Is it now between Bernie and Bloomberg?

[lacanteen]

I think that's why it can be tough to beat an incumbent president. The process of determining who will be the candidate requires all of them to hammer each other.

Also, in order to appeal to the democrat base they all have to appear to be somewhat left wing. Then to win the election they have to move back to the middle. People know that politicians lie, but when you said something different less than a year ago it's hard to explain.

What galls me is that when on the campaign trail, they all swear and promise things that's not in the power of just the president.

A list:
-Abolish the electoral college. Not possible without a constitutional amendment.
-Free college tuition for all. The money has to be appropriated by Congress.
-Build a border wall and Mexico will pay for it. Yeah, right.
-Cancel student loan debt. There's that money thing again
-100% clean energy in America. How?
-End the opioid crisis. Good luck with that one. War on drugs is being won by drugs.
-Medicare for all. Would literally take an act of Congress, not impossible but a long road.
-Raise wages and create more American jobs. An oxymoron as stated, but a minimum wage set too high will stifle business growth.
-Fixing Our Bankruptcy System to Give People a Second Chance.-That didn't work out so well in the Community reinvestment act.
-Workplace democracy. Huh?
-Expand Social Security. There's that money thing again
-Eliminating all medical debt. $$$$$$$$$$$$$
-Allow every post office to offer basic and affordable banking services and end lending discrimination. That'll go over like a fart in church.
-High speed internet for all. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
-Enact a federal jobs guarantee, to ensure that everyone is guaranteed a stable job that pays a living wage. $$$$$$$$$$$

That's just a cherry pick of the Sanders and Warren web sites. Commentary is mine.

Sponsored

 

[watisthis]

Warren and Sanders did very well mainly warren as she finally grew a spine Bernie still need to be more aggressive and call others out on their BS. Biden, Amy, and Bloomberg didn't belong and just acted super awkward and cringe worthy. Pete was apparently a special moderator and did fine with MSNBCs bias, he'll be a hell of a force in a decade when he isn't green behind the ears. Overall, MSNBC is slightly better than CNN with debates but still has obvious bias.

I like how only one was in favor of voter choice rather than having superdelegates override, because democracy.

 

[IPOGT]

It was a whole different situation when Obama took office. Trump inherited a good economy from Obama and Obama inherited a bad economy from Bush, given Bush did fine his first 6 whereas his final 2 we had a recession. Fed chair and congress have much more of an impact on the economy than Presidents do.

I'd like to see where we'd be if Trump had inherited an economy going through a recession. Also, the economy isn't the same as it was 10 years ago and there are too many factors to normalize 'retirement good president good' as Obama inherited the future of the world's monetary system in question, a credit freeze, and unemployment was climbing, there were a lot of ways we could have fallen further, so thank god you and I didn't lose everything.

And there still are people out there that believe the earth is flat.

 

[IPOGT]

What galls me is that when on the campaign trail, they all swear and promise things that's not in the power of just the president.

A list:
-Abolish the electoral college. Not possible without a constitutional amendment.
-Free college tuition for all. The money has to be appropriated by Congress.
-Build a border wall and Mexico will pay for it. Yeah, right.
-Cancel student loan debt. There's that money thing again
-100% clean energy in America. How?
-End the opioid crisis. Good luck with that one. War on drugs is being won by drugs.
-Medicare for all. Would literally take an act of Congress, not impossible but a long road.
-Raise wages and create more American jobs. An oxymoron as stated, but a minimum wage set too high will stifle business growth.
-Fixing Our Bankruptcy System to Give People a Second Chance.-That didn't work out so well in the Community reinvestment act.
-Workplace democracy. Huh?
-Expand Social Security. There's that money thing again
-Eliminating all medical debt. $$$$$$$$$$$$$
-Allow every post office to offer basic and affordable banking services and end lending discrimination. That'll go over like a fart in church.
-High speed internet for all. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
-Enact a federal jobs guarantee, to ensure that everyone is guaranteed a stable job that pays a living wage. $$$$$$$$$$$

That's just a cherry pick of the Sanders and Warren web sites. Commentary is mine.

