America - The Official Thread

[Jezza819]

I like the fact the Dow only hit 30k after he allowed the transition team to do their thing for Biden. He's been trying to get the Dow to hit 30k for years now and the thing that sends it over the top is him finally kinda of, sort of admitting defeat. That's such a glorious instance of poetic justice.

The higher it goes, the bigger the fall.

 

[Joey D]

The higher it goes, the bigger the fall.

And as an added bonus, many Americans can make money while watching Trump fall too. That sounds like a win-win.

 

[Biggles]

I dunno. Biden doesn't seem like a real President. He hasn't blamed China, or Europe, or Canada for anything yet. He hasn't bragged about the stock market or the economy. He hasn't claimed to know than scientists about science, or more than the generals about the military. He hasn't fired any of his own appointees yet, & he hasn't insulted his political rivals, their wives or fathers, or praised white supremacist groups, or called anyone a loser. And he released his tax returns.

When's he going to start acting "presidential"?

 

[Liquid]

And as an added bonus, many Americans can make money while watching Trump fall too.

Now that's the American way.

 

[Dotini]

I dunno. Biden doesn't seem like a real President. He hasn't blamed China, or Europe, or Canada for anything yet. He hasn't bragged about the stock market or the economy. He hasn't claimed to know than scientists about science, or more than the generals about the military. He hasn't fired any of his own appointees yet, & he hasn't insulted his political rivals, their wives or fathers, or praised white supremacist groups, or called anyone a loser. And he released his tax returns.

When's he going to start acting "presidential"?

Biden has now called for the end of partisanship and the reunification of the country on several occasions. Is the old man daft? Senile?

In your opinion, is now the time for unification - or should every possible effort be made to prosecute Trump, marginalize Trump supporters and the Republicans and conservatives in general?

 

[TenEightyOne]

or should every possible effort be made to prosecute Trump, marginalize Trump supporters and the Republicans and conservatives in general?

Do all those activities have to go together? Seems to me that you can pull America together while performing a Trumpendump.

EDIT:

Very interesting article about the people of Colstrip, and their genuine fears about the closure of the coal industry.

 

[TheCracker]

In your opinion, is now the time for unification - or should every possible effort be made to prosecute Trump,

If he's done things that are prosecutable, then sure. Why would he deserve to be let off?

marginalize Trump supporters

Trump has already done that and probably pushed them beyond redemption in as far as they're unlikely to ever have any trust in mainstream politics and the mainstream media. They've been radicalized.

and the Republicans and conservatives in general?

Republicans/conservatives who backed Trump because he was the Republican candidate and they automatically vote Republican no matter who is wearing the red tie, are appeasable. If you offer them an olive branch there's at least some chance that your politics can be a little less partisan than how it has become in recent years.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Flynn has been pardoned. Quel surprise.

 

[Scaff]

Flynn has been pardoned. Quel surprise.

Flood gates opening?

 

[Keef]

Flood gates opening?

Yup.

Some people on Reddit brought up interesting points about the Flynn pardon. His guilty pleas are sort of irrelevant - pardons don't require any admission or plea or anything, although at that point they're effectively admissions of guilt. But pardons do have scopes in which they apply. Flynn only plead guilty to the lying charges but the other charges - him being an actual spy etc - were never fully addressed. If the pardon only applies to the crimes for which he was convicted, and not to those other accusations, then it doesn't protect him from further prosecution. Even if the pardon is all-encompassing, it doesn't protect him from further subpoenas, but is does protect him from double jeopardy and any other risk, meaning he could testify to the whole truth against whoever he wanted and be fully protected from everything. It's plausible that the Biden administration could use that as some sort of closure. Trump will attempt to protect his people from serving time, but he can't protect them from the actual truth getting out, because if he pardons them they can still be subpoenaed and then testify everything at no risk to themselves.

