America's Darkest Days II: Blackest Night

[MartyG]

It really is a house of cards: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ure-rick-gates

[Asura]

OK, this is going to seem like an unpopular opinion, but I'm going to ask it.

I dislike Trump, and I'm pretty liberal as these things go - need to get that out of the way to be sure this doesn't sound like I'm defending the guy.

But do people seriously believe that Trump used the Russian government as a sort of kingmaker to get the presidency?

I mean I get it; people responded to the Hillary email news in a hugely disproportionate manner. She potentially lost the presidency over the most minor of technicalities. It was stupid but it happened.

Now people are digging into similar mistakes made by the Trump campaign, but now that he's in the White House, will it really make any difference?

What's the end result? What are people expecting? A few people involved with the campaign might serve some jail time for acting inappropriately with agents of a foreign power, but isn't that pretty much it?

I'm not saying "why bother"; they should absolutely investigate these things. I just think that the news coverage is enormous on this story and I worry some people think it might unseat Trump, whereas I doubt it'll go anywhere near that far.

[MartyG]

There's apparently plenty of evidence that it is the case: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...on-adam-schiff

Having a sitting President compromised by a foreign state is a pretty big deal.

And yes, I believe Trump is up to his eyeballs in corruption, otherwise he wouldn't be trying so hard to close the investigation down.

[Dogg Thang]

But do people seriously believe that Trump used the Russian government as a sort of kingmaker to get the presidency?

I think a lot of people believe that the Russian government used Trump and it's not quite the same thing but he'll take any advantage he can get and knowingly being a part of it at all or having his people be a part of it is a massive problem. Having a democratic process interfered with like that is a big deal, as Marty says (even though it should be familiar to the US from being on the other side).

[Neon Ignition]

I suppose the hopes for many is that why they may not be able to get Trump out of office before the next elections, they may be able to destroy his legacy and that of those around him whilst also crippling a party that has not just very serious issues but also very dangerous ones as well.

From an outsiders perspective, I do find it very concerning just how little presence the Democrats have had in the last year. They seem to have failed so far to find their feet and get a voice in a similar way to how Labour rolled around on the floor for years too. They need to pull the act together to build momentum for 2020 as to fail then would be devastating for them.

My concern, if they could get him out office (which I would love to see as whilst things wouldn't change much it would make a huge and historic statement from the Americans about how they treat the office of the Presidency in a way that is very sorely needed right now) is that it falls to the Vice President and I'd immediately feel he has to be just as dirty. If the Presidency is compromised at that level by corruption it needs to go straight back to the people.

He surely has to be the worst US President in history accounting for era? If not he's giving it a damn good go and it's destroying America's name in the meantime.

[MartyG]

He surely has to be the worst US President in history accounting for era? If not he's giving it a damn good go and it's destroying America's name in the meantime.

He certainly doesn't rank well on this list: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...residents.html

[QualityChimp]

It's primarily wishful thinking.
If anything, it'll be the equivalent of driving through an amber light as it changes - was he breaking the law?

The guns thing has really got me down.

This one guy is a star, though, and decided to destroy his AR-15, rather than it ever be used in a shooting:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/feb/20/gun-owner-destroys-weapon-after-florida-shooting-now-theres-one-less-video

[Colin]

As much as that's a nice gesture, I would imagine he has many more. In my experience, anyone who owns that type of gun owns several.

[QualityChimp]

As much as that's a nice gesture, I would imagine he has many more. In my experience, anyone who owns that type of gun owns several.

That's entirely possible.
Just 3% of Americans own more than half of the country's guns, who have an average of 17 guns each.

However, he's saying guns like his AR-15 are unnecessary.

I was losing faith in humanity, tbh.
People didn't see that the plethora of high-powered military weapons in civilians' hands after the likes of Sandy Hook was a recipe for disaster, so I'm pleased just one person has seen sense.

[charlesr]

Someone I've met, moved over here from the USA. His only response to the Florida thing was that the teachers should have had guns. I think he was serious. I didn't press the matter.....

Someone else pointed out that if you are armed (concealed carry), the last thing you want to do during an active shooter event (as opposed to? a passive shooter? weird, anyway) is to pull out your gun and go looking for the shooter, because the description everyone has is "person with a gun", so you'll most likely get shot by another concealed carry person, or shoot another concealed carry person yourself in a tragic mistaken identity moment. And then police will arrive and shoot you too. The police don't know what teachers look like, so if they see a teacher in a classroom of children holding a gun, that teach is getting shot without warning...

[briareos_kerensky]

Someone else pointed out that if you are armed (concealed carry), the last thing you want to do during an active shooter event (as opposed to? a passive shooter? weird, anyway)<snip>warning...

Multiple FBI studies corroborate this, and every single police officer, soldier, or someone who survived such events will agree. But the NRA is a powerful lobby and lobbies are what politicians care about because they have the money.

[fishbowlhead]

As much as that's a nice gesture, I would imagine he has many more. In my experience, anyone who owns that type of gun owns several.

The Destiny2 clan I'm in has a WhatsApp group. One of the yanks on it regularly posts pics to his mates of his assault rifles, M16, modded spec ops M14, FAMAs, all sorts. I asked him what he needed Weapons of war for? He said hunting rats son.

Nut jobs.

[Neon Ignition]

I'm sure I read somewhere that despite the whole owning guns to protect yourself from other gun owners thing there isn't any statistical info that supports anyone ever actually uses one in defence, opting to leg it instead rendering the ownership of the weapon redundant

[MartyG]

It's just used as a justification the same way the we have a right to bare arms in case there's a tyrannical government we need to revolt against stuff is.

Small arms aren't very effective against tanks and stealth bombers.

[MartyG]

Because when you're drowning, what you need is more water: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...hers-with-guns

In other news, an ex-bodyguard of Trump, the same bodyguard who revealed that he wasn't at Trump's door, but claims to have turned down an offer to send prostitutes to Trump's urine soaked room at the Ritz Moscow, gets £15K a month from a slush fund for "consulting fees" https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/21/trum...lush-fund.html

Nothing dodgy going on here, move along.