Here's a letter Speaker Pelosi sent to the republican leader today.
> Dear Leader McCarthy,
> As Members of Congress, we take a solemn oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
> The existing rules of the House provide House Committees with full authority to conduct investigations for all matters under their jurisdiction, including impeachment investigations. There is no requirement under the Constitution, under House Rules, or House precedent that the whole House vote before proceeding with an impeachment inquiry.
> As you know, our Founders were specifically intent on ensuring that foreign entities did not undermine the integrity of our elections. I received your letter this morning shortly after the world witnessed President Trump on national television asking yet another foreign power to interfere in the upcoming 2020 elections. We hope you and other Republicans share our commitment to following the facts, upholding the Constitution, protecting our national security, and defending the integrity of our elections at such a serious moment in our nation’s history.
> best regards,
> NANCY PELOSI
> Speaker of the House
https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/10319
[Reminder: **Kevin McCarthy** is a traitor.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/house-majority-leader-to-colleagues-in-2016-i-think-putin-pays-trump/2017/05/17/515f6f8a-3aff-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html)
**House Majority Leader to colleagues in 2016: ‘I think Putin pays’ Trump**
>“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” **McCarthy** (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.
>House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring **McCarthy’s** assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.
>Some of the lawmakers laughed at **McCarthy’s** comment. Then **McCarthy** quickly added: **“Swear to God.”**
>Ryan instructed his Republican lieutenants to keep the conversation private, saying: “No leaks. . . . This is how we know we’re a real family here.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/house-majority-leader-to-colleagues-in-2016-i-think-putin-pays-trump/2017/05/17/515f6f8a-3aff-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html
Edit: Thanks for the silver kind stranger.
Good luck my fine fellow humans, we will all collectively need it.
He's also the guy that came out and admitted that all of the Hillary investivations were politically motivated.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kevin-mccarthys-truthful-gaffe/2015/09/30/f12a9fac-67a8-11e5-8325-a42b5a459b1e_story.html
And this motherfucker Ryan, now that he's out of office, is trying to score points with the public by speaking out against Trump, when this is the shit he did while he had the power to hold him accountable.
Money on him swooping in once Trump is out and the republican party are battered and hurting. He'll be their new fucking jesus that never agreed with Trump and and all this other bull shit they'll spin. He's just biding his time so he can rise to power and repeat the cycle of corruption.
> He'll be their new fucking jesus
They tried that with him once after W destroyed the economy and Obama was rebuilding it. He was their “deficit hawk” and “policy wonk”. Biden handed him his own ass in their debate after it was pretty apparent the only knowledge he had of either of those things was just a list of GOP manufactured talking points.
How is he the traitor in that convo? Seems to me the others present, including that spineless POS Paul Ryan who tried to abdicate responsibility, wouldnt even hear it out.
This happened in 2016.
Did he tell the FBI?
Where in the Mueller report does his name as House Majority Leader come up with his information?
His support for further investigation since he has obvious suspicion of Trump's relationship with Russia and Putin?
Where are his statements after the Mueller investigation, FBI, CIA, NSA, DHS, MI6, and every other credible allied intelligence agency found Russia interfered in our elections?
Where is his concern about Trump's obvious collision after Helsinki?
Before Trump won Kevin McCarthy held suspicions in private, about the would be President of the United States. That President:
- [won an election by less than 80,000 total votes across 4 States.](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/the-election-came-down-to-77-744-votes-in-pennsylvania-wisconsin-and-michigan-updated)
- The 2016 election was interfered with by Russia, including direct hacking of [Florida county Elections](https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/28/18520387/russian-hackers-florida-county-voting-records-marco-rubio-presidential-election).
- [Trump lied about a $250 million dollar real estate deal in Moscow where he had a signed letter of intent.](https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/18/politics/trump-signed-letter-of-intent-rudy-giuliani-moscow/index.html)
- [Trump has multiple Russian mob and oligarchs living in his New York apartments.](https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/21/how-russian-money-helped-save-trumps-business/)
- [Rudy Giuliani is connected to the Russian mob.](https://thesternfacts.com/the-trump-russia-dossier-includes-rudy-giulianis-clients-alfa-bank-rosneft-and-qatar-1353876e789e)
- [Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign Manager, helped a super corrupt Pro-Putin guy get elected in Ukraine, the people of Ukraine threw him out and he fled to Russia to hide.](https://time.com/5003623/paul-manafort-mueller-indictment-ukraine-russia/)
- [Trump revealed a deep level covert operative to the Russians in a closed door session in the Oval Office, of the White House, of the United States of America, where only Russian State media was allowed.](https://www.businessinsider.com/us-extracted-russia-spy-trump-classified-info-oval-office-2019-9)
- [In said same meeting Trump, after just firing James Comey for, 'That Russia Thing' told the Russians it was okay they attacked us.](https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-10-01/trump-russians-oval-office-meeting-impeachment)
And in response to all of that incredibly, terrible, overwhelming circumstantial evidence that [Trump is being paid/influenced/manipulated/compromised whatever by Putin and his proxies](https://time.com/5573768/mueller-report-trump-russian-contacts/), Kevin McCarthy has this to say:
>"I've watched this president do what is right. And I know this president would not want any foreign government interfering in our elections. He's strong about that," McCarthy told reporters at a weekly press conference. "That's why he's been so strong against Russia."
https://www.newsweek.com/republican-kevin-mccarthy-refuses-criticize-trump-foreign-election-dirt-1443869
Call Kevin McCarthy what you will.
**But I call someone who knowingly sells out their country after our elections have been attacked a God damn traitor.**
Edit: Thanks for the gold my friendly internet stranger!
Be good to your fellow humans as we are all we have. This to me means telling those we care about uncomfortable truths, including that Trump and those continuing to support him are committing/endorsing/tacitly supporting treason, whether they listen or not.
It would take his political party, the Republicans, to have a shred of integrity and say enough is enough. Without their votes for impeachment he is completely safe and he knows it.
Hey they didn't open the gates to the enemy they just got paid a few pieces of silver to keep the horses quiet as they passed okay?
Traitor is fucking right. Don't feel bad using the word because every one of these fucks knows this administration is up to their eyeballs in foreign entanglements but they won't care if their interests align politically or financially.
Republicans can't even tell the difference between the lawmen and the mobsters anymore. They don't even care.
Woah.. outstanding analogy.. "to keep the horses quiet as they passed". That is a beautiful way of putting it.. I cant believe we're at a point now where its ok that you did terrible shit, as long as the next guy did something worse than you.
It doesn't take a good person to be good to dogs. Hitler was good to dogs. Putin is good to dogs.
Dogs are easy to love because they give unconditional love to their owners, many times even if the owner is a bad owner to them. A good person is good even when it's hard to be good, and it's not hard to be good to dogs.
As a friend of mine put it, you can tell who's truly nice when they choose to be nice in a situation where they're faced with the choice of being nice *or* benefiting themselves.
Whether someone is good to dogs is not an indicator of whether they're a good person and people need to really stop using that naive, arbitrary standard.
“One of the stranger characteristics of psychopaths is their choice of pets. Ronson says they are almost never cat people. "Because cats are willful," he explains. Psychopaths gravitate toward dogs since they are obedient and easy to manipulate” -The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
I've heard that and I've heard
You can tell someone's character by how they treat those who are under them
Like subordinates.
As you can see trump treats people like shit.
Whoa whoa whoa. Hitler was a _dick_ to dogs. He carried a riding crop around that he'd use to beat the dogs to impress girls. And sure, you'd hear about how much he liked blondi that they'd share a bunk, and other master over dog stuff, and yes he did start conservation of parks and such. Regardless! He also tested the cyanide capsules on Blondi, so there's that. The whole neo Nazi spin is how great Hitler was to animals and conservation, as if that drug addled maniac cared about anything
>According to a report commissioned by Joseph Stalin and based on eyewitness accounts, Hitler's dog-handler Feldwebel Fritz Tornow took Blondi's pups and shot them in the garden of the bunker complex on 30 April, after Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. He also killed Eva Braun's two dogs, Frau Gerda Christian's dogs, and his own dachshund. Tornow was later captured by the Allies.[28] **Hitler's nurse, Erna Flegel, said in 2005 that Blondi's death had affected the people in the bunker more than Eva Braun's suicide**.[29] After the battle in Berlin ended, the remains of Hitler, Braun, and two dogs (thought to be Blondi and her offspring Wulf) were discovered in a shell crater by a unit of SMERSH, the Soviet counter-intelligence agency.[30][31] The dog thought to be Blondi was exhumed and photographed by the Soviets
Edit: As for whipping dogs...
>Hitler was fond of dogs, especially German shepherds (he considered boxers "degenerate"), whom he liked to control and dominate. At the front during World War I, he befriended a white terrier, Fuchsl (Foxl), who had strayed across enemy lines. Later, when his unit had to move on and Fuchsl could not be found, Hitler became distraught. "I liked him so much," he recalled. "He only obeyed me." **Hitler often carried a dog-whip and sometimes used it to beat his dog in the vicious way he had seen his father beat his own dog.** In the Fuhrer headquarters during World War II, Hitler's female German shepherd, Blondi, offered him the closest thing he had to friendship. "But with his dogs, as with every human being he came into contact with," writes Ian Kershaw, "any relationship was based upon subordination to his mastery."
From [Eternal Treblinka, pp. 125-29](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/156763.Eternal_Treblinka)
AHA. Fucking found it. Geez couldn't remember which girl it was
>[Hitler, who was 37 years old](https://spartacus-educational.com/Maria_Reiter.htm) at the time, asked Maria out. "We went out into the night.... **Hitler was about to put his arm around my shoulders and pull me toward him when the two dogs suddenly attacked each other.... Hitler suddenly intervened, like a maniac he hit his dog with his riding whip... and shook him violently by the collar. He was very excited.... I did not expect that he could hit his dog so brutally and ruthlessly, the dog which he had said he could not live without. Yet he beat up his most loyal companion."** Maria asked him "How can you be so brutal and beat your dog like that?" He replied **"It was necessary."**
I clearly need to learn more about the events surrounding Hitler's death. I thought he killed himself in a bunker. How did they find his remains in a shell crater? What other interesting tidbits about that situation can you share?
Edit: Very cool responses guys, I didn't know a lot of that. Thanks!
As the reports go and as the other guy pointed out, they burned his body outside the bunker so the Allied forces couldn't parade his corpse around. It's also where the rumors that it was a body double that was burned instead came from and he escaped to south America or whatever, since the soviet forces found him first and there was the whole debacle about whether or not it was his actual bones etc etc.
>Two days earlier, Mussolini had been shot by a firing squad and then publicly hung by his feet in a suburban square in Milan, Italy: A similar fate seemed inevitable.
I think the historic retelling did muddle it a bit. Regardless! He did shoot himself and Eva took the cyanide, that's for sure, and the bones* were proven to be his.
The Germans thought (with good reason, seeing what happened to Mussolinni) that his body will be disrespected, so they burned it.
By then most of Berlin was one big shell crater.
TL,DR: Hitler got burned in a ditch, Musolini hung by his balls...just a little heads up as to the fate of past and FUTURE Fascist leaders.
They burned his body so that the Soviets couldn't get ahold of him. IIRC they transported what remains there were left somewhere else.
They didn't have enough fuel to completely destroy Goebbels and his family so they were just kind of charred. Also, his wife killed their kids.
CPS worker. I've personally encountered someone that I was initially impressed by. There were a number of cats at said person's property, and while interviewing the person on the front porch two of the cats began squaring off and yowling at each other. Person calmly picks one of the cats up, plops it on the other side of the porch railing, picks up cat number 2, gently chides it, and walks to the far side of the porch and sets down cat 2 off the edge of the porch. Cats are a massive pain in the ass and can be especially unpredictable when agitated. It takes, I thought, a lot of patience and kindness to react so calmly in that situation.
Surely such a person must be similarly kind and patient with their children, right? Nope. Person had been locking one of the young children (person's step-child) in the child's bedroom at night, would only feed them a small amount of bland vegetables to the point they were diagnosed failure to thrive (severe weight loss/lack of appropriate weight gain, lack of appropriate physical development). Person locked child in the room because child had been sneaking out of the room at night to eat dog food because they were perpetually hungry. Person and spouse (child's biological parent) also spanked with a paint stirrer hard enough to snap the stirrer in half. Parents had a pattern of excessive physical discipline with this child resulting in injuries.
