General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe AG actively trying to undermine the FBI and intelligence agencies is surreal. But...
...it follows a pattern. The Republican Party has been trying for decades, with quite a bit of success, to undermine faith in government. Run up debt so as to cut entitlements, have corporations write legislation, deregulate industry, install heads of departments whose mission it is to erode those very departments, deny the stark reality that past and present injustice is not evenly distributed, etc.
Since the likes of Putin also wish to undermine democratic institutions for the purpose of self-enrichment, Putin and Republicans make for interesting bedfellows.
This is a war of ideologies: we vs. me. "It takes a village" vs. "every person for themselves" (cheating permitted...nay, encouraged). The likes of Barr, Bannon, Pompeo et al. are especially dangerous--they're white nationalists, isolationists and despise secularization.
They've seen the writing on the wall (social progression, increased secularism, changing demographics, etc.), so their tactics have become increasingly extreme in recent years (intense voter suppression and gerrymandering, full-throated attacks on science and public education, persistent attacks on the "liberal media" to help shift the Overton Window, stealing a Supreme Court seat and packing the judiciary with right wing ideologues, aligning with dictators who share the goal of undermining democracy for personal enrichment, replacing the dog whistle with a bullhorn, and so on). They take comfort, though, in a tyranny of the minority system which, paradoxically, makes major structural reform nearly impossible to bring about for the very reasons why such reform is so desperately needed.
If this current cast of characters is still in power after 1/20/21, the damage wrought may be irreparable.
I wonder how many people (not on DU but nationally) view Trump as an anomaly or someone who just happened in a vacuum and how many people recognize that Trump is a symptom of a much larger problem (to which the GOP as a whole is contributing). I certainly come down on the side of the latter, and at the same time recognize how crucial it is that we remove Trump from office as soon as possible, as he's an especially diseased carrier pigeon for the ideologues who are taking advantage of his narcissistic appeal to the tens of millions of racists, sexists and xenophobes. I also wonder if seeing the big picture (or being helped to see it) would dissuade even a fraction of Trump's soft support (the portion that approves of him but not strongly) from continuing to support him. Are 100% of his supporters really okay with the world Republicans are seeking to realize? If so, they'll regret it.
brush
(53,843 posts)Last edited Sat Oct 19, 2019, 11:10 PM - Edit history (1)
critical time during the campaign that somehow is designed to exonerate Putin and the Russians from having helped trump in 2016, and thus boost his 2020 run.
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)brush
(53,843 posts)Garrett78
(10,721 posts)The days of decent Republicans are long gone.
Garrett78
(10,721 posts)...CrowdStrike to Zelensky, referencing a conspiracy theory about the company that confirmed Russia's attack on the DNC.
I suspect there was, and maybe still is, a plan for Barr to announce - about a year from now - that Ukraine attacked the RNC on Clinton's behalf, rather than Russia attacking the DNC on Trump's behalf. And that our own FBI was involved in a plot against Trump. But I'm not sure their Deep State nonsense is really going to win over any new converts at this point, or even muddy the water enough to have any impact on election turnout. They may just invent a new conspiracy involving the Democratic candidate.
Whatever the specifics, we can be sure the GOP Mafia will pull out all the stops.
brush
(53,843 posts)sit up and think up schemes like the one Barr is on to cheat and steal electionsperhaps those right wing think tanks we hear about because there are constant streams of new ones that they deploy?
They never seem to run out of dirty tricks whether it be the Cloud Strike/deep state evilness or the purging of voter rolls of like Dem voters that was used in Georgia to steal the Georgia gubernatorial race from Stacey Abrams in 2018.
eppur_se_muova
(36,289 posts)45 is slippery as a hagfish, and he relies on fixers like Barr to help him obstruct investigation. Disable the fixers, and you thwart the obstruction.
Liberty Belle
(9,535 posts)Get rid of his fixer so justice can be done.
Pepsidog
(6,254 posts)Garrett78
(10,721 posts)Watergate only involved something like a dozen people. Child's play compared to what we're dealing with now.
marked50
(1,368 posts)referring to government---"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."
SCVDem
(5,103 posts)I haven't heard jack from him on tRump!
Paid off?
Garrett78
(10,721 posts)DENVERPOPS
(8,844 posts)Isn't it strange that the major voices and architects of this overwhelming twilight zone are suddenly absent?
Not a single word out of them these past three or four years........
Norquist, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc etc etc.......not a word out of them. Are they continuing to direct things from the shadows????
There is no way they are at home, spending more time with their kids and grandkids, that's for sure........
Tanuki
(14,920 posts)before Congress.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/us/politics/laura-cooper-pentagon-letter.amp.html
"The No. 2 Pentagon official told Ms. Cooper, the militarys Russia-Ukraine expert, not to talk to Congress. She did anyway.
........
The date stamp shows that the deputy secretary of defense, David L. Norquist, sent this warning letter on Tuesday, the day before Ms. Cooper was scheduled to give voluntary, private testimony. That same day, Representative Adam Schiff, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, signed a subpoena stating that Ms. Cooper was legally required to appear."....(more)
abqtommy
(14,118 posts)to finally convict him. After all, we are dealing with organized crime. We can do it.
Garrett78
(10,721 posts)...on going after Trump. Not with an election a little over a year away.
