The Trump Organization's Hostile Takeover of the U.S. Government

[FescueFan]

It's now 2020 and Trump still hasn't produced a plan to deal with ISIS.

He never had one. Trump just lies a lot.

ISIS isn't a problem....."Progressives" are.

 

[LLCox]

but...but...trump is a business man. he'll run the government like a business.

a bankrupt business

 

[WillJ8787]

Seven crimes that Trump could be guilty of:

1. Campaign finance violation
2. Bribery
3. Honest services fraud
4. Extortion
5. Witness intimidation
6. Obstruction of justice
7. Conspiracy

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...-might-have-committed-in-this-ukraine-scandal

Correct!!! I think you forgot Incest.

 

[The_adorable_slut]

Trump has show us repeatedly that he has no interest in forming a more perfect union, establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare or securing the blessings of liberty for the American people.

Instead, Trump’s interest in having governmental powers seem to be centered on his desire to steal as much money as he can from the American People and shovel it into his failing businesses.

In practical terms, Trump’s business properties now operate as de facto outposts of the U.S. government. When Vice President Mike Pence visited Ireland last week, he first met with the country’s foreign minister at an airport on the country’s western coast, then spent the night at Trump’s nearby Doonbeg golf resort. From there, he traveled to Dublin—which is on the other side of the island—to meet with Leo Varadkar, the head of the Republic of Ireland’s government.

And because of Trump’s blatant and reckless greed, an Air National Guard C-17 crew stopped for refueling at a small civilian airport outside Glasgow, Scotland, and spent the night at Trump’s golf resort at Turnberry. The House Oversight Committee is investigating why the crew stayed at Turnberry instead of other nearby hotels, and why they landed at the nearby private airport instead of U.S. airbases in Britain, where fuel would be cheaper.

Even the president’s domestic resorts are now seen as suitable for hosting high-level diplomatic events. Trump spent part of last month’s G-7 summit defending his administration’s decision to consider his Doral resort outside Miami when the U.S. hosts the annual gathering next year. “I think it’s a great place to be,” he told reporters during a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “I think having it in Miami is fantastic, really fantastic.” A casual observer could be forgiven for thinking he was trying to infuse some federal funds into Doral’s depleted coffers.

Trump’s other U.S. properties have also become ersatz civic centers. Republican lawmakers and candidates spent more than $4 million nationwide to host rallies and fundraisers at the sites ahead of last year’s midterm elections. And then there’s the Trump International Hotel in D.C., which has become a gathering point for a certain slice of American politics who want to signal—both in person and in cash—their affinity for the president. Attorney General William Barr is even hosting his annual private holiday party at the hotel in December.

There’s only one problem with this entire state of affairs. Ideally, Trump would enforce a strict separation between the Trump Organization and his administration to prevent the appearance, or reality, of corruption. Failing that, the federal government would have taken these properties to manage on the taxpayers’ behalf so he and his family can’t profit from the presidency. Instead, the president has charted a third course in which the Trump Organization and the federal government blend together in some sort of unholy corporate merger. It may be the most successful hostile takeover in history.

https://newrepublic.com/article/155...f-0SRdKPJk7BJ-qNhAwxNVdAB4r3A5c1zuiVSgzBIw7ks

Yeah, pretty much.

Have you seen the confirmation hearings for Trump's recent Supreme Court nominee? For anyone who believes in American values, it was painfulto watch. She's totally on board with Trump's hostile takeover.

FEINSTEIN: On July 30, 2020, President Trump made claims of voter fraud and suggested he wanted to delay the upcoming election. Does the Constitution give the President of the United States the authority to unilaterally delay a general election under any circumstances?

BARRETT: Senator, if that question ever came before me, I would need to hear arguments from the litigant and read briefs and consult with my law clerks and talk to my colleagues and go through the opinion writing process. If I give off-the-cuff answers, I would be a legal pundit and I do not think we want judges to be legal pundit. We want judges to approach with an open mind.

The president does not have the power to delay a presidential election. Period. Full stop. If Barrett has a law clerk who thinks the president has that power, she should fire the clerk immediately. If she has colleagues who believe this is debatable, she should recommend they get off the pipe for a while. There is a definitive off-the-cuff answer for this question. It’s the same off-the-cuff answer that would be definitive if she were to be asked if the president has the power to name himself Emperor of All the Octopi. That answer is no.

