Wait, do people really think Trump did it in Russia? I imagine his MO would be doing it on the top of Trump Tower while listening to Phil Collins, not just anywhere.
And the mere fact that he even bothers to hide it if it’s there makes him better than Trump.
This is how low the bar has fallen. “Man, I wouldn’t mind if he were the shittiest person in the world, if he at least pretended that he wasn’t!”
It’s like the bar had fallen to the ground with modern politicians, and we all thought it was as low as possible, then Trump shows up and finds a fucking hole to kick the bar into.
I’d feel marginally less likely to nuked, but a Pence or Ryan presidency would be even more disastrous for women, LGBT individuals, and countless other minority groups, because, well, the GOP is a hate-fueled murder-machine hellbent on dragging us all back to the stone age.
Second Amendment indeed. One can only hope.
Yup. The problem isn’t just Trump. That’s why I’m so pissed at everyone that knew that attempts were being made to interfere with the election and did nothing, from the President to the FBI and so forth down the line.
Did it change the election results? I don’t know. But if eroding faith in the political process was the goal, they sure as hell succeeded in that.
I’ll say this for the possibility of a Pence Presidency – He wouldn’t have Trump out front acting as a shield and a distraction. The Republicans are going to pull off all sorts of horrible, regressive bullshit but the outrage and focus will be blunted because Trump will be out jerking off in the town square.
Which is just another plus of getting him up there and forcing him to own it, imo.
Pence’s behavior remains within the bounds of numerous democratic norms that Trump just destroys further with the day. Pence isn’t threatening to lock up his opponents, talking about how he actually won the popular vote except for the millions of illegal votes, threatening not to accept results of the election. Not even close, no contest, would switch to Pence in a minute. Trump is a threat to the nation and Democracy itself.
Very much QFT.
Just got into an quasi-argument with someone on Twitter who said Pence was “arguable as bad” as Trump. I told her, that there was no arguably about it, Trump was worse. Pence is bad in a ton of ways, but we’re talking about people we strongly disagree with vs actual fascism and authoritarianism.
So this is getting close to conspiracy territory, but this summary I saw posted somewhere else:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2F8TLrXgAAq5g8.jpg
Dossier says Rosneft wants sanctions lifted so bad it would give up to 19% of its business to Page/Trump. This is from October. In December Rosneft privatizes and sells 19.5% to Glencore and Qatar, both of which had been advised by Guilliani’s law firm. After the sale Page meets with Rosneft in Moscow. Qatar announces they’ll spend $10 billion in infrastructure in the US in response to Trump 6 days after the sale. Then a former FSB agent and Igor Sechin’s chief of staff is found dead in late December. (Igor Sechin is a blacklisted chairman of Rosneft and former KGB)
Meanwhile, Tillerson, Trump’s pick for secretary of state curated a very close relationship between himself and Sechin plus ExxonMobil and Rosneft.
Don’t know if maybe it was obvious from financials or whatever that Rosneft would sell 19%? Or was this a real prediction that panned out?
I wonder if the dead FSB agent was one of the assets Steele used in creating his Trump dossier.
You could argue that being compromised to that extent would make the 25th amendment invocable, as a president compromised to that extent would be mentally unable to wield the powers of the Presidency.
It would require the Republican leadership including Pence to act en masse, and would create a stabbed in the back myth- it won’t happen, but that’s one plausible Constitutional scenario.
Personally, I think Pence is less of a short-term threat to America by far, but if Pence took over, we’d never have a chance to solve the long-term threat. Right now, it’s the long-term threat I’m worried about. Trump isn’t the disease, he’s a symptom.
Ok so out of morbid curiosity I read Trumps twitter feed to see if he did tacitly admit being caught in a honey trap.
There is nothing there to imply that, and you guys are just ridiculous partisans sitting here in your echo chamber and seeing what you want to see. “Totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives…”. It’s a pretty categorical denial.
I have no idea if any of the allegations are true or not, but it is quite obviously the result of a political dirt file, initially begun by Republican opponents, of the sort which are routine in politics and always lack credibility.
He may well enjoy the occasional golden shower, just as Kennedy was a philanderer and a drug addict, and the Russians are undoubtedly soft on him and vice versa. But in a sea of tall tales truth can’t be separated from fiction, which is why no one published this before. It is crap, or in the parlance of a sub-culture, fake.
As a side note, I think Trump will ultimately betray those who voted him in, will not go beyond a 1st term if the left manages to pull it’s head out of its own arse and regain some wider influence. Also, getting rid of a nascently socialized medical system in an absurd 1st world country that doesn’t have one is a disgrace, but this is how the politics of health and disease ultimately work.
I also note that there is fertile geopolitical ground for US - Russian co-operation. ISIL was running amok in Syria and they have been crushed by an indiscriminate Russian bombing campaign to reinforce Assad’s dictatorship. With their influence in Iraq declining Putin has relieved you of one of your major terrorist breeding grounds. Obama was stuck trying to play good terrorist bad terrorist and had no influence whatsoever.
In the absence of a US led ground invasion and prolonged reoccupation, stabilizing Assad was the only way to control the region.
I expect a normalization of US-Russian relations, an alleviation of luxury sanctions targeted at Putin, and US acceptance of Russia’s expanded sphere of influence.
It’s important to note that, with the exceptions of very minor sanctions and some diplomatic gestures, this is ultimately the policy of both Obama and Trump, neither of who will or have offered any serious resistance to the Russians in Syria.
I agree his admiration with Putin,and the large number of meetings and business arrangement of his aids and advisor is enough for me. Especially coupled with his laughable efforts to avoid a conflict of interest.
You partisans and your democratic republics.
That’s terrifying!
I would not call all the “Russia says they don’t/aren’t” tweets as typical. It is a strange defense to accusations that Russia is influencing your administration to then say “nuhuh ask Russia”
If he was Otto von Bismarck it would raise eyebrows, but it seems almost consistent for Trump.
He’s under a bit of pressure because he at the very least has an accidental relationship with Russia, and when he’s under pressure he grabs at straws.
Seems like a typical tantrum type response. Hard to take anything at all from it.
This seems to be the one thing that he can’t NO WAY, FAKE NEWS, SAD! away. Trump fans are just burying their heads in the sand on this one, despite how incredibly grave the consequences would be if it’s even a little bit true.