The post office cannot even consistently deliver mail. Its crazy. Not the old USPS.
One thing is fairly consistent of most government employees.....if
1- minimum effort of out of my job description.
2- don't do anything you don't absolutely have to do.
3- nothing is going to happen so don't worry about it.
Yeah, that's exactly who I want being in charge of our healthcare.

 

[Docscurlock]

The post office cannot even consistently deliver mail. Its crazy. Not the old USPS.
One thing is fairly consistent of most government employees.....if
1- minimum effort of out of my job description.
2- don't do anything you don't absolutely have to do.
3- nothing is going to happen so don't worry about it.
Yeah, that's exactly who I want being in charge of our healthcare.

You forgot:
4-Spend every penny in my allotted budget so I don't get less next year
5-complain about my workload and say I need an assistant so everyone thinks my job is essential
6-If anyone tries to come in and streamline our office, claim racism, sexual harrasment or religious persecution

 

[IPOGT]

Thanks for reminding me Doc. All very valid points. I worked indirectly for a govt supplier and I have heard "we have money we have to get rid of" more times than once.
I have always thought that rotating citizen oversight committees with spot inspection and investigation authority should be assigned to each government agency.

 

[Docscurlock]

Thanks for reminding me Doc. All very valid points. I worked indirectly for a govt supplier and I have heard "we have money we have to get rid of" more times than once.
I have always thought that rotating citizen oversight committees with spot inspection and investigation authority should be assigned to each government agency.

Bu that would hurt their self esteem

 

[Docscurlock]

And there still are people out there that believe the earth is flat.

Yes, the real term is pseudo intellectual

 

[watisthis]

And there still are people out there that believe the earth is flat.

Not sure if this is supposed to be a jab at me or not. But yeah, don't forget the Scientologists too.

 

[Docscurlock]

Not sure if this is supposed to be a jab at me or not. But yeah, don't forget the Scientologists too.

Why ever would you think that, I think Bernie is a perfectly good choice for American President. (If you are Russian)

 

[Bikeman315]

Why ever would you think that, I think Bernie is a perfectly good choice for American President. (If you are Russian)

So wait, the Russians are helping Donald and Bernie.

 

[watisthis]

Why ever would you think that, I think Bernie is a perfectly good choice for American President. (If you are Russian)

Yeah, Bernie has totally never fought for American's rights and livelihoods for the past 50+ years, such a Russian thing to do.

On the other hand,

"Trump was over a billion in debt and the Russians bailed him out. This is how he made a come back

► Trump was first compromised by the Russians back in the 80s. In 1984, the Russian Mafia began to use Trump real estate to launder money and it continued for decades. In 1987, the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations, Yuri Dubinin, arranged for Trump and his then-wife, Ivana, to enjoy an all-expense-paid trip to Moscow to consider possible business prospects. Only seven weeks after his trip, Trump ran full-page ads in the Boston Globe, the NYT and WaPO calling for, in effect, the dismantling of the postwar Western foreign policy alliance. The whole Trump/Russian connection started out as laundering money for the Russian mob through Trump's real estate, but evolved into something far bigger.

► In 1984, David Bogatin — a Russian mobster, convicted gasoline bootlegger, and close ally of Semion Mogilevich, a major Russian mob boss — met with Trump in Trump Tower right after it opened. Bogatin bought five condos from Trump at that meeting. Those condos were later seized by the government, which claimed they were used to launder money for the Russian mob. (NY Times, Apr 30, 1992)

► Felix Sater is a Russian-born former mobster, and former managing director of NY real estate conglomerate Bayrock Group LLC located on the 24th floor of Trump Tower. He is a convict who became a govt cooperator for the FBI and other agencies. He grew up with Michael Cohen--Trump's former "fixer" attorney. Cohen's family owned El Caribe, which was a mob hangout for the Russian Mafia in Brooklyn. Cohen had ties to Ukrainian oligarchs through his in-laws and his brother's in-laws. Felix Sater's father had ties to the Russian mob. This goes back more than 30 years.