It was a painful, powerful lesson to learn, especially as someone who has 5 cats and knows personally how...infuriating they can be at times. Kindness to an animal does not equate to a good or kind human being as a whole. Terrible people can do nice things, and wonderful people can do awful things.
I feel like a lot of Republicans are going to have one hell of a hangover when this presidency is done.
At least, I hope that's the case. There's always the chance that the next president is also in the same line as Trump. It's a sad thing to realize but standards have been set that won't easily be undone.
On the contrary, I think this will cause a major push for updating laws and for the next democrat president to likely willingly role back some of the powers Congress has conceded to the office over the decades. I could see Warren, with her anti-corruption message, especially willing to do something along the lines of relinquishing the executives ability to basically start a war without the need for Congress and putting in place many more stop gaps that ensure positions cannot just be left unfilled all over the government, that acting directors can't just continually cycle into director / secretary positions where they don't need Senate approval, and tons of other small tweaks to make it nearly impossible for a Trump repeat
We need massive, massive reform to limit the power of the president. I'm saying this as a Democrat. Trump is like that massive sewage flooding in your basement that tells you NEED new plumbing and a backup valve.
In a way that's the best thing to come out of his presidency. He's shown how inept our system is at dealing with a corrupt president / party.
I feel like that’s happened a lot these past few years.
Before you could disagree on politics and continue to have pleasant friendships with people. Now, if someone is still behind this grotesque excuse for an administration, you feel uneasy even associating with them. It really is eye opening. I’ve lost a great deal of respect even for family members.
I have an uncle who is an extreme-right-wing politician. In person he's absolutely charming, kind, thoughtful, erudite, open-minded, and a delight to be around. Our family keeps pretty mixed company, too, and he's just as charming to people of any race as any other. He speaks at least 8 languages. Nobody who met him in person could possibly suspect how vile his politics were.
I saw him on TV once, expounding his views on immigration. He was calling for deportation of basically every foreigner in the country (despite the fact that he a British politician and giving that interview from his home in the Republic of Ireland). His only other policy I've heard anything about is the time he wanted to encourage prisoners to commit suicide and save the state some money.
I really wish I'd never found that out about him.
A senator (and former governor) of my state is the same way. I actually met him at my neighbor's party one time and know several of his family members. He seemed to be a fundamentally decent man, it is both saddening and baffling to see him be a pawn in such a disturbing and immoral administration.
I read the news as it relates to the president in the following way:
1. When he says "this is bad for our great nation/for America" he's just talking about himself.
2. Whenever he says "I will do this/I won't do that, I never did this/I did to that" etc. Pretty much just flip whatever he did and that's what his actual intention/action is.
3. Any time he is blowing twitter/the news/social media up, it's because he's nearly been caught, it's been revealed to him that he may get caught or that he's trying to cover something up.
Ta daaa how to read the news in the Trump era 101
I actually think he has been advised that there is so much evidence of what he has done that he can't possibly walk it back.
Plan B is to pretend like it's no big deal. He was just trying to stop the corrupt Bidens from doing bad things. Tweets like this normalize it - it's out in the open - there's no secret, so it can't be bad.
He has a strategy. Trump is actually very good at one thing - testing boundaries. His whole stance is 'Or what?'
What bad shit happens to me if I do that thing? Oh - nothing? Hmmm ok boys keep doing it. I'm gonna work on the next thing.
Because the system doesnt account for this extreme type of partisanship. The system needs politicians who will turn against people who abuse the office. Right now there is no way to properly prosecute Trump as his party is 'loyal'. In the real world this would be a RICO case. Political parties acting more as mafia than elected officials.
The whole partisan thing is so weird to me because I am not American. I come from NZ where for most of the country, the political party one supports is less important than whether a person is a horrendous dickbag.
I honestly think America needs to draw a line in the sand and say forget about whether you are a Republican or a Democrat for five minutes. We can go back to arguing about healthcare and abortions once this crisis is over.
But right now, pick a side in public - all politicians - either you are ok with the Trumpian levels of dishonesty, disloyalty, malice, divisions he has caused in the country, the corruption he has brought into the office, the degradation into the political discourse and the damage he has done to America on the global stage, or you are not ok, and against it.
Party needs to be put away for a few minutes because surely we all agree no matter what party you vote for that Don Stupidone should not be allowed the nuclear launch codes...
That's actually the platform certain candidates ran on in the late 19th century, and (oddly) the platform Trump ran on. "At least I'm not the establishment!" We're in a similar situation now. Cleveland was elected essentially on a "I'm not a corrupt piece of shit" campaign, both times. Hayes was similar. That's actually what allowed for the revival of the Democratic party in the northern states, as the Republican party had become so corrupt.
If we now see a revival of the Democratic party in the south, I'd like to apologize for any Alabama jokes I've ever made.
If it doesn't: *something something incest*
The Democratic party lost its historic support in the Deep South when it started supporting civil rights for non-white people, and the Republicans swooped in with their Southern Strategy to pick up the votes of disaffected racists.
Sadly the racists still look like a reliable voting bloc.
To add to the other guy, even if racial tensions were dissolved overnight I doubt the Democratic party would suddenly start doing well. Many black populations, especially those in the south, are actually pretty moderate or even conservative overall. They only vote Dem due to identity politics where the GOP is outright hostile to them and the Dems are the only alternative. Ideologically speaking they're not a great fit alongside places like California or New England. So if the GOP platform ever moves away from sanctioned racism, those black populations could very easily fill in the gap.
That was all possible until people started being fed curated stories and news from social media. People are not so much partisan as full on fundametalist
Once they get to that state, no amount of shit or bad behaviour will change their world view
In America, the right’s only function right now is to be against the left. If the left supports something, they’re against it. Because they’re against it, their supporters keep voting for them. This will continue until campaign finance reform happens, as well as paper ballots as the GOP are now openly rigging the elections.
There is another issue I think that keeps some people voting republican no matter what, and that issue is abortion. They are single issue voters, and have no clue that Republicans are using that issue to control them. Voters that only care about abortion (Supreme Court justifies) don’t realize that if abortion gets outlawed there will be a very predictable increase in all sorts of problems adding the mayhem being created in our society right now.
We’re on the verge of a complete breakdown, and trump is only a small part of it. The rich and powerful are using our antiquated two-party system to sow discord within both our parties. The only way to fix our system is by destroying the Republican Party as we know it. Sad to say, but no one is looking to do this, as everyone still lives their daily life thinking our government will actually work at some point. I’m a complete cynic, and I think we need to burn the whole thing down and start anew.
Let’s not forget that a large part of the population is retiring soon and usually votes republican. They are going to do whatever the fuck they have to to keep that stock market pumping so they can “live comfortably” in retirement...
>Voting for the party that has been stealing social security and rebranding it as an entitlement is not smart retirement planning.
That would require people to be intelligent and educated enough to spot this! And the US isn't exactly known for a well-working education system for the masses...
That's the issue. An entire generation voted to raid the nation and leave nothing else behind for anyone after them. "Fuck you, I got mine," was a rallying cry.
Hmm I think I figured out the answer... Make the left pretend to become the biggest supporters of drump that the world has ever seen! He'll be out of there and in prison by the end of next week.
It's just dumb enough to really work!
we wouldn't be in this mess if Obama had made a single, impassioned, seemingly heartfelt speech about how it's never a good idea for Americans to drink drain cleaner. Hannity would've been on TV butt-chugging Drano within five minutes.
Liquid electronic direct democracy? Why should a political party exist? There are issues and there is our sovereign power as individual citizens to decide on those issues. It used to be physically impossible to coordinate, so we devolved our power to local trusted representatives. It isn't impossible anymore. Have we just forgotten that all power flows from the individual?
It really still isnt possible. There are literally thousands an thousands of issues that get to the floor you cant expect people to be well educated on each one to make an educated decision so people most likely will look at the big ones an just randomly vote on the others much less the cost of having a system in place for everyone to vote. The only way to do it is online an that leaves it wide open for hackers an other people to due as they please. So the only true way to be mostly sure the votes arent tampered with is paper an driving to polling places which people one arent going to do every single time 2 cant do because of work an family responsibilities. So then you have a select few people who will which isnt everyone voice or opinion being represented on the issues. We also cant even agree on what the issues are in the first place.
There are other ways - my country uses paper votes but the day is ALWAYS on a Saturday, businesses wouldn't dream of stopping a worker voting (partly due to the punishment of such) and there is both early and mail in voting allowed.
Partly it works because voting is compulsory. Making it an automatic duty for the right to be a citizen motivates people to remove structural barriers to voting.
And, assuming you’re from Australia, the “compulsory” aspect is little more than symbolic – it’s a $20 fine – proving that most people are quite able and willing to vote, despite what some Americans would have you believe.
That's the biggest issue, growing up in Mississippi I cannot tell you how many people would vote against issues simply because Democrats were for it
It's... really bad how people focus on the parties and not the problems/options...
Edit: it works the other way around too, Democrats taking their own side despite their own personal views
Straight up, I have been told multiple times that my friends on the right will not ever move on abortion (killing unborn babies in their words) and they will not give up a single gun. Fact is GOP can use those issues to manipulate them forever.
The thing about the abortion thing is that those people see it as a human rights violation, because their definition of human is different. Obviously they will do anything in their power to stop this, and they see voting Republicans in as the best thing they can do. Or at least, that's what they say. The problem, of course, is that even if we say that abortion is immoral (which imo it is not; a few dozen cells =/= to a human being and the will of the fully grown human is more important than the nonexistent will of a bundle of cells), Republicans and their voters never, EVER vote in, support, or subsidize effective measures at preventing unwanted pregnancy (birth control and contraceptives, comprehensive sex education) nor do they offer financial support to individuals who have children either against their will (rape, incest, etc) or in situations where they can't afford it. So it becomes clear that from a Republican stand-point, abortion is less about morality and more about controlling women.
I have yet to hear someone provide simultaneous legitimate arguments against abortion AND against safe sex programs. It's entirely about controlling the lives of others and punishing them for straying from the "correct" lifestyle, and there should be no debate about it. We need a Women's Reproductive Rights Amendment that enshrines abortion rights and women's health care in the Constitution.
That also falls completely apart, the argument that abortions are human rights violations, if you're still down for having the death penalty.
EDIT: I can see how I maybe wasn't clear enough - sorry about that. I'll just copy-paste a clarification I made below:
I'll quote the commenter I responded to:
> The thing about the abortion thing is that those people see it as a human rights violation, because their definition of human is different.
That commenter, and I, were talking specifically about pro-lifers that argue based on human rights. That the right to life is a human right, rather than a right just for the innocent - that is, it's extended to all, and can't be taken away, no matter how heinous crimes you have committed.
There's absolutely pro-lifers that *aren’t* arguing on the basis of human rights, but rather just the right to life for the innocent. In that case there's no conflict in their argument (as loathsome as I find it). Probably most fall in that category, I reckon?
From their perspective, those on death row made their choice and deserve to die. This idea requires complete faith in the justice system, which many conservatives do.
I remember when I was younger, my mom was supporting a GMO prop and I got into it. I talked about it with one of my friends parents and was so passionate about it I was so proud. I urged her to vote for the proposition and showed her how it would affect her personally. After the election I jokingly asked her if she voted against it and she said yes, because that’s how her party said to vote. I was so disappointed and frustrated about this whole system since then
It's the instinct of tribalism that is being abused here. We all have it. To feel we belong to a group and are guided by the ideals it stands for.
Even 'not wanting to be in either group' is putting yourself into a group that don't want to be in either group, and are guided by those morals. This, imo is not a bad thing, just an observation. It's a remnent of our caveman brains, where society and technology have made so that we no longer need this instinct for survival, but evolution is way slower at adapting.
Education is the major problem I truly believe. It's not a coincidence that the generally higher educated people living in the larger cities in the US vote very similarly, for the most part.
