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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray met with Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday about the House Russia investigation, a GOP aide confirmed.

Rosenstein, escorted by his security detail, walked by a number of reporters who were staking out budget negotiations between top White House officials and top congressional leaders.

The meeting in the Speaker’s office came at the request of Rosenstein and Wray, the aide said.
 
How are there not people in the street to get this guy out? Is our society so damn passive that people don't care? Even tinpot dictators would have people burning tires in the streets by now.
 
How are there not people in the street to get this guy out? Is our society so damn passive that people don't care? Even tinpot dictators would have people burning tires in the streets by now.



I suppose people believe the system will take him down.
 
I suppose people believe the system will take him down.

I think people just don't care. So long as they have their smart phones and Netflix and cars and relatively cheap gas, it's total disengagement from the process.

He can do a lot of damage in 3 years, not so much on his own but because the Republican Congress is 100% complicit and will not do the right thing no matter what.
 
Since when did massive protests remove a president though? Populism put the pig in office. Don't rely on it taking him out. We don't need a mob. We need to fix our government.
 
How are there not people in the street to get this guy out? Is our society so damn passive that people don't care? Even tinpot dictators would have people burning tires in the streets by now.

Considering we had members of Congress actively trying to hide and run from angry voters at town hall meetings regarding the healthcare repeal attempts last year, that should answer your question right there. People were out in the streets for the Women's March and in an attempt to try and stop the travel ban, too. You saw how seriously this administration took those efforts.

There are lots of angry people in this country. The dismal approval ratings alone should be proof of that and be a massive wake up call to the GOP that people are deeply unhappy with this administration, and Trump in particular.

The problem is they literally do not care about us. All they care about are their rich donor buddies and trying to keep the diehard Trump supporters happy.

We should do something, yes. And I think, and hope, a lot of us plan to make our voices heard when the midterms roll around. But obviously, that's still a ways away yet, and the GOP knows that, hence why they're continuing to pull their crap, because there's no immediate threat of losing their jobs coming to them. I honestly don't know what we can do in the meantime to get through to the GOP and make them listen to us. None of the usual methods seem to be working.
 
This is fascinating. It's like that horrible House of Cards plot line only the writer is fucking Trump.

Michael Wolff has tapes to back up quotes in his incendiary book — dozens of hours of them.

Among the sources*he taped, I'm told, are Steve Bannon and former White House deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh.

So that's going*to make it harder for officials to deny embarrassing or revealing quotes attributed to them in "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," out Tuesday.

In some cases,*the officials thought they were talking off the record. But what are they going to do now?

Although the White House*yesterday portrayed Wolff as a poseur, he spent hours at a time in private areas of the West Wing, including the office of Reince Priebus when he was chief of staff.

The White House*says Wolff was cleared for access to the West Wing fewer than 20 times.

Wolff,*a New Yorker, stayed at the Hay Adams Hotel when he came down to D.C., and White House sources frequently crossed Lafayette Park to meet him there.


Some reporters and officials are calling the book sloppy, and challenging specific passages.

How could Wolff*possibly know for sure what Steve Bannon and the late Roger Ailes said at a private dinner?

It turns out*Wolff hosted the dinner for six at his Manhattan townhouse.
 
So, clearly Bannon thinks Trump is going to jail. He’s distancing himself, especially from the Russia stuff.



This is correct.

What scares me is what is Trump going to do when Mueller indicts his sons, and potentially Ivanka.

You know it was kinda nice for about a week to not have any sort of crazy WTF moment. Sure enough holidays are over and it’s back to every day being more embarrassing than the last.
 
Steve Bannon was openly handicapping a 33.3 percent chance of impeachment, a 33.3 percent chance of resignation in the shadow of the 25th amendment and a 33.3 percent chance that he might limp to the finish line on the strength of liberal arrogance and weakness.

Donald Trump's small staff of factotums, advisors and family began, on Jan. 20, 2017, an experience that none of them, by any right or logic, thought they would — or, in many cases, should — have, being part of a Trump presidency. Hoping for the best, with their personal futures as well as the country's future depending on it, my indelible impression of talking to them and observing them through much of the first year of his presidency, is that they all — 100 percent — came to believe he was incapable of functioning in his job.

At Mar-a-Lago, just before the new year, a heavily made-up Trump failed to recognize a succession of old friends.

Happy first anniversary of the Trump administration.
 
