What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[frunk]

It remains my all-time favorite Late Night show ever. Especially the final years plus where he just gave zero fucks. Geoff Peterson, Secretariat, amazing interviews, rambling amusing intro monologues. It was near perfection. ...and now it is gone. 

I consider Conan to be the best, but Craig Ferguson at his peak was completely unique and absolutely fantastic.

[viper37]

Vance turns on European allies in blistering speech that downplayed threats from Russia and China

"The threat that I worry most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, not China, it's not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values," Vance told a stone-faced audience.

The vice president — who met with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky at the conference — said "shutting down" unorthodox viewpoints is the "most surefire way to destroy democracy," and called on European leaders – who have been elected by their respective peoples – to "embrace what your people tell you."

"If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk," he said.

At least he makes it clear who he is working for.

[Barrister]

It remains my all-time favorite Late Night show ever. Especially the final years plus where he just gave zero fucks. Geoff Peterson, Secretariat, amazing interviews, rambling amusing intro monologues. It was near perfection. ...and now it is gone. 

I consider Conan to be the best, but Craig Ferguson at his peak was completely unique and absolutely fantastic.

No love for Letterman?

In particular, NBC-era Letterman when he followed Carson?

[Valmy]

Greta Thornburg was just some random girl, not the richest person in the world with unlimited control over the United States federal government.

What ability did she have to "shut down" anything? Musk, on the other hand, can.

Anyway this is just more promises to abandon Europe and blame Europe for it.

Prepare yourselves Europeans. And frankly, once it became clear Trump could win last Spring, you should have been.

[HVC]

It remains my all-time favorite Late Night show ever. Especially the final years plus where he just gave zero fucks. Geoff Peterson, Secretariat, amazing interviews, rambling amusing intro monologues. It was near perfection. ...and now it is gone. 

I consider Conan to be the best, but Craig Ferguson at his peak was completely unique and absolutely fantastic.

No love for Letterman?

In particular, NBC-era Letterman when he followed Carson?

He always seems smarmy to me.

[Valmy]

No love for Letterman?

In particular, NBC-era Letterman when he followed Carson?

I really enjoyed early 1980s and early 1990s Letterman. His schtick got stale at some point but it was very fun and edgy for its time.

But once I went to college in 1996 I switched over to Conan.

[Savonarola]

From NPR:

3 top U.S. prosecutors resign over order to drop NYC Mayor Eric Adams corruption case

This undated image shows Danielle R. Sassoon, who resigned Thursday as acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. She was one of three federal prosecutors who resigned over the Justice Department's decision to drop the Eric Adams case.
AP/U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York

Three senior federal prosecutors resigned Thursday in connection with the department's decision to drop the criminal corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, resigned, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office said. Her decision came three days after Justice Department leadership instructed her to drop the criminal corruption case against Adams.

Sassoon, a veteran prosecutor who helped lead the prosecution and conviction of Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX founder, was appointed interim U.S. attorney by the Trump administration last month.

Emil Bove, the acting No. 2 official at the Justice Department, accepted Sassoon's resignation, and placed two assistant U.S. attorneys who worked the case on leave pending investigations of their conduct by the Office of the Attorney General and the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, according to a letter from Bove obtained by NPR.

"You lost sight of the oath that you took when you started at the Department of Justice by suggesting that you retain a discretion to interpret the Constitution in a manner inconsistent with the policies of a democratically elected President and a Senate-confirmed Attorney General," Bove wrote in the letter.

One of the two assistant U.S. attorneys placed on leave is Hagan Scotten, a U.S. Army veteran, Bronze star winner and a graduate of Harvard Law School, who previously clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts.

Later Thursday, John Keller, the acting head of the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, and Kevin Driscoll, the senior-most career Justice Department official leading the Criminal Division, also resigned after being asked to take over the Adams case, according to two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

Adams was indicted last year on corruption charges, with a trial scheduled for April.

A Justice Department memo made public Monday called for federal charges against him to be shelved "without prejudice." Adams has long said he's innocent of any criminal wrongdoing.

In court filings, his attorneys accused U.S. attorneys of mishandling the case, in part by leaking sensitive and privileged information to the media. The indictment filed last September in federal court in Manhattan alleged Adams used his official positions with New York City to leverage "illegal campaign contributions and luxury travel."

Speaking at the White House, President Trump said he didn't personally request the charges against Adams to be dropped.

"I know nothing about it," he said.

Trump also suggested that Sassoon was fired, even though the letter from Bove acknowledged her resignation.

A former senior Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to speak freely, called the fallout from the Adams case, "the worst we've seen so far (from the new DOJ) and that's a high bar." The former official said the idea of dropping the Adams case in this way was "jaw dropping, shocking."

Does anyone know if there were two other prosecutors who resigned?  The article makes it sounds like the two assistant prosecutors were placed on administrative leave (and, given the part I bolded, soon to be fired.)

[grumbler]

If you think it's worth the effort to engage constructively with Raz on this topic, wouldn't your time be better spent doing that rather than arguing with garbon?

[Sophie Scholl]

Scotten resigned.
You cannot see attachments on this board.

[Richard Hakluyt]

He sounds like a man of principle, there is no place for people like him in the new order.

[Valmy]

He sounds like a man of principle, there is no place for people like him in the new order.

The current regime is making moves to intentionally purge people like this from government.

[Zoupa]

Why is the US Army tagging musk? It's like you idiots decided to do a fascist oligarchy speedrun or something.

[Zoupa]

In other US Army news



But please Raz, do tell us of the concentration camps set up for people who used the wrong pronouns. Fucking muppet.

[The Brain]

The nuclear umbrella is what made the US the primary guarantor of security in Europe. Europe can defend itself against conventional Russian attack.

Then why in the world do we still have troops stationed in Europe, and more earmarked for NATO deployment?

To be a guarantor of security in Europe.

So as I understand it, during the Cold War the US stationed almost 300k troops in Europe.  That number dwindled to some 60k during the 2000s, and is now up a little over 100k.

(and by the way Canada stationed troops in Europe as well.  Only number I can find is 100k over the length of the cold war, so obviously the number at any given time would be a fraction of that).

My understanding was always that those troops were meant only to A: slow down a soviet invasion B: show the Soviets that the US would be drawn into any military conflict in Europe and C: for the war to be turned by an eventual flood of American and other troops to drive back the Soviets.

But even with American troops there was never a feeling that the Soviets would be quickly turned back in any invasion.

That a Russian conventional attack on Western Europe would be feeble enough to be resisted by European forces alone didn't become apparent until 2022.

[Barrister]

That a Russian conventional attack on Western Europe would be feeble enough to be resisted by European forces alone didn't become apparent until 2022.

OK fair enough.  In 2022 nobody expects the Russians to come streaming through the Fulda Gap.

But the concern in 2025, or at least after the Russians have some time to rebuild, is not a full drive to the centre of Europe - but a lightning strike on the Baltics.

There I'm not as sure it could be resisted before Tallinin or maybe Riga fall - and then what does Europe do - a concentrated effort to drive the Russians out - in particular without US support if it comes to that?