US Politics Thread 2021-24

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by mapuc

I had a weird dream some nights ago
Trump had won the election. Right after his deployment(not the correct word I know)he issued many decrees. He even travelled abroad many times to NK, Ru, Ukr, Chn, a.s.o. The immigrants from South stopped during the first year and peace came to USA. In the end of his term peace had come to Ukraine, Israel and rest of the world

Markus

Sounds about right to me.

[Reece]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Sometimes a cigar is nothing but a cigar in a dream.

Markus

So long as it's Cuban Markus!

[Jimbuna]

Trump couldn’t pardon Jan 6 rioters even if he wins in November, suggests new report

Former president Donald Trump has promised to pardon supporters of his who have been charged, convicted, and in some cases imprisoned for crimes committed during the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

But according to a new report from anti-authoritarianism group Protect Democracy, he may not actually have that power even if he is returned to the White House after this year’s election.

The report, titled Checking the Pardon Power: Constitutional Limitations & Options for Preventing Abuse, lays out a number of circumstances in which a presidential pardon would not be valid because it would not be a legitimate use of the president’s authority to grant reprieves for “offenses against the United States”.

For some time now, Mr Trump has been promising to free violent Capitol rioters, including those who’ve been convicted of assaulting police officers as they stormed the US Capitol in a last-ditch, desperate effort to prevent certification of Mr Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

In one post to his Truth Social platform last month, the disgraced former president said one of his “first acts” in office if he wins a second term would be to “Free January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned”.

He has also routinely referred to the convicted violent criminals — some of whom are in prison for offences such as Seditious Conspiracy — as “horribly treated” and claims they are political prisoners who have been persecuted for their support of him and his political movement.

One Republican-appointed federal judge, Royce Lamberth, said in January that he has been “dismayed to see distortions and outright falsehoods” regarding the violent riot “seep into public consciousness”.

Judge Lamberth, who made the comments during sentencing for a January 6 defendant, opined that he “[could not] recall a time when such meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream” over his 37 years as a federal judge.

Mr Trump also routinely used pardons during his first term as a way to reward supporters for their loyalty to him — and in some cases repay them for refusing to cooperate with criminal probes into his conduct.

He infamously pardoned his former chief White House strategist, Steve Bannon, his ex-national security adviser, Michael Flynn, his former campaign chair, Paul Manafort, and his longtime associate Roger Stone in the waning days of his term. All four were convicted of federal crimes but were rewarded by Mr Trump for their refusal to turn on him.

The possibility that Mr Trump could return to the White House and resume such uses of the president’s pardon authority has alarmed legal experts and anticorruption activists, even as many commentators have suggested there are not limits to the president’s authority when it comes to pardons.

But one of the report’s authors, Protect Democracy policy advocate Grant Tudor, says that conventional wisdom doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

In a phone interview with The Independent, Mr Tudor explained that the courts have exhibited no qualms about placing restrictions on the president’s pardon power.

In one landmark case, Burdick v United States, the Supreme Court found that then-president Woodrow Wilson could not unilaterally issue a pardon to New York Tribune editor George Burdick to remove the threat of incrimination against Burdick and force him to give evidence before a grand jury.

The court’s ruling stated that Wilson was within his ability to issue the pardon, but at the same time, the pardon had to be accepted by the intended recipient to be effective.

Mr Tudor explained that the court found an “unresolved tension” between the pardon clause and the Fifth Amendment, the latter of which placed constraints on the president’s ability to pardon offences.

He also said the pardon power’s counterpart in English law — the royal prerogative of mercy — has also been subject to restrictions over its’ long history, citing the 1328 Statute of Northampton, which stated that the sovereign could not grant a pardon when doing so would violate his oath. Three centuries later, the 1869 Bill of Rights suspended the King’s ability to use pardons in ways that disregarded acts of Parliament.

Similarly, Mr Tudor said a pardon for January 6 rioters would run up against constitutional constraints because it would be a situation in which “the leader of an insurrection is pardoning fellow insurrectionists”.