► Trump was $4 billion in debt after his Atlantic City casinos went bankrupt. No U.S. bank would touch him. Then foreign money began flowing in through Bayrock (mentioned above). Bayrock was run by two investors: Tevfik Arif, a Kazakhstan-born former Soviet official who drew on bottomless sources of money from the former Soviet republic; and Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman who had pleaded guilty in the 1990s to a huge stock-fraud scheme involving the Russian mafia. Bayrock partnered with Trump in 2005 and poured money into the Trump organization under the legal guise of licensing his name and property management.

► Semion Mogilevich was the brains behind the Russian Mafia. Mogilevich operatives have been using Trump real estate for decades to launder money. That means Russian Mafia operatives have been part of his fortune for years, that many of them have owned condos in Trump Towers and other properties, that they were running operations out of Trump's crown jewel. (Mogilevich's role today is unclear).

► One of the most important things that is often overlooked is that the Russia Mafia is part and parcel of Russian intelligence. Russia is a mafia state. that is not a metaphor. Putin is head of the Mafia. So the fact that they have been operating out of the home of the president of the United States is deeply disturbing.

► From Craig Unger's AMA: "Early on, a source told me that all this was tied to Semion Mogilevich, the powerful Russian mobster. I had never even heard of him, but I immediately went to a database that listed the owners of all properties in NY state and looked up all the Trump properties. Every time I found a Russian sounding name, I would Google, and add Mogilevich. When you do investigative reporting, you anticipate drilling a number of dry holes, but almost everyone I googled turned out to be a Russian mobster. Again and again. If you know New York you don't expect Trump Tower to be a high crime neighborhood, but there were far too many Russian mobsters in Trump properties for it to be a coincidence."

► So many Russians bought Trump apartments at his developments in Florida that the area became known as Little Moscow. The developers of two of his hotels were Russians with significant links to the Russian mob. The late leader of that mob in the United States, Vyacheslav Kirillovich Ivankov, was living at Trump Tower.

► According to a Bloomberg investigation (March 16, 2017) into Trump World Tower, “a third of units sold on floors 76 through 83 by 2004 involved people or limited liability companies connected to Russia and neighboring states.”

► In July 2008, the height of the recession, Donald Trump sold a mansion in Palm Beach for $95 million to Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian oligarch. Trump had purchased it four years earlier for $41.35 million. The sale price was nearly $54 million more than Trump had paid for the property. Again, this was the height of the recession when all other property had plummeted in value.

► In 2013, Federal agents busted an “ultraexclusive, high-stakes, illegal poker ring” run by Russian gangsters out of Trump Tower. In addition to card games, they operated illegal gambling websites, ran a global sports book and laundered more than $100 million. A condo directly below one owned by Trump reportedly served as HQ for a “sophisticated money-laundering scheme” connected to Semion Mogilevich.

► Rudy Giuliani famously prosecuted the Italian mob while he was a federal prosecutor, yet the Russian mob was allowed to thrive under his tenure in the Southern District and Mayor. And now he's deeply entwined in the business of Trump and Russian oligarchs. Giuiani appointed Semyon Kislin to the NYC Economic Development Council in 1990, and the FBI described Kislin as having ties tot he Russian mob. Of course, it made good political sense for Giuliani to get headlines for smashing the Italian mob.

► A lot of Republicans in Washington are implicated. Boatloads of Russian money went to the GOP--often in legal ways. The NRA got as much as $70M from Russia, then funneled it to the GOP. The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee lead by McConnel got millions from Leonard Blavatnik. In the 90s, the Russians began sending money to top GOP leaders, like Speaker of the House Tom Delay. Unger's book alleges that most of the GOP leadership has been compromised by RU money.

► At the Cityscape USA’s Bridging US and the Emerging Real Estate Markets Conference held in Manhattan, on September 9, 10, and 11, 2008, Trump Jr. was frank about the tide of Russian money supporting the family business, saying "...And in terms of high-end product influx into the US, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets."

