Trump's America

[Maria]

For Túrin:

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[N.E. Brigand]

I'm still struck by how Trump and his team repeatedly identified with famous movie villains.

Trump's inaugural speech used some of Bane's lines from The Dark Knight Rises.

Almost exactly a year ago, Trump shared a video in which he was Thanos from The Avengers declaring, "I am inevitable."

And back in the spring, Trump's campaign was referring to itself as the "Death Star" from Star Wars.

[RoseMorninStar]

And 'Winter is Coming'

[elengil]

And 'Winter is Coming'

Pokes thermometer

Not here it isn't

[N.E. Brigand]

One of the few commendable achievements of the Trump administration has been the public normalization of relations between Israel and a number of Muslim countries -- but even those moves, championed by the Trump administration and all made in the past few months, have been tainted by some appearance of corruption (and I would note that one chronicler of Trump's presidency, Seth Abramson, had been predicting such moves for about two years before they happened). Earlier today it was announced that Morocco was recognizing Israel. Sounds good. But now we learn that, apparently in exchange, the U.S. recognizes Morocco's claim to the long-disputed area of Western Sahara, whose people have been waiting, under Moroccan occupation since the 1970s, for the chance to determine their own future.

[N.E. Brigand]

Edit: The White House says that the leader of the neofascist Proud Boys, who posted a picture of himself at the White House today and said that he had been invited there, was only there as part of a public tour and was not invited. So I'm deleting the picture (which had been shared by a number of journalists).

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Also today there were a number of pro-Trump rallies in D.C. whose highlights or lowlights included the recently pardoned retired general Michael Flynn, who told the crowd that Trump's fight to win the presidency goes on despite last night's Supreme Court decision because "the courts don't decide the election: we the people decide." Attendees also heard via video from a retired Catholic archbishop, Carlo Vigano, in which Vigano, who is an Italian citizen, spoke to the crowd about "our homeland" and also said "God bless our president." Plus Alex Jones said that "Joe Biden will be removed, one way or another." And a conservative commentator named Nick Fuentes got the crowd to chant "Destroy the G.O.P.!"

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So bizarre I feel compelled to share it: At one of the pro-Trump rallies in D.C. today, attendees watched a video whose audio was one of Donald Trump's speeches overlaid onto "In the End" by Linkin Park. One reoprt explains: "Just some really stupid trivia about this video: QAnon people love Linkin Park because they believe the lead singer was John Podesta's secret son and was murdered when he tried to confirm Pizzagate." (Linkin Park in July asked the Trump campaign to stop using their music.)

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Late update: the events continued into the evening, and as we have seen so often with rallies and protests this year, things got worse after dark.

A Washington Post reporter writes of the Proud Boys tonight that "hundreds of them are roaming D.C., clashing with anti-Trump protesters -- punching, kicking, wrestling. When one fight ends, another begins."

Here you can see video of some Proud Boys stealing a Black Lives Matter from the Asbury United Methodist Church and then setting it on fire.

And here a confrontation with a lone counter-protester surrounded by a group of Proud Boys turns violent when one of them knocks him on the head and he then stabs one of them.

[RoseMorninStar]

Wow. Just.. Wow.

[Frelga]

The word of the day is "predictable" .

Trump raised firing Barr in White House meeting on Friday

[elengil]

It's spreading.
https://komonews.com/news/local/losing- ... tary-wyman

[RoseMorninStar]

The word of the day is "predictable" .

Trump raised firing Barr in White House meeting on Friday

Seriously worse than a toddler. A very spoiled toddler. It's interesting that Barr doesn't mind being a bully but doesn't tolerate being bullied.

[Dave_LF]

"Trump" and "raised bar" don't belong in the same sentence.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Bill Barr's resignation letter reads a lot like the doctor's letter that was submitted during Trump's first year in office that the doctor later admitted was written by Trump.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/sta ... 73/photo/1

[yovargas]

Weird, resignation letters don't usually read like campaign speeches for your boss.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It is one of the most utterly bizarre documents I have ever seen.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Here's a very different "resignation letter".

READ: Rep. Paul Mitchell's letter quitting the GOP, fearing 'long-term harm to our democracy' with its support for Trump's actions

[Frelga]

Here's a very different "resignation letter".

READ: Rep. Paul Mitchell's letter quitting the GOP, fearing 'long-term harm to our democracy' with its support for Trump's actions

While symbolic and far too late, it is a sad fact that this is a act of courage, given the attacks and threats of violence that the supporters of Trump directed at those deemed insufficiently loyal.

[RoseMorninStar]

Here's a very different "resignation letter".

READ: Rep. Paul Mitchell's letter quitting the GOP, fearing 'long-term harm to our democracy' with its support for Trump's actions

While symbolic and far too late, it is a sad fact that this is a act of courage, given the attacks and threats of violence that the supporters of Trump directed at those deemed insufficiently loyal.

That letter was written by a clear-thinking grown-up.

[Sunsilver]

Yes, I just read that on Twitter. I wish more Republicans would do the same thing!

[RoseMorninStar]

Where will Trump go when he's evicted? Neighbors don't want him at Mar-a-lago and have filed papers in an attempt to prevent him moving there as he signed an agreement when he purchased the property stating it would not (and could not) be his permanent residence. WaPo: Mar-a-Lago neighbors to Trump: Spend your post-presidency elsewhere

In part the article reads:

We don’t want you to be our neighbor.

That message was formally delivered Tuesday morning in a demand letter delivered to the town of Palm Beach and also addressed to the U.S. Secret Service asserting that Trump lost his legal right to live at Mar-a-Lago because of an agreement he signed in the early 1990s when he converted the storied estate from his private residence to a private club. The legal maneuver could, at long last, force Palm Beach to publicly address whether Trump can make Mar-a-Lago his legal residence and home, as he has been expected to do, when he becomes an ex-president after the swearing-in of Joe Biden on Jan. 20.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

For the first time in history, Federal government executes more prisoners in 2020 than all states combined