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 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Given what's been happening with the Russian indictments, given we've also had Trump's comments...

If we're not fully entering high crimes and misdeamenours territory, are we not at least skirting the edges?

Past American presidents have been badly damaged for less than this...

Congress wont do anything as long its controlled by people with (R) next to their name

 Vaktathi wrote:

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Given what's been happening with the Russian indictments, given we've also had Trump's comments...

If we're not fully entering high crimes and misdeamenours territory, are we not at least skirting the edges?

Past American presidents have been badly damaged for less than this...

Thats up to Congress...which his party controls and have thus far proven unwilling to stand up to him in any meaningful way.

That said, we are seeing a lot of domestic blowback on this and cracks are starting to form in the Trumpverse over this. We'll see if it sticks, but this does not appear to be flying well at all here.

whembly wrote:Going there for a wedding in September for a 'Goonies" themed wedding. Not sure if we're hitting Portland tho...

Astoria is a cool town if you're heading there, september is just about when everything will probably be at its brownest and driest though

I would say to every American, be they pro or anti Trump: if your Commander in chief, your head of state, the first citizen etc etc


Won't defend America, won't defend his oath to protect your constitution...


Then why the feth should anybody else?


You can almost hear the cries of despair coming from Arlington...

It's really getting to the point where the Republican Party is the biggest threat to the United States. They could rein Trump in if they wanted, but they don't. They're sat on the tiger and don't know what will happen if they let go.

I'm with DINLT on this one. You can't be a leader and expect people to follow you out of anything other than undiluted self-interest if you act like Trump does.

 WrentheFaceless wrote:

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Given what's been happening with the Russian indictments, given we've also had Trump's comments...

If we're not fully entering high crimes and misdeamenours territory, are we not at least skirting the edges?

Past American presidents have been badly damaged for less than this...

Congress wont do anything as long its controlled by people with (R) next to their name

Well, if it's any consolation to Americans, your nation isn't the only one in a mess. There's voting going on in our Parliament right now, and quite frankly, it's a fething circus down there

 WrentheFaceless wrote:


Congress wont do anything as long its controlled by people with (R) next to their name

I actually wouldn't bet on that at this point, because a lot of them want re-elected.

 KTG17 wrote:

 Da Boss wrote:
What an embarrassing day to be an American. I am sorry for those of you resisting Trump and his party of sycophants. I am glad to see at least some republicans growing a spine and publicly criticising him on this gakshow.

The contrast to how he treats US allies and enemies is so stark. The guy is a traitor to your nation.

I am not embarrassed. No matter what this guy does we're still the best country in the world. We've had other clowns for President (Nixon, Carter, Bush) and have gotten by just fine.

This is why we have checks and balances.

What checks and balances?

The GOP has gerrymandered as much as they can to guarantee their places in government, even without a majority of voter support. They're making sure the court(s) will be filled with their specially chosen and approved judges that are carefully vetted at this point to rule the way they want on important cases. They're uncomfortably close to controlling enough state governments to amend the Constitution as they please.

So, tell me, what checks and balances are there?

If Tannhauser replaced the word GOP with King George III...

There does seem to be an air of the 1770s about this whole thing...

 Vaktathi wrote:

*ahem* sorry all, Portland's closed, move along, Seattle is just up the road.

Ohh Feth off!!! Seattle is so damn full of people, they're spilling down to Tacoma and my neck of the woods!!!

In the words of the immortal bard: Get off my lawn!

Mueller makes his first Russian spy bust in this caper.


https://apnews.com/ed215261a43a41809471bf0b92c80362/US-arrests,-accuses-woman-of-acting-as-Russian-agent?utm_medium=AP_Politics&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter

 feeder wrote:

 whembly wrote:
No argument from me... doesn't mean we all can't do better.

This kind of 'both sides' bullfethery is exactly what Trump was hiding behind at Helsinki. How you cannot see that your party has been hijacked by a corrupt criminal is beyond me.

The Cult of Trump is propped up by two things: rubes and rubles.

Neither Trump nor Hillary Clinton should've been nominated. My point is that we should do better.

Enough of this "bullfethery" and please acknowledge that we were dealt with gakky hands...

 BaronIveagh wrote:
Mueller makes his first Russian spy bust in this caper.


https://apnews.com/ed215261a43a41809471bf0b92c80362/US-arrests,-accuses-woman-of-acting-as-Russian-agent?utm_medium=AP_Politics&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter

Oh look the NRA showed up

Well, at least by comparison his NK summit had much more substance than his Russia summit.

 whembly wrote:

 feeder wrote:

 whembly wrote:
No argument from me... doesn't mean we all can't do better.