How are there not people in the street to get this guy out? Is our society so damn passive that people don't care? Even tinpot dictators would have people burning tires in the streets by now.
Our society is so damn *defeated that people don't care. Nothing will change, why bother?

Just look at how many people did NOT vote in the last election, which was the real cause of Clinton's defeat. Too many people threw up their hands and said, "Why take time out of my busy day to do something that won't ever make a difference?"
 
If you thought 2017 was bad, it'll have been like a picnic compared to 2018. Trump is getting worse and worse.
 
people don't rise up in insurrection when their kids have full bellies and warm homes. it just doesn't ever happen, even in crazy repressive fascist dictatorships. nobody ever tries to upset the status quo when they're relatively comfortable simply because they don't like their politicians. it's unwise to abandon a ship before the thing starts to sink.

only once people start being unable to provide for their children will the populace start erecting barricades and burning tires in the streets. short of an economic catastrophe that nobody sane is hoping for, an anti-trump popular uprising (one that goes beyond simple protest) is just not going to happen.
 
So, clearly Bannon thinks Trump is going to jail. He’s distancing himself, especially from the Russia stuff.



But not distancing himself of fear of prosecution. Distancing his little nazi movement from what he genuinely believes to be unpatriotic and detrimental to his movement.
 
people don't rise up in insurrection when their kids have full bellies and warm homes. it just doesn't ever happen, even in crazy repressive fascist dictatorships. nobody ever tries to upset the status quo when they're relatively comfortable simply because they don't like their politicians. it's unwise to abandon a ship before the thing starts to sink.

And rightly so. Things are almost always worse in the immediate aftermath of people "rising up in insurrection." Genuine insurrections, revolutions, or whatever you want to call them, are generally bloody, messy affairs that break a lot of things and inconvenience people. Make one late for dinner. They're seldom, if ever, peaceful.

And anyone who asks why people aren't taking to the streets should first ask themselves why they aren't on the streets.

only once people start being unable to provide for their children will the populace start erecting barricades and burning tires in the streets. short of an economic catastrophe that nobody sane is hoping for, an anti-trump popular uprising (one that goes beyond simple protest) is just not going to happen.

Yep. Things have to get much, much, much worse before you'd see any kind of genuine mass protests.

Which is why I've always thought the "Resistance" tag was a little silly. It's not like people are engaged general strikes, sabotaging infrastructure or trying to otherwise gum up the system. There are no resistance "cells" (except perhaps among the most extreme antifa groups) and as far as I know there haven't been mass resignations from the Federal government in protest of the fascist regime.

The "Resistance" is mostly just Tweeting gifs and memes. And some street protests, for those who can be bothered to get out.

Trump will leave office the same way he came in...via the democratic process, whether that means impeachment or invocation of the 25th Amendment or he loses the next election or simply declines to run. Hopefully sooner rather than later. But the country will survive, intact, and still be here (though perhaps a bit worse for wear and licking its wounds) when it's all said and done. But democracy will survive and America will endure...which is more than you could say if there was a genuine revolution.
 
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This is correct.

What scares me is what is Trump going to do when Mueller indicts his sons, and potentially Ivanka.

You know it was kinda nice for about a week to not have any sort of crazy WTF moment. Sure enough holidays are over and it’s back to every day being more embarrassing than the last.

If anyone in Trump's family is indicted, he'll just pardon them. That's his line I think.
 
The Resistance is indeed mostly just tweeting. The people on the frontlines in Charlottesville, for example, weren't "The Resistance," they were far leftists who believe direct confrontation with white supremacists is the only solution for beating back against them.

ETA: Wise of you to remove that dumbass Maher picture.

Trump will leave office the same way he came in...via the democratic process, whether that means impeachment or invocation of the 25th Amendment or he loses the next election or simply declines to run. Hopefully sooner rather than later. But the country will survive, intact, and still be here (though perhaps a bit worse for wear and licking its wounds) when it's all said and done. But democrat will survive and America will endure...which is more than you could say if there was a genuine revolution.

To be clear, simply "going back to normal," which is what a lot of people called for, will still leave the country largely in a terrible state. Historic wealth inequality, unconscionable amounts of poverty for such a wealthy nation, a continuing crisis in healthcare, a whole generation drowning in debt with little to no path to home ownership, racism as prevalent as it has been in quite a long time, including systemically ... America has always had major issues. There is no state of "normalcy" to return to in any era that could ever be considered acceptable.
 
