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Post by Kapitan on Jul 11, 2020 12:37:08 GMT
I find it incredibly disappointing that the president continues to ensure the people who have been convicted of felonies on his behalf receive little or no punishment, with the most recent being convicted felon Roger Stone.
David Frum wrote of Trump commuting Stone's sentence in the Atlantic. The article includes a basic, undisputed timeline of the underlying facts as well as this sad summary:
"Roger Stone will not go to prison for acting as an information conduit between Russian intelligence and the Trump campaign. Stone’s former business partner Paul Manafort is likewise keeping silent. And so the American public will likely never know what use the Russians made of the Trump polling information that Manafort shared with them. Manafort likewise has extra reason to keep quiet, for he must feel new confidence that his pardon is coming."
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jul 11, 2020 13:39:29 GMT
I find it incredibly disappointing that the president continues to ensure the people who have been convicted of felonies on his behalf receive little or no punishment, with the most recent being convicted felon Roger Stone.
David Frum wrote of Trump commuting Stone's sentence in the Atlantic. The article includes a basic, undisputed timeline of the underlying facts as well as this sad summary:
"Roger Stone will not go to prison for acting as an information conduit between Russian intelligence and the Trump campaign. Stone’s former business partner Paul Manafort is likewise keeping silent. And so the American public will likely never know what use the Russians made of the Trump polling information that Manafort shared with them. Manafort likewise has extra reason to keep quiet, for he must feel new confidence that his pardon is coming."
Is this...practice...something unique to Donald Trump, or are past presidents guilty of the same thing?
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 12, 2020 0:06:35 GMT
Presidential pardons--often in the last days of a president's presidency--happen every time. But this president has now pardoned or commuted the sentences of several people whose crimes involved the president's own alleged crimes (for which he can't currently be prosecuted, as the DOJ policy interprets law to say a sitting president can't be prosecuted). That, to my knowledge, is unprecedented.
Just think about it. Imagine I am charged with murder and you are charged for being an accessory to my crime. I can't be prosecuted because of my position ... and I arrange for you to go free (despite you having been found guilty and sentenced). How in the world is that remotely ethical?
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 15, 2020 19:53:11 GMT
Well, Kanye West's presidential campaign is over. Kanye, we barely knew thee.
Wait should this have gone in the comedy thread? I mean, that was never serious...
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 17, 2020 16:27:18 GMT
This, jointly written by far-left Dr. Cornell West and far-right Dr. Robert George (longtime colleagues at Princeton and friends), is one of the best things I've read in a while.
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Post by B.E. on Jul 17, 2020 17:04:04 GMT
Thanks for sharing, Kapitan. How great would it be if every American were aware of, and took the few minutes to read, that piece? I honestly believe it would help.
I hope to have time later on to comment further.
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 20, 2020 20:45:22 GMT
So, "Naked Athena"...
A couple nights ago, as part of the nightly occurrences that are Portland riots, a beautiful young woman walked naked from among the protester/rioters into the fray and did a few yoga poses. The police apparently left shortly thereafter.
I've seen SO MUCH praise for this brilliance, this power, this demonstration described as everything from "the feminine divine" to "pussy power." She dismantled the police. She transcended the violence. Blah blah blah.
Maybe I'm just getting old and overly cynical (even for me), but give me a fucking break. She didn't do anything. She didn't defeat anyone. She became a social media (and presumably soon to be normal media) sensation of herself because she's a beautiful woman who got naked in full view of everyone, in a crazy situation. The idea that she somehow "won" because police "didn't know what to do" is nonsense: police knew damn well what to do: nothing. What are they going to do?
Fascism wasn't toppled. Nazism wasn't defeated. A beautiful woman showed her, uh, everything. And people looked. Go figure.
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 21, 2020 16:06:33 GMT
The Uighurs get passing mention in our media, but not much of substance.
Look what the Daily Mail ran yesterday about the concentration camps there, as informed reportedly by occasional trickles of info and a massive leak of CCP documents.
If this is even 1/2 accurate, the rest of the world should be ashamed of itself for its focus on what is, relative to this, nonsense. Today the Washington Post had a major story about the SF Giants manager taking a knee during the anthem. The Times has one on the grand tradition of protesters in Portland. China has put a million of its own citizens into concentration camps where they are drugged, raped, humiliated, and "re-educated" out of their religion ... and quite possibly worse.
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Post by B.E. on Jul 30, 2020 16:00:38 GMT
Trump's assault on democracy is escalating. Make it stop, please!
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jul 30, 2020 16:04:53 GMT
Trump is self-destructing. He is the gift that keeps on giving - to his opponents, the Democratic Party.
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 30, 2020 17:03:04 GMT
It would be astounding if we hadn't been barraged by him for the past four years or so. As usual, it doesn't even make sense. Why, precisely, would absentee voting be OK but other voting by mail not be OK? What security features does one have that the other doesn't? What evidence makes him think fraud will increase? How would he explain the lack of documented fraud in the increasingly common voting by mail already done around the country?
He isn't empowered to delay the election anyway, as far as I know.
Unless whoever runs on the Unity 2020 ticket wins--which is highly, highly, highly unlikely--we're looking at ongoing toxicity and hatred in this country on the political and cultural levels.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 1, 2020 19:55:03 GMT
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Post by B.E. on Aug 1, 2020 20:16:52 GMT
What would be the point? I think they’d just further embarrass us all.
If they included 3rd party candidates, however, I’d be 100% on board. Then they’d serve a great purpose.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 1, 2020 20:24:21 GMT
What would be the point? I think they’d just further embarrass us all. If they included 3rd party candidates, however, I’d be 100% on board. Then they’d serve a great purpose. Kanye?
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 1, 2020 20:31:55 GMT
Yeah, I don't know what to think. Obviously I want our candidates for high office to debate in public. But we haven't had actual debates in decades, if ever: those are just scripted alternating monologue sessions with occasional planned zinger interludes. The words said are mostly written by other people, and have been repeated daily for months. Those debates are jokes that give yet more content to the partisan and corporate media that does its best to destroy this country in the name of ratings.
But not having them would also be more or less just an admission of that. "Look, I don't care what he says or does up there. It's the letter by the name that matters to me; I'm voting straight ticket on party line."
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