Taro T
-
Posts
4,952 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Gallery
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by Taro T
-
-
1 hour ago, leh-nerd skin-erd said:
Before ceding the point, Graham also said that the abhorrent treatment of Brett Kavanaugh changed his mind on the notion of judicial appointments. Nothing happens in a vacuum, each domino that falls potentially impacts another.
Every rational American knows that this plays out exactly the way it played out regardless of which party is in power. The plan to destroy Kavanaugh provides Senator Graham with more than enough ammunition to upgrade his previously stated position.
As soon as Reid nuked the filibuster for everything but SCOTUS nominations the ball was rolling down the hill.
Would be really interesting to know how things would've worked out had it been RBG retiring in '16 rather than Scalia dying then. Expect the R's would've let Garland have a hearing but don't know that for certain.
But do know that each time 1 side ramps up the partisanship, the other runs ideas to up it another notch as soon as they can. Don't know how to scale it back short of 1 side having a ridiculous majority of 60+ & going back to the old 60 vote filibuster so that if they lose a smidge, the other side can have a say.
-
1
-
-
2 minutes ago, shoshin said:
The gang who got upset already created their own forum. I won't post the link but happy to share by email if you want it or I can post it if you approve. It's a "Bills" forum where the political posts already appear to be well-outpacing the Bills talk, with the banned guy right back on track to post 50 retweets a day. More or less a recreation of what was happening here but more echo-ey.
I'd say that you can spin this out on its own or just let those interested follow the conspiracy crowd over to that place and just shut PPP down. There are a million political outlets now, not the least of which is Twitter.
Shutting PPP down or spinning it away from TBD will make TBD a more collegial place.
You've won. But don't let that stop you from pursuing your white whale.
-
38 minutes ago, SectionC3 said:
But therein lies the problem. Disagree with the dozen or so people who practice far right politics? Be characterized as a purveyor if hate speech. It’s outrageous.
The core issue here is that this place probably was a right wing echo chamber that eventually devolved into QAnon culture. Dissenting voices are not tolerated. If the goal is to be a message board form of OAN and an outlet for Q culture, go for it. But it would be better if it was a place where truth and variety of opinion is preferred.
Cool. Good to see that 2 weeks after you helped get DR banned that you are still on your little passive aggressive woe is me roll.
-
4
-
1
-
-
1 hour ago, snafu said:
Yes, it would make a difference.
For some of us, having a diversity of views, no matter how simply or immaturely they are expressed, is actually a good thing. People who want to reside in an echo chamber can go somewhere else. The thing about the most recent PPP turmoil is that posters came into this subforum and tried to change it, rather than adapting or leaving it alone. Transferring PPP to "club" status whereby club moderators can open or close topics off to others isn't really a "dialogue". I understand that people aren't here to have their minds changed or be converted, but it is good to be reminded that others have different views. The long-time moderator here has made it pretty clear with his posts that he's got a fairly conservative take on the world -- but you don't see him banning voices that don't share his world view. That's the way it should be.
Edit: is there a way that a moderator can ban a person from a particular sub-forum?
To the edit: yes, at least 1 poster that was banned from PPP back in 43's day was never banned from & stillposts today on TSW.
-
1
-
-
1 hour ago, The Frankish Reich said:
It's not "wiki blather." It's a history of embarrassing Presidential siblings and other relatives.
But it's easier to just reply with the equivalent of "fake news" I guess.
And for a 3rd time you ignore the non-denial denial & focus on the tangents.
But it's easier to try the "look at the tangents, don't look at the substance" gambit.
-
2 minutes ago, Unforgiven said:
Sadly, United States Senate is the 1 thing that might.
(Though at this point, am expecting confirmation strictly on partisan lines, with the possible exception of Manchin voting to confirm.)
-
1 hour ago, The Frankish Reich said:
Politicians pre-COVID met and greeted and took photos with hundreds and hundreds of people. Remember those photos of the Robert Kraft massage parlor madam with Trump?
