Lets see if we can keep this thread a little more civil.

I found this interview very interesting.  A lot of soft balls thrown at Trump, he explained his back pedalling on his more extreme issues as a lot of his claims as opening bids for negotiation purposes.  Which .. whatever .. I still think that those are insincere claims he used to get elected.

He does now come across way more presidential then he did prior to the election.  A lot of his noise, yelling, and rhetoric has been scaled back.

Do respect this one though:

Quote

 

Lesley Stahl: Are you gonna take the salary, the president’s salary?

Donald Trump: Well, I’ve never commented on this, but the answer is no. I think I have to by law take $1, so I’ll take $1 a year. But it’s a -- I don’t even know what it is.

Donald Trump: Do you know what the salary is?

Lesley Stahl: $400,000 you’re giving up.

Donald Trump: No, I’m not gonna take the salary. I’m not taking it.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-donald-trump-family-melania-ivanka-lesley-stahl/

1 hour ago, bustamente said:

Will the DOJ do anything or are they going to stay in the sideline so more and more corruption and lawlessness can occur

 

It has become very obvious for some time that there is literally nothing that the GOP will not stoop to in order to gain or retain power, reward themselves and placate their followers. 

As an example, in Alabama, if a woman chooses to undergo an abortion, she is required to advise the biological father, even if he impregnated her by rape or incest, and he can apply to have her be refused the procedure. 

This is only the beginning once the Republicans seize power they will rewrite laws and never allow the Dems to hold power every again, it's already happening in states controlled by the Republicans but the Dems have blinders and false hopes that will doom them.

 

Fundamental LGBTQ Rights Also Under Attack In Leaked Supreme Court Draft

Amid his criticisms of Roe v. Wade, Justice Samuel Alito eerily ripped landmark civil rights cases that legalized marriage equality and private, consensual sex.

Millions of Americans were shocked Monday night by a leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade — a decision that, if finalized, would reverse 50 years of precedent ensuring a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion.

But that’s not the only stunning attack on established constitutional rights in the court’s draft majority opinion, first obtained by Politico.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the draft opinion, also specifically criticizes the landmark civil rights cases that legalized marriage equality, Obergefell v. Hodges, and that legalized private consensual sex, Lawrence v. Texas.

Referencing those two cases, Alito eerily says that, like abortion rights, “None of these rights has any claim to being deeply rooted in history.”

Both Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas have already publicly called for revisiting same-sex couples’ constitutional right to marry. In October 2020, they described the court’s 2015 decision on marriage equality as putting “a novel constitutional right over the religious liberty interests explicitly protected in the First Amendment.”

“By doing so undemocratically, the court has created a problem that only it can fix,” Alito and Thomas said at the time. “Until then, Obergefell will continue to have ruinous consequences for religious liberty.”

That Alito is now tying his criticisms of marriage equality to an actual draft court opinion to overturn a 50-year precedent on abortion rights should be a blaring siren for anyone concerned about constitutionally protected LGBTQ rights.

“The concern for us is what’s next with this right-wing Supreme Court,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) told HuffPost. “I can tell you Obergefell is on Justice Alito’s and Justice Thomas’ hit list.”

As Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern points out on Twitter, at the heart of Alito’s opinion is a scathing repudiation of “unenumerated rights” that are not laid out in the Constitution.

“The Supreme Court may only protect these rights, Alito says, if they are ‘deeply rooted’ in history. Abortion is not. Neither is same-sex marriage,” Stern says.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lgbtq-rights-roe-v-wade-leaked-supreme-court-opinion_n_6271425ae4b01131b127b198

Everyone but the Dems knew what Trump and the GOP where doing when he nominated those Justices for the Supreme Court, idiots the lot of them

Add this useful idiot to the mix

 

10 minutes ago, bustamente said:

Add this useful idiot to the mix

 

Susan Collins is a lot of things. One thing she definitely is, is a lying POS. 

1 hour ago, bustamente said:

Everyone but the Dems knew what Trump and the GOP where doing when he nominated those Justices for the Supreme Court, idiots the lot of them

The Dems knew. Just like they know what they can do to stop it. But they won't. 

2 hours ago, Tracker said:

It has become very obvious for some time that there is literally nothing that the GOP will not stoop to in order to gain or retain power, reward themselves and placate their followers. 

As an example, in Alabama, if a woman chooses to undergo an abortion, she is required to advise the biological father, even if he impregnated her by rape or incest, and he can apply to have her be refused the procedure. 

That’s f’ing insane but let’s be nice in trying to convince these ‘lawmakers’ and their supporters on the downfalls of this approach. Ffs.

AOC on the warpath, it's time for the Dems to tell Manchin and Sinema to **** or get off the pot playing it both ways is not helping

 

Edited May 4, 20223 yr by bustamente

I wonder if companies move out of Republican states and into Democratic ones. Texas has something like 10% of the Fortune 500, how many move?

Jeanine cites ridiculously false abortion 'stats' that would mean most women get an abortion every year

   
Fox News propagandist Judge Jeanine defended the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion expected to strike down the constitutional right to abortion by making an extremely false claim that would mean statistically, on average, almost every woman of childbearing age gets an abortion every year.

Her numbers are way off.

In 2018 there were about 72.7 million women in the U.S. considered to be of “reproductive age,” 15-49, according to The Guttmacher Institute, “a leading research and policy organization committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) worldwide.”

