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Trump
Dec 19, 2020 10:16:29 GMT
Post by longinglook on Dec 19, 2020 10:16:29 GMT
To be the better person it may be time to forgive Trump. You need to lose that baggage before you can move on. Or you become the person you despise. Be judged by what you do. Too much energy is lost in looking back in anger. Sally can wait. Spoken like someone who doesn't live in this fucking country.
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Post by longinglook on Dec 19, 2020 10:33:20 GMT
It is hard to take in all the terrible news. Well, hard for me anyway A woman named Heather Cox Richardson helps a bit. She is a historian and has been providing a daily synopsis of the daily shitstorms for a while now. Want to learn a bit about yesterday's happenings in the land of the Tumpkins? Here you go. Read it and weep. Or rage. Or forgive, (if you are so inclined.)
"Heather Cox Richardson December 18, 2020 (Friday)
A year ago today, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald J. Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. In his plea to Senators to convict the president, Adam Schiff (D-CA), the lead impeachment manager for the House, warned “you know you can’t trust this president to do what’s right for this country.” Schiff asked: “How much damage can Donald Trump do between now and the next election?” and then answered his own question: “A lot. A lot of damage.” “Can you have the least bit of confidence that Donald Trump will… protect our national interest over his own personal interest?” Schiff asked the senators who were about to vote on Trump’s guilt. “You know you can’t, which makes him dangerous to this country.’’
Republicans took offense at Schiff’s passionate words, seeing them as criticism of themselves. They voted to acquit Trump of the charges the House had levied against him.
And a year later, here we are. A pandemic has killed more than 312,000 of us, and numbers of infections and deaths are spiking. Today we hit a new single-day record of reported coronavirus cases with 246,914, our third daily record in a row. The economy is in shambles, with more than 6 million Americans applying for unemployment benefits. And the government has been hobbled by a massive hack from foreign operatives, likely Russians, who have hit many of our key departments.
Today it began to feel as if the Trump administration was falling apart as journalists began digging into a number of troubling stories.
Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, appointed by Trump after he fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper by tweet on November 9, this morning abruptly halted the transition briefings the Pentagon had been providing, as required by law, to the incoming Biden team. Observers were taken aback by this unprecedented halt to the transition process, as well as by the stated excuse: that Defense Department officials were overwhelmed by the number of meetings the transition required. Retired four-star general Barry R. McCaffrey, a military analyst for NBC and MSNBC, tweeted: “Pentagon abruptly halts Biden transition—MAKES NO SENSE. CLAIM THEY ARE OVERWHELMED. DOD GOES OPAQUE. TRUMP-MILLER UP TO NO GOOD. DANGER.”
After Axios published the story and outrage was building, Miller issued a statement saying the two sides had decided on a “mutually-agreed upon holiday, which begins tomorrow.” Biden transition director Yohannes Abraham promptly told reporters: “Let me be clear: there was no mutually agreed upon holiday break. In fact, we think it’s important that briefings and other engagements continue during this period as there’s no time to spare, and that’s particularly true in the aftermath of ascertainment delay," a reference to the delay in the administration’s recognition of Biden’s election.
Later, the administration suggested the sudden end to the transition briefings was because Trump was angry that the Washington Post on Wednesday had published a story showing how much money Biden could save by stopping the construction of Trump’s border wall. Anger over a story from two days ago seems like a stretch, a justification after the briefings had been cancelled for other reasons. The big story of the day, and the week, and the month, and the year, and probably of this administration, is the sweeping hack of our government by a hostile foreign power. The abrupt end to the briefings might reflect that the administration isn’t keen on giving Biden access to the crime scene.
Republicans appear to be trying to cripple the Biden administration more broadly. The country has been thrilled by the arrival of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine that promises an end to the scourge under which we’re suffering. Just tonight, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized a second vaccine, produced by Moderna, for emergency authorization use. This vaccine does not require ultracold temperatures for shipping the way the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine does. Two vaccines for the coronavirus are extraordinarily good news.
But this week, as the first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines were being given, states learned that the doses the federal government had promised were not going to arrive, and no one is quite sure why. The government blamed Pfizer, which promptly blasted the government, saying it had plenty of vaccines in warehouses but had received no information about where to send them. Then the White House said there was confusion over scheduling.
Josh Kovensky at Talking Points Memo has been following this story, and concluded a day or so ago that the administration had made no plans for vaccine distribution beyond February 1, when the problem would be Biden’s. Kovensky also noted that it appears the administration promised vaccine distribution on an impossible timeline, deliberately raising hopes for vaccine availability that Biden couldn’t possibly fulfill. Today Kovensky noted that there are apparently doses missing and unaccounted for, but no one seems to know where they might be.
