Lets see if we can keep this thread a little more civil.

I found this interview very interesting.  A lot of soft balls thrown at Trump, he explained his back pedalling on his more extreme issues as a lot of his claims as opening bids for negotiation purposes.  Which .. whatever .. I still think that those are insincere claims he used to get elected.

He does now come across way more presidential then he did prior to the election.  A lot of his noise, yelling, and rhetoric has been scaled back.

Do respect this one though:

Quote

 

Lesley Stahl: Are you gonna take the salary, the president’s salary?

Donald Trump: Well, I’ve never commented on this, but the answer is no. I think I have to by law take $1, so I’ll take $1 a year. But it’s a -- I don’t even know what it is.

Donald Trump: Do you know what the salary is?

Lesley Stahl: $400,000 you’re giving up.

Donald Trump: No, I’m not gonna take the salary. I’m not taking it.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-donald-trump-family-melania-ivanka-lesley-stahl/

And apparently a grand jury was being put together on the Russia investigation. This is as transparent as it gets. And you know his appointee will be tasked with going after Clinton. Try to silence and imprison ones political enemies. Really...it's crazy. When will his cabinet and party wake up and remove him?

 

And there it is 

Trump wants to re investigate ******* emails but Russia colluding with him and his lackeys to hijack the election? Yeah time to move on. Unreal. 

Ah, John McCain. He talks a good game, but not a lot of follow-through there.

6 hours ago, johnzo said:

Ah, John McCain. He talks a good game, but not a lot of follow-through there.

Time for Republican leadership to act.

Trump interviewed the deputy director of the FBI before deciding to elevate him to the acting position.  Gee I wonder what he wanted to know...

Comey.  Yates.  Bharara.

Its a slower version of the Saturday Night Massacre.  Its outrageous.  All three involved in the investigation of Russia ties to Trump.  All fired.

Trump should have been removed from office this morning.  Pence is defending this and putting his own head on the copping block.  He can 25th Trump right out of office but it will end up an impeachment and Trump will take Pence down with him.

How do they avoid calls for a special prosecutor now?  And if they do appoint one, how long before Trump fires him/her too?

This isnt just stonewalling an investigation, its a clear form of libel chill.  He's telling anyone he appoints in these positions that if they dare come close to him with any investigation, they will be fired and dragged through the mud by his lying, smiling empty suits.

24 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Trump should have been removed from office this morning.  Pence is defending this and putting his own head on the copping block.  He can 25th Trump right out of office but it will end up an impeachment and Trump will take Pence down with him.

I honestly don't think it hurts Pence too much to defend him. At least, no more than anything else attached to this administration.

When everything falls apart, he'll just stand there saying he's "been lied to and is shocked about all the evidence." The GOP will circle their wagons around him. He'll survive until an election.

Pence is the required cardboard display, in the store window, for the GOP....in case Trump goes down.

59 minutes ago, do or die said:

Pence is the required cardboard display, in the store window, for the GOP....in case Trump goes down.

Unfortunately (I mean that, it's exhausting) I've been following this circus for some time now and it really feels it's nowhere near this. Yea, some things happening here, something things happening there, but it really seems he's bunkered down well with his appropriate lieutenants in place.  

I think a few other posters have made similar previous comments in that the thing that will ultimately have him drift off into the sunset is he'll just run out of steam, run out of energy, get bored and he'll just tap out, reminding people along the way he won. 

He comes across as a cranky opinionated ill-informed, self-absorbed rich older guy who you would think can't keep up this pace of surreal whatever you call what's been going on since his campaigning, the election and his present governing. Right?

8 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Unfortunately (I mean that, it's exhausting) I've been following this circus for some time now and it really feels it's nowhere near this. Yea, some things happening here, something things happening there, but it really seems he's bunkered down well with his appropriate lieutenants in place.  

I think a few other posters have made similar previous comments in that the thing that will ultimately have him drift off into the sunset is he'll just run out of steam, run out of energy, get bored and he'll just tap out, reminding people along the way he won. 

He comes across as a cranky opinionated ill-informed, self-absorbed rich older guy who you would think can't keep up this pace of surreal whatever you call what's been going on since his campaigning, the election and his present governing. Right?

I tend to agree.  This will drag out til the next election where Trump will not run after declaring America is now so great he cannot possibly make it any greater.

But...if voters wake up in time for the mid-terms and Dems take both houses, look out...

If the Dems can take the midterms - it will at least nobble the Donald.   Don't think he could stay the course for very long, while having everything he tries voted down.   Does not have the temperament for it.

A Democratic Congress wouldn't just hobble Trump, it would be a machine gun that fires subpoenas.  We'd definitely get a sniff at those tax returns...

16 hours ago, johnzo said:

A Democratic Congress wouldn't just hobble Trump, it would be a machine gun that fires subpoenas.  We'd definitely get a sniff at those tax returns...

Its also possible Trump has gone too far now too.  IF, Dems get into power, even if Trump resigns or does not run, they may still come after him.  This investigation into Russia/Trump isnt going away no matter how many people Trump fires to try and stop it.  The only thing that will really stonewall it is if the American people dont hand the Dems power next year.

And man, are those mid-terms going to be nasty??  Trump will be unglued, I bet.

22 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Its also possible Trump has gone too far now too.  IF, Dems get into power, even if Trump resigns or does not run, they may still come after him.  This investigation into Russia/Trump isnt going away no matter how many people Trump fires to try and stop it.  The only thing that will really stonewall it is if the American people dont hand the Dems power next year.