► Eric Trump told James Dodson, a golf reporter, in 2014 that the Trump Organization was able to expand during the financial crisis because “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.”

Outcomes that show Trump is taking orders (or cues) from Putin:

► At the end of 2018, Putin and his allies started making a strong push for a resolution that would justify their country’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan and reverse an 1989 vote backed by Mikhail Gorbachev that condemned it. The Putinists’ goal was to pass the resolution by Feb. There is no one on this side of the Atlantic who thinks the USSR was justified in invading Afghanistan. And out of nowhere, on January 2nd, Trump came out strongly supporting Russia's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.

► Trump went against American intelligence on North Korean missiles. He told the FBI he didn't believe their intelligence because Putin told him otherwise. "I don't care, I believe Putin"

► Trump met in secret with Putin the G20 summit in November 2018, without note takers. 19 days later, he announced a withdrawal from Syria. As a note, Trump conducted FIVE completely private meetings and conferences with Putin, and has gone to great lengths to prevent literally anyone, even people in his administration, from learning what was discussed.

► Trump refused to enforce sanctions legally codified into law - and in some cases reversed standing sanctions on Russian companies.

► He has denounced his own intelligence agencies in a press conference with Putin on election meddling - and publicly endorsed Putin's version of events. .

► Trump pulled out of the INF treaty with no explanation, which allows Putin to create long-range hypersonic missiles that threaten Europe with impunity. The US already has all the weaponry that the INF would ban the development of, so this offers us literally nothing, while allowing Russia to develop powerful new weapons to challenge our allies.

► And of course, Trump continues to threaten to pull out of NATO, a move so catastrophically stupid, so inconceivably cosmically myopic, I truly can't express the profundity of the idiocy. Suffice to say, pulling out of NATO would be like the only guy in a prison yard with a shotgun just throwing it over the fence for absolutely no reason, suddenly giving the people with crude homemade shivs complete power.

► In summation: Trump was $4 billion in debt and the Russians bailed him out."

Those haven't been updated in 10 months or so, but surely you have a great excuse for them all.

 

[lacanteen]

@watisthis :So, if Trump is a Russian asset, how exactly are they benefiting? Be specific because I'm not seeing it. Trump wasn't affiliated with any politics until 2014 or so. When did it become illegal for a private citizen to do business with Russia?

 

[watisthis]

@watisthis :So, if Trump is a Russian asset, how exactly are they benefiting? Be specific because I'm not seeing it. Trump wasn't affiliated with any politics until 2014 or so. When did it become illegal for a private citizen to do business with Russia?

Read the post above.

Edit: If you need more, albeit some overlap, here

"People need to realize this point is moot: whether or not Trump is actively aware, and intentionally operating on behalf of Russia, he has still done more in two years to advance the agenda of this hostile foreign nation, to the detriment of the US, than any other person in recent memory.

We seem hopelessly entangled in answering the question of whether he's knowingly operating on Russia's behalf and have neglected the fact that he is actively aiding Russia and harming us egregiously in the process. We have become blind to the what while we hunt for the why.

There is no circumstance where Trump ought not be immediately impeached for the things we have witnessed occur in plain sight. If you see someone on the street stabbing people, do you stand by on the sideline and ponder what events in this murderer's life led him to stab people? No, you remove him from the street and put him in a cell to prevent him from harming people, and then you uncover a motive.

Just consider what we know he has done:

• He advanced a withdrawal from Syria - against all counsel of all relevant experts - to Russia's delight. No explanation for this was ever provided to the American people.
  
  
• He has refused to enforce sanctions legally codified into law - and in some cases reversed standing sanctions on Russian companies. No explanation for this was ever provided to the American people.
  
  
• He has denounced his own intelligence agencies in a press conference with Putin on election meddling - and publicly endorsed Putin's version of events. No explanation for this was ever provided to the American people.
  
