Technically, POTUS did nothing illegal. Lying to the American people to get elected is a longstanding tradition in both parties. It is unclear if the MAGA-heads would even view Trump’s behavior as troubling. He is a demigod after all.
As for the WSJ assertion of a $50M apartment promise to Putin, this is hard to prove. If true, it does raise the question of why Trump was toadying up to a dictator with a history of anti-American behavior. After all NATO would not exist if Russia was not hostile to the West. If I was Alex Jones, I would suggest that the offer was to ensure a safe haven after Trump betrayed the US.
I’m expecting similar, the GOP has to start distancing so they have a platform off which to launch their chosen 2020 candidate. I can see both Trump not even running for a second term and the GOP running a candidate against him as very real possibilities.
“I’ve accomplished everything I wanted to, I’m the best, so I’m going back to my businesses!”
“Mueller probe questions triple chainsaw homicide caught on tape, it may end up being the President’s undoing.”
“FBI investigates nuclear launch codes tweeted at 3:00 AM, it may end up being the President’s undoing.”
“Baby-eating “They Live” alien publicly states plan for total destruction of all human life within ten years, it may end up being the President’s undoing.”
Don’t know why, but seeing Don jnr and Ivanka locked up would be even more satisfying than seeing Trump put away. I think it’s a combination of their sheer arrogance and mediocrity that infuriates me quite so much.
Won’t there be exactly the same number of Senate seats (maybe +/- 1 or 2) up for re-election in 2020? One-third of the total every two years, isn’t it?
I think we should always remember that Trump lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million or over 2%. He got in through the mechanism of the electoral college.
The results of the mid-term elections show that a lot of people who voted for Trump in 2016 have since deserted him.
I could just as easily say that Trump saying that Mexicans are rapists in his candidacy announcement speech should have been his undoing, or that non-covertly working with the NYC mob should’ve done it, or getting sued by the US government for refusing to rent apartments to black people. When a guy’s been a total shitbag for decades, and that’s part of his entire character, mocking people is just part of his charm for a certain kind of shitbag American.
Steve Bannon, no matter how willing he is to follow Trump into a bottomless pit, must personally think Trump is the most incompetent idiot he’s ever worked with.
For most people we use the word “flipping” to mean two distinct things: 1) Giving prosecutors everything they want; 2) Conceding that you will have to work with prosecutors and align your interests with theirs. There’s a reason we equivocate between those two things, but in Don Jr’s case we may need to keep them separate in their minds. I think the’s awfully likely to refuse to do (2) but to do (1) anyway because he’s just that dumb.
Of everything I honestly thought his long, well known record of not paying people who worked for him would have been something that would have turned people off. I mean, racism appeals to you if you are a racist. But not paying people? Who the hell does that appeal to?
That’s a great way to put what I was thinking. I mean, the way he “proved” wikileaks had no special communication with the Trump campaign was to post special communications between the Trump campaign and wikileaks.
Oh, nevermind everybody. Trump has clarified that while, yes, he did work with Russians on building a tower in Moscow, it was “very legal & very cool”.
His unsophisticated voters, who think that’s one of the many dick moves that successful billionaire bosses pull.* Also Libertarian fundies, who get happier and happier as a transaction approaches a zero-sum outcome and always root for the “winner” in that situation.
These thought processes seem bizarre and alien to us, but they exist.
[* see also tax evasion, firing people in humiliating ways, sexually harassing employees, petty revenge on competitors and rivals, slapping one’s name on everything in sight, etc., etc.]
last night’s Rachel Maddow first segment is a must watch to understand this, starts off slow and boring with the Cohen confessions but it comes together at the end
it’s all about the financing - Trump could no longer get financing from ANY bank because he screwed over too many of them - it’s illegal to do business with Russian banks but he was starting to do so anyway - so gifts to Putin et al was a must for doing business in Russia and once he started to get in bed with them, Putin of course wanted him to win the election
the problem is Trump simply cannot be allowed to finish his term - I was initially against the idea of impeachment because of the mess it would make and Pence is no prize either (and could win re-election) but Trump cannot be allowed to walk away with a presidency for the pure evil he and his associates corrupt this country and the world