“We've encountered many situations where presidents have pardoned those who took up arms against the United States ... in all of those instances, the point was to quell unrest, not to sanction it,” he said. “It would be the first time that a president who is himself a criminal defendant, in that same scheme is pardoning those who helped to further it”.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...f8c8cd8b&ei=21

[Skybird]

Things to come? Maybe, maybe not. I dare no prediction anymore, I think everything is possible in the long term. And I thoughth and wrote that already 20 years ago in this forum. It'S just that today "long term" alreayd is 20 years shorter.

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/r...y?id=109093191

[Rockstar]

Dear lawdy baby jeebus you people need help.


Frankly, as an American I’m much more concerned with April 1st and Iran and their proxies striking here in retaliation. Germany should be concerned too. 3 suspected Islamist terrorists have been arrested in Germany after planning to massacre people attending church masses in the area of Düsseldorf

Global Britain is becoming a stooge of the US

Like I said when a whole nation is on the fast track of becoming irrelevant on the global stage not much else do to but just do what your told and post whataboutisms and what ifs.

The scenes as American and British troops withdrew from Afghanistan were heartbreaking. People desperate to leave the country they love, offering up their children for transportation to a more peaceful country, being crushed to death for a chance at freedom.

Those horrific scenes were also visual confirmation of Britain’s waning influence in the world, despite hoping to become “Global Britain” in the wake of Brexit. Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative member of parliament and chair of the foreign affairs select committee, described the departure from Afghanistan as “the biggest foreign policy disaster since Suez”.

The 1956 Suez crisis – which ended with the US pressuring the British and French to end their invasion of Egypt – was a turning point in British foreign policy. It held up a mirror to the British political establishment, showing the public very clearly how Britain’s overseas influence had declined.

The Leave campaign pitched post-EU Britain as an outward-looking world leader, fighting for the ideals the UK holds dear. But when push came to shove in Afghanistan, here were the British, again following the USÂ’s lead.

In his first official private meeting with US president Joe Biden since Biden took office, Boris Johnson was keen to leverage the “special relationship” to build Britain’s international status and cement its position as the ally of choice for the US. But a closer look at the status of this relationship suggests the UK has, instead of taking a step towards becoming “Global Britain”, traded its leading role in the EU for a subordinate one in the shadow of the US.

The “special relationship’” is built on military cooperation and the sharing of intelligence and the complementary elements of the US and UK intelligence services allow valuable information to travel in both directions. Any problems or issues within the relationship, such as the repercussions of the tragic death of Harry Dunn after being hit by a vehicle driven by the wife of a US intelligence officer, are quickly compartmentalised and largely forgotten about to maintain the working practices of the two partners.

By 2016, with the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House, many observers of British foreign policy recognised that the heady days of the Thatcher-Reagan or Blair-Bush partnerships were gone. In the short term, BritainÂ’s priorities were the Brexit negotiations and to build a relationship with Trump, beginning with a state visit to the UK. While the relationship between Theresa May and Trump may not have been perfect (nor the relationship between Johnson and Trump) it did at least keep the train on the tracks as far as the relationship was concerned.

The election of Biden, the Obama-era vice president and a Democrat, promised someone perhaps more level-headed than Trump. Still, there were concerns over Biden’s – an Irish-American Catholic’s – views on Northern Ireland and the Brexit negotiations, compounded by some objectionable comments Johnson made about Obama when Biden was vice president.

Moving forward

So far, we have seen very little of that “specialness” between Biden and Johnson, but tensions and complaints over Afghanistan were eased with two recent initiatives.

The first was AUKUS, the deal between the US, UK and Australia to provide nuclear submarines for use in the Pacific region.

Beyond its immediate financial benefits for the UK, this deal builds a stronger relationship with Australia, where Britain is very keen to sign a trade deal, and it demonstrates some closeness between the UK and the US. Being able to “get one over” on the French is, for some, just an added benefit.

The second was the easing of travel restrictions between the US and the UK (and large parts of the EU). This was something the UK and EU had been working on and the success was counted, in both London and Brussels, as a sign of improving relations with Washington.

However, the UK government would be foolish to believe their own hype. The “special relationship” is far more special in London than it is in Washington and the election of Biden will not change that. While a post-Brexit Britain needs the US more than ever, the US needs the UK considerably less, and benefits come with costs.

