General US Politics

[Dr. Tarrasque]

42 minutes ago, Shoblongoo said:

The plot thickens get a load of what the New York Times just published in the past hour:

"The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration."

"The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/o...esistance.html

  Reveal hidden contents

"President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

It’s not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.

The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.

But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.

That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.

In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the “enemy of the people,” President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.

Don’t get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more.

But these successes have come despite — not because of — the president’s leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.

From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chief’s comments and actions. Most are working to insulate their operations from his whims.

Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.

“There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next,” a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major policy decision he’d made only a week earlier.

The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful.

It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.

The result is a two-track presidency.

Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations.

Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration is operating on another track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.

On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin’s spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for weeks about senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.

This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the steady state.

Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.

The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility.

Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation.

We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example — a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere them.

There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first. But the real difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above politics, reaching across the aisle and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans."

 

...someone just had a cathartic release...

Trump's gonna be up late tonight trying to figure out where that came from 

 

Damn, I feel so numbed to this stuff that because last month's story on Rex Tillerson preventing a war doesn't surprise me that you've got other cases of people trying to thwart some of Trump's most outlandish bullshit.

Supposedly, he's already launched a witch hunt and there was that 1 AM "WITCH HUNT" tweet about 2 weeks ago.

36 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I have some issues with several things he wrote like deregulation or that tax reform being good things but on the whole I'd say I respect this guy. Its good to know there are people who at least try to be an adult.

The right thing to do would be to bring it up to people who can do something about this turd, someone recently called for John Kelly to testify to Congress for example. At the end of the day though, this so-called resistance isn't comprised of "heroes" or people who want to do the right thing, they're just people who want to hold on to their power while they still can, knowing that the things they've blocked would probably lead to impeachment. Fuck these people.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

 

20 hours ago, Shoblongoo said:

Agreed to an extent; but the flaw is more fundamental then what you describe. 

You need VOTERS to eelect representatives with integrity and value. When representatives do not hold these values, the blame is in ourselves for not having the wherewithal to elect better leaders. 

The fundamental flaw of democracy is that it is a device that ensures a people shall be governed exactly as well as they deserve--no better. 

Well said, except for the bolded. As long as the Electoral College is in play, the only voters who truly matter those in swing states. I don't think the people of California and New York deserved Trump when the popular vote when to Hillary. I don't think the minorities and white voters who chose Hilary deserve Trump. Fuck the Electoral College.

20 hours ago, Shoblongoo said:

Disagree, and this is what I think your analysis misses. 

The law is not self-executing; it is a social utility function. There is a ripeness that issues have to reach in the public discourse before they become cases-in-controversy to be adjudicated before a Court of Law. 

And there is no judicial accountability for corruption in government without a free press to shine light on the absence of accountability--before misconduct can be adjudicated, it must be exposed. 

It all goes back to Democratic institutions only work to the extent an informed and civically engaged population permit them to work. 

The free press in its watchdog role is the instrument of civic engagement that keeps the whole ship afloat.  (at least that's how its supposed to work)

I see your point. The system, as established, does have a way to counteract decisions the Supreme Court makes so in theory, even if Kavanaugh gets the job, sufficient outcry stemming from press coverage could work.

Doesn't fix the issue of Trump's appointees being corporate judges but I guess that's just a penalty of the circus that was the 2016 election. Seriously, fuck the Electoral College and fuck the DNC making Hilary the other choice.

Anyone got guesses as to who's behind the op-ed? I'd definitely put Pence on the table.

Forum software wouldn't let me edit sorry for that double post.

EDIT: @eclipse Update on child separation deadline

Edited September 6, 2018 by Dr. Tarrasque

[XRay]

19 hours ago, Dr. Tarrasque said:

EDIT: @eclipse Update on child separation deadline

That is pretty sickening. They are essentially turning children into security deposits/bargaining chips, holding them from their parents.

21 hours ago, Shoblongoo said:

Trump's gonna be up late tonight trying to figure out where that came from 

I am placing my bets on Pence, since all we have to go by so far is the lodestar comment. Lodestar is a pretty uncommon word.

I do not think it is a military personnel, since they like to keep things under wraps, so I am going to rule out Mattis and others like him.

[Punished Dayni]

On 9/5/2018 at 7:05 PM, XRay said:

Auto-Battle works in Awakening Easy Mode though.

Had a similar thought reading it.

These recent revelations seem to confirm stuff about how Trump acts that have been at least suggested over the two years: The fact that wars have been prevented in these manners is the kind of stupid that fits political fiction. Sadly, it's reality.

