The Trump Presidency

[Quantum Quack]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39874863



You all know there is another possibility here, not just that he was helped by Russia, that part is clear, is that trump is not just am ignorant moron pig boar, but an ignorant moronic lunatic pig boar, and may just perhaps be certifiably insane. So after watching alex jones or something of the like one night he screamed for an aid and demands Comey be fire, why? Because Comey is a reptilian trying to discredit trump with fake news ties to russia.

"Say "terminated", not fired, never fired, because arnold needs to be punished, punished for failing at the apprentice, punish arnold, terminated, got it, good"

I think you got it pretty much nailed.. working with someone who is not well leads to this sort of chaos. Trump is not well and well chaos follows naturally. As soon as you attempt to ascribe some sort of rational you play into his insanity.
Crazy people do not necessarily have to be nasty and evil etc they can be well intended and all that as well. Looking too deep at his motives and applying normal political strategies etc wont work. he is a businessman who is out of his depth in high politics and is crazy to boot. Incredibly impulsive at times, extremely clever at times and basically a walking talking chaos machine.

Keep in mind that the people he works with all have an awful lot to lose, lot's of money and lots of careers go down with the Donald. They must be really worried about their futures. Terminator paranoia ...

 

[Schmelzer]

... and Trump is an important globalist (as near as I can figure out what you mean by that) - so globalists everywhere would take an interest in Trump's fate. For example, the odds of Trump starting a war with Russia or a Russian proxy in order to escape his large debts to the Russian mob were rising - now they are maybe falling again.

LOL, nice try. You know very well that what I name globalists are the Clinton supporters worldwide. The phrase "escape debts to the Russian mob" makes no sense to me so I cannot comment it.

 

[joepistole]

Trump has been accused of working with the Russians. This has been investigated for over six months; since his election, with no hard evidence yet found, or else the Democrats would have used that hard evidence like a weapon against Trump. If they had evidence, they would already be trying to impeach Trump so he is all tied up and unable to accomplish anything. But they have nothing but gossip and the creation of doubt via a perpetual investigation and fake news propaganda. It is all fat and gristle, but with no meat.

Bullshit doesn’t get better with repetition comrade Wellwisher. This has been previously and very recently explained to you.

1) No one has accused Trump of anything yet.

2) Trump and his associates are being investigated for possible collusion with a hostile foreign power, i.e. Russia in violation of US law.

3) There is overwhelming evidence of numerous irregularities. We do not yet know if a smoking gun has been found which will implicate Trump. But we do know several of his associates are implicated. It took more than 2 years to find the smoking gun during the Watergate Scandal, and the Watergate investigation was well staffed. It had more than 13 times the current staff assigned to the Russian-Trump investigation. And we do know Trump has taken extraordinary measures to suppress this investigation.

The Republican investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails lasted more than a year and found zero evidence of criminal wrong doing, and unlike the investigation of Russian intervention into our election, the Clinton investigation was well staffed.

And you want to end the understaffed investigation into Russia’s interference in our elections after only 6 months? You don't see the hypocrisy?

4) Democrats cannot impeach Trump because they do not control the House or the Senate. Republicans control both houses of Congress. So why do you continue to fault them for failing to impeach Trump while touting their impotence because they don't control Congress? You don't see your contradictions?

5) Trump was already unable to accomplish anything but nominate a Supreme Court justice with heavy reliance on right wing extremists groups both inside and outside of congress and by breaking rules going back more than 2 centuries.

6) Unlike you, Trump, and your beloved Russian comrades, the FBI doesn’t deal in fake news.

On the other hand, Trump accused the Obama Administration of wire tapping. Shouldn't we investigate this fat and gristle, for six months, instead of denying it in one week? If we assume this is also gossip and gaming, why not an equal investigation by the FBI, in the light that it has been proven citizen identities were revealed and classified transcripts were illegally leaked to the media? There is enough circumstantial evidence to begin an investigation.

Yes, Trump did accuse the Obama administration of illegal wiretapping Trump’s phones. But Trump has no evidence to support his accusation. The Justice Department, along with Congress have already investigated Trump’s allegation and found no evidence to support Trump’s allegation. Oops. You would think if Trump had some evidence to back up his assertion, he would have provided it to the Justice Department and to Congress, but he hasn’t, probably because his assertion is false.

