Trump

[SydneyRover]

Quite a paradox, without question there are two 'leaders' in the world that most wouldn't trust to mind their own grandmothers and yet there are plenty willing to overlook rafts and rafts of factual instances of them having sustained personality defects that has led to serious assaults on women, racist attitudes, conspiricies to assault a person, lies and more all documented.

[SydneyRover]

Abuse of process?

''He lost at every stage and three civil court judges sitting in Edinburgh ruled in February that he was liable to pay the Scottish government’s legal costs. After months of stalemate between the two sides, the dispute was due to be settled by an independent auditor.''

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/nov/12/trump-firm-settles-legal-bill-over-scottish-windfarm-dispute

[bpoolrover]

Quite a paradox, without question there are two 'leaders' in the world that most wouldn't trust to mind their own grandmothers and yet there are plenty willing to overlook rafts and rafts of factual instances of them having sustained personality defects that has led to serious assaults on women, racist attitudes, conspiricies to assault a person, lies and more all documented.

who has assaulted a woman?

[SydneyRover]

both of them bp, do keep up

[GazLaz]

I watched Fahrenheit 11/9 about Mr Trump. It was very interesting. 

[bpoolrover]

both of them bp, do keep up

have they been found guilty in court, I’ve not seen that?

[SydneyRover]

both of them bp, do keep up

have they been found guilty in court, I’ve not seen that?

This is the bit about reputation bp, if you have a record as an honest upstanding citizen when it comes to a 'he said she said' thingy who are most people going to believe a person that lies at every opportunity, has trouble answering a straight question or the other person?

[BillyStubbsTears]

Fascinating interview on R4 today with the editor of the Financial Times (that well known socialist propaganda rag).

He said he interviewed Trump in person last year and it was like interviewing Tony Soprano. Trump's approach was one of physical intimidation. He said Trump's physical bearing was "one of studied thuggery".

That confirms what you'd expect of the man (sic). His entire career has been based on intimidation of people who he thinks he can control. I can understand that in a two-bit businessman who's not very good at business but bullies his way to success (I used to work for one with the same approach before I found my morals and resigned). But the Leader of the Free World? No, no, NO! Utterly unacceptable. And a leader who tries to physically intimidate a key global media editor into doing what he wants? That has terrifying implications for democracy.

[SydneyRover]

trump is not a wall flower when it comes to suing people to get retribution or damages, if this isn't true then why hasn't he sued CNN?

''Donald Trump was a nightmare landlord in the 1980s

There's an episode in Donald Trump's past that shows just how far this billionaire businessman will go to get his way.

It began in 1981. Trump bought a 14-story building on prime real estate facing New York City's Central Park.

His plan was to tear down the building and replace it with luxury condos. But first he needed a small band of rent-stabilized tenants out of there.

To succeed, Trump played rough, according to lawsuits filed by the tenants. Renters said he cut heat and hot water, and he imposed tough building rules. Trump even proposed sheltering homeless people in the building''

https://money.cnn.com/2016/03/28/news/trump-apartment-tenants/

[SydneyRover]

Murdoch never fails his supporters, you too could be a Murdoch zombie just regularly read the sun and the times and before you can say phone Hacking you'll be paying to support trump.

''Fox News covers impeachment hearing by defending Trump and gaslighting viewers

As first public hearing begins, president’s favorite network seeks to exonerate him with onscreen banners and Muppet ads''

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/13/fox-news-impeachment-hearing-trump

[BillyStubbsTears]

Yet another member of Trump's inner circle convicted.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-us-canada-50438196

So that's

Stone
Cohen
Flynn
Papadopoulos
Manafort
Gates.

All convicted of lying to Congress or the FBI, or obstructing justice on the issue of the FBI's investigations of Trump.

Just ask yourself. Why on earth would they do this if there wasn't something enormous to hide?

Ask yourself which other President has ever required so many close aides to sacrifice themselves to protect him?

[SydneyRover]

Isn't this the trade body we'll be working with if Johnson gets his way with a Brexit crash out.

Global trade umpire: the next casualty of Trump's tariff war.

The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Appellate Body may not make headlines like the U.S.-China tariff war, but trade experts say its likely demise next month is a further move away from multilateral rules designed to promote global free trade and towards a ‘law of the jungle’ where might is right.

