Trumps, and his advisors ties to Russia were known before the election. That the US populus voted for for a moron, lier and racist despite obvious evidence is what undermines liberal democracy.
It’s common procedure that foreign governments try to establish communication lines to the staff of newly elected heads of state. If it were a sane President who had the stated goal for a Détente between the USA and Russia no-one would bat an eye.
As it is there are only allegations and extrapolations. The bar for impeachment is higher than hopeful wishes: “High Crimes and Misdemeanors”.
Yes, but these are American right-wingers. Expecting them to shift categorizations like that is asking too much of them–except, apparently, they managed it anyway, for 45’s sake.
I think my favorite quote is from Paul Manafort. To paraphrase, he stated that he didn’t knowingly talk to any Russian intelligence officers, because hey, they don’t wear badges.
That’s right, you know the shits getting close to the fan when consultants blame any wrongdoing on their own incompetence rather than their traitorous intents.
You’d think so, but given that impeachment proceedings were begun against a President on the basis of a blowjob, I think Congress (assuming it wasn’t dominated by the poltroons and chancers of the GOP) could begin proceedings on the basis of Russian influence over the President.
But actually supplied help to the UK via the Pinochet military dictatorship in Chile.
His hired help seem to have got the wrong side of the continent and gone for a spillway in California.
The KGB actually had a uniform. I guess he assumed that the same rules were still in place.
Oh come now! Sexual impropriety is serious - could bring the office of President into disrepute - whereas relations between heads of State are just business as usual. Expect to hear this from Conway:poop: any time soon.
There is a collective responsibility in a democracy for your own politicians.
Yeah yeah I know the usual argument at this point: the majority didn’t vote for him.
Tough luck, but you (plural) voted for the politicians beforehand that made the gerrymandering and related shenanigans possible.
This is defenitely news worthy, especially after the recent resignation but this was known to be happening during and after the campaign was going on. And i’m pretty sure some of the Trump campaign people publicly talked about the Russian communication.
I agree there is a collective responsibility, just as there was for the failure of democracy in your own country in 1933. Part of that responsibility is fixing what is broken so it doesn’t happen again, as happened in postwar Germany. One can accept the fact of collective responsibility in a democratic system while still pointing out that your statement “the US populus voted for for a moron” is a demonstrably false one.
… and that’s exactly the impetus for my rants. It happened before. We know how it happened and what caused it. The US was directly involved in the process to end it. But did it learn something from this disaster? Others did - the US didn’t because it was and is to busy beating its own chest and proclaiming “Land of the Free ! Wohoo! We’re special, can’t happen here!” And now look where we are…
I agree with that. Part of the reason for the resurgence of right-wing populism in the U.S. and Germany and Europe is that the lessons of the 20th century’s experience of fascism are passing out of living memory. In the U.S. the situation is even worse, as history and civics education in public K-12 school have never been a priority (except for rah-rah American exceptionalist boosterism). But even in Germany, which took on the educational burden of collective responsibility with particular grace and humility and vigour, we now see the rise of the right-wing bigots riding the wave of anti-immigrant sentiment.
In the U.S. and (in a different way) in Europe we are all also coming to the end of the postwar economic anomaly of general prosperity and a large middle class that was anathema to right-wing populist movements and parties like “MAGA” in the U.S., AfD in Germany, Front Nationale in France, etc. ad nauseum.
How dirty is Pence in all of this? We remove the obvious Russian candidate and leave in the subtle one. Also I don’t want Pence pardoning Trump for everything he did a la Ford. Of course then we get a President Ryan… or after that President (Friend of Russia) Tillerson…
That is a hard choice. If trump thinks he’s facing jail, then he will literally feel like a cornered rat. He’ll go balls-out to stop it and could do a lot of damage in the process. Giving him an “out” so that he will go quietly may be the least worst option. On the other hand we have to worry about the moral hazard of letting powerful people evade appropriate punishment. Not just for the precedent, but also the trickle-down effect that erodes confidence in our institutions which have already taken a severe beating in recent decades.
Nothing has really come out about Pence is regard to Russia. He seems to be more focused on more traditional priorities of the modern GOP: pushing us to an extreme free market kleptocracy and blurring the line between church and state. In that regard there is an affinity in goals and outlook between Pence and Putin, but in Pence’s case it’s a more domestic agenda.
You’re right that there is no good outcome. Whether they’re working on behalf of Putin or not, they’re all dangerous scumbags who want to undermine the foundations of liberal democracy in America.
I’m deep sighing rn. Ohh, just a deep, deep sigh with a big deep breath. DEEP SIGHING BECAUSE OTHERWISE I"D FLIP THE GOTDAMN TABLE JFC WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKING FUCK:
Russia has been stepping up these boundary-testing incursions in recent years, as has China. It’s a symptom of the America’s waning power. We can expect to see a lot more of this, especially with the additional factor of a President who shouts “America First” like a pre-war isolationist but who also regularly taunts China out of ignorance or caprice.
Conway:poop: any time soon.