[kenberg]

Zelandakh, on 2017-November-02, 08:37, said:

And fraud too, right? I mean if any of us applied for credit and listed our net worth as (some scaled down version of) $30mil one month and $2.6mil the next, as Gates did, or $42mil (March), $136mil (May), $28mil (August) and $63mil (also August) as described by Manafort, we would surely be taken to court over it. Manafort's lawyer seemed to argue that the differences could be explained by fluctuating valuations of assets - over $100mil? Really?
Yeah, right!

And yet this seems to have been standard operating practice for these guys and would surely not even have attracted any attention at all but for the special investigation. Surely this is precisely the sort of activity that "draining the swamp" is supposed to stop?! Perhaps what has happened is that we lost a swamp and gained a sea of quicksand, into which the administration will slowly sink.

"And fraud too, right? I mean if any of us applied for credit and listed our net worth as (some scaled down version of) $30mil one month and $2.6mil the next, as Gates did, or $42mil (March), $136mil (May), $28mil (August) and $63mil (also August) as described by Manafort, we would surely be taken to court over it"

Yes. at a lunacy hearing to commit me to an asylum. Along with anyone who would believe it.

But yes, I understand your point.

Fluctuating assets? Legal shenanigans produce strange events. One of my favorites: A local guy was accused of being a drug kingpin and part of the evidence was huge unexplained amounts of cash in his possession. So he explained it. He obtained the cash robbing banks. If the fluctuating assets story doesn't fly maybe he could try the bank maneuver. Or there is always the "I won/lost it in a crap game".


We have to find a little dark humor in this or we will all go nuts.

[Al_U_Card]

Winstonm, on 2017-November-02, 15:08, said:

That extra $3 trillion (quantitative easing) is what kept you and me from reliving the Great Depression after the housing bubble burst and Lehman Brothers died.

Inflating the next "bubble" maybe? Banks and the Market. Until the next bail-in, when you can say goodbye to a chunk of your assets without having to wait for your taxes to pay for the socialization of the financiers losses.

[andrei]

rmnka447, on 2017-November-02, 13:09, said:

Now we have Democrat Donna Brazile in her new book giving credence to the claim that the Democratic nominating process was rigged.

https://www.msn.com/...ocid=spartandhp

Sad!! I guess it was much too important than to let the nominating process be democratically conducted and let the people decide.

Bernie is a cisgender straight white male, isn't he?
DNC have no use for them in their IT department (https://www.snopes.c...nc-white-males/), so why would they want one as a candidate?

[rmnka447]

Winstonm, on 2017-November-02, 15:05, said:

If you think the Republican party would have rolled over and allowed an independent to win their nomination I think you are kidding yourself.

There are many, many people who would say that President Trump isn't truly a Republican. But against all odds, he ran and defeated many other Republican contenders in a field of 16. He just hit a populist chord that resonated with Republicans and won the nomination. It was messy process getting to a single candidate, but I don't hear anyone suggest it wasn't done democratically.

In a way, Bernie Sanders hit a similar chord with many progressives. But, of course, with a fixed result, he never stood a chance.

I just think it's delicious that the folks who scream about the end of democracy with Trump rigged the system.

Just think, if it had been a fair system, Bernie might have been selected and beaten Trump. "Hoisted by one's own petard" comes to mind.

[Winstonm]

rmnka447, on 2017-November-02, 19:56, said:

There are many, many people who would say that President Trump isn't truly a Republican. But against all odds, he ran and defeated many other Republican contenders in a field of 16. He just hit a populist chord that resonated with Republicans and won the nomination. It was messy process getting to a single candidate, but I don't hear anyone suggest it wasn't done democratically.

In a way, Bernie Sanders hit a similar chord with many progressives. But, of course, with a fixed result, he never stood a chance.

I just think it's delicious that the folks who scream about the end of democracy with Trump rigged the system.

Just think, if it had been a fair system, Bernie might have been selected and beaten Trump. "Hoisted by one's own petard" comes to mind.

Regardless of your view, you can't deny that Trump ran as a Republican and Sanders ran as an independent.

[ldrews]

Winstonm, on 2017-November-02, 20:24, said:

Regardless of your view, you can't deny that Trump ran as a Republican and Sanders ran as an independent.

What on earth are you smoking? Sanders may have been an independent but he ran for the Presidential nomination as a Democrat. Much like Trump, who is a populist, ran as a Republican.

[Winstonm]

Fact Check: 1)Trump is a registered Republican. 2)There is no "populist" party.3)Sanders is registered as an independent.

