Okay, but for real: Where is their line, do you think? Trump’s lying and stealing don’t faze them. Ties and possible collusion with Russia don’t faze them. What will it take? I’m being serious here. Would it really take something (what’s the word?) blatantly criminal, in the everyday sense? Like, ┴rump kills someone and that finally does it for them?
15 Likes
Did I say anywhere that they aren’t people? That doesn’t mean there aren’t some people who will indeed overturn everyone else’s applecart for their own short term gain - that doesn’t make them less human, even if they are assholes. It’s a point of ideology for some, in fact, that one’s short term benefit always outweighs the good of society in general - Ayn Rand herself noted that for her the greatest virtue is selfishness. And history has shown us that any internally consistent ideology that can replicate itself in people’s minds will help shape people’s realities and what they are willing to accept to see that ideology come to fruition in the real world.
But I think you also assume that we all are working from the same set of facts and evidence. We’re just not now and it really is something we’re going to have to come to terms with if we plan to find a way to fix it.
The question is whether or not Trump will do anything to upset the GOPs self-interests. So far, that doesn’t seem to be the case. I’m sure it could be at some point, and then we’ll see some grow a spine and do something about Trump. But at this point, they’ve shown every willingness to overlook his flaws because they’ve gained in the short term. It really depends, I think on who in the party has the upper hand. Right now, it’s the Trumpites.
7 Likes
The ones I’ve talked with essentially put the line where “possible” becomes “proven.”
The vote on the AHCA should do a lot to settle that out. As of this moment, looks like they are still way short of the necessary votes in the House, with a number of GOP moderates vowing to never vote for the bill with the Tea Party mandatory clauses in it. It’s not that they’ve grown a spine, its that they are more concerned with the hands that are around the throat of their political careers than vague threats from a likely one term (or less) president.
2 Likes
From what I understand, many of the changes are being phased in and won’t fully take effect until 2020. By then, we have term 2 of Trump. Again, the lack of a shared base of knowledge on what’s in the AHCA will be a problem getting people to understand what the GOP is trying to ram through.
8 Likes
Oh, good! Then we might only have to wait another week or so! This could be easier than I thoguht.
6 Likes
I hate nobody like I hate millionaire former reality tv star Donald Trump.
12 Likes
JFC Thompson, you had to blow your brains out just before what could have been your greatest political nemesis. I would LOVE to have a 40-ish HST covering the White House right now.
7 Likes
I admire your optimism.
1 Like
That’s one of the (myriad) things that amazes me about Trump - he’s so damn stupid.
Christ, what an asshole.
1 Like
Somehow it feels like he is still doing it. It’s just that his version of gonzo has infected our reality stream.
It may have been a mistake to blast his ashes into space.
4 Likes
Indeed…
It’s getting to the point where I’m developing this strangely specific urge to projectile vomit into an unconscious Trump’s open mouth. Does anyone think that’s weird?
5 Likes
And what’s especially disturbing (at least to me) is that he has helpers – US citizens – who are enabling him in all this. A corrupt, fucked up, power-drunk, sociopathic cabal of like-minded traitors.
6 Likes
Indubitably…
1 Like
It’s like neighbors in a cul-de-sac ignoring the known pedophile next door to keep the property values up until they can sell.
9 Likes
I’m unhappy with this all-out effort by the left wing to fan the flames of anti-Russian hatred, but I guess all those years of perfectly good Cold War propaganda shouldn’t have to go to waste, after all.
My Russian friends are worried, and I’m not at all kidding. They’re mostly Jews, so they are getting demonized by all sides now. I had a guy in my office an hour ago who is deeply concerned; he says “Putin is bad guy, OK, but make enemy not smart. You must talk to people who disagree, not yell at them” (yes he really does talk like that, with randomly inserted and elided articles and majestically rolling Rs. He’s Moldavan by birth, ethnically Russian, and still working at over 70 years old.)
Can anyone truthfully say this would be an issue if we were talking about Britain instead of Russia?
Sure “proven”, just like “evolution”.
6 Likes
That sounds like the armed forces in Egypt and Pakistan, for instance: enjoy a comfortable life at public expense while congratulating yourselves for your dedication to defending the nation. And make sure that you are the only part of the government that actually works, so you can gain even more power by being begged to solve all your country’s problems.
1 Like
Britain is an ally, friend, and ancestral homeland to many Americans, not a country run by an authoritarian that we’ve had poor relations with for decades that we’ve imposed sanctions on for invading a neighbor. So truthfully no it would not be as significant an issue. Your friends are understandably sensitive to the situation and should remain so, but I doubt there’s widespread confusion between Putin and the Russian people nor will there be for the immediate future.
4 Likes
In the era of alternate facts, “proven” is in the eye of the beholder.
If ⊥rump were to kill and eat a human infant on live television, his base would find some way, some feat of rationalization, that would lay the crime at the feat of Obama, or Hillary.
6 Likes
