Oh. My. God.

[edwardmurphy]

Trump on Ghislaine Maxwell:

I just wish her well, frankly. I've met her numerous times over the years...I just wish her well, whatever it is.

First off, she's accused of helping Jeffrey Epstein pimp out teenage girls to rich guys and he wishes her well...?

Second, he just commuted Roger Stone's sentence after using the same kind of Mafia boss innuendo to indicate that Stone would be fine of he kept his mouth shut.

There are no depths...

[RickD]

So,

When he attacks people he gets vilified.

And when he politely avoids attacking someone, he still gets vilified.

[edwardmurphy]

When he attacks people he gets vilified.

And when he politely avoids attacking someone, he still gets vilified.

Go read the transcript from Trump's conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky. Then read his comments about Roger Stone. Then go watch Goodfellas, The Godfather 1 and 2, Casino, and maybe The Irishman. Then reread what comment about Maxwell, bearing in mind that Trump has long standing relationships with Maxwell and Epstein, has been accused of engaging in inappropriate sexual contact with a minor at Epstein's place, talks like a gangster, and has pardon power.

He's not being polite, he's dog whistling a pardon.

[Philip]

Yet, Trumpet is a piece of work, etc! Of course he is - but vast millions know that what awaits on the other side is far scarier - as the term "moderate democrat" has become an oxymoron.

[edwardmurphy]

Yet, Trumpet is a piece of work, etc! Of course he is - but vast millions know that what awaits on the other side is far scarier - as the term "moderate democrat" has become an oxymoron.

Can you back that statement up by telling me which one of Joe Biden's policy positions is so abhorrent that you'd overlook Trump dangling a pardon for a woman accused of trafficking teenage girls for sex and what that implies about the President's past behavior?

[RickD]

When he attacks people he gets vilified.

And when he politely avoids attacking someone, he still gets vilified.

Go read the transcript from Trump's conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky. Then read his comments about Roger Stone. Then go watch Goodfellas, The Godfather 1 and 2, Casino, and maybe The Irishman. Then reread what comment about Maxwell, bearing in mind that Trump has long standing relationships with Maxwell and Epstein, has been accused of engaging in inappropriate sexual contact with a minor at Epstein's place, talks like a gangster, and has pardon power.

He's not being polite, he's dog whistling a pardon.

Pardoning a convicted pedophile would be political suicide. The only reason that I could see for him to even think of pardoning her(if she’s convicted) would be to keep her quiet about something he did. And if that comes out, that may be political suicide, depending on what it could be.

Of course this is all speculation.

[edwardmurphy]

If she has dirt, and Trump's own words strongly imply that she does, then he just needs her to keep quiet until November. After that it doesn't matter. If he wins then it's a safe bet that the GOP will hold the Senate too. In that instance he'll be invincible and it will make no difference what she says. If he loses he has until January to pardon her so he can move into his next career as the second coming of Rush Limbaugh without worrying about going to jail for having sex with children.

[Kurieuo]

I really shouldn't be surprised by Ed's extreme comments, but... I too wish Maxwell, well, well. As when Epstein "suicided" a lot of information about others involved, which could have have given a lot of victimised girls and women some form of justice, died with him.

Yet, of course, Ed takes the narrative to an extreme: "If [Trump] loses he has until January to pardon her so he can move into his next career as the second coming of Rush Limbaugh without worrying about going to jail for having sex with children."

Seriously, who's the "Q" of your own information Ed? I'm pretty sure when Clinton was raised some time back, you may have rushed to his defense and there's a whole lot more there. But anyway...

[edwardmurphy]

It was just a bit of hyperbole, actually, but it was rooted in a collection of facts.

1) Trump, Epstein, and Maxwell go back a long, long way.

2) Trump has an extremely questionable history with women. He's said things about his daughter that are really bizarre and unsettling, he's bragged about barging into the dressing room of his Miss Teen Whatever pageant (which was corroborated by some of the contestants), he's bragged about making aggressive sexual advances (which has been corroborated by a bunch of women), and back in 2015 a woman accused him of raping her at Epstein's place (when she was 13). That last one wasn't taken seriously at the time, but as more and more evidence of his character and past behavior have surfaced it has come to appear plausible.

3) It's been plausible stated that Trump aims to use his time in the White House as the basis to establish a right wing punditry network.

4) His comments about Maxwell sounded like an offer of a pardon or commutation if she kept her mouth shut, particularly after he commuted Roger Stone's sentence and had Michael Flynn's case tossed despite Flynn confession to several felonies.

5) If Maxwell has some major dirt on Trump it could damage his reputation enough to damage whatever he's planning to do after he leaves office.

So no, he won't go to jail for having sex with children (although one has accused him of just that), but it seems like it's in his interest to keep Maxwell quiet. It wasn't some left wing Q garbage, it was hyperbole rooted in evidence based speculation.

[Stu]

Vivid imagination, Ed has plenty of it.

[edwardmurphy]

Numbers 1-4 have been widely reported. Number 5 is a conclusion based on numbers 1-4. But sure, Stu, it's all fake news.

[Kurieuo]

Just what is "news"?

[edwardmurphy]

news
/n(y)o͞oz/

noun

noun: news
newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent or important events.
"I've got some good news for you"
a broadcast or published report of news.

plural noun: the news
"he was back in the news again"

[Kurieuo]

Seems to me today there is your "news" and their "news". Who's news is really news? How do you decide?

[edwardmurphy]

Seems to me today there is your "news" and their "news". Who's news is really news? How do you decide?

Sometimes it seems that way, but that's not reality. In reality the facts are the facts, period. I do my best to get to the facts by cross checking multiple sources. I'm more inclined to take a source seriously if they've been reliably honest in the past. I also make use of fact checking sites, since they all cite their sources, and of the Internet, which allows me to research claims about past events. I also read past headlines and titles, since those are so frequently misleading clickbait. And finally, I've trained myself to be extremely skeptical of anything shocking, since shocking claims are usually false.

I trust sources like the New York times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, NPR, Propublica, the Times of London, the Guardian, the AP, and Reuters, to name a few, because they report facts and issue corrections when they get it wrong. Most of the criticism I see of those sources comes from people holding up an editorial, opinion, or analysis piece and screaming about bias. That's silly - editorials, opinions, and analysis are up front about the fact that they're biased and they have no bearing on the news content. Even Fox News and MSNBC do pretty well on actual news (during the day), even though they fill the prime time hours with punditry and propaganda.

I don't trust right wing blogs because for the last 6 years or so I've been reading examples of their work posted here and then fact checking them, and I've found their record to be abysmal. I don't trust the President, because he lies literally all the time, and they're usually really obvious. Most other politicians get the benefit of the doubt, but none get full-on trust.

So I pretty much just start with the knowledge that there are no "alternative facts" and move forward using critical thinking skills to figure out who's lying. It's generally pretty easy.