SoTier

More info on emoluments in the US Constitution: Emoluments Clauses

I disagree. Trump is a narcissist as well as a scoiopath. That combination of psychological mental disorders creates an extremely immoral individual. Give that individual power, ie, wealth and/or political power, and he becomes extremely dangerous. That's Trump, and since the election, he's demonstrated that there is nothing that he won't say or attempt to do to "win". He's going to continue his scorched earth policies against the United States and the future Biden administration until January 20, 2021, because nobody or nothing matters to him one iota. My guess is that he -- or more likely some sycophant not officially associated with his administration so that Trump can't legally be charged with any crime -- is going to call on Trump cultists to protest in the streets after Trump's legal charades and attempts to bribe/threaten state officials to change states' electoral college votes crash and burn. From his behavior since the election, I expect Trump to not attend the Inauguration but rather to go golfing while his lackeys quietly remove his personal possessions from the WH and Trump cultists fill the streets around the country.

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, the chances of it being something other than a duck are slim to none.

^^^ In regard to these two posts, I think that Covid Donnie is both sly and stupid. I do think that he intentionally tried to suppress the vote by attacking mail-in voting early on because he thought that 1) the coronavirus would primarily impact cities, 2) the pandemic would spend itself well before the election and not be a factor, and 3) states wouldn't expand mail-in voting processes. Trump assumed that a low voter turn out would enable his Trump Cult to dominate in the swing states. He saw a reprise of 2016. That was the sly part of Trump's strategy but the stupid part is that he never anticipated that any of his assumptions could possibly be wrong -- and they mostly were --- and because he surrounded himself with sycophants who continuously told him what he wanted to hear, nobody in his orbit raised the possibility of the election not going according to plan. Trump has never demonstrated astute insight into any undertaking, business or political, over his entire adult career. What he's been is a con man, a manipulator, a salesman who can sell raincoats to people living in the Sahara. He's masked his failures by bullying adversaries through the courts and/or the media. He's trying to do the same now.

Be smart and get your flu shot. Be smarter and wear a mask and practice social distancing. Be really smart and don't share your air. November 19, 2020 - The U of Washington's IHME projects that more than 471,000 could die from coronavirus by March 1, 2021, about 30,000 more than its previous projection of more than 438,000 American deaths by March 1, 2021. November 21, 2020 - 255,905 Americans have died of coronavirus with a singe day death toll of 1460. November 20, 2020 - 254,445 Americans have died of coronavirus with a singe day death toll of 1935. November 19, 2020 - 252,510 Americans have died of coronavirus with a singe day death toll of 1962. November 18, 2020 - 250,548 Americans have died of coronavirus with a singe day death toll of 1841. Average daily deaths from coronavirus, November 18-21, 2020: 1800 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, November 11-17, 2020: 1287 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, November 4-10, 2020: 1008 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 28-November 3, 2020: 852 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 21-27, 2020: 800 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 14-20, 2020: 726 November 1, 2020 - 22,748 Americans died of coronavirus in the month of October, an average of 734 per day. October 1, 2020 - 21,311 Americans died of coronavirus in the month of September, an average of 710 per day. November 1, 2020 - 231,003 Americans have died of coronavirus October 1, 2020 - 207,808 Americans have died of coronavirus. September 1, 2020 - 185,594 Amercians have died of coronavirus. July 1, 2020 - 127,299 Americans have died of coronavirus.

Trump's legal team has failed to provide even a single shred of evidence of fraud in any of the 32 court cases they've filed, resulting in the dismissal or withdrawal of 30 of those cases. The other two cases were about procedures not about ballots. There's nothing to discuss.

Obviously you're a fan of Tommy Tuberville.

That's what audits are supposed to do --- find errors. It's not evidence of fraud.

I agree that Ivanka is more independent than her brothers, but I don't think that Trump cares enough for her to sacrifice anything for her. He's not a normal person much less a normal parent. Former Erie County, NY County Executive and ex-Congressman Chris Collins took a plea bargain and is serving prison time for insider trading in exchange for his son not being tried on similar charges. Trump would see all his children go to jail, including Barron, rather than inconvenience himself or put his ego aside.