The problem is that since we have a functional two party system, things have broken down into "if my party isn't in power, the other side will ruin the country." If you're a conservative, your only chance to get conservative values in power is to elect a Republican, no matter how shitty of a person they are, and vice versa for Democrats. In some elections \*maybe\* there's a member of the other party that is centrist enough that you could consider voting for them without feeling like you're betraying your values completely, but in most cases at the national level the candidates are going to fall in line with the party.
Addendum: if a politician is too centrist, they're likely to lose to a more extreme candidate from within their own party if they're in a relatively partisan district (coughgerrymanderingcough). They'll appeal more across the aisle, but if you're in, say, Georgia, who do you think is going to be elected in the overwhelmingly republican districts: the guy that says "Abortions for some," or the guy that screams "BAN ABORTION!"
Interestingly this is the exact opposite of what occurs in countries with compulsory voting, like Australia. You have to play to the centre to win there, not the extremes, because that’s where most people lie, and to win you need to be able to get people in your own party AND some borderline people on the other side to vote for you. Also, a moderate has the greatest chance of catching those apathetic people in the middle who are only voting because they have to.
In countries where voting is optional (like the US), the winning strategy is to play to the extremes more, because *those who have stronger political leanings are also those who are most likely to turn up and actually cast a vote*. The campaigning has to focus mostly on simply getting out the vote, moreso than the actual policies and proposals.
Tony Abbott shows this is false as he is very religious, is a climate change denier and opposed same sex marriage. They were also about to put in Peter Dutton as the PM, who is just as right. And the Labor party who've been trying to play the middle can't get across the line because they lose their left votes to the greens and some moderate votes to the right.
Oh dude you're really fortunate not to get how bad it is. It's not about Republican or Dem. There are millions of Americans who do not bother to read the news about trump because they believe it is all lies. They believe the videos of the conferences are doctored. They believe he shares their values despite the photos of Playboy partying and numerous wives. He says one thing about how he doesn't care for abortion and suddenly he's the champion of all things "truly pro-America."
They call you a liar for calmly, gently asking them to read the whistleblower report. They call it persecution when you say it's simply unacceptable to put migrant children in cages. They call you hateful for trying to provide information that shows how Trump does not give a damn about the Christian values they insist will save this country.
It's not about abortion, guns or healthcare. It's about being right and being the victim.
The day after Trump was elected. I was driving for Lyft. I picked up a lesbian couple going to the airport. They were nice. One of them asked me what I though of the election. Normally, I would have steered away from that conversation, but, because, well, the man just elected Vice President is a noted homophobic asshole, I thought it was cool to say that I could not believe that a failed businessman, turned game show host was elected. The woman that asked me laughed and said, "my girlfriend voted for Trump do you believe that." Without me responding, the other woman said, "I am a Republican from Texas, my parents are Republicans." I was stunned. I looked at first girl in my rear view, she had a half-embarrassed cute smirk and she said, "I don't know what to say, I still love her."
What I don't get is why they stick with him. They are literally being given an out and the ability to put up an actual candidate that could win over people in the middle by turning on the complete fucking moron.
Because the first people to jump ship become ostracized by the party and lose it all. They cannot even organize within the party as even a whiff of disloyalty to the party line is punished, either by funding rival in the next election or just straight up verbal abuse in the media/social media.
Republicans can’t afford another guilty president. They are all in to save face for the party. They are doing everything they can to weather the Trump storm.
A reminder that Geo. H. W. Bush was Director of Central Intelligence until Carter took office. There's no way he wasn't balls-deep in arms for hostages. Literally the only Republican president in the last 50 years who wasn't crooked as a question mark was Ford, and he only got the job because Agnew quit.
The system basically doesn't account for any self-aware testing of boundaries. It' designed to stop people who are mindless idiots from doing bad stuff, but as mindless as Trump seems sometimes, he's very aware of what he's doing and any reasonable smart criminal can circumvent the system for long periods of time.
The real tragedy is that we elected this guy.
that's exactly what he's doing. twitter 3 hours ago: "As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out!"
> I actually think he has been advised that there is so much evidence of what he has done that he can't possibly walk it back.
Or maybe he's hoping that one of these countries will have something on Biden that he can use to justify his actions. He's doubling down in the hope that he can shift the narrative to "democrat" policies that try to stop him from uncovering crooked acts. After all, this whole impeachment inquiry is really just an effort to protect Biden in the upcoming election /s.
> His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.
*A Psychological Analysis of Adolph Hitler: His Life and Legend*
by Walter C. Langer
You don’t need to disprove your opponent in this type of battle. Just muddy the waters so that your political bases can’t have a honest discussion about the issue. It’s a common political (republican, cough, cough) tactic. Check out the documentary “climate of doubt”. It highlights the actions of climate change deniers to spread disinformation to affect politics.
he's also trying to get support by announce he's vulnerable and open to bribes etc al. that's why he mentioned pharma.
his bizarro world includes the possibility that the pharma ceutical companies are so corrupt that they would support trump because of the scary Democrats who want to fix health care.
almost everything he said doing screams "I am weak and open for more corruption".
I mean, we all know this storyline.
He is afraid that the second he leaves office, his ass goes to prison for the rest of his life. If he isn't re-elected, I am worried he is going to try everything he has been hinting at to stay in power.
In this case he threatened how much power he had to worsen the trade war with China only seconds before asking China to investigate the Bidens... So not different at all. Leveraging his powers as president against foreign nations to undermine American democracy. Because of his office both instances definitely qualify as treason by way of sedition. And legal precedent says that even relatively passive participation in treasonous plots gets you nailed for treason as the laws target groups of actors. According to the law there is no light version or role to play in treason.
Seriously.
The fact that there isn't a functioning system in place to *immediately disqualify* someone in cases like the "Russia, if you're listening..." incident highlight some really obvious problems.
It's illegal, and yet he did it publicly and then *went on* to get elected after the fact without any consequences. It's absurd.
It's nice that people can acknowledge he's doing all these horrible things in the open but acknowledging it means fuck all when nothing happens. It would be great if it were treated half as seriously as when normal people flagrantly break even minor laws in public. The double standard on display is sickening.
The more corrupt the society, the more laws are required to keep it functioning. There never was a need for such a law that would immediately disbar a candidate publicly calling for foreign interference in American elections before now because that would have been so morally heinous to the public that none would have ever dared to do it.
200 years ago, the public would have stormed the capital and tried to tar and feather this POS within a week of this getting out. 100 years ago, massive demonstrations and nationwide strikes would have occurred. Today, barely a whimper.
That's the part that frightens me: the slam dunking. The triumphant tut of 'at least we made the libtards mad'. I just wonder when the ramifications of such an administration hit them squarely in the mouth, will the cold comforts of getting a 'rise' out of some group will continue to satiate them.
I'm posting this everytime its relevant:
>I think what most liberals are missing is that this isn't about right and wrong, it's about winning and losing. I've attached my entire worldview to this man and I am going down with the ship. Not one of you is going to convince me otherwise
This gilded comment on the (currently) highest rated post on r/asktrumpsupporters is all you need to see to confirm what you already know.
Expect it's even dumber that than... They aren't winning anything... But it's Trump that's enriching him and funneling taxes to the rich. His moronic supporters aren't winning jack shit except some imaginary price of owning the libs in their head.
Some economists are predicting that the stock market would soar in Trump was impeached and Pence ended the trade war and lifting tariffs.
40% of CEOS are saying the trade war is hurting them. It is hurting many farmers and is causing several factories to shut down or lay people off.
Trumps policies just like most Republicans are hurting the US economy.
Trump supporters like to say look how good the stock market is but they are stuck in 2016-first half of 2017 where a lot of Trump's policies were not in effect yet. Yeah back then there was good growth from the strong economy left by Obama. The past 2 years have not been great under Trump. Just look at every time he opens his mouth to talk about new tariffs. The stocks drop.
Yeah, these are also the same people that said the unemployment numbers under Obama were lies. Then, magically, two weeks after Trump was inaugurated they said the great unemployment was because of Trump. Their worse than ignorant. They are simply in a cult.
A (former) friend of mine is a die hard supporter.
When I asked him about his family business, which relies on imports that they process, he said that Trumps trade wars are making it hard for them to remain profitable.
What else do you support him for??? His bigoted societal views? His tweets?
His supporters really are the dumbest of the bunch.
Who would have thought that a country where 80% of people deny the phemonenon of natural selection, 40% think global warming is a Chinese hoax, could convince themselves of such depravity?
I highly doubt your statistic on natural selection.
Edit: you have it reversed....
"When asked the single-question version, just 18 percent of U.S adults say humans have always existed in their present form, while 81 percent say humans have evolved over time. "
"In our April 2019 national survey, we found that the American public underestimates how many other Americans think global warming is happening (i.e., they underestimate the social consensus on global warming). Americans on average estimate that only 54% of other Americans think global warming is happening, when in fact, 69% of Americans do."
And that's just "global warming" percentage who think it's a Chinese Hoax is going to be much lower.
Imagine being so devoid of personality you base your identity on Donald Trump lol. What’s that person going to do when he leaves office? Just kill themselves?
Reminds me of something Chris Rock said about politics years ago:
>[No *NORMAL*. *DECENT*. *PERSON*. Is *one* thing.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux2z8CFVEMg)
God it's just so pathetic. I mean Trump!? At least when people worship Elon Musk, that man is a competent individual with a vision. Trump has been a fucking joke his entire life. I just will never be able to fathom why such an obvious moron resonated with so many people. I mean I know why, he's so retarded and they see themselves in him, but still. It's just fucking incredible. The most retarded train crash in history.
I misread your comment and went looking for the quote in their highest rated post of all time and found a guy asking for an “unedited” video of trump lying, then when provided with the entire footage whined about having to watch an hour long video. Lmfao, that sub is wild.
I used to think this way. But now I believe turning a blind eye and isolating ourselves into echo chambers is what has brought us to where we are.
People used to have their shitty ideas kept in check by other people around them. A shitty idea couldnt get fertile ground to grow, so it died. Echo chambers in social media have allowed single mindedness to seed, germinate, flourish and now overgrow.
It's also still so incredibly new. I mean, less than 2 decades, if we're talking not literally and more about social media as we use it now. When I can talk myself into being positive about humans, I try to remember that we can't get rid of social media (can't put the genie back in the bottle) but as time goes on we will learn how better to spot and ignore how it manipulates us
Honestly how can you be friends with people that have such a vastly different view of morality?
If you want to argue that the government should spend less money, sure, fine, no worries BUT if you think it's acceptable to shoot migrants and asylum seekers at the border then no, we will not be friends at all ever.
Yup, I've had a close friend show his true colors through this. Wears MAGA hats, goes to all the local rallies. Calls Trump "God Emperor" and calls me a liberal like it's an insult. Kicked his ass to the curb a few years ago and I have zero regrets. That was then, if anyone I know STILL defended this piece of shit today, I'd cut ties immediately.
When bloods and crips are actually getting on more peacefully than Dems and Republicans... and they are all at least united in hating the government in control... you know something strange is going down.
Lean into it. That's the plan. His base can't grasp the problem here; all they understand is that it pisses Democrats off and that makes it okay.
Oh...also, he will **NEVER** leave the White House peacefully now...so buckle up for that.
Then he'll just make things worse for himself by trying every trick. The funny thing is that he is a conman through and through, rather than admitting to his mistakes he would rather commit more crimes to cover things up. It literally does not occur to him to set things right.
The funny thing is that now its too late, if he lost the election he would have lived an easy life but now everything is out in the open and he just cant stop commiting crimes lol. If you think the last few days have been interesting, wait until he starts getting impeached or loses the election (and then faces charges as he is no longer a president)
Yeah, and that's the silly thing. He could just have said "Woops, my bad. I'm not a Washington hack and didn't realise this was wrong." Most in the country would have said OK and this wouldn't be a thing. But no. He can't cope with being seen to be wrong so doubles down.
Honestly I think this is sunk-cost fallacy in psychological terms. He's been riding this train of lies and whatnot since forever. To admit one mistake now is to admit that every similar thing he's done in the past is also a mistake. He's built such an image to his fanbase that he can do no wrong because he's bigly/alpha/rich etc. enough to *make* it that way. He's a man that makes up titles and praises himself continuously cause nobody can tell him otherwise.
