US Politics

[Mark H.]

17 hours ago, JCon said:

In theory, it's meant to protect smaller states from being overwhelmed by the larger states. 

In practice, it means that a tiny state and their voters, hold farrrrrr more power than the larger, more populated states. 

The primary system is just a messed up system of a bygone era that is not relevant or functional any longer. Can't expect them to think beyond Yes or No, Left or Right. Otherwise, their heads would hurt. 

Also, there only a few states with a significant population that will vote for either party.  Everyone else stays the same, so those states basically determine their federal elections. 

[Tracker]

Two former Pennsylvania judges who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks were ordered to pay more than $200 million to hundreds of people they victimized in one of the worst judicial scandals in U.S. history.

 

[Mark F]

might be important

 

In a stunning turn of events, Allen Weisselberg, the loyal and years-long chief financial officer of former President Donald Trump’s family business, pleaded guilty Thursday to 15 counts of tax fraud. But that’s not the best part: He has additionally agreed, per his plea deal, to testify at trial against the very company he’d staunchly refused to testify against.

 

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/18/2117421/-Trump-CFO-Allen-Weisselberg-pleads-guilty-to-15-crimes-agrees-to-testify-against-the-organization

 

The one thing about which Trump has kept his trap shut. 

Hard to imagine how much trumpshite this man ate over the years.

Edited August 18, 2022 by Mark F

[bustamente]

For as stupid that Trump is he never takes the fall, even now Weisselberg will testify against the Trump org but not against Trump himself, people call Trump a criminal but to this point he sure looks bullet proof in terms of ever going to jail. Now people associated with him go to jail, pay fines but he will probably never see a jail cell.

[Tracker]

1 hour ago, Mark F said:

might be important

 

In a stunning turn of events, Allen Weisselberg, the loyal and years-long chief financial officer of former President Donald Trump’s family business, pleaded guilty Thursday to 15 counts of tax fraud. But that’s not the best part: He has additionally agreed, per his plea deal, to testify at trial against the very company he’d staunchly refused to testify against.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/18/2117421/-Trump-CFO-Allen-Weisselberg-pleads-guilty-to-15-crimes-agrees-to-testify-against-the-organization

The one thing about which Trump has kept his trap shut. 

Hard to imagine how much trumpshite this man ate over the years.

This guy knows where ALL the bodies are buried, and at his age, he will not want to spend his last years behind bars. He will spill all. His reluctance to say anything right now will give his family time to go into witness protection. And God knows, they will need it.

[bustamente]

 

[Tracker]

“Going to get someone killed”: Trump lawyer threatens to expose FBI agents even if DOJ redacts names

Trump attorney Alina Habba on Thursday suggested releasing surveillance footage of the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago even though it could reveal the identities of agents who executed it.

Federal Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who signed off on the search warrant, on Thursday gave the Justice Department a week to propose redactions ahead of a possible release of the probable cause affidavit filed by the DOJ to get the warrant. The DOJ opposed releasing the affidavit at all, arguing that it could expose agents and witnesses and reveal the inner workings of an ongoing investigation. The DOJ is investigating Trump under the Espionage Act after he failed to turn over classified documents he had taken to his residence.

Habba told Newsmax on Thursday that if the affidavit is ultimately released, it is likely to be heavily redacted. She added that she "would love" to see CCTV footage of the raid released to the public, dismissing concerns that the video could reveal agents' identities.

"If you're doing it as an agent, I'm not sure you should have that right," she said. "Listen: FBI agents, undercover agents, that's one thing. But when you go into a president's home, an ex-president's home, what do you expect is going to happen? What do you expect?"

https://www.salon.com/2022/08/19/going-to-get-someone-killed-lawyer-threatens-to-expose-fbi-agents-even-if-doj-redacts-names/

[FrostyWinnipeg]

A Republican candidate for the House from St. Augustine is banned from Twitter after advocating violence against the federal government.

“Under my plan, all Floridians will be able to shoot FBI, IRS, ATF, and all other federal troops on sight,” Miguel tweeted. “Let freedom ring.”

 

[JCon]

Just now, FrostyWinnipeg said:

A Republican candidate for the House from St. Augustine is banned from Twitter after advocating violence against the federal government.

“Under my plan, all Floridians will be able to shoot FBI, IRS, ATF, and all other federal troops on sight,” Miguel tweeted. “Let freedom ring.”

 

This is fascism. This is Murica. 

[Tracker]

America appears to be so close to the edge of outright civil war that it will not take much of an incident or encouragement, even in coded speech, to trigger it. Perilous times for decent Americans and an opportunity of a lifetime for some to profit from it or aggrandize themselves. 

