18 hours ago, ReddFoxx said:

If the report had recommended charges then Democrats would have had a better chance at filing impeachment. Instead it's basically a situation where there was clear wrongdoing but not enough hard evidence to bring charges. There is no legal precedent that lines up with much of what Trump and his campaign did, plus Trump Jr. avoided charges due to ignorance.

 

With all that said there is plenty in the report to draft legislation that defines  collusion and strengthens penalties for foreign money and assistance in elections, plus add tools to secure elections. If Republicans vote against that or Trump vetoes it, then Democrats can create a good narrative going into the election. "Keep other countries out of our elections" and "preserve our democracy" are exactly the sort of phrases that play on voters patriotism and in a diverse way.

 

Mueller's report clearly states that due to DOJ policy he wasn't going to recommend charges, which makes sense because Barr obviously would've use DOJ precedent to reject them. What he DID do is lay out of list of potential charges that could be pursued after he was out of office, which he detailed very well even giving you the exact date they must be charged by due to statute of limitations. That IMO is laying out recommended charges in the only way possible, which is through Congress. All of the potential charges he listed would run out in the middle of his second term. Other than Congress there would've been no way to remedy that so it's obvious what he was saying. In addition to that, we still don't know the 14 ongoing investigations, many of which include him. Impeachment would get them the unredacted report and grand jury information and I'm sure that seals any sort of impeachment case. 

 

I just don't understand the mindset of letting it go and beating him in a fair election when we know for a fact it WON'T be a fair election. Russia will still interfere, as will Saudi Arabia. They were able to hack voting machines last time. Ivanka was just meeting with the Georgia governor about replacing their voting machines, which coincidentally is always to machines that are easier to hack. It's easier for an incumbent president in terms of fundraising and press simply because they're on office. Throw in a huge democratic primary where we have no idea what will happen, and ongoing illegal hacking acts they're doing nothing to stop and you have a 100% chance of Trump being reelected IMO.

 

Say what you will about modern republicans, but when they want something (like their supreme court seats) they fight, get on message and they get it. If democrats got on message and didn't parse their words so much I feel they could get america on board with impeachment. Democrats have the majority in public opinion. Trump's undying base isn't even 40%. You have to fight hard when you're fighting a corrupt system designed for you to fail.

 

And if impeachment fails? You have a huge public record with ALL the evidence revealed of ALL his crimes, not just relating to russia. That right there would be the best motivator to get people to vote. Barr and Trump will hide all of that unless forced by impeachment.

Edited April 22, 20197 yr by Chris B

23 minutes ago, Chris B said:

 

Say what you will about modern republicans, but when they want something (like their supreme court seats) they fight, get on message and they get it. If democrats got on message and didn't parse their words so much I feel they could get america on board with impeachment. Democrats have the majority in public opinion. Trump's undying base isn't even 40%. You have to fight hard when you're fighting a corrupt system designed for you to fail.

 

Republicans act based on hatred and bigotry. That always gets more votes.

 

Democrats tried jumping up and down in rage in lieu of strategies in 2004 and in 2016. It didn't work. We will never manage to play these games the way Republicans can. 

19 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

 

Republicans act based on hatred and bigotry. That always gets more votes.

 

Democrats tried jumping up and down in rage in lieu of strategies in 2004 and in 2016. It didn't work. We will never manage to play these games the way Republicans can. 

 We can't compete because nobody can seem to get on the same page. Hate and bigotry does motivate Trump's base, but even then they still didn't get a majority of votes. With slight changes and assuming votes weren't tampered with, Hilary could've won which means we could win again. Democrats have the numbers, my worry is they won't have a fair election so numbers won't matter.

1 hour ago, Chris B said:

 We can't compete because nobody can seem to get on the same page. Hate and bigotry does motivate Trump's base, but even then they still didn't get a majority of votes. With slight changes and assuming votes weren't tampered with, Hilary could've won which means we could win again. Democrats have the numbers, my worry is they won't have a fair election so numbers won't matter.

 

To be honest with you, I really am sick to death of the people running on the Democratic side, with one or two exceptions, and I'm really sick of their supporters, and at this point I am pretty sure Trump will be reelected, so who I am to tell you you're wrong. You may be right. I guess we'll see what happens.

2 hours ago, DRW50 said:

We will never manage to play these games the way Republicans can. 

 

Democrats keep losing because they refuse to listen to and/or relinquish power to people of color. Period.

His constituents appear to want him gone.

 

Moulton not running for re-election to Congress? He'd potentially be pretty vulnerable to a primary challenge and the presidential bid sort of makes for an interesting cover story if you want to move on to something else and don't want to bear the risk of getting voted out. https://t.co/uzuqohZild

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 22, 2019

I actually saw some people saying he was running to try to siphon votes from Elizabeth Warren because they're both from Massachusetts. I shouldn't let myself forget how dumb many voters are, yet somehow I always do.

 

Anyway, more hate and bigotry on the way from SCOTUS. I would say this should make the rich gays who support Trump wary, but it won't. They would probably be more than happy with bad rulings in these cases.

 

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/22/supreme-court-to-take-up-cases-on-gay-and-transgender-rights-in-the-workplace-1284791

^ I hate to sound like a (very) broken record hitting the same groove, over and over again but when I mentioned how much of a danger Donald Trump would pose to people's lives if elected, I got more than one person suggesting it might not be as bad as I was suggesting.  

Well, it's every bit as bad and he is every bit the danger that I spoke of before his election.  I don't know what else to say when I see these articles like the one above.  It was never just going to affect Mexicans and black people.

And I want to apologize to you, DD, if I was ever one of those who suggested as much.

1 hour ago, Khan said:

And I want to apologize to you, DD, if I was ever one of those who suggested as much.

 

Thank you, Khan.  I know you never mean to be dismissive.  I actually don't remember you saying as much but I think for others (at least those who had good intentions and weren't trolls), it was wishful thinking.  Many people weren't aware of just how heinous Trump was in his life before the election. 

With the exception of PBS, most of the media did a poor job of giving an honest accounting of who Trump really is, instead they chose to highlight every minutiae of Clinton's life story.  And we're all the worse off for it.

 

Some exclusive news: Twitter banned over 5,000 bot accounts this weekend tweeting about how “Russiagate” is a hoax.

The botnet has ties to... a rebranded pro-Saudi social media operation.

Story coming on https://t.co/4dGcXr8t7N and on MSNBC in a minute.

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) April 23, 2019

 

On the one hand, if he can stop Bernie, I would probably support him, but I am just so tired of all the Biden drama at this point. 

 

I can't take CNN but I've heard Elizabeth Warren got rave reviews last night. Maybe she's finally turning the corner?

On the one hand, no, I can't really take much of Morning Joe. OTOH this is a pretty inspired on-air response to Trump's latest ragetweets:

 

 

The chyron person at #MorningPsycho deserves a raise immediately. 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/XtvDKOOWlP

— Jeff Barrett (@BarrettAll) April 23, 2019

Aunt Lindsey has some things to say:

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 20197 yr by DRW50