When news of the Trump campaign’s wrongdoing surfaces, like Julia Ioffe’s scoop today, my feelings are always mixed. On the one hand, I can go along with the predominant feelings of the threads here, the anticipation of the actors in orange jumpsuits, the anger at what they’ve done to our country, the hope that our national nightmare is coming to an end.
On the other, I feel a bit hopeless. The country elected this man and the doofuses around him. The media fell for the Russian tricks. And Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are much too busy looting the country for their billionaire sponsors to do anything about it.
And I don’t know how this ends.
Watergate was a simple burglary, directed and covered up by the President. This involves years of money laundering, ambitions of an emotionally and ethically deficient man and his hangers-on, and some things we don’t yet understand, like how those folks in flyover country like Jeff Sessions and Sam Clovis got so friendly with the Russians. There are multiple threads.
Robert Mueller and his team are pulling on some of those threads, and they will come loose eventually. People will be convicted. It may happen quickly or it may linger.
Some large number of people seem to be implicated. Most of those in the Trump campaign, possibly Ryan and McConnell. Most of the chain of succession is made up of the incompetent Cabinet officers Trump has appointed. I don’t know how we’re going to deal with that.
Then there is the question of how the public will take it. I think that this will not be a major problem. There will be a vocal minority that continues to support Trump, but most will follow the political leadership. And yeah, the Republican leadership stinks, but I think that will turn one way or another.
Yes, let’s enjoy seeing the facts come out and imagining the perp walks. But we need to prepare for a long and unpleasant slog.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
CIVIL WAR
/inb4 TenguPhule
TenguPhule
Progress!
Thoughtful David
Amount of Russia news out today is astounding. I’m guessing someone didn’t like Trump saying he believed Putin.
Tim C.
There’s also the fact that America needs a functioning and as not-corrupt-as-possible conservative party. One that actually shares some basic principles with it’s rivals. Things like majority rule and minority rights, that our election systems should be designed to make things as competitive as possible so that no political party feels it doesn’t need to make an effort to reach out to voters in some part of the country. I know this is magic unicorn territory, but we need a functioning system.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Sadly, I was more optimistic about our chances to avoid that when Mueller started dropping the hammer.
Then came Moore.
And the realization that there really are millions of these evil fuckers. Millions of them.
chris
Time for a break! A pup and dolphin break.
Mike in DC
I think it’s going to point more directly towards Trump’s involvement by the end of this year, and 2018 will become a referendum on impeachment. But this won’t really end until 45 is sentenced, sometime in 2022 or thereabouts.
Roger Moore
As far as I can tell, the only person in the chain of succession who is not obviously implicated or complicit in the mess is Orrin Hatch. Everyone else is either directly involved (Trump, Pence), helped with the coverup (Ryan), benefited from Trump’s election (most of the cabinet), or falls into more than one category (Sessions). So the best hope right now is either Hatch (if things go to hell before the election) or Pelosi (if the Democrats manage to get control of the House before hell breaks loose).
JGabriel
Cheryl Rofer @ Top:
Plus Dana Rohrabacher, Devin Nunes, that campaign manager down in Florida who used data from Russian hackers to get his GOP Rep. elected, plus a few more House Reps. and their campaign/office staff, and maybe a few Senators too.
ruemara
They won’t go to jail. And this Congress, having taken the delicious bait of stolen emails for their races and luscious dark money from “friends” overseas, will want to ignore it. The entire party leadership is compromised. Multiple sitting office holders are compromised. And fuck, people on our side are compromised. They won’t suffer a single consequence that can’t be resolved by waffling on whether this was a bit naughty in front of a tv camera. It would take too much time and energy for Americans to hold them accountable, so that will be the shocking that.
Cheryl Rofer
I said in a comment that I’d like to see the emails, and Don Jr. obliges. Or says he obliges.
Elizabelle
Worse for us, us jackals? I don’t think so. It sounds like a cleansing.