[HardCoreBlue]

16 minutes ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

A Republican candidate for the House from St. Augustine is banned from Twitter after advocating violence against the federal government.

“Under my plan, all Floridians will be able to shoot FBI, IRS, ATF, and all other federal troops on sight,” Miguel tweeted. “Let freedom ring.”

 

Banned from Twitter?
 

Ouch, that’s going to hurt said no one ever.

Why aren’t these people being led out of their homes in shackles? 
 

I know the answer but I pretend now and then that sanity will eventually prevail and we will all go back to outright discounting absurdity/insanity regardless of where a person finds themselves on a sane political spectrum.

 

[Tracker]

1 minute ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Banned from Twitter?
 

Ouch, that’s going to hurt said no one ever.

Why aren’t these people being led out of their homes in shackles? 
 

I know the answer but I pretend now and then that sanity will eventually prevail and we will all go back to outright discounting absurdity/insanity regardless of where a person finds themselves on a sane political spectrum.

 

America began to pass that marker in the Reagan era and it was all downhill from there- accelerating all the way, the skids being greased by Faux News. Still, Faux News is saying only what the rabid mass of their followers want to hear.

[Mark F]

42 minutes ago, Tracker said:

America began to pass that marker in the Reagan era and it was all downhill from there- accelerating all the way, the skids being greased by Faux News. Still, Faux News is saying only what the rabid mass of their followers want to hear.

I just listened to audiobook 

 

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century is a 2017 book by Timothy Snyder, an historian of 20th-century Europe. The book was published by Tim Duggan Books in hardcover and by Penguin Random House in paperback. A graphic version, illustrated by Nora Krug, was released October 5, 2021. The book topped the New York Times bestseller list for paperback nonfiction in 2017 and remained on bestseller lists as late as 2021.

On Tyranny focuses on the concept of tyranny in the context of the modern United States politics, analyzing what Snyder calls "America's turn towards authoritarianism".Explaining that "(h)istory does not repeat, but it does instruct," he analyzes recent European history to identify conditions that can enable established democracies to transform into dictatorships.The short (126 pages) book is presented as a series of twenty instructions on how to combat the rise of tyranny, such as "Defend institutions", "Remember professional ethics", and "Believe in truth".

aimed at murica, but applies to us as well.

a bit uneven, but very straightforward, short, useful.

some  things we can all do to resist the right wing authoritarians smothering the world.

Edited August 19, 2022 by Mark F

[Tracker]

1 hour ago, Mark F said:

I just listened to audiobook 

 

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century is a 2017 book by Timothy Snyder, an historian of 20th-century Europe. The book was published by Tim Duggan Books in hardcover and by Penguin Random House in paperback. A graphic version, illustrated by Nora Krug, was released October 5, 2021. The book topped the New York Times bestseller list for paperback nonfiction in 2017 and remained on bestseller lists as late as 2021.

On Tyranny focuses on the concept of tyranny in the context of the modern United States politics, analyzing what Snyder calls "America's turn towards authoritarianism".Explaining that "(h)istory does not repeat, but it does instruct," he analyzes recent European history to identify conditions that can enable established democracies to transform into dictatorships.The short (126 pages) book is presented as a series of twenty instructions on how to combat the rise of tyranny, such as "Defend institutions", "Remember professional ethics", and "Believe in truth".

aimed at murica, but applies to us as well.

a bit uneven, but very straightforward, short, useful.

some  things we can all do to resist the right wing authoritarians smothering the world.

We have little direct influence over the looming catastrophe that is American politics at the moment. We do have control over what we say and do, which people we elect and patronize, Ignoring intolerance in all of its forms in our personal lives projects into the larger world.

[HardCoreBlue]

15 minutes ago, Tracker said:

We have little direct influence over the looming catastrophe that is American politics at the moment. We do have control over what we say and do, which people we elect and patronize, Ignoring intolerance in all of its forms in our personal lives projects into the larger world.

Think globally, act locally yea?

[bustamente]

Just a reminder that one of Trump's biggest enablers was his AG

 

[Tracker]

Trump Is Taking On The DOJ With Apparently The World’s Worst Lawyer

Former DHS chief of staff Miles Taylor said that when Trump lawyer Christina Bobb worked with him, she wasn’t trusted to use the copier.

