US Politics: them's indictin words

[Jace, Extat]

3 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Joe Manchin going on Meet The Press to say he might run as an independent in 2024 is high comedy. Cannot believe this moron has so much influence. I'd rather have my uncle Terry in charge of things and trust me, I don't want his racist ass in charge of anything.

Honestly, and this is just my honest-to-god opinion: 

We need a real dirtbag. Someone who can get down to Trump's level. 

Senator Sanders, I'm sorry. You had your shot and you couldn't do it. Know your role. 

We need a real piece of shit. A real stone-faced motherfucker who can meet crazy and outta control with dracarys, if you know what I'm sayin. 

Sorrey, Mr. Manchin-inan candidate- what's your name again, I already forgot? Go away. Know your role. 

We need a real kinda brawler. Someone who never stops. 

That's why I'm nominating 

Amber Heard 

As the next president of the United States. Get her while you can. She's not the hero you want. She's the one you need. 

Just remember who said it first. 

 

[Zorral]

Lies like a r[eth]ug!

On behalf of New York City, a warm welcome to Trump supporters!

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/2/2161558/-On-behalf-of-New-York-City-a-warm-welcome-to-Trump-supporters

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.... You’ll want to eat, of course. Restaurants in Manhattan have some of the lowest prices around. And it’s always good, familiar “American” food! For a family of four (you are bringing your little ones, right?) can probably find dinner in Lower Manhattan for a song (that’s including a few drinks!). And waiters are among the most polite in the country! They don’t even expect a tip, but a word to the wise: It helps a lot if you advise them that you have no intention of tipping before y’all sit down to eat. They’ll make sure you get the best service possible!

But let’s get down to the real fun, shall we? You’re here to protest? New York loves protests, even if they do tie up traffic occasionally. You will find New Yorkers to be very sympathetic to your cause,  defending the rights of Donald Trump and the terrible tyrannical overreach of the justice system against him. You’ll be among friends! Trump is a truly beloved figure here, almost akin to Jesus or the Pope. That’s why there’s a Trump Tower in Manhattan — because Donald is so aware of the good will New Yorkers feel towards him. Nobody is more popular in New York (except maybe Marjorie Taylor Greene!).

You’ll find that New Yorkers are very laid-back, probably best compared with the same type of folks you’d find in today towns like Burlington, Vermont, or Provincetown, MA. Wait, you’ve never been to those towns? Well, in a nutshell everyone’s mantra is “live and let live” but hopefully you won’t find us too meek and  peace-loving for your taste. A word of caution: cursing in public is frowned upon. New Yorkers are by nature soft-spoken and absolutely abhor foul language. It’s a very conservative town! ....

 

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

I cannnot now think of Trump without a Akon song in the background.

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxvg6HrDajlmpB3ZCIniQMlpnjOF3tPFTh

[ThinkerX]

I am starting think California's current governor may be the next president. Competent, hard headed, no worries about senility.

[Jace, Extat]

I think Tim Ryan is exactly the kinda Aww Shucks kinda NORMAL safe Democratic-liberal NORMAL...

socialism 

That America needs.

Just a little! New New Deal! Don't overthink it. Turn it into an environment/modernize-off with China. 

Doesn't even matter if it's true. Just get people to want to work for their fucking futures. People are sad. Ya gotta give 'em shit to be optimistic about! 

You're supposed to wear the hairshirt UNDER the sackcloth you idiots! 

And yo, I like Kamala. I liked that she sank her teeth in on her future boss in that first debate. Go for it!But sister you're like the swing vote in the Senate or something and I literally have no idea what you do 

Just being honest.

[DireWolfSpirit]

Not really sold on anyone yet as my next President.

Another Obama level intellect and competence that alligns with my values would be great, but not certain that describes anyone in the current administration.

Joe, Bernie, Elizabeth are all past their prime. Kamala and Buttigieg seem a little too polarizing. Granholm is Canadian so she isnt elgible.

I guess I would slightly favor Kamala and hope that she would rise to the moment. I misread Obama as not being ready and ended up being proud to have him as our leader. Is there a hidden Obama in Harris waiting to shine on the stage, im not certain?

