Doesn't it increasingly seem like trump was "placed" into office?

[NRaleighLiberal]

And that he is just too incompetent and narcissistic to actually be able to pull it off?

One disastrous day after another....comments like his admission that the ACA replacement will hurt his "supporters" most.....rallies that have more protesters than supporters. Utter incompetence to govern - inability to actually "do" anything.

I suspect his rallies are so empty because of course he did not win the popular vote. There is no way in hell a majority could support this vile buffoon.

All circumstantial, of course - but each passing day just confirms what I felt on election night - that the outcome of this election was fraudulent. Bigly.

[world wide wally]

1. He WAS placed into office.

I just don't know enough to figure out Comey's reasoning, but the action was undeniable.
The pieces to the puzzle are Comey, Putin and the Russian oligarchy and hackers, the GOP, and voter suppression.
Now we need to connect the dots.

[haele]

28. Comey worked on the Whitewater investigation. He hates the Clintons more than he loves his country.

He also puts his personal "Legal" compass above the Constitution and the Spirit of Justice.

It's easy to figure out Comey. He's an authoritarian. He views the Clintons as a symbol of Governmental Corruption - hiding behind the legal loopholes in the Constitution. Far worse in his view than the venality of Mobsters who can be understood and reasoned with through profit motives and carrot and stick thinking.

Authoritarians always equate doing "the right thing" with whatever absolutism that simplifies decision making and makes their lives easier. Which is why Mobsters can corrupt otherwise moral individuals to work with them for the Mobster's plans... It's a game of Black and White or Law vs. Chaos.

Haele

[hamsterjill]

29. Okay, let's accept your premise for a moment.

Obama appointed Comey in 2013, right? So, where does that take us as to Obama's involvement? And why didn't Obama fire him before Hillary's candidacy?

[world wide wally]

33. That is my biggest disagreement with Obama.

When Comey editorialized on the Clinton investigation in July in spite of the official findings, he should have been fired on the spot.

[haele]

38. Would Pres. Obama know that Comey's moral kryptonite would be the name Clinton?

After Whitewater, Comey apparently did his job well enough to go up the ladder, and by his record, seemed to be a qualified choice that would fit in with the Holder/Lynch Justice Department.
That's all Pres. Obama cared about. That, and Obama's Communitarian philosophy in governance that is all about wanting to seem to be even handed (the best for everyone) and "reaching across the aisle" to find solutions. Most people respect their jobs more than they act on their emotions, so if Comey did not have a record for acting like the typical over-emotional thin skinned authoritarian, there would be no reason for Pres. Obama not to appoint him, if he could get him through Congress.

Comey didn't start coming up on the public radar and pulling his obvious shit until Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary. And if there are no links between Comey and the Russians
So, from Obama's viewpoint, before the White House realized Comey was more of a petulant 5-year old than they expected from a Republican, firing Comey wouldn't seem like political favoritism. But after he had imploded over the idea that another hated Clinton would actually be President again, it would seem a critical political error - one show of favoritism to inflame the opposition and encourage more Republicans to turn out. So the longer it dragged on, the worse it was.

Remember, the Obama administration was looking into Russian hacking and Comey was sufficiently proactive with pushing for investigation on that front. The email issue seemed at the time to have been an investigation pushed by Congress - up until the time it wasn't. By that time it was strategically too late to actually get rid of Comey; all they could do was recommend he recuse himself. Which he didn't.
And it certainly didn't help that Bill Clinton went over to visit with the AG on the tarmac back in July/August while the election was underway.

Haele

[Enoki33]

37. This l find irreconcilable. If Comey thought Clinton represented corruption, what the

hell was he thinking about Trump? Certainly he had access to all, or most of the dirty information on Trump. Maybe Comey is just a bad politician? There are many questions about his motivation and his loyalty to the law that have to answered. If he supports automatic rule then he clearly has divided loyalties. With Trump and the plutocrats around him it is not all about money. There is something much more sinister there. In certain intelligence circles Trump has been called a useful fool of Putin. Their coverup of the facts- whatever they may be- can only last so long.

