Tag: Pres. Trump

Stim Bill Hits A Snag

But looks like it may be a good snag.

I was planning to focus on presidential pardon stuff today but this development is too important to pass on…..

We all have heard about the President playing politics about people should get $2000 in their forthcoming checks…..Trump decided that he would veto the spending bill because there were no checks for us mere mortals……well all that changed over the weekend….

After a delay of nearly a week, President Trump on Sunday night backed down, as many had begged him to do, and signed the COVID relief bill. That means the government won’t shut down, as would have happened had he not signed by Monday night, Politico reports. It also means Americans will start getting their relief checks—the $600 figure that Trump was not happy about—but CNBC reports that the House is voting to increase that figure to the $2,000 Trump wants, and Trump said Sunday night that the Senate will be voting on that as well. CNN accuses Trump of causing “chaos” with his delay, since unemployment aid lapsed before he signed. Trump was also not happy with what he called “pork” in the $1.4 trillion government funding bill that was passed alongside the $900 billion coronavirus relief bill, a point he addressed in a statement released Sunday night.

“I will sign the Omnibus and Covid package with a strong message that makes clear to Congress that wasteful items need to be removed. I will send back to Congress a redlined version, item by item, accompanied by the formal rescission request to Congress insisting that those funds be removed from the bill,” the statement says (Politico notes Congress does not need to abide by that request). “On Monday the House will vote to increase payments to individuals from $600 to $2,000,” the statement continues. “Additionally, Congress has promised that Section 230, which so unfairly benefits Big Tech at the expense of the American people, will be reviewed and either be terminated or substantially reformed. Likewise, the House and Senate have agreed to focus strongly on the very substantial voter fraud which took place in the November 3 Presidential election. The Senate will start the process for a vote that increases checks to $2,000, repeals Section 230, and starts an investigation into voter fraud.”

A bit of compromise…..something that is in short supply….but I do not trust the Congress to do the right thing or even the honest thing.

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I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

Pardon Me?

The begin the last week of this totally horrible year….we can only hope that the New year and new president will help make things better.

Let’s start the week with all this pardon stuff.

The big story over the week of Christmas was the presidential pardons issued by this now defunct president……

The first batch included a couple baby killers…..some corrupt criminal representatives….

President Trump on Tuesday pardoned 15 people, including Republican allies, a 2016 campaign official ensnared in the Russia probe, and former government contractors convicted in a massacre in Iraq. The pardons included former Republican Reps. Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, the AP reports. Collins, the first member of Congress to endorse Trump to be president, was sentenced to two years and two months in federal prison after admitting he helped his son and others dodge $800,000 in stock market losses when he learned that a drug trial by a small pharmaceutical company had failed. Hunter was sentenced to 11 months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing campaign funds and spending the money on everything from outings with friends to his daughter’s birthday party. He was due to start serving the sentence next month.

Trump also pardoned former Rep. Steve Stockman, who started serving a 10-year sentence for crimes including fraud and money laundering in 2018, reports the New York Times. Trump also announced pardons for George Papadopoulos, his 2016 campaign adviser whose conversation unwittingly helped trigger the Russia investigation, and attorney Alex van der Zwaan, the first person convicted in the Mueller probe. In the group announced Tuesday night were four former government contractors convicted in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad that left more a dozen Iraqi civilians dead and caused an international uproar over the use of private security guards in a war zone. Supporters of the former Blackwater contractors had lobbied for pardons, arguing that the men had been excessively punished.

But Trump did not stop there….the second round includes more Trump loyalists….

President Trump’s pardon-palooza continued for a second night Wednesday, when he issued another 26 pardons—including ones for Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, who were convicted of multiple crimes after being indicted during Robert Mueller’s investigation. Trump commuted longtime friend Stone’s sentence in July, days before he was due to report to prison to serve a 40-month sentence for crimes including lying to Congress and witness tampering. Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, was serving a 7.5-year sentence for crimes including tax fraud and was moved to home confinement in May. Trump also pardoned Charles Kushner, father of son-in-law Jared Kushner, CNN reports.

