may be rude

i've been hoping the pig statue may be brought down with a combo including a financial revelation punch. all along it seemed like something stinks in those financials, and likely to do with russia. now it looks like we will have proof that trump is owned by putin's oligarchs. other banks stopped giving him loans, but DB kept doing it, even without getting paid back for previous loans. it looks like that's because trump got himself involved in russian organized crime. russian oligarch rybolovlev bought trump's florida mansion valued at under 50M for almost 100M in 2008. trump was fawning over putin as early as 2013, at his moscow pageant. at a 2008 conference, Trump Jr. said, "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets." Trump Sr. had to later disavow that statement. it makes all the stuff later with flynn, manafort, carter page, sater, etc more concerning if you consider that trump started out with his balls in putin's fist. flynn lied to the fbi about discussing sanction relief with kislyak manafort passed polling data to the russians carter page visited moscow in 2016, after having already been cultivated by russian spies and brought into the trump campaign, and was unable to tell mueller the purpose of the trip, or who he met with sater tried to set up a secret back-channel between the campaign and the russian government (the erik prince / felix sater / kirill dimitriev meeting in seychelles). good article on that here. it's also gone over in Episode VI of the podcast series The Report here's a list of things trump has done to help russia, since being president arguing to let russia back into G7 (after they were removed for forcefully taking crimea) ending intermediate nuclear weapons treaty (like nuclear powered cruise missiles with nuclear warheads that could fly under the radar around the world) lifting sanctions on russian oligarch deripaska leaving iran deal (iran is RU's ally and iran's adherence to the deal constitutes iran entering the fold of the western alliance) reducing troops in afghanistan (RU's backyard) leaving syria (assad is a russian puppet) not countering election disinfo/hacking tarif trade war, weakening US economy and isolating US (RU benefits from a weaker US) spreading propaganda and disinfo within US (RU benefits from a weaker US) attacking justice institutions of the US (RU benefits from a weaker US) leaving paris accord (russia's big revenue source is oil) offered to pay france to leave EU (a weaker europe is in RU's interest) applying leverage against May's brexit deal (a weaker UK is in RU's interest) congratulating vlad on winning reelection (legitimizing a fixed election) ending war games in SK (russia's backyard) negotiating lifting sanctions against russia not enacting new sanctions congress mandated (link: Trump declines to implement new Russia sanctions) calling nato obsolete, other actions and statements weakening strength of the coalition whose main purpose is to counter the russian threat suggesting the US would not abide by Article 5 of NATO (coming to the aid of allies) hollowing out the state department and appointing the guy with a "friend of russia" award as the sec of state. (a US with virtually no anti-RU diplomacy for 4 years is very good for RU) i'd like to see a trumper make a list that long of things he's done to help the US. sure, he wouldn't mind doing a tower in moscow. he had cohen lie to congress about those negotiations ending. cohen later testified that the negotiations never ended, and trump wanted him to lie. but we shouldn't assume that trump is only corrupt to the level of wanting a business deal after he leaves office. honestly that seems more like a cherry on top and a distraction. trump simply seems to be in bed with the russians and, to some extent, at their mercy. i legitimately wonder if trump has flipped, and is cooperating with US intelligence, to draw the russians into a honey pot. i legitimately wonder if putin has trump compromised so thoroughly that he is coaching him on how to topple the US. i guess i've been watching too much of the liberal media.

good episode of The Lawfare Podcast this week. detailed insight into patterns of authoritarian shifts and overlap with trump actions.

i've always found warren to recognize the nature of the moment quickly, where others lag for weeks. she's good when put on the spot. she's thoughtful and present. if by ferocity you mean trump's bulging eyes while shouting at a rally, i disagree that it is needed. warren fights tenaciously, she's a hard worker and knows when to fight for something. warren has the kind of intellectual ferocity on the level of a mature, modern activist. that's the kind of ferocity the country needs. i don't put it past the populace to recognize it.

i think warren has creativity and charisma, and i actually think she does demand respect, even across the aisle. no one is going to command respect from 100% of voters. if she is more substance and less front and the voters fall for front and don't look for substance, i think that's an issue with the voters and not the candidate. i think it's correct to aim to put good public servants in positions. i see your point though what do you think about yanger?

