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U.S. Politics: Moscow on the Potomac


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15 minutes ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

I'm interested in the Democrats end game in their war on Trump. What is their strategy beyond impeaching him? Is it just a personal vendetta? Do they think that life under Mike Pence will be preferable, from a liberal point of view?

I'm increasingly wondering if this "war on Trump" is really coming from the Democrats... As you point out, they don't have much to gain from his removal (at least not now). For some Republicans otoh, there may be very valid reasons to at least undermine him. And obviously, Democrats are not in a position to leak much these days. If this pattern of leaks and revelations continues, I'll start assuming that it is part of a political strategy coming from Republicans. They have much to gain from getting Pence to take the presidency.

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1 minute ago, Rippounet said:

I'm increasingly wondering if this "war on Trump" is really coming from the Democrats... As you point out, they don't have much to gain from his removal (at least not now). For some Republicans otoh, there may be very valid reasons to at least undermine him. And obviously, Democrats are not in a position to leak much these days. If this pattern of leaks and revelations continues, I'll start assuming that it is part of a political strategy coming from Republicans. They have much to gain from getting Pence to take the presidency.

Yeah, that's an interesting question. Surely some of it is coming from Dems, but I have to imagine much of it is from administrative lifers regardless of party affiliation The fact that Trump seems to have no respect for their institutions or bureaus and whatnot, and no patience for proper channels or implementation of policy (see: First draft of the Muslim Ban). Also at this point I have to imagine that a fair percentage of the folks who work at the Intelligence Agencies hold him in low esteem. I guess at this point that "The Swamp" as a whole views him as being toxic and alien and would just as soon see him gone.

   

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A lot of the 'war on Trump' is coming from his own personnel, who understand that the best way to get Trump to do what they want is to have him see it in cable news. 

Other parts are the media, which are pretty much opening up full bore now. WaPo and NYT are competing to see who can cause him to resign first.

The most damaging is probably the IC group, which has a lot more selectability and deniability in leaking. They are genuinely afraid that he is going to put us in a war. 

The other aspect is that he's not generally liked by Republican congress, either. He doesn't have particularly strong allies there - most of the ones he had he put into his cabinet (like Sessions), and others he continually attempts to alienate. Nor is he particularly friendly with any governors. 

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44 minutes ago, Mexal said:

Obstruction of the justice?

 

Possibly, and it's made all the worse by the last few major events (Trump firing Comey and then like an idiot admitting that it was because of the Russia investigation.)

Maybe that's why Trump went so out of his way to try and discredit Comey in that interview. 

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4 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

 

The most damaging is probably the IC group, which has a lot more selectability and deniability in leaking. They are genuinely afraid that he is going to put us in a war. 

 

I don't think the IC are afraid of going to war, they just want the right war. So what they're really afraid of is the wrong war.Or even the wrong threat of war. 

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Just now, The Anti-Targ said:

I don't think the IC are afraid of going to war, they just want the right war. So what they're really afraid of is the wrong war.Or even the wrong threat of war. 

Perhaps - they don't want us going to war for poor reasons or for unjust reasons, and they don't want their people to die for stupid reasons. 

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1 minute ago, Kalbear said:

Honestly, I doubt very seriously that Trump even entertained the notion that Comey wrote down a single thing.

If it's not on tape then it's not evidence of much. Even if Comey is held to be an honest, straight up guy a memo written by Comey about something Trump is alleged to have said is probably able to be limited in its worth as actual evidence. A sworn testimony of Comey's memory of the conversation will wind up being a he said he said situation. So unless there is a second witness to the conversation this just amounts to public fodder.

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1 hour ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

Because the US is safest against terrorism when working TOGETHER with Russia to combat it, rather than against them. The anti-Russia camp is mostly against Russia not to limit US exposure to terrorist threats, but because of a variety of ideological differences they have with Russia. If safety from terrorism was the top priority, then a  US-Russia alliance against terrorism would make both countries safer, rather than more vulnerable.

