General Trump hilarity free-for-all thread

[Cain]

Republicans don't give a shit for state rights and never have.  "State rights" only matters to undermine civil rights.  And Kavanaugh is reliably big business, reliably anti-union, reliably against American contractors being held responsible for war crimes, and reliably anti-abortion.

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

Republicans don't give a shit for state rights and never have.  "State rights" only matters to undermine civil rights.

They only care about states' rights when they undermine civil rights, but undermining civil rights is the only non-weed-related context in which states' rights, or indeed the states in general, ever come up.

[Doktor Howl]

Nothing would distract the Senate, because getting a reliable conservative on the bench was all that mattered

Or a conservative at any rate. I don't know how reliable. His decisions might not reliably help them; If he helps the court deliver a decision that presidential pardons extend to the state level it will help them in the short run but potentially undermine states' rights and thus hurt them in the long run (except when it comes to pot). And he might not be there too long; surely he's likely to have some kind of liver problem in the works.

You'd think the same thing about Trump and his nose candy.  But no, I am here to tell you that Elvis died in his early 40s, and Reagan lived forever.

[Cain]

Republicans don't give a shit for state rights and never have.  "State rights" only matters to undermine civil rights.

They only care about states' rights when they undermine civil rights, but undermining civil rights is the only non-weed-related context in which states' rights, or indeed the states in general, ever come up.

Who gives a crap though, when you control all 3 branches of the Federal government? You want your decisions to stick, and if you start actually caring for state rights arguments, some liberal states like California or Mass. are going to use it against you.

If you can undermine civil rights at a Federal level, have Congress write them, the President not veto them and the Supreme Court rubber stamp them, do you really want states to start challenging that?  Of course not.  Think about it, FFS.

[Pergamos]

Nothing would distract the Senate, because getting a reliable conservative on the bench was all that mattered

Or a conservative at any rate. I don't know how reliable. His decisions might not reliably help them; If he helps the court deliver a decision that presidential pardons extend to the state level it will help them in the short run but potentially undermine states' rights and thus hurt them in the long run (except when it comes to pot). And he might not be there too long; surely he's likely to have some kind of liver problem in the works.

I'm REALLY hoping we get a leftist president who takes full advantage of that pardoning power.  Just decides that vice crimes aren't actually crimes any longer and pardons all the drug dealers and whores, makes it clear that they're on the unions side and will pardon anyone charged with criminal striking, so on and so forth.

[Doktor Howl]

Nothing would distract the Senate, because getting a reliable conservative on the bench was all that mattered

Or a conservative at any rate. I don't know how reliable. His decisions might not reliably help them; If he helps the court deliver a decision that presidential pardons extend to the state level it will help them in the short run but potentially undermine states' rights and thus hurt them in the long run (except when it comes to pot). And he might not be there too long; surely he's likely to have some kind of liver problem in the works.

I'm REALLY hoping we get a leftist president who takes full advantage of that pardoning power.  Just decides that vice crimes aren't actually crimes any longer and pardons all the drug dealers and whores, makes it clear that they're on the unions side and will pardon anyone charged with criminal striking, so on and so forth.

While you're at it, hope for $6 Mn and a blowjob from Lady Gaga.

Both are equally likely.

[Cain]

This echoes a lot of my feelings

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/10/25/suffocation-of-democracy/

Today, President Trump seems intent on withdrawing the US from the entire post–World War II structure of interlocking diplomatic, military, and economic agreements and organizations that have preserved peace, stability, and prosperity since 1945. His preference for bilateral relations, conceived as zero-sum rivalries in which he is the dominant player and "wins," overlaps with the ideological preference of Steve Bannon and the so-called alt-right for the unfettered self-assertion of autonomous, xenophobic nation-states—in short, the pre-1914 international system. That "international anarchy" produced World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Great Depression, the fascist dictatorships, World War II, and the Holocaust, precisely the sort of disasters that the post–World War II international system has for seven decades remarkably avoided.

In threatening trade wars with allies and adversaries alike, Trump justifies increased tariffs on our allies on the specious pretext that countries like Canada are a threat to our national security. He combines his constant disparagement of our democratic allies with open admiration of authoritarians. His naive and narcissistic confidence in his own powers of personal diplomacy and his faith in a handshake with the likes of Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un recall the hapless Neville Chamberlain (a man in every other regard different from Trump). Fortunately the US is so embedded in the international order it created after 1945, and the Republican Party and its business supporters are sufficiently alarmed over the threat to free trade, that Trump has not yet completed his agenda of withdrawal, though he has made astounding progress in a very short time.

