The Crane Pool Forum

This guy, wow

"What’s in the best interest of the country is not to have an 80-year-old man sitting in jail that continues to divide our country," Haley said at a campaign event in Plymouth, New Hampshire. "What's in the best interest of our country is to pardon him so that we can move on as a country and no longer talk about him."

For somebody who is supposed to be the brains of the field, she really has been spewing some word salad of late.

Congressional Oversight committee reports that serial gangster ex president Trump unconstitutionally profited from presidency by receiving seven or eight million dollars from corrupt foreign governments. I'm surprised it wasn't hundreds of millions or that it took this long to discover.

Waiting for what Nikki Halley's gonna say about this. Maybe that its all about the beauty of capitalism. And states rights, of course.

She's already said she intends to pardon the former-president for the good of the country, so I imagine it won't lead to anything new from that corner.

It's also incomplete, as these reports just represent evidence left over from an investigation which House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer already shut down some time ago.

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Thu Jan 04, 2024 3:29 pm
It's also incomplete, as these reports just represent evidence left over from an investigation which House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer already shut down some time ago.

Wow is it incomplete! The report involves only four of his estimated 500+ properties, and only covers the first two years of his presidency. Also, the report covers only reported transactions, but not any under the table or secret stuff. You can imagine that this is only the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 3:34 pm

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Thu Jan 04, 2024 3:29 pm
It's also incomplete, as these reports just represent evidence left over from an investigation which House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer already shut down some time ago.

Wow is it incomplete! The report involves only four of his estimated 500+ properties, and only covers the first two years of his presidency. Also, the report covers only reported transactions, but not any under the table or secret stuff. You can imagine that this is only the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg.

Unfortunately, the Constitution does not contain any process for prosecuting, or penalties associated with, violations of the emoluments clause. Mushroom Man won cases brought before the Courts when he was first accused of this during his presidency.
Later

Trump has certainly exposed a lot of loopholes that need to be closed. But I don't see the likelihood of that happening.

A lot of the "norms" that Trump violated need to be codified into laws, with clear definitions and specific penalties. I have to hope that at some point our lawmakers will be motivated to make it happen.

An absolute piece of shit

metirish wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 9:48 pm An absolute piece of shit

He told Iowans to "get over" the school shootings.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... 234941542/
Vile doesn't fully describe him.
Later

When Matt Gaetz tells you to step down on moral grounds, you must be a really special kind of predator:

The Florida Republican Party has voted to oust Chair Christian Ziegler from his leadership position as authorities investigate allegations that Ziegler sexually assaulted a woman previously involved in a three-way relationship with himself and his wife, Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler.

He “cannot morally lead the Republican Party forward,” Vice Chairman Evan Power said after the December vote. Ziegler had adamantly refused to resign despite calls to step down from prominent Florida lawmakers, including Governor Ron DeSantis and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... 234942486/

Chris Christie drops out of the race. Food trucks all over New Hampshire observe a moment of silence.

Do they even have a Democratic Party caucus in IOWA?
Or do they figure "why bother"?
Later

Yes, they do have a Democratic Party Caucus in Iowa. They are generally very, very important in deciding who gets to be the president. But in a year when an incumbent is running for re-election, primaries of the incumbent party tend to be not particularly competitive.

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Sat Jan 13, 2024 10:01 am Yes, they do have a Democratic Party Caucus in Iowa. They are generally very, very important in deciding who gets to be the president. But in a year when an incumbent is running for re-election, primaries of the incumbent party tend to be not particularly competitive.

Specking of primaries, here's how they started, and the person who started them. I hadn't known they were that recent.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... n-00135381

Later

That’s interesting…I remember watching as a little girl. I’ll bet it was that one. I wanted a Pennsylvania sign!

As a YouGov survey participant I got the following follow-up today:

- 69% say Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech is still relevant.
- 41% believe Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of racial equality has been realized.
- 58% of Black Americans say protests are necessary today to achieve racial equality, compared to 29% of white Americans.
- 9/10 Americans have a positive opinion of Martin Luther King Jr.

Later

Roughly 100k participants, or about 5% of Iowans, took part in this charade.

I believe the Democrats have moved the timing of the primaries/caucuses, to frontload places like South Carolina, (traditionally a Super Tuesday state and much later in the electoral cycle) and downgrade the super-white places like Iowan and New Hampshire (traditionally the first two states out of the gate). This so that candidates who might resonate with voters in more diverse/representative locales would still have a shot and not be determined "inelectable" due to a few thousand local yokels deeming them as such.

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Sat Jan 13, 2024 10:01 am Yes, they do have a Democratic Party Caucus in Iowa. They are generally very, very important in deciding who gets to be the president. But in a year when an incumbent is running for re-election, primaries of the incumbent party tend to be not particularly competitive.

According to MSNBC - the Democrats in IOWA will not caucus this year. They will have a primary election later in the year.
Later

Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson has dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination. (abc news via Yahoo)

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson ended his long-shot bid for the White House on Tuesday.

The former two-term governor entered the race in April with an eye toward taking on former President Donald Trump, who saw a decisive win in Iowa on Monday night. Hutchinson found himself increasingly without a political home in a party that has embraced the man who once seemed toxic in the wake of Jan. 6, 2021.

"My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front runner did not sell in Iowa," Hutchinson said in a statement. He finished a distant sixth in Iowa.

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/republican-as ... p_catchall

He was the candidate who raised the possibility of Article 14 keeping Trump from the nomination and was the only candidate who didn't raise his hand when asked if he would support Trump if he (Trump) were the nominee.
He was principled, but way under funded.
Later

As for Iowa, Trump got 51% of the votes of a small minority of actual Republicans. It's being spun by the media as a major victory. If Joe Biden had gotten 51% they'd be spinning it as a major disaster.

DeSantis is pretty much done at this point. He poured $160 million into Iowa (not a typo). He's in single digits in New Hampshire. Rather amazing, because a year ago he looked like he could be 'Trump without the baggage'. Guess Republicans want the real Snidely Whiplash, not a cheap knockoff.

Haley has more of a shot in New Hampshire, but she really doesn't have a path after that. She's trailing by 30 points in South Carolina, where she used to be Governor.. Trump should run the table on Super Tuesday and that'll be that.

Meanhile, the Orange Gasbag is spewing vomit at his trial for defaming a woman after he raped her. What a country.

I absolutely can't imagine four more years of this nonsense

I’m still worried about whether he’d be allowed to have a second term this time

To be fair, he's talking about ethanol, which is made from corn. The problem is that ethanol takes more energy to make than it creates. It's utterly wasteful and not an energy solution, but it keeps agribusiness in Iowa happy. But he's getting sloppier and sloppier about how he says things. Cognitive decline.

He'll be allowed to have a second term, it's kind of up to us to make sure he doesn't GET one. I'm optimistic on that front.

It's a huge part of the problem with the insanity of the anti-democratic rule of putting the Iowa caucuses first. We are locked into bad policy decade after decade because it plays well with a small minority.

whippoorwill wrote: ↑Thu Jan 18, 2024 7:38 am I’m still worried about whether he’d be allowed to have a second term this time

I meant, if he wins, a second term. As in 12 years total out of 16