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Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread

11 Jan 25 - 11:31 AM (#4215143)
Subject: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thre
From: Stilly River Sage

The threads have merged to do with the US 2024 presidential election and the conviction of Donald J. Trump. Musk and many of his team are not elected and some not eligible to ever be president, but there are suggestions that for a while we may see a co-presidency between Trump and Musk. This is troublesome and people may find interesting articles that clarify or alert us to problems going forward.

This doesn't mean that every weird thing that pops into Don and Dick's heads should be printed here. If it gets too out of control you have advance warning that odd stuff will be culled. If you feel like you're being trolled don't post normal stuff and insults in the same post because both parts will disappear. If too many insults are posted you may disappear for a while. The other threads are going to close because we've tried to keep it to one UK and one US political thread. An exception was made mostly because we couldn't stop it. Now we can.

Looking for a news page that everyone should be able to open and read, here is a story that CNN may update:
https://www.cnn.com/politics/president-donald-trump-47 Donald J. Trump
News on former President Donald Trump and the Trump administration

Meanwhile, here is his claim that he will hand over his private businesses during the presidency:

Trump Organization’s new ethics plan pledges Donald Trump will separate himself from his private business interests
(CNN) — The Trump Organization on Friday announced that President-elect Donald Trump will not have any involvement in managing his real estate and branding empire during his second term and appointed an outside ethics adviser to monitor major company actions – part of several measures the organization said it was taking to avoid conflicts of interest as Trump prepares to return to the White House later this month.

The provisions, for the most part, mirror steps announced during the first Trump administration.

Under its plan, the company pledged not to enter into any new deals with foreign governments and voluntarily donate to the US Treasury any profits from foreign governments that it can identify flowing into its hotels and other properties.

The ethics pledge, however, is silent on how the company will handle overseas business deals. And Trump’s son Eric Trump, the company’s executive vice president, has previously said that the firm will continue to pursue foreign business during his father’s second term, relaxing a self-imposed restriction that the company has said was in place during the first term.

In a statement, the Trump Organization noted that the incoming president is not required either by federal law or the US Constitution to remove himself from his business interests. Even so, Eric Trump said, the company “is dedicated to not just meeting but vastly exceeding its legal and ethical obligations during my father’s Presidency.”

He called the ethical standards announced Friday “robust.”

The younger Trump, who essentially guides the company day-to-day, also announced that prominent Republican lawyer William Burck will serve as an outside adviser to review major transactions to avoid ethics problems.

The plan unveiled Friday pledges that Donald Trump will have “limited access” to the company’s financial information. Additionally, his businesses will remain in a trust, managed by his children, and his investments will be overseen by outside financial institutions that will “neither solicit nor accept input” from Trump.

Although Trump is not required to take these steps, previous presidents have moved more aggressively to divest themselves of their businesses or place their holdings in blind trusts to avoid the appearance of self-dealing – a distinction often noted by ethics watchdogs during Trump’s political career.

And, as CNN has previously reported, the incoming president has pursued new business deals in recent months – including joining his family in a cryptocurrency venture and promoting new merchandise touting his electoral victory.

Another thing I'm curious about but haven't bothered to look up is where are Jared and Ivanka this time around? They were front and center in the last administration, but have pulled away from a lot of his activity once he was indicted. Are they completely out of the picture, or are they doing more behind the scenes money-making on the family name? Managing the crypto fund?

The Democrats are working to elect a new party leader. Whoever is put in that role has the job of trying to flip the House and the Senate in two years to hobble Trump's ability to do more damage (he's already considered a "lame duck" and that may result in some surprising pushback by his own party.) Getting past the lies told to people who have no connection with their local politics is the biggest challenge. (A side issue is that many US newspapers have closed so the only source of info about elections for people in small communities is on the national level.) We need to rediscover the meaning of "loyal opposition."

Participants here may want to pick up a couple of small books: The U.S. Constitution (ACLU asks you for money, but skip past and read it), and Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.

Snyder's first lesson: Do not obey in advance. (Clearly many of the big names in corporate America including oligarchs like Bezos and Zuckerberg did not read this book.)

11 Jan 25 - 01:31 PM (#4215154)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: MaJoC the Filk

I'll restrict myself to a "hear, hear" on "We need to rediscover the meaning of "loyal opposition" and Snyder's First Lesson, and throwing in the expression "government by brain fart".

