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

[Malvolio]

Why am I not surprised?



As long as Republicans in Congress continue looking the way, unwilling to lift a finger to stop Trump, yeah, he CAN cheat. Since I live in Pennsylvania, I'll damn sure get my ballot in early.

In case that wasn't meant as a rhetorical question, you're not surprised because Trump does 9 illegal things before breakfast.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

In case that wasn't meant as a rhetorical question, you're not surprised because Trump does 9 illegal things before breakfast.

For Trump who's spent most of his adult life skirting, if not outright breaking rules in any way possible, this is just more of the same old same old. Meanwhile....

Trump has dealt seniors, who represent 23% of registered voters, 2 devastating blows in a matter of days

President Donald Trump said he would block new funding for the US Postal Service because of mail-in voting which he claimed benefits Democrats, The Wall Street Journal reported. However, the move could negatively impact seniors who rely on the US Postal Service to deliver their medications. It's the second move that negatively impacts senior residents that the president has made in a few days. Trump also promised to scrap the payroll tax if he's reelected. The payroll tax funds Social Security and Medicaid, which seniors rely on.

We're talking nearly a quarter of all registered voters, and they ain't all Democrats. Perhaps the GOP doesn't give a **** about seniors, after all, Republicans openly encouraged grandma and grandpop to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the economy when they called for the country to re-open ahead of schedule a couple of months ago, but the AARP set isn't going to tolerate this nonsense, regardless of their political bent.

[Tami]

Morning Digest: Republicans seek to oust wayward GOP members of Alaska's bipartisan House coalition

AK State House: A Democratic-led coalition currently holds 22 of the 40 seats in Alaska’s state House of Representatives even though the GOP members nominally are in the majority, but national Republicans are trying to rectify that situation by defeating several rogue incumbents in Tuesday’s primaries.

The Anchorage Daily News’ James Brooks reports that the Republican State Leadership Committee and GOPAC have spent a total of $165,000, which he calls “a huge amount for the Alaska legislative races.” On the other side are unions, which are a powerful force in local politics and are taking action to protect the GOP coalition members.

Republicans seized a nominal 23-seat majority in the 2018 elections, and for a while, those results appeared to spell the end of another bipartisan alliance—and give the GOP its lone pickup of a legislative chamber that cycle. However, Republicans simply could not find a candidate for speaker who could command a majority.

The deadlock lasted through February of the following year, a full third of the way through the legislature's 90-day session. Edgmon, though, dropped his party affiliation and formally became an independent, a move that made it easier for him to win GOP support. Ultimately, a new coalition was formed that included all 15 Democrats, two independents, and eight Republicans, which gave it a 25-15 majority.

However, the alliance has shrunk by three since then. In March of 2019, GOP state Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux was stripped of her committee assignments after she voted against the chamber’s leaders on the budget, though she still isn’t part of the regular GOP caucus. GOP state Rep. Tammie Wilson later resigned and was succeeded this winter by Mike Prax, an ardent conservative who had no interest in taking part in the coalition.

[Kirby101]

Destroying the Post Office!! Will this move the needle with his cult of followers? Will he sink below 40%?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Destroying the Post Office!! Will this move the needle with his cult of followers? Will he sink below 40%?

That's a rhetorical question, right? In any event, the short answer is: HELL NO! At this point in the game, Trump's cultists are more than willing to suffer as long as "the libs" suffer right along with them. They're too far gone to change their thinking as nothing will negatively affect the devotion of the Trumpanzees for their god emperor.

[Tami]

That's a rhetorical question, right? In any event, the short answer is: HELL NO! At this point in the game, Trump's cultists are more than willing to suffer as long as "the libs" suffer right along with them. They're too far gone to change their thinking as nothing will negatively affect the devotion of the Trumpanzees for their god emperor.

It's actually multiple and overlapping cults that have elevated Trump to be their 'Savior'. The QAnon cult which believes that Trump is waging a war to save all those poor 'white' children who have been kidnapped in order to be sold into slavery or eaten in the basements of Pizzerias; The Evangelical cults who believe that Trump heralds the 2nd coming/end of the world which will take them all into a heavenly paradise (or something like that); The White Supremacists Survivalist Cults which see Trump as the Racest Leader who will bring about a new Civil War that will reverse the outcome fo the last Civil War and either eradicate, eliminate, or subjugate anyone who isn't one of them; The Ayn Rand Cult of the most elite wealthy conservatives who see Trump as the pathway to their Golden City where poor people are left to die in poverty while they can live in luxury; The Federalist Society which is cult-like in its fervent belief in filling judicial positions with like-minded lawyers who will regard the Constitution like Evangelicals regard the Bible; Then there is another group, whose name I can't remember, who are made up of wealthy and very religious people who want the US to become a Theocracy instead of a Democracy.