After his meeting with Biden, Johnson claimed he hadnÂ’t been asked about Northern Ireland and the issue of Brexit. The White House transcripts disagreed, demonstrating that the US are unafraid to demand action and the UK can do very little to frustrate them. While Johnson may be able to ignore BidenÂ’s demands in private, he will be far less able if they ever become loudly public.

The US has always been able to shout “jump” and the UK ask “how high?” but the public humiliation which goes with that does not fit well with the post-Brexit rhetoric of a strong, “global” Britain. Voters may well hold the Johnson government responsible for any perceived decline they see in the UK’s global influence.

As happened in Suez, the UK has been reminded that it is an – but not the only – important country internationally. It isn’t in the big leagues, and therefore it will need to ensure it remains allied to a much bigger player if it wants to see its influence bear fruit.

That could have been the EU perhaps, or even the UN security council or Nato. But as Britain has done before, it has looked to the US – an example, perhaps, of what French foreign minister Clement Beaune described as Britain’s “accepted vassalisation”.

Britain in the 1950s was wedded to the US, acting as a partner rather than leading the charge. Now, while the UK continues to support the US, the influence it has seems negligible. While it may bring comfort to the UK to feel it is a partner to a superpower, being its stooge or subordinate is an unpleasant place to be, no matter how much you tell yourself it values your opinion.

I know itÂ’s hard to put the tabloid news down, but try. This might give you all a clue.

C SPAN
WordForWord

https://mailchi.mp/c-span/8x54njb61g-6360102

Good Thursday evening. In this edition: Japanese PM Kishida makes case for American leadership on the world stage; and FBI Director Wray warns of rising threats, urges FISA reauthorization.

American Leadership

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida urged Americans to overcome their "self-doubt" as he called for the U.S. to retain its "indispensable" role on the world stage.

"You believed that freedom is the oxygen of humanity," he said in an address to a joint meeting of Congress. "The world needs the United States to continue playing this pivotal role in the affairs of nations. And yet, as we meet here today, I detect an undercurrent of self-doubt among some Americans about what your role in the world should be."

"This self-doubt is arising at a time when our world is at history's turning point. The post–Cold War era is already behind us, and we are now at an inflection point that will define the next stage of human history." The prime minister said values long championed by the U.S. are being challenged on multiple fronts and drew a direct connection between Russia's war in Ukraine and China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. "China's current external stance and military actions present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge, not only to the peace and security of Japan, but to the peace and stability of the international community at large," he said.

"As I often say, Ukraine of today may be East Asia of tomorrow."

His remarks were not so subtly directed at the contingent of House Republicans who have subscribed to the more isolationist "America First" foreign policy view and oppose sending additional military assistance to Ukraine. "I want to address those Americans who feel the loneliness and exhaustion of being the country that has upheld the international order almost single-handedly," the PM said.

"I am here to say that Japan is already standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States. You are not alone. We are with you."
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has said he intends to put an Ukraine aid bill on the floor, but what that might look like and when he would do so remains unclear. A majority of lawmakers in both parties support Ukraine aid, but a sizeable chunk of the Republican conference as well as former President Trump is opposed.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has also strongly suggested she would trigger a vote to oust the speaker if he allows the Senate-passed Ukraine bill to come to the floor. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) today suggested that Democrats might provide the votes necessary to save the speaker's job if he allows a vote on the Senate bill.

"I believe that there are a reasonable number of Democrats who would not want to see the speaker fall as a result of doing the right thing," he said.

National Security & FISA

FBI Director Christopher Wray warned lawmakers about rising threats to Americans as he pressed Congress to fully fund his agency and provide the necessary tools to protect the homeland.

"As I look back over my career in law enforcement, I would be hard-pressed to think of a time where so many threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once. But that is the case as I sit here today," he said during a House hearing on his agency's FY 2025 budget request.

Director Wray said the FBI's most pressing concern is an attack inspired by the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, but that he was growing increasingly worried about an attack in the U.S. like the one carried out last month in Moscow by an affiliate of the Islamic State.

The FBI director also said it was critical for Congress to quickly reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a controversial spy power that allows the government to conduct targeted surveillance on foreign nationals outside the U.S. without needing to obtain a warrant.

