" On the 2016 campaign trail, Trump promised to eliminate the national debt in eight years. Not only has he failed to do that, but he's grown the debt by a trillion dollars each year he's been president. Even using optimistic scenarios, Trump's 2021 budget projects annual deficits to continue well beyond a second Trump term in office." Axios

Does any Republican on here without a number in their handle actually think that a Republican president willingly accepting Russian interference in the 2020 election is actually not that cool and should be reason for removal from office? Let's put aside whether you're convinced that that has happened or is happening -- is that a line that can't be crossed, or is it like whatever?

B.A. Bearacus said:

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Does any Republican on here without a number in their handle actually think that a Republican president willingly accepting Russian interference in the 2020 election is actually not that cool and should be reason for removal from office? Let's put aside whether you're convinced that that has happened or is happening -- is that a line that can't be crossed, or is it like whatever?

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As Bill Maher said last week on Real Time:
"Republicans don't care what tRump does as long as he is making them money, you know, like Disney and Harvey Weinstein."

T's Acting DNI:

Quote:

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Edmund Burke, the Irish statesman and philosopher, once said: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Over the course of the past three years, I have watched good men and women, friends of mine, come and go in the Trump administration all trying to do something all trying to do their best. Jim Mattis, John Kelly, H.R. McMaster, Sue Gordon, Dan Coats and, now, Joe Maguire, who until this week was the acting director of national intelligence....

As Americans, we should be frightened deeply afraid for the future of the nation. When good men and women can't speak the truth, when facts are inconvenient, when integrity and character no longer matter, when presidential ego and self-preservation are more important than national security then there is nothing left to stop the triumph of evil.

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GBear4Life said:

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Stop looking for affirmation of your own views like an insecure petulant child. Be a man and stop giving a *****whether others agree with you or not.

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And what are your posts meant to do? Are they just farts under the blankets for you to smell and self congratulate? Would seem to me that you too are looking for others to agree with you. Don't be a jerk.

Donald tRump, Statesman Extraordinaire*

President Trump mocks Mike Bloomberg's height, stooping behind podium

https://mol.im/a/8060757

*With regard to his supporters:

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."
George Carlin

bearister said:

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*With regard to his supporters:

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."
George Carlin

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This editorial is a little simplistic, but it makes the point. Unfortunately, I think most Trump supporters would read this and either dismiss it out of hand as "partisan" or just leap into attack without considering the damning big picture. And refusing to believe that if things were reversed that Liberals would turn in an instant on a president who they thought was unethical or criminal, and so they think their own unwavering loyalty is equivalent or justifiable or just playing to win, and not morally bankrupt willful ignorance.

I have never succumb to a cult of personality like this so I can't understand how the psychology works, but it seems that continued support for Trump must be some mix of the following: 1) greed/financial self interest, 2) straight tribal loyalty no matter what, 3) brainwashing by conservative media and denial of facts (choosing for example TV pundit rants and conspiracy theory over sworn testimony and court filings), or 4) just being a mean-spirited bully of a person who is drawn to cruelty and power.

This editorial charitably ascribes the reason as stupidity:


"Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?
An anguished question from a Trump supporter: 'Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?'

The serious answer: Here's what we really think about Trump supporters - the rich, the poor, the malignant and the innocently well-meaning, the ones who think and the ones who don't...

That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought "Fine."

That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, "Okay."

That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, "No problem."

That when he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, "Not an issue."

That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn't care, you chirped, "He sure knows me."

That when you heard him illustrate his own character by telling that cute story about the elderly guest bleeding on the floor at his country club, the story about how he turned his back and how it was all an imposition on him, you said, "That's cool!"

That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw.

That when you heard him brag that he doesn't read books, you said, "Well, who has time?"

That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn't commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, "That makes sense."

That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, "Yes!"

That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man's coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, "What a great guy!"

That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, "Thumbs up!"

That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, "That's the way I want my President to be."

That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they're supposed to be regulating and you have said, "What a genius!"

That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, "That's smart!"

That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was in the middle of water and you have said, "That makes sense."

That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, "falling in love" with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, "That's statesmanship!"

That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids, has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas - he explains that they're just "animals" - and you say, "Well, OK then."

That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise.

What you don't get, Trump supporters in 2020, is that succumbing to frustration and thinking of you as stupid may be wrong and unhelpful, but it's also...hear me...charitable. Because if you're NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are less flattering."
-by Florida writer Adam-Troy Castro