Everything else in that dossier has practically been confirmed by this point. Are we actually still skeptical about The Tape's existence or are we just waiting for clear evidence of it to emerge?
Its a nothing story. Like there are real actual awful allegations including today that Flynn conspired to fucking kidnap someone for millions of dollars. Who gives a shit about some low level prostitution weirdness?
Voters hopefully. I mean we can have both, the legal push, and the push to keep trumps awfulness front and centre, no matter what form that takes. But on a fundamental level, the pee tape would provide two pretty good prongs for attack, one, it's a petty, mean, weird and gross thing to do in a way that would likely shock even nominal trump supporters, and two, it provides a pretty good argument that trump would have been blackmailed with it
Edit: this is a really bad top of the 100th page. For clarification I wish a pee pee tape wasn't a part of this conversation and that all the other actual outrages were scandal enough
the strangest part of the whole pee tape is why did he film it? or maybe he didn't realize it was getting filmed. that's probably it, occom's razor except the dumbest explanation
Everything else in that dossier has practically been confirmed by this point. Are we actually still skeptical about The Tape's existence or are we just waiting for clear evidence of it to emerge?
Its a nothing story. Like there are real actual awful allegations including today that Flynn conspired to fucking kidnap someone for millions of dollars. Who gives a shit about some low level prostitution weirdness?
Voters hopefully. I mean we can have both, the legal push, and the push to keep trumps awfulness front and centre, no matter what form that takes. But on a fundamental level, the pee tape would provide two pretty good prongs for attack, one, it's a petty, mean, weird and gross thing to do in a way that would likely shock even nominal trump supporters, and two, it provides a pretty good argument that trump would have been blackmailed with it
Edit: this is a really bad top of the 100th page. For clarification I wish a pee pee tape wasn't a part of this conversation and that all the other actual outrages were scandal enough
the strangest part of the whole pee tape is why did he film it? or maybe he didn't realize it was getting filmed. that's probably it, occom's razor except the dumbest explanation
the strangest part of the whole pee tape is why did he film it? or maybe he didn't realize it was getting filmed. that's probably it, occom's razor except the dumbest explanation
It wouldn't be Trump that filmed it. It would be Putin's intelligence service, who reportedly wired up that hotel like a christmas tree decades ago.
the strangest part of the whole pee tape is why did he film it? or maybe he didn't realize it was getting filmed. that's probably it, occom's razor except the dumbest explanation
Every hotel in Russia is, more or less, rigged for video.
This is a cottage industry in Russia, producing compromising material on important or potentially important people.
The salaciousness of the pee tape is not what is important or damaging about it. The important thing it proves is that a hostile foreign actor succeeded in getting blackmail material on the current US president, and that fact renders him unnacceptably compromised in his ability to execute his duties. If it exists, it retroactively delegitimizes any action he took up to its release as potentially done at the behest of that hostile foreign actor.
The salaciousness of the pee tape is not what is important or damaging about it. The important thing it proves is that a hostile foreign actor succeeded in getting blackmail material on the current US president, and that fact renders him unnacceptably compromised in his ability to execute his duties. If it exists, it retroactively delegitimizes any action he took up to its release as potentially done at the behest of that hostile foreign actor.
From a legal and ethical standpoint, yeah.
From a Republican standpoint? They'd probably be more concerned about the salaciousness.
The salaciousness of the pee tape is not what is important or damaging about it. The important thing it proves is that a hostile foreign actor succeeded in getting blackmail material on the current US president, and that fact renders him unnacceptably compromised in his ability to execute his duties. If it exists, it retroactively delegitimizes any action he took up to its release as potentially done at the behest of that hostile foreign actor.
Additionally, given the fervent denials, it needs to be made clear that if the Russians were able to get THIS, is there anything else? Because a denial from the Trump campaign shouldn't be acceptable.
Because the excuse that he's no longer compromised therefore it's no longer an issue, needs to not be allowed to plant roots. As you and others have said, this might be salacious, but it's not really a big deal. It's crude, and it's petty, but there's nothing actually illegal. But is there anything else that he did that IS criminal. Even if there wasn't, as you said, did they actually get him to do something?
Because that's how this kind of thing works. Get someone on something small and embarassing/unethical. Get them to do something minor criminal, and then use knowledge of THAT to escalate things. As has been pointed out before, he had a closed door meeting with several Russian officials IN the Oval Office. What did he say/do?
If the pee tape is true, that Trump knew about it (obviously), and hid it, makes him completely compromised, even if he actually didn't DO anything for the Russians (though it's a fact he did some trivial things), because he can't be trusted that nothing happened, or that there's nothing more that they have on him.
There's an enormous psychological impact if it turns out that the craziest, most outrageous, and therefore least believable thing in the dossier is proven. People outside his base at least will be inclined to accept the whole thing as proven fact then, and the Republican counternarrative will mean nothing for them.
I have read a lot of stories by right wing journalists to the effect of, "The idea that Trump would pay hookers to pee on a bed is gross and stupid, therefore it is clearly a lie, and thus the entire dossier is made up."
I don't know that verifying the pee aspect would accomplish anything tangible, but it would shut up a lot of obnoxious people, and I am spiteful enough to want it to be true just for that.
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Voters hopefully. I mean we can have both, the legal push, and the push to keep trumps awfulness front and centre, no matter what form that takes. But on a fundamental level, the pee tape would provide two pretty good prongs for attack, one, it's a petty, mean, weird and gross thing to do in a way that would likely shock even nominal trump supporters, and two, it provides a pretty good argument that trump would have been blackmailed with it
Edit: this is a really bad top of the 100th page. For clarification I wish a pee pee tape wasn't a part of this conversation and that all the other actual outrages were scandal enough
Russian: But you get your choice of prostitues.
Trump: That's good!
Russian: The prostitutes will gather compromising material.
[Trump looks puzzled]
Russian : ...That's bad.
Trump: Can I go now?
Me too. But this is where we are now.
Once again, the magic word is "kompromat".
It wouldn't be Trump that filmed it. It would be Putin's intelligence service, who reportedly wired up that hotel like a christmas tree decades ago.
This is a cottage industry in Russia, producing compromising material on important or potentially important people.
Edit: If Trump did it there is a tape
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From a legal and ethical standpoint, yeah.
From a Republican standpoint? They'd probably be more concerned about the salaciousness.
It hits both sides like that.
Because the excuse that he's no longer compromised therefore it's no longer an issue, needs to not be allowed to plant roots. As you and others have said, this might be salacious, but it's not really a big deal. It's crude, and it's petty, but there's nothing actually illegal. But is there anything else that he did that IS criminal. Even if there wasn't, as you said, did they actually get him to do something?
Because that's how this kind of thing works. Get someone on something small and embarassing/unethical. Get them to do something minor criminal, and then use knowledge of THAT to escalate things. As has been pointed out before, he had a closed door meeting with several Russian officials IN the Oval Office. What did he say/do?
If the pee tape is true, that Trump knew about it (obviously), and hid it, makes him completely compromised, even if he actually didn't DO anything for the Russians (though it's a fact he did some trivial things), because he can't be trusted that nothing happened, or that there's nothing more that they have on him.
Edit:I mean in terms of how much Donald cares. Proof of infidelity would be worth a lot of money
I don't know that verifying the pee aspect would accomplish anything tangible, but it would shut up a lot of obnoxious people, and I am spiteful enough to want it to be true just for that.