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Has U.S. Democracy Been Trumped? Bernie Sanders wants to know who owns America?

#16161 User is offline   y66 

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Posted 2020-August-31, 11:12

Michael Flynn's Emergency Bid to Force Dismissal of Criminal Case Denied by Sadie Gurman at WSJ.

Quote

A federal judge can examine the Justice Department’s decision to drop the criminal case against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a U.S. appeals court ruled Monday, the latest turn in the long-running legal case.

The decision was a loss for Mr. Flynn, who had asked the appeals court to dismiss the case.

Poor Flynn. Talk about twisting in the wind.
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
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#16162 User is offline   Zelandakh 

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Posted 2020-August-31, 13:22

View Posty66, on 2020-August-31, 11:12, said:

Poor Flynn. Talk about twisting in the wind.

By the time the case finally gets resolved, there might be a new recommendation from a DoJ not being hijacked by its AG.
(-: Zel :-)

Happy New Year everyone!
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#16163 User is offline   Winstonm 

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Posted 2020-August-31, 14:22

View Posty66, on 2020-August-31, 11:12, said:

Michael Flynn's Emergency Bid to Force Dismissal of Criminal Case Denied by Sadie Gurman at WSJ.


Poor Flynn. Talk about twisting in the wind.


AG Billy Barr's Emergency Bid to Force Dismissal of Flynn Criminal Case Properly Denied

FYHL Posted Image
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Black Lives Matter. / "I need ammunition, not a ride." Zelensky
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#16164 User is offline   y66 

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Posted 2020-August-31, 21:10

From Franklin Foer at the Atlantic:

Quote

After a caravan of Donald Trump’s supporters descended on Portland, Oregon, this weekend, aching to grapple, he praised them as “great patriots.” In cheering them on, Trump is pointing them, and others like them, toward a specific target. What he seeks to eliminate is politics itself.

Politics is such a ubiquitous term in the English language, such a seemingly fixed part of American life, that its existence is assumed and its definition rarely considered. Our concept of politics, descended from antiquity, is that society can peaceably settle its differences of opinion and interests. For politics to properly play its becalming role, citizens must agree on rules. Discussion, persuasion, and a willingness to accept temporary defeat are the political means by which a society adjudicates its inevitable conflicts. When a society discards politics, violence assumes its place. This threat is already evident in the deaths of two people protesting a police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and that of a member of a right-wing group in Portland. Another president would make a show of easing tensions, but Trump deliberately escalates them.

Since Donald Trump first announced his presidential bid in 2015, he has promised to dispense with politics. At first, this promise seemed banal in its familiarity—so it initially struck many voters and journalists as more benign than it should have. Generations of rich men running for office, after all, had promised to replace the values of politics with the ethos of business. Besides, the art of the deal is what every great parliamentary leader claims to practice.

But over the course of his presidency—or perhaps from the moment he explicitly shunned the principle of compromise and declared, “I alone can fix it”—Trump has abundantly shown that he means his anti-political rhetoric. And as he stands for reelection, his strategy for victory amounts more and more to the subversion of politics.

Although he goes through the motions of pursuing an outright victory, much of his rhetoric is now focused on discrediting the political process itself. He disparages the rules that govern politics and the institutions that facilitate it. He seems to want his supporters to believe that their electoral participation will be rendered meaningless. Trump’s argument goes like this: Because their views will be censored by Facebook and Twitter, his followers won’t have access to the most important modern forums for persuasion and mobilization. (This argument played a starring role at the Republican convention.) On Election Day, their votes will be negated by fraud on a massive scale, in the form of mail-in voting. Because the probability of an unfair election is so high, the president declines to say that he will accept the outcome of the vote.

In the past, groups that have felt disenfranchised have turned to protest, a peaceful attempt to persuade well-meaning elites or beneficent institutions to expand democracy. But in the Trumpian worldview, those elites and institutions are conspiring against him. By delegitimizing the American political system, he has given his followers the impression that they have no choice but to assert themselves through nonpolitical means.

