Sound The TRUMPets! A Thread for Presidential Pondering 2016-2020(?)

Started by kishnevi, November 09, 2016, 06:04:39 PM

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Todd

Quote from: SimonNZ on April 13, 2019, 04:28:33 PM
That wasn't an attempt at wit - I was asking you a serious question.


Then you are even dumber than I thought. 
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

SimonNZ

seen elsewhere:


Eric Pavri

I am an immigration lawyer (Colorado bar # 44591) at a nonprofit organization, and I wish to say something.

Recently, with the forcing out of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen for not being "tough enough" on immigration, President Trump has resurrected the idea of separating families who arrive at the U.S./Mexico border to seek asylum, including those who present themselves at Ports of Entry to seek admission according to the proper procedures spelled out in U.S. immigration law.

This afternoon, I met with a single mother and her 14-year old daughter from Honduras. The daughter had a 4-month old baby boy, dressed in a purple dinosaur onesie, who grasped my finger and blew raspberries at me.

The daughter had gotten pregnant at age 13 when five members of the MS-13 took turns raping her. They came three nights in a row before the mother finally fled to her sister's house in another town. There, the mother went to ask police to help. But the police, who are themselves on the payroll of the gang, reported their location to the local gang hierarchy, who cross-checked with the MS-13 cell in their hometown and verified that they had tried to escape. In broad daylight, unmasked men with guns broke down the sister's doors, dragged them into a car, drove them to an auto repair shop, and raped all three.

Four months later, the mother had managed to borrow enough money from a cousin in the United States to pay a smuggler to take them through Guatemala to Mexico.

Two months later, in early December 2018, mother and daughter made it to the U.S. border in Laredo, Texas. The daughter was now seven months pregnant. They presented themselves at the Port of Entry and the mother said that they were afraid to go back to Honduras. They were put in separate rooms, where male Border Patrol officers interrogated both mother and daughter. They were then held in separate cells in what is known as the "hielera" (Spanish for "freezer") for 4 days. Neither received news of the other.

The pregnant daughter was in a cold room where the only place to sleep was a concrete floor. She was given only a thin Mylar blanket that looked like aluminum foil. She and 10 other girls shared one toilet with no privacy curtain. The fluorescent lights were never turned off. She could not eat the food. She only drank water. The water came from a faucet on top of the shared toilet.

When the contractions began, she thought she just had stomach cramps. She was given aspirin. The next morning, when she was taken to a hospital, her mother was not informed. She did not give birth there. A male Border Patrol agent waited on a chair on the other side of the curtain in the emergency room waiting area. When the doctors determined that she was stable and released her, the agent drove her back to the concrete holding cell. One day later, mother and daughter were brought into a room together, given papers to sign, and driven to a local bus station where they were released. At that station, volunteers took them to a temporary shelter for migrants. They stayed there for one night until the same cousin arranged to buy tickets on a Greyhound bus. They traveled two days from Texas to reach Colorado.

Five days later, the girl gave birth. The baby was born at 7½ months. The two women don't know the medical term for what is wrong with him. They just know that he has "a hole in his heart." That is not a metaphor. The baby boy has a hole in the wall of one of the chambers of his heart.

This mother and child likely won't win their asylum case. It doesn't matter how unfair that seems to you, or if "that can't be right," or if you're thinking any of the other phrases that most Americans who aren't immigration lawyers (or immigrants) think when they hear stories like this and can't believe them. The harm that these women suffered, and are likely to suffer again if they are deported to Honduras, is a "private harm." They won't be able to prove that it was perpetrated by a government actor or agent, specifically motivated by their membership in a particular social group, under the near-impossible standards for asylum made mandatory for all U.S. immigration judges by Attorney General Jeff Sessions (a political appointee and not a judge) in Matter of A-B- in June 2018. Nor will they be able to prove that their rapists were motivated by their (the victims') race, religion, national origin, or political opinion.

In the perverse world of asylum law, what matters is not so much THAT you will be harmed, but WHO will harm you and WHY they will harm you. In a way, we are telling these two women that even here in the United States, the country that they believe will protect them, those men who hurt them are more important. Let me rephrase that. I had to tell them that, to their faces, today. I had to tell them in so many words that because their rapists didn't rape them for the right reasons, they will likely be sent back to be hurt again.