What it does suggest is that even if Joe recalls no such meeting, that's only because Hunter was constantly trying to get his shady clients in situations where they would meet him.
At a minimum we have another politician with a kid or brother or in-law trying to make money on his relative's name. It's a time-honored tradition in American politics! Just for example, the ones I'm aware of in my lifetime:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Nixon
In January 1957 Howard Hughes lent Nixon $205,000 to bail out his "Nixon's" drive-in restaurant in Whittier, California.[2] The restaurant went bankrupt less than a year later. Questions about whether this was a political favor dogged Richard Nixon during his campaign for president and later when he sought the governorship of California.[3]
Nixon never lived it down, and one of the many speculated motives for the 1972 Watergate burglary that ultimately led to Richard Nixon's resignation was a desire to find proof that the then-Democratic National Committee chairman Larry O'Brien was also secretly working for Hughes.[4] John H. Meier, one of Hughes's former business advisers, in collaboration with former vice president Hubert Humphrey and others, was using Donald Nixon to feed misinformation to his brother, the President. Meier told Donald that he was sure the Democrats would win the election, since they had a lot of information on Richard Nixon's illicit dealings with Howard Hughes which had never been released, and that Larry O'Brien had the information[5]
In 1974 the staff of the Senate Watergate committee disclosed additional information to support the charge that Charles Rebozo gave or lent part of a $100,000 campaign contribution to President Nixon's personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, and to Nixon's brothers, Donald and Edward Nixon.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Carter
In late 1978 and early 1979, Billy Carter visited Libya three times with a contingent from Georgia. He eventually registered as a foreign agent of the Libyan government and received a $220,000 loan. (Edwin P. Wilson claimed he had seen a telegram showing that Libya paid Billy Carter $2 million.[6]) This led to a Senate hearing on alleged influence peddling which the press named Billygate.[7] A Senate sub-committee was called To Investigate Activities of Individuals Representing Interests of Foreign Governments (Billy Carter—Libya Investigation). On August 4, 1980, President Jimmy Carter wrote: "I am deeply concerned that Billy has received funds from Libya and that he may be under obligation to Libya. These facts will govern my relationship with Billy as long as I am president. Billy has had no influence on U.S. policy or actions concerning Libya in the past, and he will have no influence in the future."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Reagan
In 1981 Reagan was accused, but later cleared of felony violations of California securities laws in court documents. The Los Angeles County District Attorney alleged that Reagan had baited investors into unlawful stock arrangements, and selling stocks despite the fact that he was not legally permitted to do so.[27] The D.A.'s office investigated allegations that Reagan improperly spent money invested by others in a company, Agricultural Energy Resources, he operated out of his house in a venture to develop the potential of gasohol, a combination of alcohol and gasoline. Investigators said they were also checking whether he had spent up to $17,500 of investors' money for his living expenses.[27] The district attorney's office cleared Reagan of both charges later that year.[28]
On September 20, 2012, Reagan and two associates were sued by Elias Chavando, a fellow partner, for allegedly withholding Chavando's interest in an e-mail business built around the Reagan.com domain name.[29][30][31] In 2015, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury found Reagan liable for conversion and breach of fiduciary duty. Reagan and his business partners were ordered to pay $662,500 in damages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Bush (doing double duty as bad brother and future bad uncle!)
Neil Bush was a member of the board of directors of Denver-based Silverado Savings and Loan from 1985 to 1988,[5] during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. As his father, George H. W. Bush, was Vice President of the United States, his role in Silverado's failure was a focal point of publicity.
