Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of September 22

Yup. The corruption of taking a bribe followed by the larger corruption of closing the investigation.

This is the “bigger than watergate” scandal of the week. If I listed all scandals since January of that magnitude it would probably take a few pages.

it's mind boggling how the administration has managed to screw over just about everybody

I mean, that's entirely Trump's MO and it always has been. He sets up houses of cards, robs everyone beneath him and lets them collapse. He even managed to bankrupt a casino (and made a lot of money doing it)! I am entirely unsurprised that his style of business/capitalism has continued to flourish and thrive in an increasingly deregulated environment and that he's doing this to the entire American public.

Those statues are masterpieces. I hope this Secret Handshake group continues to spring up more around D.C. What a marvelous example of resistance art.

Trump Gets the Retribution He Sought, and Shatters Norms in the Process

An inexperienced prosecutor loyal to President Trump, in the job for less than a week, filed criminal charges against one of her boss’s most-reviled opponents.

She did so not only at Mr. Trump’s direct command, but also against the urging of both her own subordinates and her predecessor, who had just been fired for raising concerns that there was insufficient evidence to indict.

Heightening the break-glass moment, the felony charges against Mr. Comey, who stands accused of making false statements and obstructing justice, were rushed into court as Mr. Trump’s handpicked prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, hurried to beat the quickly approaching statute of limitations on Mr. Comey’s purported crimes.

...

The push for the indictment trampled over the agency’s long tradition of maintaining distance from the White House and resisting political pressure, and it raised the prospect of further arbitrary prosecutions pushed by Mr. Trump against his enemies.

A Brief History of Trump's Violent Remarks (The Atlantic, October 2024)

This is from an article from last year. Since then he's said many other violent things and stoked more violence.

"Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing"

"If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, okay? Just knock the hell—I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise"

"I would bring back waterboarding. And I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding"

"I’d like to punch him in the face."

“They said to me, ‘What do you think of waterboarding?’ I said, ‘I think it’s great, but I don’t think we go far enough.’ It’s true, it’s true—right? We don’t go far enough. We don’t go far enough

"I think you'd have riots" (if he wasn't nominated)

"You also had people that were very fine people on both sides" (August 15, 2017, speaking at a press conference about the white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia)

"Any guy that can do a body slam, he is my guy!"

"I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump—I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad."

"When the looting starts, the shooting starts"

"Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?"

"And I’ll tell you something—that’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution when you have crime like this."

"I don’t fucking care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me." (referring to the Jan 6 insurrection)

"Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!"

"People are so angry at what is taking place. Whatever we can do to help, because the temperature has to be brought down in the country. If it isn’t, terrible things are going to happen"

"You take the writer and/or the publisher of the paper … and you say, ‘Who is the leaker? National security.’ And they say, ‘We’re not gonna tell you.’ They say, ‘That’s okay, you’re going to jail.’ And when this person realizes that he is going to be the bride of another prisoner very shortly, he will say, ‘I’d very much like to tell you exactly who that leaker is!"

"I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution."

"What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting President in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?"

"2024 is the final battle. It’s going to be the big one. You put me back in the White House, their reign will be over and America will be a free nation once again"

"IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!"

"This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH."

"Very simply, if you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store. Shot."

"We pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections … The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within."

"Except for day one … After that, I’m not a dictator."

"They’re poisoning the blood of our country."

"If I don’t get elected … it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country."

"Well, revenge does take time. I will say that. And sometimes revenge can be justified, Phil, I have to be honest."

"In Colorado, they’re so brazen, they’re taking over sections of the state. And you know, getting them out will be a bloody story. They should have never been allowed to come into our country. Nobody checked them."

"If you had one really violent day … one rough hour—and I mean real rough—the word will get out, and it will end immediately."

"I always say, we have two enemies … We have the outside enemy, and then we have the enemy from within, and the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia, and all these countries … We have some very bad people; we have some sick people, radical-left lunatics. And it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by the National Guard—or, if really necessary, by the military."

"It is the enemy from within. And they’re very dangerous—they’re Marxists and Communists and fascists … They’re dangerous for our country. We have China, we have Russia, we have all these countries. If you have a smart president, they can all be handled. The more difficult are, you know, the Pelosis, these people, they’re so sick; they’re so evil"

Analysis: What data shows about political extremist violence (PBS)

Based on government and independent analyses, right-wing extremist violence has been responsible for the overwhelming majority of fatalities, amounting to approximately 75% to 80% of U.S. domestic terrorism deaths since 2001.

If I'm honest, I don't have the bandwidth to watch those videos. Any takeaways?

I just watched Erika Kirk's speech, it was surprisingly decent, coming from me with almost no knowledge of these groups, except that online discourse in my bubbles likes to demonize them. On a cynical note, there was plenty of marketing for Christianity and Turning Point USA thrown in.

The good parts, in my opinion, were she praised the MAGA audience for not turning to rioting and violence, and instead turning to religion and spirituality

She pointed out the reality, that there are a lot of American men lacking a purpose. It's a marketing line for Turning Point USA, but also, I mean, it's true. If there are other better options for a purposeful life than organized religion, there are seemingly millions of men willing to hear about it, so what is that better option?

The last point that stuck out to me, was when she defended the First Amendment, indirectly criticizing the current administration for censoring Jimmy Kimmel and others

Edited to add, I cringed hard when she specifically thanked Usha Vance for consoling her