Trump

[Callie Del Noire]

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/01/17/politics/secret-service-shutdown/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F


Apparently the secret service aren’t getting paid while they are running their security details on the presidential family’s

[Lustful Bride]

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/01/17/politics/secret-service-shutdown/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F


Apparently the secret service aren’t getting paid while they are running their security details on the presidential family’s

If there is anyone who should get paid it should be the people who you expect to take a bullet for you and your family. I would want to make sure those so close to me lived and were paid well with the best benefits. I'm just saying :P

[Oniya]

If there is anyone who should get paid it should be the people who you expect to take a bullet for you and your family. I would want to make sure those so close to me lived and were paid well with the best benefits. I'm just saying :P

At least Bush is giving them pizza.  Wouldn't be surprised if the other living presidents are also trying to help out in small ways.

[Callie Del Noire]

If there is anyone who should get paid it should be the people who you expect to take a bullet for you and your family. I would want to make sure those so close to me lived and were paid well with the best benefits. I'm just saying :P

I know after he eventual departure and return to Trump tower, he’s going to soak the Secret Service for tons of cash in the Tower

[Various]

Now begins the annual spectacle of the GOP claiming MLK Jr. shared their values in any way shape or form. Pence compared Trump's fight with Pelosi and Schumer to King.

When you think of a man that would champion the demonizing, exploitation, and dehumanization of an underclass, as well as the building of a literal wall of separation against them paid for by blood money wrenched from the suffering of workers by a man whose every action is an advertisement for how not to be a decent human being, it'd be King.

[Tolvo]

The only thing they really have in common is they both hated the FBI. Though in Trump's case it's more so just when they don't support his criminal actions and don't support him. While in MLK JR's case it's because the FBI are really racist and consider civil rights groups to be terrorist organizations often and killed many civil rights activists. In general though I'd rather most people kept MLK JR out of their mouth I can only imagine how many millions of times he has rolled in his grave. Though I imagine Trump is envious and wishes everyone would call him King.

[Various]

To be fair to Trump, I'd certainly petition the day he does his perp walk and gets his head slammed into the policeman's door (don't be nice to thugs, indeed) to become a national holiday too.

[Tolvo]

https://www.newsweek.com/what-tapes-rudy-giuliani-donald-trump-michael-cohen-russia-investigation-1299636

So Rudy Guliani when asked about the Trump Moscow deal claimed he listened to the tapes and went through the texts and emails on record and they didn't prove that Trump did anything wrong.

He realized then that he just said these did exist and explained he meant that there were not texts or emails.

He then backpedaled when he realized he just said there was recorded audio evidence and claimed he'd listened to tapes that were actually unrelated but that Trump is innocent because there was no evidence to actually check.

So either he really misspoke(Wouldn't surprise me given how terrible of a speaker he is and how he barely understands anything, see the time he accidentally embedded a link in his tweet and someone bought the domain and made it an anti-Trump website and he accused Twitter of hacking "Anti-President" propaganda into his tweets) or Rudy admitted the evidence did indeed exist.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/05/us/politics/rudy-giuliani-twitter-links.html

[Various]

Given his every statement seems to be designed to worsen his client's legal exposure, it's a wonder Rudy hasn't faced disbarment from the New York Court of Appeals.

[Tolvo]

Well nothing is really gonna damage him, after his public image survived his indirectly causing deaths during 9/11 due to his own greed and stupidity and that he lied about his involvement, there's not much else that could really tarnish a person's public image more.

[Missy]

wait tapes?

Move over Nixon, you're the second dumbest man ever in the presidency now.

[gaggedLouise]

The State of the Union speech has become the latest casualty of the Wall/Budget Standoff.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/23/politics/donald-trump-nancy-pelosi-state-of-the-union/index.html

At one point, there were rumours that Trump would be making the speech from somewhere outside Washington, perhaps even (in a flourish typical of the man) from a stage nearby the southern border itself - but in the end, after Pelosi denied him the use of Congress as a venue for security reasons, Trump chose to cancel the speech altogether. No doubt he will think of something to fill the vacant slot for his own fan base.

This is now a fully-fledged constitutional crisis.

[gaggedLouise]

Trump and his staff are now reported to be drafting a declaration of a state of emergency, covering the entire country, to be able to get (read: sequester) the funds he wants and launch the construction of his Wall. Evidently he has concluded that he can't get out of the stalemate over the budget by normal political means. :(

I don't really see how he can credibly argue that there is a national emergency (covering all of the US) due to people coming in illegally at the southern border - you'd think it was, at most, in the regions close to the border - but I'm sure the Trump gang will know how to take care of that... ^_ ^

[Tolvo]

Are there any sources for that? I'd believe he'd do it, but I try to be wary of rumors like that without sources that can be held accountable.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/01/trump-adoption-same-sex-couples-jews-miracle-mill.html

Trump's administration has set into motion new guidelines and interpretations of law, aided by the Supreme Court, that allows people to be denied services based on their religion and sexuality. It has seen recently Christian run foster systems reject Jewish parents and queer parents. Now as long as a business or group claims that it would violate their religious beliefs to do something, anything, they can simply not do it. While it has been used to reject Jewish people and queer couples so far, it could cover basically anything. And that it actively is meant to counter non-discrimination laws. Restaurants, hospitals, foster agencies, lots of groups are Christian run and could begin to deny people who are non-Christian and who they consider a sinner, and states are starting to request these exemptions as well.

