OT: Trump/Russians/Robert Mueller

572,500 Views | 3284 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by BearForce2
sycasey
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jyamada;842841628 said:

Well Reich says Trump started out with 200M back in 1976 apparently from his father.....but

http://www.bluedotdaily.com/next-time-trump-voters-say-hes-a-great-business-man-this-should-be-your-response/


After going through 4 bankruptcies in which only the first one was personally guaranteed, Trump has also gotten rich off of people who have invested their money with Trump, who ended up losing most, if not all of their investment with Trump while Trump has been able to keep his cut off the top. More con man than competent businessman.


He is a grifter. A man who is only rich because he was born rich. The evidence has long been out there, from his bankruptcies and multiple examples of people who tried to do business with him and got stiffed.

But plenty of people don't want to hear it. If Trump is good at anything, it's marketing his own name and image of success. Some people believe the marketing push over the facts.
jyamada
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oski003;842841469 said:

Insurance looks at risks factors and has the insured pay a premium over time so, if that bad event occurs, insurance covers the loss instead of someone who cannot afford it. People with higher risk pay more. As far as how it relates to health insurance, it is imperfect. ACA's solution is to make healthy people pay for the less healthy people / at risk people with increased premiums and allocation of everyone's tax dollars to subsidize those people. It's noble, but I disagree with it.

However, I do very much like the fact that it encourages those who are less healthy to receive preventive care which, in the long run, is better for everyone. At the same time, I really do not know how to handle those who continuously destroy their body. I also know that an incredibly large percentage of patients at federally funded clinics are painkiller seekers.


Interesting article in today's Chron by Catherine Rampell regarding Iowa and Trumpcare:

http://lacrossetribune.com/news/opinion/editorial/columnists/catherine-rampell-to-see-how-trumpcare-would-work-look-to/article_b13a8aa4-1b46-558e-9558-69d2e78a5958.html
Cal88
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jyamada;842841628 said:

Well Reich says Trump started out with 200M back in 1976 apparently from his father.....but

http://www.bluedotdaily.com/next-time-trump-voters-say-hes-a-great-business-man-this-should-be-your-response/


After going through 4 bankruptcies in which only the first one was personally guaranteed, Trump has also gotten rich off of people who have invested their money with Trump, who ended up losing most, if not all of their investment with Trump while Trump has been able to keep his cut off the top. More con man than competent businessman.


Reich is no longer an unbiased party in the current political scene, which is too bad.

Politifact does a surprisingly good non-partisan assessment of this question:

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/dec/09/occupy-democrats/occupy-democrats-say-simple-investment-trumps-fath/

http://www.politifact.com/florida/article/2016/mar/07/did-donald-trump-inherit-100-million/

It looks like he has inherited $40M in 1974, so I was wrong about the $12M figure I've cited above. That is a fortune today, but much more so in 1974, when NYC real estate was dirt cheap.

Still, $40M to $3 billion (best estimate on his current net worth) in 45 years is a very good performance. The S&P benchmark is one that the great majority of investors will fail to meet in the long term.

Real estate development is a risky business, mistime the market and you could lose your shirt. In the early 1990s, the Reichmans, some of the most successful RE investors in North America, bet their fortune on London's Canary Wharf development, anticipating the explosive growth of London's financial sector with the European Union taking shape, which was great foresight on their part. Unfortunately, that boom was delayed a few years due to a recession, and they ended up losing most of their fortune in that venture ($10 billion).
sp4149
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When I turned 65 my health plan (FEHB) became a Medicare Supplement plan (at no change in my out-of-pocket cost) and I had to start paying Medicare Part B Premiums. So I may have more coverage, but I am paying 30% more not 90% less.

GB54;842841584 said:

The fact that simply turning 65 reduces your medical insurance by about 90% and gives you better coverage is taken to mean that government insurance is inefficient- quite the opposite.

At any rate, oski003's profitability and his employees health should not be mutually dependent
GB54
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sp4149;842841654 said:

When I turned 65 my health plan (FEHB) became a Medicare Supplement plan (at no change in my out-of-pocket cost) and I had to start paying Medicare Part B Premiums. So I may have more coverage, but I am paying 30% more not 90% less.


