Politics

[21Kid]

Watergate is the biggest political scandal of my lifetime, until maybe now. It was the closest we came to a debilitating Constitutional crisis, until maybe now. On a 10 scale of armageddon for our form of government, I would put Watergate at a 9. This Russia scandal is currently somewhere around a 5 or 6, in my opinion, but it is cascading in intensity seemingly by the hour. And we may look back and see, in the end, that it is at least as big as Watergate. It may become the measure by which all future scandals are judged. It has all the necessary ingredients, and that is chilling.
When we look back at Watergate, we remember the end of the Nixon Presidency. It came with an avalanche, but for most of the time my fellow reporters and I were chasing down the story as it rumbled along with a low-grade intensity. We never were quite sure how much we would find out about what really happened. In the end, the truth emerged into the light, and President Nixon descended into infamy.
This Russia story started out with an avalanche and where we go from here no one really knows. Each piece of news demands new questions. We are still less than a month into the Trump Presidency, and many are asking that question made famous by Tennessee Senator Howard Baker those many years ago: "What did the President know, and when did he know it?" New reporting suggests that Mr. Trump knew for weeks. We can all remember the General Michael Flynn's speech from the Republican National Convention - "Lock her up!" in regards to Hillary Clinton. If Hillary Clinton had done one tenth of what Mr. Flynn had done, she likely would be in jail. And it isn't just Mr. Flynn, how far does this go?
The White House has no credibility on this issue. Their spigot of lies - can't we finally all agree to call them lies - long ago lost them any semblance of credibility. I would also extend that to the Republican Congress, who has excused away the Trump Administration's assertions for far too long.
We need an independent investigation. Damn the lies, full throttle forward on the truth. If a scriptwriter had approached Hollywood with what we are witnessing, he or she would probably have been told it was way too far-fetched for even a summer blockbuster. But this is not fiction. It is real and it is serious. Deadly serious. We deserve answers and those who are complicit in this scandal need to feel the full force of justice.

[drew]

Yep...

[tigeraid]

This is an excellent, logical read. And a little terrifying.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/1762...n_policy/#more

As President Trump has made clear in recent weeks, however, his primary strategic priorities do not include the advancement of America’s status in the race for global strategic preeminence. Instead, as indicated by the outline of his “America First Foreign Policy” posted on the White House website, his top objectives are the extermination of what he calls “radical Islamic terrorism” and the enhancement of America’s overseas trade balance. Just how vital these objectives may be in the larger scheme of things has been the subject of considerable debate, but few have noted that Trump has completely abandoned any notion that the U.S. is engaged in a global struggle for power and wealth with two potentially fierce competitors, each possessing its own plan for achieving “greatness.”

And it’s not just that Trump seems to have abandoned the larger geopolitical playing field to America’s principal rivals. He appears to be doing everything in his power to facilitate their advance at the expense of the United States. In just the first few weeks of his presidency, he has already taken numerous steps that have put the wind in both China’s and Russia’s sails, while leaving the U.S. adrift.

“There’s no doubt that this action will be seen as a huge, huge win for China,” said Michael Froman, the trade representative who negotiated the TPP under President Obama. “For the Trump administration, after all this talk about being tough on China, for their first action to basically hand the keys to China and say we’re withdrawing from our leadership position in this region is geo-strategically damaging.”

In conjunction with America’s NATO allies, President Obama sought to curb Putin’s plans by imposing tough economic sanctions on Russia and by bolstering the defenses of NATO’s front-line states. Last July, at a NATO summit in Warsaw, he and the leaders of Britain, Canada, and Germany agreed to deploy reinforced battalions to Poland and the three Baltic states as a deterrent to any future Russian attack on those countries. Had she been elected president, Hillary Clinton was expected to step up the pressure further on Moscow.

For Trump, however, Putin’s transgressions in Europe and elsewhere seem to be of little consequence in comparison to his possible collaboration in fighting the Islamic State. “I think it would be great if we got along with Russia because we could fight ISIS together,” he declared during the second presidential debate last October. As for NATO and the Europeans, Trump has indicated little sympathy for their worries about Moscow and has shown little inclination to increase America’s contributions to their defense. Not only did he claim that NATO was “obsolete” last March, insisting that it wasn’t doing enough to fight terrorism, but that it was “unfair, economically, to us,” because “it really helps them more so than the United States, and we pay a disproportionate share.”

