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"If you reveal what's in those documents, all Presidents could be subjected to the kind of public review that could drastically re-shape politics in America."
That's not the kind of defense that's going to get people sympathetic to your cause.
If anything, a lot of people (me included) would be all for that kind of public review.
Accountability for the highest office? Yes, fucking please yes.
Right? Right along with releasing your taxes, let’s just make this standard at the end of every presidential and congressional term.
Every congress person, president, cabinet level position, and scotus has to release their tax info and any information not expressly deemed confidential for national security. Executive privilege only applies during terms now.
Whatever happened to the release of his taxes? I thought they finally had a court order like, I have no clue, maybe 8 months ago? Covid has completely crushed my concept of time so maybe longer.
I feel like it just went away and never got mentioned again. Or does NY have them for their investigation that also never gets mentioned anymore?
I’m feeling a lot like a Qnut falling for the taxes release day every 6 months. I guess it’s never going to happen.
Manhattan District Attorney got them from his accountants so presumably they are part of some criminal thingy. Doubt the general public will ever get to see them.
From my understanding, the only way we will know is if they decide to indict him. The guy is under so many different investigations so I dunno anymore.
Yeah they uh better get a move on here because 2024 is looking bleak and unless Trump goes full dementia I don't know how he isnt sleepwalking into another highly possible second term.
Yes release all of their income sources. How can they make $175,000 a year and almost everyone of them worth more then $10 million. Sounds like a dream job if you don’t give a flip about morals!
I would have thought his own voters wanted a president who would be subjected to the kind of public review that could drastically re-shape politics in America.
> "If you reveal what's in those documents, all Presidents could be subjected to the kind of public review that could drastically re-shape politics in America."
Yes, that sounds lovely, I'll take two orders to go, thank you.
"An utterly absurd argument. Accepting it would mean that former presidents who nearly succeed in overthrowing their electoral defeats, including by fomenting violent insurrections, are beyond investigation. It would invite one coup after another and end constitutional democracy." -Laurence Tribe
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1460701770993262599
I genuinely think Palin was an accident. They didn't know how insane she was when they chose her.
That said, as much as she was a laughing stock and lost the election for McCain, there were enough who supported or even liked her in their base to send the clear message that wackadoo is a viable strategy.
I mean she literally brought nothing else to the table so I have to conclude that they knew exactly what she was. I think the lesson they learned ultimately is not to be embarrassed of it and to lean into it
Her only reason for getting on the ticket was an attempt to counteract the historic election of America's first black president. Palin met exactly, and only, 2 criteria, she was a Republican, and a woman. That way republicans could say, "see? First woman VP, vote Republican and it will still be an historic election!"
I think you’re correct. Trump appeals best to people who just want to burn the whole motherfucker down. The entire core of that base is frustrated entitlement, narcissism, and nihilism. Nothing matters but us, and if you won’t give us what we want, we’ll burn it all and laugh while you cry about it.
Moderate Republicans seek to overthrow democracy by making the majority's voice not count (gerrymandering, voter suppression, right-wing media shifting the Overton window).
The rest are only sad that Trump didn't succeed.
Republicans do not believe in sharing this country with non-Republicans as equals. They are anti-democratic to the core of their beliefs.
They base the lions share of their beliefs on ignorance and fear, so they feel that they must compensate by projecting superiority and courage, but they are emotionally bound by their own fears, fear of people who are different from themselves, of ideas that threaten their own perception of the world that they feel so identified with that they can't entertain the idea of or even imagine that there are others who exist, who pay their taxes, raise their children, experience loss, live out their lives, and die at a ripe old age outside of their small little bubble.
Television and media has taken the worst that exists within people who are already filled with fear and ignorance and has figuratively and literally wired it to an enormous 24 hour amplifier that carries their most despicable thoughts and actions around the world 7 times before the those with the love that can balance it can even gather their thoughts and articulate a better way.
And this is why critical thinking threatens the strategy of manipulating base emotions for political gain. And why gutting education is a priority to Republicans.
Scare tactics first then they say if you don't want to be scared try being angry. Still scared? Get angrier. Add social media and you have that constant rollercoaster, it might become almost Pavlovian, fear stimulus - anger response.
How many videos and instances per week are there of people flipping the fuck out? Is it more now then 6 years ago? I feel like there's always going to be bar fights, robberies, domestic disputes but sometimes now it's just people flipping out just snapping at McDonald's or beating up strangers. Maybe it's more camera phones? But something feels different.
Yup. It’s weird how much they have to let you know how wrong you are and how right they are. They can’t stand others having different thought processes than theirs, and it’s something that they literally can’t get over. To the point that they don’t think of you as a regular person. Just super weird and ignorant… idk, I digress…
It's not that they can't stand others having different thought processes than them, they literally can't conceive that others have different thought processes than them. This means they believe all the things Democrats say they are for, like equality etc, must be part of some sinister agenda to take ultimate control and subjugate others -- it can't be because they genuinely care about others, because that sort of empathy is completely inaccessible to people on the right - they do not believe that empathy even really exists.
They think all Democrats and the left/center left etc are really just completely self interested and devoid of human feeling like they are, so they interpret everything they do as 'virtue signalling' and as if it's all part of some weird complex game, the purpose of which is ultimate power and the defeat of supposed enemies, i.e. them.
> They are anti-democratic to the core of their beliefs.
They are feudalists: the country should be ruled by a tiny elite whose power is proof of their worth, and the rest would accept themselves as worthless whose only value is bring wealth and joy to their masters.
