America - The Official Thread

[Biggles]

Meanwhile, I get double-checked by the TSA for my tin of almonds and Moleskine notebooks.

Just trying bringing an orange across the border. Fruit Nazis.

 

[Liquid]

Fruit Nazis.

 

[TB]

No farkleberry for you!

 

[TexRex]

Going after the guy who was just doing what he was instructed to do is one thing. Going after that guy's kids is ****ing low.

What an absolute piece of trash.

It's not by pure chance that I refer to the mother****ers as right trash...or as mother****ers.

Modern American conservatism is mental illness.

 

[Chris30]

Lol, Fruit Nazis. Come get your bananas!!
Posted this funny picture.

 

[Scaff]

New LegalEagle video on the Trump document investigation, excellent as always and covers what class of information was found in the search, how Trump could of declassified some of it (but almost certainly didn't follow process and therefore didn't actually declassify it), why if it related to nuclear or intelligence work he didn't have sole authority to do so, and why for the scope of the investigation it doesn't matter a jot if he had actually declassified any of it. Oh and what defences he could potentially use or not if charged.

 

[TexRex]

...novel civil cause of action scheme in an effort to suppress speech with the "Stop WOKE Act" which empowers the aggrieved to file a civil suit against those engaging in protected expression in the form of education about or advocacy for that which is deemed to be "Critical Race Theory"--though this is deliberately not clearly defined so as to not limit application--not only in higher education but also private industry...

Aaaaand boom goes the dynamite.

 

[Tornado]

The problem is that DeSantis ramrodded this through knowing it wouldn't stand legal scrutiny. It's a win for sure, but it's a win where DeSantis wins too because now he can blame his "extremely popular agenda" being struck down by "the media" and "the courts" and not "being laughably Unconstitutional" and continue using it to justify him being a scumbag just like with the insane social media laws Texas and Florida passed earlier that were also obviously going to be struck down.




The legislation itself is performative action done to show cruelty in order to "other" people in minority groups, waste the court's time and make his base more rabid.

 

[UKMikey]

"extremely popular agenda"

I know you're being sarcastic but I can't find any poll numbers on Stop WOKE. Don't Say Gay polled at 51%, latest poll I could find (March).

Slim Majorities of Voters Back Provisions of Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill

A slim majority of voters support key provisions of Florida state legislation that’s been dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay,” according to a new survey.

morningconsult.com

Hardly a mandate to enact law, I would've thought, but then I live in the country which enacted Brexit.

 

[Populuxe]

It isn’t about overall popularity. It’s about firing up the base. DeSantis just wants his own base more riled up than the Democratic base. If he can show red meat Republicans that he’s willing to enact the cruel laws they so love, they’re more likely to vote to keep him in office. It’s divide and conquer.

 

[Pupik]

...now he can blame his "extremely popular agenda" being struck down by "the media" and "the courts" and not "being laughably Unconstitutional"...

Calling it the "Individual Freedom Act" was intentionally vague; but every political ad for the next few years will now proclaim that Liberals Hate Individual Freedom(s).

{insert clip of moving paperwork being stamped [NO] with some sort of fake red ink, and also throw in a black-and-white image of Nancy Pelosi with a grin, for no reason}

 

[Famine]

Given the SOP of making accusations which are basically confessions, I'm wondering if one of the passports Trump's complaining about the FBI taking is Kenyan.


And has several stamps for the US Virgin Islands.

 

[TexRex]

It's not exactly mysterious.

 

[UKMikey]

It's not exactly mysterious.

I'm not even sure it's a lack of intelligence on the intelligence committee guy's part*, rather that he's obfuscating to cover the misdeeds of the person who took those docs home to Mar-el-Lardass-o.

(*not that I'm suggesting you're saying Turner is stoopid)

 

[TexRex]

We reject the free speech-trampling rules set by J.D. Vance and Ron DeSantis for covering their rally: Letter from the Editor

This was a rally for J.D. Vance, who wants to be your senator, who wants to take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the United States. You know. The document that says Congress shall make no laws abridging the freedom of the press.

www.cleveland.com

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely presidential candidate in 2024, scheduled a trip to Ohio Friday to stump for Senate candidate J.D. Vance, and our reporters were not there because of ridiculous restrictions that DeSantis and Vance placed on anyone covering the event.

The worst of the rules was one prohibiting reporters from interviewing attendees not first approved by the organizers of the event for DeSantis and Vance. When we cover events, we talk to anyone we wish. It’s America, after all, the land of free speech. At least that’s America as it exists today. Maybe not the America that would exist under DeSantis and Vance.

Think about what they were doing here. They were staging an event to rally people to vote for Vance while instituting the kinds of policies you’d see in a fascist regime. A wannabe U.S. Senator, and maybe a wannabe president.

Another over-the-top rule was one reserving the right to receive copies of any video shot of the event for promotional use. That’s never okay. News agencies are independent of the political process. We do not provide our work product to anyone for promotional use. To do so would put us in league with people we cover, destroying our credibility.

Yet another of the rules reserved the right to know in what manner any footage of the event would be used. We are news people. We use footage on news platforms. But this rule set up a situation in which reporters could be grilled on their intentions.

