US Politics: He's so indicted, he just can't abide by it...

[A Horse Named Stranger]

8 hours ago, Zorral said:

By law he can't use those monies to pay the interest, etc. on his debts and loans.

Didn't he transfer control of it to one of his moron sons rather recently?

[Gaston de Foix]

9 hours ago, ThinkerX said:

One has to wonder what Meadow's life expectancy becomes at the point he starts testifying against Trump. Can't you just envision Trump waving a wad of cash around on national television, moaning that somebody needs to 'do something' about that 'traitor?' And Trump might actually be stupid enough to attempt something like this.

That's why he's kept a low profile.  Cross Trump and best case scenario you are politically dead.  Lie for Trump and you are headed to Sing-Sing.   And you can't defend him without lying.  

Amongst the slippery and horrible characters in Trump's orbit, Meadows was perhaps the worst, combining the red-faced ranter fanaticism of the hard-right with the opportunism and dishonesty of a Ponzi schemer. 

Talk about teaching your kids this tripe: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/mark-meadows-and-the-undisclosed-dinosaur-property

[Varysblackfyre321]

7 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Trump could have coasted in in 2020 if he had simply remained neutral on expert medical advice and shut his mouth on the quack stuff without actually doing anything.

Hell he even could have still floated the notion Covid was Chinese bio-weapon so long as he promoted the same safety protocol.

The far-right when the pandemic hit China was largely recognized as a serious threat that the CPC was trying to downplay. 

[SeanF]

Imagine how terrifying Trump would be if he was competent.

[Varysblackfyre321]

Some other examples of evil people being incompetent being a good thing.

The confederates refusing to enlist black men as fighting soldiers and Hitler and the nazi leadership getting high all the time.

[TrackerNeil]

17 minutes ago, SeanF said:

Imagine how terrifying Trump would be if he was competent.

Part of Trump's appeal is that he is obnoxous, blustery, eminently corrupt, congenitally incapable of shame, utterly transactional, and has only the most casual acquaintance with the truth. These are all necessary components of his success, and they are not easily mimicked. Marco Rubio tried and came off like a ninny; Ron DeSantis tries and just seems like a cranky asshole. Trump without the incompetence would have some sense of shame, a bit more hesitance to lie, and a desire to appear at least nominally upstanding, and therefore would be way less appealing to his fans. I think a competent Trump is not Trump.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

1 hour ago, Gaston de Foix said:

That's why he's kept a low profile.  Cross Trump and best case scenario you are politically dead.  Lie for Trump and you are headed to Sing-Sing.   And you can't defend him without lying.  

Amongst the slippery and horrible characters in Trump's orbit, Meadows was perhaps the worst, combining the red-faced ranter fanaticism of the hard-right with the opportunism and dishonesty of a Ponzi schemer. 

Talk about teaching your kids this tripe: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/mark-meadows-and-the-undisclosed-dinosaur-property

He’s someone I know through my daughter’s debate league.  He always struck me as slimy.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

1 minute ago, TrackerNeil said:

Part of Trump's appeal is that he is obnoxous, blustery, eminently corrupt, congenitally incapable of shame, utterly transactional, and has only the most casual acquaintance with the truth. These are all necessary components of his success, and they are not easily mimicked. Marco Rubio tried and came off like a ninny; Ron DeSantis tries and just seems like a cranky asshole. Trump without the incompetence would have some sense of shame, a bit more hesitance to lie, and a desire to appear at least nominally upstanding, and therefore would be way less appealing to his fans. I think a competent Trump is not Trump.

I have always aggressively disliked Trump.  I have always (since I was a kid) found his blend of arrogant disdain and aggressive anti-intellectualism to be incredibly unappealing.  As such I have never understood why people adore him.  

Of course I also wasn’t among the “popular” folks while growing up so perhaps my social sensitivities are set to the wrong frequency?

[Tywin et al.]

