The Lawsuits

[Guest]

8 hours ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

 

Will they be even more alarmed when President Biden doesn't even know what day it is ?

Nah, they'll just mention it to him, and he'll resign so President Harris can take over. 

There won't even be any talk of martial law.

[WestCanMan]

14 hours ago, BubberMiley said:

This is fun.

To be honest, I never even heard of newsmax until after the election and I've still never seen it. I don't even know who that is and I've never heard his comments.

If NewsMax is having a tough go of it that's good imo, because people on the right have been bashing Fox lately for not getting into enough of a post-election uproar which is quite unfair. 

 

I get my fun by pointing out the stupidity, hypocrisy and lies of leftists on a daily basis. Seeing you guys eat crow 364 days a year is awesome. 

[Michael Hardner]

4 hours ago, OftenWrong said:

They never said it was true, they just called for an investigation based on certain evidence. 

They had people on making claims that they didn't verify.  Seems risky to me, and maybe worthy of a lawyer's letter.  Amateurs.

[BeaverFever]

To he fair, some of the things listed below are really just bad sound bytes not db thoughts but still:  

 

The Dumbest Moments of the Trump Presidency

For five years, we kept a Google Doc of the most deeply idiotic episodes of this monumentally stupid era. Now it’s time to share our work with the world.

Henry Grabar and Ben Mathis-LilleyDec 23, 20205:45 AM

 

The Donald Trump presidency ended, in a way, on Nov. 7. That was the day that media outlets called Pennsylvania, and thus the 2020 election, for Joe Biden. It was also the day that Trump tweeted his campaign would be holding a press conference at the Four Seasons in Philadelphia, only to follow up with a clarifying tweet that he meant “Four Seasons Landscaping,” a business located on the outskirts of the city near an adult bookstore and a crematorium. Yes, the campaign later claimed there was a reason why they booked this particular venue. So, yes, we don’t know for surethat the campaign actually meant to hold its event, at which Rudy Giuliani made luridly dishonest and fantastical claims about voter fraud, at the Four Seasons Hotel, only to book the completely unrelated landscaping company by mistake. But we know.

When the story of this era is told many years from now, students and history enthusiasts will learn about Trump’s lies, corruption, self-enrichment, and abuse. What they may not grasp—and what even now is hard to comprehend—is just how stupid it was to live through. The president told the nation to inject bleach during a pandemic; his team altered the projected path of a hurricane on an official document, with a Sharpie, to help the president save face after an erroneous tweet. There were the dishwashers that had to be run 10 times. The blank pages that the White House pretended were important documents. A long, long time ago, Trump declared himself a “very stable genius.” By now, that phrase feels almost normal. But seriously: What?

For almost five years, we have been collecting such stories with quick notes to our future selves—notes that, when we looked through them last month after Trump lost his reelection bid, read less as presidential history than the diary of a lunatic. We had to go back and make sense of them all, matching our mad scribbles to events that actually happened in the real world. And now we bring them to you.

Critics sometimes alleged that the president’s bad tweets and Borscht Belt schtick were calculated distractions from his controversial policies and criminal personal conduct. We do not think that was the case with the following moments. They are the most absurd of the period’s tragicomic phenomena, the smallest dumb experiences of a big, dumb time to be alive. They are the most baffling pronouncements, grievances, and excuses of a president who never, ever did the homework—the deepest cuts of America’s mush-brain years. We share them here not so you may remember them, but so that you might—finally—feel free to forget just a little bit about the past four years.
 

“His idiot doctor”

Dec. 14, 2015: In December 2015, amid questions about what CNN described as Trump’s “self-avowed lack of an exercise routine and his indulging diet,” his campaign releases a statement from a doctor that purports to establish his physical bona fides. Despite Trump’s previous promise to release “a full medical report,” Dr. Harold Bornstein simply attests in a short letter that Trump’s lab work is “astonishingly excellent,” that his “physical strength” is “extraordinary,” and that Bornstein believes, “unequivocally,” that the candidate would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” Bornstein, who looks like his picture goes next to the entry for “quack doctor” in the Big Book of Sitcom Character Tropes, later tells CNN that Trump dictated the letter. —BML

“George Papadopoulos listing a Model U.N. thing he may not even have actually done on his résumé”

