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Thread: The Trump Presidency

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    Quote Originally Posted by zitothebrave View Post
    Yup, by pointing the fire at himself.
    Meh, non-story.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hawk View Post
    A direct analogue would be: Putin enjoys the same relationship with his titans of industry as American Presidents do with theirs.

    I asked how it was materially different, the inference being that there is some difference the question of which is magnitude.
    My questions still stand.

    Is there no material difference between a pluralistic democracy, where monied citizens may support one party or another, and an autocracy where the autocrat controls the legislature, the judiciary, the press, and the organs of state security?

    For the third time, please show me the anti-Putin oligarchs.

    This encapsulates it pretty well:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/opinion/masha-gessen-the-myth-of-the-russian-oligarchs.html?
    Last edited by Julio3000; 03-22-2017 at 06:33 PM.

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    Trying to pull this at least back to the neighborhood of the topic, which was Manafort . . . working in the political sphere for a Russian oligarch means, in essence, working for the Russian state, which means, in essence, working for Putin.

    Is that even debatable, really?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Julio3000 View Post
    Is there no material difference between a pluralistic democracy, where monied citizens may support one party or another, and an autocracy where the autocrat controls the legislature, the judiciary, the press, and the organs of state security?
    That isn't the discussion we're having. Your hardliner positions on Russia are well known to me.

    For the third time, please show me the anti-Putin oligarchs.
    I only count twice.

    There isn't an official list of oligarchs - and even if one existed, I don't see how providing a singular example of an oligarch who defied Putin in public serves to counter my assertion that the oligarchs and Putin work as a unit and that the backscratching is mutual and abundant.

    I would point you to conflicts in Russian policy making, especially within United Russia, as evidence of the influence available within the duma.

    In the meanwhile, if you want to explore anti-Putinism, there's this guy:

    Last edited by Hawk; 03-22-2017 at 06:55 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Julio3000 View Post
    Trying to pull this at least back to the neighborhood of the topic, which was Manafort . . . working in the political sphere for a Russian oligarch means, in essence, working for the Russian state, which means, in essence, working for Putin.

    Is that even debatable, really?
    Yes.

    It's the entire reason we've gone down this insufferable rabbit hole.

    Drawing a line between Manafort and Putin that goes through a Russian aluminum tycoon whose oligarchy status is questionable, at best, is a tenuous proposition.

    That's not to even question whether or not it is relevant in a contemporary sense.
    Last edited by Hawk; 03-22-2017 at 07:02 PM.

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    So the chairman of the house intelligence committee comes out and says that the trump team was under surveillance.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Krgrecw View Post
    So the chairman of the house intelligence committee comes out and says that the trump team was under surveillance.
    Will not be covered by mainstream media. Wonder how far it will be investigated. Could it get back to Obama? Could he potentially be charged with a federal crime?

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    Quote Originally Posted by thethe View Post
    Will not be covered by mainstream media. Wonder how far it will be investigated. Could it get back to Obama? Could he potentially be charged with a federal crime?

    This is a big deal and should be covered by the media.

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    Joe Scarborough‏Verified account @JoeNBC 3h3 hours ago

    If the Republican Party wants to do what is best for this country and its national security, they will remove Devin Nunes as Intel Chairman.

    2,454 replies 10,386 retweets 21,750 likes
    The best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to make sure he doesn’t get a gun.

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    Washington (CNN)-- The FBI has information that indicates associates of President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the release of information damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign, US officials told CNN.

    http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/22/politi...ans/index.html

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    The best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to make sure he doesn’t get a gun.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hawk View Post
    That isn't the discussion we're having. Your hardliner positions on Russia are well known to me.



    I only count twice.

    There isn't an official list of oligarchs - and even if one existed, I don't see how providing a singular example of an oligarch who defied Putin in public serves as a counter-example to my assertion that the oligarchs and Putin work as a unit and that the backscratching is mutual and abundant.

    I would point you to conflicts in Russian policy making, especially within United Russia, as evidence of the influence available within the duma.

    In the meanwhile, if you want to explore anti-Putinism, there's this guy:

    Yeah, internal debate within a party that controls 3/4 of the Duma and pretty much all of the Federation Council, elected under circumstances decried by international observers. That is certainly the place to look for dissent and legitimate debate.

    I'm not a hardliner. I'm just observing what's confirmed by volumes of literature, and, without putting too fine a point on it, the consensus of the world outside of Moscow.

    If you could steer me to something that would edify me otherwise, I would genuinely like to understand your point of view. Post or PM me some suggestions.

    You've told me, in effect, that Russia--which is a kleptocratic autocracy, regardless of the specific orientation of the kleptocrats--is not really that different than the US. You walked it back, but I think your words stand pretty clearly.

    So you won't find me an anti-Putin oligarch because you can't find a "list" of oligarchs. You further object because, er, Putin and the oligarchs are mutually supportive. That's true to an extent, but not to the extent you suggest. Who's driving the bus? Is Putin in thrall to the oligarchs or is he a quite distant first among equals?

