US Politics Thread 2016-2020

[u crank]

Kass asks a very relevant question in this article but don't hold your breath waiting for the progressive/left media to correct the record.

https://outline.com/9X7twq

Trump is no angel. He’s a transactional man, a dealmaker, a man of questionable ethics and disposition. And if there is any time journalism is required to cover and challenge him, it is now. But after three years of over-the-top cheerleading for “The Resistance,” and soiling itself in the Russia hoax, does the media have any credibility?

Reporters carried water for now discredited former FBI Director James Comey, and for now discredited U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, who served as the Democratic Inspector Javert of the impeachment, and many others.

So, who lied and who told the truth? Who spun political news stories that were believed as fact and became talking points for partisan jabbering?

Can the media fact check themselves?

In Washington, journalists attend formal dinners and literally sing and dance in musical skits to amuse the establishment ruling class.

They give themselves awards — including Pulitzer Prizes for reporting the Russia-Trump story — that have not been, as yet, returned.

[August]

Interesting article:


How Trump won 2019

President Trump ends 2019 in a better position than when he started. The year began with the swearing in of Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House. The Mueller probe dragged on. The legislative agenda of Trump's first two years in office had petered out. The Democratic frontrunner, Joe Biden, was beating him by double digits in the polls. A little more than halfway through the year, bond prices signaled recession.

Look where things stand now. Pelosi's decision to impeach Trump already has cost her a seat and stands zero chance of resulting in a Senate conviction. Not only has Mueller shuffled off the stage, but Michael Horowitz's report on FBI malfeasance also raises serious doubts about the credibility of the government and media elites who spent years arguing that Trump and his associates were Russian agents. Mitch McConnell blocks liberal bills from the House while confirming additional conservative judges. Biden is damaged and the problems of his candidacy manifest as he sleepwalks toward his party's nomination. The economy is gangbusters.

Nothing the Democratic majority has done has hurt Trump's approval rating. At this time last year, he stood at 42 percent approval and 52 percent disapproval in the RealClearPolitics average of polls. As I write, the RCP average of Trump's approval rating is 45 percent and disapproval is 52 percent. Trump's numbers are remarkably stable and closely track President Obama's at this point in his presidency. Biden began the year with big leads over Trump. Since then his margin has dwindled to 4 percent. And that's before Trump drops $1 billion in negative social media on him (or whoever the nominee is) next year.

https://freebeacon.com/columns/how-trump-won-2019/

[mapuc]

A little laugh before Christmas

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50849559

Markus

[Rockstar]

The President is head of the Executive, which carries exclusive power to conduct foreign relations. No other branch of government has this power…. As Executive, the President is the ONLY official authorized to request foreign assistance in a corruption investigation…. Obtaining foreign cooperation in investigations of corruption by a US official is a matter of statecraft/diplomacy, ie, a function of foreign affairs…. CONCLUSION: Trump not only is entirely within his powers to use foreign aid as a means to persuade Zelensky to investigate the Biden affair, I believe he was obligated to do so…. The fact Trump may obtain…political advantage from the investigation is simply irrelevant as a matter of law.


Below is the treaty that the Clinton Administration signed on July 22, 1998, in Kiev, Ukraine. Which allows a president to ask Ukraine for legal assistance on criminal matters.



TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND UKRAINE ON MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN CRIMINAL MATTERS WITH ANNEX, SIGNED AT KIEV ON JULY 22, 1998, AND WITH AN EXCHANGE OF NOTES SIGNED ON SEPTEMBER 30,1999, WHICH PROVIDES FOR ITS PROVISIONAL APPLICATION


THE WHITE HOUSE, November 10, 1999. To the Senate of the United States:

With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, I transmit herewith the Treaty Between the United States of America and Ukraine on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters with Annex, signed at Kiev on July 22, 1998. I transmit also, for the information of the Senate, an exchange of notes which was signed on September 30, 1999, which provides for its provisional application, as well as the report of the Department of State with respect to the Treaty.The Treaty is one of a series of modern mutual legal assistance treaties being negotiated by the United States in order to counter criminal activities more effectively. The Treaty should be an effective tool to assist in the prosecution of a wide variety of crimes, including drug trafficking offenses. The Treaty is self-executing. It provides for a broad range of cooperation in criminal matters. Mutual assistance available under the Treaty includes: taking of testimony or statements of persons; providing documents, records, and articles of evidence; serving documents; locating or identifying per-sons; transferring persons in custody for testimony or other purposes; executing requests for searches and seizures; assisting in proceedings related to restraint, confiscation, forfeiture of assets,restitution, and collection of fines; and any other form of assistance not prohibited by the laws of the requested state. I recommend that the Senate give early and favorable consideration to the Treaty and give its advice and consent to ratification.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON.

https://www.congress.gov/106/cdoc/td...-106tdoc16.pdf





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[mapuc]

Now I'm confused.

Have President Trump committed a crime when he asked or forced the Ukrainian President to investigate Biden son ?

