[Tiste Simeon]

"You're not going to find anything but here's a list of things that you're definitely not going to find, and anyway if you do it's because they put them there!"

Not as hot a take as you might think you orange vaguely human shaped turd...

[worry]

Well, aside from being stupid, Donald Trump belongs to a certain caste of people for whom the brazenness is part of the point. Obtaining power, and flexing it. In his case, perpetually unwisely. But anyway, back to him being stupid, he believes these people are going to save him (it's a long-ish thread, but you'll get the gist pretty quick):
Link

They're not. And it remains to be seen if he even needs saving -- he belongs to that certain caste, after all. But there's going to be a lot of really stupid violence he and the entire right-wing apparatus deliberately inspire in the meantime. I mean it's already happening, and has been (and would/will be worse under any GOP leadership, so this is the mitigated version) -- but I imagine we will see a spike of free thinkers following this playbook.

[QuickTidal]

Tiste Simeon, on 12 August 2022 - 02:24 PM, said:

"You're not going to find anything but here's a list of things that you're definitely not going to find, and anyway if you do it's because they put them there!"

Not as hot a take as you might think you orange vaguely human shaped turd...

I think it's funny that Trump's base is stupid enough to not understand that a copy of the Search Warrant and Receipt were 100% left with him as with all search warrants, and he could have released that himself ANYTIME since Monday....but he didn't want to because it makes him look bad, so then his base is like "Release it! What are you hiding?!" to the DOJ....and so now Merrick Garland was pissed off enough to be like "Okay MFer, here you go. Made public"

And yeah, the only defence he can seem to craft is "They planted shit".

I wonder how bad this will be, are we talking Joel and Ethel Rosenberg bad? Like nuclear secrets are not something to mess around with...the DOJ doesn't appear to be playing games with him.

I've been burned before by thinking that Trump had FINALLY done something that someone could finally hold him accountable for...but his slimy ass has always wiggled out of it so I'm not holding my breath.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 12 August 2022 - 03:04 PM

[QuickTidal]

Adding: The motion to unseal that warrant was signed off by Jay Bratt, the DOJ Chief of Counterintelligence and Export Control. Heres his brief:

The Counterintelligence and Export Control Section (CES) supervises the investigation and prosecution of cases affecting national security, foreign relations, and the export of military and strategic commodities and technology. The Section has executive responsibility for authorizing the prosecution of cases under criminal statutes relating to espionage, sabotage, neutrality, and atomic energy.

So yeah...fuck me...this is pretty big stuff.

Do we think he kept those documents to sell, use as blackmail for money, or to show off....or all of the above?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 12 August 2022 - 03:03 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 12 August 2022 - 02:24 PM, said:

"You're not going to find anything but here's a list of things that you're definitely not going to find, and anyway if you do it's because they put them there!"

Not as hot a take as you might think you orange vaguely human shaped turd...

I think it's funny that Trump's base is stupid enough to not understand that a copy of the Search Warrant and Receipt were 100% left with him as with all search warrants, and he could have released that himself ANYTIME since Monday....but he didn't want to because it makes him look bad, so then his base is like "Release it! What are you hiding?!" to the DOJ....and so now Merrick Garland was pissed off enough to be like "Okay MFer, here you go. Made public"

And yeah, the only defence he can seem to craft is "They planted shit".

I wonder how bad this will be, are we talking Joel and Ethel Rosenberg bad? Like nuclear secrets are not something to mess around with...the DOJ doesn't appear to be playing games with him.

I've been burned before by thinking that Trump had FINALLY done something that someone could finally hold him accountable for...but his slimy ass has always wiggled out of it so I'm not holding my breath.

Yes, though there's also the remote possibility Trump was bluffing to encourage wild speculation he can then point to (or misleadingly take out of context) in his ongoing 'Russia Russia Russia, no collusion, witch hunt!' rants. And/or to make whatever is actually uncovered seem less bad by comparison (similar to a classic sales tactic referenced in Art of the Deal iirc).


'Team Putin Airs Insane Offer to "Help" America and "Save" Trump

[...] gracious proposals include placing Donald Trump under the protection of Moscow's security agency—and moving homeless American children to Russia.

