Where is/can Donald Trump take US (sic)?

[basilio]

Bernie Sanders ✔ @SenSanders

Today, Trump granted clemency to tax cheats, Wall Street crooks, billionaires, and corrupt government officials.
Meanwhile thousands of poor and working-class kids sit in jail for nonviolent drug convictions.
This is what a broken and racist criminal justice system looks like.

 

[basilio]

So why is this twisted,lying, poisonous heap of merde pardoning the creme de la creme of upmarket liars, tax cheats and brazenly corrupt governors?

I reckon he is just warming up for the ultimate pardon.

Yep he will pardon the current President of the United States because he says he can. And he'll do it before there is an sort of "trial".

Check it out.
Donald Trump may pardon himself, but should heed the lessons of the Ford-Nixon era
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-06/donald-trump-twitter-pardoning-powers-us-president/9839476
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06...-pardon-dinesh-dsouza-us-constitution/9831420

 

[basilio]

PS Aren't we lucky to have such a flawed but basically honest guy destroying the US constitution and Judicial system ?
My God what would happen if we had Hilary Clinton or Barack Obama or any of the crazy commie Dems currently vying for office.

Eh Wayne ? All good in the cess pit mate ?

 

[basilio]

Surprise, surprise , surprise ..
This will be an interesting court case. Lawyers aren't in the habit of making allegations like this without evidence.

Trump offered to pardon Assange if he covered up Russian interference in US election, court told
Wikileaks founder allegedly has evidence of visit from Republican congressman to Ecuadorian embassy on president’s behalf

Donald Trump offered to pardon Julian Assange if he covered up Russia’s interference in the 2016 US election, a court has heard.

The explosive claim – which could have profound consequences for Mr Trump’s re-election effort if proven true – emerged as Assange, 48, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court ahead of a hearing next week about his possible extradition to the US.

Assange’s barrister highlighted evidence alleging former US Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher had been to see Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in August 2017, in the early days of Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the previous election.

Edward Fitzgerald QC said a statement from Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson shows “Mr Rohrabacher going to see Mr Assange and saying, on instructions from the president, he was offering a pardon or some other way out, if Mr Assange ... said Russia had nothing to do with the DNC leaks”.

A series of emails embarrassing for the Democrats and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign were hacked before being published by WikiLeaks in the run-up to the 2016 election.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...pardon-russia-us-election-court-a9345081.html

 

[basilio]

But then of course this creature has the Balls of Steel that out Stalinizes , Stalin in terms of rewriting history.
For Example. Says it all..

Trump defends Blagojevich despite incriminating tape

Trump defended Rod Blagojevich in a tweet, saying the former Illinois governor did not sell a US Senate seat.




Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

Rod Blagojevich did not sell the Senate seat. He served 8 years in prison, with many remaining. He paid a big price. Another Comey and gang deal! Thank you to @LisaMarieBoothe who really “gets” what’s going on! @FoxNews
40.7K
4:46 AM - Feb 20, 2020

But Blagojevich, who was commuted by Trump yesterday, was rather infamously recorded trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama when he became president.

“I’ve got this thing and it’s fucxing golden,” Blagojevich was recorded saying. “I’m just not giving it up for fucxin’ nothing. I’m not gonna do it.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...ut-las-vegas-debate-democrats-2020-trump-live

 

[basilio]

Interesting to learn more about ex-Congressman Dana Rohrabacher . Seems US security have had serious concerns about his support for Putin and Russia and made it clear they thought he had been compromised.

Rohrabacher was warned in 2012 in a secure room at the Capitol building by an agent from the FBI that Russian spies may have been trying to recruit him to act on Russia's behalf as an "agent of influence", after he met with a member of the Russian foreign ministry privately in Moscow.[55][129]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Rohrabacher

 

[basilio]

I wonder how this fits into the picture ?
https://theintercept.com/2018/02/14/dana-rohrabacher-trump-russia-wikileaks-julian-assange/

'Putin's favourite congressman' visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/...der-julian-assange-in-london-2017-8?r=US&IR=T

 

[basilio]

Assange Upends Rohrabacher, Denies He Will Reveal DNC Emails Source

https://www.rollcall.com/2017/10/12...cher-denies-he-will-reveal-dnc-emails-source/

 

[basilio]

Broadening ones internet readings. This is a fascinating story.

The American Conservative website

Pardon Me? Rep. Rohrabacher’s Curious Visit With Assange

Julian Assange and U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) Credit: Haak78/ShutterstockCreativeCommonsFlickr/GabeSkidmore
August 21, 2017

|
12:01 am

Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
Iconoclastic Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher confirmed that he had met Wednesday with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who still remains in his self-imposed five-year exile at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, afraid he will be subject to U.S. arrest if he leaves.

