You are blessed to have him as a Congressman. I wish I could say that about my own. I have one of those hard right Teabaggin’ ideologues for a Congressman that thinks his grand loopy ideas are all that matter, and couldn’t give a shit about how people in his district feel about things that matter to them if it doesn’t fit his mold or worldview. Nor does he give a care to how poor or vulnerable people are forced to live their lives.
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Apparently we need to clone him several hundred times if for the backbone alone.
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A symptom of Feckless Liberal Syndrome: a personality disorder directly related to a flight response best summed up as “Don’t make daddy angry when he’s drinking. Just behave and it will be over soon.”
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The Universal New Yorker Cartoon Caption works here.
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We always know it’s some serious shit when you’re not in-character.
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I have a question: Suppose there is so much Russian dirt (not the sex stuff necessarily, but more serious financial and/or political stuff) that Trump either resigns or is impeached. If the Russian connection is seen to be so tainted and treasonous and was a reason for Trump to be elected in the first place, why wouldn’t Pence’s legitimacy be equally questioned? If Trump was elected illegimately (through collusion with a foreign power) then Pence was, too. How could he assume the office if Trump has to vacate?
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Good call.
@sandyh @valgalky23 @cmr Actually, I think the last point is the most important AND not just the Russians, but Trump and people connected to his campaign may have conspired with the Russians to commit espionage on American institutions including both major political parties. Now we know that Flynn made several calls to the Russian ambassador the same day Obama announced the ejection of 35 Russian spys from the US. Notice also Trump abruptly stopped his news conference rather than answer the question “Will you categorically deny that anyone in your campaign had contacts with Russians re Wikileaks?” He is acting out of character re Putin and acting like he has something to hide. Anne Applebaum sums up what we know. It is bad enough:
This has the feel of January, 1973. At the time we only knew the DNC Watergate office was burglarized, but we only suspected it was a political burglary, and we only thought it was carried out by overzealous underlings. Within two years, the burglary morphed into a cover up orchestrated from the very top and Nixon was gone.
Is this how the Trump era will end?
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You have my condolences. Yours may be worse than mine, and mine is Don Young.
The point is not Russian hacking alone. If the Trump campaign and possibly Trump himself was assisting and acting in concert with Russian contacts to coordinate the timing and nature of Wikileaks, than Trump and/or his underlings are co-conspirators in acts of foreign espionage against American institutions. This is the strongest basis of Trump’s illegitimacy. See my comment up thread.
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What do you mean it doesn’t matter if the EC cast their votes? Isn’t that the law? Isn’t that what made him the President Elect?
I agree that not telling the truth is what the Republicans do, which is why if the electoral college went against the voters, as many here were advocating (including myself), republicans would have (wrongfully) claimed that she was illegitimate. That’s really your answer? Don’t worry about what’s right? Act like Republicans?
I’m sorry, I can’t. Maybe that’s why we fail, but I just can’t be that way. I fully admit that I could be wrong about stuff, including this. But I can’t say things that I know believe are false to further my cause. That’s just who I am.
Edit: changed “know” to “believe”
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Of course, the Trumpster said the same thing about the SITTING President but I guess IOKIYAR.
That’s a bummer, because I have some great advice about fighting for equality for African Americans.
As Congressman Lewis quietly and softly answered the question of legitimacy by Todd, you could just feel how deeply it was hurting him to say it. He has fought so hard to protect this country’s democratic process for all people. He does not plan to attend the inauguration, first time ever since being in office. That was also very painful for him to say.
That is a man who you can believe what comes from his lips, and see what is in his heart because they are the same message.
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Fuck. And then comes this story from the Independent (which you have to treat carefully because they’re not a paper that has a U.S. edition like, say, the Guardian) indicating that the fears that Comey and/or the FBI actually were just ignoring this shit because they were in the bag for Trump might well be true. Which would tend to tie in nicely with all the Democrat rage coming out of this meeting.
The part where McCain actually had to go pick up a copy of the dossier and personally put it into Comey’s hands was particularly scary.
The one thing that I’m having to swallow is that, for the next while, whatever issues we’ve had with McCain and Graham, however much mockery we’ve heaped upon them, and however much they deserved it, we’re going to need them, and, at least on this, make common cause with them, because they appear to be the only people in the whole goddamn Republican Party who get that this is a bad thing and that it’s serious.
But, obviously, we’re only mad about the FBI’s failure to look into allegations that the next President has been compromised by, and has been acting in concert with, a hostile foreign power because we’re biased.
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Golden Boy is an illegitimate pResidon’t, for certain. There is documentation that his campaign employed Paul Manafort, who was paid to lobby for foreign government(s), and yet Manafort never registered as such. Manafort very definitely has ties to Russia through the deposed Russian puppet of Ukraine. Registering as an agent for a foreign government is required by law. And yes, he was still acting as an agent of foreign government(s) while employed as Golden Boy’s campaign manager. When his acting as a foreign agent was discovered by the press, Manafort was removed from Golden Boy’s campaign. And that is hardly even the tip of the iceberg.
There are many reasons to detest the serial/pathological liar and blatant narcissist I now refer to as Golden Boy, and this is only one of them.
I would say that Comey needs to be fired, but I would prefer that happen only after Golden Boy no longer has the power to impact the selection of his replacement. If there are Republicans who truly love this country - and I believe that McCain and Graham fit that description - then they must pursue this investigation through all means available to them, especially since the FBI might be unwilling to do so. Once evidence is obtained, it should be provided to the public, regardless of the consequences. Why do I say this? Because I have no faith in the FBI any more, thanks to Comey. This is how democracies die…when citizens lose faith in their democratic institutions.
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Holy crap, did anyone see Rachel Maddow tonight. Supposedly the MI6 agent who created the dossier on Trump has gone into hiding because he is afraid Putin might try to assassinate him.
Also, apparently the guy was originally hired by some private American entity to investigate Trumps connection with Russia, but what he found was so disturbing he felt he had to turn it over to the FBI. The piece was so crazy. Like some dime store cold war spy novel, only its real.
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Reagan and Bush I were legitimate; using dirty politics like Willie Horton isn’t on this sort of scale. OTOH, Ford is less legitimate, as the only person who was never elected in any way to the office.
Good, of course, is another matter. Keep in mind that Eisenhower, despite being the go-to example of a “good Republican”, also started our policy of supporting any dictatorship, no matter how brutal, as long as they said they were with us against the Soviets, and sabotaging or outright overthrowing anyone who showed any mild tendency toward socialism, which included being unfriendly to US business interests.
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Possibly, but the worst part about that is remembering that it took two years for it all to work its way out.
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