Donald Trump’s former attorney has boldly predicted that the former president is going to jail as the criminal investigation into the trove of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago continues to heat up. Ty Cobb, who worked as a White House attorney for the Trump administration from July 2017 to May 2018, told CNN that he believes the evidence against Mr Trump will lead to a conviction and prison time.
“I wouldn’t necessarily expand the case to try to prove the Espionage Act piece of it because there is so much evidence of guilty knowledge on the espionage piece that all they really have to do is show that Trump moved these documents at various times when DOJ was either demanding them or actually present, that he filed falsely with the Justice Department, had his lawyers file falsely with the Justice Department and affidavit to the effect that none existed, which was shattered by the documents they discovered after the search and the many other misrepresentations that he and others have made on his behalf with regard to his possession of classified documents,” he said.
“Yes, I do think he will go to jail on it.”
Mr Cobb’s comments came as it was revealed that the National Archives had found a trove of records allegedly proving the former president knew he shouldn’t have taken classified documents to Mar-a-Lago.
Comment: A flurry of similar predictions came out a few days ago. It’s almost a seasonal thing. A few of Trump’s former lawyers are now quipping that he’ll end up in prison. I don’t see it happening. Will he be convicted of some felonious crime revolving around the Mar-a-Lago classified documents? I do believe that, but he won’t go to prison for it. First of all, rich and powerful white guys don’t go to prison for things like this. You know, affuenza and all. Secondly, think of the logistics of hard time for the Trumpster. He still has Secret Service protection. Even in a country club prison, that would be problematic. I think the most he would get is house detention in Mar-a-Lago, maybe with an ankle bracelet, but even the bracelet may be too much. And I don’t see any of this affecting his run for the White House. Hell, broadcasting under house arrest from the Mar-a-Lago waffle station might be a winning image for him.
TTG
The predictable with Trump has largely been unpredictable. Interesting times headed to 2024.
As a lawyer, I would assert “…powerful white guys…” most certainly HAVE gone to ‘prison’ for lesser stuff than this. It certainly was true that they went to prison less often than others. Perhaps much less often, but it’s happen. Although I’m not sure how true this is in this day of DIE and racist prosecutors like Alvin, Bragg, et al. In any event, I would argue the closer Trump gets to jail, the closer he gets to the White House.
Vesco, Martha Stewart, Madoff. Did Leona ever do time? Abscam. Mark Rich, Milkin, Boesky, the Chicago Mayor .. they tend to get pardoned by the Crookhandler In Chief with impressive frequency. It’s so embarrassing you aren’t likely to read it on page 1. Compare Milken’s era with Obama’s treatment of those hyper-crooks. Forgot – the Keating 5 with McCain.
The President—-who I assume you are referring to when you say the ‘Crookhandler in Chief’, of course, has the constitutional right to pardon whomever he or she wants. I say ‘so what’, pardon who you want. And yes, as a matter of fact I often read about it on page one, or, more likely, in the hallowed pages of the oped section of the Times/Post. Especially page one of it is a ‘rich, white, guy’.
F&L, Left out Illinois GOVENOR Tyler Madden, sentenced to 14 years in federal prison. After an appeal for his release, U.S. President Donald Trump formally commuted his sentence in 2020, after Blagojevich had been imprisoned for nearly eight years.
Selling ator Stevens of Alaska, exonerated after the election due to “gross prosecutorial misconduct “. But he was gone, which was the point of the prosecution. They’ve tried the same thing with Menendez of New Jersey twice now.
Jail or no is not a qualification/disqualification for the office of President. I will vote for Trump if he wins the nomination from the repulsive GOPe/Rinocrats.
Heck, nowadays I may get to vote several times.
From The Bulwark. The real reason for voting for Trump?
