Rikkitic:

What this whole sorry episode has demonstrated, is that the system in America is hopelessly broken on many levels. It depends entirely on good faith politicians respecting tradition. As soon as a bad faith one comes along, there are no legal mechanisms to cope with abuses. This is a huge failing, just like the electoral college itself. There need to be clear procedures to prevent the kinds of things Trump has done, and to make it easy to neutralise his excesses.

 

 

neb:

Sideface:

This history highlights how the real risk to American democracy came hours after order had been restored in the U.S. Capitol [..]

It's actually a lot less clear than that. Germany in the 1920s had no experience with democracy, only centuries of being drilled with obedience to authority. There had been several minor civil wars in different states a few years earlier, which led to left-wing governments being suppressed by right-wing reactionary forces, mostly Freikorps, implicitly encouraged and supported by the Entente Powers who didn't want Bolshevist governments in the German states. Hitler's home state had been the Bavarian Soviet Republic only a few years beforehand. The left and right held regular pitched street battles, not so much over politics but more in the sense of football hooligans in the UK, something to fight about. Some of these battles, e.g. the Altona Bloody Sunday, were used as pretexts for things like the coup whereby the government of the largest German state, Prussia, was swept aside. The lack of the authoritarian leadership that they were used to combined with the weakness of this newfangled democracy thing was what helped bring Hitler to power.

The US today is a very different environment to 1920s/early-1930s Germany.

neb: Forwarded from Parler via Twitter: ...WHPardonAttny: If you would like a pardon please respond below with just the following information

1. Your name
2. Your city
3. What crime you think you need to be pardoned for and the briefest of why you think you need the pardon

Statement on Misinformation on Social Media Regarding the Office of the Pardon Attorney
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice issued the following statement:

“Please be advised that the information circulating on social media claiming to be from Acting Pardon Attorney Rosalind Sargent-Burns is inauthentic and should not be taken seriously.

"The Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney does not have a social media presence and is not involved in any efforts to pardon individuals or groups involved with the heinous acts that took place this week in and around the U.S. Capitol."

Wha? He would pardon those dropkicks? On what grounds?
Like I said the other day, mate, Trump couldn't care less about you now. He got what he wanted from you, you've been thrown under the bus. Enjoy your jail time. Thanks for stopping by and letting him totally brainwash you.

This is what his biggest cartoon-drawing, uh, "fan" has to say about what Trump achieved in his single term in office.

Can someone help me fact check some of this stuff? Is any of it accurate? (apart from the fake news bs)

I note he conveniently misses out/ignores that whole "coronavirus" thing, my guess is that would come under "Costs"

rugrat:

 

What's wrong with our Privacy Commissioner?

 

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/world/arbitrary-cynical-unprincipled-nz-privacy-commissioner-questions-trump-twitter-ban/ar-BB1cCflL

 

 

 

He seems to think private companies shouldn't have the power on deciding who can use their services, and it should be left to law makers.

 

Trump wanted the election decided by lawmakers also, looks like Privacy Commissioner doesn't understand the situation.

 

My reading is that he's more concerned with the inconsistency, and he's not wrong. There are worse things than Donald Trump on social media, and they should be gone too. However the genie isn't going to be put back in the bottle. No one organisation - no matter whether it is public or private - can possibly hope to make a moral judgement on the firehose of posts across all the platforms.

Rather than attempt to do so I think the better long term strategy is to teach people how to spot the lies and other harmful things and avoid them. If censorship was ever an answer, then purely as a practical matter it certainly isn't, in the 21st Century. Learning to immunise yourself against BS is the only strategy that can work now.

quickymart:

 

This is what his biggest cartoon-drawing, uh, "fan" has to say about what Trump achieved in his single term in office.

 

 

Can someone help me fact check some of this stuff? Is any of it accurate? (apart from the fake news bs)

 

I note he conveniently misses out/ignores that whole "coronavirus" thing, my guess is that would come under "Costs"

 

Economy - up until Coronavirus hit, he more or less just continued on the trajectory that it had been on since Obama. And whether that was a good thing or not depends entirely on your point of view. I'm sure Jeff Bezos is pretty happy with the way things have turned out. But the other 90% of the population are arguably worse off than before.

North Korea - he gave KJU the photo-op he had always craved in return for a more vaguely-worded promise than the last several presidents had gotten plus the possible demolition of a test site that may already have been seriously damaged by the final test that proved the warheads worked (and therefore removed any short-term requirement for further testing anyway). As of a day or so ago, KJU is declaring that he is about to commence the development of new warheads, missiles, and a nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine.

Trade Deals - he pulled out of the TPP in his first few weeks in office, which allowed the rest of us to cut out most of the pro-US-corp rubbish and turn it into something better. He got little if anything out of renegotiating NAFTA. A few percent more dairy into Canada?