The elder Kushner was released from prison in 2006 after serving 14 months for crimes including tax evasion and retaliating against a federal witness. The case was prosecuted by then-US Attorney for New Jersey Chris Christie. The New York Times calls the Kushner pardon “one of the most anticipated of the Trump presidency.” Others pardoned Wednesday include Margaret Hunter, whose husband former GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter, was pardoned Tuesday for campaign finance fraud. Trump also commuted three sentences Wednesday, bringing the total number of people given clemency over the last two days to 49, per the AP. Tuesday’s pardons included two other people convicted as a result of the Mueller probe.

Let’s not forget the slug Kushner and his criminal father….

On the one hand, President Trump’s latest batch of pardons was excellent news for the Kushner family. On the other hand, it has brought renewed attention to why Charles Kushner—the father of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner—needed a pardon in the first place. It’s not a pretty tale. In fact, “it’s one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was US attorney,” none other than Chris Christie said in a 2019 PBS interview, per Fox News. Details and related pardon coverage:

  • The crimes: The elder Kushner, 66, is a New Jersey developer who served 14 months in prison more than a decade ago after being convicted of tax fraud and of making illegal campaign contributions, reports NJ.com. But the “loathsome” part Christie was talking about refers to a bizarre sting operation Kushner carried out on his own brother-in-law
  • The trap: Kushner admitted that he paid $25,000 to have a prostitute visit and seduce the husband of his sister in a motel room, and Kushner then sent the videotape to his sister. Why? Christie’s office maintained Kushner was trying to intimidate his sister and keep her from testifying before a grand jury against him in the federal investigation. At the time, Charles Kushner also was having a nasty dispute with another sibling, brother Murray, a former business partner. Their sister had taken Murray’s side, per NJ.com.
  • Justification: “Since completing his sentence in 2006, Mr. Kushner has been devoted to important philanthropic organizations and causes, such as Saint Barnabas Medical Center and United Cerebral Palsy,” says the president’s statement on the pardon. “This record of reform and charity overshadows Mr. Kushner’s conviction and 2 year sentence for preparing false tax returns, witness retaliation, and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission.”

Then the Blackwater murderers…..

  • Blackwater reaction: Trump also pardoned four figures who worked as guards for the private military contractor Blackwater. All were convicted after 14 Iraqi civilians were killed and 17 wounded in a 2007 Baghdad ambush, per NPR. In Baghdad, news of the pardons brought sentiment like this: “I have always known that his murderers would get away with it somehow even after they were prosecuted,” a former schoolmate of a slain medical student tells the Washington Post. “The pardon was inevitable.”
  • Blackwater II: The same Post story also incorporates the view of supporters of the men, who say they were unjustly vilified and imprisoned by their own government. The story details the different accounts of what happened when gunfire broke out that day in Nisour Square.

Is the “Pardon Palozza” over or does he, Trump, want to free more criminals on society?

Should we really fret over these Trumpian pardons?

… the news set in that President Trump had pardoned almost everyone involved in the Russia scandal, I saw an editor at one of the big political publications say that with this step President Trump had taken one more step in erasing the Mueller probe. This is wrong. And explaining why it’s wrong gives me another opportunity to reaffirm my belief that knowledge, a public accounting of what happened is far more important than punishment for individual wrongdoers. 

What Trump completed was the the cover-up, the pay offs he’d promised, either explicitly or implicitly, in exchange for the silence of his coconspirators. As it happens, only Paul Manafort was even still in prison or serving time. For the rest it was just symbolism. But again, what is important is a public accounting of the facts.

From that perspective, these pardons mean fairly little. I’ve heard some claim that the upside of these pardons is that now the key players can’t plead the fifth. Even narrowly speaking I believe that is not true since most or all could face state jeopardy. But more broadly it’s a fallacy of legal literalism. Sure they can’t plead the fifth. But they can lie. They can claim they don’t remember. And they will. Don’t think this means anyone can be compelled to cooperate.

