243 Comments

Senator Sasse and the others who are just now, less that three weeks from the election, seeing the light and ever so gently distancing themselves from Trump, are not worthy of the ink it takes to describe their unctuous behavior.

It disgusts me that these public officials sat mum for four years and enabled Trump, bolstered him, lied for him, acquitted him – all so that they could keep their precious butts in their comfy senate seats. We must not forget their behavior when they are up for reelection.

Also, General Kelly has not made these criticisms of Trump that CNN is reporting, on the record - yet. He has said other things but, like others, he has been reluctant to hammer the nail all the way in.

Professor Richardson, I know your area of expertise is the 19th century, but how I wish it were possible for you to enter a time warp and write the history of the last four years – the honest, unvarnished account of Trump and the Party of Trump from his nomination to the day Joseph R. Biden, Jr. becomes the 46th President of the United States.

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Where was Sasse when his vote on impeachment would have made this statement real. How could such a well educated and intelligent man have ignored the facts and enabled despot wannabe Donald? Sasse should be ashamed. Let’s see if principles matter when he votes on the Barrett nomination.

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Where's his vote on packing the Supreme Court with unqualified ideologues?

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Too little, too late.

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The Lincoln Project predicted Repubs would do this: give us another chance, we really didn’t like him, it’ll be different, etc. Steve Schmidt said too bad, NOW you want to repudiate trump? Not only do we have to get rid of trump, we MUST also crush trumpISM.

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... and we must remember their names when they come up for re-election in 2022... Marco Rubio (FL), Ted Cruz (TX), Kelly Loeffler (GA), Ron Johnson (WI), Mike Lee (UT), Rand Paul (KY), John Neely Kennedy (LA), as a starter list.

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Edited to add: Loeffler (GA), but only if she defeats challenger Raphael Warnock in November. Hope she doesn’t!

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I definitely have my eye on 22. 🤨

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It is typical batterers behavior - hit, apologize, make up, hit again. IResponse is: I will not let myself be hit again.

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Agreed. Republicans are covering their butts to be re-elected. And if re-elected will undermine Biden and his administration as they did with Obama.

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Exactly.

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Not a single Republican in office has earned another term. If they let all Americans suffer under 45 once, they can certainly do it again. Vote Blue Across The Board. Run the GOP into the ground and let them go think about a new party. Their dereliction of duty is mind boggling.

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I do like this thinking, Linda. Not a single Republican (not one) has earned a return trip. And not just this cycle, but the next two as well. Now, if the constituents of those contrite and not-so-contrite republicans would drink some of this Koolaid I have here, we could all go home.

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In the words of the indefatigable Eliza Doolittle, “Wouldn’t it be loverly.”

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^^THIS^^

Well said R Dooley. Go f*** your Republican selves you sanctimonious, lying, hippocratic sycophants. NOW you feel comfortable saying these things. Damn you all to H***. Sold your souls and sold our country. Today’s post has made me more angry than anything else. Of course I appreciate every bit of Dr. Richardson’s reportage. But I’m more than a bit chafed at the message. Okay. Rant over.

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I hear you James.

The weasels are already posturing to try to do to Biden what they did to Obama - it makes my blood boil. We need the Senate - better this election, but no question by the mid-terms.

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I hope people don’t forget the damage that’s been done by their complicity.

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And lest we forget, the people we're asking to "not forget" are the very putzes who voted all those wrong-headed people into office in the first place. The blame for this whole sorry affair over the past three/four years is properly positioned, in plain sight, at the feet of Republicans and even more to the point at the feet of Republican voters. To avoid a <rant></rant>, I better just leave it there.

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I beg to differ — we are all complicit to a degree. Particularly in dropping standards over and over again in order to “find common ground” with a party that never had any intention of standing on any common ground with us. Education was decimated, along with any safeguards created by “sharing the wealth” of the nation with the vulnerable, and finally, watching silently as constitutionally guaranteed rights were discarded by twisted history. It will be a long haul to correct this mess, and if we just shrug everything off in the name of “reconciliation”, we will still have the worst of these goons subverting democracy until they succeed in “drowning it in the bathtub. We need to deal with our real history and make amends, not dwell in some fantastical Branson Missouri past.

