Do you think something is going to irrevocably break before we see the next Sunday?
I’m getting that feeling.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
[I know it’s bad form to re-use a comment from another blog, but you just invoked exactly the same “breaking point” idea as came up on No More Mr. Nice Blog:]
We need a metaphor from science or math here…like, there’s this fatuous nitwit named Malcolm Gladwell who made millions and influenced thousands by seizing on the elemental concept of the “threshold” and renaming it the “Tipping Point,” and someone can do the same thing, here.
I’m thinking of high-school physics and the coefficients of static and kinetic friction, which allow you to calculate when something you’re pushing against resistance (like, say, a stone block being pushed along the ground) will suddenly start moving.
Basically what we’re waiting for the moment when, as in the 1954 Army/McCarthy Hearings, the civilized apparatus of objection and outrage that’s been slowly ramping up, finally reaches “critical mass” (another physics metaphor) and overcomes the inertia and politesse that’s constrained it, and there’s sudden, convulsive change. It’s tricky because both sides of the balance are elements of “civilized discourse” — the need to expunge something bad from the body politic (apologies for the pretentious phrase) and the restraint that keeps people from being alarmists or making a scene, both come from the same place.
The establishment voices are getting much louder and more alarmed, and more contemptuous. I don’t know if they’ve reached the “Have you finally no shame” Joseph N. Welch moment yet but they’re close. The problem is that it’s slow, and (as in Hitler’s time) possibly too slow; as people like Masha Gessen have been warning us, totalitarian/fascistic takeovers historically always happen exactly like this: by the time the right people finally get angry, it’s too late (while the people who were angry at the right time have been ignored all along).
By this stage in Naziism the newspapers had already been silenced, so we’re already better off, but that’s a low bar. But seriously dark and ugly forces are hard at work and have already made serious inroads (ironically it was Obama who was supposed to abolish elections and “take over” on behalf of “America’s enemies” etc.). As the Trump emergency continues, the real trick will be to ensure that the right people get sufficiently angry, early enough to make a difference. There’s a lot at stake, around the world.
“When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America…America will triumph over you.” https://t.co/uKppoDbduj
— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) March 17, 2018
“Based on what Brennan has said and what the Mercer’s did, I am thinking there will be treason charges before we are done with all this.”
Howard Dean
Verified account @GovHowardDean March 17, 2018
“Reluctantly I have concluded that President Trump is a serious threat to US national security. He is refusing to protect vital US interests from active Russian attacks. It is apparent that he is for some unknown reason under the sway of Mr Putin.”
Retired Four-Star General, U.S. Army, Barry R McCaffrey @mccaffreyr34:46 PM – Mar 16, 2018
The simple fact is, Trump IS a threat to US national security. Another simple fact is, he is seriously fucking with the American intelligence community. And that’s why he’s toast. No way Trump is going to win this.
Exactly; those two quotes are the main evidence I was thinking of when I wrote the above.
On the one hand, I’ve never seen language like that from respectable sources, ever, about a sitting U. S. President (just like I’ve never seen The New York Times use the word “lie”…they’d do almost anything to avoid saying this; it’s “just not done”).
On the other hand, it’s just language; it doesn’t actually move the needle.
Language moves the needle, if it’s that kind of language.
I’ve been thinking that for weeks now. I can’t hold my breath any more. I’ve already turned blue.
There’s enough fractures in place to set off a giant avalanche. We’re due for an ‘up periscope’ moment from Mueller and then Trump’s reaction and then of course the Rep’s lack of reaction.
What a waste of a good country.
Trump firing Mueller is now in the realm of possibility. That would set off a fire storm.
In the press, yes. The Republicans will only sing in unison “Thank you, sir! May I have another?”
I really believe he is going to fire him. Very soon.
Please tell me specifically who that someone will be that will fire Mueller? Trump can’t. Sessions can’t. Rosenstein won’t because of lack of cause. So Rosenstein gets fired. Who is going to ruin their future career by being Trump’s toady.
