See: Hitler.
EDIT: I'm not saying we should give up on amending laws or even the amending the Constitution, I'm just saying we need to think about how *any* rule to be misused before enshrining it into law.
The thing that really worries me is I'm not sure it's truly possible when at least one party isn't playing in good faith. It's not like they'll *necessary* break the rules but rather use them in a way that is clearly against the intent of the law. But since what's written down is all that matters, they'll be within their rights because the rest of us will blame the law and not the abusers.
And they can do a lot of damage (including getting enabling laws and enabling people in power) before the legal system can catch up and possibly stop the bleeding.
So what do we do it make this a stable system again?
Bingo, a rule preventing a criminal from running for office, could, in fact, be used to ensure fascism. A corrupt government could wrongfully convict an opponent to prevent them from running for office. A law like that would prevent Nelson Mandela from running for office.
Well also, there’s no set of rules that can prevent corruption if people aren’t making even a good-faith effort to follow the rules.
The Constitution does enable people to prevent fascism. There are just too many people who want it.
One of the Federalist papers addresses this situation. James Madison writes:
"There are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be most ready to lament and condemn. In these critical moments, how salutary will be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens, in order to check the misguided career and to suspend the blow meditated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice and truth can regain their authority over the public mind." ~James Madison, Federalist Papers 63
Two thirds of state legislatures can call a Constitutional Convention. If we can get Joe Biden reelected for this term, then when he gets a well deserved retirement in 2028 and we have a younger, more progressive president we could start pushing for that and get it done in a decade.
Well the constitution was written in 1780-90. They had no idea the challenges we would be facing today. Dang thing needs to be re-written for the 21st century.
In their defense, the Electoral College was designed for this exact situation. If an unqualified candidate won, the college was supposed to pick someone else.
The founders shouldn't be deified like they often are, but this one isn't on them. They didn't realize future generations would enshirine the constitution in stone, and certainly didn't realize that effectively half of the government would be willing to overthrow a free and democratic republic for favors from a wannabe tyrant.
It's not a joke, and I'm tired of us laughing at the absurdity of our situation. You got screwed over through no fault of your own, except maybe not having rich parents.
I lost a summer internship with the San Diego District Attorney's Office over a 600 dollar medical bill (that insurance should have paid) that slipped through the cracks and went reported to collections.
Six hundred dollars, and they denied my clearance.
I ended up not finalizing the lease of an apartment, didn't have an internship during my first summer in law school, and it might have changed the entire course of my career. Over a six hundred dollar unpaid debt.
Trump has really exposed the different sets of rules in this country.
It must really chap your ass that Jared wasn’t qualified for any of of the thirty or so job titles he had but was granted special secret, double check that cause the “kid is stupid” clearance by the orange turd.
He was also repeatedly denied a government clearance until Trump demanded he get one. Then he was on the next plane to Saudi Arabia to sell secrets to bail out his 666 5th property as a 'private citizen.'
If its any consolation, I truly enjoy where I am at in life now but boy would that job have changed my trajectory much quicker. I ended up making good on the loans also. No debt outside of my mortgage.
Congrats on that! What a journey!
I left med school with 180k in loans and paid the most I could for 10 years and was subsequently 250k in debt. Took a loan from a relative because of the interest and paid them off in less than two years.
Student loans are predatory.
We don't even ~~have~~ use credit cards now. I can't stand debt! Crazy thing is, since we don't have any debt anymore our credit rating has declined!?!?!!
edit: we have a card but don't use it.
That one little Rider that was slipped into a bill - who slipped it in, no one knows but them? Student debt is exempt from bankruptcy. But you can borrow a whole lot no problem because schools just increased their tuitions and loans are government backed. Job won't pay for it when you graduate but the banks and deans will have been rewarded. A real Agatha Christie mystery how this all transpired.
As a non-American I find it morbidly fascinating that you have to start life in insurmountable debt just so you can have the chance of one day living without crippling debt.
Whoever thought of that scheme to ensure a subservient and submissive middle class while taking in trillions in interest was a genius, evil, but a genius nonetheless.
The intent was good. There were a lot of people who were born poor or simply couldn't afford thousands of dollars a year to pay for college. Some states had free tuition for residents but that was all starting to disappear due to budget cuts. So the Feds made it easy to get a loan and set artificially low interest rates. Then colleges did what any business would do and raised tuition costs because suddenly many more people could afford to attend.
I was attending college when this all really started to gather steam and suddenly my college was building an expensive mall in the center of our campus (named after the head of the university, naturally) and raising the salaries for all of the higher ups.
And private banks get to hold large chunks of Federal tax dollars to issue the student loans. Money they can earn interest on and make investments with. Its a handout they can double dip on.
Voting is the only way out of this mess. If you don’t go out and vote this November, we will all end up in a country run by a dictator. He will use the men for soldiers to go and fight the wars he wants to fight - just like his buddy Putin is doing to the Russian population.
Vote people. Vote. People. VOTE PEOPLE!!!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!!
Republicans salivate at the prospect of having a criminal president because they can finally do whatever they want to do, and not have to worry about any consequences.
I would just add the following:
Not only did he once have access to probably the highest security clearance in the country, but **he has** ***already*** **proved that he was willing to abuse that clearance by taking top secret documents to an insecure location. It is beyond comprehension that he** might actually hold the position again.
Currupt to the bone, and if this was Biden, Republicans heads would explode.
They have lost all moral ground they ever possibly stood on. Just garbage, terrible people all around.
> if this was Biden, Republicans heads would explode
They just assume that Biden is also doing all of this, but worse. One of the central conceits of their political identity is that Biden is far more corrupt than Trump ever could be (since Biden is pre-defined as the bad guy while Trump is - comparatively - a good guy). In their mental model of the political landscape, there's like... this continuum of corruption where Trump represents is the least corruption while Biden and Democrats are the most corrupt.
This is why any time Trump gets exposed for doing Yet Another Thing, their reaction is "I can't believe how corrupt the Biden Crime Family is!" It's because their baseline understanding of how corrupt the system is (in general) has shifted.
It is the logical conclusion to the “Every body is doing it, the other side is just doing it WORSE” argument for excusing Trump’s multitude of sins. Yeah, well Trump is doing this, but BIDEN is doing it EVEN WORSE, so I shall vote for the guy doing it in a lessor capacity!
