Yea, the level of retardation is breathtaking. If he was even mildly intelligent, he'd realize these people that he's shit-talking on Twitter kinda work for him. He could remake the world (or at least the US) in his image. Instead, he's being an idiot an alienating all the people that can make him the least effective president in history. I'm fine with the latter. It'll be interesting seeing how upcoming elections for congress turn out.

So, with the appointment of the special prosecutor things are looking ever worse for Trump and his administration. The Russia thing doesn't even have to be true, there could be other skeletons in the closet that might get him in trouble. And in his case, I'm inclined to believe there are. I mean, if the whole thing with him asking Comey not to investigate Flynn is true, that alone is already seriously problematic for him.

I think Kenneth Starr was orginally appointed as special prosecutor to investigate Bill Clinton's involvement in a real estate swindle, but ended up indicting him over lying under oath regarding Monica Lewinsky. So yeah, this shit can take some strange twists and turns.

Wouldn't even be surprised if this is the first step of the Republicans towards getting rid of Trump, who is way too unpredictable and volatile for their liking. I mean, it seems like every time something comes out the story goes something like this:

- Official white house report saying that it's not what it looks like and the president didn't it for reasons X or Y
- Trump the next day saying that it's exactly what it looks like and that he did it for X or Y

In most normal jobs, you'd get fired by your company for doing this shit over and over again. But the presidency isn't like a company. So they have to find another way to get rid of him.

Yea, the President of the US has quite a bit of immunity when it comes to doing stupid shit... like him leaking highly classified data to the Russians. He's wrecking our international relations, though, not to mention all the civil liberties and stuff he's rolling back by decades. Still, it's amusing in a "let's watch the world burn" kind of way. I'd love to see it come out that he really is a Russian spy and have him executed for treason, but that's just me being a bastard.

Hahaha it probably won't get to that point I guess. But with this presidency, who the hell knows? I don't really have any expectations about anything anymore.

To be honest, I don't think there was any conscious collusion between Trump and his administration and the Russians. As in, a clear quid pro quo. I do however believe the man is a greedy buffoon who would have jumped on any sort of financially beneficial deal he could have gotten from Russia, for the benefit of his business (without there being the clear and articulated promise of returning a favor). Especially given that it seems unlikely that Trump expected to actually win for a long time, he might have gone "might as well get something out of this".

What does seem clear by now (from every official report) is that Russia did try to influence the elections in his favor. Not because they had a secret deal, but because they realized he would be easier to 'work with' (in whatever way, even blackmailing). Otherwise his call for Russia to hack the DNC was extremely retarded, even by his standards. But collusion, probably not.

So yeah, we'll see what happens. Comey's testimony yesterday was already pretty damning, again not so much of what was actually done but the way Trump seems to go about being a president. Not to mention the fact that he is clearly pissing off people left and right on a daily basis and losing their trust. If the director of the FBI decides to keep meticulous notes of all your encounters because he is clearly afraid that "the president might lie about what was said", yeah, that is a pretty sorry state of affairs. Especially since it actually seems to be justified too. Ugh.

P.S. The covfefe thing probably illustrates this presidency the best: mistype/fall asleep, and the next day have your press secretary officially declare that it was an intential message of sorts, definitely not a mistake. DOUBLE DOWN!!

Yea, it's pretty silly. What a freaking moron. This is definitely something that will be talked about for freaking ages. I'm just hoping it does no lasting damage. I also hope this thing doesn't really go on for 4 years. Let's get him out and go for a do-over.

Man, this presidency truly is the gift that keeps giving.

Here I was thinking the whole Russia thing was probably untrue. Then his son tweets out proof that he was at the very least trying to collude with someone who pretended to be speaking on behalf of a Russian government official. Good lord.

Shall we just scrap this form of government and put Satis in charge? More sex, guns, drugs and rock and roll. Probably less collusion with foreign powers. Probably.

I might collude on some awesome parties with foreign powers. I have no issue with putting me in charge as presidente for life. Bring it on.

Just gain a bit of weight, grow a beard and wear sunglasses. I can totally see it.