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Patricia, I think I agree with much of what you are saying, but on the first point, that we're all somehow complicit, I don't. I understand your statement, that Dems should have been more aggressive early on, and while that's likely a true statement, I don't believe it makes Dems responsible. The people that voted Cruz, Graham, Trump, McConnell and others listed and the party that supported those people are the sole owners for the past 3½ years. Not me, not you, not my mother. I agree that it's going to be a slog to find our way back to civility and it can't happen if we just ignore the strategizing and leadership (or lack of) that enabled the destructive policies of the past 3½ years. I'm willing to work with Repubs, but only if they can prove to me that they're being honest brokers. If they choose not to make that extra effort, then screw them, they can sit on the sidelines and watch. And I'll be encouraging my elected officials to respond in just this way.

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The March of Folly, Act II

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Well said.

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So far most of them are all talk. I will believe them when they actually act against him. How about the upcoming vote to confirm she who should not even be a judge, Barrett.

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Yes, I am counting on that!

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“Could you imagine if I lose?... I’m not going to feel so good. Maybe I’ll have to leave the country, I don’t know.”

That quote is the first instance that I know of, of Trump publicly acknowledging not only the possibility of an election loss, but that he would accept such an outcome. A peaceful transistion of power.

This is significant in and of itself; a glimmer of hope.

No calls for militias and "2nd Amendment people" to stand back and stand by, no hints of taking the election to the Supreme Court. Trump is perhaps talking of assylum in a foreign country. (Putin will have no more use for him, but Rocket Man in North Korea might welcome him, until Trump's money ran out anyway.) One wonders if his children are packing their bags as well.

As a taxpayer, I would be happy to pay for a plane, not Air Force One, standing by ready to take the Trump family anywhere they wanted to go. I would carry their luggage.

The State of New York and SDNY federal prosecutors could still bring indictments, so the Trump family would know that if they ever set foot in the US again, they would be immediately arrested.

That last is just a Saturday morning fantasy, but it's the first good fantasy I've had about the Trumps.

I've voted. Have you?

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Actually Putin would welcome whatever intelligence trump the traitor would be willing to share. Remember when he invited Lavrov and other high Russian officials into the Oval Office, and when he disclosed top secret weapons development? Putin’s People will pump him dry and let him rant and rave on social media in his Sochi villa

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If he’s saying this publicly now, he’s already been thinking about it and has likely already made some sort of a plan and brokered a deal to go somewhere that likely has *already* included providing sensitive information. He may not be smart enough to plan ahead but the people around him are. Or, maybe he is but just when it involves crooked actions that benefit himself. He and his sycophants always operate on that despicably low level so I wouldn’t be surprised if they haven’t already sold national secrets to buy themselves an escape hatch.

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It’s called treason In addition to the high crimes and misdemeanors he was already impeached under. The public conversation appears to forget that he was impeached and stayed in office with quisling sycophant GOP senators refusing to hold him accountable. Susan Collins: did he learn his lesson? Maine voters will tell you in two weeks whether you learn yours

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Oh, I think quite a few of those around him, his enablers etc. will be wide-eyed in the end, ‘Trump who?!?!’ He will lose most of their loyalty before the end... like what are Pompeo and Barr thinking these days?

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You give him way too much credit... he just throws so much ‘s@it’ against the wall, all the time, some of it is bound to stick. But ‘Tomorrow, ‘Tomorrow ..... you know what I mean....

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Seth Dunn you just sent a shiver down my spine. I never considered the possibility he would leave the US and market his very exclusive knowledge of our country's secrets to Putin. My only comfort is that he would probably get everything wrong and some Russian schmucks would have to listen to an endlessly rambling de-brief. But it begs the question: Is there any way to prevent him from taking this "intelligence" offshore?

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Maybe to immediately indict and declare him a flight risk

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And take away his cell phone? He has been chatting privately with Putin all along.

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My thoughts exactly. He has no friggin clue about the what’s and why’s and how’s, he a bumbling blowhard bent on performance... he has no clue. Putin will grow tired of talking to someone who speaks only in ‘bumpers stickers’!

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Don’t worry. Trump knows little, if anything. He never reads the intelligence briefings, never pays attention in meetings. He’s an empty suit, of little value to Putin once he’s out of office.

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Trump out of office is of little value to Putin, other than if still in hand, to braggingly parade “Putin’s piglet” before the Russian sphere of influence.

