Open Thread For May 27, 2017
Kushner Sought Illegal Back-Channel w/Russia…To Avoid Detection From US Intelligence: Graham and McCain express ‘concern’ in 3-2-1. Then do nothing. The Rethugs are a criminal enterprise. Second only to Trump and his minions.
Neither Delaware Nor Feds Inspect Freight Rails: More fuel shipments by rail? What could possibly go wrong?
‘Psst, Wanna See John Glenn’s Body?’: ‘Uh, no thank you. BTW, you’re fired.’ Although…this could be retaliation.
Kushner-Owned Paper Outs Trump Collusion w/Russia. Looks like there could be a shakeup at the Observer soon…
Kushner Had Three More Contacts w/Russians That He ‘Forgot’ To Report. This entire Presidency has been driven by the Trump family’s financial dependence on Russia.
Inside the ‘Strange’, Um, ‘Unusual’, Alabama Republican Primary for U. S. Senate. The kind of story that Politico does best. BTW, the D’s don’t matter, which is not news.
$6 Trillion Remains Unpaid for Iraq and Afghan Wars. Kick the can down the road.
What do you want to talk about today?
Kushner lied on security clearance forms. He outright lied. He went to a meeting in the Russian embassy to set up the secret backchannel. Then lied about it two days later.
How is it still a conservative talking point that there it “no proof” of collusion? They truly are the marks who can’t give up on the con even after it has been revealed. Pitiful.
That secret back channel connection to Russia better be using government servers, otherwise the Republicans are gonna freak. #Vladghazi
I’m not one to get into this game. RussiaGate. Sort of conspiratorial. But this looks potentially, bad.
I laughed when the rube movement yelled “lock ‘er up,” last year. I found it in very poor taste and deranged. So understand I do not want to sound like a partisan drooler.
Kushner and Flynn could both go to prison. Could. Whether they do or not, I’d guess no, but I also would not be the least surprised.
This notion that nothing will come of the Russia connection is just as absurd as thinking that Trump voters will change their “minds.”
People are going to go to jail and political careers are going to be destroyed. Because it doesn’t happen quickly is not a sign that it will not happen at all. Things move faster now than in the ’70s, but it took years for the Nixon White House to collapse as hirelings started to get convicted of crimes.
As someone noted the other day (might have been Charlie Pierce but I don’t recall), H. R. Haldeman spend 18 months in the federal slammer for asking the CIA to blunt the FBI investigation.
The GOP plan has long been to let Trump get the heavy lifting done before shit-canning him. Because the GOP doesn’t know how to deal with problems, it’s not sure what to do at this point.
Trump’s poll numbers won’t be affected that much, mainly because the GOP base listens to Fox, which hasn’t reported on most of this (and has seen its ratings suffer as a result).
But what does move the polls is something Ryan and McConnell are doing, not Trump: Health care. Every time Trumpcare moves forward, Trump’s approval rating falls some more. The longer the bill lives, the worse it is for the GOP’s hopes of keeping the House.
A lunatic with popular proposals can get away with it. A lunatic with unpopular programs won’t. The bad programs will stay, but the lunatic will go.
Too many people think that because the conservative bubble is hard to penetrate, it’s therefore impossible to penetrate. Just not so. Take a look at what’s happening to Breitbart (plus other conservative sites) in the age of “winning.”
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/breitbart-coms-readership-numbers-are-plummeting-in-what-should-be-its-hour-of-triumph/
Trump, Kushner and their surrogates may not ever be held accountable as treasonous underminers of this great American Democracy even if that is the ultimate result of their conspiratorial actions with Russia and other fascist governments. That does not absolve them of blame or responsibility but unfortunately I do not see their agendas and goals as intended to affect such an action. I believe that Trump, Kushner, Flynn, Manafort, Tillerson, Mnuchin and all the rest of that cabal are venal, mercenary, greedy, soulless, and repulsively selfish individuals that are only interested in accumulating an obscene amount of money and the power to make more. They have no virtues or consciences, so dismissing the plight of others and disregarding the destitution and carnage they leave in their wake is not even an afterthought to them. The rest of the people in America and on this planet do not exist in their world and they probably do not acknowledge those people even to themselves. I wouldn’t be surprised if you put a stack of currency and and a starving child side by side in a small room with any of them that they would exit that room posthaste with the cash stuffed in their wallets and not the slightest acknowledgement of that child’s plight (even subliminally) touching their hearts or that void where their soul should reside. There is a certainty and certain amount of viciousness in the hearts of the totally mercenary and greedy soulless individuals (like them) that are defined, albeit only genetically, as human beings and I find it intolerable and disgusting that they are accepted as leaders. Shame on all of us for not recognizing this cancerous infestation and protesting loudly and often that America should and must do better.
Representative John Kowalko
@JK: I disagree, and strongly so. They will be held accountable.
The exception most likely will be Trump himself. His dementia will continue to progress. By the time they expel him from office, he may be incapable of participating in his own defense, and I expect him to die or be incapacitated by his mental deterioration before any verdict is reached, and he might be incapable of understanding any of it by the time it all occurs.
At this point, I suspect they (congressional GOP) want to string this out so they can blame whatever they manage to pass on Trump, then dump him close enough to the midterms so their appeal can be “give Pence a chance.”
Their problem is that Pence is implicated heavily, Ryan somewhat but less so, meaning that the first “clean” person they get to in line of succession is Orrin Hatch. On the other hand, if it strings out past the midterms, you could be looking at President Nancy Pelosi.
I take the same position on this I do on Social Security — if you insist it won’t be there for today’s workers, then it won’t be there. It will only happen if the people who want it to happen work for it. It won’t happen the way Jason wants it to, by people coming to their senses. They don’t have any. If you want something to happen, you have to fight for it.