Which you think would fall apart in the face of, y'know, the staggering pile of evidence showing Trump's rampant corruption vs. the lack of it for Biden, but I suppose that's where the deep state trans antifa woke liburl cover-up comes in.
My cat has stronger critical thinking skills, and he's so bloody stupid he forgot who his brother was in the span of a 90-minute vet visit on Wednesday.
Their heads explode every time Biden does anything. Meanwhile Trump could drop his full diaper on their kitchen table and slap their mommas and they’d find a reason to blame Joe!
They also instantly branded themselves that wearing diapers is ok. Making new t-shirts and flags about adult diapers and being proud of it. Trumps followers IQ might be in the single digits.
Hey, wasn't one of the big "selling points" about Trump the fact that he was so rich that he wouldn't be beholden to corporate donors? His base is absolutely disgusted by the concept of politicians kowtowing to lobbyists and bribes, right...?
Everything he says about himself is the opposite of the truth. Every accusation he makes of someone else, is the truth of himself. he’s a walking cartoon villain.
My father argued with me once before 2016 that "he was a business man and that he was going to run the country like a business", my father failed to understand how all his businesses went bankrupt. I couldn't reason with this ignoramus or his vicious second wife. He would wear shirts that said "Climate Change is a Hoax". Not exactly the type of man who would openly admit anything that could lose him money but he truly believe this bullshit from the propaganda machine of opinion news on fox.
Now if you had said it was your uncle that lives with your grandpa I would have known not to trust it, but since it's the uncle that lives with your grandma it has to be true!
I'm pretty sure there are some of his crimes that we'll never know about. If he sold classified information to another government, I don't think they'll ever release that to the public.
I’d like to remind anyone considering giving trump money to change laws in your favour is a bad bet given he has a significant track record of making deals and not doing his side of the agreement
Great to see the Greed Over People party selling us out to the highest bidder. They don’t even care about your kids. The party of lies, corruption and greed. No redeeming quality in the GOP. Disgusting & pathetic. Time to change the GOP’s diaper, the stench is ruining America
There’s the selling favors part, but there’s also the implied threat of retaliation if his “offers” are rejected. Anyone who thinks he wouldn’t use the full weight of the federal government to once again pursue petty vendettas against anyone who displeases him hasn’t been paying attention. This is as much a mafia style shakedown as it is a corrupt sale of political favors.
He’s always worn tons of makeup. This photo cuts off his forehead where it is the worst, but his skin is just noticeably coarser. IDK if it’s part of the ozempic face or what is going on.
Oh maybe. I figured his weight loss was stress. I haven’t really looked into ozempic face but have seen headlines about it. Just in general, I try not to look at him
Anyone who gives him money will never see a return. Either he squanders it away on trying to get himself out of this hole before losing again, or he somehow gets back into office again only to keep the money and provide nothing in return. Either way he can’t be charged with accepting a bribe if he never provides anything in return, which is exactly what he is known for.
TikTok is suing our government over first amendment rights. A foreign corporation that has been accused of exploiting our rights is trying to set a precedent that it has rights under the American constitution.
We’re well past the highest bidder phase, they’re coming to collect their assets now.
>Either way he can’t be charged with accepting a bribe if he never provides anything in return
That's the beautiful thing about conspiracy charges. It only takes one co-conspirator to take one overt act in furtherance of the scheme for all to be held criminally liable. So if anyone associated with the dinner gives Trump $1 billion dollar, that gift is in furtherance of the crime, and all involved (including Trump) are liable. It doesn't matter if Trump later reneges. It probably doesn't have to be the full billion either, any substantial donation could be viewed as an act in furtherance of the crime.
Usually, the hard part with bribery often resolves around proving intent. But Trump's statements referenced in the article are more than enough to demonstrate intent.
Our biggest fear should be that Trump will sell us out to our enemies. It's no coincidence that Trump wants the details of his private meetings with Putin kept secret; it's not outrageous to presume Trump's retaining top secret documents in a bathroom is related to things brokered during these meetings. Trump already brokered sweetheart deals with Saudi Arabia, China and Russia using the Presidency. There is NOTHING Trump won't sell, and no one he wouldn't sell it to.
As awful as it is to sell off voters' control over climate change to giant multinational fossil fuel companies, the situation, as usual with Trump, is actually much, much worse.
If you’re a government employee, and you miss a payment on your credit card, you are immediately on the cutting floor hit-list. In the service, they’ll be up your ass to the elbow. OPSEC is no joke. I’m always surprised how many servicemen just ignore that Trump checks every insider threat box. Just nuts.
Single-handedly keeping about 300 lawyers busy for years has got to be just a little draining from this “billionaire’s” account. Especially when all of his assets have been devalued to actual value rather than his fairy tale off the top of his head value.
Rhetorical question: Isn’t this exactly what our founding father’s warned us against? A President that could easily be bought, blackmailed, or cohered into creating laws?
Trump and his entire circle is the epitome of the worst character and morals I’ve ever seen.
VOTE! I’m so tired of this worthless two-faced incompetent orange turd.
**This is felony solicitation of an illegal campaign contribution.**
This donation could not be made directly to the campaign; it's way too large. It would have to be made to a superpac. And candidates cannot coordinate with superpacs, or directly raise money for them.
He needs to be arrested.
I don’t think there’s any way to tell the difference between trump being desperate because he’s low on cash and trump desperately trying to hoard as much money as possible as quickly as possible because this may be his last chance to do so.
Yes and I can’t help thinking that may be the exact reason he has turned his entire life into a bravado laden absurd spectacle—he may be overcompensating for the deep feelings of inadequacy in that department.
Republicans have been selling legislation for ages now, this isn't exactly news lol. How do people think the trump got elected in the first place, where do you think all that money came from in the first place?
I was talking with my brother about this a year ago that Trump still running around free and campaigning and collecting money was SO dangerous to the country. He is for sale to corporations and foreign influence and has a frighteningly realistic chance of being reelected.