I will wait patiently for your specific nominee.
Noel Francisco.
You’re welcome.
Rosenkrantz seems a pretty weak reed to me. Remember his composing the mendacious Comey memo on command?
Why can’t Sessions simply disclaim his prior recusal as being legally unnecessary in hindsight and fire Mueller himself? It’s not like The Littlest Confederate is some Rule of Law acolyte. Or that he cares about his “legacy”. He knows he is a racist joker.
And whatever happened to the “conservative” theory of the Unitary Executive and his complete control over the executive branch?
Under it, Der Trumper can ultimately just declare he is “firing” Mueller himself, whatever the traditional “law” may be. This sanctions our corrupt Repubs’ refusal to do anything—and Mueller can then run to the Trumpite courts to complain and we can run through that song and dance for a couple years and ultimately see what Roberts’ Repubs have to say.
The question is whether Mueller releases all his findings and conclusions for historical purposes. Archival knowledge of what Trumper pulled in Election 2016 is the best that can be hoped for.
You write:
Me too.
Read the NY Times article from today, Trump Assails Mueller, Drawing Rebukes From Republicans if you have not already done so. A number of important, heretofore fairly “silent” Republicans are…suddenly…openly rebuking Trump. (Lindsey Graham, Jeff Flake, Trey Gowdy, Paul Ryan…powerful members of the current Republican creme de la creme if you don’t mind rotten milk.) They stayed relatively silent and made nice with him for a long while because of political considerations…buttressed of course by the huge monies available to powerful pols in DC who belong to a winning party…but it is now finally dawning on them that Trump is going to be an albatross around their various necks for at least 2+ years instead of a winner, and they are preparing the path to throwing him under his own bus while still coming out smelling like…well, “roses” probably isn’t quite the proper word, maybe more like stinking corpse lilies, but they always have the mass media’s astoundingly effective political Febreze to clog up and mislead the noses of their constituents.
I think Trump is in real trouble, now.
What will he do?
He’ll probably continue with the same Roy Cohn tactics that he has used for the rest of his career.
Admit nothing, and attack, attack, attack.
Only…I think he’s outgunned, now. His own “supporters”…the same people and interests that he viciously beat in the primaries…are no longer even faking being on the Trump bus.
As always in DC…self-interest rules.
Watch.
AG
A very on point comment, Mr. Gilroy. Thank you.
Thank you.
AG
No self-interest. Only sadism. Trump’s people want nothing for themselves; they only want to hurt others. If you get this wrong, you will misinterpret what they say and mispredict what they do.
Well…you might say that the ability to hurt others is what they want for themselves, Frank. And another thing that they want for themselves is wealth and the protective, positional power of that wealth to make sure that they will not experience retaliation in kind.
An old story…the story of kings, queens and empires.
AG
History shows that wealth makes a fair weapon, but a very poor shield. This is because where it makes a shield at all, it is because it is institutionally protected.
The damage done during the current period (date its beginning where you wish) has been focussed upon the institutions. (Capture is, of course, a form of damage.) The ability of the institutions to protect wealth has been degraded along with their ability to protect anything else.
Yes, as of today, it still appears otherwise; but the institutions have not been tested. Indeed, the entire energy of the political system goes to preventing such tests; from one standpoint, that fact is the problem. When the institutions are tested, they will be seen to have failed, and that comprehensively.
(If you think that I am wrong, and that there are particular institutions that might still function, then indulge me in a thought experiment. Just ask yourself this about any such institution: where is its fan club?)
I hope that you are wrong, Frank.
But you make good points.
I have no intrinsic trust left in any of the institutions of this government, myself. What I do “trust” is that in any gang war…and that is how I see this whole tragedy, a three-sided gang war amongst the “Liberal” gang, the “Conservative” gang and a new gang that wants in, the “Interloper” gang.
