US Politics Thread

[Satchmo]

7 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Wouldn’t JFK, if resurrected, run as a Democrat? Not too sure why his nephew would run as a Pug with Trump? 

It was a joke Alf.   Based on Qanon's obsession with JFK JR.  A bunch of them convened in Dallas a while back convinced he was going to show up.

[Alflives]

1 minute ago, Satchmo said:

It was a joke Alf.   Based on Qanon's obsession with JFK JR.  A bunch of them convened in Dallas a while back convinced he was going to show up.

[Sabrefan1]

On 1/4/2024 at 1:18 AM, Satchmo said:

Maybe, maybe not.   I still think Rodgers will be the one eating crow and worms though.

 

Report: Aaron Rodgers-Jimmy Kimmel fight opens “big can of worms” for ESPN

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/report-aaron-rodgers-jimmy-kimmel-fight-opens-big-can-of-worms-for-espn

 

McAfee ended Rogers' weekly appearances on his show early this year because of the turmoil.  Rodgers usually appears to the end of February/beginning of March.

 

Quote

A lot of you are talking very wild about me and our program.. I assume you are very new to us. We are a sports show that tries to inform folks of what’s going on and have a good time with good vibes… Everyday. We do not bat 1000 but we feel as if we do make solid contact A LOT.. Our people found us because of that. We’re wildly lucky for the folks that enjoy taking mental vacations with us.. Monday-Friday.. 48 weeks a year. We take a lot of pride in making folks’ lives a little bit happier or better. This past year with our show’s going to College towns on Fridays, I got to chat with a lot of folks that watch our show. I loved learning about them and then I would normally learn about how they started watching our show.. There was always a “buddy referral” story.. then there was the other stories about folks going thru some shit and we were there to hangout with them as they battled thru whatever they were going thru.. I haven’t polled our crowd but I’m rather certain that nobody’s wanting to come hangout with us to hear us talk about politics. I think it’s probably a massive reason for our success actually… so all of this has been a good reminder of what we’re good for, and who we’re good for. Some day, I’ll try and build up enough of a brain to dive into the politics world but that time is nowhere near now.. Also.. Our fans know that ART ends shortly after Aaron’s team’s season ends.. that’s how it’s been. He’ll make random surprise welcomed pop ins during big events or offseason adventures but, it’s always been a season thing. I never said he’ll never be on the show again. I hope he chooses to still chat with us. We’ve been lucky the last 4 years to ride the wave of a season with a 4X NFL MVP (2 of which during The ART Era) and get his thoughts along the way.. in real time. I certainly don’t love that I’ve found myself in political wars and public beefs because of something that a guest has said on our show or something that my dumbass has said.. including a lawsuit that was VERY public.. but I think what I’ve come to realize is that it’s gonna come with the territory of this venture. We are much more aware of that now. And, for the good of our lives, happiness, and mana .. we’re gonna try and avoid as many as possible. I say all that to say this…I have a lot of pride in what the boys, our fans, and I have built. We found what we’re good for. There was a lot of different points during our journey that it could’ve ended or stopped or slowed down.. because of the entire team, we’ve kept rollin… I love them. I’m thankful for them… and we just want to talk shit about sports. See you tomorrow. Cheers

 

 

 

[Boudrias]

What happens in the up coming POTUS election is critical to Canada's well being. If Trump wins then expect trade tariffs that benefit the USA. Many thought Canada did well in NAFTA 2. We already know that Trump ignores trade treaties. We know that Biden brought in America First trade preferences for made in the USA. Mexico is now #1 trade partner for the USA, Canada is #2. USA GDP growth is now 4%, Canada is 0%. 

 

Absolutely critical that Canada can craft an industrial strategy that minimalizes any potential trade restrictions applies by the Americans. Canada should maximize energy exports to SE Asia and use that revenue to help fund Canadian government debt. It is the fastest avenue that provides income that the USA will likely divert south by using tariffs. Canadians are far to passive about this. In BC alone the Americans have used wood tariffs for decades to rob money from the sale of our wood. +/- $1 billion per year. Passive in that we defer our defense to the USA and the companies that produce their armaments. 

[the destroyer of worlds]

The whole point of the emoluments clause is so that elected officials like the POTUS are NOT compromised by foreign money.  He openly admits to receiving foreign money.  It doesn't matter if it is $8 million or $500 dollars.  It's foreign money and he received it.  PERIOD

 

“I don’t get $8 million for doing nothing.”