March 21, 2016: With its candidate taking heat for having almost no familiarity with any subject related to the job of governing the United States, the Trump campaign releases a list of its alleged “foreign policy advisers,” including an individual named George Papadopoulos, to the Washington Post. The Post immediately notices that the top item in the “Honors and Awards” section of Papadopoulos’ LinkedIn page is a claim to have participated in a 2012 Model United Nations event in Geneva, i.e., a conference for college students. In 2017, after Papadopoulos is convicted of lying to federal agents investigating the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia, the Post follows up and finds out that the organizers of the Geneva event have no record of Papadopoulos’ participation. —BML

“The British airplane sexual assault witness guy”

Oct. 14, 2016: Shortly after the publication of the Access Hollywood tape, the New York Times reports that a woman named Jessica Leeds says Trump groped her on an airplane in approximately 1980. The Trump campaign subsequently arranges for the New York Post to interview a British man named Anthony Gilberthorpe, who would have been about 18 at the time of the alleged assault. Gilberthorpe—who, in the years after this flight, said he went “trawling” the streets of Blackpool to hire underage boys for sex acts with Tory politicians—says he remembers being seated across the aisle from Trump and Leeds and that he recognizes Leeds in the news because he has a “photographic memory.” He claims to recall specifically that Trump did not do anything inappropriate to Leeds and says moreover that she was flirting with Trump and told fellow passengers, when Trump went to the bathroom, that she “wanted to marry him.” —BML

“Michigan Man of the Year”

Nov. 7, 2016: At a speech in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Trump says that he was once named “Michigan Man of the Year,” a claim he goes on to repeat numerous times throughout his presidency. In 2019, CNN’s Daniel Dale reports that Trump may be referring to an invitation he received to give a speech in Michigan at something called the “Oakland County Lincoln Day Dinner” in 2013. No award was presented at the dinner. —BML

“Former professional golfer Bernhard Langer voter fraud”

Jan. 25, 2017: During a meeting with lawmakers, the newly inaugurated president says that German professional golfer Bernhard Langer was prevented from voting in 2016 because there was a long line of suspicious Latin American individuals ahead of him. Follow-up reporting reveals that Langer is not an American citizen and did not attempt to vote in the election at all; according to Langer, he heard a similar story from a friend and relayed it to someone who then told it to “a person with ties to the White House,” which would mean that Trump had been told the (obviously false) anecdote fifth-hand.  —BML

“Frederick Douglass getting recognized”

Feb. 1, 2017: At remarks celebrating Black History Month, Trump ad-libs that “Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice.” The remark, and its present tense phrasing regarding a figure who died in 1895, has never been explained. —HG
 

 

“U.S. aircraft carrier that White House declared deterrent to North Korea sailing in opposite direction”

April 12, 2017: Fox Business broadcasts a recorded interview in which Trump tells the network’s Maria Bartiromo that the U.S. is “sending an armada” toward North Korea, a claim around which the administration builds a narrative about its tough, no-nonsense stance toward Kim Jong-un’s country. On April 13, NBC News reports that the U.S. is prepared for a preemptive strike on the isolated dictatorship. Two days later, however, the Navy posts a photo of the aircraft carrier and associated ships that purportedly make up the armada heading souththrough the Sunda Strait, 3,500 miles away from North Korea. Defense Newsreports that the ships, which never got anywhere near North Korea, are “taking part in scheduled exercises with Australian forces in the Indian Ocean.” Trump is subsequently swayed by Kim’s flattery campaign into essentially dropping all objections to the North Korean nuclear program. —HG

“Exercise depletes the body’s reserves of energy”

May 1, 2017: The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos reports that Trump “considers exercise misguided, arguing that a person, like a battery, is born with a finite amount of energy.” This echoes reporting by Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher, who wrote in a 2016 biography that Trump stopped working out after college and once told an employee that training for an Ironman race would kill him. Intuitive but obviously wrong, the Medieval-style “battery theory” foreshadows more consequential medical assertions that would later be made by the president about a specific kind of virus being no worse than the flu, disappearing in summer heat, and being vulnerable to the injection of bleach into the body. —HG

“Fake phone call from Boy Scouts”

