Trump

[mimekiller]

The news is characterizing this as a victory for Mueller, but the whole point of Mueller’s probe (allegedly) is Russia. Nothing in Manafort’s case involved Russia, so what is the big fuss?

[Mike]

Mueller's directive is to investigate Russian meddling etc etc "and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation."

Same broad language applied to Cox's investigation of Watergate and Ken Starr with Whitewater. In Mueller's case, there is already plenty of evidence of collusion or intent to collude that is a matter of public record. The fact that he is not unloading that on Manafort means little. Personally, I think Trump is up to his children's eyeballs in Russian money laundering, thus explaining his servile posture with Putin and all things Russia, and he's going to get nailed on that. Others disagree with me and think the "collusion" is nothing but incompetence in action and that the real meat of this is the obstruction of justice. Again massive evidence of which is a matter of public record.

But really, holding Trump accountable for his crimes is only going to happen through political will. Impeachment hearings only start with a majority of the House... a thing which may or may not be possible after the midterm. Removing him from office takes two-thirds of the Senate. I don't see that happening.

If the results of the Mueller probe show enough incontrovertible evidence of evil, then maybe he finally loses the support of his base and the Republicans would be finally willing to turn on him. But barring that, maybe there's enough blood in the water to at least help prevent him from winning reelection.

[FlameBlade]

How many story threads there are, exactly? There are so many.

1) Cohen, campaign finance violation involving paying off two women using campaign funds.

2) NRA thread, where a purported Russian agent worked to connect to so many GOPers to include the possibility of funneling money to canadites through NRA. Executive board basically flee for the hills few weeks before tge indictments.

3) meeting at Trump Tower, complete with number of evidence, and changing of story. Not to mention a number of emails released by junior.

4) Manafort himself. And Rick Gates

5) Flynn, who has pled guilty

6) Carter Page

7) Papadoulas, who has cooperated, and pled guilty as well.

8) Larvov showing up in unusual places throughout early stages

9) Steele Dossier that seemed prophetic at times. And Nunes working so hard to take it down.

10) Rohrbacher.

This isn't your dime novellas. This is practically Game of Thrones with multiple stories happening at once.

[Eliahad]

(Don't forget Rowsdower...)

[Phoebe]

Bah, all of the latest with Cohen is, like everything else that goes wrong, Obama's fault. Because you see, he's bl--- sorry, no, it's because he set the new standard for violating campaign finance laws and even his fines were bigger than a few mistress-bribes Trump allegedly made. This claim has no connection whatsoever to rationality or to the implications of the Cohen plea, but it sounds pretty good if you're an ostrich who voted for Trump. The problem is, why do you still trust Trump to be making good decisions? Because: Kavanaugh! Save the fetuses and guns! Climate change is a Chinese hoax! The tax gains I dream of having but don't really have! This is the water I swim in daily; I don't want to move because I picked a good spot, I'm loyal to it, I don't wish to concede it to idiots, and there is no shortage of idiots elsewhere. However, I admit it has crossed my mind that living in a saner place where, say, the bigger idiots are farther to the left of me, might be pleasanter and more relaxing. Ron says Finland is too close to Russia and he has a point, but there are other options.

[Phoebe]

Nothing like those middle of the night all caps tweets to make you feel confident that your country is in good secure hands.

Oh and also, the warm concern for the white farmers in South Africa! Lol, people, he is exactly who he says he is. The only question is whether the voters are really that way deep down too, or if they have any basic morals.

[bralbovsky]

They have one thing in common: They allow themselves to be ruled by fear. (There is a small demographic where greed is stronger, but it's at heart mostly fear. Fear of falling behind, fear of not being on the winning side, fear of loss of what pittance they have, fear of the other. Very natural, but exceedingly sad.)
I guess this is my answer to the morality question. Greed is immoral, fear, though its effects might be evil, is basically not.