Be smart and get your flu shot. Be smarter and wear a mask and practice social distancing. Be really smart and don't share your air. November 19, 2020 - The U of Washington's IHME projects that more than 471,000 could die from coronavirus by March 1, 2021, about 30,000 more than its previous projection of more than 438,000 American deaths by March 1, 2021. November 20, 2020 - 254,445 Americans have died of coronavirus with a singe day death toll of 1935. November 19, 2020 - 252,510 Americans have died of coronavirus with a singe day death toll of 1962. November 18, 2020 - 250,548 Americans have died of coronavirus with a singe day death toll of 1841. Average daily deaths from coronavirus, November 18-20, 2020: 1913 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, November 11-17, 2020: 1287 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, November 4-10, 2020: 1008 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 28-November 3, 2020: 852 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 21-27, 2020: 800 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 14-20, 2020: 726 November 1, 2020 - 22,748 Americans died of coronavirus in the month of October, an average of 734 per day. October 1, 2020 - 21,311 Americans died of coronavirus in the month of September, an average of 710 per day. November 1, 2020 - 231,003 Americans have died of coronavirus October 1, 2020 - 207,808 Americans have died of coronavirus. September 1, 2020 - 185,594 Amercians have died of coronavirus. July 1, 2020 - 127,299 Americans have died of coronavirus.

I'm just a bleeding heart leftie who hates to see people make f'n jackasses of themselves but Rudy and the rest of Trump's "legal team" have nobody to blame for that debacle other than themselves. They called the press conference, dude, meaning that they invited the media to report what they did and said. It's not like this was a private party that the press crashed.

Trump doesn't care about his kids any more than he cares for anybody or anything not named Donald J Trump. He uses them just as he's uses anybody and anything to get whatever he wants. It's the way narcissistic sociopaths are.

Donnie and Baby Trump Ivanka are likely to be too busy fighting off criminal investigations in New York to launch much of a campaign for a couple of years at least. There were more subpoenas issued today about Trump's tax rewrite offs.

The "far left" of the Democratic Party sounds far further left than it really is because the center of the Republican Party has shifted so far to the right. There used to be Republicans who were fiscal moderates and social liberals. There used to be many Republicans who were fiscal conservatives and social moderates, but they're in seriously endangered in Trump's GOP. Hell, there used to be Republicans who were fiscal conservatives and social conservatives, but those too are endangered. The current GOP is run by social reactionaries and fiscally self-serving individuals who put their own personal interests ahead of the welfare of the country, starting with the lame duck President. They are not amoral. They are immoral.

Contrary to the Republicans, Democrats have not ceded control of the party to it's radical wing nor to a cult of personality. They learned some bitter lessons back in the 1970s and 1980s about swinging too far away from the center. There is far greater diversity of opinion among Democrats than among Republicans, from elected officials to rank-and-file. I'm pretty far to the left both fiscally and socially, but I'm a pragmatist at heart (have nothing good to say about ideologues at either end of the spectrum), so I understand and respect that not everybody shares my views even on a single topic much less on a range of topics, and I'm good with compromising. I'm a half a loaf is better than none person. Biden wouldn't be my first choice for a presidential candidate but his positions on most issues are acceptable to me.

There will always be tension in a democratic society between individual rights and the social good. It's not an easy balance to achieve. The US, even today, is a whole lot closer to striking that balance than are most countries. It could do a lot better, and it would do better, if ideologues -- ie "wingnuts" -- on both sides of the political spectrum didn't have the loudest voices.

Libertarianism is not a viable political blueprint for governing a diverse country of 330+ million people in the modern world -- any more than any other "isms" of the right or left. Actually, "isms" have never been anything more than intellectual exercises which, when attempted to put into practice in the real world, have always morphed into authoritarian regimes of one type or another. You are dead right on "states rights".

This post is nothing more than a litany of popular RW social media "political theory" labels and memes that bear no resemblance to reality. The fact is that the Republican Party has spent the last 40 years pretending to support limited government and fiscal responsibility when, in fact, Republican POTUS have repeatedly expanded federal power while exploding the deficit with reckless tax cuts that have disproportionately benefited the wealthiest Americans by shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle and lower classes, creating an ever increasing chasm between the wealthiest 5% of the population and the rest of Americans.

