ChiGoose

...that was my point... Also, how can you have been waiting 7 years from Trump indictments when he's only been out of office for 2 years?

Also, part of why that expression rings true is that federal prosecutors are often small-c conservative, only bringing cases they believe they will win. So while they evidentiary requirement for an indictment is less than that of a conviction, the evidence they can bring to bear for the cases they actually take to a grand jury is often at the level of being enough to convict at trial. If they don't think they have enough, they likely won't even take the case to the grand jury even if they could get an indictment.

Neither party seems to care too much about it. The GOP talks a big game but when they are in charge, they run up the debt as much as anyone. We need serious electoral reforms to get real adults into congress who actually respond to the people, but in the meantime, we have to deal with what we have. A short-term CR to allow more time to negotiate a long-term plan should be a layup here. Also, these shutdown antics end up hurting the debt because they negatively impact our credit rating. When the US's credit rating is downgraded, it increases the cost of debt service.

You could actually try reading for once. I even provided a link. I know it's tough, but if you try hard enough, maybe you can pull it off. Anyway, for the actual adults capable of rational thought, remember that the House bill would be dead if it actually passed anyway because we have a divided government. When there's a divided government, recognizing your limitations leads to negotiation and compromise. The Senate passed a funding bill 77-19 on Tuesday, a bipartisan win. Unfortunately, it won't mean much because McCarthy isn't smart enough to be able to control the petulant children that current run his caucus.

If you can't see the difference between impeachments / investigations that cannot end in charges and actual indictments with more than 90 charges, then maybe you should log off for the internet for a bit.

These are deeply unserious people... McCarthy’s Temporary Spending Bill Fails to Pass the House "Hard-line conservatives on Friday tanked Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s long-shot bid to pass legislation to avert a government shutdown, in an extraordinary display of defiance that made it all but certain that Congress would miss a midnight deadline on Saturday to keep federal funding flowing. It appeared clear even before the vote that the stopgap bill was all but certain to fail, as several hard-right Republicans had declared that they would not back a temporary spending bill under any circumstances. Mr. McCarthy, bracing for political blowback for a government closure, had scheduled it anyway in hopes of showing he was trying to avoid the crisis. But the decision by right-wing lawmakers to effectively blow up one final effort by Mr. McCarthy to give the appearance of trying to head off a shutdown dealt the speaker a stinging defeat, and left politically vulnerable Republicans fuming. The bill failed by a vote of 198-232, with 21 Republicans joining all Democrats to defeat it. The measure, which would have kept government funding flowing at vastly reduced levels — cutting spending to most domestic programs by nearly 30 percent — and impose stringent immigration restrictions demanded by conservatives, would not have prevented a shutdown even if it had passed the House, because it was considered dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate."

A federal government shutdown could upend Virginia's elections "When Republicans forced a government shutdown in October 2013 in a fruitless quest to defund Obamacare, their Virginia gubernatorial candidate, Ken Cuccinelli, lost by fewer than 3 points. At the time, Cuccinelli’s top strategist lamented that “more than anything,” the shutdown “is what cost us the race.” Ten years later, a new generation of House Republicans is on the verge of sparking a shutdown just ahead of another important election in Virginia, which could throw a wrench into Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s goals of capturing both chambers of the General Assembly. Early voting is already underway and the off-year election is being closely watched for clues about the 2024 presidential election landscape. The 2013 shutdown "definitely helped us,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who was a freshman senator in 2013 and said Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe’s poll numbers improved as a result. “And people do see it since only one side ever flirts with shutdown — Republicans.” “People know who’s doing it. And Virginia is so connected that everybody’s got family who is affected by this,” Kaine said, positing that the “chaos” of another shutdown will spark a “backlash” and cause the GOP aggressors to back down.

...they are talking about alimony payments... https://x.com/MattGertz/status/1707443788228985217?s=20

A lot of people on the board just come up with an image in their mind of what a liberal is and what a liberal believes and then just assumes that of everybody who doesn't agree with them. It's a lot easier than actually reading what people say or engaging in a real debate. You can just dismiss someone as a lib who follows the MSM and therefore is always wrong even if none of that is true or relevant to the topic at hand. For this guy in particular, that's basically his entire schtick. I don't think I've ever actually seen him engage in real conversation. It's just making assumptions about other people, eyerolling and being dismissive to anything that doesn't fit his preconceived ideas.

Trump is stumping with non-union workers and pretending to care about the unions. The first and foremost goal of the GOP is to transfer wealth from working Americans to the donor class, so actually supporting people trying to fight for decent wages is an anathema.

Basically every member of Congress got rich while in Congress. It’s something that shouldn’t be allowed and I would love for it not to happen. But the fever swamp dreams of the most gullible people in the world isn’t good evidence of illegality.

