***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[biggie62]

Reminds me of the chappelle skit.

 

[appleheaddmv]

In the battle of Explosive Coal Baron and Speed Boat Dope Senator, the white powder man beat the black lung dude.

Time to celebrate with some #McConnelling

This video



with this sound played over it




Keep it gangsta, make your Chinaperson dad in law proud.

Props on the DJ Smokey 666... Salute

 

[Belgium]

It appears Trump's primary defense strategy is working rather well; 61% of polled Republicans think he is being framed by the FBI and DOJ and the number reaches 70% for those who voted for Trump.
https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/kwgrow0dna/econTabReport.pdf

 

[Nike Jordan]

61% of polled Republicans think he is being framed by the FBI and DOJ and the number reaches 70% for those who voted for Trump.

61% is low. You would think that it would be at least 90% of Republicans who think that.

 

[IATT]

 

[gry60]

It's easier to convince one man to give you $30 mil than to convince 30 mil people to give you a dollar.

That is how democracy dies.

 

[gry60]

Bet that he had a recent chat with da Mueller...

 

[Belgium]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...tect-european-firms-from-us-sanctions-on-iran
EU rushes to arrange crisis meeting with Iran over nuclear deal
Foreign ministers attempt to soothe fears after Trump threatens to hit European businesses trading with Tehran

The European Union is scrambling to arrange a crisis meeting with Iran after Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear agreement, as the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said Europe had a “very limited opportunity” to save the deal.

A day after the US president broke with the landmark 2015 agreement and warned he would seek to hit European businesses that continued to trade with Tehran, the EU vowed to take steps to immunise firms from any US sanctions.

Foreign ministers aim to reassure Tehran that the nuclear deal is salvageable at a meeting currently slated for Monday in London which they are expecting their Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif to attend.

In a phone call on Wednesday between Emmanuel Macron and Rouhani, the French president stressed his willingness “to continue enforcing the Iran nuclear agreement in all respects”, the Elysée said in a statement. The statement added that Macron had “underlined the importance that Iran do the same”.

The Iranian Students’ News Agency quoted Rouhani as telling Macron: “Under the current conditions, Europe has a very limited opportunity to preserve the nuclear deal, and must, as quickly as possible, clarify its position and specify and announce its intentions with regard to its obligations.”

EU ministers hope to put forward a credible package to soothe Iranian fears about the effect of Trump’s decision on EU-Iranian trade.

The ministers recognise that Iran will only stay inside the deal if they are confident that the promised economic benefits can survive an American sanctions assault. But they were keen to stress that Trump’s move had not necessarily dealt the agreement a fatal blow.

“The deal is not dead. There is an American withdrawal from the deal but the deal is still there,” Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French foreign minister, told RTL radio.

Tehran had complained in recent weeks that the EU had gone too far to appease Trump. But it appeared on Wednesday that, after the failure of its diplomatic charm offensive with Washington, Europe was going to unite to protect the deal, even if it meant putting its member states on an economic collision course with the US.

Work on the package being coordinated by the European Union is at an early stage, but the EU is being urged to warn the US it will impose countersanctions if the US attempts unjustifiably to cripple EU firms trading with Iran.

In his phone call with Rouhani, Macron also underscored the intention to have a broader discussion with all the relevant parties on the development of Iran’s nuclear programme after 2025, when key elements of the current deal expire, as well as Iran’s ballistic missile programme and wider Middle East issues.

The UK also believes a wider package, originally designed to form a follow-on nuclear disarmament agreement with Iran, still needs to be agreed, even though its specific proposals were rejected by Trump.

Many European diplomats believe that Washington has no plan in preparation on how to contain Iran, apart from placing such intense economic pressure on Iran that a popular rising leads to regime change.

Asked about his next steps, Donald Trump appeared uncertain at a cabinet meeting.

“They’ll negotiate or something will happen,” the president said, warning that if Iran resumed the nuclear activities, there would be “very severe consequences”.

Senior diplomats from the US, the UK, France and Germany talked on Wednesday in a pre-arranged conference call which European officials had thought would be a last-ditch effort to salvage the nuclear deal.

They had not expected Trump to make the announcement of his intention to abandon the agreement until the end of the week. Instead of focusing on ways of saving the Iran nuclear deal with a supplemental agreement, the discussion focused largely on sanctions the US would be imposing on European companies dealing with Iran.

The breadth and severity of those sanctions have taken the Europeans by surprise, as it was unclear until the last moment how far Trump would go in breaking with the Iran deal.

“We did not talk about a Plan B in our discussions because we were focused on negotiating a supplemental agreement, so we did not – we did not talk about Plan B,” a senior US administration official said.