And man, are those mid-terms going to be nasty??  Trump will be unglued, I bet.

Never ending election season.  How does the American government ever accomplish any actual governing?

Oh those Russians...

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/oval-office-photos-donald-trump-russians/index.html

Washington (CNN)The White House did not anticipate that the Russian government would allow its state news agency to post photographs of an Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russia's ambassador to the US, a White House official said.

Photos of Wednesday's meeting, taken by a Russian state news media photographer one day after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey amid questions about possible Trump campaign collusion with Moscow, were ultimately posted by Russia's news agency, TASS.

2 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Oh those Russians...

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/oval-office-photos-donald-trump-russians/index.html

Photos of Wednesday's meeting, taken by a Russian state news media photographer one day after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey amid questions about possible Trump campaign collusion with Moscow, were ultimately posted by Russia's news agency, TASS.

"

Quote

The White House blocked US reporters from photographing the meeting, opting to allow only White House and Russian photographers to capture images of Trump's interactions with Lavrov.

As he said, he could murder someone and his followers wouldn't care.

Trump and friends.....What dolts.

 

Edited May 11, 20178 yr by Mark F

3 hours ago, Atomic said:

Never ending election season.  How does the American government ever accomplish any actual governing?

It's been this way since I've been here -- presidents will fly into town on Air Force One, requiring all kinds of local security and traffic disruptions, so that they can attend big-dollar party fundraisers. Those fundraisers sell tickets that are priced based on the proximity to the big guy.  How this isn't selling access to the president, I don't know.

Also, your top priority as a Congressperson is to raise $18K a day: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-are-members-of-congress-becoming-telemarketers/

This is what happens when your supreme court decides that corporations are people and money is speech, and this is what turned me off economic libertarianism forever.  Don't let this happen to you, Canada.

Edited May 11, 20178 yr by johnzo

3 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Oh those Russians...

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/oval-office-photos-donald-trump-russians/index.html

Washington (CNN)The White House did not anticipate that the Russian government would allow its state news agency to post photographs of an Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russia's ambassador to the US, a White House official said.

Photos of Wednesday's meeting, taken by a Russian state news media photographer one day after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey amid questions about possible Trump campaign collusion with Moscow, were ultimately posted by Russia's news agency, TASS.

I can understand the connection between Trump and the Russians, their country is ruled by an oligarchy and Trump aspires to recreate that situation in the US.

1 hour ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

I can understand the connection between Trump and the Russians, their country is ruled by an oligarchy and Trump aspires to recreate that situation in the US.

trump also expressed admiration for the North Korean dictator, Erdgrogan of Turkey, a fundamentalist dictator, and Duterte, a self admitted murderer who is above the law.

Those are the people Trump most admires. People who are above and out of reach the law. That is what he aspires to.  He clearly thinks he is beyond the law. With all of his flourishes of signings, most of which are illegal, and which illegality is beyond his comprehesion.

This woman has written a lot about it, makes the most sense of any of the things I've read. She compares him to Mussolini...

 

 

Quote

 

A century before Trump, Benito Mussolini burst onto the Italian political scene, confounding the country’s political establishment with his unorthodox doctrine and tactics and his outsized personality. Mussolini’s rise offers lessons for understanding the Trump phenomenon—and why he was able to disarm much of the American political class.

Many Italians did not know what to make of Mussolini when the former Socialist founded Fascism as an “anti-party” on the heels of World War I. His was an outsider movement, born from the conviction that the establishment parties—along with the political systems they represented, liberalism and socialism—were broken or posed a grave threat to Italy.

 

A mercurial hothead, Mussolini reveled in his role as a political disrupter. His crisis-mongering platforms contained a confusing blend of socialist and nationalist tenets, trafficking in contradiction and paradox, the better to challenge traditional ideas about politics.

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/08/american-authoritarianism-under-donald-trump/495263/

Edited May 11, 20178 yr by Mark F

14 minutes ago, Mark F said:

trump also expressed admiration for the North Korean dictator, Erdgrogan of Turkey, a fundamentalist dictator, and Duterte, a self admitted murderer who is above the law.

Those are the people Trump most admires. People who are above and out of reach the law. That is what he aspires to.  He clearly thinks he is beyond the law. With all of his flourishes of signings, most of which are illegal, and which illegality is beyond his comprehesion.

This woman has written a lot about it, makes the most sense of any of the things I've read. She compares him to Mussolini...

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/08/american-authoritarianism-under-donald-trump/495263/

Thank god we've got a Prime Minister who idolizes totally reasonable leaders like Castro

 

He insults Comey several times in this interview.  Just a classless piece of garbage. Claims Comey told him he was not under investigation.  

I bet there are a lot of people in the FBI who are not friends of Trump today. 

Solid piece here 

 

Interesting testimony from the Senate Russia hearings:

 

2 hours ago, Atomic said:

Thank god we've got a Prime Minister who idolizes totally reasonable leaders like Castro

Whether true or not, Do you think that has anything to do with Trump?

 

 

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

He insults Comey several times in this interview.  Just a classless piece of garbage. Claims Comey told him he was not under investigation.  

I bet there are a lot of people in the FBI who are not friends of Trump today. 

https://www.vox.com/world/2017/5/11/15624544/fbi-trump-comey-war

Quote

“[Trump] essentially declared war on a lot of people at the FBI,” an anonymous FBI official told the Washington Post.