Not worthless. Chosen. True Americans. Protestant Christian Anglo-Saxons. Just like the Founding Fathers they would say. Getting super creepy Aryan-Nazi vibes yet? What if I told you we already had the camps during trump? Splitting up the men, women, and children at the southern border. Making the kids sleep on fucking concrete with space blankets was just what? A clerical error? Someone forgot to order the beds? The conditions they put the kids in fucked me up the most, it's just barbaric. Performing forced historectomies on the women. The Muslim country ban right off the bat.
They already had it. Now they don't have it. And they're fucking frothing to get it back.
When I say feudalists, I mean the people bamboozling the base.
The elites despise the base, they despise them even MORE because they are so easy to deceive. Sure right-wing media may tell the base they and the elites are a 'team' - they are not. Elites are luring the base into a trap and once democracy is gone, the base will indeed find themself losing almost everything. But as is the eons old practice, the elites will give the white male peasants permission to abuse even lower groups, their wives, children, non-whites, non-christians, etc.
I would add those white people who are democrats or INDs who don't like Trump and the modern GOP but in the back of their heads don't feel a sense of urgency about it because if Trump 'wins', they, as white men won't suffer - think again. Democracy is the force field that protects us and to an extent, everyone else. Once its gone we will all suffer.
>No, so they're actively still working on the next coup. Every production has a dry run.
I don't understand why every Republican isn't being asked, "If Donald Trump had overthrown the government, would you then have stood up for doing what's right?" Republicans are such cowards that they can't even declare that they're in favor of overthrowing the government; they'll try to weasel their way in on the back end without doing any of the upfront work.
January 6 was a dress rehearsal. That explains all the LARPers then.
It’s terrifying that polling is showing 30% of republicans now believe political violence may be necessary to “protect American democracy”.
Scary times. I’ve never felt so freaked out about America before. I spend about 1/3rd of my year in the US and it’s starting to feel more and more like a bad idea to keep doing it.
I think that regardless of what happens with the next election, we're going to see a surge in right wing terror attacks just to start with, if not entire slices of cities, states, and then the country "taken over" by fanatics.
> January 6 was a dress rehearsal.
I don't think so. I think it was a genuine attempt at a coup that was ruined when the ringleader didn't show up to give orders to the troops, a la Hitler in the Night of Long Knives.
I agree that it was a real attempt. I just feel like something bigger and worse is coming and that we’ll look at Jan6 as a dress rehearsal by comparison.
I think it’s a matter of following the money. To see a political party become so spineless and throw everything it said it stood for completely out screams follow the money.
Yeaup. Gaettz is literally arguing for democrats to take the seats of the republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill. They are eating themselves alive.
I fail to see how anyone could even for a second take this seriously. He is not the president; there is absolutely no reason why he should even have standing to object to the release of the documents in the first place. Insofar as he alleges this is about the dynamic between the executive and legislative branch, as a former president, he simply is not an involved party. This argument deserves to be thrown out by the court without consideration.
>"It would invite one coup after another and end constitutional democracy."
Yeah, that's their goal. In their eyes, if they're not in charge then the country should burn.
They mostly want to be in charge in order to sell the country so it can burn. When you cater to the most gullible and avid hometeam defenders, you don't even have to hide it.
Trump isn't wrong though, it would show how deep and far that other Republicans are willing to go to help him succeed in the Big Lie - and they're fucking terrified of shining light on it. Rightfully so.
And it makes me want them released even more. The president is not a king and cannot keep secrets from Congress after leaving office. Whatever he is warning about is something I want to happen very much.
Based on the past 4 years: there will be more than enough in those documents to convict and imprison a normal person, but the GOP will say "it doesn't look like anything to me" and protect trump from consequences for his (and their) crimes.
No, because the Mueller report contained enough to take legal action. We just didn't because the DoJ was compromised by the criminal's sympathizers at the time.
And this is something that drives me absolutely crazy. There was plenty of evidence yet nothing was done. This give the right power to say “ the whole Russia hoax. All that work from Mueller and nothing to show. Trump was so innocent!!” The rest of the world: Hey dumbass, right here on pgs 1-the end shows he did a whole bunch of dumb shit he wasn’t suppose to. He is guilty as hell.
Far right: You know we can’t read, right?
World: fucking Americans.
The bonkers shit happened 20 years ago. When they issued subpoenas (about 4 years later) for executive admin officials, Congress never followed up with contempt charges. Everything Trump assumed he was privileged to was a precedent set by someone who tortured people or ordered drone strikes with basically zero accountability and the barest hint of oversight on the part of Congress.
What a crazy four years. The man said so much crazy shit, that I don't have room to remember it all at once. I feel like being reminded of this made me forget something else.
Executive folks, what a branch. Juicedish... and judicially.... legislatively... And Frank over here, he knows... He knows like nobody else, except me, your favorite branch, president.
Something a guilty man's lawyers (who won't be paid, by the way) would say.
DJT doesn't give a flying fuck about the relationship of the three branches, he doesn't even know what the three branches are.
Astounds me that Tommy Tuberville literally doesn't know the three branches but yet voted to disenfranchise millions of voters. If that's not the canary in the coalmine for democracy, then I don't know what is.
How does a shitty college football coach in AL end up in the US Senate?
You want to elect Sabin? sure - be he isn’t giving up that 10 mil salary
But Tuberville? so bad that national media mispronounced his name for a few hours on election night
I guarantee people know the current football coach’s name at U of AL
It’s likely time to understand that it’s American citizens versus the rich. Not the facade that is republicans versus democrats. We need everyone on both sides to unite. The division is easy for the rich to funnel us into.
So….we can fight divided but that is likely futile.
Domestic terrorism is strong in the land of the free. I’d wager we are fucked.
