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Purgatory: Oops - your Trump presidency discussion thread.

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  • Hedgehog wrote: »
    Golden Key wrote: »
    But I wonder if he realizes that hiding out at Mar-a-Lago wouldn't fix anything, because he could be extradited back to DC, New York, or anywhere else that wants to drag him into court?
    He's too clever for that! Before he leaves office, he will issue an executive order declaring Mar-a-Lago to be a sovereign nation with no extradition treaty with the U.S.

    He'll build a WALL -- a beautiful WALL. And New York will pay for it.
  • Just came across this reaction from the Governor of New York State:
    "Good riddance. It's not like Mr. Trump paid taxes here anyway," Cuomo said in statement. "He's all yours, Florida."
    :lol:
  • Trump has always been Florida Man. Now he's made it official. For more on America's Worst Superhero, check out here and here.
    I don't get it. How can he claim to reside in Florida while living and working (as little as possible) in DC? Would the IRS accept this from Tammy Taxpayer?

    There's some leeway for federal elected officials. The Constitution requires that members of Congress need to "be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen", so Congresscritters are considered to be residents of the states that elected them even if they spend more time in DC than their congressional district. It would be unworkable to say that serving in Congress makes you ineligible to serve in Congress. The same consideration is extended to the President (who must be from a different state than the Vice President, which would complicate things if they were both considered residents of DC).
  • HugalHugal Shipmate
    That is similar to us. Our. MPs have to begin two places. Their constituency and Westminster.
  • Crœsos wrote: »
    It would be unworkable to say that serving in Congress makes you ineligible to serve in Congress.
    Considering the current batch in Congress, I'm willing to give this approach a try...

  • My bet is that he is trying to avoid prosecution in the state of New York.
  • carexcarex Shipmate
    Florida has no state income tax. While he might not have paid any taxes to New York, he is still subject to investigation there for any irregularities in reporting taxable income while he was a resident. That has been an ongoing thorn in his side.
  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host
    I tried to remove the welcome mat from the Florida state line. Apparently that wasn't a blatant enough message.
  • Robert ArminRobert Armin Shipmate, Glory
    Could you build a wall around the mat? Walls work!
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    I saw somewhere that, at the White House Halloween party for kids, there was an activity to get kids to do some kind of "build the wall!" mural.
    (eyeroll)
  • a pity they didn't have an activity called 'cut a hole in the wall'.
  • They could have gotten tips from the folks already hard at work with their saws on the real one.
  • SirPalomidesSirPalomides Shipmate
    edited November 2019
    Simon Toad wrote: »
    a pity they didn't have an activity called 'cut a hole in the wall'.
    Funny you mention that...
  • Golden Key wrote: »
    I saw somewhere that, at the White House Halloween party for kids, there was an activity to get kids to do some kind of "build the wall!" mural.
    (eyeroll)

    Around the White House? With You-know-Who inside? I'd be happy to help!
  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host
    Shipmeet with a group activity? :blush:
  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    Count me in 😂!
  • CrœsosCrœsos Shipmate
    edited November 2019
    For those who are interested in such things the House Intelligence Committee today released transcripts of the testimony of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch (full version, excerpts) [PDF] and former Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State Michael McKinley (full version, excerpts) [PDF].

    You may recall that Congressional Republicans have been complaining about the fact that this testimony was taken behind closed doors. I'm sure now that it's been made public they'll stop making lame procedural arguments and start quoting these transcripts at length, right?

    A sample from McKinley's testimony:
    THE CHAIRMAN: I think you’ve also said [ in the opening statement ] that part of the reason why you decided to resign was that you couldn’t be blind to what was happening, and what was happening was efforts to use the State Department to dig up dirt on a political opponent. Is that fair as well?

    MR MCKINLEY: That is fair. And if I can underscore, in 37 years in the Foreign Service and different parts of the globe and working on many controversial issues, working 10 years back in Washington, I had never seen that.
  • I have discovered that some/all Americans are voting today or tomorrow. What sort of elections are being conducted. I think there is a gubernatorial election in Kentucky but I'm a bit confused.

    On the impeachment stuff, I am keeping an emotional lid on things.
  • Simon Toad wrote: »
    I have discovered that some/all Americans are voting today or tomorrow. What sort of elections are being conducted. I think there is a gubernatorial election in Kentucky but I'm a bit confused.

    I'll repost something I put up over on the 2020 election thread that covers most of the big U.S. elections tomorrow (November 5, 2015).
    Crœsos wrote: »
    Tomorrow (November 5, 2019) is election day in the U.S. Not many states have odd-year elections, but there are a few.

    Louisiana (6:00 am to 8:00 pm) and Mississippi (7:00 am to 7:00 pm) are voting for state legislators and governor tomorrow.

    Kentucky (6:00 am to 6:00 pm) is holding an election for governor but not the state legislature.

    New Jersey (6:00 am to 8:00 pm) and Virginia (6:00 am to 7:00 pm) are voting for state legislators but not governor.

