monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

If Pence goes down, Ryan becomes President. Hoorah!

I wouldn't be so sure that he'll survive this either if the other two go down. There has been a lot of talk earlier this year about Russian money being funneled into the RNC last election cycle through a variety of donors, and that Ryan knew about it at the time.

Cycloptichorn

Yeah, but it takes a while to clean the manure out of the stables.

I think you’re getting a little drunk on bliss.

Everybody in Washington has Russian money, Saudi money...

He won’t get touched by this.

Pence
Eddie Munster
Orrin Hatch, unless he’ll go ahead and die
Tillerson or his replacement
I think Mattis
That Granny Clampett man

This is the line, I’m pretty sure.

Unbelievable.

Living hell? I'm not sure he's capable of noticing.

Yeah, it's just speculation on my part based on rumors I've heard from some people. However, I must say that other rumors they've forwarded have turned out to be very accurate, so I'm holding out hope on this one too.

It'll be fun to watch the rats turn on each other when this thing really gets up to speed in the Spring.

Cycloptichorn

It cracks me us that the ad at the bottom of the page is from "Anastasia Date-dot-com, meet Russian Ladies."

Are you suggesting that any man accused by a woman of making her "uncomfortable" should face prosecution or condemnation? That seems overly broad and prejudicial.

As for your roster of rogues:

Denied guilt; paid off accusers; lost their jobs; many witnesses and complainants


Guilt undetermined at this time, denies any wrongdoing; anecdotal evidence of a pattern of behavior, many witnesses and complainants


Innocent; victim fabricated story; not politicians
(echoes of the Tawana Brawley case)


Paid off accuser, proven pattern of behavior, suspected of rape or assault but not formally charged


Photo evidence of guilt, proven pattern of behavior


Assumed guilty; settled with accuser
(as far as I know — haven't really studied this one)


Admits physical contact; accuser preserves anonymity; not much else known; not a politician

The innocent were found innocent, the others are indicted to the degree that the truth of the charges and extent of the damage can be established. I don't "unequivocally condemn" anyone based on hearsay, not even Moore. Not until they confess or are found guilty in a court of law. I suspect that Moore and Clinton are guilty of serious charges but will probably not face justice. I know that Franken is guilty of at least one of the charges, for which he deserves to be admonished and personally ashamed but honestly, I don't think it amounts to being an actual "crime". This is where you and Lash can yell "Gotcha!"

I don't see anyone defending the non-politicians Lauer or Weinstein — do they belong to any particular "tribe"? The alt right would have us think so. At least Joe Barton had the decency to announce that he won't seek re-election. How come George H.W. Bush never even gets a mention?

One man's ideological ogre is another's hero.

IF...

You are jumping the gun

No, I'm not. The Dems are already pretty far ahead on the Generic Congressional Ballot -

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/2018_generic_congressional_vote-6185.html

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-generic-ballot-polls/

https://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2018-national-house-race

Depending on the poll, they are as far ahead or farther ahead than the GOP was in 2010 when their huge wave chased the Dems out of office in the House. It's pretty difficult to imagine that an ongoing and prolonged investigation into the guilt of various WH administration officials is going to raise their numbers.

What more, the GOP is desperate to pass a highly, highly unpopular tax bill, one that helps practically no regular citizen and is clearly weighted towards the wealthy and corporations; one that polls absolutely terribly. I sometimes wonder if you guys realize how bad this tax plan polls, it's truly in the shitter. The GOP is pretty much fucked now either way on this: they can satisfy their wealthy owners by passing this bill, and take a huge hit from the populace over it, or they will fail to pass it and look incompetent. Neither will help them in the next election.

So no, I don't think I'm jumping the gun at all. If the election were held today, the Dems would pick up 45 seats or so.

Cycloptichorn

Yeah, we’re a bunch of armchair prognosticators, and this is pretty big.

I wonder how this might affect the voters... It looks a lot like the election is being overturned.

This is how I see things too. It's not pretty. Particularly given how much success they have had at this project.

That worry would be relevant only if you presume that Mueller and his team have no integrity and are out only to hurt Trump. And that would be kind of insane.

Wow. I don't think you are even exaggerating what you have come to believe. That's scary.

It's pretty hard to imagine that Mueller and his team gave him a sweetheart deal for nothing at all. I suspect that they informed him of the serious charges that were going to be leveled at both him and his son, and he decided that this **** isn't worth protecting Trump.



I don't think he's a 'font of truth' at all. I do think they have him on tape, multiple times, and he's been caught in a LOT of lies. But now that he's agreed to work to prosecute others (a specific provision in his plea deal says exactly this) I believe we're going to start seeing a lot of other Trump officials be charged with lying to the FBI. And what happens when THEY start rolling up on their higher-ups? That's how these things work yaknow.



I don't think there's any evidence HERE that Flynn is involved with that. But I do believe that's exactly what happened during the election. I've offered before to go into detail about why I believe that and what evidence backs it up, you weren't interested then, but if you change your mind, I'm always happy to do so.

Cycloptichorn

Boy, that is perfect.

I misread that, I thought he'd written Finn, and a rare moment of honesty, but no.

Do Republicans have some sort of weird out filter?

We say that we're pleased Flynn is cooperating so we can see how far it goes. They hear,' Flynn is brilliant I really want to suck his dick.'

That's what happens when you can only think in extremes.

I agree. Whether by design or not, Pence is both a discincentive to impeach Trump and an assurance that the White House con will go on unaffected even if boss #1 gets busted by the cops. Then i suppose boss #2 can keep boss #1 out of further legal trouble...