Trump

[TheGlyphstone]

Glyph, this is kinda unfair. I, as a Canadian, am terrified about what all of this would mean because the vast majority of our exports go to the US. If they suffer economic failure, so do we. We usually suffer it just behind them, and while it's not as deep, it is longer. We're still going through a recession that began in the US about what... a decade plus ago, now? Cultural influence from there hits us hard here, too, as well as policy. All of these things have a direct impact on us because of how closely linked our culture and economic basis is with the US, so depending on where Trevino is living now, there might be a legitimate reason for him to still feel as though this impacts him.

That said, I know it can FEEL like he's pointing and laughing if you recall that he's not living in the US anymore, but I don't think that was what he meant to convey.

Admitted, and if it came across as a general statement I apologize. But it's not so much Trev being outside the US as him specifically mentioning it repeatedly, as if to drive in the point that he's now an outside observer. So if that's not the intent he is purposely conveying I apologize to him as well.

[Sara Nilsson]

I don't know, if someone has only 6 months to live due to decades of heavy smoking, can you in good conscience say that everything is alright? Same principle applies here. I'm sorry, but America has dug itself into a deep, deep hole.

But there is are so many things wrong with that. First of all America isn't doomed to death as you may imply, yes it looks bleak but most of us have faith it can be fixed. But say even if it is, and your comparison is correct. What is the point of constantly saying. "hey mate... you are dying.. how does it feel? Huh? Sucks to be you! man it sucks to be you." How do you think the smoker who is dying would feel? Because you do come across as doing that ..slightly.. but you are.

As someone who is hopefully within 6 months getting my American citizenship I refuse to allow myself to think this country is doomed, it looks back yes. BUT America always goes from one extreme to another, the pendulum will swing back away from this madness. We need to do our part in making sure it does, by being informed, voting, calling our representatives. I would feel far more depressed if there wasn't such a movement from the very bottom and up to actually start fixing this mess.

[Mithlomwen]

I don't know, if someone has only 6 months to live due to decades of heavy smoking, can you in good conscience say that everything is alright? Same principle applies here. I'm sorry, but America has dug itself into a deep, deep hole.

Trevino, no one is saying that America isn't in a bad way.  We are.  But that doesn't mean we someone to remind us of that fact with every single post, with the provision that they are just 'keeping it real'.  You have, for some reason, elected yourself to be the bearer of the 'hard truth', when we already know what the hard truth is, and don't need to be told what that is at every turn. 

Also, if any of us had a friend that was dying from decades of heavy smoking, and he only had six months to live, I doubt any of us would spend any that six months beating him over the head with the fact that he brought it on himself.  We'd be enjoying the time we had left with him.  :/ 

[Trigon]

But there is are so many things wrong with that. First of all America isn't doomed to death as you may imply, yes it looks bleak but most of us have faith it can be fixed. But say even if it is, and your comparison is correct. What is the point of constantly saying. "hey mate... you are dying.. how does it feel? Huh? Sucks to be you! man it sucks to be you." How do you think the smoker who is dying would feel? Because you do come across as doing that ..slightly.. but you are.

That's a complete strawman of what I was saying...

As someone who is hopefully within 6 months getting my American citizenship I refuse to allow myself to think this country is doomed, it looks back yes. BUT America always goes from one extreme to another, the pendulum will swing back away from this madness. We need to do our part in making sure it does, by being informed, voting, calling our representatives. I would feel far more depressed if there wasn't such a movement from the very bottom and up to actually start fixing this mess.

Well then, I wish you the best of luck! I've only lived in America for like, 3 decades, but you are free to come up with your own conclusions. I'd just thought it would be helpful to inform all of you what it is you are up against...

[Fury Aphrodisia]

It's not a strawman.

But alright, we heard you. I appreciate you bringing the point to bear on the conversation. Acknowledged. Can we move forward?

[Blythe]

I was reading this today.

I see Flynn pleading guilty is making Trump panic and spew more 'fake!' claims via Twitter. His usual deflections are there whenever something happens he doesn't like.

I'm fairly pleased. I'm hoping Mueller will get even farther in his investigation. Mueller gives me hope, if I'm being honest. Whenever I saw the Papadopoulos updates and the Manafort updates, I thought, "Mueller's really working hard. I hope he can go the distance with this."

