US Politics May 2019: " If I was burned at the stake, I would ask for a mirror"

results can be good or bad

she's defining it as Senate removal

she aint doing it

she looks forward to working with the president to improve the conditions in the child jails at the border

if congress does begin impeachment, what's the likelihood they can time the hearings to run into the next election? I know the republicans would be able to do it because they're ruthless, but I have my doubts about the democrats

Congress can take as long as it wants.

if Trump loses in 2020, does he just immediately get arrested?

By whom and for what? Be specific.

I don't mean to imply he doesn't deserve it, but this fantasy is lacking in detail.

(Anyway he'd still be pres until inauguration, but that's a small point)

for obstruction & the myriad of crimes committed while in office (didn't Michael Cohen directly implicate him in a felony?), by...well I dunno. I guess that's the problem, isn't it?

I suppose he refers to the Southern District of New York and its own busy little elves.

i was led to believe throughout 2017 and 2018 that mueller was analyzing trump's finances

did he push that stuff off to other investigations?

I share the longing. But normally one gets arrested on, like a specific charge, violation of a specific law: say, 18 U.S.C. 1621.

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34303.pdf

And if you're suspected of committing a Federal crime and you happen to be on the grounds of the Capitol, say (as an outgoing president might well be on Inauguration Day), then I guess Capitol Police or perhaps Park Service Police would have jurisdiction. Or FBI agents, I guess.

But presumably a warrant would help, and all Federal judges would have been the President's subordinates until the oath is administered to the new pres. One presumes most of them would not sign such a warrant until the term officially ended.

Trump would presumably get wind of the plan and have some kind of White Bronco waiting somewhere with Bannon at the wheel. A car chase through gridlocked special-event-day DC would be an amusing end for the saga. Fiery crash? Careening into the Potomac? Standing at the railing of Memorial Bridge, screaming "You'll never take me alive, suckas!"

screaming "You'll never take me alive, suckas losers!"

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/may/29/energy-department-molecules-freedom-fossil-fuel-rebranding

Doling out freedom, one molecule at a time.

The fascist movements of that time prided themselves on being overtly antidemocratic, and those that came to power in Italy and Germany boasted that their regimes were totalitarian. The most original revelation of the current wave of authoritarians is that the construction of overtly antidemocratic dictatorships aspiring to totalitarianism is unnecessary for holding power. Perhaps the most apt designation of this new authoritarianism is the insidious term “illiberal democracy.” Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, Putin in Russia, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, and Viktor Orbán in Hungary have all discovered that opposition parties can be left in existence and elections can be held in order to provide a fig leaf of democratic legitimacy, while in reality elections pose scant challenge to their power. Truly dangerous opposition leaders are neutralized or eliminated one way or another.

Total control of the press and other media is likewise unnecessary, since a flood of managed and fake news so pollutes the flow of information that facts and truth become irrelevant as shapers of public opinion. Once-independent judiciaries are gradually dismantled through selective purging and the appointment of politically reliable loyalists. Crony capitalism opens the way to a symbiosis of corruption and self-enrichment between political and business leaders. Xenophobic nationalism (and in many cases explicitly anti-immigrant white nationalism) as well as the prioritization of “law and order” over individual rights are also crucial to these regimes in mobilizing the popular support of their bases and stigmatizing their enemies.

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/10/25/suffocation-of-democracy/

NEW: The White House wanted the USS John McCain “out of sight” for Trump’s visit to Japan. A tarp was hung over the ship’s name ahead of the trip, and sailors—who wear caps bearing the ship’s name—were given the day off for Trump’s visit. w/@gluboldhttps://t.co/6ugPceCOre pic.twitter.com/KuIoWJK5Kt

— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) May 29, 2019

"I was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan."

Mission accomplished, then?

Anything to torpedo the Legend of John McCain.

We might want to change the title of this thread.

all the performative handwringing before lil Meggy McCain is “forced” to vote for Trump in 2020 because hurrr durr “anti-Semitic baby-killing” “Left” is going to be so fucking funny

good morning!

I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected.

loooool

“I don’t see how they can because they’re possibly allowed — I can’t imagine the courts allowing it…I never thought that would even be possible to using that word. To me it’s a dirty word, the word impeach. It’s a dirty, filthy, disgusting word. It had nothing to do with me so I don’t think there was no crime. There was no high crime or there was no misdemeanor? How do you impeach based on that? It came out nothing to do with Russia. The whole thing is a scam. It is a giant presidential harrassment. And honestly, I hope it goes down as one of my greatest achievements, because I have exposed corruption like nobody knew existed.”