 

 

https://newrepublic.com/post/178023/trump-shocking-confession-bought-foreign-governments

Trump Admits He Was “Doing Services” for Foreign Governments Who Paid Him

The Republican Party’s front-runner, everyone

 

[nuckin_futz]

Trump gets his way in closing arguments at NY fraud trial, calling himself a 'victim' in surprise remarks

• Trump was allowed to make a five-minute statement during closings in the NY fraud trial on Thursday.

• He repeatedly called himself a "victim," and said instead of any penalties, 'they should pay me."

• "It's a great company," he said of Trump Org, "with some of the greatest assets in the world."

In a surprise turn of events in his New York civil fraud trial, Donald Trump was allowed to make a five-minute closing statement, time he used to repeatedly call himself a victim, accuse the state of pursuing a "witch hunt," and extoll the Trump Organization as "a great company."

 

"I'm an innocent man," the former president insisted, directly addressing the judge from his seat at the defense table.

 

"I've been persecuted by somebody running for office," he added, in a reference to New York Attorney General Letitia James, who ran for office in 2018 promising to hold Trump and his Manhattan-headquartered real-estate empire accountable for fraud.

 

Just the day before, the judge, state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, had denied Trump's request to deliver a statement on his own behalf in the AG's $370 million fraud lawsuit against him, his company, and his two eldest sons.

 

Trump fraudulently hiked his net worth by at least two billion dollars a year in a decade of official financial statements he used to pocket hundreds of millions of dollars in interest-rate savings and asset-sale profits.

 

Relying on these net-worth lies, Deutsche Bank set interest rates as low as 2.5 percent in loaning Trump $400 million to develop his Chicago skyscraper, his Miami golf course, and his luxury hotel in Washington, DC, according to evidence in the three-month trial.

 

The judge had blamed Trump's failure to agree to limit his remarks, and not turn his statement into a campaign speech or personal attack on the court or the AG.

 

But five minutes before the 1 p.m. lunch break, Trump's lawyer, Christopher Kise, asked again for permission for his client to address the judge.

 

"I think all the people out there want to hear from him," Kise said.

 

"Well," the judge responded, sounding surprised. "This is not how it should have been done."

 

The judge then turned to Trump himself.

 

"Mr. Trump," Engoron began. "If I let you speak for five minutes, do you promise to comment on just the law and the facts," and not stray "outside" the bounds of what's allowed in closing statements.

 

Still seated, Trump leaned into the microphone before him. "Well, I think that this case goes outside," he began, trailing off.

 

"There was no witnesses against us," he complained.

 

"The banks were happy as can be," he said. "They weren't defrauded. There wasn't one witness" who complained of being defrauded in the three-month trial, he added.

 

"This was a political witch hunt," he said. "We should receive damages for what they've taken this company through."

 

Trump spent one precious minute, out of his allotment of five, defending himself against a tiny corner of the case against him, in which the AG alleges he intentionally lied about the size of his triplex penthouse apartment atop Trump Tower.

"They do have a triplex, where they made a mistake and it was corrected, and it was de minimus," he said of the AG's finding that Trump tripled the size of the apartment in net-worth statements.

The judge has called the exaggeration intentional.

"A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud," he wrote in his consequential September pretrial finding that the defendants are liable for persistent fraud.

 

"I'm not sure what the number would have been," had it been correct, Trump told the judge on Thursday of the apartment's worth. But it would have been close to his estimate, he claimed.

 

Trump valued the unit at $327 million based on it being 30,000 square feet, trial evidence showed. It is actually 10,996.39 square feet.

 

"I'm an innocent man," Trump next protested. "I've been persecuted by somebody running for office," he said of James.

 

"This statute is vicious," he said. "It doesn't give you a jury, it takes away all your rights, and it is in fact a statute used for consumer fraud," he said of the state executive law the AG sued him under.

 

"There was a fraud on me," Trump complained.

 

The former president then went on to describe having "overpaid" his taxes by "close to $300 million," and to complain of New York, "they don't want me here. They don't want me anymore," despite his having built things "all over the city."

 

"The person in the room right now hates Trump, and uses Trump to get elected," he said, apparently referring again to James.

 

"It's a very big part of the case. I would say it's 100%," he said. "They found nothing and now she comes in and she says, 'We want to make the $250 million fine $370 million. For what?" he said, referring to the state's upward adjustment in proposed penalties.

 

The state's original lawsuit had sought $250 million from Trump and his defendants.

 

At this point, it was 1 p.m. The judge held up his phone, warning Trump that his time was up.

