Radiorum

And decided to target Syria with airstrikes on the same day. "Let's fight terrorists so you don't notice that we're not fulfilling our democratic obligations!"

If anyone commits any crime, then the full weight of the law should be put on them. What you seem to be implying is that if a Democrat commits that crime, then it absolves Republicans - like Trump - from the same crime. No, they all should be held accountable. Now, this thread is about the Epstein files, so I will mention that Susie Wiles, in her Vanity Fair interviews, said that Bill Clinton is not in the files. She says she has read the Epstein files, and in her words: Trump has claimed, without evidence, that Bill Clinton visited Epstein’s infamous private island, Little St. James, “supposedly 28 times.” “There is no evidence” those visits happened, according to Wiles; as for whether there was anything incriminating about Clinton in the files, “The president was wrong about that.”

You realize this more accurately describes Trump?

This is a funny thing to say considering only Trump has had a verdict made against him for sexual abuse and not only do the Republicans protect him, they treat him like he is a god That's because it was so heavily redacted, including whole pages blacked out

the following quote is something I just read just now: The trick is older than the humidity. Take something tired. Wrap it in bravado. Demand applause. That is what the Trump administration just did with this so-called 1776 Warrior Dividend. It was a dog and pony show. Not even a polished one. The kind of county-fair routine where somebody drags out a plywood stage, plugs a microphone into a generator, and insists you are witnessing history. Nothing about that announcement was governance. It was choreography. It was a branding activation disguised as gratitude. A patriotic number. A heroic noun. And a pot of money that already existed, already appropriated, already pointed at military housing needs. They did not create anything. They renamed something. That is the dog. That is the pony. Look over here. Do not notice the ledger. Inside the 1776 Rebrand – A Dog-and-Pony Show Masquerading as Military Support

@Legato - a simple fact check would reveal to you that that particular law did not make it legal to blow boats out of the water. There is nothing in it about unrestricted use of force. Ian Ralby (archived here), an attorney and non-resident senior fellow at the Center for Maritime Strategy who specializes in maritime security, told Lead Stories via email about the 1986 Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act: He continued: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/fact-check-maritime-drug-law-074942943.html Besides, your post does not answer mine - the point is that these boat strikes are not based on any drug action, but effecting regime change in Venezuela., despite the spectacle Trump is using to distract the American people from his real purposes. “We want it back,” (Trump) added. “They took our oil rights — we had a lot of oil there. As you know they threw our companies out, and we want it back.” https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-we-want-it-back-trump-demands-venezuela-return-land-oil-rights-to-u-s

To pretend that you've just decided to award bonuses to service members, but in actuality are just giving them money that was already theirs, is a con. Full stop. Anyway, on to the next featured con: Trump says they are blowing up boats in the ocean to stop the import of drugs. They say this is part of an "armed conflict" with unspecified drug cartels, although there is none. Trump falsely redefines these civilians he is murdering as "combatants" - and targets them as "narco-terrorists" worthy of extrajudicial execution. As Pete Hegseth said: “Core national interest, the safety of the American people, stop the killing, stop the poisoning of the American people. It’s as simple as that.” But there have been some who did not buy this justification, who say that blowing up the boats is not about any kind of drug action, but rather regime change in Venezuela, and now Susie Wiles, in the Vanity Fair interview, has revealed the truth of the matter – it is after all about regime change: “He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle,” Wiles said. “And people way smarter than me on that say that he will.”

Gaslighting

OMFG! the con played by Trump was not that he announced that he would give money to service members. I really don't like repeating myself. re-read my posts and let me know is you have any questions about them.

re-read the posts, slowly

You missed the point

Your post wasn't addressed to anyone. And anyway, I gave you an answer

I never said it, Trump did. From the transcript - Trump's words - Because of tariffs, along with the just passed One Big, Beautiful Bill, tonight I am also proud to announce that more than 1,000, 450,000, think of this, 1,450,000 military service members will receive a special, we call warrior dividend before Christmas, a warrior dividend. In honor of our nation's founding in 1776, we are sending every soldier $1,776. Think of that. And the checks are already on the way. Nobody understood that one until about 30 minutes ago. We made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs, and the bill helped us along.

