The Mueller advising the president that he may be subpoenaed thing is big news. It’s also significant. Not least because it’s out there now that Mueller isn’t playing games. This is not a witch hunt. There have been indictments for real crimes. If the Trumpers had been on the losing side of 2016 and all this stuff had come out about Hillary, especially the election tampering possibilities, she would have been lynched. The difference is that she would have fully cooperated.
It’s just what she does.
But I think the reason the majority of the country is anxious is because the Trump voter just doesn’t get it. There will be some people who will say they’re just really slow learners. But I don’t think it’s stupidity. I heard the explanation this week on The Ezra Klein Show. He was interviewing an expert on polarization who referred to a study about why people choose sides. It turns out that there is no big mysterious reason or ideology initially. That would square with some of the unorthodox stuff I hear from Fox News viewers who wonder why CAN’T we have Medicare for all? Well, why can’t we??
Some holocaust survivor back in the last century did some studies and discovered that people just want their team to win. Even if they lost something in the process, their team winning and the other team losing was more important. Even if both teams agreed on the same things.
So, it should come as no surprise that Trump makes a point of reminding his audience at his rallies that the rest of us are trying to overturn the results of the elections. First of all, after all the Facebook stuff, Russian Trolls, hacking of the DNC and election systems in 21 states, you are never going to convince me that the election of Trump was legitimate. The Trumpers can froth and scream and threaten all they like, there are so many things we do not know right now that the election will always have a big question mark on it. Don’t even with the Michigan thing. We’ve gone over this before. The popular vote should have matched the electoral college. Even when Gore “lost”, the popular vote and the electoral college lined up. No one in presidential history has ever won so many votes and lost an election than Hillary Clinton. There’s something deeply disturbing about that. And I remember back in 2016 when Trump said he would challenge the results in PA if he lost because it would be evidence that the vote was rigged. Now, how could he be so sure he was going to win PA? Sure enough to say it was rigged. In advance. By 2 months. Yeah, I’ll never believe we lost Pennsylvania.
Getting back to the winning thing, it’s not like anybody on Trump’s side won anything. Well, unless you’re a rich donor, in which case, you got out of paying a lot of taxes and will gleefully stick the “winners” with the bill for paying teacher salaries and bridge repairs and stuff like that.
So much winning.
So, is the Mueller investigation all about overturning the results of an elections, which is apparently the only thing Trumpers really care about?
The answer is no. The Mueller investigation is about no one being above the law. If Hillary isn’t above the law, or Martha Stewart or Bill Crosby or any other celebrity who is famous or had their own TV shows, then neither is Donald Trump. His illegal actions centering around the election that made him president do not change that. It’s not better just because it’s not a DUI or a drug bust or something the rest of us have to worry about. In fact, his crimes are doubly bad because if he messed with a vote in any way, shape or form, even if it was through a Russian agent, that’s about the worst thing you can do to your nation because it affects every single citizen.
Now, I understand that Donald Trump is used to winning. He’s used to lying, extorting, bullying, threatening, stonewalling and witness tampering. That’s how he’s gotten so far in life. He has paid his way out of all his problems or walked away from them altogether and let someone else worry about the fallout. And gosh, that certainly looks like winning to me. But as Sansa Stark said last year on Game of Thrones to her sister, the trained assassin, “I’m sure that cutting off heads is very satisfying but it’s not a very good way to get people to work together”.
He is just not used to someone being persistent in holding him accountable for his actions and being held to a different standard in the political world as president. That’s just too damn bad. We’re all more than a little bit irritated with his stupid childish behavior. It’s time he grew a pair and cooperated. This has nothing to do with winning or overturning an election. It’s about being accountable.
Filed under: General |
The Confluence 
Some holocaust survivor back in the last century did some studies and discovered that people just want their team to win. Even if they lost something in the process, their team winning and the other team losing was more important. Even if both teams agreed on the same things.
I saw an experimental documentary of sorts on TLC or some such channel a while back who studied how we feel when our team wins or loses. There are measurable reactions and addictive behavior without a rationale for why we always want to be on the winning side. trumpers don’t want to give that up. Fair enough. But I am surprised that so many of them don’t see what he is doing to the country and its institutions and how much of a misfit he is for the office. They have been conditioned to have such a low regard for the government that they are ok if it is burned down. Sticking it to the minorities, immigrants, the poor is a bonus for them.
“Even if they lost something in the process, their team winning and the other team losing was more important.”
There is a study for this. Keeping down the liberals, the minorities, the immigrants, and in general the people they dislike … sticking it to them. And they know with trump, that is who will lose.
https://twitter.com/_EthanGrey/status/989380454435508224
“Sticking it to the minorities, immigrants, the poor is a bonus for them.”
Not quite.
That’s not a mere bonus to the Stupid White Folks who helped Tsar Vladimir put Cheeto Benito in the White House.
It’s their main goal. 👿
What a clusterfuck 2016 election was!!
I think when people call trump ‘idiot’ I think they are saying how much of misfit he is for the Office and not necessarily that he is dumb overall, though personally, I question that too. If he didn’t have the money and if he was not as corrupt and shameless and willing to do anything, he would not be where he is. But those are also the qualities that most people revolt against and don’t want to live by. It is like where angels fear to tread. He may have some amount of smarts to hold on to that power the money brings by hook or crook literally, but it is not something that would advance a civilized society. But really, how much of his win may be attributed to the whole media megaphone propping him up and hiding his corrupt and crooked ways?
Related: https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/01/opinions/donald-trump-is-not-an-idiot-begala/index.html
Someday I hope Hillary’s reputation will be rehabilitated as well. But this society rewards winners disproportionately even when they are wrong.
Hey RD and all – I thought I would tell you that Cash Cab (a game show) was on and they had a PUMA question! It was something to the affect of of “in 2008 disaffected Hillary supporters were named after what animal” and the people in the cab got it right! Thought it was call and wanted to share
trump clusterfuck 2016; media asleep at the switch or knowingly sold its soul.
Media paved the way for this:
* by not telling us about W’s life before he was 40…that he was an alcoholic and a man without accomplishments
* by helping Obama seal all his documents
Agree with all of this but there is a pattern, men were helped by media’s lack of due diligence and fairness, the woman was crucified for 25 years. I am willing to bet that had all of trump’s negatives been laid out to the public, Hillary would still have come out as the greater of two evils. In other words, she would not have benefitted from accurate coverage of her opponent and she still would have been painted as unlikeable, overly ambitious, uninspiring,so cleverly corrupt she has never been caught, etc. i also fear that if all the dirt comes out, trump will still be in office, possibly for eight years (as long as his bottom line doesn’t suffer, he doesn’t get bored, or become physically/mentally disabled). Had the situation been reversed and Hillary found to be guilty of any criminal, unethical or immoral act real or imagined, she would have been out on her ass well before her first term ended.
“The Trumpers can froth and scream and threaten all they like…”
Let ’em.
We remember what happened the last time they were stupid enough to try bullying the rest of the country. 😈
h/t Driftglass:
Notice that whoever made this poster, accurately, does not consider Faux Noise to be a separate entity from the GOP. 😈
This is for the fake circus performer, who apparently has been lurking again. 😈
He does remind me of this other clown, except the one in the comic books is actually dangerous.
He can hold that boombox up over his head all he wants.
She’s going to keep ignoring him.
I’m going to keep mocking him. 😈