Trump Dictatorship and All Things Politics
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Al-O-Meter
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In this instance, Trump not currently being President is so low on the list of it not being a primary issue as to be inconsequential. The order made by Trump to have schools teach his alternate history is imaginary. The textbooks supposed to be the source of such instruction are imaginary. The Presidential order to author such textbooks is imaginary. Red is employing imaginary events, that aren't even plausible, as evidence for the reality of his fever dream.
It is my intention to bring positivity into the world and it makes me happy to hear my content brings you joy.
Mongoose
Well-Known Member
Wrong. Those are media lies that you ate up.
View: https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1870143457911574670?s=46&t=PfGBft52CF1a98VsjZzilw
Red
Well-Known Member
Meanwhile, it’s possible you may have missed the boat entirely…..
THE WORD FOR THIS IS OLIGARCHY, AND OLIGARCHS DON’T THINK OF THE COUNTRY FIRST:
The Government Is Shutting Down Because Elon Musk Has Factories in China
There’s a mundane reason for the late-term chaos, and it’s called a conflict of interest.
prospect.org
“Almost four years to the day, we’re back here again. But this time, Trump is a side player in the show. He and his transition team reportedly had no problem with the 2024 version of a year-end spending bill until this week. Then Elon Musk starting posting into a frenzy about how a perfectly normal bipartisan agreement represented a total betrayal, lying about the contents in the process. Trump had to be roused to back up his co-president, getting House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to construct a partisan solution while inserting an eleventh-hour, two-year suspension of the debt limit to prevent the Republican trifecta from having to deal with that nuisance in the next Congress…..
That brings us back to the initial reason for the blowup: Elon’s endless scroll. Which appears to be tied to none of the inaccurate reasons he offered on X, but an old standby for billionaires: personal financial and business incentives. The original bill would have made it harder for Musk to build Tesla factories in Shanghai.
Congress has been working itself into a lather about China for years now, and they finally came up with a way to deal with this issue. Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Bob Casey (D-PA) have the flagship bill, which would either prohibit U.S. companies from investing in “sensitive technologies” in China, including semiconductors and artificial intelligence, or set up a broad notification regime around it.
The bill would add some reporting requirements and enhanced reviews as well; in general, it expands restrictions that the Treasury Department has already put forward in regulatory rules. Codifying those rules into statute means that they cannot be changed by successive administrations.
You can argue about whether the U.S. should be restricting investment in China. But it’s incontrovertible that a billionaire who has a bunch of investments in China and wants to make more all of a sudden disrupted a normal congressional process that was going to restrict that investment with a bunch of lies from his media platform. And lo and behold, when the new funding bill emerged, the outbound investment feature was dropped. In fact, all traces of provisions related to China were removed from the bill.
(Red: See what America’s, and the planet’s, richest oligarch did? He took care of himself.):
So Donald Trump, alleged leader of the realignment of populist Republicans, scuttled a spending bill primarily to shield the richest man in the world’s investments in China and the profits of UnitedHealth Group, owners of the second-largest pharmacy benefit manager.
This is going to be a constant theme of the next four years. Personal business interests are going to constantly take precedence over governance in the Trump/Musk White House.
THE WORD FOR THIS IS OLIGARCHY, AND OLIGARCHS DON’T THINK OF THE COUNTRY FIRST. .
Millions of federal employees, including service members, won’t see paychecks over Christmas, national parks will be shut down, food inspections and countless other government functions will stop because a Elon Musk doesn’t want anyone poking around his business in China.“
How Musk Outmaneuvered Trump
Musk got the only thing that he wanted. Does Trump realize it?
prospect.org
Elon Musk blew up a near-complete bipartisan budget deal with an avalanche of tweets contending that it was too costly, luring Donald Trump into demanding that Republicans kill it. But Musk’s real reason—a story that David Dayen broke in the Prospect—was that the agreement included painstakingly negotiated limits on American tech investment in China. Had that provision passed, it would have been costly to Musk’s extensive Chinese Tesla operations and future AI plans.
