US Politics Thread 2021-24

[Skybird]

Trump boasts on many topics with scandalous or sensational comments and demands. Taken each one individually, possibly none of them are meant that serious. However, if you fire a huge salvo of bluffs and then retreat on each and every one of them whenever you get called by the other player, sooner or later the remaining claims will be taken as bluffs, too, and nobody will take you seroious anymore. Your unpredictability has gone. Therefore, he will need to stand by some of his demands, to support his unpredictability, else he would be toast in international relations quite soon.



Thats why I fear we cannot afford to assume he will withdraw on all his demands and claims. Our art that we must learn can only be to make correct guesses on which ones he will stay with, and which ones he will be willing to give up if being called over them. Difficult, it keeps us running. Thats why he behaves the way he does. He keeps us occupied.

[mapuc]

I predict he will have difficulty in fulfilling two of his promises.

1. Ending the war in Ukraine.
2. Close the border to Mexico

Markus

[Buddahaid]

SCOTUS votes 9-0 for TikTok divestiture.

[vienna]

I made the observation a while back that I'm not really very worried about Trump being able to get his agendas accomplished (but, to be fair, an awful lot of "his" agendas are really just the agendas of others he glommed onto to keep his ass out of prison) and noted how, if there was one thing about Trump, it is his predictability; like the definition of insanity being trying to do the same thing that gave a bad result over and over, in the same way, again expecting a different, better result, Don the Con, just keeps chugging on as predictable as it gets; some people can even predict him from quite afar:

(Note: I quoted the entire article because some may not be able to access the link: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics...s-20032664.php)

Politics

A Stanford Law professor correctly predicted Donald Trump’s politicization of wildfire aid -


By Bob Egelko, Courts Reporter
Jan 14, 2025


When Stanford Law professor Pamela Karlan testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 4, 2019, she theorized that Donald Trump would use disaster aid as a political tool to demand favors.

Threats by some Republican leaders to withhold wildfire disaster aid to California unless the state changes its policies leave Stanford Law professor Pamela Karlan dismayed but not surprised. It's what she foresaw five years ago when President Donald Trump was facing impeachment for threatening to withhold aid to Ukraine unless its president announced an investigation of Democrat Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.

“Imagine living in a part of Louisiana or Texas that’s prone to devastating hurricanes and flooding. What would you think if, when your governor asked the federal government for the disaster assistance that Congress has provided, the president responded, ‘I would like you to do us a favor. I’ll meet with you and send the disaster relief once you brand my opponent a criminal’?” Karlan told the House Judiciary Committee in December 2019.

Karlan has been a consistent critic of Trump. Three years earlier, as Trump prepared to begin his first presidential term, Karlan criticized his assertion that “the law’s totally on my side, meaning the president can’t have a conflict of interest.”

“If he invades a country because they put windmills outside his golf course, that would be a conflict of interest,” said Karlan, a former NAACP attorney and a civil rights lawyer in the Justice Department under President Barack Obama. “If he decides not to enforce labor laws to protect workers at Trump casinos, that’s a violation of his oath of office. It’s the difference between having a king and having a president.”

She was equally critical Monday of statements by Republicans like Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who told the conservative Newsmax network that he wouldn’t vote for federal disaster relief for California “unless we see a dramatic change in how they’re gonna be handling things in the future.”

He didn’t specify the “dramatic changes” he was demanding. But Trump and other Republicans have claimed, without evidence, that state and local water officials have failed to fill fire hydrants or provide adequate water supplies, and have denounced the state’s alleged shortcomings in “forest management,” in which California has invested $2 billion since 2019.

What we’re hearing from some Republican leaders now is “nasty rhetoric in the face of a real tragedy,” Karlan told the Chronicle.

“Donald Trump has made statements both when he was in office, before and during the campaign and now that suggest that he is not sympathetic to problems that people in a number of parts of the country face,” Karlan said. “Disaster relief is designed to give relief for people who suffer from disasters and not to be a political football.”

