Tag Archives: Trump

Current Affairs, Memories & History, Politics, Science & Health, Times They Are A-Changing

Welcome to the Martians! We now live in a world stranger than science fiction | Salon.com

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In an age of surging authoritarianism, our world is increasingly like science fiction – and not in a good way

By Tom Engelhardt, Published November 26, 2021 4:00AM (EST)

Donald Trump | Aliens (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

Who knew that Martians, inside monstrous tripodal machines taller than many buildings, actually ululated, that they made eerily haunting “ulla, ulla, ulla, ulla” sounds? Well, let me tell you that they do — or rather did when they were devastating London.

I know that because I recently reread H.G. Wells’s 1898 novel “War of the Worlds,” while revisiting an early moment in my own life. Admittedly, I wasn’t in London when those Martian machines, hooting away, stalked boldly into that city, hungry in the most literal fashion imaginable for human blood. No surprise there, since that was almost a century and a quarter ago. Still, at 77, thanks to that book, I was at least able to revisit a moment that had been mine long enough ago to seem almost like fiction.

Editor’s Note: This is about authoritarianism, Trump, and attacks on American Democracy.

Continue reading Welcome to the Martians! We now live in a world stranger than science fiction | Salon.com →
Current Affairs, Politics, Times They Are A-Changing

The Census shows that vast stretches of America are Shrinking. Almost all of them voted for Donald Trump | slate

Ninety percent of counties that lost population in the last decade backed the ex-president.

By Jordan Weissmann, Aug 14, 20215:40 AM

A barn for Trump. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Donald Trump and the Republican Party he shaped represent the fading face of the United States, winning over an older, more rural, and overwhelmingly caucasian bloc of voters that reflected the country’s past more than its more urban and diverse future.

The latest data from the 2020 Census, which the government released on Thursday to kick off the congressional redistricting process, illustrate that fact in incredibly stark terms.

It shows that the white population fell for the first time in history during the last decade, and that Americans continued to cluster in growing cities and suburbs, whether in Texas, Georgia, Virginia, or New York.

Source: The Census shows that vast stretches of America are Shrinking. Almost all of them voted for Donald Trump.

Current Affairs, Politics

How Trump tried to pressure Georgia officials to overturn the 2020 election | CNN

By Marshall Cohen, Jason Morris and Christopher Hickey, CNN
Illustration by Will Mullery, CNN Published August 5, 2021

Illustration by Will Mullery, CNN

Washington (CNN) – Prosecutors in Georgia are still investigating whether former President Donald Trump broke any laws when he tried to overturn his 2020 defeat in the hotly contested state.

The probe ramped up earlier this year, with a grand jury convening in Atlanta. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said the criminal investigation includes potential “solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration.”

Months after the election, new information is still coming to light about Trump’s potentially unlawful effort to overturn the results.

Recent reports indicate that he considered installing a loyalist as acting attorney general at the Justice Department — someone who agreed with Trump’s false claims about voter fraud and was prepared to pressure election officials in Georgia to overturn the results.

Source: How Trump tried to pressure Georgia officials to overturn the 2020 election

Politics

There’s a Word for What Trumpism Is Becoming – The Atlantic

By David Frum, July 13, 2021

About the author: David Frum is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy(2020). In 2001 and 2002, he was a speechwriter for President George W. Bush.

Adam Maida / The Atlantic

“I became worse.” That’s how double impeachment changed him, Donald Trump told a conservative audience in Dallas last weekend, without a trace of a smile.

This was not Trump the insult comic talking. This was the deepest Trump self. And this one time, he told the truth.

Something has changed for Trump and his movement since January 2021. You can measure the difference by looking back at the deadly events in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. Trump made three statements about those events over four days. He was visibly reluctant to speak negatively of the far-right groups. He praised “fine people on both sides” and spread the blame for “this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides.”

Trump’s evasions triggered a national uproar. As Joe Biden complained in an essay for The Atlantic at the time:

Today we have an American president who has publicly proclaimed a moral equivalency between neo-Nazis and Klansmen and those who would oppose their venom and hate.

–Joe Biden

Source: There’s a Word for What Trumpism Is Becoming – The Atlantic

Current Affairs

Trump Organization Is Charged in 15-Year Tax Scheme – The New York Times

By Ben Protess, William K. Rashbaum and Jonah E. Bromwich, July 1, 2021Updated 3:46 p.m. ET

Allen Weisselberg, center, surrendered Thursday morning at the Lower Manhattan building that houses the criminal courts and the district attorney’s office.Credit…Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times

The Trump Organization, the real estate business that catapulted Donald J. Trump to tabloid fame, television riches and ultimately the White House, was charged Thursday with running a 15-year scheme to help executives avoid paying taxes by compensating them off the books.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which has been conducting the investigation, also accused a top executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, of dodging taxes on $1.7 million in perks that should have been reported as income.

Mr. Weisselberg, Mr. Trump’s long-serving and trusted chief financial officer, faced grand larceny, tax fraud and other charges.

Editor’s Note: Stay tuned for more on this.. more indictments.. trials…

Source: Trump Organization Is Charged in 15-Year Tax Scheme – The New York Times

Current Affairs, Politics

Report: Trump’s Inner Circle Is Terrified the Feds Are Coming for Them Next | Vanity Fair

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To be fair, they probably should be.

By Bess Levin, May 3, 2021

President Donald Trump at the White House on December 7, 2020.by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

If you haven’t been keeping up with the legal affairs of Donald Trump of late, what you should know is that the guy is very likely f–ked.

With the ex-president facing no fewer than 29 lawsuits and three criminal investigations, his tax returns are currently in the hands of Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., whose team is also working to flip the Trump Organization employee who knows where all the bodies are buried and has both (1) cooperated with prosecutors in the past and (2) made some rather interesting comments about the company’s legal dealings.

At the same time Rudy Giuliani had his home and office raided by the feds last week, a turn of events that former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara has said is very, very bad news for the NYC mayor turned Trump lawyer/cautionary tale.

All of which reportedly has the rest of the 45th president’s inner circle extremely concerned about their own legal exposure.

Source: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/05/trump-inner-circle-raid-fears