This is how far down we have fallen. The bedrock of our government, which is the constitution, is being ignored by a nominee for the highest court in the land, while she gives a banal answer, which is palatable to the right wing. This is a feature and not a bug, because when Trump loses, he wants this supreme court to do a Gore/Bush number and declare him the winner anyway. That’s the scam. And he’s got 42% of the country all primed to go along with it!

 

[LLCox]

trump has gutted the EPA. It has affected me personally and not in a good way

 

[Schlank]

How Trump waged war on his own government

Trump has engaged in an unwavering four-year war on the civil servants who have operated as the backbone of the federal government for more than a century. Career employees from diplomats to budget analysts have come under siege as they carry out the laws of Congress, attacked by a president with no government experience and portrayed as a “deep state” trying to undermine him.

Trump has targeted high-profile figures such as Anthony S. Fauci, a government scientist who has advised six presidents and whose dire warnings about the coronavirus pandemic angered him. He ridiculed Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the decorated Iraq War veteran and Ukraine expert on the National Security Council staff who testified in the inquiry that led to Trump’s impeachment — then he ordered him marched out of his office with his twin brother, another career military officer.

Vindman retired in July after what his attorney called a campaign of White House intimidation and retaliation.

Beyond these recognizable faces, employees across the government were banished to basement offices, denied promotions and excluded from decision-making. Government service has been undermined in the process, employees and observers say, endangering not just the government’s routine functions, such as ensuring clean water and fighting wildfires, but also its response to rare events like pandemics.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...f9598e-122a-11eb-ba42-ec6a580836ed_story.html

 

[bodysong]

Every GOP congressperson and cabinet member should be asked before Tuesday
if Donald Trump legally can declare himself the winner of the election before states
like PA and MI have even counted millions of mail-in ballots.

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) November 1, 2020

George Takei ✓
Twitter › GeorgeTakei

Via @actdottv, this is how the Republican Party suppresses the vote to maintain power.
Retweet if you think it's time to #VoteThemAllOut.

1 hour ago

 

[RobDownSouth]

Trump installs leading Twitter crackpot science denier as nation's top meteorologist.

You can't make this shit up.

 

[FGB]

Well.

The Good news is Y'all are probably going to have four more years to BITCH and make up more shit about Trump.

 

[nowisthetime]

He needs to stay in the presidency or else his fat ass will be indicted.

It would be wonderful to see his humiliation. History has a way with dealing with these types.

I hope his home state gets his ass.

God doesn't like ugly.

 

[allison22]

Trump asked aides if he could pursue a wild plan to replace the Electoral College with loyalists who would ignore the vote

https://www.businessinsider.com/tru...-electoral-college-with-loyalists-nyt-2020-11

 

[Schlank]

America's fascist moment has not yet passed

The attempt to delegitimize American elections en masse rather than admit defeat is not a mere product of Trump's narcissistic delusions. It has the backing of top Republicans. It has the endorsement of an increasingly fascist-minded conservative media universe. It does not come from a vacuum; Trump is not the one filing the lawsuits to overturn results, and is only one of numerous Republican elites making the same outlandish assertions of "thousands" or "millions" of faked ballots, claims that near-unanimously target cities with large non-white populations.

It is a fascist movement, one based on the theory that party power must be preserved even if it requires the production of hoaxes and propaganda to accomplish. One that shows gaudy public contempt for expertise, and which invariably declares that any factual evidence that does not comport with the party's own oft-buffoonish claims must necessarily be a hoax perpetrated against Dear Leader, launched by remnant groups in government or outside it that seek to damage Dear Leader.

The party continually tests which democratic norms can be dispensed with, and have been successful at dismantling many or most. The push to overturn the results of a presidential election, and specifically to do so by nullifying the actual votes and tasking loyalist state elected officials create new ones, has very little chance of being successful this time, based on these states and these claims.

That does not mean that the party will not lend its weight to similar calls to overturn a future election. It does not mean that, in a Republican Party that continues to aggressively purge itself of the insufficiently sycophantic, it will with certainty run afoul of local officials unwilling to lend their own names to the effort. It does not mean that every collection of party lawyers and provocateurs will be as incompetent. There will be those that analyze these fraud claims not to discredit them, but to determine how they can best be made more compelling. And the movement of out-and-out imbeciles, Americans who pride themselves on believing hoaxes while condemning expertise, only continues to grow.