Help us all, he'll likely be in Ireland during the post-election news for the US (and coincidentally the aftermath of our presidential elections. To be blunt, none of the people putting themselves forward seem to be painting themselves well at all, it's the incumbent's to lose.), I would not be surprised if his reaction spill onto the golf course he has here.

[XRay]

So with all the stories of Trump's orders being ignored or outright disobeyed, that sets a pretty scary precedent, because Trump is elected and his authority comes from the people, while his staff is not elected. You either obey the order and watch America burn and suffer the consequences now, or you disobey the order and let this precedent potentially develop into a cancer that may incapacitate our government in the future.

Feels like a lose-lose situation.

I mean, it is one thing to have Congress and the Supreme Court being a check on the White House, but it feels quite different when the President is being checked by his own staff because the President is incompetent. How do we determine the President is incompetent? Does being senile count as incompetent? If Trump is any other dude spouting the same shit, he will probably be immediately be branded as senile and mentally unfit.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

54 minutes ago, XRay said:

So with all the stories of Trump's orders being ignored or outright disobeyed, that sets a pretty scary precedent, because Trump is elected and his authority comes from the people, while his staff is not elected. You either obey the order and watch America burn and suffer the consequences now, or you disobey the order and let this precedent potentially develop into a cancer that may incapacitate our government in the future.

Feels like a lose-lose situation.

You're right, a lose-lose situation is exactly what we have right now and to add to what you've stated here: If things were run as Trump wanted, we'd also have more transparency as to how bad he is as president and potential action from the other branches but it sickens me to have to say that because of the potential disasters that would've lead to if these wannabes didn't obstruct his worse impulses.

54 minutes ago, XRay said:

I mean, it is one thing to have Congress and the Supreme Court being a check on the White House, but it feels quite different when the President is being checked by his own staff because the President is incompetent. How do we determine the President is incompetent? Does being senile count as incompetent? If Trump is any other dude spouting the same shit, he will probably be immediately be branded as senile and mentally unfit.

He literally gives us reason to think so on a daily basis and the 4000+ lies number that's been touted is not a hyperbole, just watch a rally or any time the man speaks and he's probably spouting something you can use as evidence.

He basically told the public that he is incompetent by saying he'll run it like his business which seems great to his backers and anyone that takes statements at face value but a simple search will tell you of his many failures and bankruptcies. 

And as Shoblongoo has been saying in recent posts, the press acts as a watchdog of the government's activities by reporting on them and although many people are frustrated that Trump is on 90% of the news coverage going on and like to blame the media for their failings, people don't want to look at theirs and turn a blind eye to things that should concern us in the context of the one individual chosen to be the one to represent us.

I've mentioned it before: Trump refuses briefings, the EU has to use cue cards to explain trade to Trump and generally, you have to put his stupid name repeatedly on something he needs to read so that he keeps reading it. I don't care which political side you're on, years from now we're ALL going to feel really fucking stupid looking back how our main representative was this stupid and remained in power as long as he did.

EDIT: This is BEAUTIFUL.

Edited September 7, 2018 by Dr. Tarrasque

[XRay]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Tarrasque said:

He literally gives us reason to think so on a daily basis and the 4000+ lies number that's been touted is not a hyperbole, just watch a rally or any time the man speaks and he's probably spouting something you can use as evidence.

He basically told the public that he is incompetent by saying he'll run it like his business which seems great to his backers and anyone that takes statements at face value but a simple search will tell you of his many failures and bankruptcies. 

And as Shoblongoo has been saying in recent posts, the press acts as a watchdog of the government's activities by reporting on them and although many people are frustrated that Trump is on 90% of the news coverage going on and like to blame the media for their failings, people don't want to look at theirs and turn a blind eye to things that should concern us in the context of the one individual chosen to be the one to represent us.

I've mentioned it before: Trump refuses briefings, the EU has to use cue cards to explain trade to Trump and generally, you have to put his stupid name repeatedly on something he needs to read so that he keeps reading it. I don't care which political side you're on, years from now we're ALL going to feel really fucking stupid looking back how our main representative was this stupid and remained in power as long as he did.

Yeah, but where do we draw the line? What if a future candidate is only half or a quarter as senile as Trump? One idea I thought of is to make politicians take a citizenship test each time they want to run for election, and have their answers be made public; if they do not pass, they cannot run for office. However, I am not sure if that is a good idea since there might be some unforeseen problems.