The Pardons are A Disgrace. But Don’t Sweat It.

My further thoughts on Trump’s pardons….or any pardon for that matter…..a future post.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Trump’s Final Days

In less than 30 days we will have a new president and the one heading out the door has doing all he can to make his remaining time be productive for his days out of the White House.

First he has made a comment about the new stim package…well part of the stim package that is…..the package calls for %600 per the people and Trump thinks it should be higher…..

President Trump has a complaint—and some of his fiercest critics are on his side this time. In video posted to Twitter Tuesday, the POTUS called the $600 figure arrived at by Congress for round two of coronavirus stimulus money “ridiculously low,” calling on lawmakers to bump it up to $2,000. The Washington Post reports Trump suggested he would not sign the legislation without changes, and Fox News reports that Nancy Pelosi, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Bernie Sanders were on board with that idea. Pelosi said “Democrats are ready to bring this to the Floor this week by unanimous consent,” while AOC said the amendment for $2,000 checks is “ready to go” and could be passed this week “if the Senate GOP agrees to stand down.” Sanders called on Trump to “get Mitch McConnell and your Republican friends to stop opposing it.”

Of course, that wasn’t Trump’s only complaint: He also slammed the bill as a “disgrace” full of “wasteful spending,” specifically calling out many line items. “It’s called the COVID relief bill but it has almost nothing to do with COVID,” he said. But, as PolitiFact explains, Congress actually passed a spending package: the $900 billion relief bill, plus a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill, which is where the funding for things like the arts and money for other countries comes in. Even so, others on the right were also none too happy: Trump “is right,” tweeted Sen. Josh Hawley. “[W]orkers deserve much more than $600, as I have repeatedly said & fought for. And there’s obviously plenty of $$ to do it – look at what Congress threw away on corporate giveaways & foreign buyouts.” The Post says congressional aides, as well as Trump’s own aides, were “stunned” at Trump’s video, which sent stock market futures down, particularly since they’ve been telling the media he would sign the bill.

I agree with Trump on this…..the cash is a joke….the waste of dollars for crap like Israel etc.

We all have been waiting for Donald the Orange to use his “mighty” pen and pardon all those people that would benefit him…..

President Trump on Tuesday pardoned 15 people, including Republican allies, a 2016 campaign official ensnared in the Russia probe, and former government contractors convicted in a massacre in Iraq. The pardons included former Republican Reps. Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, the AP reports. Collins, the first member of Congress to endorse Trump to be president, was sentenced to two years and two months in federal prison after admitting he helped his son and others dodge $800,000 in stock market losses when he learned that a drug trial by a small pharmaceutical company had failed. Hunter was sentenced to 11 months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing campaign funds and spending the money on everything from outings with friends to his daughter’s birthday party. He was due to start serving the sentence next month.

Trump also pardoned former Rep. Steve Stockman, who started serving a 10-year sentence for crimes including fraud and money laundering in 2018, reports the New York Times. Trump also announced pardons for George Papadopoulos, his 2016 campaign adviser whose conversation unwittingly helped trigger the Russia investigation, and attorney Alex van der Zwaan, the first person convicted in the Mueller probe. In the group announced Tuesday night were four former government contractors convicted in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad that left more a dozen Iraqi civilians dead and caused an international uproar over the use of private security guards in a war zone. Supporters of the former Blackwater contractors had lobbied for pardons, arguing that the men had been excessively punished.