I’m scratching my head over one other rule, one that prohibited reporters from entering the hotel rooms of any attendees of the event. If someone invites a reporter into a hotel room for an interview, what’s the harm?

Anyway, we didn’t accept the limitations, because they end up skewing the facts. If we can speak only with attendees chosen by the candidate, we don’t get a true accounting of what people thought of the event. You get spin from the most ardent supporters.

The organizers told the Washington Post they wanted to keep out people collecting footage for non-journalistic reasons and that they waive their rules sometimes for legitimate news outlets, like the Post. That rings hollow. If you are speaking publicly, people are going to use what you say to help you or fight you. That’s how politics work. And we don’t accept discretionary waivers to unacceptable rules.

The event was organized by Turning Point Action, a non-profit with ties to supporters of Donald Trump, but make no mistake about what it was. This was a rally for J.D. Vance, who wants to be your senator, who wants to take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the United States. You know. The document that says Congress shall make no laws abridging the freedom of the press.

And here he was, staging an event in which he thought he could tell the press who they could interview.

No. Not happening. Not now. Not ever. And voters might want to remember this anti-American strategy when it comes time to vote this November and on presidential ballots in 2024.

I should note that I’m writing this before the event occurred, so if something changed at the last minute, this piece would omit it.

Separately, thanks to all the responses regarding my question a week ago about our reporting on the arrest of Pat O’Malley. The overwhelming consensus was that we should have reported the story as we did.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Liquid]

I don't want to get swamped in the current bin fire over in the student debt thread but this is a great Twitter thread.

 

[Blitz24]

I don't want to get swamped in the current bin fire over in the student debt thread but this is a great Twitter thread.

Posted it in the political cartoon thread. They'll argue that they had a legitimate business and those who can't pay their loans are illegitimate... or something.

 

[Populuxe]

I don't want to get swamped in the current bin fire over in the student debt thread but this is a great Twitter thread.

 

[Pupik]

Remember, "it's not the same thing" in any and every argument against them, especially if you'd like your reality to be their illusion.

The fallout from this also looks and tastes like snowflakes, an anomaly for these dog days of summer.

 

[TexRex]

Edit: lol

 

[TexRex]

2/ I don’t remember that happening in any other case.

Typically defense counsel have very limited information about criminal investigations, and their views are not presented by prosecutors to the judge when seeking a warrant.

3/ Here, of course, the communications are also evidence that Trump and his team were well aware that they had no lawful basis to retain the classified material, that the Executive Branch demanded it back, and that the place it was stored was not secure.

4/ The unredacted portions of the affidavit also indicate that prosecutors planned to use a separate “taint team” to review documents just in case any attorney-client privileged documents were seized.

It’s not clear why there would be any among the Mar-a-Lago documents.

5/ Attached to the affidavit, there is a copy of the letter from Trump’s counsel, which was provided to the judge.

The points in the letter are unremarkable and unimportant. His attorney notes that a president can declassify documents, that DOJ shouldn’t be political, etc.

6/ Trump’s attorney asserts, in the letter, that the letter should be provided to any judge considering an investigative request (like a search warrant).

That’s aggressive by the defense, but it worked here. DOJ gave the judge their letter, although the letter doesn’t help much.

7/ But ironically, the demand by Trump’s attorney demonstrates that they anticipated that DOJ might seek a search warrant.

So the search warrant wasn’t a shocking development to Trump’s team, despite their protestations to the contrary.

8/ Once they refused to comply with the subpoena, they thought a search warrant was a possibility — and they thought it was likely enough that it made sense for them to write a letter to DOJ and demand that they provide that letter to the judge if they seek a warrant.

9/ It is also worth nothing that Trump’s attorney does not assert or argue that Trump previously declassified documents or had a “standing order” doing so.

10/ He merely states that Trump had the power to do so and makes an argument that presidents can’t be prosecuted for anything related to classified documents.

11/ Footnote 2 on page 22 is also interesting. It makes the point that I
(and @AshaRangappa_ and others)
have made—that the statute doesn’t require the material to be classified, broadly covering closely-held defense material. That could undercut a “standing order” defense.

[Edit] So I guess the gif embed function in the rich text editor here on GTP is linked globally...and this is the top trending result:

That's funny.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

[Edit] So I guess the gif embed function in the rich text editor here on GTP is linked globally...and this is the top trending result:

That's funny.

Hm...so it's possible that Antifa planted the documents?

/s

 

[TexRex]

Hm...so it's possible that Antifa planted the documents?

/s

It's irresponsible not to speculate as much.

 

[Blitz24]

It's irresponsible not to speculate as much.

Pretty sure FoxNews would fire any of their analysts if they said that months ago.

 

[Populuxe]

Color me

Spoiler: NSFW

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Spoiler: NSFW

View attachment 1187184

Maybe they can get some debt forgiveness.

 

[Tornado]

I'm pretty sure that the party line was that Trump stiffing contractors for the 30 years before running for president meant he was a good businessman, so...

 

[TexRex]

****wits. ****wits all the ****ing way down.



Jesus ****ing Christ.

 

[Tyrone B]

Out of all the bad takes that I've seen about debt forgiveness, this has to be at the top.

 

[Danoff]

Out of all the bad takes that I've seen about debt forgiveness, this has to be at the top.

Saying the quiet part out loud.