site banner
naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   2576 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 2, 2022

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

7
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

What people's impressions of the putative "stolen documents" in Trump's possession? I'm currently set to be highly skeptical of each new claim regarding what I won't believe Trump did this time, but the specifics here just seem weird - he supposedly has something like 200,000 pages of government documents. My immediate instinct to hearing that is that it's so many pages that he must have been operating out of his home as a remote office, staffers moved tons of documents, then didn't really bother returning them. I have no idea if prior Presidents have done anything similar. I could see it being pretty common and no one cares, but I also wouldn't be surprised if it's unprecedented since Trump really is a weirdo.

But the thing I'm really getting at is that I see people referring to "stolen documents" and claiming that these are really important docs... and that just doesn't square with it being a massive volume, from where I sit. What are these docs supposed to be and what do you think the odds are that they're anything anyone actually cares about beyond getting Trump?

what do you think the odds are that they're anything anyone actually cares about beyond getting Trump?

Very close to zero. It is absolutely clear ploy to attach something to Trump to a) hurt Rs chances in midterms (Trump is not in the run, but anything that smears him also reflects on any Trump-supporting R) and b) if possible, kneecap him for 2024 and c) grab some papers in which something facilitating a) and b) could be found. Well, I guess there's intimidation value too - if we could do this to former President, do you really want to talk about reforming the FBI this much?

Now, can they make anything stick or not is anybody's guess (my guess is no because they couldn't do it previous 9000 times they tried). There are rumors that Trump may have some documents that he could use against people who performed the whole "collusion" thing if he ever comes back (or maybe even if he doesn't) and they were looking for those. But I think it's not the case as Trump already proven his inability to take on the FBI when he was a President, and he's certainly haven't become more capable since then. So no documents could help him with that.

There could also be some documents for which Trump failed to check some required boxes before taking them, likely because same happened to previous presidents, but nobody gave a hoot then (see the whole FARA story or the Logan Act story) but this comes to "who has lawyers with better knowledge of obscure never-before-used regulations and comes down again to politics more than anything. Ultimately, the President has authority to declassify anything he wants, and there's no constitutional limit to that, but who knows what supplementary regulations may be lurking around. Likely all ends in a ton of "walls are closing in" reports after which it quietly dies with D being sure Trump almost sold nuclear codes to Putin but FBI stopped them and Rs being sure it's another in the long list of abuses they suffered at the hands of the corrupt DOJ, and nothing else comes out of it.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats