All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I'm calling it now. By the end of the month, right wing media will drop their Hunter Biden laptop story and replace it with Dr. Fauci's e-mails.

They're already done that. Most of the emails are banal nothingburgers. I mean what do people expect, these were emails from his work account, and Fauci is a smart guy who's not going to be a gossip queen on work.

It's from a FOIA request that they are claiming are "leaks".

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I’ll ponder a lot of stuff posted in this thread and challenge my innate bias.

(My innate bias is to distrust the “evil genius driving events” view of big events. Most definitively when the Donald is cast in the “evil genius” role!)

It's not a question or issue of seeing Trump as an "evil genius", it's a question of seeing him as a major threat and danger. That's not the same thing as being an "evil genius".

[CSTowle]

Apologies if the story's been posted already, but saw this thing about a veteran getting his mic cut for trying to tell the story of Black Americans contributions to the esbablishment of Memorial Day and thought it was worth a read. This one may have profanity and snarkiness, but can Google if interested and would like to avoid:

https://www.wonkette.com/old-veteran...ple-being-nice

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I'm calling it now. By the end of the month, right wing media will drop their Hunter Biden laptop story and replace it with Dr. Fauci's e-mails.

Hardly a surprise. Trump hated Fauci from day one because the doctor refused to slap a happy face on all the death and misery from the virus like Trump wanted, so it stood to reason right wing media would pick up that baton and run with it.

[worstblogever]

Pennsylvania Republican hikes into the woods to avoid speaking to reporters

Rep. Mo Brooks is avoiding an insurrection lawsuit. Rep. Eric Swalwell hired a private investigator to find him.

Why, it's almost like the GQP is a party of craven criminals and fanatical loons.

[numberthirty]

So far he’s been capable enough to collude with the Russians to cheat in an election, become President despite multiple gaffes and outright slander, avoid impeachment the first time, still remain POTUS despite multiple breaches of conduct and ethics, mishandling the COVID response leading to over 600,000 deaths, dispatched a mob to the Capitol resulting in multiple deaths, avoided a second impeachment and has somehow remained the defacto leader of the GOP.
I don’t think it’s safe to underestimate his ability at this point.

Politely, it's some fairly goofy math to add the elements in blue into any sort of estimation of Trump's actual potential ability.

We are talking about The Republican Party. Being realistic, what are the odds that they would vote to impeach any Republican President under any set of circumstances?

Once you have accounted for those odds?

It probably says more about Republicans in Congress than if Trump is some sort of Dr. Mindbender.

[babyblob]

I have never considered Trump some sort of Master mind. but what he is good at is tapping into people's fears and hate. He knows how to work a crowd and play on feelings. he may not be smart but he can whop people into a frenzy and that can be just as dangerous. We are just lucky more of how cult are brain dead idiots who cared more about photo ops and camera time on the 6th. If there was any sort of leader who knew what they were doing, or a group of people who could have taken charge of the crowd things would have been much different.

Im more worried about Trump 2.0 The person who can whip a crowd up like Trump is charismatic, but has the brains to put people in place to make him a threat.

[godisawesome]

Politely, it's some fairly goofy math to add the elements in blue into any sort of estimation of Trump's actual potential ability.

We are talking about The Republican Party. Being realistic, what are the odds that they would vote to impeach any Republican President under any set of circumstances?

Once you have accounted for those odds?

It probably says more about Republicans in Congress than if Trump is some sort of Dr. Mindbender.

Agreed; in regards to his ability to escape impeachment and removal, Trump is much more the beneficiary of the GOP’s devolution from the days of Nixon than any kind of mastermind. The way the current political winds blow, the only way a standing member of the GOP falls to legal removal is if there’s an intra-party fight against him; they have to have more nemeses inside the party than out, and you simply won’t see people in the party vote for their country over their party in that circumstance.

Even the GOP votes against Trump were more to do with Senators and Reps feeling either personally threatened or seeing him as an eventual liability to the party.

Now, Trump’s ability to takeover pretty much the entire GOP base *is* something he could get partial credit with... but even there, given how unpopular he was with GOP voters in 2016, it’s more a recognition he could win the primary field and get the nomination that would then elevate his popularity within the larger party out of opposition to the Dems. There’s a lot of people who voted pessimistically for him in 2016 because they hated Hillary and the Dems... then once he won declared him their Messiah.

[Jack Dracula]

Politely, it's some fairly goofy math to add the elements in blue into any sort of estimation of Trump's actual potential ability.

We are talking about The Republican Party. Being realistic, what are the odds that they would vote to impeach any Republican President under any set of circumstances?

Once you have accounted for those odds?

It probably says more about Republicans in Congress than if Trump is some sort of Dr. Mindbender.

I never said he's a "Dr. Mindbender". I'm saying it's stupid to assume he's an idiot. I've always thought he was a person of average intelligence with a talent for surrounding himself with capable, loyal people who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty. He's also learned over the years to put a space of plausible deniability between himself and the shady **** he gets others to do on his behalf.
He's a survivor and probably a psychopath who isn't afraid to lie, cheat and throw others to the wolves as long as he gets away clean. You ignore someone like that at your own peril.

[worstblogever]

Politely, it's some fairly goofy math to add the elements in blue into any sort of estimation of Trump's actual potential ability.

We are talking about The Republican Party. Being realistic, what are the odds that they would vote to impeach any Republican President under any set of circumstances?

What we learned about the GQP the past four years is whatever backbone they had to stand up to someone like Nixon, they lost, and are unable to work up the gumption to impeach or force out someone as stupid and corrupt as Trump. And if they are unable to push out someone as toxic to their brand, as directly combative to their own ranks, and as irredeemable as Trump, they will never cooperate in removing a Republican president from power.