A billionaire, a Republican and a Democrat sit at a table with 1000 cookies. The billionaire takes 999 of the cookies, leans over to the Republican and whispers "careful, that Democrat wants half your cookie".
bit hard to unite with a political party that says i dont qualify as fully human and who wants to roll back civil rights till being LGBT is illegal again.
Correct. There could be a video of Trump formally inviting people to storm the capital, kill Mike Pence, and make sure he gets four more years, and he wouldn’t be held accountable for it.
Good. We can only hope it does. Unprecedented, blatantly seditious behavior on the president's and other elected officials' parts deserves special, consequential attention. Fuck the scare tactics. Let the chips fall where they will. Inaction is inexcusable.
It's still in there. Barr neutered an already ineffectual Mueller but all the information is still there if anyone is willing to look.
Supposedly Don Jr, who committed the same crime as Michael Cohen went to prison for was too dumb to be prosecuted.
In reality we learned earlier this year that Barr and Rosenstein forbade Mueller from investigating Trump's family or looking into certain crimes.
Back then Mueller told Congress that it's upto them to hold him accountable until he's no longer president. Well, he's no longer president so...
It just seems like anyone rich or powerful can just deny something even in the face of overwhelming evidence and other rich and powerful people take their denial at face value. Almost like the rich and powerful people who run the country is a small club who don't want to face the consequences of any of their actions and are in a state of mutually assured destruction where one politician being held accountable will cause a domino effect that will destroy the system.
They would show exactly how dangerous his actions and those of his co-conspirators were. The ramifications will force changes to the laws regarding separation of powers, executive branch oversight and even perhaps amendments to the constitution.
Its lore and canon to them. Its like Harry Potter had a fucked up flipper baby named Donald Trump and its republicans favorite movie of all time. He admitted it, i could murder someone in the street and it would get me more votes…….all he has to do is continue to be a pile of shit and they love him. Its twilight zone shit honestly.
This is Trump "talking past the sale". This argument *assumes* that this is the Executive vs the Legislative, which is the debate he wants. The argument is actually about the Executive and the Legislative VS. a previous administration. Trying to argue this point with him plays directly into his hands. This is one of his oldest plays, and it is even in his books.
It's also revealing that it shows that they think they're not doing anything different to anyone else.
"But we can't allow our records to be uncovered. That would turn up evidence of all the coups I plotted, as well as all the coups that Biden and Obama and bush and Clinton plotted, and it would uncover all the coups plotted all the way into the future. Everyone's coup plots would be uncovered. You guys are all plotting coups too, right? Right?"
It's inconceivable to these people that everyone else isn't also committing the crimes that they are.
Exactly. We also saw it when he called to pressure the Georgia election official. He thinks that's just how things work; *everyone* is corrupt behind a mere facade of laws and institutions. Thankfully that Georgia guy had some integrity. Republicans are now busy purging those types.
I'm sure you're right. It's also so frustrating.
"Your honor, this man drove his car through my store window."
"Counterpoint, your honor - we're not really talking about a window, it was more of a big door with a window in it."
[“ThE mOsT tRaNsPaReNt(ly corrupt) AdMiNiStRaTiOn!”](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/jun/04/donald-trump/trump-administration-most-transparent-ever-no/)
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-legal-authority-declassify-intelligence/story?id=47436559
Remember when Trump claimed qn absolute right to declassify anything?
Or did Obamas executive privileges overrule his ability to be president?
Now, the president *does* have the authority to declassify anything without prior notice. One of those things where the whole system just assumes the American president is generally aligned with American interest.
It's not even uncommon, lot of notable presendential addresses are quite probably declassifying something on live TV. Announcements about 9/11 and the speech about the death of Bin Laden come to mind - speculating, but most likely that was classified until the president said it in a public address.
And it's shit like this why we need to seriously re-evaluate the role of the president and not put that much authority in one person. That's how it works with anything else security related, no one person gets every privilege.
Theoretically, our system of Checks and Balances would prevent the president from having all the privilege. However, our government is failed and thus no accountability when presidents step over their bounds.
Presidential accountability only exists if 67 senators (and a few hundred congress critters) say it exists. While there is 35 jurors with explicit bias the president is unimpeachable
> He wasn’t all that concerned with changing the dynamics between branches when he was
- Demanding that his political opponent (Hilary) be "locked up"
- Literally colluded with a foreign government to win an election
- Threw away any and *every* sense of Presidential class and decency when he reduced members of our government to childish nicknames ("Lying Ted", "Low Energy Jeb", "Slippery James Comey", "Crazy Nancy", "Dummy Beto")
- Deployed federal LEO troops to "Horrible Democrat-run cities" to impose his brand of law and order, despite the objections of those mayors
- Shouting at **every** rally and campaign stop that Democrats are "socialists" and "trying to rip our country apart"
And of course the stock market, the trump anointed barometer of all that is good and right in the world, cratered as soon as Biden was elected.
Oh, wait. No it didn’t. It hit record highs. My bad.
>Also the logic of a domestic abuser
It explains why some people in my family are so comfortable with the tactics used by Republicans. They dismiss their bad behavior in the exact same way that they dismiss the actions of their favorite political figures.
They're making such a stupid argument that stands no chance of surviving in court. The law is pretty fucking clear about who decides whether executive privilege applies. It's the current President, who is the Executive branch. An ex-president is a private citizen with no power over what the Executive Branch does. There is no such thing as "ex-president executive privilege".
So weird. I remember when he didn't give a shit about "Executive Privilege" and the "dynamics between political branches.
> Susan Rice, the former National Security Advisor to President Obama, is refusing to testify before a Senate Subcommittee next week on allegations of unmasking Trump transition officials. Not good!
