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regarding trump's impeachment: be careful what you wish for.
Ain't gonna happen because, with rare exceptions that can be counted on one hand, the Republican office holders do not have the Character and statesman qualities to upend what their ignorant base wants to believe and pull the trigger on Trump. Trump is there until Mueller digs enough dirt, and there is plenty of that, to show that Trump was and is laundering illicit Russian oligarchic funds through the sale of Trump Tower Condos and offices around the world to blind Delaware corporations they have set up to funnel the illegal money through.
Ain't gonna happen because, with rare exceptions that can be counted on one hand, the Republican office holders do not have the Character and statesman qualities to upend what their ignorant base wants to believe and pull the trigger on Trump. Trump is there until Mueller digs enough dirt, and there is plenty of that, to show that Trump was and is laundering illicit Russian oligarchic funds through the sale of Trump Tower Condos and offices around the world to blind Delaware corporations they have set up to funnel the illegal money through.
Impeachment won't be soon enough as far as I'm concerned. I gave him 6 months when he entered office.
It's been one long hard time for us US Citizens. All the damage he has done may not be repairable. The world is laughing at us and this clown.
So...Trump is eventually impeached. We get...Pence...or further down the food chain...Ryan?
At this point we might be better off with an incompetent lout in the 'highest office'...rather than someone who may be able to gather a majority consensus and get (the wrong) things done.
As long as those Generals can keep his...and their...fingers off the button.
Have to agree here. You impeach Trump, you get Pence. Impeach Pence and you get Ryan. Trump is too stupid to be effective (never confuse guile with intelligence) and he'll keep Dems and progressives fired up. The man definitely knows how to motivate his enemies.
As a life long Republican hater I do wonder how P'od his base will be. Sometimes I think it's actually better to have this idiot in the WH where he's almost ineffective, rather than turn his looney bin base into a raging bunch of hate mongers that could start the next armed revolution.
Thom, from your fingers to the heavenly one's ears. It would seem the Drumpf has gotten himself into a fine mess. I only worry about his retaliation, but with 2 Generals looking over him - we may have a chance for survival.
The Republican party is quite capable of destroying this country and starting dangerous wars. Don't underestimate them!! They are a wrecking ball that never stops swinging.
TxPeon, Judy Blue Eyes, and CharlesN have done a great job explaining the truth about what is going on. They are examples of people who are awake. They know that people have up to 3 jobs, trying to keep up with the bills.
Thomm has done a great job on the radio telling how people over 65 are LITTERALY DYING on the job. They have to pay bills too, and retriement money isn't enough these days.
I should have added, the general population of this country has become complacent because we are generally still "fat, dumb and happy". We still enjoy a standard of living far above that of the people of the third world countries (the ranks of which we are soon to join) exploited by our esteemed corporations. We are riding on sheer inertia. Nothing is going to change the status quo in this country until some cataclismic event, be it economic collapse at the hands of our banksters, some natural disaster of biblical proportions, or nuclear war brought to our shores shocks us out of our complacency. I just don't think we can achieve the critical mass needed to change things until We the People are literally brought to our knees. I believe history bears this out.
I've come to believe that a large portion of Trump's "base" is not comprised of "stupid" people, rather, people who place their own immediate priorities above the general welfare of the people at large. They are rightly described by a number of the adjectives provided by deepspace's most recent post. In particular, the petit bourgeoisie. The small business owner who is doing just fine, thank you, but complains endlessly about government regulations, the unfair burden placed upon them to pay the payroll taxes that provide the only safety net their often minimum wage employees have, and some modicum of a "retirement" in the form of Social Security. If nothing else, this is greed and a lack of empathy for those less fortunate than themselves, either in terms of natural intelligence or the crap shoot of life. I know a number of these "job creators". Some were endowed by "daddy" with a running head start. Some were not and made it on their own, and these are by far the worst. They fall into the camp that says "Screw these freeloaders! I got mine the hard way! Let 'em sink or swim!". This is reminiscent of people shoving others out of lifeboats after the Titanic disaster. The human condition is a beautiful thing to behold.
In any case, add to this the sizeable body of the poor unfortunates that are too dumb to realize they're voting themselves into extinction by sending sociopaths to congress and executive branch (and indirectly, SCOTUS) and you have to conclude that the several rational voices here are just "pissing into the wind".