China resistance - OK, China is a problem we are going to have to deal with, but the the bull in a china (heh) shop approach hasn't really produced any beneficial outcomes. Xi is still Xi, and the US has done nothing to, say, pressure him into backing off in Hong Kong just as an example. At best, some Chinese companies are moving some operations to the likes of Vietnam to side-step tariffs.

Judges - subjective, although I'll note that even his (R) appointments told him to pound sand when he sued to overturn the election.

Fake news - as well he might call that out, he was responsible for approximately 150% of it.

SJB:

 

IMO his mental issues have led him inexorably to this point.

 

A few years ago he was probably sitting around wondering what to occupy his time with apart from golf (he was too old now for any more philandering) and watched a political rally. If anything would tickle an ego it's one of those so a while later there he is running for President with adoring crowds bowing at his feet, the more outrageous the statements from him the more they seem to adore him

 

And surprise, surprise he won. Now he's on the ultimate ego trip.

 

But halfway thru the trip things go wrong. There is a pandemic. And he doesn't have the tools in his armoury to correct the situation (he is incapable of empathy) so he tries more and more drastic measures to correct the situation all to no avail until he hits the buffers.

 

It's not accurate to label him as a nazi because he doesn't believe in anything at all except his own importance. He is just as likely to accidentally, without realising, use methods from the Stazi or Mao or Stalin handbooks if they popped into his head. 

 

As I posted earlier, he's just a B-lister who ended up in the wrong job. And once the job ends in a few days time that's what he will go back to being.

 

And the entire framework create around it is based on fascist method or fealty to a supreme leader. And he accepted it. And he had no problems not denouncing the alt-right and nazi scum that joined the adoring crowds.

He's a nazi. You sit with nazis, you are a nazi. 

You don't have a diagnosis for him. No one doctor would remotely diagnose someone with a mental illness. But we can all see he is a nazi for adopting, implementing and demanding people to accept a fascist ideology and framework. 

@Rikkitic:

 

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I think Trump is being given too much credit. I do not think he is a Machiavellian genius. The evidence of his essential dumbness is just too overwhelming. No-one is that good an actor.

 

I think he is a fool with a certain amount of native cunning who got lucky. He is an authoritarian because subtlety is beyond him. He is an archetypical tinpot dictator drawn to shiny gold things and big monuments. He is not clever. He does not think ahead. If he actually had any of the ability now being given to him, his coup would have succeeded.

 

At the same time, it is a mistake to underestimate him. Who said Trump is like being tied to a chair watching an infant play with a loaded gun? The gun can still go off, and it can do a lot of damage. Trump can succeed in spite of himself. Not because he is good at scheming or anything else, but because sometimes the Universe has a perverse sense of humour. He does not deserve any credit, even for evil intentions, but the risk he poses should not be minimised. It is very real. 

 

I think "mixed feelings" is something we all should be past now. He did incite crowds, he did try to corrupt an entire country through fake allegations and straight out lies.

You folks are on the "Ah, he is out of the door, let him go on to retire in Florida" mindset. 

He is a criminal. 

@quickymart:

 

I also feel sorry for Michael Pence. While I totally disagree with his politics, I think it's completely unfair that - despite backing Trump basically 100% for the last 4 years, the second he doesn't bend to Trump's (unrealistic) demands (overturn the election results in favour of me), Trump just throws him under the bus, along with the rest of the losers involved in the riot.

 

Not under the bus, but in front of a crowd that had people in there ready to act - with intentions that could be fatal to anyone inside the capitol should have they reached them.

quickymart:

 

Wha? He would pardon those dropkicks? On what grounds?
Like I said the other day, mate, Trump couldn't care less about you now. He got what he wanted from you, you've been thrown under the bus. Enjoy your jail time. Thanks for stopping by and letting him totally brainwash you.

 

The image is a joke. People on Parler trolling the conservaturds there, asking for name, id, contact details for a "Pardon" - knowing too well that some of those are so stupid they might really send it and incriminate themselves.

The Washington Post - Clyburn says House Democrats will vote this week to impeach Trump but may wait to send articles to Senate

today

 

House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Sunday that the House plans to vote this week to impeach President Trump - but that the chamber may wait a few months to submit the articles of impeachment to the Senate.

 

Clyburn’s comments come amid tensions in the Democratic Party on whether to press ahead with action to hold Trump accountable for last week’s deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol or whether to prioritize the agenda of President-elect Joe Biden, who will be inaugurated Jan. 20. ...

 

Democrats are weighing whether to wait until after the Biden administration’s first 100 days* to send articles of impeachment to the Senate, to allow the new president to install key members of his team. ...