Trump: Impeach is the new Orange

[Raid]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Epstein Files are documents gathered by the US government to convict Epstein. Given Trump has a stranglehold on the DoJ and therefore the only source of these files, there's absolutely no way to verify anything that gets released, save for re-opening the investigation and hoping all of the victims and witnesses want to co-operate a second time. The thing is this started off as a conspiracy theory that Trump used to get himself re-elected, but conspiracy theories don't really go away just because you show off some evidence - the reaction then is "where's the rest of the evidence? We can't trust anything the government says!"

I'm genuinely curious what the reaction to this will be. It's obviously not going to actually implicate Trump in anything significant, they've had too long to remove any evidence of that, but will people actually accept it?

[eny]

AIPAC

[Wrathbone]

I'm genuinely curious what the reaction to this will be. It's obviously not going to actually implicate Trump in anything significant, they've had too long to remove any evidence of that, but will people actually accept it?

Of course not. I certainly won't trust that they've released the full, unedited set of evidence. We've been shown too much smoke around Trump to accept that there's no fire. It won't put an end to anything, as all it will take is the merest hint that something's been manipulated or withheld for questions to be asked again.

If I'm honest with myself, I'm not sure what could convince me that they've released everything at this point, no matter who releases it. The whole sordid business implicated so many people in positions of power that it's virtually impossible to trust the powers to be 100% open about it.

[eny]

Especially since they have deconstructed and/or polluted all the arms of oversight and archival, purely to make evasion even easier.

[Animalmother]

Also this bizarre story of a video of Trump blowing somebody named "Bubba", which is Bill Clinton's nickname.

[Alan]

So…. You have to appreciate this…. Trump is backing the release of the files which gives him some political cushion. He has also ordered the DOJ to investigate several Dems that are Epstein adjacent. Even if the House and senate vote to release and he signs it their release can be blocked if there’s an argument their release could impact these investigations.

*slow clap*

Just…. Wow…

[Wrathbone]

If that's the case, I'd have thought it's only a delaying tactic. Presumably congressional lawyers would be able to determine which files were pertinent to ongoing criminal investigations and which weren't, thus permitting the release of the files that have no bearing on investigations. Of course that'll take time, though. I guess he intends to keep delaying until he carks it.

On the plus side, even if we have to wait a few years for that to happen, the release of the files could put a nail in the coffin of his children running for office. Or is that wishful thinking?

[Raid]

Well there we go then, 427-1 for releasing the files. Part of me was thinking that Trump was saying in public "Republicans vote yes" and then secretly was telling them they'd be murdered by teams of loyal special forces types if they actually did that. But no, it sounds like they decided they didn't have the votes for No, and wanted to be on the right side of history for it.

We'll see what happens next.

[eny]

Not much will happen. It will be buried in the weeds, considering that no mechanism compels John Thune to bring it up to a vote in the Senate; it would need a unanimous vote in the Senate—67 to avoid a presidential veto. This has always been an exercise of damage limitation and "blame it on the dems above all else". Nothing is stopping twunt from releasing the files anyway...It doesn't need the house, if truth is his real intent—which it obviously isn't.

[Wrathbone]

The senate has just passed it too, meaning all that’s left is Trump’s signature. Wonder if he’s lost his favourite pen all of a sudden.

[Raid]

The senate has just passed it too, meaning all that’s left is Trump’s signature. Wonder if he’s lost his favourite pen all of a sudden.

Or he'll sign it, then go into the press room and say that someone has signed it with an autopen without permission, thus beginning a four year investigation while they busy themselves accusing Joe Biden who looooved autopen.

[eny]

Jesus, that didn't take long...weird how this got expedited...

[Wrathbone]

Meanwhile yesterday Trump gave a 50 minute speech to a McDonalds conference. The rambling is next level - watch from about 26m to 27m and bear in mind that he's meant to be talking about McDonalds and their business.



Earlier on, he's rambling again about renaming the Gulf of Mexico (amidst many other detours).

[Mantis]

Can just imagine a room of McDonald's shareholders and board members sat there listening to this with absolutely blank expressions.

"He rang me and said 'Sir, we got him. We got the Ham Burgler', it was great, the greatest news I think I've ever heard, in the history of the world. We stopped him, he was stealing those burgers like no tomorrow, but the commander gave the order and BOOSH, took him out just like that. Burgers everywhere. Very sad, but we paid the price, no more ham burgling. Now there's more burgers than ever before, for everyone. Burgers for everyone in the Middle East they say."

[Raid]

Meanwhile yesterday Trump gave a 50 minute speech to a McDonalds conference. The rambling is next level - watch from about 26m to 27m and bear in mind that he's meant to be talking about McDonalds and their business.



Earlier on, he's rambling again about renaming the Gulf of Mexico (amidst many other detours).

Sounds a lot like he's talking about the King Bomb. I wasn't aware they were already in the testing stage.

And on the ranting about prices; energy prices have spiked since he took office - I'm willing to bet that a company like McDonalds is one of the worst groups to lie to about this; they'll be painfully aware of energy prices because their low-price-high-volume business model is affected massively by stuff like this - fryers and griddles use a lot of electricity afterall. And his comments about the price of eggs are actually true, but somehow I doubt the Trump administration is personally going around vaccinating chickens against avian influenza (the actual reason for the egg price hike in the US), given how anti-vaccine-pro-child-mortality they are.