Today in Trump

[TIC]

DIC...you said

"same question to you larry, i know you want answer because you're a pussy just like everyone else here who can't answer. is it right for one person to rule over another person? "

Do you want to rephrase that in English?

can't answer larry? is it right for one person to rule over another person?

[Beanz]

DIC...you said

"same question to you larry, i know you want answer because you're a pussy just like everyone else here who can't answer. is it right for one person to rule over another person? "

Do you want to rephrase that in English?

can't answer larry? is it right for one person to rule over another person?

Can't answer , Want answer or will not answer?

[TitoFan]

DIC...you said

"same question to you larry, i know you want answer because you're a pussy just like everyone else here who can't answer. is it right for one person to rule over another person? "

Do you want to rephrase that in English?

I'm a stickler for spelling... and I think you forgot the "k" at the end.

[TIC]

DIC...you said

"same question to you larry, i know you want answer because you're a pussy just like everyone else here who can't answer. is it right for one person to rule over another person? "

Do you want to rephrase that in English?

can't answer larry? is it right for one person to rule over another person?

Can't answer , Want answer or will not answer?

why can't you answer a simple question larry?

[Beanz]

Are you going to post anything related to the actual thread then TIC? Yes of course I can answer your questions if you phrase them a little less aggressively and show some respect for fellow posters.

[TIC]

if you phrase them a little less aggressively and show some respect for fellow posters.

victim mentality

[Kirkland Laing]

For more than four decades before Donald Trump assumed the presidency, the FBI director was a position above politics. A new president might choose a political ally as attorney general, but the FBI director was different. An FBI director appointed by Richard Nixon also served under Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Carter’s choice remained on the job deep into Reagan’s second term, when Reagan moved him to head the CIA. Reagan’s FBI appointee served through the George H. W. Bush presidency and into the Bill Clinton administration. Clinton fired the inherited official—the first time a president ever fired an FBI director—only because the outgoing Bush administration had left behind a Department of Justice report accusing the director of ethical lapses. (Clinton tried to coax the tainted director into resigning of his own volition. Only after the coaxing failed did Clinton act.)

And so it continued into the 21st century. Except in a single case of serious scandal, Senate-confirmed FBI directors stayed in their post until they quit or until their 10-year term expired. Never, never, never was a Senate-confirmed FBI director fired so that the president could replace him with a loyalist. Republicans and Democrats alike agreed that there must be no return to the days when J. Edgar Hoover did special favors for presidents who perpetuated his power.

Even Donald Trump grudgingly submitted to this rule during his first term, as the Mueller Report later detailed. Trump wanted to fire FBI Director James Comey to shut down the investigation of Trump’s ties to Russia. Trump’s advisers convinced Trump that admitting his true motive would spark an enormous scandal. Instead, the new administration inveigled the deputy attorney general to write a letter offering a more neutral-seeming explanation: that Comey had mishandled the bureau’s investigation of Hillary Clinton. That deceptive rationalization—the Mueller Report authoritatively disproved the cover story—did not calm the uproar over Trump’s scheme to install a henchman as FBI director. At the time, even Trump supporters still professed that the FBI director must be more than a presidential yes-man. Things were quieted only when Trump chose a politically independent candidate to replace Comey: Christopher Wray, who holds the job to this day, retained through all four years of the Biden administration.

Yesterday, Trump announced on Truth Social that he intended to fire Wray to replace him with Kash Patel, a person notorious for his cringing deference to Trump’s wishes. How bad a choice is Patel? My colleague Elaina Plott Calabro reported that when President Trump “entertained naming Patel deputy director of the FBI, Attorney General Bill Barr confronted the White House chief of staff and said, ‘Over my dead body.’”

But before getting to Patel’s demerits, we should stay for a minute longer on the ominous danger of Trump’s wish to fire Wray.

Read: The Kash Patel principle

FBI directors wield awesome powers over the liberties of Americans. The unwritten rule governing their appointment—no dismissal except for compelling cause—bulwarked American law and freedom for half a century. Even first-term Trump dared not openly defy it. But second-term Trump is opening with a bid to junk it altogether. Much of the reporting on Trump’s announcement reveals a society already bending to Trump’s will: Something that was regarded as outrageously unacceptable in 2017—treating an FBI director as just another Trump aide—has been semi-normalized even before President-Elect Trump takes office.

The firing of Wray is the real outrage. The obnoxious nomination of Patel slathers frosting and sprinkles on the outrage.