Or have he not ?

I know he is accused on two things(forgot the correct word)

Markus

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Now I'm confused.

Have President Trump committed a crime when he asked or forced the Ukrainian President to investigate Biden son ?

Or have he not ?

I know he is accused on two things(forgot the correct word)

Markus

Abuse of power(which can be construed as anything)
Obstruction of Congress(made up nonsense)

Not a crime.

[Rockstar]

Considering past behavior of politicians it doesn't seem to really matter what party a politician belongs too because in the end, career politicians WILL circle the wagons to protect their own and power. First there are the accusations and threats by one party and now the other party has the power to convict. Not that Trump himself is any angel. But the thought has run through my mind that this whole impeachment ordeal is just charade. These guys are going after him at all angles for a reason. Too put it simply if Trumps wants to keep his name, possessions, and privacy he will have to join the swamp and play their rules. I mean common just look at Obama which proves to me presidents are becoming if not already just a figure head.

[August]

[Skybird]

SEALs speak out against platoon leader Galagher.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50931195

I gave him the shadow of a doubt. But no more.

[August]

Originally Posted by Skybird

I gave him the shadow of a doubt. But no more.

Oooh he's in trouble now!

[Onkel Neal]

Mayor Pete is making sense, he's attempting to resurrect the ACA mandate in part with his new health-insurance proposal, which would create a public option: basically Medicare for all who want it . . . and a few who don’t. Under his proposal, those who fail to sign up for a qualifying health-insurance plan would automatically be enrolled in the government plan, and they would owe premiums — including retroactive premiums for lapses in coverage.

The grievously misnamed Affordable Care Act was in part an effort to replicate the widely admired Swiss health-care system in the American context. The basic problem with that always has been that Switzerland is full of Swiss people, while the United States is full of maniacs.

The preexisting-conditions mandate, which is popular, creates a free-rider problem (i.e. nobody has any incentive to sign up for health insurance until they are actually sick, and so insurance cannot actually function as insurance), hence the hated individual mandate, the rule that people buy insurance. The Swiss enforce their individual mandate ruthlessly—if you fail to sign up for a plan, then the government signs you up for one and you owe your new insurer back premiums and interest to cover any lapse in coverage. The Swiss achieve practically universal compliance; we repealed our mandate, because we like the benefits but don’t want them to have any strings attached.

[Buddahaid]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

The basic problem with that always has been that Switzerland is full of Swiss people, while the United States is full of maniacs.

I do see the point, and that point is a point of contention as it is a form of socialism falling astride of I got mine, go find yours, attitude.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by August

Oooh he's in trouble now!

Save your breath, I am not your problem. Murderous psychopaths in uniform are your problem. A chieftain siding with them and protecting them for his own advantage, and overruling law and justice in favour of them is your problem.

[August]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Save your breath, I am not your problem. Murderous psychopaths in uniform are your problem. A chieftain siding with them and protecting them for his own advantage, and overruling law and justice in favour of them is your problem.

Well I don't see a problem with any of the three military pardons the CinC has made, and the Navy Chief you are referring to didn't murder anyone as his Court Martial determined so your criticisms are unfounded, as usual.

[August]

Interesting article:

Turns Out, Trump’s ‘Evil’ ICE Raids Benefited American Workers

I & I Editorial Board

December 31, 2019

Remember when Democrats reflexively accused President Donald Trump of being a racist when he said illegal immigrants steal American jobs? Turns out, he was right, as evidenced by the aftermath of the massive summer raid that rounded up hundreds of illegals working at chicken processing plants in Mississippi. In early August, some 600 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents surrounded seven plants operated by five companies in six different cities. They rounded up 680 “undocumented” immigrants, in what was described as the largest raid in a single state.
This is part of a larger effort by Trump to target companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Last year, it raided a landscaping company near Toledo, Ohio, and a meatpacking plant in eastern Tennessee. A Government Accountability Office report issued in early December found that arrests, detentions, and removals were all up in Trump’s first two years in office compared with Obama’s last two.
Nevertheless, the reaction to the Mississippi raid from Democrats was swift and furious. Joe Biden said the raid was a sign that “Trump is morally unfit to lead this country.” Sen. Bernie Sanders called it “evil.” Beto O’Rourke – who dropped out of the race two months after the raid – said Trump’s “cruelty knows no bounds.” The media, naturally, lent Democrats a hand by playing up the disruption and crying children, while playing down the fact that those workers were in the country illegally.
In fact, the raid was the furthest thing from cruel or evil or immoral to American citizens living in the area – many of them black people – who flocked to get the jobs those illegals had held.

This week, the New York Times, to its credit, went to Morton, Mississippi – where a third of the illegals rounded up in those raids had worked – to see what’s become of the town months after Trump’s “evil” act.
And in a shocking display of honest reporting, the Times shows how American workers – particularly black people – benefited as a result.

https://issuesinsights.com/2019/12/3...rican-workers/