[RedSpawn]

http://www.businessi...sanders-2017-11

Very well said. It is long overdue for the DNC to conduct a post-mortem of the 2016 Democratic primary process and clean up its glass house.

[Winstonm]

Elizabeth Warren sums up perfectly my sentiments concerning the Democratic nomination process for the 2016 election:

Quote

"If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead," Brazile added. "This was not a criminal act, but as I saw it, it compromised the party's integrity."

[rmnka447]

And here are some comments from Rep. Tulsi Gabard (D-HI) also.

https://www.realclea...etaliation.html

[hrothgar]

Winstonm, on 2017-November-03, 09:36, said:

Elizabeth Warren sums up perfectly my sentiments concerning the Democratic nomination process for the 2016 election:

Here's another view http://talkingpoints...-serving-claims

[ldrews]

Winstonm, on 2017-November-03, 08:28, said:

Fact Check: 1)Trump is a registered Republican. 2)There is no "populist" party.3)Sanders is registered as an independent.

Fact Check: Sanders ran in the Democratic primaries, not the Independent primaries. Trump is registered as a Republican this time around, he basically hijacked the Republican party. Ask Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, etc. Or rather, Trump conducted a "hostile takeover", he went directly to the "shareholders", i.e., the Republican party grassroots.

[Winstonm]

rmnka447, on 2017-November-03, 12:03, said:

And here are some comments from Rep. Tulsi Gabard (D-HI) also.

https://www.realclea...etaliation.html

I agree 100% with those sentiments.

[Winstonm]

Fact check: 1) There is no "independents" primary. 2) Trump is a registered Republican.

[ldrews]

Winstonm, on 2017-November-03, 15:37, said:

Fact check: 1) There is no "independents" primary. 2) Trump is a registered Republican.

Fact check: Sanders ran under the Democratic banner, so by definition he was a Democratic candidate. Trump was a registered Democrat before he was a registered Republican. During the primaries the Republican establishment did what they could to defeat Trump without alienating the Republican base. Trump does not adhere to Republican orthodoxy, he seems to be a populist. If the Democrats are willing to make the kind of deal that he wants he has no problem working with them, particularly since the Republican congress cannot seem to deliver.

[Winstonm]

Third Fact check: 1) Bernie Sanders is an independent. 2) Donald Trump is a registered Republican.

All else is spin.

[Winstonm]

Where is the president?

In Colorado, a white man, it is now being reported, who lived with 10 bibles and who would not talk to his hispanic neighbors but would talk to other white neighbors walked into a WalMart, pulled out a pistol, and executed 3 strangers who were standing in line to pay for their purchases.

Another mass shooting by a white guy.

[ldrews]

Winstonm, on 2017-November-03, 19:13, said:

Where is the president?

In Colorado, a white man, it is now being reported, who lived with 10 bibles and who would not talk to his hispanic neighbors but would talk to other white neighbors walked into a WalMart, pulled out a pistol, and executed 3 strangers who were standing in line to pay for their purchases.

Another mass shooting by a white guy.

From CNN:
(CNN)Chicago marked 2016 as the deadliest year in nearly two decades, data released by the Chicago Police Department shows.
500 homicides. 9 months. 1 American city.
500 homicides. 9 months. 1 American city.
The city saw a surge in gun violence in 2016: 762 murders, 3,550 shooting incidents, and 4,331 shooting victims, according to a statement released by the department on Sunday.

There were 480 murders in 2015, the most in the city since 1997.

From http://www.intellect...erers-are-black

Chicago: 75% of Murdered Are Black, 71% of Murderers Are Black

Talk about mass shooting.

[Winstonm]

Quote

THORNTON, Colo. (AP) — Authorities have identified the three people who were fatally shot at a Walmart in suburban Denver. Coroner Monica Broncucia-Jordan said Thursday that 52-year-old Pamela Marques, 66-year-old Carlos Moreno, and 26-year-old Victor Vasquez died in Wednesday night’s shooting. Moreno was a grandfather who was a longtime maintenance worker at the Auraria Higher Education Center.

[Winstonm]

Here is a quote from the Steele dossier:

Quote

“July 2016: Trump advisor Carter Page holds secret meetings in Moscow with Sechin and senior Kremlin Internal Affairs official, Divyekin.”

Here is what the New York Times reported today:

Quote

Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump presidential campaign, met Russian government officials during a July 2016 trip he took to Moscow, according to testimony he gave on Thursday to the House Intelligence Committee.

Doesn't look like Steele is such fake news anymore.