Trumpwatch 2.0

[MegaHertz]

May be so, and while I know what Harris and the Democrats were trying to do, but that was a lose-lose. Republicans were running away from Bush/Cheney/Romney platforms, MAGA or die, and the Democrats weren't gonna open their arms for someone who was a major reason shit went down with Iraq and waterboarding.

[Matt]

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2 ... n-00324161

[Bull Shannon]

George W. Bush in 2011: https://www.c-span.org/clip/qa/user-cli ... ms/5159236

What is the relevancy of this?

Did you watch it? Trump is EVERYTHING he warned against.

What gets me is how relatively eloquent he sounds… and he’s absolutely dead on in what he says there.

GWB made some bad policy decisions and some bad gaffes during his Presidency, but I am convinced he is a genuinely decent man and have long felt that way.

Agree. I don't agree with his politics at all, but I would totally sit down with him and have a beer and shoot the shit about baseball.

[Turkeytop]

George W. Bush in 2011: https://www.c-span.org/clip/qa/user-cli ... ms/5159236

What is the relevancy of this?

Did you watch it? Trump is EVERYTHING he warned against.

What gets me is how relatively eloquent he sounds… and he’s absolutely dead on in what he says there.

GWB made some bad policy decisions and some bad gaffes during his Presidency, but I am convinced he is a genuinely decent man and have long felt that way.

Agree. I don't agree with his politics at all, but I would totally sit down with him and have a beer and shoot the shit about baseball.

Include me too. Except I know nothing about baseball.

[Matt]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna204293

Fred Thompson reincarnated with a wig isn't happy.

[Rate This]

AP:
Early voting results reveal Elon Musks rocket launch site Starbase is on its way to becoming a Texas city.

[Bull Shannon]

AP:
Early voting results reveal Elon Musks rocket launch site Starbase is on its way to becoming a Texas city.

I was confused by this, and looked it up. For those who could use a bit more context: voters who live in the area of SpaceX's launch site (most of whom are SpaceX employees) voted overwhelmingly to formally incorporate as a city.

Unlike Michigan, where every square foot of land within every county is incorporated as a township, city, or village, Texas only has cities, and land that isn't part of an incorporated city is unincorporated land directly administered by the county.

[ The More You Know ]

[Rate This]

AP:
Early voting results reveal Elon Musks rocket launch site Starbase is on its way to becoming a Texas city.

I was confused by this, and looked it up. For those who could use a bit more context: voters who live in the area of SpaceX's launch site (most of whom are SpaceX employees) voted overwhelmingly to formally incorporate as a city.

Unlike Michigan, where every square foot of land within every county is incorporated as a township, city, or village, Texas only has cities, and land that isn't part of an incorporated city is unincorporated land directly administered by the county.

[ The More You Know ]

Thanks for looking this up… it’s interesting how each state got to write its own rules on this stuff…

[Turkeytop]

Why would anyone want to name their town after their employer?

[MegaHertz]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna204293

Fred Thompson reincarnated with a wig isn't happy.

[MWmetalhead]

That is one ugly woman.

[Matt]

So when can we remove this guy?

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/ ... 446457007/

West Palm Beach, Fla. — President Donald Trump, asked during an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” whether he believes that he needs to uphold the Constitution during his presidency, responded, “I don’t know.”

[Rate This]

AP:
President Trump says he will reopen Alcatraz prison, 60 years after its closure.

[Honeyman]

AP:
President Trump says he will reopen Alcatraz prison, 60 years after its closure.

[Rate This]

AP:
President Trump says he will reopen Alcatraz prison, 60 years after its closure.

Here’s a little more detail via AP:

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump says he is directing his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on a hard-to-reach California island that has been closed for more than 60 years.

In a post on his Truth Social site Sunday evening, Trump wrote that, “For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering. When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

“That is why, today, I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders,” he wrote, adding: “The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE.”

The prison — infamously inescapable due to the strong ocean currents and cold Pacific waters that surround it — was known as the “The Rock” and housed some of the nation’s most notorious criminals, including gangster Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.

It has long been part of the cultural imagination and has been the subject of numerous movies, including “The Rock” starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage.

Still in the 29 years it was open, 36 men attempted 14 separate escapes, according to the FBI. Nearly all were caught or didn’t survive the attempt.

The fate of three particular inmates — John Anglin, his brother Clarence and Frank Morris — is of some debate and was dramatized in the 1979 film “Escape from Alcatraz” starring Clinton Eastwood.

Alcatraz Island is now a major tourist site that is operate by the National Parks Service and is a designated National Historic Landmark.

The closure of the federal prison in 1963 was attributed to crumbling infrastructure and the high costs of repairing and supplying the island facility, because everything from fuel to food had to be brought by boat.

A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that the agency “will comply with all Presidential Orders.” The spokesperson did not immediately answer questions from The Associated Press regarding the practicality and feasibility of reopening Alcatraz or the agency’s role in the future of the former prison given the National Park Service’s control of the island.

The island serves as a veritable time machine to a bygone era of corrections. The Bureau of Prisons currently has 16 penitentiaries performing the same high-security functions as Alcatraz, including its maximum security facility in Florence, Colorado, and the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, which is home to the federal death chamber.

The order comes as Trump has been clashing with the courts as he tries to send accused gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador, without due process. Trump has also directed the opening of a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,to hold up to 30,000 of what he has labeled the “worst criminal aliens.”

The Bureau of Prisons has faced myriad crises in recent years and has been subjected to increased scrutiny after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide at a federal jail in New York City in 2019. An AP investigation uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons. AP reporting has disclosed widespread criminal activity by employees, dozens of escapes, chronic violence, deaths and severe staffing shortages that have hampered responses to emergencies, including assaults and suicides.

The AP’s investigation also exposed rampant sexual abuse at a federal women’s prison in Dublin, California. Last year, President Joe Biden signed a law strengthening oversight of the agency after AP reporting spotlighted its many flaws.