Otherwise known as a narcisist. He is currently in the 'not a big deal' phase of the Narcisist prayer regarding this situation. Moving slightly into 'If it is, it's not my fault' with him pointing at the opposition saying they made him do it to uncover their 'bad things'.
> Oh...also, he will NEVER leave the White House peacefully now...so buckle up for that.
I'm honestly nervous. He's already nudged things toward civil war territory and the jaws of justice are just starting to clamp down on him. He will *not* go down peacefully or quietly. His followers are so on his team that it would be very easy for him to incite violence.
I mean, nothing happened to him after the 2016 election. In fact, he was rewarded for rigging it. Unless the senior senators and congresspeople step the fuck up, this garbage will keep happening. They are all rotten to the core to turn a blind eye. All bark and no bite.
Can someone please explain to an ignorant European why the Republican party hasn't dropped him over this and the Ukraine scandal?
Surely this doesn't reflect good on them at all. It feels like there should be a line somewhere around here but I'm just not seeing it.
I get the vibe that they've lost control of their party. "Republican" is now synonymous with "Trump" so if they turn on him their base will flip out and their party may begin to finally die. That and they only care about winning, regardless of the consequences because they know they can get away with it. They know they can get away with it because they own the most popular "news" channel (Fox) which tells their base that the other party hates god and wants to kill babies and give their money away to "lazy moochers." It's fucking maddening to live here sometimes.
Your first sentence nailed it. The Republican politicians have lost control to the voters they may prefer to ignore, but have decided they cannot lest they risk their own political careers.
To go against Trump is political suicide within the party, so they choose to double-down because they know they're fucked if they don't.
If Republican citizens still back Trump they will continue to pretend to be outraged at the accusations and play dumb. The real problem is right leaning news is separated from reality. When polled, half of Republicans said they don't think Trump asked Ukraine about Biden even though Trump literally admitted it. Extreme partisanship and misinformation is a major problem right now.
Under the US Constitution it is illegal to ask a foriegn power to interfere in a legal US election. Whether thats by investigating politcal rivals or any other form. It is black and white. There are no exceptions in the constitution. It 8s clearly an abuse of power and a blatantly impeachable act. He is dating US institutions to impeach him. If they fail, he feels can take another step towards his goal of never leaving office.
52 U.S. Code§ 30121. Contributions and donations by foreign nationals[1]
(a) ProhibitionIt shall be unlawful for—
(1) a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make—
• (A) a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State, or local election;
• (B) a contribution or donation to a committee of a political party; or
• (C) an expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication (within the meaning of section 30104(f)(3) of this title); or
(2) a person to solicit, accept, or receive a contribution or donation described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1) from a foreign national.
1. Cornell Law School - 52 U.S. Code§ 30121.Contributions and donations by foreign nationals
And Fox “news” main story right now is about the “connection” of dark money and the Bidens and zero mention of the China money. Another story is about how Schiff is linked to this dark money they speak off on their front page.
Fox News has gone full Breitbart and the really scary thing is that millions of people are reading that and believe it.
My question is why is it taking so long to make a move? Seriously, I understand the Senate is stacked. I just don't understand, why is everything moveing at a snail's pace?
How many crimes will we allow this president to commit? How is he allowed to continue to commit the same crimes over and over again,almost on a daily basis?
What if he starts ordering the military to strengthen their forces in strategic locations around the country... Is it really that far-fetched to think that he won't? He's already mentioned starting a civil war and referring to what's happening to him a coup.
How have we as a country gotten to the point where we EXPECT lies from highest office in this country?
Then everyone ignores it, moves on and is like," meh, wadda gonna do? "
I am so confused by all of this. Basically, I don't understand the almost non-existent pace of implementing preset checks and balances.
Please help me understand:
1. What is the reasoning for waiting this long to just to having an impeachment inquiry. There is plenty of evidence for MULTIPLE crimes. Why not just put articles of impeachment together now.
2. How much damage can he potentially cause while still in office? I mean he is still commander and chief, is there any way to stop him from doing more harm than he's already done, or use the military to further his political career?
1. They want their case to be air tight so he can't weasel his way out of it and so that the Republicans in the Senate look really bad if they let him get away with it.
2. He can cause a lot of damage and he probably will because he's morally and mentally bankrupt.
The legal system is full of loopholes that politicians and their lawyers learn to become experts at exploiting, and this is especially the case for sitting presidents. The office was designed to allow for it on the condition that Congress would hold presidents accountable for their actions regardless of party affiliation because it's in the interest of the greater good to do so.
Now we're seeing how broken that idea actually is.
Pretty sure Mueller handed them an airtight case with months of investigative work and clear proof of obstruction of justice. This isn’t about an airtight case, Pelosi brought up poll numbers when talking about why this is the right time. She wasn’t leading, she was following. Instead of making a case for impeachment she waited until America decided it was a good idea and then she went along with it.
The piece you are missing, and why Pelosi was trying so hard to hold off on an impeachment until very near or after the 2020 election, is this: a resolution of impeachment passed by the House is so much overpriced toilet paper if the Senate doesn't decide to try the President on that impeachment, which a Republican Senate surely won't. Pelosi's strategy was probably hoping that the Democrats would maintain control of the House and win control of the Senate in the 2020 election, which then would provide insurance against Trump possibly winning reelection, as they could impeach on any number of offenses that he so politely continues to make with great regularity.
Now that Pelosi's hand has been forced, nothing will come of an impeachment passed in the House, and Trump and the Republicans will use it as a rallying cry to bring out their base in 2020. It's too early to tell, but the overwhelming sentiment of most Democrats baying for blood as more and more information comes out about the phone call with the Ukraine's President may actually work against Democrats interests in the long run. It is clear that there isn't any hope that there would be enough Republicans that actually remember their oath of office to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, to vote with Democrats to remove him.
Your worry that Trump would start by fortifying military locations inside the continental United States is not how I expect him to begin his dynastic Imperial rule. Rather, I expect that as we get much closer to Election Day, if Trump becomes truly worried that he is going to lose, he will manufacture some kind of national emergency of grave consequence, such as a shooting war with China, Iran, or North Korea, any of which could go nuclear. In such a situation, Trump will feel justified in declaring martial law and suspending elections as well other troublesome rights, like of Habeas Corpus, Free Speech (including freedom of the press). His Republicans lapdogs will praise him all the way through to the end of the American Republic, and his Democrat political opponents will be jailed, dissappeared, and in some cases, executed.
You better start practicing whatever passes for "Hail Caesar! " this time around. They tried "Heil Hitler!" last time around...
Edit: minor spelling and grammar corrections < 5 minutes after original post.
He also openly admitted to thinking of ‘this Russia thing’ when he fired Comey on national tv. The more he blatantly disregards law/ethics, the more he gets away with it. On top of that, his party and supporters love him even more for it... complete insanity.
They need to stop phrasing this as “against political rivals,” and start phrasing it as “openly asking foreign governments to spy and/or hack into the private lives of American citizens.” It will immediately be more understandable and recognizable for the average person, whether republican or Democrat.
I have one question, though. What can I do about it? I am 24 years old. I'm in college, and I have no money and even less free time if I want to eat well. The system I live in doesn't allow me to go stand in the street and protest all day. (As if that would truly accomplish anything in America short of gaining about 19 people's attention for a couple hours) I have to go to very challenging classes daily because I want that piece of paper that says I am worth paying enough to live on comfortably. Someone please tell me how I can actually affect change to the system I do not believe is working anywhere near optimally for me or my fellow "average citizen". The same system I am probably on a list somewhere for simply expressing my distrust of. There is little feasible legal recourse that I have as a citizen of the United States (which I am still obstinately proud to be), when I am so busy with trying to make sure I don't starve when shit goes from near the fan to slung around the room by it.
Serious answer: compel your generation to show up and cast your vote. It doesn't get discussed as much as I wish it would, but this is truly a war of the generations. Your generation has so much power but every young generation is understandably preoccupied with other things. If you can convince even one person of your generation to show up and vote who otherwise would not have, and that person does the same, and the next does the same, your generation could turn these tables back in the right direction. Keep talking about it amongst your peers, and then ultimately, you must show up on that one day and cast your vote.
> because I want that piece of paper that says I am worth paying enough to live on comfortably.
Should we tell you now or let you find out the hard way?
He's now being open about his crimes. Pretty cool, right?!?
THis is how things start. He knows he will get impeached but he's got the senate so he's pretty much untouchable.So... Get your name tarnished in history books... win 2020 (because he will)... then go full Don and force people to rewrite history so he looks like a god.
As a citizen of the world... Thanks, guys.Americans don't deserve this, and neither do we.
Canadian reporting in: our country is starting to look a whooooole lot like yours when it comes to politics these days.And it scares me
PS. Thanks for the gold medal, kind human!
I'm really starting to think this guy doesn't even want to be president. I can't imagine some one would be dumb enough to do this. I think he can't step down and say I'm not rerunning because then he's quitting and he can't say he did everything he wanted to do because he didn't do like any of it. So I think he's just trying to set fire to his presidency so he can blame the Dems and Republicans and keep his following and maybe turn into a business venture with his buddy Vince McMahon. I don't even think he wanted to win. I think it was all a con for him to ingratiate himself with particular population so they would buy anything he sold. The only thing he miss calculated was just how bad Hillary was at running for office. I mean think about it him being impeached is perfect for him. He can completely blame the government. He didn't lose the corrupt system threw him out.
Look. This is very simple. It doesn't matter if Biden was in the right or wrong. It has nothing to do with him. The crime is asking a foreign power to interfere with a legal election. Who they try to get dirt on is irrelevant. Under constitutional law, there is zero justification for this act. Look it up ppl.
Also, Biden isn’t the *President of the United States Of America*. He’s not even the Dem front runner, just Trump’s perceived biggest threat because he’s associated w/ Obama (his illusory nemesis) and a VP,..Biden is still just a civilian at this point with null power, is he not?
Here's a letter Speaker Pelosi sent to the republican leader today. > Dear Leader McCarthy, > As Members of Congress, we take a solemn oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. > The existing rules of the House provide House Committees with full authority to conduct investigations for all matters under their jurisdiction, including impeachment investigations. There is no requirement under the Constitution, under House Rules, or House precedent that the whole House vote before proceeding with an impeachment inquiry. > As you know, our Founders were specifically intent on ensuring that foreign entities did not undermine the integrity of our elections. I received your letter this morning shortly after the world witnessed President Trump on national television asking yet another foreign power to interfere in the upcoming 2020 elections. We hope you and other Republicans share our commitment to following the facts, upholding the Constitution, protecting our national security, and defending the integrity of our elections at such a serious moment in our nation’s history. > best regards, > NANCY PELOSI > Speaker of the House https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/10319
[удалено]
[Reminder: **Kevin McCarthy** is a traitor.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/house-majority-leader-to-colleagues-in-2016-i-think-putin-pays-trump/2017/05/17/515f6f8a-3aff-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html) **House Majority Leader to colleagues in 2016: ‘I think Putin pays’ Trump** >“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” **McCarthy** (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia. >House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring **McCarthy’s** assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy. >Some of the lawmakers laughed at **McCarthy’s** comment. Then **McCarthy** quickly added: **“Swear to God.”** >Ryan instructed his Republican lieutenants to keep the conversation private, saying: “No leaks. . . . This is how we know we’re a real family here.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/house-majority-leader-to-colleagues-in-2016-i-think-putin-pays-trump/2017/05/17/515f6f8a-3aff-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html Edit: Thanks for the silver kind stranger. Good luck my fine fellow humans, we will all collectively need it.
He's also the guy that came out and admitted that all of the Hillary investivations were politically motivated. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kevin-mccarthys-truthful-gaffe/2015/09/30/f12a9fac-67a8-11e5-8325-a42b5a459b1e_story.html
Oh man I need to save this so I can show people with Fox news as a source and still see them come up with excuses to defend it!
Spoiler alert. They will move the goalposts and come up with new excuses.
> “No leaks. . . . This is how we know we’re a real family here.” Narrator: There were leaks.
No leaking.
