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[daedalius]

So what happens with this CIA madness?

Has something like this ever happened before?

 

[Aaron Strife]

If they don't go full on blitz the next time they have the trifecta they will never learn anything.

Honestly one of the problems they had from 09-11 was too little time. PPACA sucked up most of the oxygen in the room and they still passed a bunch of smaller (relatively) bills like Matthew Shepard, Lilly Ledbetter, Credit Card Bill of Rights etc in addition to the stimulus act and Dodd-Frank which under any other president would be seen as definitive achievements.

When a candidate campaigns on a couple of big ideas you expect those to get dealt with first.

 

[kadotsu]

Andrew Liveris, the next small businessman advisor of the Trump administration.

 

[adamsappel]

Not campaigning on the Heroin/opium stuff (given that it's straight up her alley) was a huge mistake on Hillary's part- she conceded that to Donald and it's clearly a way bigger issue than suburban/urban people (like me) realized.

The next nom cannot make that mistake.

Clinton had a very detailed plan of action on addiction. What was Trump's plan again?

China should hack the RNC next time. Russia sure got away with theirs.

I am sure that Russia hacked the RNC as well. There's just no reason for them to release anything. Yet.

 

[Aaronology]

Well at least there are people happy with their election results in some parts of the world, PoliGAF!

Gambians celebrate as they oust president of 22 years at polls
https://twitter.com/i/moments/804741049721782272

Yahya Jammeh, The Gambia's authoritarian president of 22 years, has suffered a surprise defeat in presidential elections. He will be replaced by a property developer, Adama Barrow, who won more than 45% of the vote. The West African state has not had a smooth transition of power since independence from Britain in 1965.

This is amazing! Look how happy they are!




..wait...



...sorry. I forgot what year this is.


Gambia leader Yahya Jammeh rejects election result

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/10/gambian-president-rejects-election-results-yahya-jammeh-adama-barrow

The Gambia’s president Yahya Jammeh said on Friday he rejects the outcome of last week’s election, which he lost to opposition leader Adama Barrow, and called for a fresh vote.

The announcement made on state TV throws the future of the West African country into doubt after an unexpected election result that ended Jammeh’s 22-year rule and was widely seen as a moment of democratic hope.

“After a thorough investigation, I have decided to reject the outcome of the recent election. I lament serious and unacceptable abnormalities which have reportedly transpired during the electoral process,” Jammeh said.

“I recommend fresh and transparent elections which will be officiated by a god-fearing and independent electoral commission,” he said.

This entire year has left me feeling like the world is teetering on the edge of madness. I wonder how far America has to fall to end up in a reality like this.

 

[mo60]

This is just amazing. I never thought some presidential candidate can get nearly 3 million votes more then their opponent and still lose the election.

https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/807414492728541184

 

[Wilsongt]

This is just amazing. I never though some presidential candidate can get nearly 3 million votes more then their opponent and still lose the election.

https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/807414492728541184

Swing states with ID laws or lazy voters are a bitch.

and besides, you never know. Maybe someone did tamper with the vote. If you tamper with the vote, why would you make it where it looks like a landslide? You'd want to make it where it was close, but within a reasonable margin of a swing.

 

[Androidsleeps]

Let’s Take a Look at Trump’s Cabinet of Villains | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

This is one of the best in this series.

 

[Aaron Strife]

This is just amazing. I never thought some presidential candidate can get nearly 3 million votes more then their opponent and still lose the election.

https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/807414492728541184

Hillary might beat Bush's popular vote margin in 2004 at this rate.

 

[royalan]

CNN: Obama orders review of Russian Hacking. Wikileaks RTs: Obama orders report on us

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/807296394750992384

You can't make this stuff up.

It's too fucking late.

I'm sorry, and I respect President Obama, but if this is true, and the CIA had proof that Russia was hacking our election, that's pretty close to unforgivable.

There's believing in the American people, there's not wanting to interfere with an election, there's maintaining your integrity...and then there's this. There's letting a foreign enemy fiddle with our election, poison our democracy, and deligitimize longstanding pillars of our government.

This will be a blight on Obama's legacy. And you know what? It deserves to be.

