Trump
From Huben's Wiki
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| + | '''24 November 2016 - 19 December 2016:''' | ||
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Ugh. Makes me glad to be out of the US. The same sickening feelings I had with Nixon, Reagan, Bush II. | Ugh. Makes me glad to be out of the US. The same sickening feelings I had with Nixon, Reagan, Bush II. | ||
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'''Further thoughts 10/4/19:''' | '''Further thoughts 10/4/19:''' | ||
| − | Trump is going to resign in exchange for a pardon for all crimes from Pence. | + | I predict Trump is going to resign in exchange for a pardon for all crimes from Pence. |
The impeachment pressure is going to be immense from Democrats, and there will be resignation pressure from Republicans as well (who wish to distance themselves from the Trump debacle.) | The impeachment pressure is going to be immense from Democrats, and there will be resignation pressure from Republicans as well (who wish to distance themselves from the Trump debacle.) | ||
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The Republicans in the Senate can force Trump to resign by simply saying they have the votes in hand to agree with the impeachment. They would only need perhaps 10. | The Republicans in the Senate can force Trump to resign by simply saying they have the votes in hand to agree with the impeachment. They would only need perhaps 10. | ||
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| + | '''Further thoughts 11/23/19:''' | ||
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| + | It looks as if the Republicans are conspiring with the White House as to how to rig the Senate trial. The optimal solution for that would be if somehow some of those Republican senators were forced to be recused, leaving a Democratic minority. | ||
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| + | However, if Trump is not convicted, it looks to me as if he could be impeached yet again for another set of high crimes and misdemeanors. So far, it looks as if he will be impeached only for the Ukraine quid pro quo. But there are a ton of other obstruction charges that could be added and don't seem to be. And this current corrupt collaboration with Republican Senators. Not to mention that the tax return issue has finally made it to the Supreme Court. It looks as if the drumbeat of impeachment could be repeated until the election, putting the corruption of the Republicans in the public eye for months and months. | ||
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| + | '''Further thoughts 12/17/19:''' | ||
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| + | In the face of prominent senators conspiring on strategy with the President, there is a solution. The Constitution states that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court shall preside. What if Roberts refused to preside until the conspirators recuse themselves? There is no way to compel the Chief Justice to preside, and the process would not be Constitutional without him. This would be an excellent thumb-in-the-eye of McConnell who has used refusal to review Obama nominees as a corrupt tool. | ||
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| + | '''Further thoughts 12/25/19:''' | ||
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| + | Perhaps the next step in the impeachment process should be adding more articles of impeachment: for example, an article about Trump attempting to rig the Senate trial with the connivance of McConnell and others. Articles could keep being added until a fair trial is guaranteed by recusal of the conspirators. | ||
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| + | '''Further thoughts 4/11/20:''' | ||
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| + | My latest Trump thought is that the Koch brothers, Evangelicals and Murdochs changed the Republican party by teaching conservatives to trust and believe confident liars. At the 2016 Republican party primaries, they were shocked when Trump stole the nomination by being a more confident liar by far than any of the other candidates. The confident liar idea underlies the entire conservative political movement now, and you see it in Congress, the Senate, governorships, etc. | ||
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| + | '''Further thoughts 12/2/20:''' | ||
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| + | Well, I haven't been too accurate, nor entirely wrong. Time for some new ideas! | ||
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| + | I expect Trump to pardon himself, his family and his immediate associates. It doesn't matter whether the Supreme Court would uphold his self-pardon: he has nothing to lose and it fits his style of protracting litigation until the other side often gives up or he dies. | ||
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| + | However, I think he will fail to pardon his corporations, and they will be criminally liable. Then, he and his family might also then be liable for running these corporations after his self-pardon. For example, as accomplices under the emoluments clause. I'd like to see RICO prosecutions here so that he can be properly penalized through his corporations. The question is whether the Biden administration will be sensible this way or give him a pass. | ||
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| + | Trump wants to be another Ronald Reagan: lionized after his presidency by right-wingers with his accomplishments exaggerated. And he likely will be. However, if Biden was smart, he would declassify and turn over to the press and historians as much as he can which is damaging to Trump and his ilk, especially to Republican Senators. | ||
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| + | '''Maybe last thoughts on Trump 1/22/21''' | ||
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| + | My first 4 bullet points at the beginning seem to have been alright. Not too much else, since he didn't pardon himself or his family. | ||
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| + | However, my point from 4/11/20 about confident liars seems to have been confirmed by the hijacking of extreme rightist believers by QAnon. | ||
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| + | Now, what I'd like to see from Biden to punish these people (and solve a major problem) is not only sedition prosecution, but a new IRS policy. Audits for all multimillionaires and large corporations, starting with the biggest first. This could help reduce the deficit a lot, while retaining a fig leaf of non-partisanship. | ||
