Jump to content

Donald Trump 2019


Francisco 2.0

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, retread said:

Mnuchin playing the where's the tax return shell game and Ms Lindsey playing the where's the Mueller shell game. Good times.

 

LOL, it's time to revamp the 9th grade civics course and remove any mention of "checks and balances" because evidently that literally doesn't exist if people just ignore the rules.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How exactly would Trump just "stay in office"?  Each state elects electors, they all fill out ballots, they send them to the House, the House opens them and counts them.  If Trump loses there, then it's over.

On Inauguration Day, the person who won shows up and takes the oath of office, and that person is the President.  Trump's out at that point unless he's the one taking the oath of office.  His stuff should be out on the lawn by sunset if he refuses to leave.

How exactly do people see Trump just deciding not to give up power, and then staying?  He could contest a very close election aka Bush/Gore in 2000, but once the electoral college has voted that should be it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Texas Jeff said:

How exactly would Trump just "stay in office"?  Each state elects electors, they all fill out ballots, they send them to the House, the House opens them and counts them.  If Trump loses there, then it's over.

On Inauguration Day, the person who won shows up and takes the oath of office, and that person is the President.  Trump's out at that point unless he's the one taking the oath of office.  His stuff should be out on the lawn by sunset if he refuses to leave.

How exactly do people see Trump just deciding not to give up power, and then staying?  He could contest a very close election aka Bush/Gore in 2000, but once the electoral college has voted that should be it.

*waves hands at entirety of human history*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Texas Jeff said:

How exactly would Trump just "stay in office"?  Each state elects electors, they all fill out ballots, they send them to the House, the House opens them and counts them.  If Trump loses there, then it's over.

On Inauguration Day, the person who won shows up and takes the oath of office, and that person is the President.  Trump's out at that point unless he's the one taking the oath of office.  His stuff should be out on the lawn by sunset if he refuses to leave.

How exactly do people see Trump just deciding not to give up power, and then staying?  He could contest a very close election aka Bush/Gore in 2000, but once the electoral college has voted that should be it.

rally the bikers, military, police "tough people" coalition of supporters he's pointed out and then see what happens. Guy might actually draw an inauguration crowd the size of the one he claimed last go around

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Texas Jeff said:

How exactly would Trump just "stay in office"?  Each state elects electors, they all fill out ballots, they send them to the House, the House opens them and counts them.  If Trump loses there, then it's over.

On Inauguration Day, the person who won shows up and takes the oath of office, and that person is the President.  Trump's out at that point unless he's the one taking the oath of office.  His stuff should be out on the lawn by sunset if he refuses to leave.

How exactly do people see Trump just deciding not to give up power, and then staying?  He could contest a very close election aka Bush/Gore in 2000, but once the electoral college has voted that should be it.

Well, when his refusal to leave is backed by half of congress and 40% of the country we could be looking at something different.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

it's true.  he contested the results in 2016 when he won.  zero chance he fully acknowledges the results in 2020.

Plus Republicans seem to have no qualms abandoning any supposed principles if it furthers their party

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

President Trump on Monday signed an executive clemency granting a full pardon to a former Army first lieutenant convicted of murdering an Iraqi prisoner.

The White House released a statement announcing Trump's decision to pardon Michael Behenna, who was sentenced in 2009 to 15 years for shooting and killing Ali Mansur Mohamed. The move comes after repeated requests from Oklahoma's attorney general for Trump to pardon Behenna. 

"Mr. Behenna's case has attracted broad support from the military, Oklahoma elected officials, and the public," the White House said, noting that more than two-dozen generals and admirals, as well as numerous Oklahoma officials, have expressed support from Behenna, who hails from Edmond. The statements adds that he has been "a model prisoner."

"In light of these facts, Mr. Behenna is entirely deserving of this Grant of Executive Clemency," the statement read.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/442401-trump-pardons-ex-soldier-convicted-of-killing-iraqi-prisoner

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Just a window into all the potential and future unintended consequences of the Trump presidency.

But hey, fuck Hillary and own the libs amirite?

We should be throwing these people in jail.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, GRHorn said:

So. Much. Winning. 

