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Sanakan said:

Senator John Cornyn quotes fascist Italian dictator Mussolini
Oof

Oof indeed.
They just can't seem to help themselves nowadays.

So it looks like the second referendum on Brexit is probably going to happen.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Salvini is in deep trouble.

Presidential candidates Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders have voted "NO" on a bill that would've required doctors to provide medical care to infants born alive after an attempted abortion

Per Univision, @jorgeramosnews + his team being detained in Caracas
Maduro's forces is allegedly holding Jorge Ramos because Marudo didn't like the questions being asked.
-

Indian mirage jets bomb terrorist camp across LoC

Well this is going to be embarrassing for Trump; only one more senate Republican is needed to block Trump's border emergency declaration.

Round 5 of "I Can't Believe How Badly the British Fucked Up" is now moving past sabre rattling and into bombing. So far, it's the classic "we're targeting terrorists, not the actual country" type of bombing, but there's definitely room for rapid escalation.

Adegeneratefurry said:

…only one more senate Republican is needed to block Trump's border emergency declaration.

You mean 16 more are needed. Trump's already said he'll veto it if it passes.

TSG said:

So far, it's the classic "we're targeting terrorists, not the actual country" type of bombing, but there's definitely room for rapid escalation.

I call it "The Assad Shuffle".

"we're targeting terrorists not actual country – incidentally, most of the Pakistanis are terrorists"

The Indians seems to feel that way, it seems that last night air strike into Pakistan was just the start of it. I feel we have reached the point of no return between those two. After years and YEARS of Pakistan hosting terrorists and stirring up regional problems, they get hit back, HARD. In fact, Pakistan was caught sleeping and was completely unable to stop India from flying into their air space.

I'm currently keeping tabs on all the news feeds I can find to keep on top of this. I have no idea what will happen next.

The House has passed a resolution to end President Trump's national emergency on the border.

"Congress has never before sought to cancel a national emergency declared by the president since passage of the National Emergencies Act in 1976."

Pakistan has shot down two Indian planes and begun shelling Indian positions in Kashmir. India responded with shelling of their own. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we might have a full blown happening starting.

We're basically mirroring the '01 crisis so far. Pakistani terrorists attack India, India responds with sabre rattling, then airstrikes. Pakistan responded with shelling. Indian special forces launched a ground attack. Both sides somehow decided to back down after that. Importantly, neither Putin nor Bush were able to stop the escalation then, so I doubt Putin and Trump would be able to now. It's all going to be on Pakistan and India to back down.

Call me a dick but honestly I think the first and last nuclear war will be India versus Pakistan. Those two countries absolutely hate the shit out of each other. If it does go nuclear it's probably not going to be a nuclear world war 3 though cause they're allies of the USA and other countries. The don't have as many nukes as world powers so it'll probably be a limited war.

There's a reason why most countries play both sides in this case.

Michael Cohen's hearing is just starting, and Mark Meadows and the Freedom Caucus idiots are already making a scene.

The biggest thing currently is Cohen has a check pricing reimbursement from Trump's charity for his hush money. This violates both the emolutions clause and is illegal to use a charity for profits. If Trump is impeached it will be for breaking financial laws.

Cohen said that Trump knew beforehand that Hillary's emails were going to be released.

A bit of a funny thing is Trump threatened his high school and college to hide his grades. I got a bit of a chuckle cause that probably means Trump is a idiot.

The next two years Trump's finances are going to be investigated like a hawk.

Cohen accused Trump of being racist. Cohen said that Trump said, "black people are never going to vote for me cause they're too stupid".

Honestly if Trump does get impeached when Roger Stone is under oath that's probably when Trump is screwed, the reason being is that while Cohen was mainly involved in Trump's financial dealings and hush money Roger Stone from Cohen's testimony was involved with EVERYTHING.

Given the current timetable it's probably going to be about six months till we hear anything about Stone and after that it's going to be a couple months till we hear a testimony.

The problem for Republicans is if Trump is impeached he's going to be impeached during the election cycle. If impeachment talks begin late 2019/early 2020 Republicans are screwed for the presidential election. If impeachment talks begin in 2020 the Republican nominee for president would have gotten it by default not cause voters wanted him.

One way or another Trump is screwed. If he's not screwed politically he's screwed financially. The IRS is going to have a field day.

The problem for Trump now is Cohen has repeatedly said that Trump while being president has broken a shitload of laws.