Once you realize that victimhood has become the dominant currency on the right, then you can see how Republicans look at Donald Trump and see someone who is the beau ideal of aggrieved victimhood. This is why all the narratives about how “the walls are closing in” on Trump never seem to come to anything. The “walls closing in” is not a problem for Trump; it’s his brand. The more Trump is embroiled in lawsuits, the more he is caught lying, the more seedy revelations emerge from his personal life—then the more he becomes the symbol of a right-wing persecution complex and the more Republicans rally around him.
https://open.substack.com/pub/overtime/p/donald-trump-thrives-on-losing?r=4gq47&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
A link to a translation of an antiwar Ru Telegram post concerning a highly inflammatory filmed interview with Prigozhin yesterday. Comparisons with Il Duce’s march on Rome and the Munich Beer Hall Putsch. I’m not there yet, but could be way off. I’m still going with Prigozhin’s antics as being purposed (from Olympus) toward illustrating how unadvisable it would be for anyone, foreign or domestic, to attempt or accomplish the overthrow of his Nibsovitch.
https://tinyurl.com/3m78u5a9
—————————
On topic: Very unmoved by this man Ty Cobb’s prophecies here. A Ty Cobb baseball card in good to mint condition, yes. I had a great uncle who lived his life in TTG’s neck of the woods long ago who was on the same US Army AllStar baseball team with the Georgia Peach during the war to end all wars. Guess who batted clean-up? My Uncle. Chief mechanic for Pershing’s corps of machines of some sort, not sure which, but he held several automotive parents. Cobb outranked my Uncle though. Captain vs Sargent.
PS: I’m not by any means unmoved because I support Trump. I don’t. A name ending in Ump though. Hmm.
A comment on a post of Strelkov’s this morning. I’m too cowardly to post a translation here. Yes, that bad. Need to keep in mind he’s ex-FSB. It’s crazy level bad. And if true it’s NATO that flipped it’s lid. Hopefully it’s the club of Angry Patriots trying to stir action. No links provided for the man’s claims. If true, head out to your favorite atoll’s underground bunker.
https://tinyurl.com/2rjtbxad
Thanks for the posted link.who is streaking by the way
A commenter ZZ. I’m not sure that link above works. It was supposed to open here, I should have checked. Claims the F16 pilots are being trained for certain types of bombs.
Excerpt translated below. My apologies.
https://t.me/strelkovii/5028?comment=254507
At the moment, there is a consensus on the transfer of at least 24 aircraft to Ukraine, with at least one squadron (12 aircraft) to be trained in the use of nuclear bombs. This idea is supported by the USA, Great Britain, Poland, Germany…..
F&L,
I think Strelkov is pulling that nuclear bomb stuff straight out of his ass. The F-16 can carry the B-61 gravity nuclear bomb, but I have no idea if the ones Ukraine eventually gets will even have that capability. One squadron of Dutch F-16s is equipped to carry them, but I doubt those are the ones going to Ukraine. BTW, there’s a long list of aircraft that can carry those bombs including AV-8 Harriers and F-117s.
TTG,
A commenter, not Strelkov. It isn’t pulled from anywhere. You’ve just confirmed that those planes are N capable, and those people over there know they are too. What’s of value in the information is that people believe that pilots are being trained specifically in the use of those weapons for use against them. Main effect – panic, hysteria, etc. Escalation? No, not really, only insofar as Ru authorities deem fit. But in the wider context of ammo dumps blowing up with mushroom clouds, where paranoia about nuclear false flags is rampant, and questions about the stability of the Ru government prevail (which realistically I think are overblown, but I am in fact ignorant of what’s really being done in that direction) it is worrying. One of ideas of all this Intel work is to try to get some idea of what’s afoot. My guess is that the West is arming Ukraine with nukes on the sly. That’s a guess, a subjective estimate. What is not a guess, but a fact, is that some Russians believe that to be the case. And that comment (not by Strelkov it bears repeating) is evidence thereof. Whether it’s justified to do so, or radically unwise and reckless – that’s another matter.
