Interesting thread on Twitter

[PatSeg]

from "Spiro Agnew's Ghost". Not sure what I think about it, but it is very possible. You need to read the entire thread to get the gist of it.

Link to tweet

?s=20

[NewJeffCT]

1. I hope his or her claim

to having insider knowledge is true and not some BS

[PatSeg]

3. Same here

I'm a little tired of anonymous insiders, but I suppose revealing one's identity would cut off their source of information.

[TruckFump]

2. Interesting read.

I got thru most of the replies. IMO, the loss to the corrupt Repukes could energize the Dems to not take any BS in the 2020 elections -- state and federal.

[PatSeg]

5. That is a belief

I've been trying to hold onto, but it is really hard to maintain any optimism with the daily onslaught of negative news. There is so much at stake. Even the unthinkable is possible, we could lose our democracy.

[TruckFump]

8. Scares the hell out of me.

Whatever is causing the Republicans to become the RW party of Putin has to be ugly, strong, and very threatening -- and known to each of the ass kissers who are cooperating in the ruin of our country.

IMO, it is going to come out...eventually. The question is will our nation survive? At times, I am glad I am old and have lived through the best of time for the US...just in case everything is lost.

[PatSeg]

14. Sometimes I'm glad

I am old as well, but I really worry about what kind of world my grandchildren will inherit.

I can't even begin to imagine what Putin has on so many republicans to get them to behave like this. What is sad is regardless of what they do, it will come out eventually. They are just delaying the inevitable. What a horrid way to live. Of course, I'm sure many are just following like sheep.

[NewJeffCT]

9. There was a lot of negative news leading up to the 2018 elections as well

Democrats were generally predicted to pick up 15-25 seats (with needing 17 or 18 to get a majority) and ended up getting 40 seats

In early 2017, Republicans thought they could repeat their 2014 senate results in 2018 - you know, where they picked up a net NINE seats. They still picked up 2 and some of those races that they won were extremely close - including Florida and Texas. Two seats in what was considered the worst map in Senate history for Democrats.

[PatSeg]

17. Thanks for the perspective

I would think (hopefully) that the momentum is even greater now than in 2018.

[Phoenix61]

4. It's completely plausible.

Twitler has been involved in/with criminality since he was a young man. He’s making enemies left and right. Personally, I believe what I did in the beginning. This is an international situation. Twitler is not the only compromised leader. There are multiple financial institutions involved. It takes awhile to pull a huge net in to shore. I think the impeachment is just the beginning.

[PatSeg]

11. Yes

I think this is all much bigger than most people realize and I have to believe that there have been many ongoing investigations that will incriminate many people worldwide. If not, our intelligence agencies are not what we thought they were. I would think that many investigations of key players would end up leading back to Trump, as well as other republican politicians.

[crickets]

29. You and Phoenix are spot on.

Yet another reason why the WH and Repubs are covering so hard. It's not just the kompromat, it's the world wide money laundering scheme that would pull down more heads than Trump's.

[PatSeg]

30. You would think that people

who are so compromised in so many ways, would avoid the public spotlight, but some of them just are not all that bright it appears.

Meanwhile, there really is no loyalty among thieves and criminal enterprises don't have NDAs. When caught, people won't hesitate to feed Trump to the wolves to save their own behinds.

[Leghorn21]

6. I think Ghost is a legit source, Pat - a trusted tweeter I visit often (I forget who it was) had

retweeted this yesterday so I read it and went hmmmmmmm

hang tough

[PatSeg]

12. Thanks

It really makes sense to me. So much criminality couldn't possibly go undetected by our intelligence agencies.

[ScratchCat]

7. I'll just put this out there

In order for someone to be investigated for filing false loan documents, the bank or lending institution to which the documents were submitted for a loan would need to file the complaint because it is that bank which has been defrauded. Therefore, I believe its wishful thinking that Trump is being investigated by DOJ for filing false loan documents to DeutschBank.

[Hortensis]

10. I'm sure Pelosi and company have MUCH more coming.

This result was entirely predictable on election day 2016 when we learned the people in their wisdom had given the Republicans majorities in the senate as well the house.

It's not about Trump, it's about what had already become a very corrupt, dangerously hard-right party determined to destroy government of, by and for the people because elections no longer protected the privileges of white Christian men.

This isn't the end of this war, just one of the battles. The Republicans not only didn't win this battle we forced them into, they almost certainly lost a lot of ground.

Breaking from the NYT:

Link to tweet

[PatSeg]

13. And I suppose the bright side

or less dark side, is as it unfolds, the republicans won't have enough time to replace Trump on the ballot. I've been wondering if republicans have some contingency plan for November if Trump should resign, get impeached, or have a stroke. Surely they know it is possible.

[ScratchCat]

15. Its painfully obvious

That Nikki Haley is already on board for one of the slots.

[PatSeg]

18. Oh yes, that's true

I just wonder if it is any kind of organized plan or if it is just throw something at the wall and see what sticks.

[Hortensis]

16. I believe they do. One scenario I read about had a whole new

pack rushing to run that contained all those you might expect, Pence, Romney (likely seeing it as God's finger), Haley, Kasich, Cruz, many others. And some who surely must be out now, like Pompeo? Pence? Please, please!

That scenario's explained by the, believe it or not, 3 current "challengers" to Trump. I wondered if either Joe Walsh and Bill Weld might still be running, and yes, both, but the Repubs also have Roque De La Fuente, prior Reform Party candidate.

[PatSeg]

19. I would love to be a fly on the wall

behind the scenes in the republican leadership. Is it chaos or strategic in nature? Trump has thrown the entire party into disarray, I'm not sure they know how to function effectively in such a climate. It is understandable that so many republicans have chosen to "retire".