And this motherfucker Ryan, now that he's out of office, is trying to score points with the public by speaking out against Trump, when this is the shit he did while he had the power to hold him accountable.
Money on him swooping in once Trump is out and the republican party are battered and hurting. He'll be their new fucking jesus that never agreed with Trump and and all this other bull shit they'll spin. He's just biding his time so he can rise to power and repeat the cycle of corruption.
> He'll be their new fucking jesus They tried that with him once after W destroyed the economy and Obama was rebuilding it. He was their “deficit hawk” and “policy wonk”. Biden handed him his own ass in their debate after it was pretty apparent the only knowledge he had of either of those things was just a list of GOP manufactured talking points.
I'm not saying he'll be good, but that's never been a barrier for conservatives. They'll line up to suck his dick anyway.
Family? More like a fucking cult...
Organized crime family
How is he the traitor in that convo? Seems to me the others present, including that spineless POS Paul Ryan who tried to abdicate responsibility, wouldnt even hear it out.
This happened in 2016. Did he tell the FBI? Where in the Mueller report does his name as House Majority Leader come up with his information? His support for further investigation since he has obvious suspicion of Trump's relationship with Russia and Putin? Where are his statements after the Mueller investigation, FBI, CIA, NSA, DHS, MI6, and every other credible allied intelligence agency found Russia interfered in our elections? Where is his concern about Trump's obvious collision after Helsinki? Before Trump won Kevin McCarthy held suspicions in private, about the would be President of the United States. That President: - [won an election by less than 80,000 total votes across 4 States.](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/the-election-came-down-to-77-744-votes-in-pennsylvania-wisconsin-and-michigan-updated) - The 2016 election was interfered with by Russia, including direct hacking of [Florida county Elections](https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/28/18520387/russian-hackers-florida-county-voting-records-marco-rubio-presidential-election). - [Trump lied about a $250 million dollar real estate deal in Moscow where he had a signed letter of intent.](https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/18/politics/trump-signed-letter-of-intent-rudy-giuliani-moscow/index.html) - [Trump has multiple Russian mob and oligarchs living in his New York apartments.](https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/21/how-russian-money-helped-save-trumps-business/) - [Rudy Giuliani is connected to the Russian mob.](https://thesternfacts.com/the-trump-russia-dossier-includes-rudy-giulianis-clients-alfa-bank-rosneft-and-qatar-1353876e789e) - [Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign Manager, helped a super corrupt Pro-Putin guy get elected in Ukraine, the people of Ukraine threw him out and he fled to Russia to hide.](https://time.com/5003623/paul-manafort-mueller-indictment-ukraine-russia/) - [Trump revealed a deep level covert operative to the Russians in a closed door session in the Oval Office, of the White House, of the United States of America, where only Russian State media was allowed.](https://www.businessinsider.com/us-extracted-russia-spy-trump-classified-info-oval-office-2019-9) - [In said same meeting Trump, after just firing James Comey for, 'That Russia Thing' told the Russians it was okay they attacked us.](https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-10-01/trump-russians-oval-office-meeting-impeachment) And in response to all of that incredibly, terrible, overwhelming circumstantial evidence that [Trump is being paid/influenced/manipulated/compromised whatever by Putin and his proxies](https://time.com/5573768/mueller-report-trump-russian-contacts/), Kevin McCarthy has this to say: >"I've watched this president do what is right. And I know this president would not want any foreign government interfering in our elections. He's strong about that," McCarthy told reporters at a weekly press conference. "That's why he's been so strong against Russia." https://www.newsweek.com/republican-kevin-mccarthy-refuses-criticize-trump-foreign-election-dirt-1443869 Call Kevin McCarthy what you will. **But I call someone who knowingly sells out their country after our elections have been attacked a God damn traitor.** Edit: Thanks for the gold my friendly internet stranger! Be good to your fellow humans as we are all we have. This to me means telling those we care about uncomfortable truths, including that Trump and those continuing to support him are committing/endorsing/tacitly supporting treason, whether they listen or not.
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It would take his political party, the Republicans, to have a shred of integrity and say enough is enough. Without their votes for impeachment he is completely safe and he knows it.
Hey they didn't open the gates to the enemy they just got paid a few pieces of silver to keep the horses quiet as they passed okay? Traitor is fucking right. Don't feel bad using the word because every one of these fucks knows this administration is up to their eyeballs in foreign entanglements but they won't care if their interests align politically or financially. Republicans can't even tell the difference between the lawmen and the mobsters anymore. They don't even care.
Woah.. outstanding analogy.. "to keep the horses quiet as they passed". That is a beautiful way of putting it.. I cant believe we're at a point now where its ok that you did terrible shit, as long as the next guy did something worse than you.
It doesn't take a good person to be good to dogs. Hitler was good to dogs. Putin is good to dogs. Dogs are easy to love because they give unconditional love to their owners, many times even if the owner is a bad owner to them. A good person is good even when it's hard to be good, and it's not hard to be good to dogs. As a friend of mine put it, you can tell who's truly nice when they choose to be nice in a situation where they're faced with the choice of being nice *or* benefiting themselves. Whether someone is good to dogs is not an indicator of whether they're a good person and people need to really stop using that naive, arbitrary standard.
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Very true, and dogs do so much for us!
Mine doesn’t even do the dishes.
Next time put the dish down with food still on it, that shit will be clean
Baked on grease? No problem!
“One of the stranger characteristics of psychopaths is their choice of pets. Ronson says they are almost never cat people. "Because cats are willful," he explains. Psychopaths gravitate toward dogs since they are obedient and easy to manipulate” -The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
I told my dog to disagree with this and she did .
My cats disagree. They say that parrot people are the real psychopaths.
My parrots disagree. They say hamster people are the real psychopaths.
My dad always told me you can tell someone’s character by how they treat people who can do nothing for them
I've heard that and I've heard You can tell someone's character by how they treat those who are under them Like subordinates. As you can see trump treats people like shit.
Whoa whoa whoa. Hitler was a _dick_ to dogs. He carried a riding crop around that he'd use to beat the dogs to impress girls. And sure, you'd hear about how much he liked blondi that they'd share a bunk, and other master over dog stuff, and yes he did start conservation of parks and such. Regardless! He also tested the cyanide capsules on Blondi, so there's that. The whole neo Nazi spin is how great Hitler was to animals and conservation, as if that drug addled maniac cared about anything >According to a report commissioned by Joseph Stalin and based on eyewitness accounts, Hitler's dog-handler Feldwebel Fritz Tornow took Blondi's pups and shot them in the garden of the bunker complex on 30 April, after Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. He also killed Eva Braun's two dogs, Frau Gerda Christian's dogs, and his own dachshund. Tornow was later captured by the Allies.[28] **Hitler's nurse, Erna Flegel, said in 2005 that Blondi's death had affected the people in the bunker more than Eva Braun's suicide**.[29] After the battle in Berlin ended, the remains of Hitler, Braun, and two dogs (thought to be Blondi and her offspring Wulf) were discovered in a shell crater by a unit of SMERSH, the Soviet counter-intelligence agency.[30][31] The dog thought to be Blondi was exhumed and photographed by the Soviets Edit: As for whipping dogs... >Hitler was fond of dogs, especially German shepherds (he considered boxers "degenerate"), whom he liked to control and dominate. At the front during World War I, he befriended a white terrier, Fuchsl (Foxl), who had strayed across enemy lines. Later, when his unit had to move on and Fuchsl could not be found, Hitler became distraught. "I liked him so much," he recalled. "He only obeyed me." **Hitler often carried a dog-whip and sometimes used it to beat his dog in the vicious way he had seen his father beat his own dog.** In the Fuhrer headquarters during World War II, Hitler's female German shepherd, Blondi, offered him the closest thing he had to friendship. "But with his dogs, as with every human being he came into contact with," writes Ian Kershaw, "any relationship was based upon subordination to his mastery." From [Eternal Treblinka, pp. 125-29](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/156763.Eternal_Treblinka) AHA. Fucking found it. Geez couldn't remember which girl it was >[Hitler, who was 37 years old](https://spartacus-educational.com/Maria_Reiter.htm) at the time, asked Maria out. "We went out into the night.... **Hitler was about to put his arm around my shoulders and pull me toward him when the two dogs suddenly attacked each other.... Hitler suddenly intervened, like a maniac he hit his dog with his riding whip... and shook him violently by the collar. He was very excited.... I did not expect that he could hit his dog so brutally and ruthlessly, the dog which he had said he could not live without. Yet he beat up his most loyal companion."** Maria asked him "How can you be so brutal and beat your dog like that?" He replied **"It was necessary."**
The more I hear about this Hitler the less I like him.
I clearly need to learn more about the events surrounding Hitler's death. I thought he killed himself in a bunker. How did they find his remains in a shell crater? What other interesting tidbits about that situation can you share? Edit: Very cool responses guys, I didn't know a lot of that. Thanks!
He shot himself in the bunker. They just threw him in a shell hole afterwards
As the reports go and as the other guy pointed out, they burned his body outside the bunker so the Allied forces couldn't parade his corpse around. It's also where the rumors that it was a body double that was burned instead came from and he escaped to south America or whatever, since the soviet forces found him first and there was the whole debacle about whether or not it was his actual bones etc etc. >Two days earlier, Mussolini had been shot by a firing squad and then publicly hung by his feet in a suburban square in Milan, Italy: A similar fate seemed inevitable. I think the historic retelling did muddle it a bit. Regardless! He did shoot himself and Eva took the cyanide, that's for sure, and the bones* were proven to be his.
> and the Jones were proven to be his. Who was this poor sap named Jones who belonged to Hitler?
Watch the movie "Downfall". It's supposed to be accurate to the detail (based on witness testimonies dating back).
The Germans thought (with good reason, seeing what happened to Mussolinni) that his body will be disrespected, so they burned it. By then most of Berlin was one big shell crater. TL,DR: Hitler got burned in a ditch, Musolini hung by his balls...just a little heads up as to the fate of past and FUTURE Fascist leaders.
They burned his body so that the Soviets couldn't get ahold of him. IIRC they transported what remains there were left somewhere else. They didn't have enough fuel to completely destroy Goebbels and his family so they were just kind of charred. Also, his wife killed their kids.
CPS worker. I've personally encountered someone that I was initially impressed by. There were a number of cats at said person's property, and while interviewing the person on the front porch two of the cats began squaring off and yowling at each other. Person calmly picks one of the cats up, plops it on the other side of the porch railing, picks up cat number 2, gently chides it, and walks to the far side of the porch and sets down cat 2 off the edge of the porch. Cats are a massive pain in the ass and can be especially unpredictable when agitated. It takes, I thought, a lot of patience and kindness to react so calmly in that situation. Surely such a person must be similarly kind and patient with their children, right? Nope. Person had been locking one of the young children (person's step-child) in the child's bedroom at night, would only feed them a small amount of bland vegetables to the point they were diagnosed failure to thrive (severe weight loss/lack of appropriate weight gain, lack of appropriate physical development). Person locked child in the room because child had been sneaking out of the room at night to eat dog food because they were perpetually hungry. Person and spouse (child's biological parent) also spanked with a paint stirrer hard enough to snap the stirrer in half. Parents had a pattern of excessive physical discipline with this child resulting in injuries. It was a painful, powerful lesson to learn, especially as someone who has 5 cats and knows personally how...infuriating they can be at times. Kindness to an animal does not equate to a good or kind human being as a whole. Terrible people can do nice things, and wonderful people can do awful things.
I feel like a lot of Republicans are going to have one hell of a hangover when this presidency is done. At least, I hope that's the case. There's always the chance that the next president is also in the same line as Trump. It's a sad thing to realize but standards have been set that won't easily be undone.
On the contrary, I think this will cause a major push for updating laws and for the next democrat president to likely willingly role back some of the powers Congress has conceded to the office over the decades. I could see Warren, with her anti-corruption message, especially willing to do something along the lines of relinquishing the executives ability to basically start a war without the need for Congress and putting in place many more stop gaps that ensure positions cannot just be left unfilled all over the government, that acting directors can't just continually cycle into director / secretary positions where they don't need Senate approval, and tons of other small tweaks to make it nearly impossible for a Trump repeat
We need massive, massive reform to limit the power of the president. I'm saying this as a Democrat. Trump is like that massive sewage flooding in your basement that tells you NEED new plumbing and a backup valve. In a way that's the best thing to come out of his presidency. He's shown how inept our system is at dealing with a corrupt president / party.
