On Foreign Emoluments, Or: How to Purchase an Entire Political Party

Published April 18, 2019

On Foreign Emoluments, Or: How to Purchase an Entire Political Party

Trump hotels exempted from ban on foreign payments under new stance | US news | The Guardian

“A narrow justice department interpretation of the emoluments clause gives countries leeway to curry favor with the president via commercial deals”

The Guardian is acceptable, right? Here’s an interesting thought experiment — if the DOJ (now led by a Trump handpicked appointee), is only now releasing this “narrow” interpretation — does that mean that all the PRIOR bribery wasn’t legit? Or are we retroactively excusing said bribery?

Either way — it’s good to know that the proper way to run a government is to reshape the regulations around what is most convenient for the current president, rather than what is best for the country as a whole.

God forbid an individual unwilling to divest themselves of potential foreign leverage (to the tune of Billions of dollars) simply choose NOT TO RUN? That’s an option. Nobody HAS to be President. Just like nobody HAS to be a Supreme Court Justice — but I guess forcibly inserting themselves while ignoring all forms of protest is a Republican/GOP tactic used across the board!

Are you fucking kidding me?

Here’s some more evidence of the aforementioned bribery because I’m in a shitty fucking mood, and because there’s just so. many. examples:

On Election Hacking, Which Definitely Won’t Happen, Except It Already Did and Is in Fact On-Going so Oh Shit, I Guess It Is Real? Fuck That Doesn’t Track With What Fox Told Me…

So first, the story from the White House. I would say official, except it differs dramatically from other “official” sources. Weird, I know! https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/05/trump-administration-finds-no-material-impact-from-foreign-interference-in-2018-midterm-elections.html

Oh great! I’m glad to hear that whatever fucking intern is left in the WH at this point was able to stop tonguing Kushner’s sore butthole long enough to provide quotes for that piece. Surprisingly, despite the headline, the article notes several links to prior stories that would appear to directly conflict with the current story! Someone’s lying — I wonder who? If only there was a clear pattern of criminal deceit from which to derive our suspicions…

Anyways: I know I’M a crackpot tinfoil hat wearing looney — but the FBI and DHS?

DHS, FBI say election systems in all 50 states were targeted in 2016 | Ars Technica

“While the latest JIB doesn’t provide any more real technical information about how systems were attacked in 2016, it does go into some detail in describing the methodical reconnaissance approach”Russian government cyber actors“ took in probing for potential vulnerabilities in election systems. Between June and October of 2016, the group associated with the election hacking ”researched websites and information related to elections in at least 39 states and territories, according to newly available FBI information,“ the bulletin states. ”The same actors also directly visited websites in at least 30 states, mostly election-related government sites at both the state and local level—some of which overlap with the 39 researched states.”

…

“The new information that spurred this JIB did not, however, provide any additional insight into the Russian group’s attempts to scan for vulnerabilities in, and hack into, the networks of government agencies in”at least 21 states,“ as the bulletin notes. Some of the details of that effort were provided in the indictment of Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) officers delivered by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe—at least one state had voter data stolen, though there was no indication that data was tampered with.”

Not a fan of the FBI and DHS — those liberal bastions full of commies? Okay — how about Fauxtterny General William Barr?

“According to Attorney General William Barr’s summary of Mueller’s findings, delivered to Congress on Sunday, the investigation concluded there were “two main Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who blocked a bipartisan effort to warn the public about ongoing Russian meddling in 2016, acknowledged in remarks on Monday that Russia was the guilty party. “I look forward, as well, to the continuing parallel work of our Senate colleagues on the Select Committee on Intelligence to study the threats that foreign interference pose to our institutions,” he said.

McConnell’s office did not respond to inquiries about whether Republicans would put forward a plan to prevent future meddling.

That’s because he’s diligently working with top security experts to provide a comprehensive plan that protects the US and serves the People, right? McConnell definitely isn’t just paying lip service to some bullshit he has no intention of following up on — and is in fact working diametrically against. You know, like how he does with:

This situation is definitely TOTALLY DIFFERENT from all those other things, right?

Anybody — ANYBODY — who doesn’t see what’s right in front of them at this point is willfully ignorant, an abject moron, or complicit.

I cannot FUCKING BELIEVE I’m going to spend the rest of my life working to undo the damage wrought in these past two years, instead of doing LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE.

Take a good look at this face. This is the face that irrevocably fucked over the entire human species.

Sen_Mitch_McConnell_officia

Smoke if you got ’em. We’ll be on fire soon enough anyway.

Last modified October 3, 2023 #politics #essays #ideas