Daniel J. Myers: Getting ‘tough’ on protests is counterproductive

Throughout his presidency, he has offered his winking approval to supporters who have relied on menace and weaponry. He couldn’t bring himself to disavow the tiki-torch mob in Charlottesville, and he paid obeisance to the people in camouflage who invaded the Michigan statehouse to protest stay-at-home orders. At his recent convention, he allocated prime time to the armed couple from St. Louis. So when he tweeted his approval of the caravan that wended its way through Portland, armed with paintball guns and pepper spray, it was the logical culmination of his argument—and a likely prelude to the months to come.

Trump is hardly alone in his turn away from politics—which is part of what makes this moment so terrifyingly volatile. However marginal their numbers, anarchists seem intent on magnifying their presence by fomenting mayhem. Among a smattering of intellectuals on the left, looting is accepted as an appropriate form of political speech. But Trump is heir to a more establishment strain of anti-politics. Rather than accepting the rules of the game, his party has used parliamentary gimmickry to achieve its most important ends. It derailed the nomination of a Supreme Court justice in order to protect a conservative majority, and it has sought to maintain power through gerrymandering.

Trump is the continuation of this tradition, even as he has pushed it forward to a dangerous new place. During the Gingrich era, Republicans flirted with making common cause with militias, but ultimately backed away. Today, Fox News hosts, conservative intelligentsia, and even the president himself portray the armed citizen as America’s best hope of staving off an enemy horde.

In 1962, the British political theorist Bernard Crick wrote an invigorating manifesto called In Defense of Politics. A social democrat who would later become George Orwell’s biographer, Crick waxed lyrical about the civilizing virtues of politics, which forced humans to transcend their most destructive impulses. American democracy is far from experiencing politics in such an ennobling form, but it’s very close to realizing the catastrophic consequences of its collapse. Donald Trump may believe that his denigration of politics is his best chance at staying in the public building whose grounds he festooned with his campaign logo during his acceptance speech last week. But if his supporters truly come to believe that the game is rigged, that persuasion is impossible, then his argument acquires a dark and inevitable logic. When politics ceases to function, when the rules governing its practice have been dismissed as a hoax, all that remains is the barrel of the gun.

If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
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#16165 User is offline   Winstonm 

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Posted 2020-August-31, 21:23

View Posty66, on 2020-August-31, 21:10, said:

From Franklin Foer at the Atlantic:


Red - the blood of angry men!
Black - the dark of ages past!
Red - a world about to dawn!
Black - the night that ends at last!
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Black Lives Matter. / "I need ammunition, not a ride." Zelensky
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#16166 User is offline   akwoo 

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Posted 2020-September-01, 02:17

If the US election hinges on two or three states, I expect white supremacist armed groups to prevent those states from counting all of their votes. Tossing all the mail-in ballots from Madison, Milwaukee, Orlando, and Miami into the lake or ocean at gunpoint before they get counted should be well more than enough to swing the vote counts in Wisconsin and Florida for Mr. Trump. I don't know if either state has clear laws about what to do if some ballots cannot be counted due to violence.
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#16167 User is offline   y66 

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Posted 2020-September-01, 08:19

Matthew Yglesias said:

INGRAHAM: Softball question.

TRUMP: Demented answ—

INGRAHAM: — but surely you don’t mean [thing you clearly just said]?

TRUMP: Only my reelection can save America from the hellscape of my presidency.

If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
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#16168 User is offline   shyams 

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Posted 2020-September-01, 12:09

I thought the 2016 election cycle was mad.

The 2020 one is turning out to be wild-eyed, raving and completely unhinged.
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#16169 User is offline   johnu 

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Posted 2020-September-01, 13:10

View Postshyams, on 2020-September-01, 12:09, said:

I thought the 2016 election cycle was mad.

The 2020 one is turning out to be wild-eyed, raving and completely unhinged.

Some people in 2016 knew there was a disaster coming the next 4 years.

Kate McKinnon - Election Week Cold Open - SNL
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#16170 User is offline   barmar 

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Posted 2020-September-03, 21:00

View Postakwoo, on 2020-September-01, 02:17, said:

If the US election hinges on two or three states, I expect white supremacist armed groups to prevent those states from counting all of their votes. Tossing all the mail-in ballots from Madison, Milwaukee, Orlando, and Miami into the lake or ocean at gunpoint before they get counted should be well more than enough to swing the vote counts in Wisconsin and Florida for Mr. Trump. I don't know if either state has clear laws about what to do if some ballots cannot be counted due to violence.

