Wingate

The "best case" scenario is that Trump comes out of this looking like Ohio Rep Jim Jordan: he knew what was going on but did absolutely nothing about it. Rep Jordan was a coach on a wrestling team where the team doctor has been accused of violating young boys. Former wrestlers claim Jordan knew everything. Jordan has been quoted as saying "That's Strauss", when confronted with the actions of Dr Strauss. Trump obviously and admittedly knew Epstein well, as pics and videos prove, and Epstein's long membership at Mar-a-Lago indicate. Trump has always been enamored of billionaires, and Epstein---somehow---became one. It seems very unlikely that a "stable genius" would not know what his friend and member was up to. During the time Trump was in the flight logs of Epstein's jet, the jet was already known as "The Lolita Express". Though Trump claims to have never read a book (quite believable), he certainly had to be aware of the meaning behind "Lolita". The worst case scenario is....well, LOTS and LOTS of redactions or "missing documents" in whatever is shuffled out to the media.

Funny guy, that Trump.... In just the last week, he related a total fantasy or fabrication of a supposed conversation he had with his uncle John Trump, who was a professor at MIT. The conversation Trump spoke of was about his uncle's "student" Ted Kaczynski, aka The Unabomber. Trump claims he discussed with uncle John what the Unabomber was like as a student. Well, Kaczynski attended Harvard, not MIT, and uncle John died 10 years before the unabomber was caught and identified, so Trump's conversation never happened. Trump also complained last week about Fed Chair Powell, saying, "I am surprised he was appointed". Apparently Trump forgets he appointed Powell. Trump also spoke how gas prices "are at the lowest level in decades. You're seeing $1.99, $1.98, I saw $1.95 at certain states.” Ah, no Donny, you're not seeing that. You're imagining that. The national average is actually $3.16 and has not been under $3 since Trump took office in January. With his "common" circulation issue and obvious cognitive decline, the over/under on the guy is maybe 6 months before the Grim Reaper does its job. Who knew that a diet of cheeseburgers and KFC buckets, lack of exercise, and a family history of dementia wasn't a recipe for longevity?

The mental decline does, indeed, continue. Trump told an anecdote about a conversation he had with his uncle John, who was a professor at MIT. Trump says the conversation was about his uncle's "student" Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber. Trump spoke of Kaczynski's "troubles" and interesting life, comments which were ostensibly part of this conversation with uncle John. Well, Kaczynski did not attend MIT; he graduated from Harvard. Also, John Trump died ten years before Kaczynski was caught and identified. The conversation never happened and could not have happened. Thus, Trump is either lying or "misremembers". Press Sec Leavitt, when asked about Trump telling that anecdote, totally avoided the question and instead said that POTUS is very proud of his uncle, who was a professor at MIT. So what? How could Trump have discussed a man whose name his professor uncle would never know, and who didn't even attend MIT? funny how MAGAstan leaves no Biden gaffe unbeaten to death, but has no comment on Trump's obvious lie or prima facie evidence of severe mental decline.

The gullibility and idiocy of the MAGA cult never ceases to amaze. They’re the easiest people on the planet to troll. So what is the issue (besides outrage among fat, impotent, powerless old MAGA fanboys)? The intel came in. It was passed to the bureau. It HAD to be investigated, as it came from multiple HUMINT, SIGINT, and liaison sources. Not to investigate would have been irresponsible. Had there been evidence of illegality---other than the confirmed cooperation of the campaign with GRU asset Konstantin Kilimnik, which even the Republican SSCI acknowledged was real---charges would have been referred. Charges were not referred to the AG. Thus, saying now that Obama et al knew there was no illegality is nothing new. Intelligent and rational people would have guessed because charges were not filed……and that was the AG’s choice, as back then, DoJ was independent, not an arm of a vindictive POTUS, as it is now. Everything was done by the book. That fact was confirmed by the Durham investigation. Contrast this to "Birtherism", which was a total fabrication by Trump. As a distraction, now DNI Gabbard is acting as if something wrong was done, and the impotent old MAGAs are in a apoplectic frenzy. Gabbard is the person who went from “3 years before Iran has nukes” to “very soon” in a day, not because of new intelligence, but only because her boss wanted her to corroborate his opinion based on nothing. Now she is acting as if something wrong was done, but she has nothing to back that up save for a stern look. Pompeo, when he was DCI, found nothing untoward. Durham not only found nothing untoward, but he also gave the agency and Brennan a clean bill of health. So MAGAs don’t even know why they are outraged, except that outrage is their sole reason to be. The investigation was done. No charges were preferred. Durham gave everyone, save for one low level FBI agent, a clean bill of health. I do hope MAGAs enjoy their outrage…..though as Shakespeare wrote…”a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”.

