Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:https://www.newsweek.com/republican-lawmakers-privately-considering-dumping-donald-trump-msnbc-guest-1252996
Eli Stokols, a White House reporter for the Los Angeles Times said on air that Republican lawmakers “are starting to tell me privately—some of them—if there’s obvious evidence, the bottom’s going to fall out. They’re not going to be able to stand by this White House and that’s a looming problem for the president.” and “private conversations people there are having with Republicans on the Hill who are starting to be concerned.”
That's a pretty ballsy thing to state outright if there's no merit to it.
- Doc
I don't know. We've had two years of Republicans telling reporters in private about their grave concerns while their public actions and statements continue to contradict that. Reporters schmoozing with insiders at cocktail parties seem to take it for granted that these private statements are their true feelings and their public behavior is a lie, but they should consider the possibility that they've got it wrong and it's actually the opposite. There's a naïve arrogance in assuming people you believe are pathological liars aren't lying to you.
In one of the filings, Mueller details how Cohen spoke to a Russian who “claimed to be a ‘trusted person’ in the Russian Federation who could offer the campaign ‘political synergy’ and ‘synergy on a government level.’”
I was interested in Mueller's use of 'synergy' in his filing. I have a hard time believing that the use of that word has gone unnoticed among Republicans. Rats know when a ship is sinking, and after reading about Butina striking a deal with prosecutors they have to know crap is getting real. Ain't no Republican going to fall on his sword for Trump.
On a related note, I also wonder if Kelly (who is reported to be pretty pissed off at the Trump family right now) won't meet with Mueller. There's just no way he doesn't have insider information that wouldn't be useful for prosecutors that's more encompassing than what he most likely discussed with the FBI while he was employed by the White House.
- Doc
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
The GOP fears the Trump base. They know it isn't the party's base, it's his. They have a tiger by the tail and are too weak and feckless to cope with it. They will fall back on the lies of Huckabee Sanders and Fox News because they have not built any viable alternative. You are seeing a chintzy facade of a government. There is really nothing there any more but greed and rage and lies. The GOP cannot save themselves from what they have created. Turn up the hatred and insults toward liberals. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Jersey Girl wrote:Apparently former New Jersey Gov. Christie has chimed in saying that they probably have evidence against Trump. Just for the record, I take Christie more seriously than I do Giuliani whom I believe is totally and completely full of crap.
Call me crazy. Just my impression.
It's been interesting trying to figure out which pathological liar is breaking from their default setting in all of this.
"Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead." ~Charles Bukowski
On October 4, 2016. U.S. Persom 1 (Butina) sent an email to an acquaintance. The email covered a number of topics. Within the email, U.S. Person 1 stated, "unrelated to specific presidential campaigns, I've been involved in securing a VERY private line of communication between the Kremlin and key POLITICAL PARTY 1 leaders through, of all conduits, the [GUN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION.].
Speaking of 'smocking guns'...
- Doc
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Res Ipsa wrote:It’s not the kind of thing I’d stick on my fridge.
It doesn't make me feel great that some of the most powerful people in politics are operating at a level of Veep crossed with Burn after Reading.
Caught in a landslide. No escape from reality.
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
I think the idea that Trump has a base wrapped around his finger is mistaken. The Republican "base" thinks what right-wing media tells them to think. Trump was the least popular nominee within his own party in the history of having that measure. He's now quite popular among Republicans, but that's partisan bias and media effects. That hose of support that can be turned on someone other than Trump.
I think Republicans are correct to fear Trump, but that's because he has the ability to use Presidential powers and right-wing media to avoid consequences. If he does avoid those consequences, he's going to be looking to collect the heads of anyone who didn't stand with him.
Kevin Graham wrote:For those of you who are not understanding the point subs is having difficulty typing out... the argument from the Right is basically this.
Trump is guilty of directing Cohen to commit a crime, but that doesn't mean Trump committed a crime.
With respect to campaign finance felonies, intent is key. The filings say Cohen's intent was to affect the election, but it doesn't explicitly attribute that same intent to Individual 1. Trump could get out of this by saying he did it for "personal reasons" since he assumed he was going to lose the election anyway.
Most folks in the media have been jumping the gun here saying Trump has been accused of committing a felony, but that may not be entirely accurate. He is accused of directing someone else to commit an act that he or may not have understood to be a criminal act.
Here is a pretty good piece that explains the arguments from both sides:
Where is Res Ipsa? Wish he would weigh in on this.
Oddly enough, the sort of campaign finance crime that Trump is seemingly being accused of is the same that Senator Edwards was accused of with regards to payment to a specific pregnant lady....Intent was indeed the operative word and he ultimately prevailed because he was paying her not to tell his wife and not to keep it from the voters (the latter being a happy consequence of the former).
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires...seek discipline and find your liberty I can tell if a person is judgmental just by looking at them what is chaos to the fly is normal to the spider - morticia addams If you're not upsetting idiots, you might be an idiot. - Ted Nugent