Be smart and get your flu shot. Be smarter and wear a mask and practice social distancing. Be really smart and don't share your air. November 18, 2020 - The US death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 250,000. November 13, 2020 - The U of Washington's IHME projects that nearly 335,000 Americans may die of the coronavirus by January 1, 2020 and more than 438,000 Americans could die of the coronavirus by March 1, 2021. October 22, 2020 - The National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University reports that between 130,000 and 210,000 deaths from coronavirus could have been avoided with a better response from the US government policies and crisis messaging. (Avoidable Covid-19 Deaths) November 19, 2020 - 252,510 Americans have died of coronavirus with a singe day death toll of 1962. November 18, 2020 - 250,548 Americans have died of coronavirus with a singe day death toll of 1841. Average daily deaths from coronavirus, November 18-19, 2020: 1902 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, November 11-17, 2020: 1287 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, November 4-10, 2020: 1008 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 28-November 3, 2020: 852 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 21-27, 2020: 800 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 14-20, 2020: 726 November 1, 2020 - 22,748 Americans died of coronavirus in the month of October, an average of 734 per day. October 1, 2020 - 21,311 Americans died of coronavirus in the month of September, an average of 710 per day. November 1, 2020 - 231,003 Americans have died of coronavirus October 1, 2020 - 207,808 Americans have died of coronavirus. September 1, 2020 - 185,594 Amercians have died of coronavirus. July 1, 2020 - 127,299 Americans have died of coronavirus.

How come there was only fraud against Trump but not against all the other Republicans who ran for the Senate, the House, the governorships, and the state legislatures? Down ballot Republicans ran better than Trump. Perdue in Georgia, for example, got more votes than Trump did, just missing getting 50% of the total vote and avoiding a runoff in January. Nearly 80 million people voted against Trump, including millions who voted for other Republicans. Deal with, OP.

You are talking about lame-duck actions taken by departing presidents which is totally unrelated to what is happening now: a sitting president openly attempting to change the results of an election that he or his party has clearly lost by significant margin of electoral votes. Presidents signing last minute legislation or granting pardons on their last day in office has been common. It was even more common prior to the change in the Inauguration Date from March to January. There have been some disputed elections that wound up being decided in the House of Representatives, including 1800, 1824, and 1876. There have been close elections like Kennedy-Nixon in 1960 and Bush-Gore in 2000. There has NEVER been an election, however, where the sitting POTUS refused to accept the results of the election and attempted to change the election results by filing a myriad of frivolous lawsuits, by attempting to pressure state officials, or by essentially attempting to bribe local officials in some states to change those states' electoral votes in opposition to the popular vote in that state. There has never been a sitting POTUS who has blatantly attempted to thwart the smooth transition from one US president to the next. NEVER. You, obviously, owe your allegiance to Donald Trump rather than to the United States of America when you can say/write a sentence like your last one. IMO, that makes you and Covid Donnie traitors.

Why is an orderly transition of power a myth??? When was there NOT an orderly transition from one presidential administration to another with the possible exception of when a sitting POTUS died suddenly in office until Trump got whipped in both the popular and electoral vote and cried foul without a shred of evidence? Well said! 👍 Throwing out enough votes for Biden to insure that Covid Donnie gets what he wants.

"Democratic leaning voters" voted a wannabe dictator out of office. A lot of 'Republican leaning voters" also voted a wannabe dictator out of office as Biden won the popular vote by 6 million while Republicans lower down the ticket did much better. If this was just a party line vote, the Republicans would have lost the Senate and suffered more losses in the House as well as in states. Instead, many voters voted against Trump but did vote for Republicans down ticket.

This, too. I think nothing that Trump does or says is likely to dim his light for his Cultists --- there were still many "true believers" in Hitler to the very bitter end with the Red Army in the suburbs of Berlin -- but not all of the 73+ million Americans who voted for Trump are cultists, and they may very well walk away from him for a variety of reasons. Trump is going to face some serious legal issues once he's out of office, including possible criminal cases in New York by both the State AG and the Manhattan DA, as well as civil cases involving. He might skip the country to avoid prosecution or lawsuits. He could end up in prison if convicted on criminal charges. I think that Trump's behavior since the election isn't going to stand him in good stead going forward, either. While Congressional Republicans are afraid of him, a number of Republican governors/state officials have broken with him because his mishandling of the coronavirus epidemic has dumped a supertanker full of trouble on their states while he ignores the pandemic to pursue blatantly frivolous lawsuits, settle scores with "traitors" in his own administration, and impede the transition. The parting image that most Americans, even Republicans, may remember best about Donald Trump is that of him golfing while the pandemic steamrolled across the country. Not a good look.

They would cheer. They were chanting "Lock her up" in reference to Michigan Governor Whitmer at one of Covid Donnie's rallies in Michigan while Trump preened like a peacock. I agree with your assessment of Trump's mentality and why he's not likely to run in 2024. A narcissistic sociopath like Trump will always blame somebody/something for any loss and make sure that he doesn't suffer a similar loss in the future by avoiding a similar situation. Trump will, however, probably continue to hold the GOP hostage for as long as his health and money hold out.