Know what all this feels like?

[The Creator]

I've been trying to figure out why this all feels so familiar. I know most (if not all) of you are waaaaay too young to remember this, but Watergate felt like this. Checking the news as often as possible (TV and newspapers, fer Chrissakes--not even CNN! This was 1973-74, folks). Watching live proceedings of Congressional committees. Wondering when we went to bed at night what we'd wake up to in the morning. The constant, nagging, indefinable dread. Being 19 years old and wondering if your country was going to survive.
I'm thinking of starting a thread here with the title "What Fresh Hell is This?" (Dorothy Parker, for those of you who don't recognize it). Sorta sums it up, y'know?

[Lady B]

I don't remember Watergate, but I am with you in this. Btw, Melane, you will be pleased to know that Jeff Flake, (Arizona's junior senator for those not in the know) has caught wind of the fact that we are already organizing to defeat him in 2018. He's heard from me soooo many times already! When Elizabeth Warren was silenced on the floor by Mitch McJackass, I sent Flake the text of Coretta Scott King's letter. Darned right we're taking him down!

[The Creator]

Seems that this weekend when Drumpf was dining with the Prime Minister of Japan (wonder if they split the bill?), a call came in about North Korea's missile launch. The call was answered, and many more made, right there at the table in the middle of a public restaurant. I guess it's the Alternative Situation Room.
What I'm reminded of is being in an airport back in the '90s, waiting for a plane. Some guy in an expensive suit had one of those brand-new mobile phone thingys--and he wanted to make sure everybody in the waiting area knew it. Strode back and forth as he talked loudly and commandingly; made glancing eye contact with everyone he passed so they'd know how important he was because he had this really cool and really costly piece of technology. Y'know what I thought? I thought, "Dude, if you were as important as you seem to think you are, you wouldn't be flying commercial with the rest of us peons."
Drumpf was doing much the same thing the other night. See how important I am? I get phonecalls in the middle of dinner with somebody really really bigly important about really really bigly important stuff!
Goddess help us all.

[Renne]

I also don't remember Watergate, but the constant stream of news from this presidency leaves me with a constant stream of nausea. People keep saying, "I didn't think it would be this bad." I honestly can't say that because I knew the potential was there. I hoped for the best, but prepared for the worst. Melanie, your story reminds me of something that happened at work just last week. I'm a resource teacher in the Special Education Department of our local school district, and my bitty cubicle is right next to the clerk for one of the placement specialists. They deal with the more contentious or difficult Special Ed cases. The clerk is new, and got a call from one of the local lawyers that parents contract. This particular lawyer is, how should I say this diplomatically, um, less than competent. I've been in meetings where parents have fired her mid-meeting. The lawyer was asking for copies of files to be sent to her office and insisting that a certain person be present at the meeting, but only had Her first name. The clerk was flustered, since she did not know who she meant, and said she was new to the department. The lawyer's response was to snakily say, "You do know who Iam, don't you?". And proceeded to inform her that she was a very important lawyer with lots of clout. Once the poor woman got off the phone, she told me the whole story when she asked about the name she didn't know. I told her she should have answered the lawyer with, "Yes, I know who you are. You are an asshole!"

[Lady B]

Yes, yes.... all of the above is true. He's so incompetent. Soooo.... God. I can't even.

[CamiTheEvil]

Not only did they take the call about the NK missle launch on the terrace, but right in front of a whole lot of people and it got posted on someone's bloody Facebook.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/u...e-iphone-share

[The Creator]

And we've even gotten to the point of:
"What did the president know and when did he know it?"

(Of course, the obvious answer to this is, "Nothing" and "All his life.")

[The Creator]

Umm.... Sweden? There was an attack in Sweden that the Swedes don't know about?

And why doesn't the press just call his lies what they are? HE LIES. Constantly. Uncontrollably. Despicably.

I'm thinking of going to Gosar's town hall (yeah, right--let's see if he shows up) and asking two questions: "Do you agree that millions of votes were cast illegally in the 2016 election?" If he answers "yes," which he has to if he doesn't want Drumpf on his case, the follow-up is, "How?"
Really. How did that happen? What were the logistics of getting millions of people to the polls, traducing hundreds--if not thousands--of poll workers to collude, and doing all of this without one single person blowing the whistle or one single shred of evidence that this did in fact occur? It's the Hitlerian dictum: The bigger the lie, the oftener you tell it, the more people will believe it.

Setting up the press as the "enemy of the American People" is preparation for something really horribly incredibly awful happening, which Drumpf will then tell us all what he's been telling us all along--the Chico Marx question (I've forgotten which movie): "Who're you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?"

My Bachelor's degree is in European history. Scared? You're damned right I'm scared.

[ReeRee]

I was a poli sci major and I am often recall that Hobbes' Leviathan book cover was a picture of a king whose armor, if you look carefully, is actually a bunch of tiny people. http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/imgs...639/ead6df.jpg

[The Creator]

Re: the allegations about collusion with Russia: The energy needs of the greater Los Angeles area could be supplied for a year if we could leash the combined power of U.S. Presidents spinning in their graves.

[The Creator]

Rapt attention paid to televised Congressional hearings---check.
President's hitherto unknown taping system revealed---check.

I'm waiting for Spicer to say that all previous statements are "inoperative."

These people can't even keep their lies coordinated. It's not that difficult. Really. I tell lies on paper for a living. (On the other hand, I do have knowledgeable and perceptive editors who help keep my lies organized.)

[Lady B]

How long do you think he'll last? He's no quitter, so I'll bet he'll last through the summer, but the GOP douche bags being who they are-- McConnell--it'll take a United America to get McConnell of his enabling ass.

Speaking of McConnell, his wife is in Trump's cabinet. Can you say complicit?

[Lady B]

How long do you think he'll last? He's no quitter, so I'll bet he'll last through the summer, but the GOP douche bags being who they are-- McConnell--it'll take a United America to get McConnell of his enabling ass.

Speaking of McConnell, his wife is in Trump's cabinet. Can you say complicit?

[The Creator]

The way all this is different is that the Watergate was not broken into by a hostile foreign power.

[The Creator]

Non-denial denial---check.
"If the President does it, it's not illegal." ---check.

By the time this is finished, the United States will have a massive collective case of PTSD.