President Donald Trump's Final Days...

[Meini Again]

According to Russian TV, the 60 Russian Diplomats 'expelled' by Trump's Adminstration ~ in a highly surprising move~ aren't cut, or reduced.

Merely expelled, and can be replaced whenever Russia wants.

They claim WH sources.

This may be Russian spin, or it may be the truth.

If it is just an expulsion, with the proviso that the previous status quo of "diplomats" will be restored..... well, that, imo, makes sense of what seemed a profound action from Trump

Still "kompromat"

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by seany65

Slightly off-topic, but i wanted to mention it anyway:

I find it odd that Michael Gerson can think that Trump's apparent view that the US is like any other country is 'extreme nationalism'.

Michael Gerson should remember that the US is a nation just like any other nation. In my view to claim anything different is also a form of 'extreme nationalism' as it equates to "my country is better than every other country".

What's this crap about "as Truman might have said"?

It also seems Michael Gerson has 'somehow' forgot that Russia and Britain etc. also liberated death camps.

Does He not realise that "inspiring dissidents"/helping to cause civil unrest and possibly arming and training them does not "secure the peace on every contested border"?

"seizes the burden and glory of freedom"? He actually means "quite often breaks international law and helps to force revolution onto countries so that they can get the regime changed to one that will lick the US's arse."

I know I'm a Brit living in Britland so Yank politics has nothing to do with me, but I find hypocrisy too annoying to ignore.

Sorry for the rant.

When I was a young chap, only 17 years old, my headteacher drove a small cohort of lower sixth form pupils on a day trip to Cambridge. He wanted to encourage us to try for a place at Cambridge University; even at that tender age we were aware that Oxford was much more exclusively for the Eton and Harrow types, and Cambridge was the place where the common clay could go and be educated to top flight academic level if they were good enough. On the way back, it was a beautiful summer evening and the headmaster pulled in to the Cambridge American Cemetary, which is a memorial mainly dedicated to the fallen of the US Eighth Air Force. I have since learned that men who died in the Battle of the Atlantic are also honoured there. There are 3,812 graves and a wall of the missing on which the names of 5,217 other men are written in stone. Our headmaster explained what this bizarrely magnificent and beautiful place signifies and then commented:

Whenever you hear anyone criticise America, remember that these men came here and risked everything, not to protect their own wives and children but to protect us. They thought we were worth it.

As far as I am concerned, I know a debt of honour when I see one and the United States of America has my marker. I know all the other dark-side geo-political wheels within wheels. Nothing is for nothing, not then and not now. But in his book The Second World War Winston Churchill wrote about the moment when it was confirmed by FDR on the phone that America had been attacked and that the decision was made that she would participate in the hostilities:

How long the war would last or in what fashion it would end, no man could tell, nor did I at this moment care. Once again in our long Island history we should emerge, however mauled or mutiliated, safe and victorious. We should not be wiped out. Our history would not come to an end. We might not even have to die as individuals. Hitler's fate was sealed. Mussolini's fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be ground to powder...

Silly people ... and there were many, not only in enemy countries ... might discount the force of the United States. Some said they were soft, others that they would never be united. They would fool around at a distance. They would never come to grips. They would never stand blood-letting. Their democracy and system of recurrent elections would paralyze their war effort. They would be just a vague blur on the horizon to friend or foe. Now we should see the weakness of this numerous but remote, wealthy, and talkative people. But I had studied the American Civil War, fought out to the last desperate inch. American blood flowed in my veins. I thought of a remark which Edward Grey had made to me more than thirty years before -- that the United States is like "a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lighted under it there is no limit to the power it can generate." Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful.

There was a time when the USA really did hold a special place in the world. For decades during the height of the Cold War the USA was the guarantor of the freedom I and my generation experienced in Britain as I grew up; same for others in Western Europe. Nothing is for nothing in this life and undoubtedly the USA found it useful to deploy assets on British soil, plus of course British military sometimes assisted US foreign policy, most notably in the Korean War. But although Britain was not getting a free ride, and she paid more and had the most uncomfortable seat (the benefit of the special relationship, you see); it was still a lot better than walking.

Unfortunately, and inevitably, this special place was abused and gradually forfeited over the decades. That sort of special place is earned and earned the hard way. But I have not forgotten looking at the graves in Madingley and I literally could not see the end of them, there were so many. I will always consider America to be special; not even Trump can take that away.

[frank07]

Originally Posted by Meini Again

According to Russian TV, the 60 Russian Diplomats 'expelled' by Trump's Adminstration ~ in a highly surprising move~ aren't cut, or reduced.

Merely expelled, and can be replaced whenever Russia wants.

They claim WH sources.

This may be Russian spin, or it may be the truth.

If it is just an expulsion, with the proviso that the previous status quo of "diplomats" will be restored..... well, that, imo, makes sense of what seemed a profound action from Trump

Still "kompromat"

If true, there are two ways of reading this: either the Trump administration is being smart and keeping communication channels open with Russia, or Trump really is Putin's beeyatch.

Personally, I think it's Kremlin bullshit. They're very good at that.

[frank07]

Originally Posted by Rogerbh

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/29/polit...quo/index.html This pardon idea, if ever made manifest, will be the ignition of a powder keg. Combined with firing Mueller, I can't imagine what will happen next. Trump doesn't follow legal advice and he may believe he is above the law.

