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14 January 2021

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BillWade

President Trump might encounter some problems at Mar A Lago. When he bought the place it was a residence but he turned it into a golf club with rentals. Part of the deal was that no one could now stay for more than two weeks by law. His neighbors know this and many of them want him gone. The place is a bit of a cluster-hmmm given the narrowness of 1A combined with Secret Service and all that entails.

Barbara Ann

If I were the Dems I'd try and go straight from the Saint Helena option. This should prevent the possibility of a future glorious return march back to DC from Mar-a-Lago, during which he might gather around him an army of Deplorables. Perhaps in Trump's case this could be exile to his ancestral lands in the Scottish Outer Hebrides.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Route_Napoléon

blue peacock

Trump is done, IMO. He was unfortunately for the Smellies all hat and no cattle. He was incompetent and weak from the get go and never did anything to cut the head of the Swamp Snake in the first place. Instead, he hired them to run his administration. The Party of Davos is serious about consolidating power, which they've been doing for 40+ years and they'll not tolerate any competition. By their naked exercise of power they are giving a warning to any future leader of the Smellies that it is kill or die. Trump just wanted the spotlight not real political & governmental power afforded his office. He'll be made into an example with likely attempts to destroy his wealth.

The big question is who is gonna show up next to claim the 75 -100 million Smellies? That person will have to be by definition highly competent & ruthless to be successful in toppling the Party of Davos. They hold all levers of power and have demonstrated the naked exercise of it.

turcopolier

Barbara Ann

You seem to have St Helena and Elba confused.

Deap

Trump's legacy of court picks will serve our future well, unless all you anti-Trumpers are now happy you elected a new Democrat majority that can pack the court, grant citizenship to 30 million illegals, and add Puerto Rico and Wash DC as new Democrat majority states.

Keep piling on Trump and let me know how successful you have been getting the teachers unions dislodged from your own local school boards.

Celebrate how much Trump did accomplish, which includes exposing the long reach of the deep state. Anyone who thinks they can dislodge the deep state in one term when the deep state abused every internal resource available against Trump, needs to get woke.

Few today still do not know the difference between private sector and public sector unions. Don't ask Trump to wave magic wand against that level of willful ignorance.

The Left with their media and deep state friends set out to destroy anyone who could have helped the Trump administration. We saw that early and often. Don't try to re-write history now.

This battle for the hearts and minds of America goes well beyond one man and one term. If you can't see this, you don't deserve to share in the rewards. Let the Left just flow over you.

Those who live in California see the damage of Left dominance every day. Private property rights are now meaningless - all rental property has now been constructively confiscated by state anti-eviction laws and turned into free housing for current tenants for as long as they want.

With no means to even get back rent. And mandated three month's rent for tenant relocation fees, if the owner wants to take their own property back for their own use.

Property owners are now stuck with all expenses and absolutely no resource. Due to "covid" naturally, which means the Left will never give up "covid".

Think twice what piling on Trump now does for your own future. Damn, he did the best he could in this increasing world of Leftist madness.

Fred

"keep him penned up on Elba"

I chuckled at that. I can already see the headlines "THE ORANGE OGRE HAS LANDED AT CAPE LOOKOUT" ... "THE MONSTER SLEPT AT GREENVILLE" .... THE USURPER IS DIRECTING HIS STEPS TOWARDS RICHMOND"..... TRUMP IS ONLY SIXTY ELECTORAL VOTES FROM THE CAPITAL" ..... "TRUMP IS ADVANCING WITH RAPID STEPS, BUT HE WILL NEVER ENTER BLM CITY"

I wonder who will put "THE GOD EMPEROR IS IN THE WHITE HOUSE" on their headline first?

I don't recall 60 courts hearing cases, but plenty dismissing them out of hand for standing and latches and otherwise ignoring them through procedural steps. Perhaps Luntz can tell us which Words Really Work - as well as "Fake News"?

"And 61% of the Trump voters polled said they would “never” trust election results again." "

Congratulations Team Biden. What I love about the new administration is all the social healing, like we see on Amazon, Faceborg, Gulag, Twitter; but not Parler. I wonder if Frank Luntz can figure out how that happened.

A. Pols

Legally, how could they bar him from federal office or from running again for president? Is there any precedent for such a thing? I'm thinking that despite a felony drug conviction, Marion Barry slid right back as mayor after prison.