[Hortensis]

20. I suspect they're like a corrupt football team being

harangued into agreeing they have no choice but to hang together -- or get a knife in the neck. The latest of a series of such meetings, but I don't feel sorry for them at all.

[PatSeg]

21. Sometimes

it feels like they are a different species. I just can't understand how they can function like that.

[Hortensis]

22. Yes! I've wondered often. Poor character, we know that.

It's why I've come to think character should always come first, above even ideology. If character's good, the ideology can't be too bad, and extremists, and all hard-core conservatives, are automatically weeded out.

Most Repubs elected over the last 30 years were assisted to office by big donors as part of corrupting processes, whether they admitted it or not. Most seemed to also really believe in cutting taxes and regulations, and nothing's more common than high-flown rhetoric you want to believe used to excuse what you want to do. Then life on a slippery slope? People in key positions set up, blackmailed into compliance, taking others with them? Promises of riches and power in a new authoritarian hierarchy that was desperately needed to replace the failed democracy the people couldn't handle? Never far from the highest principles to pop one's ego on?

Still another species.

I remember, a year or two ago, Adam Schiff commenting on Repub house members after some big revelation of Trump-Russia-Repub corruption. Wish I remembered the words, but he was saying the mood among house Repubs was stunned and lost or something like that, apparently at being forced to face what they were part of. But we know they fell in line, helped by that poor, will-follow-orders character so many were assisted into office for.

[PatSeg]

23. I'm sure many of them started out with

good intentions, but they made some politically expedient compromises here and there. As time passed, there would be more compromises and the need for donor money. The day comes when a person has made one bad deal too many and then as you say it becomes a slippery slope.

Today's republican party in congress was fertile ground for an autocrat like Trump and his overlord Putin. Too late to go back, now they are stuck in the muck and mire. They will be remembered for what they do and say right now and anything positive they may have done previously will be for naught.

Ethics, as well as civics should be required courses before someone can graduate from high school.

[Hortensis]

24. Some unfortunates wouldn't be able to graduate. Seriously. :)

There are real reasons this happened in the conservative party and not the liberal party. The weaknesses that corruption feeds on are much stronger in general in conservatives, such as a darker view of human nature, natural tendency toward hierarchical societies, gut feelings that the deserving people (classes) should be rewarded, less deserving penalized to discourage bad behavior.

Liberals have the weaknesses to a significantly smaller degree, and also some anti-corruption strengths, including belief in equality and fairness regardless of background. A political scientist once told me that liberal reps tend to believe in the progressive purpose of government, come with ideas they want to accomplish, and that helps keep them on track.

Cons who come indoctrinated to despise progressive government don't have that. We know three families, well-enough-off to downright affluent, who leaped at the first chance to stick their biggest scoops in the public till when minor earthquake damage opened it up for them. They all insisted that everyone else did it and they (deserving) were forced to pay in and entitled to get some of their own back before undeservings took it. Imagine them in congress, with donors they had to please... I know their good qualities, one particularly is someone I've admired most in my life, and as you say, all would have gone to the swamp with good intentions, guessing totally unaware of being pre-wired for corruption.

[PatSeg]

25. "Pre-wired for corruption"

Yes, I think you summed that up well. Over the years I've noticed certain characteristics that differentiate conservatives from liberals and that whole "I am entitled" thing comes up over and over again or "everyone else did it" (being they are inclined to be more followers than leaders).

I've watched conservatives look down on people on public assistance as losers and deadbeats, but when circumstances put them in that position, it is different because they are deserving. Instead of sparking some kind of empathy in them, they still feel they are better than others.

One thing I've noticed also is that conservatives believe in winning at any cost. Cheating or lying is okay as long they win. In games they are horrible losers, but even worse winners. The ends always justify the means and their view of the world is more subjective than objective. Liberals usually try to put themselves in the shoes of others.

[Hortensis]

26. Too many of today's conservatives absolutely.

And any lie that helps them win is a good one, any truth that doesn't isn't true. We've all seen it. Same for extremists of any ideology, and Repubs have become increasingly extremist.

I read once that, before the big government safety net programs became widespread, people who were bankrupted could often maintain some standing in society. It was understood by cons that bad things could happen to people who worked hard and were deserving. That attitude started changing after the New Deal, suspicion and resentment growing at assumed undeservings being supported by the hard work of deservings. Now, people bankrupted by medical bills or whatever often move away and/or find new churches even when they don't have to because they don't belong and feel shamed. All fanned by bad leaders for venal purposes, of course.

[PatSeg]

27. That's an interesting perspective

Reminds me of people I knew growing up, people who came through the Depression unscathed, but had bitter feelings toward FDR and his New Deal. If they could make it, everyone else should be able to as well. Of course, when they got older, they had no problem collecting Social Security and using Medicare, because NOW they are entitled, as they paid in. The same with collecting unemployment benefits.

It is an alarming deficiency in empathy and compassion. When something bad happens to them, they wail and moan, "Why me?", but when it happens to their neighbor, they are more inclined to be grateful it wasn't them or sometimes even blame the victim.

[Hortensis]

28. Now that's interesting. :) An of-course once you point it out.

We have a classic example from these days, a hard-core RW neighbor with MS. His favorite political topic is that the government doesn't do enough for those with MS. He blames that on others who take the money deserving people like him need, and of course on Democrats who love scum and hate good people.

I honestly don't believe he could change to be accepting of people he doesn't identify with, the deficiency in empathy built in. Probably disapproval of his tiny-minded selfishness and blanket hostility from his own tribe would be the most effective feedback, but that's in critical deficit these days.

[PatSeg]

31. Yes, that's an excellent example

and I've known people like that. You would think such adversity would spark some empathy in them, but some seem incapable of it.

[Hortensis]

32. Lol, my favorite excellent examples are ones I read about. nt