You mean like when the allegations against Hunter Biden were spiked by the media and ignored by prosecutors?

Or remember the Russia collusion saga, which had inflicted immeasurable damage to the political culture and the public trust in institutions? Where were the calls from the hypocrites of the "country above party"-faction to "hold those who undermine democracy accountable" when it became clear that this whole investigation was based on rigged FBI affidavits which deceived federal judges about the utterly partisan and untrustworthy nature of their source (a disgraced British spy working for the Clinton campaign)?

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Aug 8 2022 11:52pm

You're complaining about rhetoric. He did not try to stay in power by force. He did not wield the levers of government. He exhausted his legal challenges and searched for evidence in vain, all his lawful right, and then he failed and stepped down. The answer to someone being a noxious sore loser is the disdain of society, not putting them in a gibbet.

If I was going to take mere rhetoric and posturing as corrosive to our society, then we should have been plunged into civil war back when Democrats were screeching about Russia circa 2016, let alone everything that followed. Their "big lie" conspiracy theories never bothered me, the weaponization of the DoJ and violation of civil liberties and the election process did. It mattered that the democratic primaries were rigged, it mattered that the FBI was abusing its authority to spy on Trump and report back to Obama/Biden/Clinton like Watergate all over again, but it didn't matter so much that Rachel Maddow was rigging lines of yarn between pictures stapled to her padded cell.

Trump shitposted on twitter and he blathered on endlessly during his rallies and he put out formal statements full of sound and fury, and we all know what that signified. He didn't imprison his political rivals. He didn't send agents to raid their homes or turn the clock back 500 years and start conjuring up bills of attainder like the democrats are right now.
This is all going to look very bad in the history books, there's no way the future generations won't look at the parallels between this decadent society and times of civil strife and tyranny of older cultures. But the biggest pretense is the pundits who act like this is all unprecedented and never been done before. Democrats are just doing what tyrants have been doing for millenia.

hahahaha maybe they still looking for aunt hair do's lap top

So sad, the only President in recent years that can be tough and negotiate with the other world powers and at the same time could have stopped and prevented wars , get good deals for his country is being targeted like that..
I might not like some of his trade war polices, but I think he is a non warmongering president who could have made a huge difference.

My personal opinion.

The fact that Trump didn't go full authoritarian, in the style of a banana-republic-despot, does not mean that his efforts were limited to rhetoric. He pondered and explored his options of maybe being able to steal the election and remain in power, he explicitly demanded elected officials to violate their oath and discard the outcome of a democratic election, and he very deliberately riled up his base to the max, which predictably boiled over into real, tangible violence.

I'm very much with you on what Democrats, the DoJ and the FBI are doing, but their corruption and moral rot doesn't excuse or dimish Trump's guilt.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Aug 9 2022 12:01am

When did this happen? Wasn't he ALREADY under investigation, had his laptop in custody of federal authorities, etc. before the story leaked?

As for your interpretation about "Russia collusion," I suggest reading up on a reliable source because you're wrong on many fronts. At best, you're peppering truths on a mountain of bullshit.

let me be try to be as clear as I can: your interpretation of Trump's post-election behavior would have merit if Trump had accepted the result of the election once the dozens of lawsuits had been slapped down, without exception, by federal judges, many of them appointed by himself. If Trump had then went ahead and said "I exhausted my legal options and lawful rights, seems like Biden really did win this election. Congratulations, Mr. President-elect", then and only then would you have a point.

But as we all know, this is not what happened; Trump continued to insist of his theory of the stolen election in spite of mounting evidence to the contrary. Which is of course no surprise since these claims were never genuine, they were always just a ploy by Trump so that he could avoid the stigma of being a loser and retain, at a minimum, his power over the GOP.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Aug 9 2022 12:12am

Trump demanded his election officials find legal avenues for his challenges. He sought out any legal gimmick or loophole, and found none. That's not abusing his office to stay in power, that's flailing. Its telling that Democrats just spent a prime time programming slot singling out the few hours between the start of the riot and Trump's repeated messages trying to defuse the situation, criticizing him for his brief inaction. That's the most tangible charge leveled at him, that his appropriate response wasn't fast enough. Besides the absolute mile of legal distance between 'non-culpable negligence' and 'incitement', its also an absurdly hypocritical criticism after the George Floyd riots and the response that took days, during which congressional Democrats were cheering on the riots. Trump never incited violence or led a mob, and when a riot did occur, Trump moved to calm them. There's no meat in that burger.

Vain legal chicanery and overblown petty obstructionism are several orders of magnitude removed from the corruption and weaponization of the levers of government. In effect, we're comparing Newt Gingrich to Lavrentiy Beria. There's no comparison to be made. When we're talking about corruption and moral rot, we don't put "hypocrites and partisans" in the same basket as "tyrants and despots". Well, at least if we find out 20 years from now that Merrick Garland was having young girls abducted to his soundproofed dacha, it won't come as a total surprise.

But again, that's just a matter of his rhetoric, not his actions. You find the difference hinges on his contrition and acceptance. I don't see why they should matter at all. Trump should be free to believe whatever crazy theory he wants or espouse it even if he know its false. Its not a crime to claim the earth is flat. We had 4 years of Trump the thin skinned, Trump the pugilist, Trump the vindictive, Trump the vain, Trump the fool, Trump the shitposter. Whatever hot air came out of the windbag didn't matter. He promised to shit tiffany cufflinks and he miraculously went out and did just that. His actions mattered- on the economy, on foreign policy, on the wars, on immigration, etc etc.

Biden went out and said all the honeyed words of a bog standard two faced politician, albeit a poor performance with his foot stuck in his mouth even as he hid away off camera. He promised to be competent and mild mannered in comparison to Trump's intemperance. Its what Icemage adored, the pretense of respectability for the institution. And then Joe went out and started systematically destroying everything in his path like a hurricane, fucking up everything possible, the economy, foreign policy, wars, immigration, etc etc, and when that wasn't enough, he's plunging us into autocracy.

Call me results oriented...

And what did he do after he found none? Did he accept the court decisions and, in turn, the outcome of the election, or did he insist on his narrative of a stolen election?



During his speech in Washington on Jan 6, Trump said the following:

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/966396848/read-trumps-jan-6-speech-a-key-part-of-impeachment-trial

So he urged his supporters to march down Pennsylvania avenue, to the Capitol where the election results were being certified at this hour, and "fight like hell" and "give the weak Republicans (i.e. those who wanted to certify the election) the boldness and pride to take back our country (i.e. make sure that Trump stays president)". Yeah, right, toooootally doesn't sound like someone leading a mob or trying to intimidate his political foes...



Melodramatic much?

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Aug 9 2022 12:37am