There is so much that needs doing before he leaves for the wilds of Mar-A-Logo…

For President Trump and his supporters, it’s another example of fake news. But a slew of reports about the White House paints a picture of a president pondering radical action over the next month in an attempt to stay in office. Days ago, reports circulated about Trump floating the idea of declaring martial law and having the military seize voting machines, a story Trump himself disavowed. But the reports keep coming. Coverage:

  • “We cannot stress enough how unnerved Trump officials are by the conversations unfolding inside the White House,” writes Jonathan Swan at Axios. He reports that Trump has lashed out against nearly everyone in his orbit, including Mike Pence, because he perceives them as weak for not fighting hard enough for him. “Top officials are trying to stay away from the West Wing right now,” writes Swan.
  • The Washington Post reports that the president is increasingly surrounding himself with a “ragtag group of conspiracy theorists, media-hungry lawyers and other political misfits” for the homestretch. The story quotes an unnamed senior administration official: “He is grasping at straws. If you come in and tell him he lost, and that it’s over, he doesn’t want to hear from you. He is looking for people to tell him what he wants to hear.”
  • At the conservative National Review, Jim Geraghty says it’s vital to keep Michael Flynn and attorney Sidney Powell away from Trump because they’re feeding him fringe views. Flynn, for example, has publicly encouraged the use of martial law, suggesting it’s not such a big deal. But Geraghty notes that while state and local governments have declared martial law after riots or disasters dozens of times, the last time the federal government did so was after the Pearl Harbor attack.
  • CNN has a scathing analysis by Stephen Collinson, who warns that “dead-end loyalists” are steering Trump wrong. “No one is sure where this is heading,” one unnamed official tells the outlet. “He’s still president for another month.” ABC News has a story by Ben Gittleson, who writes that Trump “is spending his dwindling days in office entertaining increasingly desperate, last-ditch schemes to overturn the results of the presidential election.”
  • Meanwhile, Politico reports that Trump met at the White House Monday to strategize with House conservatives on a long-shot challenge Jan. 6 when Congress meets to certify the Electoral College results. Rep. Mo Brooks says “dozens” of House Republicans and “multiple” senators are on board, though John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, predicted the effort is going down “like a shot dog,” per the Hill.

Can this really end in 30 days or so?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Virtual Inauguration

Because of the pandemic racing through the nation and the world there has been a call for Biden to take the oath of office for the presidency virtually.

That might be a good idea these days….but this is not for Biden and has little to do with the pandemic but rather a bunch of Trump supporters that still think they can keep this useless lump as president on 20Jan2021.

With the US Capitol grounds otherwise occupied that day, supporters are planning a virtual inauguration for President Trump on Jan. 20. More than 60,000 people have indicated on the Facebook event page that they’re going, the Hill reports. It’s scheduled for noon EST, which is when President-elect Joe Biden will be taking the oath of office. The Donald J. Trump 2nd Presidential Inauguration Ceremony is to be hosted by Ilir Chami and Evi Kokalari, the page says. Kokalari’s Twitter page says she was on the Trump reelection campaign’s finance committee. She makes appearances on One America News Network, per the Independent.

Organizers put a disclaimer on the Facebook page: “We are a grassroots collection of private individuals 325,000 strong, showing our support for President Donald J. Trump. We have no affiliation with any formal organization.” There was no sign on the page that Trump endorses the event. Facebook also added a clarifying disclaimer, lest anyone think a Trump inauguration would be real: “Joe Biden is the President-elect. He will be inaugurated as the 46th US President on January 20, 2021.”

Seriously?

How silly is this POS?

But do not worry….there is no indication that Donald the Orange has anything to do with this move…..then why do it?  (Is my question)

How far can the old Tea Party slide before they enter the pits of Hell where they belong?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Please Blow It Up!

I know that many of us would like for something epic to happen to Trump and/or property….after all he is a billionaire (questionable claim)…..his water line, his steaks, his wine and his university were all as worthless as their founder…..but what about the now defunct casino….what to do, what to do?

I say blow the damn thing up and make room for something useful……and believe it or not they are taking bids to do just that very thing…..

