• skisnow@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    The Mueller investigation has fatigued me against this kind of thing. It had way more potential to get Trump removed from office on every level, and just got put in a box and forgotten about.

    We already know Trump is a rapist, this was found to be true in a court of law. We know as fact he was good friends with Epstein, the proof is already out there. Neither of these undeniable facts have caused a moment’s reflection on the part of his supporters, so I just can’t think what could possibly be in those files that would materially change anything.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      The Mueller report aftermath makes me so angry. It said that Mueller wasn’t allowed to press charges against the President, but that Trump wasn’t innocent and that Congress had a duty to impeach. But the fucking White House simply lied about what it said before releasing the report, and people believed them.

      When asked if Mueller said he would have prosecuted Trump if he hadn’t been the sitting President, Mueller said “Yes.”

      • samus12345@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        …and then when he was no longer president and was prosecuted, it took so long that he was president-elect by then so was given absolutely no consequences.

        • yermaw@sh.itjust.works
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          3 days ago

          That was a wild episode of the USA show. Will this man spend life in jail, or get away with it by becoming “the leader of the free world” (AGAIN)!? Tune in next week to find out!

        • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          It’s wild that they spent 3 years working on other cases when they already had a complete Obstruction investigation in the Mueller report. Those charges should have been filed in 2021, but they never were.

  • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    “Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s–t and has been proven to be a fraud,” Cheung told The Daily Beast. “He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump derangement syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”

    Well, now I believe you.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    Let’s finally pop this cyst and let out all of the poison. We need to finally turn a page from this graceless bully. Release the Epstein “rape for the rich” files.

    • Frezik
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      5 days ago

      He probably does, but it also doesn’t matter at this point.

      Trump has vacillated on Russia just in the last year. There’s a chunk of the MAGA base that wants to stop all funding to Ukraine. Trump started down that path. Then he tried to negotiate a peace deal with Putin and got snubbed because Trump has nothing to offer. Then he started up funding to Ukraine again in retaliation.

      Now he needs a distraction from the Epstein Files. He’s been desperately asking for ideas around the White House (we know this because this White House leaks more than Trump’s bladder). He thinks selling out Ukraine will be it.

      Whatever blackmail Putin has at this point is immaterial. Whatever it is, Trump will just call “fake news” and it’ll be in the news cycle for a bit, and then go away. Trump is following what he thinks is in his own best interest regardless of what Putin has.

      • takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 days ago

        He didn’t offer any funding that “deal” was essentially “Europe can give weapons to Ukraine and purchase replacements from the US” and looks like there’s even no guarantee on the replacements.

        Seems like a lot of people got fooled.

        • Frezik
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          5 days ago

          Direct aid has happened under Trump.

          https://www.csis.org/analysis/trump-administration-boosts-immediate-military-aid-deliveries-ukraine

          President Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced on July 14 a new delivery mechanism for sending weapons to Ukraine. While much is unclear about the new policy, it appears NATO member states will send weapons from their stockpiles to Ukraine and buy U.S. replacements.

          Which is referring to what you’re talking about, but there’s also:

          Separately, the Trump administration this week announced weapons sales to Ukraine totaling $652 million under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, adding to the $310 million in FMS approved in May. Every additional shipment helps at a time when Ukraine’s cities are being attacked nightly, and the Russian ground offensive continues day-by-day.

          So yes, the US is still sending direct aid to Ukraine.

          • takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 days ago

            First paragraph is what I talked about. Second is not aid but sale. It is crazy that he is even blocking sales so people are clapping when he allows. India sells weapons to Ukraine too, are you also count that as an aid?

          • khannie@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            the US is still sending direct aid to Ukraine.

            In exchange for cash though. Not the same as under Biden.

      • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Putin IS the news cycle online here. He has massive bots armies thru BRICS made of slaves (bots are slaves). The Epstein thing bubbling up (based on old info like the Michael Wolff Epstein interviews which I posted months ago and couldn’t get anyone to watch) is because Putin is mad at him and wants him to do something shitty. That’s why he keeps saying weird pleading stuff at Putin - he is literally protecting us right now (well, not “us,” but himself). That’s why he asked Ukraine to assassinate Putin.

        He likely ran his own child trafficking orgs and participated in some very illegal shit. He sold nuclear secrets for this. And now he is resisting because Putin probably wants him to do something truly unhinged like bomb Los Angeles, so BRICS has an excuse to invade.

    • Apocalypteroid@lemmy.org
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      5 days ago

      Of course he has. I’ve been saying this for months. Putin’s got a video of Trump fucking a minor and so Trump will do anything he says. Putin was a spy, Trump is a paedo.

      • ouRKaoS@lemmy.today
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        3 days ago

        At this point, I don’t even think that video counts as blackmail material anymore since Trump’s base will just claim “Woke AI Fake News” while watching their glorious leader use a five year old as a fleshlight.

