Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Because that keeps if from being an illegal campaign contribution.

Right. So they prefer to admit that Trump's been lying about the payment for a long time rather than face campaign finance violations. Or Giuliani just fucked up. Hannity seemed totally surprised that he'd admit this.

Press Shop hack Hogan Girdley was on Fox with Shannon Bream right after Giuliani's fuckup and she repeatedly asked him about what Giuliani said and he just babbled nonsense and said she should ask Giuliani. He said there's ongoing "legislation", but he's the best and the brightest (which Trump only hires) and meant "litigation".

[CGVT]

I didn't see the interview, but would have guessed the former. These jackasses don't care what lies they tell as long as they keeps them out of legal trouble.

The base doesn't give a shit that Ol Grab'em by the Pussy is banging porn stars. It probably makes him more of a man in their eyes, and the the Trump team knows it. They don't want to get caught breaking the law though.

But it could just be a fuck up by Giuliani. He's a fucking idiot too.

[Kapture1]

yeah, nobody cares. haven't for a long time. Trump's approval rates ticked up over the last month, he's not losing support over Stormy like the left desperately wants. They had visions of Trump's Monica Lewinsky, but they are delusional.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Because that keeps if from being an illegal campaign contribution.

CGVT- Actually let me revise this. It doesn't matter if Trump later repaid the money with his own money. Cohen effectively gave the campaign an illegal, undeclared loan. Giuliani even came close to full on admitting that the hush money was indistinguishable from other work Cohen was performing for the campaign.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/05/02/trump-repaying-the-stormy-daniels-money-doesnt-mean-there-were-no-campaign-finance-violations/?utm_term=.2ffb53ca9e82

Not that this is the end of the world though because campaign finance violations have piddling punishments.

[Kapture1]

SAD!

[Kapture1]

Reuters Poll: Black Male Approval For Trump Doubles In One Week

http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/02/reuters-poll-black-male-approval-for-trump-doubles-in-one-week/

Black male support for President Donald Trump doubled in just one week, according to a Reuters poll on presidential approval.

A poll taken on April 22, 2018 had*Trump’s approval rating*among black men at 11 percent, while the same poll on April 29, 2018 pegged the approval rating at 22 percent.*It should be noted that Reuters only sampled slightly under 200 black males each week and slightly under 3,000 people overall.

Trump experienced a similar jump in*approvalamong black people overall, spiking from 8.9 percent on April 22 to 16.5 percent on April 29.

Black males were also far more likely to say that they had “mixed feelings” about the president. On the 22nd, 1.5 percent said they had mixed feelings, while 7.1 percent said the same on the 29th.

[iam416]

Not that this is the end of the world though because campaign finance violations have piddling punishment

Indeed. What was Obama's punishment for obvious and admitted campaign finance violations? A fine.

Black male support for President Donald Trump doubled in just one week, according to a Reuters poll on presidential approval.

Heh. Yeah, I ain't trusting the polls on that one lick.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Indeed. What was Obama's punishment for obvious and admitted campaign finance violations? A fine.



Heh. Yeah, I ain't trusting the polls on that one lick.

Right, exactly, the Obama campaign got in trouble for violations and no one went to jail over it.

Cohen & Trump probably broke campaign laws paying Stormy (maybe others we don't know about?) but that's more or less a parking ticket. The trouble for Cohen (not Trump so much) is that it's possible he committed bank fraud of some type in order to raise the hush money.

[iam416]

I'm not sure how it could be bank fraud -- perhaps some other fraud. I guess if he lied to the folks he was asking for money there's potentially criminal fraud. However, most fraud cases are resolved with civil claims. I mean, fundamentally it's a bad business practice that is dealt with by compensatory damages. Even most consumer fraud statutes are fine-based/damages-based.

Criminal fraud is usually reserved for some massive scheme and would typically involve victims that couldn't be made whole. For example, your classic Ponzi scheme.

This is mostly the problem that I have with the various charges against PDJT. The fundamental act of paying off Daniels isn't illegal. The fundamental act of firing an FBI director isn't illegal. The fundamental act of engaging foreign countries after you're elected isn't illegal. So we end up with these intentionally ambiguous "charges" of "fraud" and "obstruction" that are bootstrapping "criminal" terms into otherwise legal acts. Or you end up with a perjury charge for someone on tangential questions that relate to acts that aren't even illegal (as a general matter -- D/R/I/Green -- I hate the the sort of emerging tactic of playing FBI Gotcha to drum up perjury charges to leverage in your investigation).

I get that there may be something out there (I'm on record as being extremely dubious about collusion and less so about financial issues). But the continual breathless reporting of potential criminal conduct relating to non-criminal acts in the vaguest catchphrase terms has really, really, really run it's course for me.

[crashcourse]

cohens records showed four 35K payments from trump to cohen

trump then authorizes guilliani to spill the beans knowing he couldn't continue down the path of denial based on what records were already in the FBI's possession

whether trump knew specifically he was paying for stormy or any other number of matter cohen may be the intermediate on is the question. although it is likely trump knew exactly what those 4 35K payments were for my guess is that's not all cohen did in that regard

[crashcourse]

[QUOTE=Kapture1;1177670]Reuters Poll: Black Male Approval For Trump Doubles In One Week

so they found a second one?

[iam416]

Trump's been denying for a month or more that he knew anything about Cohen paying off Stormy Daniels. Giuliani just admitted on Hannity's show that Trump repaid Cohen for the hush money.

This is also what's so preposterous about PDJT. Well, one of the things. As I said, there's nothing illegal in paying off a porn star. Further, I rather doubt it even does much to his poll numbers. But he goes out and denies the shit. That said, we've all long made up our mind on his character and fitness to serve as POTUS. Lying about banging a porn star and paying her off is, alas, a drop in the bucket.

[THE_WIZARD_]

It's not like he got a hummer from an intern...

[Kapture1]

[Dr. Strangelove]

Forgot to post this yesterday...the Chinese have quietly quit buying US soybeans. Didn't put a tariff on them, just quit buying and have canceled all contracts

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2018-05-02/china-has-stopped-buying-u-s-soybean-supplies-bunge-ceo-says