"Let me be clear: Failure to reauthorize 702 or gutting it with some new kind of warrant requirement would be dangerous and put Americans' lives at risk," he said.

The House on Wednesday failed to advance a reauthorization bill after 19 Republicans rebuffed their party leadership by sinking a rule vote that would have allowed the measure to come to the floor. Members of both parties have raised concerns about the incidental collection of Americans' data through 702, but infighting has stymied multiple efforts to reauthorize the program, which expires April 19.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) plans to try again tomorrow on a bill that would reauthorize the program for two years instead of the five years that was rejected Wednesday.

The Rules Committee meets tonight on the bill, and lawmakers are set to hold a vote on the rule tomorrow at 8:30am ET.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who supports FISA reauthorization, told reporters that Democrats would not help the speaker approve a rule for the bill, a responsibility that falls on the majority party.
See the House FBI hearing and watch the House session tomorrow morning.

In other newsÂ…

Republican senators have been denying routine unanimous consent requests, such as on motions to adjourn, in protest of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) plans to quickly dismiss the impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Forty-three Republicans sent a letter today to Sen. Schumer demanding he hold a full impeachment trial. The House is expected to transmit the articles on Tuesday.

A group of Maryland lawmakers unveiled a bill that would allow the federal government to cover the full cost of the recovery and rebuilding efforts for Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed last month after a cargo ship rammed into one of its support beams. "As we continue to mourn the loss of life and this icon of our skyline, we can simultaneously begin work to heal the wounds created by this disaster. A new bridge can be a symbol of hope and resilience," Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), the lead sponsor, said in a statement. It remains unclear how much it will cost.
For your radar...

The House returns early Friday morning to try again on the FISA reauthorization bill. Watch LIVE on C-SPAN at 8am ET.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and former President Trump are expected to hold a joint press conference on "election integrity" at Mar-a-Lago on Friday. The details of the event have not been finalized, but you'll be able to watch it online.

Buckle up!

Channel 14 in Israel is reporting that an “Advanced Missile Ship” with the U.S. Navy, likely an Arleigh Burke-Class Guided-Missile Destroyer, has arrived off the Coast of Israel to assist with the Interception of Missiles and Drones launched by Iranian and/or Iranian-Backed Proxy Groups against Israel.

Also, Qatar and Kuwait have informed the US that they cannot use their bases on their territories against Iran. This move basically reduces US capabilities significantly in the region

Scoop: Iran warns U.S. to stay out of fight with Israel or face attack on troops

https://www.axios.com/2024/04/12/ira...troops-warning

Iran sent a message to the Biden administration through several Arab countries earlier this week: if the U.S. gets involved in the fighting between Israel and Iran, U.S. forces in the region will be attacked, three U.S. officials told Axios.

Why it matters: The U.S. and Israel are preparing for Iran to retaliate against Israel for an airstrike that killed a top Iranian general in Damascus last week.
The Iranian supreme leader has threatened "punishment" for Israel but through private channels Iran has signaled it would be limited.

Israel and the U.S. think an Iranian attack would include the launch of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and attack drones from Iran to Israeli territory.
U.S. officials say the Biden administration asked Israel to notify the U.S. and for the U.S. to have a say before decisions are made about any retaliation by Israel.

Behind the scenes: Three U.S. officials said that in recent days the Iranians told several Arab governments they see the U.S. as responsible for the Israeli attack that killed the Iranian general in Damascus, regardless of U.S. efforts to distance itself from the strike.

The Iranian message was that if the U.S. gets involved after an Iranian attack on Israel, U.S. bases in the region will be attacked.
"The Iranian message was we will attack the forces that attack us, so don't f--k with us and we won't f--k with you," one U.S. official said.
Between the lines: President Biden and other U.S. officials have said publicly the U.S. would help Israel defend itself against Iranian attacks.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in a call on Thursday that Israel "could count on full U.S. support to defend Israel against Iranian attacks, which Tehran has publicly threatened," the Pentagon said.

Gallant told Austin "a direct Iranian attack will require an appropriate Israeli response against Iran."

A U.S. official told Axios it wasn't clear from the message received via several Arab countries whether the Iranians were threatening to attack U.S. forces if they help Israel intercept Iranian missiles or only if they participate in an Israeli retaliation.