Today suggested yet another instance of Republican bad faith. With Americans hungry and increasingly homeless, the nation is desperate for another coronavirus relief bill. The House passed one last May, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to take it up. Throughout the summer and fall, negotiations on a different bill failed as Republicans demanded liability protection for businesses whose employees got coronavirus after they reopened, and Democrats demanded federal aid to states and local governments, pinched as tax revenue has fallen off during the pandemic. Now, though, with many Americans at the end of their rope, McConnell indicated he would be willing to cut a deal because the lack of a relief package is hurting the Republican Senate candidates before the runoff election in Georgia on January 5. Both sides seemed on the verge of a deal.
That deal fell apart this afternoon after Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) with the blessing of McConnell, suddenly insisted on limiting the ability of the Federal Reserve to lend money to help businesses and towns stay afloat. These were tools the Trump administration had and used, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tried to kill them after Trump lost the election. The Federal Reserve’s ability to manage fiscal markets is key to addressing recessions. Removing that power would gravely hamper Biden’s ability to help the nation climb out of the recession during his administration.
It’s hard not to see this as a move by McConnell and Senate Republicans to take away Biden’s power—power enjoyed by presidents in general, and by Trump in particular—to combat the recession in order to hobble the economy and hurt the Democrats before the 2022 election.
Money was in the news in another way today, too. Business Insider broke the story that the Trump campaign used a shell company approved by Jared Kushner to pay campaign expenses without having to disclose them to federal election regulators. The company was called American Made Media Consultants LLC. Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, was president, and Vice President Mike Pence’s nephew, John Pence, was vice president until the two apparently stepped down in late 2019 to work on the campaign. The treasurer was the chief financial officer of the Trump campaign, Sean Dollman.
The Trump campaign spent more than $700 million of the $1.26 billion of campaign cash it raised in the 2020 cycle through AMMC, but to whom it paid that money is hidden. Former Republican Federal Election Commission Chairman Trevor Potter is trying to take up the slack left by the currently crippled Federal Elections Commission. His organization, the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan clean election group, last July accused the Trump campaign of "disguising" campaign funding of about $170 million "by laundering the funds" through AMMC.
This news adds to our understanding that Trump is leaving the White House with a large amount of cash. He has raised more than $250 million since November 3, urging his supporters to donate to his election challenges, but much of the money has gone to his own new political action committee or to the Republican National Committee. Recently, he has begged supporters to give to a “Georgia Election Fund,” suggesting that the money will go to the runoff elections for Georgia’s two senators, but 75% of the money actually goes to Trump’s new political action committee and 25% to the Republican National Committee.
Shane Goldmacher and Maggie Haberman at the New York Times note that are very few limits to how Trump can spend the money from his new PAC."
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Post by longinglook on Dec 19, 2020 10:41:32 GMT
And that is just the bad news from YESTERDAY. No, I don't forgive that piece of garbage and his evil minions. Not even a little bit. In fact, I am beginning to better understand how those Italian farmers felt when they got a hold of Mussolini at the end.
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Trump
Dec 19, 2020 19:29:58 GMT
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Post by donavan on Dec 19, 2020 19:29:58 GMT
To be the better person it may be time to forgive Trump. You need to lose that baggage before you can move on. Or you become the person you despise. Be judged by what you do. Too much energy is lost in looking back in anger. Sally can wait. Spoken like someone who doesn't live in this fucking country. Oh dear.
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Trump
Dec 19, 2020 20:11:58 GMT
via mobile
Post by donavan on Dec 19, 2020 20:11:58 GMT
And that is just the bad news from YESTERDAY. No, I don't forgive that piece of garbage and his evil minions. Not even a little bit. In fact, I am beginning to better understand how those Italian farmers felt when they got a hold of Mussolini at the end. Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
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Trump
Dec 19, 2020 20:40:53 GMT
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Post by miles on Dec 19, 2020 20:40:53 GMT
To be the better person it may be time to forgive Trump. You need to lose that baggage before you can move on. Or you become the person you despise. Be judged by what you do. Too much energy is lost in looking back in anger. Sally can wait. Forgiveness is a good policy. But you can only forgive for what someone has done to you personally. You can't expect people whose loved ones died unnecessarily or who lost everything they have because of the cruelty and incompetence of the (soon to be) ex-president, to say let bygones be bygones. He has never asked for forgiveness or admitted his failures. That is a prerequisite, for starters. I suspect he will continue to grift and crime like there is no tomorrow, sow dissension and get people killed by his mobs of racist thugs. The pain continues and he applauds it.
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Trump
Dec 19, 2020 20:56:35 GMT
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Post by donavan on Dec 19, 2020 20:56:35 GMT
I never said forget. Grow and change. When it was announced Thatcher had died I was in a bar outside Liverpool Lime Street Station. A crowd soon appeared across the road singing Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead. Thatcher destroyed so many lives including mine. We had to start again. Some didn't make it. But I was ashamed of the revellers that night. There will be loads of Trumps and Thatchers. Hate the system not the people who lead it. After all we voted for it. I once said to someone that I hated the Tories. He said he didn't because they are doing what they do. He hated the fact that people trusted them and put them in power. And that is all I was trying to say. But emotions are high. And yes I get that too.