Barbara Ann

Not confused, Sir. I suggested the equivalent of Saint Helena for Trump as Elba proved a temporary prison for Napoleon - one from which he was able to return to power, albeit briefly. After Waterloo the English very sensibly put him much farther out of harm's way in the South Atlantic.

Deap

American Thinker, a sane conservative discussion blog, just shut down their unmoderated public comments. Sign of the times. Pre-emptive, or did they get blog-bombed by radicals with the intent to get deplatformed? Democrat "lock downs" take on entirely new meanings.

American Thinker remains a good read and deserves to be supported, because where else does one go explore the other side of the story? Even if Trump was capable of creating an alternative media networdk have the Bigs grown so powerful it would be a fools errand and a cash sink hole to even try?

This has all happened pretty fast, hasn't it?

JohninMK

Blue peacock.

Why are you calling those generally known as the Deplorables the Smellies? Do you know something we don't?

David Habakkuk

Colonel Lang,

She may be suggesting that having Trump in Mar-a-Lago is too reminiscent of having Napoleon in Elba - from which he could return, quite easily.

However, supposing that I, having offering my services, on a purely ‘mercenary’ basis, to Ms. Pelosi, as a ‘political technologist’, and had a reasonable preliminary payment transferred to my account, were providing advice, I would counsel caution.

So, the prospect of Donald Trump, who will be seventy-eight years old by the time of the next Presidential election, as candidate, would not seem to me the most worrying scenario. (Particularly if you can find someone just slightly more ‘credible’ than ‘HRC’ or Biden.)

And here, I would stress the problems with Trump which ‘blue peacock’ has itemised, accurately, I think.

It is the ‘myth’ of Donald Trump - the man who tried to speak for, and represent, the ‘deplorables’/ ‘smellies’, and was – relentlessly – hounded and destroyed: of which I would be seriously afraid.

Very often, ‘ghosts’ have a much more enduring presence than the live beings from which they started. After all, that of Napoleon was a very powerful ‘spook’ for a very long time – perhaps still is.

So, without suggesting that he is quite in that class, the ‘spectre’ of Donald Trump could remain really quite potent, for quite a long time. And it might be much more dangerous, if he had been prevented from standing.

This might also have the effect of ‘clearing the way’ for younger, and more effective, leaders - who might be much more dangerous if, rather than competing to replace Trump, they were doing so for his ‘blessing.’

Also, aspirant candidates could well have been thinking seriously about what was to be learnt both from Trump’s successes, and his failures.

Suppose then, just as I was drawing up my ‘memorandum’ for Pelosi, such a candidate offered me a ‘better deal’, what would I advise?

It would then be in my interest to draw different conclusions from the fact that Lieutenant-General Michael Flynn, in particular, as an ‘upwardly mobile’ outsider did not realise that ‘insiders’ -– many of them erstwhile ‘upwardly mobile outsiders’ – faced with the challenge he represented, had abandoned any pretence at ‘gentlemanly’ scruples.

‘Gloves are off.’ I might say.

Also, I would be asking myself whether I should be ‘taking a leaf’ out of the ‘neoconservative’ handbook.

What they have been – quite extraordinarily – good at is covering up the bankruptcy of their ideas through a combination of effective organisation, and emotional manipulation.

We are a long way behind, I might say, but if one really ‘puts one’s mind to it’, a lot can be done, in quite a short time.

And then, one comes to a difficult area.

A central fact of which I would obviously, as a reasonably competent ‘political technologist’, be aware, is the disintegration of the ‘centre ground’ in contemporary American politics.

So: would I be advising strategies designed to, as it were, rediscover a ‘centre ground’?

Would I be looking for ‘fault lines’ in the ‘Party of Davos’ which I might exploit, to make people think that the ‘smellies’ are not really so ‘odiferous’ as they have been made out to be?

Or would I be accepting that ‘the centre cannot hold’, and any political strategy with the remotest prospect of success has to be based on a recognition of that fact?

I do not know.

English Outsider

Judging by Mayor de Blasio's recent move they'll cut off as many of Trump's income sources as the banks leave him with and chase him and his family to destitution if they can. Together with any of his supporters who dare stick their heads above the parapet. No revolving doors for anyone who's been associated with the Trump administration. Presumably any Deplorable unwise enough to express an opinion about the witch hunt will be similarly sanctioned if they can get at him.