 

[UKMikey]

Trump will attempt to protect his people from serving time, but he can't protect them from the actual truth getting out, because if he pardons them they can still be subpoenaed and then testify everything at no risk to themselves.

Nothing to do with your very interesting post but still on-topic I hope: is the state song in your signature sung to the tune of "The Old Gray Mare, She Ain't What She Used To Be"? 'Cause that's what I hear in my head every time I read it.

 

[Blitz24]

Nothing to do with your very interesting post but still on-topic I hope: is the state song in your signature sung to the tune of "The Old Gray Mare, She Ain't What She Used To Be"? 'Cause that's what I hear in my head every time I read it.

Actually, I'm not even aware of state songs. Shows how much I know about my country.

 

[Keef]

Nothing to do with your very interesting post but still on-topic I hope: is the state song in your signature sung to the tune of "The Old Gray Mare, She Ain't What She Used To Be"? 'Cause that's what I hear in my head every time I read it.

Yes it is! And our version is also pretty old, beginning in the 1920s. It's not an official state song though, it's merely a "folk" song referencing The Ohio State University's rivalry with TTUN.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

It just never stops

Justice Department investigating potential presidential pardon bribery scheme, court records reveal

"The political strategy to obtain a presidential pardon was 'parallel' to and distinct from [redacted]'s role as an attorney-advocate for [redacted name]," Howell wrote in her court order.

The grand jury investigation also appears to relate to unnamed people acting as unregistered "lobbyists to senior White House officials" as they sought to secure a pardon and use an intermediary to send a bribe, the unsealed court records say.

Prosecutors hadn't provided evidence to the judge, however, of any direct payment, and instead showed evidence that a person was seeking clemency because of past and future political contributions.

Anyone want to fill in the redacted blanks for fun?

 

[jjaisli]

It just never stops

Justice Department investigating potential presidential pardon bribery scheme, court records reveal



Anyone want to fill in the redacted blanks for fun?

It’s like the Trump version of Mad Libs. (No pun intended)

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

My money says its gotta be the honorable Rudolph Giuliani.

"The political strategy to obtain a presidential pardon was 'parallel' to and distinct from Giuliani's role as an attorney-advocate for Donald Trump," Howell wrote in her court order.

 

[Blitz24]

My money says its gotta be the honorable Rudolph Giuliani.

There was already a report out stating Giuliani was asking Trump to pardon him yet he hasn't been charged with anything yet. That's a good way to not look suspicious!

 

[Danoff]

It just never stops

Justice Department investigating potential presidential pardon bribery scheme, court records reveal



Anyone want to fill in the redacted blanks for fun?

Trump called it fake nooz. That's right, the justice department is now the media.

 

[UKMikey]

Keeping this out of the virus thread as it's mainly politics. As per CNN:

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/02/politics/obama-vaccine/index.html

Trump's three predecessors as president have volunteered to take the Covid vaccine to prove that it's safe. Trumpists on social media have come out in their hordes claiming that those new world order stooges would only take a saline solution and that the real vaccine has mind control microchips in.

You can't win with people like that. The vaccine seemed to be OK previously when they were praising Trump for getting it approved at warp speed.

 

[Danoff]

Keeping this out of the virus thread as it's mainly politics. As per CNN:

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/02/politics/obama-vaccine/index.html

Trump's three predecessors as president have volunteered to take the Covid vaccine to prove that it's safe. Trumpists on social media have come out in their hordes claiming that those new world order stooges would only take a saline solution and that the real virus has mind control microchips in.

You can't win with people like that. The vaccine seemed to be OK previously when they were praising Trump for getting it approved at warp speed.

View attachment 975968

Take a step back and just consider for a moment what it would take to actually orchestrate something like that and pull it off without getting caught. Not just the actual doing of it, but the origination of the idea to do it. That requires cooperation to defraud the American people not just by all 3 presidents, and the people administering it, but coordination with at least Pfizer and Moderna, and almost certainly individuals within the Trump administration - probably within governments around the world.