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He will mix up any intelligence briefings (if he were to read or listen) with QAnon rubbish

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Do we really think Putin doesn't already know anything of value that Trump might know? Bolton, McMaster and a long list of top security personnel have feared the unprecedented access and deference shown to Putin. Unfortunately it continued unabated. None of the Trump enabled Giuliani back-channel-dealings bear the imprimatur of 'secured US negotiations'. Plus, we-the-people have no idea what has taken place in all the Trump-declared "private" Putin meetings and phone calls they've had. Oh, and continuous use of his unsecured cell phone. I'm sure many have something more to add.

The primary goal of Russia has been to undermine and destabilize our democracy and, to that end, Trump has contributed admirably. But I believe the 'bromance Trump so relishes has been one-sided and, post-defeat, Putin will feel toward Trump as we do toward his "quisling sycophant GOP senators" (love that phrase, Seth!)

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Actually I see it as more of a last ditch effort, speaking to his cult, to manipulate them to feel bad for him and vote for him. “I’m going to feel so bad I’ll have to leave the country. Poor me.” Trying to hang onto his cult, with a threat of abandonment.

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That’s exactly what it means. EVERYTHING that comes out of his mouth is to manipulate in some way. He’s pathetic.

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Perhaps, though the Cult, the Mob, will vote for Trump regardless. The statement is still a significant departure from his previous inflammatory rhetoric.

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Less than 12 hrs between receiving ballot ('mail-in ballot only' state) and delivery to official County drop box. I took a photo.

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We have ours and will vote this weekend and deliver them to a secure drop box....Oregon.

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A “glimmer of hope” That he would accept losing, yes BUT to which country would he go? Now THERE’S a security risk to think about. And yes I definitely appreciate the optimistic news And perspectives from Heather, and from commentators here. I need that!

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If he’d flee America, at least we wouldn’t have to pay for Secret Service protection. Nor would we have to pay for a Trump Library. Trump Library—doesn’t that conjure up thoughts of irony, oxymorons, non-sequitors, contradiction of terms? Really, I wonder what would be included in a Trump presidential library...

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I was with you all the way up to a 45 library. Can we, the people refuse to fund that?

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Very well stated, Mr. Ralph! That one line gave me a glimmer as well. The collateral damage and repair afterwards is what I’m curious about.

I definitely voted and I’m in one of those states he’s eyeing to contest!

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Hey, Ralph. Yes, I voted! I would agree to a taxpayer expense to have 45 and family depart the country. I would not feel comfortable taking them anywhere they wanted to go, though.

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Not yet. On Election Day!

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The special on NBC last night "The Way I See It" with the superb photography of Chief White House Photographer Pete Souza documenting the Presidency of Barrack Obama made me realize how much I missed having a President who knows how to laugh. ...and is decent, and has empathy in abundance.

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I watched it too and went to bed with a hopeful heart. Reading Heathers letter today really fortifies my hope.

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That was a beautiful show!!

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It was beautiful. Watching both Pete and President Obama with tears in there eyes on several occasions, had tears flowing in my home, too. Not only tears of empathy, but...please, can we have this decency in our leader, again? Or even, can we have a Leader, again?

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I stayed up past my bedtime to see this refreshing documentary. Then, didn't want it to end. We were once the envy of my international friends that we had a President Obama. Miss him. Miss seeing them!

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Actions speak louder than words. Let's see how Senator Sasse votes when ACB's nomination to SCOTUS comes up.

Remember all the Germans in 1945, after they had lost the war, who said "We were only following orders."

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I don’t know how many times when asked why I opposed this farce of an administration my reply was I’m not a good German. Too many times I had to explain the comment.

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I am not surprised that Americans won't understand that. However, if you look at the response to the mandate to wear masks, you can see why.

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Still have parents at pick up at my school without masks. One even demands her child take it off as soon as he leaves the building. Disheartening!

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I am so sorry to know this, Denise. You have my sympathy, and my gratitude for being an educator. It's a wonderful career but I know it's challenging even in the best of times... now??!!!!! Yikes!!!!

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Holocaust education is badly neglected in this country right now. Too many Americans are only vaguely aware, or unsure, that it even happened.

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Steven, don't expect much. When it's time to follow through, guys like Sasse have a strange habit of falling very silent all of a sudden. It's the Republican way: all foam and no beer. He'll end up doing exactly what McConnell orders him to do.