OoooOOOoohh, that's why Republicans are trying to hush Cohen; some of Cohen's other clients involve Fox News anchors. Fox News MIGHT by proxy get wrapped up in this shit. Imagine if Sean Hannity and such got slapped with a gag order about everything involving Cohen. Not only is Trump in deep shit, but Fox might be in deep shit as well currently.

Oh boy some Republicans are threatening Cohen and his family. Someone was talking about his extramarital affairs.

Cohen said he can't discuss a conversation with Trump after he was arrested because it involves a separate investigation into Trump. That means there is not only the Mueller investigation but another investigation into Trump we do not know about. Even if Trump is exonerated of all crimes in the Mueller investigation there is a completely separate second investigation into Trump going on completely removed from Mueller. Even if Trump fired Mueller he's still getting investigated.

Another person that might be investigated is Rhona Graff, Cohen said she was involved in nearly everything that happened.

Dunno what to do so I put some Cohen stuff I pulled in my Twitter feed
CNN Panel: Cohen lied during exchange with @Jim_Jordan when he said he did not want to work at the White House
Not interested in this Cohen stuff tbh, it's a brainfuck to me

Apparently 4500 children were raped in immigrant detention camps. 178 cases involving in adults were found to have serious proof of sexual assault by workers there. The Office of Refugee Resettlement and ICE might get scuttled and replaced not cause of politics, but because it's headed by a bunch of pedos. It's like how UN security forces have a bunch of known rapists in their ranks.

Honestly I think this is the worst case scenario for Republicans. This probably isn't enough to get Trump impeached, if he is impeached he's probably will go to jail for financial fraud, if he steps down he's probably going to go to jail for financial fraud, if he loses re-election he's probably going to jail for financial fraud. The only way he can avoid jail is to win re-election.

The problem for Republicans is that if there's a known criminal sitting in office and the only way for them to avoid jail is to get re-elected that's definitely going to drag down the party quite a lot. We probably will see surprisingly some Republicans trying to get him impeached, cause the more this drags on if Trump is on the ballot for 2020 chances are the Republican party is fucked overall.

If Trump doesn't get re-elected he's fucked, if Trump is on the ballot and he doesn't win Republicans are fucked for 2020.

Alex Jones on Joe Rogan. LET THE MEMES FLOW

The difference between Nixon and Trump is that Nixon wasn't up for re-election. Hypothetically let's say Trump doesn't get impeached and gets the Republican nomination; obviously after Nixon stepped down Gerald Ford took office, but after that in the 1976 election Carter won and took Ohio, Florida AND Texas.

1972 presidential election:

1976 presidential election:

Gaetz is now being investigated for threatening Cohen.

Cohen said if Trump loses re-election, “there will never be a peaceful transition of power.”

tl;dr version:
Michael Cohen acted like a mob lawyer for Donald Trump.

Also, he worked for the RNC's Finance Committee.
Hence, why the Republicans are freaking out.

Trump getting impeached wouldn't prevent him from seeking out the nomination. Impeachment simply means the lower house brings charges – which by the way, many seasoned Democratic leaders, columnists and thinkers, urge not to do – against the Presidency. But this doesn't mean that he will be removed from office. Especially since impeachment proceedings over financial fraud is far far less sexy, and far more boring, than impeachment proceedings over a Russian collusion case – which is, by the way, seemingly falling apart.

In regards to your comparison to Nixon. Why don't you mention that in 1972, the Democrats and their primary candidate McGovern were in horrible state? That there was massive democratic disunity, with major Democrats going for Nixon? Secondly, why don't you also talk about Ford's lack-luster, and often times, horrible policy?

For example, Ford pardoning Nixon brought Ford's popularity from 71% to 50%. Or that the economy of the US took a drastic down turn, greatly affecting the general growing discontent with the administration.

"Impeachment simply means the lower house brings charges"
"lower house"
The fuq you say?

@Chewybunny
You partially missed my point. Let's say Republicans in the senate go "lolnope" but Trump is found guilty anyhow of financial fraud. 42% of USA voters are independent voters; do you honestly believe voters without a party affiliation are going to vote for a convicted criminal? If Trump is found guilty he'll literally be the #3 biggest criminal in USA history behind Bernie Ebbers and Bernie Madoff.

To use an analogy imagine if Bernie Madoff had become president of the USA, then midterm his financial dealings were found out and he was still running for president. Claiming that Trump will win re-election is literally like saying Bernie Madoff would win the presidency.