In contrast to Trump, Musk played his hand in a way that made sure that he won his objective, and didn’t mind sacrificing Trump’s. In blessing the revised deal, which passed the House late Friday, 366-34, and the Senate, 85-11, Musk disingenuously praised Congress for drastically shrinking the total spending. This was total ********, since the budget numbers of the original deal and final one were almost identical. But shrinking spending wasn’t the goal: keeping the government out of his China business was.
In short, Musk outplayed Trump. Musk is not the sort of guy you can take to the woodshed. And the Inaugural is still a month away.
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Red
Well-Known Member
We should at least be aware that it will be tough to govern effectively in this Post Truth era….
www.theatlantic.com
The story of Babel is the best metaphor I have found for what happened to America in the 2010s, and for the fractured country we now inhabit. Something went terribly wrong, very suddenly. We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past.
It’s been clear for quite a while now that red America and blue America are becoming like two different countries claiming the same territory, with two different versions of the Constitution, economics, and American history. But Babel is not a story about tribalism; it’s a story about the fragmentation of everything. It’s about the shattering of all that had seemed solid, the scattering of people who had been a community. It’s a metaphor for what is happening not only between red and blue, but within the left and within the right, as well as within universities, companies, professional associations, museums, and even families.
Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid
It’s not just a phase.
www.theatlantic.com
The story of Babel is the best metaphor I have found for what happened to America in the 2010s, and for the fractured country we now inhabit. Something went terribly wrong, very suddenly. We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past.
It’s been clear for quite a while now that red America and blue America are becoming like two different countries claiming the same territory, with two different versions of the Constitution, economics, and American history. But Babel is not a story about tribalism; it’s a story about the fragmentation of everything. It’s about the shattering of all that had seemed solid, the scattering of people who had been a community. It’s a metaphor for what is happening not only between red and blue, but within the left and within the right, as well as within universities, companies, professional associations, museums, and even families.
Red
Well-Known Member
Hmm. New one to me….
www.theguardian.com
Curtis Yarvin is hardly a household name in US politics. But the “neoreactionary” thinker and far-right blogger is emerging as a serious intellectual influence on key figures in Donald Trump’s coming administration in particular over potential threats to US democracy.
Yarvin, who considers liberal democracy as a decadent enemy to be dismantled, is intellectually influential on vice president-elect JD Vance and close to several proposed Trump appointees. The aftermath of Trump’s election victory has seen actions and rhetoric from Trump and his lieutenants that closely resemble Yarvin’s public proposals for taking autocratic power in America.
Trump’s legal moves against critics in the media, Elon Musk’s promises to pare government spending to the bone, and the deployment of the Maga base against Republican lawmakers who have criticized controversial nominees like Pete Hegseth are among the measures that resemble elements of Yarvin’s strategy for displacing liberal democracy in the US.
He’s anti-democracy and pro-Trump: the obscure ‘dark enlightenment’ blogger influencing the next US administration
Key figures in the incoming administration follow Curtis Yarvin, who’s pushing for an autocratic takeover of the US
www.theguardian.com
Curtis Yarvin is hardly a household name in US politics. But the “neoreactionary” thinker and far-right blogger is emerging as a serious intellectual influence on key figures in Donald Trump’s coming administration in particular over potential threats to US democracy.
Yarvin, who considers liberal democracy as a decadent enemy to be dismantled, is intellectually influential on vice president-elect JD Vance and close to several proposed Trump appointees. The aftermath of Trump’s election victory has seen actions and rhetoric from Trump and his lieutenants that closely resemble Yarvin’s public proposals for taking autocratic power in America.
Trump’s legal moves against critics in the media, Elon Musk’s promises to pare government spending to the bone, and the deployment of the Maga base against Republican lawmakers who have criticized controversial nominees like Pete Hegseth are among the measures that resemble elements of Yarvin’s strategy for displacing liberal democracy in the US.
Red
Well-Known Member
Elon Musk's meetings with foreign leaders alongside Trump alarm Washington insiders
Washington insiders say Elon Musk’s presence with Donald Trump as he meets with top international leaders is an alarming development.
www.nbcnews.com
Busy beaver….