F&L,
Ukraine’s Su-24s can carry nuclear weapons. They were designed to carry tactical nucs. So can her Su-27s. F-16s are not an escalation in this regard, especially since not all F-16s can carry nucs. Now supplying Ukraine with R-61 tactical nuclear bombs would be a serious escalation by any calculation. I don’t see that happening during the current conflict. There is a question, at least in my mind, as to what will happen with nucs after the war. Will be base them in Finland or even in Ukraine? I think that would be a bad move, but it’s possible. What will Russia do in Kaliningrad? They put nuclear capable missiles and aircraft there. Will they base nuclear warheads there? Do they already have them there?
Yawn. “A few of Trump’s former lawyers” Walls are closing in. And old media in Europe needs clickbait to keep the dying income stream alive a little longer.
Can you clarify whom you are referring too as the lawyer mentioned in this article was identified as an employee of the White House for less than one year and that two years before Trump left office. He was not an employee of Trump personally nor his personal lawyer.
“Will he be convicted of some felonious crime revolving around the Mar-a-Lago classified documents? I do believe that… ”
Where in the constitution does the national archivist come into being and what autority over the office of the president is stated therein? Trick question, it doesn’t; but feel free to explain it like I’m an SJW who needs to explain it to an alt-righter. The prior discussions prior to Colonel Lang’s passing not having been sufficient to stop posts like this.
“he was fully aware of the protocol but chose to disregard it.” quote from the news article linked to. Speaking of “protocol”, where in law does “protocol” legally bind the President? Is that mentioned in the constitution? Maybe in that part creating National Archivist powers superceding the Presidents on declassification and handling of documents?
“First of all, rich and powerful white guys don’t go to prison for things like this.”
As an expert on convictions based upon race “for things like this” can you mention why that is a factor in this particular alledged crime?
Fred; I think it is “who (nominative case) you are referring to”. I’m not sure. Maybe there is some grammatically smart correspondent who can help. Whom may be objective case. Who/whom always muck me up. keep smiling
Billy,
Let me help you out. The lawyer quoted in the story doesn’t work for Trump nor ever worked for him in private capacity. So which other lawyers on the planet might be the ones TTG means in the phrase “A few of Trump’s former lawyers”
Glad I could help with the English comprehension.
BTW: Walls are closing in, now for the 7th year, but with a new rationale.
Fred,
Cobb was a White House lawyer serving in the Trump White House. Or was he another unknown coffee boy. Bill Barr, a Trump Attorney General, and Tim Parlatore, a Trump lawyer working on this Mar-a-Lago case, also expressed doubts about Trump’s future.
If you, like Trump, are relying on the President’s absolute authority to classify/declassify as a defense, Trump’s authority ended on 20 Jan 2020. At that point Biden had absolute authority to classify/declassify. If his White house says those documents are classified after 20 Jan 2020, then they are classified. Trump no longer has a say in that matter. The National Archivist has no say in the classification of documents, just who owns them. That was established by the Presidential Records Act of 1978 and amended in 2014. Trump couldn’t abolish that on his whim.
Berger and Patraeus are two examples of being too powerful to go to jail for this sort of thing.
Be on hand soon. We are running a contest. The goal is to guess which poster here was Anthony Hopkins understudy in his role as the fiendish villain of … Oh no, another phone call the purpose of which was to warn me they see everything I type.
TGG, In fact, Trump signed into law more severe penalties for violation of the Presidential Records Act!
Fred, perhaps you are unaware that many people are convicted of laws not mentioned in the Constitution. In fact, very few of the thousand upon thousands of “laws” are even mentioned in the Constitution.
Al,
There are certainly more laws in California than there are honest politicians there. That does not mean the Executive Branch of the Republic is subordinate to an entity created by acts of legislature. Surely you’ve read the Constitution at least once in all your years on this earth.
TTG,
You are now saying that Biden reclassified the documents request after Trump left and that’s the reason to demand their return? Hurrah! Joe should have called him up and said so. Would you care to save me 90 seconds on google and show me the link to that ‘fact’ you allege?