If Comey was doing his job; impartial, he would have investigated both accusations with the same level of effort. But he only wanted more resources to continue the investigation against Trump. This showed he is part of the dark state. He was given a chance to be fair, but it was determined he needed to be purged, so both accusations could be equally investigated. The Democrats are in a panic because they need to cheat to win and they will not longer be able to cheat.

Comey did investigate Trump’s assertion impartially and found nothing. Not even Thrumper has made your allegation that Comey didn’t treat Trump’s accusation impartially. You and your comrades are getting desperate Wellwisher.

Comey wanted more resources to continue the investigation of the Russian intervention in our elections. There is no evidence Comey has been anything less than impartial in the Russian investigation. Unfortunately for you and your comrades Wellwisher, evidence and reason still matter. You have no evidence to support your conspiracy machinations. But that doesn't stop you from promulgating them.

Just because the investigation doesn’t produce results you find politically expedient, it doesn’t follow that the investigation is biased or incomplete. You are a very biased and political person comrade.

A simple preliminary investigation, into the wire tapping claim, could research the people who were revealed, to see how many Democrats were revealed, since both sides have meetings with foreign leaders. Nancy Pelosi talked to the Russian Ambassador. If this is all for national security we should she her transcripts. If only Republicans and members of the Trump team were disproportionally revealed, we have a smoking gun.

Democrats have spoken with the Russian ambassador, but they didn’t do it during the 2016 election, and they didn’t do it in secret, and they didn’t lie about those meetings as Trump’s associates did. Nor did they act as unregistered foreign agents as Trump’s closest advisers did.

You need to remember the Democrats have no real power. They are not the majority in the House, Senate, Supreme Court or Presidency. They are a paper tiger with a big scary mouth. All they have is scamming, misinformation, and fake news. Trump has given them the opportunity to work together, but he found out they can't be trusted. Now Trump is ready for the purge of the dark state. However, Trump is still offering them a way out, but they have gone insane with hate. The rabid dog may need to be put down.

1) You need to remember Democrats have no real power in Congress when you accuse them of failing to impeach the Thrumper.

2) You have no evidence Democrats are scamming. They aren’t Republicans. They aren’t scamming. The truth isn’t misinformation comrade. It’s just the truth, and that’s part of the problem with the American right wing. With the invention of right wing echo chambers, e.g. Fox News, Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, et al. folks like you never need be confronted with reality. And while that works well to enslave a base of people, it also erodes the foundations of our democracy. Democracies need well informed voters. And unfortunately, owing to the right wing propaganda machine, aided by a hostile foreign propaganda machine, a significant portion of the American voter base is enmeshed in misinformation, and you are a prime example Wellwisher. And that has been repeatedly born out in academic studies. But then again, you don’t like academics or the free media. Do you?

 

[Bells]

Trump has been accused of working with the Russians. This has been investigated for over six months; since his election, with no hard evidence yet found, or else the Democrats would have used that hard evidence like a weapon against Trump. If they had evidence, they would already be trying to impeach Trump so he is all tied up and unable to accomplish anything. But they have nothing but gossip and the creation of doubt via a perpetual investigation and fake news propaganda. It is all fat and gristle, but with no meat.

Wait.. What?

How in the hell can you come out with this crap, when everyone around Trump's campaign have been found to have either lied about their connection or had to recuse themselves or resign after their connections with Russia became known. They just issued subpoenas to people connected to Trump and his campaign and staff, because of their connections with Russia and you are claiming that there is no "hard evidence found"?

I mean, this is laughable!

On the other hand, Trump accused the Obama Administration of wire tapping. Shouldn't we investigate this fat and gristle, for six months, instead of denying it in one week? If we assume this is also gossip and gaming, why not an equal investigation by the FBI, in the light that it has been proven citizen identities were revealed and classified transcripts were illegally leaked to the media? There is enough circumstantial evidence to begin an investigation.

It was investigated. No evidence that it occurred. Trump accused him via tweets with absolutely nothing to back up his claims. His own staff couldn't figure out what to say about it.

Once more, you are taking up our precious oxygen with idiocy.

If Comey was doing his job; impartial, he would have investigated both accusations with the same level of effort. But he only wanted more resources to continue the investigation against Trump. This showed he is part of the dark state. He was given a chance to be fair, but it was determined he needed to be purged, so both accusations could be equally investigated. The Democrats are in a panic because they need to cheat to win and they will not longer be able to cheat.