No, Trump was misleading and not at all forthcoming. here is the entire quote - Trump's words: Because of tariffs, along with the just passed One Big, Beautiful Bill, tonight I am also proud to announce that more than 1,000, 450,000, think of this, 1,450,000 military service members will receive a special, we call warrior dividend before Christmas, a warrior dividend. In honor of our nation's founding in 1776, we are sending every soldier $1,776. Think of that. And the checks are already on the way. Nobody understood that one until about 30 minutes ago. We made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs, and the bill helped us along. In the first place, none of the money to pay for the warrior dividend are coming from tariffs. Why did he mention them, not once but twice? In the second place, he referenced the Big Beautiful Bill without any meaning attached to it. It was a throw away mention that wouldn't mean anything to anyone listening. The truth is that the dividend is to be paid by money already allocated by Congress for house allowances. But you wouldn't know that based on Trump's quote. And - if you can't see the con here, then you are easily conned.

But I do. Three co-equal branches with a system of checks and balances - that is currently under attack. Besides, I was describing Trump's state of mind

We can use this thread to record the ways in which Trump cons the American people. Here's one of his latest cons (I guess done to attempt to bribe service members and aggrandize himself): In his "address to the nation" he announced that all military service members will receive a "warrior's dividend" of $1776 - (and he said "the cheques are on the way" even though "no-one knew about until 30 minutes ago") -And he announced that these dividends will be paid for with tariff money. No. That's a lie. They are being paid for with housing allowance money already approved by Congress: President Donald Trump’s “Warrior Dividend” bonus for service members, which he suggested would be funded by tariff revenue, is actually a one-time basic allowance for housing stipend already approved by Congress, according to a senior administration official. The $1,776 bonus payment Trump announced while addressing the nation Wednesday night will be paid using funds Congress appropriated to the Defense Department in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was passed into law in July, to supplement the basic allowance for housing. Congress appropriated $2.9 billion to supplement the basic allowance for housing, and the Pentagon will disburse $2.6 billion of that funding as a one-time payment to roughly 1.28 million active-duty service members and 174,000 Reserve Component members. https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay-benefits/2025/12/trumps-warrior-dividend-for-troops-is-housing-money-approved-by-congress/

Describes Trump's grandiose narcissism

Here is the passage from the article, and Wiles's actual words: The most valuable gift Susie got from her dad was hard-earned. Summerall was an absentee father and an alcoholic, and Wiles helped her mother stage interventions to get him into treatment. (Summerall was sober for 21 years before his death in 2013.) “Alcoholism does bad things to relationships, and so it was with my dad and me,” Wiles said. “Some clinical psychologist that knows one million times more than I do will dispute what I’m going to say. But high-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink. And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities.” Wiles said Trump has “an alcoholic’s personality.” He “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”

I still can't figure out why no-one stopped him from installing these plaques filled with personal grievance, conspiracy theories, and lies. It seems there are no guardrails on his worst impulses. Not a good situation for a man with so much power. It is rule without challenge - and that means autocracy.

But he hasn't. he says he has, but he hasn't This lie has been debunked repeatedly

I've read part 2 of the articles now, and a comment from Wiles blows apart Trump's narrative about why he is blowing up people in the ocean. From the article: Wiles told me about Trump’s Venezuela strategy: “He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle. And people way smarter than me on that say that he will.” (Wiles’s statement appears to contradict the administration’s official stance that blowing up boats is about drug interdiction, not regime change.)

Yeah, I got this from the article. But Wiles' father was an alcoholic, and she was basing her comment on her less-than-stellar experience with him. What you are actually describing here is the alcoholic's delusion. Not drunk, but flawed. Why, do you think Trump has no flaws? Alcoholics don't reach their goals. But there was no lies in the piece.

Gotta stay informed. If I am to comment on it, I gotta watch it.

I haven't seen any reporting that reflects this point-of-view. Are you just making it up?

I had to share this quote I read about Trump's $18 trillion dollar claim: Then came the eighteen trillion. That number landed like a stone. Eighteen trillion in investment. Eighteen trillion in promised glory. It felt like someone tossing a jewel into the air and expecting everyone to gasp. I come from Southern people. We do not clap at big numbers. We ask to see the paperwork. My grandma said never trust a man who throws out money figures without explaining whose hands it lands in. Eighteen trillion means nothing if it lives on a teleprompter and dies at a grocery checkout.