Trump - post Presidency thread

[komsomolez]

Even a spineless asshole like Matt Gaetz deserves the assumption of innocence until proven guilty.

[Urs Max]

No doubt. Just don't ask the feminists and their #MeToo #BelieveAllWomen.

	Quote:	bossybaby
	Nope, looks like it's a federal law, not individual states. DOJ is involved. BTW, what a piece of work: https://www.businessinsider.com/matt...afficking-bill https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/u...stigation.html

Human trafficking is a federal offence. The age of consent is set at state level and sex with a minor is prosecuted by the states, not at the federal level.

None of which detracts from the general arseholery exhibited by Gaetz.

	Quote:	Urs Max
	No doubt. Just don't ask the feminists and their #MeToo #BelieveAllWomen.

That's the last misogynist comment I'll tolerate from you.

[bossybaby]

Just one of the many federal statutes Barr's people at DOJ (and this was started by Barr, so not a Dem witch hunt) could apply--the TVPA:

22 U.S.C. 7201

Essentially 3 requirements: sex for something of value; crossing state lines; and victim under 18.

I suspect TVPA was put in place in order to make a level playing field out of different age-of-consent state laws that perps were trying to hide behind. BTW, even without crossing state lines, 17 years old in FL is still statutory rape territory.

[marton]

	Quote:	komsomolez
	Even a spineless asshole like Matt Gaetz deserves the assumption of innocence until proven guilty.

True, but his claim that someone was trying to extort $23 million is difficult to somehow support a claim of innocence. So far his only denial that I have seen is that he never crossed a State line with an underage woman.

Despite Gaetz's intensive support of Donny nobody named Trump has defended him.

[bossybaby]

	Quote:	marton
	an underage woman.

now there's an oxymoron

[marton]

Courts will need to decide but anyway it looks like a reasonable claim

	Quote:
	Wisconsin is seeking a refund of more than $250,000 in legal fees incurred from multiple failed challenges to the 2020 presidential election results filed by former President Trump and his GOP allies.

[marton]

How America’s center-right party started to lose its mind, as told by the man who tried to keep it sane; John Boehner GOP served as speaker of the United States House of Representatives for nearly five years (January 2011-October 2015).

An article based on Boehner's new book that is a fun story about the GOP "crazies" and some kicks for Fox News amongst others.

[marton]

Unfair and unethical
A New York Times investigation published Saturday claimed that starting in September of last year the Trump campaign allegedly automatically changed one-off donations into weekly recurring donations.

Online donors reportedly had to read the small print and then manually uncheck a box to opt-out. It was also alleged the Trump campaign later added a second box that automatically doubled a person’s contributions.

The Times noted several Trump supporters, including retirees and military veterans, sent fraud complaints to banks and credit card companies after reporting unauthorized withdrawals from their accounts.

The Times claimed following such complaints the Trump team in total refunded 10.7 percent of the money raised in 2020, $122 million, on the Republican Party’s fundraising platform WinRed, in contrast, the Biden campaign refunded just 2.2 percent of its total 2020 donations.

[greenmount]

	Quote:
	Depends on the age of consent in each of the states concerned. The sexual consent laws across the USA are a mess, ranging from 16 to 18. Morally, though, in the deeply God-fearin', Christian GOP, Gaetz should be a goner. But there was always Trump...

I thought it's yet another dirty old man getting caught with teenage girls but the guy is apparently 38 y.o. What on earth has possesed this man to look for this sort of "relationships"? You would have expected this cynicism and misogyny from older males who were formed in different times...though even so it's always rather shocking to read this sort of stuff about otherwise "respectable" people.

[curley]

	Quote:	marton
	Unfair and unethical A New York Times investigation published Saturday claimed that starting in September of last year the Trump campaign allegedly automatically changed one-off donations into weekly recurring donations. Online donors reportedly had to read the small print and then manually uncheck a box to opt-out. It was also alleged the Trump campaign later added a second box that automatically doubled a person’s contributions. The Times noted several Trump supporters, including retirees and military veterans, sent fraud complaints to banks and credit card companies after reporting unauthorized withdrawals from their accounts. The Times claimed following such complaints the Trump team in total refunded 10.7 percent of the money raised in 2020, $122 million, on the Republican Party’s fundraising platform WinRed, in contrast, the Biden campaign refunded just 2.2 percent of its total 2020 donations.

Couldn't help but laugh.

What intrigues me more is:
<<In contrast, the Biden campaign refunded just 2.2 percent of its total 2020 donations, according to federal records reviewed by the Times. >>
Did his donation page have the same small print/boxes to unclick??

[marton]

Even now his wealth is probably exaggerated.

	Quote:
	Former President Trump fell nearly 300 spots on the Forbes billionaires list after his fortune decreased by more than $1 billion during his four years in office. Trump ranked 1,299 on the Forbes billionaires list, released on Tuesday, with an estimated worth of $2.4 billion. Last year, Trump ranked 1,001 on the list.

Jeff Bezos is the world’s richest for the fourth year running, worth $177 billion, while Elon Musk rocketed into the number two spot with $151 billion.

MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos is number 22 on the list with only $57 billion.

[k_and_e]

	Quote:
	Last year, Trump ranked 1,001 on the list.

such a meaningful number

[marton]

	Quote:	k_and_e
	such a meaningful number

Look at the trend, down 200 to 300 places every year since 2016.

[marton]

Officials from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office took possession of documents potentially related to the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, on Thursday as part of an ongoing investigation into the former president's finances.

Investigators took possession of at least three boxes of documents and a laptop computer from Jennifer Weisselberg, Allen Weisselberg's former daughter-in-law, after obtaining a grand jury subpoena for the materials.

People are always the weak link in any conspiracy especially if there are disputes where people feel they were poorly treated and so seek revenge. Not that we know that was the case here.

[marton]

These aggressive fundraising techniques would turn me off but I guess they know their audience.

	Quote:
	With a pre-checked box on the National Republican Congressional Committee's donation page on the GOP's online fundraising platform WinRed, donors are opted into making monthly donations and told: "We need to know we haven't lost you to the Radical Left. If you UNCHECK this box, we will have to tell Trump you're a DEFECTOR & sided with the Dems."

[cannut]

	Quote:	marton
	Still, trucking?

Me or trump ?

[litespeed]

In the early 80s there were so call Reagan Democrats.. typically centre left voters who considered the Dems to be far too left, so they voted for Reagan and the GOP.

What will happen next is a mirror image of this. Centre right voters will become Biden republicans, vote blue and push the Dems more to the centre.

The scary thing about all the legislation (except Kentucky) that the GOP are introducing is that it will enable the popular vote in many places to be discarded..that, for democracy, is almost always fatal.

[marton]

Quite brutal US politics