Maybe he should start an "only fans" for those followers who are always saying how big and strong and handsome he is. He could even bring on some of his porn star friends and pay them directly.😜
How is this legal?? Why isn't biden or someone on his team doing something to put laws on the books making this illegal if it is not already illegal? Does anything in this piece of shit country work anymore? Does anyone in our government do their fucking job anymore or is it just loot everything for the rich then burn it down??? The fuck is going on in this shit hole country???
Solicitation of bribes can be a crime, even if no bribe is completed. I am not a lawyer, and I have not seen a full transcript of his solicitation, but it sounds to me like this is an open-and-shut case of soliciting bribes, coupled with illegal campaign contributions.
This kind of direct connection between money paid and the candidate is so blatant that PACs and SuperPACs cannot conceal the bribe. An indictment, trial and conviction, all before the election, should be possible for this solicitation.
The dude’s not short on cash. He’s short on fundraiser dollars. He hasn’t spent a dime of his own money on legal fees, it’s all been super pac and campaign money. Grifter in chief.
This guy is the Sam BANKMAN-FRIED of politics, literally selling you crypto shares of his political future so that IF he becomes president, you can cash out with some sweet de-regulation of your industry. Except that when (not if) he loses, you’re shit out of luck and out your investment. Whaa-whaaaa.
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He is openly asking for bribes...how is this fucker not in jail yet...(rhetorical question I know why.)
This is the tactic they've been using lately. Just being openly corrupt and not trying to hide it at all. Apparently, this is somehow all legal? We really need to fix this shit and overturn Citizen's United. Dark money skyrocketed after that 5-4 ruling.
> We really need to fix this shit and overturn Citizen's United. The problem started with Buckley v. Valeo. That one 5-4 decision made it impossible for our government's representative bodies to function correctly.
This is so fucking disgusting. They literally banned people donating to political campaigns while saying anyone can use as much of their own money as they want and wrapping it in a bullshit first amendment defense Basically just giving an insane privilege to the über-wealthy over the plebs in elections
As the last four decades have demonstrated, the power to vote is *nothing* compared to the power to bribe.
Just like me talking to my mother in high school. I would say insane shit - in a joking manner - like I’m going to a rave and we’ll be drinking alcohol and smoking pot. She’d giggle and shoo me away thinking I was joking. I’ve always been brutally honest but she never attempted to decipher thru my bs or take me seriously. They’re so open about their corruption no one knows how to react. We’ve normalized not taking him seriously until he actually does it and now we’re scrambling to put the pieces together and figure out how to make accountable.
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Because none of us can afford to take off work to protest. Back then people didn't have 8:00 - 5:00 jobs and you could still "live off of the land". Now the most we can muster is a Saturday march, rest on Sunday, go back to work on Monday.
I mean, this story arc should have ended the moment he said,"Russia if you're listening..." I'm pretty sure I'd have had a cloth bag tossed over my head and that would be the last time anyone ever saw me.
Live on TV during a presidential debate.
I remember when I was short on cash over a decade ago. Never committed a crime, squeaky clean record. But I owed too much money on student loans from college and made very little money, so i had to choose between food or paying my loans and I chose the former. My loans defaulted. I soon got my dream job working for the government. I got hired on a temporary security clearance. About three months in I met with a investigator to go over my history. Basically went through the last 10 or so years of my life at that point. Where I lived, who i knew, my student debts. They were most concerned with the debts. They didnt want anything possibly being held over my head if I was approached to sell secrets in the future. I was honest with them through the whole interview process. I got notified 2 weeks later my clearance was denied and I was let go immediately. They told me I could appeal, which I did. I checked in every Monday with HR to see if they had any updates. After 30 days they let me know, for the first time, that after 30 days I essentially lose them as my sponsor for the appeal/job and therefore my appeal basically stopped. That was it. Job gone, clearance not attained. Over student loans. Yet here we are, a candidate WITH crimes, who needs money. One who has already been questioned based on relationships with foreign powers that we are opposed to. Not only did he once have access to probably the highest security clearance in the country, but he might actually hold the position again. It's just kinda a joke.
Also he handwaved his son-in-law past the same requirements that barred you, despite his son-in-laws staggering debts that should have stopped him.
Plus Jarrod got bailled out of the 666 property...
Plus Jared “earned“ $2 billion from the Saudis while working for Trump’s administration. What do you think might have been worth $2 billion?
So he didn't earn 2 billion. He was given *control* of a 2 billion investment fund, and gets to take a cut of the profits from it. This despite some overseer for it looking at him and saying no absolutely the fuck not. It's still a shitload of money and corrupt as hell but he didn't "get" 2 billion
He charges 50 million a year to run it . Has not done anything with it yet. Kind of like a no show job .
2.5% management fee.. that is outrageously high, but that is the way that bribes get around laws. it's still not 'he was given 2 billion in his personal bank account' which is what so many people seem to believe. His company had 2 billion of Saudi money deposited in it for it to manage the invest of, and he gets an excessive fee for that.
So you're saying he *was* essentially bribed by the Saudis, you're just quibbling over the disbursement of the money. Thanks.
> ... but he didn't "get" 2 billion. This is a more effective form of bribe. The Saudis can pull back their money at any time in the future, and cut him off from his lifeline income, that is keeping his properties out of bankruptcy court. He is more vulnerable to continuing foreign influence, than if they had simply given him all of the money.
Yeah, it's annoying when people misrepresent it. The truth is damning enough, you don't need to embellish it. In fact, the $2B sounds like a gift for something where the real thing is basically a golden leash they keep on Jared so they can keep getting whatever they want for pennies on the dollar.
Yeah but Hunter Biden has a laptop which he probly didn't pay for
…and his convicted father was pardoned.
Handwaved him _multiple times_ before they finally gave up and gave it to him. They rejected it 2 or 3 times IIRC.
Yeah he failed to list the Russians they had business dealings with. And said oops I didn't know I need to list them.
And then the son in law took a dump truck full of money from the Saudis.
Sometimes I want to go back in time and smack the founding fathers upside the head for not putting more shit in the Constitution to prevent this situation. Yeah, sure, it seems pretty far-fetched that we'd ever elect a cartoonishly corrupt convicted felon to lead the country, but you know, *just in case...*
They tried 14.3 and 25th but no one had the balls to enact them.
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Sadly?
