Criminal and impeachable are two separate things. One aspect does not stop because the other fails to provide a smoking gun.
I think donnie is headed for trouble no matter what this hearing shows. The situation is not sustainable. I’m not sure what PR coup for him would look like at this point.
For any normal president this would certainly be true. But President Donald Trump is not normal.. He got away with things on the campaign trail that no “normal” politician of any party could do and still be electable. And Ryan and McConnell are going to do everything in their power to inhibit investigation, much less voting for impeachment and conviction. Trump is in no more trouble now that he was back in January, and as long as his mobs of morons keep boosting for him (even if in diminishing numbers) he’ll just keep lying about his ratings and votes. He’s living in a carnaval house of mirrors fantasy and inviting everyone to come along with him, and the “MSM” he so decries is eating that shit up like creme pie.
Stranger
People said Trump couldn’t win the GOP nomination. * Then he won it.*
People said Trump couldn’t win the general election. Then he won it.
Now people are saying he won’t finish his term. Signs point to “NO”.
Is this where we hold our hands up and praise his name? Is there a hymnal?
Good thing that many here are not like most people. IMHO the issue here is not much about impeaching Trump (as I see the reality of the asinine and “we do not care to catch the Trump fleas” attitude from the Republicans now.) But I do see that it is important to check on the creeping mafia state.
It reminds me about the last episode were Michael J Fox was officially a cast member in the show Spin City.
I think that besides the message to be loyal and to be willing to be a fall guy for what you know it was caused by the naiveté of your boss (and he knew how important it was anyhow to help his boss to keep his position after he got rid of the bad influences), one message should not be lost: the politician did learn the lesson to avoid the mafioso that was influencing policy. It was, even though in fiction, an example of how shining light on conflicts of interest and suspicious connections is supposed to work in helping democracies to fight corruption in the near past.
Of course in real life nowadays I do not see anyone that is willing to take the blame, because Trump also has the knack of selecting people that are as conning (yes, not “cunning” but “conning”) as he is, they only are loyal to themselves. And unlike Winston (the naive boss of Mike) Trump is either naive or too close to corruption. He is still looking to get close to undemocratic thugs, undemocratic leaders and other unsavory people that are not really thinking much about the well being of the USA.
In essence, I do think that the effort of forcing Trump to RTFM or to learn how to at least avoid bad connections or the appearance of bad conflicts of interest is a very worthy effort indeed.
I’m sorry, I’m so tired of this meme. How does this not say that nothing can ever be predicted ever again? If you’re saying that anything is possible now that Trump has had success, why is this not saying that the default assumption should be unqualified success forever? Can nobody express an honest, reasoned opinion about his political future without someone sneering “well, people on your side of the aisle were really wrong before, so shut up”?
Okay, fine, nothing is impossible. Donald Trump will attempt to launch a nuclear strike on liberal states and is stopped by his cabinet, and the news sends his poll numbers so high he institutes permanent tax cuts for his tax bracket. The next president will be someone with a Hitler mustache who will run on actual genocide and win all fifty states.
You can’t tell me I’m wrong! Trump won! There is no such thing as conventional wisdom or sanity anymore!
I was one of those “people”, so no, I’m not talking about people on the other side of the aisle. Also, I was responding to drad dog. Can point out the “reasoned” opinion in his post? Not the opinion part, the “reasoned” part. Lastly, “signs point to no” is not the same as “100% certainty it won’t happen”. More like “not likely”.
Do we really have to review the facts on the ground, starting with which party is in control of the House or Representatives?
Are you following the news? It is not sustainable, unless we just become an authoritarian dictatorship, and right away. And that would involve very bad consequences for our relations with our allies, if we are going to have any. I don’t see it happening.
Donnies brain is more perishable than democracy in the US, no matter what it looks like after the last year. Do you see how deeply ill, vulnerable, insecure and out of touch he is? There are laws of gravity that exist whether you have seen them in play over your sample period or not.
People are also saying Trump doesn’t have complete power over time and space.
I think this is potentially where the disconnect might occur. You follow the news, and you are ‘informed’. You care about facts. But clearly, a rather large number of people follow receive different ‘news’ which shapes how they are informed (or not), and they work with different ‘facts’. This is exactly why Donald Trump’s victory shocked America – precisely because those of us who were staying on top of the news and the facts were living in one reality, whereas those who voted for him (the ones who ultimately really mattered) were living in another. I don’t see any evidence that these people have stepped out of their post-truth, semi-factual world.
But don’t you see that this is exactly the direction in which the Trump administration is heading? Look at the assault on public institutions. Look at his contempt for the rule of law and checks and balances. Look at how he has treated the very bureaucracies that serve him: he is attempting to dismantle those agencies so that he and his inner circle have more vertical control over the people who staff them. Look at the people he has hired in his cabinet: billionaire ex-CEOs and ex-generals – and people from radical think tanks. It’s an administration of autocrats. And most importantly, he has a party that has enabled him and supports him, probably because they also have authoritarian tendencies.
Look at what’s happening: Trump has effectively threatened trade wars with countries like Canada and Germany. He already scrapped the TPP. He has now pulled out of the Paris accord, one of only 3 countries on the planet to do so. He has done all of this over the objections of many influential business people and advisors here in this country. He simply shrugs them off and tweets to his base of supporters directly, just like Hugo Chavez or any other authoritarian populist / nationalist would.