The general assessment of the U.S. intelligence community is the Iranians could attack U.S. forces only if the U.S. joins Israel in a counteroffensive, according to the U.S. official.

Yes, but: Iran is sending a different message through other communication channels, including calls between the foreign ministers of the UK, Australia and Germany and their Iranian counterpart on Thursday.

Two U.S. officials said the Iranian message in these calls was more nuanced and signaled the Iranians are aimed at a limited response that will not lead to a regional escalation.

Another U.S. official said the U.S. is communicating directly with Iran through the formal Swiss channel of communication and Iran did not communicate threats through this channel.

U.S. officials have been in touch with regional partners to discuss efforts to message to Iran to not escalate the situation, a U.S. official said.
They've also been in touch with Israel to ensure they are able to defend themselves and at the same time prevent tensions from escalating, the official added.

What to watch: U.S. CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael "Erik" Kurilla is in Israel to coordinate the U.S.-Israeli defensive effort ahead of any possible Iranian strike, U.S. and Israeli officials said.

The officials stressed the Biden administration asked Israel in recent days to notify and consult the U.S. in advance of any Israeli retaliation against Iran.
The Biden administration felt Israel didn't consult and didn't give it an appropriate notice before its strike in Damascus that killed the Iranian general, even though such a strike could have had implications for U.S. forces in the region.

The Washington Post reported Austin complained to Gallant in a call on April 3 about the lack of sufficient notice from the Israeli side.

[vienna]

Originally Posted by August

...

Not one single person, including that murdered woman, has ever been actually charged with insurrection though. Not one.

It helps to know of what one speaks...

Yes, not one person has actually been formally charged with insurrection, but for a very good, and logical, reason; there is no need for the since there really is nothing sinister or ponderable about the situation; simply put, insurrection is a lesser crime and carries a lighter sentence; what the prosecutors have been filling, and getting indictments for, is Sedition, which carries a much heftier sentence under Federal Law; of all the defendants charged with Sedition, all have either been convicted of or pleaded guilty to the charges levied upon them; the net effect is those 1/6 thugs have actually been brought to justice and have been found guilty of their crimes...

...which, by the way, actually means that those crimes were actually committed as demonstrated by either evidence at trial or by the defendants own admission, so the claims that 'no crimes were committed' the Trump/MAGA/FR lemmings have been whining, moaning, and bitching about like little snowflakes doesn't really hold water...

It should also be noted the DOJ has pressed Sedition charges against the most egregious offenders who chose to try their luck in court; others may have dodged more serious charges by making plea deals since they weren't very high visibility targets...

Here is a link defining the various levels and conditions of Federal charges that can be possibly levied;


A Civilian's Guide to Insurrection Legalese --

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2...ction-legalese


...and if anyone is beyond curious, the DOJ maintains a publicly accessible database of all the cases brought in what the DOJ calls "Capital Breach Cases", which includes a link to a downloadable PDF of all the sentences handed down to date...


Capitol Breach Cases --

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases



<O>

[vienna]

Stephen Colbert has been quite good this week...










For satirists like Colbert, Trump and his cronies have been a gift from above since, when commenting about the slapstick antics of the MAGA crowd, the jokes just simply write themselves; if truth is often stranger than fiction, when it it comes to Trump, et al, the truth is often funnier than anything someone could possibly imagine...



<O>

[Rockstar]

But they got a lot of jokes. . Oh and they have also brought us a lot more war too.

Opinion Data Points
American politics is undergoing a racial realignment

Democrats are rapidly losing non-white voters as the forces that ensured their support weaken

Headshot for John Burn-Murdoch


https://archive.ph/XVGDc

Last week, a New York Times poll showed President Joe Biden leading Donald Trump by just 56 points to 44 among non-white Americans, a group he won by almost 50 points when the two men last fought it out for the White House in 2020. As things stand, the Democrats are going backwards faster with voters of colour than any other demographic.


Such startling statistics often meet accusations of polling error, but this cannot be written off as a rogue result. Data from America’s gold-standard national election surveys show Democrats’ advantage among Black, Latino and Asian voters at its lowest since 1960. Figures from Gallup show the same steepening decline.


