Has U.S. Democracy Been Trumped?

[Al_U_Card]

The US criminal system fair and unbiased? Or designed and presented as f&u but basically used to generate a diversion (war on crime, war on drugs, law and order etc) while generating fear (increased militarization of Police because the armed forces don't buy enough arms) and providing profits to the prison industry. Targeting certain sectors is part of selective enforcement which has been around since forever.

Just more of the same, here, I suppose.

[Winstonm]

There had been progress - especially in understanding that treatment works much better in drug cases than prison. However, with the push to raid the treasury by the American oligarchs, pushing the lie of criminal drug dealing being a huge problem is par for the course.

 

PS: I used to play a ton of golf in Las Vegas but eventually injured my lower back and had to stop playing. Got down to a legitimate 4 at one point as we played the ball down at all times and holed out all putts.

[Al_U_Card]

Just wait until they reinstate debtor's prison .... a logical next step but since the economy is now based on debt, perhaps a bit too uniquitous as well as onerous.

 

I, too, injured my lower back in my mid-30's (curling! sweeping is actually very difficult to do well) and then threw my back out completely during a golf game at the age of 40. I gave up golf until I retired but couldn't resist its allure so I deal with the pain as best I can. Ice on the back and icy beer down the throat work as well as pills and I can deal with the side-effects, unlike those from the pills.

[Winstonm]

This is from a WaPo op-ed, and I think it is a great explanation for this president's actions:

Trump has interests. He doesn’t have a philosophy.

 

But above all, he has needs, and the erratic nature of the Trump presidency can be explained by the interaction of his two compulsions: looking strong and being liked. They sometimes seem to collide, but they are actually of a piece. Both speak of a man for whom the personal is the only kind of political. It is impossible to know what his true policy commitments are because they are secondary. On any given day and at any given moment, his actions are dictated by what, in his eyes, will make him look forceful and bring him accolades.

[Al_U_Card]

This is from a WaPo op-ed, and I think it is a great explanation for this president's actions:

I thought therapists were not supposed to diagnose people that were not their patients? I too have an opinion on the favor currying, megalomaniacal egotists that run for political office... ;) worth about the same, too. W wanted to please Poppy (family tradition...) Bill wanted to exercise power and control (yeesh) and the list goes on. These guys know who is really running the show and they are just the front men that stay as long as they are allowed, or are "replaced" by the next acceptable candidate....just more of the same.

[ggwhiz]

I too have an opinion on the favor currying, megalomaniacal egotists that run for political office... ;)

 

A huge ego is just about a pre-requisite for certain occupations like a surgeon or a fighter pilot.

 

A year long study (err waste of money) by a University (Cornell, the Dunning-Kreuger effect) concluded that stupid people truly believe that they are smart. Many run for office and too many get elected and WAY too many get appointed to responsible positions in this administration.

 

Either already departed/booted/unconfirmed or supremely unqualified for the positions they hold, this bunch is historic and in a dangerous way. The startling number of key positions that are unfilled is a good thing as the acting whatevers rate to do less harm.

[Winstonm]

I thought therapists were not supposed to diagnose people that were not their patients? I too have an opinion on the favor currying, megalomaniacal egotists that run for political office... ;) worth about the same, too. W wanted to please Poppy (family tradition...) Bill wanted to exercise power and control (yeesh) and the list goes on. These guys know who is really running the show and they are just the front men that stay as long as they are allowed, or are "replaced" by the next acceptable candidate....just more of the same.

 

What evidence do you use to verify to yourself that there is a coordinated power structure behind the scenes - the ones who are "really running the show"?

[Al_U_Card]

What evidence do you use to verify to yourself that there is a coordinated power structure behind the scenes - the ones who are "really running the show"?

Who took Wallace off of FDR's ticket?

Who was behind Truman's candidacy?

How did LBJ get to be JFK's running mate and how did he avoid the Bobby Baker scandal? Gerold Ford....GEROLD FORD!!! From Warren Commission to Veep to Prez, walking while gum chewing were his greatest feats..

