The only thing Republicans want to stop is the investigation into this.
It is their ace-in-the-hole. When they do lose the election, the survivors will try to paralyze the government by stirring up a controversy about Russian hacking. All men are created equal, the Democrats have no monopoly on being hacked, why would you assume that. If the Russians hacked them, they could just as well have hacked us this time. Where is the investigation???
My nightmare scenario has Putin openly trying to swing 2018 to the Dems, allowing Trumpublicans to scream “SEE?!? I TOLD YOU IT WAS DEM/RUSSIA COLLUSION!”
This is just now occurring to you? :dubious:
I could actually see that happening, if the goal is to sow chaos. Impeachment hearings do have a way of paralyzing a government. Divided government is pretty much a sure way of making sure that nothing gets done.
The downside of this, from the Russian perspective, is that if the Dems benefit from Russian activity in this election after the Republicans did in the last, it might actually forge a consensus that something needs to be done.
копе́йка
The Bay is dropping Barbinka’s clothing line, due to performance issues. Canada’s iconic retailer also owns Saks, as well as Lord&Taylor. Her stuff will now be available exclusively at Mervyns.
I saw a movie today all about the 2016 election. A brash, immature asshole with anger issues challenges the stodgy, uptight, establishment candidate in a competition. Despite violating every code of civilized behavior, he attracts an audience that can’t look away and a retinue of idiots who follow him. Along the way, he throws his earliest supporter out a window. He’s only in it for the money. At the end, he wins a million-to-one victory.
For some strange reason it was called Happy Gilmore.
Next stop, Wal-Mart. As soon as they clear out all of those pesky brown rugrats.
Well, for one thing, Adam Sandler’s a lot smarter.
To quote someone from Facebook:
“I wonder how it must feel to be a general in the military or a career ambassador or a counter-intelligence agent in the FBI; you spend decades facing and understanding the geopolitical and ideological complexities of the threats America face. You realize that you’re not just serving your country but the stability of a relatively just and prosperous bloc of an alliance. And then some Russian-aided billionaire becomes your Commander-in-Chief and thrashes the gains that you and two generations of your predecessors have fought tooth and nail to defend.”
There’s an old Eliezer Yudkowsky post that talks about how Trump is “different”, and it contains this very neat passage:
Being President means standing on a shaky platform over a pit of radioactive lava, on which platform also happens to rest the United States and often the rest of the world. You can only select among other desirable qualities of a Presidental candidate, such as punching you in the nose less often, if both candidates seem aware that their desired job will entail taking calculated steps on a shaky platform over a pit of radioactive lava. Your disagreeing with a step they calculated–if you imagine yourself sufficiently expert in international affairs to have an opinion–is qualitatively different from one of the candidates being LEEEEROY JENKINS. As much as you may not be happy with the current situation, it is a tiny slice of relatively less bad outcomes, perched above a much larger space of worse outcomes. Pumping up the entropy doesn’t shatter a fragile malevolent thingy and let us go back to the normal good days. It obliterates the careful moves that barely manage to achieve the meh results you see around you, and dumps us into the boiling lava underneath. That’s what happened to Venezuela when they elected a more likeable leader who wasn’t much of a policy wonk but at least wasn’t part of the old machine.
In retrospect, even this was too goddamn optimistic. And that’s deeply saddening.
So, how does it feel to have a President who calls* his own country* foolish and stupid just before a meeting with Russia?
Which functions as a bit of clever wordplay (which the more canon-accurate Ofvladimir wouldn’t).
‘Cuz Il Douche sure is off-puttin’.
No, I’ve suspected this is where it’s going for a while. I was just reminding everyone that this could be where we’re headed: a contested election. A lot of the focus is on how Russia could help steal an election, but even if they don’t successfully steal enough data to help Republicans stave off defeat, the Republicans could lose and claim the results are invalid, and in some ways, this might be an even better outcome for Vladimir Putin. He wants the US to fight with itself. Few things can achieve that more than a disputed election and government that has questionable legitimacy.
When Russiagate began, I expected Republicans to downplay it in an attempt to protect their president and their ambitious agenda. But what I’m increasingly realizing is that Russia didn’t just infiltrate Trump’s campaign; they infiltrated the entire Republican party
I’m still worried about a Reichstag incident in the run-up to November. I’m not sure I’d put the probability as high, but it is disturbingly plausible nonetheless.
Trump is going drum up a pretext to arrest his political rivals? I give that no chance of happening.
The “Reichstag event” was 11.8.16.
A Reichstag moment would probably be in response to political violence. The more outrage that the far right employs - child separations at the border, Charlottesvilles, police brutality, etc - the more likely it is that outrage turns from protest to violence. This is when you’d see a Reichstag moment. They would cite some sort of ‘national emergency’ and claim that they need to ‘protect’ ‘real’ Americans from left-wing extremists. That is how culture wars can be utilized to the right’s advantage.
All I can say is that when this nightmare of Republican misrule is over, a lot of people need to go to jail. Fuck a period of reconciliation and healing - jail!
Broken record: Thump doesn’t have any friends. He operates by CREATING conflict and setting people against each other. Therefore, he doesn’t want the USA to have any friends among the nations and is consciously and deliberately setting us against nations that have always been allies.
Frankly, in spite of the noises he is making (and in spite of our jokes about the bromance), I don’t believe thump wants the USA to be “friends” with Russia or himself to be “friends” with Putin. Thump doesn’t make friends. He doesn’t believe in loyalty (except to himself). He doesn’t trust anyone. I think HE thinks he’s somehow going to use or outsmart Putin and come out The Winner at the closing credits. He thinks he’s going play Putin like a fish on a line or a starlet in a dressing room and then yell, Gotcha!" when he nails his prey.
And even though thump is the one being played, HE will tell the story–whatever the outcome–as though he has won. Just like he did with North Korea. And FOX will say whatever he wants them to, and the tainted slop will be eagerly lapped up by his ignorant MAGAbots.
He has told us and shown us and the world who he is and what he is over and over. And every day, he screams it in our faces all over again.