The Trump Presidency...

[PhotEx]

Kickbacks for many, but not for all.

'After weeks of speculation, Donald Trump has completed one of his final acts as US President, revealing the full list – and quite a long one at that – of Americans who he would grant a presidential pardon.

'There have been wild rumours almost since Mr Trump was defeated by Joe Biden in November’s presidential election about who he would choose to grant clemency to: everyone from Tiger King Joe Exotic – who reportedly had a limo waiting out the front of his prison – to the outgoing President’s three eldest children and even himself.

'In the end, Mr Trump gave full pardons to 73 individuals and commuted the sentence of an additional 70.

'And while he surprisingly snubbed his family – as well as personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, who had been heavily-predicted picks – there was one controversial inclusion, made at the 11th hour, that people have claimed shows America’s 46th President stayed “corrupt to the end”.

'In “a final middle finger to his supporters”, one Twitter user wrote, Mr Trump decided to pardon his influential former adviser Steve Bannon – a man yet to even stand trial on the charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud he was dealt last August.

'Mr Bannon allegedly ripped off donors to a fundraising campaign for the building of the outgoing President’s infamous US-Mexico border wall.

“Criminal presidents that have been impeached twice shouldn’t be able to pardon other criminals,” another user wrote in reaction to the news, while someone else said the news made them “sick to my stomach”.

World reacts to Donald Trump’s full list of presidential pardons (news.com.au)

ouch!

 

[Tappet]

Hey, @ipso_facto - could you let me know what time today (Zulu, if you don't mind) the NSA are cutting the live feed so Space Force can take over and arrest Biden please?

Cheers.

 

[PhotEx]

a cracker

 

[lokiuk]

No pardon for Joe Exotic, that will upset the proles

 

[Drazyl]

4 Years of payback begins today , I'm looking forward to seeing some lefties lips wibbling over the next few years!

To go with the salty tears they were supposed to cry when Trump won?

 

[Tricky1982]

You're more likely to see their cum-faces as they take control of the Presidency, Senate and House.

Something Trump never managed, by the by.

Have the convoys carrying rainbows and unicorns for the leftys started rolling yet? They're going to be bitterly disappointed if they don't get them. (I don't like Trump either but the woke thinking Biden/Harris are some kind of second coming in the same way ours viewed Corbyn is equally irritating)

 

[Dicky Ticker]

Are you more (or less) upset that Chump wasn't able to make a power grab by inciting treason in that part of the population that voted for him? How will you feel if he pardons himself for trying?

Are you takin the word of the Democratic party and the media that support them that there was such a things treason? Because nothing I read led me to that conclusion.

What I saw was a party elite that had fomented riots and rebellions as long as it was not anywhere near them, but as soon as it got up close they ran like scared chickens and screamed "Rebellion!"

 

[mad_mick]

Have the convoys carrying rainbows and unicorns for the leftys started rolling yet? They're going to be bitterly disappointed if they don't get them. (I don't like Trump either but the woke thinking Biden/Harris are some kind of second coming in the same way ours viewed Corbyn is equally irritating)

Remember.. the USA don't have "leftys" like the UK do..... they hung/shot all of them in the 1950's. American idea of a political lefty involves walking 2 yards to the other side of the of the house.

 

[Arte_et_Marte]

Hey, @ipso_facto - could you let me know what time today (Zulu, if you don't mind) the NSA are cutting the live feed so Space Force can take over and arrest Biden please?

Cheers.

Opening remarks start at 16.30 GMT so Biden (and Harris) should be sworn in about 30 minutes after that mate. (So pick a ten minute slot from that!)

 

[mad_mick]

17:00 ZULU.

 

[aardvark64]

Are you takin the word of the Democratic party and the media that support them that there was such a things treason? Because nothing I read led me to that conclusion.

What I saw was a party elite that had fomented riots and rebellions as long as it was not anywhere near them, but as soon as it got up close they ran like scared chickens and screamed "Rebellion!"

I'm taking no-one's word for anything. Reports from both sides were equally partisan and equally unbelievable. Trump's lawsuits about voting irregularities were about as convincing as Wee Nippy and the Remoaners' calls for repeat referenda until they get the answer they want.

To be honest, I'm just as worried about the Dems now having control of all three levers of power as I was about Trump actually winning the election with a clear majority of voters and electoral college delegates. Neither state of affairs is healthy.

 

[Emcon Ecomcon]

Are you takin the word of the Democratic party and the media that support them that there was such a things treason? Because nothing I read led me to that conclusion.

What I saw was a party elite that had fomented riots and rebellions as long as it was not anywhere near them, but as soon as it got up close they ran like scared chickens and screamed "Rebellion!"

Your forgetting, because Trump publically, is rather an immoral character. It licenced any number of incidents of people working against the president, that could be defined as treason, but is cast as noble. We saw the same in the 80s, with civil servants against Thatcher and again recently with UK Instiutions actively working against democracy and often in league with foreign powers.

 

[SkippedOnce]

I'm taking no-one's word for anything. Reports from both sides were equally partisan and equally unbelievable. Trump's lawsuits about voting irregularities were about as convincing as Wee Nippy and the Remoaners' calls for repeat referenda until they get the answer they want.