He did. And nothing was found to support Trump's claims. But enough was found to issue subpoenas to people connected to Trump via Flynn, for their Russian connections.

A simple preliminary investigation, into the wire tapping claim, could research the people who were revealed, to see how many Democrats were revealed, since both sides have meetings with foreign leaders. Nancy Pelosi talked to the Russian Ambassador. If this is all for national security we should she her transcripts. If only Republicans and members of the Trump team were disproportionally revealed, we have a smoking gun.

Again, oxygen waster, they all declared that contact. It wasn't hidden. Flynn, for example, was taking money from foreign governments and never declared it. Manafort, Trump's campaign manager during the campaign, received millions of dollars in payments from Russia and never declared it. Sessions, had meetings with the Russians during the campaign, never declared it.. All this while the hacking was going on.

His wiretapping claim came out of his anus.

He had no proof. His own party backed away from his lunacy pretty quickly and his administration then tried to change the wording, saying he really meant something else, because they had no idea or proof of his claims.

You need to remember the Democrats have no real power.

And yet, Trump is shitting bricks about the Democrats..

You know, this administration is the Democrat's best friend at this point in time. Because the more Trump and co fuck this up, the greater the chances that Republicans will not be seeing the inside of the White House for many years.

They are not the majority in the House, Senate, Supreme Court or Presidency. They are a paper tiger with a big scary mouth. All they have is scamming, misinformation, and fake news. Trump has given them the opportunity to work together, but he found out they can't be trusted. Now Trump is ready for the purge of the dark state. However, Trump is still offering them a way out, but they have gone insane with hate. The rabid dog may need to be put down.

And all Trump has are Republicans in the House who are now questioning his reasoning for a dodgy termination of the FBI director that was investigating his campaign, a press secretary that has taken to hiding in shrubs on White House grounds to avoid questions for Trump's actions and his twitter, where he comes off looking like a lunatic and someone completely insane and unstable, a wife that won't even live in the same building as he does and who clearly shows her hatred each time his back is turned, a son in law whose family are selling visas to the Chinese, a ring wing support that is dwindling because of his inability to keep his election promises, a health care plan that will see many of his voting base losing their health insurance after being able to access said health insurance for the first time under Obama, he is facing an investigation for money laundering, his staff are at each other's throats and also facing investigations for election meddling and working with a foreign power against the best interest of the US. He is a laughing stock to the world community and deemed mentally unstable. The more Trump prepares for his purges, the more he will be seen to be like Nixon.

 

[iceaura]

LOL, nice try. You know very well that what I name globalists are the Clinton supporters worldwide.

You have no apparent criteria that I can use within the US, however, that exclude Trump. You have used "globalist" to refer to many enemies of the Clintons within the US, for example, such as the neocons of W&Cheney who advocated US dominated hegemony in the Middle East.

The phrase "escape debts to the Russian mob" makes no sense to me so I cannot comment it.

What's the confusing part - Are you unaware of the existence of Russian organized crime, a State level operation since the 90s? Of Trump's dealings with Russian "financiers" when legitimate banks refused his business? Of the tactic of canceling debts by coercing, threatening, assaulting, etc, one's creditor?

It's just a possibility, that's all. You seemed puzzled at the notion that Trump would attack or threaten Russia with the US military, and so I pointed out one of his more obvious motives for doing so. He also has reason to not do that, but instead take advantage of other powers of the Presidency to reduce his debts and enrich himself with respect to his Russian creditors. We'll see how it all plays out.

 

[parmalee]

Apart from a confusing guest appearance on Growing Pains some 30-odd years ago, I had never actually seen or heard Trump in action until his campaign commenced. I had initially thought his unique use of language was a calculated move, until it became apparent that he is simply inarticulate. Has he always been this incoherent, or is this a relatively recent phenomenon? Either way--and this is perhaps a naive question, but I am genuinely curious--how does one achieve this level of "success" with such a poor command of language? Outside of certain arenas where verbal communication skills are hardly relevant, I can't really think of like phenomena--I mean, W. and others employed a "dumbed down" vernacular, but it was calculated and bore some semblance of coherence.

 

[Tiassa]

​

Trump has been accused of working with the Russians. This has been investigated for over six months; since his election, with no hard evidence yet found, or else the Democrats would have used that hard evidence like a weapon against Trump. If they had evidence, they would already be trying to impeach Trump so he is all tied up and unable to accomplish anything. But they have nothing but gossip and the creation of doubt via a perpetual investigation and fake news propaganda. It is all fat and gristle, but with no meat.

