The Indictment Thread (Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part II)

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 4:27 pm

So Trump's excuse is that he said 'would' instead of 'wouldn't'?

Man, I would have loved to been in the room to see what the other options were.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 6:09 pm

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Tue Jul 17, 2018 4:27 pm So Trump's excuse is that he said 'would' instead of 'wouldn't'?

Man, I would have loved to been in the room to see what the other options were.

Hilarious! You know damn well, that any suggestion that involved an apology was a non-starter and anything that involved a more complicated explanation was too much for his mind to cope with.

And you know, during his appearance with Putin he had 45 minutes to further clarify his thoughts if all that was missing was two letters and an apostrophe.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 6:22 pm

I Hated George Will Until Trump Was Elected. this Is Gold

Americans elected a president who — this is a safe surmise — knew that he had more to fear from making his tax returns public than from keeping them secret. The most innocent inference is that for decades he has depended on an American weakness, susceptibility to the tacky charisma of wealth, which would evaporate when his tax returns revealed that he has always lied about his wealth, too. A more ominous explanation might be that his redundantly demonstrated incompetence as a businessman tumbled him into unsavory financial dependencies on Russians. A still more sinister explanation might be that the Russians have something else, something worse, to keep him compliant.

Post by **brian** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 7:02 pm

Pruitt wrote: ↑Tue Jul 17, 2018 6:09 pm
DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Tue Jul 17, 2018 4:27 pm So Trump's excuse is that he said 'would' instead of 'wouldn't'?

Man, I would have loved to been in the room to see what the other options were.
Hilarious! You know damn well, that any suggestion that involved an apology was a non-starter and anything that involved a more complicated explanation was too much for his mind to cope with.

And you know, during his appearance with Putin he had 45 minutes to further clarify his thoughts if all that was missing was two letters and an apostrophe.

At best. At BEST, the nicest thing you could say is that Trump was just too much of a pussy to stand up to Putin to his face.

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 7:15 pm

Pruitt wrote: ↑Tue Jul 17, 2018 6:09 pm
DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Tue Jul 17, 2018 4:27 pm So Trump's excuse is that he said 'would' instead of 'wouldn't'?

Man, I would have loved to been in the room to see what the other options were.
Hilarious! You know damn well, that any suggestion that involved an apology was a non-starter and anything that involved a more complicated explanation was too much for his mind to cope with.

And you know, during his appearance with Putin he had 45 minutes to further clarify his thoughts if all that was missing was two letters and an apostrophe.

He also had an interview with Hannity where he could have clarified things as well...

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 8:23 pm

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Tue Jul 17, 2018 7:15 pm
Pruitt wrote: ↑Tue Jul 17, 2018 6:09 pm
DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Tue Jul 17, 2018 4:27 pm So Trump's excuse is that he said 'would' instead of 'wouldn't'?

Man, I would have loved to been in the room to see what the other options were.
Hilarious! You know damn well, that any suggestion that involved an apology was a non-starter and anything that involved a more complicated explanation was too much for his mind to cope with.

And you know, during his appearance with Putin he had 45 minutes to further clarify his thoughts if all that was missing was two letters and an apostrophe.
He also had an interview with Hannity where he could have clarified things as well...

RSmith · Post by **RSmith** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 9:05 pm

Pruitt wrote: ↑Tue Jul 17, 2018 8:23 pm
DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Tue Jul 17, 2018 7:15 pm
Pruitt wrote: ↑Tue Jul 17, 2018 6:09 pm
DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Tue Jul 17, 2018 4:27 pm So Trump's excuse is that he said 'would' instead of 'wouldn't'?

Man, I would have loved to been in the room to see what the other options were.
Hilarious! You know damn well, that any suggestion that involved an apology was a non-starter and anything that involved a more complicated explanation was too much for his mind to cope with.

And you know, during his appearance with Putin he had 45 minutes to further clarify his thoughts if all that was missing was two letters and an apostrophe.
He also had an interview with Hannity where he could have clarified things as well...

Well, since he didn't specify for whom it was a success, that could technically be true... :)

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 9:31 am

Oh man...

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 9:33 am

Pruitt wrote: ↑Wed Jul 18, 2018 9:31 am Oh man...

