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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/06/14/day-511/
Day 511: Persistent illegal conduct.
1/ New York State attorney general sued Trump and his three eldest children for "persistent illegal conduct" at the Donald J. Trump Foundation. The lawsuit alleges that Trump repeatedly misused the nonprofit, violating campaign finance laws, engaging in self-dealing to decorate one of his golf clubs, and illegal coordination with his presidential campaign to stage a multimillion dollar giveaway during a 2016 campaign event. The state asked to dissolve the foundation and distribute its remaining $1 million in assets to other charities, and force Trump to pay at least $2.8 million in restitution and penalties. Trump attacked the lawsuit on Twitter, calling it an attempt by the "sleazy New York Democrats" to damage him. He vowed not to settle the case. (New York Times / Washington Post)
2/ The Inspector General Report: James Comey "deviated" from FBI and Justice Department procedures while investigating Hillary Clinton and her use of a private email server. The report concluded that Comey's decisions were not "the result of political bias," but that his "decisions negatively impacted the perception of the FBI and the department as fair administrators of justice." Trump has argued that FBI agents tried to rig the Clinton investigation to help her win the presidency. The report also concludes that the text messages exchanged by FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page did not improperly affect the investigation, but "the conduct by these employees cast a cloud over the entire FBI investigation." (Bloomberg / New York Times)
3/ Sarah Huckabee Sanders and deputy press secretary Raj Shah are planning to leave the White House. Sanders plans to leave by the end of the year, while Shah hasn't settled on an exact date. Sanders denied the rumor, tweeting: "Does @CBS News know something I don't about my plans and my future? I was at my daughter's year-end Kindergarten event and they ran a story about my 'plans to leave the WH' without even talking to me. I love my job and am honored to work for @POTUS." (CBS News)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sarah-sanders-raj-shah-planning-to-depart-the-white-house/
4/ White House Counsel Don Mc Gahn recused his entire staff from Robert Mueller's investigation last summer because many staffers "had been significant participants" in the firings of Michael Flynn and James Comey. Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb said Mc Gahn's recusal was a key reason why he was hired last summer to manage Trump's response to the Russia investigation. (Politico)
5/ The White House launched a campaign to discredit Michael Cohen as speculation that he is preparing to flip on Trump continues to mount. The plan involves discrediting Cohen by arguing that whatever compromising information he shares with prosecutors about Trump is a lie meant to please Mueller in order to save his own skin. The plan includes everything from Trump's tweets, to comments from Alan Dershowitz, to front-page stories in the National Enquirer, all apparently intended to cast doubt on Cohen's credibility and motives. (Washington Post)
Notables.
John Kelly revoked Rudy Giuliani's son's West Wing access after Trump ordered Andrew Giuliani be promoted to special assistant to the president. (Axios)
Trump told G7 leaders that Crimea is Russian because everyone who lives there speaks Russian. In 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea from Ukraine, leading to international condemnation, sanctions, and directly leading to Russia being kicked out of the then-G8. (Buzz Feed News)
https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertonardelli/trump-russia-crimea
Mike Pompeo said sanctions on North Korea will remain until the country has completely denuclearized. The statement contradicts North Korean state media reports that Kim and Trump agreed to a plan of "step-by-step and simultaneous action" to achieve peace and denuclearization on the Korean peninsula. (Reuters)
The Supreme Court struck down Minnesota's law barring voters from wearing political apparel inside a polling place. The court's 7-2 vote said Minnesota's use of the term "political" badges, buttons and insignia was too broad. (NPR)
Unfortunately, even though that report (probably) clears Comey of bias, the same apparently can't be said for those two fired agents: IG Report Reveals FBI Agent Strzok Reassured Lisa Page During Campaign: ‘We’ll Stop’ Trump
.
Yes, they're not part of the Mueller team anymore so it doesn't taint the current investigation but crap like this is only going to further validate the "the Deep State wanted to take down Trump!" believers.
edited 14th Jun '18 11:33:43 AM by speedyboris
That's a pretty bold proclamation from Trump, given that the official US position is that the annexation of Crimea is a violation of international law. We sponsored resolutions in front of the UN to that effect and basically every level of our military and government has been in agreement.
They should have sent a poet.Trump sees international politics as a matter of us vs them. Two sides: a democratic side and a fascist side. America is currently a big player on the democratic side, and Trump really, really, wants to change America to the other side. If he thought he could get away with just changing America's entire system of government overnight, he wouldn't hesitate to do so. He wants America to be allies with North Korea and Russia and enemies with Canada and Germany.
This is a ridiculous abuse of the word fascist, it does not mean "any authoritarian government". There is an argument that can be made about North Korea being ideologically Fascist but Russia is not and China is not.
You've got this backward. Putin's Russia is not fascist, but it's far closer to fascism than North Korea is, what with its revanchist attitude, xenophobic nationalism, institutionalized homophobia, aggression towards its neighbours, and efforts to push Putin on not only Russia, but the world, as a Great Man. While there's some key elements missing, as a right-wing reactionary dictator Putin borrows a lot from fascist and neofascist states.
North Korea's conversely a Stalinist state and sits at the other end of the political spectrum. While the world's other remaining Communist states have liberalized to an extent, or at least moved towards bureaucratic dictatorship, the DPRK remains the last genuinely Stalinist country in the world. Kim Il-Sung modeled his regime on Stalin's, and when other Communist countries began moving away from that system, he and his successors doubled down on it.
edited 14th Jun '18 12:25:00 PM by AmbarSonofDeshar
Trump isn't really a fascist. He lacks a lot of the defining features fascists have. He isn't really even properly totalitarian at this point, if only because the structure of the US government is holding him back.
At best I'd say he has totalitarian tendencies. More damning, though, is his total incompetence when it comes to the responsibilities of his office.
They should have sent a poet.And Pol Pot commited racial genocide of minorities, your point?
Being awfully racist even by racist standards is not only a Fascist tradition.
edited 14th Jun '18 1:01:55 PM by KazuyaProta
Watch me destroying my country
Mmm, delicious pick-and-mix authoritarian hell. Then again, I know of at least three strains of Nazi, and they were only around for a comparatively small span of years. I wonder what strange political spectrum they've managed to cook up in North Korea? Got to be some differences between important figures besides level of fanaticism.
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The actual system is still a proper democracy with some oligarchic tendencies, it just has an Ur-Fascist on top of it at the moment. Trump hasn't quite subverted all the apparatus of the state yet, in fact it seems he barely knows how to use those bits of it he does control so I doubt this will be a long-lasting problem.

edited 14th Jun '18 10:57:14 AM by DingoWalley1