US Politics - Breaking the Seal

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

27 minutes ago, LongRider said:

Don’t thank him, laff at him. How soon will 45 throw him under the bus?   

What a bizarro love triangle.

I hope the image of that disturbs you as much as I was freaked out by Sam Neill at the end of Event Horizon when I was 9 or 10. 

[Kalbear]

I'm assuming this is because something on those phone files also incriminates or maligns Trump, so he's jumping ship ahead of it sinking.

[Martell Spy]

3 minutes ago, KalVsWade said:

I'm assuming this is because something on those phone files also incriminates or maligns Trump, so he's jumping ship ahead of it sinking.

You need to be in good graces with the guy you think can pardon you in the future.

[Fez]

Alex Jones is an anti-vaxer. Trump, mostly, isn't. In fact he's just stopped talking about them after gettin boo'd by Republicans at the rallies where he tried bragging about the COVID ones. DeSantis is an anti-vaxer, or at least can convincingly pretend to be one. It's probably one of his key sources of support in head-to-head primary polls against Trump. It makes sense that Alex Jones would flip sides.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Or even a moron like Jones can read the writing one the wall:

The orange one is finished. 

De Satan is the future for the yahoo Republicans. 
Not sure who it was, and whether it was this incarnation of the US Politics threads or one of the previous ones. But when somebody said, that De Santis won't run against the Orange One, I am genuinely not sure that's true. 

Here's my two cents, however much value you attach to it is up to you.

I can see the orange one declaring his intention to run in a somewhat desperate attempt to stop the DOJ  - they won't. There's blood in the water, and Garland moving to unseal the search warrant, and the juicy bit, that it was about national security and bloody nukes... I don't see how they can back out now. They've crossed the proverbial Rubicon. Either way, if the orange tries to make it go away by running for office, he has to declare rather soon - much sooner than any other of those hopeless hopefuls. De Satan will lean back and enjoy the show for a bit. He is in no rush to declare (too) early just to watch his momentum fizzle out. 

[James Arryn]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

Alex Jones is an anti-vaxer. Trump, mostly, isn't. In fact he's just stopped talking about them after gettin boo'd by Republicans at the rallies where he tried bragging about the COVID ones. DeSantis is an anti-vaxer, or at least can convincingly pretend to be one. It's probably one of his key sources of support in head-to-head primary polls against Trump. It makes sense that Alex Jones would flip sides.

‘Alex Jones makes sense’ is not at all required for this lifetime. 

[James Arryn]

Just now, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Or even a moron like Jones can read the writing one the wall:

The orange one is finished. 

De Satan is the future for the yahoo Republicans. 
Not sure who it was, and whether it was this incarnation of the US Politics threads or one of the previous ones. But when somebody said, that De Santis won't run against the Orange One, I am genuinely not sure that's true. 

Here's my two cents, however much value you attach to it is up to you.

I can see the orange one declaring his intention to run in a somewhat desperate attempt to stop the DOJ  - they won't. There's blood in the water, and Garland moving to unseal the search warrant, and the juicy bit, that it was about national security and bloody nukes... I don't see how they can back out now. They've crossed the proverbial Rubicon. Either way, if the orange tries to make it go away by running for office, he has to declare rather soon - much sooner than any other of those hopeless hopefuls. De Satan will lean back and enjoy the show for a bit. He is in no rush to declare (too) early just to watch his momentum fizzle out. 

To me the biggest immediate question is whether them seizing his passports was more Trump talk (ie lies) or true. If true, that would mean they are VERY far along. 

[Larry of the Lawn]

6 minutes ago, James Arryn said:

To me the biggest immediate question is whether them seizing his passports was more Trump talk (ie lies) or true. If true, that would mean they are VERY far along. 

Even if it's true it could be relatively mundane, for example if they were expired.  

[A Horse Named Stranger]

THat's more of an accident. Well, not exactly an accident. They seized a lot of documents from Merde-a-Lago. I don't think they consider him a flight risk, or that an indictment is that imminent. If he needs it, the DOJ will return his passport(s) to him. I mean, you just have to think of it in practical terms. If he intended to flee the country, he'd need to lose his security detail. I don't see Dumb Junior waiting for the Orange one in a car with a running engine to drive him with smoking wheels in the middle of night to nearest airport. This is not the fat and the furious movie. 

[James Arryn]

3 minutes ago, Larry of the Lake said:

Even if it's true it could be relatively mundane, for example if they were expired.  

He says only 1 of three was expired. 