When history looks back at the time fascism took over America, for all his good, Obama will be known as the President who sat back and watched.

 

[Chumley]

It's too fucking late.

I'm sorry, and I respect President Obama, but if this is true, and the CIA had proof that Russia was hacking our election, that's pretty close to unforgivable.

There's believing in the American people, there's not wanting to interfere with an election, there's maintaining your integrity...and then there's this. There's letting a foreign enemy fiddle with our election, poison our democracy, and deligitimize longstanding pillars of our government.

This will be a blight on Obama's legacy. And you know what? It deserves to be.

When history looks back at the time fascism took over America, for all his good, Obama will be known as the President who sat back and watched.

So many unforgivable things have happened, but if we as a people do nothing in response it won't matter. Protests + riots for weeks and months. Only option left. If we as a country care about this, we have to make ourselves heard.

 

[mo60]

Hillary might beat Bush's popular vote margin in 2004 at this rate.

Won't happen.

 

[royalan]

So many unforgivable things have happened, but if we as a people do nothing in response it won't matter. Protests + riots for weeks and months. Only option left. If we as a country care about this, we have to make ourselves heard.

I was politically active before Obama became president, and I will continue to be after.

But Obama does not escape this. He let this happen. He should be ashamed.

 

[Chumley]

 

[The Technomancer]

It's too fucking late.

I'm sorry, and I respect President Obama, but if this is true, and the CIA had proof that Russia was hacking our election, that's pretty close to unforgivable.

There's believing in the American people, there's not wanting to interfere with an election, there's maintaining your integrity...and then there's this. There's letting a foreign enemy fiddle with our election, poison our democracy, and deligitimize longstanding pillars of our government.

This will be a blight on Obama's legacy. And you know what? It deserves to be.

When history looks back at the time fascism took over America, for all his good, Obama will be known as the President who sat back and watched.

Its not enough. Its not there there. You can't point to "fake information about emails", or "real information about emails" for that matter, and say 'and because of this 143,250 votes were swayed from one candidate to another". There's just not enough evidence to make any substantive move on the basis that their interference mattered, even though it so clearly fucking did

 

[Sibylus]

It's too fucking late.

I'm sorry, and I respect President Obama, but if this is true, and the CIA had proof that Russia was hacking our election, that's pretty close to unforgivable.

There's believing in the American people, there's not wanting to interfere with an election, there's maintaining your integrity...and then there's this. There's letting a foreign enemy fiddle with our election, poison our democracy, and deligitimize longstanding pillars of our government.

This will be a blight on Obama's legacy. And you know what? It deserves to be.

When history looks back at the time fascism took over America, for all his good, Obama will be known as the President who sat back and watched.

Indeed. There's a lot to be said of the virtues of moderation and cool heads, but not when that lapses into paralysis.

 

[The Technomancer]

So many unforgivable things have happened, but if we as a people do nothing in response it won't matter. Protests + riots for weeks and months. Only option left. If we as a country care about this, we have to make ourselves heard.

netbuff had a point in the other thread: the lack of a mechanism for calling a re-election really hurts us here compared to other countries. Protest for weeks and months elsewhere means you can demand a new election, at least theoretically. What does it do here?

 

[sphagnum]

We need to treat Trump as illegitimate.

 

[Chumley]

netbuff had a point in the other thread: the lack of a mechanism for calling a re-election really hurts us here compared to other countries. Protest for weeks and months elsewhere means you can demand a new election, at least theoretically. What does it do here?

We can demand whatever we want. Impeachment, resignation, whatever. If the protests are big enough and severe enough the government will have to do something. In Ukraine they basically took it back by force.

 

[Sibylus]

We need to treat Trump as illegitimate.

I agree with this sentiment.

 

[kirblar]

Indeed. There's a lot to be said of the virtues of moderation and cool heads, but not when that lapses into paralysis.

Democrats concerned about "optics" paralyze themselves when the GOP just goes full tilt into crazytown.

 

[The Technomancer]

I was dating a girl, earlier this year, who I got on great with, but whom I had one major disagreement with: she took a pretty bitter "fuck em, let those states rot if they can't be bothered to vote for people who will help them" attitude and I was never able to talk her around on it really.

