Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Material collusion is not going to stick.

That he borrows money from Russians isn't going to be the massive coup expected. I'm sorry, but I see this being intense suspicion and heat to not much of an end. He's a dipshit to have not been more of an open book on this from the start. He fucked up by acting like there was something to hide.

I think a lot of people onthe Left are beginning to think that as well. There's a good bit of frustration in the voices -- that the expected traction isn't occurring.

What you say above makes no fucking sense.

Either there was collusion or there wasn't. If there was collusion, it will stick. If there was no collusion, why the fuck is he trying to thwart the investigation at every turn? And if there was collusion (or some other form of corruption), you best believe the Russians who lent him money are involved.

And that frustration you are hearing is not as a result of a lack of traction (if you recall, they named a special prosecutor who is conducting an investigation--that's traction, my friend). We all know the investigation is going to take a long time. The frustration you hear is because every day there is more dirt coming out about the Administration's possible involvement in something and their efforts to cover it up and impede the investigations. From Nunes to Trump himself. Why the fuck are they doing that to hide nothing burgers?

TM

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I disagree with all of those things. Why not fight them, instead of falling into the trap of total war on all fronts with Trump? It's wasting energy, exhausting would be allies, creating disinterest.

Tackling things issue by issue works. Total war seems to be what Trump wants. And he's getting it. The angrier and more unhinged he can paint the Left, the more galvanized his base. And that's all he seems to are about.

He's at 35% approval and 60% disapproval. What the actual fuck are you talking about?

TM

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

If there was no collusion, why the fuck is he trying to thwart the investigation at every turn?

Two candidates here:

1) Trump and his ego are threatened by any suggestion that he won the election because the Russians did something to help him. He sees it as undermining his legitimacy and any discussion of the possibility upsets him.

2) Trump and his companies have such a long history of involvement with shady Russians (and others from the former USSR) that he doesn't know what an investigation will turn up, and does not want to find out.

Neither is inconsistent with the possibility that his campaign colluded with the Russians, btw.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

He's at 35% approval and 60% disapproval. What the actual fuck are you talking about?

As Sebby suggests, he has made it this far by polarizing, by speaking to his base and pissing off everyone else. As long as his base sticks with him, he won't be impeached.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Two candidates here:

1) Trump and his ego are threatened by any suggestion that he won the election because the Russians did something to help him. He sees it as undermining his legitimacy and any discussion of the possibility upsets him.

2) Trump and his companies have such a long history of involvement with shady Russians (and others from the former USSR) that he doesn't know what an investigation will turn up, and does not want to find out.

Neither is inconsistent with the possibility that his campaign colluded with the Russians, btw.

Yep. I covered (2) in a subsequent post. But how does killing an investigation into collusion help him on (1)? Does he think the only way we discover what Russia did by hacking is through an investigation of his people? I know he's stupid, but he can't think that. And he absolutely has to understand that impeding investigations make him look more guilty no matter what. All this leads me to either collusion, an agreement to lift sanctions based on personal relationships (or some other type of leverage), or clear evidence of corruption (probably money laundering). Maybe all of the above!

TM

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

What you say above makes no fucking sense.

Either there was collusion or there wasn't. If there was collusion, it will stick. If there was no collusion, why the fuck is he trying to thwart the investigation at every turn? And if there was collusion (or some other form of corruption), you best believe the Russians who lent him money are involved.

And that frustration you are hearing is not as a result of a lack of traction (if you recall, they named a special prosecutor who is conducting an investigation--that's traction, my friend). We all know the investigation is going to take a long time. The frustration you hear is because every day there is more dirt coming out about the Administration's possible involvement in something and their efforts to cover it up and impede the investigations. From Nunes to Trump himself. Why the fuck are they doing that to hide nothing burgers?

TM

There is so much dirt that nobody is even talking about the fact that Trump apparently was going TO FIRE THE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR (until his aides somehow convinced him that it might be a good idea to not try to re-enact Watergate in real time). But here's the thing. Sebastian is kind of like Dave Chappelle in the R. Kelly jury duty skit. He would not be convinced unless he was in a hotel room with Trump and Putin, while Trump drafted a signed request to Putin, in calligraphy, asking Putin to direct Russian hackers to interfere in the elections, while Russian developers stuffed Rubles in Trump's pockets, and while Trump peed on Russian prostitutes, who had tattoos (in Russian with English sub-titles) declaring them to be prostitutes, while a medical examiner did DNA tests on the urine and declared it to be Trump's, and with Ivanka spectating and confirming that it was, beyond a doubt, her father's penis peeing on the prostitutes. Anything short of that is just a nothing burger.

Here is Lou Donaldson with some dirty funk jazz for the Daily Dose. "Hamp's Hump":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H3N_EMkmcM

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

Yep. I covered (2) in a subsequent post. But how does killing an investigation into collusion help him on (1)? Does he think the only way we discover what Russia did by hacking is through an investigation of his people? I know he's stupid, but he can't think that. And he absolutely has to understand that impeding investigations make him look more guilty no matter what. All this leads me to either collusion, an agreement to lift sanctions based on personal relationships (or some other type of leverage), or clear evidence of corruption (probably money laundering). Maybe all of the above!