For all those who say they should have come here legally: they did. There was no "line" for them to get into for a visa to immigrate to the United States. They didn't have a U.S. citizen or Permanent Resident family member to petition for them, nor a U.S. employer to sponsor them. So they made the only lawful choice they could. They walked up to an official Port of Entry on the Texas border, stood in a line, and asked for protection. They did exactly what they were supposed to do under the law.

It seems to me that almost all evil in the world, from playground bullying to sexual abuse to genocide, results from valuing some human beings more than others. We repeatedly and willingly forget the most basic lesson that most of the world's religions teach: that because every single human being is a child of God, every single human being has equal value. In fact, each human life has value far greater than we can comprehend, because God loves us all equally and infinitely – just as we love our own children beyond measure.

When we value a child born on one side of a human-drawn line on a map more than a child born on the other side, we have forgotten what every prophet through the ages has tried to teach us. We have failed both children"

Todd

It's old hat now, but still enjoyable:

The Media and the Mueller Report's March Surprise

The Attorney General's summary reported no conspiracy, but serious newsrooms and journalists did the job they are supposed to do.



A bit of an oopsie, with some generalized blame on the economics of news, and so forth, but with a heart-warming paean to journalism and the First Amendment by the end.  (The author probably should have included a reference to apple pie, just to be safe.)  My favorite sentence:

"Journalists have long harbored a belief that readers and viewers understand the difference between editorializing and reporting."

Journalists obviously never read GMG. 
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

JBS

Quote from: Todd on April 13, 2019, 01:22:53 PM

Ah, I see.



Irrelevant to everything.  There is much blabbering about it - eg, your posts - but it is as relevant and real as the whole Russia thing.  The tax return topic is good for Dem pols and certain segments of the press to mislead the gullible.

They are relevant, the proof being that Trump refuses to release them, even though, if his version of his connections with Russia and other matters were true, they would provide clear evidence to back him up.
So either they contain information he feels is too politically damaging to release (a wide field that may have nothing to do with Russia), or he is an even greater fool than we think he is.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

JBS

Quote from: SimonNZ on April 13, 2019, 05:27:59 PM
seen elsewhere:


Eric Pavri

I am an immigration lawyer (Colorado bar # 44591) at a nonprofit organization, and I wish to say something.

In the perverse world of asylum law, what matters is not so much THAT you will be harmed, but WHO will harm you and WHY they will harm you. In a way, we are telling these two women that even here in the United States, the country that they believe will protect them, those men who hurt them are more important. Let me rephrase that. I had to tell them that, to their faces, today. I had to tell them in so many words that because their rapists didn't rape them for the right reasons, they will likely be sent back to be hurt again.


Mr Parvi is skipping over the fact that asylum law is based on the premise that other countries are willing and able to prosecute rapists and murderers in the normal manner.

If the US had realistic immigration laws, this girl and her mother would have been able to legally immigrate without the need to abuse and distort  the asylum problem.  The real solution is the very opposite of what the Trumpniki want. The real solution is to make it easier to immigrate here.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Todd

Quote from: JBS on April 13, 2019, 06:45:49 PMSo either they contain information he feels is too politically damaging to release (a wide field that may have nothing to do with Russia), or he is an even greater fool than we think he is.


A false dichotomy based on a complete lack of knowledge of the facts. I get it, I get it, the documents have to be released to know the facts, and such forth.   Dems tried to make Trump's tax returns a campaign issue in 2016, and it didn't work.  He still won.  The Russia nothingburger has hammered the credibility of the press generally, and led nowhere, but some Dems still haven't learned their lesson.  The tax return thing will not turn out especially well for them in the event that they get released before November 2020.  Most people just don't care.  Since Trump would have been prosecuted had illegal activities been detected by the IRS, the best one can hope for is that Trump paid too little in taxes, possibly benefitting even more from massive loss carryforwards than were already published, or otherwise made too much or too little money. 