The US Office of Thrift Supervision investigated Silverado's failure and determined that Bush had engaged in numerous "breaches of his fiduciary duties involving multiple conflicts of interest." Although Bush was not indicted on criminal charges, a civil action was brought against him and the other Silverado directors by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; it was eventually settled out of court, with Bush paying $50,000 as part of the settlement.[6]
A friend who also donated funds to the Republican Party set up a fund to help defer costs Neil incurred in his S&L legal defense.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Clinton_Jr. (more of a Hunter without a brain - Hunter did finish law school/pass the bar exam)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Rodham
By 1994, Rodham had left his position at the Democratic National Committee[12] and described himself as "a consultant ... [in] all kinds of businesses. I'm a general consultant. I just bring different peoples together. I help them negotiate deals. I solve problems for people."[13] In 1997, Rodham tried to arrange meetings between Paraguayan President Juan Carlos Wasmosy and Bill Clinton,[12] and also powerful Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov and the president.[9] In 1998, he paid a visit to dictatorial Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia.[12] In each of these cases, there was criticism that he was giving an unauthorized impression of White House approval to these foreign figures, or was seeking financial gain for himself.[9][12]
In 1999, Rodham and his brother Hugh Rodham entered into an $118 million venture to grow and export hazelnuts from the Republic of Georgia.[14] The U.S. State Department and National Security Advisor Sandy Berger became upset, however, when the Rodhams' local business connection in Batumi turned out to be Aslan Abashidze, a major political opponent of Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, then a key U.S. ally in the region.[9][14] Moreover, Rodham flew to Rome to become godfather to Abashidze's grandson.[9] After initial resistance,[9] Berger and the Clintons prevailed upon the Rodham brothers to drop the deal.[14] Rodham would not state what his financial stake in the venture was.[9]
Episodes such as these led Hillary Clinton's White House staff to refer to Rodham and his brother as "the Brothers Rodham",[15] extending the American tradition of troublesome presidential siblings to the brother-in-law category.[9] One senior White House official would be quoted as saying, "You never wanted to hear their name come up in any context other than playing golf."
http://archive.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/08/30/obama_relative_arrested_on_drunk_driving_charges_in_framingham/ (this one has more to do with avoiding law enforcement and not making money, but still):
“I think,’’ he said, according to a police report, “I’d like to call the White House.’’
If he was hoping to reach his nephew, Barack Obama, he would have been out of luck; the president was vacationing with the first family on Martha’s Vineyard.
The elder Obama, who is the half-brother of the president’s late father, according to a spokesman for the law firm representing him, is in the custody of immigration officials, awaiting possible deportation to Kenya.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryanne_Trump_Barry (this one isn't exactly independent of the President's own alleged tax avoidance ...)
In October 2018, The New York Times published an investigative report asserting that Barry, along with her father and siblings, had engaged in fraudulent and illegal activity for the purpose of limiting estate tax and gift tax liability stemming from Fred Trump's real estate enterprises.[24] Investigative journalist Susanne Craig discovered a filing Barry had made to the Senate as part of her federal judiciary confirmation in 1983, in which she had reported a $1 million contribution from All County Building Supply & Maintenance.[25] The Times reported that All County Building Supply & Maintenance was a "sham company" formed in 1992[25] and owned by Barry, Donald Trump, their siblings, and a cousin.
All County Building Supply & Maintenance reportedly paid for work performed at Fred Trump's apartment buildings; those apartment buildings then reimbursed the company, but fraudulently added extra money to those reimbursements. Tax experts reportedly indicated that because All County "performed no real work, the transfer of money through the corporation was essentially a gift that evaded the 55 percent tax in place at the time".[26] Its address was the Manhasset, New York, residence of John Walter, Fred Trump's nephew.[25][Notes 1] In a follow-up article, The New York Times reported that the money illicitly earned by All County was split by the Trump siblings.[26]
In October 2018, as a result of the publication of this investigation, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance began a review of the fraud allegations against Barry and her siblings.[24][27][22]
On February 1, 2019, four legal professionals, who had filed complaints against Judge Barry in October 2018, stemming from the allegations made in The New York Times, were notified by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that an investigation into judicial misconduct by Barry had been launched, in regard to her alleged participation in fraudulent tax and financial transactions. Ten days later, Barry, a senior inactive judge at the time, announced her retirement from the bench, effectively ending the investigation.
