U.S. Politics megathread (merged)

[milky_26]

trumps real estate company found guilty of tax crimes

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63882140

[Cade]

[Unknown user]

20 minutes ago, milky_26 said:

trumps real estate company found guilty of tax crimes

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63882140

[Maple Leaf]

56 minutes ago, milky_26 said:

trumps real estate company found guilty of tax crimes

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63882140

The fine will be a paltry $1.6 million.

[Footballfirst]

1 hour ago, Maple Leaf said:

The fine will be a paltry $1.6 million.

Just the first in a series of fines/jail terms coming their way.

[JFK-1]

Yeah it can look almost like getting away with it but the fact is there were 9 charges laid and on all 9 it was a guilty verdict. And they can still always come back and lay more charges on Trump personally rather than the company.

 

Plus there's the civil case brought by Letitia James which has a base figure of $250 million being asked for. These 9 charges have close links to the civil case so given a guilty across the board what's the likelihood Trump is going to slither out of it when an even lower standard of evidence is required?

 

It's reached a point for Trump it has never reached in his life before. His implausible lies are deconstructed by indisputable data and his delay delay delay tactic which made many people over the years just give up has also gone down the pan.

 

The government don't give up, they have even more lawyers than he has. And currently he apparently doesn't have much to write home about in that department either. Stiffed too many lawyers already.

 

It's closing in across a broad spectrum and he has to be getting scared. At least in the moments he can manage to focus on actual reality for a minute or two. You have to wonder if any of the kids might sell him out because they're involved in this too. He would sell them out in a heartbeat. 

[Cade]

Democrats win the Georgia run-off to take their 51st seat in the Senate.

 

[Korky]

1 hour ago, Cade said:

Democrats win the Georgia run-off to take their 51st seat in the Senate.

 

Walker still got 49% of the votes!

Presumably all vampires or werewolves!!
 

[Maple Leaf]

2 hours ago, Korky said:

Walker still got 49% of the votes!

Presumably all vampires or werewolves!!
 

 

Yes, I had a bit of that reaction.  How come such a dimwit can get 49% of the vote?  It beggars belief.  But, it a two party system people will typically vote along party lines, regardless of the candidate, and I think that's what happened here.

[Mikey1874]

On 04/12/2022 at 18:42, JFK-1 said:

And more about the Hunter Biden case, whatever that is. A claim being made is that twitter, pre musk, conspired with the US government to hide evidence of Hunter Biden doing, well I don't know what he's suppose to be doing. But twitter were conspiring with the US government to hide it, allegedly.

 

Thing is in that time period the US government was the GOP and Trump. They were conspiring with twitter to hide evidence of Hunter Biden alleged crimes?

 

And now we know something of the posts twitter was actually deleting. Nudes of Hunter Biden which would be deleted anyway no matter who they were. And as this guy says, who knows what it will do to Hunter Biden's presidential campaign?

 

No wait a minute he doesn't have one. So I dunno what it's supposed to do. Incidentally I always wondered why people would want to keep nudes of themselves in a laptop for example. I can see myself nude in a mirror every day if I want to, I don't need photos. And I don't really want to either. Seen it done it.

 

But each to their own as it's harmless and apparently common among celebrities. 

 

BREAKING: Trump makes most DANGEROUS demand of the year.

 

 

 

As you say and as commentators have pointed out, the campaign against the Bidens is based on Joe Biden being President at the time which he wasn't. And his son is and was a private citizen. 

 

Confused.com.

[Mac_fae_Gillie]

Not American related, But German Police arrest 25 people suspected of planning a coup. Yep nut job right wingers, German Trumpers.

[Watt-Zeefuik]

21 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

Herschel Walker asks what a pronoun is: "Pronouns? What’s a pronoun?"  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/herschel-walker-asks-what-a-pronoun-is-pronouns-whats-a-pronoun/ar-AA14A7XC

 

The sheer stupidity is quite incredible given that he's running to be a US senator with the educational/intellectual level of maybe a 10 year old. But in this dystopian country I think that can actually be a selling point.

 

The likes of the trumpets want someone like them, and since they're all thick as shite well that's what they want to represent them. Somebody at least as half witted as they are, or even dumber is okay too.

 

None of these smart people who know what pronouns are will be acceptable.

4 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

Yes, I had a bit of that reaction.  How come such a dimwit can get 49% of the vote?  It beggars belief.  But, it a two party system people will typically vote along party lines, regardless of the candidate, and I think that's what happened here.

