The Smocking Gun?

Kaiser-Kun

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Oh goodness. What now? I'm afraid to Google.
 

darkprincealain

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It was an early morning “very presidential” tweet. I would say it’s relatively safe to google if you are used to his normal behavior. This is in character, and doesn’t seem to contain triggers except for the poor command of the English language his tweets frequently contain.
 

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“Democrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey’s testimony. No Smocking Gun...No Collusion.” @FoxNews
That’s because there was NO COLLUSION. So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution,.......which it was not (but even if it was, it is only a CIVIL CASE, like Obama’s - but it was done correctly by a lawyer and there would not even be a fine. Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me). Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!

Man... OJ Simpson's book title was more discreet.
 

JJ Litke

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He's right about one thing, though, I don't have a smocking gun. I have to sew all my smocking by hand.
 

yesandno

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I spent a while trying to think of something funny to say about this latest tweeting embarrassment, just for the hell of it. Then I realized that it's just not funny to me. He makes me tired. So very tired.
 

Introversion

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BUT there is a glimmer of hope!

I fear we’re in for big disappoinments ahead.

Impeachment is a political process, and I don’t see a majority in this Congress voting in favor of that.

And from what I read, Mueller is unlikely to try to charge a sitting President with crimes, which would test whether that’s even constitutional.

Andif he does charge Mango Mussolini, and the new A.G. allows it (questionable), it’ll go to the Supreme Court. I’m not optimistic that this Supreme Court would find that it was constitutional to do so.

I think the best we can hope for is a president so poisoned in public opinion that he doesn’t run again in 2020. :cry:
 

regdog

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All I could think about when I saw this tweet was Calvin and Hobbes. Hobbes is wearing Calvin's dad shirt as a smock and is sitting there saying "Smock smock smock smock smock smock"
 

cbenoi1

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Impeachment is a political process, and I don’t see a majority in this Congress voting in favor of that.

Not even the Dems. It's a very long process and the payback is minimal. They will instead want drag Trump and the GOP in the mud for as long as possible and show the hubris to the World, maybe all the way to 2020.

-cb
 

ElaineA

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Only when he is poisonous enough to overcome whatever is hanging over the rest of the GOP, keeping them silent and complicit, will impeachment be on the table. They have to be on board or it won't even come up.

Of course, all the damage to our democratic norms will be so deep and so severe by then, it's hard to see how we come out of it. But if Germany and Japan were remade after WWII, the US can recover eventually. I'm hoping so for my future grandchildren. (If there's air to breathe by then.)
 
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Kaiser-Kun

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Not even the Dems. It's a very long process and the payback is minimal. They will instead want drag Trump and the GOP in the mud for as long as possible and show the hubris to the World, maybe all the way to 2020.

-cb

Indeed. Remove him now and some other stooge will take his place, perhaps someone even more unhinged or toxic. Ted Nugent or Sean Hannity or Alex Jones or Ann Coulter would all be very glad to take that spotlight and be the focus for a while.

The people need to see that Trump's methods are not only evil and corrupt, but also inefficient and unsustainable.
 

SWest

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I'd find it problematic for Mueller to decline charging him for corruption cultivated before a president is sworn into office. There is a precedent to not charge a sitting president with his in-office crimes (Nixon, frex), but this mess was all being organized during the campaign.

I don't know of any instance of peri-term crime that gets a free pass from prosecution...(would welcome examples, i.e.)...like, Mr. Carter could not rip off a bunch of contractors and expect to get off scot-free.

We'd have to settle with impeachment for the emoluments infractions or conspiracy to murder a journalist, but a candidate being above the law is a real danger point of no return...
 
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cbenoi1

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I'd find it problematic for Mueller to decline charging him for corruption cultivated before a president is sworn into office.

WHILE he is the President it is a political problem. AFTER his term, it's strictly a legal problem. Don't worry. Mueller's team is taking Trump's measurements for the orange jumpsuit for when his term is completed (or interrupted, whichever comes first).