This is on my mind as all of this shit starts hitting the fan and it becomes really really clear that California, New York, Illinois, all these other strong blue states are largely going to be fine. They won't go along with legal bullshit and they'll reshuffle their taxes to keep the hits to social programs from being devastating, though said programs will certainly suffer

But I'm just so sad for all those kids who are teenagers now who are marginalized in any way and who have no fucking way to get out of Mississippi or Oklahoma.

 

[Wilsongt]

So with Trump as President and Russia pulling his strings, what does Russia get out of this? Slow encroach on ukraine to take back land? Able to do a lot of shit without the world saying anything because they are tight with the US?

What does Putin get out of this? Because as I am looking at it, there are four sociopaths ruling right now, and 3 have nukes.

 

[cooljeanius]

We need to treat Trump as illegitimate.

This would be a lot easier if Hillary had been building her own legitimate government since the election while Trump was building his illegitimate one.

 

[Cesare Borgia]

1. Perception that the United States government was actively attempting to interfere in the election on Hillary Clinton's behalf would be very, very bad. He couldn't interfere, folks. Obama made the right decision.

2. We wouldn't be having this conversation if Clinton ran a decent campaign.

 

[Sibylus]

So with Trump as President and Russia pulling his strings, what does Russia get out of this? Slow encroach on ukraine to take back land? Able to do a lot of shit without the world saying anything because they are tight with the US?

What does Putin get out of this? Because as I am looking at it, there are four sociopaths ruling right now, and 3 have nukes.

Depending on how little Trump cares for Europe and NATO, a gamble in the Baltics is a distinct (and horrifying) possibility.

 

[sphagnum]

So with Trump as President and Russia pulling his strings, what does Russia get out of this? Slow encroach on ukraine to take back land? Able to do a lot of shit without the world saying anything because they are tight with the US?

What does Putin get out of this? Because as I am looking at it, there are four sociopaths ruling right now, and 3 have nukes.

Destabilized NATO, someone who will look the other way when Russia does whatever it does, increased influence over the policy of a major rival, etc.

 

[Cesare Borgia]

3. The more I think about it, the more I'm starting to think that Trump might not be president by January 2020.

 

[sphagnum]

3. The more I think about it, the more I'm starting to think that Trump might not be president by January 2020.

Impeachment by a GOP Congress or by a post-2018 Dem wave congress?

 

[The Technomancer]

3. The more I think about it, the more I'm starting to think that Trump might not be president by January 2020.

Oh I think he absolutely won't be. I don't think he makes it two years. The problem is that's still enough time to appoint to the Supreme Court, that's still enough time to fill the swamp with as much shit as he wants, and even after he's gone, Pence is in charge

Literally the only positive outcome of Trump being impeached is that the chance of literal nuclear war goes down. All the rest of the shit Republicans are salivating to push through they can do with or without him

 

[Dominican Power]

I love it when Keith calls him the idiot elect. lol

 

[thepotatoman]

We can demand whatever we want. Impeachment, resignation, whatever. If the protests are big enough and severe enough the government will have to do something. In Ukraine they basically took it back by force.

Problem is that under the line of succession, you're often garenteed to get a loyalist to the old leader as the head of the government if resignation occurs.

If democrats really did lose the election as a result of russian hacking, why would they accept Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, Orin Hatch, or Mitt Romney as president instead of trump?

 

[Chumley]

This is important.

 

[Wilsongt]

You have to wonder if the reason why Trump is having a hard time actually appointing people who know what the hell they are doing to cabinet positions, that he has to resort to this hodgepodge of billionaires because no sane Republican actually wants to be a part of the administration who is no longer looking out for American interests and is instead playing second fiddle to someone else.

 

[sphagnum]

Problem is that under the line of succession, you're often garenteed to get a loyalist to the old leader as the head of the government if resignation occurs.

If democrats really did lose the election as a result of russian hacking, why would they accept Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, Orin Hatch, or Mitt Romney as president instead of trump?

Mike Pence is an evil man but not an unhinged evil man. And at least he has a semblance of decorum, as we saw in his Hamilton response.