Part of President Trump’s former empire is going to come crashing down next month—and Atlantic City wants to use the moment to raise money for a good cause. The former Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino is being dynamited on Jan. 29, and the city is auctioning off the chance to be the person who presses the button for the implosion. “Some of Atlantic City’s iconic moments happened there, but on his way out, Donald Trump openly mocked Atlantic City, saying he made a lot of money and then got out,” says Mayor Marty Small, per CBS Philadelphia. “I wanted to use the demolition of this place to raise money for charity.”

Small hopes to raise more than $1 million with the auction, which will benefit the Boys & Girls Club of Atlantic City, reports the Press of Atlantic City. The casino opened in 1984. The building, now owned by billionaire Carl Icahn, has been empty since the casino closed in 2014, and the city says its crumbling facade has become a hazard. Trump probably won’t mind seeing the building demolished: In 2014, he sued to have his name taken off the casino, saying its “appalling condition” was damaging his brand, which “has become synonymous with the highest levels of quality, luxury, prestige, and success.”

Why not?

After all he never paid all the outstanding bills from the construction of that white elephant.

So by all means….blow the damn thing up….and do it on the day he loses the use of the White House…..make the humiliation total.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Trump 2024

Our defeated president is working to possibly run again for president in 2024….something I have written about a bit since November and the last election…..

https://lobotero.com/2020/11/10/gone-but-will-not-be-forgotten/

https://lobotero.com/2020/11/13/is-there-any-trumpian-news/

I have read about the campaign of Grover Cleveland who won the presidency after losing an election…….

Hewitt draws lessons from the example of Grover Cleveland, the only man to win nonconsecutive terms in the White House. He first won in 1884, but when he lost re-election, Cleveland retreated to New York to practice law. In those intervening years, Cleveland stayed out of the political fray until it was time to run again. “Trump is unlikely to follow this course, but doing so would enable him to keep careful account of [the] successes and failures of the Biden-Harris team before running on the latter,” writes Hewitt. If nothing else, Trump might want to ration his availability for interviews, suggests Hewitt, thus keeping himself in demand.

“Memoirs and a presidential library and museum will help the next four years fly by,” writes Hewitt. “If he stays out of daily fights, his successes”—Hewitt ticks off Operation Warp Speed, progress on Mideast peace, his imprint on the courts, etc.—”will grow in comparison to the deadlock ahead.” Hewitt also notes that Cleveland attended his successor’s inauguration after his first loss in a “model of sportsmanship.” Trump hasn’t said whether he will attend Joe Biden’s swearing-in. In regard to Trump’s challenges of the election, Hewitt is confident the president will leave in orderly fashion next month. For now, though, he needs to satisfy his supporters that he is doing “everything within the law to preserve his tenure.”

Not everybody thinks Trump’s run in 2024 would be just a shoo in…..

President Trump and his supporters are making noises about a run in 2024, but John F. Harris predicts in a column at Politico that it’s not going to happen. In fact, he thinks Trump’s influence will fade pretty quickly once he’s out of office. “Outsized outsiders don’t have staying power,” he writes, drawing a comparison between Trump and the likes of Ross Perot, Joe McCarthy, and George Wallace. Yes, Trump is singular because he achieved the presidency, but all these men rose to prominence thanks to “flamboyant, self-dramatizing personas.” These types of movements are rather common in American politics, but they always fade, and “Trump has offered no reason to suppose he will be an exception.”

Harris has two other reasons behind his skepticism. For one, Trump may have once pushed topics such as immigration, trade, and globalization, but now he seems to be pushing only one issue—himself. “These days, no one can follow Trump’s Twitter feed and believe that he cares more about the public’s problems than his own, and that is not a recipe for sustaining political power,” writes Harris. And finally, Harris writes that Trump’s inability to moderate his blunt, “blame-casting” strategy is a fatal political flaw. Had Trump been able to do so during the pandemic, he would probably be getting ready for his second inauguration, writes Harris. Read his full column, in which he says potential Trump rivals won’t have to confront the former president, but rather “transcend” him, in the runup to the next election.

Nothing is set in stone for 2024…Trump could just decide to take the money and run…..