For two years the Trump administration has been blocking appointments to the top body that rules on trade disputes, which means it will soon have too few members to function at all.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wto-trade/global-trade-umpire-the-next-casualty-of-trumps-tariff-war-idUSKBN1XS1T0

[BillyStubbsTears]

Oh sweet Jesus.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50495289

[BillyStubbsTears]

This is the tipping point. How the hell do any Republican Senators with an ounce of decency and support for the Constitution now not support impeachment?

[SydneyRover]

And this is why he got away with it for so long, what a weasel Hale is.


Hale, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, is the third-highest-ranking official at the State Department.

Hale may be able to share more information on why ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was dismissed. Yovanovitch, who testified publicly last week, said that she had asked Hale to defend her against attacks on her credibility.

According to Yovanovitch, Hale reassured her but never issued a statement of support.

In his closed-door testimony, Hale said ultimately decided not to issue a statement because he worried “it would only fuel negative reaction,” possibly from Trump.

[DonnyOsmond]

Like I say, every day you think he can't get more disgusting...

Then he invites the parents of Harry Dunn to the White House.

And he's got the woman who killed their son waiting in a f**king side room so that he can introduce them. With the press pack in another room, waiting to be called in to get the photos

Just....an empathy f**king vacuum.

I wonder just how badly his dad treated him.

Apparently, it was at Boris's suggestion.

They really are two cheeks of the same arse.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/harry-dunn-death-dominic-raab-foreign-secretary-legal-costs-diplomatic-immunity-anne-sacoolas-a9210931.html

Tories are suing the grieving Dunn family.

[SydneyRover]

The Dunn family need to pile on the pressure while the election's on as it's probably their only chance of the gov't backing down.

[MachoMadness]

This is the tipping point. How the hell do any Republican Senators with an ounce of decency and support for the Constitution now not support impeachment?

About that "ounce of decency" thing...
https://mobile.twitter.com/SaraCarterDC/status/1197362622213042176

[SydneyRover]

This is a very good summary by Julian Borger

"Fiona Hill rebukes conspiracy theory – and emerges as a heroine for our times

The Russia expert’s opening statement, delivered in her north-east England accent, from the stood out for its bluntness''

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/21/fiona-hill-testimony-trump-impeachment-hearing

[SydneyRover]

Got to laugh

https://twitter.com/SaoSasha/status/1197320791706263552/video/1

[silent majority]

Got to laugh

https://twitter.com/SaoSasha/status/1197320791706263552/video/1

That's brilliant.

Does anybody know how they do that?

[Sandy Lane]

This is a very good summary by Julian Borger

"Fiona Hill rebukes conspiracy theory – and emerges as a heroine for our times

The Russia expert’s opening statement, delivered in her north-east England accent, from the stood out for its bluntness''

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/21/fiona-hill-testimony-trump-impeachment-hearing

For anyone who is interested, the impeachment hearings were riveting.  Particularly good were the career diplomats and civil servants who were articulate, clear and unequivocal in their responses.  Fiona Hill was brilliant.  She is a national treasure and if you look at what is trending on Twitter you’ll see tons of comments about her.  Men love her and women are so proud that women have played so strong a role in outing this corrupt president.  Her comments are now headlines in newspapers all over the country and she has totally debunked the ‘Ukraine interfered in US elections, rather than Russia’, propaganda as well as the ‘domestic political errand’ which was being done at Trumps behest by Sondland and others in his administration to withhold already approved security aid to Ukraine in return for opening an investigation into the Bidens.  (Funny that when the Dems changed the wording from Quid Pro Quo to bribe, no one was having it and many stated there was no bribe, but there was a quid pro quo.  Craziness!)  Anyway, she stated that this disinformation was started by Russian intelligence services and spread by oligarchs and ppl working for them to create a divide here as well as to eventually allow Trump to undo sanctions on them.  Btw, her northeast English accent was lovely to hear and people were very responsive to it.

What still is the big question though is whether Republicans will remain willfully blind to this information to support Trump, or whether they will vote their consciences once the charges brought by the House of Representatives go to the US senate, who have the power to actually remove Trump from office.  Gut wrenching times here and I imagine it’s being watched closely by Europe and all democracies.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Sandy.

Biggest laugh of the week was seeing an American on Twitter say Fiona Hill was taking down Trump and with a Prince Andrew accent.

Her accent is actually closer to Sid the Sexist than the Royal Family.

[Glyn_Wigley]

Sandy.