Of course he believes he's above the law. That's pretty much the way he's lived his entire adult life and conducted his business affairs.

It's not just that Trump doesn't follow legal advice, he can't even hire lawyers to give him advice to reject. All the top Washington lawyers have turned him down. His current legal team is strictly third tier.

Trump won't fire Mueller because even he knows that would bring the roof down on his dumb head. He's had enough warnings - veiled and direct- from top Republicans (and Chris Christie).

As for the pardons - he can only pardon people after they've been convicted, not while they're going through criminal proceedings. If he tried to pardon Manafort and Flynn now, the pardons would be struck down in court. He knows this, otherwise he would have done it.

[frank07]

Originally Posted by Brian249x

I have been increasingly wondering if disenfranchising millions of voters in California and New York is morally justified. Those 2 states produce over 22% of the wealth of the United States all by their lonesome. It seems to me that all the states whose economies are being propped up by wealth transfers from California and New York ought to be grateful rather than complaining about the liberal havens who are willing to share their wealth with their less fortunate fellow citizens.

Speaking of which, the misplaced faith placed in Donald Trump by the more backward areas of the country is becoming more evident with each news cycle. Pence's lunatic fringe beliefs likely will keep Trump safe from an impeachment trial, but may not save him from post term prosecution. Blatant corruption and high treason are crimes that the Republic ought to take great pains to discourage.

Say the election result had been different, with Trump winning the popular vote but losing the electoral college to Clinton, what then would you have said? You would have said that it was fair, the way the country works, no? I would have. And I'd have thrown in a God Bless America for good measure too.

If you abolished the electoral college and the Presidential election was decided by popular vote alone, it would disproportionately favor densely populated areas (the big cities which tend, on balance, to be more liberal than rural areas).

You'd then have people making the same claims of disenfranchisement you have. They'd say they were being ruled by the 'liberal elites' (zzzzzz ....) in California and New York.

The electoral college works, even if it has twice delivered a result I was unhappy with.

[crinolynne]

Originally Posted by frank07

As for the pardons - he can only pardon people after they've been convicted, not while they're going through criminal proceedings. If he tried to pardon Manafort and Flynn now, the pardons would be struck down in court. He knows this, otherwise he would have done it.

But of course that's the point, in floating the idea of pardons, he's trying to get them to lie for him, or at least not tell anything on Mr T. Just another ploy in the consistent incessant actions contributing to obstruction of justice.

[crinolynne]

Originally Posted by frank07

The electoral college works, even if it has twice delivered a result I was unhappy with.

Please explain why a rural vote should carry more weight than an urban one.

[frank07]

Originally Posted by crinolynne

But of course that's the point, in floating the idea of pardons, he's trying to get them to lie for him, or at least not tell anything on Mr T. Just another ploy in the consistent incessant actions contributing to obstruction of justice.

You've nailed it in one. Flynn and Manafort have better lawyers than Trump does, and they likely told their clients exactly what he was up to - hence Flynn copping a plea.

[frank07]

Originally Posted by crinolynne

Please explain why a rural vote should carry more weight than an urban one.

I never said that it should, neither do I believe it.

But Brian's earlier post raised an important point - that the three million plus who made up the difference in the popular vote between Hillary and Trump were effectively "disenfranchised" by the electoral college system.

Is this fair? No. Is it right that the votes of a less populated state/part of the country be 'greater' than its populous equivalents? Absolutely not.

But the electoral college has nothing to do with the national popular vote, and never had. It's about individual states.

As I'm sure you know, the electoral college is an archaic weighting system dating back to 1789, originally designed to keep the then still fragile union together, guaranteeing that one state's vote counted as much as the next's.

Until 2000, the electoral college was the appendix of the Presidential voting system - there, but essentially useless. Lose it and it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference. No President had lost the popular vote, but won the electoral college.

Since 2000, we've had two contentious elections where a Republican President lost the popular vote, but won the electoral college.

Was the electoral college system to blame? No. It didn't hand GW Bush victory, the Supreme Court did. And the electoral college didn't hand Trump victory, because he won the popular vote in some of the battleground states (Florida and Ohio), and - crucially - flipped Democrat strongholds, where Hillary barely campaigned.

Crucially, both Bush and Trump campaigned to win the electoral college, not the popular vote. Hit the battleground states hard, and try to flip Democrat strongholds too. This was Karl Rove's strategy, learnt at the knee of Lee Atwater. Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, were all colleagues of Atwater's. Manafort (not that idiot Bannon) ran Trump's campaign, even after he 'resigned'. On both occasions (Russian interference notwithstanding in 2016), it was a highly effective strategy.

Progressives are calling for the abolition of the electoral college because they claim their candidates lost because of it. Technically, yes they did. But in reality the candidates lost because they were both flawed and fronted terrible campaigns. And yes, in Hillary's case, Jim 'Lordy' Comey did for her too.

On both occasions, Democrats either didn't go out and vote. Or voted for a third candidate. That didn't happen with Obama or Bill Clinton, who both ran brilliant, inspirational campaigns - and Clinton won in 1996 while under investigation by Ken Starr.

My reason for saying the electoral college 'works' is simply this: what if it's our person who wins by losing next time? We'll all be praising the system and the Founding Fathers to the heavens.

[LadyLuck]

Originally Posted by crinolynne

Please explain why a rural vote should carry more weight than an urban one.

Please explain why a vote in a more populous state should carry more weight than a vote in a less populous state.