And if some corrupt Democrats get caught up, we are better without them.
Just don’t want to become the French Revolution, which consumed its radicals and many innocents along with the deserving.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@ruemara:
It doesn’t have to be all Americans holding them accountable.
Baud
@Elizabelle: A refreshing colonic, if you will.
Yarrow
I’ve said previously that we will need to have some kind of Truth and Reconciliation Commission type thing to get past this. How did this happen, how did we let this happen, what needs to be fixed. We need it for ourselves and if we have any hope of regaining our standing in the world, we’ll need to do it for that reason as well.
Chip Daniels
We need to be fearless.
They want us to be afraid to make a ruckus, fearful of rocking the boat.
We will hear many calls to “just keep walking”, to “look forward, not backward” and entraties not to “tear the country apart”, just as we did after Watergate, and after the Bush administration.
This just infantilizes the supposedly free citizens of our democracy, and we can’t allow it.
Impeachment was made for this. Democracy was made for this. Free people need to take the government into our own hands and take our country back.
Amaranthine RBG
There’s something happening here …
p.a.
They’ll have to cook up a Tonkin incident over Iran, I think: DPRK too dangerous. Then hope the ‘rally ‘round the flag’ bullshit works one more time.
TenguPhule
@Baud: An Enigma wrapped in an Enema?
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Elizabelle:
https://me.me/i/robespierre-you-cant-just-respond-to-every-political-rival-by-11252572
Yarrow
Be prepared for Democrats to be involved and implicated as well. Fuck them if they are. No hesitation if they’re traitors they must go. But it’ll be both-sided.
TenguPhule
@Chip Daniels:
We did. In 2008.
And then half the voting public decided to give it up for a song and a prayer.
Baud
@Yarrow: Don’t forget Independents!
Manyakitty
I share your despair/concern, but haven’t stated it as lucidly. My response of late is comfort food and cat snuggling. Still can’t shake the feeling that we’re witnessing the end of this country.
Jeffro
Nobody knows how this will end. Let’s just push for indictments aplenty and then let the rule of law take it from there.
Chip Daniels
@Yarrow:
Yes- at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, America has been attacked, and its a time for choosing; Not Democrat or Republican, but citizen or traitor.
Baud
@TenguPhule: The Riddle in the Rectum.
Baud
@Jeffro: Exactly.
TenguPhule
@Yarrow: On the plus side, I suspect they’ll be the most despised and least liked Democratic officials in the party. So no great losses expected.
TenguPhule
@Baud: Agreed.
Yarrow
@Baud: And Independents’ campaign managers.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Yarrow: Which Dem would be implicated? Even Tad Devine isn’t that stoopid.
TenguPhule
@Yarrow: And Jill Stein. Because she’s neither independent nor Democratic.
Just 100% pure asshole.
Doug R
Not counting on lots of convictions, at least once the pardons start flying, but the Republicans will be devastated in 2018, much like 2006. Not counting on impeachment either, but it seems a good possibility with at least the trump agenda being thoroughly jammed up.
Jeffro
@Mike in DC: I agree with that timeline.
They’re definitely going to get him on obstruction of justice and money laundering.
Yarrow
@Chip Daniels: Exactly right. The sooner we understand this, the better off the country will be.
mai naem mobile
I find this really depressing because I have a feeling a lot of these people will be pardoned or will get a ‘too much trauma for the country,let’s move.on’ treatment. And Americans’ memory is so short that you’ll get the same scumbally back in in 6 to 8 years. I hope I am completely wrong.
ruemara
@Yarrow: There’s a name I look forward to seeing come up in the news.
Kelly
@p.a.:
Very high on my list of things that keep me awake at night.
Feebog
It begins with taking the House in 2018. And if possible, the Senate as well. If we take both, it’s stalemate leading up to the 2020 elections. Added bonus, Nancy Smash is then third in the succession line.