He wants the story to go away, and he's like a toddler.

[Adder]

Lots of people seemed to be focused on the chair trying to silence Kamala Harris, and only Harris, but I think it's particularly important to note what Sessions seemed to be saying at the time, which amounted to a vast new interpretation of executive privilege that Sessions asserted applied to anything the president says. That's scary shit.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Adder

Lots of people seemed to be focused on the chair trying to silence Kamala Harris, and only Harris, but I think it's particularly important to note what Sessions seemed to be saying at the time, which amounted to a vast new interpretation of executive privilege that Sessions asserted applied to anything the president says. That's scary shit.

The Executive Branch will always want to take a strong view of that privilege, and no cabinet officer wants to have to testify about what the President did or didn't say in a small meeting. It's a bad sign for Trump that Sessions was asked those questions, and that he wanted not to talk about what the President said. Such a broad assertion of privilege may not fly if Congress wants to push the matter, or a court hears the issue.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

He wants the story to go away, and he's like a toddler.

I know you're playing Devil's Advocate, but we all know he wants the story to go away. The problem is there is a lot of shit pointing to there being actual wrongdoing. What were there, like 18 contacts between Trump's people and Russia? He had people running his campaign and a national security advisor who accepted money from Russia? Fucking Flynn asked for immunity. Too much.

And there is way too much effort being exerted to make a story about nothing disappear. I don't care how big of a child Trump is. You don't send Nunes out to try to kill the investigation and then fire the FBI director and consider firing the special fucking prosecutor just because you're sick of hearing about the story. Nah.

TM

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

I know you're playing Devil's Advocate, but we all know he wants the story to go away. The problem is there is a lot of shit pointing to there being actual wrongdoing. What were there, like 18 contacts between Trump's people and Russia? He had people running his campaign and a national security advisor who accepted money from Russia? Fucking Flynn asked for immunity. Too much.

And there is way too much effort being exerted to make a story about nothing disappear. I don't care how big of a child Trump is. You don't send Nunes out to try to kill the investigation and then fire the FBI director and consider firing the special fucking prosecutor just because you're sick of hearing about the story. Nah.

TM

I personally suspect that if there was collusion between Trump and the Russians over the campaign, it didn't involve him personally, but that he has other ties to Russia that he does not uncovered, and that he is insecure about losing the popular vote and is irrationally vexed at the suggestion that he won because he got Russian help. In other words: All of the above. I do wonder why Trump cares so much about protecting Flynn -- that is one detail that makes me think the above might be wrong.

Other Republicans are trying to kill it for various reasons, many of them partisan.

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

I know you're playing Devil's Advocate, but we all know he wants the story to go away. The problem is there is a lot of shit pointing to there being actual wrongdoing. What were there, like 18 contacts between Trump's people and Russia? He had people running his campaign and a national security advisor who accepted money from Russia? Fucking Flynn asked for immunity. Too much.

And there is way too much effort being exerted to make a story about nothing disappear. I don't care how big of a child Trump is. You don't send Nunes out to try to kill the investigation and then fire the FBI director and consider firing the special fucking prosecutor just because you're sick of hearing about the story. Nah.

TM

And the more he tries to make the story go away by shouting "THERE'S NOTHING TO SEE HERE, EVERYBODY LOOK AWAY!!!" the more the story persists. The ONLY person who actually believes the story has petered out is Sebastian, and his credibility here is currently somewhere on the scale between zero and Sessions. Even a toddler eventually figures out that the best way to stop prolonging the pain of having brussel sprouts for dinner is to just shut up, eat the brussel sprouts and move on. The only rational reason for continuing to refuse after a certain point is that you know the brussel sprouts are poisonous. Yes, ascribing rationality to Trump is dubious, but if there is really nothing to see here, somebody has to be able to convince him that the only way to get everybody to stop talking about this, every fucking day, every fucking week, is to let people see that there is nothing there. But that is not happening, and if you continue to think that is because Trump is just a hissy fit-throwing child, your logic has seriously atrophied and/or you are Sebastian.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Tackling things issue by issue works.

Hmmm. Most people I know who compete in weekly wrestling matches like to win a few.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Hmmm. Most people I know who compete in weekly wrestling matches like to win a few.

So I have buried my head in the sand as to reading news, but one of you said there was evidence russia tampered with votes in 30 or so states. Really? I thought the main thing found was that the hacked released hil stuff was intended to sink her, but there was not much shown as to any touching a machine?

[Paisley]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

So I have buried my head in the sand as to reading news, but one of you said there was evidence russia tampered with votes in 30 or so states. Really? I thought the main thing found was that the hacked released hil stuff was intended to sink her, but there was not much shown as to any touching a machine?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-u-s-elections