Sounds like Trump may be right when he says that mail-in voting will lead to the most corrupt election.

#16171 User is offline   Winstonm 

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Posted 2020-September-03, 22:40

View Postbarmar, on 2020-September-03, 21:00, said:

Sounds like Trump may be right when he says that mail-in voting will lead to the most corrupt election.


I'm sure you are being facetious as the only reason for corruption in the election is due to Trump and his cadre of corruption.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Black Lives Matter. / "I need ammunition, not a ride." Zelensky
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#16172 User is offline   thepossum 

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Posted 2020-September-05, 17:45

Full credit to the Lake Travis Wikipedia editors for being to quick as to have updated almost immediately

How could I not click on a Twitter headline relating to that, observe reports of carnage, requiring some serious in depth research into Lake Travis :)

"Jesus Calms the Storm
35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”"
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#16173 User is offline   Winstonm 

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Posted 2020-September-06, 10:58

What every American should read: https://www.theguard...ir-with-america

Quote

Now it feels as if the well of US independence has been poisoned, and the air contaminated with noxious gas from half-baked conspiracy theories. Where language once provided a narrative line, now we find hate-filled presidential tweets. Ideas used to be a basis for community, now they only sponsor a raucous shouting match. Once, this experiment was arbitrated by trial and error, the interplay of trust and truth in the free traffic of well-founded opinion. This has now devolved into visceral internecine vendettas.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Black Lives Matter. / "I need ammunition, not a ride." Zelensky
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#16174 User is offline   Winstonm 

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Posted 2020-September-06, 11:08

View Postthepossum, on 2020-September-05, 17:45, said:

Full credit to the Lake Travis Wikipedia editors for being to quick as to have updated almost immediately

How could I not click on a Twitter headline relating to that, observe reports of carnage, requiring some serious in depth research into Lake Travis :)

"Jesus Calms the Storm
35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"

39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

40 He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

41 They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!""


Btw, the answer to mankind's problems is not to be found in claims of magic and magical powers; in fact, if you read closely you will find the admonition that if (big surprise Posted Image) the magic doesn't work it is your fault for not believing "enough". The big take on that is that if you say, Oh, yes, I see the magic, then you are one of the group - and that is all many people want, to be included. But claiming magic doesn't actually cure problems, as it takes humans to move toward real solutions to real human problems.

Better to be part of the group called humankind trying to solve human problems by working together than be part of the group of "faithful" who rely on magic so they can pretend no problems exist.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Black Lives Matter. / "I need ammunition, not a ride." Zelensky
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#16175 User is offline   thepossum 

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Posted 2020-September-06, 21:20

I am relieved to get some responses after my post. I had been concerned whether any Water Cooler posters had gone down with their boats :)
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#16176 User is offline   y66 

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Posted 2020-September-07, 08:11

Then: Everybody must get stoned.

Now: Everybody must get swamped.
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
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#16177 User is offline   Winstonm 

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Posted 2020-September-07, 09:50

Trump supporter? The Onion.com

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"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Black Lives Matter. / "I need ammunition, not a ride." Zelensky
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#16178 User is offline   y66 

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Posted 2020-September-07, 11:56

View PostWinstonm, on 2020-September-07, 09:50, said:

Trump supporter? The Onion.com

In the Onion version of Trump World, immigrant laborers get Labor Day off so they can participate in Trump regattas.
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
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#16179 User is offline   y66 

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Posted 2020-September-07, 20:13

Posted Image
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
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#16180 User is offline   y66 

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Posted 2020-September-08, 07:14

Sending out an SOS from Wisconsin:

David Leonhardt at NYT said:

Wisconsin polls: “Back in the winter/spring and all the way back to 2018, there were plenty of polls showing that the president was highly competitive and even leading in Wisconsin,” The Times’s Nate Cohn tweeted. “Those polls are largely gone — even as the president embraces a strategy purportedly targeted at that state.” Biden leads by about 7 percentage points in Wisconsin, almost identical to his national lead.

If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
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