Yesterday Tillerson spoke out about Russia poisoning a spy in the UK, while the White House refused to blame Russia. Today Tillerson is fired. But that's OK, because the Republicans just shut down the House Intelligence Committee's investigation into Russian interference. It turns out Russia is a great friend and did nothing wrong!
I've come around to the notion that the Republican Party are like market investors in a stock bubble: they know it can't continue, they know they're near the top, but they're trying to maximize their investment before they cash out their chips and hunker down for years of stormy weather. Mccain is only ever reminded of the Keating Five when he's trying to run for President. None of these fuckers will face any real blowback if they survive reelection. And if they don't survive reelection there's some friendly board of directors somewhere that will pay them six figures a year to come to eight meetings. "bin Laden determined to attack within the United States" has been on the board of directors at Dropbox since 2014.
Having the House Intel Committee issue a statement at odds with the entire intelligence community (that Russia didn't aim to assist Trump) is a new low. I'm almost glad that they've terminated their little investigative theater, because seeing Nunes's name in headlines infuriates me to no end. But I have little doubt he'll continue to denigrate the title of "Congressman".
Were you really expecting anything else? The game I like to play is "what job are they looking for?" What is Nunes angling for with all this bullshit? Who, in the end, is going to be impressed by this? What outfit with deep pockets wants to throw coins at him? My conclusion on Nunes is he's a small-town grifter that doesn't see the forest for the trees and is operating without an endgame but I'm not in politics. He could well surprise us.
I'm close to ready to go full on conspiracy theorist here. This time last year I fully expected that Ryan and McConnell would jump ship after (1) they got their Spanish Inquisitor confirmed to the court, (2) they gutted the ACA, and (3) transferred more of the tax burden to the middle class while making the revenue picture one that necessitates cutting lots and lots in the near future. They got all three and yet they're still all in. Why? There are only a few reasonable explanations. First is that they're enjoying gutting the welfare state so much that they just don't want to stop. This is likely. It doesn't account for some of the seedier things they've done, however, such as degrading law enforcement and intelligence gatherers, which are supposed to be GOP sacred cows. Second, they could be full on conspirators in Trump's embezzlement scheme. I view this as so exceedingly unlikely that I hesitate to even type it. Third, Russia has compromised them by the same tactics that they used against the Dems, and have heavy threats against them if they don't play ball. I find this to be a very real possibility. Donna Brazile told Clinton that she was going to be asked about emails at a town hall. Shocking and scandalous! Can you imagine what type of nefarious shit McConnell says and does when he thinks no one is watching? What about Paul Ryan, a person who admits in public that the long game of tax reform is to cut entitlements, and that Ayn Rand is his hero. Those are the things he's not embarrassed to say. There's an almost 100% certainty that these crooked dealers have a lot they need to keep under wraps. Is it so embarrassing and profoundly immoral that they would sell out NatSec to keep it hidden? I don't think that's beyond reason. Some RNC staffers have said on the record--and then "corrected" themselves--that their emails were hacked. But we've never seen that evidence. So either the corrections were legit, or there's an anvil hanging by fishing line above the entire GOP's head. Do we think that somehow a bunch of old ass rich dudes are so tech savvy that they're immune to state sponsored hacking? Not likely.
Politifact took a look at the RNC breach. But I agree, it doesn’t make much sense to me why almost the entire party (at the national level, at least) is committing a slow political suicide. We all know Mueller is going to find, like, so many dead hookers in Trump’s trunk. So why is anyone still hitching their wagon up to his? Short-term political gains at the expense of being on the wrong side of history? Maybe they honestly don’t care.
I think you overestimate the likelihood that any of them will actually face consequences, but they don't. I think the Republican leadership was worried when Trump was elected, but once he made it through a few months without going to jail, it became clear that actual accountability is no longer a thing.
I think that if McConnell or Ryan were able to be blackmailed they would have been blackmailed long since. I've got my own pet conspiracies but I'm also with Benjamin "three can keep a secret if two are dead" Franklin. Really - what have we really learned about Trump that's surprising over the past 18 months? He's grab'embythepussy through and through, all we're learning is specifics. The logical conclusion is that McConnell and Ryan know they're going to survive Trump. Last time McConnell won he was up by 16 points. Ryan has never come within ten points of losing in eleven elections - he won his first election 81 to 19. If these guys can keep their constituents happy, they get to keep playing long after Trump is gone. Meanwhile they've been at it long enough to know that if they keep their noses clean in an election year they're golden.
Heritage Foundation. Blackwater (or whatever name they are calling themselves to avoid name recognition, nowadays). Some Murdoch-owned property. The Koch Foundation. Goldman Sachs. Any of numerous interlinked policy think-tanks with a deep and abiding hatred for all America stands for... The list is long and lucrative.
Not buyin' it. Nunes is a toady, not a thought leader. - Heritage Foundation is a think tank. Nobody cares what Nunes thinks. - Blackwater is a logistics company (really - they're just a lot more kinetic than Penske). Nunes does nothing for them. - "Some Murdoch-owned property" is related to media, and Nunes has demonstrated himself to be fucking awful on camera. More than that, he's got terrible instincts and he's mostly good for getting caught doing dumb shit. - The Koch foundation. They mostly spend money and Nunes has none. - Goldman Sachs. I know it's popular to call 'em the Vampire Squid but mostly, they're a bank. The nefarious shit they've accomplished is all related to banking. Nunes offers them nothing. - numerous interlinked policy think-tanks with a deep and abiding hatred for all America stands for... There's a great line in Ken Follet's "Fall of Giants" where a character describes Lord Beaverbrook as having two important characteristics: truly believing the vile shit he publishes and being able to restate the evil and petty thoughts of his basest readers as something noble and rational. Nobody wants Nunes' thoughts on anything. We know he has none. he's useful in the moment and I think he's reaching to demonstrate how "useful" he is because moving forward, he's got nothing to offer. I'm honestly having a rough time putting myself in the shoes of any of your Usual Suspects above and coming up with a reason to hire Devin other than some dumbshit grafty quid pro quo the conspiracy theorists would love to propose. I think he's just really bad at the game and isn't thinking past November.
Sometimes I like to pretend he's Mike Myers pretending to be Wayne Campbell as the president. Sometimes I like to pretend he's Andy Kaufman pretending to be Tony Clifton as the president. http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-andy-kaufman-disguise-election-502292
I was born in a superpower at its near peak of global dominance, probably the biggest most powerful global force ever in human history. I get to walk into grave watching the fall of Rome one tweet at a time. I'm not a fan of this timeline, not at all.
Meh, not buyin' it. Orson Scott Card pointed out that the power of the Roman Empire was bureaucracy. There's a bit in the Durant where he says something awesome like "the emperors over the following three hundred years were noteworthy only in that there were so many of them, and so many of them were so short-lived." The last emperor you can name, probably, is Nero. He died in 68AD. Roman society, on the other hand, continued through Byzantium until fuckin' 1453. That whole "rise and fall" thing was Gibbon being dramatic; really, Julius Caesar was just the last larger-than-life dude to be declared a god. We're gonna survive Trump. We got too much entrenched bureaucracy and bureaucrats for the whole thing to come apart at the seams. And really - neither the Democrats nor the Republicans want a repeat of Trump at this point. He's a walking, talking demonstration of why the Executive should be limited.