American Politics

[Knobby22]

Saw Tucker Carlson got the sack.
Also notice Russian State Television RT have offered him a job. Would be a good fit.

 

[moXJO]

Saw Tucker Carlson got the sack.
Also notice Russian State Television RT have offered him a job. Would be a good fit.

Lemon and Tucker should do a sitcom together.

 

[basilio]

The civil case of Jean Carroll suing Donald Trump for rape and defamation is gathering pace.
Trump obviously can't go to jail if she wins the case. But that won't be the point.

Interesting to see how and why Jean Carroll decided to finally begin her civil suit.

E Jean Carroll says she sued for rape on advice of Trump adviser’s husband​

Writer tells New York jury George Conway, the husband of top Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, encouraged her to take legal action

Chris McGreal in New York
Mon 1 May 2023 18.19 EDTFirst published on Mon 1 May 2023 13.50 EDT


The advice columnist E Jean Carroll sued Donald Trump for rape after she was encouraged to take legal action by George Conway, the husband of a top aide to the then president.

On her third day on the witness stand, Carroll told the jury hearing her lawsuit for battery and defamation over the alleged sexual assault in a New York department store changing room in 1996 that she did not intend to sue Trump until he called her a liar when she went public with her accusations more than two decades later.



E Jean Carroll: ‘invincible old lady’ tells Trump rape trial of years of suffering

Read more
Shortly afterwards she met Conway, a lawyer who was at the time married to Kellyanne Conway, one of the Trump White House’s most visible officials. George Conway was a vocal critic of the then president, to the embarrassment of his wife.

Carroll said that they spoke at a party where Conway laid out the difference between criminal and civil cases.

“George said: you should seriously think about this,” she told the jury of six men and three women.

Two days later, Carroll filed her first lawsuit against Trump, for defamation, after he called her a liar in denying the alleged rape at the luxury Bergdorf Goodman store.

E Jean Carroll says she sued for rape on advice of Trump adviser’s husband

Writer tells New York jury George Conway, the husband of top Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, encouraged her to take legal action

www.theguardian.com

 

[basilio]

So how many people have died in the US though guns this year ? How many mass killings have there been ? How will the trend be reversed?
The Gun Violence Archive adds up the figures. See below.

Meanwhile at least one fervent gun lover has had a change of heart. But you really should get the whole picture from the article. Some seriously crazy suggestions.

‘Gun-loving’ ex-US army officer calls for gun control after witnessing Texas mall shooting​

Steven Spainhouer described rushing to the shopping center after his son called and trying to help a girl who ‘had no face’

Ramon Antonio Vargas
Tue 9 May 2023 06.00 BST



As an ex-police and US army officer, Steven Spainhouer is comfortable around firearms and goes so far as to describe himself as a “gun lover”.
But Spainhouer is now passionately arguing in favor of meaningful gun control after witnessing a rifle-wielding man murder several people before being shot to death by police outside a suburban Dallas shopping mall Saturday.



Texas mall shooting victims include grade-school sisters and young engineer

Read more
“We need some action in our legislatures at the federal and state level for better gun control,” he said in an interview with MSNBC a day after the mass killing outside Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas. “And I’m saying that as someone who loves guns.”

‘Gun-loving’ ex-US army officer calls for gun control after witnessing Texas mall shooting

Steven Spainhouer described rushing to the shopping center after his son called and trying to help a girl who ‘had no face’

www.theguardian.com

Gun Violence Archive

www.gunviolencearchive.org

 

[basilio]

Mitch McConnel looking very fragile. I wasn't aware that he has had some serious health issues and falls in recent times. Check out teh rest of the story. The video of his Press Conferance is concerning.

Mitch McConnell abruptly stops mid-sentence during press conference​

Senate Republican leader appears to lose train of thought and stares for 20 seconds before being escorted away from podium

Associated Press
Thu 27 Jul 2023 10.41 AESTFirst published on Thu 27 Jul 2023 06.24 AEST

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, briefly left his own press conference on Wednesday after stopping his remarks mid-sentence and staring off into space for several seconds.

McConnell approached the podium for his weekly press conference and began speaking about the annual defense bill on the floor, which he said was proceeding with “good bipartisan cooperation”. But he then appeared to lose his train of thought, trailing off with a drawn-out “uh”.

He then appeared to “freeze” and stared for about 20 seconds before his colleagues in the Republican leadership, who were standing behind him and could not see his face, took his elbows and asked if he wanted to go back to his office.

Mitch McConnell abruptly stops mid-sentence during press conference

Senate Republican leader appears to lose train of thought and stares for 20 seconds before being escorted away from podium

www.theguardian.com

 

[mullokintyre]

Thats what ya get for having geriatrics run ya country.
Desantis looks done, Kennedy looking stronger by the day, and is cutting across all demographic and political sectors.
There may be hope yet.
Mick

 

[Knobby22]

Mitch McConnel looking very fragile. I wasn't aware that he has had some serious health issues and falls in recent times. Check out teh rest of the story. The video of his Press Conferance is concerning.