Taylor said, “I’m not a lawyer, but I would tell you right now, it looks to me like Donald Trump is going into the major leagues with some minor league lawyers…That lawyer that you just featured was planted by the White House to work under me while I worked at the Department of Homeland Security, and I will say, we did not trust that individual in some cases with a photocopier, let alone handling a federal case like this. So, if I was Donald Trump, I’ve had that employee before, I wouldn’t feel very good going into court with that person as your defense at the moment. I don’t feel very good going into court with that person as your defense at the moment. I don’t feel convinced by the arguments Christina Bobb made on television. "

https://www.politicususa.com/2022/08/19/trump-is-taking-on-the-doj-with-apparently-the-worlds-worst-lawyer.html

[Mark F]

2 hours ago, Tracker said:

Former DHS chief of staff Miles Taylor said that when Trump lawyer Christina Bobb worked with him, she wasn’t trusted to use the copier

"Her spotlight in the media comes just months after she joined Trump’s legal team. Prior to that, Bobb had worked at OAN since June 2020. She covered the White House and eventually became a news anchor for the “Weekly Briefing” show.

Her work includes “election integrity” representation and helping Trump with the Jan. 6 investigation, Bobb said. She was among six Trump lawyers subpoenaedby the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Before her involvement in politics, Bobb, who has a master’s in law from Georgetown University Law Center, was a judge advocate in the U.S. Marines, representing sailors and soldiers involved in court-martials or administrative separation hearings."

 

divorce and small time criminal law. news anchor for a network for crackpots. Trump bootlicker. married to billy joe Jim Bobb.

 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2022 by Mark F

[JCon]

I remember when the alt-right trash were here pumping Trump as some sort of the hero for not starting wars. 

 

 

 

[Mark F]

might be that Trump lingers till he dies. fouling democracy. causing harm.

what will happen? maga will be angry? too late. tucker carlson will spew venom?

delay after  delay by authorities. some action, then wait some more. speculation. no charges. 

trying to persuade popular opinion. good luck.

 

authorities, police, routinely charge people with crimes they can not prove. "overcharging".

seriously.  get off the pot.   get on with it. 

 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2022 by Mark F

[HardCoreBlue]

4 hours ago, Mark F said:

might be that Trump lingers till he dies. fouling democracy. causing harm.

what will happen? maga will be angry? too late. tucker carlson will spew venom?

delay after  delay by authorities. some action, then wait some more. speculation. no charges. 

trying to persuade popular opinion. good luck.

 

authorities, police, routinely charge people with crimes they can not prove. "overcharging".

seriously.  get off the pot.   get on with it. 

 

 

 

These low level arrests and subsequent minor sentencing imposed after trying to undo an election is a major joke. The whole Justice System and some of it’s players that implement it aren’t as important, independent, smart, upstanding, moral, ethical, legal, follow the rule of the law and genuine as they have convinced themselves that they are. And no one is there to hold them accountable. No one. It’s a farce and Trump has pulled the curtain wide open on it.

[bustamente]

 

[the watcher]

It's still shocking to read the details of what went and is still going on . How the US teeters on the edge. It is in some ways fascinating ( not in a good way ) for someone who enjoys history, to watch a country slide into outright fascism. I was always interested in how the German people ,the country as a whole slid into backing  Nazism. Just like this I suppose. Bit by bit. What is normal now would have been shocking 10 years ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/20/rusty-bowers-interview-trump-arizona-republicans

[Tracker]

13 hours ago, bustamente said:

 

Apparently you CAN fool some of the people all of the time. And they will pay handsomely for the privilege of being conned.

[Mark F]

52 minutes ago, the watcher said:

was always interested in how the German people ,the country as a whole slid into backing  Nazism.

yes, think I will find a book on this. also now.... orban, edrogan, putin. greece after ww2. franco in spain. 

program tonight worth watching:

CNN SPECIAL REPORT RISING HATE: ANTISEMITISM IN AMERICA

Reported by CNN’s Dana Bash, Airs Sunday, August 21st at 9pmET

Antisemitism is finding new and terrifying footing in American society. Though it has always existed, this ancient hatred has grown in recent years, moving from fringe groups and obscure chatrooms to the mainstream, both online and on the streets of communities across the country. With white nationalists radicalized online perpetrating deadly shootings, and insidious conspiracy theories and tropes normalized by political leaders, CNN Anchor and Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash takes an in depth look for a CNN Special Report Rising Hate: Antisemitism in America.

 

I dont understand why Jewish billionaires like the Kochs, Sheldon Adelson, support the Republican party, which harbours  many virulent Nazi extremists.

course the kochs care only about themselves, so not surprising in their case. 

Edited August 21, 2022 by Mark F