The brain named itself.

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:03 am

Obama Derangement Syndrome is a literal Urban Dictionary term from 2012.

It was the title of and Economist piece in 2009.

He clearly just heard it recently and decided to gaslight us by switching his name into it.

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:42 am

That's probably Paul Erickson...

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:47 am

The term "gaslighting" is annoying because my town is one of the few that still has gaslights at night and has a brewery and decent sized apartment complex named after them.

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:49 am

Do you hear the '59 Sound?

rass · Post by **rass** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:50 am

One of the few times I allowed myself to vent on FB (after a shitshow presser he did) I made a joke about going to the Gaslight and immediately had a couple of local friends offer to meet me there.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:55 am

tennbengal wrote: ↑Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:42 am

Keri Russell is still hotter than this woman, if you're wondering how hot I think Keri Russell is.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 11:06 am

Even if you are so gullible to accept that he meant "wouldn't," it still makes zero sense in context. Why would you then go on to say he was very powerful in his denial and that it was a good idea to let Putin's agents investigate his own crimes?

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 11:06 am

Gunpowder · Post by **Gunpowder** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 11:34 am

A_B wrote: ↑Wed Jul 18, 2018 9:33 am
Pruitt wrote: ↑Wed Jul 18, 2018 9:31 am Oh man...

The brain named itself.

I mean, really you can avoid almost every war if you're just going to give in immediately to what the other side wants.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 11:36 am

Ha ha welcome to married life ha ha!

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 11:41 am

Higher ends of intelligence indeed!

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 11:54 am

Ends. Plural.

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 12:42 pm

Jerloma wrote: ↑Wed Jul 18, 2018 11:06 am Even if you are so gullible to accept that he meant "wouldn't," it still makes zero sense in context. Why would you then go on to say he was very powerful in his denial and that it was a good idea to let Putin's agents investigate his own crimes?

It's the weakest walk back I've ever seen. It's one thing to issue a non-apology apology. That shit sandwich, not just in the context of Monday, but in the broader context of all he has said over the last 2 years is fucking ludicrous.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 12:50 pm

Its all just CYA for Rs in congress. What could you expect them to do when he's already said it was a misstatement??? You don't expect them to call the president a liar, do you???

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 12:59 pm

Ryan wrote: ↑Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:55 am

Keri Russell is still hotter than this woman, if you're wondering how hot I think Keri Russell is.

You do not need good looking women to infiltrate the NRA apparently. Plus the better looking one already went back to Russia and is reportedly a huge Trump lover. I wonder why.

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 2:25 pm

Literally, they know that they used Russian help to win the WH in 2016, and that they will need Russian help to hold the house and/or Senate in November. They all know that, on that side. So they will keep on accepting the interference. I don't know what else to call it but treason. And not just because it irritates JoeK to do so...

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 2:34 pm

I like how transparent McConnell was about all that. "We know what happened, and boy it better not happen again in 2018. Seriously. Or else."

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 2:52 pm

mister d wrote: ↑Wed Jul 18, 2018 2:34 pm I like how transparent McConnell was about all that. "We know what happened, and boy it better not happen again in 2018. Seriously. Or else."

Exactly. I mean, he literally was in on it in the fall of 2016. And since they operate outside the law now, there's no reason not to do it again. That's what the media doesn't seem to appreciate. Or a lot of other people for that matter.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:08 pm

Are we numb enough that a report Georgia's election server may have been hacked doesn't move the needle?

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:30 pm

I thought that was already known, or at least widely suspected to be true, given the massive data breach in the Secretary of State's office. The guy in charge of that office is now ahead in the GOP runoff for Governor. And he got Trump's endorsement yesterday. Have a good day!

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:32 pm

mister d wrote: ↑Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:08 pm Are we numb enough that a report Georgia's election server may have been hacked doesn't move the needle?

Probably.

This story came out yesterday and I'm like "Oh, cool. We'll never see paper ballots again. There's nothing that can go wrong here.":

Top Voting Machine Vendor Admits It Installed Remote-Access Software on Systems Sold to States

EnochRoot · Post by **EnochRoot** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:42 pm

RSmith · Post by **RSmith** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:54 pm

Johnnie wrote: ↑Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:32 pm
mister d wrote: ↑Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:08 pm Are we numb enough that a report Georgia's election server may have been hacked doesn't move the needle?
Probably.