[James Arryn]

2 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

THat's more of an accident. Well, not exactly an accident. They seized a lot of documents from Merde-a-Lago. I don't think they consider him a flight risk, or that an indictment is that imminent. If he needs it, the DOJ will return his passport(s) to him. I mean, you just have to think of it in practical terms. If he intended to flee the country, he'd need to lose his security detail. I don't see Dumb Junior waiting for the Orange one in a car with a running engine to bring him  with smoking wheels in the middle of night to nearest airport. This is not the fat and the furious movie. 

They itemized everything they took, except (if Trump isn’t Trumping) his passports. That would be unusual. Also they were probably very aware of how much this was going to be subjected to a microscope, I doubt they would accidentally seize his passports. As far as security risk, dunno, might have just been playing it by the rules, but espionage/intel compromise IS on the table, so they’d look like idiots if he’s potentially compromising nuke info, say, and was able to just fly to Putin. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

NOt really accidental. THe warrant was very broad in wording wrt documents. A passport is undoubtedly a document. Whether they actually need it or not for the investigation was another question for another day. Namely, when they ask for their return. That at least my understanding, but there are better people here to talk about the legal fine print. Even tho, I don't think any of our board lawyers are into US criminal law.

Like I said, I don't think they consider him a flight risk right now. And I think for very practical reasons that'S true. The Secret Service is watching him 24/7 more or less. So for him to organize some high profile escape...

Let's just say, I doubt he has either the physical or mental fitness necessary for it.

[VigoTheCarpathian]

9 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Let's just say, I doubt he has either the physical or mental fitness necessary for it.

“A lot of fine people get stuck in their bathroom window while yelling “bad diarrhea!” through the door to the secret service. Some say it was the best escape attempt ever attempted. But when I heard about Alex Jones, I had to stop struggling and tell Eric and Don Junior push me back inside.  Alex Jones used to make sense to me and a lot of people. But I heard this Desantis and Alex Jones both have a lot of bad ideas now - like they think you should try to escape Democrat witch hunts through toilet flush holes instead of windows.  I bet they both smell like bad diarrhea.”

[LongRider]

I've read the passports were somewhere in the materials they scooped up during the search.  When they were found they returned them and have read 45 started his 'they took my passports' after the FBI had returned them.  In other words, Trump lied again.  The FBI wasn't looking for passports, if they wanted to keep them, they would have.  45 used the passport issue to sow more animosity against the feds, it's a nothing burger, although good for scamming a few more dollars from the rubes.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

18 minutes ago, VigoTheCarpathian said:

“A lot of fine people get stuck in their bathroom window while yelling “bad diarrhea!” through the door to the secret service. Some say it was the best escape attempt ever attempted. But when I heard about Alex Jones, I had to stop struggling and tell Eric and Don Junior push me back inside.  Alex Jones used to make sense to me and a lot of people. But I heard this Desantis and Alex Jones both have a lot of bad ideas now - like they think you should try to escape Democrat witch hunts through toilet flush holes instead of windows.  I bet they both smell like bad diarrhea.”

Yeah, I mean, him ,dressed as a ninja, sneaking by SS agents, climbing onto a golf buggy, and making a run for it. That's SNL stuff.

Travel arrangement and his daily schedule also involves the SS. So any escape to Moscow would involve him outsmarting the Secret Service. It simply does. Unless you assume his security detail would willingly follow him into his Russian exile, leaving their friends and families behind, and relying on not getting shafted 30 or 40 years down the line by one of Volodya's successors. That doesn't strike me as terribly realistic either.

[Corvinus85]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/18/politics/allen-weisselberg-pleads-guilty/index.html

Quote

Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, pleaded guilty Thursday to his role in a 15-year-long tax fraud scheme, and as part of the deal he has agreed to testify against former President Donald Trump's real estate company at trial.

Now keep this man away from stairs.

[Jaxom 1974]

We're gonna maintain the majority in both houses!

 

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, Larry of the Lake said:

Even if it's true it could be relatively mundane, for example if they were expired. 

One was expired.  One was the diplomatic passport that POTUSes and former ones have, and then another one.  All three were returned within essentially hours.

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Unless you assume his security detail would willingly follow him into his Russian exile, leaving their friends and families behind, and relying on not getting shafted 30 or 40 years down the line by one of Volodya's successors.

There does seem to be a fair amount of evidence that a portion at least of the SS were aware of, at best, and enablers, collaborators at worst, of the Jan6 coup attempt, and are still happy to continue with removing the federal government.  

[A Horse Named Stranger]

2 minutes ago, Zorral said:

There does seem to be a fair amount of evidence that a portion at least of the SS were aware of, at best, and enablers, collaborators at worst, of the Jan6 coup attempt, and are still happy to continue with removing the federal government.  

Still, the personal costs of spending your prime years in Russia with no certaintiy of what the political future there would look like in 10 years... I wouldn't take that risk. But horses tend to run from danger. So I might not be the best source of advice of what's going on in the head of the SS.