To put this simply: Trump is accused of financial crimes of about $8 billion dollars. Bernie Ebbers did $11 billion dollars in financial crimes and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Donald Trump is 72 years old. Mueller doesn't have to make a impeachment roadmap, because the second Trump leaves the oval office Trump is going to prison for the rest of his life.

Tldr; If Trump doesn't win re-election he's probably going to prison for the rest of his life. All Mueller has to do is bring forth enough evidence to destroy Trump's re-election campaign and then the second Trump loses jail him for the rest of his life.

My money on what's going to happen is Mueller brings enough evidence to destroy any chance Trump has of getting re-elected then one of two things will happen:
1)Trump loses re-election and goes to jail for the rest of his life.
2)Trump flees the country.

Mueller doesn't have to impeach the president, he just has to make Trump flee the country.

Trump's options:
1)Win re-election. Downside: once he's done with his second term he's going to jail for the rest of his life.
2)Lose the Republican nomination and after he's no longer president go to jail for the rest of his life.
3)Lose the election and after he's no longer president go to jail for the rest of his life.
4)Get impeached and go to jail for the rest of his life once he's no longer president.
5)Flee the country.

My money is on he's going to get the Republican nomination, but on election night he's going to be out of country in case he loses re-election.

Well that hearing accomplished pretty much nothing. People just heard what they wanted to hear, and are running with it to the bank, hence the spam posting going on right now in this thread.

The other thing you're forgetting about is that while the senate may stop him getting impeached and thrown in jail on the federal level the state of new york is also investigating Trump's financial dealings, meaning the second he's no longer president they can put out a arrest warrant for him and throw him in jail.

Before you go "that's double jeopardy" yes I know that's double jeopardy but the government is very guilty of this. You know just how many people in federal prisons were first found guilty in state courts? A metric fuck ton. This would just be the reverse of this, he gets found innocent on the federal level then thrown in jail on the state level. And that's not to mention civil court.

So let's say everything you're hoping for does happen: Republicans stop him from getting impeached, Pence pardons him on the federal level, then Trump has to deal with state courts and even if Pence pardons him on the state level he still has to deal with civil court which Pence can NOT pardon him from because it's civil court.

THAT'S why I said he's fucked either politically or financially, because even if he escapes going to jail he's going to be dragged into civil court and lose all his money.

Tldr; Trump has to deal with federal courts AND state court AND civil court

@BrentD15
Impeachment in the United States is the process by which the lower house of a legislature brings charges against a civil officer of government for crimes alleged to have been committed, analogous to the bringing of an indictment by a grand jury.

Sorry, I missed the rest.

"Let's say Republicans in the senate go "lolnope" but Trump is found guilty anyhow of financial fraud. 42% of USA voters are independent voters; do you honestly believe voters without a party affiliation are going to vote for a convicted criminal?"

Depends on who's running against him. You have a tendency to pretend that a tango is a solo act. I pointed out before you know. The Majority of Democrats want the party to move further centrist (right), and the Republicans want to move their party further right. Independents are also leaning more right than they are for left. It's not because they agree with Trump or the GOP. It's because they almost exclusively disagree with what's happening with the Democratic party and it's leading 2020 runners embracing extremely far-left social and economic agenda.

If you have someone who's essentially promising the "Green New Deal" which would shatter the economy, which is on fire right now, and virtually everyone including the independents are enjoying, then I doubt that even the worse of Trump's financial crimes (and those are far-far-far less damning than treason or collusion), I think they'd vote for Trump.

"To put this simply: Trump is accused of financial crimes of about $8 billion dollars."

Yeah. He's also accused of collusion with the Russians, that led to a two year investigation that, by all accounts, is going to be fruitless. The Republicans and Trump can, and will, use that to their leverage. And it's good leverage, by the way, since so much political capital has been put into the idea that he is guilty of collusion, and virtually non on the financial stuff. Which, to be honest with you, is going to be so-goddam boring, and complex, that a majority of the population will probably tune out the details.

"My money on what's going to happen is Mueller brings enough evidence to destroy any chance Trump has of getting re-elected then one of two things will happen:"

I'll take that bet since by all leaked accounts by people-in-the-know from both sides of the aisle are saying that there isn't anything definitive. At worst, it's going to suggest that there may be some questionable doings, but nothing inherently illegal.

Being impeached doesn't mean he's going to jail – even if found guilty. When will you get that through your head?

