2020 U.S. Presidential elections

Isabeau

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Aaaand, I just saw it was posted elsewhere.

There should just be one thread called ''Trump FucksHisFace'' with all the threads mashed together...
 
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Kalel

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Innula Zenovka

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The judicial attack on the NRA just boosted Trump's chances for re-election. Yay.
The Washington Post report suggests that at a sizeable proportion, at least, of the NRA may recognise the move is necessary, though:
The scope of the allegations by the New York attorney general represents a serious challenge to the longtime political juggernaut and a top ally of Trump, which has been riven in the past two years by infighting about use of the group’s funds.

Longtime NRA member Rob Pincus, a critic of LaPierre’s leadership, said Thursday in a statement that “none of us who have been pushing for NRA reform are celebrating today’s announcement.”

“It is tragic that the NY AG’s office is having to step in to clean up the NRA,” he added.

The group’s bitter internal battle burst into public view in April 2019 at the NRA’s annual convention in Indianapolis, when then-NRA President Oliver North was forced out by LaPierre after pressing for an internal financial review.
New York attorney general seeks to dissolve NRA in suit accusing gun rights group of wide-ranging fraud and self-dealing


It sounds as if the allegations are not ill-founded, and were I a member of the NRA, or any organisation that found itself in a similar position, with the members' funds having been raided for decades corruptly to support its senior executives' extravagant lifestyles, I think I'd welcome a move to force them to repay the funds and to dissolve the organisation completely, so a new group, unburdened by previous corrupt financial commitments, could be formed, particularly if it concentrated on representing the interests of its members rather than acting as a right-wing political lobby and marketing tool of firearms manufacturers.
 
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Jolene Benoir

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The Washington Post report suggests that at a sizeable proportion, at least, of the NRA may recognise the move is necessary, though:


New York attorney general seeks to dissolve NRA in suit accusing gun rights group of wide-ranging fraud and self-dealing


It sounds as if the allegations are not ill-founded, and were I a member of the NRA, or any organisation that found itself in a similar position, with the members' funds having been raided for decades corruptly to support its senior executives' extravagant lifestyles, I think I'd welcome a move to force them to repay the funds and to dissolve the organisation completely, so a new group, unburdened by previous corrupt financial commitments, could be formed, particularly if it concentrated on representing the interests of its members rather than acting as a right-wing political lobby and marketing tool of firearms manufacturers.
That isn't how it is going to be framed, though. It is going to be framed as judicial overreach, that they are attempting to take away gun rights, yada yada. Now, those members who have come to dislike Trump, and were either going to abstain from voting or even vote Biden, will swing right back to him.

As to members of NRA caring about the funds having been raided to support extravagant lifestyles, they simply will shrug it off. These are people who vote for Trump thinking that he's actually going to help them rather than himself and those like him to loot the country. It will have very little effect upon them.
 

Aribeth Zelin

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But the judges involved in this were appointed by the orange excrement, weren't they?
 

Innula Zenovka

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That isn't how it is going to be framed, though. It is going to be framed as judicial overreach, that they are attempting to take away gun rights, yada yada. Now, those members who have come to dislike Trump, and were either going to abstain from voting or even vote Biden, will swing right back to him.

As to members of NRA caring about the funds having been raided to support extravagant lifestyles, they simply will shrug it off. These are people who vote for Trump thinking that he's actually going to help them rather than himself and those like him to loot the country. It will have very little effect upon them.
All I know about it is what I've read in the WaPo, of course, but the article gave me the impression there's already considerable disquiet amongst the NRA's membership about how the executives have been behaving and the state to which they've reduced its finances -- when Oliver North, the author of the Iran-Contra deal, thinks something is too corrupt, things have gone badly wrong I think.

It should be possible, I would have thought, simultaneously to be a responsible gun owner (of whatever political persuasion) and to think that the NRA's leadership seem to have been far more interested in using the Association's funds to line their own pockets and promote their own political influence than in promoting the members' interests.
 
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Beebo Brink

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It should be possible, I would have thought, simultaneously to be a responsible gun owner (of whatever political persuasion) and to think that the NRA's leadership seem to have been far more interested in using the Association's funds to line their own pockets and promote their own political influence than in promoting the members' interests.
There are a lot of theoretical possibilities in the U.S., all involving reason and rationality that we do not possess.
 

Innula Zenovka

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I found this discussion of the prospects for the US presidential debates really interesting and informative


 

Jolene Benoir

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It's already started: Democratic Attack On Gun Rights | The American Conservative

I did see someone say this, but do not expect a single one of the outraged to understand it. Trump is going to grab onto this life jacket with all the gusto he can manage.

Saying this is an attack on the 2nd amendment is equivalent to saying investigations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church were an attack on freedom of religion.
 
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danielravennest

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The judicial attack on the NRA just boosted Trump's chances for re-election. Yay.
That's arguable. For one thing, the NRA was a conduit for Russian money in 2016. If this is exposed or prevented this time, that's a plus. Also, NY is using the *Trump Foundation* as precedent for their action against the NRA. The NRA was doing the same kind of stuff - using charitable contributions for personal gain. Stuff like taking a family safari to Africa and hiring relatives at stupidly high rates.

We have an epidemic of gun-related deaths in the US. Taking aim at one of the bastions of the gun fetish might get progressives out to vote in greater numbers.
 

danielravennest

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But the judges involved in this were appointed by the orange excrement, weren't they?
Judges aren't involved yet. This was the Attorney General of NY state, who has oversight over state charities. The NRA happens to be chartered in NY. In a separate action, the Attorney General for Washington D.C. filed an action against the NRA Foundation, which is chartered there.
 

Fionalein

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The judicial attack on the NRA just boosted Trump's chances for re-election. Yay.
we need a question mark reaction

please elaboratre more on this - sounds fascinating, but I have no idea what you are implying to (yet)