 

"You have your own agenda," Trump told the judge. "I certainly understand that. You can't listen for more than one minute."

 

"Mr. Kise," the judge told Trump's lawyer. "Please control your client."

 

But Trump kept speaking.

 

"This is a suit, it seems I should have won many times," he said.

 

"Your honor, I've done nothing wrong. They should pay me for what we've had to go through," he repeated.

 

"It's a great company," he said of the Trump Organization. "It's a liquid company," he added. "With some of the greatest assets in the world."

 

Here, the judge held up his hand and brought Trump's remarks to a close.

 

"This should have been done differently," he told the former president. "You would have had a lot more time."

 

Trump did not return to the courtroom after the lunch break.

 

Closing arguments by two lawyers for the attorney general's office are scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

[The Arrogant Worms]

1 hour ago, the destroyer of worlds said:

The whole point of the emoluments clause is so that elected officials like the POTUS are NOT compromised by foreign money.  He openly admits to receiving foreign money.  It doesn't matter if it is $8 million or $500 dollars.  It's foreign money and he received it.  PERIOD

 

“I don’t get $8 million for doing nothing.”

 

 

https://newrepublic.com/post/178023/trump-shocking-confession-bought-foreign-governments

Trump Admits He Was “Doing Services” for Foreign Governments Who Paid Him

The Republican Party’s front-runner, everyone

 

Conservative Republican Calls Trump’s Town Hall Admission of Foreign Business Dealings While President ‘Disturbing’

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/conservative-republican-calls-trumps-town-hall-admission-of-foreign-business-dealings-while-president-disturbing/

[nuckin_futz]

 

As every Republican out there is trying to avoid the issue, Trump jumps right into the deep end and makes this proclamation. I can only imagine his team was face palming while Biden's team was giddy.

 

This issue is such a loser for Republicans but Trump is determined to tie this weight around all of their necks.

 

***********

 

There was a Quinnipiac poll released today for the state of Pennsylvania. Quinnipiac does lean liberal in their polling. It showed Biden ahead of Trump 49-46. Though what i found most interesting was the age group +65 yrs. This group went 60-37 for Biden. Not sure why seniors lean so heavily for Biden? But older people vote more than any other group.

Edited January 11 by nuckin_futz

[the destroyer of worlds]

17 minutes ago, The Arrogant Worms said:

Conservative Republican Calls Trump’s Town Hall Admission of Foreign Business Dealings While President ‘Disturbing’

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/conservative-republican-calls-trumps-town-hall-admission-of-foreign-business-dealings-while-president-disturbing/

Then Jared's deal with the Saudis should terrify them.  Crickets.

[RupertKBD]

1 hour ago, nuckin_futz said:

Trump gets his way in closing arguments at NY fraud trial, calling himself a 'victim' in surprise remarks

• Trump was allowed to make a five-minute statement during closings in the NY fraud trial on Thursday.

• He repeatedly called himself a "victim," and said instead of any penalties, 'they should pay me."

• "It's a great company," he said of Trump Org, "with some of the greatest assets in the world."

In a surprise turn of events in his New York civil fraud trial, Donald Trump was allowed to make a five-minute closing statement, time he used to repeatedly call himself a victim, accuse the state of pursuing a "witch hunt," and extoll the Trump Organization as "a great company."

 

"I'm an innocent man," the former president insisted, directly addressing the judge from his seat at the defense table.

 

"I've been persecuted by somebody running for office," he added, in a reference to New York Attorney General Letitia James, who ran for office in 2018 promising to hold Trump and his Manhattan-headquartered real-estate empire accountable for fraud.

 

Just the day before, the judge, state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, had denied Trump's request to deliver a statement on his own behalf in the AG's $370 million fraud lawsuit against him, his company, and his two eldest sons.

 

Trump fraudulently hiked his net worth by at least two billion dollars a year in a decade of official financial statements he used to pocket hundreds of millions of dollars in interest-rate savings and asset-sale profits.

 

Relying on these net-worth lies, Deutsche Bank set interest rates as low as 2.5 percent in loaning Trump $400 million to develop his Chicago skyscraper, his Miami golf course, and his luxury hotel in Washington, DC, according to evidence in the three-month trial.

 

The judge had blamed Trump's failure to agree to limit his remarks, and not turn his statement into a campaign speech or personal attack on the court or the AG.

 

But five minutes before the 1 p.m. lunch break, Trump's lawyer, Christopher Kise, asked again for permission for his client to address the judge.