 

[Dr. Tarrasque]

3 hours ago, XRay said:

Yeah, but where do we draw the line? What if a future candidate is only half or a quarter as senile as Trump? One idea I thought of is to make politicians take a citizenship test each time they want to run for election, and have their answers be made public; if they do not pass, they cannot run for office. However, I am not sure if that is a good idea since there might be some unforeseen problems.

 

That's a discussion worth having but politics is seen as so taboo because disagreements tend to be far from civil. After Trump called himself a "Stable Genius", you've got this little piece here brought up but it goes nowhere.

Your idea of a citizenship test each time they want to run for election is something I'd be fine with but like you said, it might not be a good idea but that's just something that should be looked into and brought into discussion. I'm rather curious as to how Trump supporters would react to such a suggestion given the reality that the citizenship test is something many Americans born in the US would actually fail at answering the most basic questions. Hell we're probably at a point in time where foreigners who are US citizens understand the country's foundation better than those born here.

EDIT: On today's daily stop on Hannity Ave for the Trump Train, we have a very special passenger. This woman has robbed comedians of a punchline.

Edited September 7, 2018 by Dr. Tarrasque

[Tryhard]

Is there a word for being so tired with political discussion because Trump and the Republicans are such a dumpster fire that retaining any sort of argument about the latest shitshow is exhausting?

Whenever I look at what Trump said and then formulate a response, it's like I'm picking on a disabled person. Everyone has pretty much said what needs to be said, and it will be eye rolling if there isn't any results at the end of the line.

[The_antithesis]

On 07/09/2018 at 11:13 PM, Edgelord said:

Is there a word for being so tired with political discussion because Trump and the Republicans are such a dumpster fire that retaining any sort of argument about the latest shitshow is exhausting?

"Drained" would probably be the best example.

[Karimlan]

On ‎9‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 5:13 PM, Edgelord said:

Whenever I look at what Trump said and then formulate a response, it's like I'm picking on a disabled person

And should the Democrats not find a candidate who can defeat him, it'll be John Kerry Redux—or as Lewis Black put it in one of his HBO specials, "you would find a normal athlete who would lose in the Special Olympics!"

[XRay]

On 9/6/2018 at 6:33 PM, Dr. Tarrasque said:

we have a very special passenger.

My mind is exploding because of how stupid their rebuttal is. Maybe they do have a good rebuttal, but if the HuffPost thinks that that particular response is their best defense of Trump and the only argument worth putting in an article, I think I will just save myself the trouble of digging deeper and assume the rest of their arguments are complete shit.

On 9/7/2018 at 3:13 PM, Edgelord said:

Is there a word for being so tired with political discussion because Trump and the Republicans are such a dumpster fire

Well, when I was in early college, I hear people were fucking complaining about Republicans and Democrats being too similar.

At least there is a clear difference in the parties now.

[Tryhard]

19 minutes ago, XRay said:

Well, when I was in early college, I hear people were fucking complaining about Republicans and Democrats being too similar.

At least there is a clear difference in the parties now.

I kind of have a disdain for that thought though, because it implies that Trump is different from other Republicans. They don't get off the hook like that, because Trump very much goes along with much of their policies. Trump isn't a unique Republican amalgamation.

The two parts I can really say is different is a) Republicans aren't going to give Trump funding for the border wall and b) Trump talked a lot about protectionism on the campaign trail, while Republican politicians are for free trade, but he has been leaning more towards it in a renegotiation of NAFTA and having outsourcing numbers in his first year that are higher than Obama's average. So he's not really protectionist even though he pretends to be.

The problem is mostly that the Democrats are very unwilling to go a bit further left to distance themselves from being known as Republican lite (and for some reason they apparently come off more elitist than the Republicans). And if you're going to get screwed over by corporations either way, why not go with the ones that will lower your taxes, or so the thinking goes.

Edited September 10, 2018 by Edgelord

[Dr. Tarrasque]

On the subject of the Supreme Court nominations, Karma hits Mitch McConnel and Kavanaugh.

I don't know if it's being mentioned much when it comes to the opposition of Kavanaugh, but this is definitely something to consider, it's not just a matter of whether or not the president can pardon himself and should be free of investigations but Kavanaugh could basically absolve the issue of collusion that plagues Trump by suggesting that cooperation with a foreign government does not constitute as "conspiracy to defraud the United States". That company was indicted on February 2018, Kavanaugh was interviewed by Trump on July 2, 2018.