Regardless what Trump decides…there will be no going back to normal……https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/11/20/theres-no-returning-to-normal-after-trump/

I say that because a national poll shows that most republicans will vote for Trump in 2024

A majority of Republicans surveyed in a new poll — 54 percent — said they would vote for President Trump in 2024. 

The Morning Consult-Politico poll released Tuesday found that 12 percent of GOP voters said they would choose Vice President Pence in the 2024 primary instead, while 8 percent said they would vote for the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.

In addition, 68 percent of Republicans voters said they consider President Trump to be more in touch with the GOP’s “rank and file,” compared to 20 percent who said the same of congressional Republicans

https://thehill.com/homenews/news/527301-most-republicans-in-new-poll-say-theyd-vote-for-trump-in-2024

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Art Of The Steal

A take-off of the silly book written by our ‘president’, The Art Of The Deal….even after Biden has been certified as the winner Trump continues to fight to throw out the vote in many states because he lost.

In an extraordinary scene of political warfare, a total of 44 of the 50 states have filed briefs with the US Supreme Court arguing for and against honoring the results of the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden over President Donald Trump. Only six states did not file briefs by the 3 p.m. Thursday deadline set by the high court.

The state of Texas filed the first brief Monday, directed against four “battleground” states won by Biden over Trump: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The brief asked the Supreme Court to overturn the results of the vote in those four states and to refer the appointment of electors to the state legislatures, which are Republican-controlled in each state.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/12/11/elec-d11.html

AS I wrote…Trump’s Art of the Steal……..

The shock of defeat appears to have dimmed some of the golden boy’s luster as well as whitened his faux blond hair and lightened his spray-on tan. Still, not only has Trump not conceded, he has, at current count, mounted over thirty-eight unsuccessful lawsuits to overturn the election or, at best, stall his ouster from office. Undaunted, the self-avowed stable genius’s latest Wile E. Coyote move has been to pressure Republican state legislators to choose pro-Trump electors when the Electoral College convenes this month. Having apparently failed at that, his only hope now is a Supreme Court Hail Mary. It doesn’t matter that he may fail; it’s the smoke, mirrors, and gaslight that ultimately count. None of this suggests that Trump is even remotely entertaining conceding.

In fact, it’s highly likely Trump will never concede, despite media speculation that his reticence is actually yet another of his three-dimensional chess gambits, the current one, according to some pundits, designed to make possible his own Murdock-like media empire to sustain his brand until he (or one of his felonious spawn) runs again in 2024. All this Occam razor-rejecting media confabulation refuses to accept the simple fact that toddler Trump is throwing a tantrum and that the true intent of his intransigence is to remain in power by any means necessary.

Grab ’Em by the Ballot: The Art of the Steal

I do not think his attempts will be successful….but I do think he is setting the stage for 2022 and 2024.

I like this Tweet as well….

Image

Read the rationale of this proposal…..https://www.rawstory.com/2020/12/democrat-wants-to-use-civil-war-law-about-traitors-to-ban-126-republicans-from-being-seated-in-congress/

I say use it!  If they cannot defend the US from enemies domestic or foreign then they should not be allowed to take the oath of office.  PERIOD!

To be fair…my representative Steven Palazzo is one of the signers….(more about him later today)…..another gutless GOP toad….and the sooner the people of my area realize what a d/bag he is the sooner we can eliminate him.

Looks like the Supreme Court is not having any of the silly Trump games…..

The Supreme Court on Friday afternoon rejected a lawsuit backed by President Trump to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory. The decision ends a desperate attempt to get legal issues rejected by state and federal judges before the nation’s highest court, the AP reports. The court’s order was its second this week rebuffing Republican requests that it become involved in the 2020 election outcome. The justices turned away an appeal from Pennsylvania Republicans on Tuesday. The Electoral College meets Monday to formally elect Biden as the next president.

Per Axios, the court wrote: “The State of Texas’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.”