Roger Moore
@Yarrow:
He’s not strictly speaking a Democrat, but I won’t shed a tear when Wilmer is implicated. Not to mention scum like Jill Stein.
Mnemosyne
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Facts not in evidence.
Yarrow
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Don’t count Tad Devine out.
JGabriel
@Yarrow:
Maybe some lobbyists like Tony Podesta, who may well deserve it. But I can’t really see many Democratic office-holders getting caught up in it.
TenguPhule
@Feebog: Senate looks more likely then the House. Not that we shouldn’t try for as many seats as we can, but the gerrymandering is brutal in the House races.
Elizabelle
Packing to leave for Germany Wednesday.
I think all the best Mueller time is going to happen while I’m overseas. But wow, will it be fun to watch it from abroad, and see what our allies think of us.
Yarrow
@Jeffro: They are indeed. You can just look at how Mueller is structuring his case to see where this is going. It’s like rolling up the mob. The Trump crew is just so dumb. They don’t know how to cover their tracks. The mob is probably embarrassed for them.
cmorenc
One unpleasant fact is that if Trump is taken out, Pence and Ryan are next in line of succession, and it’s Turtles for several layers down before a decent human being, let alone a democrat, is in the line of succession. Unless the Ds retake the house before that happens (putting Nancy Pelosi next after Pence) and Pence winds up being taken down at the same time as Trump, we’re simply trading a toxic mad hatter for someone with equally toxic inclinations, but a less compromised, less vulnerable public face.
Yarrow
@mai naem mobile: They can be pardoned for federal crimes but Mueller is partnering with Schneiderman in NY. They’ll get them on state crimes. I also read that if they accept the pardon it means they admit guilt and thus can’t take the fifth on the stand. They are in the lose-lose situation.
Baud
@Elizabelle: Oh wow. Have fun. Extended trip?
Yarrow
@cmorenc: Not if Pence and Ryan get taken out first.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle: Beware of pickpockets and other scams popular for ripping off or robbing tourists. EU is seeing an increase in those kinds of crimes.
Kelly
@Feebog:
Nancy Smash as the first female president!
Roger Moore
@p.a.:
I don’t think it’s going to, or at least not enough to help. Trump has burned too much credibility for people to believe the Persian Gulf Incident wasn’t staged or even completely fabricated. I’m at least as worried about a “boy who cried wolf” effect, where we fail to react to a genuine attack because Trump has so little credibility and people think it was faked.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
Whoever is a traitor must go!
hueyplong
Don Jr seems like the dumbest one so far. Somewhere fans of Fredo Corleone and Mario Mendoza are pleased that a new person’s name will adorn those very low bars.
LongHairedWeirdo
Fox News and the rest of the right wing noise machine is part of what scares me about this scenario. The stories about “well, Ray Moore may have fondled underage girls, but at least he’s not a DEMOCRAT” are the other, related, part.
Donald Trump was a dumpster fire during the campaign; his incompetence, instability, and terrible temperament were on full display. But that wasn’t enough for the RWNM people, even those who know how important the Presidency is, to say “you know what? We can’t do this to our nation – vote for Clinton, or third party.” And they’re still doing their best to help Trump walk, or to spin this as “big deal, he’s doing nothing worse than anyone does! Look at the Clinton campaign, which paid someone, who paid someone else, who paid someone else, who talked to people about what kind of dirt the Kremlin might have on DJT, eh? Why aren’t we investigating that? WHO IS THE REAL COLLABORATOR SINCE YOU KNOW DAMN WELL IT’S NOT TRUMP!!!”
All of these people have their fates intertwined; if Trump goes down, it could hurt the politicians and media folks who supported him. They’ll try to provide a soft landing up until it’s clear that *they* can’t walk away from the landing. And at that point, the new spin will start: “my god, he had us so *completely* fooled! This was worse than the time we all were sure Saddam Hussein had WMDs!”