For distant Trump aficionados like me there can only be stunned silence as Salem + gets under way. The Democrats and it seems a fair few of the Republicans have lost it entirely. One merely watches in astonishment as masses of cronies and politicians, ours in Europe dutifully tagging along, do a creditable imitation of the Gadarene Swine. And wonders what the cliff edge is going to look like and how many of us they'll sweep over with them.

turcopolier

JohninMK


My fault. The two terms are both attachable in the minds of the elites to the as yet unsubjugated masses.

Fourth and Long


Respectfully Sir I think Barbara Ann has her exile islands right.


From

https://geopoliticalfutures.com/understanding-trump/

Concluding paragraphs - I quote:

He will leave office with the Democratic Party still obsessed with him. It’s a curious fixation, but the Democrats have the right target. The segment of society that mobilized itself and hired Trump is still out there, still enraged by the assault on them for decades, and still mourning their loss of Trump. Joe Biden is of little importance. His job is to be normal, and he will do it well. The more difficult job is to defeat Trumpism, to disabuse those who believe the Biden victory is a conspiracy against them. Trump, then, was happy to make certain he would leave office looking like a martyr for his supporters.

It is his supporters who challenge what has become normal. That class remains intact. Trump does not have to hold office to lead them, and indeed out of office he could be stronger. Trump draws his power from two sources: speaking to the disenchanted and inciting his opponents to attack him. His great skill is in making himself so hated that everything revolves around him. A second impeachment plays right into his hands. But the Democrats have never understood Trump’s power. They think that beating him in an election and impeaching him defeats him. So long as the Democrats regard those who voted for him as deplorables, rather than the other half of America, they will always find another Trump.

Barbara Ann

Fourth and Long

Yes, this President wears impeachments like stigmata.

Artemesia

Just started re-reading Count of Monte Cristo; Dantes is still in prison, having just encountered the Abbe. He has not yet started on his course of revenge. Stay tuned.

---
Barbara Ann -- imo your assessment of the presence of the Shofars at the Stop the Steal / Jericho rallies was off by 180 degrees. The press that is of the same Confession as the rabbi who opened the Dec 12 rally (and also the son of a same Confession judge from Brooklyn), is airbrushing their presence out of sight and mention, while simultaneously amplifying scenes and symbols that did not appear in the dreaded insurrection.

The acts of concealing those presences, as well as a blackout on the facts that a Christian film crew recorded nearly two dozen Israeli flags at the intrusion-rally; that Israelis flew in from Israel to attend the intrusion-rally; and that the above film crew interviewed one Israeli who said he entered the Capitol but hastily exited after hearing gunshots.

Israelis came to the USA to attend the rally and unlawfully (presumably) entered the "most sacrosanct" meeting place of the American people.

Would that have made prime time news if the intruders had been Iranian, or Russian? Why do Israelis get a pass?

Why do Americans twist the plain words of the Joshua story that is an overt ritual and military plan for the invasion and overthrow of another country, and instead wave away the fact that they were uttered in preparation for an actual invasion of the US Capitol?

Equally important is the behavior of Jamie Raskin. His charge to the Congress was so laden with never-happened hypotheticals and hyperbole as to mark him as unhinged.

-- Nancy Pelosi has publicly declared her unconditional loyalty to Israel.
-- Chuck Schumer has publicly stated that his name identifies him as Israel's guardian.
-- Joe Biden declared himself a zionist.
-- Donald Trump signed the order elevating Elan Carr from minister in a State Department to monitor worldwide antisemitism to the status of ambassador. Carr has declared that "anti-zionism is the same as antisemitism." That is, no American may criticize or stand in opposition to the political movement of zionism without consequences.

No zionist takeover of US?
I disagree.

BillWade

"Authorities across Long Island and New York state are boosting security ahead of Inauguration Day.Nassau County Executive Laura Curran says she's working with police and federal agencies to ensure residents will be safe. Police say they are not aware of any credible threats on Long Island."

Do we need to fear the insane?

Deap

Not since Rome sacked Carthage and salted the earth so nothing would grow there again, has one political party resorted to scorched earth as much as the Democrats right now.

Which means only one thing, what the heck are the Democrats trying to hide?

Horace

@Fourth and Long
"The more difficult job is to defeat Trumpism, ..."

Mr. Friedman is being imprecise. It's not about Trump. It has never been about Trump. It is about NATIONALISM, not Trumpism. Pres. Trump is the guy who stepped up to the plate to fight, however imperfectly or unsuccessfully, for our national people against the civilization-wrecking evil of globalism.

