U.S Presidential Election

[TigerMasochist]

Hey, you were the one claiming Andrew is not above the law, the above looks a lot like a change of position.

DS

Must have missed it, when did I claim he was not above the law? Different countries have different laws and most are very particular about keeping certain " important " people away from other countries laws because those laws can be a bit erratic at times.

 

[spook]

Long article, but well worth reading.


https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/...ytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

It's amazing how far useless grifters can go. White House Chief of Staff, Australian PM, senior AFL executive, leader of the National Party, independent MP, 'self-made billionaire'-cum US President; you name it, these sleazy, self-serving con artists can weasel their way in.

I still can't believe no subbie ever dragged Trump by his wig into an alley for a proper beating over a non-payment. Oxygen thieves.

 

[Scoop]

Reading “ When America Stopped Being Great” by Nick Bryant. Great read on how the politically landscape from basically 1964 and the civil rights movement led to Trump. Reagan was the first to really use TV and maximise the new media. Halfway through it and can’t recommend it enough.

 

[Redford]

It's amazing how far useless grifters can go. White House Chief of Staff, Australian PM, senior AFL executive, leader of the National Party, independent MP, 'self-made billionaire'-cum US President; you name it, these sleazy, self-serving con artists can weasel their way in.

I still can't believe no subbie ever dragged Trump by his wig into an alley for a proper beating over a non-payment. Oxygen thieves.

Precisely. You throw a dose of right wing religious subscription into the mix of ingredients and it seems to make it even easier.

 

[Tigaman]

Reading “ When America Stopped Being Great” by Nick Bryant. Great read on how the politically landscape from basically 1964 and the civil rights movement led to Trump. Reagan was the first to really use TV and maximise the new media. Halfway through it and can’t recommend it enough.

America still great . Super Bowl starts two minutes.

 

[tigerman]

As I've said previously, there's a good chance that Trump would let Australia swing if we were in a conflict.



"Soon after former US president Donald Trump took office, his staff explained how NATO’s mutual defence obligations worked."

“You mean, if Russia attacked Lithuania, we would go to war with Russia?” he responded. “That’s crazy.”

"Trump has never believed in the fundamental one-for-all-and-all-for-one concept of the Atlantic alliance. Indeed, he spent much of his four-year presidency undermining it while strong-arming members into keeping their commitments to spend more on their own militaries with the threat that he would not come to their aid otherwise.
He took it to a whole new level over the weekend, declaring at a rally in South Carolina that not only would he not defend European countries he deemed to be in arrears from an attack by Russia, he would go so far as to “encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” against them. Never before has a president of the United States – even a former one aspiring to reclaim the office – suggested he would incite an enemy to attack American allies.

Some may discount that as typical Trump rally bluster or write it off as a poor attempt at humour. Others may even cheer the hard line against supposedly deadbeat allies who in this view have taken advantage of American friendship for too long. But Trump’s rhetoric foreshadows potentially far-reaching changes in the international order if he wins the White House again in November with unpredictable consequences.
What’s more, Trump’s riff once again raised uncomfortable questions about his taste in friends. Encouraging Russia to attack NATO allies, even if he were not fully serious, is a stunning statement that highlights his odd affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has already proved his willingness to invade neighbouring countries that do not have the protection of NATO.

Just the suggestion that the United States could not be depended on would negate the value of its alliances.

Long averse to alliances of any kind, Trump in a second term could effectively end the security umbrella that has guarded friends in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East for much of the nearly eight decades since the end of World War II. Just the suggestion that the United States could not be depended on would negate the value of such alliances, prompt long-time friends to hedge and perhaps align with other powers and embolden the likes of Putin and Xi Jinping of China.
“Russia and China have nothing to compare with America’s allies, and these allies depend on American commitment,” said Douglas Lute, a retired lieutenant general who served as an ambassador to NATO under former president Barack Obama and a top adviser to former president George W. Bush on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. “Casting doubt on the United States’ commitment to its allies sacrifices America’s greatest advantage over Russia and China, something that neither Putin nor Xi could achieve on his own.”

Undeterred by criticism of his latest comment, Trump doubled down.

“No money in the form of foreign aid should be given to any country unless it is done as a loan, not just a giveaway,” he wrote on social media in all capital letters. “We should never give money any more,” he added, “without the hope of a payback, or without ‘strings’ attached.”

Trump has long threatened to withdraw the United States from NATO and would no longer be surrounded by the kind of advisers who stopped him from doing so last time. He tried to pull US troops out of Germany at the end of his presidency in anger at Angela Merkel, then the chancellor, a withdrawal that was prevented only because President Joe Biden came to office in time to rescind the decision.
Foreseeing the possibility of an American retreat from the world if Trump returns to office, Congress recently passed legislation banning any president from withdrawing from the NATO treaty without Senate approval. But Trump would not even need to formally quit the alliance to render it pointless.

