[Youngian]

And what's to stop Trump creating his special police with special powers that are only answerable to the president? "Fuck your pardon, Dr Fauci, no one can hear you where you're going.'

[Tubby Isaacs]

In the USA the state incumbents organise the elections.
This means they can gerrymander the place to shit to counter an inflow of California hippies.

Republicans haven't lost a statewide election for about 30 years. Ted Cruz just won by 970,000, despite going on holiday to Cancun when cold weather was killing hundreds of people in Texas.

[Bones McCoy]

One might think that the American constitution is designed t fail.

As opposed to the "divinely inspired document of beauty", and greatest work of human thought.
As their kids have drilled into them daily at school.

[Andy McDandy]

It is designed to fail. And when it does, it explicitly tells people what to do - start over again, this time not making those mistakes.

Somewhere along the line it became this holy text, and the people who wrote it demigods.

[Bones McCoy]

All Republicans Are Bastards

[The Weeping Angel]

Did you ask him why he's pardoned thousands of domestic terrorists?

[Abernathy]

How the flying fuck can pardoning 1500 convicted criminals be acceptable to anyone ?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Checks and balances my arse.

[Abernathy]

IMO, that release of criminals could well be the very worst thing that Trump will do in the next four years.


Is nobody in the USA objecting to this shite ?

[Abernathy]

Somewhat depressed. Must we all just now bow down before the mighty Trump ?

https://newrepublic.com/post/190402/bil ... cHlo587gHQ

[kreuzberger]

I one sense, it is a relief that Trump has given wings to his venal cuntery in the first week, and it still isn't Wednesday. Any "wait and see" policy within Europe has been blown aside and it is now down to our leadership to formulate strategic push-back against his moves to trample us.

Whether VdL has the nous to achieve that remains to be seen, but I believe that she has the balls and the backing to deliver, Meloni and Orbán, notwithstanding.

[Abernathy]

Watching Vic Derbyshire interviewing an American cunt called Jacob Chansley (the prick with the tattoos and furry hat that led the assault on the Capitol on 6 January 2021 - newly in receipt of a pardon, courtesy of the orange gibbon) . What. A. Fucking. Wanker.

The living embodiment of fuckwitted Trumpery.

[The Weeping Angel]

Thank God that awful old man is gone.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-hou ... ned_social

Some White House reporters are “privately” sharing their relief that Joe Biden—who was infamously kept at a comfortable distance from the press—is out of the Oval Office, the Columbia Journalism Review reported. The 82-year-old Biden agreed to “far fewer formal interviews than any president before him,” CJR reported. That is a stark contrast to how the attention-obsessed Donald Trump, who is known to text reporters or call into news networks at any given time, is expected to operate these next four years. Monday was an example of Trump’s accessibility, with him speaking freely to journalists as he signed a stack of executive orders at his desk. Earlier in the day, he pinged the phone of NBC News’ Kristen Welker to complain about Biden’s last-minute pardons. “We’re coming out of four years of Biden and things haven’t been great,” one print journalist told CJR. “There’ve been fewer eyeballs on the press briefings and less attention than under Trump, so people just don’t understand some of the very frustrating things that we’ve dealt with and that we hope are going to be rolled back.”

[Crabcakes]

I one sense, it is a relief that Trump has given wings to his venal cuntery in the first week, and it still isn't Wednesday. Any "wait and see" policy within Europe has been blown aside and it is now down to our leadership to formulate strategic push-back against his moves to trample us.

Whether VdL has the nous to achieve that remains to be seen, but I believe that she has the balls and the backing to deliver, Meloni and Orbán, notwithstanding.

Even Meloni has distanced herself from Trump somewhat. Orbán is just a Putin puppet so he has no choice really. But his own power seems to be on the wane - his party is in a much weaker position and he now has actual challengers, and an election due next year.

[davidjay]

How the flying fuck can pardoning 1500 convicted criminals be acceptable to anyone ?

Starmer lets a few out early and there's outrage. The same people follow Trump blindly.

[RedSparrows]

How the flying fuck can pardoning 1500 convicted criminals be acceptable to anyone ?

Starmer lets a few out early and there's outrage. The same people follow Trump blindly.

'EU isn't democratic they can't tell us what to do'
'Jan 6 was not an attempted insurrection, how dare you'

I feel two things, apparently contradictory, are needed:

1) a far more coherent, strong and clear defense of norms, couched in terms of everyday speech
2) a complete refusal to engage with bad faith actors

[Andy McDandy]

Disney morality* - it's OK for your side to do anything in pursuit of victory, because you deserve to win. Anything the opposition does is bad.

You both play by the rules - you win fair and square
You obey the rules/opponent cheats - cheats never prosper
You cheat/opponent obeys rules - they tried to rules lawyer us and use the system against us, so we showed them
Both cheat - we're mavericks, and they're crooks

A bit like the rich/poor Tory/Socialist thing.

*So called because it crops up in a lot of House of Mouse product.

[Killer Whale]

I don't know. We're too far gone. Politics in much of the West (and maybe South Korea, too) seems to be dominated by blatant lying, spite, and (maybe worst of all) wishful thinking. The signs have been there for decades, of course, but the social media age has turbocharged the tendency. I really don't know how we get out of this.

My only consoling thought is that when the conflicts that are currently virtual reach the streets, the shock-troops of the far right will be off their faces to the point of soiling themselves on cheap coke and Strongbow Dark Fruits.

[Bones McCoy]

What do you get when you combine three uber-wealthy tech-bros and a wannabe dictator.

[Watchman]

Nobody told us this would happen

Donald Trump’s blanket pardons to January 6 rioters have been condemned by a major police union that had endorsed his candidacy,

The largest police union in the US, which endorsed Donald Trump during his campaign, said Trump’s decision to pardon more than 1,500 people convicted over the January 6 insurrection “sends a dangerous message”, in a statement on Tuesday.

The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which endorsed Trump in September 2024, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) warned that the blanket clemency offered to rioters – including those convicted of violent offenses, and several leaders of the attack on the Capitol – threatened Americans’ safety.

“The IACP and FOP are deeply discouraged by the recent pardons and commutations granted by both the Biden and Trump administrations to individuals convicted of killing or assaulting law enforcement officers. The IACP and FOP firmly believe that those convicted of such crimes should serve their full sentences,” the IACP and FOP statement said.

It continued: “Crimes against law enforcement are not just attacks on individuals or public safety – they are attacks on society and undermine the rule of law. Allowing those convicted of these crimes to be released early diminishes accountability and devalues the sacrifices made by courageous law enforcement officers and their families.