By David Futrelle
Three, three indictments in one! Three former Trump campaign officials are in the hot seat today. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is the big name on the list (along with his pal Rick Gates), for such fun things as conspiracy against the U.S. and money laundering. But even more intriguing is the GUILTY PLEA of relatively unknown Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, whom Mueller has presumably flipped, who seems to have been doing some active COLLUDING WITH THE RUSSIANS.
So here’s an open thread to discuss the news and any other indictment fun that transpires today.
NOTE: Sorry to have gone missing for so long. I’m still dealing with a combo of health issues that have made it very difficult to work. Thanks again for your patience and support.
This hasn’t been the first scandal to rock Washington, won’t be the last. I suppose one of the reasons I’m not as stoked about this as I should be (a second reason being Canadian privilege) is that it’s not just Trump. The entire Republican Party needs to be electorally ground into the earth, and then the earth salted, and then a thousand-pound boulder rolled on top of the salted earth. And then the Republican base has to be either deprogrammed from the FOX News/Hate Radio bubble they’ve been living in, or shamed into never casting a ballot again for the rest of their lives.
Otherwise, it’ll just happen all over again in another 16-20 years. You can already hear the lifeboats being launched: “It’s Trumpism, not conservatism! He’s really a Democrat anyway! Real Republicans oppose Trump’s boorishness!”
It’s not the boorishness (although that’s awful too), it’s the policies. It’d be the same policies if it were Jeb Bush. Don’t let Trump’s enablers slither away.
Moggie,
Isn’t it amazing how late responsible adulthood comes for rich white conservative men?
Tamir Rice was responsible for his own death because he should have known better than to have a toy gun in the vicinity of trigger happy cops.
The young girl who was the victim in the Steubenville case was asking for it because she should have known better than to drink with boys if she didn’t want to be raped.
But expect conservative white dudes (who by the way are the smartest, most moral and most superior sort of people there are) to know by the age of 29 that they aren’t supposed to lie to FBI when they’re investigating an important case? Have a little compassion! We all screw up when we’re young!
Feom the column Croosters linked:
…and I stopped. Because that’s all I needed to see to see where this was headed.
ETA WWTH: right?!? That scamp.
Hannity called Hillary “President Clinton” on his broadcast last night. Freudian slip? He’s previously called the last administration “the Clinton administration.”
@ Croosters
I feel ill now… and I only made through two paragraphs.
The mind-numbingly ignorant Roosh apparently is not aware of how many places on Earth women ARE the property of the “senior male”… and I don’t believe any of those places are safer for anyone other than the elite power brokers.
If these guys are supposed to be the gurus of pick up artistry then how come the only way they envisage having sex with women is through the literal reintroduction of slavery?
Alan, stop that, you’ll hurt their little feelings!!!
Though that is a most interesting question….
Let’s see. When women are the property of men our fathers can arrange marriages to adult men when we’re children. Our husbands can beat and rape us and it’s perfectly legal. We can’t control our own money or take out loans or get credit cards without permission so there’s no escaping violent domestic situations. Our fathers or husbands can have us committed and/or lobotomized not just for mental illness but even just for behaving in ways they don’t approve.
Sign me up! I think we would much safer if only we could be property.
Yeah, I’m not seeing the part where…
It’s not that they can’t have consensual sex that’s pleasurable for both people involved. It’s that they don’t want to. That’s why the so-called PUA gurus don’t ever talk about sex with any kind of joy and they don’t trade tips on how to have good, fun sex. They want to dominate. They want to win at sex and relationships. For them to win, the women have to lose.
When PUA/red pill types write about how they women could lose their rights and become dependent on men both in the eyes of the law and the eyes of society in general, they aren’t conceding that they can’t get laid or find a willing romantic partner. They’re conceding that they can’t be dominant alpha males on the force of their own personalities. They need the big daddy government they’re normally so contemptuous of to do it for them.
@ wwth
Thanx, that is a very good answer!!
Well, see, prisoners still have the “status of human beings”.
If women are owned, PUA’s would be prosecuted and do serious time for crimes against property every time they tried to do that Game shit (crimes against property generally being treated more seriously than crimes against people). Assuming that the woman’s “owner” didn’t apply a beat down instead.
So – what are the advantages to Douche V and his arselickers by proposing this?
Not to mention, when and where women are property, men who want a wife have to do something to acquire one. Whether it’s being born in an aristocratic family, or just having a donkey you can trade, you have to have some kind of assets. You can’t just use this “game” nonsense, you have to impress her male guardian or at minimum pay up.
PUAs: Oops, you’re useless losers and changing the system would not change that.
It’s like that old joke about how we’ll have to incorporate our uteri to get Republicans to leave them alone.
Yep. All flavors of manospherian want the benefits of patriarchy but without the responsibilities. You want women financially dependent on you? You have to earn enough money to keep your wife and kids fed and clothed and housed. And blogging and selling ebooks to other useless assholes is not going to earn you enough for the marriage approval of a father of a pretty middle or upper class woman.
@Kivutar
Yep. Goods, position, or (very rarely) deeds, are the only acceptable forms of payment I’ve heard of.
Add in that it’s cash (or equivalent) up front, too. Trying to think how fast these stellar examples of humanity would have to talk to a bank loan officer to get a loan on a wife …. 😛
Hmm..that makes me wonder. In this scenario would PUA ‘game’ bullshit constitute attempted theft or attempted kidnapping?
@Moggie
Maybe if he were a hobbit….*snicker*
“Class or ass”
(sorry)
*sigh* Roosh’s been reading the John Norman’s Gor novels, hasn’t he?
Funny coincidence: Rachel Maddow’s guest Michael Beschloss reported last night that the first person indicted in the Watergate scandal was also a fellow by the name of George Papadopoulos!
Feel better soon, David! 🙂
On the rest of these topics, I am speechless…
It may be meant as some sort of gotcha towards feminists. Like, “you wanted to be free from male guardianship but that leaves you having to deal with male violence, take that”. Various individual arselickers might see it as either argument against women’s freedom, or a validation for vioence against women.
The former type probably do imagine they could be patriarchs – or they like it as a fantasy that’s validated by reactionary political arguments.
@Artic Ape
Thank you. I don’t always expect sense from people (especially the sort of people mocked here), but a certain internal consistancy and twisted logic does usually apply.
Couldn’t see it in this case. You could and did. 🙂
Both George Papadopouloses may’ve been named after Georgios Papadopoulos – not that I’d want to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgios_Papadopoulos
Hambeast:
When Greece sends its people, they’re not sending their best.