This kind of 'both sides' bullfethery is exactly what Trump was hiding behind at Helsinki. How you cannot see that your party has been hijacked by a corrupt criminal is beyond me.

The Cult of Trump is propped up by two things: rubes and rubles.

Neither Trump nor Hillary Clinton should've been nominated. My point is that we should do better.

Enough of this "bullfethery" and please acknowledge that we were dealt with gakky hands...

I mean, you're consistently on-message, I'll give you that.

Oh man, I just took a look at the politics board on a firearms forum ive run through before (as i do enjoy my boom sticks) to see what the reactions there would be, as those boards are dominated by Trump voters and I figured getting that perspective would be interesting.

Well...the prevailing attitude appears to be that Trump is still a supergenius and this is all fine because it's triggering the libs and thats all that matters, but with a whole lot less work appropriate language.

One guy stated he stopped supporting Trump over Trumps attempts to ban bump stocks and his siding with Putin over US intelligence, and was told to "F O lefty, I trust Putin more than our deep state feth sticks too."

So, I dont think we can expect the base to shift over this

Didn’t realize how bad Trump meeting the queen went.

Via babylonbee.com

LONDON, ENGLAND—Nearly causing an international incident, President Donald Trump body slammed the Queen of England, something that is considered an insult in her country.

While in America a body slam is considered a friendly gesture, with people having a good laugh anytime Trump body slams a member of the press, that action seems to be considered hostile on the small tourist island of Britain and is almost never done to a monarch. The faux pas has caused Trump to be excoriated in the British press, which has referred to him as “uncouth” and called him a “scallywag”.

“I thought she was trying to put me in a headlock,” explained Trump, referring to when the Queen went to pat him on the shoulder, “and no one gets the drop on Trump. So down she went. I guess it surprised her, but we had a good laugh about it.” Video of the incident shows only Trump laughing, though, as he stood over the unconscious 92-year-old woman after having just shouted, “Bow down! I’m the king now!”

Earlier, the shoe was on the other foot when Britons had “welcomed” Trump with a medium-sized balloon depicting him as a baby, after obtaining the proper permits to have a balloon in the country. While most people in the U.S. consider such a thing an insult, in Britain, depicting someone as a baby is a way of expressing care and endearment.

We are talking about a group that will condemn Obama for joking about Russia not being our foe anymore while debating Romney, while at the same time defending Trump being pals with Putin. Trump has done pretty much everything that made Hillary unqualified, but it doesn’t matter because of reasons.

A large part of his electorate will defend him to the death because “feth liberals” and will keep on voting for him. The GOP will keep on not doing anything because their job is more important than accountability, and “team GOP” is more important than “team USA”.

It's a cult of personality among the base...they're all-in 100% regardless of what happens.

The issue, of course, is this stuff stacking up for the many Republicans who aren't part of the cult but have held their noses to this point on account of liking their tax cuts and such.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
If Tannhauser replaced the word GOP with King George III...

There does seem to be an air of the 1770s about this whole thing...

There was nothing wrong with King George III, less than half the colonists were rebels.

So King George didn’t win the popular vote either?

I can't think of anything else the GOP could do to damage their long term prospects beyond what they already have done and are doing. There is no path forward in which they perform well politically in the 2020s. They have a base of delusional loyalists... and that's it. They have/are alienating every demographic that's trending towards increased political representation. They have hitched themselves to wagons that the majority of citizens and the majority of the first world is against them on (global warming, guns, abortion, foreign policy in general). They have no political values beyond partisan politics (I reiterate here that we live in an age where a Republican is by definition -not- a conservative) and even the positions they supposedly support are not at all popular without tremendous deception/the base's willing delusion. They are setting themselves up to be on the wrong side of the 2020 census. They are justifiably associated with racism, sexism, and countless social issues which go against what the majority of people want. They are strongly tied to the wealthy who are themselves heading for a social reckoning come the imminent economic downturn. Their image among millenials has been poisoned so badly it may never recover and when the next recession hits the same will happen with the next generation.

Even if they did an about-face right now it would be too little, too late. They have dug themselves the deepest political hole imaginable and Trump is the Balrog.

 d-usa wrote:
So King George didn’t win the popular vote either?

