Trump 34: Leading the Alternate Reality

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

From Alexandra Petri: "Perfectly normal symptoms of being bitten on the neck by Trump"

Spoiler

Do not be concerned. These things are to be expected, when you allow Donald Trump to inject himself into your party.

You will still be able to do all the activities you enjoyed before: tax reform, trumpeting family values (it might take a little while to get back in shape for this, but you will surely get there), tending to the military, fretting over the deficit, attending closed-door fundraisers with business leaders. If you permit just the slightest erosion of parliamentary norms, you might even wind up nominating a Supreme Court justice or two, which has long been a dream of yours, along with hiking Mt. Denali.

You will not cease to be who you have always been. It is just barely possible that the Trump virus might . . . bring out certain things that you had not been aware of in yourself. But you have no worries there: You are a Republican. You have nothing to be ashamed of.

There will be a slight tingling at the site of election, but otherwise you will feel no particular discomfort. It is worth it, for the things you want.

To start with you will find yourself apologizing less. You will crave red meat all the time. But you have always liked red meat. You will hear yourself shouting things — “Lock her up!” “Build the wall!” You will hear things about the media, certainly, but nothing you have not already started to say (coastal elitists, snobs). Facts will start to blur, just a little. Crowds will alter their size with alarming rapidity.

You will notice yourself becoming fonder of Russia. You will even make a T-shirt. Some mornings you will wake up and think, Russia? I don’t like Russia, do I?

Your memory will flicker in and out. (Do not worry; you are becoming like him. This is part of the process. Pay it no mind.) A wall. A military parade. Yelling at Australia, for no particular reason. Jared Kushner in charge of the Middle East. You want these things, now.

Sometimes you will think, did I always favor military parades, have I always been this excited by nepotism? Didn’t this used to make my gorge rise in my throat? But the feeling will pass if you eat something (a hamburger, cooked all the way through).

One morning your spine will just fall out. Do not worry; this is normal. You will scarcely notice. It was not doing you any good, back there.

Besides, the tax cuts continue.

They start separating children at the border and you think, wouldn’t I have felt something about this? You try very hard to see what you are feeling, but all you can feel is the urge to go on TV and defend the president. That can’t be right.

You start to lose bits and pieces of your face and great clumps of your hair. A fine yellow-blonde hair not seen in nature grows back in its place, on a skin of burnt umber.

The percentage of Republicans who think it is never acceptable to use the n-word starts to slip. Were there always so many Nazis? You keep telling them not to come, you are sure of this, but they keep forgetting not to come.

You hear people saying that the president may have done something illegal. People look at you and you are not sure why they are looking at you. Is it that they expect you to say something? Sometimes you go without speaking for such a long interval that you become terrified you have forgotten how. What do you think about this, they ask? Are you going to exercise oversight? Isn’t crime bad?

You try to respond, but your limbs are sluggish and unfamiliar. You open your mouth to speak. “No collusion,” you croak. You shuffle to the elevator with your mouth shut.

You used to have thoughts about this, once. But they feel very far away. He is yours. He is yours, and you must protect him. Maybe he should fire anyone who stands in his way. Maybe everyone who opposes him is a vile conspirator. Maybe they are all witches. Why shouldn’t he do what he wants?

One day you will look in the mirror and see nothing, only, him. Standing behind you. You are not in the mirror at all. Or maybe, this was always you.

But it is all right. You are a Republican. You have no shame. In fact, barely anything has changed at all.

 

[onekidanddone]

7 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

On a road trip with the family just crossing the GW bridge into The Bronx heading to NH where cell service is spotty. I am going into quiver full of politics withdrawal. Help me Rufus 

As if being stuck in a car with no A/C and a couple who are bickering was bad enough then the dog decided  to sit on the doughnuts 

[Cartmann99]

1 minute ago, onekidanddone said:

As if being stuck in a car with no A/C and a couple who are bickering was bad enough then the dog preceded to sit on the doughnuts 

Well, at least he didn't pee on them!