Maybe the Patel nomination will fail, as Trump’s attempt to install Matt Gaetz as attorney general failed. If Patel falters, maybe Trump will fall back on a somewhat more respectable candidate. That second candidate may be greeted with relief. But the essential harm will be done by the firing of Wray, not the hiring of Patel (or whoever ultimately gets the job). Already, not a month since the closest election by popular-vote margin in two generations, we are witnessing, throughout law-enforcement and the national-security agencies, a pattern of Trump’s trashing institutions and replacing them with whim. Trump is declaring his intention to reinvent the FBI as something it has never been before: an instrument of personal presidential power, which will investigate (or refrain from investigating) and lay charges (or refrain from laying charges) as the president wishes.

For secretary of defense, Trump has chosen an ideological crank whose own mother accused him in writing of repeatedly abusing women. (She subsequently disavowed the statements.) At the CIA, Trump wants a hyper-partisan who, as Trump’s first-term director of national intelligence, selectively declassified information to discredit Trump’s political opponents. For his second-term director of national intelligence, Trump wants a longtime apologist for Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine.

Merit, competence, integrity—none of that matters. Or rather, those good qualities seem to be active disqualifiers. Trump’s picks are selected for obedience only.

Read: The man who will do anything for Trump

Now comes the great test: Is the American constitutional system as fragile as Trump hopes? Will Wray meekly accept termination or will he defend the bureau from Trump’s second and bolder attempt to pervert it? Will Senate Republicans ratify Trump’s attack on the separation of law enforcement from politics? Will federal courts grant warrants to an FBI that seeks warrants and makes arrests because the president told it to? Will the tiny Republican majority in the House endorse or resist Trump’s attempt to create a personal police force? Does enough of an independent press survive outside the control of Trump-friendly oligarchs to explain what is happening and why it matters? Will enough of the public care? Will enough of the public react?

The American people voted for cheaper eggs. They’re going to get only noise, conflict, and chaos. What Trump is trying will, if successful, be a constitutional scandal far greater than Watergate. If he succeeds, the seizure of power he unsuccessfully attempted in 2021 could be under way in 2025.


https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...-patel/680840/

[Kirkland Laing]

Would be nice if this mult-trillion dollar question pitting tax breaks for high-income households versus discounted insurance premiums for the middle class had figured in coverage of the 2024 election:

https://x.com/mattyglesias/status/1862637377904136638

[Kirkland Laing]

Wall Street Journal reports that corporate executives are buying Trump’s cryptocurrency to curry favor with him.

https://twitter.com/ArjSingh92/statu...71606168518975



WASHINGTON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - U.S. farm industry groups want President-elect Donald Trump to spare their sector from his promise of mass deportations, which could upend a food supply chain heavily dependent on immigrants in the United States illegally.
So far Trump officials have not committed to any exemptions, according to interviews with farm and worker groups and Trump's incoming "border czar" Tom Homan.
Nearly half of the nation's approximately 2 million farm workers lack legal status, according to the departments of Labor and Agriculture, as well as many dairy and meatpacking workers.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...on-2024-11-25/



Clear signals President-elect Donald Trump plans to make good on his campaign pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants in his second term has sparked concerns among some in Texas' business and economic sectors who say mass deportations could upend some of the state's major industries that rely on undocumented labor, chief among them the booming construction industry.
"It would devastate our industry, we wouldn't finish our highways, we wouldn't finish our schools," said Stan Marek, CEO of Marek, a Houston-based commercial and residential construction giant. "Housing would disappear. I think they'd lose half their labor."

https://www.npr.org/2024/11/23/g-s1-...order-security

[Kirkland Laing]

Two seemingly unrelated behind-the-scenes Mar-a-Lago dramas capture the shock soon to pound Washington:

• Elon Musk, the most powerful and persistent voice in President-elect Trump's ear, has been relentless in pushing "radical reform" of, well, almost everything. As he sits next to Trump discussing administration picks, Musk often asks if the person embodies "radical reform" — massive cuts and blow-it-up-to-rebuild instincts.
• Trump has been telling friends he denied Robert Lighthizer — his pro-tariff, China-hawk U.S. trade representative in the first term — a Cabinet role because he's "too scared to go big." He's loyal but too timid to take big, risky swings, Trump contends.

Why it matters: Trump advisers are running out of words to describe what's coming in January. They say he feels empowered and emboldened, vindicated and validated, and eager to stretch the boundaries of power.

• He's egged on by Musk and others — and picking trusted brawlers for the toughest, most controversial tasks.