On the other hand, Trump accused the Obama Administration of wire tapping. Shouldn't we investigate this fat and gristle, for six months, instead of denying it in one week?

There is a Matson cartoon↱ from earlier in the week depicting some businesspeople at a bar, watching the Yates testimony; one of them laments, "This is so fifteen scandals ago!" It is an important point.

Much of what we're rolling through right now is stuff we've already heard. I don't know if you're capable of recognizing the idea of process. The experience most Americans are familiar with is hearing of a scandal, freaking out, and then spending the next weeks dealing with it. But Donald Trump brought scandals so fast and furiously that we just keep moving onto the next spectacle.

Part of what is happening now is that what we heard about months ago has run through some process and is re-emerging.

Like the Steele dossier. Rumors of it circulated as early as July; the public first heard an astounding, spectacular accusation in October; we learned the dossier really existed after the election; the time since has been slowly proving out much of the dossier. What happened in between? Investigation. Reporters, and law enforcement and congressional investigators, have been digging away at these scandals.

In the week before Trump's tweet tantrum accusing Obama, he was hit repeatedly with evening headlines that kept his deliberately-understaffed White House running to exhaustion. For the most part, though, those were headlines about familiar stuff—investigations were providing some answers, and we learned details about general situations we were already aware of.

And remember, FOIA requests trying to track down various leads have already provided something of an answer on the wiretapping claims: Trump's underlying claim is inaccurate, but multiple Trump associates—a campaign manager, a foreign policy advisor, a future National Security Advisor, just to note a few—turned up on intelligence radar because they were communicating with foreign agents under routine surveillance. The germ at the heart of the mythopoeic scrap was actually what Louise Mensch said it was, a FISA request for further surveillance of a Trump associate because the intelligence on foreign agency contact was so distressing. That is to say, the deeper we dive down the wiretapping rabbit hole, the more we find about what was wrong with the Trump campaign and what remains wrong with the Trump administration.

And, yeah, I know. Louise freaking Mensch.

It has gotten so desperate that a Congressional surrogate, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL05) tried complaining that the Obama administration didn't fire James Comey, and what stands out is the absolute idiocy of what he is suggesting, that a sitting president, watching the FBI rough up his intended successor, should fire the Director in the middle of a presidential election campaign. As brilliant moments go, standing at the threshold of a new #Watergate metaphor that is already spilling forth in society, a hardliner from the party that just spent eight years complaining about some notion of "Obama's Watergate" actually stands on camera and argues that the whole mess is Obama's fault for not undertaking a ridiculously inappropriate action that would have drawn ferocious Watergate comparisons.

The loops they're running in are incredible: President Trump essentially just fired James Comey because the former FBI Director subverted the election in order to make Mr. Trump the president. And apparently it's all Obama's fault for not—

(1) Creating a Watergate-valence constitutional crisis by firing the FBI Director during an investigation of the Democratic presidential candidate.

(2) Fulfilling the old conspiracy theory by declaring a Constitutional emergency and refusing to hand power to Donald Trump. (Hey, anyone else remember the martial-law perpetual Obama presidency conspiracy theory? No, really. Hello?)​

—being the hubris-weakened supervillain they wanted him to be.

So, you know, they went and elected a Republican version. And want to blame it on Obama.

Or Hillary.

But, yeah, Obama should have fired Comey. For investigating Hillary. Or so says the Distinguished Gentleman from Alabama's Fifth Congressional District, Mr. Brooks.

What the hell?
____________________

Notes:

Matson, Robert. "Scandal of the Week". Roll Call. 8 May 2017. RollCall.com. 11 May 2017. http://bit.ly/2q5fDL0


Edit note: Add cartoon, 11 May 2017, 10.50 PDT.

 

[joepistole]

Apart from a confusing guest appearance on Growing Pains some 30-odd years ago, I had never actually seen or heard Trump in action until his campaign commenced. I had initially thought his unique use of language was a calculated move, until it became apparent that he is simply inarticulate. Has he always been this incoherent, or is this a relatively recent phenomenon? Either way--and this is perhaps a naive question, but I am genuinely curious--how does one achieve this level of "success" with such a poor command of language? Outside of certain arenas where verbal communication skills are hardly relevant, I can't really think of like phenomena--I mean, W. and others employed a "dumbed down" vernacular, but it was calculated and bore some semblance of coherence.