The left always tries to personalize something so that it can be destroyed with the person. It's not going to work this time because far too many of us now see the naked hatred that for so many decades has been hidden behind a false civility. Those with neither tribe nor nation are prey animals, easy meat for the cooperating predators who do have tribe and nation.

confusedponderer

blue peacock,
He'll be made into an example with likely attempts to destroy his wealth.

As for destroying his wealth, to the extent it still exists beyond real estate, he has done more than necessary to make sure of that. He doesn't need the Democrats for that to hit him badly. He can easily do that (to) himself (bigly BIGLY).

Trump owes a lot of people a lot of money (900+ million, 300+ million to the Deutsche Bank). There are countries that have less national product than he has in debt. The creditors will want that money back, on time - i.e. - many of these credits will have to be repaid soon (over the next few years).

Their problem is that Trump is a high risk customer, and a vengeful and ungrateful one too. He was for the Deutsche worth that risk because they wanted access into the US market and 'for that had a price to pay'.

US lawyers know that too, which is why Trump didn't find any when seeking some recently, since "He doesn't listen and he doesn't pay" = bad reputation. That is, as a risk he is acceptable for a bank, for lawyers he isn't. Except for folks like Giuliani.

Credit repayment will very very likely result in Trump suing the creditors. He has done that with the Deutsche over a 180 million credit repay during the last bank crisis and lost in court (while gaining time to get money elsewhere?).

He is currently playing that game with Giuliani. Giuliani worked for Trump the last two plus years as a shadow state secretary, bag man, hatchet man, help yeller for the capitol storm and as a remarkably unsuccessful lawyer - for 20.000 $ (taxpayer dollars) per day (for ~two years that'd be 2 x 365 x 20000 = 14,6 millions).

Trump is refusing to pay Giuliani. For inciting the capitol storm the New York State Bar Association wants to kick him out. After all, who wants a lawyer busy doing arm twisting in Ukraine and inciting crimes at home? Well, Trump does, NY doesn't.

If I understand it correctly, that will lead to Giuliani be debarred, ending his job as a lawyer. He can sue against that, and likely will, but just once. Will he succeed? Unlikely, given that he lost about 60 of his last 60 cases (choose - omnipresent deep state judges or just ... freely invented BS cases from the alternative reality universe?

That is an occasion for Trump Jr. to scream his current insane "Coincidence???!!! Coincidence???!!! Coincidence???!!!" line. Naturally that is nonsense.

There are things that are not coincidences but simply consequences. Take bleeding noses. Coincidences???!!! What about that being the simple and natural consequence of someone hitting hard.

There was that anti-election result case with that blondette babbling beside an increasingly stressed Giuliani in court. A judge summed her spiel up as nothing but "hearsay of hearsay", adding that it is not proof of anything. That was after the blondette said ~ 'just because I cannot prove anything doesn't mean it isn't true!'. Ouch.

So, I can't say I am sorry for Giuliani at all, but this means practically this:

* that Trump is by now already throwing even his most craven sycophants under the bus
* who will be next? His sons, fav. daughter and/or Kushner? Maybe wannabe next presidents like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz?
* that the US will be spared Rudy trying to play lawyer
* that Giuliani may have worked two + years without being payed and/or
* that Giuliani will have to, perversely, ask Biden (whom he just tried to de-coup) to pay him for that.

But that's The Donald being The Donald - handkerchief used, just throw it away, it's - eek - full of germs.

That state of state affairs is a bloody pity (5 dead at the capitol, had the 'Hang Pence!'-ers found Pence or had these found and disarmed pipe bombs been used it would be worse).

Up to the 20.1. is just about a week but I expect some more nasty games like the capitol storm.

Trump is atm quietly sulking (at least outside the Whitehouse where he atm often goes ballistic), but has not accepted or learned anything about not being re-elected. He isn't done yet. He'll further stage himself as victim (more, as a martyr!) of the evil D's and the deep state.

Fourth and Long

Artemesia,

Sheldon, the casino mogul and famous bestower of largesse upon our President suddenly up and died at a most interesting moment. I have a fantasy image of Trump, furious in his bunker and needing financial help now most desperately, being informed by telephone as to how he can be made whole if only .. . Monsieur Adelson is on tape explaining publicly what should be done to a certain place. Granted, if you listen to his actual words, he said do it once in an unpopulated place as a warning, and then ..