Because an ever-shrinking base of support for traditional conservatism made it impossible to carry out their authoritarian revision of the constitution, Hindenburg and the old right ultimately made their deal with Hitler and installed him as chancellor. Thinking that they could ultimately control Hitler while enjoying the benefits of his popular support, the conservatives were initially gratified by the fulfillment of their agenda: intensified rearmament, the outlawing of the Communist Party, the suspension first of freedom of speech, the press, and assembly and then of parliamentary government itself, a purge of the civil service, and the abolition of independent labor unions. Needless to say, the Nazis then proceeded far beyond the goals they shared with their conservative allies, who were powerless to hinder them in any significant way.

If the US has someone whom historians will look back on as the gravedigger of American democracy, it is Mitch McConnell. He stoked the hyperpolarization of American politics to make the Obama presidency as dysfunctional and paralyzed as he possibly could. As with parliamentary gridlock in Weimar, congressional gridlock in the US has diminished respect for democratic norms, allowing McConnell to trample them even more. Nowhere is this vicious circle clearer than in the obliteration of traditional precedents concerning judicial appointments. Systematic obstruction of nominations in Obama's first term provoked Democrats to scrap the filibuster for all but Supreme Court nominations. Then McConnell's unprecedented blocking of the Merrick Garland nomination required him in turn to scrap the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations in order to complete the "steal" of Antonin Scalia's seat and confirm Neil Gorsuch. The extreme politicization of the judicial nomination process is once again on display in the current Kavanaugh hearings.

[Cain]

And...Trump's fucking losing it



So the unpaid paid protestors were protesting their lack of payment to the man they were paid to protest against. It just makes sense.

[Doktor Howl]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/us-ambassador-to-un-nikki-haley-quits-to-take-time-off/ar-BBO9dqk?ocid=spartanntp

[Cain]

Time off to plan her 2024 Presidential run, that is.

Sessions gets shitcanned, Graham gets promoted to AG.  He leaves his seat, Haley runs for it.  She spends a term and a half in the Senate, burnishing her image and showing she can do the legislative side as well as the executive stuff she previously did as Governor.

[Doktor Howl]

Time off to plan her 2024 Presidential run, that is.

Sessions gets shitcanned, Graham gets promoted to AG.  He leaves his seat, Haley runs for it.  She spends a term and a half in the Senate, burnishing her image and showing she can do the legislative side as well as the executive stuff she previously did as Governor.

Graham is just dumb enough to do that.

[Cain]

It's commonly believed that has why he has crawled up Trump's arse in the past 6 months or so.  That and a large infusion of Russian funding, anyway...

[Doktor Howl]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/analysis-'something-doesn't-smell-right'-the-curious-timing-of-nikki-haley's-exit/ar-BBOa80S?ocid=spartanntp

[Bu🤠ns]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/analysis-'something-doesn't-smell-right'-the-curious-timing-of-nikki-haley's-exit/ar-BBOa80S?ocid=spartanntp

A lot of the comments on that article really seem to echo what Cain was saying. What is the basis of the conjecture that Trump will fire sessions, appoint LG and place Haley?

[Cain]

Hey, so you know that Saudi dissident journalist who maybe, just maybe was lured to the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, was killed and had his body chopped up into little pieces to be flown out via diplomatic pouches?

Turns out that the Crown Prince and Jared were talking about him just the day before he vanished.

The White House said Wednesday that the powerful Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had spoken about Khashoggi the previous day with White House national security adviser John Bolton and Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.

But why would that be important? Maybe because Jared used to peruse the Daily Intelligence briefing and tell the Crown Prince which Saudis were plotting against him:

Until he was stripped of his top-secret security clearance in February, presidential adviser Jared Kushner was known around the White House as one of the most voracious readers of the President's Daily Brief, a highly classified rundown of the latest intelligence intended only for the president and his closest advisers.

[...]

What exactly Kushner and the Saudi royal talked about in Riyadh may be known only to them, but after the meeting, Crown Prince Mohammed told confidants that Kushner had discussed the names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince, according to three sources who have been in contact with members of the Saudi and Emirati royal families since the crackdown. Kushner, through his attorney's spokesperson, denies having done so.

So naturally, the White House is now engaging in a coverup of its own potential involvement

The Post reported Tuesday night that prior to Khashoggi's disappearance, U.S. intelligence officials had intercepted discussions among Saudi officials about capturing him. Citing unnamed sources, the Post said the plan was to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia and grab him there.

It's also not clear whether U.S. officials warned Khashoggi of any danger, but under standard rules, they have a "duty to warn" if a threat is credible, said Ned Price, a former CIA officer and top Obama administration official. "What we do know is Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate," Price said. "And the fact that he did that leads one to believe that he was not fearful of an imminent Saudi threat."

A State Department spokesman said Wednesday the U.S. had "no advance knowledge of Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance."