The Trump Presidency (Act V - The One Where Everybody Dies)

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Ending the investigation asap means that the only thing Democrats can do is complain about the one bad thing, which will get tired in a few months.

I can see how that might be the thinking, but how many scandals have there been in 2018 alone? There seems to be about 2 new things per week. I'm sure there will be plenty of anti-Trump fodder, regardless of whether or not the Russia investigation is ongoing.

 

[Segnosaur]

I sure hope not. It is not the time or place for such incivility. It was bad when whoever shouted "you lie" during Obama's State of the Union and equally so here.

Perhaps the Democrats will basically sit on their hands the whole time, neither interrupting nor applauding.

Seriously, how exactly is this going to go down? If he talks about the past year, he can either point to stuff which failed, or he can talk about the tax plan or various appointments which were largely done along party lines. Nothing for the democrats to applaud here. Supposedly he wants to call for "bipartisanship", but given the petty way he's run the white house and the way Republicans have acted for the better part of a decade, I can't see the democrats wanting to applaud that either.

 

[blutoski]

I can see how that might be the thinking, but how many scandals have there been in 2018 alone? There seems to be about 2 new things per week. I'm sure there will be plenty of anti-Trump fodder, regardless of whether or not the Russia investigation is ongoing.

Russian collaboration/interference in the 2016 election is more than just a scandal, IMO. If there's a creeping increase in credibility over time, it will be much more damaging to Trump's potential Congressional allies than affairs with prostitutes and boasting about molesting women. Those, they're fine with, and voted for him anyway. But treason? That's going to make him toxic, which has two effects: his endorsement would be a kiss of death, and the GOP structural disadvantage will grow.

(by structural disadvantage, I mean the 10%ish handicap that any Congressional candidate has when the president is from the same party - it grows in proportion to presidential unpopularity)

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Russian collaboration/interference in the 2016 election is more than just a scandal, IMO.

In reality, sure. I'm not sure the general public makes that much of a distinction.

If there's a creeping increase in credibility over time, it will be much more damaging to Trump's potential Congressional allies than affairs with prostitutes and boasting about molesting women. Those, they're fine with, and voted for him anyway. But treason? That's going to make him toxic, which has two effects: his endorsement would be a kiss of death, and the GOP structural disadvantage will grow.

There's plenty of evidence of treason already, and it just seems to be making people double down harder. Fake news.

 

[ponderingturtle]

I can see how that might be the thinking, but how many scandals have there been in 2018 alone? There seems to be about 2 new things per week. I'm sure there will be plenty of anti-Trump fodder, regardless of whether or not the Russia investigation is ongoing.

But they all cancel each other out. You need one or two good scandals, Trump knows if he spins out a new one every few days then no individual scandal can do any lasting damage.

It worked great for him on the campaign trail.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Perhaps the Democrats will basically sit on their hands the whole time, neither interrupting nor applauding.

Seriously, how exactly is this going to go down? If he talks about the past year, he can either point to stuff which failed, or he can talk about the tax plan or various appointments which were largely done along party lines. Nothing for the democrats to applaud here. Supposedly he wants to call for "bipartisanship", but given the petty way he's run the white house and the way Republicans have acted for the better part of a decade, I can't see the democrats wanting to applaud that either.

When there was a bipartisan bill presented exactly as he asked he ignored it anyway.

Bipartisan is dead, killed by Trump.

 

[BobTheCoward]

In reality, sure. I'm not sure the general public makes that much of a distinction.



There's plenty of evidence of treason already, and it just seems to be making people double down harder. Fake news.

There is no evidence of that.

 

[Fast Eddie B]

But treason? That's going to make him toxic...

Not so sure.

My guess is that many of “his base”, if and when they are presented with smoking gun collusion, will say that just shows how smart he was. That the art of the deal, in this case, meant using any means necessary - including getting help from Russia - to get elected, and they’re glad he did.

 

[pgwenthold]

Perhaps the Democrats will basically sit on their hands the whole time, neither interrupting nor applauding.

The camera pans to the audience and you see all the Democrats playing Candy Crush on their phone or scrolling through Facebook messages....

 

[phiwum]

Perhaps the Democrats will basically sit on their hands the whole time, neither interrupting nor applauding.

Seriously, how exactly is this going to go down? If he talks about the past year, he can either point to stuff which failed, or he can talk about the tax plan or various appointments which were largely done along party lines. Nothing for the democrats to applaud here. Supposedly he wants to call for "bipartisanship", but given the petty way he's run the white house and the way Republicans have acted for the better part of a decade, I can't see the democrats wanting to applaud that either.

Like most recent such addresses, he will brag about accomplishments. But this year, at a Trumpian level.

 

[phiwum]

When there was a bipartisan bill presented exactly as he asked he ignored it anyway.

Bipartisan is dead, killed by Trump.

Though previously wounded over a long period.

 

[blutoski]

Not so sure.

My guess is that many of “his base”, if and when they are presented with smoking gun collusion, will say that just shows how smart he was. That the art of the deal, in this case, meant using any means necessary - including getting help from Russia - to get elected, and they’re glad he did.

Some, for sure. But I think the narrative of it all being completely false is important to most of them. The question is: what would really convince them? I think confessions and bucketloads of criminal charges by the FBI would do the trick. And I think this is precisely why there's a drumbeat to ultimately remove Mueller. It's important.

The other thing is that there's a chunk of the population who are Republican leaning, but not Trump fans, and this is what I meant by 'toxic'. These Republicans will not be enthusiastic voting for a Republican representative if s/he is sucking up to Trump after hypothetical evidence of what amounts to borderline treason in most Americans' eyes.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Like most recent such addresses, he will brag about accomplishments. But this year, at a Trumpian level.

And how unfair all the fake news is to him.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Some, for sure. But I think the narrative of it all being completely false is important to most of them. The question is: what would really convince them? I think confessions and bucketloads of criminal charges by the FBI would do the trick. And I think this is precisely why there's a drumbeat to ultimately remove Mueller. It's important.

They have been undermining the credibility of the FBI so FBI bringing charges will be seen as a simple partisan attack by the deep state. Give them a bit more time and that will be mainstream republican talking points.

 

[Bob001]

They have been undermining the credibility of the FBI so FBI bringing charges will be seen as a simple partisan attack by the deep state. Give them a bit more time and that will be mainstream republican talking points.

It already is.

This gets at an important way that the current moment is different from Watergate — a difference that may point to the possibility of a more alarming endgame. The Nunes memo shows there is a massive propaganda apparatus out there — one that reaches deep into the right-wing media and into the Congress that has been pushing the alt-narrative and would back up Trump if he does take drastic steps — that didn’t really exist in Nixon’s time.

“You certainly had very influential columnists who were diehard Nixon men,” Weiner told me. “But you did not have a Devin Nunes. You did not have a Sean Hannity. And you did not have an alternate universe of conspiracy theories, in which the FBI was painted as the equivalent of the Weather Underground.” Weiner added that we are seeing an “extraordinary echo chamber of dark matter that has gripped part of Washington and part of America.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...-the-big-danger-ahead/?utm_term=.69f4da18f12f

 

[a_unique_person]

And how unfair all the fake news is to him.

Yes. It will be mostly about him

 

[Cain]

I don't know if this has been posted already. Franklin Foer has a lengthy bio on Manafort. I knew the guy was dirty, but this suggests he bathes in city sanitation.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/03/paul-manafort-american-hustler/550925/

Trump apologists are going to go from:
Russia played no role in the election -----> No collusion -----> Colluded with campaign officials but without Trump's knowledge. The end point is Trump collaborated, but it's not illegal.

 

[CapelDodger]

With Trump, it can sometimes be hard to tell when he's lying and when he's merely demonstrating profound ignorance. Does he honestly believe that ice caps are "setting records" in a way that would refute global warming or does he just think that people will buy that? I can't really tell.

He's just repeating what he's heard in the climate denial echo-chamber. A few years ago there was a record extent of Antarctic sea-ice, which is small beer compared to Arctic ses -ice. The "they used to call it Global Warming" has been around for twenty years, as has the idea that there's been "no recent warming", despite the recent string of record years. Once heard, never forgotten, and certainly not dislodged by subsequent events.

For Arctic sea-ice, see http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_stddev_timeseries.png.

 

[alfaniner]

re: The potential release of the partisan Nunes memo.

Have you ever taking the cover off a golf ball and watched all the tightly wound rubber bands unravel? That's what tonight reminds me of.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Well, no sanctions. Trump has ignored the bill and not enacted it.
Do they get to impeach him now?