So what to make of this North Korea thing...I'm guessing Satis may have some particular feelings on the issue since he used to be stationed there? (not in the North, obviously)

As much as North Korea is the obvious black hole of retardation and ideological madness, I was really fucking annoyed with Trump's almost immediate allusions to the use of nuclear weapons. It's retarded and potentially dangerous. You keep the nukes as your final argument, not as one of the first ones. Even a child knows that. Now he went and said "if they threaten the US again we won't hesitate to use nuclear weapons". Mind, he didn't say 'attack', but 'threaten'. North Korea threatens the US all the freaking time. They did it again a day after he said that, and he doubled down on it (because he couldn't go back on the statement without losing face). Uggh.

I'd like to believe that for all their ideological madness, the fact that Kim Jong-Un is a self-serving tyrant and thus has no real interest in a war will be enough to stop it from happening. One would imagine that they know there is no way they're gonna win a war with the US, South Korea, Japan and Australia (and others). They may not LOSE it given how entrenched they are, but they definitely won't win it, and there would be countless dead. It's a real lose-lose proposition. But with a totalitatian regime built on a delusional cult of personality, you never know that they might go for the suicidal option.

The danger seems to be mostly in the game of chicken that is being played right now, between two narcissists. North Korea might just decide to go through with their threat of firing missiles into the waters near Guam, and after all the huffing and puffing Trump has been doing he may not see any other option left than to respond (in whatever manner) in order not to suffer a massive loss of face. And from there on out it could spiral out of control.

It seems like Trump is forgetting that this is not a pragmatic dictator like Putin. This is a dictator with supposed magical powers whose forefathers have shown many times that they are very willing to throw away millions of lives of their own citizens to stay in power. So egging him on seems like it's probably not the right strategy. Not in the least because the country is basically one massive bunker network under large mountain ranges, and has one of the largest standing armies in the world (and a huge reserve force). Even if they don't have the best military hardware, the combination of those two would make it a nightmare to topple the regime.

Exactly, any military confrontation will result in an almost immediate and inevitable massive loss of lives in South Korea, which is the entire reason why North Korea even still exists in the first place. The only viable long-term solution out of it is a diplomatic deal of sorts, with guarantees from both parties regarding their core interests/fears. Not that is very likely to happen though, what with North Korea being a batshit insane regime. They've promised a lot over the years but usually kept on doing what they wanted behind the scenes anyway, because they know there is little the rest of the world can do to force them because of said threat.

I guess the only way this stalemate may ever be broken is if North Korea collapses from within. Doesn't have to be a complete popular uprising, but a military coup within the regime could already open a window to progress. At this point, any new strongman with even a modicum of willingness to engage in dialogue about the nuclear program or the everlasting truce between the North and South would be better than another Kim who believes he is blessed with Godlike powers and abilities.

There have been reports about his unhealthy lifestyle and obesity problems lately, so who knows, maybe he'll just fuck himself up before he can produce an adult heir. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/peopl ... 17236.html Dude is about my age and reportedly has gout and diabete, is seriously obese and is a heavy smoker and drinker. Here i thought I was gonna die of a heartattack soon.

Feels a bit like the US got to him after all. Plan C(heeseburger)?

Well, now the other retard is firing missiles over Japanese territory.

I know this is all grandstanding, but I'm more worried about something somewhere going horribly wrong and what it may unleash then. I mean, this is North Korea we're talking about. There seems to be a pretty decent chance of any of their rockets accidentally crashing into Japan instead of going over it. And then shit will hit the fucking fan. Ugh.

Yea, I'm not sure NK realizes how precarious their situation really is. Blah. I guess it's like the 2016 election. If shit goes wrong, all you can really do is sit back and enjoy the fireworks.

This nonsense has been going on and on and it seems it won't end anytime soon. Fucking Trump can't help but react to the provocation and doubles down on his own chestthumping, and fucking Kim Jong Un is really pushing his luck. Between those two though, you'd expect the leader of a non-insane regime to be the one to know when to quit the bluffing. But it's not looking like that's going to happen.

South Park did a parody episode this weekend was a pretty good summary of how most of us feel about this I think. For some context: the kid in the video was worried about nuclear war with North Korea so sent a bunch of cupcakes to Kim Jong Un.

http://southpark.cc.com/clips/539td7/cr ... rt=airdate

"WHY WOULD HE DO THIS?!!"

I'll have to watch that when I'm not at work.