Trump has blamed the state’s fires and resulting financial shortages on Gov. Gavin Newsom — whom he has repeatedly called “Newscum” — and accused the governor of refusing to sign a “water restoration declaration” to redirect millions of gallons of water to wildfire areas. There is no evidence that such a document exists.

Newsom, meanwhile, has called a special session of the state Legislature to protect California’s policies on abortion, climate change and immigration from expected attacks by Trump. Newsom added wildfire aid to the special session agenda on Monday. On Tuesday, he signed an executive order to help displaced students return to class in other districts or temporary facilities.

Newsom and legislative leaders have also agreed to set aside $50 million for anticipated legal disputes with Trump and support for immigrants facing deportation orders from the incoming administration. Senate Republican leader Brian Jones of San Diego criticized the governor for calling a special session to approve the funding at the same time as the session for fire assistance.

“Fire victims deserve a response that is both respectful and nonpartisan, but instead, Newsom is politicizing a tragic crisis that should focus solely on aiding those in need,” Jones said in a statement.

In the past, Trump has threatened to cut off federal aid to California unless the state eliminated its “sanctuary” law, which prohibits local police from asking people they arrest about their immigration status and from holding them for delivery to federal immigration agents. Federal courts have upheld the law, and the state has refused to repeal it.

Mind you, the observation about Trump was made in 2019, 5 years ago, well before the current disaster; Trump, again, is nothing if not consistent; I think the DEMs are smart enough to just let Trump and his gang of little MAGAts run out their little game until the midterms in 2026 when we'll see if the voters will let the GOP keep control of either chamber of Congress...


Regarding who is responsible for maintaining the fire readiness of forest and wild lands in CA, the Federal government actually is responsible for well over 50% of the lands in our state, making them Federal Lands, and that includes the Santa Monica Mountains range, which just happens to be the mountainside you see above the burned out area of Pacific Palisades and which was the origin of the fire storm that consumed that community...

...and, regarding those who are gleefully rubbing their little hands in anticipation of a recall of Gov. Newsom, they would do well to remember a couple of things; Firstly, Newsom is already termed out as Governor and will leave office after the next CA Governor's Election in 2026, so there really isn't going to be much of an appetite to spend vast sums of money and considerable effort to oust someone who is basically almost out the door, anyway...

Then there is the matter of history; there have been a few attempts at getting a recall of Newsom on the ballot, mainly from butthurt Far-Right GOP losers in CA who can't seem to grasp that the state's voters just really don't care for their brand of "government"; almost all of the efforts didn't get past the petition stage, with the petitions either garnering insufficient signatures or failing to meet requirements; there was one exception: in 2021 a recall petition actually made it to the ballot (not really a great achievement considering you only need to get the signatures on 10% of registered voters to get on the ballot) and the voters made their choice; on the question of whether Newsom should be ousted, a whopping 61.88% of the voters said "NO", beating out the 'Yes' tally by over 3,000,000 votes; the results were a particularly humiliating defeat for the the CA-GOP, to be added to a long list of similar fates for the party...

Now, you might argue, "Well, that was then and this is now", but then was 4 years ago and now really isn't any different, in terms of CA state politics; as of the last published stats by the CA Secretary Of State, dated July 5, 2024, the percentage of registered DEMS in CA is 46.19%; the percentage of GOP is 24.73%, and the percentage of No-Party-Preference/Third-Party totals 29.08%; the odds of the CA-GOP mustering up enough votes to be successful are very long...

So, let the CA-GOP trot out their little recall petitions and get their faces slapped once again by the CA voters; and it will make for quite a good campaign issue to point out how the CA-GOP wasted taxpayer money and resources tilting at their political windmills; I'm rather much think the voters will remember (and/or be reminded by the DEMs) of those GOP politicians who squandered their tax money for hopeless partisan posturing when the midterms and the General Elections come around again...




<O>

[Ostfriese]

Hey, America, are you still complaining about wasted tax money? How about this for a start:





That's about $200,000,000 of your precious taxes turned into mediocre fireworks.