You got a big taste of this yesterday:

1. Trump named real estate developer Charles Kushner — father of Trump's son-in-law, Jared — as ambassador to France. During the final month of his first term, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, who had served federal time after being prosecuted by Chris Christie for preparing false tax returns, witness retaliation and making false statements to the FEC.
2. Less than six hours later, Trump announced he picked Kash Patel, one of the hardest of his first-term hardliners, as FBI director. That means the incumbent, Chris Wray, who's just over seven years into a 10-year term (so the job could transcend any one presidency), will resign or be fired. A transition insider told us the Patel pick is a "personal message to the left that was cheering on Jack Smith" — the special counsel who was prosecuting Trump, and plans to step down before Trump can fire him.

Between the lines: Many in Trump's inner circle are gleeful at the aggressiveness of the Cabinet picks — former Fox News co-host Pete Hegseth, a decorated Army veteran who now faces questions about his treatment of women, to lead the Pentagon ... RFK Jr. to head HHS ... and former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.

• All of them want to disrupt the organizations they've been picked to lead. Patel told podcaster Shawn Ryan: "I'd shut down the FBI Hoover Building on Day 1, and reopen the next day as a museum of the Deep State." Patel told MAGA podcast warrior Steve Bannon last year: "We're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We're going to come after you, whether it's criminally or civilly."
• The transition insider told us Trump "no longer listens to people, usually senators, who tell him 'that's not how it's done' or 'it doesn't work that way.' He no longer accepts that rationale."

"Every day is Christmas Day," Steve Bannon told us during an early flurry of announcements. "We are fixed bayonets on these nominations."

• Bannon called Patel, who sells pro-Trump merch with "K$H" logos, his "One AND Only!!" choice to lead the FBI.
• After yesterday's announcements, Bannon texted us, as if he were dictating old-school headlines: "Wildest Dreams — Now to Darkest Nightmare as the Established Order Goes Scorched Earth to Defeat the President During Confirmation ... MAGA Best @ Scorched Earth Battles."

Behind the scenes: Chemistry with Trump is a huge factor in the most controversial picks. "These are people that get him and understand him," a longtime Trump confidant told us. "Last time, there were lots of people who didn't understand the vision or buy into the vision."

• Another transition source tells us Patel was close to being named deputy FBI director, which would have been much less confrontational. But the former frontrunner for the job, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, flunked his Mar-a-Lago meeting with Trump. Bailey "looked the part" but "just didn't have the presence in the room," we're told.

The big picture: A tweet by Musk this past week captured the Mar-a-Lago vibe. "It's this time or never," he said about structural reform of the federal government.

• Musk, who said in 2018 that he was sleeping on a Tesla factory floor to stay on top of a production problem, has made Mar-a-Lago his new factory floor. He says the incoming administration is working "7 days a week."
• We're told Musk is pressing to instantly upend agencies by keeping the fewest possible people — like he did when he bought Twitter, now X.

What they're saying: Trump confidants tell us their plans are radical only compared to the status quo. "We're looking for a return to normalcy," the insider said. "Nothing radical. Used to be common sense in this country (and every country) that you take care of your people first before getting generous with others."

• "There are a million examples of things that need to be taken care of at home before we look past our shores, and we're gonna focus on those things," the insider added.

Reality check: Patel faces a potentially explosive Senate confirmation fight.

• "Current and former law enforcement officials," The New York Times notes, "have worried that a second Trump term would feature an assault on the independence and authority of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department, and for many of them, Mr. Patel's ascension to the director's role would confirm the worst of those fears."

https://www.axios.com/2024/12/01/tru...kash-patel-fbi

[Kirkland Laing]

Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, recorded their sexual encounter, and sent the tape to his sister, all in retaliation for his brother-in-law's cooperation with a federal investigation into other crimes Kushner had committed.

https://twitter.com/stanveuger/statu...27276549066947

[TitoFan]

Personally... I'm experiencing a change in direction from most of the Trump haters that I know, both on this forum and outside of it.

While most of the nation, TV networks, political analysts, etc, continue to fret, wring their hands, and second-guess themselves and each other... I've settled into an "I told you so", resigned, calm-but-prepared, posture.

Seriously.

What GOOD does it do to continue all this haggling over everything and anything that Trump says or does?? The fukking election is over... and people made it abundantly clear they want this egotistical, racist, ignorant, tyrannical bozo to lead the country for another four years. What's done is done.


https://apnews.com/article/trump-fbi...42e90f6ab98739

"Trump taps Kash Patel for FBI director, an ally who would aid in his effort to upend law enforcement"


Case in point.

This Patel guy has come out PUBLICLY telling political opponents and Trump detractors he's going to "COME AFTER THEM" once he's head of the FBI.

Can you believe this SHIT??!!??

He's not dressing it up... he's not beating around the bush... he's not leaving it up to anyone's imagination.

He's basically saying: "If you're against Trump... we're going to come after you."

IS ANYONE SURPRISED??!!??


