American Politics XIV: The Dawning of the Age of the Pumpkin

[Farnhamia]

So, about those lies Fauci is supposed to have told…

Come on, you know what they are. That one thing, remember? And then the other thing, in 2020. Every schoolchild knows this.

[The Jamesian Republic]

So, about those lies Fauci is supposed to have told…

That Dear Leader’s word is not infallible.

[The Black Forrest]

He fell over on a bike. Biden is over 80 and is still riding bike. If Trump fell of a bike, or even, rode a bike, you’d need a colonoscopy to find his butt.

A colonoscopy would be difficult if you didn't know where the butt was...

Speaking from experience?

[Cannot think of a name]

Can we flip all five? What do you think?

https://twitter.com/CheriBeasleyNC/stat ... 2887879681

Are they running for Senate or are they the main cast of a new Marvel superhero team TV show?

If it was Marvel they might stand a chance. At least MCU fans show up.

[Cannot think of a name]

Quite a lot, including corruption and torture!

No one's defending him from the charges of being tyrannical! I'm just saying that he was successful at leading his country, and therefore putting my biases aside from how good he was for his country, or how corrupt he was, he was clearly good at leading.

Conflating oppression with good leadership is...sketchy.

[Kannap]

Are they running for Senate or are they the main cast of a new Marvel superhero team TV show?

If it was Marvel they might stand a chance. At least MCU fans show up.

I'm not familiar with the other races, but Ted Budd seems likely to win in NC in November.

[Cannot think of a name]

If it was Marvel they might stand a chance. At least MCU fans show up.

I'm not familiar with the other races, but Ted Budd seems likely to win in NC in November.

I have no substantial predictions. I haven't looked at polling and even then I'd be deferring to people who are more versed in this than I am anyway. I always feel like amending anytime I would say "I thing so and so is going to win" with "these people made a compelling case that so and so is going to win and I don't have enough expertise or research to dispute them".

[San Lumen]

https://kdvr.com/news/local/gop-state-s ... g-parties/

Colorado GOP state Senator Kevin Pirola switching parties to Democrat

[Kannap]

Some good news out of NC for once, The NC Democratic Party finally recognizes the NC Democratic Party Staff Union. Shame it took them months to do so and they didn't do it sooner, but great to see the unionization efforts come to this.

[Kannap]

I'm not familiar with the other races, but Ted Budd seems likely to win in NC in November.

I have no substantial predictions. I haven't looked at polling and even then I'd be deferring to people who are more versed in this than I am anyway. I always feel like amending anytime I would say "I thing so and so is going to win" with "these people made a compelling case that so and so is going to win and I don't have enough expertise or research to dispute them".

Latest I've seen is calling it a tossup and potential R --> D but also shows that Ted Budd has a larger chance of winning.

[The Black Forrest]

Some good news out of NC for once, The NC Democratic Party finally recognizes the NC Democratic Party Staff Union. Shame it took them months to do so and they didn't do it sooner, but great to see the unionization efforts come to this.

NC a union oriented state?

[Zurkerx]

Biden is leaning towards canceling $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers who make less than $125,000. This is for individuals we should note.

The $10,000, if I'm not mistaken, would help forgive debt entirely to roughly 30% of people with student loan debt, but I think that did not include an income cap. Honestly though, while $10,000 probably means nothing to Progressives, who would be irate about the cap as well, it would regardless help alleviate debt and ensure those that are making above $125K aren't getting something that lower income Americans need. After all, many Americans wouldn't be fond of richer people getting a break on something they can easily pay back. Of course, we should note that some cities have seen their rent skyrocketed into the $3,000+ range (minimum of $36,000 a year!) and people are unaware of that to some degree, but it should be received well regardless.

Now, if there was a cap, you think they would increase the amount forgiven from $10K to say, $15 or $20K.

[Rusozak]

Biden is leaning towards canceling $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers who make less than $125,000. This is for individuals we should note.