The Liberal and Conservative gangs have reached a pretty stable distribution of the profits over the past 50+ years. They have their squabbles, but once one gang dominates, the other gang retreats a little and awaits its turn as situations change.
Trump and his interlopers have destabilized this peace, and in response both established gangs have been gradually forced to ally with one another…sometimes behind the scenes, but more and more out in the open. One way or another, I think that the established gangs are going to win his battle. They have many more forces, and the other gang’s (at least titular) leader is truly unstable. This all will play out as it must, of course, and I am not particularly happy with any of those gangs being in power, but of the three the one that I most fear is the Trump gang.
We will see who prevails, soon enough. The endgame approaches, I think.
AG
If we use your metaphor, it is necessary to remember that the “Interloper” Gang (I would have used “Breakaway” or “Rebel”) is an offshoot of the Conservative Gang. The Interlopers decided that the Conservatives were manipulating its more savage followers with the culture wars and indulging racism and xenophobia but really only serving the interests of its corporate masters, who don’t really care about the ignorant rubes except for electoral purposes.
However, since the real “interlopers” are only about 30% of likely voters (those polls include people who are not likely voters), if even that number, they need the Conservatives to have any power and so are entirely vulnerable because of their extremism and refusal to create a viable new electoral coalition (not that this would be feasible anyway, especially in our electoral system).
You write:
The jury is still out on that point, astamari316. Literally. It is entirely possible that this group…call it what you will…has been using the Conservative Gang as cover for something even worse…a purposeful breakdown and eventual takeover of the entire system.
And worse yet…it is also entirely possible that it has been run by a hostile power….thus “the jury is still out” comment.
Mueller’s juries among others.
We will probably not find out all of the truths of this matter for decades, if ever. Too many spooks of all persuasions are involved. Disinfo abounds…just as it did during the long-term Assassinations coup of the late ’60s and the following Watergate mini-coup when Nixon tried to go off on an unapproved internationalist tangent.
Later…
AG
Those are unimpressive names for your thesis.
Graham already tried sucking up, only to realize Trump is indeed insane. So he’s halfway back to being NeverTrump. Flake hates Trump, and Ryan has to juggle and wrestle with reality to keep the party together, so he hasn’t uttered an honest thought in years. And my impression is that Gowdy occasionally remembers he was a prosecutor, and that none of this is normal or acceptable. But only for a while.
Show me Rohrabacher running for the exits and I’ll pay attention. But not to this bowl of noodles.
This “bowl of noodles” is just the appetizer, jsrtheta.
The main course is still being cooked.
As Booman surmises above, it may quite likely be ready before next Sunday.
And…even if it does not happen that rapidly, always remember that “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” Trump made an extraordinary number of Republicans look not only foolish but incompetent during the primaries and he has…so far successfully…pushed around a lot of powerful people who do not like being pushed around.
There is a tipping point in any political disagreement where one faction has simply made too many enemies to be able to survive. We are now closing in on that point.
Watch.
AG
Who are you?
Aliens have switched out AG’s brain with Heart of the Rockies see Bloom County Steve Dallas brain switch
Can I take this as a compliment?
Not sure. If I remember correctly Steve’s brain was first switched with Elvis and then with Gebhardt’s.
Do you object to Gebhardt?
ag, who’s assured us ad nauseum since forever that post-Judy-Miller-NYT cannot be believed about anything, ever . . .
. . . citing NYT!
“Who are you and what have you done with ag?”
No way the Gotterdammerung is happening in less than a week. This may come to a head in a month or so but I doubt sooner than that. But even then, it will be a report to Congress, which will be duly ignored by the majority party and then a raft of federal indictments of various Trump accomplices.
This is new ground. Not since Nixon have we had a bunch of people around the President liable for serious indictments but this is international in nature so there’s potentially high treason involved. The only real issue is whether Jared gets pardoned by Trump for what are likely to be a raft of federal crimes only then to be nailed on NY State offenses.
