Donald Trump presidency discussion thread V

serfboard

eagle eye wrote: »

The interviews beside helicopters and planes are a very smart move by Trump.

Similar to his election slogan, in that it's another thing he copied from Ronald Reagan.

Given that the likes of Roger Stone has worked on Republican campaigns since Nixon, you can see how these things persist.

duploelabs

serfboard wrote: »

Similar to his election slogan, in that it's another thing he copied from Ronald Reagan.

Given that the likes of Roger Stone has worked on Republican campaigns since Nixon, you can see how these things persist.

Can't see him involved in the next one

Water John

Well, the act of criminal prosecution once he ceases to be POTUS would be a great motive to run again.

L1011

Water John wrote: »

Well, the act of criminal prosecution once he ceases to be POTUS would be a great motive to run again.

I took that as meaning Stone - who will be in prison.

Water John

Lara Trump really doing a Comical Ali on a Sky interview. She's saying Dem candidates shouldn't be wasting their money running against Trump and that he'll win bigger in 2020.

TomOnBoard

Water John wrote: »

Lara Trump really doing a Comical Ali on a Sky interview. She's saying Dem candidates shouldn't be wasting their money running against Trump and that he'll win bigger in 2020.

IMHO, there is no-one, Comical Ali included, who can spin the most impossible lies like the current WH Press Sec.

And, while I abhor the content of her replies and her abject dissembling, I have massive admiration for her cojones, as she fields the questions from the sheep of the Press Corps in the once a month press briefing. She's a dreadful dissembler, but Jeez, she still can play the whole lot of them!

I wish I had her cojones when I'm having to deal with my boss and my kids!

everlast75

TomOnBoard wrote: »

IMHO, there is no-one, Comical Ali included, who can spin the most impossible lies like the current WH Press Sec.

And, while I abhor the content of her replies and her abject dissembling, I have massive admiration for her cojones, as she fields the questions from the sheep of the Press Corps in the once a month press briefing. She's a dreadful dissembler, but Jeez, she still can play the whole lot of them!

I wish I had her cojones when I'm having to deal with my boss and my kids!

If you could lie without consequence or shame and only had to answer to your boss or kids once every 40 days, I'm sure you could manage.

pixelburp

Off the back of the air-crash in Ethiopia that killed 157, Trump has of course weighed in with his ... unique perspective. Despite not knowing the cause of the crash (right?), he has declared that airplane are too complex to fly.

Despite all facts pointing to how safe air travel is these days - and because of the technological improvements at that - he comes out with this ludicrous comment.

Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT. I see it all the time in many products. Always seeking to go one unnecessary step further, when often old and simpler is far better. Split second decisions are....

....needed, and the complexity creates danger. All of this for great cost yet very little gain. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane!

Leroy42

pixelburp wrote: »

Off the back of the air-crash in Ethiopia that killed 157, Trump has of course weighed in with his ... unique perspective. Despite not knowing the cause of the crash (right?), he has declared that airplane are too complex to fly.

Despite all facts pointing to how safe air travel is these days - and because of the technological improvements at that - he comes out with this ludicrous comment.

But a space force is what is needed!

amandstu

Leroy42 wrote: »

But a space force is what is needed!

With pilots wearing MAGA helmets and carrying 45s for hand to hand combat.

Walter Bishop

So does he want a Space Force or does he want air travel to go back to the biplane era?

It's almost as if he's a half-senile coot, just waiting to rant at some clouds...

ECO_Mental

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/12/politics/pelosi-trump-impeachment-house-democrats/index.html

Interesting quote from Pelosi over the weekend where she said that the Dems are not planning to impeach Trump because "Hes not worth it..."

I think this is a brilliant move from Pelosi for a number of reasons and it makes perfect sense. If the Dems go all out for impeachment it will be a massive task and will need the support from the GOP which they wont give. They will also spend months if not years fighting Trump in the courts to even get to that stage. Best bet and I have said this before is to investigate the **** out of Trump for the next 2 years (practically 18 months to November 2020) and dig as much **** up on Trump as possible and hammer him (and the GOP because they will have to defend him) on the campaign trail.