[Blythe]

For clarity's sake: what I mean by updates (I worded that poorly) is that I've been following the investigation since it started, and whenever it 'updated,' I was quite pleased. Wasn't trying to imply there was new Papadopoulos and Manafort stuff beyond what's currently known. Been mostly following the stuff about Flynn with great interest; I'm curious which person higher up in the chain Mueller will be able get to because of Flynn now.

[Mithlomwen]

For clarity's sake: what I mean by updates (I worded that poorly) is that I've been following the investigation since it started, and whenever it 'updated,' I was quite pleased. Wasn't trying to imply there was new Papadopoulos and Manafort stuff beyond what's currently known. Been mostly following the stuff about Flynn with great interest; I'm curious which person higher up in the chain Mueller will be able get to because of Flynn now.

This linked by Trieste was a really informative and interesting read. 

Just finished Seth Abramson's awesome Twitter thread explaining the deal that Flynn got. No unhinged tweets from Herr Cheeto just yet but it's not 4am on the east coast yet either...

Lots of good info in there. 

[TheGlyphstone]

Yeah, that analysis is fascinating.

[Blythe]

Oooh, I missed that up-thread; I'll read that!

Thank you, Mith! (and thanks to Trie for posting that!)

[Regina Minx]

I have to echo Trieste and Mith: Seth Abramson's twitter feed is almost required reading these days.

For those wanting to know, he establishes his legal bona fides here. Block quoted for convenience.

When I get a number of new readers—as today—people ask me to restate my bona fides: Harvard Law School, 2001; public defender for eight years in two jurisdictions; trained at Georgetown/Harvard as a criminal investigator; represented 2000+ defendants in cases up to homicide; have worked at 3 public defenders since 1996—one federal—and have testified in federal criminal cases as a defense investigator; current member in good standing of the New Hampshire bar and the federal bar for the District of New Hampshire; I now teach legal advocacy at UNH.

[DominantPoet]

I'd like to believe the recent events with Trump's tweet and then the claim by a lawyer that he wrote said tweet are actually going to amount to anything...I really would. But I just keep thinking about how Donnie Jr. flat out handed a literal smoking gun through Twitter earlier this year about Russian meetings and what not, and jack squat has come about from that. Donnie Jr. isn't in jail. Donnie Sr. isn't in jail. To my knowledge, nobody faced an iota of consequence from that.

So how is Trump admitting something that implicates his guilt through Twitter going to make any difference this time? At best, the lawyer is going to get a slap on the wrist from some committee, and even then, that will be months down the road, if it happens at all.

Personally, I'm waiting to see what happens when the tax bill gets to Congress and when the FCC votes on net neutrality. I know what SHOULD happen (the tax bill is killed outright and the FCC gets embarrassed horribly for ever even thinking of killing net neutrality) but you look at all this with Trump and what not, and all anybody seems to do is just talk about how horrible everything is. Talk. No action. Just talk. I mean, Meuller has been at this for how long now, and so far, all that's come of it is ONE person pleading ONE count of guilt to something. And it caused Trump to have a slight Twitter meltdown (always hilarious, but never amounts to anything, again).

My Christmas wish is purely to see Pumpkinhead get what's coming to him already. To see these rich asshats get smacked back down into the dark abyss they belong in. And for sense and reason to come back to the world at large.

[Valerian]

I'd like to believe the recent events with Trump's tweet and then the claim by a lawyer that he wrote said tweet are actually going to amount to anything...I really would. But I just keep thinking about how Donnie Jr. flat out handed a literal smoking gun through Twitter earlier this year about Russian meetings and what not, and jack squat has come about from that. Donnie Jr. isn't in jail. Donnie Sr. isn't in jail. To my knowledge, nobody faced an iota of consequence from that.

So how is Trump admitting something that implicates his guilt through Twitter going to make any difference this time? At best, the lawyer is going to get a slap on the wrist from some committee, and even then, that will be months down the road, if it happens at all.