MAGAs are creaming their jeans over this, but it is not correct. DNI iS withholding key parts of the story. The intel first came in in July 2016. It had to be taken seriously, as no intel professional could ignore it. It demanded further investigation, which was the job of the FBI, since US Citizens were involved. Brennan handed everything to the bureau, who took it from there. As more intel came in, that, too, was passed from CIMC by Brennan to the bureau (CIMC = the agency Counter Intelligence Mission Center). John Brennan followed the procedure absolutely by the book, as Durham---appointed by Trump---confirmed after his investigation. The key findings in the overall investigation were: ---Campaign Chief Manafort did travel to Spain and met with GRU asset Kontantin Kilimnik and gave him internal polling data from the Trump team. Kilimnik gave that to the trolls in the GRU's Internet Research Agency in St Petersburg, who then microtargeted voters in key swing States with made up stories about things like Uranium One and Hillary's health. ---Campaign aid Roger Stone was in constant contact with Julian Assange, who had been the recipient of hacked emails from John Podesta's computer. Stone was kept abreast of release dates and informed Trump. Trump even noted in one of his rallies that "In a few days, there's some very interesting information coming out",. Rerpublicans chaired SSCI at that time, as they were the Senate majority. They had access to all the intel, including travel records of Manafort to Spain for his Kilimnik meeting, as well as Stone's association with Assange. All of that was included in their report. If Gabbard wants to suggest Brennan et al did something wrong, she must also toss then-SSCI Chair Marco Rubio into it, too. There WAS willful cooperation between the Trump campaign and Russia. There is absolutely no doubt about that. Oddly, or perhaps not, during the Durham investigation, neither Durham nor his team had any interest in seeing the intel---HUIMINT, SIGINT and liaison---regarding Manafort or Stone. They were not looking for truth, but just hoping to find undotted "i"s and uncrossed "t"s. The intel community's assessment of Russia's effect on 2016 (which includes Putin's funding of Independent Jill Stein's campaign, as Putin had learned from Perot '92 and Nader '00) was that it did not affect the Electoral College outcome. Stein did receive votes that exceeded Trump's margin in Wisconsin and Michigan, but not enough to exceed his Pennsylvania margin over Hillary. He could have lost MI and WI and still won. What I have written are facts. I know John and I am intimately familiar with the Durham probe, which gave the agency and Brennan a clean bill of health. I also know Durham did not want to pursue the actual intelligence; he just tried to find anywhere where things were not run by the book. He found only a single low level FBI person who messed up. What Trump et al are trying to do now is obfuscate and be less than complete in what they release....just as I am sure he will do now re Epstein. It will work with the cult, as can be seen right here in this thread. MAGAs can continue to believe what they want, since it is a cult anyway, where truth and facts do not matter. Knock yourselves silly.

There are four types of Trumpers: 1) Billionaires seeking tax breaks (e.g., Bezos, Griffin) 2) Those seeking huge government contracts (e.g., Musk used to be one) 3) Those fearful of running afoul of Trump and ending up in jail (e.g., Zuckerberg) 4) Assorted losers. If a Trumper is not among the first 3 categories, that only leaves #4. Trumpers need not answer, except to themselves, this question: Would anyone anywhere ever be envious of your intellect, career, physique, success, wealth or appearance? Non-Trumpers know your answer already.

Have you even tried to find work? Does public assistance allow you to get a decent meal? You pepper every Trump thread, so clearly you are gainfully unemployed.

In your dreams. Political analysts go over every election in great detail. Trump had an incredible hold on, inter alia, non-college educated older white males, QAnon fans, Incels, white supremacists, Neo Nazis, and conspiracy theorists. Red States lead the US in being parasitic in terms of receipt of Federal Funds, whereas Blue States are net contributors to the Federal Budget, with CA being the largest. Red States also lead in terms of per capita receipt of Social Security Disability Insurance, SNAP and per capita deaths from Fentanyl. His rallies are filled with Carnival People and other losers. The folks I've seen in Thailand wearing those Chinese-made silly red hats with his slogan on it tend toward morbid obesity, appear to be drunk most of the time, and wear the same outfits one sees on little kids in Isaan. Maybe they added a few Maori Warrior tatts thinking that makes them a babe magnet, but they would have been much wiser to have spent the money on a gym membership. With those tatts they just look like the losers they are. I think most do their shopping at Mike's Shopping Mall in Pattaya. For their main squeeze, it seems most---if they favor females and not ladyboys---go for the post-menopausal mother-of-five (via five different men) they picked up in a beer bar. The horror!

