Nov 2023 Mod notice:
There may be other, more specific, threads about some aspects of US politics, but this one tends to act as a hub for all sorts of related news and information, so it's usually one of the busiest OTC threads.
If you're new to OTC, it's worth reading the Introduction to On-Topic Conversations
and the On-Topic Conversations debate guidelines
before posting here.
Rumor-based, fear-mongering and/or inflammatory statements that damage the quality of the thread will be thumped. Off-topic posts will also be thumped. Repeat offenders may be suspended.
If time spent moderating this thread remains a distraction from moderation of the wiki itself, the thread will need to be locked. We want to avoid that, so please follow the forum rules
when posting here.
In line with the general forum rules, 'gravedancing' is prohibited here. If you're celebrating someone's death or hoping that they die, your post will get thumped. This rule applies regardless of what the person you're discussing has said or done.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1123987855053873154?s=19
Maybe the Dems are about to force a standoff after all?
Talk is cheap. It only matters when there's a contempt charge filed.
Barr already drew that line in the sand. Until Democrats are willing to cross it, anything less is just blowing smoke. Now is not the time for Congressional cowardice.
Edited by TobiasDrake on May 2nd 2019 at 11:24:13 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.After doing a bit of reading, here is what I think is going to go down. The house is going to issue a subpoena for Barr to showup. At that point, Barr will either show up, and the house will win or Trump will fight the subpeona, probably with Barr under house arrest. This will be a short fight and one that Trump will lose. Pretty much every time it's come down to a fight over this issue, the president has lost. Barr will then remain under arrest until he decides to show up and probably lose his job.
I don't see Trump winning this one.
I can see a lot of kicking and screaming though.
In some good news: Facebook has permanently banned a bunch of prominent hate mongering demagogues.
Eesh, now the White House is doubling down with a letter to the Justice Department
asserting that Trump has the right to refuse to allow advisers to testify before Congress, and declaring Mueller's report "defective". It was written by WH Counsel Emmett Flood.
Edit: Nix that - apparently this letter was sent to the Justice Dept. on April 19 - the same day Trump was crowing about "complete exoneration!" on Twitter.
“It is one thing for a president to encourage complete cooperation and transparency in a criminal investigation conducted largely within the Executive Branch. It is something else entirely to allow his advisers to appear before Congress...” the letter said.
...
Flood’s letter said the Mueller report itself suffers from “an extraordinary legal defect.” According to relevant law, the letter said, Mueller should have rendered a judgment on whether to prosecute or not to prosecute.
Instead, Mueller produced “a prosecutorial curiosity - part ‘truth commission’ report and part law school exam paper,” the letter said.
“What prosecutors are supposed to do is complete an investigation and then either ask the grand jury to return an indictment or decline to charge the case,” Flood wrote in his the five-page letter to Barr.
“The Special Counsel and his staff failed in their duty to act as prosecutors and only as prosecutors,” he said.
Flood’s letter addressed questions from critics of Trump as to whether Mueller had given Congress a “roadmap” for its own inquiry with his report.
If that is the case, the letter said, “it too serves as additional evidence of the SCO’s (Special Counsel’s Office) refusal to follow applicable law.”
Now I really look forward to Mueller's nigh-inevitable testimony before a Congressional hearing.
Edited by ironballs16 on May 2nd 2019 at 2:58:27 PM
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
. That’s going to be fun, isn’t it?
I don’t think this was mentioned yet.
The 90-story Manhattan building, part of the real estate empire of Donald Trump, had housed diplomats and foreign officials before the property developer became president. But now that he is in the White House, such transactions must pass muster with federal lawmakers, some legal experts say. The emoluments clause bans U.S. officials from accepting gifts or payments from foreign governments without congressional consent.
The rental transactions, dating from the early months of Trump's presidency and first revealed by Reuters, could add to mounting scrutiny of his business dealings with foreign governments, which are now the subject of multiple lawsuits.
Congressional staffers confirmed to Reuters that the Trump World Tower lease requests were never submitted to Congress. Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, said his committee has been "stonewalled" in its efforts to obtain detailed information about foreign government payments to Trump's businesses.
"This new information raises serious questions about the President and his businesses' potential receipt of payments from foreign governments," Cummings said in a statement to Reuters. "The American public deserves full transparency."
A State Department spokesperson referred Reuters to the Justice Department because the subject involved "matters related to ongoing litigation." The Justice Department declined to comment. The White House referred a request for comment to the State Department and the Trump Organization, which did not comment.
The 1982 Foreign Missions Act requires foreign governments to get State Department clearance for any purchase, lease, sale, or other use of a property in the United States. Through the Freedom of Information Act, Reuters obtained diplomatic notes sent to the agency under this requirement from early 2015 until late 2017.
The records show that in the eight months following Trump's January 20, 2017 inauguration, foreign governments sent 13 notes to the State Department seeking permission to rent or renew leases in Trump World Tower. That is more solicitations from foreign governments for new or renewed leases in that building than in the previous two years combined.
The governments of Iraq, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Thailand and the European Union got the green light to rent a combined eight units in Trump World Tower and followed through with leases, according to other documents viewed by Reuters and people familiar with the leases. Five of those governments - Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and the European Union - had also sought to rent units there in 2015 and 2016, State Department records showed.
Reuters could not confirm whether the State Department signed off on two other lease requests from Algeria and South Korea and three additional requests from Kuwait.
The 18-year-old luxury skyscraper is located next to the United Nations headquarters near the East River, and is not to be confused with Trump Tower, the Fifth Avenue landmark where Trump maintains a residence. Trump World Tower is controlled by a limited partnership owned by Trump and managed by the Trump Corporation, a Trump-owned company that draws its income from fees paid by unit owners, according to the building's financial records.