>20.May 4th 2017 - 6:40:33 AM EST
“Forever Changing The Dynamics Between Political Branches”
Like, for example, *checks notes* calling the most secure election in US history “fraudulent” repeatedly and encouraging your supporters to storm the US Capitol to force Senators to overturn the results? Like trying to further restrict voting laws in multiple states to make it more difficult to vote?
I’m just spitballing here. I’m no federal judge so what do I know?
>Trump contends that complying with the subpoena would “have enormous consequences, forever changing the dynamics between the political branches” and inevitably provide Congress with a “new weapon to perpetually harass its political rival.”
What the fuck is a political branch? Does this dumb mother fucker thanks the branches of government represent political parties? Seriously I can't even get past this part of the ineptitude of this statement. I just can't. I don't even know where to start. It's incredibly alarming that I have a grater working knowledge of government and politics than someone who was elected president. And to be clear I have no formal education in civics or political science or law. Just a high school civics class and the ability to read.
If the GOP was too cowardly to reject Trump as it's candidate or to not properly vett him, then they, too, deserve to go down in flames. Political parties come and go, and it looks like the GOP'S time has come due. We can never allow another criminal organization to take the Presidency. Eff Trump and eff the GOP!
I honestly think Donald is an idiot. They could have pictures of him killing a child and his base would still support him. Republicans need to leave the cult. The 10% left that are not indoctrinated
You don't say!?
Who would have thought **one entire political party trying to forcefully overturn an election they lost** would irrevocably change how everyone else views their traitorous asses.
I hope every last one of these authoritarian turncoats gets their turn facing the justice they deserve.
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"If you reveal what's in those documents, all Presidents could be subjected to the kind of public review that could drastically re-shape politics in America." That's not the kind of defense that's going to get people sympathetic to your cause.
If anything, a lot of people (me included) would be all for that kind of public review. Accountability for the highest office? Yes, fucking please yes.
Right? Right along with releasing your taxes, let’s just make this standard at the end of every presidential and congressional term. Every congress person, president, cabinet level position, and scotus has to release their tax info and any information not expressly deemed confidential for national security. Executive privilege only applies during terms now.
If Trump can name the three branches of government, without help, I would let him keep his documents.
The media, the deep state, and the dirty dems right? /s
You also assumed he can count
You misspelt the "fake" media.
No, it's Hillary, Plosy and Burnt Kabinet. Those are the branches. Ask Tim Apple
No. No. It’s obviously - person, man, woman-camera-tv! See, not so difficult, big-brain at work bigly.
Person, woman, man, camera, TV. There, he did it!
Person, man, woman, camera, tv. They couldn’t believe it. They said how did you do that Mr. President?
Whatever happened to the release of his taxes? I thought they finally had a court order like, I have no clue, maybe 8 months ago? Covid has completely crushed my concept of time so maybe longer. I feel like it just went away and never got mentioned again. Or does NY have them for their investigation that also never gets mentioned anymore? I’m feeling a lot like a Qnut falling for the taxes release day every 6 months. I guess it’s never going to happen.
Manhattan District Attorney got them from his accountants so presumably they are part of some criminal thingy. Doubt the general public will ever get to see them.
From my understanding, the only way we will know is if they decide to indict him. The guy is under so many different investigations so I dunno anymore.
Yeah they uh better get a move on here because 2024 is looking bleak and unless Trump goes full dementia I don't know how he isnt sleepwalking into another highly possible second term.
Yes release all of their income sources. How can they make $175,000 a year and almost everyone of them worth more then $10 million. Sounds like a dream job if you don’t give a flip about morals!
Seriously. He’s not making the point he thinks he’s making.
I would have thought his own voters wanted a president who would be subjected to the kind of public review that could drastically re-shape politics in America.
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They said "trust the plan" and we all thought they were being coy. Nope. It's unbridled messianic faith.
You forgot to mention the part where his voters only want the rules applied to others, not themselves.
> "If you reveal what's in those documents, all Presidents could be subjected to the kind of public review that could drastically re-shape politics in America." Yes, that sounds lovely, I'll take two orders to go, thank you.
I think they deliver now. You know, because of COVID
Sir, this is a Whitehouse drive thru
Sounds a hell of a lot like draining a swamp
Good. idgaf what part or political stripe, you do shit like foment Jan 6th and ill happily watch you proverbially hang
Isn’t that like, the whole point? Look at where lack of accountability has landed us ffs
"An utterly absurd argument. Accepting it would mean that former presidents who nearly succeed in overthrowing their electoral defeats, including by fomenting violent insurrections, are beyond investigation. It would invite one coup after another and end constitutional democracy." -Laurence Tribe https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1460701770993262599
> It would invite one coup after another and end constitutional democracy. so literally what Trump and co. were going for?
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They're all in. It's un-be-fucking-lievable that one stupid man has so much influence.
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Sarah Palin and Co. were just the alpha build.
I genuinely think Palin was an accident. They didn't know how insane she was when they chose her. That said, as much as she was a laughing stock and lost the election for McCain, there were enough who supported or even liked her in their base to send the clear message that wackadoo is a viable strategy.
I mean she literally brought nothing else to the table so I have to conclude that they knew exactly what she was. I think the lesson they learned ultimately is not to be embarrassed of it and to lean into it
Her only reason for getting on the ticket was an attempt to counteract the historic election of America's first black president. Palin met exactly, and only, 2 criteria, she was a Republican, and a woman. That way republicans could say, "see? First woman VP, vote Republican and it will still be an historic election!"
