he loves his bribes

I hate corruption in all forms, but I love the fact that Israel is freaking the fuck out right now because the Middle East just realized all they have to do is bribe Trump.

Israeli government is pissed right now, and that’s awesome….

But also, stop pretending like just about every politician in Washington doesn’t also take legalized bribes

All of those January 6th people who were freaking out about losing their country... where are they now? Hmmmm.

Fucking hypocrites.

My new conspiracy theory: Vance is a made man for the Technate, and the plan has always been to get him into the Presidency. Trump will be enabled to act as corruptly as he wants, until an impeachment succeeds. Vance will step in and fulfill Thiel's program. Trump lands softly, and the Matrix is built.

He did quid pro quo with Ukraine his first term and he got away with it so why not keep doing it.

I find in endlessly funny that we've been screaming at the democrats to leverage Israel more to end hostilities in the ME without any real movement from them, but suddenly Trump is willing to say 'fuck it' just because the right people happen to be bribing him.

If the right people keep trump's palms greased for long enough we might actually end up on the right side of history by accident, and if that's not comedy I don't know what is.

The crowd that went on about a laptop for 5 years suddenly don't care about The President getting a whole ass jet and tower as a gift. But they aren't a cult. Only decorum and the law matters when Dems are in power.

The really ugly thing here is, al-Sharaa is the best thing to happen to Syria in decades. Most people have been urging recognition of his government and the relaxation of sanctions because he's about as good we can expect a leader of Syria to be.

And he is still bribing Trump.

This isn't merely corruption. This is the *normalization * of corruption. Even countries that abide by democratic norms and international law are going to need to grease palms to conduct regular diplomatic relations. The EU and UK and Canada might be able to weather his bullshit until he folds like he always does, but developing nations will be stuck trying to bid for American favor.

Welcome to the Chinese century.

Americans will just get mad post on Reddit and then go back to watching YouTube, Twitch in the hovel of their choice until ice comes for them and they will say no no not me you said it was the “others”. They are not watching the news. Bills to make furries the bad guys. Bills to make 2SLGBTQIA+ bad guys. Starting to grumble(by grumble I mean “we need to outlaw this stuff” talk) about what should and should not be on Twitch and other platforms. Grumbling about gamers and certain games. The list of buried stuff in the bills that are coming out is staggering.

They Came by Pastor Martin Niemöller

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

always has been.

the al-quaeda turned into what it was because of US money and support.

I am not arguing with the obvious corruption, but to provide a counterpoint to the second part of the argument: if we aren't allowed to make peace with former terrorists, then we can never stop fighting each other, and if we keep fighting each other, then we will keep creating the next generation of terrorists.

Umm the burden is on the one making the claim. It's also customary on the net to site the source so... No I didn't.

Quids are the best Pro Quos

Here's my most optimistic take for Americans. This guy is not as bad as Hitler. He's out to scam the world, not conquer it militarily. So that's a plus, for now. If his successor is Vance then the invasion of Canada and Mexico might actually happen.

Thank you

..... and no one should put all the blame on one man ... he isn't that powerful or persuasive

It's a complicit government that had decided to allow this orange menace to do as he pleases because it benefits some wealthy owners.

It's a lot easier to blame one man because it would remove the complicity of a large organization of people that are driving all this.

I ran out of outrage about two months ago.

This post reeks of Israeli propaganda. Ahmed al-Sharaa renounced al-Qaeda many years ago and has a lengthy, demonstrated record as a moderate, inclusive leader who fought both the Assad regime and ISIS at the same time. A moderate Arab leader who protects ethnic minorities is a threat to the Israeli narrative about their neighbors.

Is this maybe taken out of context. Normalising relations with the new Syrian government is happening and Sharaa could have floated as a sign of more open trade and capital flows.

I think it's more likely to Sharaa trying to tell Trump what he wants to hear very successfully.

Trump is corrupt and a Trump tower is a very low price for normalising relations, Sharaa is playing to Trumps corrupt tendencies.