. . . to be[“] reduced to an acronym.’ —Tom Sullivan at digby’s place
So full of great insights start to finish (including some quoted from Chris Hayes) that it defies excerpting — it’s the poster child for the cliché “you should just go read the whole thing”. So I’ll leave the opening quote above to stand as a teaser and urge that you do just that.
As Trump unburdens himself from all the people who were holding him back (trying to get him to act Presidential), he will feel freer to Just Be Trump (JBT *TM).
There is no question Trump is going to have Mueller fired – the only questions are when and by whom (how many other people will Trump have to fire before he finds his Bork)?
I felt that Trump’s most recent anti-Mueller Tweets were trial balloons . . . . No question Mueller poked the bear when he started looking into Trump’s business dealings.
If he can fire him by next Sunday, he will. But it could take a little longer and I agree Mueller poked the bear. I doubt the republicans making noises now will do anything but I’m happy if they find the courage.
Mueller has shown the ability to stay one step ahead of Trump. If Trump decides to pull the trigger, I expect that there are time bombs and Easter eggs already in place that will live on when he is gone.
Perhaps numerous state level lawsuits that multiply when squeezed naming as many defendants as possible. Mueller has 17 or so prosecutors. Fanning out and engaging the Trump crime family in diverse parallel tracks would pose a challenge for our intellectually-challenged President.
Can Trump fire everyone?
yes
My guess is that Mueller will release another indictment this week – something along the lines of the 13 Russians indictment that will dampen down the current news cycle blather about Trump firing him. Just as he has one group of guys working just on appeals, he probably has a series of moves ready to go for outrunning Trump’s bush league maneuvers (as with the Nunes memo).
I also think Mueller asked Comey to delay his book till mid-April in order to keep whatever revelations it contains secret until Mueller makes whatever key moves need to come first.
So, this is not going to end quickly at all unless Mueller decides that it is Mueller Time.
I keep wondering when and what it is that will cause the spell to break and trump apologists/Republicans will rush to the other side of the ship. I believe something like that happened with McCarthy, but then McCarthy didn’t really have a propaganda arm like Fox.
But what if even Fox begins to lean to the other side of the ship in sheer self-defense and self-interest?
Fox is a corporate entity, one that is funded by advertising from other corporate entities. The chaos…economic and otherwise…that will ensue if Trump continues his rise to absolute power will crash this country’s economic balance…such as it is, of course.
He’s going to go too far, eventually. It is in his nature to go too far, which is why he has such a spotty track record in business. He simply cannot resist going too far, and that will be his downfall.
I think that it will happen within the week. The results may take longer to play out…DC being an unwieldy ship at best, burdened by layer after layer of sodden bureaucracies…but once the turning really begins, there will be no stopping it.
Sooner rather than later, please God.
Watch.
AG
I rarely watch the donald perform on the TV but this week he was really strange. All he said was he was great, his admin is great, his tax plan great…..and followed up with more great great great great. He was
yelling great to all who would look his way. I don’t believe he can continue to hold it together. Especially if 5 or more busty blonds are paraded in front of the world next week and Mueller brings more charges.
Trump has an 84% approval rating within the GOP. Those are the FOX viewers. They live in an alternative universe. That’s a lot of eyeballs.
I agree that advertisers (other corporate entities) are the key, I just don’t see it happening yet.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-18/voters-prefer-democratic-led-congress-by-10-point
s-nbc-wsj-poll
Trumps popularity is up since January and their tax bill is becoming more popular but it hasnt helped the congressional republicans. Look, watergate was many years before I was born but it seems to me congressional republicans abandoned nixon due to political considerations. So too impeachmemt only happens when the other party is in charge.
I guess what I am saying is until its politically better that the gop dump trump they wont. Thats how it always was, whats different this time is the depth and bredth of the conservative media sphere.
