On Trump

[GO-NAD!]

Special counsel says evidence against Trump was enough to convict him : NPR

 

[Mikado463]

Special counsel says evidence against Trump was enough to convict him : NPR

Yep and like most things with our 'half-baked' judicial system, it didn't happen .......

 

[TankTop5]

Special counsel says evidence against Trump was enough to convict him : NPR

That’s new, special counsel’s have the power to convict? I always thought it was a Jury that did that.

 

[Trell]

That’s new, special counsel’s have the power to convict? I always thought it was a Jury that did that.

You obviously have a reading comprehension problem.

 

[GO-NAD!]

That’s new, special counsel’s have the power to convict? I always thought it was a Jury that did that.

The "power to convict" and "sufficient evidence to convict" are two different statements with two different meanings.

 

[Trell]

The "power to convict" and "sufficient evidence to convict" are two different statements with two different meanings.

Nuances like that escapes him all the time.

 

[TankTop5]

The "power to convict" and "sufficient evidence to convict" are two different statements with two different meanings.

That’s not what the quote said. Anyway, I’m all for the report coming out so that everyone can look at it, dissect it and see what’s true and what’s not. After that we go from there.

 

[Trell]

That’s not what the quote said. Anyway, I’m all for the report coming out so that everyone can look at it, dissect it and see what’s true and what’s not. After that we go from there.

You do have a reading comprehension problem.

Edit: A prosecutor can not bring a case to court unless he thinks that it would lead in a conviction.

 

[TankTop5]

You do have a reading comprehension problem.

Edit: A prosecutor can not bring a case to court unless he thinks that it would lead in a conviction.

View attachment 71673

Except it happens every day in America. Sadly they get convictions regularly this way because public defenders usually look at the case after walking into court then counsel the defendant to take plea deal. But yeah it would be really nice if we started holding prosecutors to an ethical standard.

 

[Trell]

Except it happens every day in America. Sadly they get convictions regularly this way because public defenders usually look at the case after walking into court then counsel the defendant to take plea deal. But yeah it would be really nice if we started holding prosecutors to an ethical standard.

Yet again you're carrying water for Trump, which is funny for someone to claim to be Not Trump.

 

[Dude#1279435]

Yep and like most things with our 'half-baked' judicial system, it didn't happen .......

Probably should have stepped down after J6 since it was his crowd. The alt-right Trump never bothered to denounce.

 

[Trell]

Yep and like most things with our 'half-baked' judicial system, it didn't happen .......

Here's from a country the entered into democracy a few decades ago. The dude President declared martial law that did not go so well, to put it mildly. It was stopped, with great personal risk to many, I might add. They do know a thing or two about authoritarian rule.

It's South Korea.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Rubio and his boss might need to have a chat. They don't appear to be singing from the same music sheet.
Today in Politics, Bulletin 49. 1/16/25

… The NYT reports that Trump has invited Tik Tok CEO Shou Chew to sit in the front row behind him on the dais at his inauguration with Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.

… Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) was asked by CNN about the Chinese Tik Tok CEO getting such a prominent place at Trump’s inauguration: “I don’t get it. 80% of the Congress, Democrats and Republicans, agreed that TikTok is a huge national security concern. I can't think of a potentially more powerful propaganda tool.”

… The Biden Administration made a shrewd political move today by announcing that they will not enforce the ban on Tik Tok this Sunday and will leave it up to Trump to enforce the ban. WH Spokesperson told ABC: “Our position on this has been clear: TikTok should continue to operate under American ownership. Given the timing of when it goes into effect over a holiday weekend a day before inauguration, it will be up to the next administration to implement.”

… Checkmate. Because the people most adamant about banning Tik Tok have been Republicans in the Senate and House, much more than Democrats. But the Admin was getting the blame from many users for the imminent ban. Well, now it will be up to Trump to shut them down, which he will not do. So he will be in a position where he has to refuse to enforce the law that was pushed by anti-China Republicans who still very much want it enforced.

… The timeline on the Tik Tok saga has been interesting. It began with Trump, MAGA activists, and China-hawk Republicans in Congress calling for an immediate outright ban in 2023, citing national security reasons. Most Dems adamantly opposed that. Rs eventually got some Dem support, made it a bipartisan bill, and got Biden to sign it, but only after they agreed to soften the bill from an outright ban to a gradual divestiture. The Chinese owners then refused to divest and the CEO met with Trump during the campaign. They made some kind of deal and Trump reversed his position. Then Trump and MAGA tried to blame Democrats for shutting down the app.

… This is what Sen. Tom Cotton said just hours before Biden announced that Trump will have to enforce the ban: “Tik Tok will either be sold in the next few days or it will be banned. Either way, Communist China will no longer exercise massive influence over our nation and our children.” Now he needs to tell Trump that. I wonder if Tom will have the courage to do that, or if he’s only a tough guy when he’s talking about Democrats.

… Cotton also said this: “Let me be crystal clear - there will be no extensions, no concessions, no compromises for Tik Tok. The Chinese Communists had plenty of time to make a deal.” I’m sure he will run right down to the White House and say this to Trump now.

… People thought Democrats wanted to shut down Tik Tok. Complete fiction. It was always Republicans, and it is Republicans now. It will only be shut down if Donald Trump shuts it down.

 

[Trell]

Rubio and his boss might need to have a chat. They don't appear to be singing from the same music sheet.

And here is a conservative from The Bulwark take on TikTok:

>>>1. The TikTok Tick Tock

Here is the state of play on the Joe Biden’s TikTok legislation:

• Last year a bill requiring the Chinese company ByteDance to sell the platform TikTok passed both the House and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan majorities.1
• The law said that ByteDance had to sell TikTok to some entity that would not present a national security risk to the United States. If it failed to execute a sale by January 19, 2025, then TikTok could no longer be downloaded by users in the United States.
• Meaning that existing users who had the TikTok app would be unaffected, but the app’s U.S. user base could not grow.
• ByteDance launched a series of legal challenges, which have basically failed.
• The Chinese government decided it would rather kill TikTok than either sell the platform or let it continue in legacy mode.

So that’s where we are. Three days from now TikTok will go away. The causality is crystal clear:

• TikTok is best understood as an intelligence operation that managed to (a) run in broad daylight and (b) make money. In just a few years it became the go-to news source for an entire generation of Americans under 30. It’s one of the greatest ops in the history of intel.2 Respect.
• The U.S. government recognized this reality and called China’s bluff. The TikTok legislation basically said, “Hey, we know that this is an op and not a business. But if you want to pretend TikTok is just a business, fine. We’re going to make you sell it. This is a thing that a legitimate business would be happy to do, because legitimate businesses are motivated entirely by money and when ByteDance sells TikTok it’s going to get paid absolute bank.”
• In response, ByteDance/ChiComs said, “Actually, no. We don’t want to let anyone see under the hood of our tradecraft. We’ll just shut the op down. We don’t care about the money.”

I cannot be clear enough about this:

If TikTok were a business and not an intelligence operation—and if ByteDance were an independent company and not a wholly-owned government subsidiary ultimately answering to Xi Jinping—then ByteDance would have sold it and pocketed hundreds of billions of dollars.

The fact that ByteDance is shutting TikTok down is an admission of guilt.

The only people who don’t understand this are the kids on TikTok. ...<<<

Can We Ban the TikTokkers, Too?

America is finally getting rid of TikTok (maybe). The kids on TikTok have decided to move to an even *more* Chinese spyware app.

www.thebulwark.com