WaterGirl
@Cheryl Rofer: Hmm. I see to recall that it didn’t work out so well for Jr. last time he released an email message in order to put a stop to speculation.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Yes, I think so. Have a wonderful friend I met during my first summer in Barcelona; she’s a psychologist on contract with the US Army in Germany. Fellow housemate in language school-arranged housing, and a lot of fun. Gonna hang out with her for a few weeks, and then maybe fly to Spain and tool around there for a few weeks. Lovely time to be in Andalusia, and elsewhere. Look forward to seeing BCN again, too. Itinerary very fluid. Mostly, it’s lovely being away.
Resolution for 2018: get a damn job, to refill the coffers. But it’s lovely to have the free time, and I realize that’s short. I just could not settle in well to the US of Trump. Am relieved to see a corrective underway.
Still intrigued with buying an apartment in BCN. Hearing the prices have fallen a bit, given the political turmoil. Oy vey.
Elizabelle
@Kelly: That’s my scenario. President Nancy Pelosi.
She’d be great, and it’s not that long to 2019. Why not? Mostly, I don’t want the criminal and complicit GOP to hold the Executive Branch. They need to go down, hard.
Baud
@Elizabelle: How lovely. Enjoy your life.
SatanicPanic
@Roger Moore: yeah, even if it’s a real attack, people will blame Trump for not preventing it. And he’ll spend the first 48 hours saying stupid and offensive things that prevent if the lowest of information independents from supporting him. There’s no presumption of good faith for him by the public.
debbie
Yowsa, Mr. President:
geg6
@rikyrah:
Yup. Don’t give a shit who they are. They are traitors and all the traitors must go. All of them.
clay
@Cheryl Rofer: The funniest part is when Wikileaks suggests the wording that Trump uses to praise Assange. I wonder if Trump knows how bad it makes him look that his speech patterns are so predictably dumb?
Elizabelle
@Baud: Indeed. It cannot always be like this, but I will take it for now.
November 2016 threw me for a loop. I’d decided where I was going to relocate and — just no. I was so disheartened. Finally catching my breath.
Baud
@debbie: What is that?
dogwood
@TenguPhule:
The Senate is the chamber that is probably out of reach. Only 8 goopers even up for re-election, almost all completely safe. Our best scenario is that this mess will make it more likely that some of the vulnerable dems might be able to hold on.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Have a great trip and don’t forget us!
debbie
@Baud:
Sorry, my iPad sucks for posting tweets.
Elizabelle
@Baud: When do you leave for South America? Very excited for your journeys.
How long will you travel? Plz let us know what you find; would love to visit SA next. Where were you going? Ecuador? Peru? I forget …
cynn
@Tim C.: holy cow, join me under the bench
different-church-lady
I remember my thoughts on election night: “They have free reign. They can do whatever they want. We’ve embraced evil unabashedly.”
I take comfort in the fact didn’t turn out quite that way.
Elizabelle
@debbie: I will be checking in with my jackal buds. Will have to let you know what that comes out to in German.
Gravenstone
@Cheryl Rofer: I wonder if his lawyer has any hair left? Pulling it out in great clumps each time Quday (h/t J Cole) publishes a bunch of shit he swears is exculpatory.
lamh36
Don Jr is an IDIOT!
I swear the only folks with half a brain in the Chump family if Ivanka and sadly Melania…smh…they realized the jig is stupid…but are smart enough to play along til it’s over…smh
different-church-lady
Also: one of the most disconcerting experiences of 2016 was this nagging feeling that something wasn’t right about the whole thing. It just smelled somehow.
And the more we find out about things, the more I feel relieved that there actually was a reason for that feeling.
Roger Moore
@dogwood:
Winning the Senate would be a stretch, but it’s just possible. If Jones wins in Alabama, the Democrats could take control of the Senate by holding all their seats and winning in NV and AZ. The other thing that could push things their way is if there are unexpected mid-term retirements up for election this year.
chopper
@LongHairedWeirdo:
don’t disparage dolemite that way. far as i know, he only hooked up with legal fly-ass honeys. still owes a few minutes to the sheriff’s wife as well from what i remember.
