From a security standpoint, having the Orange Menace in office has exposed so many vulnerabilities in our system of government that need to be fixed. Things that we’ve taken for granted as norms or tradition ought to be codified in law.
But first we need to vote the bums out.
Donald Trump: American Democracy Stress Testor would be the single most charitable title that a posthumous presidential biography of DJT could have and still be historically accurate.
Reagan was an actor to the last. He was a cardboard phony whose real job was to distract the public with pithy homilies and amusing sound bytes while his corporate puppet masters looted the country 7 ways from Sunday and laid the groundwork for destroying the unions.
When you have a world view of take or be taken you see everyone as a potential profit source and assume everyone is coming for what you have already horded.
[Insert shark always swimming forward metaphor]
So they are set today. But if they stop and just enjoy their current ill gotten gains then the poors and progressives will come for it before they can cash out of this shit timeline. Fear is the mind killer.
Sociopathy.
I remember an analysis of how well informed people were aabout the Iraq war based on where they primarily got their news. Those that used what are unfortunately the most common outlets (Fox news e.g.) were significantly worse informed than those who didn’t read, watch, or listen to any news at all.
Mass misinformation is the defining tool of our current political world
As others have noted, the failure to enact consequences for transgressions is the enabling factor. There seems to have existed a fragile detente in the political establishment that all but the most egregious violations ultimately won’t face substantial consequences as long as the subject escapes the issue on their own or walks away from the job before said consequences become publicly unavoidable.
Trump, McConnell, et al appear to be gaming that system, most recently daring Pelosi and company to enact consequences, such as sending the sergeant-at-arms to arrest Barr for contempt of Congress. But Pelosi knows, once Dems try something like that even once, they open themselves up to a sh*tstorm of overwhelming counter-consequences, many probably unlawful, because that rubicon is crossed, but it would be like proverbial open nuclear war in the US government that would be very hard to stop without either one side winning and taking true dictatorial control, or the military steps in.
For me, the part that stood out was when Barr used the word WE when asked whether the White House is going to invoke privilege. At most, he would be using “we” if he was talking about his own organization, the Office of the Attorney General, in the Department of Justice. He is not White House counsel. He is not Trump’s personal attorney. (Or is he?) That “we” was very telling.
Yeah I have a printed copy of the Australian constitution, and it is surprising to me how little of the workings of government is defined there. The whole system is built on conventions and continuity.
When Comey talks about “soul” he’s not just talking about reputation, but about moral integrity. I suppose, really, he isn’t talking about reputation at all, but loss of reputation comes when it becomes clear that one’s moral integrity has been completely, publicly compromised. At least, for some people, and that’s why at least some Trumpers don’t care. They’re not so worried about hurting their reputation, because in the circles in which they live/work, lack of moral integrity is no big deal.
Sometimes I feel like the answer to that question is just “Why does anyone do anything?”
What is being revealed to us is that our theory of what people value and how people decide how to behave is not robust or generalizable.
i don’t even buy that he’s doing this for power. The power to what, kiss Trump’s ass?
But part of this is that I genuinely can’t believe America’s system of government. For a system that is supposed to have “checks and balances” congress sure seems utterly impotent against the other branches. It seems to me that you need a two thirds majority in both houses to hold an administration even minimally accountable, and even then all you can really do try to control them by changing how they are funded. And that seems useless against this administration.
At least until they need a suitable fall guy.
This is what baffles me. You do not need to be historian, just to be somewhat familiar with the news over the last few months, to see what the virtually inevitable outcome is for pretty much every one of the bit players in this administration. He will drain you of any possible usefullness then chuck you to the wolves. Said wolves will then content themselves with savaging the corpse while Il Douche continues on his merry way.
All one had to do was watch one season of “The Apprentice” to realise that – assuming that one wasn’t a rube or sociopath who was under the impression that this is how business management is supposed to work.
You know, Joan Jett doesn’t care, but she still wouldn’t work for him.
It’s not what he has on him, it’s what he can offer him. I see two possibilities: Supreme Court or VP. I find the first one more likely, but my dad’s money is on the second one. I think SCOTUS nomination is the most likely, because Barr is clever enough abou the law to know, once he’s in as a Justice, he’s untouchable. It’s a permanent posting. VP is another likelihood, since Trump hates Pence, but I don’t think that offers much more cache than AG, and a lot more risk.
Much to my chagrin, it looks like Barr has played his cards expertly and managed to defuse a report that by all rights should have been the end of the regime, and quite possibly, the Republicans for decades. (Guilt by association and all that.)
Honestly, I think there’s a decent chance that Barr will be noted by historians as having saved the Republicans from a well-deserved long exile. The report may still lose the administration the next election, but the American public has a short attention span, and it looks like Barr managed to deflect things just enough in those critical few days after the report’s release to avoid a tsunami of public opinion.
Damn.
The only slight silver lining is that the Republicans aren’t going to acknowledge how close they came to destruction and thus will never reward the person who managed to save them.
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