[Cartmann99]

6 hours ago, formergothardite said:

I really wish I could be this positive! Pence is rarely seen with Trump(that I've noticed) and seems to be out doing normal things like supporting NASA. If he gets away without being convicted of a crime, the evangelical crowd will throw themselves behind him in 2020. Pence will denounce Trump, lots of people will pretend they weren't die hard Trump supporters, history will be rewritten with Pence being a godly man who was in the background defending our country, and with the gerrymandering and voter suppression and without a strong Democratic candidate, I can see him winning easily. 

I live in a +32R district, so I know exactly where @formergothardite is coming from. I want to believe with all of my heart that the Republicans will be wandering in the woods for generations to come, but I've seen too much to think we'll be that lucky.  I'm not saying to give up *points to yard signs supporting Democratic candidates*, but to approach this as a 'hope for the best, plan for the worst' situation.

 I let myself believe we had the 2016 election in the bag, and for the sake of my own mental health, I can't set myself up for another fall like that. Keep working, keep fighting, enjoy whatever victories you have along the way, but don't let yourself start believing that this will be an easy win.

[Rachel333]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/24/politics/trump-tower-doorman-contract-ami/index.html

Quote

A former Trump World Tower doorman who says he has knowledge of an alleged affair President Donald Trump had with an ex-housekeeper, which resulted in a child, is now able to talk about a contract he entered with American Media Inc. that had prohibited him from discussing the matter with anyone, according to his attorney.

 

[AmazonGrace]

When even your friends are comparing you to a mob boss 

excuse me, don't you mean ALPHONSE?

[AmazonGrace]

Man not smart: 

 

[AmazonGrace]

The pic was tweeted by Azar so apparently not even a Trump hating Photoshop 

 

 

Please please let there be something really embarrassing about Jr and  Ivanka

[formergothardite]

4 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

Please please let there be something really embarrassing about Jr and  Ivanka

How could there not be? You know they had to have done stuff that bothered daddy so much he buried the story. 

[fraurosena]

18 hours ago, formergothardite said:

I really wish I could be this positive! Pence is rarely seen with Trump(that I've noticed) and seems to be out doing normal things like supporting NASA. If he gets away without being convicted of a crime, the evangelical crowd will throw themselves behind him in 2020. Pence will denounce Trump, lots of people will pretend they weren't die hard Trump supporters, history will be rewritten with Pence being a godly man who was in the background defending our country, and with the gerrymandering and voter suppression and without a strong Democratic candidate, I can see him winning easily. 

 

 

17 hours ago, Howl said:

As my best friend says about many things, "More will be revealed!"   I don't discount your scenario, which seems viable, in any way.  It's that Flynn has just been lost to me due to the daily WH crap avalanche, since he was ditched in the early days of the administration.  

I'm focused right now on the mobbed up aspect of Trump's general malfeasance --  Russian mobligarchs both in the home country and the US.  I've been following a twitter account called Lincoln's Bible that is all over Trump's lifetime mob connections. 

Just started reading "Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and how Russia Helped Donald Trump Win."  I'm only in the second chapter and we've already covered Orbis (Christopher Steele's outfit) and Simpson at Fusion GPS and how Fusion came to hire Simpson.  Oh, and how Christopher Steele accidentally uncovered the global FIFA corruption scandal.  Anyway, the original subject of Steele's interest was Manafort.  Luke Harding, the author, was The Guardian's Moscow bureau chief between 2007 - 2011 and got the boot from writing too many critical articles about Putin and corruption. 

 

11 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

I live in a +32R district, so I know exactly where @formergothardite is coming from. I want to believe with all of my heart that the Republicans will be wandering in the woods for generations to come, but I've seen too much to think we'll be that lucky.  I'm not saying to give up *points to yard signs supporting Democratic candidates*, but to approach this as a 'hope for the best, plan for the worst' situation.

 I let myself believe we had the 2016 election in the bag, and for the sake of my own mental health, I can't set myself up for another fall like that. Keep working, keep fighting, enjoy whatever victories you have along the way, but don't let yourself start believing that this will be an easy win.

Guys, you know me. I always look on the bright side. All of you have valid points, and I realize that my perspective is from the other side of the Atlantic. I'm not living it, like you are. So I could be dead wrong.

