Girard442
Girard442's JournalCan we stop ignoring the 800 pound gorilla in the room?
The Russians, the Kochs, Mercer, et al had billions on hand to spend on swinging this election. Do we really think that a few hacked Hillary and DNC emails, people saying skeevy stuff on Facebook, and some oppo research was all they got for that money?
I'm thinking that more than a few people high in the media ended up with really nice nest eggs for their excellent work in turning a moral microscope on Hillary while ignoring Trump.
Here's what the endgame would look like.
Let's say that at some point there is a very large number of people who think that Trump has to be relieved of the presidency. The question is, how to do it. The two obvious alternatives that preserve the rule of law are impeachment and the 25th Amendment process. There are extra-legal possibilities, but I'm holding out hope those won't happen.
Even if there's a 25th Amendment process or an impeachment, we'd still have to deal a rogue president at the head of the executive branch while the process is ongoing. I can't see any way to avoid putting Trump under de facto house arrest and cutting off his communications. This would require the cooperation of domestic law enforcement (the FBI, The Secret Service, U.S. Marshals, and the capitol police) and the military. The military would need to buy in because they would not be put in the position of sitting on their hands while their Commander-in-Chief is being deposed unless they're fully on board with the idea that this is a legitimate and lawful action. Similarly, law enforcement would have to be fully on board because they'd be the boots on the ground. The only way to do it without them is to roll tanks up Pennsylvania Avenue and that would be the end of even a pretense of democracy.
Both of those groups would need the assurance that the politicians had their 25th Amendment/impeachment ducks in a row and that once things were in motion that there would be a speedy process that would absolutely certainly remove Trump. Otherwise, they'd all be guilty of treason and mutiny and would probably hang (and that's not a figure of speech).
Obviously, getting all of those groups on board in while maintaining secrecy would be the mother of all heavy lifts, but does anybody think Trump and his Deplorables would sit idly by while open and public proceedings (like those directed at Bill Clinton) ground on for months?
It's about Hell. Why the religious right likes Trump.
Imagine that some years after the end of World War II, you had had an encounter with a still-living Hitler. (This couldn't happen now. Hitler would have been 100 years old in 1988.) You decide that the man had been insufficiently punished for his crimes and so you decide to kidnap him and torture him for the rest of his life. Let's assume that you somehow have the expertise to inflict continuous excruciating pain on him without actually shortening his life.
It would seem to me, that most people, even if they started to do such a horrible thing, would soon be overcome by the screams of agony and the constant pleas for mercy and would say to themselves, enough, even if it is Hitler.
Now think about the Christian doctrine of Hell. What the most hard-edged Christian beliefs say about Hell is that it is unending eternal torment inflicted on those who do not accept Christ as their personal saviour. Not just for evil dictators who inflict agony and death on millions of innocent people, but for all those are unbelievers or who aren't "born again". And not just for a day or a month, or a lifetime, but forever.
A lot of people have problems with this and the more liberal denominations have managed to rationalize or de-emphasize the idea of Hell in one way or another whereas the sects most closely associated with the religious right tend to embrace it. If you Google the various denomination's writings on Hell, you can see exactly what I mean. I'll avoid linking to specific examples lest someone think I'm cherry-picking.
Anyway, the upshot of this is that the theology of the religious right directly appeals to people who want and need to see cruel vengeance wreaked on anyone who they think has done them wrong. In other words, haters. It's not hard to see how someone like Donald Trump would appeal to people like that.
Once more the witching hour approaches...
...when Jared and Ivanka barricade themselves inside the castle and the Were-Pumpkin roams the Twitter Moors unrestrained.
The wellness thing has been a scam for a long time.
Give your employees a discount for showing up for exercise classes? Basically a backdoor way of charging those who can't more. This is that on steroids.
Moderate Republicans?
Some Republican congresspeople are seen as "moderates". I'm skeptical. Given the radical views of the Trump administration, wouldn't a Republican politician with any kind of reasonable positions on the issues switch parties? This is especially true in the Senate where a switch of three votes could block Trump from stacking the Supreme Court with Scalia mini-me's.
Can we stop with the "OMG this latest {whatever} will bring them down"?
Right now the law only applies to Republicans to the extent Republicans decide it does. Without someone to enforce them, laws are only words on a page.
If we are to bring these criminals down, we have to do it with political power.
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Member since: Tue Dec 6, 2016, 10:49 AMNumber of posts: 6,087
