I don’t have access to Putin’s head, but I have read that “Democracy is weak and ineffectual and vulnerable and undesirable” is a pretty constant theme on Russian television. Which I do not watch myself.

But just as we had decades of “communism is evil” as a major theme in our media, it isn’t surprising that Putin would be dishing out something like this.

And of course the real goal is to undermine rival powers, and enhance his own. That’s the way this works.

waterfield wrote:

wv wrote:

Looks like Trump has a 38 percent approval rating this month. Fwiw.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/203198/presidential-approval-ratings-donald-trump.aspx

w
v

Yeah I know. But not “approving” of him is different than not “supporting” him. Which is my point. I know several who can’t stand the guy and don’t “approve” of his conduct other than his efforts to make their financial interests more secure. Sad. But these are family run businesses and their concern is focused on just that.To a man and woman they are totally convinced that had Clinton won their business would have been adversely affected.

That is right, and it’s an important distinction.

At the same time his approval ratings drop, polls also show that he would win again if the election were held today. In spite of all this shit.

nittany ram wrote:

Zooey wrote:

Too skinny.

And they should be gray facemasks. And the jerseys should have no gold.

And the Rams should go 13-3, also.

The sad thing is that wv, a longtime diehard Rams fan is only now discovering the horns are too skinny when they’ve been that way for years.

You are just now noticing but you have an excuse…you’re not a Rams fan.

First of all, I have complained about their thinness a few times over the years.

Secondly, these are thinner even than the previous version. These have lost weight since last year. They are dangerously thin, and could lead to more concussions.

THIS is the appropriate horn mass:

Too skinny.

And they should be gray facemasks. And the jerseys should have no gold.

And the Rams should go 13-3, also.

There is no doubt in my mind that we would not have invaded Iraq under Gore, and that ISIS wouldn’t exist in its current state, if it existed at all. So without doubt, the election of Bush was catastrophic.

Personally, I do not blame Nader. I blame Jeb Bush and Kathleen Harris, and Justices Scalia and O’Connor most heavily.

“Yet this comparison demeans Nixon, who at least had the sense to fire Archie Cox on a Saturday. ”

I thought that this was just another symptom of the stupidity of this administration.

They are such amateurs.

wv wrote:

I mean even IF a Bernie were somehow to be elected, that Bernie would have to deal with a corporate-Senate, a corporate-House, a corporate-Court, a corporate-CIA….etc. The mega-corpse would just smear him, and wait him out.

This, here, is the corps of the problem. We could fluke in a progressive president just as people have elected Senator Wellstone, Sanders, and a few others, and given 40 years, we might get a progressive counterpart to the Freedom Caucus – 40 or 50 seats. It would be too little, too late. Furthermore, even places that have elected progressives…like Minnesota which elected Wellstone…aren’t making a permanent commitment to progressive politics. The same state elected Jesse Ventura to the governorship, and Al Franken wone his seat by a hairsbreadth over Norm Coleman. The only way to overcome the Corpse is with a mass awakening, and there is no historical precedent. How is that even conceivable when the far right owns all the media? And ignorance is soooooo pervasive.

I tripped upon a twitter site called something like ClimateChangein5Words. And 1/4 of the tweets were “There is no Planet B” and 3/4 said something like “Global Socialist conspiracy to take over the world.” And you can’t argue people out of that level of stupidity because they have already decided that Science is on the take with grant money designed to get them to fix the evidence so that leftist powers can impose more limitations on human freedom, and control people. I mean…that is literally what they think.

So I would say that convincing the masses is basically impossible. People literally do not know what is evidence, and what isn’t, what is a good argument, and what is not.

For WV

wv wrote:

zn wrote:

No evidence (at that point) of collusion.

But collusion is not the only animal in this hunt.

..

=============

Yes. And fwiw, I dont have any doubt the rooskies spent a ton of money
helping Donald, as well as other candidates in other nations.

And can almost guarantee that other powerful nations have taken notice and are working on their own versions of influencing modern elections. China, Israel, etc.

And of course the USA is the king of influencing elections the world over. And thats putting it mildly.

Meanwhile the mega-corpse just laugh at it all. Trump, Obama, Hillary, Russians, Chinese, it dont matter.

w
v

We live in a society where greed is considered a virtue. Where someone else’s ignorance is an advantage to be exploited. Where thinking about the Greater Good is foolish and even treasonous. Where people support policies that harm themselves in the name of an empty symbol.

wv wrote:

Well for some of us its hard to care about the ‘seriousness of the various scandals’ when the system itself is the single biggest scandal in human-history. I cant think of any other organization or entity that has threatened all life on the planet.

Where are the ‘good guys’ in this Zooey?

w
v

Sure, but the fingers and noses rotting off the system ought to clue voters into the fact that the system has leprosy, don’t you think?

But they don’t respond appropriately. They just say, “Aggh. It’s just acne. Both parties have it.”

The “good guys” don’t go into politics. By it’s nature, politics attracts people who are interested in Power. Sociopaths. The good guys are handing $10 out their car windows to the vet the government won’t take care of.

waterfield wrote:

So Comey gets fired right after federal prosecutors issued grand jury subpoenas to associates of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. If the general public does not care about this then something drastically has changed since Watergate to now.

Maybe half the people in this country may not care because Trump comes off as a tough talking son of a bitch-the kind of guy you don’t want to mess around with in a bar. The kind of “leader” you follow into battle. And Nixon did not come off like that. If that is so then we are indeed lost.

It appears that the Trump supporters are treating this the same way Obama supporters treated the Benghazi hearings. They are saying there is nothing there, and the investigation is just a political hit job.

I think the country has changed since Watergate. A lot. I think if Watergate happened today, the president would get away with it. I think the majority of people just see all of this as noise, and lump it all together without distinguishing the seriousness of the various scandals.

wv wrote:

Zooey wrote:

You know what.

I am tired of Clinton apologists blaming the left for her loss.

===================

I’m tired of
Corporate-Capitalism,
Corporate-Media,
Corporate-Democrats,
Corporate-Republicans,
and Corporate-Personhood.

Hitler did not threaten to destroy the entire biosphere.
Corporations are well on their way to destroying the biosphere.

I’m tired of that.

w
v

Oh, don’t worry. It will be fine. We will get a sensible Democrat in the White House in 2020, and he or she will reduce greenhouse emissions 12% by 2030.

PA Ram wrote:

We heard that there are rumors that he is the most likely to be impeached president in American history. That’s why I doubt this project.”

Not so sure about that. The Republicans have gone all-in on Trump. If he goes down–they go down. And they’re in charge.

The most corrupt administration in history will only get stronger and more brazen

I think they are going to go down anyway. Historically, when a party has controlled the whole government, they have lost an average of 35 house seats in the midterms. That would flip if to the democrats, and I think we will see the strongest “get out the vote” push by the left ever.

So what I see happening is what you say…Republicans all in on Trump…until they see the head-on collision is unavoidable, and then they are going to want to bail. So in the districts where supporting Trump is going to be political death, there will be some willingness to sacrifice him for self-interest. Given Trump’s completely erratic behavior, it is inevitable, I think, that there will eventually be a confluence of self-interest aligned with a clear, safe shot at some buffoonery of his.