Trump was born into great wealth. He has never had to work or be coherent.

 

[joepistole]

Trump's ever changing Comey story has changed again. Trump now admits he was going to fire Comey regardless of what the DOJ did or didn't do. That's a little more honest, but not completely honest.

 

[parmalee]

Trump was born into great wealth. He has never had to work or be coherent.

Sure, but that doesn't really account for things like having a successful television series. Yeah, it's reality tv and you take hundreds of hours of footage to get a few minutes of passable shit, and a stopped clock is right twice and day, and whatnots, but... I'm just not getting it. I "get" dumb, I get nonsense, I even get willful obfuscation--perhaps not in a presidential candidate, but in some context--but I truly do not get unintentional incoherence.

With W., and the like, I could see the appeal--to certain people--but with Trump I don't see anything. Also--speaking to the televisual aspect--the guy is not terribly attractive--and that's putting it mildly.


Edit:

Honestly, I'm not really expecting a satisfactory answer here--I'm simply allowing for the possibility of such. There are the obvious answers--racism, misogyny, xenophobia--I simply have difficulty accepting that so many people are so... hateful, I guess. And with Trump's previous "successes," that's kind of like asking for an explanation for the success of "reality" tv. I'm still struggling with that one.

 

[Quantum Quack]

Sure, but that doesn't really account for things like having a successful television series. Yeah, it's reality tv and you take hundreds of hours of footage to get a few minutes of passable shit, and a stopped clock is right twice and day, and whatnots, but... I'm just not getting it. I "get" dumb, I get nonsense, I even get willful obfuscation--perhaps not in a presidential candidate, but in some context--but I truly do not get unintentional incoherence.

With W., and the like, I could see the appeal--to certain people--but with Trump I don't see anything. Also--speaking to the televisual aspect--the guy is not terribly attractive--and that's putting it mildly.


Edit:

Honestly, I'm not really expecting a satisfactory answer here--I'm simply allowing for the possibility of such. There are the obvious answers--racism, misogyny, xenophobia--I simply have difficulty accepting that so many people are so... hateful, I guess. And with Trump's previous "successes," that's kind of like asking for an explanation for the success of "reality" tv. I'm still struggling with that one.

Does possible membership of a pseudo secret "influential boys club" make sense to you?

 

[joepistole]

Sure, but that doesn't really account for things like having a successful television series. Yeah, it's reality tv and you take hundreds of hours of footage to get a few minutes of passable shit, and a stopped clock is right twice and day, and whatnots, but... I'm just not getting it. I "get" dumb, I get nonsense, I even get willful obfuscation--perhaps not in a presidential candidate, but in some context--but I truly do not get unintentional incoherence.

With W., and the like, I could see the appeal--to certain people--but with Trump I don't see anything. Also--speaking to the televisual aspect--the guy is not terribly attractive--and that's putting it mildly.


Edit:

Honestly, I'm not really expecting a satisfactory answer here--I'm simply allowing for the possibility of such. There are the obvious answers--racism, misogyny, xenophobia--I simply have difficulty accepting that so many people are so... hateful, I guess. And with Trump's previous "successes," that's kind of like asking for an explanation for the success of "reality" tv. I'm still struggling with that one.

Trump is the quintessential Republican entertainer. That's why he has been successful with the Republican base. He doesn't have to be a good speaker, because he isn't. He doesn't have to be smart, because he isn't. He doesn't have to make sense, because he doesn't. All he need do is be a demagogue, and that he is. He is the male version of Sarah Palin.

The right wing entertainment industry is full of people like Trump. But not one of them is a billionaire, and that's Trump's added shtick. Right wing nuts worship wealth and wealthy people. Trump isn't about substance, fact, and reason. He's all about emotion. He uses words not to communicate an honest and coherent thought. He uses words to emote strong emotions as Republican entertainers do each day across the nation. Trump's devotees have been hooked emotionally, just as Jim Jones had his devotees emotionally hooked. It doesn't matter what Trump does or doesn't do to them, because they have swallowed the emotional hook. They'll dismiss evidence, buy into his lies, and invent lies in order to sustain their cognitive dissonances.

 

[joepistole]

Trump entertained Russia intelligence officers in the Oval Office today. The event was only covered by the Russian state media. The domestic press was not allowed into the meeting.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/trump-michael-flynn-firing-nbc/index.html

I wonder how many bugs they left behind.

