The List

[canpakes]

Donald Trump did not win a Nobel Peace Prize today.

There’s always tomorrow.

[canpakes]

Trump’s campaign of revenge continues:

Letitia James is the latest target of Donald Trump’s revenge agenda

SOME YEARS ago a noted defence lawyer made a provocative claim: all Americans could be considered criminals. Federal laws are so vague, wrote Harvey Silverglate, that everyone unwittingly runs afoul of them at some point. Armed with the power of the state, an overzealous prosecutor could build a case against practically anyone, making good on that Stalin-era line: “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.”

Or show me the woman. On October 9th a grand jury indicted Letitia James, New York’s attorney-general and a longtime foe of Donald Trump, on two felony counts related to a mortgage application. The indictment follows perjury charges filed against James Comey, a former FBI director who also antagonised the president. Mr Trump had demanded that both be investigated and, impatient with what he considered prosecutors’ dilly-dallying, he ordered them to hurry it up. Together the indictments—and there will probably be others—are turning the Department of Justice (DoJ) into a tool for Mr Trump’s score-settling.

The president has targeted Ms James after she sued him successfully for fraud at his real-estate business. Last year a judge ordered him to pay a fine of nearly half a billion dollars. The penalty was erased on appeal, but not the fraud finding. Mr Trump said the whole thing was a “fraud on me” and called Ms James a “monster”.

Now prosecutors allege that she lied on a mortgage application for a property she bought in Virginia. According to the DoJ, Ms James attested that it would be her second home when in fact she rented it out. This alleged deception got her a better interest rate, the government charges. Such cases require prosecutors to prove both the defendant’s intent and that any misrepresentations were material, meaning the bank would not have offered the loan if it had known the truth. That is a high bar.

Ms James called the charges “baseless”. Reportedly some career lawyers at the DoJ thought so too. The acting US attorney overseeing the case—himself a career prosecutor—advised dropping it and then resigned rather than push ahead. According to lawyers for Ms James, investigations of her appear to have involved two MAGA acolytes in the Trump administration: Ed Martin, who previously defended January 6th rioters while in private practice, and Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In August Mr Martin appeared for a photoshoot outside Ms James’s house in New York, dressed in a trenchcoat (looking disconcertingly like Lieutenant Columbo). At the DoJ he leads a taskforce to redress past weaponisation of the law.

The rationale for Mr Trump’s revenge tour is that Democrats started it. The DoJ under Joe Biden indicted him twice. Democratic state prosecutors indicted him twice more. Ms James brought her civil suit. Some of the criminal cases against Mr Trump relied on speculative legal theories, including the only one that went to trial (and produced a conviction). That particular case was also over small-bore stuff: paying hush-money to a porn star. This bolstered Mr Trump’s claim that prosecutors were playing politics. In 2018 Ms James even campaigned on the promise to be a “real pain in [his] ass”, saying “he’s going to know my name personally.”

The president’s revenge-seeking is as explicit. Judging by the charges against Ms James and Mr Comey—who was indicted for lying to Congress—it may also be more tenuous. This politicisation of the law will also change how the DoJ operates. More prosecutors will be forced out or will quit over ethical objections, adding to what has already been an exodus. Ideologues or less experienced staff will fill the ranks.

The other effect may be a cycle of reprisal lasting for years. It stands to reason that the next Democratic president will pardon enemies of Mr Trump who get convicted and may also target the president’s allies. A ceasefire will only come when outrage builds and both parties “feel the sting”, says Saikrishna Prakash of the University of Virginia. “It may have to get worse before it gets better.”

In the meantime judges and jurors can provide a check against a rogue DoJ. Already they have done so in Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, DC. When prosecutors in those cities brought flimsy cases against protesters and people arrested in Mr Trump’s crime crackdown, grand juries refused to indict. That is rare and embarrassing for prosecutors, since their burden of proof—probable cause—is much lower at that early stage.

To win a conviction against Ms James, Mr Comey or indeed any defendant at trial, the DoJ needs a jury to deliver a guilty verdict unanimously, beyond a reasonable doubt. The misgivings of some prosecutors suggest that this may be difficult in these two particular cases. If they fail, Mr Trump’s revenge agenda will end up looking like a series of nuisance lawsuits, a way to hassle opponents. It is a strategy he knows well from his experience as a serial plaintiff.

https://www.economist.com/united-states ... nge-agenda

[Physics Guy]

Trump did not win the Peace Prize today. Nothing he's done until the Gaza ceasefire would have warranted it, and it's too soon to see how much peace this deal for Gaza will bring.