[Siwsan]

2. I think he is the shiny object that is being waved to distract us from the mayhem.

And I'm beginning to wonder/worry about how many other legislators are implicated, either through financial ties or blackmail.

There is no way any responsible, rational human being can support what is going on so that tells me nefarious things are definitely afoot with our Congress. And it terrifies me.

[guillaumeb]

27. On target.

He is the dancing clown that we watch while the GOP is busy stealing the country for the 1%.

Follow the money is always an excellent idea.

[dalton99a]

3. Recruiting was Putin's expertise in the KGB

[mopinko]

4. paul manafort.

imho, manafort was his handler, and talked him into this.

eta i dont think he is decisive enough to have come to the conclusion that he should do it.

[L. Coyote]

5. Full stop. Take 2 mins. Read this Q&A between Trump & Tucker Carlson

Easy to imagine the Electoral College was fixed, a mere 40,000 vote switches and the outcome switched.

Link to tweet

[NRaleighLiberal]

7. Exactly and indeed.

[ailsagirl]

20. I like your sig line-- hear hear!!

[bobalew]

6. There was collusion with the corporate class also

This is just one cluster f*ck of a BONUS FUNDING exercise....

[secondwind]

8. I also think this way... I really believe that HRC won the election. n/t

[ailsagirl]

22. I have NO DOUBT WHATSOEVER she did

It's just horrifying the way our country has been hijacked

Never would have believed it

[2naSalit]

9. Seem like?

I was sure of it from day one. No need to guess.

[joet67]

10. I hope it was done with the Republican party's full involvement. We already

know it has happened. I only hope now that it ensnares a whole bunch of them. The Donald likes to call people out, so this *should be quite a sight.

[spanone]

11. between the russians/james comey/the media.....yes.

n/t

[beachbum bob]

12. those who couldn't deal with the lesser of 2 evils "placed trump in office"

those people either did not vote or voted 3rd party....


knowing full well their action would place real evil in the whitehouse

[Proud Liberal Dem]

14. People always talk about not wanting to vote for "the lesser of two evils"

What isn't discussed more is that, if there is a "lesser of two evils", there's a "greater of the two evils" as well.

[beachbum bob]

16. that was the other side of equation that those people totally ignored....

71,000 votes in a hand full of counties in 3 states was the difference....same counties had 100's of thousands of stein voters and even more johnson voters....we have what we have and will have to fight a bitter fight in 2018....if we are to have hope in changing the direction of america

[lagomorph777]

21. 100s of thousands of Stein/Johnson voters...

like all the excess African American Pat Buchanan voters in FL in 2000? Probably not real.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

23. Yup

I'm hoping that we can overcome last year's debacle in 2018 but, even as I speak, pundits and bloggers like Washington Monthly seem to lowering expectations and sounding less than hopeful about a midterm bloodbath for Republicans.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

13. Well, his delusions aside

he lost the popular vote by a substantial margin and only won a thin majority of votes in enough states to win the EC. I think that his EC victory was indirectly assisted by a variety of forces/factors in his election but AFAIK he legitimately won the Presidency. He clearly doesn't have any kind of real mandate, however. I'd argue that the same can mostly be said of Republicans in the House and Senate, especially the House where Republicans have incredibly distorted their popular appeal through massive gerrymandering.

[JTFrog]

15. I have zero doubts.

I don't think it's going to take as long as Watergate for the bridges to collapse. Even the people closest to him hate him. There are going to be some folks soon who start yapping about not going down for this buffoon.

Patience grasshoppers.

[ailsagirl]

18. Ditto here

[KPN]

31. Hope you are right about the timeframe.

But given the GOPs impetuous zeal for rolling back progressive gains of the past 60 years right now, we may not see his collapse before the 2018 elections at the earliest -- despite all of their self-defeating hubris. .... It's hard to remain patient!

