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From the baghdadi press conference Trump also gave a lot of new quotes on using the military to take Syrian oil fields and claim ownership of it. It's weird to me that it's not a bigger deal internationally.
He also casually dismisses the ethnic cleansing of the 'safe zone' and even says the violence used made the Kurds easier to deal with, and that US soldiers need to fight for something meaningful, like stealing oil...
Look, we don't want to keep soldiers between Syria and Turkey for the next 200 years. They have been fighting for hundreds of years. We're out.
But we are leaving soldiers to secure the oil. Now, we may have to fight for the oil. That's OK. Maybe somebody else wants the oil, in which case they have a hell of a fight.
But there's massive amounts of oil. And we're securing it for a couple of reasons. Number one, it stops ISIS, because ISIS got tremendous wealth from that oil. We have taken it. It's secured.
Number two -- and, again, somebody else may claim it, but either we will negotiate a deal with whoever is claiming it, if we think it's fair, or we will militarily stop them very quickly.
We have tremendous power in that part of the world. We have -- the airport is right nearby, a very big, very monstrous, very, very powerful airport and very expensive airport, that was built years ago. We're in there for -- we're in that Middle East now for $8 trillion.
So we don't want to be keeping Syria and Turkey -- they're going to have to make their own decision. The Kurds have worked along incredibly with us, but, in all fairness, it was much easier dealing with the Kurds after they went through three days of fighting, because that was a brutal three days.
And if I -- we would have said to the Kurds, do you mind moving over seven miles? Because they were in the middle, mostly. So you have seven or eight miles. Could you mind moving over?
Because, I have to say, Turkey has taken tremendous deaths from that part of the world. You know, we call it a safe zone, but it was anything but a safe zone. Turkey has lost thousands and thousands of people from that safe zone.
So they have always wanted that safe zone for many years. I'm glad I was able to help them get it. But we don't want to be there. We want to be home. I want our soldiers home or fighting something that's meaningful.
I spoke with Lindsey Graham just a little while -- in fact, Lindsey Graham is right over here, and he’s been very much involved in this subject and he’s -- he’s a very strong hawk, but I think Lindsey agrees with what we’re doing now. And again, there are plenty of other countries that can help them patrol. I don’t want to leave 1,000 or 2,000 or 3,000 soldiers on the border. But where Lindsey and I totally agree is the oil.
The oil is, you know, so valuable. For many reasons. It fueled ISIS, number one. Number two, it helps the Kurds, because it's basically been taken away from the Kurds. They were able to live with that oil. And number three, it can help us, because we should be able to take some also. And what I intend to do, perhaps, is make a deal with an ExxonMobil or one of our great companies to go in there and do it properly. Right now it's not big. It's big oil underground but it's not big oil up top. Much of the machinery has been shot and dead. It's been through wars. But -- and -- and spread out the wealth. But no, we're protecting the oil, we're securing the oil. Now that doesn't mean we don't make a deal at some point.
But I don't want to be -- they're -- they're fighting for 1,000 years, they're fighting for centuries. I want to bring our soldiers back home, but I do want to secure the oil. If you read about the history of Donald Trump, I was a civilian. I had absolutely nothing to do with going into Iraq and I was totally against it. But I always used to say if they're going to go in -- nobody cared that much but it got written about -- if they're going to go in -- I'm sure you've heard the statement because I made it more than any human being alive. If they're going into Iraq, keep the oil. They never did. They never did
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Trump has been pro "secure the oil" from early on in his 2016 campaign, this isn't terrible surprising. It goes along with his "they need to pay us for having troops there" and "NATO owes us" brand of nonsensical and uninformed but seductively simple foreign policymaking. The fact that this is a war crime does not and will not deter his supporters, in Congress or outside of it.
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On October 29 2019 13:12 TheTenthDoc wrote:
Trump has been pro "secure the oil" from early on in his 2016 campaign, this isn't terrible surprising. It goes along with his "they need to pay us for having troops there" and "NATO owes us" brand of nonsensical and uninformed but seductively simple foreign policymaking. The fact that this is a war crime does not and will not deter his supporters, in Congress or outside of it.