Who put Poppy Bush on Reagan's ticket?

et al. It is nothing but rigged, from Elliot Spitzer (set 'em up to knock 'em down, as required) and on and on. Who was behind the putsch against FDR? (Thanks to Gen.Smedley Butler for rescuing democracy.)

Trump has a lot going against him but the history of US society and political history is a lot bigger than his petty foibles. No need to bother with the minutiae when you understand the bigger picture.

[RedSpawn]

The US criminal system fair and unbiased? Or designed and presented as f&u but basically used to generate a diversion (war on crime, war on drugs, law and order etc) while generating fear (increased militarization of Police because the armed forces don't buy enough arms) and providing profits to the prison industry. Targeting certain sectors is part of selective enforcement which has been around since forever.

Just more of the same, here, I suppose.

Agreed, it is a veritable cottage industry.

 

Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-macaray/prison-as-a-cottage-indus_b_2813051.html

 

Prison as a Cottage Industry

 

By David Macaray

 

Something to consider: If we are NOT the “most evil” country in the world—i.e., the country with the greatest number of evil people residing in it—then we’re doing something terribly wrong when it comes to jurisprudence, because we have the greatest number (1.6 million) of incarcerated people.

 

Now if these 1.6 million people truly deserve to be incarcerated, then so be it. If they deserve to be locked up, then we’re forced to accept the unhappy fact that we are, indeed, home to the world’s greatest number of criminal-minded people. Not much we can do about that. But if these men and women DON’T deserve to be imprisoned, then it’s a whole other deal. If they DON’T deserve it, shame on us, because all we’re doing is messing with them.

 

A question: Are we truly “afraid” of these people? Are we afraid of them or just mad at them? Is it retribution? Is it punishment? Or does it have more to do with economics than “justice”? Are we running these people through the system in order to provide jobs for judges, police, bailiffs, counselors, court recorders, lawyers, probation officers, prison guards and bail bondsmen (not to mention exploiting cheap prison labor)?

 

Another ominous sign is the rise of private (“for-profit”) prisons, one of the more hideous manifestations of that now ubiquitous phenomenon known as “outsourcing.” Under this arrangement, when local, state or federal authorities can’t or won’t handle the influx of prisoners, they turn over all or part of the operation to private firms.

 

Even if we give these for-profit prisons the benefit of the doubt and say that they do a better job than government-run prisons (an assertion that is regularly challenged), there’s a profoundly disturbing aspect of self-interest involved here. It’s not only disturbing, it’s downright frightening.

 

To survive, these private facilities require a supply of prisoners. They need prisoners the same way sausage-makers need pigs. And just as a cataclysmic pig epidemic would ravage the sausage industry, a precipitous and sustained drop in the crime rate would ravage the for-profit prison industry.

 

Bizarre as it sounds, we now have a commercial enterprise that goes home at night and prays for more crime. (“Please, God, let there more felony arrests.”) It’s true. Unlike the average citizen who clings to the hope that society is gradually improving itself, these for-profit prisons (and the shareholders who invest in them) hope that society produces more criminals. They see it as job security.

 

Oddly, violent crime (which the FBI classifies as murder, rape, and aggravated assault) has declined significantly over the last 15-20 years. For whatever reason (and there are numerous theories), we have become a drastically less violent society. Annual homicides number approximately 16,000. By contrast, there are roughly 32,000 suicides annually.

 

With violent crime dropping, and Americans (not counting Wall Street) generally becoming more law-abiding, our for-profit prisons have been forced to look elsewhere. Accordingly, what they now focus on is illegal immigrants and drug users, which is why the private prison lobby opposes any meaningful attempt to reform our immigration and drug laws.

 

Putting people in jail for drug use is strange. Yes, drugs are illegal, and yes, the issue can’t be ignored. But why do we insist that some poor schmuck, whose only crime is wanting to get high, be locked up inside a cage? And referring to these hapless stoners as “criminals” is unfair. We should call them what they are: “Sausage.”

David Macaray, a Los Angeles playwright and author (“It’s Never Been Easy: Essays on Modern Labor,” 2nd Edition), was a former labor union rep.

When our government treats prisoners (American citizens) as commodities, it is no longer a democratic government for the people. It is a shareholder of and unwitting accomplice to a criminal enterprise.