A lot of it will hinge on the team they can put together, whomever "they" ends up being.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Newsom and Whitmer would be among the frontrunners in a  hypothetical primary, I think.

After that the field shrinks singnifcantly. Fetterman's health issues would probably rule him out. Maybe there are some more exciting prospects in the senate I am missing, likesay Feinstein, or Sinema . Maybe Evers, or Polis, but I don't know enough about them.

[DireWolfSpirit]

^^^ Oh yeah forgot about Whitmer, shes gotta be on my short list.

Shes unafraid to brawl, we need a NON-passive candidate, no Mondales/Dukakis/Kerry types that feel they are "above" going for the jugular.

Eta: I want to see any Republican challenger rocked back on its heels and a Dem doing a constant Ali-ish taunt ready to keep striking.

There will be blood, we need to be the ones delivering it, not responding to it constantly.

[Martell Spy]

Washington Post: DOJ has new evidence of potential obstruction in Trump Mar-a-Lago documents case

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/02/politics/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-justice-department/index.htmlWashington
CNN
 — 

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The Justice Department has obtained new evidence suggesting potential obstruction by former President Donald Trump in the agency’s probe of his handling of classified documents, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

Investigators have information that indicates Trump personally reviewed some of the documents in his Mar-a-Lago home after receiving a subpoena from the Justice Department, people familiar with the investigation told the Post, out of an apparent wish to hold on to some things.

While the former president’s team returned some classified documents following the May 2022 subpoena, the FBI’s August search turned up more that hadn’t been returned.

Additional evidence obtained by investigators suggests that Trump told others to mislead government officials trying to recover documents from his time in the White House before the subpoena last year, which the Post noted could be evidence of his intent.

CNN has confirmed that investigators have emails and text messages from Molly Michael, an assistant to the former president who left her job last year. Those texts and notes, which investigators have had for several months, detail what Trump was doing and who he was meeting with, which could be significant for understanding his whereabouts in relation to the documents.

 

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Yet another Republican convicted of sex trafficking children.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gop-donor-anton-lazzaro-convicted_n_6428142ce4b0ba5d603a2bb5

 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

On 4/2/2023 at 12:18 AM, mcbigski said:

Well I'd definitely prioritize air strikes against left lane Prius drivers well ahead of immigrant caravans, but alas, this is only theoretical.

I’ll smile and wave as I pass you in my Prius before returning to the cruising lane.

[Larry of the Lawn]

13 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

^^^ Oh yeah forgot about Whitmer, shes gotta be on my short list.

Shes unafraid to brawl, we need a NON-passive candidate, no Mondales/Dukakis/Kerry types that feel they are "above" going for the jugular.

Eta: I want to see any Republican challenger rocked back on its heels and a Dem doing a constant Ali-ish taunt ready to keep striking.

There will be blood, we need to be the ones delivering it, not responding to it constantly.

I have zero hopes or expectations the Dems can field even a single candidate for the primaries actually prepared to handle the challenges of the day, partly because the US government is structured in such a way that it can't actually do anything useful, and partly because the Dems would never allow anyone useful to get into that position.  

But if we're taking bets on who's going to be running, I think Mark Warner has his eye on the Whitehouse.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

35 minutes ago, Larry of the Lake said:

I have zero hopes or expectations the Dems can field even a single candidate for the primaries actually prepared to handle the challenges of the day, partly because the US government is structured in such a way that it can't actually do anything useful, and partly because the Dems would never allow anyone useful to get into that position.  

But if we're taking bets on who's going to be running, I think Mark Warner has his eye on the Whitehouse.

The Rock and Sam Jackson got us covered!!!:

 

[Martell Spy]

Opinion: Why is ‘60 Minutes’ amplifying the views of Marjorie Taylor Greene?

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/03/opinions/60-minutes-marjorie-taylor-greene-interview-obeidallah/index.html

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Journalist Molly Jong-Fast also slammed “60 Minutes” with the tweet: “Attention is currency and 60 minutes is spending its currency on the Jewish space lasers woman.” (Jong-Fast was apparently referring to Greene’s past claim that a massive California wildfire was started by “a laser” beamed from space controlled by a prominent Jewish banking family.)

