All Things Trump: the story continues...

[Tero]

The USA Isn’t a ‘Banana Republic’ for Investigating Trump — Just Look at the Data
Finally, our data also underscores that holding leaders accountable does not send a country spiraling downward. Within five years of legal action toward a current or former leader, the country kept the same freedom designation in most cases (185 times). In 31 additional examples, the country actually became freer. In the remaining 27 scenarios, the country became less free, with 13 cases resulting in a country temporarily losing its free designation. More than 80 percent of free countries maintained their threshold even after judicially detaining a current or former leader.

For perhaps the best comparison to the United States, we can take a more in-depth look at the most developed countries, those that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That offers 27 cases to examine — and of these, only two OECD countries became less democratic within five years of arresting a current or former head of state: Mexico and Turkey.

Here are a few of the key examples in which OECD countries took legal action against their current or former leaders:
(see link)
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... a-00052769

[JimC]

We are currently investigating our previous PM for his secret assumption of ministerial powers during the pandemic. The consensus is that it was not technically illegal, but was a breech of normal Westminster conventions. He may suffer a censor motion in parliament...

[Tero]

Time lapse aerial video of Trumpsters at capitol Jan 6th
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2022/ ... rig-ao.cnn

[Tero]

Trump Love letters, from Kim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRtzi5jJnXs

[Tero]

[Tero]

[Brian Peacock]

[Joe]

[Tero]

[Tero]

[Joe]

What's all this fuss about some obscure documents at Trump's home? Mar-a-Lago is really secure. No one can just walk into that fortress. Trump security is the best security.

Oh, wait...

Inventing Anna: Ukrainian-Born Scammer Posed with Trump and Wandered Mar-a-Lago

Anna de Rothschild blended in perfectly as she rolled through the gates at Mar-a-Lago. Bearing the name of European banking royalty, she flashed a Rolex on her wrist, drove a new Mercedes Benz AMG G63, and touted her connections to big real estate developments.

The rich and powerful she mingled with at the Florida resort, including close family and friends of the 45th president of the United States, seemed unaware that the confident 33-year-old with long, flowing locks was no Rothschild.

OCCRP and the The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have learned that the woman who guests said posed as a Rothschild is actually Inna Yashchyshyn, a Russian-speaking immigrant born in Ukraine, daughter of a truck driver and the former director of a Miami charity called United Hearts of Mercy.

She is also under investigation by Canadian law enforcement, and the FBI is asking questions about her business dealings.

Her charity was kicked off payment processing platform Stripe after its experts found stolen credit card numbers from Hong Kong were used to route donations to the charity.

Yashchyshyn’s background and her motives for making her way to Mar-a-Lago, where she had her photo snapped alongside former President Donald J. Trump in May 2021, are still a mystery.

Of course, I'm sure Trump never met her.

[pErvinalia]

Never met her? He grabbed her by the pussy.

[L'Emmerdeur]

When you're the president they let you do it. You can do anything.

She is an inspiring young lady, getting wonderful things done just like President Trump. Releasing children 'from spiritual, social, economic, and physical poverty.'

[Brian Peacock]

Perhaps this sort of thing is inevitable if one lives in a shopping mall, albeit a fancy one.

[Tero]

Atlantic on Trump II:
The U.S. is an older and better-established democracy than Hungary. How, then, could MAGA acolytes emulate Orbán in the American context? To simplify matters, set aside the possibility of a stolen or contested 2024 election and suppose that Trump wins a fair Electoral College victory. In this scenario, beginning on January 20, 2025, he and his supporters set about bringing Budapest to the Potomac by increments. Their playbook:

First, install toadies in key positions. Upon regaining the White House, the president systematically and unabashedly nominates personal loyalists, with or without qualifications, to Senate-confirmed jobs. Assisted by the likes of Johnny McEntee, a White House aide during his first term, and Kash Patel, a Pentagon staffer, he appoints officials willing to purge conscientious civil servants, neutralize or fire inspectors general, and ignore or overturn inconvenient rules.

A model for this type of appointee is Jeffrey Clark. A little-known lawyer who led the Justice Department’s environmental division, he secretly plotted with Trump and the White House after the 2020 election to replace the acting attorney general and then use the Justice Department’s powers to pressure officials in Georgia and other states to overturn Joe Biden’s victory. Only the threat of mass resignations at the Justice Department derailed the scheme.

Trump has plenty of Jeffrey Clarks to choose from, and a Republican-controlled Senate would confirm most or all of them. But no matter if the Senate balks or if Democrats control it. Trump will simply do more, much more, of what he raised to an art in his first term: appointing “acting” officials to circumvent Senate confirmation—a practice that, the Associated Press reports, “prompted muttering, but no more than that, from Republican senators whose job description includes confirming top administration aides.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/polit ... ing/tnamp/