The reason for the unusual meeting (Rohrabacher claims he is the first member of congress to meet with Assange), according to Rohrabacher’s office, was to glean information from Assange on the real DNC leaker with an eye toward assisting the president in fending off charges about Russian hacking in Washington, and to help the WikiLeaks founder leave the embassy a free man.

https://www.theamericanconservative...-rep-rohrabachers-curious-visit-with-assange/

 

[basilio]

https://www.ocweekly.com/house-spanks-dana-8507957/
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.co...acher-russia-timeline-20170804-htmlstory.html
https://patch.com/california/losalamitos/rohrabacher-discusses-dnc-emails-wikileaks-founder
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/0...ked-lawyer-at-center-of-russia-investigation/

 

[moXJO]

Jesus....
You working for the Russians now bas

 

[wayneL]

Jesus....
You working for the Russians now bas

The Soviets, actually

 

[SirRumpole]

The US primaries process is completely baffling to me.

People on the same side tearing strips off each other.

It's a real dog eat dog world in US politics it seems, but whoever wins it's just another dog.

 

[IFocus]

Draining the swamp ....LOL.

But then of course this creature has the Balls of Steel that out Stalinizes , Stalin in terms of rewriting history.
For Example. Says it all..

Trump defends Blagojevich despite incriminating tape

Trump defended Rod Blagojevich in a tweet, saying the former Illinois governor did not sell a US Senate seat.




Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

Rod Blagojevich did not sell the Senate seat. He served 8 years in prison, with many remaining. He paid a big price. Another Comey and gang deal! Thank you to @LisaMarieBoothe who really “gets” what’s going on! @FoxNews
40.7K
4:46 AM - Feb 20, 2020

But Blagojevich, who was commuted by Trump yesterday, was rather infamously recorded trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama when he became president.

“I’ve got this thing and it’s fucxing golden,” Blagojevich was recorded saying. “I’m just not giving it up for fucxin’ nothing. I’m not gonna do it.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...ut-las-vegas-debate-democrats-2020-trump-live

 

[basilio]

Trumps dirty tricks man who was covering up for The Don is sentenced to 40 months jail for perjury and witness tampering.
The Don is now looking at overthrowing the sentence with a Presidential pardon.

https://thehill.com/homenews/admini...ee-stone-exonerated-but-will-let-process-play

 

[basilio]

What the Judge said about Roger Stone and why he is taking an extended sabbatical.

'This is not just Roger being Roger': Stone gets 40 months – and a scolding from the judge
Amy Berman Jackson tore into Trump’s longtime friend and reminded the court ‘he was prosecuted for covering up for the president’

@laurenegambino
Thu 20 Feb 2020 17.36 EST Last modified on Thu 20 Feb 2020 18.03 EST

Shares
5



Roger Stone leaves court after the judge sentenced him to 40 months in prison. Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA
Roger Stone, a longtime friend of Donald Trump and a self-styled dirty trickster of American politics, showed little emotion as he stood, squeezed between his defense team, at the front of the courtroom to await his sentence on Thursday.

“Unsurprisingly, I have a lot to say,” the federal district court judge Amy Berman Jackson began.

She was aware, of course, of the extraordinary public interest surrounding this case: the letters and calls to the chamber, the op-eds in every major newspaper, the hours of punditry on cable news, and, perhaps most remarkable of all, the stream of tweets from the president of the United States.

“The only people who think this is easy [are] the people who don’t have to make the decision,” she lamented from the bench.

Stone’s presence in the courtroom on Thursday had nothing to do with his political views or personal association. He would not be sentenced, Jackson said, “for who his friends are or who his enemies are”.

The case, she said, “arose because Roger Stone characteristically inserted himself smack in the middle of one of the most incendiary issues of the day”. At issue, she explained, is only what he has been convicted of: attempting to sabotage a congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“He was not prosecuted for standing up for the president,” she said. “He was prosecuted for covering up for the president.”


She laced into the defense offered by Stone’s attorneys in response to his conviction on charges that he lied to congressional investigators and attempted to block the testimony of a witness, which she said amounted to: “‘So what?’”

“Of all the circumstances in this case, that may be the most pernicious,” Jackson said, in comments that quickly resonated far beyond the E Barrett Prettyman courthouse in Washington. “The truth still exists, the truth still matters.”
Stone stood unflinching, hands clasped in front of him, as she continued to excoriate him.

“Roger Stone’s insistence that it doesn’t … his belligerence, his pride in his own lies, are a threat to our most fundamental institutions, to the very foundation of our democracy,” she said emphatically.

The judge forcefully rejected claims by Stone and his supporters that law enforcement was carrying out a political vendetta against the president by prosecuting his longtime friend.

“There was nothing unfair, phoney, or disgraceful about the investigation or the prosecution,” she said.

The defendant lied about a matter of great national and international significance. This is not campaign hi-jinks

She accepted that Stone had cultivated a reputation as an “agent provocateur” who is belligerent and hyperbolic – noting humorously that these are descriptions of him from “people who wrote [to the court] on his behalf”.

