You can't make this stuff up

[jberryhill]

Notice the sub-headline of this NYT front page:



And then today:



Right down to Henry Fucking Kissinger:



You just can't make this shit up.

[Jarqui]

1. History is repeating itself to a degree

except this is much more sinister than a bad burglary to gain political advantage.

[rufus dog]

7. The burglary was to get the tape Nixon thought Johnson had

With Nixon collaborating with the North Vietnamese. Larry O'Brien had an office in the Watergate bldg. Nixon wanted the tape. So it was about a Repuke candidate working directly with an enemy to get elected. Same/Same.

[Jarqui]

8. The North Vietnamese might have been able to blackmail

Nixon to gain some favors. But the favors they might have gained would have been fairly limited. It was just North Vietnam after all.

Russia being able to blackmail the President of the US can call in massive favors. That's considerably different.

The other key difference was the GOP did not control congress in 1974.

So the similarities have real limitations.

[rufus dog]

9. agreed

This is much worse, but still show the lengths repubs wil go to win.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. Really?

Somehow I've never heard that before. I always heard they were planning to steal documents and bug the phones of the DNC. And even a quick check online says nothing about a tape. In fact, it's not entirely clear that Nixon actually knew about the break-in until after, although he then did his best to cover everything up.

[jberryhill]

21. I'd also like substantiation of that claim

Where has that claim been made, in relation to getting a "tape", and why would bugging the DNC help at all in that endeavor?

[rufus dog]

23. The theory is Larry O'Brien had info on Nixon passed on from Johnson

Proof - NONE

Was Nixon a paranoid Prick?

Why would Nixon, with a clear path to victory in '72, authorize a break in?


http://articles.latimes.com/1990-09-29/news/mn-1122_1_watergate-scandal

[jberryhill]

24. Your link states no such theory

The mere fact that an official of the DNC had worked for Johnson is no great surprise.

"Why would Nixon, with a clear path to victory in '72, authorize a break in?"

There is nothing which I have ever come across which substantiates that claim either.

The problem with the break-in is that it exposed operatives and methods which the WH had been using for a variety of things. That's why the investigation needed to be de-railed, and Nixon was certainly complicit in the attempted coverup.

It would have been bone stupid, for the reason you point out, for Nixon to have authorized the actual Watergate break in, but there is nobody involved with it - even the convicted conspirators who had nothing to lose when they wrote their books - who has ever suggested he did.

[tavalon]

25. It was the cover up that did him in

Wait, that sounds familiar!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

27. It was specifically to bug the phones and photograph documents in the DNC office,

and Larry O'Brien was the chairman of the DNC. It was O'Brien's office that was broken into; Nixon wanted to know what information O'Brien had on him. The "Plumbers" group was established to plug leaks, including possible information about the North Vietnam collaboration (there does not seem to be an actual tape of this). But the burglars were there to bug the phones.

[Laf.La.Dem.]

2. Message to the American people!

Fuck you!

[malaise]

3. Except that Kissinger was considered a friend

by Hillary

[jberryhill]

4. So was Trump

But there is no reason to assume that a Secretary of State would not have cordial relations with a former Secretary of State, nor is there any reason to assume that a Senator from New York would not have cordial relations with a prominent resident of New York.

[pnwmom]

14. Exactly. nt

[mzteaze]

6. But...

He also has serious ties to Russia. It is not a coincidence that he was there.

[pnwmom]

15. They had a cordial relationship, as two diplomatic people dealing with each other.

They are not chums.

[RKP5637]

5. Yep, Dj Vu! n/t

[hibbing]

10. War criminal n/t

[kentuck]

11. Some type of vortex or time warp?

[Nevernose]

12. If you DID make it up

Nobody would buy your book. The fiction would be too unbelievable.

[madokie]

16. He and old hank both need to be in lock up

crimes against humanity for both of them too

[berni_mccoy]

17. One BIG Difference: Democrats Controlled Congress while Nixon was President.

[Fritz Walter]

18. In Nixon's final days (daze?) he allegedly roamed the WH halls

...posing questions to the portraits of his predecessors.

I hope the current WH staff have taken appropriate precautions to protect the portraits of past Presidents -- and especially First Ladies -- from the inevitable rage-induced actions of the current -- and soon to be evicted -- illegal occupant of that national landmark.

[TrollBuster9090]

19. Oh well, you can't blame little Donny for wanting to re-live his youth.

Deja vu all over again.

DOES THIS MEAN WE CAN DO ANOTHER WOODSTOCK?

[jberryhill]

22. It's too late for woodstock...

...but maybe we can talk Yoko Ono into breaking up One Direction.

[BigmanPigman]

20. Back then the dems were in congress and that means everything. It is NOT the same for that reason.

[MFM008]

26. Dumbest bastard perhaps

In history.