Politics 2023

[Buster's Uncle]

...

He shows flashes of sense sometimes, too, when he's not hopelessly compromising himself.

[Rusty Edge]

I tried contacting my new congressman about the debt ceiling. My old one was losing his grip mentally and retired. Interestingly the website has been revised in a way that makes it more difficult to make contact. I live in a gerrymandered district, so I doubt I'll be heeded, but this is what I sent-

We've been there and done that with the debt ceiling before. It seemed like a good idea once, but shutting down the government costs more than keeping it open in the long run. Likewise threatening to default on the National Debt downgraded our national bond rating and has cost us billions ever since. Doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result is insanity. You should be working to restore our bond rating. Don't let this nonsense go past Memorial Day. No telling what the costs will be to the financial markets,
Kick the can down the road, or man up to your oath of office to the Constitution and honor the 14th Amendment and raise the debt ceiling as Congress annually does now.
sincerely,

[Geo]

I have no idea if China has a monetary debt worth speaking of, but I do seem to remember reading an article (many years back) that China was buying up lots of USA bonds and could, if they wanted, default the USA debt if they wanted...

[Rusty Edge]

I have no idea if China has a monetary debt worth speaking of, but I do seem to remember reading an article (many years back) that China was buying up lots of USA bonds and could, if they wanted, default the USA debt if they wanted...

They do hold a lot of our debt. 

Today I was thinking that my first contact with my Congressman should have been to ask him who won the 2020 presidential election.

[Geo]

 

[Rusty Edge]

[Sleezebag] was arraigned for espionage yesterday.
HOORAY for "the Rule of Law"! While I understand that because he has a Secret Service detail, authorities know where he is  at all times, I was shocked that they didn't pull his passport.  Tonight I saw an interview with the former attorney for Reality Winner, (a service person convicted of espionage) - "I can't understand why a person indicted for espionage can still travel internationally- Why,... ( stammers, looks dumbfounded) That's just bonkers!" the attorney said.

[Geo]

Perhaps it expires next month (his passport I mean)? 

[Unorthodox]

More baffled he was able to use it as a campaign fund raising event...

[Buster's Uncle]

He still makes Reagan look like velcro.

[Trenacker]

The three most-urgent problems in American politics today.

1. Fox News has so flooded the zone with negative coverage of Democrats, while soft-peddaling or outright ignoring Republican misdeeds, that even moderates and [Sleezebag]-tepid conservatives remain convinced that there is still enough equivalence between the two major parties to justify their voting for [Sleezebag] or other radical reactionary politicians on the Right. There is no institution capable of countering Fox News, and seemingly no court prepared to muzzle it. At this point, Republicans are living in an alternate reality where the fullness of [Sleezebag]'s crimes remain unknown to them, and the extent of Democratic wrongdoing is vastly over-stated.

2. Republicans who previously supported Donald [Sleezebag] are now fighting a bitter rear-guard battle against denial. For tens of millions to admit that they erred in their previous support and enthusiasm is still beyond contemplation. It's less that they trust in him per se than that they aren't prepared to do any self-examination. [Sleezebag] and his imitators are peddling cultural crack cocaine. After a decade or more of wondering whether they've really been asleep at the wheel when it comes to inclusivity, good governance, & etc., conservatives will flock to anyone who promises absolution and tells them their selfish, prejudicial attitudes were justifiable all along. "Demonrat," "Baby-killer," "Far-Left," and "groomer" labels are instructive because they justify conservatives' own discriminatory and anti-social preferences.

3. The media's race for ratings continues to work to Donald [Sleezebag]'s advantage. He's simply too interesting for anybody to look away.

The experience of the 2020 and 2022 election cycles both indicate that a majority of Americans are tired enough of Donald [Sleezebag] that he will have an uphill fight in a general election, but it's Biden's race to lose.

[Unorthodox]

Keep up.  Fox is old and busted.  It's moved to where they are even being seen as part of the Main Stream Media silence campaign against the TRUTH only spoken of by the orange one's supporters. 

[Rusty Edge]

I know it was discussed pages back. January 6th, Nazi wednesday, etc.

I am generally pleased with the prosecutions and sentencing of the Oaf Bleepers and Loud Boyz. I am pleased at the looming charges against Cheeto Mussolini.