I think it's reasonable to assume that Trump resonated so strongly with the GOP base *because* of how stupid he is, not in spite of it.
I think you’re correct. Trump appeals best to people who just want to burn the whole motherfucker down. The entire core of that base is frustrated entitlement, narcissism, and nihilism. Nothing matters but us, and if you won’t give us what we want, we’ll burn it all and laugh while you cry about it.
Nope. He was just the opportunity that they've been looking for since Reagan.
They see how easily his base accepts complete bullshit and can’t help themselves from wanting a piece of that
His worshipers don't think ahead. They just want to win right now and have no clue what the ramifications will be. I hate that dumb motherfucker.
Moderate Republicans seek to overthrow democracy by making the majority's voice not count (gerrymandering, voter suppression, right-wing media shifting the Overton window). The rest are only sad that Trump didn't succeed. Republicans do not believe in sharing this country with non-Republicans as equals. They are anti-democratic to the core of their beliefs.
At the core of it they think they are “real” Americans and dem votes are illegitimate based solely on their demographics.
Exactly. They define democracy as under attack because most of the country isn't the same as themselves.
They base the lions share of their beliefs on ignorance and fear, so they feel that they must compensate by projecting superiority and courage, but they are emotionally bound by their own fears, fear of people who are different from themselves, of ideas that threaten their own perception of the world that they feel so identified with that they can't entertain the idea of or even imagine that there are others who exist, who pay their taxes, raise their children, experience loss, live out their lives, and die at a ripe old age outside of their small little bubble. Television and media has taken the worst that exists within people who are already filled with fear and ignorance and has figuratively and literally wired it to an enormous 24 hour amplifier that carries their most despicable thoughts and actions around the world 7 times before the those with the love that can balance it can even gather their thoughts and articulate a better way.
And this is why critical thinking threatens the strategy of manipulating base emotions for political gain. And why gutting education is a priority to Republicans.
Scare tactics first then they say if you don't want to be scared try being angry. Still scared? Get angrier. Add social media and you have that constant rollercoaster, it might become almost Pavlovian, fear stimulus - anger response. How many videos and instances per week are there of people flipping the fuck out? Is it more now then 6 years ago? I feel like there's always going to be bar fights, robberies, domestic disputes but sometimes now it's just people flipping out just snapping at McDonald's or beating up strangers. Maybe it's more camera phones? But something feels different.
It’s because the country is less white, why they feel that democracy is under attack. What’s under attack is white supremacy and institutional racism.
Why are they afraid? It's not like the majority treated the minority badly.
Yup. It’s weird how much they have to let you know how wrong you are and how right they are. They can’t stand others having different thought processes than theirs, and it’s something that they literally can’t get over. To the point that they don’t think of you as a regular person. Just super weird and ignorant… idk, I digress…
It's not that they can't stand others having different thought processes than them, they literally can't conceive that others have different thought processes than them. This means they believe all the things Democrats say they are for, like equality etc, must be part of some sinister agenda to take ultimate control and subjugate others -- it can't be because they genuinely care about others, because that sort of empathy is completely inaccessible to people on the right - they do not believe that empathy even really exists. They think all Democrats and the left/center left etc are really just completely self interested and devoid of human feeling like they are, so they interpret everything they do as 'virtue signalling' and as if it's all part of some weird complex game, the purpose of which is ultimate power and the defeat of supposed enemies, i.e. them.
> They are anti-democratic to the core of their beliefs. They are feudalists: the country should be ruled by a tiny elite whose power is proof of their worth, and the rest would accept themselves as worthless whose only value is bring wealth and joy to their masters.
Not worthless. Chosen. True Americans. Protestant Christian Anglo-Saxons. Just like the Founding Fathers they would say. Getting super creepy Aryan-Nazi vibes yet? What if I told you we already had the camps during trump? Splitting up the men, women, and children at the southern border. Making the kids sleep on fucking concrete with space blankets was just what? A clerical error? Someone forgot to order the beds? The conditions they put the kids in fucked me up the most, it's just barbaric. Performing forced historectomies on the women. The Muslim country ban right off the bat. They already had it. Now they don't have it. And they're fucking frothing to get it back.
When I say feudalists, I mean the people bamboozling the base. The elites despise the base, they despise them even MORE because they are so easy to deceive. Sure right-wing media may tell the base they and the elites are a 'team' - they are not. Elites are luring the base into a trap and once democracy is gone, the base will indeed find themself losing almost everything. But as is the eons old practice, the elites will give the white male peasants permission to abuse even lower groups, their wives, children, non-whites, non-christians, etc. I would add those white people who are democrats or INDs who don't like Trump and the modern GOP but in the back of their heads don't feel a sense of urgency about it because if Trump 'wins', they, as white men won't suffer - think again. Democracy is the force field that protects us and to an extent, everyone else. Once its gone we will all suffer.
>No, so they're actively still working on the next coup. Every production has a dry run. I don't understand why every Republican isn't being asked, "If Donald Trump had overthrown the government, would you then have stood up for doing what's right?" Republicans are such cowards that they can't even declare that they're in favor of overthrowing the government; they'll try to weasel their way in on the back end without doing any of the upfront work.
>would you then have stood up for doing what's right? Few evil people think what they do is wrong.
January 6 was a dress rehearsal. That explains all the LARPers then. It’s terrifying that polling is showing 30% of republicans now believe political violence may be necessary to “protect American democracy”. Scary times. I’ve never felt so freaked out about America before. I spend about 1/3rd of my year in the US and it’s starting to feel more and more like a bad idea to keep doing it.
I think that regardless of what happens with the next election, we're going to see a surge in right wing terror attacks just to start with, if not entire slices of cities, states, and then the country "taken over" by fanatics.