 

[Quantum Quack]

Trump entertained Russia intelligence officers in the Oval Office today. The event was only covered by the Russian state media. The domestic press was not allowed into the meeting.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/trump-michael-flynn-firing-nbc/index.html

I wonder how many bugs they left behind.

How does it make you feel Joe? Russian spies being entertained in the oval office under a veil of USA media blackout?

 

[Tiassa]

How does it make you feel Joe? Russian spies being entertained in the oval office under a veil of USA media blackout?

Would you happen to remember bits and pieces of various Republicans, including Rudy Giuliani and even a future president of the United States, a guy named Donald Trump, going on and on about how President Obama was a terrible politician because the Russians were running circles around him playing chess to his checkers?

Right.

Anyway, the Trump White House's explanation for the Tass photos is apparently that the Russians tricked them.

 

[Quantum Quack]

But the question is how do you guys feel about Russians being entertained in the Oval office?
Given the history of and current Russian/USA relationships it must be terrifying? And confusing especially as the domestic media have been excluded...

Surely the CIA and the FBI etc would be involved as they are no doubt in all of Trumps Russian dealings....
In other words let's assume for a moment that the CIA and FBI are in some sort of arrangement with Trump for reasons that they can not make public. (legitimate reasons)

For surely, the security services must be involved...
( for example: I have little doubt that the FBI and CIA etc are well aware of all of Trumps business dealings, tax returns, outstanding loans etc. and the consequences of that knowledge are pretty obvious. None...)

 

[Tiassa]

#surrender | #WhatTheyVotedFor​

Click because I can't believe that was really a song.​

But the question is how do you guys feel about Russians being entertained in the Oval office?
Given the history of and current Russian/USA relationships it must be terrifying? And confusing especially as the domestic media have been excluded...

Well, you know, the Russians escaped while we weren't watching them, like Russians will.

Oh, right. Um, you know, I'm more ... ah ... look, the irony that this is brought to us by Republicans, the intellectual heritage of cold-war anti-Russian paranoia. And that's the thing. At some point I'm beyond my reality threshold. I mean, everything is, you know, whatever it is right up to the point that ... okay, you know, I'm pretty sure this is at least the second time I've heard the White House complain the Russians tricked them.

I'm more caught up in the aspect that describes the self-destruction of American conservatism. So, like, I'm born under Nixon, a late Cold War conscience that has seen all this transition and transformation in my lifetime, and we're back to this weird moment in which a prevailing societal virtue set has basically collapsed and finally admitted it was always a lie.

The Tass photos are emblematic. I don't know whether to gloat, or gnash and wail. I mean, I always knew those fuckers were just the worst humanity had to offer, but inasmuch as I might have any feelings about the symbolism of the White House poodling for Puti-Toots in the fucking Oval Office, the affirmation that it was all, during my lifetime, an utter lie of patriotic, conservative American values. How many of our own have we asked to suffer for the sake of what must be done, and, you know, we mostly knew it was a numbers game, because none of us really believed it couldn't be done without treating people like shit, but we just couldn't win elections that way.

But, yeah, that's about what the symbol is worth. No Republican voter or self-identifying conservative should ever be allowed to use the word "patriotism" agaain, except to describe something they are incapable of comprehending and thus require special accommodation for.

The Cold War was always a lie. Americans never really believed in that shit. Just like we don't really believe in Liberty and Justice for All.

Or, you know, there's the comfort of the popular vote. A thin majority of us are still in this.

 

[Quantum Quack]

#surrender | #WhatTheyVotedFor​

Click because I can't believe that was really a song.​

Well, you know, the Russians escaped while we weren't watching them, like Russians will.

Oh, right. Um, you know, I'm more ... ah ... look, the irony that this is brought to us by Republicans, the intellectual heritage of cold-war anti-Russian paranoia. And that's the thing. At some point I'm beyond my reality threshold. I mean, everything is, you know, whatever it is right up to the point that ... okay, you know, I'm pretty sure this is at least the second time I've heard the White House complain the Russians tricked them.

I'm more caught up in the aspect that describes the self-destruction of American conservatism. So, like, I'm born under Nixon, a late Cold War conscience that has seen all this transition and transformation in my lifetime, and we're back to this weird moment in which a prevailing societal virtue set has basically collapsed and finally admitted it was always a lie.