"So let's say everything you're hoping for does happen: Republicans stop him from getting impeached, Pence pardons him on the federal level, then Trump has to deal with state courts and even if Pence pardons him on the state level he still has to deal with civil court which Pence can NOT pardon him from because it's civil court."

Except that's not what I am hoping for. I have nothing here to hope for. It's you who's hoping for things. You are hoping beyond hope that he get's not just impeached, but sent to jail, his entire fortune ruined. Not once, not once has it crossed your head that he may actually be exonerated by the Mueller investigation.

"not once has it crossed your head that he may actually be exonerated by the Mueller investigation."
Things that are more likely:
Half-Life 3
Youtube fixes their algorithm
EA stops doing lootboxes
Disney makes a good main episode star wars movie, not a spin off.
I finally see why kids love the taste of cinnamon toast crunch.

I'm not saying that Trump might be exonerated, but the chances are pretty damn small. There's a difference between saying something has a 1 in a million chance of happening and a 0% chance of happening. If something has a one in a million chance of happening it's not that it couldn't happen rather the chances of it happening are very small.

Republicans defense of Trump, "were you convicted of lying under oath?"
Cohen, "yes"
Republicans defense of Trump, "the defense rests"

The problem is that initially Trump's testimony on his financial dealings matched Cohen's. So if you believe Cohen lied them by proxy Trump lied under oath also.

Let's say hypothetically there's a murder committed. Witness one and witness two under oath claim they didn't see the murder and agree they were both together at the time. If witness two later admits to lying about having not seen the murder then that means by proxy witness one also lied under oath.

What should be done is have Trump publicly testify before Congress. If Trump didn't commit a cruise and didn't lie to Congress and didn't tell Cohen to lie to Congress he has nothing to fear and I'm sure him giving public testimony under oath in front of Congress would clear up everything.

You should really not jinx things like that. You're going to look really embarrassed if Trump has managed to create enough personal-distance that he himself is not touchable by the charges.

Sure, Trump's buddies will go to Jail, for stuff Trump probably did. So far everything has been directed at the Trump Campaign. But a campaign is run by hundreds of employees, and a large group of people who personally coordinate with Donald Trump. It is incredibly likely that what happens here, is that every single charge against Trump himself ends up getting pinned on a Fall-Guy.

Said fall guy, probably offered a nice Golden Parachute after they've done their prison sentence in a minimum security prison with lavish estates and full privileges, to be paid when they finish their sentence, will then walk away and live the rest of their lives in obscurity.

Because nobody cares if a fall-guy for Donald Trump goes down. The public will only care if Donald J Trump goes down. And frankly, the Mafia analogy is apt, since they're yet to find their Sammy the Bull, Frank Lucas, or Henry Hill analogue in this investigation. And nobody looks to be pulling a Deep Throat anytime soon.

I don't understand why are Republicans so against Trump testifying?

Everyone's telling India and Pakistan to pump the brakes. It's really interesting watching regular geopolitics chucked out the window when nukes are on the table.

Adegeneratefurry said:

…first and last nuclear war…

I agree it's most likely to be the first, but saying "the last" is probably a stretch given how much time we have left and the likelihood space fights will probably involve nukes.

Cohen has a check pricing reimbursement from Trump's charity for his hush money.

Once again, I'm left disappointed by the hype. Trump already said way back in May that he paid Cohen back. Not sure why it's suddenly a bombshell now. It also wasn't from the charity, but from the business trust he set up.

If Trump is impeached it will be for breaking financial laws.

At least you're moving away from the collusion hysteria. Guess it took Cohen explicitly denying the dossier to do that. It does lead Buzzfeed in a bad spot, though. Either they were completely wrong on the dossier and the Mueller evidence, or they're right and Cohen just committed perjury, again.

Sanakan_ht said:

Cohen lied during exchange with @Jim_Jordan when he said he did not want to work at the White House.

Kek. Whelp, looks like Buzzfeed's got an out. What is with him and committing perjury? How hard is it to say "I don't recall?"

I think this is the worst case scenario for Republicans.

Nah, it turned out pretty good. Cohen:

• Explicitly refuted the dossier
• Denied any collusion
• His check "bombshell" doesn't say anything that wasn't already known for almost a year
  And here I was expecting something really bad from the guy that was supposed to be Trump's right hand.

The Russian well's finally being proved to be empty, so Dems are trying to drill a new one with the campaign finance stuff. When his tax returns yield nothing but some over-boasting of his income and the hush payments prove too difficult to connect criminally, they'll shift to something else by the time the election rolls around.

Republicans trying to get him impeached.

