Ever notice that every Republican presidential administration since the Nixon-Ford days...

[YoungDemCA]

...has been progressively more criminal?

The Reagan-Bush people certainly set a new record in that manner, and unlike Nixon, their reputations (mostly) remained intact, or even got more positive! Of course, the second Bush administration got away with criminal acts that even the previous Republicans never could have possibly DREAMED of getting away with.

And now we have a Republican President who has quite possibly committed more crimes - including a lot of personal crimes - over the course of his life than all of the Presidents since Nixon have, combined. And he, and Bannon, Miller, Kushner, Sessions, DeVos, and all of the rest of the scumbags in the Trump Cabinet and in the administration (not to mention, all the Trump supporters who are itching for violence) are just getting started. Consider that the Putin regime is both their model and their mentor, and you begin to see just how fucking horrifying the situation in which we find ourselves is.

[hvn_nbr_2]

1. Yep, I've been noticing that for a long time. nt

[unblock]

2. what else would you expect from the party of "law and order"?

[YoungDemCA]

3. We need laws in this country to protect rich criminals from the rest of us.

It's the Republican Way.

[MrScorpio]

4. Ford (as an individual) was the exception

But then, he wasn't elected.

That's the kicker.

[unblock]

5. actually, it's more the getting away with it that's gotten worse.

reagan's administration set a record, i think, in number of actual criminal prosecutions and/or convictions.

poppy's administration wasn't as bad, which is not to say he didn't join in the criminal fun when he was veep.

shrub's administration was arguably more criminal than reagan's; certainly, some of the crimes stand out as quite remarkable, such as outing a covert agent and operation(!) but the big difference is that there were very few prosecutions.

donnie, of course, is on the fast track to out-doing them all combined.

[MrScorpio]

6. I completely agree with you.

[YoungDemCA]

8. George HW Bush was CIA director/DCI before he was Vice President and President.

Who knows what he (and the entire Bush family, for that matter) has gotten away with?

Note that I'm not endorsing all the various conspiracy theories about the Bush family in this post, but considering their history and the history of the CIA, and considering what we already know went on in the Reagan and both Bush administrations (as well as the Nixon and Ford ones for that matter, in which "Poppy" held some important positions - culminating with CIA director/DCI under Ford) - you can't help but wonder just how much nefarious shit they've gotten away with over the past several decades...

[YoungDemCA]

10. Plus, his White House was controlled by Donald Rumseld and Dick Cheney.

And the Watergate Pardon was, IMHO, unjustified, and set a horrible precedent.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Watergate involved a lot more than eight people (plus Nixon).

69 people were indicted, with trials or pleas resulting in 48 being found guilty. The scandal now known as Watergate was much more extensive and complicated than the burglary of DNC headquarters. I've been re-reading All the President's Men, and I'd forgotten what an intricate web of misdeeds was discovered. The Committee to Re-elect the President (aptly referred to as CREEP) had a very large secret, illegal fund that they used to commit all manner of dirty tricks (called "ratfucking" - the term was first used by this gang) to interfere with the campaigns of the Democrats. Among other things, they ruined Ed Muskie with a fake letter.

The Washington Post, by Woodward/Bernstein, started unravelling the threads by tracing the money, and publishing articles about what they were starting to discover regarding connections between the burglars, other ratfucking, and WH staff. Then Nixon's press secretary Ron Ziegler, sounding a lot like Sean Spicer, ranted about how the press was telling lies to discredit Nixon and to favor the Democrats. Other GOPers were saying the same things on TV, and repeatedly and adamantly denied any connection between the Watergate incident and any WH personnel and attributed all the reports to the "liberal" media.

As I'm reading this book I keep going OMG! because it's déjà vu all over again. So much of what's going on now has very loud echoes of Watergate. Everybody should read it if you haven't yet.

[YoungDemCA]

9. Note that Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rove were among those who cut their teeth in the Nixon WH

In terms of White House politics, that is. Also, Reagan and Bush Sr. were among the strongest defenders of Nixon during Watergate, right up to the end.

Great post, BTW.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. And Donald Segretti, one of the chief ratfuckers, ran McCain's campaign

in California in 2000.

Watergate involved not only a coverup, but a coverup of a coverup. We will almost certainly see much of the same when more dirt comes out about the Russia connection and the WH tries to cover it all up.

[Snarkoleptic]

12. Makes sense, since there hasn't been a legitimately elected Republican POTUS since Ike.

[uponit7771]

13. YES !!! My whole voting life has been full of KGOP that doesn't respect any laws !!!

[coco22]

14. Kick...

And put it in our faces like it doesn't. What they don't get is most people have nothing to lose and don't give a damn,they change the rules to benefit them and fuck over us..

Most people feel like "Don't push me cause I 'm close to the edge I'm trying not to lose my head"..Its getting close to pitchfork time.