Everyone assumes that there is just one 'Trump Cult', I mean perhaps there are those who are part of the 'Cult of personality' orfTrump and nothing more, but for many others, Trump is a focus of a pre-existing or proto-cults that sees him as whatever they want to see him as. Whatever they need him to be. Mainly because that is what Trump does best, he wants the attention, he wants the adoration, so in public, he morphs himself into whatever gets him the most 'love' which isn't 'love', it is more of a co-dependency.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

It's actually multiple and overlapping cults that have elevated Trump to be their 'Savior'. The QAnon cult which believes that Trump is waging a war to save all those poor 'white' children who have been kidnapped in order to be sold into slavery or eaten in the basements of Pizzerias; The Evangelical cults who believe that Trump heralds the 2nd coming/end of the world which will take them all into a heavenly paradise (or something like that); The White Supremacists Survivalist Cults which see Trump as the Racest Leader who will bring about a new Civil War that will reverse the outcome fo the last Civil War and either eradicate, eliminate, or subjugate anyone who isn't one of them; The Ayn Rand Cult of the most elite wealthy conservatives who see Trump as the pathway to their Golden City where poor people are left to die in poverty while they can live in luxury; The Federalist Society which is cult-like in its fervent belief in filling judicial positions with like-minded lawyers who will regard the Constitution like Evangelicals regard the Bible; Then there is another group, whose name I can't remember, who are made up of wealthy and very religious people who want the US to become a Theocracy instead of a Democracy.

Everyone assumes that there is just one 'Trump Cult', I mean perhaps there are those who are part of the 'Cult of personality' orfTrump and nothing more, but for many others, Trump is a focus of a pre-existing or proto-cults that sees him as whatever they want to see him as. Whatever they need him to be. Mainly because that is what Trump does best, he wants the attention, he wants the adoration, so in public, he morphs himself into whatever gets him the most 'love' which isn't 'love', it is more of a co-dependency.

The sad, and ironic part of it all is that Trump doesn’t give a rat’s ass about ANY of those cults that worship him like a savior and wouldn’t so much as piss on the lot of them if they were on fire. Most people probably know by now that the only reason Trump’s running again is to stay out of prison, he’ll gladly use all those nimrods to achieve his goal, them kick them to the curb should he win again.

[Joker]

the most elite wealthy conservatives who see Trump as the pathway to their Golden City where poor people are left to die in poverty while they can live in luxury;

This one is already happening.

[Tami]

This one is already happening.

Trump didn't necessarily create all of these cults, he just gave them a public face, a pathway into the mainstream, an appearance of legitimacy, a way to expand their influence and build up their following, as well as a means to an end that they didn't quite have as well before.

[Striderblack01]

Edit: Nevermind - this was 8 million years ago. Must remember to sort Twitter by latest, not top.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump didn't necessarily create all of these cults, he just gave them a public face, a pathway into the mainstream, an appearance of legitimacy, a way to expand their influence and build up their following, as well as a means to an end that they didn't quite have as well before.

While the genie is out of the bottle with those nutbag cults, they risk losing that public face and, more importantly, that all too important influence should Trump lose, and that makes them just as desperate for Trump to win again as he is.

[Tami]

If Durham's probe is independent, why did Trump say this about Wray on Fox Business?

"There are documents that they want to get, and we have said we want to get. We're going to find out if he's going to give those documents. But certainly he's been very, very protective."

*We*

Twitter Link

[Tami]

McConnell Appears Set to Quietly Suffocate Long-Debated F.B.I. Surveillance Bill

WASHINGTON — Every few years since Congress passed the Patriot Act to bolster F.B.I. surveillance powers after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, parts of it came up for renewal and national security hawks darkly warned that even briefly letting them lapse would unacceptably endanger America.

This year is different.

Those provisions expired months ago, but one of the biggest surveillance supporters in Congress, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, has single-handedly brought the process of extending them to a halt.

After the House and Senate passed slightly different versions of a bill in May, Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed a group of House members to a conference committee to reconcile them. But Mr. McConnell has not appointed any senators to it, and the process has been stuck there ever since.

On Thursday, Mr. McConnell closed the Senate for its annual August vacation, meaning that the legislation will remain on ice for at least another month. He has given no sign that he intends to move forward when Congress briefly reconvenes before adjourning again ahead of the November election.

First, President Trump, stoking his grievances over the Russia investigation — a small part of which involved wiretapping a former campaign aide under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA — has threatened to veto the bill, saying more time should first be spent scrutinizing the officials who pursued the Russia inquiry.

[Jack Dracula]

McConnell Appears Set to Quietly Suffocate Long-Debated F.B.I. Surveillance Bill

I confess to not seeing the obvious advantage for McConnell here. Is the point to limit the investigative powers of the FBI in order to allow Trump more latitude to stretch the law?

[Tami]

Trump presses Barr to target his perceived enemies before election

It was last year when the Justice Department's inspector general concluded that there was nothing improper about the federal investigation into the Russian scandal. Attorney General Bill Barr said he didn't much care about those independent findings, and he instead tapped U.S. Attorney John Durham to investigate the investigation.