Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Ternaugh]

Manafort has another trial to go on foreign lobbying and money laundering charges, which starts Sept. 17. He can then be retried on the 10 counts from the first one, if necessary.

[Cygnia]

Elsewhere, ugh...

 

https://slate.com/technology/2018/08/how-online-white-supremacist-communities-are-celebrating-trumps-tweet-about-white-farmers-in-south-africa.html

[Doc Shadow]

2 hours ago, Old Man said:

The unindictability of the president is a DOJ policy, not a constitutional one. It boils down to “how do I indict my boss?”

 

 

You start by remembering he's not your boss. The American people are.

[Old Man]

Don't tell me, tell Jeff Sessions.

[csyphrett]

11 hours ago, Old Man said:

The unindictability of the president is a DOJ policy, not a constitutional one. It boils down to “how do I indict my boss?”

 

I read that Manafort would have been found guilty on all charges except for one holdout in the jury. That means Mueller can threaten to appeal those charges for additional leverage. 

The trial was mistrialed on those ten charges. Prosecutors can just refile any time they want minus the eight he actually he went down on.

 

I don't know what that lady was thinking but Geeze Louise.

CES   

[Lord Liaden]

9 hours ago, Old Man said:

Don't tell me, tell Jeff Sessions.

 

Sessions seems to be growing a bit of a spine lately, firing back at Trump's most recent criticism of himself and the DOJ. Very late, but better than never I suppose. Or maybe he's just fed up with being Trump's whipping boy.

[Sociotard]

Trump Can No Longer Control Pecker

 

What? David Pecker, CEO of AMI, who was recently subpoenaed. What did you think?

[Pariah]

Now that Senator John McCain has died, who in the GOP is going to have the guts to stand up to the President?

[BoloOfEarth]

Has Trumplestiltskin made a statement about McCain's death?  Or is he too busy doing a happy dance to tweet about it?

[Old Man]

2 hours ago, Pariah said:

Now that Senator John McCain has died, who in the GOP is going to have the guts to stand up to the President?

 

No one. 

 

But you knew that. 

[st barbara]

On 8/25/2018 at 6:34 AM, Sociotard said:

Trump Can No Longer Control Pecker

 

What? David Pecker, CEO of AMI, who was recently subpoenaed. What did you think?

Shouldn't we ask Stormy Daniels or Karen McDougall about this ?

[archer]

6 hours ago, Pariah said:

Now that Senator John McCain has died, who in the GOP is going to have the guts to stand up to the President?

 

Dunno. I got the impression that a lot of us let the GOP when Trump got the nomination.after the hijinks at the convention.

[Ranxerox]

15 hours ago, Pariah said:

Now that Senator John McCain has died, who in the GOP is going to have the guts to stand up to the President?

 

Both Senators Lisa McCloskey of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine have stood up to Trump in the past and may do so again in the future.  However, Senator Collins recently met with Brett Kavanaugh   and has expressed satisfactions with his answers to her questions.  So don't expect her to be the GOP senator that takes a bullet for Roe v. Wade.  Since I suspect the bullet would be as likely to be literal as figurative, I can't really say that I blame her.

[Armitage]

16 hours ago, BoloOfEarth said:

Has Trumplestiltskin made a statement about McCain's death?  Or is he too busy doing a happy dance to tweet about it?

 

A generic statement that didn't actually mention McCain himself, and ended in an exclamation mark.

 

"My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!"

 

Mentioning McCain was left to Melania.

 

Our thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathy to the McCain Family. Thank you Senator McCain for your service to the nation."

 

 

Compare to Barack Obama's statement.

John McCain and I were members of different generations, came from completely different backgrounds, and competed at the highest level of politics. But we shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher – the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched, and sacrificed. We saw our political battles, even, as a privilege, something noble, an opportunity to serve as stewards of those high ideals at home, and to advance them around the world. We saw this country as a place where anything is possible – and citizenship as our patriotic obligation to ensure it forever remains that way.

Few of us have been tested the way John once was, or required to show the kind of courage that he did. But all of us can aspire to the courage to put the greater good above our own. At John’s best, he showed us what that means. And for that, we are all in his debt. Michelle and I send our most heartfelt condolences to Cindy and their family.

