If you felt a lessening of the dark side of the Force around you, it’s because President Dumpf left the country. In his wake he left his supporters once again lying to try and cover his actions, and he didn’t get the world’s best reception at the meeting he went to.
1). You’re fired. After months of the White House denying that Trump ever intended to fire Robert Mueller, the New York Times broke the story that Trump had decided to do just that. But the White House counsel, Donald McGhan II, point blank refused to do so and said that he would rather resign then carry out the order. Perhaps realizing that an unfettered McGhan would prove to be a considerable problem, likely by going straight to the press and inform them of Trump’s attempt, Trump backed off. But now the press has broken it open. Naturally Trump dismissed it as “fake news,” but his protests are ringing more and more hollow.
2). Welcome to Switzerland, áššhølë. In Davos, Trump gave a speech in which he pushed his “Make America First” platitudes and informed everyone that America was a great place to do business. His speech was reasonably received…but after it concluded, he went off on a rant about the Democrats and their friends, the fake news media. And immediately he was greeted with loud boos and derision. That’s right: they booed the President of the United States. Which we do as well, but we’re the idiots who put him in office in the first place.
3). Remember when Mexico was paying for it? Good times.. Trump is holding the Dreamers hostage. He claims that he is willing to bend on the immigration law and permit a path for the Dreamers to become American citizens, but only if he gets $25 billion to pay for his border wall. A wall that sixty percent of Americans polled are in opposition to. And for all we know, the remaining forty percent won’t be so hot on it if they find out we are paying for it.
4). He said/he said. Trump stated that he would have no problem with talking to Robert Mueller under oath. But Trump’s legal counsel shortly thereafter said his client had misspoken and Trump would NOT talk to him under oath. Smart counsel. When Trump contradicts himself on Twitter or during press conferences, there’s no consequence for it. If he did it under oath, it’s perjury, which triggered the impeachment process against Bill Clinton. Counsel sees swearing in the president under oath as a lose/lose proposition.
5). Stormy Weather.. Imagine if Obama or Hillary had been found to have paid off a pørņ star so word of their affair hadn’t leaked. The GOP would have gone batshit. The religious right would have risen in condemnation. But Trump does it and they defend him. They DEFEND him. Because that is how far Trump has lowered the bar of contempt. One wonders if this country can ever recover from the damage he has done to us as a people.
6). Trump doesn’t shoot his mouth off.. Trump has not, to my knowledge, commented on the fact that we have had eleven school shootings this year, and it’s not even the end of January. But Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried to spin the story to reporters that the Administration is seriously concerned “about crime.” When reporters didn’t back away from Trump’s lack of comment, she angrily asserted that they were insinuating Trump was complicit in school shootings. This was a hëll of an accusation to make, considering the GOP had released a commercial that flat out stated Democrats who opposed the wall were complicit with any murder performed by an illegal immigrant. Kind of sucks when the people you don’t like use your own tactics against you, huh.
Did he do anything right? Yes. He left.
PAD
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The Wall – Even if he gets the money the greatest opposition for the wall will come from his voters. I know of plenty of Texans who have land that gets right up to Mexico and if Trump wants that land, the Federal Government is going to have to buy it from them or steal it. I would see Eminent Domain cases from several states tying up the courts for years.
I just love watching the conservative media and its disciples right now. Fox News is becoming more like InfoWars with every passing broadcast day, and the work-a-day world conservatives are sounding more and more like Alex Jones.
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Trump isn’t just leading conservatives to become more and more detached from the concept of truth, he’s leading them to become more and more detached from reality.
It’s not like they need much encouragement to follow. Conservatives have been heading away from basic truth for a couple decades now.
While nothing he does is defensible, when one asks if we, as a people, will recover from the damage he’s done, I question whether he isn’t more of a symptom than the actual cause of a diseased outlook. I do try to look at the positive side, because I take great solace in the fact that there will be a 46th President.
While I hate defending Trump, I do think the Stormy Daniels items is a non-story. If voters voted for Trump after hearing him brag about “grab[bing women] by the pussy” I doubt knowing he cheated on his wife with a pørņ star would have changed their minds.
Right?
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Moreover, it’s a stupid thing to get worked up over. Oh, he slept around? So does, like, half of America. He lied and covered it up? Again, so does every guy who has an affair. It speaks to his hypocrisy, and the hypocrisy of his voters, as ostensibly Christian evangelicals? So does 90% of his political platform. So can we just stick to ripping him apart on policy issues, rather than digging into his personal life?
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And for the record (for anyone who might argue that the petty whining about his sex life is the same as the petty whining about his physical attributes), being a “Girther?” NOT the same thing. His health is a matter of national security, speaking to his fitness as Commander in Cheeto. If something as “irrelevant” as his height and weight were blatantly falsified (and they WERE, hands down, this is NOT an argument), then it’s very likely his mental and psychological results were also falsified. And yes, that REALLY MATTERS.
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But who he’s had sex with? I got seven words for you: Jefferson, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Johnson, Bush, Clinton. Unless it was non-consensual (and this is a guy we REALLY have to question on that point, I grant you, but I don’t believe so in this case), I honestly couldn’t give a dámņ. Let’s rake him over the coals for his actual horrible $#!+, his policies and practices as the Presi-dunce of America.
