The Politics Thread

[Roman]

wake me up when republicans in our statehouse do something that surprises me......

[rhinohide]

I don’t know – it’s hard for me to see any U.S. ties to Russia…except for the Flynn thing and the Manafort thing
and the Tillerson thing 
and the Sessions thing 
and the Kushner thing 
and the Carter Page thing 
and the Roger Stone thing 
and the Felix Sater thing 
and the Boris Ephsteyn thing 
and the Rosneft thing 
and the Gazprom thing 
and the Sergey Gorkov banker thing 
and the Azerbajain thing 
and the “I love Putin” thing 
and the Donald Trump, Jr. thing 
and the Sergey Kislyak thing 
and the Russian Affiliated Interests thing 
and the Russian Business Interests thing 
and the Emoluments Clause thing 
and the Alex Schnaider thing 
and the hack of the DNC thing 
and the Guccifer 2.0 thing 
and the Mike Pence “I don’t know anything” thing 
and the Russians mysteriously dying thing 
and Trump’s public request to Russia to hack Hillary’s email thing 
and the Trump house sale for $100 million at the bottom of the housing bust to the Russian fertilizer king thing 
and the Russian fertilizer king’s plane showing up in Concord, NC during Trump rally campaign thing 
and the Nunes sudden flight to the White House in the night thing 
and the Nunes personal investments in the Russian winery thing 
and the Cyprus bank thing 
and Trump not releasing his tax returns thing 
and the Republican Party’s rejection of an amendment to require Trump to show his taxes thing 
and the election hacking thing 
and the GOP platform change to the Ukraine thing 
and the Steele Dossier thing 
and the Leninist Bannon thing 
and the Sally Yates can’t testify thing 
and the intelligence community’s investigative reports thing 
and the Trump reassurance that the Russian connection is all “fake news” thing 
and the Spicer’s Russian Dressing “nothing’s wrong” thing
and the Chaffetz not willing to start an investigation thing
and the Chaffetz suddenly deciding to go back to private life in the middle of an investigation thing
and the The Lead DOJ Investigator Mary McCord SUDDENLY in the middle of the investigation decides to resign thing
and the appointment of Pam Bondi who was bribed by trump in the trump university scandal appointed to head the investigation thing 
and the The White House going into full-on cover-up mode, refusing to turn over the documents related to the hiring and subsequent firing of Flynn thing
and the Chaffetz and White House blaming the poor vetting of Flynn on Obama thing
and the Poland and British intelligence gave information regarding the hacking back in 2015 to Paul Ryan and he didn't do anything thing
and the Agent M16 following the money thing
And now the trump team KNEW about Flynn's involvement but hired him anyway thing
and The Corey Lewendowski thing
and the Preet Bharara firing thing but before he left he transferred evidence against trump to a state level Schneiderman thing
And the Betsy Devos' Brother thing
And the Sebastian Gorka thing
And the Greg Gianforte from Montana thing
And the pence actually was warned about Flynn before he was hired thing
and the Pence and Manafort connection thing
And the 7 Allies coming forward with audio where trump was picked up in incidental wire tapping thing 
and the carter Page defying the Senate's order to hand over his Russian contact list
and the trump wants to VETO Sally Yates' testimony thing
and the trump trying to discredit Yates thing
and NOW the Obama told trump personally about Flynn thing and NOW THE COMEY THING!

SO yeah there’s probably nothing there!

[Khan]

Makes all the Clinton-related scandals look like kid's stuff.

[Vee]

Oh, my.

 

 

Meanwhile, from the "hold your nose and read Maggie Haberman" file:

 

 

[DramatistDreamer]

A legal experts states that he believes Trump's firing of Comey constitutes 'High Crimes'.  Many people have cited Laurence Tribe, who made this statement, as being a highly respected legal mind.

 

Laurence Tribe: ‘High crimes' in Trump’s firing of Comey

 

 

Meanwhile, anger and resentment toward GOP House members spills out into Town Hall meetings.

 

Edited May 13, 2017 by DramatistDreamer
wanted to embed accompanying video

[Khan]

Of COURSE Little Jimmy Comey wants to testify in public.  I'd be shocked if he did anything without a camera or several nearby.

[DramatistDreamer]

That's why Democrats and anyone who cares about the stability of this country need to also focus on getting those f*ckers who voted yes on that monstrosity AHCA bill out of Congress as well as removing those in the Senate who support Trump's sham of a presidency.  

Comey is unlikely to be the silver bullet to impeachment (though it would be nice) or removal from office.

 

Reading this article on 'small government' run amok and this is truly pathetic. A town library is unattainable?  Really??! I'm thinking that soon hordes of young people will be leaving this town for other towns and cities like Portland as fast as they can.

 

Where Anti-Tax Fervor Means ‘All Services Will Cease’

 

 

Edited May 13, 2017 by DramatistDreamer

[Wendy]

These town hall folks ain't playing! But they need to put it to the best use - at the midterm elections in the voting booths.

[marceline]

@Vee, have you started writing for Vox?

Please register in order to view this content

 

"But what if there’s nothing to understand? What if there’s no there there? What if our attempts to explain Trump have failed not because we haven’t hit on the right one, but because we are, theory-of-mind-wise, overinterpreting the text?

 

In short, what if Trump is exactly as he appears: a hopeless narcissist with the attention span of a fruit fly, unable to maintain consistent beliefs or commitments from moment to moment, acting on base instinct, entirely situationally, to bolster his terrifyingly fragile ego."

 

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/12/15621140/interpret-trump

 

 

[Vee]

I'm paid too little as is!

[Khan]

Regardless, the Vox article makes a convincing argument for not reading too much into the man's temperament.

 

The thing is, Trump isn't the first unintelligent narcissist to hold the highest office in the land, nor is he the first to surround himself with those of equal and/or lesser intelligence.  So why does it feel as if the damage he HAS done and will continue to do will cause more harm to us in the long run?

 

I tell ya, if anything proves to be the "silver bullet," it'll probably be something so minor in comparison to all the other craziness; something that, under other circumstances, no one would have ever given a second thought to.  And everyone will be standing around and thinking, "You mean, THAT's what it took to impeach/remove his orange behind?!"

Edited May 14, 2017 by Khan

[rhinohide]

I'm very afraid we will get Trey Gowdy as our new Director of the FBI. 

 

There are some Republicans who are supporting and independent investigation into the Russian hack. 

 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/lissandravilla/conservative-republican-justin-amash-signs-onto-bill-for-an?bftwnews&utm_term=.bvMpEoMqN#.elrlVWE0K

[Khan]

Trey Gowdy, eh?  Just what TrumpCo. needs: another pasty-looking white dude with terrible hair.

[Vee]

[marceline]

Claude's been pretty on the money recently. This could explain Donnie's mental state.