BUT I am frequently frustrated by the lack of evidence of holding middle management of the insurrection accountable. Because without them, the fascist thugs would have been sitting in bars across the country bitching in their beers and Cheeto Mussolini would have been sitting in the Whitehouse cafeteria throwing food at the walls. It took strategists like Steve Bannon (who thinks the actual Mussolini was the greatest political mind of the century), go-betweens like Roger Stone, fund raisers like Ginnie (Mrs. Supreme Court Justice Clearance) Thomas, and of course, wealthy donors. Otherwise, there's no co-ordination and transportation.

It doesn't stop there. Rudy and ("Release the kraken") Sidney Powell played a part in convincing the thugs and congressional constituents that there was widespread election fraud. All of those state party operators fraudulently posing as legitimate electors. Politicians like my senator Ron Johnson who, if he didn't have a hand in the fake elector plot, his staff was certainly operating behind his back. Not bloody likely. Senator Lindsey Graham, who pressured the Georgia election officials. Speakers at the Elipse rally, like law professor John Eastman who masterminded the legal theory, Congressman Mo Brooks who helped incite a riot, and again "Trial by combat!" Rudy. I will add that the Secret Service agents who didn't evacuate [Sleezebag] from the rally at the first sight of a guy with a gun in a tree FAILED. W. Bush wanted to return to the Whitehouse immediately on 911. He wasn't given a choice until the threat was understood. [Sleezebag] should have been immediately and secretly evacuated to Camp David.

I think [Sleezebag] intended for the rioters to coerce Pence and Congress into "doing the right thing," or running for their lives. We know from Mike (My Pillow) Lindell's clip board that "declare martial law" was part of the plan.  [Sleezebag] didn't have enough loyalists in the upper echelons of the departments of Justice and Defense to take it that far. Somebody learned from the training exercise that that's what they needed, because Cheeto is talking about turning the government into a patronage system for loyalists and getting rid of the deep state/bureaucrats/civil servants on the campaign trail.

Well, I'm hoping that the Georgia prosecutor will go after the senator and the fake electors as well as Cheeto and send a message in a timely fashion. Otherwise, [Sleezebag] will feel free to turn the GOP Georgia primary where he is favored to win into a practice run for adding 10s of thousands of votes to his total.

I'm hoping that special prosecutor Smith has a DC  jurisdiction insurrection indictment up his sleeve, and that most of this middle management have taken plea deals that guarantee that everyone involved pays at least a partial price for participation.

[Rusty Edge]

I'm sorry to say that  not only did Mitch McConnel fall this year, but he seems to have had a TIA stroke while speaking from a lectern to reporters. Don't wish that on anyone. I hope he retires and takes care of himself.

[Rusty Edge]

The forum was down this week, and [Sleezebag] was indicted ( 4 counts with a potential for 55 years in total) in DC August 1st for conspiring to overturn a legitimate election.
Some say we knew this day was coming, but I didn't believe it until I saw it.

Why?

Well, I was sure that [Sleezebag] was in big trouble with obstruction of justice in the case of general Flynn, and that the Muller probe would prove it. I didn't expect that a justice department rule or custom about exempting the president from legal charges would come into play, or that Attorney General Bill Barr would lie and obfuscate the findings. No charges and no impeachment.

Then there was the matter of extortion against Ukraine. It led to an impeachment, and some convictions, but again, no charges or removal for [Sleezebag].

Then there was impeachment over the January 6th insurrection. Well, I guess we can call it sedition, because some of the over a thousand people convicted in the matter were charged as such. Again, no consequences for [Sleezebag].

Then there was was the classified documents/espionage case. It's not over. The problem is that it may never be over, because the judge is a [Sleezebag] appointee (who got censured for giving [Sleezebag] favorable treatment in another matter), and in no hurry to move the case forward for fear of further criticism. Cheeto Mussolini uses delay as his standard court tactic. Beyond that, Justice Clarence Thomas has jurisdiction for a potential appeal.

I think that something finally hit him that will stick. In fact, his lawyer basically incriminated [Sleezebag] while trying to defend him on FOX last night, and attorney statements about their clients are admissible in court.

Some say that it's a sad day when a former president is indicted, but I say the sad days were when the crimes were comitted, when people died as a result, when those in authority looked the other way.  I think it's a good day when The Constitution, the rule of law, and the idea that a president and a former president are not kings are upheld.

[Buster's Uncle]

It will always be an outrage that he wasn't technically in custody the night of Nazi Wednesday.