[Winstonm]

Who took Wallace off of FDR's ticket?

Who was behind Truman's candidacy?

How did LBJ get to be JFK's running mate and how did he avoid the Bobby Baker scandal? Gerold Ford....GEROLD FORD!!! From Warren Commission to Veep to Prez, walking while gum chewing were his greatest feats..

Who put Poppy Bush on Reagan's ticket?

et al. It is nothing but rigged, from Elliot Spitzer (set 'em up to knock 'em down, as required) and on and on. Who was behind the putsch against FDR? (Thanks to Gen.Smedley Butler for rescuing democracy.)

Trump has a lot going against him but the history of US society and political history is a lot bigger than his petty foibles. No need to bother with the minutiae when you understand the bigger picture.

 

Sorry, but that doesn't appear to me as evidence. It looks like speculation. Let me ask you this: can you think of any legitimate reasons for the actions you ask about, including incompetence?

[jjbrr]

Who took Wallace off of FDR's ticket?

Who was behind Truman's candidacy?

How did LBJ get to be JFK's running mate and how did he avoid the Bobby Baker scandal? Gerold Ford....GEROLD FORD!!! From Warren Commission to Veep to Prez, walking while gum chewing were his greatest feats..

Who put Poppy Bush on Reagan's ticket?

et al. It is nothing but rigged, from Elliot Spitzer (set 'em up to knock 'em down, as required) and on and on. Who was behind the putsch against FDR? (Thanks to Gen.Smedley Butler for rescuing democracy.)

Trump has a lot going against him but the history of US society and political history is a lot bigger than his petty foibles. No need to bother with the minutiae when you understand the bigger picture.

 

[Winstonm]

Agreed, it is a veritable cottage industry.

 

Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-macaray/prison-as-a-cottage-indus_b_2813051.html

 

I have more sympathy for the position that the judicial system is being exploited - but that is a long ways from a vast conspiracy. Most of the time, criminality is localized to a specific group or groups of people. The American version of oligarchy is quite different from the Russian one in that vast government industries are not being sold off at pennies on the dollar prices. More likely, some in the West are jealous and would like a piece of that action.

 

This is not globalists acting in concert behind the scenes - this is greedy criminal bastards trying to hide their shady deals and lives from "the suckers who work for a living".

[Al_U_Card]

I have more sympathy for the position that the judicial system is being exploited - but that is a long ways from a vast conspiracy. Most of the time, criminality is localized to a specific group or groups of people. The American version is oligarchy is quite different from the Russian one in that vast government industries are not being sold off at pennies on the dollar prices. More likely, some in the West are jealous and would like a piece of that action.

 

This is not globalists acting in concert behind the scenes - this is greedy criminal bastards trying to hide their shady deals and lives from "the suckers who work for a living".

Not being sold off at c to the $? Great depression? Fiscal policy? Bretton Woods? Just more of the same, since civilisation has had "classes" of people with $ being the arbiter and no amount of willful blindness can alter that reality.

[Winstonm]

NBC News:

 

WASHINGTON — Qatari officials gathered evidence of what they claim is illicit influence by the United Arab Emirates on Jared Kushner and other Trump associates, including details of secret meetings, but decided not to give the information to special counsel Robert Mueller for fear of harming relations with the Trump administration, say three sources familiar with the Qatari discussions.

 

I have to remind myself that it took 2 years to take down Nixon, and that investigation was quite straightforward compared to this one.

[jjbrr]

So Felix Sater is actually the most interesting man in the world. Who knew?

[Winstonm]

House Intelligence Committee Republicans: "Did anyone on the campaign collude with Russia?"

Donald Trump Jr.: "I'm not allowed to answer that."

House Intelligence Committee Republicans: "O.K., that does it for me. Anyone else? No? President says no collusion. We can't find anyone who disagrees. Case closed."

[Al_U_Card]

House Intelligence Committee Republicans: "Did anyone on the campaign collude with Russia?"

Donald Trump Jr.: "I'm not allowed to answer that."

House Intelligence Committee Republicans: "O.K., that does it for me. Anyone else? No? President says no collusion. We can't find anyone who disagrees. Case closed."