 

The sad answer to both of these is that he's a football legend. I would put down a large sum of money in a bet that Walker has impaired cognitive abilities from CTE or other head injuries sustained during his career as a running back. Which of course makes running him for a major office so perverse.

 

University of Georgia football has finally recently recovered to national prominence but for years Walker was the torchbearer for a program that had fallen back from its peers in the SEC. The closest I can imagine for Scotland is Dave McKay, because he was Hearts through and through but was a household name all over the UK. I realize that the notion of university sports being this important is a weird thing outside the US, but it's really one of the few places in American sports where the commitment to an athletic team matches European attachment to football clubs. NCAA football is probably bigger than any other sporting league in the US except the NFL. It's that big, particularly in the deep south and the midwest.

 

There are a decent number of people in Georgia who would literally vote for someone in a coma before voting for a Democrat. And Walker's fame helps that. "Great man," "tells it like it is" and all that nonsense. And he was Trump's hand picked candidate.

 

21 hours ago, milky_26 said:

trumps real estate company found guilty of tax crimes

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63882140

 

20 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

The fine will be a paltry $1.6 million.

 

To me the importance of this, aside from just getting the fraud established as fact in a court of law, is that it effectively finally pries some space between the Trumps and Weisselberg, one of the last non-family flunkies left in his inner circle who helps hold his house of mirrors together. Weisselberg was Donald's go-to man for all of his money funny business whenever he needed to pretend to give a bunch of money to charity or inflate asset values to secure loans and things. It financially constrains Trump, which makes him considerably less powerful.

[Watt-Zeefuik]

In 2024 news I confess I'd missed how strongly Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer had dismissed running for President. Sherrod Brown also seems to be focusing on keeping his Senate seat in Ohio. If they keep to those decisions, and if they're going to change their minds they better do it soon, those are two of my top picks for 2024 out of the running.

 

The recent Post ranking bumped up Illinois and Colorado governors Pritzker and Polis, which isn't a bad shout. But as long as Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders are still getting prominent billing up top in that list, it shows nobody has any idea what's going to happen. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/03/top-10-democratic-presidential-candidates-2024-ranked/)

 

I still say that the ongoing slide of GOP enthusiasm for Trump for President 3.0 means Biden is less likely to run. But it's not at all clear who runs instead.

[Cade]

More classified documents found at a storage lock-up.

 

 

I wonder how many of the world's governments now have copies of those documents.

[JFK-1]

46 minutes ago, Cade said:

More classified documents found at a storage lock-up.

 

 

I wonder how many of the world's governments now have copies of those documents.

 

Classified documents are now like junk mail, everybody gets it. Grannies will be finding them when clearing out attics. Wonder if they have pronouns.

[JFK-1]

This alone should see Trump in jail for many years to come. I'm beginning to think any sensitive material he had access to over 4 years which must be voluminous has to be considered compromised.

 

There are documents all over the bloody place and we will likely never know if all were recovered. And even if they were who had seen them. This is treason. 

 

 

[JFK-1]

6 hours ago, Led Tasso said:

 

The sad answer to both of these is that he's a football legend. I would put down a large sum of money in a bet that Walker has impaired cognitive abilities from CTE or other head injuries sustained during his career as a running back. Which of course makes running him for a major office so perverse.

 

You think the British might consider electing David Beckham to high office because he's a footballing legend? 😉

 

[Unknown user]

35 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

 

You think the British might consider electing David Beckham to high office because he's a footballing legend? 😉

 

 

The closest I can think of is Seb Coe

[JFK-1]

22 minutes ago, Smithee said:

 

The closest I can think of is Seb Coe

 

Who is an eloquent university educated guy. Bet you he knows what a pronoun is. 😉 

[JFK-1]

Check how the Republicans ended up 'chaperoning' Walker around trying to do all the talking for him. Lest it ends up descending to would Batman kick the shit out of Spiderman or could the Terminator beat the Hulk.

 

This is how absurd they are, they're promoting candidates they know will say something truly absurd if they're just allowed to talk. They should have learned this long ago with Trump.

 

 

 

[JFK-1]

Word among the news hounds is there's serious disruption in the Trump orbit. Everybody, even those in that orbit, now believe that Trump is going to be indicted on heavy duty charges that could put somebody in jail for decades. Well everybody but maybe Trump, he's in an alternate reality.

 

The worry is how far down the chain will this travel? Say for example you're somebody who simply carried those boxes of classified documents they just found in a "storage unit" to that unit. Will you be dragged into this as say an accessory and locked up for years too?