Starmer could introduce new law to block Musk from donating to Reform, minister says
As a US citizen, Elon Musk cannot legally make a personal donation to a UK political party but he could do so through the UK subsidiaries of his companies
www.independent.co.uk
Sir Keir Starmer could introduce a new law to block Elon Musk from donating to Reform UK, a minister has suggested, saying the government will make sure the electoral system is protected from “many of the new issues that face undermining our democracy”.
The minister refusing to rule out the introduction of a law comes amid rumours the tech billionaire is preparing to donate $100m to Nigel Farage’s party – by far the largest contribution in British electoral history.
As a US citizen, Mr Musk cannot legally make a personal donation to a UK political party but he could do so through the UK subsidiaries of his companies.
Labour opens door to banning Musk donation with new law
Tech billionaire’s plan to bankroll Nigel Farage’s party Reform UK with $100m could be thwarted by a government crackdown on foreign donors
www.telegraph.co.uk
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Red
Well-Known Member
Trump’s budding diplomatic clown show….
www.theguardian.com
They seem an unlikely, almost motley, crew of emissaries.
For the Bahamas, there is Herschel Walker, a former NFL star whose fledgling Senate campaign was undone by a string of personal embarrassments but who now is named to be the next US ambassador to the small island nation.
To the plum diplomatic posting of Paris goes Charles Kushner, father of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and a man the president-elect once pardoned for a felony conviction that the former Republican New Jersey governor Chris Christie, an ex-federal prosecutor, called “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted.
And to Greece, once a preserve of seasoned career diplomats, goes Kimberly Guilfoyle, until recently the romantic partner of Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, and a woman known more for her rumbustious media profile than her diplomatic acumen.
The trio are among a flurry of ambassadorial nominees rolled out by Trump in recent weeks as he rushes to fill his administration at breakneck speed with envoys who will project his “America First” ideology abroad.
Their lack of credentials has prompted one experienced foreign policy analyst to label them a “diplomatic clown car” – and a deliberate affront to the countries hosting them.
Trump’s ‘stunningly unqualified’ diplomatic team shapes up at breakneck speed
Trump is hardly the first US president to introduce miscast nominees, but he has nominated ambassadors at a rate not recalled in recent memory
www.theguardian.com
They seem an unlikely, almost motley, crew of emissaries.
For the Bahamas, there is Herschel Walker, a former NFL star whose fledgling Senate campaign was undone by a string of personal embarrassments but who now is named to be the next US ambassador to the small island nation.
To the plum diplomatic posting of Paris goes Charles Kushner, father of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and a man the president-elect once pardoned for a felony conviction that the former Republican New Jersey governor Chris Christie, an ex-federal prosecutor, called “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted.
And to Greece, once a preserve of seasoned career diplomats, goes Kimberly Guilfoyle, until recently the romantic partner of Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, and a woman known more for her rumbustious media profile than her diplomatic acumen.
The trio are among a flurry of ambassadorial nominees rolled out by Trump in recent weeks as he rushes to fill his administration at breakneck speed with envoys who will project his “America First” ideology abroad.
Their lack of credentials has prompted one experienced foreign policy analyst to label them a “diplomatic clown car” – and a deliberate affront to the countries hosting them.
The Thriller
Well-Known Member
It’s ironic that the same morons that defended Tim Ballard and spewed paranoia for years against school librarians are silent on this issue.
Protect the children? Amiright???
Why aren’t they blasting Trump for nominating a pedophile?
If you really want to protect children, keep them the **** away from your local Republican and church leader.
Protect the children? Amiright???
Why aren’t they blasting Trump for nominating a pedophile?
If you really want to protect children, keep them the **** away from your local Republican and church leader.
LogGrad98
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Eh, no one side has the monopoly on depravity. Let's not stoop to "othering" while condemning others of the same.