This story came out yesterday and I'm like "Oh, cool. We'll never see paper ballots again. There's nothing that can go wrong here.":

Top Voting Machine Vendor Admits It Installed Remote-Access Software on Systems Sold to States

I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but it does somewhat seem like a bit of an avalanche of shady dealings down there the past couple years, all to the benefit of the same side...

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 8:18 pm

Well, holy shit. Again.

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:35 pm

Coming in hot:

From the Start, Trump Has Muddied a Clear Message: Putin Interfered

Two weeks before his inauguration, Donald J. Trump was shown highly classified intelligence indicating that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had personally ordered complex cyberattacks to sway the 2016 American election.

Yup. My hot take: the Intel community is fucking pissed. No way a story like this gets released this late in the game if what happened in Helsinki didn't occur. They were waiting for the moment Trump showed his ass to Putin and the world for this to come out. There is empirical truth that has just been laying dormant this entire time but probably would've remained quiet until, probably, the Mueller investigation concludes. There's incontrovertible proof that treasonous fuckery is going down. Buckle the fuck up.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 6:10 am

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 9:22 am

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:01 pm

I've reved about him before, but this dude PoppinKREAM is amazing at cataloguing every detail of everything.

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:06 pm

I mean. It happened. He's in office because of this. And the Republican party is absolutely down with that. Seriously, I don't know what we have now, but it isn't democracy. I am 100% positive that there were votes that were switched too.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:19 pm

100% is low

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:52 pm

I mean, it's David Frum. And, fuck Frum, but he's not wrong here:

https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... in/565310/

We still do not know what hold Vladimir Putin has on Donald Trump, but the whole world has now witnessed the power of its grip.

Russia helped Donald Trump into the presidency, as Robert Mueller’s indictment vividly details. Putin, in his own voice, has confirmed that he wanted Trump elected. Standing alongside his benefactor, Trump denounced the special counsel investigating Russian intervention in the U.S. election—and even repudiated his own intelligence appointees.

This is an unprecedented situation, but not an uncontemplated one. At the 1787 convention in Philadelphia, the authors of the Constitution worried a great deal about foreign potentates corrupting the American presidency.

When Gouverneur Morris famously changed his mind in favor of an impeachment clause, he explained his new point of view by invoking a situation very similar to the one now facing the United States:

Our Executive was not like a Magistrate having a life interest, much less like one having an hereditary interest in his office. He may be bribed by a greater interest to betray his trust; and no one would say that we ought to expose ourselves to the danger of seeing the first Magistrate in foreign pay without being able to guard [against] it by displacing him.
The United States was then a comparatively poor and vulnerable country, so the Founders imagined corruption taking the form of some princely emolument that would enable an ex-president to emigrate and—in the words of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney— “live in greater splendor in another country than his own.” Yet they understood that even the most developed countries were not immune to the suborning of their leaders. As Morris said, "One would think the King of England well secured [against] bribery … Yet Charles II was bribed by Louis XIV.”

The reasons for Trump’s striking behavior—whether he was bribed or blackmailed or something else—remain to be ascertained. That he has publicly refused to defend his country’s independent electoral process—and did so jointly with the foreign dictator who perverted that process—is video-recorded fact.

And it’s a fact that has to be seen in the larger context of his actions in office: denouncing the European Union as a “foe,” threatening to break up nato, wrecking the U.S.-led world trading system, intervening in both U.K. and German politics in support of extremist and pro-Russian forces, and continually refusing to act to protect the integrity of U.S. voting systems—it all adds up to a political indictment, whether or not it quite qualifies as a criminal one.

America is a very legalistic society, in which public discussion often deteriorates into lawyers arguing about whether any statutes have been violated. But confronting the country in the wake of Helsinki is this question: Can it afford to wait to ascertain why Trump has subordinated himself to Putin after the president has so abjectly demonstrated that he has subordinated himself? Robert Mueller is leading a legal process. The United States faces a national-security emergency.