      • prole
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        5 days ago

        Months? Try a fucking decade… Jesus how is any of this new to anyone

    • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Even if he did, it wouldn’t change a damn thing. His base are completely blinded.

      • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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        4 days ago

        putin comepletely controls trumps base, through propaganda mediums, like fox, REDDIt, yes they control r/conservatives, and talking headss like tim poole, laura loomer, ben shapiro.

        why do you think the talk of epstein suddenly disappeared on that subreddit, they made a “megathread” to force all the epstein discussion there apparently deleted it.

      • bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip
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        5 days ago

        Not even that, the entire legal and justice system is completely paralyzed to that Trump could violate a girl on the rose garden lawn in front of the press and nothing would happen aside from much screaming and posturing.

    • Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      That and I’d bet the Epstein stuff finally breaking through on the right was partially due to a Russian influence op. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it happened right after Trump pissed off Putin by attacking Iran and openly criticizing him.

      • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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        4 days ago

        its telling hes behind it, when all the right wing talking heads that putin has employed were quiet about epstein for months.

    • jballs@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      We should get a former director of the FBI and appoint them as a special council to look into it. Maybe they can even right a report about it. Call it something like the Schmeuller Report

  • BotsRuinedEverything@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I suspect Epstein was a government operative. The story just doesn’t add up. Forget about the supposed list. He’s a “former financer” so who did business with him? What were his investments? Surely there’s public record of something other than trafficking?

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      The behind the bastards show about him goes into some detail about his early life. Iirc, he was an unremarkable investment worker (not particularly successful or unsuccessful) but somehow managed to become the personal investor for a billionaire and then a little while later he has billions of his own.

      My guess is the money came from his first forays into the sex provider and blackmailer business with that first boss or maybe his whole social circle, but obviously there isn’t much about this on public record.

  • Formfiller@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    I mean martial law and being a Russian asset is pretty main event stuff. We all know he’s a pedo. It kinda seems like there’s no magic bullet that’s going to wake up the brainwashed masses but hope that there’s a tipping point where maga wakes up and turns on temu Shitler.

    • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      Oh they will absolutely turn on him if they smell blood in the water. Someone just has to make him bleed first. They want everything he is doing but they also know he’s gonna be dead soon enough and all the anger from the collapsing cult will be focused on them.

      He’s done everything they wanted. He has nothing left to offer them. Now they just need to dispose of him with a massive public spectacle and focus all the consequences on him. Thats what the Epstein files are. Everything about this says the rich and powerful want out and to have him be the scapegoat.

      Enter Russia. He’s still very useful to Russia. So Putin props him up by threatening those in his own party. So until Putin dies, this will continue.

      When Putin dies, Trump will be completely vulnerable. That’s when everyone will finally oust him.

  • zululove@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    Can we start organizing to impeach or “constitutionally remove“ (my preferred method, and more realistic imo)

  • NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    The Epstein files aren’t a distraction from Trump, Trump (as a whole) is just a distraction from what his cabinet and the heritage foundation are getting away with daily to dismantle the government, but keep being pissed about files that absolutely don’t exist anymore, it’s not like anything will save us at this point anyway.

  • KittiesInTheJungle@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    With all this factual evidence on Trump and that fact his approval rating is what I would refer to as Very high. I think we’re in for a bad time. Good people are devoted to supported an obvious villain. Luckily the economy is failing hard right now, couple that with the Tariffs and we might be able to defeat this undercover cristo fascist regime. But Goddamn fucking Trump really is just made of fucking Teflon.

    • prole
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      5 days ago

      his approval rating is what I would refer to as Very high.

      Yeah, just a flat out lie but cool

      • KittiesInTheJungle@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Its high for as terrible of a job as he’s doing and compared to his first term his points are much much better. Like its still a net negative approval but i would think the number of approval would be around 33%. Nate Silver has it at almost 44% at the time of this response, granted 54% disapprove. But to me considering his performance, how tumultuous the news cycles have been, and compared to his first term. To me 44% is very high( a relative term by the way).

    • drhodl@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Good people are devoted to supported an obvious villain

      They are NOT good people. FIFY

    • Null User Object@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Good people are devoted to supported an obvious villain.

      Where on Earth do you draw the line beyond which people aren’t good people anymore?

      “Well, he’s devoted to supporting an obvious villain, but he only force feeds rat poison to children occasionally, so he’s still good people.”. 🙄

      • KittiesInTheJungle@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        I’m not sure we understand each-other. I am saying that close enough to half of the population voted for Donald Trump. A lot of those people, probably most, are good people. Even if we don’t politically align. They are just under the spell of a would be authoritarian. Its very troublesome to have someone as problematic as Trump elevated to one of the highest positions of Power in our country.

        I don’t know how to answer your where do i draw the line question. But I hope this helps improve the understanding in the conversation.

        • Null User Object@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          I’m saying that anyone supporting an obvious villain is, by definition, disqualified from the category of “good people.”

          This isn’t some fantasy movie where the evil wizard has cast a magical spell upon the unsuspecting populous, and now they’re under his control.