Yeah it seems like it is the same approach as issues domestically. Rejecting the idea that something is illegal and simply acting as if it is clearly legal.
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I am usually not fond of conspiracy theories, but in this case, I'd really love to have a complete investigation.
According to Fox, the autopsy revealed a lot of symptoms of strangulation that are really unusual in deaths by hanging.
Add to that the two guards supposedly both sleeping, who hadn't made their rounds for 3h (instead of every half an hour), both security cameras not working, his cell roommate relocated, and him being removed of suicide watch. It makes for a lot of coincidences in this high profile case.
I'd love to have a look at all the other surrounding cameras to see who stayed for how long in this part of the prison and try to retrace these things. Then again IF it was an elaborated assassination, they would have covered for that as well I guess, in some way or another...
https://www.foxnews.com/us/forensic-pathologist-jeffrey-epstein-homicide-suicide
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On October 30 2019 22:50 Nouar wrote:I am usually not fond of conspiracy theories, but in this case, I'd really love to have a complete investigation. According to Fox, the autopsy revealed a lot of symptoms of strangulation that are really unusual in deaths by hanging. Add to that the two guards supposedly both sleeping, who hadn't made their rounds for 3h (instead of every half an hour), both security cameras not working, his cell roommate relocated, and him being removed of suicide watch. It makes for a lot of coincidences in this high profile case. I'd love to have a look at all the other surrounding cameras to see who stayed for how long in this part of the prison and try to retrace these things. Then again IF it was an elaborated assassination, they would have covered for that as well I guess, in some way or another... https://www.foxnews.com/us/forensic-pathologist-jeffrey-epstein-homicide-suicide
It's not a conspiracy theory to claim that "this is fucking weird and needs investigation". The amount of suspicious activity surrounding Epstein's death should be grounds for a thorough third party investigation, yet, to my knowledge, not a lot is happening.
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On October 30 2019 22:50 Nouar wrote:I am usually not fond of conspiracy theories, but in this case, I'd really love to have a complete investigation. According to Fox, the autopsy revealed a lot of symptoms of strangulation that are really unusual in deaths by hanging. Add to that the two guards supposedly both sleeping, who hadn't made their rounds for 3h (instead of every half an hour), both security cameras not working, his cell roommate relocated, and him being removed of suicide watch. It makes for a lot of coincidences in this high profile case. I'd love to have a look at all the other surrounding cameras to see who stayed for how long in this part of the prison and try to retrace these things. Then again IF it was an elaborated assassination, they would have covered for that as well I guess, in some way or another... https://www.foxnews.com/us/forensic-pathologist-jeffrey-epstein-homicide-suicide It was discussed a bit after his 'suicide'. Yes many (most) people do not believe it was suicide.
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On October 30 2019 23:18 Gorsameth wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2019 22:50 Nouar wrote:I am usually not fond of conspiracy theories, but in this case, I'd really love to have a complete investigation. According to Fox, the autopsy revealed a lot of symptoms of strangulation that are really unusual in deaths by hanging. Add to that the two guards supposedly both sleeping, who hadn't made their rounds for 3h (instead of every half an hour), both security cameras not working, his cell roommate relocated, and him being removed of suicide watch. It makes for a lot of coincidences in this high profile case. I'd love to have a look at all the other surrounding cameras to see who stayed for how long in this part of the prison and try to retrace these things. Then again IF it was an elaborated assassination, they would have covered for that as well I guess, in some way or another... https://www.foxnews.com/us/forensic-pathologist-jeffrey-epstein-homicide-suicide It was discussed a bit after his 'suicide'. Yes many (most) people do not believe it was suicide.
I know, but the autopsy comments are new, which is why I'm posting it.