4 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Didn't he transfer control of it to one of his moron sons rather recently?

Yes.

1 hour ago, SeanF said:

Imagine how terrifying Trump would be if he was competent.

This can cut both ways. Reagan, Dubya and Trump were all idiots and the people around them did terrible damage because of their incompetence. H.W. was the only smart Republican president in my lifetime (granted he was out of office before I was in kindergarten).

[SeanF]

1 hour ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

Some other examples of evil people being incompetent being a good thing.

The confederates refusing to enlist black men as fighting soldiers and Hitler and the nazi leadership getting high all the time.

Allowing slaves to enlist would have completely undermined the Confederates' argument that black men were subhuman.

The Nazis are a more interesting case.  Hitler could have:

1. Prioritised anti-communism over anti- semitism.  Had his regime simply discriminated against Jews, but without going as far as yellow stars, Aryanisation, and Kristallnacht (let alone the Holocaust), no doubt many German Jews would have remained and served their country loyally.  Think what German Jewish scientists might have achieved, had they not been driven from the country.  

2. Restarted the Russian civil war.  Had he restored the collective farms to the peasants, and treated the Soviets in the same way he treated, say, the French, then very many would have fought against the Soviet government.  By treating them as subhumans, he drove them into the arms of the Reds.

[maarsen]

So any odds on whether Trump takes the stand in any of his legal trials and tribulations? I imagine any lawyer would never want him on the stand but the chance to be on TV in Georgia must seem like an overwhelmingly delightful opportunity for Trump.

[Zorral]

Highways are the next antiabortion target. One Texas town is resisting.
A new ordinance, passed in several jurisdictions and under consideration elsewhere, aims to stop people from using local roads to drive someone out of state for an abortion

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/01/texas-abortion-highways/

Texas, the plantation prison state.  That barbed wire, folks, ain't just to keep people out, but keep women imprisoned.

Quote

 

... More than a year after Roe v. Wade was overturned, many conservatives have grown frustrated by the number of people able to circumvent antiabortion laws — with some advocates grasping for even stricter measures they hope will fully eradicate abortion nationwide.

That frustration is driving a new strategy in heavily conservative cities and counties across Texas. Designed by the architects of the state’s “heartbeat” ban that took effect months before Roe fell, ordinances like the one proposed in Llano — where some 80 percent of voters in the county backed President Donald Trump in 2020 — make it illegal to transport anyone to get an abortion on roads within the city or county limits. The laws allow any private citizen to sue a person or organization they suspect of violating the ordinance.

Antiabortion advocates behind the measure are targeting regions along interstates and in areas with airports, with the goal of blocking off the main arteries out of Texas and keeping pregnant women hemmed within the confines of their antiabortion state. These provisions have already passed in two counties and two cities, creating legal risk for those traveling on major highways including Interstate 20 and Route 84, which head toward New Mexico, where abortion remains legal and new clinics have opened to accommodate Texas women. Several more jurisdictions are expected to vote on the measure in the coming weeks.

“This really is building a wall to stop abortion trafficking,” said Mark Lee Dickson, the antiabortion activist behind the effort. ....

.... Conservative lawmakers started exploring ways to block interstate abortion travel long before Roe was overturned. A Missouri legislator introduced a law in early 2022 that would have allowed any private citizen to sue anyone who helped a Missouri resident secure an abortion, regardless of where the abortion occurred — an approach later discussed at length by several national antiabortion groups. In April, Idaho became the first state to impose criminal penalties on anyone who helps a minor leave the state for an abortion without parental consent. ....

So, checkpoints everywhere.  Yay freedum!

 

Edited September 1 by Zorral

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

22 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Highways are the next antiabortion target. One Texas town is resisting.
A new ordinance, passed in several jurisdictions and under consideration elsewhere, aims to stop people from using local roads to drive someone out of state for an abortion

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/01/texas-abortion-highways/

Texas, the plantation prison state.  That barbed wire, folks, ain't just to keep people out, but keep women imprisoned.