Didnt have to, watery tart lobbed a scimitar at him.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I can't think of anything else the GOP could do to damage their long term prospects beyond what they already have done and are doing. There is no path forward in which they perform well politically in the 2020s. They have a base of delusional loyalists... and that's it. They have/are alienating every demographic that's trending towards increased political representation. They have hitched themselves to wagons that the majority of citizens and the majority of the first world is against them on (global warming, guns, abortion, foreign policy in general). They have no political values beyond partisan politics (I reiterate here that we live in an age where a Republican is by definition -not- a conservative) and even the positions they supposedly support are not at all popular without tremendous deception/the base's willing delusion. They are setting themselves up to be on the wrong side of the 2020 census. They are justifiably associated with racism, sexism, and countless social issues which go against what the majority of people want. They are strongly tied to the wealthy who are themselves heading for a social reckoning come the imminent economic downturn. Their image among millenials has been poisoned so badly it may never recover and when the next recession hits the same will happen with the next generation.

Even if they did an about-face right now it would be too little, too late. They have dug themselves the deepest political hole imaginable and Trump is the Balrog.

What? Lol man you need to travel around the country some. Most Americans don’t even know he is out of the country let alone what he said during his trip.

 KTG17 wrote:

I am not embarrassed. No matter what this guy does we're still the best country in the world.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

*Wipes tears away*

HEHEheheh....hehehe....he

*Regains breath*

How do you figure that?

Steelmage99 wrote:

 KTG17 wrote:

I am not embarrassed. No matter what this guy does we're still the best country in the world.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

*Wipes tears away*

HEHEheheh....hehehe....he

*Regains breath*

How do you figure that?

“A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in and how many want out.”- Tony Blair

 KTG17 wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I can't think of anything else the GOP could do to damage their long term prospects beyond what they already have done and are doing. There is no path forward in which they perform well politically in the 2020s. They have a base of delusional loyalists... and that's it. They have/are alienating every demographic that's trending towards increased political representation. They have hitched themselves to wagons that the majority of citizens and the majority of the first world is against them on (global warming, guns, abortion, foreign policy in general). They have no political values beyond partisan politics (I reiterate here that we live in an age where a Republican is by definition -not- a conservative) and even the positions they supposedly support are not at all popular without tremendous deception/the base's willing delusion. They are setting themselves up to be on the wrong side of the 2020 census. They are justifiably associated with racism, sexism, and countless social issues which go against what the majority of people want. They are strongly tied to the wealthy who are themselves heading for a social reckoning come the imminent economic downturn. Their image among millenials has been poisoned so badly it may never recover and when the next recession hits the same will happen with the next generation.

Even if they did an about-face right now it would be too little, too late. They have dug themselves the deepest political hole imaginable and Trump is the Balrog.

What? Lol man you need to travel around the country some. Most Americans don’t even know he is out of the country let alone what he said during his trip.

I would say many...most might be pushing it.

But I agree that the above is wishful thinking from one side of the political spectrum, and I don't even like Trump. That supposedly dead party controls Congress and the WH, the majority of governorships, and has installed a conservative majority in the SCOTUS. That seems pretty healthy to me even if their leader is a fool.

If Trump becomes a problem that threatens to drag down the rest of the GOP, they'll dump him and pivot. We just haven't reached that point yet.

 gorgon wrote:

 KTG17 wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I can't think of anything else the GOP could do to damage their long term prospects beyond what they already have done and are doing. There is no path forward in which they perform well politically in the 2020s. They have a base of delusional loyalists... and that's it. They have/are alienating every demographic that's trending towards increased political representation. They have hitched themselves to wagons that the majority of citizens and the majority of the first world is against them on (global warming, guns, abortion, foreign policy in general). They have no political values beyond partisan politics (I reiterate here that we live in an age where a Republican is by definition -not- a conservative) and even the positions they supposedly support are not at all popular without tremendous deception/the base's willing delusion. They are setting themselves up to be on the wrong side of the 2020 census. They are justifiably associated with racism, sexism, and countless social issues which go against what the majority of people want. They are strongly tied to the wealthy who are themselves heading for a social reckoning come the imminent economic downturn. Their image among millenials has been poisoned so badly it may never recover and when the next recession hits the same will happen with the next generation.

Even if they did an about-face right now it would be too little, too late. They have dug themselves the deepest political hole imaginable and Trump is the Balrog.

What? Lol man you need to travel around the country some. Most Americans don’t even know he is out of the country let alone what he said during his trip.

I would say many...most might be pushing it.