The $10,000, if I'm not mistaken, would help forgive debt entirely to roughly 30% of people with student loan debt, but I think that did not include an income cap. Honestly though, while $10,000 probably means nothing to Progressives, who would be irate about the cap as well, it would regardless help alleviate debt and ensure those that are making above $125K aren't getting something that lower income Americans need. After all, many Americans wouldn't be fond of richer people getting a break on something they can easily pay back. Of course, we should note that some cities have seen their rent skyrocketed into the $3,000+ range (minimum of $36,000 a year!) and people are unaware of that to some degree, but it should be received well regardless.

Now, if there was a cap, you think they would increase the amount forgiven from $10K to say, $15 or $20K.

I'm in that bracket, and 10k would erase half of my debt so I'd be happy regardless. Could they erase more debt for more people? Yes, but I'll take what I can get.

[American Legionaries]

Biden is leaning towards canceling $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers who make less than $125,000. This is for individuals we should note.

The $10,000, if I'm not mistaken, would help forgive debt entirely to roughly 30% of people with student loan debt, but I think that did not include an income cap. Honestly though, while $10,000 probably means nothing to Progressives, who would be irate about the cap as well, it would regardless help alleviate debt and ensure those that are making above $125K aren't getting something that lower income Americans need. After all, many Americans wouldn't be fond of richer people getting a break on something they can easily pay back. Of course, we should note that some cities have seen their rent skyrocketed into the $3,000+ range (minimum of $36,000 a year!) and people are unaware of that to some degree, but it should be received well regardless.

Now, if there was a cap, you think they would increase the amount forgiven from $10K to say, $15 or $20K.

More would definitely help, I think the cap is less of an issue than the relatively low amount. I think the people really hurting are the folks who are in debt from a degree they're having trouble finding employment with, and are still making 24k a year with 40k in loans.

[Shrillland]

NYT raises ethics questions about NYC Mayor Eric Adams' continued visits to restaurant on 52nd street with connections that seem to go far beyond just being a favoured haunt after work

Paywall-free edition via Yahoo

[San Lumen]

https://thehill.com/latino/3611584-bipa ... -delaware/

Bipartisan group slams Florida lt. gov.’s suggestion to send Cuban migrants to Delaware

[Myrensis]

https://thehill.com/latino/3611584-bipartisan-group-slams-florida-lt-gov-s-suggestion-to-send-cuban-migrants-to-delaware/

Bipartisan group slams Florida lt. gov.’s suggestion to send Cuban migrants to Delaware

I mean, at least she's actually being consistent, rather than the more usual Republican line of "Immigrants are bad...unless they vote Republican, then it's our moral duty to save them from the horrible socialist nations they are fleeing from!".

Not a particularly smart move in Florida of all places though.

[Great Heathen Air Force]

We aren’t living under socialism. We are living under Jimmy Carter 2.0

Does that mean Biden's barely doing anything?

That is literally what America elected Biden to do.

[San Lumen]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... ia-senate/

Walker, criticizing climate law, asks: ‘Don’t we have enough trees around here?’

If the people of Georgia elect this idiot to the Senate they deserve him.

[Shrillland]

Over 300 classified documents so far found at Mar-A-Lago

The initial batch of documents retrieved by the National Archives from former President Donald J. Trump in January included more than 150 marked as classified, a number that ignited intense concern at the Justice Department and helped trigger the criminal investigation that led F.B.I. agents to swoop into Mar-a-Lago this month seeking to recover more, multiple people briefed on the matter said.

In total, the government has recovered more than 300 documents with classified markings from Mr. Trump since he left office, the people said: that first batch of documents returned in January, another set provided by Mr. Trump’s aides to the Justice Department in June and the material seized by the F.B.I. in the search this month.

The previously unreported volume of the sensitive material found in the former president’s possession in January helps explain why the Justice Department moved so urgently to hunt down any further classified materials he might have.

And the extent to which such a large number of highly sensitive documents remained at Mar-a-Lago for months, even as the department sought the return of all material that should have been left in government custody when Mr. Trump left office, suggested to officials that the former president or his aides had been cavalier in handling it, not fully forthcoming with investigators, or both.

The specific nature of the sensitive material that Mr. Trump took from the White House remains unclear. But the 15 boxes Mr. Trump turned over to the archives in January, nearly a year after he left office, included documents from the C.I.A., the National Security Agency and the F.B.I. spanning a variety of topics of national security interest, a person briefed on the matter said.

Mr. Trump went through the boxes himself in late 2021, according to multiple people briefed on his efforts, before turning them over.

The highly sensitive nature of some of the material in the boxes prompted archives officials to refer the matter to the Justice Department, which within months had convened a grand jury investigation.

Aides to Mr. Trump turned over a few dozen additional sensitive documents during a visit to Mar-a-Lago by Justice Department officials in early June. At the conclusion of the search this month, officials left with 26 boxes, including 11 sets of material marked as classified, comprising scores of additional documents. One set had the highest level of classification, top secret/sensitive compartmented information.

The Justice Department investigation is continuing, suggesting that officials are not certain whether they have recovered all the presidential records that Mr. Trump took with him from the White House.

Even after the extraordinary decision by the F.B.I. to execute a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, investigators have sought additional surveillance footage from the club, people familiar with the matter said.

It was the second such demand for the club’s security tapes, said the people familiar with the matter, and underscored that authorities are still scrutinizing how the classified documents were handled by Mr. Trump and his staff before the search.

A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for the F.B.I. declined to comment.

Mr. Trump’s allies insist that the president had a “standing order” to declassify material that left the Oval Office for the White House residence, and have claimed that the General Services Administration, not Mr. Trump’s staff, packed the boxes with the documents.

No documentation has come to light confirming that Mr. Trump declassified the material, and the potential crimes cited by the Justice Department in seeking the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago would not hinge on the classification status of the documents.

National Archives officials spent much of 2021 trying to get back material from Mr. Trump, after learning that roughly two dozen boxes of presidential records material had been lingering in the White House residence for several months. Under the Presidential Records Act, all official material remains government property and has to be provided to the archives at the end of a president’s term.

Among the items they knew were missing were Mr. Trump’s original letters from the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, and the note that President Barack Obama had left Mr. Trump before he left office.

Two former White House officials, who had been designated as among Mr. Trump’s representatives with the archives, received calls and tried to facilitate the documents’ return.

Mr. Trump resisted those calls, describing the boxes of documents as “mine,” according to three advisers familiar with his comments.

Soon after beginning their investigation early this year, Justice Department officials came to believe there were additional classified documents that they needed to collect. In May, after conducting a series of witness interviews, the department issued a subpoena for the return of remaining classified material, according to people familiar with the episode.

On June 3, Jay Bratt, the chief of the counterespionage section of the national security division of the Justice Department, went to Mar-a-Lago to meet with two of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Evan Corcoran and Christina Bobb, and retrieve any remaining classified material to satisfy the subpoena. Mr. Corcoran went through the boxes himself to identify classified material beforehand, according to two people familiar with his efforts.

Mr. Corcoran showed Mr. Bratt the basement storage room where, he said, the remaining material had been kept.

Mr. Trump briefly came to see the investigators during the visit.

Mr. Bratt and the agents who joined him were given a sheaf of classified material, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Mr. Corcoran then drafted a statement, which Ms. Bobb, who is said to be the custodian of the documents, signed. It asserted that, to the best of her knowledge, all classified material that was there had been returned, according to two people familiar with the statement.

Mr. Corcoran did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Ms. Bobb did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Soon after that visit, investigators, who were interviewing several people in Mr. Trump’s circle about the documents, came to believe that there were other presidential records that had not been turned over, according to the people familiar with the matter.

On June 22, the Justice Department subpoenaed the Trump Organization for Mar-a-Lago’s security footage, which included a well-trafficked hallway outside the storage area, the people said.

The club had surveillance footage going back 60 days for some areas of the property, stretching back to late April of this year.

While much of the footage showed hours of club employees walking through the busy corridor, some of it raised concerns for investigators, according to people familiar with the matter. It revealed people moving boxes in and out, and in some cases, appearing to change the containers some documents were held in. The footage also showed other parts of the property.