The Tass photos are emblematic. I don't know whether to gloat, or gnash and wail. I mean, I always knew those fuckers were just the worst humanity had to offer, but inasmuch as I might have any feelings about the symbolism of the White House poodling for Puti-Toots in the fucking Oval Office, the affirmation that it was all, during my lifetime, an utter lie of patriotic, conservative American values. How many of our own have we asked to suffer for the sake of what must be done, and, you know, we mostly knew it was a numbers game, because none of us really believed it couldn't be done without treating people like shit, but we just couldn't win elections that way.

But, yeah, that's about what the symbol is worth. No Republican voter or self-identifying conservative should ever be allowed to use the word "patriotism" agaain, except to describe something they are incapable of comprehending and thus require special accommodation for.

The Cold War was always a lie. Americans never really believed in that shit. Just like we don't really believe in Liberty and Justice for All.

Or, you know, there's the comfort of the popular vote. A thin majority of us are still in this.

One of the most important things to remember during these interesting times is that things are changing very fast...
Things of note:
The living memory of ww2 ( especially Hiroshima, Nagasaki civilian nuking) is almost finished. The people who lived through those terrible years from all sides of the conflict, USA, Russia, China, Korea, Japan, Jews, Europe, Germany etc are now dead or close to passing. ( old age)
The impact of the nuclear age especially USA Paranoia is considerably less as the new generation realize that for example, a Russian teenager is not much different to to an American one... ( globalization via social media)

Old systems of fear based policy and action are at the cross roads and will no doubt continue to send mixed signals until future global relationships find a new and better grounding.

USA is not interested in territorial expansionism and nor really is Russia.
Border control, fear based social, cultural and political boundary protections etc seem to be the main focus.

So the terrible Ruskies are invited into the oval office for a chat defying all those fears and challenging the Ruskies to make the most of it...

Suffice to suggest that knocking down the Berlin wall was only a starting way point towards a steady reduction in tensions and that recent events are only a part of further knocking down that wall of fear and associated distrust.

Trump is but an unwitting and ignorant player in a bigger picture that ultimately involves the harmonization of the human race. A harmonization that the worlds Youth are going to make happen once the oldies let go of their historical fear based associations.

His incompetence and naivety of war, actually works to his favor... ( re Simpsons- Homerism: Succeeding by stupidity)

just thoughts...

 

[Tiassa]

#insertjokehere | #WhatTheyVotedFor​

​

To the one, yes, other things are still going on; not every implosion of the Trump administration has to do with Russia. Or, John T. Bennett↱ reported earlier today, for Roll Call:

President Donald Trump will establish a new federal commission Thursday to investigate his claims that up to 5 million illegal immigrants cast votes in November and cost him a popular vote victory over Hillary Clinton.

By doing so, the president will ignore pleas from his own party to drop the matter.​

And, yeah. Amid all the noise and bluster, President Trump went ahead and did that.

Or, as McClatchy↱ reports:

Kris Kobach, who as Kansas secretary of state repeatedly made unsubstantiated voter-fraud allegations, will co-chair President Donald Trump's new Commission on Election Integrity, igniting outrage from civil rights groups and top Democrats.

Critics ridiculed the very creation of the commission Thursday, as well as Kobach's role, saying it's all intended to perpetuate the president's false claim that millions voted illegally in November.

The 12-member bipartisan commission will review claims of improper registrations and voting, fraudulent registrations and voter suppression, White House officials told McClatchy. Members will provide the president with a report in 2018 and may issue recommendations to the states.

It's a sham, charged critics.​

Something about government doesn't work. Republicans. It's a threat.

To the other ... this can only go poorly for the Trump administration. I wonder which will stop working first, the commission or the administration?
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Notes:

Bennett, John T. "Republican Leaders Lose Argument to Trump Over Voter Fraud". Roll Call. 11 May 2017. RollCall.com. 11 May 2017. http://bit.ly/2pDYhBh

Wise, Lindsay and Bryan Lowry. "Civil rights groups fume over Trump’s choice of Kobach to head voter fraud panel". McClatchy. 11 May 2017. McClatchyDC.com. 11 May 2017. http://bit.ly/2pF2Yvz

 

[joepistole]

At this point I think there is little doubt that Trump is undoubtedly the biggest oaf to ever occupy the White House. He clearly subjected the White House to a security breach today, and in typical Trump style he remains totally clueless.