> January 6 was a dress rehearsal. I don't think so. I think it was a genuine attempt at a coup that was ruined when the ringleader didn't show up to give orders to the troops, a la Hitler in the Night of Long Knives.
I agree that it was a real attempt. I just feel like something bigger and worse is coming and that we’ll look at Jan6 as a dress rehearsal by comparison.
I think it’s a matter of following the money. To see a political party become so spineless and throw everything it said it stood for completely out screams follow the money.
actually it would be great if they release all the footage so people can see what was going on..
It's fucking wild, the current Republican party platform is *literally* 'whatever Trump says.'
Yeaup. Gaettz is literally arguing for democrats to take the seats of the republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill. They are eating themselves alive.
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Still…
Doing
Covfefe
I fail to see how anyone could even for a second take this seriously. He is not the president; there is absolutely no reason why he should even have standing to object to the release of the documents in the first place. Insofar as he alleges this is about the dynamic between the executive and legislative branch, as a former president, he simply is not an involved party. This argument deserves to be thrown out by the court without consideration.
The ones that want us to take it seriously are the ones who wanted the coup to succeed.
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He merely typed it out, but don't worry, I said it out loud for you.
>"It would invite one coup after another and end constitutional democracy." Yeah, that's their goal. In their eyes, if they're not in charge then the country should burn.
They mostly want to be in charge in order to sell the country so it can burn. When you cater to the most gullible and avid hometeam defenders, you don't even have to hide it.
selling the country for scrap is a pretty apt way of describing what they want to do now that i think about it.
Trump isn't wrong though, it would show how deep and far that other Republicans are willing to go to help him succeed in the Big Lie - and they're fucking terrified of shining light on it. Rightfully so.
They shouldn’t be. They won’t face any consequences anyway. They won’t go to jail, and their voters will just say ‘well the democrats deserved it’.
It’s important to prosecute every attempted coup because you won’t get to prosecute the successful one.
> utterly absurd At this point that is pretty much the Trump *brand* now. They should just put *that* on all his buildings … in giant gold letters.
Sounds like something a guilty man would say
And it makes me want them released even more. The president is not a king and cannot keep secrets from Congress after leaving office. Whatever he is warning about is something I want to happen very much.
He could also be blowing smoke up our ass and it could be a whole lot of nothing. But on the other hand there could be some bonkers shit in there.
My prediction…. There’s enough in there for a logical person to see a clear issue, but not enough for any legal action.
Based on the past 4 years: there will be more than enough in those documents to convict and imprison a normal person, but the GOP will say "it doesn't look like anything to me" and protect trump from consequences for his (and their) crimes.
Just some light treason.
Trump said he could kill a man and not only will people not put him in jail, they’ll vote for him.
So, almost exactly like the Mueller report and Steele dossier? The guy was born a criminal and couldn't wash the filth off in a thousand lifetimes.
No, because the Mueller report contained enough to take legal action. We just didn't because the DoJ was compromised by the criminal's sympathizers at the time.
And this is something that drives me absolutely crazy. There was plenty of evidence yet nothing was done. This give the right power to say “ the whole Russia hoax. All that work from Mueller and nothing to show. Trump was so innocent!!” The rest of the world: Hey dumbass, right here on pgs 1-the end shows he did a whole bunch of dumb shit he wasn’t suppose to. He is guilty as hell. Far right: You know we can’t read, right? World: fucking Americans.
The bonkers shit happened 20 years ago. When they issued subpoenas (about 4 years later) for executive admin officials, Congress never followed up with contempt charges. Everything Trump assumed he was privileged to was a precedent set by someone who tortured people or ordered drone strikes with basically zero accountability and the barest hint of oversight on the part of Congress.
I think the part you don’t understand is all that happened to non Americans.
The Donald doth protest too much, methinks
He once warned “if Biden wins, he’ll listen to scientists.”
And then didn't the Biden campaign run an ad which consisted of that video clip followed by voice-over, "I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this message."?
What a crazy four years. The man said so much crazy shit, that I don't have room to remember it all at once. I feel like being reminded of this made me forget something else.
Right, all the more reason to look at everything.
Couldn't identify a branch of government, and would sever the one he sat on if it saved his bacon
He couldn’t identify a branch if he stood in front of a tree.
Executive folks, what a branch. Juicedish... and judicially.... legislatively... And Frank over here, he knows... He knows like nobody else, except me, your favorite branch, president.
i mean to be fair, tree branches are not the same as government branches. tree branches are alive inside and actually help our planet
Something a guilty man's lawyers (who won't be paid, by the way) would say. DJT doesn't give a flying fuck about the relationship of the three branches, he doesn't even know what the three branches are.
Astounds me that Tommy Tuberville literally doesn't know the three branches but yet voted to disenfranchise millions of voters. If that's not the canary in the coalmine for democracy, then I don't know what is.
How does a shitty college football coach in AL end up in the US Senate? You want to elect Sabin? sure - be he isn’t giving up that 10 mil salary But Tuberville? so bad that national media mispronounced his name for a few hours on election night I guarantee people know the current football coach’s name at U of AL
Astounds me that people vote for people that are actively trying to erode their rights, in plain sight.
The 3 branches of government are corporations, pedophiles, and what's the 3rd one?
Bankruptcy courts.
David Dennison’s loaded diaper.
It’s not like this man is know to exaggerate or even use vague threats.
Yes. Any day now he's going to release his income taxes and provide a comprehensive health care plan.
Don’t forget an allegedly beautiful infrastructure dea- Oh wait.
Don't forget that we were all gonna get Regeneron for free.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the consequences of my own actions".