A good laugh

Edited September 11, 2018 by Dr. Tarrasque

[XRay]

I guess we are all tired of talking about Trump. But he said some crazy stuff again, claiming the death toll figures are inaccurate.

As for the Kavanaugh confirmations, how bad can it actually get if the court is tipped to the right, and how far will it go to the right. I hear people say that it will tip pretty far to the right and that there is a chance that Kavanaugh will not abide by judicial precedents and over turn previous stuff. Based on what I have seen so far, Democrats have just been on a smear campaign against him and that is a little off putting to me.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

10 hours ago, XRay said:

As for the Kavanaugh confirmations, how bad can it actually get if the court is tipped to the right, and how far will it go to the right. I hear people say that it will tip pretty far to the right and that there is a chance that Kavanaugh will not abide by judicial precedents and over turn previous stuff. Based on what I have seen so far, Democrats have just been on a smear campaign against him and that is a little off putting to me.

Pretty bad. There's a lot of problems with this nomination from the fact that it shouldn't be happening in the first place to the problems from the nominee himself.

 

Why the hearing shouldn't have happened in the first place

Obama brought up Merrick Garland as his nomination about a year before his second term ended so there was plenty of time to go through the hearings and gather all the necessary information needed for both sides to consider. Republicans completely blocked it from even getting a hearing that Kavanaugh has gotten despite all that available time under the pretext that a SCOTUS nomination shouldn't be happening because of an upcoming election. In reality this was just Mitch McConnel and the Republicans being the pieces of shit that they are to keep the seat vacant so that if they could take the presidency, they could pack the courts with judges that would rule in favor of corporations and their agenda whenever something is brought up to the Supreme Court and could potentially have a swing vote. Republicans brought forth no real reason for blocking Garland.

Let's pretend for a moment that there's no ulterior motives by the Republicans and go along with the new precedent they've established. Trump officially made the nomination for Kavanuagh on July 9, just a few months shy of an election (November 6) and they're bum-rushing the whole process and withholding information on the nominee. Why is information being hidden on someone receiving a LIFETIME appointment to the top of the 3 fundamental branches of our government? Essentially, the Republicans established a precedent that they won't adhere to themselves. Pretend you have 2 kids saying they have to meet a certain condition before they can start eating a cake, the Republicans are the kid that say "Nuh uh, you can't do this now because the time is not right" and then eats the cake ignoring what he/she just said when the window they brought up is even smaller than the precedent they set.

 

Why the nominee is problematic, prior to hearing

Before the hearing occurred, Kavanaugh's problems were mostly circumstantial and the fact that he isn't as disconnected in his role as a judge and his politics as he'd like you to believe. The biggest problem thrown around the media is that he will overturn Roe v Wade but I'm not going to discuss that. The other major factors are his extreme opinions on the Executive Branch's power, we're talking about about a guy who has written on record that the president should not face prosecution or investigations while he's in office and that it should wait until he's out of office. The main thing that makes Kavanaugh and his opinions circumstantial is simply Trump, the moron who doesn't really understand what a President is and wants to rule like a monarch/dictator and Kavanaugh's opinion. Trump, like today's Republicans, is also one who wishes to serve the wealthy who are willing to donate loads of money to them and Kavanaugh tends to side with corporations. He's also someone who will impede civil rights movements for the LGBTQ community and a potential problem for any community that is a minority group. We've already seen from history that these civil right movements eventually win because the goal tends to be equality and fairness for people who are underrepresented and are treated like second class citizens so what sane reason is there really for having old farts like Kavanaugh and DC deny people their rights when they'll inevitably win that fight in the end? It just ends making a government under democracy waste time on futile and nonsensical efforts as evidenced by the recent 10 Million dollar transfer from FEMA to ICE when we're seeing a hurricane approach when said democracy was made to create a government that serves the people. Who is the government serving when you pack it with officials placed in there to take bribes from the rich and side with them? Polling suggest approval percentages similar to Trump's current approval ratings so why the hell is that we're appointing people into the highest office with so much opposition from the people?

 

Why the nominee is problematic, after the hearing

So the first point is that from the hearings we see that Kavanaugh writes opinions on certain topics but when asked during the hearings he says he cannot answer "because it's hypothetical". His written statements already answer the question so that's a load of bull and what you basically have going on here is that to the public he will say "No, I won't do this" but in private he actually "Yeah I think X should be overturned", contradicting what he says to the public but here's the kicker: in some of these cases he's written his opinion about it so we know what his real answer is but he's still lying to the public by telling us he will be fair on these issues.