And if the United States could not be counted on to come to the aid of partners in Europe, where it has the strongest historic ties, then other countries with mutual security agreements with Washington such as Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama could hardly be sure of US help either.
Peter Feaver, a Duke University professor and former national security aide to Bush and former president Bill Clinton, said Trump could reduce US troops in Europe to a level that “would render any military defence plans hollow” and “regularly poor-mouth the US commitment” in a way that would convince Putin that he has free rein.
“Just doing those two things could wound and perhaps kill NATO,” Feaver said. “And few allies or partners in other parts of the world would trust any US commitment after seeing us break NATO.”
History suggests this could result in more war, not less. When Dean Acheson, the former secretary of state, described an American “defensive perimeter” in Asia in 1950 that did not include South Korea, North Korea invaded five months later, starting a bloody war that nonetheless pulled in the United States.
The signal from Trump to NATO allies such as Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and, yes, Lithuania is that they could be on their own by January. Coming just days after Putin told Tucker Carlson that Poland was at fault for Adolf Hitler invading it in 1939, the mood in the country could hardly be more unsettled.

“Article 5 has so far been invoked once – to help the US in Afghanistan after 9/11,” Radek Sikorski, the foreign minister of Poland, said. “Poland sent a brigade for a decade. We did not send a bill to Washington.”
The scorn for NATO that Trump expresses is based on a false premise that he has repeated for years even after being corrected, a sign that he is either incapable of processing information that conflicts with an idée fixe in his head or willing to distort facts to suit his preferred narrative.

As he has many times, Trump castigated NATO partners that he called “delinquent” in paying for US protection. “You’ve got to pay,” he said. “You got to pay your bills.”
In fact, NATO partners do not pay the United States, as Trump implied. NATO members contribute to a common budget for civilian and military costs according to a formula based on national income and historically have met those obligations.

What Trump is referring to misleadingly is a goal set by NATO defence ministers in 2006 that each member spend 2 per cent of its gross domestic product on its own military, a standard ratified by NATO leaders in 2014 with the aspiration of achieving it by 2024. As of last year, just 11 of the 31 members achieved that level, and last summer NATO leaders pledged an “enduring commitment” to finally reaching it. But even those who have not do not owe money to the United States as a result.
Among the members that do spend 2 per cent of their economic output on defence are Poland and Lithuania, and the number has risen in the past two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is not a NATO member. Other nations have pledged to increase spending in the next few years.
NATO spending is a legitimate concern, according to national security veterans, and Trump is not the first president to press NATO partners to do more – Bush and Obama did as well. Trump is the first to present the alliance as a sort of protection racket where those who do not “pay up” will be abandoned by the United States, much less subject to attack by Russia with Washington’s encouragement.
“The credibility of NATO rests on the credibility of the man that occupies the Oval Office, since it’s the decisions taken there that in a critical situation will be decisive,” said Carl Bildt, a former prime minister of Sweden, which is completing its accession to NATO as the 32nd member.
“This applies to what could be crisis management in a minor engagement of some sort to the ultimate issue of the nuclear deterrent,” he said. “If Putin threatened nuclear strikes against Poland, would Trump say that he doesn’t care?”

Trump’s fixation on being paid by allies extends beyond Europe. At one point he assailed the mutual defence treaty with Japan that has been in force since 1951 and at other points he prepared to order US troops out of South Korea. During an interview in 2021 shortly after leaving office, he made clear if he returned to power that he would demand South Korea pay billions of dollars to keep US troops there.

In fact, South Korea pays $US1 billion a year and spent $US9.7 billion expanding Camp Humphreys for US forces; Trump said he wants $US5 billion a year.
The uncertainty that would result from Trump’s lack of commitment would lead to volatility unseen in years.
“The only saving grace,” Bildt said, “is that he will probably be so unreliable and unpredictable that even the Kremlin would be somewhat uncertain. But they would know that they have a fair chance of playing him politically in any crisis.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Trump never believed in NATO. The world just found out what that means

Never before has a president of the United States – even a former one aspiring to reclaim the office – suggested he would incite an enemy to attack American allies.

www.watoday.com.au

 

[TigerMasochist]

America still great . Super Bowl starts two minutes.

Phhht. Game started about 1030 while I was having my smoko n they were still going just before 1500 when I was finishing my lunch break. Four n a half hours of stop n start n gibbering commentators getting chubbies every time somebody ran for ten yards.

 

[Tigaman]

Phhht. Game started about 1030 while I was having my smoko n they were still going just before 1500 when I was finishing my lunch break. Four n a half hours of stop n start n gibbering commentators getting chubbies every time somebody ran for ten yards.

The ads yuk but it is entertainment which filled in the morning for us retired in The West.

 

[TigerMasochist]

The ads yuk but it is entertainment which filled in the morning for us retired in The West.

About as entertaining as watching concrete dry, and I only had to put up with it during my smoko n lunch breaks. Scores tied at 19 all so extra time n then they spent ages shuffling around n doing nothing much. Then there was a 3 point goal kick with six or seven minutes to play so they all went back to not much happening until the last 3 seconds when someone chucked the ball to his mate who pretty much just stood where he was n he won.

 

[Willo]

SleepyJoe, cant be held responsible for keeping classified documents at his home. Because of failing mental faculties etc etc.
BUT he’s fit enough to be POTUS.
What a joke of a country.