Aug. 2, 2017: Trump tells the Wall Street Journal that a discursive, partisan speech he gave to a crowd of Boy Scouts at the organization’s national jamboree was, according to a call he received afterward from “the head of the Boy Scouts,” “the greatest speech that was ever made to them.” The Boy Scouts respond in a statement, “We are unaware of any such call.” —HG

“Local milk people”

Aug. 3, 2017: The Washington Post publishes a transcript of a phone call between Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Trump shortly after the latter became president. The conversation  touched on an agreement Barack Obama had made to accept refugees detained by the Australian government, about whom Trump said: “I hate taking these people. I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people.” Speculation about the meaning of “local milk people” ultimately arrives at the fact that many refugees in the U.S. work on dairy farms. —BML

“Kept saying Thad Cochran was in the hospital when he wasn’t in the hospital”

Sept. 28, 2017: Trump says at least six times over the course of a day that Republicans would be able to pass a bill to eliminate the Affordable Care Act were it not for a senator who is in the hospital. White House reporters determine that Trump is referring to Sen. Thad Cochran, of Mississippi, who is recovering at his home (not a hospital) from a urological procedure—and who, crucially, would not have provided a winning vote for the repeal bill (which never passed), even if he had been present. —HG 
 

“Not sending the $25,000 check he promised to the father of a dead soldier until three months later when the Washington Post asked him about it”

Oct. 18, 2017: The Washington Post publishes an interview with the bereaved father of a deceased soldier who says Trump personally promised during a condolence call to send him a $25,000 check but never followed up or delivered any money. (The Post was looking into the subject because Trump was engaged in a public feud with a different bereaved family that had been offended by comments the president made in a different call.) The man subsequently receives a check dated Oct. 18, which was the day the Post contacted the White House about the story. —BML

“Fox tricks Trump into opposing his own FISA bill”

Jan. 11, 2018: Trump complains angrilyon Twitter that the House is about to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA—a reauthorization that his administration has repeatedly endorsed. Forensic scrutiny by the watchdog group Media Matters reveals that shortly before the president’s tweet, the Fox & Friends morning show had run a segment critical of FISA for having allegedly been used to tap Trump’s phones during the Obama administration’s conspiracy to frame him for Russia-related crimes. Less than two hours after his original tweet, Trump sends a follow-up in which he pretends to have previously ordered changes to the bill to address his concerns and endorses its passage. —BML

“Telling the stock market it had made a mistake by declining”

Feb. 7 2018: LOL. —BML

“German dad (dad’s not German)”

July 12, 2018: Trump, in Europe for a NATO summit, says that his father was “from Germany,” a claim he goes on to reiterate at least twice more during his administration while in the presence of Europeans, at one point stating specifically that Fred Trump was “born in a very wonderful place in Germany.” As is well-established in the public record, Fred Trump was born in New York City. Fred Trump’s father was born in Germany—but this, too, is a subject that Donald Trump had lied about publicly, writing in The Art of the Deal that his father’s family was from Sweden in what was apparently an effort to keep the Trump name from being associated with Nazism. (Oops.) —HG

“Voter ID to buy cereal”

Aug. 31, 2018: At a rally in Tampa, Florida, Trump makes the case for voter ID laws by appealing to the ubiquitous use of photo IDs in American life and claims that “if you go out and buy groceries, you need a picture on a card—you need ID.” He would repeat the claim at least twice more. —HG
 

“Wettest from the standpoint of water”

Sept. 19, 2018: From the White House lawn, Trump delivers an analysis of Hurricane Florence, which killed dozens of people in the Carolinas, as “one of the wettest we’ve ever seen, from the standpoint of water.” —HG

“Tim Apple”

March 6, 2019: At an American Workforce Policy Advisory Board meeting, the president calls Apple CEO Tim Cook “Tim Apple.” The year before, he had called Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson “Marillyn Lockheed.” —HG

“Moon-mars”

June 7, 2019: Triggered by an innocuous rhetorical question about NASA posed by Fox Business anchor Neil Cavuto, the president describes the planet Mars, on Twitter, as something “of which the Moon is a part,” by which he means that missions to the moon are to be used as preparation for a mission to Mars. He adds that he believes NASA should focus its efforts on subjects such as “science.” —BML

