Make the US Politics Thread Great Again

People seem to forget that this was a republican investigation, with extremely narrow focus, no access to interview Trump (and other key staff/family?), run by a republican who cleared out any left leaning members of his team, which is being summarised by a guy who got his job because of how he praised Trump and defended him (Barr). Frankly, the report from the snippets that have been sneaking out seems to be in line with reasonable expectations.

No smoking gun on collusion.
Russia did manipulate the elections.
Trump may or may not have obstructed.

Along the way the investigation has found many illegalities, some significant enough to prosecute, and some “rich man” crimes which aren’t being prosecuted. It has also spun off other investigations that are ongoing.

Some here will remember I’ve been saying for a while to stop worrying about impeachment. I don’t think there is too much here that is unexpected. I’m disappointed there isn’t more on the Trump tower meeting, but that may be in the body and not been released yet.

Correct me if I’m wrong (and I may very well be on this part), but doesn’t MSNBC aim to be the Fox news of the left? i.e. it is unabashedly not unbiased, and not part of the MSM? It would be hardly surprising if they haven’t focused on this.

I’m not really sure why you assume those other topics would have come up regardless. They didn’t come up under Obama either (well, the minimum wage did). When Republicans controlled all three branches it is hardly surprising focus has been on their legislative, executive and investigations they have done, tried to do, or started. For example, health care reform got a huge amount of focus while the Repubs tried to change it. Its then died a quick death in the general discussion outside the Dem primaries, because everybody knows nothing will be done about it with a split control.

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You seem to give all this weight to the Mueller report. Well, it found that Russia DID interfere in the elections. Are you going to revise what you’ve been saying up till now?

Maybe because on the first it was clear that there is no evidence of collusion? There is plenty of evidence that the DNC supported Hillary, funny that, why would they assist the lifetime Dem, over the opportunist who had been an independent for 20 odd years but changed to Dem solely to run in the Democratic primaries? The guy who then shafted the Dems and actively pushed actions that hurt the Democrat nominee, Hillary Clinton? Frankly, for a guy who helped Trump get in the white house, I’ve got no idea why you support this guy so much.

On Israel, what collusion? Everyone knows its a confluence of money, influence, and the weird religious fanaticism of the christian right in the USA. Supporting Israel is the smart political move. Which is why both parties do it. Do you have any evidence of collusion?

The simple problem is that the public doesn’t want to here about most of those things over and over again, so the MSM stop pushing them. It is as much about our crappy reading preferences as the MSM’s goals. Although I’ll grant you some are influenced by corporate elements.

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The Qanon deep state thingy is perhaps the most bizarre, opaque and laughable conspiracy theory yet.

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Well given that the Mueller report is currently the one substantive investigation RE: Collusion that has finished, it would seem reasonable to do so no? RE: Russia interference, well of course they interfered because interference seems to be loosely defined as a few twitter trolls/bots on social media. The publicly released evidence based on whether Russia was the state actor who hacked the DNC isn’t conclusive at all. Bill Binney of VIPS - the renowned NSA analyst who created ‘Thin Thread’ remains convinced that the data from the DNC servers was taken locally i.e. from a thumb drive

Anyone who has read the Podesta emails can clearly see that the DNC and the Clinton campaign were covertly trying to undermine Sanders. There’s a reason why Wasserman-Shultz resigned, Donna Brazile is on record saying that the Clinton campaign had effectively taken over the DNC. We know for a fact that she handed Clinton a pre-determined question at a CNN town hall. The fact that Sanders has been an Independent and switched to Dem is completely irrelevant. Once he has the ‘D’ next to his name, he should be treated equally by the DNC.

Errr the fact that Netanyahu flew to DC and addressed Congress railing against Obama’s Iran deal without informing the President is one example. Then there’s the Trump transition team (specifically Flynn) trying to convince the Russians on behalf of Israel to vote against a UN resolution that condemned Israeli settlement expansion, directly against Obama foreign policy.

It would be nice to see the full report.

The Mueller report reputedly says that the Russians hacked the DNC and Clinton. It was the official report into Russian interference. But heh, cherry pick the bits you want to believe.

BS. Sanders jumped into being a Dem for political expediency, and because of the US rules the Dems couldn’t kick him out. Just like the Republicans couldn’t stop that Nazi running in Chicago in 2018 (after using a legal loophole to stop him the previous elections). Sanders spent 20 years not part of the Dem caucus, not participating in their strategy, fund raising, voting decisions. And then you think the Dems should treat him the same when he says “heh, I see an opportunity here to exploit your primaries, I’m in”? Hell no.

And they were right. After losing the primaries and not having the votes, he then proceeded to damage their own candidate, helping Trump win. Nice one Mr Sanders!

How is that collusion? I’ve said Israel has heaps of power due to a number of reasons in US politics. All your showing is demonstrations of it.

Do you understand what the hell collusion is?

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Being an Independent helps him in the areas that are “anti-democrat”, being from a smaller state may help him, he’ll also alter his messaging and issues of focus on a state-by-state basis and his record on income inequality and opposition to unfair trade deals will help him resonate with the working class blue collar types in middle America. His no-frills nature will also be an advantage over some of the more ‘polished’ candidates and his humility should also provide a nice contrast to whichever Republican he ends up running against.

His biggest hurdle will be all the red-baiting scare tactics that both parties will throw at him, he should be able to deal with those slurs by now though.

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Exactly.

His insistence on being labeled a democratic socialist is a bad move.

He knows what it means, many people know roughly what it means but republicans will have such an easy run yelling ‘socialist!’

It’s already shaping up as a socialist V capitalist campaign for republicans even when that is so clearly not what it is.

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I’m not so sure capitalism is all that popular atm either.

Bernie would be smart to compare himself to FDR and his New Deal Democratic party, which is basically what Bernie’s platform is based on. It would essentialyl be an extension and an elaboration on trumps own MAGA

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Its not, I agree. But Trump and Republicans are already yelling ‘socialist’ and ‘they want to take your x,y and z’. That moron Gorka even said ‘they want to take your hamburgers!’

They will continue to run in fear. Fox News runs on fear and anger.

What I don’t understand is that there have been so many people screwed over by their medical insurance, why don’t they trot these people out in an ad campaign to counter these claims of “socialism”.

They can’t afford to, too busy paying medical bills

So angry can’t find a job. I wish we had a PM like trump. It’s time we make Australia great again, and give honest aussis a fair go andchance to find a job.

This is parody, yeah?

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:joy::joy::joy::joy:

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Why do I feel that my nation’s electoral college isn’t giving us our best and brightest?

You’d hope so, … especially with Job Vacancies here at a record high.