There are some who believe that going after the Full Mueller Report is “old news” and that we should “move one”.
That is not correct.
The Full Mueller Report sinks Trump. Simple as that.
Barr’s actions scream, "PLEASE GET ME SOMEBODY TO SHRED ALL OF THIS!!!"
exactly.
Any Democrat worthy of office should be able to recite a litany of Trump’s financial calumnies – from fraudulently obtaining casino licenses, to bankruptcies by the dozen, to stiffing small businesspeople, to scams like Trump University.
And they should be able to point out that Trump has been stuffing the IRS full of people directly connected to his taxes, AND that Trump promised to release his returns —and that was a lie.
Once you make Trump’s lies and corruption the issue, nobody will listen to White House spox bitching about political overreach.
Instead, the Dems let milquetoasts like Neal take the lead, who will bore you to tear with statutory authorizations and precedents etc etc. And because his case is so boring, people pay attention to Trump and his minions.
and when the IRS turns down Neal’s request?
Pen another polite letter perhaps?
Concern trolling.
There is literally no constituency for being soft on Trump that isn’t already fully on his side. The anti-Trump constituency is considerably larger (by roughly a 3:2 ratio) and gets tired of all the pandering that is done to the minority.
The goal here is to expose Trump. Either Mnuchin produces the tax returns (as he’s legally required to do) or Trump has to run as a candidate illegally covering up his financial history. It’s an absurd reach to spin this as good for Trump.
OTOH, any contemplation of the opposite strategy would clearly be good for Trump. He wants the pressure to subside. He wants to hide his financial activities and not let them see the light of day. And millions of voters would be demoralized if Democrats just rolled over for his baseless charges of victimhood.
They have a problem with delay, especially seeing how badly his mind has deteriorated in the last two weeks alone. The problems and scandals will keep coming (the book on how he cheats at golf probably really fried him), and the question is can they keep him on enough medication to function at even the low level he does now. With his health and the family history of dementia/Altzheimers, there is a good possibility he won’t last that long, it’s a lot of pressure even for someone with a functioning mind. Medications aren’t effective for more than a short time, then they try the next one and the next one. The functioning periods become fewer and farther between. What happens if the republicans faithful to him realize that a continued attachment to someone who is losing all contact with reality will kill any political future they still have left? I wonder if they meet in dark rooms late at night and plan a coup.
Yes we already have quotes of ‘rather be a russian than a dem’ and if there is going to be a dictator, I am ‘glad that it is Trump’
So true. And it will continue throughout the campaign. Although I don’t want Bernie as the nominee, at least he punches, yells, and pouts as well as Trump - and is somewhat stylistically on his level.
I was thinking last night that the media has really failed us, albeit some good reporters. They still don’t have a clue how to “cover” him and he fucking dominates everything - even “our” outlets.
It has long seemed to me that the best justification for obtaining Trump’s tax returns would be a House investigation into the nature and extent of Trump’s emoluments and whether or not to approve them. That language is literally lifted from the constitution and tax returns could certainly have some bearing on the amount of income received from various sources by Trump that could amount to emoluments. I struggle to come up with a basis for a court getting in the middle of the Congress performing this core function assigned by the constitution. What am I missing here?
Absolutely - we do not have nearly enough blowhards. Except Bernie. That’s his greatest strength, imo. We need more screamers. Where’s Howard Dean? Hey Al Franken! You could really help here!
The last year of Reagan’s Administration he was functionally incapacitated.
He only appeared at tightly controlled photo-ops and rarely spoke other than to read a short prepared speech, or toss off a folksy homily to the adoring crowds.
His Alzheimer’s was rapidly progressing due to his previous brain damage from being shot in 1981 (when he very nearly died from a brain embolism.) Watch the videos of him prior to being shot, and after. There is a distinct change in his speech and cognitive abilities.
HOWEVER, he was perfectly willing to let VP Bush take over the government (resulting in Iran/Contra) and Nancy did everything in her considerable power to shield him along with the willing silence of the Media.
