|
It feels like someone filled out a cursed political scandal Mad Lib that came to life. MISSISSIPPI stole $70 MILLLION dollars in WELFARE MONEY to give it to BRETT FAVRE, A VOLLEYBALL COURT, and a RETIRED PRO WRESTLER FROM BILOXI who never gave the INSPIRATIONAL SPEECH he was supposed to give. The FBI says Favre isn't being charged with a crime because he wasn't aware of where the money came from and has paid it all back (except for the ~$280k in interest they are also asking him to pay back). But, the former Governor of Mississippi, the former head of the Mississippi DHS, and several other people are under investigation by the FBI now. https://twitter.com/KenDilanianNBC/status/1565463681508450304 quote:The nation's poorest state used welfare money to pay Brett Favre for speeches he never made
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 14:07 |
|
|
# ? May 25, 2024 08:39 |
|
Leon posted:At least $3 million went to Ted DiBiase, a retired professional wrestler.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 14:16 |
|
Every one of those people are in league with each other and knew exactly where the money came from. I'd be surprised if Favre didn't know where the money was coming from. But getting money for speeches you never did sure as hell reeks of knowing you were engaging in fraud.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 14:30 |
|
Former Alabama Senator Doug Jones is part of the legal team working with the state auditor's office in Mississippi (probably as part of Alabama's plan to make sure that Mississippi keeps being the worst state to keep Alabama out of that ranking) and says that there are even more updates coming. https://twitter.com/DougJones/status/1565488166156599298
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 14:38 |
|
You all remember 38 Studios? https://www.997wpro.com/2016/05/09/new-oversight-committee-leader-backs-off-38-studios-probe/ This is an article about my aunt, an elected Democrat. Do you want to know why she ended the investigation? "I just do what the speaker tells me."
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 14:39 |
|
DeadlyMuffin posted:"Political violence is bad" seems like a good sentiment even if it isn't well followed. the idea of an American society without political violence is a nice one. unfortunately, you've seen what its advocates get even from nice polite liberals when they start talking about 'defunding the police' or 'not giving forced hysterectomies to Mexican women' so as long as you're willing to sign off on massive political violence directed by the democratic party against the weak, why be so uncomfortable at the thought of directing it towards people who might actually have it coming? (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 14:42 |
|
That will buy him 3 belts!
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 14:50 |
|
Lib and let die posted:You all remember 38 Studios? The Governor already tried to shut down the investigation. But, you can't really shut it down when the FBI and State Auditor's office are involved. That was also a different situation. 38 studios and the Rhode Island public/private business investment board worked out a legal loan plan to create Rhode Island jobs in the tech sector. His studio crashed and they were not upfront about how much work was left on the game and how much more money they needed when they had a status check 2 years later. The government of Rhode Island didn't do anything wrong (except think that Curt Schilling was going to make a successful video game franchise). The Mississippi situation is the state government taking federal money for TANF (AKA "cash welfare") and then illegally distributing it to other people, bribing people, and trying to cover it up. The actual government is the wrong-doer in that scenario.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 14:51 |
|
Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:The Governor already tried to shut down the investigation. But, you can't really shut it down when the FBI and State Auditor's office are involved. Leon, you can give all the official responses you want, but I sat across the dinner table from her when she told me why she was shutting down the investigation. It was because the speaker told her to.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 14:52 |
|
What else were they investigating about that? It's been a decade Did Curt burn more money in the meantime?
