The White House Comes Clean, kind of......

#fakenews #alternatefacts

 

I read somewhere that a comic or blogger or somesuch pulled that prank, handed out a bunch of Russian flags to attendees and they had no idea what they were waving around. I love it.

 

Sessions probably should have plead the 5th.

 

Enjoyed your replies to justtexyank, and this post, as well, but have to disagree with part of it. I have more faith in the free press of this country than many of you seem to have. During Watergate I was told numerous times by friends, family, and acquaintances (not to mention reading and watching the news) that there was nothing to it, and if there was, it would get buried. Instead, there was something to Watergate and it wasn't buried, leading to the resignation of a United States president. President Nixon told a large number of lies himself, and Nixon discovered that people noticed. That is happening now with Trump. In my humble opinion, people are paying more attention to what he says and are noticing that Trump lies. Trump lies a lot.

 

There might very well have been collusion between Trump administration and the Russians, we do not know at this point. However, I think there is maybe a one in ten thousand chance of actual hard evidence surfacing. I will believe it when I see it.

 

In my humble opinion, you will eventually "see it." Again, people reacted the same way you are to the Watergate stories. My own father, who became a voter while in the Navy during WWII and voted for FDR, voting for Democrats in every other presidential election, voted for Nixon in 1972. I argued with him about Nixon and Watergate up until we both walked into voting booths (I've told this story before). I kept voting in my parent's neighborhood for many years after I moved out. Months later, Dad admitted to me that he was wrong about both Nixon and Watergate. I still cherish that memory. That remained his one Republican presidential vote during his voting career. He even voted for Stevenson and against Ike in 1956, and he liked Ike. Had a "thing" about McGovern. Simply didn't like the man. Go figure. Like Ford, McGovern was an honest, decent man, at least in my opinion.

 

Oh I'm right there with you. I do believe the Free Press is INCREDIBLY important now in a Trump presidency. I'm just trying to play this thing safe and not do the thing that Right Wingers say folks like me do and "hyperventilate".

I also realize that back with Nixon, there was a Democratic House. There was a GOP House when Clinton was impeached. The FBI wasn't compromised then like it is now with Comey tangled up in politics. Listen to the interview the other day from the Democrat Senator on the Ethics committee reg Comey. They are not cooperating obviously.

Also if Trump goes down, he likely takes EVERYONE down with him.... meaning Pence likely gets tied in somewhat which kills the GOP if he's not clean as he will be the president if "anything" happens and they need him to pursue the GOP agendas (you know like cutting taxes for the rich, and taking healthcare away from poor people).

The one shred of hope I have that maybe they wont be able to completely bury is, like I mentioned before, the fact that Obama's admin spread the Intel across to our Allies intelligence agencies in order to preserve from Trump and the GOP leaders. If there is something there, will Trump & co. be able to bury it from overseas? Not sure about that but I'm just trying to not over react (when we don't have incriminating evidence), and realize that its highly unlikely that they won't have ALOT of help (GOP, FBI, etc.) in Burying this.

 

My best hope is this thing drags out for more than a year and drive the votes against GOP in 2018 and the Democrats retake either the house or the senate.

 

I suspect you don't tend to follow my #fakenews, #alternatefacts replies.

 

If you look at it from an election strategist perspective, since they need to take back seats in Michigan, Penn, Iowa, Ohio, etc. do you think it actually might be better to call out Trump as a fraud for the supposed "Working Class" in the mid-west? Make that the backbone of their campaign if they don't have incriminating information on Trump/Russia?

I think there is a case to be made that if Trump voters didn't care about Russia back in November, they probably wont care in 2018. They didn't care that he was a Sexual Predator so I'm not entirely sure they will care even if he's a secret Russian spy as long as they think he will help their pocket books.

Either way though I think they have ALOT to campaign against, but staying focused on the key areas will be key starting... really by late this year. Now they can sort of take their time to focus on things as they come out, but it will be here before they know it when they need to have a fully fledged campaign strategy.