In seeking a second round of security footage, the Justice Department want to review tapes for the weeks leading up to the Aug. 8 search.

Federal officials have indicated that their initial goal has been to secure any classified documents Mr. Trump was holding at Mar-a-Lago, a pay-for-membership club where there is little control over who comes in as guests. It remains to be seen whether anyone will face criminal charges stemming from the investigation.

The combination of witness interviews and the initial security footage led Justice Department officials to begin drafting a request for a search warrant, the people familiar with the matter said.

The F.B.I. agents who conducted the search found the additional documents in the storage area in the basement of Mar-a-Lago, as well as in a container in a closet in Mr. Trump’s office, the people said.

Mr. Trump’s allies have attacked the law enforcement agencies, accusing the investigators of being partisan.

The intense public interest has now spurred a legal fight to see the search warrant’s underlying affidavit. On Monday, a federal magistrate issued a formal order directing the Justice Department to send him under seal proposed redactions to the affidavit underlying the warrant used to search Mar-a-Lago by Thursday, accompanied by a memo explaining its justifications.

In the order, the judge, Bruce E. Reinhart, said he was inclined to release portions of the sealed affidavit but wanted to wait until he saw the government’s redactions before making a decision.

[Zurkerx]

Biden is leaning towards canceling $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers who make less than $125,000. This is for individuals we should note.

The $10,000, if I'm not mistaken, would help forgive debt entirely to roughly 30% of people with student loan debt, but I think that did not include an income cap. Honestly though, while $10,000 probably means nothing to Progressives, who would be irate about the cap as well, it would regardless help alleviate debt and ensure those that are making above $125K aren't getting something that lower income Americans need. After all, many Americans wouldn't be fond of richer people getting a break on something they can easily pay back. Of course, we should note that some cities have seen their rent skyrocketed into the $3,000+ range (minimum of $36,000 a year!) and people are unaware of that to some degree, but it should be received well regardless.

Now, if there was a cap, you think they would increase the amount forgiven from $10K to say, $15 or $20K.

More would definitely help, I think the cap is less of an issue than the relatively low amount. I think the people really hurting are the folks who are in debt from a degree they're having trouble finding employment with, and are still making 24k a year with 40k in loans.

Right, and those degrees tend to need things like a Masters or Doctorate. Or it's really a worthless degrees - those exist too. But yeah, the amount is low, and while I was fortunate not to graduate with any debt, most people don't have that fortune. I feel he could push for something like $20-25K although that would provoke an angrier response by the GOP.

Over 300 classified documents so far found at Mar-A-Lago

The initial batch of documents retrieved by the National Archives from former President Donald J. Trump in January included more than 150 marked as classified, a number that ignited intense concern at the Justice Department and helped trigger the criminal investigation that led F.B.I. agents to swoop into Mar-a-Lago this month seeking to recover more, multiple people briefed on the matter said.

In total, the government has recovered more than 300 documents with classified markings from Mr. Trump since he left office, the people said: that first batch of documents returned in January, another set provided by Mr. Trump’s aides to the Justice Department in June and the material seized by the F.B.I. in the search this month.

The previously unreported volume of the sensitive material found in the former president’s possession in January helps explain why the Justice Department moved so urgently to hunt down any further classified materials he might have.

And the extent to which such a large number of highly sensitive documents remained at Mar-a-Lago for months, even as the department sought the return of all material that should have been left in government custody when Mr. Trump left office, suggested to officials that the former president or his aides had been cavalier in handling it, not fully forthcoming with investigators, or both.

The specific nature of the sensitive material that Mr. Trump took from the White House remains unclear. But the 15 boxes Mr. Trump turned over to the archives in January, nearly a year after he left office, included documents from the C.I.A., the National Security Agency and the F.B.I. spanning a variety of topics of national security interest, a person briefed on the matter said.

Mr. Trump went through the boxes himself in late 2021, according to multiple people briefed on his efforts, before turning them over.

The highly sensitive nature of some of the material in the boxes prompted archives officials to refer the matter to the Justice Department, which within months had convened a grand jury investigation.

