US Politics Thread 2021-24

[Jimbuna]

I wonder if it's darker and deeper than Parliament

[Rockstar]

Trump Says He’s Prepared to Give Evidence in UK Suit With Ex-Spy
London data collection lawsuit over Kremlin dossier begins

Christopher Steele’s firm says Trump is pursuing “vendetta”

By Jonathan Browning
October 16, 2023 at 6:38 AM EDT
Updated on October 16, 2023 at 9:24 AM EDT

Donald Trump said he is prepared to give evidence at a London trial as part of his legal fight over the notorious dossier that alleged ties between the Kremlin and the former US president’s successful run to the White House.

Trump kicked off his data collection suit in a London court against ex-MI6 agent Christopher Steele’s Orbis business intelligence firm on Monday, saying he’d suffered “significant damage and distress” from the publication of the dossier. He’s seeking a judge’s ruling that statements in the report were false.

[Onkel Neal]

WTH is going on with this dude's chin? Better call in a new undertaker,
https://x.com/Travis_in_Flint/status...835963739?s=20

Original chin


New chin

[August]

Smiling vs non smiling. Changes how the skin droops. A sad reality of aging.

[Rockstar]

So there I was on the beach admiring the ocean this morning when I had this thought cross my mind.

Remembering when Trump said those years ago how he would build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. Hell even I laughed when he said it was pretty funny. But of course the media ran with it and the usual suspects mocked how dangerous he is.

Today listen to Biden and how similar he sounded to Trump. When confronted by the media about U.S. involvement on two and possibly a future third front he says the U.S, can fight two wars and protect its global interests and proudly says without even spilling American blood. Instead it appears he’s all for making Ukrainian, Israeli and Taiwanese pay with theirs. Just can’t find anything funny with that, I wonder what Stephan Colbert’s take is on it?

[Rockstar]

Trump aims to sue London firm over dossier alleging sexual perversions
Lawyers for former US president said reports of his alleged sexual activity in Russia were ‘false, phoney or made-up’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...h-court-london

Donald Trump has said that a dossier alleging that he engaged in “perverted sexual behaviour” and paid bribes to Russian officials to further his business interests is “false” and “phoney”, and is seeking to sue for damages in London.

The former US president indicated that he was willing to give evidence at the high court in his case alleging breach of data protection rights by Orbis Business Intelligence over the 2016 “Steele dossier”. The dossier, investigating Russian efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential campaign, was compiled by the Orbis co-founder Christopher Steele, who previously ran MI6’s Russia desk.

Trump was not present for the high court hearing, which will determine whether the case can go to trial. However, in a written witness statement, he said: “The only way that I can fully demonstrate the total inaccuracies of the personal data in the dossier is to bring these proceedings and to prove, by evidence at trial, that the data are false.

“A judgment of the English court on this issue will be an immense relief to me as it will completely confirm the true position to the public at large. Until there is such a judgment, I continue to suffer damage and distress as a result of people wrongfully believing that the data in the dossier is accurate.”

Trump is claiming reputational damage as a result of Orbis sharing the dossier, which he said contained “false, phoney or made-up allegations”, with three individuals.

In 2017, it was published by BuzzFeed. Although Trump accepts that Orbis was not legally responsible for this, he said: “If the dossier had not been compiled by Mr Steele on behalf of the defendant, it would never have entered the public domain.”

The document included allegations that Trump hired sex workers to urinate on each other in the presidential suite of a hotel in Moscow and took part in sex parties in St Petersburg.

His lawyer, Hugh Tomlinson KC, told the court that Trump knew he had the legal responsibility to prove that the allegations are false and that he “intends to discharge his burden by giving evidence in this court”.

He added: “It’s uncontroversial for me to say that President Trump is a controversial figure. His interactions with the American legal system have been many and varied and he has sometimes been subject to serious criticism by judges in the US … None of this is relevant to whether the personal data is accurate.”

Trump has been charged with 91 felony counts across criminal cases in New York, Florida, Washington and Georgia, while in the civil courts he has been found liable for sexually abusing and defaming the advice columnist E Jean Carroll, and is accused of inflating his net worth to secure more favourable loan terms and gain tax benefits.

Orbis is seeking to have the case against it struck out before it can go to trial, claiming it has no realistic prospect of success. It says the claim has been brought too late, that any damage to the former US president was caused by the BuzzFeed publication, and that it has been brought for “an improper purpose”.

In written arguments, Antony White KC, representing Orbis, said: “The claimant’s exceptional and unexplained delay in bringing the claim against Orbis, his pursuit of this case only after similar litigation against Orbis and Mr Steele in the US was dismissed and found to be a meritless, vexatious and politically motivated abuse of the court process, his numerous abusive personal attacks and slurs against Mr Steele, and his extensive track record of using legal proceedings to harass, bully and intimidate his perceived opponents, all lead inexorably to the conclusion that the present claims have been brought for an illegitimate purpose and are therefore an abuse of process.”