“We believe that by getting rid of the JCPOA [the Iran nuclear deal], we can come up with a more comprehensive deal, a more comprehensive approach that doesn’t just focus on the nuclear file,” the official said.

However, analysts said it would now be extremely hard, if not impossible, to rally the same international solidarity in putting pressure on Iran that had made the Iran deal possible in the first place.

“Trump claims he is going to pursue a better deal, which is a long-held myth,” Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, said. “He doesn’t stand a chance of getting the requisite international support for sanction pressure or a negotiating strategy to make that a realistic goal.”

Bruno Tertrais, the deputy director of the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, said he had attended a confidential briefing by senior Trump administration officials on the JCPOA decision.

“I heard nothing that would make me think that there is any kind of a long-term plan or strategy,” Tertrais said.

The three EU countries with the deepest exposure to Iran are France, Germany and Italy, but the UK has also been trying to build its business links to a country with 80 million, mainly young, customers.

Late on Tuesday night, the UK Foreign Office issued revised recommendations to British firms investing in Iran, urging them to consult the US Treasury sanctions plans, as well as to seek their own legal advice on them.

The value of trade between the EU and Iran has soared from $9.2bn (£6.8bn) in 2015 to $16.4bn in 2016 after the deal was signed. In 2017, trade reached $25bn.

Patrick Pouyanné, the chief executive of the French energy firm Total, has already called for the EU to pass a blocking statute, similar to that passed in the 1990s to protect EU firms from US sanctions. Total is working on the $3.8bn South Pars project, in the world’s largest gas field.

In Germany, where trade with Iran has risen by 42% since 2015 to €3.4bn a year, Dieter Kempf, president of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), said the country was not prepared to give up on Iran as a market. “Our firms have invested a lot of hope in the market openings that resulted from the lifting of the economic sanctions,” he said. “Now these prospects have been considerably dampened.”

 

[noskey]

Look at all those traitors in that poll. No way so many Americans are that ******* dumb. I mean really, what did the liberal Economist think they'd find asking those questions? That patriotic citizens dont see what's really going on? I get that the Economist is a british publication, but they must know that a poll like that will just be used by the lib media to disparage and divide Americans even more than before. This is a time where we must do what's right, for the sake of the US, and stop listening to the misleading media and ridiculous opinion polls of 1500 people (which includes 509 traitorous, uninformed, elitist sheeple). I'm disappointed, but not surprised, that the Economist would sink so low and report LIES about our PATRIOTIC citizens who are here to defend OUR PRESIDENT ELECT from slander and libel. At this point, we might as well take away all press credentials and LOCK THEM UP for reporting fake news and innuendo and conjecture. There is NOTHING more dangerous to our citizens than lying, fact-distorting, swamp-filled "reporters." They wont even report that 3 CHRISTIAN hostages of North Korea were freed by international sex symbol Dapper Don's own muscular, large, smooth hands. Disgusting work by the MSM. Where's Fox News to tell us what's really going on and what to think? Fox and Friends are the heroes we need AND deserve. #AMENFORROCKETMANSLASTDAYS #THOUGHTSANDPRAYERSFORLIBBYDESTRUCTION #TRAITORBRITSDESTROYINGOURFORDF150S

 

[boris]

It appears Trump's primary defense strategy is working rather well; 61% of polled Republicans think he is being framed by the FBI and DOJ and the number reaches 70% for those who voted for Trump.
https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/kwgrow0dna/econTabReport.pdf

Just look at our resident Trump worshippers and the mental gymnastics they go through.

 

[blastercombo]

Who knew using the time old “nah-ah” would become such a powerful political tool

 

[IATT]

 

[Nike Jordan]

We've reached peak 2018.

 

[elpablo21]

Saw Ari quote Kevin Gates once too

Hopefully this picks up more attention, only a month away

 

[Belgium]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/10/us/politics/rudy-giuliani-resigns-law-firm-greenberg-traurig.html
Giuliani’s Law Firm Undercuts His Statements as They Part Ways

President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, abruptly resigned from his law firm, Greenberg Traurig, the firm announced on Thursday, then promptly undercut his recent statements defending the president.

Mr. Giuliani had taken a leave of absence last month from the firm, one of the nation’s largest, to represent Mr. Trump. But the firm said in a statement that he no longer worked there.

Firm partners had chafed over Mr. Giuliani’s public comments about payments that another of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Michael D. Cohen, made to secure the silence of a pornographic film actress who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. The president has denied her allegations.