To see what, see these two links and their own contained links to recent air drills :

http://www.intellinews.com/iran-s-navy-conducts-missile-drill-while-analyst-argues-trump-even-capable-of-nuclear-strike-in-final-days-200170/

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/13/the-us-is-now-the-focus-of-global-instability

My way of tipping my proverbial cap to you and saying I couldn't agree more with you. Or is it a tinfoil cap I wear unknowingly? Timing certainly is interesting. If tinfoil is worn in excess it can lead one to think that maybe the Jan 6 thing was more than fortuitous - that it was set up not for the reasons most partisan paranoiacs profess, but specifically so that the Shelly and Donald duet didn't hatch the eggs over which they brooded so ardently and fraternally. As my favorite Irish bartender John used to say during the poker game when a beautiful woman passed by, (or upon hitting an inside straight) - "There is a God!"
.
I mean, I don't much care for Speaker Pelosi particularly, but she can't precisely be full on stupid what with being third in line after his nibs and VP Pence - did she really at this advanced stage of her career have to call Gen Miley for assurances regarding those old fashioned things? Or, having read those linked articles, was something else at issue, something similar to the n word except though it also begins with the letter n and ends with r, it has seven letters rather than six. Something she managed to see that the press made sure to mention. More likely just a politician doing politician things?


Chuck Light

A Pols: There are two provisions of the US Constitution which provide for disqualification from holding federal office: Article 1, Section 3, Clause 7 and Amendment 14, Section 3.

Art. I, Sec. 3, Cl. 7 provides:

Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law.

Amendment 14 Section 3 provides:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

So there are two separate provisions of the US Constitution which provide for disqualification. Explaining how these work in practice is above my pay grade, but to answer your question there are in fact legal ways that provide for disqualification.

And upon leaving office, of course, the president is subject to criminal prosecution if it is determined that probable cause exists that he violated a criminal statute of the United States.

Barbara Ann

Horace

"civilization-wrecking evil" is right. I may be ready to judge the success of Trump's fight against it after the 20th, certainly not before then.


Artemesia

My intent was not to argue that there is no Zionist "takeover" of the USG, quite the reverse - it has been self-evident for decades. You have done much more research on the rally than I, but I remain to be convinced that Trump himself is anything other than a Zionist of convenience.

Presuming his desire to drain the swamp is genuine, it goes without saying that all foreign malign influences need to go. I have thought for a while now that Trump could only hope to achieve this (even now) via one mammoth act exposing the wholesale nature of DC corruption. In such a scenario I think it is impossible to see Zionist malignity somehow escaping a resultant uncontrollable purge. Trump must know this. We'll see over the next few days whether or not he's willing to unleash the Flood.

blue peacock

David Habakkuk,

To your question, can the center hold? I ask, is there a center in contemporary American society? Or in general any western society? What is it?

Something I'd like you to contemplate as you provide advice in your mercenary role. My neighbor for a long time was an escapee from the erstwhile Soviet Union. In many long discussions he impressed on me the "system". The game one needed to play to get along and become "upwardly mobile". Join the communist youth league, be known as ideologically solid, denounce openly and loudly any contrarian thought to the current orthodoxy, and be known as a reliable executor of whatever was demanded. The spoils were good. If you got high enough even a dacha on the Black Sea.

Has the Party of Davos constructed a similar spoils system now? Is the right-left frame and even the partisan Democrats-Republicans frame the correct lens? Is the real battle with the oligarchy & the urban media-managerial class who have consolidated not just economic power but also systemic power? How do you fight a "system" which for all intents & purposes hold all levers of power as the "upwardly mobile" in the larger institutional framework play the game of the spoils?

Digital Samizdat

This is all theater. It really doesn't matter whether Trump is allowed to run again, since we have seen that the establishment can steal any election they want and no one can or will stop it. I myself do not plan to vote in any national election again. Why bother?

Trump had four years in which to make his move and he punted. Either he was controlled opposition from the start, or maybe he was just to terrified of standing up to the system. One way or another, he was clearly not the answer to our prayers. I am still glad he didn't start any new wars, but sadly, that is an 'achievement' which can easily be reversed by future administrations.

So what's left for us? Well, I suspect that Biden (or whoever controls him) will try impose national lockdowns, masking orders and force-vaxing nationwide -- and he'll probably make a move on the 2nd Amendment, too. Then things could get interesting! But if they don't, then we are doomed ... and mankind along with us.

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