Fred,
DOJ issued a subpoena for the return of classified documents from Mar-a-Lago and said it did recover classified documents. Either Biden reclassified the documents or Trump never declassified them to begin with. There are no “facts” supporting Trump’s declassification or Biden’s reclassification, but since the sitting president hold absolute authority over classification, both actions are possible.
TTG,
Ciruclar reasoning now? DOJ waited until years to issue a subpeona claiming the documents were STILL classified, based upon what, not agreeing that “since the sitting president hold absolute authority over classification…” the documents couldn’t have been declassified by him, or that they didn’t believe him, but but but but Biden reclassified them – but didn’t tell anyone. Gotcha! Good luck. Walls are closing in.
Fred,
It’s either one or the other. Either the docs were declassified (without a lick of proof) and reclassified (again, without a lick of proof) or they remained classified the entire time. Those are the only two possibilities for those documents to be classified now and at the time of the subpoena.
“That does not mean the Executive Branch of the Republic is subordinate to an entity created by acts of legislature.”
just a point of possible interest. the Legislative Branch is defined in Article One because the framers believed legislation to be the will of the people – prevailing over mere administration by the executive (Article Two). it has taken great effort to yield a Parliament of Whores wrestling with a National Geriatric Security State. so much for original intent.
Ked,
The Legislative branch does not prevail over the Executive Branch just because article 1 comes before article 2. Also, math is racist, so says the party controlling half of the legislative branch of the federal government.
Fred, the Framers purposely ordered the Articles in that manner for the reasoning I attempted to express. of course the Constitution has been & always will be interpreted in the context of power centers & issues of the moment. the shift toward centralized executive authority during particularly stressful times in republics (from Caesar Augustus to FDR) is an example. simply because our present Federal Legislature cops-out more than leans-in does not deny that original intent.
anyway:
“Article I of the Constitution established Congress. The framers of the Constitution expected Congress to be the dominant branch of government. They placed it first in the Constitution and assigned more powers to it than to the presidency.”
https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3240
when Legislative & Judicial Branches abandon their Constitutional roles for factional alignments (or election fund-raising, holiday excursions or the kid’s tuition), well, we got trouble in the Patawomeck River City.
Going after Trump for this stuff is “extremely dangerous” to our Republic. It is however extremely beneficial to the current Democracy. It’s getting them closer and closer to their goal of tyranny.
Newsflash. According to President Jimmy Carter himself (and a detailed study by experts at Princeton U), America’s experiment as a Republic is over. He said (around 2009 or 2010) that if if ever is reestablished it won’t be for at least another 50 years. On the Thom Hartman show and later repeated somewhere I can’t remember. Maybe you didn’t like him as a President. But he has serious credentials, don’t you think? Gov of huge state of Georgia. Annapolis grad. Distinguished career as naval officer including very heroic and high level nuclear engineering work (he is hugely gifted intellectually) and … President of the United States. Not too shabby.
F&L
One doesn’t need to be a former POTUS or nuclear engineer to know that the constitutional republic died decades ago. The Church committee findings in the 70s attest to that.
If you’re a financial guy like me, than the chart of Total Credit Market debt is instructive. See the inflection point in the 70s. And ever since Ronnie Reagan’s tenure as POTUS that curve has gone asymptotic.
blue peacock,
Of course you’re right and I intuitively knew it then too. I just either have too many weird nerd genes or I went partially into denial and wouldn’t admit it to myself until it was somehow “official.” Mostly denial. It’s so darn awful, infuriating and depressing. Like living in an open air zoo.
Jimmy Carter was a good man. Jimmy Carter was an absolute failure as President. Hmmm, being a good man d/n mean you will be a good President. I offer a challenge. In four years as President identify four good thinks he did.
Billy Roche
Camp David Accords, SALT II, Panama Canal Treaty and the deregulation of natural gas and oil
TTG,
Pardoning the draft dodgers and sitting on his behind while Iranians held Americans hostage in the embassy.