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This comment from the Washington Post: If Trump loses in two weeks, he will have been taken down by women, exactly a century after they gained the right to vote. After a presidency marked by reckless exercise of the Second Amendment, alarming curtailment of the First Amendment and occasional talk of the 25th Amendment, it would be poetic justice for this man to be done in by the 19th Amendment.

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"I was against this from the start!" say the people in power from the start.

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"Maybe I'll have to leave the country, I don't know." There's a lot packed into that offhand Trumpian comment. I actually have been thinking about this for some time now. If Trump resigns before his term ends, and Pence pardons him and his family and his minions, they are protected from any federal prosecution. But they are not immune to the prosecutors in NY State, who have been on his trail from before the 2016 election. What's a felon who is a former president to do? Has Vladimir Putin got a nice, cozy little dacha waiting for him on the Black Sea?

The problem is: for Putin, at least, a politically defeated and legally challenged Trump is no longer an asset. He's a BIG liability. And would one of his other admired despots find it advantageous to let him in the front door? I don't see that happening either. Maybe Bolsonaro or Duterte? Would they want the headache of fighting for his extradition? Kim would shoot his plane down before it lands in Pyongyang.

An asylum-seking Trump might take some of the air out of the "second amendment people" itching for a fight. But the problem here is TrumpISM and not Trump himself. That isn't going away. Biden is a decent human being, and that is a welcome relief after four years of utter boorishness, racism, incompetence, and know-nothingism. But Biden's very decency could be a liability here. It is no time for an era of good feelings with Republicans and Democrats linking arms and singing "Kumbaya." Since GIngrich the GOP has adopted a policy of persistent bad faith and double standards; they do not recognize the legitimacy of anyone to rule but themselves. Democrats need tor realize that liberal-democratic-republican norms are not just for them to honoe, while the Republicans can do whatever the hell they want.

On this score, I thought this piece by Brian Beutler was spot-on: https://crooked.com/articles/republicans-bad-faith/

Trump taking asylum somewhere to avoid prosecution

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I hope that Biden/Harris are elected and that Katie Porter gets Harris' Senate seat. Porter would bring a large dose of combative realism to the Senate.

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Isn’t Argentina the traditional retirement home for Nazis?

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He’s already practiced that with his balcony scene after leaving Walter Reed.... “covita”. 😏

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I prefer the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliette. Perhaps we could encourage Melania in that direction. I'm sure his doctor, already found guilty in the Micheal Jackson death, could find a way to help him.

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Really!?! Which doctor?

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I am reminded of a cartoon in Playboy many years ago: Juliet, who is obviously very pregnant looks out from the balcony and says, "Romeo, wherefor art though?

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Yes, that's true. "Don't cry for me..."

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Hm. Point well taken.....

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And several of them came to a very "sticky" end in the hands of foreign secret services...Eichman for example.

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Hey, Laura. I have not heard what, if anything, a Biden administration would do about 45. It would not surprise me that it has been talked about but I would not expect the public would hear anything about what they are planning. I don't see Biden singing "Kumbaya." I think he has "law and order" plans. Just my opinion. Now I'll go read your link!

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He’d be a huge asset. Just think of all the intelligence he could provide them.

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Not sure that he is aware of anything other than his own ego. Quite evidently he reads little and suffers from severe dyslexia in his understanding of anything.

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Yes.... and he has served his purpose. He ripped us apart and nearly destroyed our ‘democracy’. Putin will give him the Hero of the Russian Federation Award.

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But that would need Putin to acknowledge that Trump was working for him and for Trump to do likewise.

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Putin would deny it, Trump would brag about it.....

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But his children and children-in-law understand computers and know how to fill jump drives and realize what information might be valuable. This whole family will be looking for asylum somewhere. It scares the hell out of me.

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Maybe Israel would be the trump clan’s destination for asylum.

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I'm fairly sure Israel has an extradition agreement with the U.S. So it's out for Trump hiding from American justice.

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HIs buddy Netanyahu is heading for prison in Israel. Maybe Donald could have an adjoining cell.

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Hm. Maybe. If he hasn't told him all they need to know already.....

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A defeated Trump would be such a huge liability to Putin that I can imagine Putin offering Trump sanction in Russia, Trump going there and never being heard from again as he falls into the maul of the Russian security prison meat grinder.

