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Cont: The Trump Presidency: Part 26

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Mader Levap said:
No worries, in totalitarian country this kind of bill is worthless for purpose of actually protecting former ruler.

Even if we are to take this bill seriously, then if Putin somehow loses power, he will end up having mysterious accident instead of Stalin-style kangaroo court show. That's all difference this bill could make.

This bill is like Putin's assassinations: yeah, we all but admit we did it and what you can do about it?
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A minor quibble on "Totalitarian"... which is a more specific form of dictatorship where every aspect of the citizens' life is controlled. I don't think that is currently accurate of Russia, and even so your comment is true of dictatorships more generally.

So not a contradiction, just a semantic adjustment proposed.
 
gnome said:
A minor quibble on "Totalitarian"... which is a more specific form of dictatorship where every aspect of the citizens' life is controlled. I don't think that is currently accurate of Russia, and even so your comment is true of dictatorships more generally.

So not a contradiction, just a semantic adjustment proposed.
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But which subtype would it be instead? "Oligarchy" isn't quite right, because the oligarchs' power depends on their proximity to Putin. Can it still be considered a kleptocracy now that the Soviet institutions are looted and gone?
 
Beelzebuddy said:
But which subtype would it be instead? "Oligarchy" isn't quite right, because the oligarchs' power depends on their proximity to Putin. Can it still be considered a kleptocracy now that the Soviet institutions are looted and gone?
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I would say simply a single-leader dictatorship. There is a pretense at democracy but de facto power rests mostly in a single central figure with little restraint. I am sad to see it, because I was very hopeful for Russian democracy when the USSR was dismantled and democratic institutions were at least attempted to be in place.
 
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Aridas said:
It's not like Trump's constant efforts to make the swamp even bigger and nastier have been in any way secret, though, so I have no idea why anyone would still wonder along those lines, provided that they weren't intentionally ignoring what they didn't want to hear.

See or know? The GOP almost seems to prefer criminals.

Oh, and I figure that I'll poke at yet more Georgia GOP election shenanigans in this thread again, though I also poked at these in an election conspiracy thread as examples of the actual things happening.

After Democrats flip state, Georgia moves to shut down early voting locations ahead of Senate runoff
Civil rights groups: Georgia early-voting site closures disproportionately hurt Black, Latino voters

For example, apparently in a county with 11 polling places, the Republicans shut down the 6 in black areas and left the 5 in whiter areas open.

Yes, that blatant.

Then, well... Don't own a car in Georgia? That's basis to challenge one's right to vote, apparently, triggering a court process to gain the right to actually vote that will only start after the runoffs. The number of challenges may be up to at least 364,000.

Students, poor people, city-dwellers, otherwise carless people... Ostensibly, the rule's been pushed to defend against out of staters heading to Georgia to vote fraudulently. It's just a "happy coincidence" that it also happens to set up a potential nasty roadblock for likely Democrat voting groups, as well.

Oh, and... as of September, an ACLU investigation found that nearly 200K voters had been wrongfully purged under the assumption that they had moved. Looks like Georgia's being sued currently for their reinstatement before the runoffs, but I'm not holding my breath on that. It was fairly certainly legal to have purged them, of note, though, under a purge condition that seems to have roughly a 1/3 accuracy rate. Given that they'd likely have needed to re-register after having been wrongfully purged, the car rule would likely apply to their registrations, too, if they sought to vote.

Yeah, the Georgia GOP are trying to cheat like crazy, and this doesn't even come close to covering their shenanigans, which also apparently also include, for example, a bunch of perjury related to their voter purges.
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I heard about the 200,000 people purged from the voter rolls but I hadn't heard what that was about.

That article on motor voter registration was from Nov and early registration deadline was Dec 7.
 
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Skeptic Ginger said:
I heard about the 200,000 people purged from the voter rolls but I hadn't heard what that was about.
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If I understand it correctly, they were purged under the reasoning that they hadn't voted recently, which was being used as a proxy for the assumption that they had moved and thus needed to purged. As was seen in Ohio, plenty of people who did vote get caught up in that. Going further, the accuracy seems to be about 1/3 fairly consistently and it quite disproportionately affects Democrats. It's pretty much a continuation of the very aggressive voter purging that's been happening for years, in other words.
 
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eerok said:
The important thing is that the people need the money. I think that's the only consideration.
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That is very short sighted.
I hate to say it, but Trump is playing liberals like a violin.
Don't mak ea deal with Trump. Just don'tt.
 
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dudalb said:
That is very short sighted.
I hate to say it, but Trump is playing liberals like a violin.
Don't mak ea deal with Trump. Just don'tt.
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What deal are you talking about? They wanted bigger stimulus checks all along.

It's the Republicans Trump is screwing with right now because they aren't moving to keep him in office.

He's especially pissed at McConnell.
 
dudalb said:
That is very short sighted.
I hate to say it, but Trump is playing liberals like a violin.
Don't mak ea deal with Trump. Just don'tt.
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Please just stop it, it is never a plan with Trump, he isn't playing anyone. The Democrats wanted a larger stimulus package, Trump has said he wants a larger stimulus package, should the Democrats do a 180 just because Trump's ego has led him to want the same thing?
 
Garrison said:
Please just stop it, it is never a plan with Trump, he isn't playing anyone. The Democrats wanted a larger stimulus package, Trump has said he wants a larger stimulus package, should the Democrats do a 180 just because Trump's ego has led him to want the same thing?
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And even then Trump could proudly claim how much he's making the liberals dance. And fans can speculate on "4-d chess". Address the deal, not the person.
 
He has vetoed the defence bill.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday vetoed the sweeping defense bill that both chambers of Congress recently passed by veto-proof majorities. He had previously threatened to do so because it doesn't include a repeal of Section 230, a law that shields internet companies from being liable for what is posted on their websites by them or third parties.

"Unfortunately," the President wrote in his veto message to Congress, "the Act fails to include critical national security measures, includes provisions that fail to respect our veterans and our military's history, and contradicts efforts by my Administration to put America first in our national security and foreign policy actions. It is a 'gift' to China and Russia."

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/23/politics/trump-ndaa-veto/index.html
 
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gnome said:
And even then Trump could proudly claim how much he's making the liberals dance. And fans can speculate on "4-d chess". Address the deal, not the person.
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Think that'll happen?

OR -

Will he blow up the deal in the end anyway, because he also wants to get rid of section 230, or he's not allowed to forcibly sterilize as many people as he can in his concentration camps, or something else awful?

ETA: Yet again, if the US were a pure meritocracy, Dolt 45 would have been a 3-card monty dealer that the mafia butchered back in the 70s after he assaulted the Don's wife or something.
 
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