America remains at the same fascist moment, and Republican lawmakers and ex-lawmakers are going on the Sunday shows pushing false claims meant to suggest that our democracy itself is unreliable or compromised, having turned in results that the party's leader does not like. They are not turning the moment back, but pushing it forward. Again. Still.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...ned-is-farce-but-Republican-complicity-is-not

 

[butters]

will true republicans, old-skooler thinkers, take their party back and force the trumpistans out on their own to form a third runner? do any have the integrity left to reclaim their party, or are they all too scared that trump's leading the masses of nutjobs/ignorant/racist/grifters/bemused and unless they toe his line they'll find themselves out of political life?

 

[naughtymind]

will true republicans, old-skooler thinkers, take their party back and force the trumpistans out on their own to form a third runner? do any have the integrity left to reclaim their party, or are they all too scared that trump's leading the masses of nutjobs/ignorant/racist/grifters/bemused and unless they toe his line they'll find themselves out of political life?

Let’s hope more Republicans come to their senses, find their balls, and stand up to these outrageous attacks ASAP! I’m disappointed that any of them seem to think that a complete end run around “the will of the people” would be some kind of win for anyone. Their own integrity is pretty much shot at this point; what little was left. Still, there have been some honest and heartfelt rebukes from some. I just hope that more can be forward thinking, and act NOW to start defending our democratic foundations. The whole hoax movement may be ridiculous on one hand, and laughable in their legal flailing; but they are nonetheless slowly and steadily eroding the basic foundation on which our democracy rests.

 

[Dribble]

Only Fascist traitors support Fascist traitors.

When I first started saying this, I received push back from both the Left and the Right. Yet...who was right? That's right...me.

 

[boyish_and_obedient]

The Trump organization is a multifaceted crime syndicate. They have already broken enough laws to justify a RICO investigation, which can extend the statute of limitations, enhance penalties and allow separate cases to be tried together.

This stuff is going to be unfolding for years.

The New York Attorney General and the District Attorney of New York City are both investigating Trump and have tons of evidence of criminal activity, including money laundering for the Russian mob.

And Trump's favorite lawyer (Rudy Giuliani) has filed so many frivolous lawsuits in the past five weeks, he's apt to be losing his license to practice law soon. Who will defend Trump is court when he's charged with dozens of criminal offenses?

 

[AlexBailey]

Rico?

The Trump organization is a multifaceted crime syndicate. They have already broken enough laws to justify a RICO investigation,which can extend the statute of limitations, enhance penalties and allow separate cases to be tried together.

This stuff is going to be unfolding for years.

- October 13th, 2019.

 

[icanhelp1]

- October 13th, 2019.

There are enough Biden bank records to have a real RICO prosecution and conviction.

 

[AlexBailey]

There are enough Biden bank records to have a real RICO prosecution and conviction.

Good luck with that.

 

[Dribble]

- October 13th, 2019.

RICO isn't easy to prove...unless you get people flipping evidence. But...once an indictment is signed...there is really only one way they won't be found guilty...that is mishandling of paperwork. It bothers me the indictment was leaked an hour before it was released. That is how people get off. The prosecutors need to find out who did it and remove them...and charge them

 

[Dribble]

There are enough Biden bank records to have a real RICO prosecution and conviction.

How about using Hunter's laptop for evidence? I mean...you claim to have it. Use it

 

[Pad_Foot]

but...but...trump is a business man. he'll run the government like a business.

You mean run all government business through his business at jacked up prices?
At least we don’t have to rent a separate place for the secret police to potty like Jared and Ivanka insisted!

 

[icanhelp1]

How about using Hunter's laptop for evidence? I mean...you claim to have it. Use it

When you have a DOJ that’s on the payroll, well, just saying. Not acting on evidence doesn’t mean evidence is not available.

 

[Dribble]

When you have a DOJ that’s on the payroll, well, just saying. Not acting on evidence doesn’t mean evidence is not available.

It is in your possession...copy it...give the copy to the doj. Or maybe....you don't have it? Maybe...that's all lies? Which is it?

 

[icanhelp1]

Good luck with that.

As long as Garland works for Joe it will be difficult. Garland in an Eric Holder clone, neither believe in equal protection or equal application of the law.