White said the current case was lodged weeks after the “abusive” US action against Orbis and Steele was found to be “completely frivolous” and “brought in bad faith” for “the settling of scores and grievances”.

Judgment will be given at a later date.

[Jimbuna]

[vienna]

...and, as part of her plea agreement (in addition to another defendant who also took a plea deal), she now must testify against her other co-defendants at their trials for the same offenses...

...and that includes Trump the Chump...

...should be rather interesting since she was very closely involved insider in some of the various machinations of the Trump camp...




<O>

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by vienna

...and, as part of her plea agreement (in addition to another defendant who also took a plea deal), she now must testify against her other co-defendants at their trials for the same offenses...

...and that includes Trump the Chump...

...should be rather interesting since she was very closely involved insider in some of the various machinations of the Trump camp...




<O>

This banana republic will crush you and everyone you ever loved if you try to resist. Bahahaha! Just wait until President Trump isn't standing between them and the lowly taxpayers anymore. Resistance is futile. Hide your gold!

[vienna]

Originally Posted by em2nought

This banana republic will crush you and everyone you ever loved if you try to resist. Bahahaha! Just wait until President Trump isn't standing between them and the lowly taxpayers anymore. Resistance is futile. Hide your gold!

You really should cut back on the Whacky Tabaccky...




<O>

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by vienna

You really should cut back on the Whacky Tabaccky...
<O>

I tried it once, for some reason no matter what I did I couldn't force myself to inhale.

Remember this thread when you're sifting around in a dumpster looking for leftover scraps of food. They've actually made a business of it in the Philippines. They call food from dumpsters Pagpag, they clean it, fry it, and resell it for $1 a bag.

[vienna]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

...

HUD says homeless veterans in California represent 31% of the national homeless veteran population. Why don’t you ask them to see what makes them feel disrespected?

I had wanted to respond to the above statement for a bit of time, but didn't have the opportunity to assemble a comprehensive answer...


First, let's look at the numbers:


Estimated number of homeless veterans in the United States in 2022, by state -

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...e-us-by-state/

(HUD Report Released Feb 2023)



Did you ever ask yourself why California has such a very large homeless vet population? According to the report, CA has an estimated homeless vet population of 10,395, nearly 5X the number of vets in the second highest state, Florida at 2,279; CA does indeed have a whopping big homeless vet population, but it also has a very long and well documented history of caring for veterans in a fashion well above the standards followed by other states, even those states whose politicians make loud and generalized statements about how very much their states "care" about their vets. It would seem, just by the numbers, that the homeless vets are showing their preference by the way they migrate to CA to seek assistance they really can't seem to get in their own "caring" states; if home really was a hospitable, compassionate place , they would be there, but, apparently, their homes were not...


California history of veteran care goes way back; CA has had Veteran's Homes and facilities dating back to the 1880's when homes the first Veteran's Home was established in San Francisco; now, nearly 140 years later, there are home and facilities for vets across the state:


Welcome to the Veterans Homes of California -

https://www.calvet.ca.gov/calvet-programs/veteran-homes



In addition, there are a number of VA hospitals and other facilities, also across the state to offer support to vets; there really is no lack of support for the vets in CA, but the real problem has been getting the homeless vets to 'come in out of the cold' and take advantage of what is being offered; in a case in point, there is a huge VA facility in West Los Angeles, replete with a Veterans Hospital that is in partnership with the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center Complies (one of the finest in the nation and home to the Ronald Reagan Medical Center), so the quality of care there is above the norm for most other VA hospitals; however, large group of homeless vets set up camp on the sidewalks outside the fences surrounding the VA land; the surrounding residential area was understandably concerned and an effort was made to find housing for the vets, but the vets refused to move; the City and County of Los Angeles, through their various social services agencies, did their best to provide services to assist the vets, but the vets would not budge and refused to be moved; resident of the surrounding communities started to question why the VA was not allowing the vets to move onto VA held land (it should be noted the West LA VA property is huge and sprawling; it even encompasses a very large National Military Cemetery); but use of the land for the purposes of housing the vets has hit several snags over the years; the VA land is Federal land and the City, County, and/or State have no real say over the land's use; aside from the Federal reluctance to cede lad for local use, there has been a very long and persistent clamor by real estate developers to try and get a portion of the VA land ceded to them by the VA so they can build luxury housing since the surrounding areas are pretty much fully built out; the developers have been lobbying the VA that if land is ceded for local use for homeless projects, the developers should also get land cede for their own use...

