Crazydog7 Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 I can't keep track of the bullshit anymore or summon the required level of outrage. These guys are like the dogs that caught the car and it is truly frightening to watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Altherion Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 It appears that Congress will investigate the leaks: Quote The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that the most significant question posed by the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn is why intelligence officials eavesdropped on his calls with the Russian ambassador and later leaked information on those calls to the press. “I expect for the FBI to tell me what is going on, and they better have a good answer,” said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which is conducting a review of Russian activities to influence the election. “The big problem I see here is that you have an American citizen who had his phone calls recorded.” As the article later explains, it was legal to spy on the phone call because he was talking to the Russian ambassador. However, the American party in such conversations must be "masked" to avoid spying on them without a warrant. The intelligence agencies are not supposed to "unmask" them and, obviously, they're not supposed to leak their identity to the press. I suspect they will have to sacrifice somebody. Also, Trump turning Mar-a-Lago into a situation room now makes a whole lot more sense. I initially thought that he was doing it to troll his detractors and show off his estate, but it's clear now that he would rather have random guests posting pictures of his dinner party on Facebook than the entire transcript of the conversation mailed to the Washington Post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo498 Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 At least at first glance it seems clearly not in accordance with international rules on diplomacy to eavesdrop on embassies. (Of course, the US would not have been the first time cavalier about applying international rules to themselves... after all they are the good guys and the others are usually evil, especially Russians) In any case this seems more an internal conflict between those going for more relaxed relations with Russia and the new cold war hawks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_on_Diplomatic_Relations#Summary_of_provisions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denstorebog Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 3 hours ago, Crazydog7 said: I can't keep track of the bullshit anymore or summon the required level of outrage.. This pretty much sums up why the next couple of weeks will be the most pivotal to the power balance in USA in, well, modern times. So far, it seems like Congress Republicans are largely going to hunker down and maybe reluctantly do an investigation - possibly for show, possibly into the wrong aspects of the scandal. If they manage to ride this one out through posturing and perhaps sacrificing a scapegoat or two, AND it doesn't either cause an internal conflict between Congress Republicans or some form of last-ditch, torch-and-pitchfork uprising from Democrats around the country ... well, then that's pretty much it. Trump has just been handed his Watergate, and if that doesn't somehow change the power balance going forward, then nothing else is going to. The Republican strangehold on American politics will officially be unchallengeable, and the whole 'resist' movement will weaken considerably because of despondency and apathy. So yeah, this is either going to be the best or the worst thing to happen to Democrats ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaldanya Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 1 hour ago, denstorebog said: If they manage to ride this one out through posturing and perhaps sacrificing a scapegoat or two, AND it doesn't either cause an internal conflict between Congress Republicans or some form of last-ditch, torch-and-pitchfork uprising from Democrats around the country ... well, then that's pretty much it. Trump has just been handed his Watergate, and if that doesn't somehow change the power balance going forward, then nothing else is going to. The Republican strangehold on American politics will officially be unchallengeable, and the whole 'resist' movement will weaken considerably because of despondency and apathy. So yeah, this is either going to be the best or the worst thing to happen to Democrats ever. Unfortunately Republicans want The White House and power too much to do anything substantive about this. There'll be a congressional hearing or two and a couple more resignations but that's it. Game over and he'll probably get in for another four years. If he can keep his small orange hands off the nuclear weapons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Relic Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 Don't underestimate the resistance. People might not protest the Russia stuff, since it's hard to know exactly what to make of it right now, but there will be massive opposition to other policies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fez Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 3 hours ago, denstorebog said: This pretty much sums up why the next couple of weeks will be the most pivotal to the power balance in USA in, well, modern times. So far, it seems like Congress Republicans are largely going to hunker down and maybe reluctantly do an investigation - possibly for show, possibly into the wrong aspects of the scandal. If they manage to ride this one out through posturing and perhaps sacrificing a scapegoat or two, AND it doesn't either cause an internal conflict between Congress Republicans or some form of last-ditch, torch-and-pitchfork uprising from Democrats around the country ... well, then that's pretty much it. Trump has just been handed his Watergate, and if that doesn't somehow change the power balance going forward, then nothing else is going to. The Republican strangehold on American politics will officially be unchallengeable, and the whole 'resist' movement will weaken considerably because of despondency and apathy. So yeah, this is either going to be the best or the worst thing to happen to Democrats ever. Republicans successfully defended a state house seat in Minnesota last night. However, the Republican only won it by +6; this is a district Trump won by +29 and Romney had won by +12. It could be a one-off or there could be special circumstances to that district, but from 2013-2016 the usual story in special elections was Democrats suffering severe drop-off from Obama 2012; and in retrospect that should've been seen as a warning sign for 2016. The real test will be the congressional special elections in April: KS-4 (Pompeo's old seat) and GA-6 (Price's old seat) are both the types of districts that Democrats can and need to win if they want to have a House majority again. That will be the test of if all this is really hurting the GOP (there's also CA-34, but that'll be an easy Democratic hold). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isalie Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 Heh, six tweets in the last two hours, I mean, doesn't he feel like it's a bad look to spend that much time on twitter? I don't get how more of his followers aren't embarrassed by how needy and desperate he seems. I mean, many weren't embarrassed by pussy grabbing and so on cause they kind of admired that alpha stuff and so on, but this constant lashing out and moaning really make him look like a loser, no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunderMifflin Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 Just from time management point, it's probably more efficient to Tweet things than it would be to arrange a meeting with a reporter. Not that I'm defending what his Tweets are but it's probably not time inefficient. I wonder if back in the day Republicans were like "where does FDR find all this time be on tv!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aceluby Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 25 minutes ago, DunderMifflin said: Just from time management point, it's probably more efficient to Tweet things than it would be to arrange a meeting with a reporter. Not that I'm defending what his Tweets are but it's probably not time inefficient. I wonder if back in the day Republicans were like "where does FDR find all this time be on tv!" Especially since nobody actually had TVs and he was famous for his radio Fireside Chats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isalie Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 I'm not really talking about efficiency though, I'm talking about looking petulant and undignified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongRider Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 Just now, Mikael said: I'm not really talking about efficiency though, I'm talking about looking petulant and undignified. He's very efficient about looking petulant and undignified, in all media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Arryn Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 5 minutes ago, aceluby said: Especially since nobody actually had TVs and he was famous for his radio Fireside Chats. DM been steampunk'd! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunderMifflin Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 One step above a grammar correction, a real mic dropper alright Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Chatywin et al. Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 6 hours ago, Altherion said: It appears that Congress will investigate the leaks: Of course they're going to investigate the leaks. Republicans are desperate to change the narrative and move the conversation away from the fact that several of Trump's administration and campaign staffers were in contact with the Russian government for the better part of 18 months. 7 hours ago, Altherion said: Also, Trump turning Mar-a-Lago into a situation room now makes a whole lot more sense. I initially thought that he was doing it to troll his detractors and show off his estate, but it's clear now that he would rather have random guests posting pictures of his dinner party on Facebook than the entire transcript of the conversation mailed to the Washington Post. You do realize this makes no sense at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 The Republicans seem to have always had a contingency plan of removing Trump if necessary and moving Pence up. The problem is that if you do that too early, especially in the first 6-12 months, it also makes the party look moronically incompetent. On the other hand, dump Trump now and getting Pence in for almost the full 4 years might also be beneficial. Either way, the US is screwed by not being able to call snap elections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fez Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 6 minutes ago, Werthead said: The Republicans seem to have always had a contingency plan of removing Trump if necessary and moving Pence up. The problem is that if you do that too early, especially in the first 6-12 months, it also makes the party look moronically incompetent. On the other hand, dump Trump now and getting Pence in for almost the full 4 years might also be beneficial. Either way, the US is screwed by not being able to call snap elections. I think almost every Republican in Congress would love it if Pence was President instead of Trump. Their problem is that there is no evidence yet that Trump has lost his popularity among the Republican base; if the various approval polls are to be believed he is badly shedding his moderate/conservative-leaning supporters, but the base is still there. And the base will never fully go away (Bush still had most of them in '08; Nixon (!) still had about half of them in '74), but Trump could lose some of them; especially if he doesn't fill his campaign promises (which is the only thing most of them care about; not about any crimes he may have committed). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldGimletEye Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 Just now, DunderMifflin said: I wonder if back in the day Republicans were like "where does FDR find all this time be on tv!" Nah. They were too busy cryin their eyes out over FDR taking us off the Gold Standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunderMifflin Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 Any early tv era president works. Early radio would also work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aceluby Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 4 minutes ago, DunderMifflin said: Any early tv era president works. Early radio would also work It's a stupid analogy regardless. It's just extra stupid because it was so incredibly wrong on top of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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