American Politics 3.0 - Back to Brunch

[direwolf]

Lol, he's so pathetic. For the sake of everyone, it's probably best that he just goes into hiding for the rest of his life. Dude is easily the most hated man in the world.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/polit...ess/index.html

While he's eagerly anticipating his military-style send-off from Joint Base Andrews on Inauguration morning -- one of the few items that have cheered him up recently -- there were already signs the crowd may be smaller than he'd hoped. And a slate of actual celebrities lined up for Biden's inauguration has disappointed a president who tried and often failed to secure A-list support for his own presidency.

He hasn't left the White House or been seen in public for a week. On Monday evening he taped a valedictory final message from the Blue Room of the White House, ticking through several achievements that he believes should define his administration.

The video is expected to be released on Tuesday, an official said, although a final timing had not been determined. Unlike most of his predecessors in the television era, a live prime-time farewell address attempting to burnish what has become a badly tarnished legacy is no longer in the cards.

Trump recorded the message late Monday with a skeleton staff. In it, he made a reference to the "new administration," an official said, but it was unclear whether he offered a concession to President-elect Joe Biden that he has refused so far to do.

Ordinarily, presidents spent their final weeks in office looking to hone their legacy through exit interviews, policy speeches and the capstone farewell address, delivered in prime time for the largest possible audience. But after inciting a riot mob that stormed the US Capitol, Trump's aides have attempted to keep him away from any situation that could aggravate the situation further.

That includes keeping Trump from any type of live, off-the-cuff scenario where he might reverse the carefully scripted work that went into his taped speeches last week condemning the insurrectionist violence and vowing a smooth transition.

When Trump presented a final batch of Medals of Freedom this month, it occurred behind closed doors. All of his speeches have been taped by White House cameras, with aides watching closely to ensure Trump does not divert from his script.

Trump's former communications director turned critic, Anthony Scaramucci, was invited to the departure. He told CNN he did not plan to attend, but saw his invitation as a sign the White House was eager to bulk up the guest list.

But Trump has mostly dismissed the traditions that go along with leaving office. He has not contacted Biden and will be the first president in 150 years to boycott his successor's inauguration.

Trump once marveled at the reception he received from President Barack Obama, who met with him in the Oval Office after the 2016 election and welcomed him to the White House on the morning of his inauguration. In the early days of his presidency, Trump liked to show visitors the letter Obama wrote him and left in the top drawer of the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

It wasn't clear whether Trump would reciprocate that gesture. Aides said he hasn't written one yet.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

"Not sure if you live in Alberta but..." oh spare me, try using your eyes. Location: Calgary, AB

First, it was pretty clear that KXL was going to keep getting challenged in the US courts, and as mentioned in other posts, Trump was no friend to Canada either; twelve years later and it's still being fought in the courts. Maybe Biden cancelling the project is the equivalent of ripping off the bandaid. How many more years do we throw money and legal resources at this thing to get it built? If there's a chance our government can find a deal with the incoming Biden administration, they should exhaust every avenue. But once it's dead, then we need to pivot.

Second, I regard another four years of Trump in the WH and the resulting political damage and civil unrest that imposes not only on the US who are still our closest allies, but to the political climate in Canada and the rest of the world as clearly far more significant than the KXL is in the grand scheme of things.

KXL is ultimately a temporary fix, O&G is not going to be the massive driver for Alberta that it once was. It isn't going away overnight either so we need to leverage it however we can, but the UCP continuing to throw all Alberta's eggs into the O&G basket while hamstringing our tech sector growth early in their tenure was an unforced error. You can also blame the Federal government for putting our futures into a single project that required another nation to play ball when we had an approved Northern Gateway and a promising Energy East pipeline that would have expanded our market reach. Staking our future on the KXL was a strategic error on the part both our Provincial and Federal governments.

Being in the car business, I even understand that it's time to move on, and look forward. Yes, a bad oil market hurts my clients income and therefore their ability to buy cars which ultimately pays me. Yes, it means thousands of technicians will lose jobs and ultimately need to completely reboot their training or find a new career. Yes it means we will have to completely retool how we do business..... oh frikking well.

If someone thinks their immediate pay cheque, is more important than the future of this planet, then they are not a good person, and lack critical thinking skills. This is about doing something relatively small now, to fix a catastrophic problem that will unravel over a couple centuries.

Added bonus for me, there will be an absolute car boom in the next 5-10 years, when EV becomes mainstream, and not just for jet setting people living in their resource guzzling mansions to fake their way into being "environmentally conscious".

That being said, and back to the topic on hand, I look forward to Pardonapalooza today, it's going to be interesting to see how much farther Trump goes to tarnish his legacy, if that is even possible. Which he has proven time and time again he has an incredible ability to do.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by Titan

I would say he won.

He did. The man is now a legend around the metro LEO community.

[the-rasta-masta]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

First, it was pretty clear that KXL was going to keep getting challenged in the US courts, and as mentioned in other posts, Trump was no friend to Canada either; twelve years later and it's still being fought in the courts. Maybe Biden cancelling the project is the equivalent of ripping off the bandaid. How many more years do we throw money and legal resources at this thing to get it built? If there's a chance our government can find a deal with the incoming Biden administration, they should exhaust every avenue. But once it's dead, then we need to pivot.

Second, I regard another four years of Trump in the WH and the resulting political damage and civil unrest that imposes not only on the US who are still our closest allies, but to the political climate in Canada and the rest of the world as clearly far more significant than the KXL is in the grand scheme of things.

