General News Thread

[LJ3]

I guess this is bad news

but Republican tax plan just passed the Senate

[asterism42]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42217735

The UK and EU have failed to reach an agreement to move to the next stage of Brexit talks, Theresa May has said.The prime minister said talks would reconvene "before the end of the week" and she was "confident we will conclude this positively".
The talks are understood to have broken down after the DUP refused to accept concessions on the Irish border issue.

bet May's really loving that snap election decision right about now

[chrnno]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42217735


bet May's really loving that snap election decision right about now

It is made even more ironic considering the whole situation came from someone assuming the results of a vote would be obviously one way by a great margin.

[Kareshy]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/muelle...a=twitter_page

Paul Manafort.
After meeting bail at 11 million dollars.
Contacted a Russian with ties to Russian intelligence services.
So that he could ghost write an op-ed defending himself in the press.

How the fuck are people this stupid in charge of anything?

[SeiKeo]

He wasn't in charge of anything, his job was being shady and knowing people.

[Tobias]

Because we voted them in.

[Kareshy]

He wasn't in charge of anything, his job was being shady and knowing people.

Oh shit what a fucking relief. It's only people dumb enough to have Paul Manafort hired as their campaign manager that are in charge of anything.

But seriously I don't give a dick about the technicalities of his positions through the years. He's had influence. He has likely impacted national policy. He is a monumental fucking numbskull beyond belief. That is what is astounding to me.

[SeiKeo]

Then get it right the first time!

And while you're at it it's probably a good idea to get out of the habit of reasoning from a result. Because Paul Manafort is certainly smarter than you and I.

[Tobias]

My answer was better

[Kareshy]

Then get it right the first time!

And while you're at it it's probably a good idea to get out of the habit of reasoning from a result. Because Paul Manafort is certainly smarter than you and I.

I don't know you, so he might be smarter than you. He is definitely not smarter than me.
Being rich isn't the result of being smart.

Also, fun fact! The thing I said was not "How did Paul Manafort become in charge of [A particular thing].", which a person might reasonably then correct me by saying "Paul Manafort is not in charge of that thing!". I said "How the fuck are people this stupid in charge of anything?"

[Alternative Ice]

Because Paul Manafort is certainly smarter than you and I.

smart people probably don't get put under house arrest

[SeiKeo]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San_Suu_Kyi

[asterism42]

I'm sorry, are you arguing that contacting a Russian and writing an opinion column in a newspaper while under house arrest for contacting Russians, with strict instructions not to talk to the media, is not a stupid thing to do?

He's either a massive moron, or so convinced he's getting off it doesn't matter what he does, and I'm not sure which is worse.

[SeiKeo]

My assumption is that Manafort knows a lot more about shady shit and lying to the FBI than I do and is a lot better positioned to judge what shady shit will work or not

which seems reasonable

Or he panicked, which is wrong but not dumb and really quite understandable as far as it goes

e: and this is the thing about clarity, once again, manafort is not charged with 'talking to russians' he is charged with:

1: lying to doj/irs

2: money laundering, primarily via Cyprus

3: failing to disclose to the irs

4: failing to disclose to the irs

5: failing to disclose to the irs

6: failing to disclose to the irs

7: failing to disclose to the irs

8: failing to disclose to the irs

9: failing to disclose to the irs

10: not filing paperwork for being a lobbyist for ukraine

11: lying to the fbi

12: lying to the fbi

[Mattias]

Him contacting the Russians isn't what makes this dumb in my mind, it's the reason he did it. Writing an Op-Ed? Was that really worth staying out of prison until trial?

[SeiKeo]

By no means is it much of a master plan (and somehow goes along with the weird 'Flynn writes op-ed to extradite Gulen on the eve of the election', what is it with these op-eds). But then we're back to, hey, I'm sure Manafort knows a lot more about staying out of federal prison than I do

[Kareshy]

You say that, but so far only one of the two of you looks to actually be going to Federal prison. He can't be all that good at avoiding it when it's actually super fucking easy.

[Tobias]

It is worth noting that at a certain level of privilege it actually requires a certain level of mental reassessment for some to actually be able to process that “holy shit this is actually happening” Paul really seems to be struggling with the fact that he is actually in trouble and this isn’t going to just blow over.

[Kareshy]

Like, I'm sorry. It's not good enough to say "Doing this must have been smart, because he's smart and he did it." On some level we have to assume that his intention is to avoid going to prison, and if we judge his actions on that merit they were incredibly foolish.

There's no substantive strategic justification for authoring an op-ed in this circumstance. It does not exonerate him from the crime. Russian contact or no, disclosing in these circumstances was a violation of his already limited bail. Bail which cost him 11,000,000 dollars and he apparently had to sell assets to pay off.
Maybe he IS playing 5D goddamn Chess and styling all over everyone in the investigation. If so, you should still feel bad for him, because it is clear that Mueller is NOT playing 5D chess, and so will bust him for violating the rules of regular ole chess when he tries to move a piece through time at any rate that isn't 1 second per 1 second.

[Tobias]

Technically speaking I don’t think he loses the money because I don’t think they have actually finalized the bail agreement yet. It’s now likely to be revoked mind, but the eleven million stays in his pocket.

could be wrong