Trump’s EGO will not let him relinquish even an iota of power to Pence, who he despises for his lack of spine, while at the same time rewards him for his ass-kissing.
This will not end well.
If you refer to me, I want the full report too. And I don’t think it is old news. What I do think is we need to get more ammo and other investigations, even impeachment going without further delay. Waiting for The Report, which may never come, insures that we have nothing else going. No more waiting is my plea…not that The Report isn’t important. We need to have a plan for his taxes, impeachment, Mueller interviews, other investigations planned as if we never will get The Report because that is a possibility…and it is what the entire R party is trying to make happen. They are all working to disappear The Report…and us behaving like we WILL get it isn’t correct…and that we will get anything useful or IN TIME to make an impact is just a guess at this point too.
Although in a rational world you would be correct, in our current circumstance it seems naive. Trump’s lies and corruption, along with his incompetence, HAVE been the issue since 2016, and they’re the reason he is viewed so negatively by a plurality of Americans. However, there is a media behemoth that exists to pander to him and complain about the crazy Dems overreaching in their hatred, and his solid bloc of supporters get their news from nowhere but there. Of course they’ll listen, and they’ll be motivated to vote.
They won’t come around to any significant degree, the rest of us just need to show up in larger numbers.
Trump is doing exactly the opposite, the more he loses contact with reality, the more he tries to control every aspect of his life and the country. I agree, there is no way this will end well.
Don;t blame the media. The media thrives on red meat, and if you want the media’s attention, you give them that red meat.
the Dems don’t do that, because the leadership (Pelosi, Hoyer, Clyburn, Schumer, Durbin, Murray, Perez, etc) is much more concerned about how the “respectable” columnists in the New York Times and washington post will react (“Has Nancy Pelosi Gone Too Far”) . And all of them are so jealous of their perogatives that when someone willing to speak out (e.g. AOC) the leadership does what it can to discredit them.
The media is the media – blaming the media is like building a house in a flood plain, and then blaming the tides when the basement is flooded.
All you have to do is read the DCCC fundraising letters. The headlines are almost inevitably about generating fear of Trump and the Republicans, and they have led to record and near record fundraising. Then Nancy uses that money to enforce her power base and stifle challenges to her incumbents.
The Democrats did not win the House majority in 2018 because of any big policy promises by Pelosi or the Democrats. Just like in 2006, they won it on Republican backlash. And both times, after assuming the majority, Pelosi immediately took impeachment of the Republican President “off the table.”
The lifeblood of Washington politics and power is money for both Republicans and Democrats. All you have to do is follow how it is raised, where it comes from, who gets it, and where it goes. Pelosi raises millions off of Trump - the longer he is in office and the longer she can slow-walk the investigations, the more money the DCCC can raise to protect Pelosi’s incumbents and her personal power base.
Follow the money.
This is kabuki. The law is clear. Also, we have reason to believe DT filed false returns, based on him not releasing them after promising multiple times to do so, and on reporting of him manipulating his property values. This would constitute an impeachable offense, which congress has a duty to investigate.
The “Dems overreach” narrative works because the Dems buy into it; virtually any move made by the Dems gets the “dems overreach” treatment. Change the tactics, and get truly aggressive, and the media will focus on what the Dems are doing and saying, and create a different “Dems take the fight to Trump” narrative, eschewing the “overreach” nonsense because a fight is far more mediagenic than “overreach”
Or better trolls.
2020 could be different, the largest voting bloc ever is the Millennials, and the largest registered voting bloc is Independents. If the younger voters get out in 2020, along with minorities, both parties could very well lose a lot of their power. After the 2016 election, a lot of dissatisfied people in both parties changed their voting registration to Independent - they were disgusted with both Trump and Hillary.
PP has dominated the media since he raised his ugly head with his birtherism claim and before that actually, and it leaves us enraged, exhausted, and feeling defeated before the fight’s begun.