You're conflating very different things there.

Trump's challenge to the 2020 US Presidential Election is that it was fraudulent, in that the voters were cheated by a system that didn't represent them.

The Scottish Independence Referendum challenge is about a 'question 4 moment', in that the situation extant at the time of the first referendum (UK in EU, which the majority of Scots apparently support) is no longer the case, so the question should be asked again.

The Remain position was that the 'facts' as presented in 2016, and their impacts, are now much better understood, ie, the electorate is better informed. If a better informed electorate still chose Leave, so be it.

Only one of the 3 suggests that the result at the time it was delivered was 'illegal' or against the will of those who turned out to vote at the time of the vote.

 

[Teeblerone]

Weird Bloodlust, trump didnt get us into a single war first time since Jimmy Carter that that happened.

And fair play to him for that - I'd not have bet on it!
Syria? Dunno if I'd count that.

 

[Tappet]

One or two correspondents claim this as a significant move, Mitch McConnell actually stating in the Senate that Trump and other powerful Republicans provoked the mob attacking the capitol building including feeding them lies.

McConnell says Trump 'provoked' the Capitol attackers

www.politico.com

I can imagine Trump not being pleased over this, nor the Trumpistas within the party. Interesting to see how this will develop and whether there will be ructions between them.

I think we will see the 'Trumpistas' suddenly distancing themselves from former statements of support towards the Orange one.

 

[Teeblerone]

The Grauniad has the below with a couple of links (not read them, can't comment on their kosherness, or not)
Donald Trump pardons Steve Bannon amid last acts of presidency


"Prosecutors and scholars have, however, said a grey area in the constitution means a president may be able to issue “secret” pardons, without notifying Congress or the public."

 

[LordVonHarley]

Democracy is the people and process, it used to carry a moral principle and because Trump was immoral, he was unfit to be President, but the people voted for him and created the hitler obsession in some. Based on that fact, the process at every level, felt no reason to aid him in reelection and when the DNC dialled up the game by finagling the election law and widespread ballot harvesting through NGOs the process moved into the immoral.

What amuses me, is Trump was a bogeyman to the process because his reflection was was stood in there souls. Now, the process itself has shown itself to be immoral and the call for unity won't work, because the people are fuel for the process and they're are retreating in on themselves.

In Summary:-
Social Capital on the right in america will be almost zero and the left despises the process anyway and want to create a system of many parties, only one socialist policy and how the process maintains control with very little popular support will be seen over the next 18 months.

You are not wrong about him being a Bogeyman for the DNC. A old white man of the NY elite who switched from being a real estate shark to politics made a wonderful baddy.

I don't like him as person, mainly because of the way he acted over the Scottish golf course deal or how he does business. I don't like his politics either.

He is a product of American. American educated, raised in the NY elite society, made a living working in America, made even more famous by American TV and social media. In his younger days he was the NY elite golden boy.
He is not unique. The US elite are full of people like him and I think that's what scares the DNC.

He beat bankruptcy in the 1990's, gamed the GOP, beat Clinton, became POTUS, and fought every bit as dirty as the political class but with far less fines.
Some will love him for it, some will hate him for it.

At the end of 4 years I have no idea if he was a good or bad president (I have my own biases I need to be cognitive of), so I will leave it history to judge him in 10 or 20 years.
But I think we can all agree that the last 4 years has shone a spot light on the nest of vipers that is US politics. American made, American educated, American policies for American political parties, American hypocrisy, American corruption, all voted for by the American people and reported in American media outlets to be greedily consumed by the American public.

I think Trump failed to "drain the swamp" because it was an impossible task as politics is by its nature a dirty game to play. If anything Trump added more dirt to the "swamp" then f#cked off safe in the knowledge he does not need to live in the swamp.

 

[Dicky Ticker]

Your forgetting, because Trump publically, is rather an immoral character. It licenced any number of incidents of people working against the president, that could be defined as treason, but is cast as noble. We saw the same in the 80s, with civil servants against Thatcher and again recently with UK Instiutions actively working against democracy and often in league with foreign powers.

I'd question your definition of "immoral", obviously he has a different personality from the, shall we say conventional politician, but whether he was as immoral as some I have known is open to debate

 

[Fr SpodoKomodo]

He beat bankruptcy in the 1990s

Hahaha. Only the SIX times.

The 7th is coming this Summer.

 

[mrdude]

You're more likely to see their cum-faces as they take control of the Presidency, Senate and House.

Something Trump never managed, by the by.

Newton's third law is: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

4 years of democrat whining and obstruction won't go without repercussions. If you think anything else, you are severely deluded. If you think half the USA is just going to forget about the last 4 years and let bygones be bygones - you are living in a fantasy land.

Now the democrats are paranoid, and rightly so - 25,000+ Troops in DC & even those are being vetted..... which tells a story in itself.

2021 - USA is now the largest Banana republic in the world. I'm really looking to the next 4 years of seeing your guy messing up, but I doubt he will last that long as he clearly has dementia. I give him less than a year - then Kamala will be running the show...and you will really be in trouble as she's about as much use as an igloo in the desert.