          These people are, at the most generous interpretation, willingly allowing themselves to be taken in by a charlatan. Most of them are perfectly happy with everything he’s doing, or at least willing to look the other way.

          They all have the ability to start paying attention to what’s going on and stop supporting him. They choose not to.

          They’re not good people. They’re definitely not patriots. They’re traitors.

          • KittiesInTheJungle@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            Hmmm, i think thats a foolish thing to think when you’re talking about roughly 1/4-1/3 of ~330 million people. And when you consider the modern state of the political landscape and the way that social media has created these massive online echo chambers.

            They have one of two choices neither of which has shown to do anything to advance the interests of your average working American. We live in the most propagandized country in the world that isn’t ruled by a dictator. And we live in a political system which has shown itself to align itself to the interests of Capital Markets, it should definitely be the other way around.

            Everyone who supports Donald Trump is not a bad person, many of them are just like you know your neighbor. Trumps policies are terrible and I doubt that well make into the next election with a major net negative economic event due to his lack of understanding of global markets, but I have to remind myself constantly that people all have there own perspective. While you or I do see Trump as an obvious villian, many very intelligent people from doctors, lawyers, business executives to forklift certified laborersee him as strong and capable hero.

            I remember meeting two guys from Mexico out and about one night at like a techno concert. They were both very proTrump. I was confounded. Honestly like he was already president he was wildly unpopular by the end of six months and those four years were a chaotic nightmare. Like why did these two dudes from Reynosa think he was what America needed? Ill necer understand, but they were smart guys and I felt like they might have been good people

            I am just joining Lemmy but I may not be able to stay for long if the conversation consist of such one dimensional with us or against us rhetoric. This type of vitriol by the way is very off putting to people who are not yet aligned, also known as the people you need to win over if your political/philosophical movements are to gain strength and support.

            I am a lefty a super lefty at this point, but I’ll never be a diluted to the point that Im ineffective. I promise you that. There are good people on both sides of the aisle. It is unfortunate that civics in this country has devolved to the point where we are so divided we don’t even see each-other as a united America anymore. But we really see each-other as enemies. Very bad for us, good for our true enemies.

            • bassad@jlai.lu
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              4 days ago

              I remember meeting two guys from Mexico out and about one night at like a techno concert. They were both very proTrump. I was confounded

              I saw it as well in a mexixan field worker’s interview “I like Trump, even if he doesn’t like me”, that made me think about it.

              He is seen as “good for the business”, so I guess he has a very good propaganda team.

              • KittiesInTheJungle@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                Amazingly the GOP has been able to keep the good for business reputation even though there is very little data to suggest the economy does better under republican leadership. They just do greedy nasty things and they’re like “hey look at all the money I saved ruining these peoples lives”.

        • drhodl@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          Half the population are NOT good people. They are selfish and racist imbeciles. Your “evangalists” are nationalistic racists being farmed by people that satan would reject, and who think that this path of racism, selfishness and evil they are following, will somehow get them to heaven during the rapture. As if God (if she exists) would want such evil and stupid creatures.

          • KittiesInTheJungle@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            This is just stupid. Do you think in caricatures. I think one day and done for me here. Enjoy yalls echo-chamber Im glad y’all coming claws out so I know to stay the hell away

            • drhodl@lemmy.world
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              4 days ago

              Take your ball and run home, little ostrich. Put your head in the sand. Truth hurts, and doesn’t give a fuck for your poor injured feelings, hey?

      • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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        5 days ago

        Tbh the whole “good people vs bad people” is a bit of an oversimplification when political stuff gets involved I think. It makes some sense when it comes to immediate-scale things; if someone is a jerk that abuses or exploits the people around them, it’s probably not a good idea to associate with them or trust them, and it’s easier to communicate this with “this person is bad” than listing it all out. Similarly, if someone is friendly, helps out etc, it’s easier to just tell people “yeah, they’re a good person” when asked and it gets the point across.

        But ideological and political positions, while they certainly have consequences that help and hurt people, those consequences are sometimes harder to see and require getting information from other people. What if you have someone that comes across as kind, would help out a neighbor or befriend a new person at work, etc, but they believe some ideological position that if implemented would hurt many people, or support some politician that promotes the same? What if they do so not really even seeing the contradiction, because the people they for whatever reason trust tell him that this person or position actually helps people, that the reports that it’s harmful are lies, and that the people with other ideas are abhorrent and untrustworthy?

        What about the reverse, where someone’s positions would lead to fairly desirable outcomes, but in person the guy is an utter asshole? Obviously not everyone’s personality and views are misaligned like this, but it happens.

        At the end of the day, if you’re talking about someone you will never personally interact with, asking if someone is “a good person” or not isn’t super relevant. If you determine that they are, that doesn’t make any harm from their missteps go away, and if they’re not, your condemnation doesn’t do so either. What matters more is if the consequences of the actions they take are desirable, and if not, if you can do anything to mitigate them or influence their future behavior.