Aides to Mr. Trump turned over a few dozen additional sensitive documents during a visit to Mar-a-Lago by Justice Department officials in early June. At the conclusion of the search this month, officials left with 26 boxes, including 11 sets of material marked as classified, comprising scores of additional documents. One set had the highest level of classification, top secret/sensitive compartmented information.

The Justice Department investigation is continuing, suggesting that officials are not certain whether they have recovered all the presidential records that Mr. Trump took with him from the White House.

Even after the extraordinary decision by the F.B.I. to execute a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, investigators have sought additional surveillance footage from the club, people familiar with the matter said.

It was the second such demand for the club’s security tapes, said the people familiar with the matter, and underscored that authorities are still scrutinizing how the classified documents were handled by Mr. Trump and his staff before the search.

A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for the F.B.I. declined to comment.

Mr. Trump’s allies insist that the president had a “standing order” to declassify material that left the Oval Office for the White House residence, and have claimed that the General Services Administration, not Mr. Trump’s staff, packed the boxes with the documents.

No documentation has come to light confirming that Mr. Trump declassified the material, and the potential crimes cited by the Justice Department in seeking the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago would not hinge on the classification status of the documents.

National Archives officials spent much of 2021 trying to get back material from Mr. Trump, after learning that roughly two dozen boxes of presidential records material had been lingering in the White House residence for several months. Under the Presidential Records Act, all official material remains government property and has to be provided to the archives at the end of a president’s term.

Among the items they knew were missing were Mr. Trump’s original letters from the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, and the note that President Barack Obama had left Mr. Trump before he left office.

Two former White House officials, who had been designated as among Mr. Trump’s representatives with the archives, received calls and tried to facilitate the documents’ return.

Mr. Trump resisted those calls, describing the boxes of documents as “mine,” according to three advisers familiar with his comments.

Soon after beginning their investigation early this year, Justice Department officials came to believe there were additional classified documents that they needed to collect. In May, after conducting a series of witness interviews, the department issued a subpoena for the return of remaining classified material, according to people familiar with the episode.

On June 3, Jay Bratt, the chief of the counterespionage section of the national security division of the Justice Department, went to Mar-a-Lago to meet with two of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Evan Corcoran and Christina Bobb, and retrieve any remaining classified material to satisfy the subpoena. Mr. Corcoran went through the boxes himself to identify classified material beforehand, according to two people familiar with his efforts.

Mr. Corcoran showed Mr. Bratt the basement storage room where, he said, the remaining material had been kept.

Mr. Trump briefly came to see the investigators during the visit.

Mr. Bratt and the agents who joined him were given a sheaf of classified material, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Mr. Corcoran then drafted a statement, which Ms. Bobb, who is said to be the custodian of the documents, signed. It asserted that, to the best of her knowledge, all classified material that was there had been returned, according to two people familiar with the statement.

Mr. Corcoran did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Ms. Bobb did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Soon after that visit, investigators, who were interviewing several people in Mr. Trump’s circle about the documents, came to believe that there were other presidential records that had not been turned over, according to the people familiar with the matter.

On June 22, the Justice Department subpoenaed the Trump Organization for Mar-a-Lago’s security footage, which included a well-trafficked hallway outside the storage area, the people said.

The club had surveillance footage going back 60 days for some areas of the property, stretching back to late April of this year.

While much of the footage showed hours of club employees walking through the busy corridor, some of it raised concerns for investigators, according to people familiar with the matter. It revealed people moving boxes in and out, and in some cases, appearing to change the containers some documents were held in. The footage also showed other parts of the property.

In seeking a second round of security footage, the Justice Department want to review tapes for the weeks leading up to the Aug. 8 search.

Federal officials have indicated that their initial goal has been to secure any classified documents Mr. Trump was holding at Mar-a-Lago, a pay-for-membership club where there is little control over who comes in as guests. It remains to be seen whether anyone will face criminal charges stemming from the investigation.

The combination of witness interviews and the initial security footage led Justice Department officials to begin drafting a request for a search warrant, the people familiar with the matter said.

