Mike 03
Mike 03's JournalVery interesting. Orban is also destroying Democracy from the inside.
He's another player in this war on Democracy and these countries have savaged equal rights for LGBT people and women (especially women's reproductive rights) and religious minorities. Hungary and several other autocracies are aiming to become Christian Nations.
Hitler's close friend, and the leader of the SA (stormtroopers), Ernst Rohm, was openly gay at the same time Nazis were cracking down on LGBT people, and Hitler ignored it until the violence of the stormtroopers became an embarrassment even to German conservatives, right as Hitler was within reach of becoming the Fuhrer (he was already Chancellor and was close to becoming President as well). So when Rohm became "inconvenient" his sexuality became an issue and part of the justification for murdering him on the Night of the Long Knives.
Dictators.
Hypocrisy.
To what do we owe the pleasure of our agencies suddenly actually doing their
jobs? Yesterday it was Department of Justice. Bizarre. (Except the F.B.I., which has continuously functioned well throughout the Trump years, except when obstructed by the Department of Justice.)
A divided Republican Party would be something to hope for.
The question is how much do anti-Trump Republicans care about the sought-after Trump base? It really is a question I can't answer. Also, generally, what becomes of the Trump base? How valuable are they really to the GOP? Will they disperse? Do Republicans sincerely believe Trump will run again in 2024? Is that feasible or possible, given his rapid physical and cognitive decline?
I keep thinking about Berlusconi in Italy, how scandal and indictments would carry him away from positions of power and how he would always return, his followers intact, no matter how disgraced he became. That fucker is 84 years old, and he's been a dangerous, anti-Democratic and destructive fixture of Italian politics since the early 90s.
The "socialist/communist" threat is the exact same justification that General
Kurt von Schleicher used to prod Hitler into the position of Chancellor of Germany. His reasoning worked on President von Hindenburg and to some extent on Franz von Papen. They thought Hitler would compromise to form a coalition government, but he had no intention of compromising on anything.
von Schleicher regretted his mistake later, and was murdered by the SS during the Night of the Long Knives.
When I guessed Parnas yesterday, I was told it couldn't be him
because he's not in Federal prison. But he fits because the experts said it is someone whose last name ends in an "S".
It is also a short last name, and the redacted name only contains five or six characters (supposedly).
I don't know, though.
EDIT: Two more reasons I like Parnas:
1. I was told "Lev Parnas has no money." It is exactly guys like Parnas that know how to hide money.
2. It makes sense that Parnas' emails were being monitored, because he has been indicted and may even be the subject of a counterespionage investigation.
Also: He would have to pay for a pardon, because he is perceived to have betrayed Trump. No free pardons for him.
FWIW, I think DeJoy is aiming for a pardon. And he's one of the people I most want to see prosecuted.
An idea I heard floated weeks ago: can the A.G. draft a blanket
immunity agreement for many (in theory all) people who work at the White House?
You might be on the right track. Yesterday I was only thinking
about people in the Trump circle.
It could be some high profile figure who has nothing to do with Trump, in keeping with his pardon of Michael Milken.
Like a Bernie Madoff or a Bill Cosby or someone involved in one of the big corporate scandals like Worldcom or Enron? Or maybe someone convicted in a Big Pharma scandal...
I sure would like to know.
Thought experiment.
What would have become of the thousands upon thousands of SA (stormtroopers) and Nazi supporters if Hitler had been abruptly removed as Chancellor in 1934 by Paul von Hindenburg at that very last hour when he and Franz von Papen finally began to have grave doubts about him?
Hmmm. Page 608 of "Rise and Kill First" by Ronen Bergman
details Mossad's plans to take out Iranian nuclear scientists. They did assassinate a number of them and the page closes by explaining that Fakhrizadeh was the scientist they were most worried about. Iran placed massive security around him. Meir Dagan was the brains behind the plan to assassinate the Iranian nuclear scientists. Dagan died in March 2016.
That's near the end of the book.
(It's a really good book, by the way)
I was sure it was Photoshopped too. Trump's thing is that he
always wants to project power, so I can't get over the fact that he did this.
His heroes--Bolsonaro, Duterte, Erdogan and Putin--wouldn't be caught dead in a photo op like that. It's inconceivable. They would probably execute any underling who suggested such a thing.
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Member since: Mon Oct 27, 2008, 06:14 PM
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