The corruption of Trump was already infamous well before he was President, including taking massive bribes from foreign governments and criminals to be the "face" of projects that would normally not be granted licenses.
In other worlds, sold legitimacy for cash.
He also laundered money for criminal organizations. Usually taking payments in cash because he needed to cover his outstanding debts and had no actual investment funds.
Then there's the fact a Russian oligarch bought Trump's 20 million dollar property for 100 million dollars in what many suspect was a bribe predating the Presidency.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Here's an article on one of the "fallen" Alt-Right commentators (too racist for Breitbart) and her claim of reformation. Frankly, I'm not buying anything Katie Mc Hugh says but it is a fascinating insight into her journey to becoming a white supremacist in the social media age.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/katie-mchugh?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Colbert’s greatest hits of the Barr Bash Up.
Edited by megaeliz on May 2nd 2019 at 7:54:17 AM
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/05/02/day-833/
https://apnews.com/bfa49625a5114bb5b66ddc3b3e758804
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/01/politics/mueller-barr-letter-special-counsel/index.html
2/ House Democrats threatened to hold Barr in contempt of Congress after he refused to appear at a House Judiciary Committee hearing and ignored a subpoena deadline to hand over Mueller's full report and evidence. Barr is boycotting the hearing over the ground rules for his testimony, which allots time for attorneys from the Democratic and Republican sides of the panel to question him. Jerry Nadler said he would give Barr "one or two more days" to produce the full Mueller report before initiating contempt proceedings. (New York Times / Washington Post / Politico / Axios / Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-barr-idUSKCN1S73HF
[[quoteblock]]The House Judiciary Committee mocked Barr with a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and an empty chair. (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/02/politics/empty-chair-william-barr-hearing-chicken/index.html?no-st=1556825830
[[quoteblock]]
3/ The White House accused Mueller's team of failing "to act as prosecutors and only as prosecutors." In an April 19th letter to Barr, White House lawyer Emmet Flood wrote that Mueller needed to "either ask the grand jury to return an indictment or decline to charge the case," despite Justice Department guidelines saying that a sitting president cannot be charged. Flood also claimed that Trump's decision allowing advisers to cooperate with Mueller's probe does not extend to congressional oversight investigations, and that Trump has the right to instruct advisers not to testify. (CNN / Reuters)
poll/ 56% of Americans saying Trump is doing a good job on the economy – a new high on his economic approval rating. (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/02/politics/cnn-poll-trump-economy-2020/index.html
The Trump administration formally filed a request to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act, arguing in a federal appeals court filing that the legislation was unconstitutional. 21 million Americans and millions more who benefit from the law's protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and required coverage for pregnancy, prescription drugs, and mental health. (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/health/unconstitutional-trump-aca.html
The Trump administration tried to remove references to climate change from an international statement on Arctic policy. The administration objected "to any mention of climate change whatsoever" in a nonbinding declaration of goals and principles among the eight Arctic nations. (Washington Post)
The House passed the Climate Action Now Act, which would require Trump to develop a plan for the U.S. to meet the Paris agreement goals to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions economy-wide. The act would also block federal funds from being used to advance the formal U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 climate accord. Mitch Mc Connell said the Senate will not take up the legislation, dismissing the bill as "political theater" by Democrats. (Reuters)
Trump won't nominate Stephen Moore for a seat on the Federal Reserve board. The news came hours after Moore said he was "all in" for the job. Trump withdrew Moore from consideration after Republican lawmakers criticized Moore's past comments about women, including that they should not earn more than men. (New York Times / Reuters / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / CNN)
At least seven foreign governments were allowed to rent condominiums in Trump World Tower in 2017 without approval from Congress. The 1982 Foreign Missions Act requires foreign governments to get State Department clearance for any purchase, lease, sale, or other use of a property in the U.S., and the emoluments clause bans U.S. officials from accepting gifts or payments from foreign governments without congressional consent. (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-emoluments-exclusive-idUSKCN1S80PP
Edited by sgamer82 on May 2nd 2019 at 5:51:19 AM
California Senate passes bill that would keep Trump off 2020 ballot unless he releases tax returns
The measure was approved in a 27-10 vote, according to The Associated Press. California, for the first time, will be one of the first states to hold its presidential primary in the 2020 cycle.
The bill is a response to Trump's insistence that he will not release his tax returns as presidential candidates traditionally have done, claiming he is under audit. If the bill becomes law and Trump does not release his returns, he may not appear on the California primary ballot.
...
The state's legislature passed a similar bill in 2017, but then-Gov. Jerry Brown (D), who did not release his own tax returns, vetoed the bill. A spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) told the AP that if the bill was sent to Newsom's desk, "it would be evaluated on its own merits.”
...
Similar bills are making their way through the Washington
and New Jersey state legislatures
.
Double post for something that came up in the Venezuela thread:
So Rep. Omar apparently claimed that what's going on in Venezuela is partly the USA's fault. This of course led to pushback from Pence.
Omar partially blames US for devastation in Venezuela, drawing Pence’s pushback
A reminder that Rep. Omar is also a supporter of the Hands Off Venezuela movement.
Edited by M84 on May 3rd 2019 at 2:01:03 AM
Disgusted, but not surprisedAt least some small amount of justice for the people destroyed by the opiod epidemic.
Martin Shkreli did nothing in comparison to these assholes.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

Just got a Reuters notice that Stephen Moore has withdrawn himself from consideration to be part of the Fed.
https://reut.rs/2GXmjTI
Edited by sgamer82 on May 2nd 2019 at 11:11:28 AM