“Airports during the revolutionary war”

July 4, 2019: Trump celebrates the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by praising how George Washington’s Continental Army “took over airports” during the Revolutionary War. —HG

“Kidney has a special place in the heart”

July 10, 2019: Trump signs an executive order related to kidney disease and thanks an audience of nephrologists like so: “You’ve worked so hard on these things, you’ve worked so hard on the kidney. Very special. The kidney has a very special place in the heart. It’s an incredible thing.” —BML

“Windmills cause cancer”

Aug. 2, 2019: Trump says he has heard that the noise generated by windmills causes cancer. (There is no known, or even alleged, link between wind turbines and cancer.) —HG

 

“White House claiming they had to give G-7 to Doral because one of the other sites would have required oxygen masks”

Aug. 26, 2019: The White House announces that a nationwide search has determined that the G-7 international summit, which the U.S. was set to host in 2020, can be held most effectively at the Trump National Doral resort near Miami. Trump later explains that Doral stood out from other contenders because of its ample parking and because its ballrooms are “among the biggest in Florida.” Chief of staff Mick Mulvaney claims at a press conference that one of the other potential U.S. sites for the summit was situated at such a high altitude that participants may have had to use oxygen tanks to breathe (?). (The White House later backs down from the decision, and the summit is ultimately canceled because of COVID-19.) —HG

“Trump just said there are people in line for his rally and they are soaking wet”

Sept. 9, 2019: During what is ostensibly a discussion with reporters about hurricane refugees from the Bahamas, the president begins describing supporters of his who are allegedly already standing in line for an upcoming rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, going on at some length about how the supporters waiting in line are “soaking wet.” The weather in Fayetteville at the time is clear and sunny. —HG

“She’s got a son”

Sept. 11, 2019: In the Oval Office to promote an anti-vaping initiative, Trump explains first lady Melania Trump’s interest in the subject: “She’s got a son, together, that’s a beautiful young man, and she feels very very strongly about it.” The boy in question, Barron Trump, is also his son. —HG

“You know what the crime is”

May 11, 2020: During a right-wing revival of the 2017-era theory that Barack Obama helped frame several people in Trump’s orbit for having connections to the Russian government, the president refers to “Obamagate” on Twitter as “the biggest political crime in American history.” He subsequently has this exchange with Philip Rucker of the Washington Post at a press conference:

RUCKER: You appeared to accuse Obama of “the biggest political crime in American history, by far,” those were your words. What crime exactly are you accusing President Obama of committing and do you think the Department of Justice should prosecute him?

TRUMP: Uh, Obamagate. It’s been going on for a long time. It’s been going on from before I even got elected, and it’s a disgrace that it happened, and if you look at what’s gone on and if you look at now all of this information that’s being released, and from what I understand that’s only the beginning. Some terrible things happened and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again, and you’ll be seeing what’s going on over the coming weeks. And I wish you’d write honestly about it, but unfortunately you choose not to do so.

RUCKER: What is the crime exactly that you’re accusing him of?

TRUMP: You know what the crime is. The crime is very obvious to everybody. All you have to do is read the newspapers, except yours.

In summary: What’s the crime? “Obamagate.” —BML

“Making up that he was throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium because he was jealous of Fauci”

July 23, 2020: Hours before Dr. Anthony Fauci throws the ceremonial first pitch before the Washington Nationals game on MLB’s latest-ever opening day, Trump, in a fit of apparent jealousy, says that he has been asked to throw out the first pitchbefore an Aug. 15 Yankees–Red Sox game in the Bronx. After reporters determine that the Yankees have not made such an offer, Trump and his aides say that he will in fact be busy on the day in question with activities that have a “strong focus on the China virus.” He ultimately spends the weekend of the 15th at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. —HG

“A man who loves the interior”

Aug. 4, 2020: Trump introducesSecretary of the Interior David Bernhardt by asserting that Bernhardt is “a man who loves the interior.” —HG

“Forest cities”