 

[Zorral]

The Dangerous Journey of John Eastman

Long Read - however it IS worth reading, as it illuminates the development of Their 'thinking' wrt stealing elections, the constitution and votes.  Eastman was there from the beginning (and so has been Thomas), which the author of the piece suspect the beginning was in Florida, in the 2000 election.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2023/03/28/the-dangerous-journey-of-john-eastman/

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.... To me, the reasoning during those preelection weeks in 2020—building castles of inference on snippets of tortured text and scraps of statutes—bears the firm imprint of Eastman’s friend and mentor Clarence Thomas. Almost since his earliest days on the Supreme Court, Thomas has specialized in separate opinions (separate, because no other justices, liberal or conservative, would join them) in dozens of cases contending that the Court should simply sweep aside decades of established precedent and impose his individual view on the nation. For most of Thomas’s three decades on the Court, his colleagues have simply ignored these opinions. It may be that, after the Trump administration’s annexation of the Court, their hour has come round at last; but neither his views, nor his method of reasoning, is part of the law in 2023.

Beyond that, I find myself wondering whether the 2020 imbroglio was the downstream result of Florida 2000. The Florida battle left an indelible impression on the entire Republican Party and the conservative movement. Though history has so far spoken in restrained terms about what happened there, the brutal fact is that one American political party hijacked the electoral process, prevented an honest count of votes, assumed state power, and plunged the nation into a destructive war from which it has not yet fully recovered. It’s possible that, as some historians claim, Bush would have won an honest recount in Florida, but it is undeniable that he was willing to accept the state’s electoral votes without one. 

Florida 2000 marks a turning point—perhaps the turning point—in the history of American democracy. The Republican Party got away with muscling its way into power, and the effect of that success is powerful even today. Consider the following:

On November 22, 2000, one week before Eastman’s testimony to the legislators in Tallahassee, a mob of Republican staffers, under the leadership of party officials and activists, swarmed the room where Miami-Dade election officials were attempting to complete a recount so the state’s vote could be certified by December 12, the federal statutory “safe harbor” deadline. Party cadres, under the direction of a member of the U.S. House, swarmed the room, shouting, “Shut it down!” After a melee in which several people were trampled, punched, or kicked, the mob managed to intimidate the election board into suspending the count.

A generation of Republican legal activists, from future Solicitor General Theodore Olson to future Senator Ted Cruz to future Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh, went to Florida and fought in the trenches in the battle shaped by that lawless action—a battle that paid little heed to legality and much attention to brute political force.

As a recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court proceeded, Eastman and members of the Republican majority in the state legislature prepared to set aside the results of that count and designate a slate of electors who would guarantee Bush’s election, regardless of the result of any order from the Florida Supreme Court.

Finally, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and simply ordered the recount halted on the flimsy ground that recounting the vote somehow violated George W. Bush’s rights under the equal protection clause—and that the Florida Supreme Court, the supreme authority on Florida law, had read that law wrong. This decision made rubbish of all the pieties that the conservative majority had spouted about federalism; indeed, it hardly pretended to be law. The only direct defense of it anyone on the Court has ever offered was Justice Scalia’s rhetorical upraised middle finger: “Oh, get over it!”

Has either the Supreme Court or the Republican Party ever really gotten “over it”? Florida 2000 was in effect the Big Bang for the authoritarian streak of the GOP. It hardly seems like a coincidence that Florida in 2023 has advanced much farther down the road to outright, explicit fascism than any other state. Governor Ron DeSantis and those around him had a detailed lesson in how a party can step over the lines of decency and law—and reap rich rewards for doing so. 

The conservative majority on the Court in 2000 won what they wanted: continued Republican dominance. Both John Roberts and Samuel Alito know they would not be on the Court if a full recount had swung the election to Gore. And the conservative majority made the delightful discovery that, after this most consequential and lawless power grab, the Court suffered only the most minor impairment to its prestige. 