But you seem to underestimate the effect the results of Mueller investigation will have. At some point, everything that he is unearthing will come to light. And Mueller's not only looking into what the presidunce may or may not have (had) done. He's looking into everyone and everything connected to the Russian attack on the elections and the influence they (and others) have on American politics right now. He's looking into each and every individual in the presiduncial family, the administration, and the GOP. 

Once people are confronted with all that evidence, it will ultimately lead to the GOP's downfall. Will there be blind followers left? Those that refuse to believe what their eyes are seeing? Of course there will. But by far the majority of people will see it, will believe it. And they will drop the GOP like a hot potato. 

Remember, the GOP did not win the popular vote. Hillary did. The democratic majority of Americans did not vote for the presidunce. The margin was incredibly small. It will take only a relatively small amount of people to change their minds on the GOP. They will not prevail.

Yeah, you guys are in a bad place right now. The shock of what happened in 2016 has not worn off. I get it. But it will get better. The only way is up.

[FloraKitty35]

No matter what gets unearthed, it will make no difference to the Trumpanzees.

[Ali]

5 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

Man not smart: 

 

I could see myself coloring a flag wrong on purpose in front of a groups of kids. It is a great way to get them to laugh and get out of their shells. I am not sure if he would do something like that though.

[apple1]

I'm with @fraurosena .

Making a conscious effort to look on the bright side. Also, I'm old; I lived through and remember Nixon's downfall. This is much worse IMO. I actually cannot believe we haven't already seen that little helicopter scene in which he leaves and doesn't come back.

I guess we will see eventually.

[fraurosena]

7 minutes ago, FloraKitty35 said:

No matter what gets unearthed, it will make no difference to the Trumpanzees.

This is true. But there aren't as many of them as they would like you to believe. 

[fraurosena]

Here's another attempt at saying : I'm doing good, don't impeach... please....

 

If you don't think I'm good, believe the DOJ is bad!

 

And if all that doesn't work... Butter emails!

 

[formergothardite]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

But it will get better. The only way is up.

I try to be hopefully, really, but I can see so many ways for it to go down. Living in red country surrounded by completely normal people who are rabid Trump fans or people who would vote for Satan before they would vote democrat makes it hard to see that this might end any time soon. The second holding onto Trump becomes too politically dangerous, these people will flip to a new republican and pretend the times they supported Trump didn't happen and turn the argument back into how democrats have no morals and kill babies. 

I just can't get my hopes up. I was crushed when Trump won. I have to be prepared for the reality that this might not end the GOP. If there isn't a blue wave come November, then I think we are pretty doomed no matter what crimes are dug up. 

I for real discuss this with my therapists and she tells me to be hopeful to. I tend to fall into a mindset of doom and gloom. 

Quote

A big Trade Agreement with Mexico could be happening soon!

I could also be the winner of a million dollars from Publisher's Clearing House! But that isn't going to happen. 

[fraurosena]

Dear @formergothardite, I do understand where you're coming from. Sometimes it's better to prepare for the worst and then be pleasantly surprised. It's not a bad strategy to have, given the circumstances, especially after something as terrible as the 2016 election results blind-sided you. 

You know what though? If a lot of other people think as you do, and every one of them is afraid that the blue wave won't happen, then maybe most of them will go out and vote, making the blue wave actually happen. 

Dang, there I go again, putting a positive spin on things. I can't seem to help myself. It seems we have different coping mechanisms, I guess.  

Doesn't mean either of them is wrong though.

[formergothardite]

18 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

I can't seem to help myself. It seems we have different coping mechanisms, I guess.  

Yours is probably more emotionally healthy. 

I keep telling myself that if NC could oust McCrory as governor when he had everything rigged in his favor, we can oust the rest of these criminals who are running our government. I think McCrory is still in shock he lost. 

[fraurosena]

@formergothardite, here's another scenario. And would you believe it, it's one that happens to combine both our sentiments!  And if Rufus were to make it so, it has the best outcome we could wish for.

Dont Just Impeach Trump. Annul His Presidency

Quote

The only way I see the end of Trump is if there’s overwhelming evidence he rigged the 2016 election. In which case impeachment isn’t an adequate remedy. His presidency should be annulled.

