• CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Remember how much the unhinged racist teabaggers whined about how the media didn’t “vet” Obama (subtext being, how did the Black guy end up being a Presidential candidate, someone should have stopped it!). They said this over and over and over again along with black helicopter craziness about his birth certificate (because, again: this guy is Black! Are you guys even seeing this shit!?).

    The real failure in vetting anyone was the way the media chose to talk about Taco ever since 2015 or so. Most Americans knew him from that stupid game show he was given. But the media sure as fuck knew who he was going back to at least the 80s. And they said barely a peep about any of it.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    It’s been long alleged that Trump’s businesses functioned as a money laundering scheme for criminal cartels and foreign intelligence services. I have to wonder how many other VIPs O’Donnell witnessed Trump lead through the casino floor. Nevermind how much human trafficking he oversaw as a senior administrator at an Atlantic City Casino.

    This feels a bit like getting an interview with Whitey Bulger to talk shit about the Boston Mafia.

    During one visit to the Atlantic City resort in the late 80s, O’Donnell claimed inspectors of the state casino commission, which regulates gambling and ensures casinos comply with the law, were waiting for him in his office, after the president and disgraced financier had turned up to the venue with a group of three women.

    At some point, maybe CNN could do a story about how state agencies regulate for-profit gambling dens.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Civil fines that were almost certainly less than what he collected in kickbacks for managing the transactions.

        And then, of course, he never lost his licenses or otherwise suffered long term financial or legal penalties.

        • redsand@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 day ago

          Nah dude he famously was bankrupted again like 2 or 3 times. The guy fucked up running a casino so bad money laundering couldn’t fix it… 2 - 3 times

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            15 hours ago

            Nah dude he famously was bankrupted again like 2 or 3 times.

            When you’ve got an unlimited line of credit, bankruptcy is just a way to discharge old debts.

            There’s a story his daughter likes to tell of Trump and Ivanka driving through Manhattan in a limosine on the way to a luxury gala. Trump points out the window to a starving homeless man and says “He’s $800M richer than I am”, then rolls up the window and drives on.

            That’s what bankruptcy means to a billionaire. It’s got nothing to do with material conditions. Just a way of keeping score.

            • redsand@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              14 hours ago

              Those businesses died and lost him money. If not for the licensing and the apprentice he’d be as broke as Mike Lyndel. And the bribes

              • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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                14 hours ago

                https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-donald-trumps-net-worth-2014-2024/

                My man is at the beating heart of an absolute octopus of scams and flim-flams. He’s making money hand-over-fist and will likely leave office several times wealthier than at any point in his life prior to the second term.

                So much of this wealth is rooted in his ability to access near-infinite credit, to lose billions of dollars, to declare bankruptcy, and to start over again with fresh new lines of borrowing capacity. He can do this, seemingly forever, because he’s such a well-known and well-insulated conduit for dirty money. If you need to bypass US sanctions or move liquidity through the NATO-aligned banking system, you’ve got a fence who can turn over god only knows how much money without being bothered by federal investigators.

                He’s been doing this since he took over the business from his father, who was deeply embedded with the east coast mafia families and their corrupt government counterparts. It’s the reason he’s so close with Rudy Guliani (who made his career at the SDNY by shielding one half of the mafia in order to prosecute the other half).

                If not for the licensing and the apprentice

                Tip of the iceberg. He’s got friends at every major financial sector on the Atlantic. My guy has likely laundered trillions in his lifetime.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    He added: “To get on a helicopter with a friend and three other people and fly down to Atlantic City, I mean, you can connect those dots. They were pretty good buddies.”

    The helicopter operated by your coke dealer. Natch.

    • frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 day ago

      They should be. Plenty of adult women are trafficked, too, and Epstein almost certainly didn’t care either way as long as someone would pay him.

      • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        Exactly. Epstein didn’t really care about their age, as much as he cared about whether or not he was able to sell the women off to potential buyers. Underage girls being in high demand (ugh…) led him to trafficking children. But if he had a market for +18 girls, he absolutely would traffic them too. After all, trafficking was his specialty. And as the old saying goes, “the customer is always right.” As long as he could find a customer, he’d be willing to traffic outside of the underage demographic.

        The kompromat angle only factors in until Epstein has it. Epstein may be worried about a first-time buyer blabbing about buying a 19 year old… After all, there’s very little risk to the buyer, but a ton of risk for the seller. But if Epstein already has footage of Trump raping 13 year olds, he doesn’t need to worry about Trump blabbing when he traffics a 19 year old.

        • Spaz@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Fyi

          The full quote is often stated as “The customer is always right in matters of taste.” This phrase emphasizes the importance of prioritizing customer satisfaction, even if their demands seem unreasonable.

          • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 day ago

            I know; that’s exactly why I used the phrase. My point was that Epstein was ultimately just a salesman filling a (highly immoral and illegal) market gap. He noticed there was an established demand, and worked to fill that demand with a supply. If there weren’t any customers for what he was doing, he wouldn’t have been successful. But it also means that he already had the infrastructure set up (and the lack of scruples) for trafficking, so the difference between trafficking a 13 year old and a 19 year old was largely bureaucratic as far as he was concerned.

    • Jesus@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Yeah, but these creeps like to target teens. This tracks for Epstein and the guy who’d hang out in the Ms. Teen USA changing room.

  • Match!!@pawb.social
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    2 days ago

    the 2024 attempted assassins were probably not time travelers because if they were they would’ve gone back at least this far

  • chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Trump is a pedophile. We’ve known this for a decade plus. Let’s go ahead and move on. Nothing is going to come of it. Releasing the client list or not won’t change anything. This is all a distraction from the world crumbling around our ears.