 

This will create a ripple effect. More and more will want to tell every single little detail they know to save their own asses. Some will want to tell things they didn't even need to. Trying to impress how genuine they're being, and pleading don't lock me up.

[Watt-Zeefuik]

3 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

 

You think the British might consider electing David Beckham to high office because he's a footballing legend? 😉

 

Hey y’all have all those weirdos in the Lords for no good reason. That’s all the Senate is anyway. 

[JFK-1]

2 minutes ago, Led Tasso said:

Hey y’all have all those weirdos in the Lords for no good reason. That’s all the Senate is anyway. 

 

Said weirdos aren't elected. They're more akin to the weirdos on the US supreme court, also unelected.  😉

[Watt-Zeefuik]

10 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

 

Said weirdos aren't elected. They're more akin to the weirdos on the US supreme court, also unelected.  😉

 

The point is that the Senate is often a harbor for celebrity achieved elsewhere in life, as the Lords is. The Senate has held astronauts (John Glenn and Mark Kelly), sports figures (Bill Bradley), former Presidents (John Quincy Adams), former First Ladies (HRC), comedians (Al Franken), and so forth, many of whom were well above average politicians.

 

None of this is to say that Walker was remotely fit to be a Senator but just to say that the upper chamber has a long history of being home to people who've achieved fame elsewhere.

 

A big reason the UK doesn't have similar politicians is that there's effectively no place in UK politics, outside of arguably the PM, where millions of people elect a single legislative representative. Even the big metro area mayors are executive roles, and so are more akin to state governors.

[JFK-1]

 

[Maple Leaf]

5 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

 

 

[JFK-1]

 

The Republicans are now full blown far right extremists and don't even try to hide it. This is what they are and will be if they were to take power. We're talking white nationalists and nazis, often the same thing and the Republicans are both now.

 

Anybody notice the likes of McConnell couldn't even bring himself to refer to Trump meeting a nazi? Couldn't bring himself to condemn it. But had the audacity to say anti semitism is condemned by the party.

 

Election denying qanon associated racists and nazis.  There have been recent attacks around the country on power plants. Tens of thousands were left without power for up to 5 days in winter. It's suspected to be the work of these far right terrorists the Republicans are not just empowering but actually in your face encouraging.

 

Over the weekend at one of their crazy rallies they declared "total war" on anyone who opposes them in a country where Marjorie Taylor Greene is going to effectively be speaker of the house.

 

The only way out of this insanity now in my view is to take a first step of coming down like a ton of bricks on Trump and co. I'm encouraged by the activities of special counsel Jack Smith who is firing significant subpoenas around.

 

All this shit is getting worse by the day.

 

Rep. Swalwell: We’re Lurching Into Era Where Violence Will Be Preferred Over Voting

 

Members of Congress including Marjorie Taylor Greene mixed at a New York City gala with white nationalists over the weekend, where there was also a declaration of "total war."

 

Meanwhile, Kevin McCarthy has apparently remained silent after this dangerously radical future of the Republican Party was put on lurid display. Rep. Eric Swalwell and join Michael Edison Hayden The ReidOut on what this portends.

 

 

 

[Notts1874]

Ralph Norman sent this text to Mark Meadows about the 2020 election. 

 

Ralph Norman is or was a Congressman. 

 

 

[ri Alban]

America is in serious danger. Nazi Germany it could well become. How do we defeat the USA?

[Maple Leaf]

7 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

 

The Republicans are now full blown far right extremists and don't even try to hide it. This is what they are and will be if they were to take power. We're talking white nationalists and nazis, often the same thing and the Republicans are both now.

 

Anybody notice the likes of McConnell couldn't even bring himself to refer to Trump meeting a nazi? Couldn't bring himself to condemn it. But had the audacity to say anti semitism is condemned by the party.

 

Election denying qanon associated racists and nazis.  There have been recent attacks around the country on power plants. Tens of thousands were left without power for up to 5 days in winter. It's suspected to be the work of these far right terrorists the Republicans are not just empowering but actually in your face encouraging.

 

Over the weekend at one of their crazy rallies they declared "total war" on anyone who opposes them in a country where Marjorie Taylor Greene is going to effectively be speaker of the house.

 

The only way out of this insanity now in my view is to take a first step of coming down like a ton of bricks on Trump and co. I'm encouraged by the activities of special counsel Jack Smith who is firing significant subpoenas around.

 

All this shit is getting worse by the day.

 

Rep. Swalwell: We’re Lurching Into Era Where Violence Will Be Preferred Over Voting

 

Members of Congress including Marjorie Taylor Greene mixed at a New York City gala with white nationalists over the weekend, where there was also a declaration of "total war."