Let me explain. Many people are convinced we’re already witnessing the beginning of the end of Trump.

In their view, bombshell admissions from Trump insiders with immunity from prosecution, combined with whatever evidence Mueller uncovers about Trump’s obstruction of justice and his aide’s collusion with the Russians, will all tip the scales.

Democrats will take back the House and begin an impeachment, and the evidence of impeachable offenses will put enough pressure on Republican senators to send Trump packing.

I don’t believe this for a moment.

First, the Senate has never in history convicted a president of impeachment.

Second, even if Democrats flip the House in November, Republicans will almost certainly remain in control of the Senate – and so far they’ve displayed the integrity of lizards.

Third, Fox News and the rest of the right-wing sleaze media will continue to distort and cover up whatever the evidence shows – convincing 35 to 40 percent of Americans, along with most Republicans, that Trump is the innocent victim of a plot to remove him.

Finally, Trump himself will never voluntarily resign, as did Nixon. He’ll lie and claim a conspiracy to unseat him.

He’s proven himself a superb conman, an entertainer-demagogue capable of sowing so much confusion and instigating so much hate and paranoia that he has already survived outrages that would have broken any garden-variety loathsome president – Helsinki, Charlottesville, children locked in cages at the border, firings and cover-ups, racist slurs, clear corruption.

In all likelihood, we’ll have him for another two and a half years.

Don’t bet the house on him losing in 2020, either. A malignant bullying megalomaniac who lies like most people breathe, and who’s able to suck the oxygen out of every news cycle, might pulverize any Democratic opponent.

Even if he loses in 2020, we’ll be fortunate if he concedes without being literally carried out of the Oval Office amid the stirrings of civil insurgency.

Oh, and let me remind you that even if he’s impeached, we’d still have his loathsome administration – Pence on down.

But lest you fall into a miasma of gloom, there’s another scenario – unlikely, but entirely possible.

Suppose, just suppose, Robert Mueller finds overwhelming and indisputable evidence that Trump conspired with Putin to rig the 2016 election, and the rigging determined the election’s outcome.

In other words, Trump’s presidency is not authorized under the United States Constitution.

Suppose these findings are so compelling that even Trump loyalists desert him, the Republican Party decides it has had enough, and Fox News calls for his impeachment.

What then? Impeachment isn’t enough.

Impeachment would remedy Trump’s “high crimes and misdemeanors.” But impeachment would not remedy Trump’s unconstitutional presidency because it would leave in place his vice president, White House staff and Cabinet, as well as all the executive orders he issued and all the legislation he signed, and the official record of his presidency.

The only response to an unconstitutional presidency is to annul it. Annulment would repeal all of an unconstitutional president’s appointments and executive actions, and would eliminate the official record of the presidency.

Annulment would recognize that all such appointments, actions, and records were made without constitutional authority.

The Constitution does not specifically provide for annulment of an unconstitutional presidency. But read as a whole, the Constitution leads to the logical conclusion that annulment is the appropriate remedy for one.

After all, the Supreme Court declares legislation that doesn’t comport with the Constitution null and void, as if it had never been passed.

It would logically follow that the Court could declare all legislation and executive actions of a presidency unauthorized by the Constitution to be null and void, as if Trump had never been elected. 

The Constitution also gives Congress and the states the power to amend the Constitution, thereby annulling or altering whatever provisions came before. Here, too, it would logically follow that Congress and the states could, through amendment, annul a presidency they determine to be unconstitutional.

As I’ve said, my betting is Trump remains president at least through 2020 – absent compelling and indisputable evidence he rigged the 2016 election.

But if such evidence comes forth, impeachment isn’t an adequate remedy because Trump’s presidency would be constitutionally illegitimate.

It should be annulled.

 

[formergothardite]

9 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Suppose these findings are so compelling that even Trump loyalists desert him, the Republican Party decides it has had enough, and Fox News calls for his impeachment.