 

[sphagnum]

This is important.

We've been assuming he doesn't go to the intelligence briefings because he just wants to let Pence handle all the work, but maybe this has something to do with it?

Edit: come on, I expected a post between these!

 

[Dubbedinenglish]

Impeachment by a GOP Congress or by a post-2018 Dem wave congress?

If the Dems can control the house after 18, I think there is more than enough to impeach him....even before he takes office.

 

[royalan]

1. Perception that the United States government was actively attempting to interfere in the election on Hillary Clinton's behalf would be very, very bad. He couldn't interfere, folks. Obama made the right decision.

He made the wrong choice. Fuck perception. Our President should have done the RIGHT thing, because the optics of Obama protecting his people would not have been nearly as bad as what's about to come.

 

[mo60]

3. The more I think about it, the more I'm starting to think that Trump might not be president by January 2020.

Either he gets impeached sometime in the next four years, decides to leave the presidency or gets crushed in the next presidential election if the democrats can get someone decent to run.

 

[kirblar]

This might wake a sleeping Bush Sr. dragon, considering the CIA HQ is named after him.

 

[Dominican Power]

Let’s Take a Look at Trump’s Cabinet of Villains | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

This is one of the best in this series.

I love Keith's rage. I feel like any rational person should be feeling the same way.

 

[pigeon]

I mean, we've been having a constitutional crisis since 2008.

This is a coup.

 

[Sibylus]

He made the wrong choice. Fuck perception. Our President should have done the RIGHT thing, because the optics of Obama protecting his people would not have been nearly as bad as what's about to come.

Yup. Precedent has been shattered to little pieces for the better part of 20 years. This isn't normal. The stakes aren't normal. The consequences of inaction aren't normal.

 

[Makai]

I mean, we've been having a constitutional crisis since 2008.

This is a coup.

2008?

 

[kirblar]

2008?

The perma-fillibuster.

 

[Diablos]

A recession seems imminent if the GOP goes full steam ahead with everything.

 

[Wilsongt]

A recession seems imminent if the GOP goes full steam ahead with everything.

A recession is the least of our worries right now.

I think it might be able to officially Diablos.

 

[Diablos]

A recession is the least of our worries right now.

I think it might be able to officially Diablos.

What's your biggest fear?

 

[Makai]

A recession seems imminent if the GOP goes full steam ahead with everything.

There's a theory that Republican presidents purposefully engineer small recessions at the start of their terms. The goal is to raise interest rates, which benefits lenders and savers. I remember it holding true for all of them except W - he got one, but not his fault.

 

[Wilsongt]

What's your biggest fear?

As an LGBT individual, I fear the rollback of civil liberties that were won under Obama. I worry about my job due to who I work for. I worry about my future plans to retire as the GOP is systematically working to remove that protection for people my age and younger. I worry about the cost of healthcare continuing to skyrocket, as I actually use my health insurance regularly. I worry about the environment, because I am a Biologist and I grew up being taught about preservation, conservation, etc.

Not to mention, the idea that a potential war could break out is terrifying. The only small glimmer of hope is that Trump being buddy-buddy with Russia might prevent something like that.

Also, Fuckabee needs to go away.

Mike Huckabee is very skeptical of the idea that Russia worked to help Donald Trump into the White House.

This is a skepticism shared by some Republicans on Capitol Hill, according to a bombshell new report from The Washington Post tonight saying the CIA reached a conclusion that Russia interfered in the election to help Trump win.

Huckabee said on Fox News tonight that Russian hackers could have easily obtained Trump’s emails too, and then he claimed, “This notion that Russia wanted Donald Trump to win is nonsense. The last person they want in the Oval Office is Donald Trump.”

Julie Roginsky shot back that Trump said a lot of things on the campaign trail “that strikes to me somebody Vladimir Putin’s very comfortable with.”

Huckabee dismissed that as “nonsense” and said while potential Russian hacking should be a major concern to everyone, Democrats should also express at least a little concern over what the hacks revealed.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/huckabee-trump-is-the-last-person-russia-would-want-in-the-white-house/