Nor years of talk radio like Rush Limbaugh and his ilk.
Joe McCarthy was goaded on and defended by Roy Cohn who was also later on Trump’s lawyer and who taught him to respond to any accusation with attack, attack, attack.
So yeah, there’s a connection with McCarthy but a disgusting one.
The way I see it, this egg can crack in a lot of different ways. He could declare a trade war with China which panics Wall Street, causes reprisals and ushers in a worldwide depression. He could cause a political crisis by firing Muller with wide scale demonstrations that wake even Republicans up, or maybe he does something egregious and nothing much seems to shift at the surface while tectonic pressure continues to build. There are thousands of possible crisis points. It’s impossible to game it all out.
We live in fascinating times (the word “interesting” is no longer adequate). I recommend staying tuned in and aware, sharing insights with those who will listen and pretty much constant prayer. In my world, prayer works.
It’s also impossible for Trump to “game it out”. Trump’s brain is that of a disturbed child. Do not expect a sophisticated strategy, distraction or otherwise. Expect only wild flailing. Seriously.
Yep: Trump fires Rosenstein, and Noel Francisco fires Mueller. It’s pretty obvious that Trump is guilty of something, and that Mueller is getting close.
What happens after that? That’s what I don’t know. I don’t see the Rs moving towards impeachment, despite their tut-tutting on the Sunday shows.
The question is not who will be Trump’s Bork. The question is who will be Trump’s Poindexter.
Everything (from a political, Constitutional, and institutional perspective) irrevocably broke on 4 Nov. 1980.
If you’re talking about Reagan’s secret deal with the Iranians in order to sabotage Carter’s re-election, remember that Nixon did the same thing regarding the Paris Peace negotiations more than a decade earlier. In neither case did the Democrats create an outcry. Same with Bush-Gore.
The GOP always play the electoral game as out and out criminals and saboteurs; it’s the signature of an authoritarian party that has always had contempt for the rule of law (as opposed to “law and order”).
Personally, I think Fox News is about to throw Trump under the bus … in a subtle fashion, of course.
The only thing keeping Trump up and alive to this point is the full-throated, all-out, damn the torpedoes attitude of Fox News. The continual attack mode keeps Grandpa happy, Uncle Joe angry and Cousin Merle perplexed at how ANYONE could not see the truth as given on Fox.
Have you ever heard of “damn him with faint praise”? What if, instead of “the President turned a debacle into a close race” Fox and Friends, you got “the President couldn’t pull out a win in PA-18 …”?
Let there be the least iota of doubt that Trump is not perfect and Trump is toast.
Wall St will be first. Once the banks are deregulated they will have no further use of the GOP or the donald. The possibility of a nuke war and the idea of Larry Kudlow in the WH long term is way out of their comfort zone.
I meant to rate this a 4 not a 3. Slip of the finger.
I forgive you.
I live with a Jewish Doctor, a Lutheran Dog and a Catholic Cat.
I KNOW from forgiveness.
Try rerating. See what happens.
I’ve tried before and never been able to do it.
Tried it again, and it worked.
I think there’s a time element; you have to do it within a certain window or it won’t work.
I think.
Could be but one time I hit mega troll by accident, got an automated nasty note letting me know how serious it was to do this, etc. but I couldn’t change it. I feel certain it happened another time, and likewise I was unable to change. Especially on a phone it’s all to easy to slip and make the wrong rating. I will contact Boo about how long you have to correct. Or perhaps this has been changed.
I do my daily Booman fix on a PC or laptop; maybe it’s different on a phone?
Other than that, I got nuthin.
Interface is different, but the biggest problem is that everything is done by touch, so slip ups (quite literally) are hard to avoid.
Normally I use my laptop, not my phone.
Do you have a stylus made especially for using on tiny virtual keyboards? I use one whenever I have to type on my phone and it saves me lots of corrections and uncaught errors. Seems faster than fumbling fingers, too.