And the unicorns in Narnia use the carebear stare to keep the Loch Ness monster at bay!

Shhhh… don’t bring your facts here. This thread is just all feelings to cope with the fact that the GOP is set to die with the Boomers.

Well, that’s awful nice of him. It can get cold up there so I’m sure everybody appreciated some new fleece sweaters.

I don’t understand. This thread is about how Trudeau fled Canada last year and the country has fallen. If that’s true, how could he be still in office snorting the nose sugar? Is it a body double? Are the same people behind the Damar Hamlin and Fetterman body doubles behind this? Maybe Trudeau took the vaxx so his heart exploded and they needed to replace him but also needed the body double to have heart issues so they supply him with coke? Sometimes it’s tough to keep track of all these devious deep state plots…

I have not yet had a chance to go through the entire ruling, but from what I've read so far, NYS allows for the attorney general to sue on behalf of the people of the State of New York when someone "engage[s] in repeated fraudulent or illegal acts or otherwise demonstate[s] persistent fraud or illegality in the carrying on, conducting, or transaction of business" (Page 3) So even if the banks being defrauded weren't US banks (which I'm not sure if he managed to find a US bank that lend to him or not), the NY AG can go after a business in New York that is engaged in fraud.

For years, the Trump Organization was unable to secure financing from US banks. Given what is publicly known about their finances, I imagine there would be issues with creditworthiness and AML. Because of this, they get their money from overseas banks, like Deutsche Bank, that have less stringent lending requirements (Deutsche Bank has been in trouble for laundering mob money in the past). These types of banks are willing to look the other way if they think they can get away with it. So in this case, I don't feel sorry for the banks. They F'd around and they're finding out. If they acted like proper institutions this wouldn't have happened to them. However, just because their internals controls were bad enough to allow them to be defrauded doesn't excuse the people actually committing the fraud.

I'm not sure what your question is, to be honest. Whether or not the banks failed in their due diligence, repeatedly lying on loan applications is a crime. In this case, Trump's team tried to place the blame on the appraiser but the judge felt that there was plenty of evidence that the lying was coming from the Trump Org and they were therefore liable.

A bank failing in due diligence is not an excuse for fraud. Repeatedly lying on loan paperwork isn't ok just because you weren't caught at the time. For years, most US banks wouldn't lend to Trump, so he sought out foreign banks. The fact that he managed to sucker someone doesn't mean he's not to blame for the fraud.

Not necessarily. It appears that discovery has shown multiple claims and filings by the Trump Org that show evidence of blatant falsehoods: "In the defendants' world: rent regulated apartments are worth the same as unregulated apartments; restricted land is worth the same as unrestricted land; restrictions can evaporate into thin air; a disclaimer by one party casting responsibility on another party exonerates the other party's lies..." (Page 10) Imagine you bought your house for $300k. A couple years later, you want to take out a home equity loan so you call up your buddy who is an appraiser. He comes in and says that in just a few short years, your house has increased in value to $900k and you submit that appraisal to the bank to secure the loan. You should know that the appraisal is wrong. You've done no work on the house, there is no drastic change in the market and the houses in your neighborhood since then have sold in the $300k range. When submitting the loan documents, you also signed a document stating that you were personally responsible for the valuation. Even though you didn't do the appraisal yourself, there's a very strong argument that you are committing fraud. Now imagine you run a real estate firm (and therefore should be an expert on valuations) and do this dozens and dozens of time over decades. Relying on a single bad valuation is something that probably won't get you in much trouble. Repeatedly using clearly and obviously incorrect valuations for years and years is going to be a problem.

Generally, if you're submitting a false financial document, you wouldn't want to sign it with the language: "Donald J. Trump is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statement in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America and for designing, implementing, and maintaining internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statement." (Page 6 of ruling)

Judge rules Donald Trump defrauded banks, insurers as he built real estate empire "NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has ruled that Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House. Judge Arthur Engoron, ruling Tuesday in a civil lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general, found that the former president and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing. *** Beyond mere bragging about his riches, Trump, his company and key executives repeatedly lied about them on his annual financial statements, reaping rewards such as favorable loan terms and lower insurance premiums, Engoron found. Those tactics crossed a line and violated the law, the judge said, rejecting Trump’s contention that a disclaimer on the financial statements absolved him of any wrongdoing."

Why don't you take this to one of the other circle jerk threads about cities instead of continuing to try to derail this one?

Nice off-topic whataboutism. About as valuable a contribution as anyone could expect from you, I suppose.

No, they probably wouldn't be. The bar for members of Congress doing *anything* good is pretty low. So while it's not some amazing statement that some of them are doing this, it's still better than them not calling for him to resign.