    If you are an American who is registered to vote in any of these states (or if you have county/municipal elections of some sort) you should visit the polls tomorrow (or today, if you're reading this on November 5).

    I've include poll opening and closing times as listed in Ballotpedia, but the true arbiter is your local election authority. If you have any doubt about polling hours check with them, not some internet rando. Note that Kentucky spans two time zones and polling hours are reckoned according to local time, so the polls in the eastern half of the state will close one hour before the polls in the western half.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    edited November 2019
    We have local elections here in SF. This is the Dept. of Elections site. The info you're likely to want is in the "I want to..." and "Topics in focus" sections.

    Several offices to fill, and several local measures (e.g. affordable housing, vaping...).

    ETA: And yes, I've voted. :)
  • The only thing we're voting on today (my city in Arizona) is a budget override for the schools. I voted by mail two weeks ago. Other towns and cities seem to be having similar elections -- issues rather than candidates, but there might be some elections for local candidates (city councils, etc.).
  • He's formally announced through some henchman named Mike Pomposity (it's not that but sound like that) that US is taking itself out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

    And he's gotten sued by one of the women who be sexually assaulted.

    Proud moments.

  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    I imagine he's hurt enough women that they could put together one heck of a class action suit.

    Alternatively, if they filed individual suits in a staggered/over-lapping way, and from as many states, etc. as possible, maybe that would be enough to get him to resign.

    How does a civil lawsuit work, anyone? I can look it up later. But I'm just wondering if the person who's the target can be forced to go to court to answer the suit if they set foot in the state? That could put T in checkmate--possibly for every state, if suits are filed in each.

    Thx.
  • Cheers to those that answered my question about the elections today/yesterday. Are these elections special ones, or in the ordinary course of the election cycle? I was under the impression that you guys elected people only once every two years, on set days.

    Just a small gloss on NP's post: Trump's getting sued by ANOTHER woman who he sexually assaulted.
  • Simon Toad wrote: »
    Cheers to those that answered my question about the elections today/yesterday. Are these elections special ones, or in the ordinary course of the election cycle? I was under the impression that you guys elected people only once every two years, on set days.

    U.S. general elections are held on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November. That puts them on whatever Tuesday falls between November 2 and November 8. In 2019 that's November 5. No federal offices hold regular elections in odd numbered years, but the individual states can set whatever schedule they want. In 2019 that's Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia, plus a variety of county and municipal office and various local referendums.

    It should be noted that they do things a little differently in Louisiana than any other state. Instead of the typical plurality first past the post system common to most (all?) other states, in order to become Governor of Louisiana you have to win an outright majority of the vote, rather than a plurality. If there is no majority winner in November (not uncommon) then the top two vote-getters have a run-off in December.
  • edited November 2019
    The trajectory of American has the leading news magazine in Canada asking if it's time to look for others with an unreliable USA. Whose ship of state is sinking. Talking to thr EU is a reasonable thing to consider says the writer.

    -American foreign policy has fallen completely apart
    -international reputation gone
    -although trump is blamed, with current conditions there's no guarantee America won't get another just like him. trump is not the disease he's the symptom of a much more sinister condition
    -we share more values with the EU re multilateralism, civil society, and human rights than we do with America, with UK in disarray and leaving, it's a good time to talk

    We need to have a reliable ally to deal with China, world trade on general, and we have a trade deal with the EU already. We also need immigrants.

    Is trump a symptom? Is the trajectory of America repairable? What trump has since in 3 years may take decades to restore. And will you get another one who is no better? Considering also several previous defective presidents. Who did all the ill advised invasions, torture, direct and indirect killing of some uncounted millions.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    He's formally announced through some henchman named Mike Pomposity (it's not that but sound like that) that US is taking itself out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

    And he's gotten sued by one of the women who be sexually assaulted.

    Proud moments.

    Mike Pompeo, secretary of state.
  • Golden Key wrote: »
    Mike Pompeo, secretary of state.

    I actually like the name "Mike Pomposity."
    :wink:

  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    :)
  • That several billion dollar wall T is building on the southern border? Smugglers are cutting through it. Story here
  • OhherOhher Shipmate
    Just saw a clip on Colbert's Late Show where Trump admits that walls can be cut through. Funny how he ignored that critique all the way through the campaign . . . apparently it can be sawed through with a power tool available at big box home improvement stores for $100.
  • -although trump is blamed, with current conditions there's no guarantee America won't get another just like him. trump is not the disease he's the symptom of a much more sinister condition

    That's true. Without a radical shift in American politics there's plenty more where he came from.
  • OhherOhher Shipmate
    Heh. And here I was thinking that they were all already in this administration, serving in his cabinet.
  • There's a huge part of the country in love with the man. Of the part that isn't, there are some who would still perpetuate the conditions that produced him. He very much represents the country he is president of.
  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    I was in New York recently and I saw nothing that would be represented by tRump. Apart from the garish tower, of course.
  • Ohher wrote: »
    Heh. And here I was thinking that they were all already in this administration, serving in his cabinet.