Sept. 29, 2020: Asked at his first debate with Joe Biden whether climate change was helping cause forest fires on the West Coast, Trump says the following: “In Europe, they live—they’re forest cities, they’re called forest cities. They maintain their forest. They manage their forest. I was with the head of a major country—it’s a forest city. He said, ‘Sir, we have trees that are far more, they ignite much easier than California. There shouldn’t be that problem.’ ” (During a previous outbreak of forest fire, the president had claimed Finnish President Sauli Niinistö told him that Finland prevents forest fires by raking the forest floor, something which Niinistö denies having said. It is possible, but not certain, that the comments derive from a belief that the real ecological concept of “forest management” involves sweeping and cleaning up in the way one might “manage” a real-estate property.) —BML

“Kiss them all”

Oct 12, 2020: One week removed from his hospital stay for COVID-19, the president pays tribute to Jim Morrison by telling a crowd in Florida he feels “so powerful” and wants to “kiss everyone in that audience.” Ha-ha, so goofy! And that was basically the last thing he said, and no one ever had to worry about him again. —HG

 

 

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/12/donald-trump-stupid-moments-dumb-comments.html

[Infidel Dog]

Not sure what the smear job above has to do with lawsuits, but it's not difficult to concede there those that don't like Trump...a lot.

Edited December 23, 2020 by Infidel Dog

[Michael Hardner]

Trump is such an amazing president, because he knows how to make liberals' heads explode.  Vetoing the military bill and skipping town without signing the relief bill ! Brilliant !  

[Cannucklehead]

34 minutes ago, Michael Hardner said:

Trump is such an amazing president, because he knows how to make liberals' heads explode.  Vetoing the military bill and skipping town without signing the relief bill ! Brilliant !  

The timing couldn't be better.  

[Argus]

On 12/23/2020 at 6:23 PM, Michael Hardner said:

Trump is such an amazing president, because he knows how to make liberals' heads explode.  Vetoing the military bill and skipping town without signing the relief bill ! Brilliant !  

Trump is sounding even more deranged in his latest tweets, attacking Republican leaders in congress, as well as the supreme court, FBI and justice department for not supporting him in overthrowing the constitution.

“If a Democrat Presidential Candidate had an Election Rigged & Stolen, with proof of such acts at a level never seen before, the Democrat Senators would consider it an act of war, and fight to the death. Mitch & the Republicans do NOTHING, just want to let it pass. NO FIGHT!”

On the Supreme Court, which on Dec. 11 rejected a major challenge to the presidential election brought by Texas, Mr. Trump tweeted:

“The U.S. Supreme Court has been totally incompetent and weak on the massive Election Fraud that took place in the 2020 Presidential Election. We have absolute PROOF, but they don’t want to see it - No “standing”, they say. If we have corrupt elections, we have no country!”

On the Justice Department, which has not found widespread voter fraud, he wrote:

“The ‘Justice’ Department and the FBI have done nothing about the 2020 Presidential Election Voter Fraud, the biggest SCAM in our nation’s history, despite overwhelming evidence. They should be ashamed. History will remember. Never give up. See everyone in D.C. on January 6th.”

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/dec/26/trump-tweet-rant-rips-congress-senate-republicas-s/?utm_source=ground.news&utm_medium=referral

[Infidel Dog]

That's the Progressive Socialist POV. Here's Trumps:

 

[Infidel Dog]

And there are, of course, reasons for Trump vetoing Porkulus bills which were supposed to be about helping America and Americans through the troubled times caused by the Chi-Comm flu.

Quote

Stimulus Bill:

 

$25 Million for Pakistan gender programs
$1.4B for Asia Reassurance Initiative Act
$250M in Palestinian aid
$85M to Cambodia
$700M to Sudan
$135M to Burma
$130M to Nepal

 

Only $600 for each American.

 