Personally, I'm waiting to see what happens when the tax bill gets to Congress and when the FCC votes on net neutrality. I know what SHOULD happen (the tax bill is killed outright and the FCC gets embarrassed horribly for ever even thinking of killing net neutrality) but you look at all this with Trump and what not, and all anybody seems to do is just talk about how horrible everything is. Talk. No action. Just talk. I mean, Meuller has been at this for how long now, and so far, all that's come of it is ONE person pleading ONE count of guilt to something. And it caused Trump to have a slight Twitter meltdown (always hilarious, but never amounts to anything, again).

My Christmas wish is purely to see Pumpkinhead get what's coming to him already. To see these rich asshats get smacked back down into the dark abyss they belong in. And for sense and reason to come back to the world at large.

There's a lot more going on with Mueller's investigation than meets the eye.  You might want to read the Twitter feed from Seth Abramson that's been mentioned a few times -- it gives a very understandable legal analysis of what that mere "one person pleading guilty to one count" will likely lead to down the road.  Watergate took about two years all together, so this will take some time, too.

[TheGlyphstone]

[DominantPoet]

There's a lot more going on with Mueller's investigation than meets the eye.  You might want to read the Twitter feed from Seth Abramson that's been mentioned a few times -- it gives a very understandable legal analysis of what that mere "one person pleading guilty to one count" will likely lead to down the road.  Watergate took about two years all together, so this will take some time, too.

Fingers are certainly crossed, though given one of his lawyers basically said today that Trump is above the law by claiming he can't obstruct justice just... >:(

The frustration is certainly real.

[Trieste]

On a lighter note, I've never watched SNL's material so religiously in my life.   ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9wMNxbQM-4

[SithLordOfSnark]

On a lighter note, I've never watched SNL's material so religiously in my life.   ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9wMNxbQM-4

I hate Canada.

I can't watch half these videos and they seem amazing.

[Trieste]

I hate Canada.

I can't watch half these videos and they seem amazing.

Can you utilize Opera's VPN feature to make it 'look' like you're in the US for purposes of YouTube? I'm not sure of the do-ability (or the legality) but I believe there are a few sites that provide such services.

[SithLordOfSnark]

Can you utilize Opera's VPN feature to make it 'look' like you're in the US for purposes of YouTube? I'm not sure of the do-ability (or the legality) but I believe there are a few sites that provide such services.

As far as I've been able to tell, it doesn't work for Youtube.

[Norwegian One]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42250340

Sometimes I wonder if Pumpkin-Head is doing all of this out of spite, simply to see how much ruin he can cause.

[Sara Nilsson]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42250340

Sometimes I wonder if Pumpkin-Head is doing all of this out of spite, simply to see how much ruin he can cause.

more like, it is an easy win for him. His followers will all praise God and quote how God gave Israel to the Israelites this chosen people bla bla bla. You see the same spiel over and over on social media today. The people who hate him wont hate him more but it gives him some cheap brownie points for basically no cost or effort on his part.

[Callie Del Noire]

more like, it is an easy win for him. His followers will all praise God and quote how God gave Israel to the Israelites this chosen people bla bla bla. You see the same spiel over and over on social media today. The people who hate him wont hate him more but it gives him some cheap brownie points for basically no cost or effort on his part.

Listened to his speech, if I didn’t know how this would scuttle the peace process that his son in law was chasing it sounds good, doing what we’ve promised for 20 years blah blah.. everyone needs to make accondations etc

Any bets the embassy site will be bombed within a year?

[Trieste]

Any bets the embassy site will be bombed within a year?

Heartbreaking.

[elone]

Heartbreaking is right. The Palestinians now have one more strike against them ever having a country of their own. The peace process has been a joke for a long time, as Israel has never wanted any less than the land between the river and the sea, and that is the minimum. Netanyahu certainly has no other thoughts. Why, I ask, are we so involved with the Russians messing with our elections when Israel and AIPAC has done much more to try to influence our country.

By the way, how can a country with no borders have a capital?

Now the US has two firsts. We are the only country to have recognition of Jerusalem as the the capitol of Israel, and the only country in the world not to recognize global warming. Yeah us.

The new terror trio, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

[HannibalBarca]

Fingers are certainly crossed, though given one of his lawyers basically said today that Trump is above the law by claiming he can't obstruct justice just... >:(

The frustration is certainly real.

Nixon tried that very defense, and see where it got him.  Of course, we may have evolved in this country as a political system since then, not just a cultural entity, so we will see.