My experience was the opposite
sp4149
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One proposed GOP plan was to roll in ACA patients into FEHB as opposed to a new health insurance plan.
Probably one of the better bandage proposals, but it won't reduce the cost to the insured.

GB54;842841655 said:

My experience was the opposite
BearNIt
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Did Trump fail in reassuring US allies while at NATO today given that the bar was so low? He looked like a six year-old jostling for position to be in the front. Not a good look
sp4149
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I think he reassured all in attendance that their previous assessments of his intellect, diplomacy and egotism were accurate.

BearNIt;842841694 said:

Did Trump fail in reassuring US allies while at NATO today given that the bar was so low? He looked like a six year-old jostling for position to be in the front. Not a good look
sp4149
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I can't remember seeing such an emotionally distressed appearing first lady. I don't doubt that Hillary and Nancy in private might scare
the bejabbers out of you; just not in public. Grump is not taking it well, given his public demeanor; he may just leave her in Europe.

The closest parallel I can remember is Martha Mitchell (wife of Nixon's AG). And the men involved in that incident advanced mental health science.

The Martha Mitchell effect is the process by which a psychiatrist, psychologist, or other mental health clinician labels the patient's
accurate perception of real events as delusional and misdiagnoses accordingly.

A lot of that going around.
GB54
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Martha Mitchell was a drunk
bearister
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Ivanka better start working on the recipe for pound cake a la chisel.
NYCGOBEARS
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bearister;842841733 said:

Ivanka better start working on the recipe for pound cake a la chisel.

Trump is setting up the Jew to take the fall.
bearister
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NYCGOBEARS;842841740 said:

Trump is setting up the Jew to take the fall.


...which means Bannon just got leaky in his Alt Right pants.
NYCGOBEARS
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bearister;842841744 said:

...which means Bannon just got leaky in his Alt Right pants.

Kushner will be cool. He learned the ropes about doing time from his old man.
BearNIt
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NYCGOBEARS;842841746 said:

Kushner will be cool. He learned the ropes about doing time from his old man.


Like father, like son. The only question is does he have anything on Trump he can trade? If they lean hard enough will Kushner or Ivanka rollover on the old man? If I were Trump, I would start worrying about family dynamics. Bannon is doing cartwheels. Will Kushner's knowledge of Trump or his finances be used in other investigations.
bearister
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NYCGOBEARS;842841746 said:

Kushner will be cool. He learned the ropes about doing time from his old man.


Maybe his dad can pull some strings and get him into the more exclusive wing of Leavenworth like he got him into Harvard.
NYCGOBEARS
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BearNIt;842841750 said:

Like father, like son. The only question is does he have anything on Trump he can trade? If they lean hard enough will Kushner or Ivanka rollover on the old man? If I were Trump, I would start worrying about family dynamics.

Kushner is gonna do his time like a good soldier. He'll play Canasta with Bernie Madoff.
Unit2Sucks
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NYCGOBEARS;842841754 said:

Kushner is gonna do his time like a good soldier. He'll play Canasta with Bernie Madoff.


Yeah - one of those swanky federal minimum security facilities with no fences. Who knows, if he's lucky they may even have an onsite artisanal tattoo parlor (tattelier?) for his prison ink.
BearNIt
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Christie is laughing his ass off.
NYCGOBEARS
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Unit2Sucks;842841755 said:

Yeah - one of those swanky federal minimum security facilities with no fences. Who knows, if he's lucky they may even have an onsite artisanal tattoo parlor (tattelier?) for his prison ink.

They'll bring in a rabbi from a swanky Greenwich synagogue to preside over services on Shabbat.
NYCGOBEARS
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BearNIt;842841756 said:

Christie is laughing his ass off.


That's a lot of laughing. It's gonna take a while.
sp4149
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I thought the same thing, but from NY you probably had a better view of that potential.

NYCGOBEARS;842841759 said:

That's a lot of laughing. It's gonna take a while.
bearister
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NYCGOBEARS;842841754 said:

Kushner is gonna do his time like a good soldier. He'll play Canasta with Bernie Madoff.