The riot in November 2000 was at least in part organized by the Republican operative Roger Stone—the same Roger Stone who, convicted of witness tampering and then pardoned by Donald Trump, strolled, jaunty in Homburg hat and supervillain shades and surrounded by a bodyguard of far-right paramilitary thugs, into the January 6 “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol. It’s not hard to imagine that Stone and other veterans of the Miami-Dade demonstration (and, for that matter, Trump himself) wanted to repeat that performance by shutting down another vote count, this one not in a local election but in a proceeding at the heart of the Constitution, the vote of the Electoral College. 

John Eastman was there in 2000, and again in 2021, spouting constitutional theories even flimsier than the recounting-is-unfair-to-Bush notion, and bidding doubters not to worry about courts or law.  ....

 

 

[DMC]

On 4/2/2023 at 12:18 AM, mcbigski said:

Warms my heart. 

It really shouldn't.  The establishment - and the MIC - is right in this case.  It's the idiots on the extremes that are wrong about Ukraine.

As for TikTok, though, gotta say while I loathe it as a thing, these bills that are coming out are very disturbing.  Either way, it's great fodder for my students!

4 hours ago, Larry of the Lake said:

But if we're taking bets on who's going to be running, I think Mark Warner has his eye on the Whitehouse.

Whoa.  Did you just time machine to 2008?

[DireWolfSpirit]

Cant remember whose polling it was I read this A.M. but Trumps numbers with Independents and under age 45 are absolute dog dooie. Plus his negatives with likely voters are sky high. I am hoping very strongly the R's nominate this dead on arrival turkey. Hes the one candidate even the 101 year old corpse Biden can beat.

So theres that I guess.

[Kalbear]

16 minutes ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Cant remember whose polling it was I read this A.M. but Trumps numbers with Independents and under age 45 are absolute dog dooie. Plus his negatives with likely voters are sky high. I am hoping very strongly the R's nominate this dead on arrival turkey. Hes the one candidate even the 101 year old corpse Biden can beat.

So theres that I guess.

Yeah. It'll be interesting to see how much that matters in most of the battleground states, but given Dodd, the indictment(s), the actual effect of Jan 6th - Trump is going to have a very difficult ramp to go up in the general. But it looks like primary wise he'll skate through. 

The big question in my mind is how bad the looming recession is going to be. There could be other bad news - big setbacks in Ukraine, Taiwan, major environmental failures/disasters, etc - but that's the big one that I would think is the most affecting to the US voters. 

[DMC]

2 minutes ago, Kalnestk Oblast said:

but given Dodd, the indictment(s), the actual effect of Jan 6th

Chris Dodd was a great Senator, but I don't think he'll affect the 2024 election   

I know you mean Dobbes.  Anyway, we'll see.  I definitely agree the economy could go south, in which case...

But I also think it's important to emphasize we'll see on the GOP primary.  Every Republican is rallying around Trump NOW, but we're still so far out from when people start voting.  I remember reading in September 2007 stories about John McCain taking redeyes on his own and hanging out with people on the standby list.  Twelve months later he was choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate to do his part to ruin democracy.  

[Kalbear]

Just now, DMC said:

Chris Dodd was a great Senator, but I don't think he'll affect the 2024 election   

I know you mean Dobbes.  Anyway, we'll see.  I definitely agree the economy could go south, in which case...

But I also think it's important to emphasize we'll see on the GOP primary.  Every Republican is rallying around Trump NOW, but we're still so far out from when people start voting.  I remember reading in September 2007 stories about John McCain taking redeyes on his own and hanging out with people on the standby list.  Twelve months later he was choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate to do his part to ruin democracy.  

Sorry, I'll blame autocorrect even though it's almost certainly that I got 2 hours sleep. 

I guess it's really hard for me to imagine Trump losing support in the primary enough to challenge him, especially with it being a winner-take-all system that rewards heavily anyone who can get the highest % even if it's like 20-25%. And the more people running the more problematic that is for anyone other than Trump. Add to that that Trump voters appear to weirdly be the most gung ho on voting in primaries compared to the 'reasonable' Republicans and it seems super unlikely any other republican could go. I could be wrong - but so far I've not seen any candidate that has the high popularity/enthusiasm/love Trump seems to generate regularly.

Plus Trump is going to have a crazy amount of money for his campaigning. Based on the indictment announcement he's already raised $5 million.