EAllusion wrote:This is the thread in which we watch American democracy fall into ruin.
I suspect American democracy ended many decades ago.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was given the cold shoulder on Thursday by multiple news outlets downplaying some strong polling of his. One new poll from California showed former Vice President Joe Biden and Sanders leading among Latino voters with 27 and 25 percent respectively. However, the graphic at the bottom of the screen read, "CNN Poll: Biden, Waren lead among California Latino voters" despite how Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was polling only at ten percent in the demographic.
However, CNN wasn't the only one to knock the leading progressive. CBS News cited a new poll from New Hampshire that completely omitted Sanders from the graphic. Appearing on-screen: South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg leading with 18 percent, Biden with 17 percent and Warren with 12 percent. Sanders, though, had 15 percent of support in that same poll.
I thought I'd bump this thread since this Reddit poster made this, sadly, accurate post:
/u/Internetweakguy provides a list of all the authoritarian things Trump has done now that he feels himself above the law. "It's two weeks since he was acquitted by the senate and since then he's been on an absolute damned rampage."
He’s unlikely to be brave enough to try and pardon him now.
I don't think it matters any more. It's two weeks since he was acquitted by the senate and since then he's been on an absolute damned rampage.
EDIT: Just this evening it came out that he's replacing the acting Director of National Intelligence because one of his staff briefed congress last week on Russian efforts to meddle in our current election. He's literally firing the DNI because he doesn't want Russian interference in the election reported privately to congress. It's damned insane.
Trump fired Ambassador to the EU Gordan Sondland, who provided damaging testimony in the impeachment inquiry.
Trump fired Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, who provided damaging testimony in the impeachment inquiry.
Trump called on Vindman to be investigated by the Pentagon.
Trump attacked his former Chief of Staff, John Kelly, for defending Vindman, saying Kelly had a "legal obligation" to "keep his mouth shut."
Trump ordered the removal of John C. Rood, a Pentagon official who told Congress that he had cleared the release of military aid to Ukraine. (Trump withheld it anyway.)
Trump called the Justice Department's sentencing recommendation for his longtime political adviser, Roger Stone, "horrible and very unfair."
Trump cheered Attorney General Bill Barr when he intervened in the Stone case to withdraw the sentencing recommendation. Four prosecutors on the case resigned in protest.
Trump attacked the judge presiding over Stone's case, Amy Berman Jackson, as biased, falsely accusing her of placing his former campaign manager Paul Manafort in solitary confinement.
Trump withdrew the nomination of Jessie Liu, who oversaw the Stone prosecution, to a top Treasury department position.
Trump asserted he has the legal right to order Barr to intervene in any criminal case.
Trump's Attorney General, William Barr, assigned an outside prosecutor to review the case against Michael Flynn, Trump's former National Security Adviser who pled guilty to lying to investigators. (Barr is also reviewing other "politically sensitive" cases.)
Trump commuted the sentence former Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted of trying to sell a U.S. Senate seat. (Blagojevich appeared on Trump's reality show and wrote an op-ed for a conservative publication opposing impeachment.)
Trump pardoned Michael Milken who was sentenced to 10 years for securities fraud. Milken is a personal friend of Trump's Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin.
Trump pardoned Bernie Kerik, who served three years in jail for tax fraud. Kerik frequently defends Trump on Fox News.
Trump granted clemency to Paul Pogue, who was convicted of tax evasion. Pogue is a major donor to Trump's campaign and the GOP.
Trump pardoned David Safavian, who was convicted of obstructing the investigation of corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Trump commuted the sentence of Judith Negron, who was convicted of a $205 million Medicare fraud scheme and money laundering.
Trump diverted $3.8 billion in military funding to build the wall he said Mexico would pay for.
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Yeah, I think I've seen enough to be confident we didn't even make it to November 2020. It's a shame, because it was a good, if flawed country. Anywho, remember that legitimate political authority comes from the consent of the governed, which does not exist in sham democracies.
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires...seek discipline and find your liberty I can tell if a person is judgmental just by looking at them what is chaos to the fly is normal to the spider - morticia addams If you're not upsetting idiots, you might be an idiot. - Ted Nugent