Fred,
you forgot about Operation Eagle Claw. He didn’t just sit on his behind.
No TTG, I’m well aware of the botched operation. A declaration of war and actual military action would have been a better approach. We’ve been mired over there for decades as a result of bad leadership.
Fred,
A declaration of war then, when the soviets were still soviets? Let’s see if I can guess your next step.
American land army in Iran, or where until they go for the throat? Then let’s see, they do it and for some strange reason after years of fighting the SU says, you know what, let’s be friends, we’re tired of ruling this country, please, please, bring the entire US Army and marine corps and especially the US Air force over here, it’s yours, we’re serious! And then General Freidrich says “absolutely!” And mysteriously everything goes as planned and the better part of the entire US (and of course UK) armed forces have built housing in the former USSR.
“We love the Steppe airfields,” says Commander Lt Commander Herman Goering McCain Smasherworth Buttley Tinker Transhillingforth (non binary). Possibly after huge losses but maybe not.
Question for MAD (magazine or doctrine .. it doesn’t say) students 101:
Why might that be a really stupid thing to do?
(Resemblance to persons alive, dead or posting on this board are entirely coincidental. And scenarios have been oversimplified to an absurd degree so that ..).
F&L,
You guessed wrong. Now guess what you think the Soviets would have done in 1979 while they were still preparing to invade Afghanistan in December, month after the “students” attack the US embassy and held Americans hostage.
The problem with the Trump prosecution and vilification is that it is not justice is blind. There are different treatments for different folks.
Jimmy Clapper lied under oath to Congress. Nothing happened. Roger Stone did the same thing and was prosecuted. Hillary had classified documents in her private server and Comey said that was bad but chose not to prosecute. But…Trump will be prosecuted for the same thing. What is different? Joe & Hunter were taking cash from the Ukranians & the Chinese, but our intelligence operatives, I believe 51, signed a letter stating that the Hunter laptop finds were Russian disinfo. Where is the investigation on the cash transfers from foreign entities to the Biden clan? It appears the entire investigating team got replaced and whistleblowers targeted.
We also know that the Russian Collusion hoax included signing of false affidavits to FISC. How come Rosenstein & Comey have not been prosecuted?
It would appear that some folks especially if you belong to the national security apparatus are above the law.
Socialist are above the law. They have been pushing the envelop for 90 years and for the past 20 or so years have rec’d their own justice. They are are abetted by the DOIJ, FIB, CDIA, IRDS, and HISD. The foolish think it is smart, “chi chi” to be down w/socialism. That will be until it bites them in their ass. The gulags were filled w/pseudo intellectuals.
Blue.., “… Hillary had classified documents in her private server and Comey said that was bad but chose not to prosecute. But…Trump will be prosecuted for the same thing. What is different?…”
Significant difference….when found out, Trump defied a legal subpoena, as just one aspect.
Al,
What is the authority of the Secretary of State to declassified documents electronic or otherwise?
H. Clinton did not defy a legal order. Trump did!
Al,
What authority to declassify information did the Secretary of State have?
Ivanka had gov documents in her private unsecured server (as did others doing “gov” biz w/ MBS), but she only made a billion or so as… what was her job…? oh, yeah, cut-out for la familia.
Ked,
What authority did Hilary have to declassify documents? “But but Ivanka” doesn’t answer that question.
Fred and Ked –
The Secretary of State has the authority to both classify and declassify. Just as any other Cabinet level Secretary does. And in many cases Agency Administrators have the same authority.
But it’s a moot point. I don’t recall Clinton saying she declassified the docs on the server in her home. Or are you saying that she did make such a claim?
you are right, Fred. I hope Garland puts Durham on the Hillary Case before he gets tasked on the AZ vote stealing that Kari Lake has proven so effectively. I mean, Hillary is a clear & present danger, but Lake – she’s only a nutcase.
ked,
Durham did investigate Clinton and interviewed her as well. She complied voluntarily and answered all questions asked. Durham found nothing she did amounted to a provable criminal offense.