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I'm not saying I think it'll happen, but if Trump fires Mueller, I will join a march/protest. I haven't done it before (crowds, yuck!), but that will get me in the streets.
 
To be clear, simply "going back to normal," which is what a lot of people called for, will still leave the country largely in a terrible state. Historic wealth inequality, unconscionable amounts of poverty for such a wealthy nation, a continuing crisis in healthcare, a whole generation drowning in debt with little to no path to home ownership, racism as prevalent as it has been in quite a long time, including systemically ... America has always had major issues. There is no state of "normalcy" to return to in any era that could ever be considered acceptable.

Yes, but has always been thus in America. Trump didn't bring that stuff in, and it will still be around on his way out.


ETA: Wise of you to remove that dumbass Maher picture.

No, just decided it belonged in the other thread. :)
 
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Yes, but has always thus in America. Trump didn't bring that stuff in, and it will still be around on his way out.
That is true, I do not deny that. Trump has brought unique awfulness to the government in a number of aspects, but his policy positions and initiatives since his second week in office have largely been boiler plate Republican policy.

My point is, the Democrats need to understand appeals to the center and their half measure policies that were so popular during the Clinton and Obama presidencies don't work. Electing someone in the mold of Joe Biden (policy wise) in 2020 is just going to set up for the next GOP president as the country continues getting dragged farther and farther to the right.
 
That is true, I do not deny that. Trump has brought unique awfulness to the government in a number of aspects, but his policy positions and initiatives since his second week in office have largely been boiler plate Republican policy.

My point is, the Democrats need to understand appeals to the center and their half measure policies that were so popular during the Clinton and Obama presidencies don't work. Electing someone in the mold of Joe Biden (policy wise) in 2020 is just going to set up for the next GOP president as the country continues getting dragged farther and farther to the right.

Well yes.

I think in the near term there issue isn't whether a certain set of policies work, but rather do they win. The simply fact is that centrist policies aren't where the excitement is among the Democratic base. And to implement any kind of policy Dems have to first win, and that means an excited base. So I think it's very likely we'll see the most outwardly progressive Dem in history win the nomination in 2020.

You made a really good point about electoral participation...if people can't even be bothered to vote, what are the chances they'll take to the streets?

Mass media tends to hypnotise societies in a way. When people have just enough to be comfortable, and enough diversions, they're not going to want to rock the boat and chance losing what they have. It's the fear of that loss that prevents a real revolution. Fear of losing what you have is a powerful force for inaction. Until enough people feel like they have nothing left to lose, you won't see any kind of meaningful, mass protests (IMO).
 
The problem, of course, is that Democrats (and many of their "core" voters, the Resistance folks you are talking about who also, coincidentally, love horseshoe theory) still believe centrist policy is the answer. They think because Republicans still call them leftists and socialists and progressives that the solution is simply moving more to the right, because they truly believe the best way to get elected is to steal moderate Republican voters instead of trying to get people who don't normally vote to vote.

They don't seem to realize that measuring themselves against what the other side calls them doesn't work. They don't realize that their attacks on Republicans, which are all about hypocrisy and methodology and tone, don't work. You need to offer people something.
 
I'm not saying I think it'll happen, but if Trump fires Mueller, I will join a march/protest. I haven't done it before (crowds, yuck!), but that will get me in the streets.



Ditto.

The Women’s March was a massive show of force, or resistance, to the idea of Trump as normal or acceptable. I marched several times against the Iraq War, as well as a massive pro-choice march on the Mall. There are times and places for it, and whether or not it does any measurable “good,” marches do inspire many in many different ways.
 
The problem, of course, is that Democrats (and many of their "core" voters, the Resistance folks you are talking about who also, coincidentally, love horseshoe theory) still believe centrist policy is the answer. They think because Republicans still call them leftists and socialists and progressives that the solution is simply moving more to the right, because they truly believe the best way to get elected is to steal moderate Republican voters instead of trying to get people who don't normally vote to vote.



If people who don’t normally vote couldn’t be bothered to vote against Trump, what makes you think there is anything (i.e., a list of leftists policies, that will still have to make their way through Congress) that would inspire non-voters to vote?
 
If people who don’t normally vote couldn’t be bothered to vote against Trump, what makes you think there is anything (i.e., a list of leftists policies, that will still have to make their way through Congress) that would inspire non-voters to vote?



Hope and Change
 
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