MJS
@TenguPhule: How did you not know there were millions of the evil fuckers? You know how many votes Trump got.
TenguPhule
@dogwood: Take out Moore and we have 2 pick ups in Arizona and Nevada to flip.
Calouste
@dogwood: At least 2 GOPers are not running for re-election, and who would have thought Alabama would be in play? And we’ll have to see if McCain and Cochran (IIRC) last another year.
sm*t cl*de
@Baud:
Shirley you mean “The Riddle of the Sphincter”.
TenguPhule
@MJS:
I figured a majority of them were just fucking stupid ignorant fools.
Then after all the proof of Donnie’s cowardice, laziness and fuckups, they blame….the black man.
debbie
@lamh36:
Julian Assange accusing someone of deceptive edits????
Kenneth Kohl
@Amaranthine RBG: What it is ain’t exactly clear
Roger Moore
@lamh36:
You’re leaving out Tiffany, who appears to be smart enough to stay the fuck away from the rest of the family.
TenguPhule
@different-church-lady:
Well, not quite.
They’re doing whatever the hell they want on rules, regulations and judicial appointments.
So short term the damage looks light.
Long term, well fuck.
chopper
@debbie:
it’s projection all the way down.
BruceJ
Watergate was hardly a ‘simple burglary’ it was the act that got them caught in a long series of illegal acts by the Committee to Re-Elect the President, including the legendary ratfucking perpetrated by Roger Stone and Lee Atwater.
lamh36
@Roger Moore: much like the rest of the fam seems to do…yes… I forgot bout Tiffany…LOL
Corner Stone
@cynn:
Judge Roy Moore, is that you?
Corner Stone
@Roger Moore:
I think Tiffany is just as much a wackaloon as the rest. Except the rest of the family apparently hate her guts and keep her away as much as possible.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
Have a great visit, and safe happy travels!
Is TaMara back from Paris yet, do you know?
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: TaMara is in Paris????
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: Looks like she’s still in Paris.
geg6
@WaterGirl:
Yes. I iz jellus.
SiubhanDuinne
@Amaranthine RBG:
@Kenneth Kohl:
Stop, children.
Gin & Tonic
@SiubhanDuinne: What’s that sound?
WaterGirl
@geg6: Was that planned before her recent loss?
Tom Q
@Calouste: I agree that AZ and NV are very much ripe for taking. And, as you say, though it feels tasteless to bring it up, it’s not unlikely that the other AZ seat will also be open by then. Wild hope: some Senators get caught up deep in Mueller’s probe, and open up other targets.
Also worth noting: the other night in VA, 2 or 3 of the seats Dems won in the House of Delegates were viewed by all analysts as beyond any rational hope. Crazy things can happen in wave elections, up to and including winning seats that seemed utterly safe for the other party. Hypothetical example: all those Hispanic voters in Texas who never turn out suddenly find Trump an existential threat and show up in such numbers that Ted Cruz loses.
Yes, we’d be better off if we were fighting the slate from 2020 (or getting a shot at re-fighting last year’s slate — I’d bet Dems would have won 3-4 more seats, easily). But it seems foolish to not make the maximum effort, in hopes that things fall our side’s way.
Shana
@Kelly: Dudes, I’ve been saying that for 6 months.
JMG
Being, as many are here, old enough to remember Watergate vividly, that was a long hard slog, too. At Christmas of 1972, hard to imagine a happy ending. I am willing to be patient. Compared to Trump’s crew, Nixon, Haldeman, the Plumbers, et. al. were Napoleons of crime.
No Drought No More
“Watergate was a simple burglary..”.
