This thought strikes me often. What's the endgame? That out our greatness to Russia, China and Saudi Arabia then asking them to investigate the "traitors...probably registered Democrats" back home who still think that's a crime has become a mainstream political philosophy worthy of debate is heartbreakingly sad. One can only hope that adding "OVVned the LiBS" to the Pledge of Allegiance will make our children's future that much brighter
Last weekend, I made several long posts trying to prove that, here and in the country at large, we are struggling to grapple with this peculiar breed of EverTrumpian who, having no interest in truth or integrity, posts simply to generate a reaction and pollute the waters with misinformation and distraction. The harm done to our nation is either intentional or, at the very least, irrelevant. Being immune to appeals to truth and patriotism, they delight in mocking folks who take such things seriously. The mods have a particularly tough time, as, unlike over-the-top insults and bad words, it's much harder to build a case against bad faith. And then they have to discipline those who, out of frustration, cross the line in lashing out at the bad-faithers because, well,
those are the rules. It's the ultimate triple-lindy for the EverTrumper: banishment of the adversary, bonus points from their brood, and the structure, created to support good faith and meritorious arguments, has been turned on the very people fighting to save it and thus becomes further ricketier. Over time, the tone goes further and further downhill as good discussion becomes harder to find and good posters leave rather than put up with the exasperation. I argued that trying to treat this disease with the tools created to treat traditional line-stepping was ineffective and helped to normalize their behavior, but I have to admit I don't have an alternative that seems particularly promising. Until then we just have to fight them with the truth and show the few left in power trying to treat the infection that they aren't alone.
When I saw
@jon_mx blending this tactic in with his usual martyr-shtick, it raised an eyebrow as, rightly or wrongly, I'd assumed he'd managed to retain a whisp of appreciation for right and wrong. When I asked him about it he proclaimed his innocence and returned to the tired lecture on his own devotion to facts and logic, our lack of the same, and the further deterioration of "this place" into a cess-pool. I was still skeptical, but it sounded like the jon I used to know.
I haven't been here much this week, but it seems that while the noose has continued to tighten, the claims of "not a crime!" have only gotten louder as they are stretched to apply to evermore blatant and egregious abuses. The argument that systematic abuse of the powers granted to the Executive branch was so preposterous and beyond the powers of imagination of our forefathers that laws against such a grievous threat to our nation had never been codified seemed preposterous to me, but I'm no lawyer so I accepted that assessment on faith. Well, that was dumb.
I knew at some point the law and precedent had been bandied about, so I endeavored to find that part of the thread to ensure I'd understood it correctly. Well, who should appear but our old friend "Facts and Logic" Jon to set me straight! Praise the Lord, as without him around to drain the cesspool we'd all drown in liberal tears.
Wait a second...see the "Hass, 216 U.S. at 479-480." right at the top? Now, I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that's a citation and citations go at the end of things. And that "." looks suspiciously like a period. Hmmm.
Now, had the law began and ended with the part he quoted, perhaps his argument would hold water. But when "facts and logic" turn into lies of omission, I'd posit that the truth probably isn't on your side. If you include the lines immediately before and after jon's "cherry-picked" quote from the Department of Justice's definition of
Conspiracy to Defraud the United States you're left with a decidedly different opinion of what is and isn't a crime (Robert Barr must not have gotten around to this part yet).
Now while I've had my share of warning points and bannings, I have to admit the rules keep this place from becoming a sewer like 99% of the other places on the internet that allow comments. I would argue that posts like
@jon_mx 's here, that purposefully distort the truth and intend to mislead, are infinitely worse than a bad word or two and directly attack what makes a message board healthy: good faith posting. If you can't trust that people believe what they're saying, what's the point of listening?
I don't know that I'd support banning him (at least not before he's had a chance to reply), but if anything deserves the hammer it's stuff like this. It attacks and degrades the very heart of what makes this place special and is an insult to what
@Joe 8ryant has done for us and is trying to keep alive. I know trying to keep this place ideologically balanced, but if you have to turn a blind eye to stuff like this I'd argue we'd be better off with none of them. The one's who's motives are clear I mean. There's only 5 or 6 and we all know who they are. All they bring to the table is garbage.
Back to the law, now that we know what it actually says, I'd say there's a veritable cornucopia of actions taken by Trump and the rest of the StupidWatergate Crew that this would apply to, including burying
Whistleblower Reports from Intelligence Officers about the President's conduct,
deep-sixing a Criminal Referral by the General Counsel of the CIA regrding the same,
hiding the transcript of that conduct on a server reserved for the most sensitive National Security Secrets,
recruiting non-government employees to subvert the State Department, then
fired the Ambassador to Ukraine when Giuliani complained, meanwhile,
a second whistle blower called foul on the Treasury Department for manipulating Trump's tax returns and refusing to turn them over as required by law, and
Trump's complaints about second-hand information have a third whistle blower mulling coming forward with more detailed, firsthand report.
Let me remind you that Trump can de-classify anything he wants and there's nothing we can do about it. I'd forgotten that he
extended that power to Barr several weeks ago. How much do you think the stuff on that top-secret server are worth? At least several dozen Trump Towers.
I could go on for pages with this stuff. There's alarm bells going off and red lights flashing everywhere. When is enough enough?
I can already hear the cries of "Fake News", so let me remind you that
the Mueller Report confirmed every shred of the MSM's reporting on Trump and Russia (
except for Mueller objected to BuzzFeed's reporting that Trump "ordered" Cohen to lie to Congress because Trump used coded language, you know, like a criminal). Of course, the Mueller Report also
details dozens of times Trump lied about Russia and Russians and
10 ways in which he obstructed justice, yet this supposedly
exonerates the President and embarrasses Democrats for bringing it up.
Trump got people to believe the real news was fake news so he could fill them with his "Real News" that was actually fake. It worked so well he's trying it again, and the people he duped are proud of it and happy to help (talk about embarrassing).
Trump got people to believe the United States was run by the "Deep State", so he got rid of (most of) the real government and installed his own Deep State. And people cheered. What a hero. I've never been so proud.
Yesterday, Trump
quietly gave Poland Most Favored Immigration status. Why, you ask? Read
this excellent Atlantic article from a year ago on what's been going on over there and you'll know why. If you replaced Warsaw with Washington you'd swear it was written about America today.
Now we know the endgame our children will inherit.
