All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[AnakinFlair]

Donald Rumsfeld has died at 88.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Why would anybody be looking for an “excuse” to release him?

Given his age and frailty I could easily see the case for a mercy release IF he had showed any signs of true remorse. (Not sure if his victims would agree!)

Cosby never showed any remorse for what he had done. Not once. The only reason he was freed was because the prosecutors screwed up as others already mentioned.

[Riv86672]

Donald Rumsfeld has died at 88.

Didn’t realize he was that old.
I met the guy back in 2010 or 11.
Best handshake I ever ever got, bar none.

[Robotman]

A small ‘Trump proofing’ reform is set to advance. It could make a real difference.

Sometime on Tuesday evening, the House of Representatives is expected to pass a bill that would strengthen the independence and oversight powers of inspectors general in a host of new ways…

The bill — which is called the IG Independence and Empowerment Act, and is being championed by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) — would codify into law a host of new safeguards for inspectors general. Those are the internal watchdogs at government agencies who are supposed to be independent from pressure from presidents or their political appointees.

The measure responds to abuses that we saw undertaken with great relish by Trump. For instance, it codifies a requirement that a president can only remove an IG if specific and defined types of malfeasance or lawbreaking have been documented.

Trump, you may recall, fired numerous IGs for the heresy of exposing his wrongdoing and incompetence, at times practically declaring openly that this alone is what merited their removal.
The bill also places new limitations on a president’s ability to leave an IG position blank, an obvious way a president might limit oversight on himself.

More of these type of measures please!!!

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

A verbal agreement??

I know verbal agreements can be as binding as written ones…but allowing verbal agreements to operate in such an important area (as promising immunity from future prosecutions) seems self evidently profoundly dangerous.

And I can see granting immunity might be justified in very rare cases…when for example it facilitates catching a more serious criminal…but what on Earth justified it in this case?

Basically a long time ago the DA didn’t think he’d get a criminal conviction, so he decided to do the victim a solid and promise not to press criminal charges so Cosby couldn’t use the 5th in a civil case. In the civil case he didn’t use the 5th under those pretenses and incriminated himself. The next DA ignored the deal. It’s a rights issue

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Well, infamous? Or incompetent? Those would have pretty different meanings.

James K. Polk and Andrew Jackson were both competent enough to be close to supervillains, but not bumbles. On the other hand, there pre-Civil War presidents are mostly painfully inadequate non-entities who didn’t do anything.

Johnson is probably the worst because he fucked Reconstruction up so badly. It fundamentally changed the trajectory this country was going down and might have solved a lot of issues we are still dealing with. Buchanan also basically put his fingers in his ears and let the Civil War lead up hit a fever pitch and left Lincoln to deal with it. Those two probably have to be the worst because of how historically bad they were.

I think I’d give either Washington or Lincoln the nod for best. Maybe Washington because he could have realistically made the Presidency anything he wanted and he showed a ton of restraint. Dude could have given himself the position for life and set a precedent on that and been a king in all but name. He was so universally popular.

[BeastieRunner]

My Mt. Suckmore since 2018 has been Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Donald Trump, and I dunno for the 4th ... either Harding, Pierce, or Hoover. Maybe Nixon.

[BeastieRunner]

Next up, America!

Why Europe’s far-right parties are losing steam.
Across Europe, support for far-right parties is dropping, eroded by the pandemic and international changes. Can moderates win back their old voters?

[The Cool Thatguy]

Where's Bush Jr. on worst presidents?

He led us into an unprepared war, dragging out Afghanistan, and helped cause on of the worst recessions ever.

Did he get a pass because the next Republican was Trump?

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Where's Bush Jr. on worst presidents?

He led us into an unprepared war, dragging out Afghanistan, and helped cause on of the worst recessions ever.

Did he get a pass because the next Republican was Trump?

He got a pass because of Trump. He’s worse though imo. He did more overall damage. Trump’s ultimate legacy will be botching the pandemic, Jan 6 and making the White House a circus. Bush owns Iraq, 9/11, the 2008/9 recession,

[BeastieRunner]

Where's Bush Jr. on worst presidents?

He led us into an unprepared war, dragging out Afghanistan, and helped cause on of the worst recessions ever.

Did he get a pass because the next Republican was Trump?

He got a pass because of Trump. He’s worse though imo. He did more overall damage. Trump’s ultimate legacy will be botching the pandemic, Jan 6 and making the White House a circus. Bush owns Iraq, 9/11, the 2008/9 recession,

That still puts W middle of the pack.

Even your most ardently liberal historians are keeping W in the bottom middle.

Bush had some bright spots whereas Trump has ZERO things you can point to that he made better.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

That still puts W middle of the pack.

Even your most ardently liberal historians are keeping W in the bottom middle.

Bush had some bright spots whereas Trump has ZERO things you can point to that he made better.

I wouldn't put him at the bottom, but he's be in my lower quarer and not middle.

Imo he's far worse than Trump. He just was polite about it.

[The Cool Thatguy]

He got a pass because of Trump. He’s worse though imo. He did more overall damage. Trump’s ultimate legacy will be botching the pandemic, Jan 6 and making the White House a circus. Bush owns Iraq, 9/11, the 2008/9 recession,

How does he own 9/11? I thought his response was actually pretty measured, all things considered.

I remember him reaching out and making efforts to demonstrate that they were only after extremist Muslims, for example, whereas Trump threw out his China virus BS.

[The Cool Thatguy]

That still puts W middle of the pack.

Even your most ardently liberal historians are keeping W in the bottom middle.

Bush had some bright spots whereas Trump has ZERO things you can point to that he made better.

F**king seriously. Bush at least understood that he was a president for all Americans, and did what he could to prepare for a pandemic long before it ever became an issue.

[Tami]

Inside the Capitol Riot: An Exclusive Video Investigation

In the six months since an angry pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, immense efforts have been made not only to find the rioters and hold them accountable, but also — and perhaps more important — to dig into the details of Jan. 6 and slowly piece together what actually happened that day.

Congressional committees have looked into police and intelligence failures. The Justice Department has launched a nationwide investigation that has now resulted in more than 500 arrests. And while Republicans in Congress blocked the formation of a blue-ribbon bipartisan committee, House Democrats are poised to appoint a smaller select committee.

Even now, however, Republican politicians and their allies in the media are still playing down the most brazen attack on a seat of power in modern American history. Some have sought to paint the assault as the work of mere tourists. Others, going further, have accused the F.B.I. of planning the attack in what they have described — wildly — as a false-flag operation.

The work of understanding Jan. 6 has been hard enough without this barrage of disinformation and, hoping to get to the bottom of the riot, The Times’s Visual Investigations team spent several months reviewing thousands of videos, many filmed by the rioters themselves and since deleted from social media. We filed motions to unseal police body-camera footage, scoured law enforcement radio communications, and synchronized and mapped the visual evidence.

What we have come up with is a 40-minute panoramic take on Jan. 6, the most complete visual depiction of the Capitol riot to date. In putting it together, we gained critical insights into the character and motivation of rioters by experiencing the events of the day often through their own words and video recordings. We found evidence of members of extremist groups inciting others to riot and assault police officers. And we learned how Donald J. Trump’s own words resonated with the mob in real time as they staged the attack.

Here are some of the major revelations.