 

Yes and no to this. The Russia thing is a drip-drip-drip that weakens Trump's credibility, but it doesn't drive up support for Dems. Same with calling out Trump as a fraud. It's a "vote for me because I'm not him" strategy. The Dems certainly need to do it, but they also need to give people a reason to FOR them too, instead of just against Trump. Dems need a message of their own, and it can't just be that Trump sucks. Hillary already tried that.

 

We will see if Democrats voter who voted for Trump will switch back in 2018, we will see. There won't be a Hillary for GOP to point at this time. If the independents and Democrat voter are very unsatisfied with Trump administration and GOP congress, I could this, but if the economy gets much better in rust belts states, Democrats will not win anything in 2018.

 

Yep. I guess the issue here though that Hillary had too is that how do you even attempt to get your message across when you even inject Trump scandals into your political message? I say that because for whatever reason Trump just overtakes any political conversation. Its going to be a fine line to walk to continue to remind people why he's a pure monster, but make sure those areas that you are spending your time on that highlight his weaknesses, also highlight your strengths.

I personally think Trump showed his weakness & the Dems strength in his very first Executive Order that went largely unnoticed. This IMO was a huge failure by the Democrats to get sucked in by the other noise and not go hard at this issue. Point back to the Housing Market policies Obama created that helped the economy & the housing market, etc. The Obama first time home buyer credit was huge, but is rarely talked about by the Dems. While Trump wants to make home buying more expensive for the sake of helping his Wall Street donors. Just an example.

 

I guarantee you the GOP strategy will be AT ALL COSTS tie back X Dem candidate to Clinton & the "Establishment". There wont be a true Hillary separation for years and years from the GOP strategy.

I think a big one too will be to claim that Dems are anti-military & don't support our troops. Thats why the Dems need to use guys like Kanter as much as they can to protect from that narrative they will push as the GOP knows they will have major "military people" support with the huge spending going towards the military & the high likelihood we will be in some sort of a war at election time.

 

For me, the media is compromised to some extent not only through omission but also through phrasing. I see the root causes as the lack of profitability in sobering details (which is how Trump won through middle school vocabulary and simple Get Rich Quick-esque easy answers) and the inability to tackle discomfort in order to accept grey issues over taking emotional stands/affirmational vignettes/aspirational fluff pieces.


Despite that, it's still the best we got.

Make Russia Great or I **** you in face *******

 

I hope so, but Nixon didn't have what is essentially the equivalent of state/party television in FoxNews to run propaganda for him. As more damning information becomes public, it becomes more essential for Trump and the RNC to shield the people living in the FoxNews/conservative media bubble from the evidence. This will continue to be a battle of Fox/Trump/RNC framing the facts and distracting the public while journalists and Dems try to get all the cards on the table.

In the end, the Dems have gotta get those tax returns public (this whole scheme is just self enrichment for Trump and a white sumpremacy-ethnic cleansing campaign for Bannon). And get the relevant transcripts of calls with Russia public... I think that is an essential part of cutting through party tribalism. Then, hopefully, we will see more and more people need to put country over party.

 

I think you're right about electoral strategy. Taking Trump down for a Russia scandal might actually be bad for Democrats if voters are left with the impression that Trump policies would have been good for workers if his Administration was not hamstrung by this Russia scandal. I don't really care that much about the fortunes of the Democrats though, and I think it's a lot more important to find the truth about the Russia involvement than it is to get a particular party in power or see any particular policy or ideology pursued. Even if the Trump Admin would hang itself once given enough rope anyway, I'd still rather have the Russia connection known. I'll be worried if Democrats see more advantage in not pursuing the Russia story.

 

Yeah I think its important that I note that I was commenting as to note a political strategy and not what I think it best.

IMO its more important to our country and our democracy that the Russian situation is looked at thoroughly and if Trump did anything wrong is held accountable.

I dont think the Democrats should go crazy with the Russian scandal because it might not be great politically for them, but it is probably the right thing to do. But the Democrats do have to worry about winning elections too, so IF I WAS ADVISING THEM I would tell them first and foremost to make sure their strategy is sound to focus their message around the economic message, but certainly its a bigger issue for our country than the Dems winning an election.

 

Yep, no one wants Trump to f^#$ up the country just so the Democrats can win an election.