He just can't help himself

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Scooter
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He just can't help himself

Post by Scooter »

Image

Prosecutors all over the country are saying, "Please keep talking, Donald, don't ever shut up!"
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."

-- Author unknown

ex-khobar Andy
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Re: He just can't help himself

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

If he's so stupid - and yes, I believe he is - how did he survive as a pseudo really rich guy for all those years? He routinely ignores his lawyers' advice, or maybe Cohen was the one guy who could tell him: just shut the fuck up, I've got this. Why didn't NYS at least jump all over him? Of course NYS is rock solid Democratic Party and corruption was always rampant: Sheldon Silver was Exhibit A but there were plenty of others. There was no point in being a corrupt Republican in NYS - you had (almost) no opportunity to grab the $$$ that came with power. I say almost - at the other end of the state, in Buffalo, there was Chris Collins who, not surprisingly, was also pardoned by his buddy Trump after pleading guilty to insider trading etc.

Burning Petard
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Re: He just can't help himself

Post by Burning Petard »

Remember, prior to 2016, The Donald WAS a sleazy New York Democrat slum lord.

snailgate

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Sue U
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Re: He just can't help himself

Post by Sue U »

ex-khobar Andy wrote:
Mon Apr 03, 2023 9:45 pm
If he's so stupid - and yes, I believe he is - how did he survive as a pseudo really rich guy for all those years? He routinely ignores his lawyers' advice, or maybe Cohen was the one guy who could tell him: just shut the fuck up, I've got this. Why didn't NYS at least jump all over him? Of course NYS is rock solid Democratic Party and corruption was always rampant: Sheldon Silver was Exhibit A but there were plenty of others. There was no point in being a corrupt Republican in NYS - you had (almost) no opportunity to grab the $$$ that came with power. I say almost - at the other end of the state, in Buffalo, there was Chris Collins who, not surprisingly, was also pardoned by his buddy Trump after pleading guilty to insider trading etc.
As I have said before, Trump merely proves the rule that you can fool some of the people all of the time. Anyone who had any familiarity with his track record in business in NY and NJ over the past 40 years could have told you that. His M.O. has always been to leverage the hell out of a deal with debt, take the skimmable cash, stiff the contractors and walk away, leaving the investors holding the bag. The long trail of wrecked businesses and civil litigation in his wake should be a giant warning sign that he is both dishonest and bad at business. It's certainly no surprise that he'd cheat on his taxes by misrepresenting the value of his real estate investments or writing off hush money payments as "legal fees."

And I take issue with Sheldon Silver being a symbol of "rampant corruption" in the NY State Democratic party. Silver crossed the line in taking referral fees from law firms, which would have been perfectly normal practice but for the fact the he was also conducting state business at the time that inured to the firms' benefit, thus effectively turning "referral fees" into "kickbacks." But Silver also had a long and distinguished record of public service and shepherding a lot of important legislation through the Assembly for the benefit of all New Yorkers. And it is worth noting that the state Senate has been under GOP control for 25 of the last 32 years -- including all but two years of Silver's speakership in the Assembly -- and that NY had three consecutive terms of George Pataki (R) as governor during that same time. So I don't think the NY Democrat Party or state government in general is particularly "corrupt," or that NY is necessarily "rock-solid Democratic Party."
GAH!

ex-khobar Andy
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Re: He just can't help himself

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

True enough of course about Pataki (and Nelson Rockefeller and Dewey before him) but I don't think that today's Republican Party - and I am talking the pre-Trump party, more the Romney-Bush-McCain party - would recognize them as Republicans.

From Wikipedia which AFAIK is accurate on this subject: "On May 3, 2016, federal judge Valerie E. Caproni of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, who presided over the trial, sentenced Silver to 12 years in prison, and ordered him to pay $5.3 million in ill-gotten gains and $1.75 million in additional fines. Silver received two prison terms: 12 years for six criminal counts against him and 10 years on the seventh, to run concurrently." He was Senate Speaker for 20 years which is way too long. But he may have done some good things when he was younger - he may even have made the trains run on time - but he was corrupt as hell. I don't think 'rampant' is an overstatement. (As a benchmark, Spiro T Agnew was fined $10,000 and given 3 years probation.)

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