why not?

pneuma is so good, man. that, invincible, descending, and fear inoculum are my favorites so far. the others are clearly stunning though.

it was bewildering when people were appalled by the DNC showing preference for a democrat. i like bernie quite a bit, but he's not perfect. by March 2016, Hillary had a 320 delegate lead and it was mathematically impossible for him to win the nomination. 5 months later, at the convention, when it was time to gracefully step down and rally behind clinton, he dropped the ball. he gave a pained speech that did not direct his followers to get behind the democratic nominee, and instead conveyed a grievance against the DNC. nice job, bern warren is clearly the best. the country would be lucky to have her as president

bill maher just said "fuck him, i'm glad he's dead" and "at least he lived long enough to see the amazon burn"

mackie on layout and design. great job.

maybe there are many gods

the percentage of things that enter human awareness is minuscule

was surprised by this million year chart of co2 concentration

warren has been talking to voters and presenting a thoughtful campaign in media and has only been moving in one direction. she has been steadily gaining ground and is currently in the process of overtaking biden. polls show her winning iowa and new hampshire. betting markets favor warren, now, for the nomination.

i'm looking forward to death stranding quite a bit

i like to hype warren because i love her so much but i have to admit that bernie is still very solid

words fail me. maybe, in the future, "trumpian" will mean a kind of rule that is astoundingly heinous

anyway... i like that trump gutted the Endangered Species Act in order to displace headlines about his association with a child sex trafficker, and about his looming impeachment for criminal obstruction of justice, and because it would make his son happy. at least he's not getting paid for speeches, like hillary.

?

yeah, it's a decent bet.

it's hard to cut through the noise, with this president. i even lament people focusing on the russian conspiracy part too much, regarding the mueller report (as clearly nefarious as it is). the obstruction counts revealed in the mueller report are rock-solid, and obstruction of justice is an incredibly serious offence. obstruction of justice is an earnest assault on the core of the country, it strikes at the load-bearing supports the country depends on for our entire way of life. it's illegal for a reason and was listed as an impeachable offence for a president in the constitution for a reason. 1000 federal prosecutors said they would prosecute for the obstruction of justice evidence described in the mueller report because obstruction of justice is not something that they let people get away with. this video highlights some of the more significant points.

some reviews are out. https://loudwire.com/tool-fear-inoculum-full-album-what-to-expect/ https://metalinjection.net/reviews/tool-fear-inoculum-review

Episode 4 of The Report is really good. A lot of interesting Cohen/Moscow stuff.

i like that one of the few songs they put up on youtube is useful idiot

they could have tried to bury it. they never needed to release even a summary of the principle findings. maybe you're right that they knew that that wouldn't fly. i just find myself conflicted about barr, because he released the report. even his misleading summary letter set the appetites of the congress and public by revealing the tantalizing fact that mueller declined to make a traditional prosecutorial decision on obstruction of justice. revealing that fact is really the thing that ensured that the report would get out. the rest of the misleading summary letter may have worked to reassure trump that releasing the report would be ok. again, though, i'm wondering out loud. there are good odds that barr represents a historic, existential threat to the country. in his confirmation hearings he was pressed on transparency regarding the results of the special counsel investigation, so he probably released the report because he didn't think he could get away with burying it.

interesting insight from palmer report. the IG, Horowitz, is no trump obstructor, and he is investigating the death. https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/gave-something-away-barr-epstein-death/19948/ foul play should be investigated, but it's not unlikely that he killed himself, or was simply killed for being a child rapist. nice to see the IG position is still intact. barr seems like a weapon that history books will record as being largely responsible for the demise of america. he used to be CIA. i sometimes wonder if he is kind of working as a double agent against trump. i dont know what the truth is, but him and rosenstein are enigmatic figures. mccabe clearly sounded an alarm about rosenstein in his book. barr mislead the public about the mueller report. but the thing that makes me wonder if either or both of these individuals are more complex than simply corrupt shit-heads is this: they got the mueller report out. they may have found the way to get it out, and it kind of involved playing trump. but i'm not sure. they may simply be sinister. if the IG position ever gets trumpered, we will know we're squarely in third reich territory.