40-ED86-EC-99-B7-494-D-8-C09-C07-A990-DF

 

A few thoughts:

1.  holy crap, they coordinated outfits

2.  WTF is going on with Trump's pant leg?  He can't even wear a simple suit correctly.

3.  at least DOTUS isn't being attacked by feral toilet paper

Edited by jimmyjazz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Lobo
7 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

A few thoughts:

1.  holy crap, they coordinated outfits

2.  WTF is going on with Trump's pant leg?  He can't even wear a simple suit correctly.

3.  at least DOTUS isn't being attacked by feral toilet paper

They're eskimo brothers.  Why the fuck wouldn't they dress alike?  

Do you not understand how Eskimo Brothers works?  When attending the same formal soiree, Eskimo Brothers are required to coordinate suits and ties, even shoes.  It's a millennia old tradition.  Or a Melania tradition, I dunno.  one of the two.  I mean, I'm not even gonna get into multiple-scene partners, but just the six degrees of McDonald's Bacon between Joslyn James and Stormy Daniels alone warrants they follow the EBcode

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Message Board User said:

 

I hate the way that reads. He hit an approval rating of 46% which is his all time in the Gallup poll. But the way that sounds or reads, in Trumps mind, it’s the greatest approval of ALL time. 

Edited by Brandywine
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Plus Republicans seem to have no qualms abandoning any supposed principles if it furthers their party

This. The rule of law and the orderly transition of power is only as robust as the willingness of people in power to respect them.

The dirty secret is that every country - including ours - is at the mercy of history’s whims. All it takes is the decision of the right people to throw it all away, and...it’s all thrown away.

The GOP and its Trumpists supporters are waging war against the republic, and they’ll win. They are in the driver’s seat and they’re never giving it up (go ahead and read the summary on the voter suppression discussion).
Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:


This. The rule of law and the orderly transition of power is only as robust as the willingness of people in power to respect them.

The dirty secret is that every country - including ours - is at the mercy of history’s whims. All it takes is the decision of the right people to throw it all away, and...it’s all thrown away. 

imo, Kavanaugh was a pretty serious shot to the orderly appointment of judges, not to mention Turtle's shenanigans w Garland. A questionable or overturned transition of power would be a nuke to the rule of law and the constitution. All bets would be off.

Think about rolling back all of the 'normal' things that Cheeto now does every day. Denigrating the media, the intel community, and the entire left side of the aisle (Ds - carrying on Limbaugh's tradition); using the office for personal gain; flaunting Congressional oversight, etc. It will take quite a while to attempt to return to normal.

Edited by retread
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, HenryJames said:

Oh.

Remember when aerosol sprays were devstating the atmosphere, well I made  tender on sunscreen? And as a savvy investor my investment in China's air pollution masks is killing them  it lately. As a sidenote , I've pulled all my pelts out of taxidermy with that extinction thing happening.

Edited by Nolacycling
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAAHAHAHAHA (POURS GASOLINE ALL OVER BODY, LIGHTS MATCH) HAHAHAHAH

Sound familiar?

Quote

Mr. Orban’s government has discouraged immigrants by erecting barriers, including razor-wire fences, along Hungary’s borders and by limiting work permits sharply for most foreigners. The media is infused with anti-migrant campaigns. A close adviser to Mr. Orban, Laszlo Parragh, the president of Hungary’s chamber of commerce, lamented last year that the country lacked “white-skinned workers with Christian roots.”

And then this

Quote

Those workers have yet to show up. And hundreds of thousands of young Hungarians who left in recent years for better-paying jobs in Europe’s big cities are not heeding Mr. Orban’s call to return and serve their homeland.

The labor shortage has grown so acute that the government recently pushed through a contentious bill to address it. Widely referred to as the slave law, it allows employers to require up to 400 hours of overtime annually from its workers, while delaying compensation for up to three years. Mr. Orban’s Fidesz party promoted the measure as good for workers, saying it would let “those who want to work more earn more.”

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/03/business/hungary-slave-law.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FOrban%2C Viktor&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’ve been saying Trump most resembles Mussolini as far as dictators go, this article is a good read that highlights the similarities.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of Italian studies and history at New York University, is author of the forthcoming book “Strongmen: How They Rise, Why They Succeed, How They Fall.”