11 Jan 25 - 04:32 PM (#4215162)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: keberoxu

Forbes magazine just pointed something out: international travel as a felon.
Twenty-two countries, it states, have "laws that allow them to kick out any visitors once their [criminal] record is discovered."
Canada, the U.K., Israel, Japan, China, India, and Argentina are among the countries with
"strict requirements for visitors with criminal histories, if they're allowed in at all."

Forbes goes on to say that another president before Trump had problems:
George W. Bush had a misdemeanor drunk driving conviction on this record,
and had to "apply for a special waiver to enter Canada."

11 Jan 25 - 10:28 PM (#4215174)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: Helen

Trump prosecutor Jack Smith resigns after submitting DOJ report

"In short: Special Counsel Jack Smith has resigned days before Donald Trump's inauguration.

"Mr Smith led the first federal indictments against a former president in US history.

"Trump said he would fire Mr Smith immediately after gaining office, claiming the cases were politically motivated."

12 Jan 25 - 05:23 AM (#4215185)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: Mr Red

Huston, you have a problem.

12 Jan 25 - 11:32 AM (#4215198)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: Stilly River Sage

There were lots of photos of all five living presidents at the Carter funeral. This photo released by the Carter Center is composed beautifully.
Never did a pillar do such good work.

The photos of the coffin passing, coming and going for the funeral, show everyone with their hands on their hearts - except the Trumps. Photos posted on Bluesky by the Washington Post

It takes so little to be kind. This man works at avoiding all of those gestures. He complained about the flags being at half-mast for 30 days for Carter landing during his inauguration. I would put money on his calling to have that rescinded the moment he's in office. Because it suits him.

12 Jan 25 - 12:34 PM (#4215200)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: Mr Red

video - Dubya greeting Trump at Carter's funeral just in case you haven't seen it (:-)

12 Jan 25 - 02:10 PM (#4215202)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: Helen

Except that he would expect flags to be at half-mast when he shuffles off his own mortal coil.

Did you see halfway down the page of the Photos posted on Bluesky by the Washington Post, a photo of Mark Zuckerberg with headline and text? My Hubby sent me that image. It was generated immediately after Zuckerberg announced that Meta will no longer fact-check posts on Facebook. Someone jumped in with a post about Zuckerberg which needs to be fact-checked. LOL

13 Jan 25 - 06:55 AM (#4215231)
Subject: RE: New Rules
From: Donuel

"If it gets too out of control you have advance warning that odd stuff will be culled."

the problem is...

More 'odd stuff' is coming true. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/fartcoin/
Will Trump repeat anti protest policy? https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/02/politics/donald-trump-george-floyd-protest-military/index.html

13 Jan 25 - 05:02 PM (#4215253)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: Donuel

The reason autocrats arrest journalists is to hide odd secrets.
These are odd days indeed, but nuclear destruction seems less critical than decades ago unless Hegseth obeys his master's sudden wrath. There will be deja vu to come like 'crowd size' and the greatest Presidential advances the universe has ever seen.

Right now the odd secrets are more like open secrets.

14 Jan 25 - 11:16 AM (#4215301)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: Stilly River Sage

The parade of horribles begins today with Hegseth going before the senate, though it seems the FBI is already carrying water for Trump and didn't investigate the crimes and complaints against the man. No interviews with those who he abused and the organizations he mismanaged.

14 Jan 25 - 12:44 PM (#4215308)
Subject: RE: Spot the anachronism
From: gillymor

Speaking of Trump anachronisms there were a couple of doozies during this July 4th Speech where he referenced airports during the Revolutionary War.

14 Jan 25 - 02:41 PM (#4215315)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: Donuel

"We need to tear out root and branch weak woke DEI liberal CRT leftists in our military and replace them with patriots who love America" Pete Hegseth.

A partisan military is Trump's desire and Pete will seek it out.
Pete is also critical of women in combat and veterans who milk the VA system for all sorts of gifts.

Democratic Senators were all denied any interview with Hegseth or an FBI investigation report into Hegseth. Only the Republican chairman was allowed to see the FBI report.f

Pete does not know the meaning of anonymous when witnesses to his drunkenness have given their names addresses and phone numbers including his mom. Republicans claim that Hegseth's staff will do the real work and that Senators get drunk too.