Mitch McConnell abruptly stops mid-sentence during press conference​

Senate Republican leader appears to lose train of thought and stares for 20 seconds before being escorted away from podium

Associated Press
Thu 27 Jul 2023 10.41 AESTFirst published on Thu 27 Jul 2023 06.24 AEST

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, briefly left his own press conference on Wednesday after stopping his remarks mid-sentence and staring off into space for several seconds.

McConnell approached the podium for his weekly press conference and began speaking about the annual defense bill on the floor, which he said was proceeding with “good bipartisan cooperation”. But he then appeared to lose his train of thought, trailing off with a drawn-out “uh”.

He then appeared to “freeze” and stared for about 20 seconds before his colleagues in the Republican leadership, who were standing behind him and could not see his face, took his elbows and asked if he wanted to go back to his office.

Mitch McConnell abruptly stops mid-sentence during press conference

Senate Republican leader appears to lose train of thought and stares for 20 seconds before being escorted away from podium

www.theguardian.com

Stroke?

 

[mullokintyre]

Trans Ischemic Attack sometimes called Mini Stroke is my unprofessional diagnosis.
mick

 

[wayneL]

Thats what ya get for having geriatrics run ya country.
Desantis looks done, Kennedy looking stronger by the day, and is cutting across all demographic and political sectors.
There may be hope yet.
Mick

Yep Ronny is a gonner for this election. Vivek Ramaswamy getting some traction. It seems The God Emperor is a shoe in for GOP nomination at this stage.

On the Dem side, jeez I hope Bobby Jnr gets up, that'd be an interesting contest.

 

[basilio]

Criminal electoral fraud.
Excellent investigative article on the fraudulent process Trump and some of his lawyers undertook to create alternative slates of voters for the Electoral College. After the State election results have been verified the winning party brings together a slate of electors to represent the final outcome and have these votes counted in Congress. Trump and co decided they would call a slate of Republician voters together to sign bogus declarations that Trump had won the State of Georgia.

Inside Trump’s ‘alternate electors’ plot to steal the vote in Georgia

We piece together the astonishing story of how 16 men and women tried to reshape the course of US history

www.theguardian.com

 

[basilio]

Timeline

Key dates in the Georgia fake electors scheme​

Hide
3 November 2020
2020 election.

13 November 2020
Trump campaign attorneys concede in court he has lost the vote count in Arizona, which in turn implies he has lost the presidential election.

18 November 2020
Trump campaign outside legal advisor Kenneth Chesebro writes secret memo arguing Trump could mobilize his electors and buy himself time to challenge his defeat in the courts.

3 December 2020
Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani testifies before the Georgia Senate and makes numerous false claims about widespread voting irregularities and fraud

8 December 2020
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton files lawsuit with the Supreme Court challenging Biden’s victory in four battleground states, including Georgia.

8 December 2020
Chesebro spoke to an Arizona lawyer involved in organising the “alternate” slate for Trump there.

11 December 2020
Supreme Court throws out the case.

12 December 2020
Trump campaign state director for election day operations Robert Sinners writes email to Georgia fake electors asking them for secrecy.

14 December 2002
Official electors meet at Georgia Capitol to cast electoral college votes. Fake electors also meet in same building.

14 December 2020
Signed fake certificates then mailed to vice-president Mike Pence ahead of his ceremonial count of the electoral college votes on 6 January, as well as to the National Archivist and others.

6 January 2021
Attack on the US Capitol.

Inside Trump’s ‘alternate electors’ plot to steal the vote in Georgia

We piece together the astonishing story of how 16 men and women tried to reshape the course of US history

www.theguardian.com

 

[basilio]

Could Donald Trump be disqualified for running as President under "engaged in insurrection" clause ? According to a number of conservative US lawyers the case is exceptionally strong.

Could Trump be barred under the constitution’s ‘engaged in insurrection’ clause?​

Experts suggest language in section 3 of 14th amendment is ‘actually very clearcut’ and could mean disqualification
... says that no person who has taken an oath “as an officer of the United States” can hold office if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof”.

That language disqualifies Trump from running for office because of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, two prominent conservative scholars, William Baude of the University of Chicago and Michael Stokes Paulsen of the University of St Thomas, concluded in a much-discussed article to be published the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

“The bottom line is that Donald Trump ‘engaged in insurrection or rebellion’ and gave ‘aid or comfort’ to others engaging in such conduct, within the original meaning of those terms as employed in section 3 of the 14th amendment,” Baude and Paulsen wrote in their 126-page article, which traces the history and original understanding of the amendment. “If the public record is accurate, the case is not even close.”