 

"I think all the people out there want to hear from him," Kise said.

 

"Well," the judge responded, sounding surprised. "This is not how it should have been done."

 

The judge then turned to Trump himself.

 

"Mr. Trump," Engoron began. "If I let you speak for five minutes, do you promise to comment on just the law and the facts," and not stray "outside" the bounds of what's allowed in closing statements.

 

Still seated, Trump leaned into the microphone before him. "Well, I think that this case goes outside," he began, trailing off.

 

"There was no witnesses against us," he complained.

 

"The banks were happy as can be," he said. "They weren't defrauded. There wasn't one witness" who complained of being defrauded in the three-month trial, he added.

 

"This was a political witch hunt," he said. "We should receive damages for what they've taken this company through."

 

Trump spent one precious minute, out of his allotment of five, defending himself against a tiny corner of the case against him, in which the AG alleges he intentionally lied about the size of his triplex penthouse apartment atop Trump Tower.

"They do have a triplex, where they made a mistake and it was corrected, and it was de minimus," he said of the AG's finding that Trump tripled the size of the apartment in net-worth statements.

The judge has called the exaggeration intentional.

"A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud," he wrote in his consequential September pretrial finding that the defendants are liable for persistent fraud.

 

"I'm not sure what the number would have been," had it been correct, Trump told the judge on Thursday of the apartment's worth. But it would have been close to his estimate, he claimed.

 

Trump valued the unit at $327 million based on it being 30,000 square feet, trial evidence showed. It is actually 10,996.39 square feet.

 

"I'm an innocent man," Trump next protested. "I've been persecuted by somebody running for office," he said of James.

 

"This statute is vicious," he said. "It doesn't give you a jury, it takes away all your rights, and it is in fact a statute used for consumer fraud," he said of the state executive law the AG sued him under.

 

"There was a fraud on me," Trump complained.

 

The former president then went on to describe having "overpaid" his taxes by "close to $300 million," and to complain of New York, "they don't want me here. They don't want me anymore," despite his having built things "all over the city."

 

"The person in the room right now hates Trump, and uses Trump to get elected," he said, apparently referring again to James.

 

"It's a very big part of the case. I would say it's 100%," he said. "They found nothing and now she comes in and she says, 'We want to make the $250 million fine $370 million. For what?" he said, referring to the state's upward adjustment in proposed penalties.

 

The state's original lawsuit had sought $250 million from Trump and his defendants.

 

At this point, it was 1 p.m. The judge held up his phone, warning Trump that his time was up.

 

"You have your own agenda," Trump told the judge. "I certainly understand that. You can't listen for more than one minute."

 

"Mr. Kise," the judge told Trump's lawyer. "Please control your client."

 

But Trump kept speaking.

 

"This is a suit, it seems I should have won many times," he said.

 

"Your honor, I've done nothing wrong. They should pay me for what we've had to go through," he repeated.

 

"It's a great company," he said of the Trump Organization. "It's a liquid company," he added. "With some of the greatest assets in the world."

 

Here, the judge held up his hand and brought Trump's remarks to a close.

 

"This should have been done differently," he told the former president. "You would have had a lot more time."

 

Trump did not return to the courtroom after the lunch break.

 

Closing arguments by two lawyers for the attorney general's office are scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

 

I don't know why Engoron allowed Bone Spurs to speak at all. He must have known what was going to happen. Vegas wouldn't even have taken the bet if you were going to wager otherwise....

[RupertKBD]

44 minutes ago, nuckin_futz said:

 

As every Republican out there is trying to avoid the issue, Trump jumps right into the deep end and makes this proclamation. I can only imagine his team was face palming while Biden's team was giddy.

 

This issue is such a loser for Republicans but Trump is determined to tie this weight around all of their necks.

 

***********

 

There was a Quinnipiac poll released today for the state of Pennsylvania. Quinnipiac does lean liberal in their polling. It showed Biden ahead of Trump 49-46. Though what i found most interesting was the age group +65 yrs. This group went 60-37 for Biden. Not sure why seniors lean so heavily for Biden? But older people vote more than any other group.

Yep. That quote right there is going to come in handy when the general election rolls around.

 

Trump is such a moron. He's so used to being able to do and say anything without repercussions, that he doesn't even realize when damaging his chances.

[the destroyer of worlds]

Yet another example of how the "both sides bad" argument is total horse crap.  It's one side that is proposing bills like this one.  One side.  ONE.