TTG,
“answered all questions asked”
What questions might those have been?
“7 Id. if1 (c)-(d). We have not interpreted the Order as directing us to investigate the Department’s handling of matters associated with the investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. For a review of those matters, see Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice,…”
Page 12 footnote 7.
Well that answer that, eh. Good thing no Hillary supporters will actually read the thing to see what Durham was actually directed to investigate.
Fred,
Durham spent a good part of his investigation pursuing a theory that Clinton had a deliberate plan to push fake Trump-Russia ties. In the end, he came up empty, no indictments, no prosecutions and certainly no convictions. He ended up admitting there was no criminal activity and made no recommendations for future pursuit of this theory which was based on a Russian intelligence report that Clinton pushed Trump-Russia ties to hide her own email server mess.
TTG,
Yes Durham did not investigate DOJ lawer fabricating evidence to present to the FISA court; nor the predicated work which framed Popadopolous though that’s called out within the 300+ pages as well. If you read the footnote he wasn’t charged with investigating any of that. Thanks for protecting Hillary one more time though.
I don’t know if Trump will be tried for things or not. If tried, I don’t know if he will be convicted of those things or not. Trump is not part of The Establishment Club. So he doesn’t have that degree of protection.
Is being White protection enough? I suspect The Establishment Club considers him not quite the right kind of White. That’s just my intuitive feeling, though.
If he gets arrested, tried and convicted for this or other things, I suspect he will be offered a pardon in the end. But only after the legal enforcement system has run its course.
different clue,
Trump is also among the rich and powerful. That’s in his favor. I do agree that a pardon or at least a commutation could come into play if it comes to that.
TTG,
The hopium – copium is strong tonight. Biden will try and convict Trump – to keep him out of office; then he’s going to pardon him. LOL
Fred,
i think the offer of a pardon would be devastating to Trump. He’d rather live with a conviction.
TTG,
You conveniently erase the discussion of the lawful authority over the president you claim the national archivist has, the secret reclassification of documents by Biden unsubstantiated anywhere, and move to another clickbait fantasy. Why don’t you do this silliness over on dailykos.
Fred,
What erased discussion? I only mentioned that the NARA has, by law, jurisdiction over presidential records. NARA first asked Trump for the return of some boxes of missing presidential records in May 2020. In December 2021, Trump lawyers finally admitted they had them and returned some 15 boxes. In January 2022, NARA discovered hundreds of pages of classified documents within some of those boxes. They informed Congress of this in February 2022. The FBI got involved by April 2022. After considerable back and forth, the FBI executed the Mar=a-Lago search warrant in August 2022.
Do I think Biden secretly reclassified those documents? Absolutely not, nor do I think Trump secretly declassified those documents. That claim is also not substantiated anywhere. But Biden’s authority to reclassify is just as real as Trump’s authority to declassify. Trump did declassify a binder of documents, with redactions, on 19 January 2020. He did that in writing. We still don’t know what was in that binder. Meadows claims the bulk of those docs were returned to the DOJ for further redactions.
Make any pardon contingent upon his admitting, publicly either in writing or on tv, that what he did was illegal AND wrong, and he apologizes to the American people for the betrayal of their trust.
There should also be the condition that if he turned the event into attacks on his enemies or a campaign event, no pardon.
That would be delicious.
rick,
Conditions for pardons are already established. The most recent ruling in that acceptance of a presidential pardon does not imply an acceptance of guilt.
Prison time for Trump depends on the GOP establishment. Given that Trump is destroying the GOP, I’d say that Trump is vulnerable. That is if the GOP can grow a pair.
Maybe I’m paranoid ( I am) but I am starting to suspect our elections are a controlled pendulum that has nothing to do with either party. To keep this thing from flying off the handle it must be controlled. Swings too far either way and they force it back. They sure do like controlling everything else…meh.