The battles went on for quite some time, but, finally, several yeas ago, a pilot program was proposed and pushed by the local and state governments that the VA finally agreed to accept: a small portion of V land was to be carved out and housing in the form of "tiny houses" were built to get the vets off the sidewalks and into some sort of housing; in addition to the new housing, onsite social services provide by City, County, and State agencies were put in place to offer assistance and counseling in an effort to provide the vets with a path to more permanent housing, employment, and any other needs they might have; it should be noted those services are funded by the local and state governments; well, the tiny houses were built and the Vets were given the offer to move in, but they balked; it seems there were rules put in place to assure the safety and well-being of the residents, and the rules were simple and reasonable: a curfew was set to ensure order, certain items were banned (weapons, alcohol, drugs, etc), and unruly conduct would not be tolerated for the protection of all;; a lot of the 'sidewalk' vets did take advantage of the offers and moved in, some even benefiting from the services and later moving on to permanent housing and finding a better life than on the streets, but a sizeable portion refused, for various reasons, often addiction, to comply with the requirements and remained homeless...

The vets in CA are, indeed, offered a wide number of services and opportunities in this state, but , to paraphrase an old saying goes, "you can lead a homeless vet to a home, but you can't make him live in it"; in addition to the various government agencies in CA, there are a very large number of private, noon-profit secular and religious entities who have outreach programs specifically dedicated to assist vets, homeless or not, to transition into civilian life; and that the main reason why so many homeless vets can be found in CA; the state has a very long history of caring for its residents and providing social services other states balk at extending; we don't have so many homeless vets because we don't care about them, rather it because so many of the other states don't care about them enough...

incidentally, 10,395 homeless veterans may seem like an awful lot, but, given that the total veteran population of CA is 1,525,746, having about .007% still unhoused is not that bad; now if we can only get those remaining vets to be reasonable and take advantage of what Ca is offering...


Veteran Population by State -

https://wisevoter.com/state-rankings...tion-by-state/



One of the reasons I got to this today is I heard a news report on the local news radio about a delegation headed by the Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass along wit some LA City Council members who went to Washington DC to see if they could pry loos some Federal funding to address some of the needs of the CITY of LA, the news station has a report traveling along with the delegation and he reported the delegation had met with a number of Cabinet secretaries and agency head and were making some progress; Karen Bass was a member of Congress for 10 years (five terms) and left to run for and win the office of LA mayor and she knows a lot of the DC crowd and knows where to go to get the attention of the right persons; in one of the reports yesterday, the reporter told of a meeting the delegation had with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs where the delegation was seeking more Federal funds for homeless veteran housing in LA; in the meeting, the delegation was told $100 million dollasr had already been allocated, but no one at Veterans Affairs had made LA aware of the potential loss of the funding:


L.A. could lose $100M of federal funding -

https://www.audacy.com/947thewave/ne...ederal-funding


I didn't vote for Bass; I instead voted for her opponent, a billionaire real estate developer (a real one) who left the Ca Sate GOP party when he got fed up the State GOP being overrun by far-right wingnuts, he had been an independent for many years and ran for mayor as a Democrat because he knew an Independent stood little chance of winning and running as GOP in the current CA political climate would have been suicidal; he lost but I still like him and his positions on many issues; however, I've got to give Bass credit for making a real effort to move forward with improving La and its resident's lives; unfortunately for the CA vets, since it would take Congressional action to loosen up that $100 million, as long as the wingnut jackasses are still squabbling amongst themselves and paralyzing the government, I don't see a path forward before the end of the year...





On an upbeat finish, here are examples of recent efforts in LA, in conjunction with the VA to ease homeless vets:


VA opens housing for 59 homeless and at-risk Veterans on West LA Campus -

https://www.va.gov/greater-los-angel...est-la-campus/





Homeless Veterans Transitional Housing, VA Campus Los Angeles -

https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/...s-los-angeles/



...and this is about some of those "tiny homes' put in place on the VA West LA Campus...


From tents to tiny shelters, VA begins aggressive push in LA to end veteran homelessness -

https://www.stripes.com/veterans/202...g-5341053.html


Sorry to have been so lengthy, but its not a simple problem and there are no really simple answers; at least, here in CA, real efforts go on...




<O>

[vienna]

Originally Posted by em2nought

I tried it once, for some reason no matter what I did I couldn't force myself to inhale.

Remember this thread when you're sifting around in a dumpster looking for leftover scraps of food. They've actually made a business of it in the Philippines. They call food from dumpsters Pagpag, they clean it, fry it, and resell it for $1 a bag.

Ah, always such an optimist...


... and I bet you also didn't have sexual relations with that woman...



I think I've heard of something like Pagpag; I think the Scots call it "Haggis"...




<O>

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by vienna

Ah, always such an optimist...


... and I bet you also didn't have sexual relations with that woman...


I think I've heard of something like Pagpag; I think the Scots call it "Haggis"...

<O>

She's a little too chunky for me said the fat man, and she has obvious bad taste.

Haggis ain't bad, but people would probably like Pagpag better until you told them it came out of a dumpster. Pennsylvania Dutch Pig's Stomach has Haggis beat though.

[Jimbuna]