miamizsun wrote: 
You have the current debate on a far higher philosophical plane than is deserved, imo.

Simply focus on greed, and the pathologically narcissistic personality who currently serves as POTUS.

 miamizsun wrote: 
there's the rub

 steeler wrote: 
i'm saying that i seriously doubt you'd sell your soul to the extent that presidents have (or have to)

you're on the hook with the military industrial complex, hoards of special interests and the expenses of the masses and worst of all, to banks/creditors 

would you give orders or allow the murder of innocent men, women and children?

or allow senseless war when you could stop it?

would you bury future generations under mountains of debt that they can never ever repay?

especially to finance the political greed, coercion and corruption?

it's the misdirection of humanity

i'd rather vote for you any day 

 miamizsun wrote: 
Well, admittedly, it is a low bar.  Are you saying they will always manage to limbo under it?   

 steeler wrote: 
good luck

there will never be a president better than you

i'm serious

 VV wrote:

 
I have never understood those who vote for someone because he or she is "like me."  I don't want someone like me  — I want someone better than me.  

 kcar wrote: 
And, so it begins.. and, hopefully,  leads to an end of our national (international) nightmare sometime soon.

It is not the man's policies (does he really have guiding principles, much less "policies"? ); it is, for me, the mendacity, the ostentatious vulgarity that he shamelessly displays daily, that deeply offends me.

But, her emails!

 House majority leader to colleagues in 2016: ‘I think Putin pays’ Trump

KIEV, Ukraine — A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016 exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.

Before the conversation, McCarthy and Ryan had emerged from separate talks at the U.S. Capitol with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, who had described a Kremlin tactic of financing populist politicians to undercut Eastern European democratic institutions.

...

Some of the lawmakers laughed at McCarthy’s comment. Then McCarthy quickly added: “Swear to God.”

Ryan instructed his Republican lieutenants to keep the conversation private, saying: “No leaks...This is how we know we’re a real family here.”

...



Evan McMullin, who in his role as policy director to the House Republican Conference participated in the June 15 conversation, said: “It’s true that Majority Leader McCarthy said that he thought candidate Trump was on the Kremlin’s payroll. Speaker Ryan was concerned about that leaking.”


...

Among GOP leaders in the House, McCarthy stood out as a Putin critic who in 2015 called for the imposition of “more severe” sanctions for its actions in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea.

In May 2016, McCarthy signed up to serve as a Trump delegate at the Republican National Convention, breaking ranks with Ryan who said he still wasn’t ready to endorse the candidate. McCarthy’s relationship with Trump became so close that the president would sometimes refer to him as “my Kevin.”

<Read the transcript of the conversation among GOP leaders obtained by The Post>

Robert Mueller, Former F.B.I. Director, Named Special Counsel for Russia Investigation

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has appointed Robert S. Mueller III, the former F.B.I. director, to serve as a special counsel to oversee its investigation into Russian meddling in the election, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein announced on Wednesday.

The appointment of Mr. Mueller dramatically raises the stakes for President Trump in the multiple investigations into his campaign’s ties to the Russians. It follows a swiftly moving series of developments that have roiled Washington, including Mr. Trump’s abrupt dismissal of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and the disclosure that the president urged Mr. Comey to drop the bureau’s investigation into his former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn.

...

While a special counsel would remain ultimately answerable to (Deputy AG Rod. J) Rosenstein — and by extension, the president — he would have greater autonomy to run an investigation than a United States attorney.

 kurtster wrote: 
Beginners mistakes? No new wars and no market crash? Even if you dismiss all of the recent turmoil (I can't)... can you set the "acceptable/satisfactory" bar any lower? Given that criteria, I probably would make a better president than Trump... I would venture to say that you would as well. I have never thought that about any other prior president.
 
When I start to believe that I could do a better job... there is something seriously amiss in the White House.

Trump at the Coast Guard Academy



".....but enough about me..... what do you think of me?

 Proclivities wrote: 
I would like to feel the same way.  

 ScottFromWyoming wrote:  
I know this.  The Director reports to the deputy assistant AG.  Acting Director McCabe has some issues.  We shall see.

 VV wrote:  
Been down this road before with Nixon.  I voted for McGovern.  A lot of people had to eat some nasty crow over their support for Nixon.  Could be the same for me this time around.  We'll see.  So far other than beginners mistakes, I'm not concerned yet.  He hasn't started any new wars and the stock market hasn't crashed as was predicted.  So far so good.

 kurtster wrote: 
I guess your grasping for straws is understandable. Nobody likes to believe that a person they so stood so firmly behind could turn into such a cluster f*ck. His ineptitude was even grossly underestimated by his most fervent critics. Now that's impressive.

 kurtster wrote: 
This is somewhat tangential to your post, but I've never been wholly convinced that Comey has or had any specific agenda; sometimes it seemed like he was bumbling around recklessly.  I do prefer to wait for the dust and smoke to clear and not just 'speculate' about Comey and why he was dismissed at that specific time, and more so: the investigation.  Still, the President has many more problems than just this latest kerfuffle.  We'll have to wait and see - it's still early and just about anything seems possible anymore.

 kurtster wrote: 
FBI is DOJ

To whom it may concern ...

Just this past hour, I was made aware of the facts that lie in two US Codes that would apply directly to former FBI Director Comey that:  

He is required by law to report any attempts of or actual obstruction of justice immediately to the DOJ and that failure to do so would result in the loss of his law license as well as jail time.

The event that everyone is foaming and frothing over, the alleged Comey memo stating just that, would now get Comey in as much or more trouble than Trump if true.  He failed to report obstruction of justice and therefore becomes complicit in same.

Now if in fact Comey wrote these kinds of memos on a regular basis, then we should also see what he wrote about regarding interactions with Obama.  

If indeed Comey did find there to be obstruction of justice regarding Trump, it is still officially unreported 3 months after the event took place.

Until I see the memo, I must say that all of those who think this is the smoking gun you've been drooling over to end your nightmare, the Trump presidency, you are being played, big time.  Or Trump is the one with the least amount of problems as this stuff moves forward.

There is indeed corruption going on somewhere, but your attentions are deliberately being diverted from where it is to be found.

Sleep well.  

 kurtster wrote: 
in the post that follows that statement.  Loosely translated:  "Oh Look! A Squirrel!" 

 ScottN wrote: 
What's fascinating to me is that the Prez truly has no governor and no real concept of right or wrong. Therefore anything he does (in his mind) is right and justified based on his status as Leader of the Free World. He can't even fathom stepping outside of himself long enough to consider how an action he is contemplating could be wrong because he could never be wrong. This isn't news to anyone but these personality flaws are impossible shortcomings to have as president.

His impulsiveness, inflexibility, and inability to truly contemplate the consequences of his actions are what I believe what will ultimately lead to his undoing because the parade of horrors will simply continue.
  

 ScottN wrote: 
Amen to that brother.