US Politics: Choking our Democracy

[DMC]

8 minutes ago, williamjm said:

Maybe Putin will offer him asylum in Russia?

Hey, it worked for Snowden.

[Fragile Bird]

Speaking of Paris, did you see the story about how Trump spent his spare six hours when he didn’t visit the cemetery outside the city? He was staying at the residence of the US Ambassador to France, which is apparently quite the snazzy place, picked up by the US government a few centuries ago. 
 

While there his eye caught a few baubles and artwork that he liked, so he had them loaded up on Air Force One to take back to Washington with him. He told the ambassador he’d get them back in six years.

Among the stuff that caught his eye were silver statuettes of Greek gods, made in the early 20th century that the artist tried to palm off being centuries older, and are basically worthless. Also a bust of Franklin that is a copy of the original that Trump said was better than the original, and a painting of Franklin that also turned out to be a copy. Turns out the original was hanging in the National Portrait Gallery down the road from the WH, so Trump had the original moved to the WH and the copy put in the Portrait Gallery.

I bet the ambassador never expected Trump to pull a stunt like that. Or anyone else.

[A True Kaniggit]

13 minutes ago, williamjm said:

Maybe Putin will offer him asylum in Russia?

 

4 minutes ago, DMC said:

Hey, it worked for Snowden.

If such a thing came to pass, (which I think unlikely) I wonder what uses Putin would try to put President Trump to?

Regular messages back to his supporters back in the States to cause mayhem I suppose.

[HoodedCrow]

Zorral, those are Trumps good points? If you think of Trump in terms of grooming, and abuse it makes more sense.

[DMC]

1 minute ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Regular messages back to his supporters back in the States to cause mayhem?

I would think extracting information/details on his supporters would be his price of admission, yes.  Anyway, in all seriousness that's not gonna happen.  If the US is intent on prosecuting a former president, no country is going to offer him asylum.  The cost is too high.

In other news, interesting piece on the defunding of Stars and Stripes:

Quote

It has also consistently published work that’s put it out of step with Pentagon leadership, such as when it released a report uncovering internal documents that showed the Department of Defense was not only using contractors to rate journalists’ reporting on the war in Afghanistan, but appeared ready to use those ratings to manipulate the journalists into producing more positive coverage.

Unsurprisingly, these sorts of reports have created tension between Stars and Stripes and the officials within the executive branch who have a hand in appropriating its funding. Former President Barack Obama’s administration proposed gutting the paper multiple times during his presidency.

In recent years, those with close connections to the paper have allowed there’s some validity to questions over whether the paper should continue to exist. Former Stars and Stripes ombudsman Tobias Naegele wrote in 2016 that the paper does lose money, and that there’s legitimacy to the argument that a print publication for troops is no longer necessary in a world in which many soldiers can get news online — including on the Stars and Stripes website.

 

[The Mance]

8 minutes ago, DMC said:

Who knows, there's no precedent.....

There is certainly precedent for sentences being suspended pending appeal.  Even for non old, rich, white, former presidents.

[DMC]

Just now, The Mance said:

There is certainly precedent for sentences being suspended pending appeal.  Even for non old, rich, white, former presidents.

I meant in terms of prosecuting a former president.

[Fragile Bird]

CNN has an advance copy of Michael Cohen's new book, "Disloyal". One of the stories Cohen describes is how, before his presidential run, Trump hired a "faux-Obama" and filmed a video of him belittling and chastizing the actor, and then "firing" him. Cohen includes a picture of Trump sitting at a desk with a black man in a suit sitting across from him who vaguely looks like Obama.

Think of how twisted you have to be to do something like that.

The link includes the picture.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/05/politics/michael-cohen-book-trump-white-house/index.html

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

I'm thinking we send him to Elba.

Why not to The Rock? 

1 hour ago, The Mance said:

Even if he were actually convicted of a criminal offense he would never outlive the appeal process.  

Fool! he doesn't exercise, meaning his battery lasts longer than yours! 

[DMC]

11 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Why not to The Rock? 

Because too many bay area liberals will try to throw their seaweed and birkenstocks at him.  Also, Alcatraz is one of the most popular landmarks in the world.  The government(s) is not going to want to dry up that tourism money.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 minutes ago, DMC said:

Because too many bay area liberals will try to throw their seaweed and birkenstocks at him.  Also, Alcatraz is one of the most popular landmarks in the world.  The government(s) is not going to want to dry up that tourism money.

Oh really? It looks like you're France now, buster!

[DMC]

2 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Oh really? It looks like you're France now, buster!

Best part of that clip are the last lines:  "Want some cream?"  "Um.....no."

[Kalbear]

39 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

CNN has an advance copy of Michael Cohen's new book, "Disloyal". One of the stories Cohen describes is how, before his presidential run, Trump hired a "faux-Obama" and filmed a video of him belittling and chastizing the actor, and then "firing" him. Cohen includes a picture of Trump sitting at a desk with a black man in a suit sitting across from him who vaguely looks like Obama.