It's almost impossible to believe, of course - and the person that did would have to be, as you posted, a tinfoil hat type. But they don't believe that. Someone thought up saline, spouted it, the people who heard put zero thought into what that would actually look like, and just chose to believe it.

 

[UKMikey]

They're saying that Obama drank filtered water in Flint, MI to try and convince people to install filters and that this somehow proves the vaccine is fake. I can't even.

https://factcheck.thedispatch.com/p/did-barack-obama-mock-the-flint-water

 

[Liquid]

The Flint water scandal is a scandal no matter which administration is in federal or state charge.

It's still going on as best I know. What, 8-10 years since the breaking point on top of the prior 30-40 years before that?

 

[UKMikey]

The Flint water scandal is a scandal no matter which administration is in federal or state charge.

It's still going on as best I know. What, 8-10 years since the breaking point on top of the prior 30-40 years before that?

Sure, but why put all of the blame on someone who took responsibility and tried to fix the problem? The way they tell it he was all Marie Antoinette and "let them drink leaded water". That wasn't the case and is no reason to avoid the vaccine.

 

[TenEightyOne]

The Flint water scandal is a scandal no matter which administration is in federal or state charge.

Definitely. It wasn't fixed by Obama's government and it wasn't fixed by Trump's either. I don't know what the required engineering solutions are but it can't be beyond the wit of man or the wealth of America to just sort it out.

What really gets my goat is that while it goes on and on, for some Americans the Flint crisis is only a big deal when they're weaponising it.

 

[Danoff]

Definitely. It wasn't fixed by Obama's government and it wasn't fixed by Trump's either. I don't know what the required engineering solutions are but it can't be beyond the wit of man or the wealth of America to just sort it out.

What really gets my goat is that while it goes on and on, for some Americans the Flint crisis is only a big deal when they're weaponising it.

I'm lost on why this is considered an issue for the President at all.

 

[TexRex]

What really gets my goat is that while it goes on and on, for some Americans the Flint crisis is only a big deal when they're weaponising it.

Cannon Hinnant.

 

[TenEightyOne]

I'm lost on why this is considered an issue for the President at all.

Because at some point the Chief Executive has to say "this has gone on long enough. Fix it.".

 

[Danoff]

Because at some point the Chief Executive has to say "this has gone on long enough. Fix it.".

State Governor would be the most logical place for the buck to absolutely stop. By the time it reaches the governor's task list, it has gone through quite a few elected officials whose job it is to make sure that drinking water is safe. There's a long line of failures to the state level. When you start getting into the federal level, I think there's probably another chain of appointed officials who should step in, especially at the EPA.

I get that Obama demonstrated good leadership by showing a rightly worried public what was ok and what was not ok if the water had been filtered. I'm surprised it took Obama to do it, but I'm sure it had an impact. But the idea that Obama should be involved with the solution... he's definitely not the best person to do that, and it's not the best use of his time. I'd blame someone closer to Flint.

(Full disclosure, I know very little about the Flint public water issue)

 

[Biggles]

Take a step back and just consider for a moment what it would take to actually orchestrate something like that and pull it off without getting caught. Not just the actual doing of it, but the origination of the idea to do it. That requires cooperation to defraud the American people not just by all 3 presidents, and the people administering it, but coordination with at least Pfizer and Moderna, and almost certainly individuals within the Trump administration - probably within governments around the world.

It's almost impossible to believe, of course - and the person that did would have to be, as you posted, a tinfoil hat type. But they don't believe that. Someone thought up saline, spouted it, the people who heard put zero thought into what that would actually look like, and just chose to believe it.

You are obviously still struggling with the adjustment to a post-fact, post-logic world. As George Carlin said: "Think of how stupid the average person is, and then realise that half of them are stupider than that..."

 

[Tornado]

This is an outrage. Senators shouldn't be paid anywhere near that much.