Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Junkyard Poodle
May 6, 2011


brugroffil posted:

I am completely baffled and can't even recall talking about welfare or welfare programs recently let alone making GBS threads on them

Unless it was mysterious stranger for me mocking his "minorities ruin socialism" stupidity, but even then what the heck

sounds like a prostate problem, talk with the ladies up front and we'll schedule you a follow up appointment.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Mayor Dave
Feb 20, 2009

Bernie the Snow Clown

brugroffil posted:

I am completely baffled and can't even recall talking about welfare or welfare programs recently let alone making GBS threads on them

Unless it was mysterious stranger for me mocking his "minorities ruin socialism" stupidity, but even then what the heck

iirc there was a discussion a few days ago in the middle of the night about squizzle's? bid for president of cspam, and the person mentioned welfare avs for good posters without them and month-long probes for all bad posters

looks like someone's fulfilling their campaign promises, much like TRUMP

brugroffil
Nov 30, 2015



you can choose to die in the street, the gutter, the sidewalk, under a bridge, really the choices are endless!

Nichael
Mar 30, 2011



I am glad I can now choose to die.

Broken Box
Jan 29, 2009

Nichael posted:



i don't know why the image is tiny

T People give Easy D

except for Tobias

Nichael
Mar 30, 2011


Off to Tweet!

- T (Trmup)

Webbeh
Dec 13, 2003

IF THIS IS A 'LOST' THREAD I'M PROBABLY WHINING ABOUT
STABBEY THE MEANY

i love the choice of paying forever until i die for healthcare

ArmedZombie
Jun 6, 2004

Nichael posted:



i don't know why the image is tiny

lmfao

Sexual Lorax
Mar 17, 2004

HERE'S TO FUCKING


Fun Shoe

in case youre fuzzy on the whole good bad thing like dr peter venkman the blonde incarnation of avarice there is bad

important safety tip

mdemone
Mar 14, 2001

brugroffil posted:

he's comey's friend and has legitimately called several Comey-realted breaking stories ahead of time with "tick tick tick" right?

yes, that's correct. you can probably count on one hand the number of people that you should trust when they start ticking, and Wittes is one of them.

Mr. Sharps
Jul 30, 2006

The only true law is that which leads to freedom. There is no other.




looks like they just finished burning the last bits of evidence also didn't that russian ambassador just return home to almost certain doom lol

The Nastier Nate
May 22, 2005

All aboard the corona bus!

HONK! HONK!


Yams Fan

Serious question, but remember when Trump said we were gonna get rid of the artificial lines so you can buy insurance from any state? Is there anything even remotely like that in the senate bill?

fits my needs
Jan 1, 2011

Grimey Drawer

Sexual Lorax posted:

in case youre fuzzy on the whole good bad thing like dr peter venkman the blonde incarnation of avarice there is bad

important safety tip

juche avocado
Dec 23, 2009






just lmao. here it is from the horse's mouth http://www.boc.cn/en/investor/ir6/201504/t20150402_4830133.html

when you said "runs" i thought you meant like... ceo! but still lol

byob historian
Nov 5, 2008

I'm an animal abusing piece of shit! I deliberately poisoned my dog to death and think it's funny! I'm an irredeemable sack of human shit!

Turdfuzz posted:

i cant die
it sucks

turds dont die the just ~ f l o a t a w a y ~ ~

A Handed Missus
Aug 6, 2012


Mayor Dave
Feb 20, 2009

Bernie the Snow Clown
https://twitter.com/SCOTUSblog/status/879331698680356864

gay wedding cake case coming up for review

also this morning:

https://twitter.com/Taniel/status/879334155057848320


looking forward to a great 5-4 on discrimination coming up next term

J. P. Beagley
Apr 11, 2008

https://twitter.com/benjaminwittes/status/879335791083782146

juche avocado
Dec 23, 2009





brugroffil posted:

I am completely baffled and can't even recall talking about welfare or welfare programs recently let alone making GBS threads on them

Unless it was mysterious stranger for me mocking his "minorities ruin socialism" stupidity, but even then what the heck

your alt text is a direct squizzle quote so it's possible it was out of love & friendship rather than hatred & meanitude

A Handed Missus
Aug 6, 2012


tick tick tick :xd:

mdemone
Mar 14, 2001


oh poo poo my pants are off, let's do this

brugroffil
Nov 30, 2015


The Nastier Nate posted:

Serious question, but remember when Trump said we were gonna get rid of the artificial lines so you can buy insurance from any state? Is there anything even remotely like that in the senate bill?