Since assuming the presidency, President Trump has behaved as if Russia were indeed a key ally-in-waiting and the NATO powers were former lovers who had lost their appeal. Yes, he met with British Prime Minister Theresa May before any other foreign leader, but he remained silent when she spoke of the need to maintain pressure on Moscow through sanctions, making her look at that moment like an unwelcome houseguest.

How does this affect us? The biggest danger: that China and Russia will feel emboldened by Trump’s narrow-minded approach to seek geopolitical advantage in some area like the South China Sea or the Baltic Sea region that is either important to the United States or seen as bearing on its prestige and credibility. In that case, the president, feeling personally threatened or affronted on the issue of America’s presumed paramountcy, might respond forcefully, possibly igniting a major crisis with nuclear implications. Even if such a crisis is avoided, it’s likely that American influence in such areas as Eastern Europe and South Asia will diminish, resulting in fewer trade opportunities and possibly a rollback of rights and liberties (which could, of course, happen in the U.S. as well).

[Tom Servo]

I'm so confused. Are these illegal leaks or fake news?

[FaultyMario]

As more pieces of the russian puzzle are made public, I believe we're headed for war.

I think Trump will not deny the facts he will instead shift focus, first onto the bad messenger, fake news, etcetera. Remember he is a popular president, he has galvanized audiences and those that like him, like him a lot. There's that poll saying that 25% of his followers believe in non-existent terrorist attacks. That's the early adopters among his consumer base.

That brings me to next point, he is no politician. He's a TV marketer, he has consumers not constituents. And the next play, would be some sort of media fireworks to make more people to agree with him, maybe even a tactical loss, something like a modern Night of the Long Knives, where allies and aides become "those thugs" that "betrayed the president's trust" by playing cozy to the FSB.

That would in turn gain him some time, but, the US being a country of institutions, that's not gonna hold up a long time, so the next logical step is war. And I think that we Mexicans are a viable candidate. It's either us or some other less militarized country, not Iran or NK or a big one. But one that he can bully.

[MR2 Fan]

As more pieces of the russian puzzle are made public, I believe we're headed for war.

I think Trump will not deny the facts he will instead shift focus, first onto the bad messenger, fake news, etcetera. Remember he is a popular president, he has galvanized audiences and those that like him, like him a lot. There's that poll saying that 25% of his followers believe in non-existent terrorist attacks. That's the early adopters among his consumer base.

That brings me to next point, he is no politician. He's a TV marketer, he has consumers not constituents. And the next play, would be some sort of media fireworks to make more people to agree with him, maybe even a tactical loss, something like a modern Night of the Long Knives, where allies and aides become "those thugs" that "betrayed the president's trust" by playing cozy to the FSB.

That would in turn gain him some time, but, the US being a country of institutions, that's not gonna hold up a long time, so the next logical step is war. And I think that we Mexicans are a viable candidate. It's either us or some other less militarized country, not Iran or NK or a big one. But one that he can bully.

I don't disagree with you, let me state that first.

However I forsee another tactic being used. Trump and Bannon want more power, that's obvious. They'll probably stage some terror attack, blame muslims, then try to gain more power and time to "fight islam".

Having said that, I think the administration is falling much faster than any of them expected, and I doubt they'll have as much pull as they think. I believe a majority of people can see through the lies....the others are either plants, or just relying on far right news sources. I think that only makes up about 10-15% of the population. Other "supporters" are probably not paying much attention yet and taking a wait and see approach.

Trump's approval rating is lingering in less than 40% now...not even a month has gone by. It's going to keep dropping like an anchor with no change in sight.

[Phil_SS]

Trump or any President can't go to war with approval from Congress.

[Kchrpm]

He can say and do such inflammatory things that someone initiates war with us, though.

[MR2 Fan]

Trump or any President can't go to war with approval from Congress.

"war"

[Freude am Fahren]

lulz, as if that mattered in the lightest with these people...