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The Crooked article is excellent. I remember grumping about Obama's behavior for the first four years of his presidency: I grumbled, again and again, "You don't negotiate with terrorists." I could understand why Obama would want to believe that the Republicans were acting in good faith, but I could not understand how he could keep deceiving himself with such wishful thinking. And in the end -- far too late -- he seemed to understand that the Republicans had not one streak of good faith amongst the lot of them.

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Agreed. I have great respect for Obama -- he is, to refer to the old cliche, probably the only President in recent memory that I'd really want to have a beer with. But his strengths ironically became weaknesses in the present political context. It would probably be nice to think that participating in the Federal government would be like attending a facu;lty colloquium. You could argue collegially about a point of scholarship, rationally assess contending positions, disagree amicably, and operate knowing your interlocutors are not exhibiting ill will. But Congressional Republicans are more like World Wrestling Entertainment than the Harvard Law department. Obama's political vision was nothing if not sincere and, frankly, admirable; it was not what the times demanded. The Democrats needed a Lyndon Johnson (now HE could have handled a Gingrich-soaked Republican party). They got an Adlai Stevenson.

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Thank you for posting this link!

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If Donald can continue to stir up divisions and violence in this country, he would continue to be a Russian asset. Some of his followers already know better; some will abandon him when he loses power; but there is a core who will stay in the cult unless he converts to Islam.

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These discussions need an icon for "I agree and I don't like any of it."

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"Could you imagine if I lose? I won't feel so good. Maybe I'll have to leave the country"

What a prescient statement! He should be an oracle. Of course he won't feel so good with Cyrus Vance breathing down his neck and pursuing him like the famous crocodile with a clock chasing Captain Hook. He won't feel so good when he is sitting in the dock, facing a lengthy jail term for tax and insurance fraud. But...as he foretells, he can always leave the country; he will be welcomed by his friends Putin, Erdogan, Netanyahu, MBS, or Duterte.

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I hope he can hear the clock continuously ticking!

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Tik tok tik tok, remember that the crocodile finally got him. "HE WAS ALL HEART..." said the croc.

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Wonder what the crocks will discover in this one? Ain’t gonna be a heart! Or a brain!

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According to Stormy Daniel, another vital organ will also be hard to find.

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Ego...all ego.

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Yes, and his time is running out!

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I have long thought Trump will bring his money to Russia. A villa in Sochi on the Black Sea. Putin will reward him

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If he actually HAS any money...

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I'm going to bed tonight with a little more hope than last night. I hope you're doing the same, Heather. Thank you for being here for us.

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It is definitely too late for these republican pols to back track on their support for tRump. In fact, it's shameful that they now "see the light" and are finding his antics over the last 4 years to be less than supportable. Where were these same men/women when votes for impeachment were taken? Sorry folks....too little and way too late. Lock them ALL up, and throw away the keys!

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I know, many have forfeited their right to stay on the ‘team’, but so many others are seeing the light, and I’m a fan of the Prodigal Son theory.

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True prodigal sons repent the evil they did. These pols are mostly just trying to escape responsibility so they can continue causing the same harm.

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I actually was referring to our fellow Americans. Those who got deluded by the b. s. The pols, they can walk the plank.

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It's always sensible when infested by rats to lay down a trail of rat poison to catch them when they leave the ship. That way you prevent any further infection beyond the current epidemic.

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Finally, it looks like ppl are coming to their senses. Altho we still have that ignorant cult base that needs to be deprogrammed, which isn’t actually possible but maybe like they were before their Hitleresque messiah came on-scene, they will again fade into the dark underbelly of our culture and be less emboldened. However, after discovering to great horror on Nov. 8, 2016 that the ignorant masses could be swayed to elect such an obviously disgusting, mentally unstable, unqualified creature, I am still fearful that this election will be stolen again, sending us on a path of repeating history to total ruin. I will keep that fear until proven otherwise next month. I am steeling myself to not be as disheartened as I was four years ago.

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Caroline Giuliani's quote: “[C]orruption starts with 'yes-men' and women, the cronies who create an echo chamber of lies and subservience to maintain their proximity to power," she wrote in a piece for Vanity Fair. echoes something I read yesterday in "Twilight of Democracy", Anne Applebaum's book. She said in order for an autocrat to come to, and then stay, in power, it takes a cast of hundreds, if not thousands, to keep the PR going, to keep the crowds focused, etc. Trump, of course, has had Fox News from the beginning, as well as knowing how to play a crowd.