This needs to be posted in every single LOOK WHAT HE DID NOW thread

The sanctions on Syria should be lifted, but WTF. I mean honestly. It will be interesting to see what Israel does from that as they generally want Syria destabilised. Could further add to the rift between Netanyahu and Trump.

Trump's MAGA is a terrorist aligned personality cult, confirmed.

literally it is what's had been. we have no spine

MAGA is unjust and stupid.

God bless America.

I really hope for once Congress does its job and MAGA actually fights him on this, since some have already been saying this is too much even for them, starting with the plane.

Let it be on the record yet again that Trump does not have a luxury plane retrofitted with millions in taxpayer money - not because he refused the bribe, but because he was barred from accepting it. Refusing a bribe =/= Having a bribe forcibly taken from your hands.

Let him not gain anything from it or this, but still have that ethic shitstain smeared all across his face as he tries to gaslight the world with his lies. Not that he wouldn't try to claim that since he doesn't have the plane, it means he "refused" it, or "it was a joke all along".

Huh?

Not that long ago CNN was writing puff pieces about how he'd "moved on" from his radical past. Around the same time, Biden removed a bounty the US had had on him. He's capitulated a bunch to Israel and done just about everything he can to appease the US.

Some of us flag burning commies are critical of him because we blindly hate anyone on America's side for capitulating to Israel and privatizing the economy, and have been skeptical about the mainstream narrative of him moving past his past. We were also skeptical about this whole project of arming "moderate rebels" like him in Syria, fearing that it would destabilize the region. But even I would say, now that he's in, that trying to replace him would probably just destabilize the region even further.

Idk who this Ed Krassenstein is but his name is red in Shinigami Eyes and his bio describes himself as an "AI and Crypto futurist" so he's not one of ours. So, uh, is this based on a coherent, informed position on Syria, or is this just a knee-jerk reaction to a headline?

If the US shouldn't accept Jolani as the leader of Syria, then what should they do? Find some more moderate rebels to support against the previous moderate rebels it supported? Have Israel and Turkey annex the entire country? Keep sanctioning them forever for no reason no matter how much they capitulate and cooperate? What exactly would that be aiming to accomplish?

Lol Trump is becoming a bitch to every country that the FBI and CIA have spent a decade to show as the main baddies. I wonder how the red necks that have "Russia and Muslims are bad" engraved into their spinal cords are taking this?

This could have been avoided if one dude had better aim.

If the American public doesn't know what corruption is and does, I'm starting to wonder which countries do know.

Yes, and?! What will americans do about it?!

Wait, were we not loving Al-Sharaa months ago when he took the reins of the transitional gov't?

None of this is for the United States. It's all for him. The greedy little piggy.

So, are mods here still going to delete comments that openly wish the PA sniper had just been 2 inches to the side?

Imagine Obama or Biden, or Harris, doing this!

Everything about this is like we have all been force-fed industrial strength hallucinogens. That YMCA played by the murderous Saudi prince after that fawning display... WTAF world are we living in any more?

If this was the Matrix I'd be demanding to be unplugged right now, and promptly throw up on the floor

If only there were some sort of remedy for this. There seems to be none.

I don't see a source.

Solve it like the French

Kill all the Americans you want as long as you bribe the toddler-in-chief...

Open corruption. Absolutely WTF.

The US invaded the Middle East though, so resistance was to be expected

MAGA supports this.

Republicans support this.

He forgor 😔

Elect a corrupt businessman, get a corrupt official. In a way, I'm glad his grifts are so obvious; I prefer 'buy me a painfully obvious x and get y ' rather than the constant, covert insider trading. We know what business he's doing. I'm going to admit that I prefer that to vote-buying, lobbying, and Senate committee corruption.

It only counts if they gave him an itemized receipt, with the word "bribe" at the top, followed by two columns...one labeled "quid" and the other labeled "quo". And it needs to be notarized.

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.