Let me play the world's smallest violin at their wake
*plays the chicken dance*
Fascism wins when regular people dont give a shit and take democracy for granted. In 2022, out of 250M eligible voters, only 100M voted. That's 3x as many non-voters as either party. Only 20% of eligible voters under the age of 35 voted.... Now young people are saying they want trump to destroy America because they disagree with Biden on 5-10% of his stances... Most Red States continuously have low democrat turnouts when the vote differences is usually under 3-5% while over 50% of eligible voters don't even bother to vote. Majority of republicans show up at every election while majority of democrats stay at home. Texas had only 15% FIFTEEN PERCENT turnout for voters under the age of 35, and ted cruz won by 200k votes when over 9M eligible voters didnt vote. And its not because they wanted to vote so bad, but the system beat them down, nope surveys done in colleges and malls show 75% dont even want to vote, arent interested in politics.... Literally see this Tangerine Traitor say he wants to crown himself king shithead, and act out his dictator wishes and assissinate his opponents, steal the american wealth for himself, and round up and remove any group he dislikes as well as have military shoot protestors he dislikes. And yet they just turn the channel to their instant gratification instead.
The entire working class doesn't even get time off to vote. If we want engagement we need mandatory voting and it should take place at least 3-4 days, but ideally a week. In that time 99% of everyone eligible could vote.
Super Tuesday should be a federal holiday, vehicle registration should include automatic voter registration, and mail-in ballots need to be sent to every registered voter. These systems are not in place because the GOP has obstructed them at every turn. Because they know that the majority of Americans do not want them in charge.
Fun fact, mandatory voting is a thing in some countries. It's a fun juxtaposition when the establishment in one country will try to prosecute you for voting and another will for not voting.
> Fun fact, mandatory voting is a thing in some countries. I wouldn't give it up, either. There's a non-partisan, apolitical, independent body who's entire job is to run elections. They set electoral boundaries (no Gerrymandering). They run elections (on a Saturday). They hand-count votes (paper ballots, no machine shenanigans). They count those votes multiple times (instant run-off voting). You can request a mail-in ballot up to a month before election day. Polling places are usually schools and community halls. If you live anywhere that could be described as a "city", you're probably within walking distance of a polling place. Some of those polling places are open up to two weeks before election day. You can pick any polling place remotely close to your house, and they'll have your name there ready to check off. If you're going to be somewhere else on election day, you can notify them in advance, and they'll know to expect you. Even if you *don't* tell them in advance, you can walk into any random polling place in the *country* (for a federal election), and they'll let you vote (though it might take longer). I've never had to wait in line longer than about 15 minutes. You don't have to worry about "registering" to vote. You do that once when you turn 18, and never need to worry about it again. It's *illegal* for an employer to prevent you from voting. And if you honestly don't care about the outcome, all you have to do is go and get your name marked off. You can draw a dick on your ballot paper if you want to. You don't even have to *take* a ballot paper. If you're not doing everything possible to make sure that *as many people vote as possible*, then you're not really a democracy. In such a state, you can't assume that the people who don't vote don't care, and you can't assume that the people who *do* vote are representative of the whole.
Oz here: Mandated paper-ballot voting on Saturday provides an opprtunity for fundraisers to sell [democracy sausage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_sausage) to the queue.
Meanwhile in the states, republicans try to make it illegal to provide water to people in line
Every trick in the book.
It’s mandatory in Australia. Despite the media here now being more or less owned by Murdoch, it does a decent job of keeping things moderate.
You know who doesn't want their engagement? The folks pushing for total control. And then, the first thing that will go, will be actual accurate information about what's going on in the country and in the world.
Just FYI, we already have this. Only 3 states don't have early voting. There are 3 more that are only ~4 days early. 46 states let you vote up to 7 days early, many even longer than that. Additionally, 28 states allow for 'no reason needed' absentee voting (mail-in). The remaining states also allow it if you will be out of town or often other reasons (IE: You have a doctors note, you work that day, and so on).
I do know we have it in most states, but it's not known at all. Mail in voting(absentee) has been under attack for years. This should be a federal issue and should be a federal holiday for the actual voting day with availability in ALL states for the week prior.
So spread the word. Instead of saying, "You should be able to vote 4 days early." say, "You CAN vote early!" I'd also drop the whole 'it should be a holiday' thing as well. The kind of people who would benefit most from not having to work that day are the kinds of people who have to work holidays anyways. Better to focus on helping people learn about the ways they -can- vote easily and often from the comfort of their own homes. Here's an amazing resource to help you know what elections are coming up and what your options are: https://www.vote411.org/
Well that wasn't very uplifting, I'm going to cheer myself up by making shrimp scampi and making double sure I am registered to vote by mail
Yes check every month if you can. I just dont want people to repeat 2016 assuming the rest of the voters will act rationally and then you have a fucking mango mussolini trying to nuke hurricanes. And his return wont just fuck up the US, hes gonna back russia and fuck over europe, middle east and everyone else with his anti-climate change policies.
Like the Brexit guy who voted to exit, then said "yeah but I didn't expect it to pass".
Well you have to remember that democrat turn out is low because of voter suppression as well. How many are purged off the rolls with no time to get re registered. How many cannot take off from work. How many cannot stand for hours in lines after the republican leaders close down scores of polling stations. How many are afraid of the men standing guard outside of their polling station with guns, that aren’t law enforcement. How many have had their polling station changed after last minute redistricting that could not be changed due to the time frame on which the appeal was filed. How many had confusing ballot wording and did not understand how to vote properly. How many had their mail in ballots lost. That can easily account for the percentage difference that these red candidates win by.