According to Judge Jeanine, there are 63 million abortions every year, which is false.

“And my stats that I have are that there are 63 million abortions a year in this country. Those are the stats that I heard! That’s a little too much!”

She clearly couldn’t be bothered to spend a few minutes googling her stats, which are wrong.

In fact, when NCRM googled “63 million abortions” the first result was a Fox News article from 2021 titled: “An estimated 62 million abortions have occurred since Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.”

https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/jeanine-pirro/

1 hour ago, rebusrankin said:

I wonder if companies move out of Republican states and into Democratic ones. Texas has something like 10% of the Fortune 500, how many move?

Lol you're assuming fortune 500 companies have a soul....they in fact....do....not. they'll go/stay where it's best for their bottom line.

24 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

Lol you're assuming fortune 500 companies have a soul....they in fact....do....not. they'll go/stay where it's best for their bottom line.

in the US, corporations are people. Are you saying that those "people" don't have souls? 

"Republicans are coming for the whole panoply of women's rights, LGBTQ rights, and racial equality."

https://www.salon.com/2022/05/03/samuel-alitos-leaked-anti-abortion-decision-doesnt-plan-to-stop-at-roe/

 

ie, the good,old days.

 

I looked up the senate vote on sc of us Judge Roberts.... the leader of this pack. Half of democratic party senators voted to appoint him.

Our judicial appointments are political to an extent, but our supreme court  is vastly better than these wack jobs. 

 

Edited May 4, 20223 yr by Mark F

More GOP corruption. Is there anything the right does that's not corrupt? 

 

3 hours ago, JCon said:

More GOP corruption. Is there anything the right does that's not corrupt? 

 

Stuff like this does not even cause a ripple in the sewage lagoon that is American politics these days, and further evidence that their country has passed the tipping point of no return.

25 minutes ago, Tracker said:

Stuff like this does not even cause a ripple in the sewage lagoon that is American politics these days, and further evidence that their country has passed the tipping point of no return.

Unless this is hyperbole, we have to assume Canada has passed the tipping point as well

We are not insulated from any of it

4 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

Unless this is hyperbole, we have to assume Canada has passed the tipping point as well

We are not insulated from any of it

I think we do have a degree of insulation from the current insanity in the US but it is not absolute. We have a parliamentary system of government, bans on massive corporate political donations and a three-party system. We  Canadians live in a country that was created by legislation not a violent uprising and were not as dependent on slave labour and all the evils that came with it and still echo in the US. We are not devoted to firearms and the metaphorical mindset that comes with them. We are not as fanatical (for the most part) to religious/dogmatic extremist beliefs that compel us, as articles of faith to foist our beliefs on others against their will. All of this, I believe contributes to a culture that tolerates diversity and even encourages it.

None of this is set in stone. Nothing in the nature of tolerance guarantees continued existence. All progress must be nurtured and defended.

46 minutes ago, Tracker said:

I think we do have a degree of insulation from the current insanity in the US but it is not absolute. We have a parliamentary system of government, bans on massive corporate political donations and a three-party system. We  Canadians live in a country that was created by legislation not a violent uprising and were not as dependent on slave labour and all the evils that came with it and still echo in the US. We are not devoted to firearms and the metaphorical mindset that comes with them. We are not as fanatical (for the most part) to religious/dogmatic extremist beliefs that compel us, as articles of faith to foist our beliefs on others against their will. All of this, I believe contributes to a culture that tolerates diversity and even encourages it.

None of this is set in stone. Nothing in the nature of tolerance guarantees continued existence. All progress must be nurtured and defended.

We are also highly dependant on the US for our economy and highly influenced by their entertainment and media. 
 

Whatever happens down there will have an effect up here.  We’re joined at the hip.  

34 minutes ago, Rich said:

We are also highly dependant on the US for our economy and highly influenced by their entertainment and media. 
 

Whatever happens down there will have an effect up here.  We’re joined at the hip.  

Economics are all well and good, but do not determine the health of a society. America is a militant society and that translates down to their politics, religion and view of each other. In the last 100 years, the US has been involved in more foreign wars than any other country on Earth, and that impacts their cultural lives. 

 

 

                                         

Never Trumper to bootlicker, JP er JD Mandel er Vance well Trump doesn't know so why should I.

 

1 hour ago, Tracker said:

Economics are all well and good, but do not determine the health of a society. America is a militant society and that translates down to their politics, religion and view of each other. In the last 100 years, the US has been involved in more foreign wars than any other country on Earth, and that impacts their cultural lives. 

I mentioned economics, because if their economy tanks, ours is likely to follow and that has the potential for widespread impact on all of our lives.  
 

I also mentioned more than just economics.  You don’t think what is happening in the States right now hasn’t already started to creep in and influence what is happening here?  

7 minutes ago, Rich said:

I mentioned economics, because if their economy tanks, ours is likely to follow and that has the potential for widespread impact on all of our lives.  
 

I also mentioned more than just economics.  You don’t think what is happening in the States right now hasn’t already started to creep in and influence what is happening here?  

As I previously mentioned, it has and will to an extent in the future, but the economic impact is not critical to our wellbeing as a society, We can survive that so long as no more than a few percent of Canadians do not adulate and try to re-create the toxic society the Americans have. I think we have enough bulwarks in our culture that they confer a significant degree of immunity to that.