No, that's supposed to be "phase 2"

What's great about that is all of a sudden the state waivers means that everyone will get the same extremely lovely insurance from the least regulated state, same reason all of our credit cards come from Delaware and SD.

Mayor Dave
Feb 20, 2009

Bernie the Snow Clown

60 minutes is for old people

Serf
May 5, 2011


The Nastier Nate posted:

Serious question, but remember when Trump said we were gonna get rid of the artificial lines so you can buy insurance from any state? Is there anything even remotely like that in the senate bill?

doesn't this just lead to u buying a $10 plan from delaware that covers nothing?

HUGE PUBES A PLUS
Apr 30, 2005


The russkies used Caro for bait. I hope he's getting the medication and help he needs.

Jazerus
May 24, 2011


Mayor Dave posted:

https://twitter.com/SCOTUSblog/status/879331698680356864

gay wedding cake case coming up for review

also this morning:

https://twitter.com/Taniel/status/879334155057848320


looking forward to a great 5-4 on discrimination coming up next term

ArmedZombie
Jun 6, 2004

mrbradlymrmartin posted:

turds dont die the just ~ f l o a t a w a y ~ ~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGI-lvzVEzs

brugroffil
Nov 30, 2015



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M02bAWDFkI

juche avocado posted:

your alt text is a direct squizzle quote so it's possible it was out of love & friendship rather than hatred & meanitude

:3:

HUGE PUBES A PLUS
Apr 30, 2005


Kennedy's quitting, we already know this.

Serf
May 5, 2011


Mayor Dave posted:

https://twitter.com/SCOTUSblog/status/879331698680356864

gay wedding cake case coming up for review

also this morning:

https://twitter.com/Taniel/status/879334155057848320


looking forward to a great 5-4 on discrimination coming up next term

haha the rollback of lgbt rights is gonna be horrific

UFOTacoMan
Sep 22, 2005

Thanks easter bunny!
bok bok!

mdemone posted:

Small errors fixed. Many new links added and a few additions to the timeline. As always, as-yet-unverified information now appears in italics, and please feel free to correct/clarify me on any details or dates, or suggest new pieces to add.

The Players

Leonard Blavatnik is a Ukraine-born American businessman. He made his fortune through diversified investments in myriad companies through his conglomerate company, Access Industries. In 2015, he was named Britain's richest man with an estimated net worth of £17.1 billion as of April 2015. He and a friend from university, Viktor Vekselberg, joined with Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group to form the AAR venture, which in 2011 was responsible for stopping the BP merger with Rosneft Oil, the Russian state-owned petrocorp (1). In March 2013, at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, there was a transfer of nearly $28 billion in U.S. currency from an account controlled by Rosneft, to one controlled by four Russian billionaires: Blavatnik, Vekselberg, Mikhail Fridman, and German Khan (2). Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin, often described as Russia's second-most-powerful man, was the central figure behind the deal.

In addition to funding Trump's inauguration party, Blavatnik has long funded Mitch McConnell's super-PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund; see FEC filings showing donations of $1M in December 2015, $500k in April 2016, and $1M on October 25 2016; note that AI Altep is a shell company of Access Industries (3). Also notice that Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone shows up for more than $2M on the October 25 filing, having also given $370k just one week prior. In October 2016, the dark-money super-PAC One Nation donates $11M to the Senate Leadership Fund, with which they share an office.

Following his election, Trump appointed as Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao -- who is Mitch McConnell's wife and donated $42k to campaigns of Senators who would later vote on her confirmation, including her husband. During the Obama-Trump transition, McConnell had raised doubts about the CIA's report that Russian hacking affected the election, and made clear that "he would consider any effort by the Obama White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics" (4). In mid-2016, McConnell's brother-in-law and billionaire investor Jim Breyer (husband of Chao's sister Angela, who became Independent Non-Executive Director of the Bank of China in November 2016) joined the board of Schwarzman's Blackstone Group. Almost a year later, following a $110B+ arms deal brokered with Saudi Arabia by Jared Kushner, the Saudis subsequently announced a $20B+ investment into Blackstone Group for U.S. infrastructure. Blackstone, especially the real estate arm led by Jonathan Gray, has long been involved with Kushner's enterprises.