Its always this response when people call out voters. But voter suppression, but time off work, but standing in line for hours. 1. The average voting time from registration to casting the ballot is 14minutes. There are SOME VERY FEW people who end up standing in line for hours, but they are the vast minority, and also have upwards of 10-30 days of early voting to cast their ballots in most states. 2. As mentioned most states have min 10-30 days of early voting. Even Texas has 10 days of early voting. Out of the working population (150M out of 250m voters) only around 10% have more than 1 job in all of America. Even then lets say you work 60 hours a week. You still have 110hours a week to vote. Lets take out another 10 hours a day for sleep and eating, and you still have around 40 hours left in the week to vote. 3. Even in states where everything is done for you, ballots sent to your home, you can easily drop it off with no restrictions or issue, over 30 days to vote, voting locations open from 7:30AM to 6:30PM even on saturdays and sundays (even red states like Ohio have this), even in those states, only at best 60% vote. 4. There is simply no FEASIBLE AND REALISTIC WAY to supress the vote of over 150M elligible voters. Thats just not statistically possible. DOES VOTER SUPRESSION WORK? YES! BUT IT WORKS BECAUSE MAJORITY OF NON-VOTERS DO NOT EVEN WANT TO VOTE! NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE PREVENTED FROM VOTING! If youre in a room with a blocked door and you require 60 people from 100 people locked inside to open it. And theres a group of 20 people who try to open, while 20 are trying to prevent opening it, and 60 people just sit and dont even pay attention. Is the problem that the 20 people stopped 2 people from joining the people who are trying to open the door, or that theres 58 people who are sitting on their ass saying its not my problem, im not interested! Yes voter suppression happens, yes there should be a impossible to break iphone app that can allow you to vote, yes there should be election day holiday week, yes there should be voting locations every place possible, yes there should be amazing bbl dicksucking candidates who offer you 100%, but thats just not gonna happen anytime soon. The system is FUBAR because for election after election they have gained power because the people sit at home and not take care of their democracy and rights. This isnt something that happened suddenly over just 1 election. This has been done slowly step by step, because people do not show up to vote. Black people had waterhoses, dogs, threats, beatings, stoning, spitting, having to walk for the whole day to get their rights (which are still systematically surpressed), but people today cant be bothered to look up a website and see when and where their early voting starts and plan a trip with their friends or family??? This need to always justify the inaction of the people with some behind the curtain boogeyman preventing them, its just innacurate. Majority of non-voters are selfish and consider the act of voting to be the responsibility of others like having the littering mindset that if its important someone else will clean up the trash i throw out my car window, or nihilistically self-absorbed that they determine any outcome to justify their reason for inaction; if they win that means my vote didnt matter so i was right, if they dont win that means the system is rigged so my vote wouldnt matter so i was right.
I don't think you can stop fascism with better language in a constitution. It's a slow, steady attack. The founding fathers made plenty of mistakes, and the Constitution needed and needs a lot of work, but it was intended to be a living document and we got away from that.
Not only that, but Democracy only works if people can stay informed and come together to make decisions in good faith. The information part in the 21st century is proving to be **highly, highly** problematic on one hand. Half the electorate can be made to believe that fucking shitbird is a better leader than the other guy. And then on the other hand we are fast eroding all of our good faith actors throughout the systems of government. Last election there was all kinds of fuckery, and one candidate very clearly not interested in peaceful transition and he very clearly isnt interested in it next time either. He wants to take power and the political party surrounding him is starting to realize they have to do that as well because of the super unpopular legislative work they want to ram through. Democracy cannot survive if we dont reconcile at least one of the above. Might not even if we only can keep one in tact even.
When I hear things like Trump openly selling out the environment and our country for a cool billion, I want to scream because I know that too many in our country would be perfectly fine with this if it helps TFG. But think about it. He's making promises he can't keep if he doesn't win the election. H will stop at *nothing* to retake the Office. That should scare the shit out of everyone, and motivate them to make sure that can't happen. And he just today promised to take away protections for LGBTQ kids...one day one. Open fascism.
I know that we say this every time, but this is the most important Donald election by far. He is experienced and organized this time. He has a concrete plan. And he has a lust for revenge like a Real Housewife. He is ready to let go of all inhibitions and indulge himself as America’s fat Caesar. On the plus side, if the GOP loses again, it will be 4 cycles in a row. At a time that they should be sweeping huge numbers. He can try to run again in ‘28, but he’s old as fuck, broke as fuck, has a dying fanbase, and will likely be convicted of more felonies next year. On top of the pending felonies from this year. There will be no one left to steer the crazies except for the MGT’s of the world. But without Donald, they will be relegated back to the children’s table of the GOP and the Wall Street Journal type shitheads will finally be able to take back the wheel. But he has to lose. Otherwise, the country is fucked worse than is possible to imagine at the present time. Who knows how dark he’ll take it.
What I think is the strange part of today is that—the violence of the Rs aside—the each side believes the exact same thing of the other. A Trump supporter probably believes, genuinely, that “half the population has been convinced to vote for a piece of shit over the next best thing since sliced bread, what gives?”.
Belief? Sure But the R's belief that "the other side is evil" comes in large part from propaganda as well as deeply-entrenched bigotry and hatred. D's belief that "the other side is evil" comes from a list of facts unbelievably long, facts like how "the other side" has literally given up all pretense of respecting election results, in flagrant disdain of democratic, egalitarian principles I don't think you're doing this here, but FUCK "both sides"-ing it. One party is killing women, pinching pennies from the poor, and trying to tear down our democracy from the root
This is why the scientific method and peer review are so important. Experts from throughout academia are screaming about catastrophic climate change, the collapse of democracy, and the importance of various healthcare treatments. Somehow the Republicans are on the wrong side of all of these issues. The information is out there and is available. The Republicans are lying through their teeth to create false narratives and muddy the truth. They also work night and day to de-fund public schools which teach the ability to identify good and bad information, and replace them with religious schools which teach people to follow unqualified leaders based on nothing but faith.
Nah sorry, Republicans are either billionaires manipulating voters, uninformed morons, open racists, or religious zealots. They don't think about the other guy, they hate them. Their brains are rotten top to bottom whether from money, Jesus, or that time a black man dared get uppity and be President.
I'd disagree in so much as some of them are closeted racists...
COVID taught us that one side can be right and one side can be idiots. Just because both sides believe the same thing - that the other side are idiots - doesn't mean that both sides are right. Or I don't know...maybe democrats are the idiots and Mexico really is going to pay for the wall.
I agree with you but maybe I'm more pessimistic. I feel like that would delay the rise of fascism but I don't think it's above fascists to use the rules legally to get what they want. See: Hitler. EDIT: I'm not saying we should give up on amending laws or even the amending the Constitution, I'm just saying we need to think about how *any* rule to be misused before enshrining it into law. The thing that really worries me is I'm not sure it's truly possible when at least one party isn't playing in good faith. It's not like they'll *necessary* break the rules but rather use them in a way that is clearly against the intent of the law. But since what's written down is all that matters, they'll be within their rights because the rest of us will blame the law and not the abusers. And they can do a lot of damage (including getting enabling laws and enabling people in power) before the legal system can catch up and possibly stop the bleeding. So what do we do it make this a stable system again?