The fact that it is a conspiracy theory is not false. It is alleging a conspiracy by at least several actors to shut him down, when the official account says suicide. "Conspiracy theory" does not necessarily mean it cannot be true, I am just using the words in their litteral meaning in this case.
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On October 30 2019 22:50 Nouar wrote:I am usually not fond of conspiracy theories, but in this case, I'd really love to have a complete investigation. According to Fox, the autopsy revealed a lot of symptoms of strangulation that are really unusual in deaths by hanging. Add to that the two guards supposedly both sleeping, who hadn't made their rounds for 3h (instead of every half an hour), both security cameras not working, his cell roommate relocated, and him being removed of suicide watch. It makes for a lot of coincidences in this high profile case. I'd love to have a look at all the other surrounding cameras to see who stayed for how long in this part of the prison and try to retrace these things. Then again IF it was an elaborated assassination, they would have covered for that as well I guess, in some way or another... https://www.foxnews.com/us/forensic-pathologist-jeffrey-epstein-homicide-suicide
I think the term "conspiracy theory" has a lot of undue negativity associated with it. When we look at stuff the CIA, FBI and others have done, like actually done, it is easy to think "yeah it could totally happen though". The issue is when stuff like pizzagate and other stuff gets tossed into the same bucket. But Epstein 100% did not kill himself. I won't even entertain the thought he did. There's just so much smoke associated with it.
GH phrased it in a way I really liked, and I apologize if I don't quite get the wording right: I have an extremely hard time believing a bunch of the world's most powerful people, who it appears Epstein could take down with his testimony, would just stand around and do nothing while he ruins the lives of many billionaires. These are people who will establish entire companies around the idea of paying less taxes. Huge lobbying groups...everything to hold on to power. And they've got 1 guy who could take down many of them, and none of them do anything about it? Just sit on their hands, as people who have never once been able to sit on their hands? Sitting on their hands when their freedom is at stake? There's just no way. These aren't people who think the rules apply to them. Psychology dictates they don't even really identify with humanity at this point.
People lose track of just how much money a billion dollars is. It truly is a transcendent amount of money. All signs point to some large multinational community of incredibly rich people who have so much money that the world became boring, so they entertain themselves by doing incredibly sketchy things, including pedophilia. In fact, Barr's dad, the guy who gave Epstein has first job at a school, even wrote a "fiction" novel about it. It is a book about aliens who come to earth and are so wealthy and powerful that they spend their days influencing governments, wars and pass the time with sex slaves.
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Yeah as much as people like to think they can't be bought, normal people have a price, that is almost certainly much less than a billion dollars. Whether it's a vacation, a car, a house, a mansion, a yacht etc, you'd eventually hit a price. Especially since all you have to do is look the other way, no complex moral dilemnas for getting hands dirty. Epstein had dirt on dozens of the worlds most rich and powerful people. I wouldn't be surprised if you could buy out every guard in the prison for less than a hundred million. A billion is more money than every guard in that prison could hope to make in their combined lifetimes. A hundred billion could buy the prison and run it for millenia with lavish bonuses and benefits for all employees, and that's my ballpark guess of how much money Epstein had dirt on.
IIRC even in this thread, the prevailing opinion given all the suspicious circumstances was either assisted suicide(here's a bedsheet in a convenient noose format) or homicide.
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On October 31 2019 03:22 Amui wrote:
Yeah as much as people like to think they can't be bought, normal people have a price, that is almost certainly much less than a billion dollars. Whether it's a vacation, a car, a house, a mansion, a yacht etc, you'd eventually hit a price. Especially since all you have to do is look the other way, no complex moral dilemnas for getting hands dirty. Epstein had dirt on dozens of the worlds most rich and powerful people. I wouldn't be surprised if you could buy out every guard in the prison for less than a hundred million. A billion is more money than every guard in that prison could hope to make in their combined lifetimes. A hundred billion could buy the prison and run it for millenia with lavish bonuses and benefits for all employees, and that's my ballpark guess of how much money Epstein had dirt on.