 

 

 

https://newrepublic.com/post/178029/west-virginia-bill-ban-transgender-people-schools-obscene-matter

West Virginia Bill Could Ban All Transgender People From Schools

The new bill classifies transgender people as “obscene matter.”

[UnkNuk]

Interesting column from Bret Stephens of the NY Times:

 

The Case for Trump … by Someone Who Wants Him to Lose

 

"You can’t defeat an opponent if you refuse to understand what makes him formidable. Too many people, especially progressives, fail to think deeply about the enduring sources of his appeal — and to do so without calling him names, or disparaging his supporters, or attributing his resurgence to nefarious foreign actors or the unfairness of the Electoral College. Since I will spend the coming year strenuously opposing his candidacy, let me here make the best case for Trump that I can."

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/11/opinion/columnists/donald-trump-election.html?campaign_id=39&emc=edit_ty_20240111&instance_id=112245&nl=opinion-today&regi_id=56405277&segment_id=154872&te=1&user_id=dc88543b79693b0f05322365a827e237

[bishopshodan]

2 minutes ago, the destroyer of worlds said:

Yet another example of how the "both sides bad" argument is total horse crap.  It's one side that is proposing bills like this one.  One side.  ONE.

 

 

 

https://newrepublic.com/post/178029/west-virginia-bill-ban-transgender-people-schools-obscene-matter

West Virginia Bill Could Ban All Transgender People From Schools

The new bill classifies transgender people as “obscene matter.”

 

Not a comment on this story, other than it's ridiculous, but today on this site I had a T-shirt ad.

 

The t-shirt read..'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus....all other genders are from Uranus'

 

Pretty disappointing...dunno if the mods @Ribs can do anything about that?...can't remember the brand but I did do ...google ad 'the close and report as inappropriate'.

 

[Ronaldoescobar]

Ya but….

[Bob Long]

6 minutes ago, bishopshodan said:

 

Not a comment on this story, other than it's ridiculous, but today on this site I had a T-shirt ad.

 

The t-shirt read..'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus....all other genders are from Uranus'

 

Pretty disappointing...dunno if the mods @Ribs can do anything about that?...can't remember the brand but I did do ...google ad 'the close and report as inappropriate'.

 

 

imagine how fragile your ego would have to be to wear a shirt like that. 

[Ribs]

13 minutes ago, bishopshodan said:

 

Not a comment on this story, other than it's ridiculous, but today on this site I had a T-shirt ad.

 

The t-shirt read..'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus....all other genders are from Uranus'

 

Pretty disappointing...dunno if the mods @Ribs can do anything about that?...can't remember the brand but I did do ...google ad 'the close and report as inappropriate'.

 

 

Please take a screenshot next time and I can block it!

[bishopshodan]

Just now, Ribs said:

 

Please take a screenshot next time and I can block it!

Ok, will do. Thanks.

 

Now I just need to learn how to do a screen shot.

 

#luddite

[4petesake]

1 minute ago, bishopshodan said:

Ok, will do. Thanks.

 

Now I just need to learn how to do a screen shot.

 

#luddite

What device are you using?

[The Arrogant Worms]

17 minutes ago, bishopshodan said:

 

Not a comment on this story, other than it's ridiculous, but today on this site I had a T-shirt ad.

 

The t-shirt read..'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus....all other genders are from Uranus'

 

Pretty disappointing...dunno if the mods @Ribs can do anything about that?...can't remember the brand but I did do ...google ad 'the close and report as inappropriate'.

 

I think that is from the internet.   Forums have no control over the ads as far as I know.

[bishopshodan]

3 minutes ago, The Arrogant Worms said:

I think that is from the internet.   Forums have no control over the ads as far as I know.

I thought that might be it.

 

I am always reading mma/fighting articles.

Unfortunately, those sites often have a lot of that type of crap.

[bishopshodan]

5 minutes ago, 4petesake said:

What device are you using?

An old laptop with windows 7...i think? I know chrome keeps telling me it wont work for me soon and I haven't been able to do any updates in years.

 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

 

 

 

[4petesake]

1 minute ago, bishopshodan said:

An old laptop with windows 7...i think? I know chrome keeps telling me it wont work for me soon and I haven't been able to do any updates in years.

 

I think you press the Windows and the E keys at the same time, or the Windows and print keys.

[6of1_halfdozenofother]

2 minutes ago, NewbieCanuckFan said:

 

 

 

 

Praytell, Darth Santis - how do you abort something (such as birth) that has already completed?