KXL is ultimately a temporary fix, O&G is not going to be the massive driver for Alberta that it once was. It isn't going away overnight either so we need to leverage it however we can, but the UCP continuing to throw all Alberta's eggs into the O&G basket while hamstringing our tech sector growth early in their tenure was an unforced error. You can also blame the Federal government for putting our futures into a single project that required another nation to play ball when we had an approved Northern Gateway and a promising Energy East pipeline that would have expanded our market reach. Staking our future on the KXL was a strategic error on the part both our Provincial and Federal governments.

Is that true that its still being fought in courts? I will admit I have not followed closely. I have a friend who works for TC Energy on the Keystone project, and admittedly I haven't spoken to him directly since a Christmas party in early 2020, but he had mentioned to me that they had one final legal obstacle in Nebraska that they had pretty much closed off at the time of conversation and he expected it to be in their favour.

He mentioned that TC Energy really focused the last few years on trying to stay out of the limelight with the project to avoid the media and scrutiny that they associated the problems and delay with on the onset of the project. He felt it had been a successful strategy, and I assumed that the start of construction last year had meant that they had successfully alleviated any legal obstacles.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

nm.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

First of all, it clearly was worth it.

Second, if I recall correctly, Trump expressing his absolute commitment to getting KXL into service was one of the first things he did when he was sworn in. It might have been the literal first thing he did. Four years later, it's nowhere. Had he won the election, I doubt it would have made any practical difference in terms of getting the project done. I don't think anything was lost here, in the real world.

But think about all that invaluable lip service!

[PsYcNeT]

Incredible tweet

https://twitter.com/user/status/1351567665547116546

[Senator Clay Davis]

I mean I know someone suggested Mr. Pillow's cultish devotion to Trump is simply grifters supporting grifters, but I still think there is something deeper here we're not getting. This is a guy who got rich selling fourth rate memory foam pillows and he's even slightly risking it all for Donald ####ing Trump? There's something missing in this equation.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

I mean I know someone suggested Mr. Pillow's cultish devotion to Trump is simply grifters supporting grifters, but I still think there is something deeper here we're not getting. This is a guy who got rich selling fourth rate memory foam pillows and he's even slightly risking it all for Donald ####ing Trump? There's something missing in this equation.

He's even dumber than he looks?

[mikephoen]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

I mean I know someone suggested Mr. Pillow's cultish devotion to Trump is simply grifters supporting grifters, but I still think there is something deeper here we're not getting. This is a guy who got rich selling fourth rate memory foam pillows and he's even slightly risking it all for Donald ####ing Trump? There's something missing in this equation.

Wonder if he ever went to Epstein's island.

[Oil Stain]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

I mean I know someone suggested Mr. Pillow's cultish devotion to Trump is simply grifters supporting grifters, but I still think there is something deeper here we're not getting. This is a guy who got rich selling fourth rate memory foam pillows and he's even slightly risking it all for Donald ####ing Trump? There's something missing in this equation.

I think we usually assume that people who have built their own fortune achieved that feat through hard work and their own genius, when sometimes its probably just blind luck.

[Pizza]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1351578782826721283

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Gee, would you like to specify which "other powerful people" might have been complicit in that event, Mitch?

[Lanny_McDonald]

McConnell sounds like a man that had the fear of God scared into him with the shenanigans of the 6th. We'll see how it plays out.

[ResAlien]

Originally Posted by New Era

McConnell sounds like a man that had the fear of God scared into him with the shenanigans of the 6th. We'll see how it plays out.

He has not. This is the predictable pivot back to normalcy when the Republican Party washes its hands of Trump, pretends he never exist nor did they unilaterally push his agenda, and return to their obstructionist ways and demanding healing and that they need compromise aka do what we say lol no we won’t do anything you want

[nik-]

Originally Posted by New Era

McConnell sounds like a man that had the fear of God scared into him with the shenanigans of the 6th. We'll see how it plays out.

Sounds like a man who knows he can whitewash for two weeks and enough people will forget.

[nik-]

And the requisite obvious article.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...-years/617715/

People who spent years coddling the president will recast themselves as voices of conscience, or whitewash their relationship with Trump altogether. Policy makers who abandoned their dedication to “fiscal responsibility” and “limited government” will rediscover a passion for these timeless conservative principles. Some may dress up their revisionism in the rhetoric of “healing” and “moving forward,” but the strategy will be clear—to escape accountability by taking advantage of America’s notoriously short political memory.

[Senator Clay Davis]

McConnell is probably the most ruthless politician of our time, he sees his window to eradicating Trump and Trumpism from the party and he's taking it, and in doing so will probably evade any consequence for his role in keeping Trump in power and the agenda he passed. Easily the sharpest turtle we've ever seen.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

McConnel is probably the most ruthless politician of our time, he sees his window to eradicating Trump and Trumpism from the party and he's taking it, and in doing so will probably evade any consequence for his role in keeping Trump in power and the agenda he passed. Easily the sharpest turtle we've ever seen.

He's always ready because he tucks away his plans in his neck skin

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

It's not the 6th or any opportunity to distance himself from Trump that's prompting that speech, it's the loss of the Senate and White House. With Congress and the executive, the Democrats actually can execute Biden's agenda, so Mitch is transparently now trying to talk about how the American People want bipartisanship and talk these issues out in a sensible and measured fashion, while conveniently forgetting how he abused his majority at every opportunity.

It was probably a foregone conclusion that this sort of thing would ring hollow even before Merrick Garland, but after that whole circus, there was absolutely no doubt that if the tables ended up turning, as they finally have, and the shoe ended up on the other foot, that shoe would be used to enthusiastically and vigorously kick his ass all around DC for at least eighteen months before momentum inevitably stalls in the leadup to the midterms.

I certainly hope that they follow through. I don't think they should enact some radical agenda, obviously, but they should certainly force through the things Biden ran on without any compromise or any apologies.