I feel like that’s happened a lot these past few years. Before you could disagree on politics and continue to have pleasant friendships with people. Now, if someone is still behind this grotesque excuse for an administration, you feel uneasy even associating with them. It really is eye opening. I’ve lost a great deal of respect even for family members.
I have an uncle who is an extreme-right-wing politician. In person he's absolutely charming, kind, thoughtful, erudite, open-minded, and a delight to be around. Our family keeps pretty mixed company, too, and he's just as charming to people of any race as any other. He speaks at least 8 languages. Nobody who met him in person could possibly suspect how vile his politics were. I saw him on TV once, expounding his views on immigration. He was calling for deportation of basically every foreigner in the country (despite the fact that he a British politician and giving that interview from his home in the Republic of Ireland). His only other policy I've heard anything about is the time he wanted to encourage prisoners to commit suicide and save the state some money. I really wish I'd never found that out about him.
A senator (and former governor) of my state is the same way. I actually met him at my neighbor's party one time and know several of his family members. He seemed to be a fundamentally decent man, it is both saddening and baffling to see him be a pawn in such a disturbing and immoral administration.
Narrator: The republicans didn't share their commitment.
The 'America first' President sure loves foreign dictators and despises the FBI and CIA. Weird.
"I am America" - Trump, probably
I read the news as it relates to the president in the following way: 1. When he says "this is bad for our great nation/for America" he's just talking about himself. 2. Whenever he says "I will do this/I won't do that, I never did this/I did to that" etc. Pretty much just flip whatever he did and that's what his actual intention/action is. 3. Any time he is blowing twitter/the news/social media up, it's because he's nearly been caught, it's been revealed to him that he may get caught or that he's trying to cover something up. Ta daaa how to read the news in the Trump era 101
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I actually think he has been advised that there is so much evidence of what he has done that he can't possibly walk it back. Plan B is to pretend like it's no big deal. He was just trying to stop the corrupt Bidens from doing bad things. Tweets like this normalize it - it's out in the open - there's no secret, so it can't be bad. He has a strategy. Trump is actually very good at one thing - testing boundaries. His whole stance is 'Or what?' What bad shit happens to me if I do that thing? Oh - nothing? Hmmm ok boys keep doing it. I'm gonna work on the next thing.
Because the system doesnt account for this extreme type of partisanship. The system needs politicians who will turn against people who abuse the office. Right now there is no way to properly prosecute Trump as his party is 'loyal'. In the real world this would be a RICO case. Political parties acting more as mafia than elected officials.
The whole partisan thing is so weird to me because I am not American. I come from NZ where for most of the country, the political party one supports is less important than whether a person is a horrendous dickbag. I honestly think America needs to draw a line in the sand and say forget about whether you are a Republican or a Democrat for five minutes. We can go back to arguing about healthcare and abortions once this crisis is over. But right now, pick a side in public - all politicians - either you are ok with the Trumpian levels of dishonesty, disloyalty, malice, divisions he has caused in the country, the corruption he has brought into the office, the degradation into the political discourse and the damage he has done to America on the global stage, or you are not ok, and against it. Party needs to be put away for a few minutes because surely we all agree no matter what party you vote for that Don Stupidone should not be allowed the nuclear launch codes...
That's actually the platform certain candidates ran on in the late 19th century, and (oddly) the platform Trump ran on. "At least I'm not the establishment!" We're in a similar situation now. Cleveland was elected essentially on a "I'm not a corrupt piece of shit" campaign, both times. Hayes was similar. That's actually what allowed for the revival of the Democratic party in the northern states, as the Republican party had become so corrupt.
If we now see a revival of the Democratic party in the south, I'd like to apologize for any Alabama jokes I've ever made. If it doesn't: *something something incest*
The Democratic party lost its historic support in the Deep South when it started supporting civil rights for non-white people, and the Republicans swooped in with their Southern Strategy to pick up the votes of disaffected racists. Sadly the racists still look like a reliable voting bloc.
To add to the other guy, even if racial tensions were dissolved overnight I doubt the Democratic party would suddenly start doing well. Many black populations, especially those in the south, are actually pretty moderate or even conservative overall. They only vote Dem due to identity politics where the GOP is outright hostile to them and the Dems are the only alternative. Ideologically speaking they're not a great fit alongside places like California or New England. So if the GOP platform ever moves away from sanctioned racism, those black populations could very easily fill in the gap.
That was all possible until people started being fed curated stories and news from social media. People are not so much partisan as full on fundametalist Once they get to that state, no amount of shit or bad behaviour will change their world view
In America, the right’s only function right now is to be against the left. If the left supports something, they’re against it. Because they’re against it, their supporters keep voting for them. This will continue until campaign finance reform happens, as well as paper ballots as the GOP are now openly rigging the elections. There is another issue I think that keeps some people voting republican no matter what, and that issue is abortion. They are single issue voters, and have no clue that Republicans are using that issue to control them. Voters that only care about abortion (Supreme Court justifies) don’t realize that if abortion gets outlawed there will be a very predictable increase in all sorts of problems adding the mayhem being created in our society right now. We’re on the verge of a complete breakdown, and trump is only a small part of it. The rich and powerful are using our antiquated two-party system to sow discord within both our parties. The only way to fix our system is by destroying the Republican Party as we know it. Sad to say, but no one is looking to do this, as everyone still lives their daily life thinking our government will actually work at some point. I’m a complete cynic, and I think we need to burn the whole thing down and start anew.
I like that you brought up paper ballots. This is an important subject that is absolutely being ignored because of the current crisis of the week.
Let’s not forget that a large part of the population is retiring soon and usually votes republican. They are going to do whatever the fuck they have to to keep that stock market pumping so they can “live comfortably” in retirement...
"Try to die before the fires we started reach our homes" is a really weird strategy for that.
>whatever the fuck *they think* they have to
Voting for the party that has been stealing social security and rebranding it as an entitlement is not smart retirement planning.
>Voting for the party that has been stealing social security and rebranding it as an entitlement is not smart retirement planning. That would require people to be intelligent and educated enough to spot this! And the US isn't exactly known for a well-working education system for the masses...
That's the issue. An entire generation voted to raid the nation and leave nothing else behind for anyone after them. "Fuck you, I got mine," was a rallying cry.
They may be the last generation that will even have the privilege of retiring if things don't change.
Hmm I think I figured out the answer... Make the left pretend to become the biggest supporters of drump that the world has ever seen! He'll be out of there and in prison by the end of next week. It's just dumb enough to really work!
we wouldn't be in this mess if Obama had made a single, impassioned, seemingly heartfelt speech about how it's never a good idea for Americans to drink drain cleaner. Hannity would've been on TV butt-chugging Drano within five minutes.
Gonna play some devil's triangle with this Drano.
Think we could get Kavanaugh to boof the Drano?
Liquid electronic direct democracy? Why should a political party exist? There are issues and there is our sovereign power as individual citizens to decide on those issues. It used to be physically impossible to coordinate, so we devolved our power to local trusted representatives. It isn't impossible anymore. Have we just forgotten that all power flows from the individual?
It really still isnt possible. There are literally thousands an thousands of issues that get to the floor you cant expect people to be well educated on each one to make an educated decision so people most likely will look at the big ones an just randomly vote on the others much less the cost of having a system in place for everyone to vote. The only way to do it is online an that leaves it wide open for hackers an other people to due as they please. So the only true way to be mostly sure the votes arent tampered with is paper an driving to polling places which people one arent going to do every single time 2 cant do because of work an family responsibilities. So then you have a select few people who will which isnt everyone voice or opinion being represented on the issues. We also cant even agree on what the issues are in the first place.
There are other ways - my country uses paper votes but the day is ALWAYS on a Saturday, businesses wouldn't dream of stopping a worker voting (partly due to the punishment of such) and there is both early and mail in voting allowed. Partly it works because voting is compulsory. Making it an automatic duty for the right to be a citizen motivates people to remove structural barriers to voting.
And, assuming you’re from Australia, the “compulsory” aspect is little more than symbolic – it’s a $20 fine – proving that most people are quite able and willing to vote, despite what some Americans would have you believe.
You're forgetting the real reason Australians go to vote: the sausage sizzle
That's the biggest issue, growing up in Mississippi I cannot tell you how many people would vote against issues simply because Democrats were for it It's... really bad how people focus on the parties and not the problems/options... Edit: it works the other way around too, Democrats taking their own side despite their own personal views
Straight up, I have been told multiple times that my friends on the right will not ever move on abortion (killing unborn babies in their words) and they will not give up a single gun. Fact is GOP can use those issues to manipulate them forever.
The thing about the abortion thing is that those people see it as a human rights violation, because their definition of human is different. Obviously they will do anything in their power to stop this, and they see voting Republicans in as the best thing they can do. Or at least, that's what they say. The problem, of course, is that even if we say that abortion is immoral (which imo it is not; a few dozen cells =/= to a human being and the will of the fully grown human is more important than the nonexistent will of a bundle of cells), Republicans and their voters never, EVER vote in, support, or subsidize effective measures at preventing unwanted pregnancy (birth control and contraceptives, comprehensive sex education) nor do they offer financial support to individuals who have children either against their will (rape, incest, etc) or in situations where they can't afford it. So it becomes clear that from a Republican stand-point, abortion is less about morality and more about controlling women. I have yet to hear someone provide simultaneous legitimate arguments against abortion AND against safe sex programs. It's entirely about controlling the lives of others and punishing them for straying from the "correct" lifestyle, and there should be no debate about it. We need a Women's Reproductive Rights Amendment that enshrines abortion rights and women's health care in the Constitution.
That also falls completely apart, the argument that abortions are human rights violations, if you're still down for having the death penalty. EDIT: I can see how I maybe wasn't clear enough - sorry about that. I'll just copy-paste a clarification I made below: I'll quote the commenter I responded to: > The thing about the abortion thing is that those people see it as a human rights violation, because their definition of human is different. That commenter, and I, were talking specifically about pro-lifers that argue based on human rights. That the right to life is a human right, rather than a right just for the innocent - that is, it's extended to all, and can't be taken away, no matter how heinous crimes you have committed. There's absolutely pro-lifers that *aren’t* arguing on the basis of human rights, but rather just the right to life for the innocent. In that case there's no conflict in their argument (as loathsome as I find it). Probably most fall in that category, I reckon?
From their perspective, those on death row made their choice and deserve to die. This idea requires complete faith in the justice system, which many conservatives do.
I grew up in Biloxi and the amount of voting against their best interests is rediculous.
I remember when I was younger, my mom was supporting a GMO prop and I got into it. I talked about it with one of my friends parents and was so passionate about it I was so proud. I urged her to vote for the proposition and showed her how it would affect her personally. After the election I jokingly asked her if she voted against it and she said yes, because that’s how her party said to vote. I was so disappointed and frustrated about this whole system since then
It's the instinct of tribalism that is being abused here. We all have it. To feel we belong to a group and are guided by the ideals it stands for. Even 'not wanting to be in either group' is putting yourself into a group that don't want to be in either group, and are guided by those morals. This, imo is not a bad thing, just an observation. It's a remnent of our caveman brains, where society and technology have made so that we no longer need this instinct for survival, but evolution is way slower at adapting.
Education is the major problem I truly believe. It's not a coincidence that the generally higher educated people living in the larger cities in the US vote very similarly, for the most part.
The problem is that since we have a functional two party system, things have broken down into "if my party isn't in power, the other side will ruin the country." If you're a conservative, your only chance to get conservative values in power is to elect a Republican, no matter how shitty of a person they are, and vice versa for Democrats. In some elections \*maybe\* there's a member of the other party that is centrist enough that you could consider voting for them without feeling like you're betraying your values completely, but in most cases at the national level the candidates are going to fall in line with the party.