$500 million to Israel
$300,000,000 for Migrant and Refugee Assistance pg.. 147 DA FUQ?!
$10,000 per person for student loan bailout
$100,000,000 to NASA, because, who knows why.
$20,000,000,000 to the USPS, because why not
$300,000,000 to the Endowment for the Arts – because of it
$300,000,000 for the Endowment for the Humanities/ because no one even knew that was a thing
$15,000,000 for Veterans Employment Training / for when the GI Bill isn’t enough
$435,000,000 for mental health support
$30,000,000,000 for the Department of Education stabilization fund/ because that will keep people employed (all those zeros can be confusing, that’s $30 BILLION)
$200,000,000 to Safe Schools Emergency Response to Violence Program
$300,000,000 to Public Broadcasting / NPR has to be bought by the Democrats
$500,000,000 to Museums and Libraries / Who knows how we are going to use it
$720,000,000 to Social Security Admin / but get this only 200,000,000 is to help people. The rest is for admin costs
$25,000,000 for Cleaning supplies for the Capitol Building / I kid you not it’s on page 136
$7,500,000 to the Smithsonian for additional salaries
$35,000,000 to the JFK Center for Performing Arts
$25,000,000 for additional salary for House of Representatives
$3,000,000,000 upgrade to the IT department at the VA
$315,000,000 for State Department Diplomatic Programs
$95,000,000 for the Agency of International Development
$300,000,000 for International Disaster Assistance
$90,000,000 for the Peace Corp pg. 148
$13,000,000 to Howard University pg. 121
$9,000,000 Misc. Senate Expenses pg. 134
$100,000,000 to Essential Air carriers pg. 162. This of note because the Airlines are going to need billions in loans to keep them afloat ($100,000,000 is chump change.)
$40,000,000,000 goes to the Take Responsibility to Workers and Families Act This sounds like it’s direct payments for workers pg. 164
$1,000,000,000 Airlines Recycle and Save Program pg. 163
$25,000,000 to the FAA for administrative costs pg. 165
$492,000,000 to National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) pg. 167
$526,000,000 Grants to Amtrak to remain available if needed through 2021 pg. 168 (what are the odds that doesn’t go unused) Hidden on page 174 the Secretary has 7 days to allocate the funds & notify Congress
$25,000,000,000 for Transit Infrastructure pg. 169
$3,000,000 Maritime Administration pg. 172
$5,000,000 Salaries and Expensive Office of the Inspector General pg. 172
$2,500,000 Public and Indian Housing pg. 175
$5,000,000 Community Planning and Development pg. 175
$2,500,000 Office of Housing

 

 

Edited December 26, 2020 by Infidel Dog

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Infidel Dog said:

That's the Progressive Socialist POV. Here's Trumps:

 

What a whiny baby!

By the way, does it cost anything to make that text?  It seems unlikely Trump wouldn't take every opportunity to squeeze every last cent out of those Americans gullible enough to believe him.

Edited December 26, 2020 by bcsapper
Swearing. I'm giving it up for the New Year

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Infidel Dog said:

And there are, of course, reasons for Trump vetoing Porkulus bills which were supposed to be about helping America and Americans through the troubled times caused by the Chi-Comm flu.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't give a penny to Pakistan until it renounced Islam as the basis for its government and its laws, but I bet that's far from being any reason why Trump vetoes anything.

Edited December 26, 2020 by bcsapper

[Infidel Dog]

Apparently fighting election fraud is whining but it's not whining to whine about anybody brave enough to fight it. How "progressive."

And I imagine it's not whining to whine about vetoing a bill but it would be whining if Trump told you why he did it:

Quote

"President Trump vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 Wednesday, calling it a ‘gift’ to U.S. adversaries China and Russia, making good on a promise to veto if it did not repeal a law that shields certain Big Tech companies from liabilities. ‘My Administration recognizes the importance of the Act to our national security,’ the president wrote to House members after vetoing the bill. ‘Unfortunately, the Act fails to include critical national security measures, includes provisions that fail to respect our veterans and our military's history, and contradicts efforts by my Administration to put America first in our national security and foreign policy actions.’ In his letter, he singled out Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act as a reason for the veto, arguing that failing to terminate it ‘will make our intelligence virtually impossible to conduct.’ He also took issue with language in the NDAA that would require ‘the renaming of certain military installations.’"

 

[Infidel Dog]

1 minute ago, bcsapper said:

Yeah, I wouldn't give a penny to Pakistan until it renounced Islam as its basis for its government and its laws, but I bet that's far from being any reason why Trump vetoes anything.

No it's not but perhaps you failed to notice it's much longer list, listed above. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Infidel Dog said:

No it's not but perhaps you failed to notice it's much longer list, listed above. 

I did notice the list.  It's not my place to disagree with or agree with any of those, even though I do.  My point is, Trump probably didn't even read it as much as I did. 

He's getting back at those Republicans who failed him.