But I agree that the above is wishful thinking from one side of the political spectrum, and I don't even like Trump. That supposedly dead party controls Congress and the WH, the majority of governorships, and has installed a conservative majority in the SCOTUS. That seems pretty healthy to me even if their leader is a fool.

If Trump becomes a problem that threatens to drag down the rest of the GOP, they'll dump him and pivot. We just haven't reached that point yet.

To be fair it wouldn't be the first time a party killed itself along its own partisan lines. The Whigs, the first Democratic party, and the Federalist party all did the same. Now I absolutely think that the Trump win in 2016 completely blows out the notion that the Republicans were on a long term path of being unelectable because their demographics in younger Americans aren't as dire as a lot of people thought they were 8 or so years ago. Not great, but not dire. Further I think US politics have increasingly become about obstructing the other sides political will, which Trump and Putin did masterfully in their own ways. Putin target Democratic ire over Bernie Sanders and the DNC, while Trump targeted social tension and political frustration.

Winning isn't just about convincing more people to vote for you. In the new age of cynical American obstructionism it can also be about convincing your opponents not to vote at all and if any party in US politics struggles to get its base to actually go out and vote its the Democrats. It's a strategy the Republicans could easily employ with no real change to their underlying politics for some time. Best of all, it's not one that's easily turned against them. Conservatives have almost always been more dedicated voters in US politics and I see attempting to convince them not to by targeting them the way Democratic voters were in 2016 as backfiring.

 gorgon wrote:

 KTG17 wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I can't think of anything else the GOP could do to damage their long term prospects beyond what they already have done and are doing. There is no path forward in which they perform well politically in the 2020s. They have a base of delusional loyalists... and that's it. They have/are alienating every demographic that's trending towards increased political representation. They have hitched themselves to wagons that the majority of citizens and the majority of the first world is against them on (global warming, guns, abortion, foreign policy in general). They have no political values beyond partisan politics (I reiterate here that we live in an age where a Republican is by definition -not- a conservative) and even the positions they supposedly support are not at all popular without tremendous deception/the base's willing delusion. They are setting themselves up to be on the wrong side of the 2020 census. They are justifiably associated with racism, sexism, and countless social issues which go against what the majority of people want. They are strongly tied to the wealthy who are themselves heading for a social reckoning come the imminent economic downturn. Their image among millenials has been poisoned so badly it may never recover and when the next recession hits the same will happen with the next generation.

Even if they did an about-face right now it would be too little, too late. They have dug themselves the deepest political hole imaginable and Trump is the Balrog.

What? Lol man you need to travel around the country some. Most Americans don’t even know he is out of the country let alone what he said during his trip.

I would say many...most might be pushing it.

But I agree that the above is wishful thinking from one side of the political spectrum, and I don't even like Trump. That supposedly dead party controls Congress and the WH, the majority of governorships, and has installed a conservative majority in the SCOTUS. That seems pretty healthy to me even if their leader is a fool.

If Trump becomes a problem that threatens to drag down the rest of the GOP, they'll dump him and pivot. We just haven't reached that point yet.

I stated the 2020s to underline that I feel this is a long-term trend. It is a significant misinterpretation to see my post as a comment that the party is currently dead.

So, your president is being described as a traitor to the US and Putin's poodle....

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/17/putins-poodle-newspapers-declare-trump-a-traitor-after-helsinki-summit

Just what is it that Trump supporters value so much that they wish to suck up to enemies of the West, whilst tearing up alliances with their oldest and staunchest allies?

 r_squared wrote:
So, your president is being described as a traitor to the US and Putin's poodle....

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/17/putins-poodle-newspapers-declare-trump-a-traitor-after-helsinki-summit

Just what is it that Trump supporters value so much that they wish to suck up to enemies of the West, whilst tearing up alliances with their oldest and staunchest allies?

Pissing off "liberals".

I'm not joking, that's literally it.

I am absolutely lost for words. I can't quite believe what we have seen with the Helsinki summit and am struggling to process it.

If you had told the leaders of the Soviet Union in the second half of the twentieth century that, fast-forward 50 years, you would have a President of the United States so obviously compromised in terms of his desires and directives and beholden to Russia, they would not have believed you. And Roosevelt and Reagan must be spinning in their graves, to say that you trust the leader of your rival and enemy power more than your own intelligence agencies.. I still can't believe those words were spoken.

I am struggling to think of a darker moment in the history of any US President, it makes Nixon bugging a hotel room look like it's worthy of a 2 inches on the 6th page of the paper by comparison.