 

[Redford]

Way to go Fani Willis. Way to go.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/15/opinions/fani-willis-nathan-wade-trump-georgia-election-cooper?cid=ios_app

 

[AngryAnt]

SleepyJoe, cant be held responsible for keeping classified documents at his home. Because of failing mental faculties etc etc.
BUT he’s fit enough to be POTUS.
What a joke of a country.

If you want a balanced assessment of what the report actually concluded - essentially that there wasn't enough evidence for a conviction - including the tension between the report contents and the exec summary written by Hur, I suggest you read this article https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/poli...t-do-headlines-match-the-evidence/ar-BB1ilAzd

Clickbait Youtube videos aren't the best source on this type of thing.

 

[Willo]

If you want a balanced assessment of what the report actually concluded - essentially that there wasn't enough evidence for a conviction - including the tension between the report contents and the exec summary written by Hur, I suggest you read this article https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/poli...t-do-headlines-match-the-evidence/ar-BB1ilAzd

Clickbait Youtube videos aren't the best source on this type of thing.

So Biden is either mentally “compromised” and as such has an out.
Or he isn’t and should be prosecuted like Trump should be.

Youtube or not, I doubt anyone could refute that Biden’s mental faculties are near the end of use date

 

[AngryAnt]

So Biden is either mentally “compromised” and as such has an out.
Or he isn’t and should be prosecuted like Trump should be.

Youtube or not, I doubt anyone could refute that Biden’s mental faculties are near the end of use date

So you didn't read the article.

 

[Willo]

So you didn't read the article.

Yes I did.
You didn’t answer the question

Hur made statements based on Bidens replies. The argument was he isn’t a medical doctor. At least they could investigate whether Biden read or showed classified documents to his ghost writer. What’s hard to deny there when Biden admitted to it.?

*smile* anyway. Just like Biden saying Mexico instead of Egypt. You don’t need a medical degree to work out hes befuddled a5 the best of times. And will only get worse. Leader of the free world. Lord help us. Who’s next? Trumpetstilskin…oh Lordy

 

[TigerMasochist]

Yes I did.
You didn’t answer the question

Hur made statements based on Bidens replies. The argument was he isn’t a medical doctor. At least they could investigate whether Biden read or showed classified documents to his ghost writer. What’s hard to deny there when Biden admitted to it.?

*smile* anyway. Just like Biden saying Mexico instead of Egypt. You don’t need a medical degree to work out hes befuddled a5 the best of times. And will only get worse. Leader of the free world. Lord help us. Who’s next? Trumpetstilskin…oh Lordy

Scarey isn't it Willo. " The greatest country in the free world " run by either Sleepy Joe n Camel arse Hairy, or the Trumpster n whateverthefuck.
Modern Western civilisation is starting to look a lot like the last rites of the Roman empire way back when.
Feed the *smile* wits five minutes of mindless distraction and they'll never notice what the hell is going on in the top paddock 'coz they're way to busy being entertained.

 

[Redford]

Hah hah hah. Another massive hit to the Orange Criminal.


https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/...ytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

 

[eZyT]

Hah hah hah. Another massive hit to the Orange Criminal.


https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/...ytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

it is,

but would anyone notice any difference between having $2.5b or $2b?

if humanity has any hope, we really need to start locking billionaires up in miserable conditions.

 

[MD Jazz]

He may get more followers from this. He is playing the victim well. None of his followers will be interested in the facts. They will say he never missed a payment and no one got hirt. They will not be bothered that he broke the law. It will be spun as a democrat conspiracy.

 

[AngryAnt]

Yes I did.
You didn’t answer the question

Hur made statements based on Bidens replies. The argument was he isn’t a medical doctor. At least they could investigate whether Biden read or showed classified documents to his ghost writer. What’s hard to deny there when Biden admitted to it.?

*smile* anyway. Just like Biden saying Mexico instead of Egypt. You don’t need a medical degree to work out hes befuddled a5 the best of times. And will only get worse. Leader of the free world. Lord help us. Who’s next? Trumpetstilskin…oh Lordy

Dude, you are fixated on Biden's mental health which is your prerogative as a pro-Trump stooge, but of course you ignore the content of the report which was that there was no chance of prosecuting Biden as the actual evidence doesn't stack up. References to his mental state by Hur in the exec summary were - as you kindly pointed out he's not qualified to make - irrelevant to the actual evidentiary content of the report.

Your claim that Biden should be prosecuted - as if his situation is equivalent to Trump's - is absurd. The evidence is just not there as the report you trumpet makes clear. Compare this to the facts that Trump lied about having the documents, moved documents in an attempt to obstruct justice, instructed his lawyers to lie in an attempt to obstruct justice, asked his security staff to delete video footage of the moving of documents to cover up the aforementioned obstruction of justice. It's the cover-ups that get you as Richard Nixon found out.

Trump Derangement Syndrome indeed - and in more disappointing news for Willo, the FBI informant who provided the basis of the FBI investigation into Hunter Biden/Joe Biden corruption is now being prosecuted by the FBI lead of that investigation for perjury. Ie the Burisma accusations that the GOP ran with for the Biden impeachments was totally made up.