[gaggedLouise]

CNN claim Trump's people are working on a draft declaration of a State of Emergency, though the network is of course known to be in a bit of a feud with Trump - and they do not actually say that he would have made a definite decision to use this line of action.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/24/politics/trump-border-wall-emergency-draft/index.html

Meanwhile, Steve Vladeck, a professor of law from the University of Texas, makes the point (at NBC's site) that Trump's comments have exposed a lack of rigour in the 1976 National Emergencies Act. Once the present crisis is over, Congress would need to take a serious look at how to amend the law and safeguard it from abuse.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/will-trump-use-national-emergency-end-shutdown-either-way-congress-ncna962556

[Tolvo]

Ah alright, and that context makes it make more sense. Even if they don't plan to use it or in the end don't use it, if they do draft that it's existence alone is a threat and would put pressure on people to do what he wants. Especially given Trump using that wouldn't be out of character for him.

Our entire system is severely flawed, we basically are stuck with a corrupt Supreme Court with an anti-progressive stance for decades because of Trump even if he gets impeached. Lately they've been scrambling to get as many judges set up as they can that are hard line conservatives. A lot of these things people didn't want patched up because many people making decisions relating to these flaws can benefit from them if they use them.

[Tolvo]

I apologize for the double post I don't try to do this but since it is such huge news.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/us/politics/roger-stone-trump-mueller.html

https://www.vox.com/2019/1/25/17314972/roger-stone-indicted-mueller

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fbi-arrests-roger-stone_us_5c4b1e1ce4b028bb38a2ea23

https://thehill.com/video/campaign/426958-watch-live-roger-stone-in-court-following-indictment

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5694704-Stone-Indictment-012419.html

Roger Stone has been arrested and indicted. Mueller and the FBI have claimed they have hard evidence Stone worked with Wikileaks and Russia to undermine the 2016 election and that Trump's campaign and his officials worked with him.

[Blythe]

....just by looking at the indictment alone (I've skimmed it, but I'm going to reread it with a more in-depth eye later), I am impressed. Mueller (& the FBI) has been very thorough.

[Tolvo]

Well his first statements are being shown live now(Well with a delay). With people booing him and supporters shouting "All Hail Trump!"

https://thehill.com/video/campaign/426958-watch-live-roger-stone-in-court-following-indictment

[Blythe]

Am watching that, too.

The crowd is so chaotic. There's Trump supporters cheering for Stone & Trump, protesters shouting against Stone & Trump, and the press is everywhere. It's a swarm there.

[Lustful Bride]

Am watching that, too.

The crowd is so chaotic. There's Trump supporters cheering for Stone & Trump, protesters shouting against Stone & Trump, and the press is everywhere. It's a swarm there.

I hope the police are in force there. We cant afford chaos or riots.

[Callie Del Noire]

....just by looking at the indictment alone (I've skimmed it, but I'm going to reread it with a more in-depth eye later), I am impressed. Mueller (& the FBI) has been very thorough.

Have to be, stone remembers the Nixon era as he was rthere.

[Blythe]

The crowd seemed controlled enough--didn't seem like there'd be a riot, though emotions were clearly running high. But things seemed contained enough.

Have to be, stone remembers the Nixon era as he was rthere.

The fact Stone has a Nixon tattoo and is getting indicted in part for Obstruction of Justice feels weirdly appropriate and right.

[Regina Minx]

....just by looking at the indictment alone (I've skimmed it, but I'm going to reread it with a more in-depth eye later), I am impressed. Mueller (& the FBI) has been very thorough.

When you come at the king, Bey, you best not miss.

[Tolvo]

He basically denied it all, said the charges were not even related to what they directly were, that he believed it was all a politically biased move and there was no evidence(Though publicly Stone has admitted to many of these things previously). I'm not sure entirely what all the chants were, at first it sounded like "All hail Trump." But later there was a lot of "Lock him up." And I didn't realize when multiple people are all shouting this at once they actually sound a bit similar, so I don't know if there was a lot of All Hail Trump or it was just a crowd shouting something else that sounded kind of similar.

There are police there but due to the shutdown of course a lot of the security relating to these things are understaffed.