US Politics Mega-thread - Page 7821

On June 09 2017 23:48 KwarK wrote:
They're still looking for a way to ditch Trump but keep the voters he brought into the party.

On June 09 2017 23:14 TheTenthDoc wrote:
Calling Comey a liar after he starts his testimony by flatly calling you a liar using your own words and self-contradictions seems like a terrible tack to take, but it's not surprising.

Yet again, Trump takes a line of argument set up like a teeball by the party and completely whiffs by doing his own thing. Let's see if the politosphere can still bail him out of it like they did when his email arguments at the debates were utter nonsense.

Fired FBI Director James Comey told senators about a possible third meeting between then-Sen. Jeff Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 presidential campaign.

CNN, citing people familiar with the matter, and NBC News, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter, reported that Comey told senators about the potential of a third meeting in a closed session of the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday.

After revelations that Sessions met twice with Kislyak without acknowledging it during sworn testimony, Sessions recused himself from matters relating to the Trump campaign and Russian meddling in the election. (Trump reportedly still rages at the decision.)

In a subsequent letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee — to whom he initially said he had not met with any Russians — Sessions listed two meetings with Kislyak.

The third meeting, according to NBC News, may have taken place during a small VIP gathering in the Mayflower Hotel on April 27, 2016, before Trump delivered his first major foreign policy address at the same venue.

Both outlets reported that the Justice Department on Thursday denied the meeting ever took place.

CNN, citing three unnamed sources familiar with the matter, reported that the information originated in intercepted calls between Russians discussing the meeting. The outlet cautioned that Kislyak could have exaggerated the encounter.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told NBC News: “Jeff could add a lot of light to it as to why he recused himself.” He added: “There’s one meeting we don’t (know about) and people would like to know about it.”

On June 1, CNN first reported that congressional investigators were looking into a potential third meeting between Sessions and Kislyak. A week earlier, the network reported that Sessions left any meetings with the ambassador off of his security clearance application.

A day later, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), who sits on the Judiciary Committee, and whose question in committee initially led Sessions to make his initial false statement about meetings with Russian officials, noted that he and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) had asked the FBI about the potential meeting.

“It had been described in a way that he could plausibly say ‘I don’t remember that.’ But what’s coming out today I believe is that that may not be the case. And if this the true, that would be extremely disturbing,” Franken said of the Mayflower gathering.

On June 09 2017 23:26 NewSunshine wrote:
Honestly the biggest surprise for me is that people are sticking by Trump as a Republican. He's not a Republican, nor is he a politician, which by now is sufficiently evident. He ran his campaign as a Republican because he had to, owing to the overwhelming rigidity of our 2-party system. But he's not a Republican. Thus, seeing our Republican-filled government, as well as Republican supporters, unconditionally supporting him, even as he sinks further and further, makes no sense to me. They could easily abandon him and maintain partisan solidarity, if that's all they cared about.

Even in this thread you see people blindly supporting Trump because they think the alternative is some horrible Democrat. They think it's better to have "their guy" in office, and are elated that there wasn't some kind of smoking gun evidence presented yesterday, but that was never going to happen, it was just one person's testimony. And the fact that you care more about having Trump retain office, than actually having a credible and respectable leader in charge of our nation, is the most deeply sad fact of all.

Party before nation after all, it appears.

On June 10 2017 00:00 zlefin wrote:

sadly that's true for many people on all sides; it's a side effect of various psychosocial processes.
It just so happens that lately it's been hitting republicans more than democrats.
In a few decades it'll probably shift the other way.

it's a not uncommon problem in democracy for these kinds of things to happen.

On June 10 2017 00:06 NewSunshine wrote:

I'm just frustrated that we have to stick with Trump, and that there are people who will rally behind him no matter what, as he methodically destroys America's international standing, by either outright insulting allies, betraying their trust, or destroying their confidence in our ability to be a competent world leader. Trump has already done all 3. His wall is just as insipid, it's a waste of money that forever closes off the ability to have good relations with Mexico. Him and his administration have failed to pass any successful or meaningful legislation, any growth we're seeing is still off the back of Obama's presidency. But that'll change fast if this keeps going.

On June 10 2017 00:10 biology]major wrote:
That's why I am so disgusted by politics, party before country is a sad reality

On June 10 2017 00:11 zlefin wrote:

part of the reason some of the founding fathers expressly opposed political parties.
sadly it's not really feasible to prevent political parties from forming.

fortunately there's enough research that we can devise new forms of government soon; though i'd really like to see a lot more funding put into research on government designs.

On June 09 2017 23:48 KwarK wrote:
They're still looking for a way to ditch Trump but keep the voters he brought into the party.