The second point is the perjury allegations, Senator Leahy showed some e-mails as evidence demonstrating the lies he's made. You could argue that maybe his recollection was wrong but that's perpetually granting him more benefit when he's been receiving enough benefits to get as far as he has.

Unfortunately, violence speaks louder than reason in the Trump era and the protests from some people on the left calling some of the senators with the Swing vote threatening to rape their staff members will do more damage and undermine those protests that aren't threatening.

Fast forward to the future, if Kavanaugh does turn out to be as problematic as suspecting, people can all out for his resignation as much as possible but at the end of the day, Kavanaugh's removal will be down to his decision to resign or his death.

Bottom line: If Kavanaugh were nominated by someone other than Trump and with a greater time window to run the procedure properly and go through all his records as opposed to what the Republicans and the lying White House say we're allowed to see, there wouldn't be all this scrutiny. Republicans fear they will lose the house and that their party will receive irreparable damage because of Trump and they're trying to have their way before they kicked out: Lifetime appointment to the Supreme court that will side with corporations/wealthy and Tax Cuts 2.0 even though the first set of tax cuts were unpopular and they no longer run that as part of their campaign ads. Politics right now isn't Left vs Right, it's Democracy vs rising Oligarchy disguised as Democracy.

EDIT: Former Republican on Mitch McConnel and the Kavanaugh hearing

Edited September 14, 2018 by Dr. Tarrasque

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Manafort has flipped and will cooperate with Mueller.

@Shoblongoo: Plea deal

Manafort's lawyer addresses reporters

Tick tock, tick tock.

[Tryhard]

I have a feeling Manafort realised he wasn't going to get a pardon.

The nice part:

Since the plea includes the forefeiture of $46 million in assets which cannot be pardoned away, the Mueller probe is now operating in the black, up $30 million from this plea alone against $16.7 million in costs. Turns out probes that bring charges against people knee deep in money-laundering can be very profitable for US taxpayers.

Edited September 14, 2018 by Edgelord

[XRay]

19 hours ago, Edgelord said:

I have a feeling Manafort realised he wasn't going to get a pardon.

Is there anything that stops Trump from giving Manafort a pardon? It will look really bad, but if Democrats do not take the House, I do not see why Trump could not pardon him then.

[Lord Raven]

41 minutes ago, XRay said:

Is there anything that stops Trump from giving Manafort a pardon? It will look really bad, but if Democrats do not take the House, I do not see why Trump could not pardon him then.

If he was convicted by the state of New York and not convicted of federal crimes, then Trump cannot issue a presidential pardon I believe.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

1 hour ago, Lord Raven said:

If he was convicted by the state of New York and not convicted of federal crimes, then Trump cannot issue a presidential pardon I believe.

Weren't the charges on that trial that got 8/18 convictions at the federal level and not state? I would imagine that if it were state level, that would've been explicitly stated and the pardon wouldn't have been talked about in the aftermath of that trial.

 

2 hours ago, XRay said:

Is there anything that stops Trump from giving Manafort a pardon? It will look really bad, but if Democrats do not take the House, I do not see why Trump could not pardon him then.

If the convictions are indeed federal crimes, technically speaking, there's nothing stopping Trump from issuing the pardon. You have Republicans and other folks telling Trump not to do it because it is suicide and grounds for impeachment... Republicans can say this but will they actually do it? Probably depends on what McConnel and Ryan say.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

The Kavanaugh matter is continuing to be the circus that was expected but here's a rather interesting tidbit from Rachel Maddow that I thought was worth sharing. Thoughts? There's people saying that Ford is hurting Kavanaugh but I think the Republicans and Kavanaugh himself are doing more harm to him than Ford.

Edited September 21, 2018 by Dr. Tarrasque

[Slumber]

43 minutes ago, Dr. Tarrasque said:

The Kavanaugh matter is continuing to be the circus that was expected but here's a rather interesting tidbit from Rachel Maddow that I thought was worth sharing. Thoughts? There's people saying that Ford is hurting Kavanaugh but I think the Republicans and Kavanaugh himself are doing more harm to him than Ford.

Every "This thing a republican did is technically illegal" theory never gets followed up on.

As much as I'd love for Kavanaugh to sink, I don't think this is how it's going to happen.

[Tryhard]

A bad case of the affluenza prevents punishment. Except if you start to screw over other rich people.

[Pixelman]

This whole hearing is a shitshow

Why did Dianne Feinstein sit on the letter for so long? It seems like perfect ammunition for the Republicans to use against Democrats in the future