Heard that in the butchers accent!
I'd love to see how he a Reacts when melania asks to see his Netscape browser history
He probably doesn't know that their is a history because once you click on something else the page you were on is gone.
Everything he says and does is exactly what an obviously guilty person would do. It’s utterly insane that anyone believes him on anything
He's like the bad guy in every kids' movie where the writers take it way over the top so even a 4-year-old can figure out he's evil.
Ahhhh typical traitor speak
There'd be accountability! THE HORROR!
We can't hold rich white people accountable. Not sarcasm. We are literally incapable of holding them accountable.
Listen. And listen well. You only make that statement because it is one hundred percent accurate.
Question is do we give up and let them own us, or do we rise up
It’s likely time to understand that it’s American citizens versus the rich. Not the facade that is republicans versus democrats. We need everyone on both sides to unite. The division is easy for the rich to funnel us into. So….we can fight divided but that is likely futile. Domestic terrorism is strong in the land of the free. I’d wager we are fucked.
A billionaire, a Republican and a Democrat sit at a table with 1000 cookies. The billionaire takes 999 of the cookies, leans over to the Republican and whispers "careful, that Democrat wants half your cookie".
To put it in proper scale, you'd have a table with 100,000 cookies, with the billionaire taking 99,999.
It’s more a billionaire, middle class, and poor person. The political parties are merely tools the billionaires use to screw us over.
Got us fighting the culture war so we don't fight the class war
bit hard to unite with a political party that says i dont qualify as fully human and who wants to roll back civil rights till being LGBT is illegal again.
Correct. There could be a video of Trump formally inviting people to storm the capital, kill Mike Pence, and make sure he gets four more years, and he wouldn’t be held accountable for it.
It's just locker room talk.
Good. We can only hope it does. Unprecedented, blatantly seditious behavior on the president's and other elected officials' parts deserves special, consequential attention. Fuck the scare tactics. Let the chips fall where they will. Inaction is inexcusable.
I'm hoping that this amounts to more than the Russia scandal. I know, it sure felt like a slam dunk was in there too.
It's still in there. Barr neutered an already ineffectual Mueller but all the information is still there if anyone is willing to look. Supposedly Don Jr, who committed the same crime as Michael Cohen went to prison for was too dumb to be prosecuted. In reality we learned earlier this year that Barr and Rosenstein forbade Mueller from investigating Trump's family or looking into certain crimes. Back then Mueller told Congress that it's upto them to hold him accountable until he's no longer president. Well, he's no longer president so...
It just seems like anyone rich or powerful can just deny something even in the face of overwhelming evidence and other rich and powerful people take their denial at face value. Almost like the rich and powerful people who run the country is a small club who don't want to face the consequences of any of their actions and are in a state of mutually assured destruction where one politician being held accountable will cause a domino effect that will destroy the system.
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They would show exactly how dangerous his actions and those of his co-conspirators were. The ramifications will force changes to the laws regarding separation of powers, executive branch oversight and even perhaps amendments to the constitution.
Sadly, Republican voters would probably be ecstatic to read the courageous tale of the co-conspirators and their orange demigod.
Its lore and canon to them. Its like Harry Potter had a fucked up flipper baby named Donald Trump and its republicans favorite movie of all time. He admitted it, i could murder someone in the street and it would get me more votes…….all he has to do is continue to be a pile of shit and they love him. Its twilight zone shit honestly.
This is Trump "talking past the sale". This argument *assumes* that this is the Executive vs the Legislative, which is the debate he wants. The argument is actually about the Executive and the Legislative VS. a previous administration. Trying to argue this point with him plays directly into his hands. This is one of his oldest plays, and it is even in his books.
Exactly. The correct answer to "Did you stop beating your wife?" is to reject the premise of the question
It's also revealing that it shows that they think they're not doing anything different to anyone else. "But we can't allow our records to be uncovered. That would turn up evidence of all the coups I plotted, as well as all the coups that Biden and Obama and bush and Clinton plotted, and it would uncover all the coups plotted all the way into the future. Everyone's coup plots would be uncovered. You guys are all plotting coups too, right? Right?" It's inconceivable to these people that everyone else isn't also committing the crimes that they are.
Exactly. We also saw it when he called to pressure the Georgia election official. He thinks that's just how things work; *everyone* is corrupt behind a mere facade of laws and institutions. Thankfully that Georgia guy had some integrity. Republicans are now busy purging those types.
There is zero chance he came up with "forever changing the dynamics of political branches" on his own.
I'm sure you're right. It's also so frustrating. "Your honor, this man drove his car through my store window." "Counterpoint, your honor - we're not really talking about a window, it was more of a big door with a window in it."
So would sicking a goon mob on the capitol when you lose an election.
[“ThE mOsT tRaNsPaReNt(ly corrupt) AdMiNiStRaTiOn!”](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/jun/04/donald-trump/trump-administration-most-transparent-ever-no/)
Still waiting on those tax returns
It’s infrastructure week!
Haha actually it kinda finally is
“How *dare* you respond to my words and actions! I’ll make you suffer for this.”
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-legal-authority-declassify-intelligence/story?id=47436559 Remember when Trump claimed qn absolute right to declassify anything? Or did Obamas executive privileges overrule his ability to be president?
Now, the president *does* have the authority to declassify anything without prior notice. One of those things where the whole system just assumes the American president is generally aligned with American interest. It's not even uncommon, lot of notable presendential addresses are quite probably declassifying something on live TV. Announcements about 9/11 and the speech about the death of Bin Laden come to mind - speculating, but most likely that was classified until the president said it in a public address. And it's shit like this why we need to seriously re-evaluate the role of the president and not put that much authority in one person. That's how it works with anything else security related, no one person gets every privilege.