Then there is not moron of the GOP, Alan West, the GOP Chair from Texas……

126 GOP House members and 17 other state attorneys general was rebuffed by the nation’s highest court, Texas GOP Chair Allen West, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel and former congressman, issued a statement noting his displeasure, and offering an eyebrow-raising suggestion, per CBS Dallas-Fort Worth. “This decision will have far-reaching ramifications for the future of our constitutional republic,” West said. “Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.” West’s remarks brought swift backlash from both sides of the aisle, per the Hill.

“I believe @TexasGOP should immediately retract this, apologize, and fire Allen West and anyone else associated with this,” Illinois GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger tweeted. Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii added, “They have lost their minds. … These people are deadly serious about secession and sedition.” Also disappointed in the Supreme Court’s rebuff: President Trump, who was said to have nixed an appearance at a White House holiday party Friday night, per the New York Times. Later that evening, he tweeted, “The Supreme Court really let us down. No Wisdom, No Courage!” He continued mulling over the situation well past midnight, adding his final thoughts on the matter: “It is a legal disgrace, an embarrassment to the USA!!!” Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani appeared on Newsmax Friday night, vowing the fight isn’t over. “We’re not finished, believe me,” Giuliani said, per the Times. The Electoral College is set to formally elect Biden as the next president on Monday.

I believe that Alan West has earned his new pair of Trump knee pads for this Christmas.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Pardon–Will He, Won’t He

In the closing days of the Trump farce that was his presidency there has been a wealth of news reports and analysis by overpaid pundits to decide if Trump will pardon himself as a closing act to the sad tragedy of a presidency.

We know that the president has the power to pardon or commute but can he, Trump, really pardon himself?

Could President Trump pardon himself before he leaves office? He faces possible liability on bank and tax issues, and a former prosecutor in the Robert Mueller investigation makes the case in a New York Times op-ed that he should get hit with obstruction charges, too. A president, of course, can pardon others, but can he pardon himself? At the Atlantic, Eric L. Muller digs into the constitutional question and writes that it hinges on a single word. The Constitution, he notes, says the president “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” The key word there is “grant.” If the framers had used “announce” instead of “grant,” it would be clear that a president could pardon himself as well as others. But “grant” is another matter.

Muller does a deep dive and finds that whenever the word is used elsewhere in the Constitution, it is used as a transitive verb. That is, one entity grants something to another. He also digs into the word’s “original public meaning” and finds the same—it seems that whenever “grant” was used in those days, two entities were involved. What sounds picayune is “linguistically important,” he writes. “Grant” in this sense is similar to words such as “surrender” or “relinquish”—”you can’t do them to yourself.” In his view, then, Trump appears to be out of luck. The question isn’t whether Trump can pardon himself, it’s whether he can grant himself a pardon. “The evidence, at least according to the text of the Constitution and its original meaning, says no.” Read the full analysis.

If he does then it could be his crowning glory of the most absurd portion of American history…the Trump presidency.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Should Trump Be Prosecuted?

Plus all his cronies in the government that allowed this country to slide into chaos and crisis.

My thought is damn straight arrest them and try them and send them to prison……I even wrote a post a few months ago to this subject…..https://lobotero.com/2020/09/22/arrest-the-lot-of-them/

This may be wishful thinking……why? I would take guts to hold these slugs responsible for their actions and there is just not enough guts in DC for this to happen.

I have an idea what is his worse crime against the American people and others have their thoughts….like this one…..;they claim his worse crime was his screwing of the Kurds in Syria……

It was the worst crime of Donald Trump’s years in the White House. In October 2019 he ordered US troops to stand aside, greenlighting Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria that led to the murder, rape and expulsion of its Kurdish inhabitants

Eighteen months earlier, Trump did nothing as the Turkish army occupied the Kurdish enclave of Afrin and replaced the population there with Syrian Arab jihadis.

