Thank you for the most concise, understandable account I've seen yet of just what Hawaii did to defang Citizens United in the Aloha State. It was elegantly clear. Here's hoping other states following Hawaii's blazed trail are successful also.
is it an attempt if the guy with the gun never sees Trump at all? (And in a country with rational gun laws, the guy would never have got his hands on his gun in the first place.)
That's why I said "if." I never heard what the details were, what happened to the guy. That event never gets mentioned anymore, but then, it's hard to use it as fodder for "That's why we need a ballroom--!"
Kudos to Hawaii, but from what I've been reading by Dean Baker and others, Citizens United is not the real problem. The corporation may be barred from political contributions (thus leaving more funds to distribute to shareholders), but the executive suite is still free to give generously. I suppose the executives may think twice about it, or reduce their giving, since the money comes out of their pocket directly and is not tax deductible. If that's the case, then the CEOs of xyz plain vanilla Fortune 500s may indeed reduce their giving. However, the so called lords of the universe Silicon tech bros such as Musk, Thiel, Bezos, Zucky, Andreeson, Gates, et al will still have the capability of skewing elections by spending a picayune percentage of their billions.
Operation Epic Idiocy will prove to be not only a colossal clusterfuck for the United States, not only rip up a fabric of strategic balances that took decades of careful calibration, but also will swiftly reorder a balance of power that will relegate the Trump Regime to the kids table.
We are seeing and now feeling the consequences of this kakistocratic nightmare.
Indeed, Trump has proven for all of America's adversaries, "the leader the world has been awaiting for centuries".
"What appears to actually be on the table is a memorandum of understanding, not a treaty, not a deal, not a surrender, not a peace agreement, that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz in phase one, release $25 billion in frozen Iranian assets..."
Right. Let's just call it pre-surrender. Trump spent years trashing the JCPOA as "weak" because it supposedly didn’t stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions hard enough, only to end up backing a framework where the “no nukes” part gets punted while billions are released upfront.
After all the EPIC FAILURE bombing, brinkmanship, carrier deployments, oil shocks, and existential threats, the grand achievement may end up being reopening the Strait of Hormuz to the exact status it had before Trump started blowing shit up.
And EVEN then, Iran will still have tacit control over the strait...
the bill passed in Hawaii, sponsored by Republicans and passed essentially unanimously gives us all hope. God knows it will be challenged and the Roberts supreme court will try to find some way to override centuries of precedent, but there are ways and people willing to stand up against this selling out of America. no doubt the fires in CA will be blamed on Obama or Biden or the democrats. Anything to distract from the war in Iran, resulting in needless deaths, both Iranian civilians and American troops killed and wounded, and leaving the area far less stable than it was before the war, with long term higher cost of oil to most of the world. One also wonders what Netanyahu will do on his own, while the US looks the other way and shrugs... after all, its not his agreement...
Thank you for the most concise, understandable account I've seen yet of just what Hawaii did to defang Citizens United in the Aloha State. It was elegantly clear. Here's hoping other states following Hawaii's blazed trail are successful also.
What security failure? A guy with a gun walks toward the White House and is stopped at the first security screen. Sounds more like a security success.
Just another excuse to justify the Bunker Ballroom
People all over are asking about how we can protect ourselves from yet another fake 'assasination attempt' 🙄
Fourth attempt, if you count the guy skulking in the bushes at Trump's Florida golf course.
Re Hawaii: Maika'i loa, Hawai'i! (Well done, Hawaii!)
is it an attempt if the guy with the gun never sees Trump at all? (And in a country with rational gun laws, the guy would never have got his hands on his gun in the first place.)
Heard a rumour that there is some interest in making guns available on Amazon in the future.
And I thought the same thing, John ... the shots were not at Trump from what I understand.
Re Amazon selling guns: sacred excrement! Wonder what Bezos is angling for now?!?
how far away does a gunman have to be to be labeled as someone trying to assasinate trump? 1000 yards, half a mile? a mile? same state?
That's why I said "if." I never heard what the details were, what happened to the guy. That event never gets mentioned anymore, but then, it's hard to use it as fodder for "That's why we need a ballroom--!"
Kudos to Hawaii, but from what I've been reading by Dean Baker and others, Citizens United is not the real problem. The corporation may be barred from political contributions (thus leaving more funds to distribute to shareholders), but the executive suite is still free to give generously. I suppose the executives may think twice about it, or reduce their giving, since the money comes out of their pocket directly and is not tax deductible. If that's the case, then the CEOs of xyz plain vanilla Fortune 500s may indeed reduce their giving. However, the so called lords of the universe Silicon tech bros such as Musk, Thiel, Bezos, Zucky, Andreeson, Gates, et al will still have the capability of skewing elections by spending a picayune percentage of their billions.
Operation Epic Idiocy will prove to be not only a colossal clusterfuck for the United States, not only rip up a fabric of strategic balances that took decades of careful calibration, but also will swiftly reorder a balance of power that will relegate the Trump Regime to the kids table.
We are seeing and now feeling the consequences of this kakistocratic nightmare.
Indeed, Trump has proven for all of America's adversaries, "the leader the world has been awaiting for centuries".
I don’t want a ballroom. Leave Trump as open as possible. Enough people want to be rid of him surely someone will be successful.
"What appears to actually be on the table is a memorandum of understanding, not a treaty, not a deal, not a surrender, not a peace agreement, that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz in phase one, release $25 billion in frozen Iranian assets..."
Right. Let's just call it pre-surrender. Trump spent years trashing the JCPOA as "weak" because it supposedly didn’t stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions hard enough, only to end up backing a framework where the “no nukes” part gets punted while billions are released upfront.
After all the EPIC FAILURE bombing, brinkmanship, carrier deployments, oil shocks, and existential threats, the grand achievement may end up being reopening the Strait of Hormuz to the exact status it had before Trump started blowing shit up.
And EVEN then, Iran will still have tacit control over the strait...
the bill passed in Hawaii, sponsored by Republicans and passed essentially unanimously gives us all hope. God knows it will be challenged and the Roberts supreme court will try to find some way to override centuries of precedent, but there are ways and people willing to stand up against this selling out of America. no doubt the fires in CA will be blamed on Obama or Biden or the democrats. Anything to distract from the war in Iran, resulting in needless deaths, both Iranian civilians and American troops killed and wounded, and leaving the area far less stable than it was before the war, with long term higher cost of oil to most of the world. One also wonders what Netanyahu will do on his own, while the US looks the other way and shrugs... after all, its not his agreement...