Donald Trump

[Magicpole]

Japan not too happy. Nobody told them what Trump dragged out his arse about war games.

He’s a scamp.

 

[argyle]

Brilliant. Tick tock. I’m excited to hear the excuses when the walls come tumbling down and will be excited to see if Damocles stands by his “they said he wouldn’t beat impeachment”

Cohen and his team have probably leaked it to seek out help from Trump. I believe he can pardon him?

 

[SWP's back]

Cohen and his team have probably leaked it to seek out help from Trump. I believe he can pardon him?

Yes and he can pardon himself and also sack his investigator. It’s a strange system I’ll grant you.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Actually it was a major success for Trump. He got exactly what he wanted which was wall to wall media attention from all around the world, flattery from one of the worst dictators in the world and a real estate business opportunity in North Korea.
The big losers over the last few days have been the USA and the west as this whole pantomime has handed Russia, North Korea and China a huge victory without them lifting a finger. He has reduced US influence in east Asia in favour of China. He's commited to reducing protection that Japan and South Korea get from being allied to the US. He's basically given the green light for sanctions against NK to be lifted and Russia's big win is the weakening of the western alliance due to his persistent attacks on NATO and the EU.
All for what? A vague commitment for NK to work towards denuclearisation of the whole of Korea, which they've made 11 times in the last 20 years without following it through. Why are they going to do it now when Kim's already been handed the rewards for doing it?

All quite correct. The Chinese must be doing cartwheels. It's like they had a devil baby named Damien who's been nothing but an utter terror who frightens absolutely everyone, and then some some dumbass sap comes along and wants to adopt him under the firm belief that he will change into an angel. Sure, here you go, have at it -- he's your problem now.

 

[west didsblue]

Brilliant. Tick tock. I’m excited to hear the excuses when the walls come tumbling down and will be excited to see if Damocles stands by his “they said he wouldn’t beat impeachment”

Even if he gets impeached, there's no prospect of there being a 2/3 majority in the senate to convict as there are not enough seats up for grabs in the mid terms. Too many GOP senators would need to vote against Trump and they're in too deep. I have absolutely no faith that a significant number of his base turn will turn against him irrespective of the evidence that Mueller presents and they are the ones that will keep those senators in a job.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Yes and he can pardon himself and also sack his investigator. It’s a strange system I’ll grant you.

The law is unclear about whether a president can pardon himself. General consensus is that doing so would almost be the definition of an impeachable offense under "abuse of office". Nixon's counsel thought he could, but that view was not shared by all in the White House.

Note that Haldeman and Erlichman effectively threatened Nixon in the days leading up to resignation, demanding pardons and intimating that they could toss Nixon under the bus after he left office in any criminal proceeding. Nixon ultimately decided he could not do that ("If the President removes the heads to blame for Watergate, the public will only have his" said Len Garment) and had to lean on Ford to pardon him, which he did, costing Ford re-election. Obviously the outcome of the Saturday Night Massacre did not go well for Nixon either when he sacked Archibald Cox and was forced to name Jaworski as special prosecutor.

But the public-at-large is not yet at the stage they were at Watergate -- not even close IMO. The tapes broke the dam then; we don't have anything like that yet.

 

[SWP's back]

The law is unclear about whether a president can pardon himself. General consensus is that doing so would almost be the definition of an impeachable offense under "abuse of office". Nixon's counsel thought he could, but that view was not shared by all in the White House.

Note that Haldeman and Erlichman effectively threatened Nixon in the days leading up to resignation, demanding pardons and intimating that they could toss Nixon under the bus after he left office in any criminal proceeding. Nixon ultimately decided he could not do that ("If the President removes the heads to blame for Watergate, the public will only have his" said Len Garment) and had to lean on Ford to pardon him, which he did, costing Ford re-election. Obviously the outcome of the Saturday Night Massacre did not go well for Nixon either when he sacked Archibald Cox and was forced to name Jaworski as special prosecutor.

But the public-at-large is not yet at the stage they were at Watergate -- not even close IMO. The tapes broke the dam then; we don't have anything like that yet.

Plus it’s not like Trump has pushed the boundaries of convention at all.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

The law is unclear about whether a president can pardon himself. General consensus is that doing so would almost be the definition of an impeachable offense under "abuse of office". Nixon's counsel thought he could, but that view was not shared by all in the White House.

Note that Haldeman and Erlichman effectively threatened Nixon in the days leading up to resignation, demanding pardons and intimating that they could toss Nixon under the bus after he left office in any criminal proceeding. Nixon ultimately decided he could not do that ("If the President removes the heads to blame for Watergate, the public will only have his" said Len Garment) and had to lean on Ford to pardon him, which he did, costing Ford re-election. Obviously the outcome of the Saturday Night Massacre did not go well for Nixon either when he sacked Archibald Cox and was forced to name Jaworski as special prosecutor.

But the public-at-large is not yet at the stage they were at Watergate -- not even close IMO. The tapes broke the dam then; we don't have anything like that yet.

Certainly nothing like that in the public domain, but I recon the Coen files/recordings will be absolute dynamite. The Special Council have this evidence and Trump knows the content of it. He is on borrowed time.

 

[west didsblue]

Certainly nothing like that in the public domain, but I recon the Coen files/recordings will be absolute dynamite. The Special Council have this evidence and Trump knows the content of it. He is on borrowed time.

Yes, Fargo and The Big Lebowski were good films.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

Yes, Fargo and The Big Lebowski were good films.

Shut the f**k up Donnie......