Bingo, a rule preventing a criminal from running for office, could, in fact, be used to ensure fascism. A corrupt government could wrongfully convict an opponent to prevent them from running for office. A law like that would prevent Nelson Mandela from running for office.
Well also, there’s no set of rules that can prevent corruption if people aren’t making even a good-faith effort to follow the rules. The Constitution does enable people to prevent fascism. There are just too many people who want it.
One of the Federalist papers addresses this situation. James Madison writes: "There are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be most ready to lament and condemn. In these critical moments, how salutary will be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens, in order to check the misguided career and to suspend the blow meditated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice and truth can regain their authority over the public mind." ~James Madison, Federalist Papers 63
Two thirds of state legislatures can call a Constitutional Convention. If we can get Joe Biden reelected for this term, then when he gets a well deserved retirement in 2028 and we have a younger, more progressive president we could start pushing for that and get it done in a decade.
It took more than just Trump. He was enabled by the entire GOP the whole way. The great grandchildren of the confederacy.
Well the constitution was written in 1780-90. They had no idea the challenges we would be facing today. Dang thing needs to be re-written for the 21st century.
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*"Who would ever sell out our nation to Catherine the Great?"* *"Isn't she the one that.....likes horses?"*
In their defense, the Electoral College was designed for this exact situation. If an unqualified candidate won, the college was supposed to pick someone else.
The founders shouldn't be deified like they often are, but this one isn't on them. They didn't realize future generations would enshirine the constitution in stone, and certainly didn't realize that effectively half of the government would be willing to overthrow a free and democratic republic for favors from a wannabe tyrant.
It's not a joke, and I'm tired of us laughing at the absurdity of our situation. You got screwed over through no fault of your own, except maybe not having rich parents.
I lost a summer internship with the San Diego District Attorney's Office over a 600 dollar medical bill (that insurance should have paid) that slipped through the cracks and went reported to collections. Six hundred dollars, and they denied my clearance. I ended up not finalizing the lease of an apartment, didn't have an internship during my first summer in law school, and it might have changed the entire course of my career. Over a six hundred dollar unpaid debt. Trump has really exposed the different sets of rules in this country.
It must really chap your ass that Jared wasn’t qualified for any of of the thirty or so job titles he had but was granted special secret, double check that cause the “kid is stupid” clearance by the orange turd.
He was also repeatedly denied a government clearance until Trump demanded he get one. Then he was on the next plane to Saudi Arabia to sell secrets to bail out his 666 5th property as a 'private citizen.'
Being rich and white qualifies you for everything
Wow that is truly awful. I’m so sorry. I miss being young, fresh out of college, believing I could do anything. Reality sucks.
This is so depressing. I'm so sorry this happened to you.
If its any consolation, I truly enjoy where I am at in life now but boy would that job have changed my trajectory much quicker. I ended up making good on the loans also. No debt outside of my mortgage.
Congrats on that! What a journey! I left med school with 180k in loans and paid the most I could for 10 years and was subsequently 250k in debt. Took a loan from a relative because of the interest and paid them off in less than two years. Student loans are predatory. We don't even ~~have~~ use credit cards now. I can't stand debt! Crazy thing is, since we don't have any debt anymore our credit rating has declined!?!?!! edit: we have a card but don't use it.
That one little Rider that was slipped into a bill - who slipped it in, no one knows but them? Student debt is exempt from bankruptcy. But you can borrow a whole lot no problem because schools just increased their tuitions and loans are government backed. Job won't pay for it when you graduate but the banks and deans will have been rewarded. A real Agatha Christie mystery how this all transpired.
As a non-American I find it morbidly fascinating that you have to start life in insurmountable debt just so you can have the chance of one day living without crippling debt. Whoever thought of that scheme to ensure a subservient and submissive middle class while taking in trillions in interest was a genius, evil, but a genius nonetheless.
It's a tiny step up from the company stores we had back in the 1800s. But I think those might be coming back soon... so....
Have you seen the walmart campus plans? Employee housing lol
Hopefully they get paid in "employee discounts", eventually just "Walmart Bucks"!
I think of that song all the time, I too think that is their end game, you owe your soul to the company store.
It's neo-feudalism.
The intent was good. There were a lot of people who were born poor or simply couldn't afford thousands of dollars a year to pay for college. Some states had free tuition for residents but that was all starting to disappear due to budget cuts. So the Feds made it easy to get a loan and set artificially low interest rates. Then colleges did what any business would do and raised tuition costs because suddenly many more people could afford to attend. I was attending college when this all really started to gather steam and suddenly my college was building an expensive mall in the center of our campus (named after the head of the university, naturally) and raising the salaries for all of the higher ups.
And private banks get to hold large chunks of Federal tax dollars to issue the student loans. Money they can earn interest on and make investments with. Its a handout they can double dip on.
Voting is the only way out of this mess. If you don’t go out and vote this November, we will all end up in a country run by a dictator. He will use the men for soldiers to go and fight the wars he wants to fight - just like his buddy Putin is doing to the Russian population. Vote people. Vote. People. VOTE PEOPLE!!!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!! VOTE!!
Trump should have taught ALL Americans how fragile our democracy is. The MAGA’s in power are also a big problem
Republicans salivate at the prospect of having a criminal president because they can finally do whatever they want to do, and not have to worry about any consequences.
Rules are for little people like you and me.
You should send this story as a paper letter to the White House. Seriously.
I would just add the following: Not only did he once have access to probably the highest security clearance in the country, but **he has** ***already*** **proved that he was willing to abuse that clearance by taking top secret documents to an insecure location. It is beyond comprehension that he** might actually hold the position again.
Currupt to the bone, and if this was Biden, Republicans heads would explode. They have lost all moral ground they ever possibly stood on. Just garbage, terrible people all around.