I could care less about the sex. (And if it wasn’t a “Pørņ Star”, I don’t think the News would, either.)
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I do care about the payoff, however. If that turns out to be true, that means he did something that was worth a lot to him not to have people know. What happens when it is a foreign national or a criminal organization that knows what he did? The President is one of the few individuals that have to be a Public Figure, with full transparency.
“Moreover, it’s a stupid thing to get worked up over. Oh, he slept around? So does, like, half of America. He lied and covered it up? Again, so does every guy who has an affair.” Stupid, or hypocritical at the very least. When you’ve got sites such as Ashley Madison openly advertising as places to go for people seeking affairs, give up trying to make a big deal out of it. Oh, it SHOULD be, but don’t hold your breath.
The Stormy Weather thing doesn’t interest me either. If he went on record attacking Bill Clinton for infidelity, then it would be relevant, as another example of Trump’s hypocrisy. But I’m unaware of him ever bloviating about being a good husband. I think it may be the one thing he’s not known for bragging about.
I was originally thinking you were better off than us because at least you only have this idiot president for another 3 years and possibly (but hopefully not) 4 more after that if the democrats don’t get their act together. Meanwhile us Brits we have to live with Brexit forever and all the damage that may cause. However I realise now that the damage done by Trump can live long beyond his presidency.
The BBC are reporting that Trump seems to have been received quite well at the World Economic Forum in Davos but I will never forgive Trump for many things but especially retweeting the videos of far right group ‘Britain First.’ A follower of this group murdered a lovely MP called Jo Cox. Apparently Trump is willing to apologise for retweeting the video according to an interview he gave to Piers Morgan. He can keep his apology I would rather he make a sizable donation to a charity in Jo Cox’s name such as ‘Hope not Hate’ a charity that works in the UK to build communities and celebrate shared identities.
“Did he do anything right? Yes. He left.” No, he didn’t get that right either. He is coming back.
Well, not necessarily.
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Perjury consists in knowingly lying about a matter that is material {Bill Clinton lied under oath, but it was ruled not material and so was not actually perjury}.
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By this point in time it’s become pretty obvious that Trump has no idea of the facts of most matters he’s blathering about – i’m not sure he even knows what he did more than a day or so ago.
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So i’d say there’s a good chance he’d get off on the “knowingly” bit.
From The Daily Beast:
That post ends, BTW:
Which leads me to this, in light of comments above of the irrelevance of his Stormy Daniels adventure
Link to full story at NYT {may be behind paywall}
Speaking of the State of the Union – i am SO hoping he goes off-script…
Mike, I don’t think Trump could stop himself from giving in to his baser nature. This may be the most infuriating/hilarious SotU in my lifetime (I’m 48)…
“I believe the time has come to bring that investigation and the other investigations of the matter to an end. One year of Watergate is enough.”
(Thunderous applause by Republicans)
~ Richard Nixon, January 30, 1974 State of the Union
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There’s a reason we don’t let suspects determine when a police investigation is supposed to end, who is and is not allowed to investigate the suspected crime, or when their trial is required to wrap up.
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At this point, I could care less about the Stormy Daniels affair or the hypocrisy of the Evangelical Conservative wing of the Republican Party. their hypocrisy is old hat.
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But here we are- 44 years after Richard Nixon declared that the investigation into his crimes should be ended to great Republican applause -about to have the 2018 State of the Union address given by a man who has sounded amazing like Nixon with regards to investigations around his staff and himself.
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Trump is a man doing everything he can to figure out how to obstruct justice, and the past 24 hours show that (A) he’s actually starting to show that he may have better luck at it than Nixon ever did, (B) that the elected Republicans in DC are more than happy and willing to assist him with the task, and (C) that the average conservative voter is totally willing to look the other way every chance they get.
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Forget Trump raw dogging a pørņ star while his trophy wife is dealing with the issues of pregnancy. Forget the false morality and hypocrisy of the Evangelicals.
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I never want to hear in my lifetime another full of šhìŧ conservative claim that they’re part of the party of law and order.
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Never…
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Not after they shrugged their shoulders and pretended it was patriotism for Tea Party candidates to declare that if they didn’t win and they didn’t get their way at the box office they were totally justified to turn to the “bullet box” and their “2nd Amendment remedies” as a form of displeasure over the democratic process.
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Not after they flocked to call the Bundy militia fûçkwìŧš patriots as they were pointing guns at federal officials and law enforcement.
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Not after they shrugged their shoulders when the inbred Bundy sons and their buddies held a Malheur National Wildlife Refuge building, a federal building, by force of arms and threats of violence.
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Not after they’ve done everything they can to support, excuse, enable, and cover for Trump’s actions.
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There are plenty of other things plenty of other things they should probably never say again as well. I mean, anyone who voted for Trump and who is still supporting Trump has pretty definitively proven that they have no actual core beliefs or values no matter how much they’ve given lip service to such things over the last decade, but they should go ahead and just stop all claims to being in any way at all the “Law & Order” party.
Very well said, indeed.
* BUMP *
Wow.
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Just went to CSPAN for the SOTU (starting momentarily) and i encountered this tweet:
Ummm, ouchie?
Moron is too stupid to know you don’t clap directly into a live mike.
Didn’t make it through.
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Of course, i’ve always found SOTUs by rational Presidents heavy going.