The provision was enacted after the civil war to bar those who had joined the Confederacy from holding federal office, Baude and Paulsen note in their article. Never before has it been tested to bar a presidential candidate from office.

“I think it’s really actually very clearcut,” said Steven Calabresi, a law professor at Northwestern University and a co-founder of the conservative Federalist Society (the group has reportedly instructed him not to speak to any journalist who identifies him as a co-founder). “Section 3 nowhere limits itself to the civil war or Confederates who broke their oath. It’s in general language, and so it applies to anyone who incites an insurrection or rebellion,” he added, noting that he believed the January 6 attack on the Capitol was an insurrection.

Could Trump be barred under the constitution’s ‘engaged in insurrection’ clause?

Experts suggest language in section 3 of 14th amendment is ‘actually very clearcut’ and could mean disqualification

www.theguardian.com

 

[basilio]

How does one encourage Trump supporters to take up arms ? Lets gets direct shall we. This is the Glock Trump desperately wanted to buy .

The Troubling History of Gun Shop That Hosted Trump​

TRIGGER WARNING
He couldn’t buy a pistol bearing his likeness—but they have clearly bought into Trumpism.

Donald Trump could not have picked a more perfect gun shop to make a campaign stop.

The Palmetto State Armory retail outlet in Summerville, South Carolina, did not only have a Glock semi-automatic pistol inscribed with his name and likeness. The company itself has a history of capitalizing on the crazy core of Trumpism: insurrection and racial conflict and disrespect for democracy.

Palmetto State Armory manufactured the assault rifle that a racist gunman decorated with two white swastikas before he used it to murder three Black people at a Dollar General Store in Jacksonville, Florida, late last month. But that could have just as easily been Smith & Wesson or Bushmaster or Daniel Defense.

Only Palmetto State Armory has painted a whole line of assault weapons in the style of an Hawaiian shirt, the unofficial uniform of the Boogaloo Boys, a militant movement that calls for the violent overthrow of the federal government accompanied by a racial civil war.

The Troubling History of Gun Shop That Hosted Trump

He couldn’t buy a pistol bearing his likeness—but they have clearly bought into Trumpism.

www.thedailybeast.com

 

[basilio]

I'm a bit surprised this story hasn't got more coverage on ASF. A powerful Democrat Senator seemingly up to his ears in bribes and corruption. So far he has denied everything and resisted all calls to stand down.

Gold bars, stacks of cash and bribery charges: is time up for Bob Menendez?​

The New Jersey senator says he won’t resign but a federal indictment lays out a lurid scheme of alleged corruption

Adam Gabbatt

@adamgabbatt
Sun 1 Oct 2023 21.00 AEDTLast modified on Sun 1 Oct 2023 21.53 AEDT


When federal prosecutors raided Bob Menendez’s home in the summer of 2022, they found a staggering haul.
The US senator for New Jersey, one of the most influential and powerful Democrats in the country, had almost $500,000 in cash stuffed into jacket pockets, closets and a safe, along with 13 gold bars, two of them marked as 1kg in weight.

In the garage was a gleaming Mercedes-Benz, allegedly bought for Menendez and his wife, who has been charged along with her husband with accepting bribes in return for political favors.

“Congratulations mon amour de la vie, we are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes,” Nadine Mendendez texted her husband on taking possession of the black convertible in April 2019. A day earlier, prosecutors say, a New Jersey businessman, who has a previous conviction for fraud, gave her $15,000 in cash towards the car, and would eventually pay for its entire cost.

Menendez was last week accused, with his wife and three Jersey-based businessmen, of a staggering range of offenses. The story has struck a blow to the heart of Democratic politics, especially when the party is busy trying to convince an increasingly cynical electorate it is a safe pair of hands for honest American governance.

Gold bars, stacks of cash and bribery charges: is time up for Bob Menendez?

The New Jersey senator says he won’t resign but a federal indictment lays out a lurid scheme of alleged corruption

www.theguardian.com

 

[basilio]

How Americans vote . As told in Boston legal.
Rapier sharp. Throws all the tropes in. Great fun.

 

[Knobby22]

Jim Jordan using Brownshirt tactics, threatening Republican lawmakers with all sorts of things including death to try to win vote. What a piece of work.

 

[mullokintyre]

American politics, corrupt, lacking ethics, has no moral compass, and is a plaything for the rich and powerful.
Oz heading the same way.
Mick

 

[basilio]

Learn something new about US politics.
A very interesting story on how the outcome of the the 1948 US election almost paralysed US politics.

Excellent history lesson

A Southern Rebellion in 1948 Almost Threw American Democracy into Disarray​

The 1948 presidential election almost became a constitutional crisis.

In the second in a series of articles that we’ve named “The Closest Calls,” author and journalist Jeff Greenfield looks at some of the most narrowly decided presidential elections. In this piece, he explores how a change of a tiny handful of votes could have plunged the United States into a political deadlock that would have altered the course of American history.