I don't see this ever happening. If the Republicans agree to annul the presidency, they will lose two supreme court spots and all those other judges Trump has been putting in place and they have been working over time to confirm. Their goal is to stack the courts in their favor so that no matter what happens in elections, they still will be able to wield a lot of control using judges. They know they are losing the election battle, but if they get hold of the courts, they can win a whole lot of wars. They have been working on this since the 80's, they sure as hell aren't going to give it up because Trump became president illegally. 

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/how-conservatives-won-the-battle-over-the-courts/564533/

Quote

 

“GOP foot dragging on Obama nominees for both appellate and district court vacancies has far outstripped Democrats’ slowdown of Bush nominees between 2003 and 2008 (under both unified and divided party control).” Neither record, she added, was as great as the Republican delays on nominations by Bill Clinton’s administration.

In the 114th Congress, Senate Republicans confirmed the lowest number of judicial nominations since the final year of Harry Truman’s presidency, filling only 22 of Obama’s nominations from January 2015 through December 2016. “There was an almost total breakdown of confirmations once the Republicans took control of the Senate,” argues Russell Wheeler, a Brookings Institution expert on the U.S. judicial system. 

 

Quote

The Republican Senate has also approved the president’s appellate nominees at a faster rate than all other recent presidents. Under Trump, there has been much more consent from the Republican Senate than advise.

Quote

To reach the point where conservatives are today, they also had to swallow some of their principles. One of the most important and influential decisions that conservative organizations and Republican politicians have made along the way to Monday’s pick has been supporting a president who will follow through on their judicial agenda. Evangelical organizations, which have historically been politically pragmatic when deciding which politicians to support, and their Republican allies took the most strikingly hypocritical stand by working for the candidacy and presidency of a person whose personal behavior contradicts so much of what they claim to stand for. As candidate, Trump made a very clear promise that he would appoint nominees they supported, and he followed through on his promise with Gorsuch.

Quote

Congressional Republicans have been willing to stand by and support Trump, aside from few verbal reprimands, as long as he does what they want. Appointing conservative justices has been a central goal for the GOP. Trump is delivering, so they, too, are willing to withstand controversy and instability.

Quote

conservatives set out to do what was necessary to build a court system that would protect the constitutional values of the right. Assuming that President Trump follows through on his promises to them on Monday, and that Democrats can’t block the nomination, they are about to enjoy the fruits of their efforts.

There is nothing that will make them admit Trump's legacy is a sham that needs to be gotten rid of. 

[fraurosena]

This has me grinning.

 

[fraurosena]

2 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

I don't see this ever happening. If the Republicans agree to annul the presidency, they will lose two supreme court spots and all those other judges Trump has been putting in place and they have been working over time to confirm. Their goal is to stack the courts in their favor so that no matter what happens in elections, they still will be able to wield a lot of control using judges. They know they are losing the election battle, but if they get hold of the courts, they can win a whole lot of wars. They have been working on this since the 80's, they sure as hell aren't going to give it up because Trump became president illegally. 

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/how-conservatives-won-the-battle-over-the-courts/564533/

There is nothing that will make them admit Trump's legacy is a sham that needs to be gotten rid of. 

Sadly, I have to agree with you here. The Repugliklans will never agree to it. It will take an overwhelming majority of Dems in both House and Senate to realize this. Realistically, the House will flip in November. The Senate though? I sincerely hope so, but even I am doubtful that that will happen. Nope, it will take a couple of R's with a semblance of a conscience to help effect an annulment. Or rather, a couple of R's who believe it could contribute to their political survival. I'm not sure there will be enough of those. 

But wouldn't it be wonderful if it did happen? 

[formergothardite]

22 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Or rather, a couple of R's who believe it could contribute to their political survival. I'm not sure there will be enough of those. 

There has to be a couple left. I think the majority are compromised or evil beyond all words, But if by some miracle we take back the house and the senate, then I don't think they should impeach him. I think they should cripple his power and reveal his corruption. Pass laws that limit the amount of tax payer funds can go to his companies while he travels.  Do some shit about his unsecured phone. Make his life a living hell.  If he is impeached, he will be a martyr for the right. He needs a humiliating loss and then jail for the rest of his life. Let him live through Trump tower being sold off and renamed.