If things in Palestine are good a year from now, however, Trump would be a serious candidate. It's possible that his bullheaded bullying strategy, dumb as it is for other issues, may have been the right way to deal with Netanyahu and Hamas.

It may still turn out that Trump's ignorance and negligence have only made a doomed deal. I'm hoping otherwise, though. We should all join Trump himself, in fact, in hoping that he will win the Nobel Peace Prize next year, for bringing peace to Gaza when it seemed as though no-one else could.

[Doctor Steuss]

Trump's last trade war left multiple industries with a lesser global market share as supply chains shifted to other countries that don't have voters that elect amphetamine addled pedophiles. This go around something extra special is happening. Not only are supply chains once again shifting, but Trump thinks it's a great idea to give billions of dollars out to those taking America's market share.

Frosting on top is, as Republicans claim that Democrats want to give foreigners free healthcare, Argentina has free healthcare.

As President Donald Trump's trade war continues China is now turning to Argentina — buying record amounts of soybeans there after Argentina slashed export taxes to boost sales.

It's a major blow to the U.S., which has long counted China as its biggest soybean customer. Farmers here are now left with huge harvests and fewer buyers.

Meanwhile, Trump is pushing a $20 billion aid package to strengthen ties with Argentina and counter China's influence in South America. It's a move that critics say could backfire — using U.S. taxpayer money to help a country now competing directly with American farmers.

Stable genius, art of the deal, America first, 5d chess, ladies and gents.

Link

[Doctor Steuss]

In other "America First" news, Trump's bribery friends are setting up a military presence on American soil.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday that the U.S. has greenlit the establishment of a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility in Idaho, a move that has drawn backlash from some of the administration’s closest Make America Great Again (MAGA) allies, with Laura Loomer saying, "I have never felt more betrayed by the GOP," over the move.

Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist during President Donald Trump's first term and architect of the MAGA movement, told Newsweek in a text message, "There should never be a military base of a foreign power on the sacred soil of America.”

Link

[Kishkumen]

WTF?!?!?!?

[Kishkumen]

Trump did not win the Peace Prize today. Nothing he's done until the Gaza ceasefire would have warranted it, and it's too soon to see how much peace this deal for Gaza will bring.

If things in Palestine are good a year from now, however, Trump would be a serious candidate. It's possible that his bullheaded bullying strategy, dumb as it is for other issues, may have been the right way to deal with Netanyahu and Hamas.

It may still turn out that Trump's ignorance and negligence have only made a doomed deal. I'm hoping otherwise, though. We should all join Trump himself, in fact, in hoping that he will win the Nobel Peace Prize next year, for bringing peace to Gaza when it seemed as though no-one else could.

I really don’t care whether he gets a Nobel Peace Prize or not; if he brings peace to Israel, he will deserve credit for having done so. I still think his domestic policies are garbage.

[Physics Guy]

Dang it, I'm sticking up for Trump twice in a row now. Offering large open spaces for military training is one of the ways in which the United States can support its allies. It's not offering any kind of vulnerability to a foreign power, to let them base some planes on American soil. It's the foreign power putting its military assets in American control.

The United States has bases in other countries around the world. If this is so wrong, why are Americans doing it? Are American bases around the world only there because the other countries' soil is less sacred, or because Americans are deliberately defiling their sacred soil by brute force? Is the United States really that hypocritical?

The only reason I ever heard that Osama bin Laden offered for the 9-11 attacks was that they were some kind of retribution for the presence of American infidel troops on sacred Arabian soil. If this was the reasoning of a terrorist savage, why is Steve Bannon endorsing it?

Flamboyant hypocrisy isn't strength. A country whose principles are no better than anyone else's, but whose sword is longer right now, is weaker than a country with a long sword and better principles. The America that maybe really was great was the Baby Boom nation that was confident enough to try, at least, to be noble as well as strong.

[Physics Guy]

I really don’t care whether he gets a Nobel Peace Prize or not; if he brings peace to Israel, he will deserve credit for having done so. I still think his domestic policies are garbage.

Insofar as I venture to have an opinion, not being affected by Trump as Americans are, I completely agree.

[canpakes]

Offering large open spaces for military training …

You’re not wrong about this. The air base at Mountain Home feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere. The town itself takes about 60 seconds to drive through.

Maybe the new Quatari pilot contingent will take a liking to the local Singaporean eating hole. They have some good stuff.