The Politics Thread

Canada arrested her at the request of the United States, the charge against her has to do with Huawei doing deals with Iran despite sanctions on that country.

And now Trump's Director of National Intelligence (I realize the irony of the name considering this administration), Dan Coats, is stepping down. Trump is nominating congressman John Ratcliffe, whose sanctimonious questioning of Mueller last week was calculated and apparently actually a job auditon.

This stinks since I actually liked Coats and I have to begrudgingly admit there were some men who at least stood by principal when Trump's administration first began- or they were at least adults- Rex Tillerson, Henry McMaster, John Kelly etc... Even if I didn't agree with them politically, they seemed to have a moral and professional code that they followed. Even Jeff Sessions who we weren't fond of had the morality unlike William Barr to just step back and not interfere or obfuscate.

There are less and less adults in the room now to control our President's worst impulses. Somehow Mike Pence is actually the most mature adult left. This is very scary.

We need the pee pee tapes or something because I don't even see how we get to next year now if this continues...

This my option.
It's clear Epstein had the dirt on a lot of powerful people so it's not totally out of the realm of possibility a hit was carried out on him.
The bigger likelihood though is the fact he saw that his money and connections that got him walks time and time again was over with.
There was nothing but prison cells looming in his future and for someone like him,that is a fate worse then death.
Him taking his own life is not a shocker at all,nor is the fact the people in charge of stopping it from happening botched it.
It happens all the time,just the inmates aren't so high profile so no one gives a darn.

My take on the theories is this.
If the Clintons really had a squad of killers at their beck and call to get rid of people who stood in their way of Hillary being President,Ken Starr,Monica Lewinsky,Juanita Broaddrick and others would have been gone long ago.

My concern for what Netanyahu apologists think has plunged since I figured out what a hideous war crimes cartel his administration was, including the murders of 80% women and children in one massacre. Nowadays, I tell everyone online who brings up questions about loyalty to Israel that there's a big difference between its people and the Netanyahu regime. The Israeli people's reputation is at stake, and Netahyahu should be in a planetary prison's war criminals' row.

We might have the biggest sh**show yet with the news about Trump and Ukraine. For those who don't know, he apparently pressured the President of Ukraine to do a criminal investigation into the son of Joe Biden, who is at the moment the presumed Democratic frontrunner for the 2020 Presidential nomination. In other words, interference in an election, the same exact scandal that has consumed his Presidency (among other scandals) for three years. Even crazier is former Mayor of NYC Rudy Giuliani, who has completely lost it after once being considered "America's Mayor", essentially admitted on CNN to encouraging Trump to do this. Yet somehow Giuliani isn't arrested. (There's a trend with Trump in which he throws everyone under the bus eventually, everyone associated with him either winds up going to jail or having to leave their job etc.. for his actions while he always gets away Scot-free because he's the President, so wouldn't be surprised if Giuliani goes to jail for him).

The while irony with the Russia collusion/conspiracy thing is while Trump essentially got away with it (so far) thanks to a in my opinion corrupt Attorney General, stupid tradition that you can't criminally charge a sitting President and a do-nothing Republican congress, more worried about their job security and upsetting Trump's racist base than doing the right thing, had he actually been criminally charged he could have claimed ignorance and said well Russia offered to help and we didn't know it was against the rules. I wouldn't have bought it and most people with common sense wouldn't have, but it would be a plausible defense. This is now Trump active soliciting interference in the 2020 election after literally just getting trouble for the same damn thing Putin et al allegedly did to him! This is the literal definition of fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

And now with Lewandowski purposely being difficult in Congressional testimony and all the effort Trump is making to hide his tax returns, the corruption continues and it's ridiculous in 2019 he is continuing to get away with this. Basically he can do whatever he wants and won't get punished for it because he's the President is the new tradition up to this point.

Also with all this crap and the election coming up and a new Trump controversy every day, not that they haven't been, but things may get even nastier in the next year. So I want to warn us even though we should know already, this next year may be the nastiest year yet, even more so than 2016. But we can not be afraid to speak up and speak our mind, no matter what. There's still a bunch of racist MAGA sh**heads that will give you crap for it but I always like to throw back this quote from Winston Churchill:

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."


I'm not saying to go out and openly call MAGA-people out on the internet. I've said in the mass shooting threads that it's usually a waste of time. It used to be with traditional Republicans and Democrats, you could have an intelligent debate without insulting each other and while still disagreeing with each other, respect each other or even wind up agreeing on some issues. But these MAGA-bots are a different breed, it's mentally exhausting and like trying to argue with children. However, what I am saying is never be afraid to speak your mind and stand up to hate and intolerance, a lot of which is largely helped by our current corrupt administration.

As far as the Biden thing goes, while I personally would prefer Sanders or Warren, I feel we need to support the 2020 DNC nominee no matter who it is. It's a shame Trump has completely lowered my standards, it used to be voting for the lesser of two evils but I'd consider the Republican in some unique circumstances, but now it is LITERALLY anyone but Trump. I'd vote for an inanimate carbon rod (Simpsons reference!) if it was the DNC nominee. At least the rod can't do any damage!

I think the reason people didn't or perhaps still don't take the threat of Trump seriously is politicians in general have been corrupt. So when you say Trump is corrupt they go "aren't all politicians crooks? What's the difference?" However, Trump's rumored or alleged criminal actions surfacing in the media and elsewhere go well beyond the pale of your standard corruption, with racism to boot. This isn't your standard political hack going ok well I'll accept money from an unethical lobbyist for my re-election (not excusing that and just an example), this is like Thanos-level alleged evilness.

So Biden might be part of the "standard political hack" system (to be honest my main concern with Biden are his mental facilities but then again look at who is President) but he's still better than Trump. We have a long ways to go and perhaps someone else will be a surprise and get the nomination, but if it is Biden, I will support him. I literally have no choice.