The Politics Thread

[wonderwoman1951]

excellent! how if georgia will just get its thumb out of its ass…

[DramatistDreamer]

This looks like some sort of progress is being made and is worth noting.

I need a confirmation from the DOJ though.

[DRW50]

I know the wheels of justice grind very slowly for certain people, but this has been going on so long it's difficult to react anymore. If I didn't suspect that DeSantis is even worse than Trump, I'd probably be less down about the whole thing...I just hope Biden pulls through somehow.

[marceline]

I'm going to break a personal rule about how much I share online. I work for a law firm, a large one with offices around the world and one that has does a lot of work with white collar criminals. I cannot express how quickly this investigation has gone. I know it feels slow but the truth is that this thing has run at record speed.

[Vee]

You know you're my guy but I don't get this. Pulls through somehow? His opponents are these two guys and one of them is being indicted again.

Edited June 9, 2023 by Vee

[DRW50]

Given that we're in such a polarized country with a corporate media who love both his opponents, and he's 80 years old (sorry if that comes across as ageist...), yes, pulls through is the word I'd use. If it turns out to be a breeze I will be happy to be wrong.

[marceline]

Nothing in our elections will ever be a breeze. The truth is they never have been. It's just that too many people took progress for granted and threw it away because Bernie told them that their student loans were more important than our civil rights and bodily autonomy.

This was a damn fine week. Chris Licht fired, Trump indicted, Pat Robertson and James Watt both dead. (I don't know how many people here remember James Watt but he was a monster.) and SCOTUS actually protected voting rights for once.

The election is 18 months away. It's counterproductive to worry about it now. People love to point out Biden's age but then turn around and act like Hamhock is some kind of supervillain. Trump is dying right in front of us but Joe Biden tripped on a sandbag.

This is a marathon not a sprint. Let people celebrate the good.

[Fevuh]

I'm kind of sorry that it happened now for Trump. I hoped it would drag on well into the primaries so that he'd tear all of them apart.  Now, there's too much recovery time for them.  And I still hold to what I've always said - if we ever have a female as President, it will be Republican.   A huge % of women do not really like strong women.  They like stupid subservient ones.  Like Palin.  Like Haley.

[marceline]

This will drag into the primaries. His NY trial isn't until March of next year. I suspect the same will be true for his federal indictments and whatever Georgia hits him with.

[Khan]

I cannot agree with you more, @marceline.  Bernie Sanders and his followers believe that economic inequality is a separate issue from racial and ethnic inequality, which they tend to dismiss as "identity politics," or whatever.  However, the truth is that the former, in my opinion, is a byproduct of the latter.  If you want to address the economic inequalities that continue to keep the middle and working classes in this country from earning even respectable wages, you have to shore up human and civil rights for all first.  Otherwise, you're placing the cart before the horse.

Obviously, @DRW50, I can't speak for everyone, but I, myself, never cared about how long it might take to indict Trump on anything, so long as the DOJ's probe resulted in a clear indictment.  Trump broke the law.  In fact, he broke MANY laws.  At the very least, the DOJ needed to say that aloud by formally indicting him, or else what kind of justice system do we really have in this country!?

Do I believe Trump will ever see the inside of a jail cell?  Frankly, if it ever reached that point, I think he is the sort who would swallow poison before allowing his own incarceration to happen, lol.  For one thing, Trump knows his followers well enough to know that they would look upon such an act as martyrdom (which is why, if Trump's suicide ever came to pass, it would be CRUCIAL for us and for the rest of the world to hold the media accountable if they even attempted to spin the act as somehow being more noble than it really is).  For another, Trump is someone who has always held a rather reductive worldview.  To him, the world is divided between two types of individuals: those who are "winners," and those who are "losers."  If you're put on trial and found innocent, then you're a "winner."  If not, then you're a "loser." 

If he were ever placed on trial, found guilty and sentenced to prison, then, in his mind, that would make him a "loser"; and to someone like Donald J. Trump, being seen by the public as a "loser" is a fate worse than everything.

I agree, @Vee.  I also agree with @marceline that we are far too early into this election cycle to worry about Biden's (or anyone else's) chances for "pulling through."  Of course, I'm not naive enough to assume that the 2024 election will be a proverbial cakewalk for Biden.  It should be, because his administration actually accomplished several, important tasks, despite being hamstrung by the GOP and the likes of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.  However, thanks to the media and social media's usual practice of obliterating a Democrat's genuine accomplishments and focusing instead on trivial matters, such as a person's age, or whether his Dick Van Dyke-like trip over a [!@#$%^&*] sandbag somehow means he is in the initial stages of Lewy Body Dementia (I'm not joking; someone on YT actually floated that theory), chances are better than good that unfortunately Biden won't be able to sail through this election.

Again, though, I think it's entirely too early to start gnashing one's teeth or pulling out one's hair and declare that the republic is lost forever.  There was a time not TOO long ago when I might have believed the opposite.  Now, however, I'm taking a lesson from QAnon followers (and from GH's Willow, WHO IS CLEARLY FAKING HER CANCER) and just trusting the plan.

As @marceline said upthread, by no means is the finale for "AT&T Presents the Donald Trump Indictment Hour."  In fact, to keep with the TV variety series analogy, yesterday's indictment from the DOJ is the equivalent of fulfilling the network's initial, 13-episode order, with the guarantee that the network will order the "back nine."

Yours is a fair assumption, @DRW50.  However, I think it's one based on the belief that the majority of media consumers in this country remain blind to the media's overall agenda.  As I think I posted over in the Media/Journalism thread, I think this country is gradually waking up to the fact that the mainstream, corporate media no longer holds the so-called "public interest" in their hearts.  Citizens are seeing for themselves how the media steadfastly refuses to shine a proverbial spotlight on the REAL issues that continue to undermine our nation's progress because it doesn't give the media the horse race they think they need to continue selling newspapers, magazines and everything else they produce. 

I mean, having the likes of Governor Greg Abbott or Senator Ted Cruz march themselves down to a press conference at the Texas/Mexico border just so they can castigate the Biden administration again over their handling or mishandling of the "immigrant crisis" (without offering zilch in the way of an actual, workable alternative) might attract a lot of eyeballs, but so did Kimberly on MELROSE PLACE whipping off that wig so she could fondle and caress her brain surgery scar in the mirror one more time.  Politics, in this country, has become yet another opportunity to sell refrigerators and toothpastes.  Both the media and the GOP have long been hip to that fact, but they haven't realized yet that the people are now one step ahead of them.

Edited June 9, 2023 by Khan

[Gray Bunny]

Loved your entire post, and the analogies... lol. Perfection. 

[Vee]

What recovery? For their two towers of charisma?

I don't take anything for granted. We always have to remain vigilant and work hard, especially in this decade from hell. And media still hates Democrats. But I will say we are in a considerably better position for next year right now than I thought we would be some time ago. Our two opponents are DeSantis, who is never going to be ready for primetime, and Trump. Both are poison in a general and one is facing prison or endless litigation for the rest of his life. And everyone knows it. That is a lot working for us. And that's not even getting to abortion, or the book bans or LGBT crackdowns, which do have a corrosive and broad effect on the general public - negatively, for the GOP.

Does anyone look at the next year and seriously believe Trump is not only going to recover the softer support he's lost since 2016 but gain more? In the next 18 months? I'll wait.

 

Edited June 9, 2023 by Vee

[MichaelGL]

I'm shocked at how quick this all unfolding this week lol They unsealed the indictments, Jack Smith is making a public statement...woohoo it's been a good week! 

[Vee]

 

 

Meanwhile:

Now, back to the show.

[Vee]

 

 

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