General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIt's difficult for some folks to grasp that their President is a criminal.
But, he was a criminal before he became President. There was no conversion on the road to Damascus. He's just in a better position right now.
The people in one of the marches today were asking, "If there is nothing to hide, what's the big problem?" Excellent question.
There is very little that is transparent in our government today. There are a lot of secrets. The White House has even refused to release the visitor logs to the White House. As if it were his House, not the People's House? As if the people do not have the right to know.
He is too big to jail. Or so he thinks. He has paid little in taxes for many years, all the while bragging about all the billions of dollars he has made. When money got a little tight for him and the banks in this country would no longer lend him the money he needed to build huge buildings with his name on them, then he had to go elsewhere. One of those places he went now appears to have been Russia.
There was a bank in Cyprus that laundered money for Russia oligarchs and crime figures. The present Commerce Secretary under Donald Trump was previously a VP in one of those banks in Cyprus. The Russian that bought one of Trump's mansions in Florida, and paid $50 million above the purchase price, worked thru one of the banks in Cyprus. It was nothing more than money laundering. Once it went into real estate, it was washed clean.
This is the criminal that now occupies the Oval Office in the White House. That is a fact that some people will never admit. But that is the fact of the matter.
luvallpeeps
(935 posts)I hear a lot of people who believe what Fox tells them. They believe the Muslim Kenyan ran roughshod over them, the Mexicans took their jobs, the black people get free stuff, and ISIS (disguised as Syrian refugees) are coming to kill them. This crap is repeated daily and nightly. Fear is a powerful tool. They really believe the orange one is the savior, and he'll restore law and order. Anyone who disagrees, and tries to speak logically is disregarded. Maybe deep inside they may believe the truth, but that scares the shit outta them. Which leaves us to try and figure out a way to communicate to them (without them thinking we are belittling them) that they are voting their way into hell.
DK504
(3,847 posts)They refuse flat out he is a traitor.
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)still can't see that.
certainot
(9,090 posts)and that's the problem with trying to talk them down
if they're listening to that there's not much chance you're competing with 30 years of burned-in alternate reality.
imo the only way to get through is for liberals to stop ignoring it with protests and total boycotts to take the talk radio gods down a peg. they enjoy the protection of monopoly power and when their advertisers start leaving the true market for their hate and lies will leave them about 100 stations instead of 1000.
ThoughtCriminal
(14,047 posts)Because certain businesses just love the perfect target base of the most gullible people.
certainot
(9,090 posts)much of it is local business that would bail easily as the stoprush flushrush showed
the only reason they get most of the advertisers is they have the loudest stations- and those university endorsements
Solly Mack
(90,779 posts)America can do no wrong thinking that always translates into thinking a president is above it all as well.
You take a human, give said human a title, and suddenly the human stops being a human? Or the human said person always was and has clearly demonstrated?
That defies everything about being human. Humans can and will do horribly bad things. A title in front of the name will never change that.
President, Senator, Representative, Father, Preacher, Rabbi, Mullah, Teacher, Mom, Dad, Doctor, Nurse, Lawyer, Queen, King, General, etc., - whatever the title - does not change anything basic and essential to the character of the human bearing the title.
A liar remains a liar. A crook remains a crook. Saying so-and-so asswipe is "Taking up the mantle" and "Looking Presidential" are both (all too often) bullshit phrases meant to imbue assholes with qualities we wished they had. Qualities we need them to have to make sense of how we see the world.
My view of the world - admittedly cynical - is if someone tells me they want to serve the people/ the public - I wonder on what type of platter and using which fork. Will we be the entree or a mere appetizer?
I don't start with trust. Trust must be earned. I will use the words, "I hope", but the entire time I am calculating the odds.
That said, I do not begin with distrust either. Many get a chance, but that chance should never imply I trust. Instead, let's say I allow for the possibility.
Politically, no republicans/conservatives get even a chance. I already know the outcome there.
And, no, I am not a miserable person. I am actually an annoyingly peppy morning person. I can find something amusing about even the most mundane, so I stay cheerful throughout the day. Unless otherwise engaged in dust bunny observation. Which is amusing in its own right. Though with a much darker undercurrent.
I'm currently in dust bunny mode - in which my cynicism takes the forefront.
Sorry.