A friend mentioned to me yesterday that it will take at least two terms for Dems to clean up all of Trump's messes. I told her forget two terms, it might take two generations! I hope I'm wrong.

As has been pointed out more than once, even with Trump gone, his loyal base will still be here, still resentful and unmoored.

We cannot lose sight of what, ideally, America can and should be, and we must get back on that track.

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It’s not just the cult followers who may be an on going problem. The whole Koch Murdock Fox scheme of using their culture war cover to turn the government into a shill for their private interests is not going away. Neither are the hundreds of Federalist Society judges. It’s going to take more than borderline control of the Senate to eliminate the filibuster and make real progressive changes.

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The Democrats could start by taking the gloves off (and maybe locking DiFi in a closet) and starting the campaign against vulnerable Republican Senators right NOW for 2022. Republicans have stamped on every norm of Senatorial "civility" for years and Dems need to stop being their patsies.

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Let them start with Florida’s Marco Rubio whose term ends in 2022.

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As an old Chief Bosun once said to me, "When the water's up to your knees, boy, join the rats."

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Narcissicus Ratticus doesn't swim very well as previous "trials" have determined....especially against the tide and with the weight of his guilt hanging round his neck.

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Ah, but does he feel guilt?

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Does anybody care what he feels? We are not going to turn the other cheek and give him a "christian" pardon. In his pscychological state chaos is what he projects and creates around himself; a sure reflection of the state of his emotions and that is his and his treating psychiatrist's problem not ours.

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If Sen. Sasse "was an early critic of Trump," why did he vote for acquittal on February 5? It seems to me that his criticisms of Trump yesterday are too little and too late, and he waited until it was politically convenient for him (i.e., after the Judge Barrett hearings in the Judiciary Committee were over) before leveling them.

Two-faced hypocrite.

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Once accused during a debate with Stephen Douglas of being two-faced. Abraham Lincoln is said to have replied "If I had another face, do you think I'd wear this one?"

I don't think Lady Justice has a high tolerance for "two-faced" politicians these days.

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Is it instructive to consider, “How did we get here?” I think so. Here are my thoughts ...

Conservatism. Libertarianism. trump rides the wave of ideology of many predecessors, as I believe the brilliant Sen Sheldon Whitehouse addresses in his remarkable oratory at the Supreme Court hearing, focussing on the concentration of wealth and power of conservatives.

trump simply follows the lineage of Reagan and ’states’ rights', the Bushes, Fox News, Limbaugh, The Federalist Society and the Koch Brothers, Milton Friedman and earlier, the John Birch Society, the Ku Klux Klan, Council of Conservative Citizens (see the movie, “The Help”), and the southern strategy of Nixon and conservative activists.

I know what you’re thinking, that the Klan and Reagan were miles apart - but in 1980, Reagan intentionally campaigned at the county fair in rural Mississippi, where three civil rights workers were murdered 16 years previously. Reagan KNEW who to speak to, and their beliefs and values

It was there that the conservative hero proclaimed, “I believe is states’ rights” - thereby opening the door for Southern states to height on a political battle with the federal government. Pat Buchanan in 1992 proclaimed a “culture war” of conservative, patriarchal Christian values, versus liberalism and the movements activated during the 1960s and 70s.

This Culture Ware rages, in the minds of conservatives, unbeknownst to most liberals and progressives.

Conservatism (and its poor cousin libertarianism) champion the rights of the individual over our liberalism, which favors a community, collective and governmental approach to problems. It took strong governmental action to protect minorities rights in the 1950s to today, women’s rights, the rights of the Earth and our natural world, and the rights of individuals to have equal opportunity against the powers of concentrated corporate wealth.

The threat we face, thanks to trump and his predecessors, is that this conservative Supreme Court will strike down advances made in the 20th Century.

I believe it is tantamount to challenge conservatism at every opportunity, and to speak favorably of progressivism, that democracy demands “liberty and justice for all, and for Mother Earth"

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This sounds like new lyrics for a Billy Joel song in the same vane as "We Didn't Start the Fire" and it could even be titled "How Did We Get Here?"

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