It is, unfortunately, unlikely that Trump will ever stand trial but, if he does, then his complicity in the ethnic cleansing of the Syrian Kurds should top the charge sheet. This was an act of evil in itself and also the betrayal of an ally since American-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters had led the counter-attack against Isis, closing in on its last strongholds just as Turkey invaded Afrin.

Trump’s treachery provoked too little international outrage at the time but I am certain it was the direct cause of murders, kidnappings, disappearances and the expulsions of hundreds of thousands of people.

Trump’s Worst Crime Must Not be Forgotten

I do not know if I would consider it his worse crime….maybe to the Kurds in Northern Syria but not against the American people…..that would be his inaction as a pandemic is killing thousands of his countrymen and he lied his way through the election and convinced the low IQ voter that he is a messiah of some sort.

He is a CRIMINAL….and the worse kind of criminal.

Of course his mental deficient followers will think he is above the law….and they would not be alone with that thought…..

Some law professor thinks prosecuted Trump is a bad idea……

Should federal prosecutors go after President Trump when he’s out of office? A former member of Robert Mueller’s team thinks yes. But in a New York Times op-ed, law professor Eric Posner argues strongly against it. Trump’s critics cite allegations of obstruction of justice, the improper blurring of Trump’s finances with his presidency, and his dealings with Ukraine in regard to the Bidens. Good luck proving criminal charges on any of those things, writes Posner. “There is little evidence that Mr. Trump did commit crimes as president,” he writes. “A conviction, given what we know now, is all but impossible.” He likens the situation to Trump’s demands for investigations into Hillary Clinton, Biden, and Barack Obama, which have been “rightly condemned.” The push to prosecute Trump should be similarly condemned, he argues.

Take the obstruction charge, for example. “The president is the prosecutor’s boss, and while his authority is not limitless, there is no recognized legal standard for distinguishing ‘obstruction’ of a case by a president that is legitimate (like President Barack Obama’s refusal to allow investigations of George W. Bush-era torturers) from that which is illegal,” writes Posner. Pushing prosecution is a no-win situation for Democrats, he adds. Any such case would likely end up in a triumphant acquittal for Trump. And even if one did succeed, it would cement Trump’s status as a political martyr who became a target of the so-called deep state. “If the goal of a trial of Donald Trump is to renew American faith in government, the effect will be the opposite.” Read Posner’s full column.

I disagree!

There is enough proof of his lack of action and the endangerment of the American people….then sue the bastard and make his life as miserable as he has made life for most Americans.

Trump keeps trying to void an election because he did not win….that alone should be a prosecutable offense.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Still Bringing The Troops Home

Trump trying to gain favor for the election he just lost he has gone on a tear to bring the troops home (well at least out of the danger zones) Afghanistan, Iraq, Korea and even from Germany…..and keeping with the fad he stared he has ordered US troops out of Somalia…

The Pentagon announced on Friday that President Trump ordered the withdrawal of the “majority” of US troops from Somalia.

“The President of the United States has ordered the Department of Defense and the United States Africa Command to reposition the majority of personnel and assets out of Somalia by early 2021,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

The statement said “some forces may be reassigned outside of East Africa,” but the remaining troops will be reassigned to neighboring countries to “allow cross-border operations.”

The US currently has approximately 700 troops in Somalia. The majority of them were sent by the Trump administration. The US operations in the country consist of training local forces, covert raids, and a drone war against al-Shabab.

(antiwar.com)

Not to worry….the troops will just be moved and home is not on the agenda….

The New York Times reported on the plan and said the troops would be repositioned to neighboring Djibouti and Kenya, where the US drones that carry out airstrikes in Somalia are based.

President Trump dramatically escalated the air war against al-Shabab by loosening the rules of engagement when he first came into office. In 2019, the Trump administration conducted 63 airstrikes in Somalia, the most US airstrikes on the country in a single year.

Out of Somalia but not out of harm’s way…..

Next I would like to hear the Biden plan for Somalia and the US troops under his command.

Since Biden has always been on the wrong side of war I suspect that he will leave Somalia pretty much as it is today.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”