MESO-Rx
Anabolic Steroids
Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse
- Thread starter CdnGuy
- Start date
A clear line has been drawn with the release of Trumps legal memo. Make no mistake, it is a direct attack on the rule of law and a declaration of absolute power on the part of the President. It’s thesis must be attacked relentlessly. The American Republic is worth fighting for.
Trump's tariffs made steel more expensive, which made U.S. manufacturing harder, which pushed consumers to buy more imported goods.
Repeat after me: The President's son, son-in-law, and campaign manager met with Russian operatives who promised dirt on Clinton and then the President dictated a knowingly false statement to cover up the purpose of the meeting.
It sounds bad when you describe it this way: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-breaks-with-decades-of-protocol-with-tweet-before-release-of-jobs-report/2018/06/01/b89c0f26-65d0-11e8-a768-ed043e33f1dc_story.html?utm_term=.c18bf162abf6 (The president of the United States explicitly violating a government rule to divulge secret jobs data), causing a billions-of-dollars move in the world’s financial markets. It’s become something of a tired cliché (which, of course, plays right into the scheme) to point out that if Barack Obama or George W. Bush had done this, it would have sparked angry denunciations, wall-to-wall coverage on cable news, and maybe a congressional hearing or two.
But when President Donald J. Trump (as our leader likes to casually refer to himself) does it, it’s pretty far down the weekly list of rule-breaking, “norm”-shattering, dignity-obliteration, truth-abolition and assorted misdemeanors and occasional high crimes that have not only defined America’s 45th presidency, but have flooded the system and short-circuited the ability of our institutions such as the media, Congress and the courts to process it all in real time.
...
— Trump’s lawyers are now out there openly saying they believe the president of the United States is above the law. This weekend, the New York Times published a 20-page letter that Trump’s personal attorneys sent to special counsel Robert Mueller seeking to avoid an interview with the prosecutor, which includes the stunning claim that it’s impossible for the White House to obstruct justice because, in the end, the president isjustice.
The secret letter, drafted in January, argues that Trump has sweeping constitutional powers, including the ability to kill off a probe into criminality in his own campaign — to, “if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon.” That means, they argue, it’s also within Trump’s rights to fire Mueller or the prosecutors overseeing him — even though a similar move by Nixon in 1973 triggered a flurry of impeachment resolutions.
L’Etat, c’est moi. Trump and his lawyers are claiming the rights, and the powers, of a king — not a democratically elected president. The lesson of Watergate and Nixon’s ultimate resignation was supposed to be that no president is above the law — a lesson that got muddled when Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon. Forty-four years later, Team Trump is dropping an H-bomb on what’s left of that apparently quaint notion.
THREAD: Here’s one way to understand what’s going on with the Trump team legal memo, why they put it out, why it’s wrong, and why even if anyone buys it it doesn't help Trump. /1
It is little more than a footnote in the back-and-forth over the planned North Korea summit — but the rumor of a McDonald’s in Pyongyang is juicier than a three-patty Big Mac.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may allow a “Western hamburger franchise” into the country as a show of goodwill to the United States, according to an intelligence report described by U.S. officials to NBC. That follows remarks by South Korean adviser Chung-in Moon in late April, who said that North Korea might be interested in welcoming a McDonald’s as tensions ease.
Compared to the threat of nuclear war, of course, a Pyongyang McDonald’s seems like small fries. But experts and history suggest there’s more at play here than one token franchise.
McDonald’s has long been seen as a symbol of Western culture and capitalism — particularly in communist countries. And it’s expansion into China and Russia was seen as a landmark in the 1990s.
WASHINGTON ― Candidate Donald Trump bragged that he could shoot someone on New York’s Fifth Avenue and not lose any support, and now President Donald Trump’s lawyer says Trump could shoot the FBI director in the Oval Office and still not be prosecuted for it.
“In no case can he be subpoenaed or indicted,” Rudy Giuliani told HuffPost Sunday, claiming a president’s constitutional powers are that broad. “I don’t know how you can indict while he’s in office. No matter what it is.”
Giuliani said impeachment was the initial remedy for a president’s illegal behavior ― even in the extreme hypothetical case of Trump having shot former FBI Director James Comey to end the Russia investigation rather than just firing him.
“If he shot James Comey, he’d be impeached the next day,” Giuliani said. “Impeach him, and then you can do whatever you want to do to him.”
Norm Eisen, the White House ethics lawyer under President Barack Obama and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the silliness of Giuliani’s claim illustrates how mistaken Trump’s lawyers are about presidential power.
“A president could not be prosecuted for murder? Really?” he said. “It is one of many absurd positions that follow from their argument. It is self-evidently wrong.”
Eisen and other legal scholars have concluded that the constitution offers no blanket protection for a president from criminal prosecution. “The foundation of America is that no person is above the law,” he said. “A president can under extreme circumstances be indicted, but we’re facing extreme circumstances.”
So this thing about Melania not being seen for a month…I know it’s funny to joke about but honestly, in what universe could a leader’s wife be absent for so long without explanation or given reason?
Like, if this happened with literally any other leader in the world, we’d be reporting about it like “uhhhh something’s wrong.” And here, we have a known domestic abuser who has cheated on his wife multiple times, pretending she’s standing a windows where she’s not.
And part of this whole thing is that I’m also gaslighting myself a bit because it’s like “Talking about this as a serious thing just sounds insane. Trump couldn’t seriously hurt her and get away with it without notice. Like, he’s not THAT much of a dumbass.
But also: if she’s fine, why haven’t we heard from her? Why hasn’t there been anything but a tweet sent from her account that multiple people have access to? Like, if this isn’t a big deal, why hasn’t she been seen?
