Do you think this is going to matter?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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At this point, who fuckin’ knows. We live in an insane asylum,.
Yes, but probably not limited to the way we assume. It won’t be as easily dismissed as Hannity’s comment that this was the President’s right.
Kelly’s head is likely on the chopping block sooner rather than later now. And that will be the end of ever seeing Graham’s “Tuesday Trump” ever again. Chaos.
I’m thinking that Nunes and Fox haven’t done enough damage to the FBI, yet, for this news not to sink in and Congress just might be more inclined to pass a Mueller investigation protection Bill. This was a publicly stated red line for so many of the Rep’s.
Next Tuesday State of the Union should be a train wreck even if Mueller, the NYT & WaPo don’t put out some blockbusters beforehand.
Yes. It shows that Trump is more than bluster. But it also shows that he can follow sane advice
Does your lawyer’s threat of resignation and refusal to follow your order qualify as “advice”?
It does show Der Trumper doesn’t have the balls of Dick Nixon, ha-ha!
I don’t see how it could. I feel like that election-predition guy who bases everything on the fundamentals instead of the specific campaigns and candidates, but what could possibly matter other than the institutions themselves?
If the Republicans control the levers of institutional power, they will do whatever is possible to protect the Most Republican President Ever. If they don’t, they won’t.
Matter to whom? Elected Repub stooge apologists are already out with approved talking point that this proves “the system” (whatever that is) works, haha.
The story is now morphing into the extraordinary level of denial and distraction the “conservative” movement and its wholly owned party are willing to undertake in the face of an obvious political criminal.
The lack of a Dem leader or any respected or recognized party spokesperson is now catastrophic. There is no organized denunciation of the Repub party, its speaker/leader Ryan (who is running the interference) or its new barge of conspiracy theories. We have let Repubs go from “rest assured, we’ll get to the bottom this!” (Dec 2016) to Nunes and his “secret [FBI!!] plots against the nation!” (Jan 2018)
Far from “working”, the “system” is falling apart before our eyes…
You write:
Yes.
Precisely.
This has been my point all along. Breaking this system has been Trump’s ultimate goal. he will not be happy until he is the boss of all bosses. That was how he amassed his fortune, and that is how he is treating his current position. Breaking the system was Bannon’s goal too, albeit for more…theoretical…reasons.. No matter whether Bannon is in or out of power, the same goal remains. Bannon’s sacking…whether it was real or just tactical…makes no difference. Like a starfish on an oyster, Trump (and whomever really directs him, be it Putin, people like the Koch brothers or his own cadre of so-called “advisors”) is slowly cracking open the U.S. governmental system. When and if it finally breaks? There will be hell to pay. In an imperial power struggle like this one, historically the winners have been the most stable remaining parts of the system that are also the best armed and financed.
And who might that be???
Guess.
Will the system hold?
We shall see, soon enough.
Won’t we.
Watch.
AG
I could agree with much of what you wrote, AG, although my quibble would be that it is not idiot savant Trumper who is the prime mover of the plan to break the system, but the “conservative” movement and its plutocrat funders. They are the ones whose long term strategy has been to destroy the regulatory state, the US Congress, and American democracy. They are the architects of the Repub plan to rescind the 20th Century.
Trumper is a more vulgar, undisciplined, weaponized, and stupider version of Cheney. Both were/are lawless, but Trumper is an actual professional criminal who entered politics. A kind of dilettante opportunist who Repubs now must defend at all costs because he has become the current face of “conservatism”. You give Trumper and his past scams far too much credit, IMO.
And yes, history tends to show that reactionary movements ultimately depend more and more upon that most reactionary and nationalistic of institutions, the professional military. Certainly that has been the prime consideration behind the Deification of the Glorious Troops rhetoric that we have been fed nonstop during the entire Conservative Era (1980–?).
The “conservative” movement is the Great Satan. Trumper is a lesser demon, haha.
You may be right, euzoius. I really have no idea who or what is directing this effort. That’s why I wrote:
For all we know, it could be being directed by a confederation of AIs, a group of aliens (if that is not in itself an AI possibilty) or for that matter, the veritable Hand of God.
What I do know is that it is happening right before our eyes, and what I also know is that the populace by and large does not see it happening.
So I keep on trying to point out that single, ever-so-salient fact.
The cultural and socio-political system of the United States is under concerted attack. And…I would like to add that if you could take a poll of every human being on this planet, I would doubt that there would even 30% of the respondents who would not for one reason or another applaud that fact. The U.S. has been a scourge on vast areas of this good green earth for hundreds of years. Maybe it’s just a case of what goes around comes around.
And maybe not.
But…bet on it…something big is in the wind.
Watch.
AG
Nope. See Atrios today. None of Mueller’s stuff is going to matter a whit.
Agreed
You may very well be right. Which makes me sick to contemplate.
Is this what you are basing that comment on?
“What’s The End
I don’t think there’s anything which would cause Republicans to impeach Trump (or Democrats, really, and certainly no way to get conviction in the Senate in any case), and so even if Mueller has the goods (and by the standards of Clinton impeachment, of course he does)…”
by Atrios at 10:12
Wow. People are going to roll over and just give up based on a lazy post like that from Atrios? If you give up, you have already decided the outcome.
Only if the Powers That Be want it to.
Considering they are still holding out for massive “regulatory reform” bill, some major public sector privatizations, and a free-for-all public common grab dressed up as an Infrastructure Bill…I don’t even think Putin telling Mueller under oath he personally managed the collusion would matter much.
I know it’s annoying to say, but we have to face the fact that Republicans and much of the media would have utterly buried Hillary’s administration eight months ago over The Emails! alone.
https:/mashable.com/2018/01/21/jessica-chastain-snl-game-show-nothing-matters#90lHRg6r6kql
Nothing matters anymore.
Neither Rs or Big D are going after Trump in any serious way.
They could catch Trump in bed with underage boys and dead people all around the bed with his bullets in their bodies, and Fox, Rush and the Talabangelicals will instanly come up with REASONS why it doesn’t matter.
My understanding is that last night when the story broke on the various nooz outlets, Fox was harping about Bill Clinton meeting with Loretta Lynch on the tarmac, followed by 20 year old photos of Obama meeting with Louis Farrakan.
Got it? It. Doesn’t. Matter.
It should matter because it means the donald and everyone in his WH has been lying when they say he does not want to fire Mueller. The WH is full of pathological liars.
I’m shocked! Shocked!
I don’t think it will matter. It was funny watching a clip of Hannity backpedalling, though.
The reason these elements won’t matter is sheer volume. In a normal presidency, a news cycle might include an event or statement every week by the president. With Trump, the volume of quotes and tidbits and controvery comes at us like water through a firehose. There is a new story every day, and usually more than one. The Friday News Dump is like a deluge and we still never get everything that has happened.
I love Stephen Colbert and he tries to stay current in his nightly monologues. Lately, because they tape that show around 3-4 in the afternoon, I’ve noticed that some of the news of the day isn’t included. He can’t keep up!
So what gets counted and what gets dismissed is hard to know. I just hope that what Mueller digs up can actually make a difference.
No.
Thus endeth today’s episode of One Word Answers. Thanks for playing along.
It’s not going to cause Republicans to grow a conscience or any sense of social responsibility. It will have an impact only if it causes the scales to fall from the eyes of some of Trump’s supporters or those “neutrals” who haven’t until now understood what a danger the man is to our institutions. My guess is it makes no difference and the die is already cast in the sense that a large enough group is strongly aligned in opposition to Herr Twitler and his party. But it needs to be overwhelming opposition in order to overcome gerrymandering, voter suppression, apathy, the media, continued Russian interference and the overall ignorance of our population.
no
Yes, it’s going to “matter” — it already matters, obviously (since, this is really a semantic question; what do we mean by “matter”?)
Hitler was immune from lawsuits; his power was institutionally unchallengeable; the army swore allegiance not to Germany but to him personally; and he was (although this last part, at least according to Ian Kershaw, was problematic) incapable of breaking laws. Consequently his régime lasted twelve years and could only be ended through catastrophic world war.
With Nixon and Trump things are already quite different, not just because of our American institutions but because the world has changed, not just in terms of greater enlightenment but in greater communication and transparency. (Obviously Facebook and Twitter are part of the problem, but they’re also part of the solution; try to put those marches together without social media and you’ll see what I mean.)