Archived: A south Texas attorney and former Democratic chair sentenced to 14 years for receiving, possessing child pornography
Stephen Jabbour of Victoria, Texas was sentenced to 14 years and two months in prison for receiving and possessing child pornography. Jabbour's collection of over 250,000 images and videos of child pornography is believed to have been the largest such collection seized in the Southern District...
fishonjazz
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Wow, what a **** show.Trump’s budding diplomatic clown show….Trump’s ‘stunningly unqualified’ diplomatic team shapes up at breakneck speed
Trump is hardly the first US president to introduce miscast nominees, but he has nominated ambassadors at a rate not recalled in recent memory
They seem an unlikely, almost motley, crew of emissaries.
For the Bahamas, there is Herschel Walker, a former NFL star whose fledgling Senate campaign was undone by a string of personal embarrassments but who now is named to be the next US ambassador to the small island nation.
To the plum diplomatic posting of Paris goes Charles Kushner, father of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and a man the president-elect once pardoned for a felony conviction that the former Republican New Jersey governor Chris Christie, an ex-federal prosecutor, called “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted.
And to Greece, once a preserve of seasoned career diplomats, goes Kimberly Guilfoyle, until recently the romantic partner of Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, and a woman known more for her rumbustious media profile than her diplomatic acumen.
The trio are among a flurry of ambassadorial nominees rolled out by Trump in recent weeks as he rushes to fill his administration at breakneck speed with envoys who will project his “America First” ideology abroad.
Their lack of credentials has prompted one experienced foreign policy analyst to label them a “diplomatic clown car” – and a deliberate affront to the countries hosting them.
Sardines
Well-Known Member
The report shows Gaetz hired prostitutes and had them get him drugs more than 20 times. It also shows that he paid a 17 year old for sex, which even without the prostitution part is illegal, as in rape (statutory).
So when should we expect the arrest warrant to be issued? The man with the world's most punchable face is also a man with very punchable actions. One way or another Gaetz deserves to be punched, hard and repeatedly.
The Thriller
Well-Known Member
I think the GOP has a much more severe issue. Next time Dems elect someone like Trump and jam someone like Gaetz down our throats, then we can “both sides” this issue.Eh, no one side has the monopoly on depravity. Let's not stoop to "othering" while condemning others of the same.
Archived: A south Texas attorney and former Democratic chair sentenced to 14 years for receiving, possessing child pornography
Stephen Jabbour of Victoria, Texas was sentenced to 14 years and two months in prison for receiving and possessing child pornography. Jabbour's collection of over 250,000 images and videos of child pornography is believed to have been the largest such collection seized in the Southern District...www.ice.gov
Not only that, they pretend to care about such issues. They spent years attacking school librarians. Yet, they’ll face zero accountability for this. Gaetz is likely to become the next governor in Florida.
I also believe that organized religion, Christianity in America in particular, needs a rude awakening. People in trust, bishops, pastors, etc are far likelier to rape children and have its institution sweep things under the rug than in other professions. Locally, here in Utah, just in the past year bishops and stake presidents were in the know of abuse, yet did nothing. You just don’t see that in other institutions or professions. Let alone face zero accountability.
Al-O-Meter
Well-Known Member
You can expect it never. Law enforcement investigated these allegations before Congress ever set about doing it and concluded the two women testifying to the encounter were lying. When the Congressional Ethics Committee says they have evidence, they are being technically factual. They do indeed have testimony of the event happening from the supposed victim and from a witness who happened to be the victim's roommate. What they are failing to include are any findings on the credibility of the testimony, also that both women were associates of a guy now serving 11 years in prison for making fake sex crime allegations against a different politician.
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Sardines
Well-Known Member
Had he not been a Congress Person and (probably) in the same political camp as Florida cops I bet the investigation would have turned out differently. As it did for Joel Greenberg, who is serving an 11 year sentence. This is basically for **** he did with Gaetz. They were literal partners in crime. One got punished, one did not. But yeah, the bitches were lying.
Alpha wannabes are gonna stick up for alpha wannabes. Tale as old as time.