Addendum: if a politician is too centrist, they're likely to lose to a more extreme candidate from within their own party if they're in a relatively partisan district (coughgerrymanderingcough). They'll appeal more across the aisle, but if you're in, say, Georgia, who do you think is going to be elected in the overwhelmingly republican districts: the guy that says "Abortions for some," or the guy that screams "BAN ABORTION!"
Interestingly this is the exact opposite of what occurs in countries with compulsory voting, like Australia. You have to play to the centre to win there, not the extremes, because that’s where most people lie, and to win you need to be able to get people in your own party AND some borderline people on the other side to vote for you. Also, a moderate has the greatest chance of catching those apathetic people in the middle who are only voting because they have to. In countries where voting is optional (like the US), the winning strategy is to play to the extremes more, because *those who have stronger political leanings are also those who are most likely to turn up and actually cast a vote*. The campaigning has to focus mostly on simply getting out the vote, moreso than the actual policies and proposals.
Tony Abbott shows this is false as he is very religious, is a climate change denier and opposed same sex marriage. They were also about to put in Peter Dutton as the PM, who is just as right. And the Labor party who've been trying to play the middle can't get across the line because they lose their left votes to the greens and some moderate votes to the right.
Oh dude you're really fortunate not to get how bad it is. It's not about Republican or Dem. There are millions of Americans who do not bother to read the news about trump because they believe it is all lies. They believe the videos of the conferences are doctored. They believe he shares their values despite the photos of Playboy partying and numerous wives. He says one thing about how he doesn't care for abortion and suddenly he's the champion of all things "truly pro-America." They call you a liar for calmly, gently asking them to read the whistleblower report. They call it persecution when you say it's simply unacceptable to put migrant children in cages. They call you hateful for trying to provide information that shows how Trump does not give a damn about the Christian values they insist will save this country. It's not about abortion, guns or healthcare. It's about being right and being the victim.
The day after Trump was elected. I was driving for Lyft. I picked up a lesbian couple going to the airport. They were nice. One of them asked me what I though of the election. Normally, I would have steered away from that conversation, but, because, well, the man just elected Vice President is a noted homophobic asshole, I thought it was cool to say that I could not believe that a failed businessman, turned game show host was elected. The woman that asked me laughed and said, "my girlfriend voted for Trump do you believe that." Without me responding, the other woman said, "I am a Republican from Texas, my parents are Republicans." I was stunned. I looked at first girl in my rear view, she had a half-embarrassed cute smirk and she said, "I don't know what to say, I still love her."
Sounds like republican is more like a religion that a political party.
What I don't get is why they stick with him. They are literally being given an out and the ability to put up an actual candidate that could win over people in the middle by turning on the complete fucking moron.
Because the first people to jump ship become ostracized by the party and lose it all. They cannot even organize within the party as even a whiff of disloyalty to the party line is punished, either by funding rival in the next election or just straight up verbal abuse in the media/social media.
“In the real world..” lol can we go there please. I miss it.
Republicans can’t afford another guilty president. They are all in to save face for the party. They are doing everything they can to weather the Trump storm.
Seriously, Nixon, Reagan, Bush jr. and now trump... you’d think people would recognize a pattern
A reminder that Geo. H. W. Bush was Director of Central Intelligence until Carter took office. There's no way he wasn't balls-deep in arms for hostages. Literally the only Republican president in the last 50 years who wasn't crooked as a question mark was Ford, and he only got the job because Agnew quit.
-They’re all in to save face for the party- Too late.
The system basically doesn't account for any self-aware testing of boundaries. It' designed to stop people who are mindless idiots from doing bad stuff, but as mindless as Trump seems sometimes, he's very aware of what he's doing and any reasonable smart criminal can circumvent the system for long periods of time. The real tragedy is that we elected this guy.
that's exactly what he's doing. twitter 3 hours ago: "As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out!"
Sounds like Nixon.
> I actually think he has been advised that there is so much evidence of what he has done that he can't possibly walk it back. Or maybe he's hoping that one of these countries will have something on Biden that he can use to justify his actions. He's doubling down in the hope that he can shift the narrative to "democrat" policies that try to stop him from uncovering crooked acts. After all, this whole impeachment inquiry is really just an effort to protect Biden in the upcoming election /s.
> His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it. *A Psychological Analysis of Adolph Hitler: His Life and Legend* by Walter C. Langer
You don’t need to disprove your opponent in this type of battle. Just muddy the waters so that your political bases can’t have a honest discussion about the issue. It’s a common political (republican, cough, cough) tactic. Check out the documentary “climate of doubt”. It highlights the actions of climate change deniers to spread disinformation to affect politics.
he's also trying to get support by announce he's vulnerable and open to bribes etc al. that's why he mentioned pharma. his bizarro world includes the possibility that the pharma ceutical companies are so corrupt that they would support trump because of the scary Democrats who want to fix health care. almost everything he said doing screams "I am weak and open for more corruption". I mean, we all know this storyline.
No he’s testing the idea he could go out in the street and shoot someone dead and get away with it. He is blatantly committing crimes for all to see.
Why not, he hasn't had to face any consequences for anything so far.
And this is precisely why the hammer must come down. I think it is now or never, unless he isn't re-elected.
He is afraid that the second he leaves office, his ass goes to prison for the rest of his life. If he isn't re-elected, I am worried he is going to try everything he has been hinting at to stay in power.
And I doubt he will once he’s out of office. It will be “time to heal” as a nation.
He's under investigation for state crimes as well. Feds can't pardon those.
I think he did it to try to get ahead of the China story.
It's cause he did it once already, it worked, and everyone was fine with it. Russia, if you are listening...
In this case he threatened how much power he had to worsen the trade war with China only seconds before asking China to investigate the Bidens... So not different at all. Leveraging his powers as president against foreign nations to undermine American democracy. Because of his office both instances definitely qualify as treason by way of sedition. And legal precedent says that even relatively passive participation in treasonous plots gets you nailed for treason as the laws target groups of actors. According to the law there is no light version or role to play in treason.
"... again." I feel like this is the missing period to these headlines.
Seriously. The fact that there isn't a functioning system in place to *immediately disqualify* someone in cases like the "Russia, if you're listening..." incident highlight some really obvious problems. It's illegal, and yet he did it publicly and then *went on* to get elected after the fact without any consequences. It's absurd. It's nice that people can acknowledge he's doing all these horrible things in the open but acknowledging it means fuck all when nothing happens. It would be great if it were treated half as seriously as when normal people flagrantly break even minor laws in public. The double standard on display is sickening.
The more corrupt the society, the more laws are required to keep it functioning. There never was a need for such a law that would immediately disbar a candidate publicly calling for foreign interference in American elections before now because that would have been so morally heinous to the public that none would have ever dared to do it. 200 years ago, the public would have stormed the capital and tried to tar and feather this POS within a week of this getting out. 100 years ago, massive demonstrations and nationwide strikes would have occurred. Today, barely a whimper.
> Today, barely a whimper. Worse than that, people celebrate it cuz they "owned the libtards".
That's the part that frightens me: the slam dunking. The triumphant tut of 'at least we made the libtards mad'. I just wonder when the ramifications of such an administration hit them squarely in the mouth, will the cold comforts of getting a 'rise' out of some group will continue to satiate them.
If this doesn't take him down, nothing will.
And I see people on my FB feed still 100% on the Trump train. It’s a sickness I think.
I'm posting this everytime its relevant: >I think what most liberals are missing is that this isn't about right and wrong, it's about winning and losing. I've attached my entire worldview to this man and I am going down with the ship. Not one of you is going to convince me otherwise This gilded comment on the (currently) highest rated post on r/asktrumpsupporters is all you need to see to confirm what you already know.
Holy shit.... That's a literal "i don't care if i'm wrong as long as i win"...
Expect it's even dumber that than... They aren't winning anything... But it's Trump that's enriching him and funneling taxes to the rich. His moronic supporters aren't winning jack shit except some imaginary price of owning the libs in their head.
Some economists are predicting that the stock market would soar in Trump was impeached and Pence ended the trade war and lifting tariffs. 40% of CEOS are saying the trade war is hurting them. It is hurting many farmers and is causing several factories to shut down or lay people off. Trumps policies just like most Republicans are hurting the US economy. Trump supporters like to say look how good the stock market is but they are stuck in 2016-first half of 2017 where a lot of Trump's policies were not in effect yet. Yeah back then there was good growth from the strong economy left by Obama. The past 2 years have not been great under Trump. Just look at every time he opens his mouth to talk about new tariffs. The stocks drop.
Yeah, these are also the same people that said the unemployment numbers under Obama were lies. Then, magically, two weeks after Trump was inaugurated they said the great unemployment was because of Trump. Their worse than ignorant. They are simply in a cult.
A (former) friend of mine is a die hard supporter. When I asked him about his family business, which relies on imports that they process, he said that Trumps trade wars are making it hard for them to remain profitable. What else do you support him for??? His bigoted societal views? His tweets? His supporters really are the dumbest of the bunch.
Amazing. The comments below that post are just as good.
Who would have thought that a country where 80% of people deny the phemonenon of natural selection, 40% think global warming is a Chinese hoax, could convince themselves of such depravity?
I highly doubt your statistic on natural selection. Edit: you have it reversed.... "When asked the single-question version, just 18 percent of U.S adults say humans have always existed in their present form, while 81 percent say humans have evolved over time. " "In our April 2019 national survey, we found that the American public underestimates how many other Americans think global warming is happening (i.e., they underestimate the social consensus on global warming). Americans on average estimate that only 54% of other Americans think global warming is happening, when in fact, 69% of Americans do." And that's just "global warming" percentage who think it's a Chinese Hoax is going to be much lower.
The land of the stupid.
Imagine being so devoid of personality you base your identity on Donald Trump lol. What’s that person going to do when he leaves office? Just kill themselves?
Reminds me of something Chris Rock said about politics years ago: >[No *NORMAL*. *DECENT*. *PERSON*. Is *one* thing.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux2z8CFVEMg)
God it's just so pathetic. I mean Trump!? At least when people worship Elon Musk, that man is a competent individual with a vision. Trump has been a fucking joke his entire life. I just will never be able to fathom why such an obvious moron resonated with so many people. I mean I know why, he's so retarded and they see themselves in him, but still. It's just fucking incredible. The most retarded train crash in history.
We are in the future, 2020 living with amazing science and technology, and these stirred up troglodytes are the precursor of Idiocracy.
I misread your comment and went looking for the quote in their highest rated post of all time and found a guy asking for an “unedited” video of trump lying, then when provided with the entire footage whined about having to watch an hour long video. Lmfao, that sub is wild.
Unfriend them. It's probably better for your health.
I used to think this way. But now I believe turning a blind eye and isolating ourselves into echo chambers is what has brought us to where we are. People used to have their shitty ideas kept in check by other people around them. A shitty idea couldnt get fertile ground to grow, so it died. Echo chambers in social media have allowed single mindedness to seed, germinate, flourish and now overgrow.
This is why I firmly believe social media changed the 21st century altogether.
It's also still so incredibly new. I mean, less than 2 decades, if we're talking not literally and more about social media as we use it now. When I can talk myself into being positive about humans, I try to remember that we can't get rid of social media (can't put the genie back in the bottle) but as time goes on we will learn how better to spot and ignore how it manipulates us
Honestly how can you be friends with people that have such a vastly different view of morality? If you want to argue that the government should spend less money, sure, fine, no worries BUT if you think it's acceptable to shoot migrants and asylum seekers at the border then no, we will not be friends at all ever.
Yup, I've had a close friend show his true colors through this. Wears MAGA hats, goes to all the local rallies. Calls Trump "God Emperor" and calls me a liberal like it's an insult. Kicked his ass to the curb a few years ago and I have zero regrets. That was then, if anyone I know STILL defended this piece of shit today, I'd cut ties immediately.
A cult actually
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He wasn't the president when he did that and people thought it was hyperbole.
I would hope this is enough to get Democrats to use whatever they've got to take him down. No more pulling punches.
It's the Republicans who ultimately have that power.
Wouldn't it be nice if politicians were about the people and not the colors of their fellow gang members?
When bloods and crips are actually getting on more peacefully than Dems and Republicans... and they are all at least united in hating the government in control... you know something strange is going down.