Mr. Giuliani suggested that such payments were common at his firm, even without the knowledge of the clients. “That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds,” he said on Fox News. He added, “Michael would take care of things like this like I take care of this with my clients.”

The New York Times asked Greenberg Traurig about those remarks early this week. Shortly after Mr. Giuliani’s resignation was announced, the firm responded.

“We cannot speak for Mr. Giuliani with respect to what was intended by his remarks,” said a spokeswoman, Jill Perry. “Speaking for ourselves, we would not condone payments of the nature alleged to have been made or otherwise without the knowledge and direction of a client.”

Mr. Trump has publicly denied knowing about the payments as they were made. Mr. Giuliani said the president reimbursed Mr. Cohen for them, an arrangement he said was routine. Mr. Giuliani had to walk back many of his comments.

In the statement, Greenberg Traurig said that Mr. Giuliani had resigned effective Wednesday. “After recognizing that this work is all consuming and is lasting longer than initially anticipated, Rudy has determined it is best for him to resign,” said the firm’s chairman, Richard A. Rosenbaum.

Mr. Giuliani said in the statement that it “is in everyone’s best interest that I make it a permanent resignation” so he can focus on the special counsel’s investigation.

Lawyers at Greenberg Traurig are sensitive about their public image. In 2005, one of its lobbyists, Jack Abramoff, was implicated at the center of a wide-ranging corruption scandal that shook Washington.

Firm members bristled in 2016 when Mr. Giuliani played an aggressive, pit-bull-style surrogate role on Mr. Trump’s behalf during the presidential campaign. After Mr. Trump’s inauguration, when it became clear that Mr. Giuliani would not get the job he wanted — secretary of state — he kept a relatively low profile at the request of his colleagues.

But Mr. Giuliani has enjoyed the public-relations work he has been doing for Mr. Trump, according to three people who have spoken with him. Much like his client, Mr. Giuliani, a former New York mayor, prefers being untethered, they said.

And despite Mr. Trump’s grousing about Mr. Giuliani’s gaffes, the president has also told people that Mr. Giuliani is putting out information that the president wants to be part of the public conversation, particularly about the special counsel inquiry.

What’s more, Mr. Trump’s team functions better as a collection of free agents as opposed to major names tied to a big firm, which imposes strong restrictions, according to one person familiar with the situation.

One person close to Mr. Giuliani said that his serving in the administration in some role eventually was a possibility and had been the subject of informal conversations he had with the president.

Many of the country’s top law firms have resisted the prospect of their lawyers representing the president. As Mr. Trump tried to rebuild his legal team this spring, firms told their top lawyers that if they wanted to represent the president, they would have to resign.

The firms were concerned about Mr. Trump’s longstanding history of ignoring his lawyers’ advice and apparent failure to pay his bills, and backlash from employees who did not want to work for a firm that was representing Mr. Trump.

 

[wr]

 

[sole vintage]

I thought Pence supported abstinence only.

 

[elpablo21]

 

[noskey]

Cheeky Chuck (((((((Schumer)))))) needs to put some respect on Dapper Don's name. Obummer never even freed a political hostage!!! Dapper Daddy freed THREE -CHRISTIAN- missionary heroes #amen and didn't even give terrorists nuclear missiles from his personal stash to do so. God damn it feels good to be 'MERICAN today.

 

[Belgium]

We've reached peak 2018.

I generally don't like US cable news networks but I like some of MSNBC's opinion shows. I feel like MSNBC is pretty openly a more liberal network and doesn't try to hide that and pass itself off as something else. Chris Hayes is great, Maddow is for the most part enjoyable and very informative but she can be a bit annoying and overzealous at times. I also like to watch Ari Melber, his rap references always get me rolling when his hosts are older white folks.
He does those kind of references all the time.

 

[IATT]

 

[the qbz]

I generally don't like US cable news networks but I like some of MSNBC's opinion shows. I feel like MSNBC is pretty openly a more liberal network and doesn't try to hide that and pass itself off as something else. Chris Hayes is great, Maddow is for the most part enjoyable and very informative but she can be a bit annoying and overzealous at times. I also like to watch Ari Melber, his rap references always get me rolling when his hosts are older white folks.
He does those kind of references all the time.

Chris hayes is like the regular law and ordershow

Rachel is like criminal intent...slow build big payoff

Lawrence is Svu ...ripped from the headline politcal scandal

Tucker carlson is cailou .....

 

[elpablo21]

 

[gry60]

That was the plan.

 

[osh kosh bosh]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5e867c0deab4

George Will with that ether to make Mike Pence soul burn slowwwww.

Man George Will got in his bag for this one.