-cb
 

Chris P

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I don't understand all the big covfefe about a Trump typo.
 

Chris P

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I wonder how smo[c]king the gun would have to be for Trump and his supporters? It reminds me of the anti-evolution folks arguing that any "missing link" we find is not enough to prove evolution. It's the same logical fallacy (I'm told is called argumentum ad ignorantiam: saying that your lack of evidence is proof of my position)
 

Brightdreamer

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I wonder how smo[c]king the gun would have to be for Trump and his supporters? It reminds me of the anti-evolution folks arguing that any "missing link" we find is not enough to prove evolution. It's the same logical fallacy (I'm told is called argumentum ad ignorantiam: saying that your lack of evidence is proof of my position)

A literal, actual smoking gun would not be proof enough for them. (Neither, for that matter, would a smocking gun.) They've been successfully inoculated against facts.
 

ElaineA

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We'd have to settle with impeachment for the emoluments infractions or conspiracy to murder a journalist, but a candidate being above the law is a real danger point of no return...
Frankly, letting a sitting president get away with it is dangerous. When it's something like this, where he's potentially colluding with a foreign power for his own enrichment. That can't be above the law.

I wonder how smo[c]king the gun would have to be for Trump and his supporters? It reminds me of the anti-evolution folks arguing that any "missing link" we find is not enough to prove evolution. It's the same logical fallacy (I'm told is called argumentum ad ignorantiam: saying that your lack of evidence is proof of my position)

I keep telling the TV "there IS evidence. It's in the legal briefs. It's there, in black and white." Not that the TV is listening...

I get so frustrated seeing people carve out each individual piece. This morning it was, "well, technically that kind of violation results in a fine." YES, but what about the Trump Tower meeting? This stuff is not a bunch of acts done in isolation. It's ALL the same pie.
 

MaeZe

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One possibility is to start picking away at the GOP Senators as the evidence accumulates. Any Senators that are part of the Trump train wreck are going to be as 'see-no-evil' as the so-called Trump base. But there are still moderate Senators even if Graham is a fair weather friend and the weather's bad, McConnell is simply power driven (in my assessment) and that has made him not give a rip how he gets it. But surely there are still some GOP Senators who are not bat-shit crazy. Think of it as tipping points, if we can pick off the moderates one by one, appealing to the "Have You Left No Sense of Decency?" side of their brains that they must still have.

From the McCarthy witch hunt (oou the irony there):
Mr. Welch: Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?
 

Twick

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The "qanon" thing is a right-wing fantasy, along the lines of "Jade Helm is preparing us for martial law" and "Buy Iraqi currency, because it'll make us rich when it's revalued." It's an "any day now" story that never quite pulls the trigger. But any day now, right?

Why did Trump tweet "smocking" for "smoking"? Because he's semi-illiterate, and is too narcissistic to bother spell checking.
 

Roxxsmom

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Here's a weird take on the "smocking gun" thing. I don't know who this person is, but he/she thinks it was Ivanka who composed the tweet containing the word "smocking" (twice), and this person is saying that the use of the word is code for 'war' for the QAnon crackpots.

It sounds like total lunacy to me, but stranger things have happened.

I suspect an application of Occam's razor is the best strategy here: Trump can't spell. He wrote "smocking" twice, so he clearly think that's how it is spelled.

I don't hold poor spelling skills against anyone. I'm not a great speller either, but when one is POTUS and pontificating about public policy, doesn't it make sense to triple and quadruple check your work before hitting "save" or "send"?
 
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yesandno

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I suspect an application of Occam's razor is the best strategy here: Trump can't spell. He wrote "smocking" twice, so he clearly think that's how it is spelled.

I don't hold poor spelling skills against anyone. I'm not a great speller either, but when one is POTUS and pontificating about public policy, doesn't it make sense to triple and quadruple check your work before hitting "save" or "send"?

THIS! It just seems respectful.