Make the 2020 campaign the impeachment and f**k him out of office. Then in and around the 20th January 2021 indict the the hell out of him as he will be a normal joe blogs again and can be indicted up the ying yang without the fear of going to the supreme court etc

Also now you take the whole impeachment call to rally the GOP are using to get out their vote. The American people are going to vote this joke of a person out of office. We also look forward to 2 years of congressional hearings and investigations of the Trump org and lay the ground work of the tidal wave of litigation that's going to hit him on the 20th Jan 2021. He is going to be sorry that he ever ran for president......I can see the Trump Organization wound down and going bankrupt again for what is it 4th 5th time?

Stallingrad

ECO_Mental wrote: »

The American people are going to vote this joke of a person out of office. We also look forward to 2 years of congressional hearings and investigations of the Trump org and lay the ground work of the tidal wave of litigation that's going to hit him on the 20th Jan 2021. He is going to be sorry that he ever ran for president......I can see the Trump Organization wound down and going bankrupt again for what is it 4th 5th time?

Would make for a happy ending to this whole sordid episode but, the reality is he could very well be re-elected. I would keep the Champagne on ice.

Leroy42

Just to clarify; this is the actual quote from Pelosi

“But since you asked, and I’ve been thinking about this: Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.”

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-pelosi-meant-impeaching-trump-hes-just-not-worth-it

So she is not saying that they will not impeach, she is saying that Trump is not worth impeaching unless they know they will win it. So effectively ruling out the situation that the GOP did with Clinton.

As was mentioned, it is very unlikely that the GOP in the senate would ever vote for any impeachment, so it really isn't worth it.

Far better to spend the time working out exactly how conflicted Trump is by way of his tax returns and continue investigation into where he got the financing for his business from.

Gbear

Stallingrad wrote: »

Would make for a happy ending to this whole sordid episode but, the reality is he could very well be re-elected. I would keep the Champagne on ice.

Even then, he can still be sued and his businesses litigated against. Whether he wins or not, he could well be penniless after the election and most of his buddies will be imprisoned, often on charges that he can't touch.

Further to that, if the Dems control both house and senate, and Trumpism is defeated in those houses, they may well be able to turn enough scared Republicans to impeach him successfully.

EltonJohn69

Looking like Manafort going to get another light sentence... his lawyer claiming the whole thing is a because of the media

mcmoustache

The most that he can get here is 10 years. Also, the sentence for crimes relating to his conviction and sentencing in Virginia would most likely be served concurrently (source - lurking in the Legal Discussion forum has taught me that multiple crimes committed in the course of a single criminal act tend to be served concurrently. For example, an armed robbery could see you charged with theft as well as possession of a firearm. As these charges were part of the same act, the sentence would run concurrently. I'm happy to be corrected here if my interpretation is off.).

There are other crimes to which he pleaded guilty that aren't related so these can still run consecutively.

If we're taking bets, I'd guess 5 additional years from ABJ based on my serious lack of knowledge on such matters and plucking a handy number out of my whatever.

mcmoustache

On count 1 he gets 60 months, 30 concurrent with the Virginia one.
On count 2, 13 months to run consecutively.

So he gets 43 additional months here and 47 months from Virginia and has already served 9 months which the Virginia judge included so it looks like 81 months in total.

Just under 7 years. Again, he's lucky he wasn't caught with some weed while black.

Still, 7 years means he gets out shortly before his 77th birthday. There's still the strong likelihood of a pardon, of course, but then NY state (Letisha James) seems to have that one covered too.

EltonJohn69

Turns out his solitary confinement was a private residence.... Manafort was living it up in prison !

Gbear

Manafort has promptly been charged with 16 more crimes by the state of New York.

One way or the other, he's not getting off lightly.

mcmoustache

mcmoustache wrote: »

There's still the strong likelihood of a pardon, of course, but then NY state (Letisha James) seems to have that one covered too.

Aaaaaaaaannnndd here we go.

The new state charges against Mr. Manafort are contained in a 16-count indictment that alleges a yearlong scheme in which he falsified business records to obtain millions of dollars in loans, Mr. Vance said in a news release after the federal sentencing.

“No one is beyond the law in New York,” he said, adding that the investigation by the prosecutors in his office had “yielded serious criminal charges for which the defendant has not been held accountable.”

Impotent rage on twitter says what?

mcmoustache

Gbear wrote: »

Manafort has promptly been charged with 16 more crimes by the state of New York.

One way or the other, he's not getting off lightly.

SNAP.