The F.B.I. agents who conducted the search found the additional documents in the storage area in the basement of Mar-a-Lago, as well as in a container in a closet in Mr. Trump’s office, the people said.

Mr. Trump’s allies have attacked the law enforcement agencies, accusing the investigators of being partisan.

The intense public interest has now spurred a legal fight to see the search warrant’s underlying affidavit. On Monday, a federal magistrate issued a formal order directing the Justice Department to send him under seal proposed redactions to the affidavit underlying the warrant used to search Mar-a-Lago by Thursday, accompanied by a memo explaining its justifications.

In the order, the judge, Bruce E. Reinhart, said he was inclined to release portions of the sealed affidavit but wanted to wait until he saw the government’s redactions before making a decision.

Huh, you beat me to it! But yeah, that's not good and that's a lot more than I thought it would be. It looks like that 300 number is the total from three incidents: first when Trump gave the National Archives those 15 boxes (NARA found 150 classified items!) and the rest from when they handed over stuff in June and the FBI Search Warrant on the 8th. The fact the DOJ doesn't believe they have everything is also concerning. It also appears that these classified documents ranged from the CIA, the National Security Agency and the FBI spanning a variety of topics of national security interest. Of course, he claimed to declassified this all but seems unlikely and regardless, what crimes he may face don't care if said documents are classified or not.

[Free Algerstonia]

vladimir putin is a fantastic leader who stands for the russian people and the oppressed russians worldwide, a great example of vladimir putin fighting for russia is when a russophobic imperialist coup occured in the ukraine and the russians decided to fight back against the new regime, and now russia is saving them from imminent destruction by occupying the donbass in a special military operation to defend russians from western imperialism, he rejects the NWO by funding anti-NWOATO parties and firmly rejects foreign meddling in the sovereign democracy of russia beloved by the russian people because united russia wins so many seats every time and the kremlin always wins because they are the leader of the free world and the only power not taken over by the NWO and the lizards and the illuminati

I don’t want to respond to you. But Putin stands only for himself and his oligarch friends. He wants money, fame, and cruelness. Putin doesn’t “stand up for oppressed Russians,” in fact, he oppresses Russians! Funny, isn’t it? Putin is also a terrible leader. Ukraine is a prosperous country and Russia has no right whatsoever to invade them. Putin is terrible leader. There is no argument against that.

vladimir putin only wants money and fame for russia, and cruelness to the united states of amerikka and the north atlantic tyranny organization, the russian people are only oppressed in the coup-occupied regions of the ukraine, the ukraine is not a prosperous country because it has ignored the will of the russian people to unite with russia

[The Jamesian Republic]

I don’t want to respond to you. But Putin stands only for himself and his oligarch friends. He wants money, fame, and cruelness. Putin doesn’t “stand up for oppressed Russians,” in fact, he oppresses Russians! Funny, isn’t it? Putin is also a terrible leader. Ukraine is a prosperous country and Russia has no right whatsoever to invade them. Putin is terrible leader. There is no argument against that.

vladimir putin only wants money and fame for russia, and cruelness to the united states of amerikka and the north atlantic tyranny organization, the russian people are only oppressed in the coup-occupied regions of the ukraine, the ukraine is not a prosperous country because it has ignored the will of the russian people to unite with russia

*nods and calls mental hospital*

[Yerachmeal]

Proof that we need a third party for moderates: two senators who aren't even famous exceptions to party line voting (cause comparing Manchin and Collins would just look like exceptions) voted with each other a majority of the time this term.
https://projects.propublica.org/represent/members/H001076-margaret-hassan/compare-votes/G000359-lindsey-graham/117

[Kannap]

If the people of Georgia elect this idiot to the Senate they deserve him.

It's ignorant statements like this that leave people not taking NY/NJ, New England, and west coast Democrats seriously. You make statements like this, writing off whole red states and everybody in them, without knowing the political challenges those of us who live in such states face. We live in states that are gerrymandered and have countless other voting obstacles and roadblocks put in place by Republican legislatures so that we quite literally cannot elect Democratic legislatures. But none of that matters to folks like you, our states are red so we "deserve" the suffering we live through. You make me sick.