Open Bribery? Trump Signs Agreement Calling for Meta to Pay $25 Million to Settle Suit

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Dec 10, 2005
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I saw people say this and I don't agree. It's true that if you have a future transaction you will probably need to bribe him again but Trump has an incentive to show bribing him is effective so he probably lets this transaction go through. I suspect the people bribing him know this, it's just their concerns are a lot bigger than what Trump is skimming.

Of course there is always the question of why the president can openly solicit and take fucking bribes, but I digress.
That makes sense. And indeed it is a big fucking question that Republicans can't seem to answer or even care to acknowledge: why is it fine for people to take bribes?

I suspect that after years of cooking their brains and electing corrupt hacks, they think that everyone is doing bribe-taking, so it's not a big deal. Trump is emblematic of that: of you're not breaking rules, you're a sucker. And that's how we get rampant rule breaking and a collapsing of society.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
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That makes sense. And indeed it is a big fucking question that Republicans can't seem to answer or even care to acknowledge: why is it fine for people to take bribes?

I suspect that after years of cooking their brains and electing corrupt hacks, they think that everyone is doing bribe-taking, so it's not a big deal. Trump is emblematic of that: of you're not breaking rules, you're a sucker. And that's how we get rampant rule breaking and a collapsing of society.

- It honestly goes beyond Republicans, IMO its all of American society.

We've effectively arrived at a point where Trump as well as the system's inability to deal with Trump has lead a lot of people to the conclusion (perhaps correctly) that there really never have been any real rules for the political class in the country. These folks have been doing all this stuff all along, but under a guise of secrecy because it was presumed to actually be scandalous to the American people.

I kind of think of it like the difference between your wife getting railed by your neighbor on the front lawn vs your wife arranging clandestine meetings with the neighbor at a motel outside of town. They're both gut punches, but at least the second one suggests there was some illusion that was worth maintaining.
 
Dec 10, 2005
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- It honestly goes beyond Republicans, IMO its all of American society.

We've effectively arrived at a point where Trump as well as the system's inability to deal with Trump has lead a lot of people to the conclusion (perhaps correctly) that there really never have been any real rules for the political class in the country. These folks have been doing all this stuff all along, but under a guise of secrecy because it was presumed to actually be scandalous to the American people.

I kind of think of it like the difference between your wife getting railed by your neighbor on the front lawn vs your wife arranging clandestine meetings with the neighbor at a motel outside of town. They're both gut punches, but at least the second one suggests there was some illusion that was worth maintaining.
Republicans and vulture capital have spent the last 30 years railing against the rules and trying to undermine them at every turn privately and publicly, and they've cultivated a cult that thinks the rules are for suckers. But you can't have a society without rules, and they're likely going to find out as they keep pushing their insane shit along that people don't like feeling like suckers, and right wing nuts don't have a monopoly on either guns or the willness to change things with force.
 
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GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,309
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Republicans and vulture capital have spent the last 30 years railing against the rules and trying to undermine them at every turn privately and publicly, and they've cultivated a cult that thinks the rules are for suckers. But you can't have a society without rules, and they're likely going to find out as they keep pushing their insane shit along that people don't like feeling like suckers, and right wing nuts don't have a monopoly on either guns or the willness to change things with force.

- Yeah, that's why I've kind of resigned myself to accepting that the New Deal Post War order is spent, and we're on track to pick up where the 1920's left off.

Massive income inequality, govt run by oligarchs, company towns, entrenched racism, a nation of workers rather than thinkers.

We're too distracted and still too comfortable to mount any kind of resistance to that. Turns out 1984 was wrong, it was A Brave New World that got it right...
 

pcgeek11

Lifer
Jun 12, 2005
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As I understand it (I may be wrong), Trump was suing Meta for whatever reason. Meta agreed to pay him 25 million to settle and they agreed to settle.

I have no issue with that. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 
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fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
87,934
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As I understand it (I may be wrong), Trump was suing Meta for whatever reason. Meta agreed to pay him 25 million to settle and they agreed to settle.

I have no issue with that. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Trump is suing Meta for, and I'm not joking, violating his first amendment rights by banning him. It's a transparently ludicrous argument and one Trump already lost against Twitter because, well, Facebook and Twitter can't violate the first amendment.