So it’s just…bizarre. BIZARRE.
Unfair is one of his favorite words, and he has used it in 69 tweets. He calls the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election a rigged witch hunt. He accuses the FBI of infiltrating his campaign with spies. He insists the media is running a sophisticated disinformation operation to discredit him. And he demands apologies for myriad criticisms and slights.
Never mind that Donald Trump was born into extraordinary wealth, emblazoned his name on skyscrapers and golf courses across the globe and now is the elected leader of the free world.
In President Trump’s telling, which can often be more imaginary than real, he is a victim — a long-suffering, tormented victim.
KILAUEA
https://claytoonz.com/2018/06/04/kilauea/
On September 11, 2001, my mother called me freaking out and afraid that terrorist were going to fly airplanes into my apartment. I live 50 miles from the Pentagon, but for mom, that was still too close. She passed away in 2002, but would have lost her mind if she had seen the events of the D.C. Sniper which spread to my town later that year (and just a few miles from the apartment spared by al Qaeda). So, I know if she was still alive and I was still living on Oahu, which is about 200 miles from the Kilauea Volcano, she’d still be worried red-hot molten lava would be flowing through my bedroom window.
Kilauea was erupting when I lived on Oahu in 1997-98. It’s been erupting since 1983. To put it in perspective, The Police released Every Breath You Take, toured the world, broke up, bickered for nearly three decades, reunited for another world tour, and broke up again during the time of Kilauea’s current eruption. Sting’s solo album The Dream of the Blue Turtles was a larger tragedy than Kilauea.
The islands of Hawaii were created by volcanoes. The Big Island (which is how locals refer to island of Hawaii) has five volcanoes with three of them classified as active. Kilauea isn’t even the largest. The volcano’s eruption is changing the shape of the island by the minute, though the spots of eruptions and lava flows has fluctuated over the years. Last month, a new eruption started in lower Puna after a 5.0 earthquake. A 6.9 earthquake hit the next day, and 27 houses were destroyed within five days. Thankfully, no lives have been lost.
Hawaii knows how to take these things in stride. They’ve made a tourist attraction out of the erupting volcano.
All this brings an important question. Does the president know Hawaii is a part of the United States? It’s a good question, because he was surprised to learn Puerto Rico was a part of our nation, that it’s an island, and islands are things surrounded by water. He once referred to the governor of the territory as the “president of Puerto Rico,” not realizing that he is the “president” of Puerto Rico.
I’m really glad Kilauea isn’t killing people yet, because Hawaii is also an island (several), and they too are surrounded by water (what a coincidence). And, there’s a lot of dark people in Hawaii. My concern is that Trump would disregard a disaster there much in the same way he’s casually dismissed the death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria.
Trump believes Maria killed 64 people, which is somehow a great personal achievement for him that the toll was lower than hurricane deaths during other presidential administrations. The New York Times estimates the death toll at 1,065. Other researchers have put the number roughly at 4,600. But, math is hard. Trump is still trying to open that big envelope Kim Jong Un sent him.
Puerto Rico and Hawaii are obviously not shithole countries. But, I’m not sure they’ll continue to elude that designation…as long as Donald Trump remains president over them.
https://claytoonz.com/2018/06/04/kilauea/
On September 11, 2001, my mother called me freaking out and afraid that terrorist were going to fly airplanes into my apartment. I live 50 miles from the Pentagon, but for mom, that was still too close. She passed away in 2002, but would have lost her mind if she had seen the events of the D.C. Sniper which spread to my town later that year (and just a few miles from the apartment spared by al Qaeda). So, I know if she was still alive and I was still living on Oahu, which is about 200 miles from the Kilauea Volcano, she’d still be worried red-hot molten lava would be flowing through my bedroom window.
Kilauea was erupting when I lived on Oahu in 1997-98. It’s been erupting since 1983. To put it in perspective, The Police released Every Breath You Take, toured the world, broke up, bickered for nearly three decades, reunited for another world tour, and broke up again during the time of Kilauea’s current eruption. Sting’s solo album The Dream of the Blue Turtles was a larger tragedy than Kilauea.
The islands of Hawaii were created by volcanoes. The Big Island (which is how locals refer to island of Hawaii) has five volcanoes with three of them classified as active. Kilauea isn’t even the largest. The volcano’s eruption is changing the shape of the island by the minute, though the spots of eruptions and lava flows has fluctuated over the years. Last month, a new eruption started in lower Puna after a 5.0 earthquake. A 6.9 earthquake hit the next day, and 27 houses were destroyed within five days. Thankfully, no lives have been lost.
Hawaii knows how to take these things in stride. They’ve made a tourist attraction out of the erupting volcano.
All this brings an important question. Does the president know Hawaii is a part of the United States? It’s a good question, because he was surprised to learn Puerto Rico was a part of our nation, that it’s an island, and islands are things surrounded by water. He once referred to the governor of the territory as the “president of Puerto Rico,” not realizing that he is the “president” of Puerto Rico.
I’m really glad Kilauea isn’t killing people yet, because Hawaii is also an island (several), and they too are surrounded by water (what a coincidence). And, there’s a lot of dark people in Hawaii. My concern is that Trump would disregard a disaster there much in the same way he’s casually dismissed the death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria.
Trump believes Maria killed 64 people, which is somehow a great personal achievement for him that the toll was lower than hurricane deaths during other presidential administrations. The New York Times estimates the death toll at 1,065. Other researchers have put the number roughly at 4,600. But, math is hard. Trump is still trying to open that big envelope Kim Jong Un sent him.
Puerto Rico and Hawaii are obviously not shithole countries. But, I’m not sure they’ll continue to elude that designation…as long as Donald Trump remains president over them.