[...] "We need to officially tackle the American democracy, American society, American economy," [...]

[...] "There are more homeless children in America than anywhere else in the world. These are the official statistics. There aren't that many impoverished neighborhoods, with medieval levels of poverty, not seen anywhere else—not even in Somalia," [...] "Clearly, we have to help Americans to deal with this disaster. Of course, we can take those homeless children and raise them—normally, without gays and transgenders, in normal, classic culture. We need to start dealing with this right away."

[...] "We should ask [Russia's] Federal Security Service to start protecting our Donald."

[...] praising Trump's refusal to answer questions during his deposition [...] The host beamed with pride: "Well done, Trump!" [...] "This is the only good thing I can tell you about the United States of America." In a theme that was covered all over Russian state media—as though it was the networks' top assignment for the day— Solovyov condemned American democracy as an "ultra-totalitarian system."

[...] "We [Russians] are the last free generation of humanity." He claimed that in the West, admitting that you are a Bible-carrying believer is dangerous and could lead to the said person being pelted by rocks. [...] the new Iron Curtain, enforced through visa bans for the Russians, would turn into the modern-day Berlin wall—with Westerners trying to break through and immigrate to Russia as the last remaining bastion of freedom in the world.'

Russian State Media Airs Insane Offer to 'Help' America and 'Save' Donald Trump

[Malankazooie]

Don't know if it's real or made up, but Trump fundraising with a 'nuclear code' in the promotion is a new low. Like a leech on a snake's belly low.

Also, Fox News is back in competition shape. I think there may have been a feeling that they were moving off of Trump at one time.

https://twitter.com/...926941646282752

[worry]

The fundraising one is a joke, but the Fox News bit is very very real, and very very deliberate -- they want this judge killed, the way they did Dr. George Tiller.

[worry]

Speaking of...

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Did the F.B.I. Just Re-elect Donald Trump?

[...] Several weeks ago, about half of Republican voters were ready to move on from Trump, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll. This week the entire party seemed to rally behind him. Republican strategists advising Trump's potential primary opponents had reason to be despondent. "Completely handed him a lifeline," [...] "Unbelievable … It put everybody in the wagon for Trump again. It's just taken the wind out of everybody's sails."

[...] 83 percent of likely Republican voters said the F.B.I. search made them more motivated to vote in the 2022 elections. Over 75 percent of likely Republican voters believed Trump's political enemies were behind the search rather than the impartial justice system, as did 48 percent of likely general election voters overall.

In a normal society, when politicians get investigated or charged, it hurts them politically. But that no longer applies to the G.O.P. The judicial system may be colliding with the political system in an unprecedented way.'

Will the F.B.I.'s Mar-a-Lago Raid Help Re-elect Trump?

'[Fox News Host] Sean Hannity says that Trump could run for president from jail

[...] Marc Elias, top lawyer for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, tweeted "The media is missing the really, really big reason why the raid today is a potential blockbuster in American politics." [...] anyone "having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, [...] forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States."

[... Hannity:]

"You know, this code that is being cited by Marc Elias and all these other people negates the very enumerated qualifications in the Constitution, and the specific requirements for somebody not to be eligible to run, and that would be impeachment and conviction,"'

Sean Hannity says that Trump could run for president from jail, if he wanted to

Would probably be up to how the ultra-reactionary Supreme Court feels about Trump vs other possible candidates (principles schminciples, it's Go* alone that counts!)....

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

At least we should be able to look forward to John Oliver doing a third Stupid Watergate segment.

[Malankazooie]

https://www.queerty....doxxed-20220815

[Cause]

So amongst the many potential defended Trump is trying out is that he ordered any document he took to be declassified.

The media is debating whether or not he can just do that. This to me is the wrong argument. The right argument is what a threat to America it would be if a president can and did just go around waving his magic wand and declassifying documents. Who cares if he declassified nuclear secrets, the point is they shouldn’t have been and they shouldn’t have been vulnerable. This defense is worse than the crime and I have yet to see anyone note it

[Primateus]

Cause, on 16 August 2022 - 06:21 PM, said:

So amongst the many potential defended Trump is trying out is that he ordered any document he took to be declassified.

