I'm not surprised Trump is attacking his most supportive social media outlets. He likes stabbing people in the back.
Now he just needs to badmouth Youtube and maybe they'll stop trying to suggest Nazi channels to new accounts.
Now he just needs to badmouth Youtube and maybe they'll stop trying to suggest Nazi channels to new accounts.
BananaHands
Staff member
Stupid Watergate has been heating up a lot lately. Let’s see if anything comes of it.
Spoiler: No. Recent polling shows that people in the US are so pathetically tribal about their political parties at this point that Republicans will stand by Trump, literally no matter what. Congressional GOP will give him cover through anything, all while expressing their disappointment.
figmentPez
Staff member
I had lunch with my dad on Wednesday. He gets most of his political news from conservative talk radio, so that heavily colors his viewpoint, and I don't think he realizes how much. In any case, it seems one of the big talking points is, roughly, "the Mueller investigation is unnecessary, there's no reason for special counsel to be investigating this, it should just be handled by standard channels, we're wasting money on a witch hunt."
Can someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the purpose of special counsel was explicitly for situations like this were political figures are being investigated and there's a strong chance of interference by partisan politics. The very fact that this investigation has indicted people who worked on Trump's campaign, is collecting evidence from Trump's former lawyer, is investigating crimes against political institutions, and there are connections to Hillary Clinton's campaign, and Bernie Sanders's campaign... All that kinda makes it a requirement that this be handled by special counsel. Am I missing something here?
Can someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the purpose of special counsel was explicitly for situations like this were political figures are being investigated and there's a strong chance of interference by partisan politics. The very fact that this investigation has indicted people who worked on Trump's campaign, is collecting evidence from Trump's former lawyer, is investigating crimes against political institutions, and there are connections to Hillary Clinton's campaign, and Bernie Sanders's campaign... All that kinda makes it a requirement that this be handled by special counsel. Am I missing something here?
You should counter by asking about that special prosecutor Trump promised to appoint for Hillary...
In other news:
Michael Cohen claims Trump 'knew of Russian lawyer meeting'
Dave
Staff member
I do not know if this is true. I do not know if the Business Insider was flummoxed into posting this story by a troll. They are usually a very good source and do their due diligence. So when I read the following story, I tend to believe it until hearing otherwise. Having said all that...
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-trade-tariffs-eu-colorful-cards-2018-7
'It had to be very simple': The EU reportedly used colorful flash cards to explain trade policy to Trump
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-trade-tariffs-eu-colorful-cards-2018-7
'It had to be very simple': The EU reportedly used colorful flash cards to explain trade policy to Trump
I hear you.
Trump went on another Twitter spam session this morning.
He's threatening to shut down the government if he doesn't get his wall (again). He says he'll even do it before budget deadlines, because that's totally how that works.
He's threatening to shut down the government if he doesn't get his wall (again). He says he'll even do it before budget deadlines, because that's totally how that works.
Republicans. From "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" to "Will there be anything else for you, Mr. Putin?"
figmentPez
Staff member
“I don't even know if that's a crime -- receiving stolen goods. You start analyzing the crime -- the stealing is the crime. The president didn't steal!”
EDIT: They've been laying the groundwork for this for a while. Since the first rumors that Russians might have been involved with "Butter Emails", the talking point on conservative radio has been "is it really so bad that this happened? The truth needed to come out. We should be happy they're exposing the weaknesses in our system. If there are bad things going on, and it takes foreign powers to reveal them, then the system is broken anyway...." etc. etc.
If President Obama had so much as made a phone call to anyone connected to Putin, they would have formed a literal lynch mob. Now it’s “is it even a crime to work with a foreign government to interfere with our free elections?”
Fucking hypocrites.
Also, I don’t want to hear one fucking thing about how Democrats are just as bad, or how one time Clinton did something that was bad too and that makes this all okay. Trump and his administration are scum the likes of which America has not seen in living memory.
Fucking hypocrites.
Also, I don’t want to hear one fucking thing about how Democrats are just as bad, or how one time Clinton did something that was bad too and that makes this all okay. Trump and his administration are scum the likes of which America has not seen in living memory.
(Caveat - I'm not a poli-sci major. I'm mostly talking out of my ass. But I'd also like to think I'm not an idiot. If what I'm saying isn't how government works, tell me nicely, and I'll listen, and thank you for the learning opportunity.
) Trump and his cronies are such greedy, traitorous degenerate assholes that our forebears literally couldn't imagine a scenario in which such evil men would gain control of this country (or they would have created ironclad methods of removing them quickly, protections against a two-party system, and at least temporary limits to power that could be enacted at the slightest whiff of the highest offices being in the pocket of a foreign government). IMHO.
Dave
Staff member
The problem isn't Trump. We've had bad presidents before. The problem is that party tribalism has gotten so severe that the Legislative branch has abdicated their positions as a check and balance to the Executive. The founding fathers full well knew that there could be a terrible president. What they did NOT envision was that the House and Senate would effectively pledge their fealty to the president and treat him like a de facto dictator.
GasBandit
Staff member
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams
Adams pretty much openly acknowledged that as soon as we start to suck as people, our government will start to suck as well
figmentPez
Staff member
They also didn't envision a populace that would be so divided by factionalism that they would choose a hostile foreign power as a lesser evil than their fellow citizens.
Yeah, but he also started us on this path with the Alien and Seditions acts"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams
Adams pretty much openly acknowledged that as soon as we start to suck as people, our government will start to suck as well
GasBandit
Staff member
That doesn't change the fact that he acknowledged the system would fall apart when the constituency started to suck.
I mean, if you really want to get down to it... he and Jefferson REALLY started us down this path when they formed two opposing political parties, against George Washington's wishes.
I thought those weren't used? Or.. they were in response to the Republicans making up fake news? And the french. There were some cheese-eating surrender monkeys involved. (j/k. I lurv french peoples. And french toast. And french fries. And cheese. And monkeys. Though those aren't really french.)
Then again Jefferson hired a journalist to attack Adams.
Our politics have been ugly from the start.
I don't think its purely factionalism. I don't think another Republican could get away with making America look weak before Russia.
Or Republicans have always been oddly fixated on gender. *eyeroll*
figmentPez
Staff member
It's possible that you're right, that not just any Republican could have pulled this off, but don't you think we're a little past "look weak before Russia"? Even if Dolt45 wasn't directly involved in colluding with Russia, it's pretty damn sure right now that some Americans were involved, and there's a good chunk of Republicans who don't care simply because they think Russia is better than Democrats.
Hell, there are probably a lot of Democrats who were working with Russians, too, because they were thinking similar things. Though, I'm not convinced that voters aligned with the Democratic party would be willing to turn a blind eye when the truth came out.
I am continually surprised at just how tribal things have gotten, at how some will USvTHEM so hard that they would willingly embrace and even work towards mutually assured destruction, so long as it meant there wouldn’t be any of THEM left. So much of society depends on believing the other guy has at least some sense of self-preservation."Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams
Adams pretty much openly acknowledged that as soon as we start to suck as people, our government will start to suck as well
—Patrick