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Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse
- Thread starter CdnGuy
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RESIST
Members of a Department of Commerce committee called the Digital Economy Board of Advisors have turned in their resignations after President Trump’s defense of white supremacists in Charlottesville.
On Monday, I declared that President Trump had neither the moral core nor the moral authority to respond properly to the openly racist horror that took place in Charlottesville. I said flat out that I didn’t believe him when he mouthed words that fell short of what was required for a moment so pivotal. Trump’s denunciation of “the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups” later that day was as forced as the confessions from the Central Park Five.
On Tuesday, he proved my gut feeling right.
In the lobby of his tacky tower on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, the president of the United States defended the torch-bearing racists who lit up the night sky on the University of Virginia campus as they chanted “white lives matter.” He reiterated his “both sides” blasphemy, equating the racism and violence of the bigots who rallied last weekend with the counterprotesters who gathered to uphold the ideals of this nation. And he defended the cause of the Confederacy by siding with those trying to prevent the removal of statues that New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu correctly called “murder.”
The damage Trump has done to the presidency is unmistakable. The damage done to the nation is incalculable. He is unfit to serve.
...
Trump must be held accountable for his false moral equivalency and his willingness to exalt the treasonous Confederacy at the expense of our union. The “harsh penalty” that escaped him in 2011 must be visited upon him now. People of good conscience must speak up and stay vocal. More Republicans must stand up to him now and do so boldly. They have to put the country before party or some longed-for policy that pales in comparison to the preservation of our ideals. And if Trump succeeds in surviving this unbelievable affront to all we say we are, he will not be to blame. We will.
WTFU ... Trumpscam, Trumpshit, Trumplague, ...
THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT plans to terminate Operation Choke Point, an Obama-era law enforcement crackdown on scam consumer transactions that conservatives characterized as an attack on gun sellers and legal businesses. It concludes one of the more brazen misinformation efforts in recent political history — with misinformation triumphing.
The idea behind Operation Choke Point, initiated in 2013, was to prevent consumer fraud by limiting access to the financial system. Any transaction that requires a deduction from a bank account has to go through what’s called the Automatic Clearing House. Only banks with access to the payment system can facilitate those transactions.
Banks, of course, have certain responsibilities to flag suspicious activity, under the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering statutes. Banks must identify that their customer is legitimate, to ensure that they’re not implicated in a fraud scheme. So Operation Choke Point heightened scrutiny on banks who failed to raise concerns about questionable transactions on their networks. In presentations to banks, regulators and law enforcement highlighted business transactions with high rates of customer disputes. It was already the bank’s responsibility to report these; DOJ was just warning banks to be vigilant.
Choke Point was pretty effective. In 2014, Four Oaks Bank in North Carolina paid over $1 million in fines after giving access to a third-party payment processor to process dubious payments for online payday lenders, who removed funds from customer bank accounts without authorization. Four Oaks made $800,000 in fees from the third party, so the penalty actually cost them money, a rarity in banking cases.
This made the payday lending industry very nervous.
THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT plans to terminate Operation Choke Point, an Obama-era law enforcement crackdown on scam consumer transactions that conservatives characterized as an attack on gun sellers and legal businesses. It concludes one of the more brazen misinformation efforts in recent political history — with misinformation triumphing.
The idea behind Operation Choke Point, initiated in 2013, was to prevent consumer fraud by limiting access to the financial system. Any transaction that requires a deduction from a bank account has to go through what’s called the Automatic Clearing House. Only banks with access to the payment system can facilitate those transactions.
Banks, of course, have certain responsibilities to flag suspicious activity, under the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering statutes. Banks must identify that their customer is legitimate, to ensure that they’re not implicated in a fraud scheme. So Operation Choke Point heightened scrutiny on banks who failed to raise concerns about questionable transactions on their networks. In presentations to banks, regulators and law enforcement highlighted business transactions with high rates of customer disputes. It was already the bank’s responsibility to report these; DOJ was just warning banks to be vigilant.
Choke Point was pretty effective. In 2014, Four Oaks Bank in North Carolina paid over $1 million in fines after giving access to a third-party payment processor to process dubious payments for online payday lenders, who removed funds from customer bank accounts without authorization. Four Oaks made $800,000 in fees from the third party, so the penalty actually cost them money, a rarity in banking cases.
This made the payday lending industry very nervous.
Winning ...
Several weeks after Trump’s victory, Icahn tweeted, “I’ve agreed to serve as a special advisor to the president on issues relating to regulatory reform.” In a press release, Trump said, “Carl was with me from the beginning and with his being one of the world’s great businessmen, that was something I truly appreciated. He is not only a brilliant negotiator, but also someone who is innately able to predict the future, especially having to do with finances and economies.” He added that Icahn would help him address regulations that were “strangling” American business.
Icahn’s role was novel. He would be an adviser with a formal title, but he would not receive a salary, and he would not be required to divest himself of any of his holdings, or to make any disclosures about potential conflicts of interest. “Carl Icahn will be advising the President in his individual capacity,” Trump’s transition team asserted.
In the months after the election, the stock price of CVR, Icahn’s refiner, nearly doubled—a surge that is difficult to explain without acknowledging the appointment of the company’s lead shareholder to a White House position. The rally meant a personal benefit for Icahn, at least on paper, of half a billion dollars. There was an expectation in the market—an expectation created, in part, by Icahn’s own remarks—that, with Trump in the White House and Icahn playing consigliere, the rules were about to change, and not just at the E.P.A. Icahn’s empire ranges across many economic sectors, from energy to pharmaceuticals to auto supplies to mining, and all of them are governed by the types of regulations about which he would now potentially be advising Trump.
Many on the left have been concerning themselves of late with debates that can be summarized as 1 versus 1.00001. A professor, long supportive of his school’s efforts at fostering diversity, objects to one proposed version of those efforts, and soon crowds of students are accusing him of the worst kinds of prejudices, chanting for his firing.
A theater director, with the best of progressive intentions, mounts a play that showcases what she advocates. Soon she is condemned for deigning to present material about the tribulations of an out-group not her own.
Controversies roil as to whether a painting that screams empathy for the pain of an Other represents homage or exploitation, whether a fashion statement is cultural appropriation or appreciation, whether the best response to a foul academic ideologue is to attend his lecture and counter him with facts, or to silence him.
These are valid issues, and their currency reflects the left’s admirable ability to be introspective. But these debates also display the left’s time-honored capacity to eat itself alive with turmoil over the difference between 1 and 1.00001.
And then along comes Charlottesville, and we are reminded about just how contrasting contrasts really can be, how vast the difference between 1 and 100 is, or in this case, 1 and negative infinity. We are reminded what it is like when KKK garb, swastikas and torches are marched through our streets. What it is like when one of the marchers floors a car’s accelerator to hurtle into a crowd, leaving Heather Heyer dead. What it is like when, 70 years after 407,000 Americans died fighting Nazism, fascism and racial supremacy, we have a president who gives comfort to those malignancies. We are reminded what evil actually looks like.
It is time to readjust our brains to focus on the biggest of contrasts, to remember who the real enemy is, to use our intellect and passion to destroy it.
A Brooklyn-based preacher became the first member of the Christian council to resign his post Friday. “There was a deepening conflict of values between myself and the administration,” A.R. Bernard said in a statement, adding that he had “quietly stepped away” from involvement with the group several months ago and submitted his formal resignation on Tuesday.
Before resigning, Bernard also co-signed a letter with other members of the Executive Committee of the Commission of Religious Leaders group, stating that “we will not be silent” in the condemnation of white supremacist groups.