What I see is a society that is even more deeply divided than it was even on election night, but this is exactly how authoritarians operate. They succeed by creating binary choices, black and white, us against them, the ‘real’ citizens who love their country versus the elitists who are trying to deceive you and enslave you. Nothing has happened that would dissuade Trump’s supporters. The economy is still doing well. He might be unpopular with other world leaders but he hasn’t made any mistakes like starting an unpopular war. Until people consider themselves the victims of his policies, then we’re probably just going to remain bitterly divided about his presidency.
Has the power to, but shouldn’t without being impeached and removed from office for it as obstruction of justice.
I tend to agree with you. Except while I think Trump’s guilty of obstruction (firing Comey was that), I’m still not sure he has directly colluded v. the people around him doing so. Either way, I think he thinks he has the upper hand and is the one calling the shots there.
While I don’t think the hearings will be a “nothing burger” I do expect them to be called such unless there’s a bombshell so big even the GOP reps feel compelled to act. I do expect anything we hear to be far less sensational or concrete than would be needed to be actionable. A lot of “can’t answer that” like you said, and a little “he said/he said” regarding Comey and Trump, where John Q. Public will back/believe the one that fits his political views.
The only strange thing about this to me is that all the stations are carrying it live. I’d not think we were the point in proceedings where that would happen. I wouldn’t think it’d get the ratings. But then, I really don’t know what point these things got live broadcasts in the past. From Nixon to Clinton, I mean - when did they get live coverage? And even Clinton was long enough ago that media is quite different than it was then.
This is indeed tiresome. He won the nomination against a pathetic bunch of losers. He won the electoral college after his opponent suffered a 25 year smear campaign and an 11th hour mistake by Comey. His “winning” is overrated.
This will be good stuff and deserves the hype. Poor Donald. He turns on the television (too bad he has so much free time that he can watch tv all day) and there it is in the corner: the time until the testimony counting down. What will Comey say? And he wonders to himself: Why did I fire him? Why did Sessions recuse himself? And the truth is he simply doesn’t know. He isn’t capable of remembering his words from one sentence to the next, much less things he said months ago. His staff is in disarray. His staff are nothing but ass kissers, backstabbers, and leakers. He can trust nobody. And the clock ticks ticks ticks, down to the time when Comey will tell his tale, the tale that will begin the end. Poor Donald. Sad.
People said Trump’s administration would be disastrous in every conceivable way. Then it was!
How will it end, exactly? Are Ryan and McConnell going to have a sudden attack of ethical reserve and lead their party to impeachment and removal? There has been exactly zero indication of this thus far, and franky Comey could testify that Trump personally executed the White House chef in front of him for putting remoulade on his meatloaf instead of Heinz ketchup, and it still wouldn’t lead to any action.
The only way Trump leaves the White House is if he gets bored and resigns, or dies of a heart attack halfway through a bucket of KFC Extra Crispy. So, I’d suggest that the media just start ignoring him en masse and we take up a donation to keep Donald in chicken nuggets and deep fried clams morning, noon, and night. Expecting Republican leaders to do anything regardless of how brazen Trump may be about covering up contacts with Russian intelligence or any other malfeasance is like expecting your four year old to put on sunblock and not spend too much time out in the sun ar the beach. I mean, it might happen, but since there is no notion of consequence by anyone involved, the odds are only slightly better that Trump will get swallowed up by a sinkhole during a golf game at Mar-A-Lago. We can hopefor this, and it would be a fitting capstone to the man who promised to “drain the swamp”, but Melenia has been praying for this for years and it hasn’t happened yet.
Stranger
I’m more optimistic than that. Comey’s testimony will be damaging, but it won’t be the end, just the beginning. Moeller will follow the money, I think that’s where the real action is. What did Donald get and what did he promise in order to get it? When the investigation is complete, there will be no honorable option but to either impeach and convict or he resigns. Even Republicans can only live so long in denial.
Well, you have certainly brightened my morning with your deep sarcasm and penetrating witticisms. McConnell accepting the “honorable option” and admitting he was wrong to back Trump rather than just walking by the camera with a shit-eating grin on his face and giving reporters a thumbs-up! It is indeed the height of satire! Just imagine if Paul Ryan admitted the hippocrisy of his stance on entitlements versus his own personal history? This shit is comedy gold.
Stranger
I don’t think last year’s Russian election meddling matters in and of itself, though it might make progressives more determined to show up and vote, which is a good thing. However, if Russia goes on another military offensive or seriously threatens one of our Western Allies, then that might move the needle. I don’t think Donald is completely made of Teflon but there has to be something that changes the dynamics and right now, I don’t think election meddling is an issue that’s really achieving that. On the other hand, it is slowing the GOP agenda. It’s in the way. They have complete control of the government and yet they’ve achieved very little, and they’re running out of time. So there’s that on the positive side of the ledger.
Just as there was no honorable option other than to hold confirmation hearings for Garland, I suppose.
What will happen when this comes out is that the polls will drive the politicians. If they see that failing to impeach will cost them more votes than impeachment, they will simultaneously stick the knife in Donald’s back and plant Obama and Hillary’s prints on the knives.