As for the media, notice how the right is starting to get more of a foot in the door on everything that swung too far left. Trump is still under attack but they also are kinda poking at Biden with his classified docs, Hunter’s tax garbage and the FBI’s lawlessness. Nothing will come of it in the end but it sure looks like a deliberate hand inside the clock to me.
Funny you should provide that illustration right now. I started watching a YouTube video with Hilary by a Brit from Financial times or something. I stopped after a few minutes to fetch coffee and haven’t finished watching it. Doubt I will. From the little seen though it provided rivetingly vivid confirmation of the late great Col Lang’s estimation of her based on his direct knowledge of her.
“An absolutely first rate mind presiding over a heart of pure ice.”
Forgive me, Sir, if I have dishonored your memory which I continue to cherish due to my congenital foolishness, ineptitude at accurate paraphrase and ineptitude at working the search features here at this site. But I believe it’s in the ballpark.
Hilary Clinton on China, Putin and the threat to US Democracy:
https://youtu.be/2TlgDSJS8zY
Link and provided preemptively. It is absolutely not a recommendation. Consider it a scouting report which is better left under the blotter. It’s for 1 the brave of heart 2 masochists, possibly in reverse order.
In that video she give high praises to Jeffrey Toobin. The guy who Zoom masturbates in front of employees and doesn’t get fired. It take a special kind of person to do that.
Thanks. I watched the rest of it (yes, actually worthwhile) but that passed me right by.
Really H I L A R I O U S, and …
her name is:
H I L A R _
——————
“Interesting, F&L, did you also notice that after the “hilar” in “hilarious” comes IOUs?”
“No,” said the man with the toothbrush moustache, “but I notice Hil and say isn’t it similar to Heil, and after that … the Ary, why, it’s almost Aryan, isn’t it?”
You are not paranoid. There is, IMO, a simple explanation. Most politicians live for donations. They claim the donations are to win power and enact the donors’ wet dreams. Trouble is, once the wet dreams are realized there is no further imperative to donate. Anyhow, implementing stuff takes work and politicians hate work. So the two parties have reached an implicit understanding to alternate who is in power to keep the donations rolling in.
no way he’ll go to jail for anything.
no one wants to listen to the wailing (or worse) of the fundys, cultists, khaki-marching militias… or Recently Revised GOP.
the most interesting scenario (to me, anyway) is if Smith nails him for trading secrets to MSB (& others) for cash, deals, &/or favors (like holding LIV golf tourneys at his resorts… kinda like buying Trump Towers condos or charging exorbitant rates at his DC hotel… when you’re famous, you get to do anything). of course trading US secrets to foreign powers for fair compensation makes perfect sense to the Truly True Believers (“I’d do it in a heartbeat… he’s a brilliant businessman… the docs are all over the internet anyway!”).
given he’s already convicted himself of being a liar, fraud, sex offender, cheat (@ golf! WASPs Weep Across America… well, they use to), a loser (& a very sore one at that)… what more must he suffer? what more does our undeserving nation want of him?
I get your stance on the man but there is no otherside. BOTH are doing the same stuff. We are ALL just looking at it and begging for someone to dismantle it. Nobody has an ounce of altruism anymore unfortunately in this system. It’s no longer modular. It’s a machine and the machine says you and I will do as told and STFU about it.
no.
trump is Sui Generis in the USA. the gop threw caution & QC to the winds handing him the party. like most pro pols they convinced themselves (& donors & lobbyists) they could manage – ha! desperation yields bad judgement. cut a deal w/ the fundys years ago & now we have an honest-to-god theocracy movement (dominionism / seven hills, etc). throw in the tech bro libertarians (“I’m smart, rich & right about everything… just listen to all these people I own tell you that”). quite a stew… enough to poison the American Experiment, w/ the help of damaged / unhappy armed joiners taking cosplay a bit too far.
the Dems? a tragic joke. retail consumers played for chumps in the Big Political Game. if there’s a way to lose from a winning position, they can find it. occasionally saved by forces outside the Party. at least they are relatively benign (comparatively…).