The media is debating whether or not he can just do that. This to me is the wrong argument. The right argument is what a threat to America it would be if a president can and did just go around waving his magic wand and declassifying documents. Who cares if he declassified nuclear secrets, the point is they shouldn't have been and they shouldn't have been vulnerable. This defense is worse than the crime and I have yet to see anyone note it

I just saw an interview with John Bolton, of all people, where he said that if this was true, then he would like to see the press submit FOIA requests for any and all documents Trump declassified with his "magic declassifying wand".

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Cause, on 16 August 2022 - 06:21 PM, said:

So amongst the many potential defended Trump is trying out is that he ordered any document he took to be declassified.

The media is debating whether or not he can just do that. This to me is the wrong argument. The right argument is what a threat to America it would be if a president can and did just go around waving his magic wand and declassifying documents. Who cares if he declassified nuclear secrets, the point is they shouldn't have been and they shouldn't have been vulnerable. This defense is worse than the crime and I have yet to see anyone note it

There are nuclear (and other) secrets a president can't (legally) unilaterally declassify:

'the president's authority to classify and thus declassify information in the interest of national security derives from his Article II constitutional authority [...] there is information which is "classified" not pursuant to the president's Article II authority but rather pursuant to statutory law.

For example, the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 as amended (AEA) [...] information classified by the AEA is not subject to automatic or unilateral declassification by a president but rather requires review prior to the removal of classification safeguards.'

No, Donald Trump is not the forever boss of classified records

Sure, a President can't declassify them unilaterally... but what about a Tsar Kaiser Caesar Trump?...

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 16 August 2022 - 08:50 PM

[Malankazooie]

Goodbye Liz Cheney... in Wyoming at least.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Texas School Bans the Bible

[...] pulled all versions of the Bible and the graphic novel version of Anne Frank's Diary from its library shelves ahead of the start of the school year.

[...] new policy came after Texas state officials launched an official investigation [...] over sexually explicit books in its library. Parents and teachers met in secret for months, reviewing the books and making decisions about what could stay and what could go. Participants had to sign confidentiality agreements.

[...] "But because they all passed the committee process, our extreme Christian nationalist school board decided the process was 'rigged.' Sound familiar? I served on the committee for The Diary of Anne Frank Graphic Novel. The person who challenged the book didn't even show up to defend their position. But now the book is pulled."

[...] the district decided to pull all books on the challenged list for the time being. [...]

Much of the current wave of book banning in the United States is being fueled by groups like Moms For Liberty that are explicitly Conservative and Christian, so it's ironic that the district has included The Bible in its list of banned titles. It's a book for which there is at least a plausible argument for banning, considering the Constitutionally enshrined, but poorly enforced, separation of church and state.

Book bannings in schools and libraries have become increasingly common in America. The targets are typically books that deal with LGBTQ themes, books that deal with sex in any way shape or form, and books about the Holocaust. Librarians and administrators have also reported receiving threats and discrimination after setting up displays featuring LGBTQ books, and right-wing extremist groups have disrupted multiple Pride-themed events in libraries across the US.'

Texas School Bans the Bible

No need for books when you've got Fox News and Truth Social....

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 17 August 2022 - 03:15 PM

[Malankazooie]

Malankazooie, on 17 August 2022 - 05:42 AM, said:

Goodbye Liz Cheney... in Wyoming at least.

Welp, talk now is she might bid for the top job. That'll probably go over like a lead balloon. Then again, who knows these days, right? I haven't really followed her politics as public servant, but I think she had some reprehensible takes on "enhanced interrogation", which I suppose is expected... apple from tree and all that. BTW, and on that slant, where and when did the Dick Cheney as Darth Vader meme have it's origins? Wouldn't he be more like that Pelpertine guy?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'More Money for I.R.S. Spurs Conspiracy Theories of "Shadow Army"

[...] It has been called President Biden’s “shadow army,” described as a strike force to shake down small businesses with assault rifles and likened to a militia of auditors on search-and-destroy missions.

[...] Senator Chuck Grassley [...] warned Fox News viewers last week that the new I.R.S. agents, a small percentage of whom are allowed to carry firearms, might be coming with loaded “AK-15s” and “ready to shoot some small business person in Iowa.”