So please... everyone spare us the crying, the hand-wringing, the second guessing. America had a chance to get rid of this "DICTATOR WANNABE" back on November 5th. They didn't do it.

Now buckle up... and STFU.

[Kirkland Laing]

https://twitter.com/AshleySchapitl/s...95080655045054



So cutting government overreach extends to preventing the IRS going after people making millions a year who haven't filed tax returns for years.. This new America first GOP seems a lot like the old GOP on steroids.

Worth noting firing the IRS head and the FBI head without cause is illegal. You would think the liberal media might make something of this. Obama was referred to every day as a lawless president for the crime of issuing executive orders, something every president does. When a president is straight up breaking the law you would hope it would get a similar amount of coverage to the fake claims of law breaking, maybe even more.

The Democrats don't do outrage. The GOP do nothing but. There'll be more outrage and media coverage generated by whatever bullshit investigations the Trump administration start on their enemies than the fact that the government is going after their enemies with bullshit investigations. To the low/no information floating voters who decide elections now they'll just see this endless coverage of supposed illegality by the Democrats with the associated performative GOP outrage and decide there's something to it and the electorate in 2028 will probably on balance see the Democrats as the bad guys, the crooks. The Democrats need to learn how to do modern politics or it may be all over for democracy if it isn't already.





Some crypto/investing crook currently being prosecuted for various fraud counts just invested eighteen million in Trump's bullshit crypto coin. The Wall Street Journal is reporting various Wall Street Journal executives doing the same thing. Like I said, a seething mass of criminality and corruption from day one.


https://popular.info/p/a-chinese-national-charged-with-fraud



Related: https://bsky.app/profile/brianfung.m.../3lbxgbz6zl227





And this is just a hell of a read. First time I've seen the whole situation distilled into a readable article: So now I want you to imagine what happens if the U.S. and its allies get in a major war with China — as analysts say is increasingly possible. In the first few weeks, much the two countries’ stores of munitions — including drones and the batteries that power drones — will be used up. After that, as in Ukraine, it will come down to who can produce more munitions and get them to the battlefield in time.1 At that point, what will the U.S. do if neither we nor our allies can make munitions in large numbers? We will have to choose to either 1) escalate to nuclear war, or 2) lose the war to China. Those will be our only options. Either way, the U.S. and its allies will lose. Now realize that the U.S. and its allies aren’t just falling behind China in drone and battery manufacturing — we’re falling behind in all kinds of manufacturing. The chart at the top of this post comes a 2024 report by UNIDO, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. Here, let me repost it so we can take a look:



Source: UNIDO In the year 2000, the United States and its allies in Asia, Europe, and Latin America accounted for the overwhelming majority of global industrial production, with China at just 6% even after two decades of rapid growth. Just thirty year later, UNIDO projects that China will account for 45% of all global manufacturing, singlehandedly matching or outmatching the U.S. and all of its allies. This is a level of manufacturing dominance by a single country seen only twice before in world history — by the UK at the start of the Industrial Revolution, and by the U.S. just after World War 2. It means that in an extended war of production, there is no guarantee that the entire world united could defeat China alone.



That is a very dangerous and unstable situation. If it comes to pass, it will mean that China is basically free to start any conventional conflict it wants, without worrying that it will be ganged up on — because there will be no possible gang big enough to beat it. The only thing they’ll have to fear is nuclear weapons. And of course other nations will know this in advance, so in any conflict that’s not absolutely existential, most of them will probably make the rational choice to give China whatever it wants without fighting.2 China wants to conquer Taiwan and claim the entire South China Sea? Fine, go ahead. China wants to take Arunachal Pradesh from India and Okinawa from Japan? All yours, sir. China wants to make Japan and Europe sign “unequal treaties” as revenge for the ones China was made to sign in the 19th century? Absolutely. China wants preferential access to the world’s minerals, fossil fuels, and food supplies? Go ahead. And so on......



https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/manufacturing-is-a-war-now

[Kirkland Laing]

I searched the Congressional Record on tax or IRS related legislation & floor speeches by former Rep. Billy Long, who Trump has said he wants to be IRS director. Long repeatedly cosponsored legislation to abolish the IRS & replace the income tax with a national sales tax.

https://twitter.com/bresreports/status/1864498029677642085

A sales tax of course would be a massive upward redistribution of wealth.

The smart money is betting Trump won't do much of anything. Won't deport enough people to affect the economy or inflation, won't go crazy with tariffs and so on and the economy will just chug along nicely. There's a good chance that's what happens but there's also endless possibilities for things to go wrong.

[Master]

Trump is not even president yet but everyone is preparing themselves for his onslaught from Biden pardoning his son to countries preparing for tariffs.