Russia is not our ally against ISIS or global terrorism.

https://www.vox.com/world/2017/5/16/15646202/trump-russia-isis-syria-assad

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I really hope that Trump taped his conversations in the White House.  He's finished if tapes exist.  It's possible he's finished even without the tapes.  Comey's testimony before Congress could be the end for Trump.  Too bad his testimony will almost certainly be closed to the public.

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10 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

If it's not on tape then it's not evidence of much. Even if Comey is held to be an honest, straight up guy a memo written by Comey about something Trump is alleged to have said is probably able to be limited in its worth as actual evidence. A sworn testimony of Comey's memory of the conversation will wind up being a he said he said situation. So unless there is a second witness to the conversation this just amounts to public fodder.

Not really. Comey's notes of his conversations with Shrub covered his ass when Shrub went after him.

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At what point does Trump become so toxic that Republicans would be willing to impeach and push out Trump?  The recent polling that was posted seems to show that Trump, despite everything, is still maintaining the support of most republicans.  The news these past few weeks has been absolutely horrendous for Trump, so it will be interesting to see if his poll numbers drop further.  I think Trumps national polling numbers would need to drop down to the 25% to 30% range, or maybe even a little bit lower, before enough Republicans would consider impeachment, so there's still a long way to go.  We need some more bombshells, which Trump continues to regularly provide.  Otherwise, Democrats are going to have to win both the House and Senate in 2018.  Democrats better show up for these midterms.

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52 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

A lot of the 'war on Trump' is coming from his own personnel, who understand that the best way to get Trump to do what they want is to have him see it in cable news. 

Other parts are the media, which are pretty much opening up full bore now. WaPo and NYT are competing to see who can cause him to resign first.

The most damaging is probably the IC group, which has a lot more selectability and deniability in leaking. They are genuinely afraid that he is going to put us in a war. 

The other aspect is that he's not generally liked by Republican congress, either. He doesn't have particularly strong allies there - most of the ones he had he put into his cabinet (like Sessions), and others he continually attempts to alienate. Nor is he particularly friendly with any governors. 

I'm entertaining the idea that people from these four groups are starting to work together in order to remove Trump.

Of course, Trumpists would argue this has been going on from day 1, but I'm tempted to think they've only recently started to do that, because Trump is turning out to be even worse than anyone could have possibly imagined.

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56 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

If it's not on tape then it's not evidence of much. Even if Comey is held to be an honest, straight up guy a memo written by Comey about something Trump is alleged to have said is probably able to be limited in its worth as actual evidence. A sworn testimony of Comey's memory of the conversation will wind up being a he said he said situation. So unless there is a second witness to the conversation this just amounts to public fodder.

If Comey did indeed write a memo detailing his conversation and distribute it - which is verifiable - then this is very clearly the most tangible evidence in building a case for obstruction thus far (except, I suppose, Trump's own actions, statements and threatening tweets).  It may be a "he said he said" situation, but one of those "he's" has built up credibility in government for decades and the other has done exactly the opposite in less than four months.

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58 minutes ago, Mudguard said:

I really hope that Trump taped his conversations in the White House.  He's finished if tapes exist.  It's possible he's finished even without the tapes.  Comey's testimony before Congress could be the end for Trump.  Too bad his testimony will almost certainly be closed to the public.

Word last Friday was that Comey wanted to testify but was insisting that it be open. Maybe that changed now that the memo's out, but I suspect he even more wants to be sure that what he has to say gets out.

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2 hours ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

Russia is not intent on destroying America. They are intent on reducing American intervention in their sphere of influence. A mutual respect between these two countries is in principle easily achievable. But as I said, ideology - mostly on the part of some sectors of American society - seems to make that impossible.

Just note the immense difficulty Trump has experienced in attempting to warm relations with Russia. I'm convinced that is a fundamental reason for the massive behind the scenes campaign to undermine him. There are a lot of interests that don't want warmer relations with Russia. And are applying  tremendous pressure to tie Trump's hands in any attempts to do so.

Are you Russian?  This is ridiculous.v  He's been playing with the russians since the 1980's.  His daddy and granddaddy were mafia.

It's about thuggism and corruption.

And probably blackmail.

You are either a fool or a pawn.

 

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