Yes and no. Nixon did not spring fully formed onto the national scene. He was selected and cultivated for advancement because he was an amoral and brilliant politician in his viciously low-rent way. He was placed in the White House by the same forces in the republican party that also backed his contemporary Joe McCarthy, and which today sustains Trump. The good news is the same dumb fucks have been busted once again, even after being exposed for what they are twice more after Watergate (with Iran-Contra and the Bush/Cheney war). It is my sincere hope the democratic party’s rank and file will insist their party’s leadership hang the bastards higher than Haman this time around, and forego the party’s predilection to let the motherfuckers walk because they all went to Harvard or Yale together. Which is to say, the days of my being inclined to worry about anything but the destruction of the republicans are long gone. If I had my way, the democratic party shot callers would stop concerning themselves altogether with the the GOP in its pathetic (albeit waning) efforts to placate the bastard’s sensibilities (“look forward, not back” my ass), and instead seek its utter destruction as a national power 24/7/365. And I’ve got to admit, I’m feeling pretty good nowsadays. One hell of a lot better than I did a year ago tonight, I can tell you that.
Libarbarian
Some stains can only be washed out with blood.
I’m no radical, but some people are going to need to be killed before this is all over.
Feebog
@Libarbarian:
Uh no. I have been through the Supermax prison in Florence CO. I hope they all spend the rest of their miserable lives there, Truely a living hell.
Jeffro
@Corner Stone: Tiffany reminds them all of Dad’s great sorrow, that poor Marla broke his ginormous heart. Marla’s the one that got their mom dumped at the curb, after all…which scared poor Ivanka into thinking that she might not be a TRUMP anymore…
hahahahahahahaha
cynthia ackerman
If it’s any help, the Russian transliteration is “Tramp.”
Lizzy L
@Gin & Tonic: Everybody look what’s going down.
Chip Daniels
@JMG:
I remember that too, and that even as Nixon was waving goodbye from the helicopter, a large percentage of his base still solidly supported him.
But they didn’t matter; the GOP Senators and Congressmen knew which way the wind was blowing and thats what got him the boot.
Its our job to be the ones changing the weather.
Karen Potter
With all that is going on am rather forcefully reminded of what an Englishman who was in US to learn about robotics and computer technology had told me, that the US is the spoiled rich brat of the world who complains isn’t happy with expensive new shoes never realizing there are some without shoes and some without feet.
He had a few other comments about the level of racism and treatment of women, but in one of our last conversations he said that he could see a rerun of the French Revolution taking place, if I had a clue where to find him I would ask him how it feels to have seen what was coming 20 years earlier.
J R in WV
@Feebog:
I have never been inside an active prison. I have seen the Supermax from way outside the walls, have spent time in cells in what was once a Women’s Prison, before that a Spring Spa, after that a Spa again, but they didn’t renovate the attic, where the hard time cells were. Scary.
The Supermax is on a high desert just below the Rocky Mountains, west of Pueblo and just south of Florence, and it is desolate looking. Maybe suitable for domestic traitors.
Aardvark Cheeselog
@Elizabelle: It is easier to start the tumbrels rolling than to stop them. Just saying.
Elie
@ruemara:
I agree with the spirit of what you say — that most will not be imprisoned. But the sheer stupidity of the Trumpites might lead to mistakes that result in imprisonment because it would be too embarrassing not to imprison some of them and they will literally walk into their handcuffs. Thank God in a way that they are as stupid as they are or we would just be enveloped in an unmitigated darkness without escape. That said, I appreciate the nature of our ongoing imperilment and that its coming from all sides — but I have a real sense of hope and positivity that with some intestinal fortitude and ALWAYS Lady Luck, we might avert the worst and be able to wrestle the truck of state back onto the road of righteous governance. I know that not only are many of our people pulling for us but a bunch of folks all over the world.
Theodore Wirth
“But we need to prepare for a long and unpleasant slog.”
We are in for this either way and I have a suspicion that it (I can’t even type his insipid name without despair) will be re-elected if he doesn’t die or get bored in the meantime.