A handwritten ledger surfaced in Ukraine in 2016 with dollar amounts and dates next to the name of Paul Manafort, who was then Donald Trump's campaign chairman. Ukrainian investigators called it evidence of off-the-books payments from a pro-Russian political party. Financial records confirmed that at least $1.2 million in payments listed in the ledger next to Manafort's name were actually received by his consulting firm in the United States in 2007 and 2009 (5). Manafort's political ties to former Ukrainian PM Viktor Yanukovich have been well documented.

The Timeline

On June 14 2016, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Speaker Paul Ryan have separate meetings with Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladimir Groysman, in which Groysman talks about Russia's financial support of populist politicians and their efforts to undermine democratic governments in Eastern Europe. The next day, McCarthy joked to Ryan and other GOP leaders that he thinks "Putin pays Trump", after which Ryan laughs and tells the group not to leak the conversation (read the transcript here).

In August 2016, CIA Director John Brennan informs Congressional leadership (the Gang of Eight, as well as Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan) that Russia is intervening in the American election on behalf of Trump. On August 4 2016, Brennan confronts the head of Russia's FSB about the matter.

According to the famous "Steele Dossier" that comes to light in December 2016, one of Steele's inside sources describes the July 2016 meeting between Igor Sechin and Carter Page, Trump policy adviser from his campaign and foreign policy team. (In October, Russian experts would conclude that the inside source was probably a former KGB general, Oleg Erovinkin. In late December 2016, Erovinkin is found dead in his car.) According to the dossier, Sechin offers to broker a 19% sale of Rosneft to Trump's associates in return for the lifting of economic sanctions on Russia (image). Page has an audio recording of Trump promising to fulfill his end of the bargain. During the months of the general election, Trump's campaign has at least 18 undisclosed meetings/contacts with Russian officials.

On Election Day 2016, Stephen Schwarzman's housekeeper is pushed under a subway train (image, bottom]).

Following Trump's victory in November, the transition team quickly began moving to develop sanction relief for Russia, causing alarmed State Dept. officials to urge legislation codifying the sanctions. In early December, Kushner has a meeting with the Russian ambassador/spymaster Sergey Kislyak at Trump Tower, in which the men discuss the possibility of a secret back-channel for communications between the Trump team and the Kremlin.

In January 2017, 19.5% of Rosneft Oil is sold to a shell-of-shell-of-shell holding owned by (at the end of the chain) the trust company Intertrust [see the middle of image for holdings flowchart from Reuters, and tracing through shells from QHG to Intertrust]. Intertrust's major shareholder is Blackstone Group and therefore Stephen Schwarzman, who had been named chairman of the strategic and policy forum by Trump in December (he was offered a full-time role in the administration, but declined). Schwarzman now controls around 19% of Rosneft, as promised by Sechin, and has been seen with Trump at Mar-a-lago and many public events (image, bottom]). He remains a constant advisor to Trump.

On January 10 2017, Susan Rice, (Obama's NSA), consults Michael Flynn about a plan to retake Raqqa from ISIS with the help of Syrian Kurdish forces. (The plan would have been executed under Trump, so Obama's team wanted Flynn's approval.) Flynn's decision is to forestall the attack, an answer that happens to conform to the wishes of the Turkish government, which was benefiting from his lobbying work for which Flynn was paid at least $500,000. While Trump would eventually approve the military plan, Flynn's decision 10 days before Trump took office delays the operation by several months. Flynn informs the Trump transition team that he is under investigation by the FBI for having been a foreign agent.

On January 27 2017, Donald Trump invites FBI Director James Comey to the White House for a private dinner, in which he asks for Comey's loyalty and assurances that there is no Russia investigation. The memos written by Comey regarding this and other conversations with Trump substantially corroborate his testimony before Congress.

In February, Trump asks Pence and Sessions to leave the Oval Office before pressuring Comey again to drop the Flynn investigation; Comey writes a detailed memo about this conversation. In March, Trump asked the director of national intelligence and the director of the National Security Agency to make statements confirming that the investigation had cleared him.

In late March, Flynn requests immunity from the Senate Intelligence Committee and the FBI in return for his testimony; his lawyer claims he has "a story to tell". On April 1 2017, this request is denied.