IIRC even in this thread, the prevailing opinion given all the suspicious circumstances was either assisted suicide(here's a bedsheet in a convenient noose format) or homicide.
I don't know about the US, but usually, big moves of money are tracked. So unless an undisclosed party creates bank accounts in a fiscal paradise for each prison guard, it is not going to work that easily :-p
Plus, as you increase the amount of people involved, the risk of it getting out increases too. It's not that easy to do large scale bribery.
But yeah, I believe in a meticulously planned assassination with a couple of insiders. Or at worst as you say, facilitation/intidimation.
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Epstein almost certainly wanted to die, if only to make his infamy live forever. I don't think there's a very good chance of it being anything other than suicide in that sense. The extent to which he had outside assistance or facilitation is a good one, but I am a firm believer in the capacity for a reasonably intelligent person to find a way to off themselves in custody, even under suicide watch, let alone after being taken on it.
Put another way, the same signs that you think point to intervention also point to the perfect opportunity for the man to do it himself. No cellmate, no guards around, off suicide watch are *all* things that would increase the chances of him trying it alone.
It's important to note that these new findings are actually the statements of an autopsy observing doctor hired by Epstein's brother, so taking them without a grain of salt is a bit dangerous.
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On October 31 2019 04:58 TheTenthDoc wrote:
Epstein almost certainly wanted to die, if only to make his infamy live forever. I don't think there's a very good chance of it being anything other than suicide in that sense. The extent to which he had outside assistance or facilitation is a good one, but I am a firm believer in the capacity for a reasonably intelligent person to find a way to off themselves in custody, even under suicide watch.
It's important to note that these new findings are actually the statements of an autopsy observing doctor hired by Epstein's brother, so taking them without a grain of salt is a bit dangerous.
Can you explain this?
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Epstein spent his whole life cultivating power. That power was evaporating, and was going to evaporate further. The impact on his family and legacy were going to become enormous. Men who have that much power don't cope well with losing it *cough Hitler cough*. It also clearly marked the end of any of his larger ambitions (like the weird "farm of women" stuff), which were most of what he was living for anyway.
Now he lives forever (well, for a while) in the minds of conspiracy theorists (and others). Maybe even Roswell levels. A certain kind of immortality he would never have achieved by going to prison.
Plus there was that whole suicide attempt.
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Those guards didn't get paid to fall asleep. If they did, it would be a wad of cash, not millions. Instead, they'd be shown a picture of their children getting off the school bus or some other picture of a friend/family member. They'd be told to sit this one out and let a pedo die so nobody else has to. That way there's no money trace to any relevant guards. The only large money would be to the killer. Someone would also get paid to make sure the security cameras were off, but again, we're talking about small amounts of money and a threat, not a million dollars popping up in a guard's bank account.
I'm not saying this is what happened. Just that if Epstein was indeed murdered, it is very unlikely that any of the guards got paid any suspicious amount and that trail will be a dead end.
I just hope that some high profile people get a peak inside Epstein's evidence vault and can release all the names associated with Epstein. I'd love to see them all taken down by this. I'm just not going to hold my breath that it'll happen.
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On October 31 2019 04:58 TheTenthDoc wrote:
Epstein almost certainly wanted to die, if only to make his infamy live forever. I don't think there's a very good chance of it being anything other than suicide in that sense. The extent to which he had outside assistance or facilitation is a good one, but I am a firm believer in the capacity for a reasonably intelligent person to find a way to off themselves in custody, even under suicide watch, let alone after being taken on it.
Put another way, the same signs that you think point to intervention also point to the perfect opportunity for the man to do it himself. No cellmate, no guards around, off suicide watch are *all* things that would increase the chances of him trying it alone.
It's important to note that these new findings are actually the statements of an autopsy observing doctor hired by Epstein's brother, so taking them without a grain of salt is a bit dangerous. sure, but "woops the video camera's didn't work, what are the odds" pulls it heavily into the intentional side for me. Lazy guards is easy to accept, they are probably under-payed and overworked like everywhere else but there is such a thing as to many coincidences compounding on top of each other.