HSCA and David Atlee Philips, George Joannides et al. Just more of the same.

[y66]

From Rex Tillerson’s No Good, Very Bad, Final Week by Nick Wadhams at Bloomberg:

 

“Rex Tillerson was asleep on March 9 in the luxurious Sheraton Resort in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, when President Donald Trump woke him with a 2 a.m. phone call to say he’d already decided, without consulting or warning his top diplomat, to accept a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

 

“It was the last real bit of sleep Tillerson would get in three days. The week before had been hard: Tillerson’s father had died, and he’d taken a few days off for the funeral. Now he had to deal with Trump’s latest ‘breakthrough.’ On his first trip to Africa as secretary of state and several time zones ahead of his boss, Tillerson launched into a succession of phone calls with foreign leaders to inform them that, yes, Trump had just decided to blow up decades of foreign policy convention for what could be the most momentous handshake between a U.S. president and a foreign counterpart since Richard Nixon went to China.

 

“By doing so, Trump also upended the carefully laid plans of advisers such as Tillerson, who’d envisioned a process that might eventually lead to a meeting with Kim, but only after painstaking, monthslong deliberation regarding all the possible pitfalls and dangers of such a move—and, most important, to assess whether North Korea’s offer was genuine. Instead, Trump had summoned a visiting South Korean delegation to his office a day earlier than planned to brief him on its own trip to Pyongyang, and the president decided on the spot to meet Kim.

 

“ ‘I think I had four hours of sleep in 72 hours because of a lot of what’s going on,’ a clearly exhausted Tillerson told reporters on the flight home from Nigeria. He’d spent one day with a stomach bug and was returning a day early to prepare for meetings on North Korea, tariffs, and other issues on Washington time. ‘I felt like, look—I just need to get back.’ ”

I feel you man.

[y66]

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Millions of Americans on Tuesday marvelled at Donald J. Trump’s ability to transform the former C.E.O. of ExxonMobil into a figure deserving of their sympathy.

 

Across the country, Americans expressed amazement that Rex Tillerson, who presided over the nation’s largest oil company and has an estimated net worth of three hundred million dollars, is now someone they find themselves pulling for.

 

“Rex Tillerson made tens of millions of dollars a year while ordinary consumers like me suffered from high gas prices,” Tracy Klugian, a hardware-store clerk in Lansing, Michigan, said. “Having said that, no one deserves to be treated the way he was today.”

 

“ExxonMobil had an egregious record for environmental damage and human-rights violations around the world,” Carol Foyler, a school counsellor in Santa Rosa, California, said. “Still, your heart has to go out to him.”

 

As for Tillerson, he bid a gracious farewell to his associates at the State Department and announced that, even though his government career was at an end, he would never stop trying to harm the world as a private citizen.

It's not easy to be so empathetic and so smug at the same time. But he has a point. No one deserves to be treated this way.

[y66]

With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Lamb and Saccone are neck and neck in the Pennsylvania special election in a district that Trump won by double digits in 2016.

[y66]

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Lamb leads by 95 votes. The last 1 percent of precincts to be counted are in a county that leans toward Saccone. If they vote the same way as the other 99 percent voted, he will win by 8.

 

Scratch that. The NYT just corrected their #s and are showing Lamb 847 ahead at the 99 percent mark.

[y66]

Lamb eked out a 579 vote win. Hope it holds up.

[Winstonm]

Lamb eked out a 579 vote win. Hope it holds up.

 

MSNBC is reporting that Saccone would need to win about 90% of the write-in votes in the last two counties in order to overtake that lead.

 

Recount is probably going to be next.

[Winstonm]

This from Slate.com is helpful in explaining and tying together all the angles of potential criminality from the 2016 campaign.

[Winstonm]

Another campaign promise kept: Trump said they would get tired of winning. :lol:

 

Politico:

 

U.S. House, Pennsylvania, District 18

Percent Candidate Party Votes Winner

49.8% Conor Lamb Dem 113,813

49.6% Rick Saccone GOP 113,186

0.6% Drew Miller Lib 1,379