[lagomorph777]

17. Same here. Putin specifically wanted a clueless buffoon, knowing he'd be impeached quickly,

and bringing down one of the major parties. The resulting chaos and weakness is very useful to Putin.

[brooklynite]

19. He was placed into office by the voters...

...while he didn't get a majority of the votes cast, he got close to it, and that was enough under our political system.

[lagomorph777]

25. Not likely.

But since we are blocked from truly auditing the machines, we may never know for sure.

[brooklynite]

35. In the absence of "knowing for sure", I'll go with the wisdom of actual political figures.

Hillary Clinton doesn't say it happened.

Bernie Sanders doesn't say it happened.

NO losing candidate says it happened.

Ray Buckley, the Chair of the NH Democratic Party doesn't say it happened.

David Pepper, the Chair of the OH Democratic Party doesn't say it happened.

Conversely, Ray and David have given me explanations of what DID happen, which are consistent.

WE had a flawed campaign strategy. Acknowledging the truth is the first step to fixing things.

[lagomorph777]

36. Yes, we nominated the weaker candidate, but none of your authorities

has audited the machines either. Absence of proof, in this case, is legally enforced, and for a specific purpose. There is no legitimate reason to hide the truth (which is what current law does). Any time a politician hides something (tax returns or voting details) they are hiding it for a very specific reason. Never a good reason.

[Cosmocat]

32. THIS

nm

[Botany]

24. And Trump can't be happy @ a place like Camp David?

Old school class and style is not good enough for that phony ass con man
so he to go to Florida for the weekends @ $3 million a trip.

It was a coup and the people behind are guilty of treason.

[lunatica]

39. At Mara lago he can have his emperor ring kissed by the country club members

Last edited Thu Mar 16, 2017, 03:29 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm not kidding. He needs the adulation like we need air.

[Botany]

40. I'm going over to the mts. in western MD in a few days and it is heaven ....

..... I kid you not. New Germany State Park w/lorts of snow and nice
cabins but you have no TV or cell service ands I'm more then good w/that.

"He needs the adulation like we need air." so very true!

[lunatica]

41. the perfect antidote!

From Hot air to Fresh air!

[yardwork]

26. That was apparent from the beginning.

Unfortunately, too many Americans were too busy hating on Hillary to pay attention to how they were being manipulated by a foreign power.

People are waking up now, I guess, but it's a bit late. With the Republicans in control of Congress there's no obvious path out of this mess.

[niyad]

30. absolutely agree

[Cosmocat]

34. No - and this notion is problematic

because it distracts from being focused on the primary issue relative to winning elections.

Just to be clear - DT was literally the last person the establishment wanted to win out of the clown show R primary, and we have never seen an R candidate in our lives who the party at large put serious thought into trying to beat him during the convention vote.

NOW, they got behind him, and they would be perfectly fine with his fecklessness and chaos now as long as the many abhorrent scandals don't reach the point where they can avoid dealing with them.

But, end of the day, people poured into the polls to vote him EAGERLY. I work a poll, and the Trump voters were no drug in to vote, they were not pained to vote for him, they RIGHTEOUSLY voted for him.

This is important to acknowledge, to not get into this "other" that might have installed him or whatever.

Yeah, his candidacy was made possible by decades of hate framing of liberals and general right wing brain washing, yeah, the POS Comey tiled the scales, yeah, Russia did psyops on the dolts who voted for him.


BUT, every single vote was a vote of free will, and again, people were SUPER enthusiastic about casting those votes.

This has to be acknowledged, because we have to accept that 1/3 of this country is that far gone, that hateful or that weak minded to vote for DT.

Know that we can NOT reach this people, they are gone, walking dead gone.

Know that we have to focus our attention on our 1/3 and the "middle' 1/3 that either votes third party or sits out elections.

THAT is where the battle is.