An article in Wired magazine points out that, while the idea that Donald Trump has been compromised by the Russian government and is purposely acting as their agent is horrible enough, the alternative is even worse.
The pattern of his pro-Putin, pro-Russia, anti-FBI, anti-intelligence community actions are so one-sided, and the lies and obfuscation surrounding every single Russian meeting and conversation are so consistent, that if this president isn’t actually hiding a massive conspiracy, it means the alternative is worse: America elected a chief executive so oblivious to geopolitics, so self-centered and personally insecure, so naturally predisposed to undermine democratic institutions and coddle authoritarians, and so terrible a manager and leader, that he cluelessly surrounded himself with crooks, grifters, and agents of foreign powers, compromising the national security of the US government and undermining 75 years of critical foreign alliances, just to satiate his own ego.
In short, we’ve reached a point in the Mueller probe where there are only two scenarios left: Either the president is compromised by the Russian government and has been working covertly to cooperate with Vladimir Putin after Russia helped win him the 2016 election—or Trump will go down in history as the world’s most famous “useful idiot,” as communists used to call those who could be co-opted to the cause without realizing it.
Not just elected him, but after two years of insanity more than 40% of the American people still approve of him. Nobody will ever trust the USA again. Leader of the free world? We’ll be lucky if the rest of the world ever takes us seriously again.
A complementary article in USA Today comes to the conclusion that Russia must have compromising information on Trump. They believe this kompromat is most likely “the possible entanglement of Trump’s finances in New York with the Russian mob.”
The same article calls out “the titanic hypocrisy of the Republican Party and of Trump’s apologists in the conservative media.”
If President Barack Obama had shredded his notes of a meeting with the Iranian president, or if Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager were sitting in jail for lying about meeting a Chinese business associate — and alleged intelligence officer — to share polling data, that alone would have been enough for the GOP to impeach everyone from the president to the White House chef.
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This is an example of what I call the “crook-or-fool dilemma”. Is he a crook or is he a fool? The answer is that it doesn’t matter. Everyone lies to crooks, so they become fools; and fools lie to themselves, so they become crooks. Therefore crooks and fools meet in the middle.
Socrates said that the wise must become virtuous, if they are to remain wise. To this I reply that the virtuous must become wise, if they are to remain virtuous.
there should be an investigation about whether Mitch McConnell is conspiring with a known Russian agent to disrupt the US Government.
Many (but not enough) conservative intellectuals have left the Republican party and have been staunch never Trumpers.
But 40% support of Trump is 39% more than it should be. I try to dissect those 40%, but cannot figure out what makes them support Trump this much. One thing I can qualify them all is that they are racist (despite them denying it). Not all racism is at same level, but the least form of racism is to tolerate racism for your own objectives. So for example, an extremely rich white (or black even) person may be just worried about taxes, and support Trump for sake of low taxes and ignore his racism (and from some followers) for his/her personal gain.
Part of how con jobs work is a kind of moral inertia: it’s easier for a person to make excuses than to admit that they shamefully messed up. Therefore loyalty to the unworthy, to save face.
Persons in that trap don’t need more reasons to change; what they need is an excuse. They’ll flip suddenly, for reasons that sound stupid.