They might as well resign right after because the likelihood those senators survive a primary when Trump holds an 85% Republican approval rating is basically nill.

…took Ohio, Florida AND Texas…

How is that shocking? Nixon lost Texas in '68. In fact, his win there in '72 was the first time a Republican had won the state since Eisenhower.

BrentD15 said:

The fuq you say?

The House of Representatives--with its two year terms, representation of a few hundred thousand people, and lack of appointment or treaty power--is the lower house in Congress, while the Senate--with its six year terms, representation of an entire state, and broad role in government appointments and international policy--is the upper house. Bills also have to start at the bottom, before they work their way up.

Trump is found guilty anyhow of financial fraud…

The Justice Department has a longstanding policy that sitting presidents can't be charged with crimes, so your hypothetical situation is moot.

Trump is accused of financial crimes of about $8 billion dollars.

He hasn't been accused of anything. And the "evidence," a 4 billion dollar valuation of "brand" for a loan that never happened, is wet cardboard-tier when it comes to proving anything close to fraud. If that's what the Dems have after the collusion stuff goes up in smoke, they're going to be in trouble.

the state of new york is also investigating Trump's financial dealings

Well, they'd better hurry as that loan stuff happened in 2013 and the statute of limitations is up… this March.

dragged into civil court

For what? He never got the loan from Deutsch Bank.

When has Trump testified under oath?

The big problem with that is Michael Cohen publicly implicated Donald Trump himself, and he probably has the evidence to back it up.
Not just he, but the offices of the SDNY and the Special Counsel's office.

Trump’s Talks With Kim Jong-un Collapse Over North Korean Sanctions
A bruh moment to end all bruh moments.

Trump fail to reach deal

How many times have we seen that headline in the past year? lol
So much for republican's "Trump has caused world peace with NK!!!" line.

Am I suppose to be shocked about this?
There's even a Twitter trend about Otto Warmbier.
This is different compared to Trump's reaction Khashoggi's death to the point that there's a bit of a double standard going on.

"I will take him (Kim jong Un) at his word." -Trump

Trump trusts whatever Kim tells him to be true. Let that sink in.

The problem with that is, Cohen seems to have potentially ruined his own credibility by commiting perjury, meaning his testimony and value as a stool pigeon and worth as a person Willing to turn states, has plummeted further then a Bitcoin stock on a Tuesday.

@Adegenratefurry
Trump is rich so even if he did go to prison it wouldn't be for very long.

well this isn't good news

And this is worse news

Remember, a House (democrats) divided can not stand….. ; – )

Did you actually read the article?
"U.S. leadership approval ratings declined substantially in just five countries -- Macedonia, Slovakia, Cambodia, Iran and Turkey."

Who would have thought, that a country that is the hot bed of Russian propaganda apparatus and blames the US for it's forced name change, not to mention it's obsession with revealed documents that the US has been meddling in it's government, (Macedonia), a country which has had it's economic aid cut because it's anti-Democratic policies (Cambodia), a country that is literally the biggest antagonist in the ME, and has been a devout enemy of the US and it's allies in the ME (Iran), and Turkey's Erdogan's dictatorship which is effectively a puppet of Putin, would substantially dislike the US?

And yet, the very next paragraph from that states

"U.S. leadership approval increased 10 points or more in a mix of 11 countries or areas spanning Africa, Asia and the Americas. There were no substantial increases in Europe [Except in France, Portugal, Sweden, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia. Like a third of Europe actually likes us more now but whatever "No substantial increase in Europe"] "

Look at that map.
Most of South America and Central America actually likes us more. Asia – to the exception of China – largely loves us. Australia likes us more and so does New Zealand.

But…but…but this map that after Trump they trust China and Russia more…

I know right? When China is essentially economically colonizing half the world, and Russia is utilizing information warfare to undermine us and expand it's own foreign policy. (Also I like how little to no mention about the fact that Germany, too, has taken a hit to it's global leadership trust.

Perhaps, just perhaps, we should extrapolate a bit more from the details out of that article than just the headline.

And honestly, who didn't think that a US policy of "America First" would upset a good chunk of the world that is extraordinarily dependent on our economic and militaristic aid. Really.

You know what would make them absolutely love us? If we elected a President that expands foreign aid, makes it easier to immigrate to the US, and spends substantially on defending those countries from external threats. Essentially, when the US stops giving as much, the takers start getting pissed.

VoiceOverPete would be a great President, just behind Elon Musk.