    Is there an officer or senior executive of Gazprom or Rosneft who isn't a Putin crony? How many of them are colleagues from St. Petersburg or KGB/FSB?

    Forget parsing the definition of oligarch. Just check out any online publication's list of richest Russians and tell me which ones have the teensiest bit of daylight between themselves and Putin.

    Getting dyed green is better than getting shot in the face, poisoned, or chucked off a building, so I guess Navalny is lucky, by standards of those who test the regime.

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    I believe Thump's amateurish attempts at running the country will be what does him in. As his backsliding, silly lies, failures and unforced errors continue to pile up and the all encompassing stench of it keeps growing, the protection from the Russian scandal and his blatant emoluments clause violations will continue to erode. I think he's well in the danger zone already.
    Last edited by Runnin; 03-22-2017 at 10:03 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Runnin View Post
    I believe Thump's amateurish attempts at running the country will be what does him in. As his backsliding, silly lies, failures and unforced errors continue to pile up and the all encompassing stinch of it all keeps growing, the protection from the Russian scandal and his blatant emoluments clause violations will continue to erode. I think he's well in the danger zone already.
    Disagree. What will do him in is when this POS Congress gets what they want as far as getting all their programs done and done in Trump's name or they just give up on getting them passed. In either case once they have either tired of him or have used him as much as they can, then he will be finished one way or the other, but of course nobody will be able to pin it on Ryan, McConnell and company, they'll give that "DUMAS deer in the headlights, look at our halos, expressions while Pence "reluctantly takes the oath".

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    Quote Originally Posted by 57Brave View Post
    "....though officials cautioned that the information was not conclusive and that the investigation is ongoing."

    In other words, the intelligence agencies still don't know jack ****. Even if they say there was collusion who in the hell in their right mind would believe them with their behavior of late?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Oklahomahawk View Post
    Disagree. What will do him in is when this POS Congress gets what they want as far as getting all their programs done and done in Trump's name or they just give up on getting them passed. In either case once they have either tired of him or have used him as much as they can, then he will be finished one way or the other, but of course nobody will be able to pin it on Ryan, McConnell and company, they'll give that "DUMAS deer in the headlights, look at our halos, expressions while Pence "reluctantly takes the oath".
    I would agree if the GOP was united with Thumper and had a clear idea of what they wanted to accomplish. They seem hopelessly fragmented at this point and the POS POTUS is only exacerbating their divisions.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hawk View Post
    Yes.

    It's the entire reason we've gone down this insufferable rabbit hole.

    Drawing a line between Manafort and Putin that goes through a Russian aluminum tycoon whose oligarchy status is questionable, at best, is a tenuous proposition.

    That's not to even question whether or not it is relevant in a contemporary sense.
    So at a "point where the political economy and actual economy cross borders," a guy who was, contemporary with the story, possibly one of the ten richest men in the world was not a player? Not an oligarch? Not close to Putin? You must be joking.

    You are steady tossing up bricks recently.

    As you have noted, there is no effective difference between the private economy and the political economy in Russia. But doing political work for a billionaire oligarch =/= effectively working in Putin's interests. Dude.

    What does that have to do with Trump? ****, maybe nothing. But it's kind of a red flag that a guy with Manafort's connections, and his willingness to fudge them, was running his campaign. I'm not even trying to draw that line, just responding to your pooh-poohing Deripaska's connection to Putin.

    As for Manafort, who knows? I expect he'll get a chance to tell us under oath.
    Last edited by Julio3000; 03-22-2017 at 10:15 PM.

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    Seriously, you read the AP article, right? Manafort's own words in the docs were about working to the benefit of the Putin government, which was obviously in the interest of his prospective client.

    Why play dumb about this?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Runnin View Post
    I would agree if the GOP was united with Thumper and had a clear idea of what they wanted to accomplish. They seem hopelessly fragmented at this point and the POS POTUS is only exacerbating their divisions.
    Oh they're united alright, at least as united as these aholes can be with anybody. The hard line Repubs who want to take us the rest of the way back to the gilded age are plenty content with using the semi-popular president (with his supporters anyway) to get their agenda passed, mainly because he is popular with many of the same people their agenda is going to sport pfark, then once the deeds (and the damage) are done they will go on to phase 2, (the Pence presidency) one way or another.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Oklahomahawk View Post
    Oh they're united alright, at least as united as these aholes can be with anybody. The hard line Repubs who want to take us the rest of the way back to the gilded age are plenty content with using the semi-popular president (with his supporters anyway) to get their agenda passed, mainly because he is popular with many of the same people their agenda is going to sport pfark, then once the deeds (and the damage) are done they will go on to phase 2, (the Pence presidency) one way or another.
    They are not at all united on health care, at least not as of this moment. Could be this time tomorrow.

    Pence would certainly be easier for them to work with.

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