 

Meanwhile, Kevin McCarthy has apparently remained silent after this dangerously radical future of the Republican Party was put on lurid display. Rep. Eric Swalwell and join Michael Edison Hayden The ReidOut on what this portends.

 

 

If one considers who currently are the most prominent people in the Republican party, we see two spineless worms in McCarthy and McConnell, and two hate-filled cretins in MTG and Trump.  It's a deplorable state of affairs for America's once proud GOP.

 

If anyone is going to come down like a ton of bricks on Trump, I wish that they'd get a move on.  Remember when people were saying that the only thing protecting Trump was him being President?  Just wait until he's out of office, they said, then he's in deep shit.  Well, that's almost two years ago and he's still free as a bird and unindicted.  Very soon politics will become a factor, and the Dems will be wringing their hands about indicting a presidential candidate in the 2024 election.

[Notts1874]

2 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

If one considers who currently are the most prominent people in the Republican party, we see two spineless worms in McCarthy and McConnell, and two hate-filled cretins in MTG and Trump.  It's a deplorable state of affairs for America's once proud GOP.

 

If anyone is going to come down like a ton of bricks on Trump, I wish that they'd get a move on.  Remember when people were saying that the only thing protecting Trump was him being President?  Just wait until he's out of office, they said, then he's in deep shit.  Well, that's almost two years ago and he's still free as a bird and unindicted.  Very soon politics will become a factor, and the Dems will be wringing their hands about indicting a presidential candidate in the 2024 election.

Trump will continue to walk free until the end of time because of what you said at the end. 

 

The January 6th hearing will pass on what they have found to the DoJ but the DoJ will say they can't interfere with elections etc etc 

[Maple Leaf]

1 hour ago, ri Alban said:

America is in serious danger. Nazi Germany it could well become. 

I agree with you.

 

Germany was a democracy with several political parties until the National Socialists took power.  The Nazis then banned all other parties and, just like that, Germany was a dictatorship.

 

It would be easy to imagine the Republicans trying the same thing if they regain power.  Trump has already talked about scrapping the Constitution.  The only way to avoid that scenario is for the American voters to continue doing what they've done in the past three elections ... don't elect them.

[Watt-Zeefuik]

2 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

If one considers who currently are the most prominent people in the Republican party, we see two spineless worms in McCarthy and McConnell, and two hate-filled cretins in MTG and Trump.  It's a deplorable state of affairs for America's once proud GOP.

 

If anyone is going to come down like a ton of bricks on Trump, I wish that they'd get a move on.  Remember when people were saying that the only thing protecting Trump was him being President?  Just wait until he's out of office, they said, then he's in deep shit.  Well, that's almost two years ago and he's still free as a bird and unindicted.  Very soon politics will become a factor, and the Dems will be wringing their hands about indicting a presidential candidate in the 2024 election.

 

I don't want to be too rosy about it all but there are a few bright spots. The Trumpy candidates, aside from DeSantis, largely got spanked in November, and now the rest of the GOP is mad about it. That's good. They're all a bunch of power-humping quislings but they will turn in the wind if Trump starts to look more like an anchor than a balloon. The appointment of the special prosecutor from DOJ is a good sign -- the point of those is to bring indictments that are too politically hot for the DOJ to handle with its usual processes. I don't think there's any one point at which there's one big judgement day and after that Trump gets marched off to prison and all his toadies repent and dress in sackcloth and ashes. There's always going to be some corner of the GOP that's blindly devoted to him and accepts nothing less than total fealty. But the question is whether the rest of the GOP goes along with it, as they did from roughly 2016 until recently.

 

The sad fact is that the rational-if-totally-cynical parts of the GOP, like McConnell, know the only way they've won elections is by wholesale lying (the Iraq war), stirring up crazies (the Tea Party and birtherism), or backing a racist con man (Trump). The whole charade of Reaganism is dried up and done, and they have nothing left but outrage and bullshit and imaginary conspiracies. If they accept the end of Trumpism and try to go back to being a sane party, they effectively kiss power goodbye for a generation. Which if they had any honor they would do and go and try to reform themselves, but all honor and dignity has been brutally rooted out of the party, so there's no chance of that.

[JFK-1]

I think Meadows among others will be indicted. He was in this up to his neck. 

 

Meadows Texts Show Alarming Number Of GOP Lawmakers Addled By Conspiracy Theories

 

Josh Kovensky, investigative reporter for Talking Points Memo, talks with Alex Wagner about his reporting on text messages received by Donald Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in which an alarming number of elected Republicans demonstrate an unhinged faith in bizarre explanations for Donald Trump's 2020 defeat.