Chart showing that Democrats’ advantage with non-white voters has been rapidly eroding and is now at its weakest since the 1960s

Part of this is due to fading memories and weakening ties. Black Americans who lived through the civil rights era still support the party at very high levels, but younger generations are wavering. There’s also the weakening correlation between income and voter choice in US politics. The image of the GOP as the party of wealthy country club elites is dimming, opening the door to working- and middle-class voters of all ethnicities.

More ominous for the Democrats is a less widely understood dynamic: many of America’s non-white voters have long held much more conservative views than their voting patterns would suggest. The migration we’re seeing today is not so much natural Democrats becoming disillusioned but natural Republicans realising they’ve been voting for the wrong party.


Chart showing that non-white conservatives are increasingly matching their vote choice to their ideology, shifting them towards the Republicans


This is best illustrated by US political researchers Ismail K White and Chryl N Laird, whose eye-opening 2020 book Steadfast Democrats demonstrates the incongruity between many black Americans’ policy preferences and votes.
Take deeply conservative positions such as support for gun rights or the belief that government should stay out of people’s lives and let them succeed or fail on their own. Very few white voters who take these positions identify as Democrats, but much larger shares of Black, Latino and Asian conservatives do.


Chart showing that very few white conservatives identify as Democrats, but until recently much larger shares of Black, Latino and Asian conservatives do.

History, culture and community have long overridden this misalignment between non-white conservatives’ policy positions and party choice. As recently as 2012, three in four Black self-identified conservatives were Democrats, but that has fallen to less than half. These voters won’t be won back by a bold environmental policy or defunding the police. Their historical support for Democrats was an anomaly and a further rightward shift is likely as it corrects.
White and Laird’s insight is that social networks play an important role. Among Black conservatives whose social circles are predominantly Black, support for Republicans remains anaemic, but among those whose friends, family or colleagues are more diverse, social norms are much weaker and support for the GOP rises. My extension of their analysis shows the same is true for other non-white groups.


Chart showing that racially homogeneous social groups suppress support for Republicans among non-white conservatives

There are echoes of voters in Britain’s Red Wall — the communities in northern England identified by pollster James Kanagasooriam with conservative demographics and attitudes that had stopped short of voting Tory due to a long-held sense that the party was not for them. In 2019 that changed. Non-white Americans are in a similar position. Strong community norms have kept them in the blue column, but those forces are weakening. The surprise is not so much that these voters are now shifting their support to align with their preferences, but that it took so long.

As the US becomes less racially segregated, the frictions preventing non-white conservatives from voting Republican diminish. And this is a self-perpetuating process: discovering Republicans among one’s own group further weakens the stigma. As Republican pollster Patrick Ruffini puts it in his 2023 book Party of the People, this can create a “preference cascade”. Viewed in this light, the size of the shifts in current polling are entirely plausible.

To be clear, nothing in politics is guaranteed. Some shifts are temporary, and many of those deserting the Democrats will become swing voters rather than solid Republicans. They can be won back.

But the left’s challenge with non-white voters is much deeper than it first appears. A less racially divided America is an America where people vote more based on their beliefs than their identity. This is bad news for Democrats.

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

Opinion Data Points
American politics is undergoing a racial realignment

Democrats are rapidly losing non-white voters as the forces that ensured their support weaken


https://archive.ph/XVGDc

Finally leaving the plantation.

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Kptlt. Neuerburg

Maher is right. The lefty/progressives are ruining this country. Then they wonder how a right wing government gets elected. It is not that complicated. I know one thing. I will never vote for the Liberal party again. Ever.

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

Originally Posted by u crank

Maher is right. The lefty/progressives are ruining this country. Then they wonder how a right wing government gets elected. It is not that complicated. I know one thing. I will never vote for the Liberal party again. Ever.