Financially unsophisticated lefties, including a lot of people on this forum, have long thought and written about the promise of what's in the tax returns.  A lot of the juicy stuff that people had wet dreams about (eg, Trump's dealings with THE RUSSIANS, when that still mattered) would not necessarily be included in supporting documents.  I'd be quite surprised if particularly shady transactions were reported to the IRS.  Seriously, people should go ask the accounting departments of their employers what types of information get reported for complex ownership structures.  (This does not apply to clueless non-Americans whose employers would be absolutely ignorant of US tax law.)  It is possible, easy, and common to set up LLCs for the express purpose of limiting certain types of reporting.  Now, of course, Dems would throw red meat to their gullible base by hurling unfounded accusations in the event that the disclosures did not have enough specifics, and so forth.

Not only do I not mind if Trump's tax returns become a hot topic again, I actually hope it flares up again.  There will be much grandstanding by lefty politicians, much puffery by biased journalists, and much mindless gibberish scribbled online by the same people who were foolish enough to fall for the collusion nonsense.  I also hope the 25th Amendment pops back up again, which I am sure it will.  It's all premium entertainment at no cost.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

SimonNZ

He said he was going to release them once he became President, as I'm sure you're aware.

No, nobody believed it, but he did say it.

Is all this anxiety because you're worried about next week's release of the report? Surely you realise the heavy reactions will allow for the interpretation you want.

BasilValentine

#15907
Quote from: Todd on April 13, 2019, 01:22:53 PM
Irrelevant to everything.  There is much blabbering about it - eg, your posts - but it is as relevant and real as the whole Russia thing.  The tax return topic is good for Dem pols and certain segments of the press to mislead the gullible.

The fact that Trump is currently an unindicted co-conspirator (Individual 1) in campaign finance violations, bank fraud, and falsifying business documents (felony counts), and that we have heard testimony (House Judiciary Committee) backed by documentary evidence that he is guilty of multiple counts of tax fraud (federal and in several states), bank fraud, and insurance fraud with respect to his real estate holdings, it was pretty much inevitable that his tax returns were going to be sought. The latter frauds consist in wildly different valuations of his properties depending on whether they were computed for tax liability versus loan applications or insurance claims. Traditionally, high executive branch officials suspected of financial crimes have been subject to congressional oversight, as in the cases of Spiro Agnew and the Clintons (Whitewater). Is there some reason you believe this shouldn't apply to Trump? Do you not think the public has an interest in investigating what appears to be massive and habitual criminality on the part of the president?

You talking about blather is hilarious: What you've written above is content-free bullshit. "As real as the whole Russia thing?" Pretty vague, eh? The gullible? You mean Trump's constituency and the thousands he has deceived, defrauded and stiffed?

Todd

Quote from: SimonNZ on April 13, 2019, 07:28:28 PMHe said he was going to release them once he became President, as I'm sure you're aware.


Trump lied.  He lies a lot, as I'm sure you're aware.


Quote from: SimonNZ on April 13, 2019, 07:28:28 PMIs all this anxiety because you're worried about next week's release of the report? Surely you realise the heavy reactions will allow for the interpretation you want.

Did you mean "reactions" or "redactions"? 

In any event, I'm not anxious at all.  I look forward to the inane blather and outright idiocy that could reappear in mainstream press outlets and will definitely reappear on various internet sites, like this one.


Quote from: BasilValentine on April 14, 2019, 05:05:49 AM

The fact that Trump is currently an unindicted co-conspirator (Individual 1) in campaign finance violations, bank fraud, and falsifying business documents (felony counts), and that we have heard testimony (House Judiciary Committee) backed by documentary evidence that he is guilty of multiple counts of tax fraud (federal and in several states), bank fraud, and insurance fraud with respect to his real estate holdings, it was pretty much inevitable that his tax returns were going to be sought. The latter frauds consist in wildly different valuations of his properties depending on whether they were computed for tax liability versus loan applications or insurance claims. Traditionally, high executive branch officials suspected of financial crimes have been subject to congressional oversight, as in the cases of Spiro Agnew and the Clintons (Whitewater). Is there some reason you believe this shouldn't apply to Trump? Do you not think the public has an interest in investigating what appears to be massive and habitual criminality on the part of the president?