14 Jan 25 - 03:43 PM (#4215323)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: Stilly River Sage

From Slate, so there is a paywall, but the browser extension "JustRead" lets you see the article.

Aileen Cannon's final gift to Trump: The Jack Smith report DOA.
And yet: It feels as though Cannon’s conduct in recent days marked a departure, even for her. Among other things, last week she reached out and meddled in a case over which she had no jurisdiction, plucking the matter back from the appeals court where it was properly pending. She attempted to quash a report on a case that was wholly unconnected to the Mar-a-Lago case that was being litigated before a different judge in D.C. Amid the chaotic filings and deadlines and decisions issued over the past few days, lawyers attempted to parse what she was doing and why she believed she could do it as we waited with bated breath to figure out who would stop her. When it became clear on Monday that in fact nobody was going to stop her, Cannon took her own win by keeping the Mar-a-Lago report under wraps and begrudgingly letting the Justice Department release the Jan. 6 volume (after the 11th Circuit indicated that it would do so for her if she didn’t backtrack quickly). This seems a moment worth naming and marking.

14 Jan 25 - 06:27 PM (#4215328)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: gillymor

My post of 12:44 was moved here from up top and so appears to be a non sequitur.

15 Jan 25 - 12:08 AM (#4215333)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: Stilly River Sage

Trump is a non sequitur, it fits right in!

15 Jan 25 - 06:03 AM (#4215345)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: Donuel

Lyrics
If you wake up and don't want to smile
or it takes just a little while
Open your eyes and look at the day
You'll see things in a different way
Don't stop thinking about tomorrow
Don't stop, it'll soon be here
It'll be better than before
Yesterday's lie, will eventually die.
Why not think about times to come?
And not about the things that hate has done
If your life was bad to you
Just think what tomorrow will do
Don't stop thinking about tomorrow
Don't stop, it'll soon be here
It'll be better than before
Yesterday's lie, will eventually die
All I want is to see you smile
If it takes just a little while
I know you don't believe that it's true
There are folks who meant harm to you
Don't stop thinking about tomorrow
Don't stop, it'll soon be here
It'll be better than before
Yesterday's lie will eventually die
Don't stop thinking about tomorrow
Don't stop, it'll soon be here
It'll be better than before
Yesterday's lie will eventually die
We won't go back
(Ooh)
We won't go back
(Ooh)
We won't go back

15 Jan 25 - 07:32 AM (#4215347)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: gillymor

I hope he's a non sequitur and not the end of our "more perfect union". I guess the best we can do is to be good citizens and fight to preserve what we've created over these last 2 1/2 centuries. It sounds dramatic but a decent way of life is in the balance for the common man and it's not inconceivable that Trump and his billionaire friends could destroy it.

15 Jan 25 - 08:04 AM (#4215351)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: Donuel

The balance of a decent middle-class life has been attacked since the death of FDR. Billionaire-owned government has expanded since the 50's when taxes on the wealthy was as high as 90%. Now it's 16% if income is claimed. It's less if it is called capital gains. Our tax code has grown by 3,000 more pages, all to take from the middle class and poor to give to the rich. Of course, the rules were written by the rich.

South Korea has more respect for the law than the US. Today the police arrested the impeached President who declared martial law.

15 Jan 25 - 08:16 AM (#4215352)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: gillymor

There certainly has been a significant transfer of wealth over the last half century and more, but at some point we have to stop bending over for the graspers. Perhaps it's going to take a period of abject misery for that to come about.

15 Jan 25 - 10:45 AM (#4215362)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: Stilly River Sage

If we can't get the representation back where it belongs, in non-gerrymandered districts, and can't get the big money out of politics, we are sunk.

15 Jan 25 - 12:03 PM (#4215367)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: Backwoodsman

‘Twas ever thus…

15 Jan 25 - 12:50 PM (#4215372)
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President 1 thread
From: Stilly River Sage

The states will have to take the lead on this. I should have completed the thought.

The money is the biggest problem by far, with billionaires throwing it at anyone who threatens to not toe the line. "You'll be primaried" means they'll support someone in the party to run against them the next time around. Only a couple of the Republicans who voted to impeach Trump survived the process.