On April 27 2017, the "Mayflower Meeting" is held, shortly before Trump's first foreign policy speech, having been organized by his campaign chair Paul Manafort and Kremlin-think-tank coordinator Jacob Heilbrunn. In the room are Jeff Sessions (photo), Jared Kushner, and Manafort, along with ambassadors from Russia, Singapore, and the Philippines, and unidentified representatives from Rosneft. Trump's Secretary of Commerce is Wilbur Ross. He is the former vice-chair of the Bank of Cyprus, of which Vekselberg is the major shareholder. Ross, Schwarzman, Blavatnik, and McConnell/Chao would put together an $1T infrastructure plan that would depend on foreign money, as Chao admitted to Sean Hannity on Fox News on March 1 2017.

On May 9 2017, James Comey is fired as FBI Director, the week after he visited the "rocket docket" in federal court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and just days after he requested more resources for the Trump/Russia investigation. On May 10 2017, Trump meets with Russian FM Sergey Lavrov and Russian ambassador/spymaster Sergey Kislyak, in the Oval Office, without American press allowed but in the presence of Russian state media. At this meeting, Trump divulges code-word classified information from an Israeli intelligence source regarding the ISIS laptop-bomb plot; this source is said to be the most important double agent now working in ISIS, according to the Israeli Directorate of Military Intelligence (Aman). Trump also refers to Comey as a "nut job", and claims to the Russians that the investigation will be over now that Comey is gone (6). The same day of the Oval Office meeting with Russian diplomats, a federal grand jury in EDVA hands down multiple subpoenas for business/lobbying associates of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, regarding his foreign contacts in Turkey (Ekim Alptekin) and Russia (David Zaikin).

On May 11 2017, the Strategic Campaign Group's office is raided in Annapolis by the FBI and U.S. Marshals following the warrants handed down by EDVA from two separate grand juries, corresponding to ~25 indictments regarding money-laundering and many other charges. Less than a week later, former FBI Director Robert Mueller is appointed by the Deputy Attorney General to oversee the Russia investigation. In testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on May 23 2017, former CIA Director John Brennan verified that in August 2016 he had informed the Gang of Eight and others (including Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan) that Russia was intervening in the election on Trump's behalf. In late May, Jared Kushner is revealed to be among the targets of the FBI's Russia probe.

On June 2 2017, Mueller assumes control over the federal grand jury criminal investigations of Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn. James Comey testifies before the Senate Intel Committee on June 8 2017. The following week, Mueller's team confirms that they are investigating the president in part for obstruction of justice with respect to Comey and the Russia probe; as a result, Senate Intel agrees to avoid pursuing that aspect.


References:
1. Yenikeyeff, Shamil, "BP, Russian billionaires, and the Kremlin: a Power Triangle that never was", Oxford Energy Comment, November 23, 2011
2. Vardi, Nathan, "The Four Horsemen of Russia's Economic Apocalypse", Forbes, February 9, 2015
3. SEC statement identifying Al Altep as a shell of Access Industries
4. Entous et al. "Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House", Washington Post, December 9 2016
5. AP Exclusive: Manafort firm received Ukraine ledger payout
6. Apuzzo et al. NYTimes, May 19 2017

Sir...this is a quote for saving this for later.

byob historian
Nov 5, 2008

I'm an animal abusing piece of shit! I deliberately poisoned my dog to death and think it's funny! I'm an irredeemable sack of human shit!

juche avocado posted:

your alt text is a direct squizzle quote so it's possible it was out of love & friendship rather than hatred & meanitude

juche avocadowned

velvet milkman
Feb 13, 2012

by R. Guyovich

ugh yeah love me some twitter pre-news. just wonkin off and gettin the pre-news flowin

ArmedZombie
Jun 6, 2004


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFSaG9ncw84

Jazerus
May 24, 2011


murked by dragon posted:

ugh yeah love me some twitter pre-news. just wonkin off and gettin the pre-news flowin

DEEP STATE PLOT
Aug 13, 2008

Yes...Ha ha ha...YES!




delicious

Sexual Lorax
Mar 17, 2004

HERE'S TO FUCKING


Fun Shoe

seriously like five minutes after i bitch about this its back

this doesnt add to the conversation ben like the problem were having right now is not a lack of stress and anticipation its a lack of information evidence formal charges and prosecutions

UFOTacoMan
Sep 22, 2005

Thanks easter bunny!
bok bok!

Thom and the Heads
Oct 27, 2010

Farscape is actually pretty cool.
they're turnin the freakin frogs gay

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Chris James 2
Aug 9, 2012


https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/879335757705609216

  • Locked thread