You're a regular Matlock. 
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

SimonNZ

Congress is not 'smart enough' to examine Trump's tax returns, Sarah Sanders says

"White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Sunday that she doesn't believe members of Congress are "smart enough" to examine President Trump's tax returns, pushing back against Democrats' demands for information on the president's finances.

[...]

"Frankly, Chris, I don't think Congress — particularly not this group of congressmen and women — are smart enough to look through the thousands of pages that I would assume that President Trump's taxes will be," Sanders said. "My guess is most of them don't do their own taxes, and I certainly don't trust them to look through the decades of success that the president has and determine anything."
She added that the Democratic effort puts "every American" in jeopardy.

SimonNZ

The Onion:

William Barr Agrees To Release Nonverbal, Abstract Visual Representation Of Mueller Report

"Explaining that he would present the investigation's findings in a format that offered the most richly detailed portrayal of its full meaning, Attorney General William Barr reportedly agreed Friday to release a nonverbal, abstract visual representation of the Mueller report. "I'm nearly done going through the special counsel's conclusions and will be ready to deliver them in the form of a multimedia performance featuring interpretative dance, experimental music, and a variety of conceptual art installations within the next week or two," said Barr, adding that he had already finished summarizing President Trump's firing of James Comey in a 30-minute postmodern movement piece incorporating aerial silks and a fog machine, and had finally hit upon a suitable way to show Congress the significance of Trump's contact with former campaign chair Paul Manafort by smearing red, white, and blue paint on the walls of a white space over a collage of slowed-down audio recorded in a slaughterhouse. "It's clear, given the nature of the special counsel's findings, that any summary must be issued to Congress with my voice removed, indeed artificially silenced, allowing the canvas of my body to convey the full extent of the report's subconscious dialogues and liminal fixation on agency and the dialectic of guilt and innocence. Indeed, it is only through repeatedly assembling and disassembling a bricolage of objects such as metal pails, rusty saws, and clumps of wax that I can truly express the hidden and fluctuating tensions expressed in Mueller's analysis of whether Trump pressured Jeff Sessions to conform to his wishes. The American people deserve to see a full performance of me lying nude and motionless on a concrete slab under a Cubist portrait of Mueller as masked, mute figures representing Donald Jr., Michael Flynn, and Michael Cohen slowly walk in circles, tearing pieces of paper and scattering them over me, every so often extemporaneously interrupting the sounds of kettle drum and lagerphone by erupting in a primal scream. Only then can Americans fully understand the truth." Barr also clarified that in order to protect classified government intelligence, he would have to perform the part of his presentation where he wordlessly beats his chest, smears himself in glitter, and repeatedly turns on and off several televisions behind a curtain where no one can see."

JBS

Quote from: SimonNZ on April 14, 2019, 02:41:42 PM
Congress is not 'smart enough' to examine Trump's tax returns, Sarah Sanders says

"White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Sunday that she doesn't believe members of Congress are "smart enough" to examine President Trump's tax returns, pushing back against Democrats' demands for information on the president's finances.

[...]

"Frankly, Chris, I don't think Congress — particularly not this group of congressmen and women — are smart enough to look through the thousands of pages that I would assume that President Trump's taxes will be," Sanders said. "My guess is most of them don't do their own taxes, and I certainly don't trust them to look through the decades of success that the president has and determine anything."
She added that the Democratic effort puts "every American" in jeopardy.

Todd did predict inane blather and outright idiocy.  He merely erred on which side would produce it.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

JBS


Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

drogulus

Quote from: JBS on April 14, 2019, 05:31:28 PM
https://www.lawfareblog.com/memo-press-how-not-screw-mueller-report

    Yes, I'm sticking with that understanding.

Eighth, be thoughtful, not reflexive, about redactions. Don't be quick to jump to the conclusion that redactions suggest that a coverup is happening. The better approach is to examine whether the redactions significantly impede understanding of Mueller's conclusions or whether the report is still largely comprehensible. Redactions are far more concerning and suspicious if they are extensive and if they blot out conclusions than they are if they are sparse and merely remove evidentiary detail.

