Enidigm
5391
I don’t think there’s any question there that it would be a Constitutional crisis, but if the legislature doesn’t care… than nothing can be done. And it’s clear that Republican “forces” - not necessarily the party directly, but groups closely aligned with the party and/or actually working for the benefit of the party - are directly trying to subvert the democratic process by any means necessary (see the Nevada recall). So there’s already a roiling sea of undemocratic posturing boiling underneath the lid of an already intransigent and cowardly Republican party that seeks compulsively to grow its stranglehold on the political system, even as its own ability to govern withers. Like a necrotropic parasite that is killing its host but unable to stop growing.
Just a lawyer toeing his client’s party line:
In Washington, Manafort worked to promote Yanukovych as a pro-Western democrat. But in 2014, Yanukovych was deposed by a popular uprising fueled by anger at his alleged corruption, authoritarianism and preference for Putin over the European Union. Yanukovych fled to Russia and is wanted in Ukraine on charges of high treason.
Menzo
5393
Very true. And depressing.
Enidigm
5394
Well, that’s one weird reason (one weird trick!) that preserving democracy might require us to kind of … pretend like Trump isn’t happening. If everyone just sort of ignores Trump and looks the other way, let him do a few horrible things and then shuffle him out the door, the institutions might just hold, because we haven’t shed the belief in the systems. If Trump destroys our belief in those systems… just getting rid of Trump won’t restore it, and the centripetal forces pulling the country apart will merely accelerate.
By forcing this confrontation we’re forcing an issue, like two neighboring powers lining up armies. We get to posture and sabre rattle as long as we don’t actually fight when both sides still have armies and uniforms and shiny things that look like what real countries have, even if one country has an army and the other has a marching band. But when you fight and you lose, you don’t just lose face but you lose the keys to the kingdom.
The unnamed supervisor who encouraged Papadopoulos is Sam Clovis according to Isikoff. Clovis is currently nominated to be the top scientists (LOL) at USDA.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mueller-discloses-trump-campaign-aide-pled-guilty-lying-russian-contacts-181302597.html
But they quote one unidentified campaign “supervisor” as emailing him in August 2016 that “I would encourage you” to make a trip to Moscow to arrange such a meeting. A Trump campaign source identified the supervisor as Sam Clovis, a conservative radio host who was co-chairman of the campaign. Another “high ranking” official — identified by the source as campaign chairman Paul Manafort — received an email from Papadopoulos saying that “Russia has been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite some time and has been reaching out to me to discuss.” Manafort forwarded that email to his associate Rick Gates and wrote: “Let’s discuss. We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal.” (Some of these emails were quoted in a Washington Post story this past August that first identified Clovis, Manafort and Gates as the campaign officials who sent and received them.
Better to not fight, that way we can usher in a more competent tyrant the next time. That’s a winning strategy.
Enidigm
5396
That’s certainly a legitimate argument. Hopefully enough Republicans have a sense of civic duty left that it won’t come to that.
If the Dems could win at least one branch of the legislature, we might have more a chance. Forcing the issue when everything is run by Republicans really is like fighting uphill.
Lol, That’s a good one. No seriously.
I am serious.
Vote.
It remains the single greatest weapon of all against any injustice and malfeasance done by the President with the approval of his party.
In theory, but how can one ignore that we are a nation of idiots that voted the man into office? It’s ok as a fallback position, but I’d like to hope something could be done before then. And as much as I tend to give people too much credit for no being the scum of the earth, I don’t trust people to do the right thing at this point.
Please folks, call/ write your representative and tell them Mueller needs to be allowed to see this through. Republican or Democrat. Don’t let criminals try to shut this down through apathy.
I stopped reading after that. Sorry you kept typing.
Not in theory. Action.
Vote.
The worst fucking thing I see on anyone even remotely opposed to Trump is “Woe is me, nothing matters”
Fuck that idiot nonsense. That’s how we got here.
Vote.
Periodic reminder: Trump won the EC by a total of 78,000 votes across three states and lost the popular vote by 3 million. It’s not like he won in some sort of landslide. Every election for the foreseeable future is going to be like this.
So yeah, voting matters.
One of those days when it is kind of hard to keep up.
“The criminal justice interest being vindicated here is there’s a large-scale ongoing investigation of which this case is a small part,” Aaron Zelinsky of the special counsel’s office said during Papadopoulos’ October 5 plea agreement hearing, records of which were unsealed Monday.
I and everyone I know voted and yet we’re still here.
The problem is there are too many dumbasses voting for evil. How do you deal with the dumbass problem?
You vote. And drown the dumbasses out.
Tim_N
5409
That will fix the problem, it’s a little harsh though.
Read two posts above you:
Periodic reminder: Trump won the EC by a total of 78,000 votes across three states and lost the popular vote by 3 million.
100,000 votes in 3 states and we’d have a whole other set of problems. But at least it wouldn’t be The Imbecile.
