Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[froot loops]

[froot loops]

[Dr. Strangelove]

This poll is totally illegitimate because they didn't ask crash. BTW, same poll showed 51% in favor of impeachment. As in, remove-from-office impeachment, not just an inquiry.


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[Dr. Strangelove]

Wow, read this thread. Fox's Pentagon Correspondent says she spoke to a Special Forces member who is currently in Syria and has been working alongside Kurdish troops for a while now.

Says he's ashamed for the first time in his career. Says the Turks are already committing atrocities. Says the Kurds are still guarding thousands of ISIS prisoners but that won't last much longer. Says Trump doesn't understand the situation and that they were stunned to receive orders to back down.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Trump urged Tilllerson to help him persuade Jeff Sessions to drop a case against one of Rudy Giuliani's clients back in 2017: a Turkish gold trader who essentially laundered money for Iran. Unclear if Trump was doing this for Rudy's benefit or as a "favor" for Erdogan.

******************************

President Donald Trump pressed then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to help persuade the Justice Department to drop a criminal case against an Iranian-Turkish gold trader who was a client of Rudy Giuliani, according to three people familiar with the 2017 meeting in the Oval Office.

Tillerson refused, arguing it would constitute interference in an ongoing investigation of the trader, Reza Zarrab, according to the people. They said other participants in the Oval Office were shocked by the request.

Tillerson immediately repeated his objections to then-Chief of Staff John Kelly in a hallway conversation just outside the Oval Office, emphasizing that the request would be illegal. Neither episode has been previously reported, and all of the people spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the conversations.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-09/trump-urged-top-aide-to-help-giuliani-client-facing-doj-charges

[crashcourse]

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/25/764052120/read-transcript-of-president-trumps-call-with-ukraine-s-leader

its obvious you haven't read it or you wouldn't be droning on about impeachement

[Dr. Strangelove]

Giuliani's "Associates" that were working with him in Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden were just arrested. Campaign finance violations.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/10/politics/guliani-client-arrested-campaign-finance/index.html

You are being proven right, crash. Absolutely nothing to see here

[Dr. Strangelove]

So the two guys who have been working closely with Giuliani for months, and also sleazy pro-Trump lawyer Joe diGenova, to get to dirt on Biden, turn out to be crooks themselves

They've been funneling illegal foreign money to Republican candidates. They donated $325,000 to a Trump SuperPac which apparently came from a Russian billionaire. They created lots of shell LLC so they could donate well above the allowed limits for specific candidates.

There's also this:

Fruman and Parnas asked a US congressman, who is not named in the indictment but appears to be former Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, to help get the US ambassador to Ukraine fired at the same time that they were committing to raise tens of thousands of dollars for that congressman's reelection effort, according to the indictment. Parnas made their request to the congressman, who is not named, in part at the behest of one of more Ukraine government officials, the indictment states. Donations to Sessions match those laid out in the documents and he has publicly acknowledged raising criticism of the former ambassador.

Sessions, the former chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, is not charged with any wrongdoing. He has not responded to requests for comment.

The ambassador at the time, Marie Louise Yovanovitch, was eventually recalled in May after earning the ire of Trump and other conservatives, who viewed her as biased against the President.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/10/politics/guliani-client-arrested-campaign-finance/index.html

Rudy had "no comment" today.

[iam416]

As we steam toward a showdown with Congress, Jim Geraghty reminds of us the norms already broken in 2012 -- and how the Ds cheered...

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/trump-defies-subpoenas-and-the-constitution/

[iam416]

Also, Geraghty on the truly disgusting hypocrisy of the NBA and, more importantly, the completely shameful treatment of the Kurds.

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/the-nba-shamelessly-panders-to-china/

The latter is true event of significance this week. Not the NBA odeously bootlicking an authoritarian, genocidal government. Not the fundamentally meaningless impeachment shit. What matters this week, and will forever stain this country as an atrocious decision, is the abandonment of the Kurds. It is absolutely indefensible and with completely real and tragic consequences.

[froot loops]

I think the NBA thing is just as important. We could only wish it was just the NBA pandering. The whole point of opening up trade relations with China or any other actor that we don't agree with is the theory that trading with them opens them up to more democratic ideals. Part of that solution depends on the corporations trading willing to take stands on those democratic ideals. If they only see dollar signs then the whole project is doomed. There has been other cases of this, but this controversy has cut through the noise.

On the Kurd issue, I'm not sure you can separate "meaningless impeachment shit" from it. It all comes from the same source, Trump himself. He has property in Turkey and he had a phone call with Erdogan and the next thing you know Turkey gets the green light. Its all part of his personal corruption campaign.

[iam416]

The whole point of opening up trade relations with China or any other actor that we don't agree with is the theory that trading with them opens them up to more democratic ideals

I actually think that's ancillary.

I also think it's fine for folks to do business with China. The problem I have with the NBA isn't that they're doing business with China. It's that they are issuing preposterous apologies. If a corporation, e.g., condemns Uigyur genocide and then, upon, pressure from from China, says, "nah, my bad, not an issue" -- then I have a real problem with them. Much more then if they stay silent. So that highlights the problem of Woke Capitalism. It's not really Woke. It's Woke where it makes money. It's Woke where you can get away with it. But it ain't Woke where you're going to lose a market. It's ok to bully North Carolina over legislation. It's ok to comment on police issues in the US. That's not a money-loser. But if you comment on Hong Kong police -- I mean, real fucking police state bullshit or anything else about China...well.

I'm not sure you can separate "meaningless impeachment shit" from it. It all comes from the same source

I'm quite sure I can.

[froot loops]

Rudy was seen dining with these two gentlemen yesterday before they tried to get out of Dodge.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Rudy was seen dining with these two gentlemen yesterday before they tried to get out of Dodge.

Very nice. One way plane tickets too.

What's going to be fun is John Dowd represents these bums. They had been asked to be deposed and produce documents to Congress. Dowd told Congress that the men worked so closely and intimately with both Giuliani and Joe diGenova, that all their work was protected by Attorney-client privilege. Giuliani probably wants as much distance from them as possible now.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/10/10/lawyer-responded-impeachment-probe-comic-sans-even-fonts-creator-cringed/

[froot loops]

Trump sends his enforcer to get the state news agency back in line.