 

 

I'm sure a meltdown or some attention-grabbing antics will come when it sinks in that McCain invited Obama to deliver a eulogy at his funeral and specifically stated that Trump wasn't invited to the funeral.

[Old Man]

4 hours ago, Ranxerox said:

 

Both Senators Lisa McCloskey of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine have stood up to Trump in the past and may do so again in the future.  However, Senator Collins recently met with Brett Kavanaugh   and has expressed satisfactions with his answers to her questions.  So don't expect her to be the GOP senator that takes a bullet for Roe v. Wade.  Since I suspect the bullet would be as likely to be literal as figurative, I can't really say that I blame her.

 

Regardless of what they say, Murkowski and Collins are two of the top three Senators who vote according to Trump’s wishes. I suppose they could start opposing him now, but I wouldn’t count on it. 

[archer]

3 minutes ago, Old Man said:

 

Regardless of what they say, Murkowski and Collins are two of the top three Senators who vote according to Trump’s wishes.

 

What metric are you using to measure that?

[csyphrett]

Richard Burr and Thom Tillis were voting straight GOP when I delivered papers. I know this because the paper carried a voter roll at one point that told you what your senator voted for. Tillis did intro stuff that I thought might be okay, but it either didn't make it out of committee, or the final bill was not what he wanted.

CES

[Armitage]

It turns out that Trump's Tweet followed him actively rejecting a White House statement praising McCain.

 

 

 

Quote

President Trump nixed issuing a statement that praised the heroism and life of Sen. John McCain, telling senior aides he preferred to issue a tweet before posting one Saturday night that did not include any kind words for the late Arizona Republican.

 
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and other White House aides advocated for an official statement that gave the decorated Vietnam War POW plaudits for his military and Senate service and called him a “hero,” according to current and former White House aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. The original statement was drafted before McCain died Saturday, and Sanders and others edited a final version this weekend that was ready for the president, the aides said. 

 But Trump told aides he wanted to post a brief tweet instead, and the statement praising McCain’s life was not released.

 

[Old Man]

11 hours ago, archer said:

 

What metric are you using to measure that?

 

A misreading of this page.

 

The blurb that leads to it from here (in the bottom right corner) suggested that the three listed R senators were the worst offenders, but it turns out that Murkowski and Collins do in fact vote against Trump "often", at least for Republicans.

[archer]

8 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

A misreading of this page.

 

The blurb that leads to it from here (in the bottom right corner) suggested that the three listed R senators were the worst offenders, but it turns out that Murkowski and Collins do in fact vote against Trump "often", at least for Republicans.

 

Thanks for the clarification. My impression, which I admit is a year out of date because I've sworn off of politics, has been that those two were among the least pro-Trump Republican senators.

 

That's about the only thing I've ever had to say good about either of them but that's what Trump has done to the party.

[Grailknight]

[st barbara]

On 8/24/2018 at 11:08 AM, Old Man said:

Don't tell me, tell Jeff Sessions.

Was it Sessions who wanted to buy a used mattress from a Trump hotel ?

[Lord Liaden]

I recently found cause to explore a bit more the political career of the influential and controversial late Senator, Joseph McCarthy. Some parallels to current political figures and events are quite startling. But I also find them an encouraging reminder that the American public has experienced fever delirium before, and it has passed.

[assault]

McCarthyism, in its acute phase, broke down when McCarthy himself overreached.

 

However, what really broke it down was the Civil Rights movement.

 

Of course the Civil Rights movement itself was arguably inspired/supported by the collapse of the old colonial empires. Once formerly colonized people started to get equal rights, it became hard to deny them to citizens of the colonizing countries.

[Lord Liaden]

What really struck me was a politician's use of baseless accusations and fabricated "facts" to inflate his own image and tarnish that of his opponents, and to exploit the fears and prejudices of the populace for his own aggrandizement and ego gratification. To me it seems to bear out the truth of the old saying about fooling all of the people all of the time, which I hope we'll see play out again in the near future.