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US Politics: A Tale of two Joes.


A Horse Named Stranger

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2 hours ago, ThinkerX said:

Conservative propaganda infesting my Facebook has taken a new twist. Past couple days there have been a slew of posts announcing 'Lee-Jackson Day,' described as patriots, heroes, and fine men worth emulating.  Lots of posters taking pride in their confederate ancestors, along with the usual arguments about 'slavery not so bad,' and the 'civil war wasn't really about slavery.'

I’m in the middle of listening to a book called How the Word is Passed, by Clint Smith. It’s about the history of slavery in the US, told by the author taking a tour of historical cities, monuments and landmarks and telling the true story about them, stories no one ever told him as a kid. Monticello Plantation, Whitney Plantation, Angola Prison, Blandford Cemetery, Galveston Island. It’s a real eye opener for me as a Canadian, but I have a suspicion it would be a real eye opener for a lot of Americans as well.

At one point in some city, he talks about getting directions to take the Lee highway for two miles, then turn left on the Jackson Freeway for two miles, then turn off at some-guy’s name street that I forget, and he says something like, yah, tell me to drive on the road honoring the general who fought to keep us slaves, turn left on the road named for the guy who ordered that black Union soldiers be executed and then get off on the street named for the guy who beheaded the slaves involved in an uprising and had their heads put on stakes along the road as a warning to other blacks.

It’s a damn fine book. He gets a little wordy at times, but, fuck it all, he’s allowed.

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Opinion | The Russia Sanctions That Could Actually Stop Putin
The only sanctions that stand a chance of deterring Putin are going to hurt us, too.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/01/21/russia-sanctions-stop-putin-energy-markets-us-invasion-527524

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Why is it so difficult to convert America’s economic heft into geopolitical power? When it comes to sanctioning Russia, the U.S. faces three recurring challenges: The sanctions tend to be imposed gradually; they are negotiated with reluctant allies; and the most impactful ones would also be economically costly to the West. As a result, the Russia sanctions in place today are a watered-down compromise, designed to placate allies and minimize domestic costs.

Bending Russia’s macroeconomic fortunes — and Putin’s calculus — will require targeting the country’s financial system as well as key exports such as oil. Such sanctions would have significant effects on Russia’s economy and perhaps on the global financial system, which is why U.S. officials have been hesitant to go this far. But averting a war is a tall order and, unfortunately, won’t be cost-free. “Smart” or “targeted” sanctions won’t work. To really impose pain on Russia, the U.S. and Europe will have to bear some burden, too — although, fortunately, there are ways to minimize the fallout for Western economies.

The Biden administration needs to face these tradeoffs head on — and soon, because once Russian tanks are rolling, it will be too late for sanctions to deter the Kremlin.

 

 

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Bonus episode: Inside the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency

https://www.axios.com/trump-oval-office-meeting-sidney-powell-a8e1e466-2e42-42d0-9cf1-26eb267f8723.html

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The hours to come would pit the insurgent conspiracists against a handful of White House lawyers and advisers determined to keep the president from giving in to temptation to invoke emergency national security powers, seize voting machines and disable the primary levers of American democracy.

Herschmann took a seat in a yellow chair close to the doorway. Powell, Flynn, Newman and Byrne sat in a row before the Resolute Desk, facing the president.

For weeks now, ever since Rudy Giuliani had commandeered Trump’s floundering campaign to overturn the election, outsiders had been coming out of the woodwork to feed the president wild allegations of voter fraud based on highly dubious sources. 

Trump was no longer focused on any semblance of a governing agenda, instead spending his days taking phone calls and meetings from anyone armed with conspiracy theories about the election. For the White House staff, it was an unending sea of garbage churned up by the bottom feeders.

Powell began this meeting with the same baseless claim that now has her facing a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit: She told the president that Dominion Voting Systems had rigged their machines to flip votes from Trump to Biden and that it was part of an international communist plot to steal the election for the Democrats.

 

 

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Interesting report on a draft executive order Trump nearly issued dated December 16, 2020:

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The draft executive order shows that the weeks between Election Day and the Capitol attack could have been even more chaotic than they were. It credulously cites conspiracy theories about election fraud in Georgia and Michigan, as well as debunked notions about Dominion voting machines.

The order empowers the defense secretary to “seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention under” a U.S. law that relates to preservation of election records. It also cites a lawsuit filed in 2017 against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Additionally, the draft order would have given the defense secretary 60 days to write an assessment of the 2020 election. That suggests it could have been a gambit to keep Trump in power until at least mid-February of 2021.

The order also would have established a special prosecutor to probe the election with Sidney Powell pushing to be appointed as that special prosecutor.  The full text of the draft order can be found in the link above.

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16 minutes ago, DMC said:

Interesting report on a draft executive order Trump nearly issued dated December 16, 2020:

The order also would have established a special prosecutor to probe the election with Sidney Powell pushing to be appointed as that special prosecutor.  The full text of the draft order can be found in the link above.

Thank God this wasn’t issued.

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Very good article from Amy Walter on Trump's potential difficulties in a 2024 GOP primary.  This tidbit was particularly interesting:

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According to recent NBC polling, fewer Republicans identify as a "Trump Republican" today than they have at any point over the last three years. Since January of 2019, the NBC survey has asked Republican voters to choose whether they consider themselves to "be more of a supporter of Trump or a supporter of the Republican Party." For most of his presidency, more identified as a "Trump Republican" than a "party Republican." By the 2020 election, a majority (54 percent) of Republicans considered themselves more of a Trump supporter. But, since 2021, the percentage of Republicans who identify as more of a Trump Republican has dropped 10 points. In fact, today, just 36 percent identify as more of a supporter of Trump, while 56 percent see themselves as more of a supporter of the Republican Party. 

 

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2 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

For weeks now, ever since Rudy Giuliani had commandeered Trump’s floundering campaign to overturn the election

One does wonder, despite the entirely useless exercise, why the orange demon hasn't noticed that all his legal advisors and reps are utterly incompetent and incapable of doing anything.  Was it always like that? If so, how did he manage to get through the many cases brought against him in many places for so many years?  Is it that by stiffing his legal fees he's now incapable of having any representation other than dimwits and dysfunctionals?

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1 hour ago, DMC said:

Very good article from Amy Walter on Trump's potential difficulties in a 2024 GOP primary.  This tidbit was particularly interesting:

 

Don't see how that matters that much; that's still ahead of where he was in the 2016 primary, and the field is significantly less wide open then than it is now. 

Trump starts running, they'll come home to roost.

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2 minutes ago, Kalibuster said:

Don't see how that matters that much; that's still ahead of where he was in the 2016 primary, and the field is significantly less wide open then than it is now. 

I don't think the 2016 primary is relevant at all to a one-term president running again after losing reelection.  What I do think the polling makes clear is there's an opportunity for another candidate to make a substantial challenge to Trump.  I still think Trump will win, sure, but (a) I don't think it's as much of a certainty as most others. 

And, more interestingly, (b) as Walter mentions it might behoove many potential candidates with eventual presidential aspirations to run for second in 2024 rather than waiting for 2028.  This is, of course, especially true with the GOP's habit of nominating the guy who came in second last time.  Hell, Ted Cruz cited this a few weeks ago for why he should be the nominee.

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