- SpaceX's starship has already lost more rocket engines than the entire NASA space program ever.

- With it's first flight the Apollo program reached a stable orbit around Earth, carried a useful payload into orbit and demonstrated working technologies for further flights as well as the general ability to leave Earth's orbit. Starship has not achieved any of these.
- Apollo's seventh flight (Apollo 10) was the dress rehersal for the moon landing and transported three astronauts to the moon, who spent more than 60 hours in a lunar orbit. Starship's seventh flight saw the seventh loss of a Starship.


SpaceX has already burned more than five billion dollars without achieving anything. Why don't I hear complaints about this insane waste of tax payer's money from you?


Oh, right, it's Elon the Felon, and he's best buddy with You-Know-Who...

[Dargo]

Trump-voting farmer warns crops will 'rot' if his workers get deported

[Buddahaid]

Canceled outdoor inauguration. I guess the big man with the lowest approval rating is afraid of poor turnout optics.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/116677/...cs-Trends.aspx

https://news.gallup.com/poll/654698/...me-around.aspx

[vienna]

Originally Posted by Ostfriese

Hey, America, are you still complaining about wasted tax money? How about this for a start:





That's about $200,000,000 of your precious taxes turned into mediocre fireworks.






- SpaceX's starship has already lost more rocket engines than the entire NASA space program ever.

- With it's first flight the Apollo program reached a stable orbit around Earth, carried a useful payload into orbit and demonstrated working technologies for further flights as well as the general ability to leave Earth's orbit. Starship has not achieved any of these.
- Apollo's seventh flight (Apollo 10) was the dress rehersal for the moon landing and transported three astronauts to the moon, who spent more than 60 hours in a lunar orbit. Starship's seventh flight saw the seventh loss of a Starship.


SpaceX has already burned more than five billion dollars without achieving anything. Why don't I hear complaints about this insane waste of tax payer's money from you?


Oh, right, it's Elon the Felon, and he's best buddy with You-Know-Who...

Oooh...


Be careful; dissing President Musk might get you in a heap of trouble; he might have his lackey Trump try to deport you...





<O>

[vienna]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

Canceled outdoor inauguration. I guess the big man with the lowest approval rating is afraid of poor turnout optics.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/116677/...cs-Trends.aspx

https://news.gallup.com/poll/654698/...me-around.aspx

Hmmm...


...a snowflake afraid of snowflakes...





<O>

[vienna]

Is there any truth to the rumors North Korea's Kim offered to send NK troop in mufti to fill out the empty spaces in the Inaugural crowd to give Trump a "Yuuuge" crowd...





<O>

[mapuc]

In a Danish article it said:
"The Danish politicians and civil servants will be monitoring Trump's speech very closely"

It will not only be the Danes who will do this-Politicians from Canada, Panama and other countries will be monitoring his speech closely.

Markus

[Reece]

Originally Posted by vienna

Is there any truth to the rumors North Korea's Kim offered to send NK troop in mufti to fill out the empty spaces in the Inaugural crowd to give Trump a "Yuuuge" crowd...

<O>

[Buddahaid]

What mandate of the people?

[August]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

Canceled outdoor inauguration. I guess the big man with the lowest approval rating is afraid of poor turnout optics.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/116677/...cs-Trends.aspx

https://news.gallup.com/poll/654698/...me-around.aspx

Congress issued 225,000 tickets and that's just for the ticketed areas. On friday when we picked up ours from our congress critters (we had to go to their offices) the lines were down the hallway and red hats were everwhere.


Now the weather here in DC Monday is supposed to be really bad. Dangerously cold and windy, not that you care except how it plays for your d*ck measuring game, but i'll bet Trump still fills that arena and there will be thousands more standing outside lining the route to the white house.


Because regardless of crowd size, come Monday afternoon Donald Trump is going to be your new president with a solid mandate from the people.

[Buddahaid]

And no other president elect has ever called in weather as a problem before and Trump supporters who have spent money to be there are pissed off.

Trump is showing off how wimpy he is.

Are you going to be there?