  
• He has conducted FIVE completely private meetings and conferences with Putin, and has gone to great lengths to prevent literally anyone, even people in his administration, from learning what was discussed. No explanation for this was ever provided to the American people.
  
  
• He has lied countless times about having business interests in Russia, which have been clearly and undeniably proven false in extremely public ways. No explanation for this was ever provided to the American people.
  
  
• He pulled out of the INF treaty, which allows Putin to create missiles that can threaten Europe with impunity, whereas before, there would be sanctions and severe penalties for doing so. The US already has all the weaponry that the INF would ban the development of, so this offers us literally nothing, while allowing Russia to develop powerful new weapons to challenge our allies. No explanation for this was ever provided to the American people.
  
  
• Trump insults the President of Montenegro, a country I am extremely confident he never knew existed up until that point, for literally no apparent reason... except Putin was furious at them. There's quite literally no possible other justification for this. I dare someone to even try. And of course, no explanation was ever provided to the American people.
  
  
• And no list would be complete without his repeated threats to pull out of NATO, over money, a move so catastrophically stupid, so inconceivably cosmically myopic, I truly can't express the profundity of the idiocy. Suffice to say, pulling out of NATO would be like the only guy in a prison yard with a shotgun just throwing it over the fence for absolutely no reason, suddenly giving the people with crude homemade shivs complete power. Again, no explanation beyond the pitiful ramblings of a single real estate con man was ever provided to the American people for this decision.
  

At every step, he has handed Russia enormous concessions with no justification. He takes Putin's word - a notorious liar - at face value, always, above all of his own countrymen, and even the people he himself hired to lead his agencies.

And just consider that very fact alone - the fact that Trump just keeps believing things, coincidentally the things Russia says - over what everyone in his own administration tell him. The CIA, FBI, and assorted US intelligence agencies are the largest and most equipped in the world. And Donald Trump just basically shrugged and said he believed Vladmir Putin instead - because... he seemed like a nice guy? The absurdity here is self-evident. Putin is the guy accused of the crime - interfering in our election - and the US president just believes his word over his own intelligence apparatus.

You cannot be a rational person and justify this. In no rational world is this defensible. This is either treason or profound and alarming incompetence and gullibility. There is no world, after Helsinki, where someone could have made the case that Donald Trump ought to keep acting as chief executive of the US.

Now let us also remember, Russia is nothing compared to the US. The US has infinitely more muscle than Russia. This is why the policy - right up until Trump - has been to deal with them through sanctions and military conflicts where necessary.

They agitate, they hit and run, but Russia is an organized crime state whose economy is nearly collapsed, whose leadership consists of a coalition of loosely allied kleptocrats, oligarchs, and billionaires, all of whom are just as likely to knife each other as their foreign adversaries.

Had Clinton won, she would have continued her policy she advanced at the State Department, and sanctioned Russia until Putin's government imploded from the stress of Putin's brutality and kleptocracy. Which, obviously, is why he pulled out all the stops to ensure Clinton did not win the election.

The evidence is unambiguous. Trump - for reasons we do not know but ought not really care - betrayed, is betraying the US to Putin's Russia, each and every day.

So, I ask - why do we care whether he's a card-carrying Russian agent enthusiastic about the cause, a victim of blackmail, a seeker of quid pro quo, or just a really gullible imbecile?

He is clearly and transparently committing treason right out in the open. He has sacrificed our security and our interests to advance Russia's. Ignorance is not an excuse here. Let the courts sort that out, but this is far and away grossly impeachable behavior, and a level of embarrassing and humiliating subservience the likes of which have never been witnessed from an American leader on the world stage.

And let's not forget - let's always footnote talk about Trump's treason with the fact that this is just one of MANY separate, discrete, and unique massive, impeachable scandals. On top of pursuing the agenda of a hostile foreign nation, he also committed numerous acts of campaign finance violation, stood behind and refused to condemn nazis and white supremacists, publicly attacked private citizens and the media, condemned his own agents and agencies for legally investigating him, told nearly ten thousand lies about things ranging from serious to extremely mundane, appointed his own family members to positions far above their capacity (breaking many ethics laws and vetting procedures to do so and get them clearance).