     
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SimonNZ

Is there any subject on which he doesn't think he's the expert? Any situation that isn't all about him?

French officials reject Trump suggestion to use 'flying water tankers' on Notre Dame fire

"French officials on Monday rejected President Trump's suggestion that flying water tankers be used against the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, saying this would cause the historic structure to collapse.

The official Twitter account for France's Sécurité Civile, the civil defense and crisis management agency, responded to Trump's recommendation.

"Hundreds of firemen of the Paris Fire Brigade are doing everything they can to bring the terrible # NotreDame fire under control," the account wrote in a rare English-language tweet. "All means being used, except for water-bombing aircrafts which, if used, could lead to the collapse of the entire structure of the cathedral."

SimonNZ

DOJ says to expect the █████er R██or█ on Thursday


Trump Gets His First Official GOP Challenger With Bill Weld Announcement



SimonNZ

SANCTIONED RUSSIAN OLIGARCH'S COMPANY TO INVEST MILLIONS IN NEW ALUMINUM PLANT IN MITCH MCCONNELL'S STATE

"Rusal, the aluminum company partially owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, announced plans to invest around $200 million to build a new aluminum plant in Kentucky just months after the Trump administration removed it from the U.S. sanctions list.

The new aluminum plant, slated to be built in the home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, will be the biggest new aluminum plant constructed in the U.S. in decades. Rusal will have a 40 percent stake in the facility.

"Rusal, one of the leading global aluminium producers, and Braidy Industries Inc., a U.S. base holding company which owns both Veloxint, an MIT-incubated lightweighting solutions company, and NanoAl, a Northwestern University incubated materials research and technology company, announce an intent to establish a joint project in Ashland, Kentucky, USA to produce flat-rolled aluminium products for the U.S. automotive industry," according to a company press release.

The U.S. removed Rusal from its sanctions list in January, after the Treasury Department struck an agreement with the company that saw Deripaska, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, reduce his stake in the company to below 50 percent and lower his voting rights to below 35. The agreement requires the companies to report any contact between Deripaska and company affiliates, including members of the board.

McConnell was among the advocates for lifting sanctions on Rusal, arguing that the deal with Treasury would maintain pressure on Deripaska personally without disrupting global aluminum supplies."

SimonNZ

Barr's Playbook: He Misled Congress When Omitting Parts of Justice Dep't Memo in 1989

"On Friday the thirteenth October 1989, by happenstance the same day as the "Black Friday" market crash, news leaked of a legal memo authored by William Barr. He was then serving as head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). It is highly uncommon for any OLC memo to make headlines. This one did because it was issued in "unusual secrecy" and concluded that the FBI could forcibly abduct people in other countries without the consent of the foreign state. The headline also noted the implication of the legal opinion at that moment in time. It appeared to pave the way for abducting Panama's leader, Gen. Manuel Noriega.

Members of Congress asked to see the full legal opinion. Barr refused, but said he would provide an account that "summarizes the principal conclusions." Sound familiar? In March 2019, when Attorney General Barr was handed Robert Mueller's final report, he wrote that he would "summarize the principal conclusions" of the special counsel's report for the public.

When Barr withheld the full OLC opinion in 1989 and said to trust his summary of the principal conclusions, Yale law school professor Harold Koh wrote that Barr's position was "particularly egregious." Congress also had no appetite for Barr's stance, and eventually issued a subpoena to successfully wrench the full OLC opinion out of the Department.

What's different from that struggle and the current struggle over the Mueller report is that we know how the one in 1989 eventually turned out.

When the OLC opinion was finally made public long after Barr left office, it was clear that Barr's summary had failed to fully disclose the opinion's principal conclusions. It is better to think of Barr's summary as a redacted version of the full OLC opinion. That's because the "summary" took the form of 13 pages of written testimony. The document was replete with quotations from court cases, legal citations, and the language of the OLC opinion itself. Despite its highly detailed analysis, this 13-page version omitted some of the most consequential and incendiary conclusions from the actual opinion. And there was evidently no justifiable reason for having withheld those parts from Congress or the public.

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