The Talk to Transformer thread is thataway.

So when abortion rights go down in Missouri, etc., I propose abortion clinics in other states begin asking for proof of voter registration and refuse to provide services to Republicans.

xxp actually the cleaned-up version, misses him talking about the word 'and', possibly under the impression that he has to be guilty of both high crimes and also of misdemeanours to be impeached.

It’s a dirty, filthy, disgusting word wtf

And honestly, I hope it goes down as one of my greatest achievements, because I have exposed corruption like nobody knew existed

you're right about that

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/us/census-citizenship-question-hofeller.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

was this a big story in the states?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48457401

"Disney could pull productions from Georgia over abortion law

Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney says Georgia's controversial new anti-abortion law would make it "difficult" for the company to keep filming there.

Blockbusters like Black Panther and Avengers: Endgame, were recently shot in the state, due to its generous tax breaks for film productions.

However, Iger said "many people who work for us will not want to work there" should the law go into effect."

might be one for the 'onion stories' thread

Her father, she said, was a brilliant cartographer who was deeply committed to traditional conservative principles like free will and limited government. As a child, she said, she was schooled in those same principles, but every successive gerrymandered map he created only solidified her conviction that he had abandoned them in a quest to entrench his party in permanent control.

“He had me with the idea that we are made to be free,” she said. “And then he lost me.”

feeling this

as the son of a conservative

Is there any reason why Mueller and team were unable to say at the beginning of the investigation "we have no intention to indict the president regardless of the outcome. If we uncover evidence of serious wrongdoing on the part of the president, it will be up to Congress to take further action"?

Shouldn't take 2 years to come to that conclusion.

"It's high crimes AND, not with or or, it's high crimes and misdemeanors..."

What on earth is he trying to say here?

Surprised he didn't point out the plural as well. "One of each isn't enough!"

Treason AND a parking ticket.

I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected.

loooool

― (•̪●) (carne asada)

that didn't happen. what you read, and what you may have heard, did not happen. *helicopter noise*

Less than an hour later, he contradicted himself in front of a gaggle of reporters on the South Lawn as he left for Colorado.

“No Russia did not get me elected,” he told the scrum. “Do you know who got me elected? I got me elected. Russia didn’t help me at all.”

Pull his string again and see what comes out this time.

and if it was true, it was a typo

After President Trump’s admission in a tweet that Russia helped get him elected — which he walked back minutes later — Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale minimized the remark as a mere “typo,” while simultaneously attacking The New York Times for writing about the President’s tweet.

and if it was true, it was a typo

sorry (redacted), i meant WERE

These gaslighting motherfuckers trying to tell us we don’t know what a typo is ! Gtfo

Treason AND a parking ticket.

Yusuf Islam's cynical reboot of his 1971 classic.

Is there any reason why Mueller and team were unable to say at the beginning of the investigation "we have no intention to indict the president regardless of the outcome. If we uncover evidence of serious wrongdoing on the part of the president, it will be up to Congress to take further action"?

Shouldn't take 2 years to come to that conclusion.

― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles)

this seems like a good question.

"I got me elected" for June title, or "and if it was true, it was a typo".

its almost like a Republican cop doesn't necessarily want to remove a Republican president

xp -- 1 vote for the latter

was this a big story in the states?

Yes and no. It's a big deal to all the actors and technicians/crew people etc. who've moved to Georgia to work, and are now dealing w/the possibility that Netflix, Disney, and other production companies will be boycotting the state.

democrats need to subpoena mueller and make him testify.

to refuse to testify, to claim that everything he has to say is already in the report, is supremely arrogant. it suggests that any possible relevant question has already been addressed and is perfectly unambiguous in the report. and it also suggests that there are no relevant meta-questions about the report - when was the decision made to not recommend any charges based on DOJ policy; did he feel that Barr's "summary" of his report was accurate, etc

"I got me elected" for June title, or "and if it was true, it was a typo".

please don't feature yet another was/were grammatical fuck-up as the title, it is embarrassing

xp

One easy question to ask in front of cameras:

"Did you establish that the president is innocent of obstruction?"