Focus on the photo with a bunch of Wiki blather and ignore the campaign's non-denial denial.
Also, ignore all the other stuff about Hunter's trips to China & Ukraine and Biden admitting on camera that he pressured Ukraine to can the prosecutor investigating Burisma.
-
1
-
-
18 hours ago, dubs said:
I will only say this, these companies are private and at the end of the day, i do feel like it’s their prerogative.
the bigger issue is people need to start waking up and realizing that these platforms are not their friend. They are destructive tools and should be treated as such. Use only with extreme discretion.
In the meantime, all it takes are a few alternatives to really make a dent into this business model of clearly shilling for the communists.
Yes, they are private and can do what they want. But they shouldn't be able to avoid libel suits by claiming they have no editorial discretion as to what their users put out and then act as publishers and edit the content of their users.
They can't have it both ways.
-
1
-
6
-
-
Yes, the origin of how the e-mail came to light is suspect. But the non-denial denial by Biden sure does make it sound like the meeting between Joe and the Burisma exec that he thanked Hunter for arranging took place.
"We have reviewed Joe Biden's official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place."
Clearly, if it wasn't on the OFFICIAL SCHEDULE, it couldn't have taken place. BUT even if a meeting did take place, it didn't happen as the NYP stated it did.
If the meeting really didn't take place, why not simply say categorically that it didn't? Joe's on record as categorically denying he ever spoke to his son about his son's business dealings even though there's photos of him & Hunter golfing w/ a Burisma exec. So, it's not like he & his campaign are above bald faced lying.
-
8 minutes ago, BillsFanNC said:
Let's hope it backfires.
-
1
-
-
3 hours ago, ALF said:
Chinese President Xi Jinping tells troops to focus on 'preparing for war'
Hong Kong (CNN)Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on troops to "put all (their) minds and energy on preparing for war" in a visit to a military base in the southern province of Guangdong on Tuesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.
During an inspection of the People's Liberation Army Marine Corps in Chaozhou City, Xinhua said Xi told the soldiers to "maintain a state of high alert" and called on them to be "absolutely loyal, absolutely pure, and absolutely reliable."
But the military visit comes as tensions between China and the United States remain at their highest point in decades, with disagreements over Taiwan and the coronavirus pandemic creating sharp divisions between Washington and Beijing.
The White House notified US Congress Monday that it was planning to move ahead with the sale of three advanced weapon systems to Taiwan, according to a congressional aide, including the advanced High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).In a stern response from Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian called on Washington to "immediately cancel any arms sales plans to Taiwan" and cut all "US-Taiwan military ties."
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/14/asia/xi-jinping-taiwan-us-esper-intl-hnk/index.html
Interesting. But don't really put too much weight to it as nations posture all the time. And China always ratchets up the rhetoric when we consider (and actually do) arms sales to Taiwan.
-
3 hours ago, dubs said:
Realizing Biden doing anything to support his son from his official capacity as VP is still merely alleged; but this combined with the video of Biden bragging that he got the Ukranian prosecutor canned is a very bad look.
Too bad the media will in all likelihood sweep this under the rug as well.
-
5 minutes ago, Alaska Darin said:
Boy, paying a defenseman on the wrong side of 30 that kinda coin for that term is risky.
I'm really curious to see Hall in Blue and Gold. He's a real difference maker.
Yep. For the 1st time in ages they have 2 full lines worth of top 6 skaters & for the 1st time since at least the early '90's 2 of those are arguably in the top 5 at their position.
Fix the goaltending & if healthy, this should be a playoff team.
-
1
-
1
-
-
1 minute ago, Backintheday544 said:
Probably would have been closer to the same. Don't forget all those mask protests we saw.
You expect that D's would be less likely to join a riot than R's would be? The events of the summer & fall don't seem to bear that out.
-
9 minutes ago, Backintheday544 said:
There's also a major difference in opinion of COVID based on political party:
The main own is the last one. 8 percent of Democrats are comfortable attending a crowded party vs 31 percent.