The masked cowards are out "doing their job", like storming Little League Baseball Fields in search of a possible "illegal" shortstop....much to the joy of the OP, who clearly is infatuated with the bloated felon. Goodness, how could the US survive with an illegal 11 year old shortstop scooping up grounders and initiating double plays? If the little wetback leaguer is the spawn of "rapists and murderers" released from Central American prisons specifically to bring the US down, the entire 250 year experiment of American democracy could be in jeopardy!. Funny how there's no complaints when people in places like Doj who "do their job", such as prosecute the terrorists who attacked the US Capitol, are fired. One of my staff told me she has an aunt living in the US who is a naturalized citizen, and who has kids BORN IN THE USA, as "enemy of the State" Bruce Springsteen sang. The mom and her kids were picked up and held by ICE because "they looked different" (as in they are not Caucasian, and as we know, Trump's America is White). The mom's phone was seized and searched, and she was questioned as to whether she ever posted anything on Facebook or other social media critical of Trump. No doubt this was an "isolated incident", probably the only one of its sort ever, and like their boss, ICE goombahs are without even original sin. /sarc Or the US is now subject to lese majeste laws, officially-sanctioned racism, and fascism. I wonder what the Trump fanboy would say if Thai authorities seized him because he "looks different" and sends his sorry butt back to be close to his love interest?

That's simply embarrassing. The guy never misses an opportunity to whine and never can get enough self-congratulation. That he can combine two of the hallmarks of his intense personal insecurity in a single Tweet is a gift. That mushroom Stormy says he's packing is his personal toadstool.....poison to his ego.

For the record, the investigation was carried out, and the suicide occurred, during Trump's 1st disaster term. I think an Oscar for costume design has to go to whoever disguised Obama, Biden, Comey and Brennan so that they could hide in Trump's Administration and author the "Epstein Hoax". Now his cult has to be MAGAdumb to buy that "radical leftists" authored the files that Bondi had on her desk but somehow misplaced as she was firing people who did their jobs and refused to worship the boy king. Of course they are that ignorant, so his tactic might work.

Given a choice, they probably prefer it to Incels or Onanists.

It seems you set the bar in a different place than I do for "tremendous scandal". Then how about this: A few thousand "lefties" storm the WH, erect a gallows on the South Lawn, chant about hanging the POTUS, break windows and rush inside, defecate on the floor in the Oval Office, etc. You know, "typical tourist behavior". Would that constitute a tremendous scandal? How about if after prosecution and a new election, a Dem POTUS pardoned all of them?

In the real world, what constitutes a "tremendous scandal" is pardoning terrorists who attacked the US Capitol to both overturn the results of an election as well as hang the Vice President. "Some people" are saying that is the greatest scandal in US history. "Nobody" can do tremendous scandal better than him.

So instinct is more powerful than superstition? Who could have guessed! Yes, I know..."It's a philosophy, not a religion". No, like all faiths and beliefs systems, it's based on a failure or unwillingness to accept reality, and instead make up a fantasy or pretend folks who didn't even know the Earth was round had some special "wisdom". As for Golf, spend your money wisely. Your attractiveness has a window of opportunity that will shut with time. THAT is life, not the mumbo jumbo liars or lunatics make up. The sole actual truth ever uttered by any faith or belief system was this: ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Don't make it more than it is, and enjoy it will it lasts. For a good time, call Golf at 555-1212.

I wonder why folks prone to superstition chose an “all-loving” skydaddy, such as the one in the Christian superstition. Earthquakes, tsunamis, childhood cancer, etc. do not exactly suggest “all-loving” to rational people, nor do rational people accept such silly explanations as “Master Plan” or “works in mysterious ways”. If the ancients had anything going for them, it is that they manufactured deities more attune to what happened in their lives. Their skydaddies were kind of nasty vindictive sadists. Some even demanded human sacrifice. From Greek and Roman gods to the deities of Mayans and Aztecs, all of their gods did things that said more about “control”, even sadism, than “love”. The ancients seemed to know that if there was a creator or creators, such beings kind of reveled in doing harm to their little creatures. It’s almost understandable how humans, who saw natural disasters in a world supposedly under the control of an omnipotent being, thought causing pain and sacrificing their fellows might appease an entity that seemed to enjoy pain and suffering of others so much. Later religions developed some bizarre notions. They created a designated bad guy (Satan) who was the force for evil, such as making a person cheat or steal. Ironically, their all-loving good guy was the one slaughtering in scale, rather than one-temptation-at-a-time. It was the supposed good guy bringing floods and quakes and childhood cancer. The bad guy just made someone cheat on his spouse or steal a pack of gum from a 7-11. Hardly the epitome of evil. Now the guy sending huge waves to Phuket is one sonofabitch. Yes, nobody can prove your skydaddy doesn’t exist (can’t prove a negative), but similarly nobody can prove, for example, Quetzalcoatl isn’t the top deity and human sacrifice isn’t the true path to salvation. What if your guess is wrong? If I ever put money down on Pascal's Wager, I'm going for Zeus. Makes the most sense among deities, though "sense" is a relative term. Two hundred billion plus galaxies, 500 billion to a trillion stars in most of them, but in one run of the mill galaxy around one small star is a planet with sentient creatures whom some "creator" of all that stuff insists on where and under what circumstances they can slip their junk, or that females must dress like giant eggplants. Morality arose from civilization, not because of a charlatan's list of rules. All deities could do was to add silly things like don't eat pork or only engage in sex if you intend to procreate. And what were these deities up to from the beginning of time until 13.77 billion years ago? Playing Sudoku? Getting bored? Needed amoeba to tell them how great they are or say thanks for the cheeseburger? Weak. Deities should have more class.