Young Jared has the Mad King's ear. Plausible deniability just took the last bus out of town. The House that Bannon Built has turned against Stevo and by his own hand he will tear it down, brick by brick.

[video][/video]
BearNIt
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It's bad when people in the United States defense apparatus say they are are having to apologize for Trump to their European counterparts.
Unit2Sucks
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BearNIt;842841920 said:

It's bad when people in the United States defense apparatus say they are are having to apologize for Trump to their European counterparts.


Honestly I think a lot of this foreign affairs decorum stuff is overblown. Tump is like an uncle that shows up to a family wedding and makes a fool of himself. The bride and groom are embarrassed, but their guests feel even worse and don't hold it against them.

Sure, Trump's pathetic incompetence has diminished our country in the eyes of the world, but we can overcome that by electing a competent successor. I'm pretty sure most people in our government have the sympathy from their foreign counterparts in having to deal with this black swan event and that there is a lot of "hey, I realize this looks bad but I have a job to do and, well, Trump \_(ツ_/ "
sycasey
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More fake news:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-ambassador-told-moscow-that-kushner-wanted-secret-communications-channel-with-kremlin/2017/05/26/520a14b4-422d-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html

Quote:

Jared Kushner and Russia’s ambassador to Washington discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring, according to U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports.
NYCGOBEARS
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sycasey;842842006 said:

More fake news:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-ambassador-told-moscow-that-kushner-wanted-secret-communications-channel-with-kremlin/2017/05/26/520a14b4-422d-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html

Who can the GOP body slam next?
BearNIt
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sycasey;842842006 said:

More fake news:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-ambassador-told-moscow-that-kushner-wanted-secret-communications-channel-with-kremlin/2017/05/26/520a14b4-422d-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html


If true it would be stunning and explain a lot. It is simply unbelievable the number of people in the Trump administration who have forgotten that they had meetings with Russian officials. I'm pretty sure that most people would remember if they had a meeting with a Russian official. "Oops I forgot", is not cutting it anymore. Jared will make a good husband for someone in prison.
NYCGOBEARS
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BearNIt;842842009 said:

If true it would be stunning and explain a lot. It is simply unbelievable the number of people in the Trump administration who have forgotten that they had meetings with Russian officials. I'm pretty sure that most people would remember if they had a meeting with a Russian official. "Oops I forgot", is not cutting it anymore. Jared will make a good husband for someone in prison.

Many husbands have forgotten their meetings with Russian hookers too.
Unit2Sucks
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sycasey;842842006 said:

More fake news:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-ambassador-told-moscow-that-kushner-wanted-secret-communications-channel-with-kremlin/2017/05/26/520a14b4-422d-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html



Best reader comment on that article:

Quote:

Bud0
4:14 PM PDT
The entire Administration needs to be thoroughly investigated to see if any of them have any ties to America.
BearNecessities
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Unit2Sucks;842841755 said:

Yeah - one of those swanky federal minimum security facilities with no fences.


You're thinking of white collar resort prison, as opposed to federal pound me in the ass prison
GB54
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Russia's ambassador has to know all his conversations are monitored; yet Flynn and Kushner both call him like he's the Microsoft help line. At this point I'm beginning to wonder who is playing who.
GB54
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BearNIt;842841920 said:

It's bad when people in the United States defense apparatus say they are are having to apologize for Trump to their European counterparts.


If they want to keep 20 US bases in German, grin, nod your head and pay up. Trump's right but the obvious stupidity is why do we still have to increase our military budget.
sycasey
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GB54;842842069 said:

Russia's ambassador has to know all his conversations are monitored; yet Flynn and Kushner both call him like he's the Microsoft help line. At this point I'm beginning to wonder who is playing who.


"The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand."

[video=youtube;enyM_htgeWM][/video]
Unit2Sucks
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GB54;842842070 said:

If they want to keep 20 US bases in German, grin, nod your head and pay up. Trump's right but the obvious stupidity is why do we still have to increase our military budget.


Exactly. We should enforce maximum spend not minimum spend. You would think the prior arms race would have taught us a lesson. Unless of course you subscribe to my theory that the military is welfare for republicans.
 
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