Biggest laugh of the week was seeing an American on Twitter say Fiona Hill was taking down Trump and with a Prince Andrew accent.

Her accent is actually closer to Sid the Sexist than the Royal Family.

Closer to Andrew than you'd think then.

[SydneyRover]

Another good news story out of the US

"Republicans tried to rig the vote in Michigan – but ‘political novices’ just defeated them

After a Republican bragged about cramming ‘Dem garbage’ into certain districts, a grassroots campaign has given the power to redraw political maps to the people''

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/27/gerrymandering-michigan-citizens-voters-not-politicians

[BillyStubbsTears]

Gerrymandering by Republican controlled states is an utter disgrace. North Carolina has been branded a failed democracy by an iternational watchdog.

In 2016, in the Congressional elections for the House of Representatives, the overall vote split in North Carolina was
Rep 2.4m
Dem 2.1m

The share of seats was
Rep 10
Dem 3

That's because the seat boundaries had been drawn to clump together Democrat areas into one seat. So when the Democrats won, they won with big majorities...lots of effectively wasted votes.

The average % vote in seat win by each party was
Dem 68%
Rep 59%

All from a constituency map deliberately drawn to have this outcome.

It was even worse in 2014. Just look at the shape of the constituencies on the map!



It's all part of the same narrative. The Right breaking the taboos of lying and cheating.

[SydneyRover]

Trump and his regime getting friendly with terrorsts?

Donald Trump says Taliban talks back on in surprise Afghanistan visit

    President makes Thanksgiving visit to airbase near Kabul
    Confirms talks with extremists have resumed

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/28/donald-trump-taliban-talks-surprise-afghanistan-visit

[SydneyRover]

Pressure builds for Giuliani as associate enters talks over potential plea deal

‘’Pressure to cut deal comes after revelations that Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman are ‘likely’ to face more charges, attorney says

If Parnas strikes a deal it could put further legal pressure on Giuliani, who is facing a growing number of legal woes including some relating to his international consulting business as part of an investigation of alleged crimes including money laundering, wire fraud, campaign finance violations, making false statements, obstruction of justice, and violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act’’

I can hear the squealing from here, the dominoes are starting to rock and Giuliani will be next on the rack. My bet is trump will cut him loose and try to bury him but Giuliani being a lawyer will have it all documented.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/06/giuliani-associate-lev-parnas-talks-potential-plea-deal

[SydneyRover]

Supreme Court rejects Trump administration's request to restart federal executions

On Monday, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to allow the federal government to carry out four scheduled executions by reinstating the federal death penalty after a 16-year old.

The Supreme Court just rejected the request — which means there won’t be an execution on Monday.

More context from The AP:

Attorney General William Barr announced during the summer that federal executions would resume using a single drug, pentobarbital, to put inmates to death. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., temporarily halted the executions after some of the chosen inmates challenged the new execution procedures in court. Chutkan ruled that the procedure approved by Barr likely violates the Federal Death Penalty Act.

The federal appeals court in Washington had earlier denied the administration’s emergency plea to put Chutkan’s ruling on hold and allow the executions to proceed.

Federal executions are likely to remain on hold at least for several months, while the appeals court in Washington undertakes a full review of Chutkan’s ruling.

trump moving further right than ISIS? 

[SydneyRover]

What is it about right wing politics?

As the House judiciary committee prepares by the end of this morning for the crucial vote on the articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, fury has erupted over the fact that a Republican member last night named the alleged whistleblower who triggered the congressional investigation by complaining about the president’s pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rivals.

Texas Republican Louie Gohmert last night at the judiciary committee hearing to give initial statements on the articles of impeachment called out the names of several people he would like to see called as witnesses in the expected impeachment trial of Trump in the Senate early next year.

Among those names was that of a man in the US intelligence community, whose name has been floating around as the possible individual who blew the whistle on the president’s allegedly corrupt dealings with Ukraine for personal political gain. The Guardian is not, of course, repeating that name and has no confirmation of who the whistleblower is.

Virginia Democrat Don Beyer tweeted that: “House Republicans just committed an incredible and outrageous breach. The President threatened the whistleblower with violence, and whether the person just named is the whistleblower or not they were just put in real danger. This is unacceptable and there should be consequences.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2019/dec/12/donald-trump-news-today-impeachment-house-articles-vote-live-updates?page=with:block-5df237388f081dfdbe4012de#block-5df237388f081dfdbe4012de