Goodness, fella. Put down whatever it is you're smoking, and give a shot at accessing reality. No visa required. Yes, I'm a "Deep State" denier. Not only that, I know that anyone who uses that term in any way except as a joke, is somewhere between woefully naive and batsh!t crazy. To believe in something so farcical is indicative of a person who convinces himself he is "aware" because he did "research". No, you just have Dunning-Kreuger and think you're more aware than you are. Grown ups know that the absurdity lunatics call "Deep State" is impossible in a world with so many different variables and so many competing forces. Now if you need a "Deep State" to make you feel better about the way your life has turned out (nothing is your fault, but the Deep State kept you down), then knock yourself silly.

On page 1 of the book it says, "Beware of Indian Tailor shops on Sukhumvit. Look what happened to me."

You're obsessed and wasting your life, but he's here endlessly bird dogging you? Methinks the lady (KhaoHom) doth protest too much.

It's a tough image to draw (perhaps AI can do it), but in fact he's shooting himself in the foot while his foot is in his mouth and his head is up his fatuga. Maybe Rube Goldberg could draw it?

A guy who made his name via Conspiracy Theories (Obama's "Birth Certificate") and who actively courted the insane QAnon crowd, cannot complain when the zombies he helped create come looking to munch on somebody's brain (assuming such organs exist in MAGAstan). It's also rather hypocritical (surprise, surprise) that a guy who has never let "her server" or his 2020 election defeat go is telling everyone it's time to move on from Epstein. In his Truth Social post, he even manufactured a new conspiracy....that the Epstein Files were created by "Radical Leftists", perhaps either forgetting, or hoping his cult forgets, that Epstein was arrested and charged during Term One, and Epstein died during Term One. The "files" were created by his own DoJ during that term, so unless he actually had Obama, Biden, Comey and Brennan in his first Administration, he's just blowing more smoke out of his bloated fatuga. It is largely a cesspool of his own creation, so he better take some swimming lessons or he'll drown in his own excrement.

The beautiful thing about freedom of choice is that people can waste their one life any way they want, even if what they choose is absolutely useless to the rest of society.

A supposed grown man, who holds the codes over some 7000 or so weapons of mass destruction, is such a child that he's up all night Tweeting when celebrities like O'Donnell, Swift or Springsteen say bad things about him. Our allies must shudder, while adversaries like Putin and Xi smile, knowing they are dealing with a petulant crybaby with skin thinner than the gawdy gold leaf with which he has disgraced the Oval Office or the skin on his third wife's face-lifted mien. And then there's the silly and absurd Superman image the White House put out about the bloated clown. So is Rosie, Taylor or Bruce his kryptonite?

If the lifestyle causes harm, is the greater harm from the many customers she might have, or from the fact she goes home to her Thai boyfriend every night....him not only knowing full well what she does, but happily using some of her earnings to fund his own lifestyle? Add in that for those women whose families know how she earns her money and are constantly demanding more, is that a source of emotional trauma? So, OP, there are two questions: Does the lifestyle cause emotional damage? What is the primary source of that emotional damage for those women who might suffer it?

I can see where the OP got his moniker. I suspect there's lots of trauma left over from being rejected by Harvard. Your failure to gain admission to Harvard isn't Taylor Swift's fault. Let it be. I kind of have a positive view of both of those people. I only know one TS song (Shake it up?) because it's often played at the gym, but the fact she took control of her "talent" and parlayed it into billionaire status without hurting anyone is impressive. As for Kelce, I enjoy watching him play, though I'm not a fan of KC. Still, I respect the talent and the discipline it takes to be so good for so long. Both Swift and Kelce are entertainers, and given their success, they do seem to entertain. Good for them. As for their relationship, up to them. As for the sport of American football, liking it or not is mostly a function of where one was raised. I played it through university (sorry @angryguy, but at a place you don't like), and always enjoyed it. It does seem to travel a bit well, too, as the NFL stages games in the UK and Germany now and fills the stands, but I accept it will never top soccer, rugby or cricket in most nations outside the US. I have zero interest in those sports, as my time through university was dominated by football, basketball, baseball and track & field. Had I been born and raised in, say, India, no doubt I'd be enamored of Sachin Tendulkar (but I wouldn't care at all about any romantic relationship he might have. That seems a little creepy.)