I'm sure I haven't allowed for the basic goodness of people-kind.
Snort.
Sorry. (again)
Blame Trump. I do.
warmfeet
(3,321 posts)Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)shadowmayor
(1,325 posts)Spoken like a true American. I never trust anyone based on their "title". For military generals, I certainly never give them the benefit of the doubt. Same with TV news people - doesn't matter what channel. And don't even get me started on preachers leading their "flocks".
The Joker was right - kill some soldiers, let some junkies OD and nobody is alarmed. But kill on mayor and the whole town unravels.
We are American citizens - free to roam, free to speak and free to think. The assholes in DC are supposed to be there to work for us - not the well-heeled money grubbing shitheads who rule our empire. Too many of my fellows are knee-benders, afraid to speak up, trained to bow to power, and full of myth and superstition about what our country really is. People are willfully blind as to what is really going on here.
I enjoyed your reply - thank you!
nikibatts
(2,198 posts)a hero to many. They don't care about law and order except to apply it to black and brown people and some poor whites.
If this nation truly cared about law and order shit like the housing bubble and ENRON would have resulted in lots of people going to jail and Trump and his minions on their way there.
jaysunb
(11,856 posts)C Moon
(12,221 posts)His plan has always been to do just the opposite.
Trickle Down. Tea Bag...
The GOP loves belittling the lower income morons who believe in them.
Mr. Ected
(9,670 posts)They didn't just hate Obama because he was black. They hated him because he was a Democrat. They didn't just hate Hillary because she was a woman. They hate her because she's a Democrat.
The reasons they articulated as to why they opposed either one of them were insincere and fabricated. It just helped them get their dander up and squeezed the venom into their fangs.
That's the reason that a Republican can do the very things they railed about just a few weeks ago. They were only pretending that it had pissed them off. The only thing that pisses them off is the -D that follows the names.
shadowmayor
(1,325 posts)Just when do you suppose lil' Bush, and Cheney, and Rumsfeld, and Rice, and Powell and their minions will find themselves in a jail cell? History tells us that despite the outrage and disgust, nothing much will happen. It's all part of the conditioning we go through as Americans.
elmac
(4,642 posts)HRC is.
Mars and Minerva
(369 posts)He could rape Ivanka on Fox & Friends and never drop below a 35% approval rating.
JI7
(89,262 posts)They are ok with it
ancianita
(36,132 posts)We must never let fake, alt- or any propaganda of any kind confuse us about civics, law and order, international law or criminality by any other name.
BigmanPigman
(51,624 posts)He and his co-conspirators will never go to jail or pay a fine since they have good lawyers. Meanwhile "people of color" are arrested for not using a turn signal, having an expired license plate, or smoking a joint.
ancianita
(36,132 posts)DK504
(3,847 posts)forgot about Nixon. In 2 generations a President and a Vice President have resigned from office, in the same administration. Granted the people that voted for this asshole don't know what Watergate was really about, if they have even have gone to high school.
how many have forgotten or refuse to accept that truth.
colorado_ufo
(5,737 posts)FreeWheatForever
(53 posts)Not only laundering for crime figures and oligarchs but also for Putin/Russian government through Mr. Mills and The Bank of Cyprus as a way to skirt around earlier sanctions for Crimea. That was BEFORE the December Obama sanctions. High crimes with zero misdemeanors even without the collusion. Things are becoming clear and we are close people. Stay the course.
CanonRay
(14,112 posts)Most of us knew he was a crook long before now.
YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)So Trump being a criminal is of no significance to them. I'd love to see him thrown in jail.
kentuck
(111,110 posts)They know he is a crook also. He is slippery and hard to catch. That is one of the problems with the present investigation, in my opinion.
GeorgeGist
(25,322 posts)have no clue.
still_one
(92,372 posts)spanone
(135,861 posts)Fluke a Snooker
(404 posts)Every major republican deserves life in prison, but Trump needs to be kept away from his protectorate by the skinhead republicant white inmates. He needs to understand the pain his presidency has inflicted upon the vast majority of Americans and immigrants, and needs to understand it very clearly, preferably through jailhouse justice.
jrthin
(4,837 posts)cells can see that 45 is a crook and should have been in prison a long time ago.
Orsino
(37,428 posts)NanceGreggs
(27,817 posts)... the fact of the matter.