Which has only further been demonstrated that they're unwilling to even investigate their own coup attempt, or hold any of their own members accountable for not just fraternizing with those who carried it out, but perhaps assisting them. The GQP is unable to take a stand and remove Hawley, Cruz, Brooks, Biggs, and Gosar for that. They won't stand up to frothing-at-the-mouth loons like Boebert and Taylor-Greene actively harassing other members of Congress in the workplace on a daily basis, even while they publicly challenge the manhood of their own Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy. They have let these toxic elements of their own party remain, and they've festered on them like a gangrenous wound.

The phrase "The Republican Party is dying before our eyes" is no longer accurate. It's already dead, and some new horror has taken its place, and holds those last few who didn't get out sooner hostage. They've shown we can't count on them to do the morally right thing, the politically wise thing, or the thing that's obviously best for the country in some time. They're somehow making 2022 yet another referendum on the failure that is Donald Trump, who they can't quit even though he demands all campaign donations be funneled to him, and not the main party.

It's a clear sign... it's time to go Blue in '22. For the good of the country.

[seismic-2]

I have to wonder about Trump's intellectual ability. I would imagine that most people of average intelligence would likely not speculate about the therapeutic value of administering disinfectant internally. Perhaps more tellingly, doesn't it require some extra level of business dumbness to go bankrupt by owning a casino?

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I have to wonder about Trump's intellectual ability. I would imagine that most people of average intelligence would likely not speculate about the therapeutic value of administering disinfectant internally. Perhaps more tellingly, doesn't it require some extra level of business dumbness to go bankrupt by owning a casino?

The thing is it's irrelevant. Donald Trump is stupid...but he's rich, white, successful, and above all, lucky. If Trump was down just one of those four attributes he might have paid a price with his self-destructive behavior, instead because he's all four of those, what happens is other people suffer and pay for stuff that he does.

Trump is like Hitler in that he's a gambler. Hitler was lucky and he was on a hot streak and was constantly daring himself and others to bet higher and higher. All his crazy unconventional actions, like for insistence, his plan to bypass the Maginot Line was on paper not the wisest, and of the kind that could have been undone had things been a little different and instead he managed to luck out. Hitler often said that he was always willing to bet it all on a single card. Trump has likewise gambled and taken risks and he's been cushioned from consequences and he's been rewarded with success, so that creates a psychology of radicalism where he's gonna spiral and dare higher and higher heedless of consequences. That makes him unpredictable, and that also adds to his aura of impunity which his base likes a lot.

To others on this board, guys reality is not a comic book or a fantasy movie. It might offend people's sense of pride that the person who has come further than Joseph McCarthy, heck even Jefferson Davis, Charles Lindbergh, Richard Nixon in putting America on the road to fascism is in a lot of respects, a less impressive figure than the old rogues gallery of the American Left...but it doesn't matter, the danger's real. Trump's not an evil genius but that doesn't mean he can't f--k up the world. Because he has acquired a great deal of personal power and political leverage for him to pose a threat. In reality, the world can end by Paste Pot Pete assembling the Infinity Gauntlet and not Thanos. That might seem undignified or offend your sense of pride but I suggest you get over it.

[Jack Dracula]

I find it absolutely maddening that Jared and Ivanka made over $134,000,000 over the 4 years they spent working in the f**king White House but Hunter Biden's emails are somehow still a thing.

[numberthirty]

I never said he's a "Dr. Mindbender". I'm saying it's stupid to assume he's an idiot. I've always thought he was a person of average intelligence with a talent for surrounding himself with capable, loyal people who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty. He's also learned over the years to put a space of plausible deniability between himself and the shady **** he gets others to do on his behalf.
He's a survivor and probably a psychopath who isn't afraid to lie, cheat and throw others to the wolves as long as he gets away clean. You ignore someone like that at your own peril.

While it's not like I really disagree with most of that?

It's just not really "Got Away Clean..." if the cops were all on the take, and they just waved you through while saying "Go Ahead, Bonehead..."

One's ability to do whatever is just a non-issue in an instance where the cops are on the take.

[numberthirty]

What we learned about the GQP the past four years is whatever backbone they had to stand up to someone like Nixon, they lost, and are unable to work up the gumption to impeach or force out someone as stupid and corrupt as Trump. And if they are unable to push out someone as toxic to their brand, as directly combative to their own ranks, and as irredeemable as Trump, they will never cooperate in removing a Republican president from power.

Which has only further been demonstrated that they're unwilling to even investigate their own coup attempt, or hold any of their own members accountable for not just fraternizing with those who carried it out, but perhaps assisting them. The GQP is unable to take a stand and remove Hawley, Cruz, Brooks, Biggs, and Gosar for that. They won't stand up to frothing-at-the-mouth loons like Boebert and Taylor-Greene actively harassing other members of Congress in the workplace on a daily basis, even while they publicly challenge the manhood of their own Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy. They have let these toxic elements of their own party remain, and they've festered on them like a gangrenous wound.

The phrase "The Republican Party is dying before our eyes" is no longer accurate. It's already dead, and some new horror has taken its place, and holds those last few who didn't get out sooner hostage. They've shown we can't count on them to do the morally right thing, the politically wise thing, or the thing that's obviously best for the country in some time. They're somehow making 2022 yet another referendum on the failure that is Donald Trump, who they can't quit even though he demands all campaign donations be funneled to him, and not the main party.

It's a clear sign... it's time to go Blue in '22. For the good of the country.

Setting the nomenclature fetish aside...

Who just learned that in the last four years?

The party being discussed wouldn't even seriously investigate some of what happened during George W.'s administration.

Kinda old news.