demagogue on 27/6/2020 at 22:58
Has anyone cracked why Trump is so slavishly beholden to Putin? I don't think it's just flat blackmail because I think Trump revels in it. I think it's more to do with a fetish he has for gloating power over others and exploiting people's weaknesses or signs of weakness (an NPD defense mechanism because he's hypersensitive to his own weaknesses). He wants naked power to win, he gets off on it, and Putin represents that worldview that he gets in a special way. So I think he's happy to do Putin favors even if he doesn't have to, which is even worse than blackmail. That's my theory. But dodgy Russian oligarch "loans" and sordid "business" deals he doesn't want to come to light could be in the mix too.
Quote Posted by Nicker
The tyrants of the world are not the result of happenstance, they are the result of fundamental flaws in human psychology, their and ours.
I maybe didn't word it like this, but I meant the same thing. The meaning is mundane social and psychological factors, not the grand meaning in their imaginations that they think it has. No deeper meaning on the policy or historical or cosmic scale. That's what I meant.
Tocky on 27/6/2020 at 23:49
Quote Posted by TTK12G3
At most, this resulted in 20 dead US troops. It is as if it was done because it could be done, with no real objective in mind/
Putin always has an objective. In this case it is derailing negotiations between the US and the Taliban.
Starker on 28/6/2020 at 01:49
Quote Posted by demagogue
Has anyone cracked why Trump is so slavishly beholden to Putin?
He'll need a place to live after this, won't he?
Joking aside, though, it doesn't have to be more complicated that the owes him a bunch of money through Deutsche Bank, but kompromat is always a distinct possibility with Russia.
Renzatic on 28/6/2020 at 02:01
Quote Posted by Starker
...but kompromat is always a distinct possibility with Russia.
Like kompromat on Trump even matters anymore. The pee tapes could be real, Putin could release them on Pornhub, and it wouldn't make one goddamn bit of difference.
Pyrian on 28/6/2020 at 03:38
Yeah, I think that would actually increase his popularity. And somebody would photoshop in news personalities.
Starker on 28/6/2020 at 06:48
Sure, he could have sold nuclear secrets to North Korea and Fox News would be singing praises about how smartly he owned the libs, but he has nevertheless gone to great lengths to try to hide his connections and dealings with Russia, enough to fill the entire second part of the Mueller Report.
And nobody is invincible. Even with Nixon, Republicans eventually cut their losses and ran.
demagogue on 28/6/2020 at 06:59
For the record, what made the alleged pee scene bad was not the actual urination, but the fact he commanded them to pee in the bed because the Obamas had slept there. He allegedly refused to touch the bed himself. And if I had money, I'd be willing to bet the n-word came out of him more than a few times. In our era of chaturbate, nobody's going to blink an eye at prostitutes peeing, but refer to the sitting president by the n-word and play out a scene like that and you've got yourself a kerfuffle.
If the polls hold and he loses in November, then I think the fall will come quick and total, especially if the prosecutions start rapidly. Considering how long ago the Mueller report was released and how many charges it'd already clinched convictions for by itself, I think the prosecutors have been beyond prepared for the day he gets out this whole time.
....
Edit: Speaking of Russia... What is going on?
Quote:
Nordic authorities say they detected slightly increased levels of radioactivity in northern Europe this month that Dutch officials said may be from a source in western Russia and may “indicate damage to a fuel element in a nuclear power plant.” But Russian news agency TASS, citing a spokesman with the state nuclear power operator Rosenergoatom., reported that the two nuclear power plans in northwestern Russia haven't reported any problems. The Leningrad plant near St. Petersburg and the Kola plant near the northern city of Murmansk, “operate normally, with radiation levels being within the norm,” Tass said.
Starker on 28/6/2020 at 14:39
Why are the US Democrats so bad at this kind of stuff?
[video=youtube;kiDkTOKI7Ro]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiDkTOKI7Ro[/video]
I mean, they even need their opponent to drive their voter turnout for them:
Quote:
(
https://www.mediaite.com/election-2020/democrats-have-huge-lead-over-republicans-in-vote-by-mail-enrollment-in-florida/)
For years, Republican voters in Florida have requested mail-in ballots in large numbers, with about thirty percent of their general election turnout voting by mail, benefitting the get-out-the-vote efforts of Republican campaigns, a critical tactic in America's largest and most consequential swing state.
In 2020, however, the advantage appears to be shifting left, with Florida Democrats outpacing Republicans in mail-in ballot enrollments by a stunning margin of more than 300,000, per a new report in Politico.
While Florida Democrats have been increasing their efforts to encourage both their most ardent supporters and new or infrequent voters to sign up for to vote by mail, they appear to have been aided by an unlikely source: President Donald Trump, who has been very vocal about his thoughts about the risk of election fraud from mail-in ballots.
Trump himself has publicly mused that mail-in ballots may doom his chances at re-election, but instead of trying to encourage his own voters to vote by mail, he's done the opposite, and polls show his supporters have significantly soured on the idea of voting by mail.
[...]
nemyax on 29/6/2020 at 07:05
Quote Posted by demagogue
Speaking of Russia... What is going on?
According to (
https://www.rivm.nl/en/news/radioactive-substances-in-the-air-over-Northern-Europe), the nuclides come "from the direction" of western Russia but don't necessarily "originate in" western Russia. Let them work it out.
Quote Posted by demagogue
For the record, what made the alleged pee scene bad was not the actual urination, but the fact he commanded them to pee in the bed because the Obamas had slept there. He allegedly refused to touch the bed himself. And if I had money, I'd be willing to bet the n-word came out of him more than a few times.
So what you're saying is, Black Kompromat Matters?