neither team wants real competition. it’s a back game on the edges.
the USA is a young, violent nation, throwing tantrums to avoid growing up. good fortune (& hard work & talent, sure… nothing exceptional in that in human history) got us this far, but those days are past & ain’t coming back, no matter how many red Chinese caps folks wear.
nothing that can’t be fixed… but it is SO hard & time consuming. might interfere with the guns & butter diet we’ve come to love. I never expected our elites to become so selfish & lazy (except for accumulating watered-down $). or the polity to be so emotional & ignorant (but who can blame ’em … it’s a marketer / propagandist’s wonderland!). seems we’ll just ride the glide path, see where it goes (bail, land or crash) & take it from there.
ked,
“handing him the party”
He beat Jeb! and his $150,000,000 campaign warchest along with a dozen other stalwarts of the Grand Old Party. Handing it too him.
Nobody has an ounce of altruism anymore
That’s an interesting statement, Babeltuap.
I hope this does not sound borderline anti-American.
But here goes anyway: To what extent is altruism as American as individualism and egoism? Anymore??? It once was? In the fifties? A time to which many would like to return.
Don’t Trump supporters admire him, since he is an egoistic grandiose self-promoter, a narcissist? Which might make him more American than any president before him, especially the socialist ones?
I seriously asked myself this question. And no, I am neither a Biden nor a Hillary fan, quite the opposite, which– Fourth & Long suggested indirectly a while ago–may be only more polite/elite versions of the same thing?
Rounds off to 5.2 inches in 20 years.
(20 x 6.7mm = 134 millimeters = 2.6 inches.)
Peek at map below link.
I only mention because of an obsessional neuroses about whether our elites have written of certain of our large coastal cities as dicey going forward and have factored that into the amount of fear they experience over the prospect of nuclear strikes. If they figure on warring for 80 years, that would be 4 x 5.2 inches = 21 inches. That’s not small. Neither is half that, 40 yrs = 10.5 inches. I used to joke around that Dubya’s lack of concern for New Orleans was to show Ru and China just how little he cared about big American cities, but particularly big coastal ones. Remember he didn’t just perform inadequately, he made a point, almost, of publicly not giving a zzzz one way or the other.
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That Sinking Feeling: The U.S. East Coast Is Subsiding:
https://www.engineering.com/story/that-sinking-feeling-the-u-s-east-coast-is-subsiding
A rise of 3 mm, the thickness of two pennies, may not seem like much if you are filling a bathtub, but that is the same order of magnitude as the current global sea level rise, which has sped up to 3.7 mm a year and is ringing alarm bells in coastal areas all over the world. A negative land motion of 3 mm and a positive sea level rise of 3.7 mm per year is a 6.7 mm rise of the sea level relative to the subsiding land—more than double the sea level rise coastal dwellers were expecting.
I wonder how fast the Russian Federation’s Arctic Russian and Siberian coastal lands might be subsiding as permafrost melts down ( and in certain local areas enough gas and oil is pumped out from under the land to where the land starts to deflate downward).
Type-O:
134 millimeters = 5.26 inches. No, no one was measuring anything ..
The primary and general election will be a spectacle. Gladiators fighting in the ring. And the masses cheering their horses. And many even in the brawl. Nothing substantive will change in the current trajectory.
https://twitter.com/bartsquandry/status/1661855899806482432?s=21
When cost of capital is zero for the largest financial institutions, large leveraged speculations generate the outsized returns. With the precedence that speculative losses of these institutions will be socialized. Profits private to the financial super-class. Losses socialized. Additionally, since the hurdle rate on a project is much lower, the marginal project gets financed. And then the biggest issue, government borrows in spades from future generations.
These fundamental financial structural issues will never be resolved in the near term as those that benefit the most, a very small minority, are at the apex of power across the system. Our elections are self-delusion.
Zero cost of capital signals that the exponential expansion in economic activity needed to keep interest rates above inflation is no longer possible.