So, checkpoints everywhere.  Yay freedum!

 

Just tell them you’re going to Oklahoma for cigarettes. This is truly insane.

-

Um hey, I know Trumps inevitable vindication has been dominating this thread of late, but has anyone noticed that Mitch McConnell keeps glitching on live tee vee? 

[Tears of Lys]

3 hours ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

Some other examples of evil people being incompetent being a good thing.

The confederates refusing to enlist black men as fighting soldiers and Hitler and the nazi leadership getting high all the time.

I don't know about you, but I sure the hell wouldn't have fought for the South if I were Black.  

[Rippounet]

3 hours ago, TrackerNeil said:

Trump without the incompetence would have some sense of shame, a bit more hesitance to lie, and a desire to appear at least nominally upstanding, and therefore would be way less appealing to his fans. I think a competent Trump is not Trump.

I don't quite buy this. You're linking competence to morality, which is dubious. I can easily imagine the same Trump, with the same abject lack of responsability and morality, but only slightly shrewder in a few key areas.
I mean, we do have quite a few examples of characters like this in history, or in other countries... Many autocrats share Trump's shamelessness for instance.
I agree with Anti-targ, that handling the pandemic slightly differently so as to avoid any personal blame for the deaths would probably have sufficed for him to remain in power. And avoiding blame is something that Trump isn't quite bad at, in general. His mistake in the case of Covid-19 was to reflexively and loudly dismiss it as a "hoax" without having a scapegoat if he was wrong. It only takes a slightly different scenario for Trump to successfully be able to blame Fauci and/or the CDC for everything that went wrong... Or he could have put one of his minions in charge - to throw under the bus if need be.

[timmett]

22 minutes ago, Tears of Lys said:

I don't know about you, but I sure the hell wouldn't have fought for the South if I were Black.  

Amusing tho short-lived image:  white Confederate infantry captain with 150 armed, enslaved conscripts ranged behind him.

"Negro Companaaahh: aaaad-vance!"

BANG

"Nope."

 

[Mindwalker]

Kemp says he'll quash any attempts to impeach Willis. Let's hope he'll keep that promise.

ETA

For a little bit of fun:

The ‘curious’ case of Scott's bachelor status unsettles GOP donors

In their desperate quest to find a 2024 alternative to former President Donald Trump, GOP donors have stumbled upon an elephant in the room: Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is single.

That fact, long known among casual political observers, has suddenly sparked “curiosity” and a round of pearl-clutching among the GOP's well-heeled donors, some of whom spoke to Axios anonymously given the "sensitivity of the issue." As Axios notes, the country has not put a bachelor in the White House since Grover Cleveland in 1884.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/31/2190764/-Why-don-t-they-just-say-it-Republican-donors-are-afraid-Tim-Scott-is-gay

Edited September 1 by Mindwalker

[A Horse Named Stranger]

I am fairly sure Kemp will stick to his promise on this one.

WHile I do not like Kemp on policy (and probably personal) level, he has at least stood his ground against the MAGAts and election deniers. So I really don't see him change course and caving to their insanities.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

7 minutes ago, timmett said:

Amusing tho short-lived image:  white Confederate infantry captain with 150 armed, enslaved conscripts ranged behind him.

"Negro Companaaahh: aaaad-vance!"

BANG

"Nope."

 

Watched Star Wars Revenge of the Sith lately?

Edited September 1 by A Horse Named Stranger

[Ormond]

2 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

I am fairly sure Kemp will stick to his promise on this one.

WHile I do not like Kemp on policy (and probably personal) level, he has at least stood his ground against the MAGAts and election deniers. So I really don't see him change course and caving to their insanities.

Kemp has "quashed" this for the next four and a half months by refusing to call a special session of the Georgia legislature. What I wonder is if he has any power to prevent this when their regular session convenes next January, though.