The problem at least in my opinion is that "The Government"TM has gone from actually governing to being a popularity contest and continually applying all the wrong solutions to fix the problems. Although while this is nothing new it has gotten A LOT WORSE in the past decade or so and both Biden and Trump are proof of it. A lot of decisions that where made while Trump was president and currently while Biden is president are being influenced by popular opinion.
Sometimes presidents need to make an unpopular decision for the good of the country and not just to say, "See I'm on YOUR side!". We used to have a government that despite of the disagreements from each party could find common ground and work together for the benefit of the nation (mostly) which has now devolved to a point of a finger pointing, demonizing, mudslinging, name called, book reading, stupid power point presentation amalgamation of nuclear fueled dumpster fire of a two ring circus. A case in point was the fact that the GOP has been continuously complaining about the Southern boarder and it needing to be fixed. Biden gave them a package that would have been the strictest boarder security laws on the books had it passed, at least according to the pundits. The GOP refused it not because they thought it was bad, indeed it gave the GOP everything it wanted and then some. But they refused it because it would "Be a win for the other side." End of political rant. FOR NOW.

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Kptlt. Neuerburg

The problem at least in my opinion is that "The Government"TM has gone from actually governing to being a popularity contest and continually applying all the wrong solutions to fix the problems.

As they say, 'there's your trouble'. In this country we have a Prime Minister who thinks you can solve a scientific problem, global warming, with a tax. In any other field if you suggested such a thing you would be laughed out of the room. Only in the political realm does such a thing make sense. Despite their progressive bona fides and elite education diplomas, they are just not that smart.

[Skybird]

I tend to think that presidents in the American system are not so much causes, but symptoms.

[Jimbuna]

Trump says Iran attack on Israel ‘would never have happened if I were president’

Donald Trump has weighed in on Iran’s airstrike against Israel on Saturday evening.

“ISRAEL IS UNDER ATTACK,” the former president said on his social media platform, Truth Social. “This should never have been allowed to happen - This would NEVER have happened if I were President!”

Mr Trump’s comments come after the Israeli Defense Forces announced Iran had launched dozens of drones against Israel, set to arrive Saturday evening. The US has since pledged its support to Israel.

“President Biden has been clear: our support for Israel’s security is ironclad,” National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said on Saturday. “The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran.”
The former president’s proposed policy on Israel’s offensive in Gaza, meanwhile, has been hazy at best,The Independent’s Richard Hall previously reported.

In the days after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 200 people hostage, Mr Trump offered his enthusiastic backing for Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza. However, more recent comments from Mr Trump, coming after more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed, could be interpreted as a sign that his unyielding support for Israel is not guaranteed.

“You’ve got to get it over with, and you have to get back to normalcy,” Mr Trump said in an interview with The Hugh Hewitt Show that aired earlier this month. The former president added that he wanted Israel to “get back to peace and stop killing people.”

On Truth Social, Mr Trump also inexplicably attacked Mr Biden for using a “taped” speech to address the people. However, Mr Biden has not addressed the nation since Iran launched their attack, and he is not expected to make any remarks on Saturday evening.

“AFTER READING MY TRUTH, BIDEN’S HANDLERS CONVINCED HIM NOT TO RELEASE HIS TAPED SPEECH ON ISRAEL,” Mr Trump wrote. “HE’LL NOW ATTEMPT TO DO IT LIVE, PROBABLY TOMORROW. HE DOESN’T WANT TO LEAVE HIS HOUSE, WITH THE CORVETTE, IN DELAWARE!!!”

Mr Biden had already left Delaware — his home state, where he was slated to spend the weekend — as of Saturday evening, cutting his trip short to handle the Iran crisis. The president is now in the White House, where an administration spokesperson said he would meet with his national security team.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson — a staunch ally to Mr Trump — has also attempted to pin Iran’s attacks on Mr Biden.

“The Biden Administration’s undermining of Israel and appeasement of Iran have contributed to these terrible developments,” Mr Johnson said in a statement on Saturday evening.

Tensions between Mr Netanyahu and Mr Biden have been on the rise in recent weeks.

This week, the president called for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza to allow humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians. However, he still appears poised to make an $18bn sale of fighter jets to Israel — a deal which the administration says has been in the making for years.

The Independent also exclusively reported this week that eight internal dissent memos were sent by US State Department staff during the first two months of the Gaza war, highlighting the widespread opposition within the department to the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

The former president is expected to speak at a campaign event in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania on Saturday evening, where he may comment further on the Iranian attacks.
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