There was no way Harry Truman was going to win a full term for himself in 1948. No way.
It would have been hard for any successor to Franklin D. Roosevelt to have gained the nation’s approval. But the contrast between the patrician, regal Roosevelt and the bespectacled, unimposing Missourian was particularly stark. Moreover, the years immediately following the end of World War II were unsettling: A wave of strikes by labor unions determined to make up for the wartime wage freeze, rampant inflation, the first signs of an emerging Cold War with the Soviet Union that shattered the hopes of a post-war tranquility.


The discontent was clear when the 1946 midterms brought Republicans into control of the Congress for the first time in 16 years. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the Democratic coalition was beginning to come apart on both ends. On the left, former Vice President Henry Wallace — whom Truman fired as commerce secretary for his sympathetic views toward Russia — was mounting a presidential bid under the banner of the Progressive Party. On the right, Southerners were chafing at Truman’s civil rights agenda, which included federal laws to crack down on lynchings and poll taxes, and a bigger federal role combating employment discrimination. Mississippi Gov. Fielding Wright, in his inaugural address, warned his fellow Democrats that they could not rely on the South’s electoral votes.

A Southern Rebellion in 1948 Almost Threw American Democracy into Disarray

The 1948 presidential election almost became a constitutional crisis.

www.politico.com

 

[sptrawler]

U.S politics looking great at the moment, looks like the current Government has everything under control, things are so much calmer now that Trump has gone.
The loonies have really got a handle on it, it will test the mettle of Australia's youth, there will be a lot of inner city camo wearers when half the population live in Sydney/ Melbourne.
It's all looking rosy.

1000 nuclear warheads by 2030: China’s arsenal is getting bigger faster, says US

A new report warns that China may be pursuing a new intercontinental missile system using conventional arms that could threaten continental US, Hawaii and Alaska.

www.theage.com.au

Washington: A Pentagon report on China’s military power says Beijing is exceeding previous projections of how quickly it is building up its nuclear weapons arsenal and is “almost certainly” learning lessons from Russia’s war in Ukraine about what a conflict over Taiwan might look like.
The report released on Friday (AEDT) also warns that China may be pursuing a new intercontinental missile system using conventional arms that, if fielded, would allow Beijing “to threaten conventional strikes against targets in the continental United States, Hawaii and Alaska”.

https://www.livenowfox.com/news/north-korea-threatens-nuclear-strike-us-aircraft-carriers-arrival-south-korea.

North Korea lashed out Friday at the arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group in South Korea, calling it a provocation and again raising the specter of using nuclear weapons to defend itself.

Emboldened by its advancing nuclear arsenal, North Korea has increasingly issued threats to use such weapons preemptively. But the North is still outgunned by U.S. and South Korean forces, and experts say it is unlikely to use its nukes first, though it will continue to upgrade those arms without returning to diplomacy for the time being.

US must be ready for simultaneous wars with China, Russia, report says

The United States must prepare for possible simultaneous wars with Russia and China by expanding its conventional forces, strengthening alliances and enhancing its nuclear weapons modernization program, a congressionally appointed bipartisan panel said on Thursday.

www.reuters.com

Biden’s chip war against China is ramping up with new restrictions on advanced chips

"When we identify national security or human rights threats, we will act decisively," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

fortune.com

Biden faces more criticism about the US-Mexico border, one of his biggest problems heading into 2024

The U.S.-Mexico border and immigration are creating political and security challenges for President Joe Biden

abcnews.go.com

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/05/politics/biden-administration-border-wall/index.html

President Joe Biden said Thursday that he doesn’t believe border walls work, even as his administration said it will waive 26 laws to build additional border barriers in the Rio Grande Valley amid heightened political pressure over migration.

According to a notice posted to the Federal Register Wednesday, construction of the wall will be paid for using already appropriated funds earmarked specifically for physical border barriers. The administration was under a deadline to use them or lose them. But the move comes at a time when a new surge of migrants is straining federal and local resources and placing heavy political pressure on the Biden administration to address a sprawling crisis, and the notice cited “high illegal entry.

 

[sptrawler]

And now on your ABC, it sounds like everyone is taking the pizz out of America, christ knows how they are going to look authoritative with Biden in charge.
Oh what a mess, the West being led by virtue signalers, while the bullies build their allegiances, this could end very badly IMO
Time will tell, as it always does, but the U.S must be getting nervous and if they are, the rest of us are in real manure.

Biden tried to reassert US leadership in the Middle East, but left with fewer friends and greater risks

US President Joe Biden had hoped his Middle East visit would reinforce US leadership and calm a spiralling crisis in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks and Israel’s bombing of Gaza. Instead it was derailed by the explosion at a Gaza hospital, writes Eric Tlozek.

www.abc.net.au