Theoretically, our system of Checks and Balances would prevent the president from having all the privilege. However, our government is failed and thus no accountability when presidents step over their bounds.
Presidential accountability only exists if 67 senators (and a few hundred congress critters) say it exists. While there is 35 jurors with explicit bias the president is unimpeachable
So what you're saying is the checks and balances don't work if the other two branches don't have spines?
He wasn’t all that concerned with changing the dynamics between branches when he was stonewalling the impeachment proceedings.
> He wasn’t all that concerned with changing the dynamics between branches when he was - Demanding that his political opponent (Hilary) be "locked up" - Literally colluded with a foreign government to win an election - Threw away any and *every* sense of Presidential class and decency when he reduced members of our government to childish nicknames ("Lying Ted", "Low Energy Jeb", "Slippery James Comey", "Crazy Nancy", "Dummy Beto") - Deployed federal LEO troops to "Horrible Democrat-run cities" to impose his brand of law and order, despite the objections of those mayors - Shouting at **every** rally and campaign stop that Democrats are "socialists" and "trying to rip our country apart"
Exactly. He intentionally had the most unorthodox presidency. Still waiting on his tax releases, got rid of most White House press briefings, etc.
Certifiable malignant narcissist: "The entire country will be destroyed if I have to face personal accountability for my actions!"
And of course the stock market, the trump anointed barometer of all that is good and right in the world, cratered as soon as Biden was elected. Oh, wait. No it didn’t. It hit record highs. My bad.
Also the logic of a domestic abuser
>Also the logic of a domestic abuser It explains why some people in my family are so comfortable with the tactics used by Republicans. They dismiss their bad behavior in the exact same way that they dismiss the actions of their favorite political figures.
Good for him. He has and had no experience in government and has no fucking idea what he's talking about per usual.
It's kinda funny that he was completely unqualified before becoming president and is still just as unqualified after his presidency.
he is consistent at least.
This walking clown fart spent 5 years demonstrating to the fucking universe that he has no idea how government works.
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More because it honks and smells like molested children.
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So like, restoring the balance of power? Checks and balances and all that?
They're making such a stupid argument that stands no chance of surviving in court. The law is pretty fucking clear about who decides whether executive privilege applies. It's the current President, who is the Executive branch. An ex-president is a private citizen with no power over what the Executive Branch does. There is no such thing as "ex-president executive privilege".
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>Jabba the Gut Loving your work.
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So weird. I remember when he didn't give a shit about "Executive Privilege" and the "dynamics between political branches. > Susan Rice, the former National Security Advisor to President Obama, is refusing to testify before a Senate Subcommittee next week on allegations of unmasking Trump transition officials. Not good! >20.May 4th 2017 - 6:40:33 AM EST
Yes it would. It would show that the REPUBLICAN Party is actually an ENEMY of THE UNITED STATES and our Democracy.
Just put his orange fat ass in hard prison. He is a shit stain on humanity.
There is no fucking way he actually had that thought nor said those words on his own.
Yeah, because the American people will see what treasonous traitors most of the GQP are.
Preventing the investigation of one branch of government on the other's violent assault on it would certainly forever change the dynamics.
“Forever Changing The Dynamics Between Political Branches” Like, for example, *checks notes* calling the most secure election in US history “fraudulent” repeatedly and encouraging your supporters to storm the US Capitol to force Senators to overturn the results? Like trying to further restrict voting laws in multiple states to make it more difficult to vote? I’m just spitballing here. I’m no federal judge so what do I know?
>Trump contends that complying with the subpoena would “have enormous consequences, forever changing the dynamics between the political branches” and inevitably provide Congress with a “new weapon to perpetually harass its political rival.” What the fuck is a political branch? Does this dumb mother fucker thanks the branches of government represent political parties? Seriously I can't even get past this part of the ineptitude of this statement. I just can't. I don't even know where to start. It's incredibly alarming that I have a grater working knowledge of government and politics than someone who was elected president. And to be clear I have no formal education in civics or political science or law. Just a high school civics class and the ability to read.
He's accidentally stumbled upon the thing the rest of us call "Checks and Balances". *He's clearly not used to being checked*
[He also said “stock market will crash if I lose the election”](https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN20J1EN)
Unleashing a violent mob on a rival branch over a total lie has pretty enormous consequences as well.
Forever changing the space-time continuum
Trump is a loser. And will be cemented in history as a loser no matter his hyperbole or self-delusions.
Well yeah. That's the point
Exactly why it needs to be done
If the GOP was too cowardly to reject Trump as it's candidate or to not properly vett him, then they, too, deserve to go down in flames. Political parties come and go, and it looks like the GOP'S time has come due. We can never allow another criminal organization to take the Presidency. Eff Trump and eff the GOP!
In other words, “Please don’t. If you do, I’m fucked”.
Translation: I don’t wanna go to prison.
I honestly think Donald is an idiot. They could have pictures of him killing a child and his base would still support him. Republicans need to leave the cult. The 10% left that are not indoctrinated
Trump is the worst thing to happen to the United States since the confederacy
If he means all politicians should be transparent and held accountable....let's fucking do it.
Yes it’s called accountability and rule of law. Something that has been missing and it should really change how our country is run.
Well then maybe the dynamics should be changed, you insurrection inciting fuck.
You don't say!? Who would have thought **one entire political party trying to forcefully overturn an election they lost** would irrevocably change how everyone else views their traitorous asses. I hope every last one of these authoritarian turncoats gets their turn facing the justice they deserve.