    He drained the swamp, as promised, and all the swamp creatures crawled out on land and wound up in his administration.
  • New York is not exactly representative of the country.

    That said- racism and Islamophobia are as rabid in parts of NYC as anywhere else. It was Howard Stern who framed the national mood from his NYC studio when he called for atomic genocide of the Arab world after 9/11- his show was the highest rated morning program in the New York area and the country. And what city was Giuliani mayor of again?
  • Simon Toad wrote: »
    I have discovered that some/all Americans are voting today or tomorrow. What sort of elections are being conducted. I think there is a gubernatorial election in Kentucky but I'm a bit confused.

    That's right. The governor and about four other state-level offices (secretary of state, etc) are on the ballot today. I think in some districts they also had special House races to replace congress members who had died or retired.

    I don't feel super optimistic about the turnout, partly because it's cold and pouring rain. Also my district, the Cincinnati suburbs in northern Kentucky, usually has quite bad turnout compared to other parts of the state. (Which is odd because we have lots and lots of elderly white people.) When my husband and I went this morning our polling place was dead empty, only two or three other voters there.

    This gubernatorial race has been unpleasant. Our current Governor, a tea party Republican, is one of the least popular governors in the country because he tried to wreck the state employees' pension plan and then said a bunch of really nasty things about our schoolteachers when they rebelled. Teachers and those who love them are furious with him - we had our first teachers' strike in my memory last year because of it.

    His Democratic opponent is the son of a well-liked former governor of about a decade ago, recent enough for voters to remember. I think the Democrat has a chance, but the weather and 2019 being an off-year is going to hurt him. My friends (most of whom have school-age kids and want our schoolteachers to be happy and well paid) have been pretty active on social media reminding people to vote, but I haven't heard much conversation in "real life" about the election.
  • New York is not exactly representative of the country.

    Just out of curiosity, what city or region is representative of the U.S.?
  • Any monster truck rally would do.
  • OhherOhher Shipmate
    Monster truck rallies aren't cities or even regions. And if that "represents" Americans, how do we account for US dominance in Nobel prizes (granted that close to 40% of these folks are immigrants, but American immigrants nonetheless)?

    Of course, Nobel prize winners might be in those rally crowds, too . . .
  • Nobel prize winners are statistically more likely to be found at WWE events.
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    edited November 2019
    Nobel prize winners are statistically more likely to be found at WWE events.

    Well, this New Yorker wasn't a Nobel laurete, but he didn't exactly live and work in the polar-opposite circles, if you know what I mean.

    I do think it is often underappreciated just how blue-collar he was in his outlook.

  • Crœsos wrote: »
    New York is not exactly representative of the country.

    Just out of curiosity, what city or region is representative of the U.S.?

    Absolutely none.

  • Indeed.
  • Crœsos wrote: »
    New York is not exactly representative of the country.

    Just out of curiosity, what city or region is representative of the U.S.?
    Any monster truck rally would do.


    A monster truck rally:
    Monster Jam’s choice to jam monstrously in Anaheim could be a deliberate one — Orange County is one of the only areas in Southern California that still leans Republican, even if the party’s stronghold on the area has waned with time. The vast majority of people at the event are white.

    <snip>

    Wheelies are popped, trucks are flipped, every single driver is white and all but one is a man.

    I'm not buying that the U.S. is an almost all white country with an all white (and nearly all male) work force.
  • You may not be interested in monster truck rallies, but monster truck rallies are interested in you.
  • Nobel prize winners are statistically more likely to be found at WWE events.



    While eating chocolate: Chocolate Consumption, Cognitive Function, and Nobel Laureates, while drinking milk, while doing arts and crafts.

    To save the hosts, only linking the first claim.
  • The House Intelligence Committee continues to publish the testimony of various witnesses to Trump's Ukrainian shakedown. Yesterday it was Yovanovitch and McKinley. Today it's U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland (full version, excerpts) [PDF] and former U.S. Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker (full version, excerpts) [PDF], plus some more text messages from Volker (full version, excerpts) [PDF].

    Sondland's testimony is the one that's getting the most scrutiny right now. Sondland is not a career diplomat, just a big money donor to the Trump campaign, and Ukraine is not in the EU, so a lot of questions were raised about why he's involved with this at all. Also his testimony, what we knew of it before today, seemed to be at variance with everyone else's recollections of what was going on. For whatever reason the day it was announced that his Congressional testimony was going to be made public (i.e. yesterday) he "updated" his testimony with his sudden recollection that yes, the Trump administration* was withholding military aid from Ukraine until an investigation of Hunter Biden was announced by Zelensky. The last four pages of the full transcript of Sondland's testimony is this update, plus a cover letter from his lawyers. The phrase "refreshed my recollection" occurs in several places. I believe it's a magic spell intended to ward off charges of perjury or obstruction of Congress.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    Hmmm...I guess the next surprise will be the heads of Big Tobacco going back to Congress and changing their testimonies...

    CEO:{slaps head} "Oh, golly gee whiz...I forgot! I *do* believe tobacco is addictive! Silly me."
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