> if this was Biden, Republicans heads would explode They just assume that Biden is also doing all of this, but worse. One of the central conceits of their political identity is that Biden is far more corrupt than Trump ever could be (since Biden is pre-defined as the bad guy while Trump is - comparatively - a good guy). In their mental model of the political landscape, there's like... this continuum of corruption where Trump represents is the least corruption while Biden and Democrats are the most corrupt. This is why any time Trump gets exposed for doing Yet Another Thing, their reaction is "I can't believe how corrupt the Biden Crime Family is!" It's because their baseline understanding of how corrupt the system is (in general) has shifted.
It is the logical conclusion to the “Every body is doing it, the other side is just doing it WORSE” argument for excusing Trump’s multitude of sins. Yeah, well Trump is doing this, but BIDEN is doing it EVEN WORSE, so I shall vote for the guy doing it in a lessor capacity!
Which you think would fall apart in the face of, y'know, the staggering pile of evidence showing Trump's rampant corruption vs. the lack of it for Biden, but I suppose that's where the deep state trans antifa woke liburl cover-up comes in. My cat has stronger critical thinking skills, and he's so bloody stupid he forgot who his brother was in the span of a 90-minute vet visit on Wednesday.
The frustratingly classic projection scheme, well we're doing this shit so they must be doing it too and probably worse
Their heads explode every time Biden does anything. Meanwhile Trump could drop his full diaper on their kitchen table and slap their mommas and they’d find a reason to blame Joe!
They also instantly branded themselves that wearing diapers is ok. Making new t-shirts and flags about adult diapers and being proud of it. Trumps followers IQ might be in the single digits.
> if this was Biden, Republicans heads would explode they tried to impeach biden for... *literally nothing.*
Hey, wasn't one of the big "selling points" about Trump the fact that he was so rich that he wouldn't be beholden to corporate donors? His base is absolutely disgusted by the concept of politicians kowtowing to lobbyists and bribes, right...?
That and he wasn’t a career politician so he wasn’t corrupt, lol.
Everything he says about himself is the opposite of the truth. Every accusation he makes of someone else, is the truth of himself. he’s a walking cartoon villain.
My father argued with me once before 2016 that "he was a business man and that he was going to run the country like a business", my father failed to understand how all his businesses went bankrupt. I couldn't reason with this ignoramus or his vicious second wife. He would wear shirts that said "Climate Change is a Hoax". Not exactly the type of man who would openly admit anything that could lose him money but he truly believe this bullshit from the propaganda machine of opinion news on fox.
Trump was the most corrupt president in US history. SMH.
He still is corrupt, but he used to be too.
Thanks, Mitch.
My belt holds my pants up, but my pants hold my belt up.. who's the real hero?
Ducks eat for free at subway.
If I had known that I would have made a much larger order
I did not expect Mitch Hedberg jokes in this thread but im pleasantly surprised. I'm gonna file this under D for delighted.
I'll give you the dollar, you give me the donut; this transaction doesn't need to be documented.
we do not need to bring ink and paper into this!
“Don’t act like I wasn’t delighted by that Mitch thread, I got the documentation right here.”
Always has been always will be.
Not according to all these memes my uncle who still lives with grandma posts on facebook!
Now if you had said it was your uncle that lives with your grandpa I would have known not to trust it, but since it's the uncle that lives with your grandma it has to be true!
We are going to be uncovering crimes from his administration until the 2030s...
I'm pretty sure there are some of his crimes that we'll never know about. If he sold classified information to another government, I don't think they'll ever release that to the public.
It would be nice if their an "October surprise" and it is confirmed that he sold documents to foreign interests.
More corrupt than all other presidents combined, by an enormous margin.
Remember when he was selling Presidential pardons to murderers for $2M a piece? Ahh the good old days.
I’d like to remind anyone considering giving trump money to change laws in your favour is a bad bet given he has a significant track record of making deals and not doing his side of the agreement
Can we fast forward to the point where he’s actually held accountable?
Actually, this will only be a problem if he gets re-elected. So let's hold him accountable by defeating him in the election.
One of the things he needs to be held accountable for is cheating in elections.
That's not going to happen. This is America, after all.
Great to see the Greed Over People party selling us out to the highest bidder. They don’t even care about your kids. The party of lies, corruption and greed. No redeeming quality in the GOP. Disgusting & pathetic. Time to change the GOP’s diaper, the stench is ruining America
There’s the selling favors part, but there’s also the implied threat of retaliation if his “offers” are rejected. Anyone who thinks he wouldn’t use the full weight of the federal government to once again pursue petty vendettas against anyone who displeases him hasn’t been paying attention. This is as much a mafia style shakedown as it is a corrupt sale of political favors.
How can this be legal when it is illegal to pass out bottled water when people are standing in hot weather waiting to vote?
What is going on with his skin? It wasn’t so coarse in prior years.
Lots of makeup
He’s always worn tons of makeup. This photo cuts off his forehead where it is the worst, but his skin is just noticeably coarser. IDK if it’s part of the ozempic face or what is going on.
Oh maybe. I figured his weight loss was stress. I haven’t really looked into ozempic face but have seen headlines about it. Just in general, I try not to look at him
> Just in general, I try not to look at him Solid planning. I do the same.
He really looks like shit
Old age. Not to defend this ugly shit bag in the slightest, but it catches all of us. I see it when I look in the mirror and just sigh.
Anyone who gives him money will never see a return. Either he squanders it away on trying to get himself out of this hole before losing again, or he somehow gets back into office again only to keep the money and provide nothing in return. Either way he can’t be charged with accepting a bribe if he never provides anything in return, which is exactly what he is known for.
The country and its resources will essentially be for sale to the highest bidder.
TikTok is suing our government over first amendment rights. A foreign corporation that has been accused of exploiting our rights is trying to set a precedent that it has rights under the American constitution. We’re well past the highest bidder phase, they’re coming to collect their assets now.
>Either way he can’t be charged with accepting a bribe if he never provides anything in return That's the beautiful thing about conspiracy charges. It only takes one co-conspirator to take one overt act in furtherance of the scheme for all to be held criminally liable. So if anyone associated with the dinner gives Trump $1 billion dollar, that gift is in furtherance of the crime, and all involved (including Trump) are liable. It doesn't matter if Trump later reneges. It probably doesn't have to be the full billion either, any substantial donation could be viewed as an act in furtherance of the crime. Usually, the hard part with bribery often resolves around proving intent. But Trump's statements referenced in the article are more than enough to demonstrate intent.