[Phoebe]

As always, yours is an excellent point. Just read a good article by Beinart about this. The corruption feared by Trump voters is more like impurity - the corruption of a social hierarchy and traditional order, as opposed to the corruption of the rule of law that is bothering everyone else. So fears may arise for different people in different ways, and on some level that occurs outside our control (if the Stoics are wrong and we can't fully train ourselves).

But I am persuaded that some kinds of fear and ignorance are not mere feelings or states of affairs we can't control and therefore can't be held accountable for. Right away, in responding to fear, we start reacting in ways that can affect the fear itself. We can make a whole cascading effect out of one small fear, or we can practice mastering it. I think rational adults have some obligation to recognize irrational and unfounded racist fears for what they are, and take action to resist or master those fears. Or maybe I'm just prickly about it because beating down irrational (and rational!) fear is my own bugbear and relatively smaller failures in this area have led to larger punishments than anything imposed on Trump voters.

[poorpete]

President sides with cancer, surprised at backlash.

[Phoebe]

Was unhappy; decided to read news. Dumb, dumb, dumb decision. Trump and DeVos zealously ensuring for-profit colleges can screw students as easily as possible; a whole raft of young Trumpist judges; entirety of Republican Congress, every single last one of them, thoroughly venal and vicious; got away from national news and read comments about suicide of 9 year old boy who thought he was gay, from people who don't believe a 9 year old can think he was gay and basically condemn the whole incident not as the product of tragic, heedless cruelty to the innocent, but as a librul-progressive plot to sexualize kids. Okay. I want to be done with this; i want off this ride.

[bralbovsky]

Meanwhile folks being denied passports in places where you'll need a passport to vote.....Sharpen your pitchforks.

[Phoebe]

How hard is it to say Nazis are bad?

[mimekiller]

The Resistance is one big sham with no real principles other than unbridled hostility for Trump. They spent weeks saying White House is anti-woman for having wife-beater Rob Porter employed, now say nothing that Rob Porter is a primary source for anti-Trump Bob Woodward book!

[Phoebe]

Mystified as to when anyone "Resisting" Trump decided to endorse Rob Porter as a quality person? Who are these people?

[bralbovsky]

So everyone is "shocked, just shocked, I tell you" that this moron is just as stupid and venal and vulgar and selfish and dishonest behind the scenes as he has been in front of us for the last half century?

Sources? It's been playing out on national television.

[Phoebe]

Today is one those days, like... Tuning it out, I don't even wanna know.

[Phoebe]

Regarding Jamie Dimon's suggestion he could beat Trump and that Dimon earned all his money...
Yeah, I'd rather have a smart guy as the President, and better him than me, you know?
But I'm pretty sure Dimon got his first job working where his Dad and Granddad worked (no shame in that, but it wasn't McDonalds drive thru and most people can't get that kind of job), and his second job also was where his Dad worked and because Dad recommended him.
And if he was so great at earning his own money, maybe he should have insisted on not taking TARP funds for his bank, since some of that was MY money, and your money, and we didn't make dumb bets with it. And maybe he should have learned to stop making dumb bets with other people's money and not lied about it afterward, since his bank did that again and the official investigation said he misled investors and others about it. What a surprise.
Or maybe if he dislikes Trump, he should have done something about it before, since surely he was smart enough to see what we all saw then and are only recently, in some cases, starting to regret seriously. Maybe he shouldn't have joined the council of advisers Trump invited him to join.
Just sayin', that guy is NOT the right guy to beat Trump. If he does I'll gladly eat my words, but Lord I hope the D's pull someone better than that! Trump would love to fight that guy on the campaign trail.

[mimekiller]

I can't believe Betty White just said that Dotard Drumpf is cancelled and then the Republicans all resigned forever. Uhm, can you say yasss kweeen?

[Phoebe]

What does this mean? Is this a coded drug slang?

[mimekiller]

the resistance springs into action! https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/ ... edirect=on