 

 

[Maple Leaf]

9 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

I think Meadows among others will be indicted. He was in this up to his neck. 

 

Meadows Texts Show Alarming Number Of GOP Lawmakers Addled By Conspiracy Theories

 

Josh Kovensky, investigative reporter for Talking Points Memo, talks with Alex Wagner about his reporting on text messages received by Donald Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in which an alarming number of elected Republicans demonstrate an unhinged faith in bizarre explanations for Donald Trump's 2020 defeat.

 

 

Yet another indication that the Republican party is riddled with unhinged people.

[Watt-Zeefuik]

I've been a Talking Points Memo reader since Josh started it as a personal news blog back in the early aughts, and a paid subscriber since just about when they launched the subscription program. Delighted to see them land this collar.

 

(Small aside about TPM — in the midst of all of the media layoffs a few years back, the staff decided to unionize, as many sites did. Unlike nearly every other site, Josh picked up his phone and called the company lawyer and told him to do what needed to be done to sign the union recognition on the spot, and it's been a unionized shop ever since.)

Edited December 14, 2022 by Led Tasso

[Watt-Zeefuik]

2 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

Yet another indication that the Republican party is riddled with unhinged people.

 

I used to live in Meadows' old district in western NC. For years it went back and forth between moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans. With Meadows it went off the deep end, which continued with Nazi boy Madison Cawthorn. Fortunately he got primaried (though typically for the GOP, it wasn't for being a mini-me fash, it was because his constituent services were shit). The new rep as of January, Chuck Edwards, is still a right wing banana but seems to show an actual interest in governance, and improvement over his two predecessors.

[JFK-1]

Text Evidence Bomb Hits MAGA World: Coup Plots Unearthed By Jan. 6 Panel

 

MAGA World bracing for the Jan. 6 committee to release its exhaustive report and make criminal referrals. It comes as new coup evidence emerges.

 

Talking Points Memo obtaining text messages from 34 GOP lawmakers to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, pushing conspiracy theories and the big election lie.

 

MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber breaks down why these texts are so damning and why they matter with a focus on the powerful committees many of these lawmakers will soon have.

 

 

[Sooperstar]

 

 

I'm speechless.

 

[ri Alban]

[Watt-Zeefuik]

Trump's effective status as the incumbent was his main argument as the only one who could unite the GOP. A lot of that is gone now, as DeSantis has pulled into a lead in early polling for the GOP nomination.

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3767275-desantis-tops-trump-in-hypothetical-2024-matchup-poll/

 

If Trump had somehow managed to keep the GOP by the balls all the way to 2024, there was a chance he could get it, but the failure of his pet candidates in November means that folk are moving on to a slightly less deranged, more competent, more cynical racist arsehole. The chances of him getting the GOP nomination are slipping rapidly.

 

He could still go the third party route, but the chances he'd win that are even more remote.

[Jambo-Jimbo]

If Trump doesn't get the GOP nomination, I wouldn't put it past him to try and form his own party.

[Watt-Zeefuik]

2 minutes ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

If Trump doesn't get the GOP nomination, I wouldn't put it past him to try and form his own party.

I'd put it at 40-50% chance he does it.

 

I give him about 4% chance of winning the Presidency that way if he does go that route, which is much higher than I'd normally do it but 2016 taught me to not be confident the US electorate won't do something horribly wretched and self-destructive on a whim.

[Lovecraft]

1 hour ago, Sooperstar said:

 

 

I'm speechless.

 

  This is a very good Deepfake.

 

Surely?

 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

It's an NFT launch!

[Cade]

[Tazio]

Kent and Porteous having a head to head diving contest. 

[Tazio]

19 minutes ago, Tazio said:

Kent and Porteous having a head to head diving contest. 

Wrong thread I think. 
Anyway here’s the whole Trump collection. It’s fantastic. 

 

[Unknown user]

2 hours ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

If Trump doesn't get the GOP nomination, I wouldn't put it past him to try and form his own party.

 

He might well form something, but I just can't see his pride letting him go down the route of guaranteed failure in 2024, and that's assuming he's not facing jail by then.

 

[JFK-1]

Be warned this guy sounds like a Trump hater to me, probably never watches Fox so will also have no idea Biden is a babbling idiot. 

 

We need a non Trump hating Fox expert in here to give us the real deal. Someone as honest as the US tango man himself.