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Infidel Dog said:

Apparently fighting election fraud is whining but it's not whining to whine about anybody brave enough to fight it. How "progressive."

And I imagine it's not whining to whine about vetoing a bill but it would be whining if Trump told you why he did it:

 

Again, I don't think Trump is too worried about America's military.  He's worried that social media will contine to be allowed to call him a liar, whenever he lies.

Anyway, I'm not as well versed in US politics as I might be, but doesn't the House have the votes to over ride his veto on this bill?

[Michael Hardner]

I am finding this debate really Interesting.

 

The process produces results like this.  Both parties are in on it.  Trump's own Mnuchin was in on it and Tweeted in favour of the end result.

Now this objection.  I'm sure Trump's cult will love his take on it, even if they're personally affected.  But what will happen?

[Argus]

2 hours ago, Infidel Dog said:

And there are, of course, reasons for Trump vetoing Porkulus bills which were supposed to be about helping America and Americans through the troubled times caused by the Chi-Comm flu.

The bill is not only about covid recovery. The major part of it is funding the US government for the next six months. And the items unrelated to covid recovery were part of the his own budget negotiated by the white house and the Republicans in congress with the Democrats. He never expressed any opposition to them before. Mind you, I don't think he had much, if anything to do with preparing the budget, didn't show up for any briefings, didn't read anything about it, never asked about it, and doesn't care about it.

Someone, maybe Steven Miller, told him a few things he could use to say how terrible his own budget was, and he threw them in there to excite people like you.

Edited December 26, 2020 by Argus

[bush_cheney2004]

3 hours ago, bcsapper said:

Anyway, I'm not as well versed in US politics as I might be, but doesn't the House have the votes to over ride his veto on this bill?

 

President Trump doesn't have to....he can just ignore the bill and it will become a "pocket veto" after 10 days...as if the bill never happened because the new Congress (House & Senate) gets seated in early January.

Advantage....Trump.

 

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by bush_cheney2004

[Guest]

37 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

 

President Trump doesn't have to....he can just ignore the bill and it will become a "pocket veto" after 10 days...as if the bill never happened because the new Congress (House & Senate) gets seated in early January.

Advantage....Trump.

 

 

Ah, thanks, I had never heard the term.

I looked it up.

[Infidel Dog]

22 hours ago, Argus said:

The bill is not only about covid recovery. The major part of it is funding the US government for the next six months. And the items unrelated to covid recovery were part of the his own budget negotiated by the white house and the Republicans in congress with the Democrats. He never expressed any opposition to them before. Mind you, I don't think he had much, if anything to do with preparing the budget, didn't show up for any briefings, didn't read anything about it, never asked about it, and doesn't care about it.

So Trump did support the pork, except when he didn't...is that what you're saying?

Sure that makes sense.

It isn't just Trump having problems with the porkulus and military bills, BTW:

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by Infidel Dog

[Argus]

46 minutes ago, Infidel Dog said:

So Trump did support the pork, except when he didn't...is that what you're saying?

Sure that makes sense.

It isn't just Trump having problems with the porkulus and military bills, BTW:

I don't care about Tulsi Gabard. There are always stupid pork items in a budget because of the way the Americans have to horse trade among various individual congressmen and senators. There has never been one without it.

And I guarantee you Trump doesn't give a shit about any of it. He wants revenge. He wants the defense bill to punish Twitter for daring to mark his tweets as dishonest. And he wants to punish Republicans like McConnell for refusing to go along with his bullshit about a fraudulent election. And if that means making them squirm about giving away more money they never wanted to give away to begin with or voting against him and against a bigger check for Americans - even at the cost of the Georgia senate seats - that's fine with him. All his life Trump has only ever felt good when making others feel bad.

[BeaverFever]

Sidney Powell's Key Election Witness Is A Pro-Trump Podcaster Once Sued For Fraud: Report

Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman has been accused by North Dakota's attorney general of assuming false identities to "deceive people."

 

A secret witness who lawyer Sidney Powell has promised would reveal presidential election fraud turns out to be a pro-Trump podcaster who was once sued for fraud, The Washington Post reported.