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 14:55 |
|
Lib and let die posted:Leon, you can give all the official responses you want, but I sat across the dinner table from her when she told me why she was shutting down the investigation. It was because the speaker told her to. I'm not saying anything your aunt said was wrong. Just that they are two different situations and they can't "shut down the investigation" on the Mississippi case because the FBI and State Auditor's office are involved. The Governor and DHS Secretary who engaged in all this alleged fraud aren't even in office anymore. The RI situation was an investigation of a public/private business loan that was obtained legally. The other is a government official secretly stealing federal funds illegally. It doesn't matter what the Governor used them for, because it is illegal to take them and do anything else with them, so there is no wiggle room there. One of them is a voluntary legislative committee investigation. The other is an actual criminal investigation by the FBI and State Auditor. Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 15:02 on Sep 2, 2022 |
# ? Sep 2, 2022 14:57 |
|
There's also really no particular reason to believe that there was fraud in RI. Their motive was likely to get good high paying jobs in the state and benefit politically from a feel-good success story involving a local sports hero. They were guilty of being stupid more than anything else. This situation in MS looks like literally using state money for the governor to personally get something back in return, literally stealing welfare money for personal enrichment.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:04 |
|
Push El Burrito posted:That will buy him 3 belts! But yea, paid that much and not actually doing what you were paid for, they all knew. Favre should just claim CTE.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:06 |
|
Rigel posted:There's also really no particular reason to believe that there was fraud in RI. Their motive was likely to get good high paying jobs in the state and benefit politically from a feel-good success story involving a local sports hero. They were guilty of being stupid more than anything else. There was no fraud in the issuing of the loan in RI. But, there were some allegations of civil fraud that were eventually settled from things that happened later. Those allegations were against the Rhode Island public/private economic development group because they were accused of realizing about 2 years into the project that 38 Studios didn't have enough money to finish the project and never updated the investors who bought the bonds from the group to fund the project. Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Sep 2, 2022 |
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:10 |
|
The court just unsealed the more detailed inventory of items seized from Mar-a-Lago. There's nothing too enlightening there. But, it has a bunch of weird details. - Trump kept some classified documents in his office inside of a drawer and the documents were "commingled" with clothes and food. - Some of the classified document folders had articles that Trump had clipped or printed out and put inside. - He took a bunch of documents that were still in their original folders labelled "RETURN TO STAFF SECRETARY" - Trump kept some documents inside books about himself and his presidency. - Trump also kept some documents in plastic tubs that were filled with a mix of classified documents and "Magazines, Newspapers, Press Articles, and other printed media from November 2016 through March 2020."
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:22 |
|
The 38 Studios loan may not have been fraud but it was definitely incompetence and strongly deviated from the original intent of the program which, as I remember, was to provide smaller loans to a lot of indie game companies and help build resumes in RI. Incompetence in the public sector deserves to be called out and investigated.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:24 |
|
It really sounds like he scooped up mementos about his presidency.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:24 |
|
Morrow posted:It really sounds like he scooped up mementos about his presidency. Nuclear secrets only known to a few dozen people, technical schematics, and folders labelled "Information re: The President of France" are weird choices for mementos. Some of the stuff seems to be unrelated and just stored together. There are articles that are most likely about him winning the election (from November 2016) mixed in with technical documents. Also, it will never not be hilarious/depressing that the world spent months worrying about Hillary Clinton's email server and whether she could be trusted to handle classified information and we now know that Trump kept classified documents in his unlocked clothes drawer and desk drawer with food. I'm sure the motivation was something like that, but each new set of details about how specifically he chose, hid, and lied about those documents - only to keep them in his desk or a storage room with a normal door lock for 1.5 years makes it even weirder.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:30 |
|
Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:- Trump also kept some documents in plastic tubs that were filled with a mix of classified documents and "Magazines, Newspapers, Press Articles, and other printed media from November 2016 through March 2020." I knew it, there were literally classified documents in his box full of framed time covers.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:33 |
|
Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:- Trump kept some classified documents in his office inside of a drawer and the documents were "commingled" with clothes and food. LOL, Trump got Big Mac sauce stains all over classified documents.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:33 |
|
duck.exe posted:LOL, Trump got Big Mac sauce stains all over classified documents. My President
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:36 |
|
He's a slob! Like me! Enthusiasm restored! Take that failure libs.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:37 |
|
Discendo Vox posted:I knew it, there were literally classified documents in his box full of framed time covers. I don't remember when I first heard it but, yeah, every accusation a confession is just more and more true each day.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:39 |
|
It is probably a coincidence (because some of the tubs do have articles/clippings/printouts dated as recently as October 2020 and December 2020), but it is kind of interesting that he has so many boxes with clippings/newspapers/etc. from "November 2016 through March 2020." Almost all of the tubs with classified info are mixed in with articles from that date range. Maybe Trump is more sensitive about Covid than he lets on in public.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:43 |
|
Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:It is probably a coincidence (because some of the tubs do have articles/clippings/printouts dated as recently as October 2020 and December 2020), but it is kind of interesting that he has so many boxes with clippings/newspapers/etc. from "November 2016 through March 2020." Almost all of the tubs with classified info are mixed in with articles from that date range. Isn't Trump infamously a germaphobe as well as weird about food and drinks? Wouldn't surprise me.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:51 |
|
Looking even further at the inventory, there are some items that are labelled as Top Secret folders that are empty of the original contents, but contain newspaper clippings and printouts of news stories. Which most likely means that, contrary to his lawyer's assertions, Trump was taking the documents out of the folders/storage and moving them around/showing them to people. But, it is funnier to imagine Trump trying to trick the FBI and National Archives by replacing the documents with articles from Breitbart and hoping that nobody noticed.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:51 |
|
This whole thing is so weird Like was he just doing this because he could? I'm sure a lot of that stuff weren't the kinds of things that would have actual value to anyone. I'm not talking about the nuclear stuff or the supposed lists of undercover operatives.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 15:59 |
|
I really think he just likes to hang on to anything he thinks could be useful, rather than some master plan. Hoarding-adjacent behavior.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 16:02 |
|
It certainly seems that way
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 16:03 |
|
Ghost Leviathan posted:Isn't Trump infamously a germaphobe as well as weird about food and drinks? Wouldn't surprise me. He's weird about food because of his germaphobia. He thinks McDonald's is less likely to be compromised. Somehow.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 16:05 |
|
The thing that makes it so weird is that these documents were the legal and criminal equivalent to nuclear waste. You don't want it, and if you have it you want the proper authorities to take it and get it the hell away from you as quickly as possible. The legal consequences are horrifying for a normal person, but Trump either did not fully realize just how serious this was, or he honestly thought the law just did not apply to him. And the Feds gave him all the leeway and plenty of chances that they would never give to a normal person or even a "normal but very important" person like a general or something. But at some point when you lie and flagrantly smash the espionage statutes this defiantly, you have to be charged with crimes no matter who you are. edit: just had a thought that maybe it is only now that he is believing he is in a lot of trouble, not because he finally decided to listen to his lawyers, but because he thinks Joe Biden is going to do to him what he thought he should have done to Hillary but allowed all those idiots to talk him out of it. Rigel fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Sep 2, 2022 |
# ? Sep 2, 2022 16:09 |
|
FlamingLiberal posted:This whole thing is so weird I mean, yes? Isn't one of the common causes for hoarders that they're trying to retain a sense of control? Getting booted outta the white house could trigger that kind of behavior, I guess. edit: cat botherer posted:I really think he just likes to hang on to anything he thinks could be useful, rather than some master plan. Hoarding-adjacent behavior. XboxPants fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Sep 2, 2022 |
# ? Sep 2, 2022 16:09 |
|
The saddest thing about this whole situation (other than the fact that even in the off chance he is convicted for this, it likely won't impact his popularity at all and he won't do jail time) is that we will probably never know what Trump keeps in his folder labelled "Information Re: The French President."
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 16:18 |
|
Here's a scanned, detailed list of stuff that was seized. https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1565709918702915589?s=20&t=p65EU99NjeLorjZB8hJEDQ
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 16:24 |
|
FlamingLiberal posted:This whole thing is so weird cat botherer posted:I really think he just likes to hang on to anything he thinks could be useful, rather than some master plan. Hoarding-adjacent behavior. I feel like any questions about why Trump would hang on to this stuff would be answered by this photo: The dude loved being president. It made him feel cool to order assassinations, give important speeches, and have the most powerful people in the world show him deference. He doesn't want to let it go, which is why he's got a chintzy Resolute Desk knockoff surrounded by his presidential greatest hits collection. The documents are the same thing. They're secret and nobody is allowed to know what's in them, so just having them makes him important and special. What are those secrets? Doesn't matter. He gets to see them and you don't.
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 16:34 |
|
New filing says they found over 10,000 additional (not classified, though) documents at Mar-a-Lago that he wasn't supposed to have. Maybe the hoarding theory is right. But, that makes his months-long curation and selection of what classified documents to take - instead of just snatching everything - even weirder. Also, about 90 folders marked classified were empty. Not clear from the inventory if whatever was originally in them was recovered. https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1565721246892957696
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 16:37 |
|
Also Trump still seems to think he is the President still (see: wanting a complete redo of 2020), therefore he can have these documents. Angry_Ed fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Sep 2, 2022 |
# ? Sep 2, 2022 16:57 |
|
Taking bets on what exactly the 19 "Article of Clothing/Gift Item"s they found were. Had to be small enough or fold up small enough to fit into the boxes stuffed with other files. ...MAGA hats?
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 17:00 |
|
Youth Decay posted:Taking bets on what exactly the 19 "Article of Clothing/Gift Item"s they found were. Had to be small enough or fold up small enough to fit into the boxes stuffed with other files. 18 MAGA hats and Meliana's "I don't really care, do u" jacket
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 17:00 |
|
|
# ? May 25, 2024 08:39 |
|
Yeowch!!! My Balls!!! posted:the idea of an American society without political violence is a nice one. unfortunately, you've seen what its advocates get even from nice polite liberals when they start talking about 'defunding the police' or 'not giving forced hysterectomies to Mexican women' Are you under the impression that I sign off on massive political violence against the weak? Or did you just go a little too far in the rhetorical flourishes here?
|
# ? Sep 2, 2022 17:08 |