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Trump
Dec 20, 2020 18:30:34 GMT
Post by miles on Dec 20, 2020 18:30:34 GMT
People who bet thousands of dollars in favor of President Donald Trump winning reelection are now planning legal action against online gambling sites, according to a report by The Daily Beast.
According to The Daily Beast, some European bettors still have hope that Trump has a fighting chance to be victorious and are calling out Betfair — a major online gambling site — for ending bookings after President-elect Joe Biden cemented his win by receiving more than 270 Electoral College votes.
"The Next President market rules stipulated that we would settle the market on the candidate that had the most projected Electoral College votes. Following the Electoral College votes being cast, that candidate is clearly Joe Biden," Betfair said in a statement.
Bettors who wagered thousands of dollars that President Donald Trump would win the 2020 presidential election are now planning legal action against at least one online gambling site for their return, according to a report published by The Daily Beast.
European bettors told the publication they bet money on a major online gambling service called Betfair in favor of Trump winning reelection. Now they're calling out the company or planning suits because they still believe that Trump could be victorious, according to The Daily Beast.
Earlier this week, President-elect Joe Biden solidified his win when he officially received more than 270 votes from the Electoral College. Biden's victory follows weeks of baseless claims from Trump and his associates challenging the integrity of the election.
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Trump
Dec 20, 2020 18:33:29 GMT
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Post by miles on Dec 20, 2020 18:33:29 GMT
I never said forget. Grow and change. When it was announced Thatcher had died I was in a bar outside Liverpool Lime Street Station. A crowd soon appeared across the road singing Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead. Thatcher destroyed so many lives including mine. We had to start again. Some didn't make it. But I was ashamed of the revellers that night. There will be loads of Trumps and Thatchers. Hate the system not the people who lead it. After all we voted for it. I once said to someone that I hated the Tories. He said he didn't because they are doing what they do. He hated the fact that people trusted them and put them in power. And that is all I was trying to say. But emotions are high. And yes I get that too. I agree that mob vengeance is not a pretty thing. You are a kind person Don, good for you
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Trump
Dec 20, 2020 21:09:34 GMT
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Post by donavan on Dec 20, 2020 21:09:34 GMT
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Trump
Dec 21, 2020 20:12:42 GMT
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Post by miles on Dec 21, 2020 20:12:42 GMT
My wife and I were talking about forgiveness today. She can't forgive someone who caused her a great deal of psychological trauma, and wanted to know if I thought she should. I said pretty much what I did here, I think there must be awareness of the pain caused and some form of contrition, for genuine forgiveness to be given. And the choice whether or not is with the harmed party. I did add that some see the real benefit of forgiveness is for the forgiver, in letting go of resentment.
I have let go of some of my anger and resentment towards people that actively tried to harm me. Not because they apologized or I forgave them, only because of the passage of time and substantial physical distance. Maybe they have some regrets, I doubt it. I can not and will not forgive mass murderers, that's no little whoopsie to brush away. rump does not deserve forgiveness, nor does hitler or any number of cold-blooded psychopaths. I'm more concerned with their victims.
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Trump
Dec 21, 2020 21:26:39 GMT
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Post by donavan on Dec 21, 2020 21:26:39 GMT
You don't have to forgive. It's ok to hate too. Do what you need to do to get through. I was abused as a child (not my parents) and bullied as a teenager. I carry those scars today. But I can only make peace with myself if I come to terms with what happened. The kids at school doesn't matter. It's just kids. We hurt each other at that age. The 'Uncle' thing is a bit more difficult. But I can't carry that pain around. He's been dead for years. This is the first time I have mentioned it to anyone. Don't know why. He didn't do anything too intrusive. But when you are seven and don't know what's going on It's a complete head fuck. But I forgive him. Perhaps more fool me. But hey, whatever gets you through.
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Trump
Dec 22, 2020 3:09:44 GMT
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Post by miles on Dec 22, 2020 3:09:44 GMT
I'm sorry, that is terrible. The transgression is not just about a physical act, but how vulnerable you were. Traumas live on in us. It is about trust too, these are our family members, elders, pulling out the support beams of our fragile belief system.
I hope not to inflict damage any upon others, I can't erase the experiences carved in me.
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Trump
Dec 22, 2020 12:59:16 GMT
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Post by donavan on Dec 22, 2020 12:59:16 GMT
Upwards and onwards. So when does Trump get kicked out then? End of Jan?
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Trump
Dec 22, 2020 20:10:04 GMT
Post by miles on Dec 22, 2020 20:10:04 GMT
Upwards and onwards. So when does Trump get kicked out then? End of Jan? The 20th. Some think he will quit soon before and have Pence pardon him. The last time for crazy election antics is Jan 6, when the congress approves the election results. Some are expected, a few barking mad idiots will try and score points after the game is over.
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