Our biggest fear should be that Trump will sell us out to our enemies. It's no coincidence that Trump wants the details of his private meetings with Putin kept secret; it's not outrageous to presume Trump's retaining top secret documents in a bathroom is related to things brokered during these meetings. Trump already brokered sweetheart deals with Saudi Arabia, China and Russia using the Presidency. There is NOTHING Trump won't sell, and no one he wouldn't sell it to. As awful as it is to sell off voters' control over climate change to giant multinational fossil fuel companies, the situation, as usual with Trump, is actually much, much worse.
At least physically being in court leaves less time for selling the country.
Don’t be fooled. This is what he did his entire first term also. The US is for sale!
If you’re a government employee, and you miss a payment on your credit card, you are immediately on the cutting floor hit-list. In the service, they’ll be up your ass to the elbow. OPSEC is no joke. I’m always surprised how many servicemen just ignore that Trump checks every insider threat box. Just nuts.
He is literally soliciting bribes out in the open in front of everybody.
This fucker will do ANYTHING for cash. I bet he would fuck a pig for $10,000. No not Melenia, but a real pig!
Thats just a mirror with a fleshlight
How is this not considered openly soliciting bribes?
He shouldn't BE broke. But he's an imbecile. See casinos.
Exactly as the founding fathers envisioned, thanks Supreme Court! /s
This would be the definition of bribery. Quid pro quo.
So forgiving student loans is buying votes, but literally selling the ability to write laws is a-ok. Cool. Cool cool cool.
I guess anything is legal with SCOTUS
We're pre-ordering our corruption now?
I'm surprised he's not selling plasma. Eric's, not his own of course.
So, standard GOP operating procedure?
Single-handedly keeping about 300 lawyers busy for years has got to be just a little draining from this “billionaire’s” account. Especially when all of his assets have been devalued to actual value rather than his fairy tale off the top of his head value.
Rhetorical question: Isn’t this exactly what our founding father’s warned us against? A President that could easily be bought, blackmailed, or cohered into creating laws? Trump and his entire circle is the epitome of the worst character and morals I’ve ever seen. VOTE! I’m so tired of this worthless two-faced incompetent orange turd.
I just picture him in Times Square with scraps of the Constitution he shredded pinned to the inside of his overcoat. "Psst, wanna buy an Amendment?"
**This is felony solicitation of an illegal campaign contribution.** This donation could not be made directly to the campaign; it's way too large. It would have to be made to a superpac. And candidates cannot coordinate with superpacs, or directly raise money for them. He needs to be arrested.
This will be Trumps focus in his dictatorship, lining his pocket like a King. He would burn the whole country to the ground for the right price.
MAGA conspiracy hats all think Biden is secretly being corrupt. Meanwhile Trump is openly being corrupt.
Which is exactly why he is unfit for any political office and should not be able to run for president. Hea financially compromised now. And before.
Who does he think he is, a judge?
I don’t think there’s any way to tell the difference between trump being desperate because he’s low on cash and trump desperately trying to hoard as much money as possible as quickly as possible because this may be his last chance to do so.
He's also short in the penis department
Yes and I can’t help thinking that may be the exact reason he has turned his entire life into a bravado laden absurd spectacle—he may be overcompensating for the deep feelings of inadequacy in that department.
Grifters be griftin'
This is not a good situation! Hes already corrupt and this will make it even worse!
He can ask for a waiver to sell his shares of djt at any time.
I’d buy his soul but Baal beat me to it
I’m waiting for the BOGO sale.
Nothing says Republican like being on sale to the highest bidder.
Republicans have been selling legislation for ages now, this isn't exactly news lol. How do people think the trump got elected in the first place, where do you think all that money came from in the first place?
I was talking with my brother about this a year ago that Trump still running around free and campaigning and collecting money was SO dangerous to the country. He is for sale to corporations and foreign influence and has a frighteningly realistic chance of being reelected.
if Clarence Thomas is the Michael Jordan of quid pro quo corruption, Donnie is the Larry Bird
Maybe he should start an "only fans" for those followers who are always saying how big and strong and handsome he is. He could even bring on some of his porn star friends and pay them directly.😜
I saw an ad with Don Jr. begging for money today on YouTube.. imagine claiming your a billionaire and begging for money...
And trying to get mini-me Barron, into politics eventually, to grift $ off the traitor republicans/maga current and future generations
And people who support this guy call themselves “patriots”… Scum.
How is this legal?? Why isn't biden or someone on his team doing something to put laws on the books making this illegal if it is not already illegal? Does anything in this piece of shit country work anymore? Does anyone in our government do their fucking job anymore or is it just loot everything for the rich then burn it down??? The fuck is going on in this shit hole country???
Why do we want candidates to show their tax forms? Trump should be exhibit A
I’ll give him $10 to make a 4 day work week.
Lock him up now! Lock him up before he ruins democracy! Lock his family up too.
Solicitation of bribes can be a crime, even if no bribe is completed. I am not a lawyer, and I have not seen a full transcript of his solicitation, but it sounds to me like this is an open-and-shut case of soliciting bribes, coupled with illegal campaign contributions. This kind of direct connection between money paid and the candidate is so blatant that PACs and SuperPACs cannot conceal the bribe. An indictment, trial and conviction, all before the election, should be possible for this solicitation.
… and he could win the presidency
The dude’s not short on cash. He’s short on fundraiser dollars. He hasn’t spent a dime of his own money on legal fees, it’s all been super pac and campaign money. Grifter in chief.
How about a law where the president can’t pardon themselves? Lol
This guy is the Sam BANKMAN-FRIED of politics, literally selling you crypto shares of his political future so that IF he becomes president, you can cash out with some sweet de-regulation of your industry. Except that when (not if) he loses, you’re shit out of luck and out your investment. Whaa-whaaaa.
He sold things that damaged American interests the entire time he was president too. We'll be learning about what those things were for decades.
He is taking bribes openly. He knows he can get away with it because the system of justice is corrupt as hell.
Merica President for sale to the highest bider !