No I don’t. Might give that a try. Thanks for the suggestion.
Respectfully disagree. Fox will be the last to abandon Trump. He literally is the franchise at this point and both sides know that.
Maybe this is a dumb question. What happens to all the information Mueller has gather if Trump fires him? Does it just sit there?
There is “rumor” of a concurrent investigation being run by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. This came out last year and then literally disappeared – as has much of Mueller’s findings. That man knows how to run a tight ship. Firing him will not stop the process, and I am sure Mr. Mueller has taken his untimely termination into account from the beginning.
Schneiderman follows in the footsteps of many ambitious Jews:
TELL THE TRUTH
Let the (bagel) chips fall as they may.
This has nothing to due directly with Mueller. The NY investigations are parallel investigations of Trump/Kushner (and others), viz. money laundering, wire fraud, tax evasion and probably RICO (though that’s usually federal). If Mueller gets canned, the Grand Jury continues with the previously scheduled script. Nothing goes away, least of all the evidence. Destruction of evidence is a serious crime itself.
Since you asked, yes I think something is going to break this week.
Unfortunately, it may be our Democratic Republic. Maybe I’m wrong, but this is not 1973 and Watergate. The Republican Party is too degraded, and has morphed into a fundamentally undemocratic, indeed fascist political entity. Consider, for example, that degenerate old fool Chuck Grassley asking for a special prosecutor to investigate the special prosecutor!
If Trump fires Mueller there will be a lot of handwringing and angry statements from the Republicans in the Congress – let me amend that, some of them – but I don’t think that we can expect either McTurtle or Ryan to do anything about it.
There will have to be mass protests in the streets against Mueller’s firing. If that happens, I think we could also see a lot of blood in the streets too. Carl Bernstein calls what we are witnessing as a “cold civil war.” If we have to take to the streets, it will turn into a hot one, I think.
I thought that the 2016 election was the most important in my lifetime (I’m 68). If Mueller is fired 2018 will be our last hope to preserve our form of government.
I hate to sound so apocalyptic, but I have been a lawyer for over 40 years now, and throughout my life I have always felt that the rule of law, and the idea that in America no man, even the president, is above the law, was the one thing that distinguished us from other nations.
That bedrock principle is now truly at risk.
What makes it even worse is that Trump has done this with the active assistance of Russia, so there is a huge dose of treason into the mix too.
These are the saddest days I have ever experienced as an American, and I think that’s saying something given my age.
I hope that you are wrong, Redhand.
I really do.
We shall see, soon enough…
AG
I an often accused by many people I know of being too reflexively cynical when it comes to a variety of things in life. But I don’t really view it so much as cynicism, but as a viewpoint honed by a lifetime of quiet study on how people react to extreme circumstances and a decades long interest in the study of human nature and how overpowering the power of our tribal instincts can be in groups.
And I find that the result of all this places me pretty squarely in your apocalyptic camp. I find the efforts within much of our media to compare this to Watergate simply do not do justice to the seriousness of the current time in which we are living. This is potentially much more catastrophic than Watergate might have been, had we not taken that 11th hour turn back toward the rule of law.
But I see very few of the necessary pieces in place right now, in these times, that will make a similar 11th hour detour from an historic national disaster. We could well be standing at the precipice of the gorge of death for the rule of law that has largely governed us since the birth of our nation. I don’t know that there has ever been such a strong confluence of variables that have threatened our very existence as a viable democracy than what we are staring at right now.
I’m less than a decade younger than you, and I share your deep sense of sadness and despair at what we are witnessing. I really don’t know if we will ever the same as a nation.
“I don’t know that there has ever been such a strong confluence of variables that have threatened our very existence as a viable democracy than what we are staring at right now.”
Yes, there has been – The Civil War which gave us 620,000 casualties. However I agree with your assessment regarding the direness of our situation which is why my rhetoric on this site is so belligerent.