“The problem is that nothing about this case was a joke. It wasn’t funny, it wasn’t a stunt,” she said, adding: “The defendant lied about a matter of great national and international significance. This is not campaign hi-jinks. This is not just Roger being Roger.”

The prosecution team had originally recommended a sentence of seven to nine years, which Trump decried earlier this month as “horrible and unfair”. Almost immediately, William Barr, the attorney general, intervened and overruled the prosecutors, recommending a far more lenient sentence. Jackson called the what the justice department did “unprecedented”.

In what appeared to be a reference to the president’s running Twitter commentary on the case, Jackson said: “The court cannot be influenced by those comments. They were entirely inappropriate.”

Nevertheless, she believed the initial recommendation was unduly punitive. Probation, however, would not fit the gravity of the crimes committed, she said.

In the end, she arrived at her decision: Stone would be sentenced to 40 months in prison. But Stone would not be imprisoned until the judge rules on a motion brought by his defense team requesting a new trial.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/20/roger-stone-trial-40-months-sentence

 

[basilio]

The Cult of the Personality

A cult of personality, or cult of the leader,[1] arises when a country's regime – or, more rarely, an individual – uses the techniques of mass media, propaganda, the big lie, spectacle, the arts, patriotism, and government-organized demonstrations and rallies to create an idealized, heroic, and worshipful image of a leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. A cult of personality is similar to apotheosis, except that it is established by modern social engineering techniques, usually by the state or the party in one-party states and dominant-party states. It is often seen in totalitarian or authoritarian countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality

This is exemplified by the latest effort by Donald Trump to create a State apparatus staffed solely with Trump loyalists.

Trump Aide John Kelly Fired Is Back and ‘Empowered’ to Lead Purge of Never Trumpers


A formerly fired Trump aide is back in the White House and “empowered” to identify and root out Never Trumpers (“bad people” and “Deep State” operatives), Axios reported on Friday. John McEntee, 29, is now heading the Office of Presidential Personnel and will have the authority to keep perceived anti-Trump elements from being promoted across the federal government, instead “shifting them around agencies.”

Per the report:


Trump has empowered McEntee — whom he considers an absolute loyalist — to purge the “bad people” and “Deep State.”


McEntee told staff that those identified as anti-Trump will no longer get promotions by shifting them around agencies.


McEntee was once fired by former White House chief of staff John Kelly amid the cloud of a security concern then-reported as a financial crime investigation.

It was suggested that the “most dramatic changes” will have to wait until after the 2020 election–if President Donald Trump wins, of course. McEntee’s official return to the White House fold was reported last week.

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profil...nd-empowered-to-lead-purge-of-never-trumpers/

 

[Knobby22]

Nothing will hold Trump back if he wins this election. He will do what he wants.

The Republicans are dreaming if they think they can control him. He won't need them.

It will be interesting.

 

[IFocus]

This guy is a Republican worth a read from the other side he doesn't hold back on the issues or cherry pick the numbers not that I agree with his solutions or definitions but interesting that he sees how stark the problems are for much of the US.

Why Americans Want Socialism

As I write this, a self-proclaimed “democratic socialist” is leading the race for one of our major parties’ presidential nomination. The fact that so many Americans (especially young Americans) support Bernie Sanders ought to tell us something. A Quinnipiac poll out this week showed Senator Sanders with 54% support among Democrats age 18–34. Meanwhile, 50% of adults under 38 told the Harris Poll last year that they would “prefer living in a socialist country.”

https://www.mauldineconomics.com/frontlinethoughts/why-americans-want-socialism

 

[basilio]

This guy is a Republican worth a read from the other side he doesn't hold back on the issues or cherry pick the numbers not that I agree with his solutions or definitions but interesting that he sees how stark the problems are for much of the US.

Why Americans Want Socialism

As I write this, a self-proclaimed “democratic socialist” is leading the race for one of our major parties’ presidential nomination. The fact that so many Americans (especially young Americans) support Bernie Sanders ought to tell us something. A Quinnipiac poll out this week showed Senator Sanders with 54% support among Democrats age 18–34. Meanwhile, 50% of adults under 38 told the Harris Poll last year that they would “prefer living in a socialist country.”

https://www.mauldineconomics.com/frontlinethoughts/why-americans-want-socialism

I read that whole article and found it an excellent analysis of the American situation. Totally spot on.
The facts are there. The very large majority of the population is struggling to stay afloat while a very small sector are making out like bandits.

I may have posted this previously but there is an excellent analysis of income distribution in the US which shows that from 1945 till roughly 1975 incomes across the broad population rose steadily and in fact created a large relatively secure working class and middle class.

However since the mid eighties all the increase in wealth have gone to the rich and super rich. The working class and middle class have been squeezed till the pips squeak. That is the problem Maudlin recognises and says needs to be addressed.

https://equitablegrowth.org/the-dis...-states-and-implications-for-a-net-worth-tax/