If they settle, they are settling a case they are essentially guaranteed to win in order to curry favor with the government. Also known as a bribe.
 

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
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As I understand it (I may be wrong), Trump was suing Meta for whatever reason. Meta agreed to pay him 25 million to settle and they agreed to settle.

I have no issue with that. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I mean surely the bolded bit is important?
 

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
33,044
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Amusingly enough Trump is accusing Facebook of acting as an agent of the government by banning him... all while HE WAS THE GOVERNMENT. He's accusing them of acting as an agent of his own administration to ban him.

It's just so utterly stupid on every level.

View attachment 116023
It's dumb but also corrupt.
Like "I'm going to sue you", "What for?", "Does it matter? I'm President. You want to find out what happens if you don't pay?", "$25m ok?"
 

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
87,934
55,284
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It's dumb but also corrupt.
Like "I'm going to sue you", "What for?", "Does it matter? I'm President. You want to find out what happens if you don't pay?", "$25m ok?"
It's insanely corrupt and as far as I can tell there is no legal recourse.

Like literally as far as I can tell Trump can go around the country suing people on obviously frivolous grounds and then demand settlements from them or face attack by the government. Federal bribery statutes don't apply to him so what can you do?

This is one of about a thousand reasons why making the president a king was a bad idea.
 

nickqt

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2015
8,168
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It's dumb but also corrupt.
Like "I'm going to sue you", "What for?", "Does it matter? I'm President. You want to find out what happens if you don't pay?", "$25m ok?"
That's a mighty nice tech company you have there. It'd be a shame if something happened to it. Just give me a weekly payment and I'll keep anything bad from happening to it.

In Italy and here they'd call it the mafia. In Russia they call it the government, which Trump and Friends want to do here since they are the government.
 
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brycejones

Lifer
Oct 18, 2005
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That's a mighty nice tech company you have there. It'd be a shame if something happened to it. Just give me a weekly payment and I'll keep anything bad from happening to it.

In Italy and here they'd call it the mafia. In Russia they call it the government, which Trump and Friends want to do here since they are the government.
It's a mighty nice media company you have there. Shame you have a pending merger that my administration needs to review and I sued you for $10B over some bullshit claim.

See Paramount.
 
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hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
26,019
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It's insanely corrupt and as far as I can tell there is no legal recourse.

Like literally as far as I can tell Trump can go around the country suing people on obviously frivolous grounds and then demand settlements from them or face attack by the government. Federal bribery statutes don't apply to him so what can you do?

This is one of about a thousand reasons why making the president a king was a bad idea.
I can't believe people weren't expecting basic lawlessness from Trump after the SCOTUS found the president is above the law. I mean it's Trump, you Fn numbnuts.
 

Franz316

Golden Member
Sep 12, 2000
1,024
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United Corporate States of America. Convictions and integrity do not exist, only what increases profits and power will be pursued. CEOs caving to trump should be expected. Companies are so terrified to be put on on trump's naughty list that they'll do anything to appease him, and help take the country down in the process.
 

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
62,701
18,847
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And it's totally not a conflict of interests that the defacto vice president has a tech company and a media company.
Look, you just need to understand that wealthy people are better than us, their money is proof that god loves them more. There's an old Welsh saying about it, I'm surprised you don't know, it goes something like Llldkkfy Lllyyyyndddfndfnosdh Llllyyynnnmmdnndf. I'm told it means "Fuck thyself, peasant".

Is that racist? It's cool, I'm like half Welsh or some shit.
 

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
33,044
11,221
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Look, you just need to understand that wealthy people are better than us, their money is proof that god loves them more. There's an old Welsh saying about it, I'm surprised you don't know, it goes something like Llldkkfy Lllyyyyndddfndfnosdh Llllyyynnnmmdnndf. I'm told it means "Fuck thyself, peasant".

Is that racist? It's cool, I'm like half Welsh or some shit.
I prefer "Edrychwch ar y corris hwnnw! Rhywun yn taflu bricsen ato!"

There's no "K" in Welsh!

I totally Google translated my phrase btw!
 
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