Will Trump be impeached? I think he will, definitely after November, but possibly before. We’re getting closer. I know the Republicans were expected to “drop him” once they got their budget and they haven’t, but that never made any sense (as Josh Marshall pointed out). But I think we’re rapidly approaching a Joseph N. Welch moment.
Charlie Pierce gets into it (if you can overlook his perpetually bombastic style):
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a15893218/trump-fire-mueller-russia/
. . . not a bug.
I guess one person’s “perpetually bombastic” is another’s hilariously snarky. (And boy howdy do we need some humor to slog on through this shit.)
Oh well, à chacun son goût.
Oh, I like it fine…I just always forewarn people before sending them his way!
Will it matter? I doubt it. Trump seems to have reached a floor on his approval rating, and this does not appear to moving it downward, just like so many other events. Evidence of paying off a porn star with campaign funds no less to cover up an affair would have been a death knell for most campaigns/presidencies. If the stuff that’s already come down the puke hasn’t shaken things loose in any meaningful way, I don’t see how this will.
“Do you think this is going to matter?”
Hell no. By the end of the day, this will be the biggest story.
What the fucking fuck is wrong with those two?
And I was correct.
Smdh.
Thanks for that link. That is turning into a big story. Why how nice: what a distraction from Stormy Daniels.
To be completely fair, although Clinton didn’t immediately fire Strider, he did have his pay docked and he had to attend harassment training courses. The young woman he harassed wasn’t fired. Rather she was moved to a different job without losing any pay or benefits.
Big deal, you say? Yeah, I get it. Again, to be completely fair, the incident happened in 2008. It was more or less standard operating procedure to give the guy another chance by slapping his wrist (eg, docking the pay) and mandatory anti-harassment training. Evenutally Strider was fired. So there’s that.
Not a huge Clinton fan, but I have to say that what happened was bog-standard – for better or worse – procedure back then. I worked in an organization that was marginally better than some in regard to sexual harassment issues. One boss harassed a much younger female assistant, and the Board did exactly what Clinton did with Strider – pay docked; take the course. Even when a second grievance was lodged, the Board didn’t fire that jerk. It took a bunch of complaints before the Board actually did the right thing and got rid of gross, worthless incompetent – but male – director. UGH.
The next director hired ALSO ended up sexually harassing a younger female assistant (I was not working there anymore but heard about this). At least at that point, the Board found their balls and immediately fired that one.
I know: TL; DR.
Long story short: it is ONLY RECENTLY that most organizations are FINALLY doing the correct thing when sexual harassment complaints are lodged.
2008? Clinton coulda shoulda woulda gotten rid of this creep ASAP, but what she did do was well within the prevailing “norms” at that time. Of course, bc it’s Hated Shrillary, more will be made of this than what’s truly “fair” (under the circumstances). And so it goes.
And finally: what IS it with these pseudo “religulous” creeps? They all need to run around with a scarlat “H” as a warning to anyone who comes within their orbits.
UGH.
A “faith advisor”, you KNOW he had to be a scumball.
Yes, this will matter. It doesn’t appear that Mueller learned about this yesterday.
It matters because it adds to the motivation of voters to turn out and to get others to turn out to bring this terrible Administration and Congress down. I don’t know that it will matter enough to Ryan and McConnell to stop their enabling and get their thumbs out of their asses. But we can be ever more certain that our side will be more enthused to do electoral work this fall.
It matters because it adds to the depth of the evidence before us that there is quite a bit that Trump is anxious to hide. We already know that some of what the President wants to hide are crimes which were committed by his campaign staff and at least one former White House official who has been convicted of a crime and is now an informant “with a story to tell”.
It matters because if lots more people associated with Trump get indicted and convicted the President’s leverage will be destroyed regardless of whether Congress impeaches him or Mueller indicts him. There’s this idea people are stating that unless the President himself is frog marched from the White House soon it’s the equivalent of him getting away scot free. That’s not the way politics works. He would be hurt badly by indictments around him.
It’s also not the way human beings work. The more people around him get indicted, the more people there are who can and will inform us, Mueller’s team and Congress on Trump’s actions.
And just to add on to this…it matters because Mueller isn’t a dummy, and knowing that his firing is not just a realistic but a probable eventuality means that he’ll put mechanisms into place to make his firing not really matter to the outcome of the investigation.
When did this become such a pessimistic place?
When Trump was elected?
Right?