Think of how twisted you have to be to do something like that.

The link includes the picture.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/05/politics/michael-cohen-book-trump-white-house/index.html

I mean this in the best way - this is literally fake news. The picture comes from a skit that trump was going to do as part of a 2012 RNC convention bit that they cut. They apparently replaced it with the clint Eastwood chair thing. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

4 minutes ago, DMC said:

Best part of that clip are the last lines:  "Want some cream?"  "Um.....no."

Top 5 episode in my book, along with Itchy and Scratchy Land, Kamp Krusty, Cape Feare and whatever I'm in the mood for....

[DMC]

2 minutes ago, Kalibear said:

They apparently replaced it with the clint Eastwood chair thing. 

Sounds like they made the wrong decision.  That chair thing is still probably the most surreal thing I've ever seen at a party convention - and that's including Trump's!

[DireWolfSpirit]

We really do need to start prosecuting these Republican criminals once they are voted out. If nothing else it should be a deterrent to their type of behavior that has been allowed to go on unchecked for far too many years now.

The system drastically needs to rebalance itself from where we are currently, hopelessly listing like a damaged ship of state.

Lock them all up, or at least let N.Y. state convict Trump for state crimes, which I believe they have some jurisdiction over (financial) crimes Trump has committed that he cannot be pardoned out of. Lock him up, it needs to happen.

[Altherion]

18 hours ago, Rippounet said:

But it's not the whole story. There are also elements here and there that already correspond to the new paradigm. It's not much at present, just some declarations or decisions here and there by Bolsonaro, Trump, or others, that don't fit the "classic" xenophobia, nationalism, or ethno-nationalism of the 20th century, that introduce new notions. The economic nationalism, the anti-globalism, the insistance on walls... They're close to what happened in the past and subtly different at the same time. Of course, history never repeats itself in the exact same way, so differences are to be expected since you'll have new factors coming in. But that's the point I'm making: climate change is in fact one of these new factors. At the very least it is contributing to political polarization by raising the stakes of elections for people who believe in it. It is playing a role in the 2020 US elections, and will play a role in elections throughout the West from now on.

I don't think I buy the first part. The nationalism and anti-globalism and the like are different because the world is different. We've never before lived in a world where so many of the products sold in stores were imported from halfway across the planet nor one in which travel is so easy that the main barriers to it are regulatory. No additional factors are needed to explain differences in the reaction.

The second part (regarding climate change being one of the new factors) is true in that it does play a role and it might become more important in the future, but today it's one factor out of about a dozen and nobody is serious about tackling it. In fact, in the US, it barely stands on its own. If you consider the Green New Deal (which was the American version of a plan to deal with it), it didn't just discuss how to deal with global warming, it also somehow intended to do this in a way that left a long list of groups better off. There wasn't a single word in it about sacrifice (which, barring massive technological breakthroughs, is what it's going to take to actually deal with the CO₂).

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, Fragile Bird said:

Speaking of Paris, did you see the story about how Trump spent his spare six hours when he didn’t visit the cemetery outside the city? He was staying at the residence of the US Ambassador to France, which is apparently quite the snazzy place, picked up by the US government a few centuries ago. 
 

While there his eye caught a few baubles and artwork that he liked, so he had them loaded up on Air Force One to take back to Washington with him. He told the ambassador he’d get them back in six years.

Among the stuff that caught his eye were silver statuettes of Greek gods, made in the early 20th century that the artist tried to palm off being centuries older, and are basically worthless. Also a bust of Franklin that is a copy of the original that Trump said was better than the original, and a painting of Franklin that also turned out to be a copy. Turns out the original was hanging in the National Portrait Gallery down the road from the WH, so Trump had the original moved to the WH and the copy put in the Portrait Gallery.

I bet the ambassador never expected Trump to pull a stunt like that. Or anyone else.

I remember particularly when that happened, the remark the embassy would get the art works back in "about 6 years or so."

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, HoodedCrow said:

Zorral, those are Trumps good points? If you think of Trump in terms of grooming, and abuse it makes more sense.

Not good points for pete's sake! How in hell could you get that?

This is what his supposedly lazy and incompetent ass has deliberately accomplished.  Think of what the active, healthy and competent followers in charge will do and how fast.  Social Security and Medicare go, within hours of the next one of Them.  Just for starters.

The destruction of our national democratic norms, such as those that applied more likely to white people not Native Americans or African Americans or Immigrants or poor or disabled, or mentally challenged, was well underway, but what he's done with all this within these years is massive MAGA destruction, distortion and degradation, to make it all the easier for the successors to finish the job.

[Fragile Bird]

51 minutes ago, Kalibear said:

I mean this in the best way - this is literally fake news. The picture comes from a skit that trump was going to do as part of a 2012 RNC convention bit that they cut. They apparently replaced it with the clint Eastwood chair thing. 

Well, then the story isn’t fake, is it? I bet Trump did the video and presented it to the RNC. Do you have a story that says otherwise?