And the list goes on. Seriously, it goes on and on and on and on. I could exhaust myself listing out the oaths Trump has betrayed, the crimes he has committed, the many more crimes he has probably committed, the constitutional amendments he has attacked or condemned, all of which, in and of themselves, should warrant impeachment or serious scrutiny.

The last President was impeached, by Republicans, for one - one - count of perjury, about a meaningless sexual exploit. Which was an actual example of a perjury trap, by the way, wherein the prosecutor gets the defendant on the stand, on the record, for a crime - in this case, the Whitewater investigations into Clinton's real estate dealings, and then questions him about something embarassing but irrelevant and not illegal, compelling the defendant to lie and commit perjury to prevent embarassment.

That's what Republicans thought qualified a previous President for impeachment.

And now we come to Trump, who has a list of genuine impeachable criteria so long I legitimately can't remember all of them in one go. of these things. All of these individual scandals or crimes or gross acts of idiocy demonstrating severely compromised judgment and ability to execute the powers of the office.

And then you add actual treason on top of it. A violation of America and its interests not only inconceivable in its treachery, but to a far, far, far weaker adversary.

So what the fuck is he still doing in the oval?"

 

[Docscurlock]

Read the post above.

Edit: If you need more, albeit some overlap, here

"People need to realize this point is moot: whether or not Trump is actively aware, and intentionally operating on behalf of Russia, he has still done more in two years to advance the agenda of this hostile foreign nation, to the detriment of the US, than any other person in recent memory.

We seem hopelessly entangled in answering the question of whether he's knowingly operating on Russia's behalf and have neglected the fact that he is actively aiding Russia and harming us egregiously in the process. We have become blind to the what while we hunt for the why.

There is no circumstance where Trump ought not be immediately impeached for the things we have witnessed occur in plain sight. If you see someone on the street stabbing people, do you stand by on the sideline and ponder what events in this murderer's life led him to stab people? No, you remove him from the street and put him in a cell to prevent him from harming people, and then you uncover a motive.

Just consider what we know he has done:

• He advanced a withdrawal from Syria - against all counsel of all relevant experts - to Russia's delight. No explanation for this was ever provided to the American people.
  
  
• He has refused to enforce sanctions legally codified into law - and in some cases reversed standing sanctions on Russian companies. No explanation for this was ever provided to the American people.
  
  
• He has denounced his own intelligence agencies in a press conference with Putin on election meddling - and publicly endorsed Putin's version of events. No explanation for this was ever provided to the American people.
  
  
• He has conducted FIVE completely private meetings and conferences with Putin, and has gone to great lengths to prevent literally anyone, even people in his administration, from learning what was discussed. No explanation for this was ever provided to the American people.
  
  
• He has lied countless times about having business interests in Russia, which have been clearly and undeniably proven false in extremely public ways. No explanation for this was ever provided to the American people.
  
  
• He pulled out of the INF treaty, which allows Putin to create missiles that can threaten Europe with impunity, whereas before, there would be sanctions and severe penalties for doing so. The US already has all the weaponry that the INF would ban the development of, so this offers us literally nothing, while allowing Russia to develop powerful new weapons to challenge our allies. No explanation for this was ever provided to the American people.
  
  
• Trump insults the President of Montenegro, a country I am extremely confident he never knew existed up until that point, for literally no apparent reason... except Putin was furious at them. There's quite literally no possible other justification for this. I dare someone to even try. And of course, no explanation was ever provided to the American people.
  
  
• And no list would be complete without his repeated threats to pull out of NATO, over money, a move so catastrophically stupid, so inconceivably cosmically myopic, I truly can't express the profundity of the idiocy. Suffice to say, pulling out of NATO would be like the only guy in a prison yard with a shotgun just throwing it over the fence for absolutely no reason, suddenly giving the people with crude homemade shivs complete power. Again, no explanation beyond the pitiful ramblings of a single real estate con man was ever provided to the American people for this decision.