“I think they’re going after middle-class and small business people,” [...]

“Middle-class families ought to be frightened,” [...]

The 87,000 hires were described [...] as “thugs” and “terrorists” and likened repeatedly to the Gestapo, the K.G.B. and even soldiers for the Roman Empire [...] calling the I.R.S. an “army.”

[...] questioned why the I.R.S. suddenly needed “a massive stockpile of guns and ammo” (the agency’s spending on ammunition this year is actually in line with its many years of purchases, according to fact checkers) and accused Democrats of “weaponizing” the agency with agents “trained to kill Americans.”

[...] theorized that the I.R.S., armed to the teeth, was coming to seize their guns, and threatened to retaliate.

[...] Kari Lake, the Trump-backed election conspiracist running to be governor of Arizona, wrote [...] “not a single one of us is safe.” She suggested, as did other high-profile users, that it was no coincidence that “they hired 87,000 IRS agents the day before” the F.B.I. search of Mar-a-Lago, even though the bill enabling the hiring had not yet been signed into law.'

More Money for I.R.S. Spurs Conspiracy Theories of ‘Shadow Army’

'Households earning less than $400,000 "will likely see the chance of an audit decline," [the Department of the] Treasury said in a statement.'

The IRS wants to spend billions on "enforcement." Here's who is most likely to get audited

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'The Arizona Republican Party’s Anti-Democracy Experiment

[...] Now it has set its sights on democracy — the principles, the process and even the word itself.

[...] the use of “democracy” as a kind of shorthand and even a slur for Democrats themselves, for the left and all the positions espoused by the left, for hordes of would-be but surely unqualified or even illegal voters who are fundamentally anti-American and must be opposed and stopped at all costs.

[...] the view among Arizona Republicans — and many more across the nation — that democracy itself was at fault and had been weaponized by the political left, or the “enemies from within,” as [Joseph] McCarthy once put it.

[...] “We are a constitutional republic. We are not a democracy. Nowhere in the Constitution does it use the word ‘democracy.’ When I hear the word ‘democracy,’ I think of the democracy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That’s not us.”

[...] “Please strike the word democracy from your vocabulary! WE ARE A REPUBLIC!!!”

[...] most of the G.O.P. candidates seemed to share Bliss’s fears of majority rule as well as a desire to inflict harsh punishment on those they perceive as threats, deviants and un-American.

[...] Jim Arroyo, the head of Arizona’s biggest chapter of the Oath Keepers, a far-right paramilitary group made up largely of current and former members of the armed forces and law enforcement. McCarthy, he said, “was not only right — he understated the seriousness of it.”

[...] A campaign video [of the Republican gubernatorial candidate] displays her bashing televisions to bits with a sledgehammer and a baseball bat. At a rally the night before the primary, she directed her audience to turn around and “show these bastards” — referring to the camera crews positioned on a riser — their disapproval, which they proceeded to do with loud jeers.

[...] “We are a Wild West state,” [she] proudly declared to a cheering audience at the Trump rally[...]

[...] Finchem sidled up to the microphone with a pistol conspicuously strapped to his right hip. After describing his work history in law enforcement[...] he then offered a different sort of qualification. With a grin, Finchem said, “The Atlantic put out a piece yesterday: I’m the most dangerous person to democracy in America.”

[...] the notion of Arizona’s G.O.P. secretary of state front-runner as a threat to democracy was received rapturously. Several women in the audience yelled out “Whooo!” and applauded.

[...] Any glitch or ambiguity on voting day would be sufficient to dispute any future election results that did not emphatically produce the outcome desired by the ascendant reactionary right.

[...] Given their prevalence, I asked him, was there any reason at all to suspect anything more devious than human error in Pinal County? Finchem thought for a second as beads of sweat rolled down from underneath his cowboy hat. Then, grimly, he answered.

“Everything is suspect right now.”'

The Arizona Republican Party’s Anti-Democracy Experiment

[Cause]

Amazing. The Republican national senate committee can’t account for 125 million dollars in their budget. A budget ultimate run by Rick Scott, who famously defrauded Medicare. You can’t make this up! What were they expecting. I