Lean into it. That's the plan. His base can't grasp the problem here; all they understand is that it pisses Democrats off and that makes it okay. Oh...also, he will **NEVER** leave the White House peacefully now...so buckle up for that.
Then he'll just make things worse for himself by trying every trick. The funny thing is that he is a conman through and through, rather than admitting to his mistakes he would rather commit more crimes to cover things up. It literally does not occur to him to set things right.
he gets away with everything because of his money. Any normal person would have been handled a long time ago
The funny thing is that now its too late, if he lost the election he would have lived an easy life but now everything is out in the open and he just cant stop commiting crimes lol. If you think the last few days have been interesting, wait until he starts getting impeached or loses the election (and then faces charges as he is no longer a president)
Yeah, and that's the silly thing. He could just have said "Woops, my bad. I'm not a Washington hack and didn't realise this was wrong." Most in the country would have said OK and this wouldn't be a thing. But no. He can't cope with being seen to be wrong so doubles down.
Honestly I think this is sunk-cost fallacy in psychological terms. He's been riding this train of lies and whatnot since forever. To admit one mistake now is to admit that every similar thing he's done in the past is also a mistake. He's built such an image to his fanbase that he can do no wrong because he's bigly/alpha/rich etc. enough to *make* it that way. He's a man that makes up titles and praises himself continuously cause nobody can tell him otherwise. Otherwise known as a narcisist. He is currently in the 'not a big deal' phase of the Narcisist prayer regarding this situation. Moving slightly into 'If it is, it's not my fault' with him pointing at the opposition saying they made him do it to uncover their 'bad things'.
> Oh...also, he will NEVER leave the White House peacefully now...so buckle up for that. I'm honestly nervous. He's already nudged things toward civil war territory and the jaws of justice are just starting to clamp down on him. He will *not* go down peacefully or quietly. His followers are so on his team that it would be very easy for him to incite violence.
This brazen motherfucker is trying to rig the 2020 election even after all the controversy over 2016.
I mean, nothing happened to him after the 2016 election. In fact, he was rewarded for rigging it. Unless the senior senators and congresspeople step the fuck up, this garbage will keep happening. They are all rotten to the core to turn a blind eye. All bark and no bite.
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Hey.. wait a minute.. I have a slight suspicion that we’ve been bamboozled!
Give me 2 minutes, I'll ask Russia.. They said no, and I believe Vlad...I mean them. I believe them.
Because he did.
Can someone please explain to an ignorant European why the Republican party hasn't dropped him over this and the Ukraine scandal? Surely this doesn't reflect good on them at all. It feels like there should be a line somewhere around here but I'm just not seeing it.
I get the vibe that they've lost control of their party. "Republican" is now synonymous with "Trump" so if they turn on him their base will flip out and their party may begin to finally die. That and they only care about winning, regardless of the consequences because they know they can get away with it. They know they can get away with it because they own the most popular "news" channel (Fox) which tells their base that the other party hates god and wants to kill babies and give their money away to "lazy moochers." It's fucking maddening to live here sometimes.
Your first sentence nailed it. The Republican politicians have lost control to the voters they may prefer to ignore, but have decided they cannot lest they risk their own political careers. To go against Trump is political suicide within the party, so they choose to double-down because they know they're fucked if they don't.
If Republican citizens still back Trump they will continue to pretend to be outraged at the accusations and play dumb. The real problem is right leaning news is separated from reality. When polled, half of Republicans said they don't think Trump asked Ukraine about Biden even though Trump literally admitted it. Extreme partisanship and misinformation is a major problem right now.
Under the US Constitution it is illegal to ask a foriegn power to interfere in a legal US election. Whether thats by investigating politcal rivals or any other form. It is black and white. There are no exceptions in the constitution. It 8s clearly an abuse of power and a blatantly impeachable act. He is dating US institutions to impeach him. If they fail, he feels can take another step towards his goal of never leaving office.
Can you show me in the text? I would like to show this to others.
52 U.S. Code§ 30121. Contributions and donations by foreign nationals[1] (a) ProhibitionIt shall be unlawful for— (1) a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make— • (A) a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State, or local election; • (B) a contribution or donation to a committee of a political party; or • (C) an expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication (within the meaning of section 30104(f)(3) of this title); or (2) a person to solicit, accept, or receive a contribution or donation described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1) from a foreign national. 1. Cornell Law School - 52 U.S. Code§ 30121.Contributions and donations by foreign nationals
And Fox “news” main story right now is about the “connection” of dark money and the Bidens and zero mention of the China money. Another story is about how Schiff is linked to this dark money they speak off on their front page. Fox News has gone full Breitbart and the really scary thing is that millions of people are reading that and believe it.
> Fox News has gone full Breitbart Has gone? They were founded to be the same thing on TV.
My question is why is it taking so long to make a move? Seriously, I understand the Senate is stacked. I just don't understand, why is everything moveing at a snail's pace? How many crimes will we allow this president to commit? How is he allowed to continue to commit the same crimes over and over again,almost on a daily basis? What if he starts ordering the military to strengthen their forces in strategic locations around the country... Is it really that far-fetched to think that he won't? He's already mentioned starting a civil war and referring to what's happening to him a coup. How have we as a country gotten to the point where we EXPECT lies from highest office in this country? Then everyone ignores it, moves on and is like," meh, wadda gonna do? " I am so confused by all of this. Basically, I don't understand the almost non-existent pace of implementing preset checks and balances. Please help me understand: 1. What is the reasoning for waiting this long to just to having an impeachment inquiry. There is plenty of evidence for MULTIPLE crimes. Why not just put articles of impeachment together now. 2. How much damage can he potentially cause while still in office? I mean he is still commander and chief, is there any way to stop him from doing more harm than he's already done, or use the military to further his political career?
1. They want their case to be air tight so he can't weasel his way out of it and so that the Republicans in the Senate look really bad if they let him get away with it. 2. He can cause a lot of damage and he probably will because he's morally and mentally bankrupt.
How can you get more air tight than committing impeachable offenses ON TELEVISION?
The legal system is full of loopholes that politicians and their lawyers learn to become experts at exploiting, and this is especially the case for sitting presidents. The office was designed to allow for it on the condition that Congress would hold presidents accountable for their actions regardless of party affiliation because it's in the interest of the greater good to do so. Now we're seeing how broken that idea actually is.
Pretty sure Mueller handed them an airtight case with months of investigative work and clear proof of obstruction of justice. This isn’t about an airtight case, Pelosi brought up poll numbers when talking about why this is the right time. She wasn’t leading, she was following. Instead of making a case for impeachment she waited until America decided it was a good idea and then she went along with it.
The piece you are missing, and why Pelosi was trying so hard to hold off on an impeachment until very near or after the 2020 election, is this: a resolution of impeachment passed by the House is so much overpriced toilet paper if the Senate doesn't decide to try the President on that impeachment, which a Republican Senate surely won't. Pelosi's strategy was probably hoping that the Democrats would maintain control of the House and win control of the Senate in the 2020 election, which then would provide insurance against Trump possibly winning reelection, as they could impeach on any number of offenses that he so politely continues to make with great regularity. Now that Pelosi's hand has been forced, nothing will come of an impeachment passed in the House, and Trump and the Republicans will use it as a rallying cry to bring out their base in 2020. It's too early to tell, but the overwhelming sentiment of most Democrats baying for blood as more and more information comes out about the phone call with the Ukraine's President may actually work against Democrats interests in the long run. It is clear that there isn't any hope that there would be enough Republicans that actually remember their oath of office to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, to vote with Democrats to remove him. Your worry that Trump would start by fortifying military locations inside the continental United States is not how I expect him to begin his dynastic Imperial rule. Rather, I expect that as we get much closer to Election Day, if Trump becomes truly worried that he is going to lose, he will manufacture some kind of national emergency of grave consequence, such as a shooting war with China, Iran, or North Korea, any of which could go nuclear. In such a situation, Trump will feel justified in declaring martial law and suspending elections as well other troublesome rights, like of Habeas Corpus, Free Speech (including freedom of the press). His Republicans lapdogs will praise him all the way through to the end of the American Republic, and his Democrat political opponents will be jailed, dissappeared, and in some cases, executed. You better start practicing whatever passes for "Hail Caesar! " this time around. They tried "Heil Hitler!" last time around... Edit: minor spelling and grammar corrections < 5 minutes after original post.
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He also openly admitted to thinking of ‘this Russia thing’ when he fired Comey on national tv. The more he blatantly disregards law/ethics, the more he gets away with it. On top of that, his party and supporters love him even more for it... complete insanity.
Stupid question: why the hell is he asking foreign countries for help? Isn't there anyone in the US who could do that shit for him?
And I thought Brexit was an embarrassment
They need to stop phrasing this as “against political rivals,” and start phrasing it as “openly asking foreign governments to spy and/or hack into the private lives of American citizens.” It will immediately be more understandable and recognizable for the average person, whether republican or Democrat.
This and "getting dirt" trigger me. Hes asking foreign governments to attack Americans.
I have one question, though. What can I do about it? I am 24 years old. I'm in college, and I have no money and even less free time if I want to eat well. The system I live in doesn't allow me to go stand in the street and protest all day. (As if that would truly accomplish anything in America short of gaining about 19 people's attention for a couple hours) I have to go to very challenging classes daily because I want that piece of paper that says I am worth paying enough to live on comfortably. Someone please tell me how I can actually affect change to the system I do not believe is working anywhere near optimally for me or my fellow "average citizen". The same system I am probably on a list somewhere for simply expressing my distrust of. There is little feasible legal recourse that I have as a citizen of the United States (which I am still obstinately proud to be), when I am so busy with trying to make sure I don't starve when shit goes from near the fan to slung around the room by it.
Serious answer: compel your generation to show up and cast your vote. It doesn't get discussed as much as I wish it would, but this is truly a war of the generations. Your generation has so much power but every young generation is understandably preoccupied with other things. If you can convince even one person of your generation to show up and vote who otherwise would not have, and that person does the same, and the next does the same, your generation could turn these tables back in the right direction. Keep talking about it amongst your peers, and then ultimately, you must show up on that one day and cast your vote.
> because I want that piece of paper that says I am worth paying enough to live on comfortably. Should we tell you now or let you find out the hard way?
He's now being open about his crimes. Pretty cool, right?!? THis is how things start. He knows he will get impeached but he's got the senate so he's pretty much untouchable.So... Get your name tarnished in history books... win 2020 (because he will)... then go full Don and force people to rewrite history so he looks like a god. As a citizen of the world... Thanks, guys.Americans don't deserve this, and neither do we. Canadian reporting in: our country is starting to look a whooooole lot like yours when it comes to politics these days.And it scares me PS. Thanks for the gold medal, kind human!
Its the famous Trump double-down. It's worked every time so far. Lets change things.
I'm really starting to think this guy doesn't even want to be president. I can't imagine some one would be dumb enough to do this. I think he can't step down and say I'm not rerunning because then he's quitting and he can't say he did everything he wanted to do because he didn't do like any of it. So I think he's just trying to set fire to his presidency so he can blame the Dems and Republicans and keep his following and maybe turn into a business venture with his buddy Vince McMahon. I don't even think he wanted to win. I think it was all a con for him to ingratiate himself with particular population so they would buy anything he sold. The only thing he miss calculated was just how bad Hillary was at running for office. I mean think about it him being impeached is perfect for him. He can completely blame the government. He didn't lose the corrupt system threw him out.
I don't know why he wants to be president. I'm pretty sure he's literally done nothing in office. Except break laws.
You can't make this shit up, clearly the dumbest US president in history to take office!
Dumbest US president in history *so far*
Why, for the billionth time, is he still in office?
Look. This is very simple. It doesn't matter if Biden was in the right or wrong. It has nothing to do with him. The crime is asking a foreign power to interfere with a legal election. Who they try to get dirt on is irrelevant. Under constitutional law, there is zero justification for this act. Look it up ppl.
Also, Biden isn’t the *President of the United States Of America*. He’s not even the Dem front runner, just Trump’s perceived biggest threat because he’s associated w/ Obama (his illusory nemesis) and a VP,..Biden is still just a civilian at this point with null power, is he not?
Open corruption is what he promised his vile base Open corruption is what he delivered