At every step, he has handed Russia enormous concessions with no justification. He takes Putin's word - a notorious liar - at face value, always, above all of his own countrymen, and even the people he himself hired to lead his agencies.

And just consider that very fact alone - the fact that Trump just keeps believing things, coincidentally the things Russia says - over what everyone in his own administration tell him. The CIA, FBI, and assorted US intelligence agencies are the largest and most equipped in the world. And Donald Trump just basically shrugged and said he believed Vladmir Putin instead - because... he seemed like a nice guy? The absurdity here is self-evident. Putin is the guy accused of the crime - interfering in our election - and the US president just believes his word over his own intelligence apparatus.

You cannot be a rational person and justify this. In no rational world is this defensible. This is either treason or profound and alarming incompetence and gullibility. There is no world, after Helsinki, where someone could have made the case that Donald Trump ought to keep acting as chief executive of the US.

Now let us also remember, Russia is nothing compared to the US. The US has infinitely more muscle than Russia. This is why the policy - right up until Trump - has been to deal with them through sanctions and military conflicts where necessary.

They agitate, they hit and run, but Russia is an organized crime state whose economy is nearly collapsed, whose leadership consists of a coalition of loosely allied kleptocrats, oligarchs, and billionaires, all of whom are just as likely to knife each other as their foreign adversaries.

Had Clinton won, she would have continued her policy she advanced at the State Department, and sanctioned Russia until Putin's government imploded from the stress of Putin's brutality and kleptocracy. Which, obviously, is why he pulled out all the stops to ensure Clinton did not win the election.

The evidence is unambiguous. Trump - for reasons we do not know but ought not really care - betrayed, is betraying the US to Putin's Russia, each and every day.

So, I ask - why do we care whether he's a card-carrying Russian agent enthusiastic about the cause, a victim of blackmail, a seeker of quid pro quo, or just a really gullible imbecile?

He is clearly and transparently committing treason right out in the open. He has sacrificed our security and our interests to advance Russia's. Ignorance is not an excuse here. Let the courts sort that out, but this is far and away grossly impeachable behavior, and a level of embarrassing and humiliating subservience the likes of which have never been witnessed from an American leader on the world stage.

And let's not forget - let's always footnote talk about Trump's treason with the fact that this is just one of MANY separate, discrete, and unique massive, impeachable scandals. On top of pursuing the agenda of a hostile foreign nation, he also committed numerous acts of campaign finance violation, stood behind and refused to condemn nazis and white supremacists, publicly attacked private citizens and the media, condemned his own agents and agencies for legally investigating him, told nearly ten thousand lies about things ranging from serious to extremely mundane, appointed his own family members to positions far above their capacity (breaking many ethics laws and vetting procedures to do so and get them clearance).

And the list goes on. Seriously, it goes on and on and on and on. I could exhaust myself listing out the oaths Trump has betrayed, the crimes he has committed, the many more crimes he has probably committed, the constitutional amendments he has attacked or condemned, all of which, in and of themselves, should warrant impeachment or serious scrutiny.

The last President was impeached, by Republicans, for one - one - count of perjury, about a meaningless sexual exploit. Which was an actual example of a perjury trap, by the way, wherein the prosecutor gets the defendant on the stand, on the record, for a crime - in this case, the Whitewater investigations into Clinton's real estate dealings, and then questions him about something embarassing but irrelevant and not illegal, compelling the defendant to lie and commit perjury to prevent embarassment.

That's what Republicans thought qualified a previous President for impeachment.

And now we come to Trump, who has a list of genuine impeachable criteria so long I legitimately can't remember all of them in one go. of these things. All of these individual scandals or crimes or gross acts of idiocy demonstrating severely compromised judgment and ability to execute the powers of the office.

And then you add actual treason on top of it. A violation of America and its interests not only inconceivable in its treachery, but to a far, far, far weaker adversary.

So what the fuck is he still doing in the oval?"

Everyone, get under cover quick, the Russians are coming!

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