Too bad they didn't ask how comfortable they'd be attending a riot. Expecting those #'s would've flipped.
-
2
-
-
1 hour ago, fasteddie said:
According to Bills website, the game is at 7PM .
Yep. 6PM Nashville time, 7PM real time.
Anybody know how long it's been since there was a Tuesday night NFL game?
-
10 minutes ago, wAcKy ZeBrA said:
Good post, Tibs
If he did what he's accused of, fine, put him in jail.
-
1
-
-
7 minutes ago, Foxx said:
had i wanted the thread deleted, i would have done so. far be it from me to remove the labor of everyone's efforts within this thread, even those i don't agree with.
since @Hapless Bills Fan won't close this thread, @Chandler#81will you please close this thread, thank you.
Gee, you mean there's a difference between closing/ locking a thread & deleting one?
Really don't understand why ANY thread should get deleted unless it was truly vile from the very 1st post. That said, totally get why the people that like to delete threads here tend to do so.
-
2
-
-
Just now, Crayola64 said:
feel free to share/quote that. I’m unaware of that14 minutes ago, Crayola64 said:
feel free to share/quote that. I’m unaware of that5th post down on 3rd page of the "additional information regarding the actions taken thread:"
"As for this part, I do my best to be correct in these situations and for this I owe DR somewhat of an apology. I reread the messages yet again and he did not accuse another member of actually being a pedophile himself, but (paraphrasing) that the member supports those causes and that’s what the member stands for.
The technical misrepresentation is completely my fault and I own that. However, the distinction between the two is rather small and the sentiment is essentially the same.
Thank you for pointing it out. "
-
1
-
3
-
-
41 minutes ago, Crayola64 said:
come again? Here is SDS’s description of DR’s pm conversation:He also stated elsewhere that upon receiving further information that his initial take (which you quote) did not accurately represent what was conveyed in the PMs.
-
1
-
1
-
-
11 minutes ago, Crayola64 said:
You say about a guy who accused another poster of abusing children to SDS through a PM
Pretty sure that is a misrepresentation of their conversation.
Also, pretty sure you realize that. Which puts your post on par with that which you rail against.
-
2
-
1
-
-
1 minute ago, DrDawkinstein said:
Sad to see what was an "ol buddy" get lost down that Q hole. I hope he can find his way out of that mess.
Social Media will be the downfall of mankind.
It wasn't social media that took him down that road. It was researching a project he was working on that had him speaking w/ a bunch of MI types which then morphed into a desire to try to prove 45 was colluding with Russian intelligence.
Only problem was, along the way, he found out it wasn't 45's team that was colluding with the Russians. He was 3 years ahead of info that's been getting made public through declassifications & the like. He's caught a tremendous amount of flack for his takes the past 3 years. Thing is, in Russiagate & Spygate he's actually been shown to be far more right than wrong.
He still has his wild alien conspiracies too, but he was correct about a lot of stuff on this. Not all of it, but a lot of it. And if you look at the testimony that people gave under oath to the HSCI regarding Russian collusion versus what they say when not under oath on the cable news shows, he really has been a truly valuable resource. He's still the same good guy he was when he was voting for 44, but he's seen a lot of stuff we haven't had access to.
(Sorry for the rambling response. This board lost a very good asset when Greg was sent to the sidelines.)
-
8
-
2
-
2
-
-
Just now, DrDawkinstein said:
No, really?!?! Ah, thats a big bummer.
Really. DR was that well known right winger TGregg & GreggyT.
-
1
-
2
-
-
Just now, DrDawkinstein said:
Wait. Was DR originally tgregg99?
Yep.
Final Vote—All States, Progress in counting
in Politics, Polls, and Pundits
Posted
A Biden win won't help the economy but it will help the Dow & the S&P as additional regulations make it tougher for new competitors to enter.
Those companies will also be helped by better access to cheap Chinese labor.