But, yeah, his subordinates need to be held accountable. What Barr is doing, going around the world trying to build a case that undermines our own intelligence agencies, is completely outrageous.
kentuck
(111,110 posts)...as their own. They made a deal with the devil.
Garrett78
(10,721 posts)Last edited Sun Oct 20, 2019, 03:20 PM - Edit history (1)
This should probably be a thread all by itself, but I digress...
First, what sparked the Tea Party? Rick Santelli of CNBC advocated for a tea party after slamming Obama for wanting to bail out "losers" (i.e., victims of predatory lending and those who lost their jobs due to the recession).
So, one month after the inauguration of the nation's first Black president, the Tea Party movement began. Birtherism played a huge role, and without Birtherism (and his speech about Mexicans being rapists and drug dealers), I don't think Trump would have ever won the Republican Party nomination.
Tea Partiers and Trump have been described, by the media and others, as populists. Then, after the 2016 election, members of the media and people from all across the political spectrum (including both leftists and moderate Democrats, from Bernie Sanders to Tim Ryan) insisted that Trump won due to "economic anxiety" (which, apparently, hardly any persons of color experience). I've been pushing back against that demonstrably false narrative for nearly 3 years and touched on it again in this recent post: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212599797.
Now, let's consider a certain former member of the Tea Party caucus in Congress. This swamp creature vehemently opposes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (and, naturally, was placed in charge of it for a while). You know, the agency that is looking out for the 'little guy' by making sure people are treated fairly by Big Finance. This swamp creature vehemently opposes Medicaid expansion. This swamp creature said he only listened to lobbyists if they had given money to his congressional campaigns. This swamp creature committed campaign finance violations in his run for Congress. This swamp creature has profited off of shady land deals that have harmed South Carolina residents and small businesses. This swamp creature is currently Trump's Acting Chief of Staff.
The Tea Party types who supposedly want to "drain the swamp" absolutely adore the swamp creatures. They aren't populists. If anything, they're anti-populists. They're racist, sexist, xenophobic, conspiracy theorist assholes who despise government by and for the people. They're the people who still "strongly approve" of Trump (the 28% or so who are unreachable). Screw 'em and screw anyone who still pushes the narrative about why they vote the way they do. I have no patience for that shit.
moondust
(20,006 posts)Watching some BBC tonight I heard one MP call it "your billionaire's Brexit." I can't help thinking Brexit may have always been the plan of some Tory liars like Farage who want to get rid of sensible EU labor, social, environmental, etc., regulations that may inhibit their moneygrubbing. You know, like Republicans.
Garrett78
(10,721 posts)...has gripped so many countries. I've been hoping against hope that Brexit won't happen--not likely.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,414 posts)Well said.
oasis
(49,407 posts)NCLefty
(3,678 posts)Trump is their champion in this. He was brash and arrogant enough, and had no morals of his own to get in the way.
He did the things they wanted in exchange for for blind loyalty--and protection.
Progressive Jones
(6,011 posts)being carried out by right wing subversives. It's been slow moving, and it's been going on for decades.
This has been going on in earnest since at least the Reagan era, but it was happening before then.
JFK was whacked by right wing subversives. So was MLK. To the hard right, those two were "trouble makers".
All GOP presidents in the past 40 years have been mere puppets/front men.
They control nothing. They are controlled and manipulated by right wing subversives.
Characters like Barr are not new to the scene. They've been in on it for decades.
The right wing media is their PR and propaganda operation. It did not come to be "organically".
There are no "grassroots" right wing organizations. They are all created by "think tanks" like the Heritage Foundation.
The evangelicals were conned into playing along.
Along comes Trump, and he's a loose cannon. With Trump being caught in so much illegal BS,
there is an opportunity in this impeachment venture to put a serious hurt on the coup, and those involved.
Garrett78
(10,721 posts)But the right wingers play the long game and Trumpism will still have life. I worry a smarter, more charismatic version of Trump will come along.
spanone
(135,873 posts)John Mitchell
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF UNITED STATES
Mitchell resigned as head of the Committee for the Reelection of the President in July 1972, shortly after the arrest of several men discovered burglarizing the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C. In 1974 he was indicted on charges that he had conspired to plan the break-in and that he had obstructed justice and perjured himself during the subsequent cover-up of the affair. He was convicted in 1975 and sentenced to 2 1/2 to 8 years in prison; he entered prison in 1977 and was released on parole in 1979.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Mitchell-attorney-general-of-United-States
Garrett78
(10,721 posts)CrispyQ
(36,509 posts)Some right winger said that on some news show. I think a lot of my non-political democratic friends think that will be the ultimate solution, too. And if our elections were secure, I believe he would lose easily. People are sick of the 24x7 trump drama. Even a lot of repubs. They may say they'll vote for him, but in the privacy of a voting booth I think many repubs will leave the office of the presidency blank. But, we don't have secure elections. So anything goes.
Where the fuck are the Hackers for Democracy?
We're in as dire a situation as we've ever been in.
Garrett78
(10,721 posts)...but they'll vote for him on what is a secret ballot. That and the prospect of election fraud are enough to keep one up at night.
MBS
(9,688 posts)is that in undermining faith in government, supposedly for individual freedom (to get rich), they'll leave us with more government, and a more intrusive and corrupt government that ever, in the form of autocracy/oligarchy.