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On October 31 2019 05:11 Gorsameth wrote:Show nested quote +On October 31 2019 04:58 TheTenthDoc wrote:
Epstein almost certainly wanted to die, if only to make his infamy live forever. I don't think there's a very good chance of it being anything other than suicide in that sense. The extent to which he had outside assistance or facilitation is a good one, but I am a firm believer in the capacity for a reasonably intelligent person to find a way to off themselves in custody, even under suicide watch, let alone after being taken on it.
Put another way, the same signs that you think point to intervention also point to the perfect opportunity for the man to do it himself. No cellmate, no guards around, off suicide watch are *all* things that would increase the chances of him trying it alone.
It's important to note that these new findings are actually the statements of an autopsy observing doctor hired by Epstein's brother, so taking them without a grain of salt is a bit dangerous. sure, but "woops the video camera's didn't work, what are the odds" pulls it heavily into the intentional side for me. Lazy guards is easy to accept, they are probably under-payed and overworked like everywhere else but there is such a thing as to many coincidences compounding on top of each other.
I mean, there's a certain anthropomorphic principle type argument for at least some of the coincidences (not the cameras necessarily). If a circumstance is necessary for both an unassisted suicide to occur and a murder/assisted suicide to occur, I don't really give it much weight. The cameras and some of the original autopsy results are the main coincidences I see.
That said, I'm not 100% in the "normal suicide camp" (I'm probably 70/25/5 normal suicide/assisted suicide/murder). I just think people tend to really aggressively seek mystique over mundanity in circumstances like this, and it colors their perceptions accordingly (this may in turn color my own). Even when it's evidence like testimony from the doctor the deceased's brother paid to observe the autopsy.
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Twitter has banned all political ads on its platform. And in the same hour, Bolton confirmed to testify in a closed door session next week!
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On October 31 2019 06:20 Mohdoo wrote:
Bolton confirmed to testify in a closed door session next week!
Given what several folks who have already have testified that relates to communicating with Bolton over their concerns, this is a huge deal. If I remember right, Bolton was the one who directed them to report their concerns to legal counsel, and Bolton was strongly against all of the shadow Ukraine policy stuff Giuliani was doing. Bolton could potentially do a significant amount of damage to Trump.
Twitter banning political ads is good. They already did that here in Canada for our election. It makes sense they would extend that policy elsewhere too. If Facebook had anything resembling integrity, they would do the same, but I'm not holding my breath. They have basically shown at this point that they have absolutely no semblance of ethics and their CEO has essentially said that they won't block first party political ads containing provable lies.
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On October 31 2019 07:16 Ben... wrote:Show nested quote +On October 31 2019 06:20 Mohdoo wrote:
Bolton confirmed to testify in a closed door session next week! Given what several folks who have already have testified that relates to communicating with Bolton over their concerns, this is a huge deal. If I remember right, Bolton was the one who directed them to report their concerns to legal counsel, and Bolton was strongly against all of the shadow Ukraine policy stuff Giuliani was doing. Bolton could potentially do a significant amount of damage to Trump. Twitter banning political ads is good. They already did that here in Canada for our election. It makes sense they would extend that policy elsewhere too. If Facebook had anything resembling integrity, they would do the same, but I'm not holding my breath. They have basically shown at this point that they have absolutely no semblance of ethics and their CEO has essentially said that they won't block first party political ads containing provable lies.
Its funny how it seems like Bolton's single objective has always been Global Manifest Destiny. Everything else is just a distraction. These shmucks trying to skim some political gains at the cost of a small amount of manifest destiny probably made Bolton want to puke. I think he'll always be super loyal to republicans, but Trump isn't what Bolton wants out of republicans. He was probably like "Well this isn't remotely what the party is supposed to stand for, so peace out".
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EPT