He threatened the press, joked about ruling for life and bullied everyone, including the allies who helped him get into office, while enjoying a cult following among his base. When a special judicial investigation threatened to reveal his financial corruption and complicity in criminal acts, he did not hesitate to destroy the democracy he led to remain in power.

Benito Mussolini created the world’s first Fascist dictatorship not just as a counter to the powerful Italian left — that’s a well-known story — but also as a desperate act to avoid prosecution. His time as prime minister of a coalition government(Oct. 31, 1922-Jan. 3, 1925) offers lessons in how democracies die and autocracies are born.

Mussolini pioneered the mix of persuasion and intimidation that autocrats have employed ever since to come to power. From 1919 to 1922 he used paramilitary violence to destabilize Italy, creating the perception of a void of leadership that he alone could fill. In October 1922, an intimidated king and commander in chief, Victor Emmanuel III, offered him the premiership.

Over the next two years, Mussolini underminedthe institutions and culture of Italian democracy persistently and methodically. He denounced any negative press coverage of him as “abusive” and “criminal,” and demanded that the offending reporters and editors be fired. In Parliament he made offhand remarks about abolishing the constitution, creating a secret police and becoming a dictator. He dismissed officials who were insufficiently servile. He bullied Parliament into passage of an electoral law that guaranteed his coalition’s victory in the 1924 elections. And he stayed silent when Fascists beat up or killed opposition politicians.

Among those was the popular Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti, who was murdered in June 1924 by Mussolini’s secret police not only because of his loud opposition to Fascism but also because he was about to reveal evidence of illegal Fascist Party financial transactions that involved Mussolini and his family. A special investigation was soon launched to determine Mussolini’s role in the murder. By December 1924, rumors circulated that the Italian leader would be impeached or arrested, while Fascist loyalists floated the idea of pardons.

To save himself, Mussolini took the plunge into dictatorship, announcing in January 1925 that he and his party were above the law. “If Fascism has been a criminal association, I am the head of that criminal association,” he told Parliament, letting them know that the window to unseat him had closed. Amid the slew of repressive legislation that followed, Mussolini pardoned all political criminals and fired the two magistrates overseeing the investigation, replacing them with loyalists who issued a verdict of involuntary rather than willful murder. He ruled without limits to his power for 18 more years.

Much in this sad tale may sound familiar to those who have watched President Trump degrade the culture and institutions of American democracy and seek to eliminate anyone who obstructs the expansion of his power. From his calls to have his political opponent in the 2016 election, Hilary Clinton, imprisoned, to his firingof FBI Director James B. Comey, Trump has followed the authoritarian playbook first written by Mussolini.

And of course Trump, too, is plagued by an investigation: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of Russian interference in his election. Trump’s recent contention that he has the “absolute right” to pardon himself, discussions of his loyalists about firing Mueller or worse, and the (quickly retracted) comment of his lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, that Trump could murder Comey and escape prosecution not only illuminate the president’s horizon of anti-democratic possibilities but also open a door that leads directly to the origins of dictatorial rule.

While Trump is no fascist in the historical sense — one-party states aren’t needed today to rule as an autocrat — he proves that some rules of strongman behavior haven’t changed: Always warn people what you’re going to do to them, and, for maximum intimidation, be sure to refer to your personal capacity for violence and criminality. Mussolini would have applauded Trump’s January 2016 boast that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any followers: It told America that if he were to be elected, no one would be able to hold him accountable. Trump has been clear about his admiration for autocrats of regimes past and present who have stopped at nothing — even declaring dictatorship — to derail processes of justice that would threaten their power.

“He speaks and his people sit up at attention,” Trump recently said of North Korean dictator Kim Jung-un.  “I want my people to do the same.” It is indeed high time for Americans to sit up and listen carefully when the president tells them what he would like to do to expand his authority, whether it is removing limits on his time to govern, censoring the media or putting his political opponents in jail. We can’t protect our republic if we don’t take seriously those who threaten it, especially when they behave in such a chillingly similar fashion to those who have destroyed democracy in the past.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...