Powell, a longtime QAnon believer, has filed a series of failed, typo-ridden lawsuits challenging the results of the presidential election. Powell has claimed in court documents that a witness — a former “intelligence contractor” — knows about a foreign conspiracy to attack the election. Powell said her informant’s identity could not be revealed in order to protect her life. 

But podcaster Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman of North Dakota, who confirmed to the Post that she is the informant Powell has referred to, served less than a year in the Navy in the 1990s and there is no indication that she ever worked in intelligence or as an intelligence contractor.

Her affidavit submitted in Powell’s lawsuitis a slight rewording of one of her blog posts written more than a year before the election, according to the Post.

A 2018 civil fraud case against Maras-Lindeman by the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office accused her of falsely claiming to be a physician, a Purple Heart recipient and a Navy intelligence veteran; using several aliases and social security numbers; and exaggerating her resume in a “persistent” effort to “deceive others,” according to the Post. A judge earlier this year ordered Maras-Lindeman to pay $25,000 in fines and attorney fees after she spent donations solicited for veterans’ wreaths and homeless shelters on herself.

 

 

?????????

 

Another “expert witness” in Trumps fraudulent election lawsuits confirmed to be a kook, a die-hard trump supporter, and  with a history of fraud. That’s in addition to the “expert witness” that was a convicted sex offender anf the ine who was a convicted criminal harrasser who kept sending sex videos to her boyfriends ex despite multiple police warnings. The rest were all die-hard Trump supporters long before they claimed to “witness” anything. How come not one of these people turns out to be normal or impartial?

[BeaverFever]

Is Trump’s Coup a ‘Dress Rehearsal?’

Ben Jacobs9:00 A.M.
 

...

Some prominent academic figures who study how countries fall into dictatorships are deeply concerned about what would come next.

Daniel Ziblatt, a political science professor at Harvard and the co-author of How Democracies Die, told Intelligencer, “I think it’s pretty clear that there was a somewhat serious effort to steal this election. It’s not going to succeed. In that sense, the acute normative crisis has passed. It doesn’t mean our checks and balances have worked.” He pointed to what he described as “a chronic slow burning problem” within the American electorate, the “radicalization” within the Republican Party. “One can’t have a democracy [in a two party system] where one of the two parties is not fully committed to democratic norms.” Ziblatt described the current situation as an escalation of constitutional hardball, where political actors “sniff out weakness in constitutional structure,” violating long-standing norms if not technically the law. He pointed to the Trump-led effort in 2020 to have Republican-controlled state legislatures pick their own electors to throw victory to the president, regardless of how their states voted.

The possibility of a step like this was always embedded within the constitutional structure, but no one, until now, had been willing to explicitly overturn the results of a presidential election that already had a clear and decisive winner.

“I worry that this whole post-election process has been the dress rehearsal,” said Harvard political scientist Steven Levitsky, the other co-author of How Democracies Die, citing Vladimir Lenin’s quote that the Russian Revolution of 1905 was the “dress rehearsal” for the October Revolution of 1917, which put the Bolsheviks in power. Levitsky noted that not only have Republicans found that “their base won’t punish this sort of behavior, they’ll likely applaud it.” He added, “none of this stuff can be unlearned.”

Experts weren’t comforted by the slapstick nature of Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the election, ranging from farcical conspiratorial claims to the hair dye dripping down Rudy Giuliani’s cheeks. “I think we do make a mistake that authoritarians are always as competent at the time as they appear in retrospect,” said Ziblatt. “Mussolini was a clown. Hitler was very lazy. It’s not as if they are always paragons of self-discipline and organization.”

These two scholars both expressed real concerns about what they see as structural flaws in our current system — flaws that allow a political party, in this case, the Republican Party, to consistently win power despite failing to win a plurality of the vote (as Trump did in 2016). This undercuts the idea of a self-correcting two-party system where, as Ziblatt put it, “If one party goes off the rails, it will be punished at the ballot box.”

....

 

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/historians-fear-trumps-failed-coup-is-a-dress-rehearsal.html

[bush_cheney2004]

So now Trump is the bad guy for doing exactly what previous U.S. presidents have done, notably Bill Clinton (1995-1996) and Barack Obama (2013), the latter who shutdown the U.S. government over the ACA (ObamaCare).

But because it is Trump, suddenly it is a big, unprecedented shock.

Lame duck my ass....