President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

I've lived in Alabama for close to thirty years now. You'd think that by now I'd understand how completely assbackwards the politics are here, but this takes the cake.

The state Republican primary runoff is tomorrow. That primary is the de facto election, as 95% of the state-wide offices are held by Republicans. The race for state attorney general features two candidates and greatly resembles a choice between pancreatic cancer and liver cancer. I checked Facebook this morning and there was an ad for one of them, Troy King. He's got Roger Stone flying in to do campaign events for him today, basically speeches at the Huntsville, Birmingham, and Mobile airports. At the bottom of the ad are three pictures - Trump, Stone, and King, with King in the middle (of course).

This three days after Mueller's last indictment which did not quite name Stone as cooperating with the Russians, not that these idiots know it, or would believe it if I posted it.

The comments are universally favorable about Stone - they may say "I wouldn't vote for Troy King in a one man race", but Stone is Trump's smart advisor.

Sweet Jesus.

 

I agree with you on this.

But, now that it's happened, you appear to be of the opinion that "it's water under the bridge. Nothing we can or should do about it now."

How is my characterization of your shrug-and-forget it approach inaccurate?

 

All the proof you need as to why the Democratic Party should not spend one penny in states like Alabama.

 

But... Roy Moore.

 

It's funny. Trump is often late, disrespecting the people he is to meet with. Hell, he kept the Queen of England waiting for ten minutes, and she's 90 years old.

Putin arrives late and keeps *Trump* standing around waiting. Their relationship in microcosm... Putin dominant.

 

The counter position seems to be that we don't even talk to Russia. Is that better?

I think we can express our displeasure, take steps to avoid letting it happen again, and still engage Russia.

 

JFC. So, did Trump dominate the Queen?

This is like a team trying to be the last one out of the locker room.

Besides, as the AP points out, it appears to be more of a personal trait than anything else:

Some Kremlin watchers saw Putin’s lack of punctuality as a deliberate tactic of trying to throw his vis-a-vis off balance, but others pointed out that it appears to be more of a personal trait than a well-calculated strategy.

Putin is also chronically late for official events in Moscow, often because he lets preceding meetings run longer than expected.

He often holds meetings in late evenings and starts his days relatively late.

Putin arrives in Helsinki late for Trump meeting - The Boston Globe

 

This is true. It's weird. There's a long history of Russian leaders who were night owls. Stalin held all his military meetings in WW2 at around midnight.

 

Was thinking the exact same thing.

I think it's a dictator thing in general. Everyone else adapts to your schedule, and people who don't have to get up early, tend to stay up late, and sleep late.

 

Tell Doug Jones that. The race for Governor will also be competitive, as we have an accidental Governor, Kay Ivey, who was promoted from incompetent Lt. Gov. when Robert Bentley got the boot. Walt Maddox, the Democratic mayor of Tuscaloosa, is smart, young vigorous, and was near perfect in dealing with the tornado recovery there. He gets close to 80% of the vote there, and Tuscaloosa is not a closet Democratic stronghold.

Kay Ivey was state treasurer during the crash in 2008. The state had a college savings plan where people invested money in the stock for their children's college education, and like so much else at that time, it crashed hard. As Treasurer, Ivey managed the fund. She held onto the stocks all through the drop, resisting all calls to bail out or convert it to cash, until the market completely bottomed out... and *then* she sold. It went belly up, and the people who had bought into it lost their asses.

That's her biggest claim to fame. There have been rumors for years that she's a heavy drinker, as well as that she's a closeted lesbian (NTTAWWT), but she's a white haired grandma type, and generally liked. The power brokers like her because she's very pliant and does what they tell her to.

Anyhow, Maddox has a legit shot at Governor, even as a Democrat. He's smart and brings energy and new ideas to the table. Ivey refused to debate with her rivals during the primary, and has refused to debate Maddox so far, and that's hurting her some.

Full Disclosure - Walt was also QB for UAB just as the program was starting, but that's not why I like him for Governor... but it does not hurt, either.

 

Isn't Pwned the Cyrillic spelling?