P.S., Dianereynolds, were you a Confederate sniper in a former life? Why do bother haunting this site? Oh, right, it's for the occasional mention you get in passing. My bad, strike that last from the record.
@ #16
I think calling yourself names is a poor way to start your revolution. I thought leftie/socialists put themselves above the hoi polloi.
The plan is revolution. Willful ignorance, ideological escapism, endless greed, self-absorption, lack of empathy, paranoia, psychological insecurity, inflexible belief systems, self-righteousness, and cruelty are just some of the more telling hallmarks of a shallow mind. And stupid people vote for stupid people. "Idiocracy" must be called out, rooted out, and voted out if democracy, civilization, and life on Earth is to survive.
Like I said, you cannot fix stupid.
It obviously should hurt him badly. Trouble is that many of the things that have happened should have hurt him badly. It appears that the base that elected him is immune to behavior that would turn off sane people. When, or how, can the sane people out here come up with some plan that makes him stop?
Can Thom talk about the Senate Judiciary Hearings last week when William Browder testified about the Russian operation and Putin? This received no coverage by the media. This was covered in an article in the Huffington Post.
Marilyn Adair
Legend: Hear Hear! As George Carlin said, to paraphrase, "You want to know how stupid people are? Just consider how stupid the 'average person' is, then realize that half the people are more stupid than that".
You cannot fix stupid and there are a lot of stupid Americans.
As a "reality show" it has the three ingredients for success... in broadcasting they are called the three "C's" Cleavage... Camel Toe... Content. Trump seems to have all three at his disposal to use strategically when ratings fall. Look at the success he has had getting network media coverage... with Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers recapping his antics nightly. It's sort of like a Larry King infomercial... lot's of authoritarian hype presented as marketing collateral. Only thing missing in Trump media clips is a slogan promoting regularity: "A day without Trump is a day without prunes." I wish Democratic leadership would be more critical. Instead they still "play nice" as if their re-election campaign success depends on cutting Trump some slack as by deferring to him as"president" deserving "respect." As the saying goes, you don't show up at a gun fight armed with sling shots. Al Franken seems to be the poster boy for what we voter see as weak kneed politicians. As Franken admitted himself, he and Jeff Sessions are good friends.. that makes all his words just marketing collateral for his re-election. Thus, Washington needs a "high colonic"... from the Whitehouse to Capital (SIC) Hill .. where the real money is. Watching the Congressional show... I feel like it's watching Jerry Springer.. and shout "Jerry... Jerry... Jerry... as elected officials expose themselves for "beads."
2950-10K,
Beyond the rhetorical, I wonder about that all the time too but have no good answers.
John W. Dean published "Conservatives Without Conscience" in 2006, which was a well-researched study of the psychology of people who self-identify as "conservatives" but more appropriately can be termed "authoritarian followers."
Certain inate personality traits born of common experiences and shared genes have been passed down from the dawn of human civilization. A small but significant percent of any population will always find refuge in worldviews based on an unreasonable fear of "others," societal changes, and social progress -- all perceived as mortal threats to one's fundamental identity and way of life. Like frightened children, they want a strong father figure to protect them from imagined "enemies" hiding behind every tree.
Those gullible fools are easy enough to understand; not so easy are the majority of the population who should know better yet blithely go along with the insanity and fail to question the lies seriously, especially the big ones threatening to destroy life on earth, such as rising fascism, nuclear war, climate catastrophe.
I don't understand how this guy keeps going. He lies, exaggerates, flip flops, bullies. All so obvious. He's not a leader. He's a demander. Tries to distance himself from things he doesn't like (Affordable Care Act), but now owns. He is now in control of it. Thus the ownership. To just keep threatening is not leading. Take hold of the reins, get involved and start guiding your party.
I thought it was the world wide fake wrestling approach. Where is Don King these days?
Sometimes, as the saying goes, ... the bigger they are the harder they fall. If the con artists described everything Obama as a train wreck, who knows. Hopefully much better.
Mmmoooooooo...h....
Do you think this reality show approach to the presidency works in Trump's favor or harms him?...
Depends on what he is trying to accomplish. I agree with others that Trump's antics/tweets make it difficult for the average Jane to keep their mind on the 'issues'...health care, (not) building a wall, Muslim paranoia,...I could go on and on...however I need to get back to the tweets.