Trump indictment - what does this mean for the US?

Post Reply New Topic

If the Democrats could come up with a solid, moderate candidate, it would likely be a major landslide. Unfortunately, they just want progressives.

Interesting as Biden seems for now to be front runner for the Democratic nomination, unless for whatever reason you assume otherwise, in which case you have labeled him as a Progressive. Because at other times people on WP have dismissed him as a Neoconservative. At least we have a clear understanding of Mr. Trump's political orientation (I would characterize it as right-wing populist I think few people would deviate much from that basic analysis).

I do find it interesting that very little of the US-Canada border has any sort of physical barrier protecting it. Although it's never been legal to just walk across it, pre-911 there were situations in which populations on either side lived adjacent to each other, and within those communities people did casually go back and forth and this was tolerated so long as those people were known (caveat I don't have specific evidence to present but that's my impression).

Whereas, wall or no wall, every cm of the US-Mexico border has always had at least a fence delimiting it, AFAIK, so then we must ask ourselves, why the difference?

Every time I see anyone refer to the US as a Banana Republic, I want to go kick their ass. They are showing their ignorance of what a Banana Republic is. The US is not, never has been, and never will be a Banana Republic.

A Banana Republic, by definition, is a country with one primary export on which the economy of that country depends very heavily and in which control of that export is in the hands of an outside company that has enormous influence on the running of the country.

As for Trump, it is highly unlikely that he will ever spend a day in prison. If convicted, he will probably just get home confinement. At worst, maybe a guarded compound on a military base. Then, if DeSantis wins the 2024 election, expect DeSantis to pardon Trump.

As for Trump winning in 2024, all he really does is doom the Republican Party chances in that year. People have already shown that they do not like Trump. If Trump wins the nomination, the Republican Party is making a huge mistake. It wouldn't be surprising that if Trump is the nominee, the Democrats will win the Presidency, the Senate, and the House as Trump drags everyone down with him.

Trump's problem is that he is completely devoid of just about every redeeming quality. He is terribly dishonest, has no integrity, has no loyalty to anyone but himself, and is not even a Conservative.

The other is Point Roberts in the state of Washington. Point Roberts isn't very large. To drive from Point Roberts to anywhere else in Washington, you have to go through the border at Point Roberts and again at, I think, Blaine, Washington or to a further crossing. They don't have enough of a school for all the kids in Point Roberts so for certain grades, the school buses cross the border twice in the morning and twice in the evening. After 9/11, security got tightened up so high that it was reportedly taking the school bus two or three hours to enter the US on each end. Also, I think that for many things like doctor's visits, dentist visits, and prescription drugs, you have to go through customs twice each way.

The federal indictment of former President Donald Trump has unleashed a wave of calls by his supporters for violence and an uprising to defend him, disturbing observers and raising concerns of a dangerous atmosphere before his court appearance in Miami on Tuesday.

In social media posts and public remarks, close allies of Trump — including a member of Congress — have portrayed the indictment as an act of war, called for retribution and highlighted the fact that much of his base carries weapons. The allies have painted Trump as a victim of a weaponized Justice Department controlled by President Joe Biden, his potential opponent in the 2024 election.

The calls to action and threats have been amplified on right-wing media sites and have been met by supportive responses from social media users and cheers from crowds, who have become conditioned over several years by Trump and his allies to see any efforts to hold him accountable as assaults against him.

"Eye for an eye,” wrote Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., in a post on Twitter on Friday. His warning came shortly before the special counsel in the case, Jack Smith, spoke to the public for the first time since he took over the investigation of Trump’s retention of classified documents.

On Instagram, Trump’s eldest son’s fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, posted a photo of the former president with the words, “Retribution Is Coming,” in all capital letters.

In Georgia, at the Republican state convention, Kari Lake, who refused to concede the Arizona election for governor in 2022 and who is an ardent defender of Trump, emphasized that many of Trump’s supporters owned guns.

“I have a message tonight for Merrick Garland and Jack Smith and Joe Biden — and the guys back there in the fake news media, you should listen up as well, this one is for you,” Lake said. “If you want to get to President Trump, you are going to have go through me, and you are going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me. And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA.”

The crowd cheered.

Political violence experts say that even if aggressive language by high-profile individuals does not directly end in physical harm, it creates a dangerous atmosphere in which the idea of violence becomes more accepted, especially if such rhetoric is left unchecked.

“So far, the politicians who have used this rhetoric to inspire people to violence have not been held accountable,” said Mary McCord, a former senior Justice Department official who has studied the ties between extremist rhetoric and violence. “Until that happens, there’s little deterrent to using this type of language.”

The language used by some right-wing media figures was more stark.

On Pete Santilli’s talk show, the conservative provocateur declared that if he were the commandant of the Marine Corps, he would order “every single Marine” to grab Biden, “throw him in freakin’ zip ties in the back of a freakin’ pickup truck,” and “get him out of the White House.”

One of his guests, Lance Migliaccio, said that if it were legal and he had access, he would “probably walk in and shoot” Gen. Mark A. Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and someone Trump has identified as one of his enemies.

So far, the reactions from Trump’s supporters have been more intense and explicit than those expressed after Trump was indicted in a separate case by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in late March.

The FBI has been the target of much criticism from far-right Republican lawmakers and the former president’s supporters. In the wake of the heated partisanship, FBI field offices are reporting all threats related to their personnel or facilities to the Washington headquarters, in an unusual step. A law enforcement familiar with the move said the FBI was trying to get a handle on the number of threats around the country directed at the agency.

Despite whatever security precautions are taken for Trump’s appearance Tuesday, security experts said that the rhetoric and the threats from it were unlikely to subside and would likely become more pronounced as the case moves forward and the 2024 election nears.

On Instagram on Saturday morning, Trump posted a mashup video of himself swinging a golf club on the course and an animation of a golf ball hitting Biden in the head, superimposed with footage of Biden falling at a public event in recent days after he tripped over something onstage.

Interesting as Biden seems for now to be front runner for the Democratic nomination, unless for whatever reason you assume otherwise, in which case you have labeled him as a Progressive. Because at other times people on WP have dismissed him as a Neoconservative. At least we have a clear understanding of Mr. Trump's political orientation (I would characterize it as right-wing populist I think few people would deviate much from that basic analysis).

Neoconservative?

If Biden is the candidate and he is running against Trump, he probably will win, but it won't be by a major landslide.

As for Trump, I think he's mainly an opportunistic populist. There's nothing Conservative about him.

Biden isn't a progressive. Biden's middle of the road conservative.
.

:roll:

No one says single payer healthcare has to be an "unlimited health budget." It simply requires systemic reform to cut out the non-value adding layers of insurance corporation profits. They may also need to revisit how they value specialist salaries etc, too. But it's completely nuts to suggest that a better healthcare system requires an "unlimited health budget."

USA spends more money per capita than any other developed country and doesn't provide healthcare to all of their citizens for that $. CLEARLY they could make PROGRESS and do better than that. Perhaps with a Progressive leader.

The problem is that too many people still hold on to the 1950s red-scare mentality. Anything to the left of the Freedom Caucus is considered "socialist" (back then, it was the John Birch Society), and all Democrats and even moderate Republicans are lumped with Marx, Engels, Lenin, et al.