Pope Francis’ vision of hope, forgiveness, and unity in troubled times - Vatican News
In an interview with Argentina’s “Canal Orbe 21” TV, Pope Francis offers his thoughts on the challenges of our times and the Church’s evolving mission ...
www.vaticannews.va
How did they make this bloke pope? So decent and intelligent.
Red
Well-Known Member
We can always count on you to defend the creeps among us, the more toxic the masculinity, the greater the support.
Yep. And 5 Republicans on the Ethics Committee agreed with this statement:
"The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress," the report states.
Numerous pieces of evidence collected and presented in the committee's report are in connection to Gaetz's friend and former Central Florida official Joel Greenberg”.
Who is Joel Greenberg? Former Central Florida tax collector's connection to House Ethics report on Matt Gaetz
A disgraced Seminole County tax collector is at the center of the House Ethics Committee's newly public report investigating former Rep. Matt Gaetz.
www.wesh.com
Red
Well-Known Member
And really, does it even need to be said? The number one thing to take from all of this is:We can always count on you to defend the creeps among us, the more toxic the masculinity, the greater the support.
Yep. And 5 Republicans on the Ethics Committee agreed with this statement:
"The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress," the report states.
Numerous pieces of evidence collected and presented in the committee's report are in connection to Gaetz's friend and former Central Florida official Joel Greenberg”.
Who is Joel Greenberg? Former Central Florida tax collector's connection to House Ethics report on Matt Gaetz
A disgraced Seminole County tax collector is at the center of the House Ethics Committee's newly public report investigating former Rep. Matt Gaetz.
Donald Trump wanted Matt Gaetz to be the Attorney General of the United States. Donald Trump wanted Matt Gaetz to lead the United States Department of Justice.
That says all you will ever need to know about what Trump thinks of the rule of law in the United States. And really, many of his nominations are blatant insults to the agencies he has nominated them for, insults to the missions associated with those agencies.
No more true than in the case of Matt Gaetz. The single most unqualified nominee to lead the Dept. of Justice, in American history. It’s an insult to the Dept. Of Justice, and a clear insult to the belief that we are a nation of laws. There is no way around that conclusion.
Matt Gaetz for Attorney General of the United States. Yes, the American people wanted Trump, and this is what Donald Trump thinks of his country. His choice for AG says what Donald Trump thinks of his country’s laws and the belief that we are a nation of laws.
fishonjazz
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Al-O-Meter
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You can count on me to dig a bit to validate the truth on sensational stories. I'm not a sheep who believes an outlet on nothing more than it being what I want to hear.
Joel Greenberg is a criminal. Matt Gaetz wasn't Greenberg's friend. He was Greenberg's prey. Greenberg was doing his best to get leverage on Gaetz in furtherance of his scheme to steal taxpayer money for which he is now in prison. As noted in your article, Gaetz was not the first politician he did this to.
"admitted to trying to frame the teacher of sexual misconduct and racism"
Matt Gaetz was thoroughly investigated for all of this by Merrick Garland's DOJ who had basically offered to let Greenberg walk if he could incriminate Matt Gaetz. Greenberg worked harder to incriminate Gaetz than any cooperating witness the judge in the case had ever seen.
'Presnell did praise Greenberg’s cooperation against others allegedly involved in sex crimes and fraud schemes, saying the cooperation was “more than I’ve seen in 22 years.”'
Greenberg gave incriminating testimony, that when DOJ investigators checked it out they determined it was all fabricated. Greenberg arranged to have a couple of his sugar-babies testify they had sex with Gaetz when one of them was 17, but that too was determined didn't actually happen. The DOJ determined the Gaetz stuff was mostly Greenberg being a slimeball criminal willing to say or do anything to save himself.
With as many enemies as Gaetz had among Republicans for his attack on Kevin McCarthy, I'm shocked it was only 5 who signed on.
Even without the sex scandal, Matt Gaetz never had any path to confirmation. All the confirmation hearing would have accomplished was to give Matt Gaetz a massive platform to tell his side of the story, and drag in those making the accusations where they could be ripped to pieces in front of millions of viewers on live TV.