Yeah. This is quite important too.

Some of the felons around Trump have definitely been considering pardons as part of their defensive strategies, Manafort especially.

This completely nullifies the power of a pardon. More importantly, this action shows that state charges aren't some academic hypothetical anymore. They are a reality now.

Gbear

Be interesting to see what the story is with "competing" state and federal charges. Does he automatically serve them consecutively, are federal served concurrently with state crimes and then you've whatever is left on the state charges that spill over, or is there an element of discretion involved?

I'd be surprised if Trump tried to pardon Manafort before the election. Just because he doesn't give a **** about the rule of law doesn't mean that he'll whimsically commit clear obstruction of justice in a way that might blow back on him almost immediately. Once he had either nothing to lose following a loss in the election, or time to let it blow over at the start of another 4 year term, then he'd be in a better position to do it.

mcmoustache

Mr. Manafort’s lawyers likely will challenge the new indictment on double jeopardy grounds. New York state law includes stronger protections than those provided by the United States Constitution, but prosecutors in Mr. Vance’s office have expressed confidence that they would prevail, people with knowledge of the matter said.

I have a feeling that the charges chosen don't overlap enough for double jeopardy to apply. If NY charges separate crimes or federal crimes that ended without a verdict, I expect that the sentencing from the state would have little to do with any of the federal crimes. In other words, they would be separate and basically consecutive. I'm not sure what the procedure is regarding custody, though. Like, do they pick him up on release from federal prison when the 7 years are up or he gets pardoned?

As for Trump pardoning him, I'm pretty certain that Manafort acted the bollix that he did knowing that a pardon was at the other end. Trump would need to pardon him at some point so that others, such as Stone, could be confident that protecting Trump gets them a pardon. I think he will need to do it, even as a symbolic gesture, given the state charges. If he doesn't, he leaves co-conspirators feeling high and dry and, more importantly, more willing to save their skin by cooperating.

So I think he'll still pardon Manafort, even with the state charges pending.

everlast75

Whitaker was back in before one of the House committees today.

His evidence was... interesting


https://twitter.com/politiCOHEN_/status/1105939325966012417?s=19

eagle eye

hotmail.com wrote:

It's going to be a long 8 years for you.

What does this mean?

aloyisious

I reckon that Don might be feeling the urge to exercise the pardon power in response to what he reads about the federal sentencing and the upcoming state charges cases against Paul Manafort but he might not, as he'd be seen as pardoning a tax cheat, not an honest joe who pays his taxes on demand. The banks PM also TRIED TO CHEAT might take a dim view of any such pardon, though it wouldn't be in respect of PM's alleged fraud acts against them. Don has property in NYC which still require occasional funding and overseas funding may be hard to come by now.

aloyisious

Gbear wrote: »

Be interesting to see what the story is with "competing" state and federal charges. Does he automatically serve them consecutively, are federal served concurrently with state crimes and then you've whatever is left on the state charges that spill over, or is there an element of discretion involved?

I'd be surprised if Trump tried to pardon Manafort before the election. Just because he doesn't give a **** about the rule of law doesn't mean that he'll whimsically commit clear obstruction of justice in a way that might blow back on him almost immediately. Once he had either nothing to lose following a loss in the election, or time to let it blow over at the start of another 4 year term, then he'd be in a better position to do it.

I don't think D/J is applicable as the federal charges were in respect of tax offences and the NY charges are in respect of attempts to defraud banks by submitting false documents to the banks in respect of requests for mortgage loans from the banks.

everlast75

aloyisious wrote: »

I reckon that Don might be feeling the urge to exercise the pardon power in response to what he reads about the federal sentencing and the upcoming state charges cases against Paul Manafort but he might not, as he'd be seen as pardoning a tax cheat, not an honest joe who pays his taxes on demand. The banks PM also cheated might take a dim view of any such pardon, though it wouldn't be in respect of PM's alleged fraud acts against them. Don has property in NYC which still require occasional funding and overseas funding may be hard to come by now.

He can't pardon the upcoming State charges...

aloyisious

everlast75 wrote: »

He can't pardon the upcoming State charges...

Yeah, I meant that Don acts responsively to what he says and he might feel pity after reading/hearing the news reports about PM's fate and issue a pardon in respect of the Federal convictions, even if it might be counter-productive to him & PM in the future.