I’d give your comment a “5” if I could. Since around 1998, I have felt we are living in times similar to those years before the Civil War. When Southern Republicans took over the Republican party, I knew we were in serious trouble. If Trump wrecks the Repub party, we have a good chance of getting on a less extreme course.
It is abundantly clear that not even a substantial fragment of Congressional Repubs will act in any meaningful way when Der Trumper fires Rosenkrantz and ultimately Mueller. Indeed, Repubs (and Fox) have been actively complicit in fermenting the braindead “Mueller’s Corrupt Investigation!” nonsense. Ditto the Repub denunciation and minimization of the (already proven) Obstruction charges. The Constitution is effectively gone.
The demonstrations (confined to Blue cities/states) will be ignored by the organs of federal power. And any resulting riots and their suppression by militarist forces will be wrecking Blue homesteads. The focus of such demonstrations would have to be on DC, the WH and Congress.
The main hatch gave way in Nov 2016. The (intentionally sabotaged) bilge pumps can’t handle the deluge.
Add Chris Christie to my list of abominable RatPublicans who are hastily jumping of the good ship/bad ship/sinking ship/Trump ship.
He’s a little more…subtle…than some of the others, but he’s just another rat leaving a sinking ship as far as I can see. He’s just covering his ass by blaming the lawyers. You know…just in case Trump actually manages to remain in power and needs a semi-rehabilitated toady?
Like dat.
AG
He’s just covering his ass by blaming the lawyers. You know…just in case Trump actually manages to remain in power and needs a semi-rehabilitated toady?
I live in NJ. Ironic that this pig is faulting lawyers. He spent millions in State money having them cover his huge ass during Bridgegate. He’s goddamn lucky he didn’t get indicted, so his comments are more professional criticism of a fellow crook’s choices than any moral condemnation. He has all the moral acuteness of a hog gorging itself at a trough.
I get the feeling Trump feels emboldened and, having been “unleashed” may fire Sessions or Rosenstein and get someone in place to fire Mueller. With this being a real possibility, we may soon see Mueller put more of his cards on the table in the form of indictments or other proceedings that will draw the noose tighter around President Moron’s neck.
What worries me most is, just like with Bush W, the republicans know that starting wars or some type of us versus them conflagration is a sure fire way to get the public to stop focusing on their real transgressions.
“Letting Trump be Trump” means letting him be his full stupid self. We may be treated to “peak Trump” real soon.
“….and get someone in place to fire Mueller.” Given that this person will be committing career suicide by doing so, it would have to be a Justice Dept. employee (specifically, a political employee since no Civil Service employee would ever do such a thing) and there are so few of these actually working at Justice (cf. Trump Admin. incompetence). So, this idea of quickly firing Mueller seems to me to depend entirely on Rosenstein so not going to happen.
Nobody’s mentioned it, so maybe it goes without saying — but next Sunday is supposedly when 60 Minutes will air its Stormy Daniels interview. That’s also ratcheting up the pressure on the Executive Gasket.
You write:
There are legal chalenges being proposed against that airing. It’s still up in the air, I believe. I certainly haven’t seen any MSM coverage of a resolution to that question yet. Have you?
AG
P.S. Of course, even the threat of the possibility of such an occurrence further ratchets up the pressure on Trump. A little pressure here, another pressure there…pressure, pressure everywhere. Trump gonna pop eventually. Bet on it. It’s only a matter of when it happens and how serious the negative results of the explosion may be.
Better sooner than later, as far as I am concerned.
AG
On my weekend job as majordomo and minivan pilot for my wife and kids, I spent the weekend traveling back and forth across the suburbs, exurbs, and country hollers of Central and Northern Virginia. I shopped in diverse, heavily immigrant suburbs where I relied on Spanish more than English to communicate. On the other end of the spectrum, I attended an RV show in the deep Red countryside south of Fredericksburg.
I discussed politics gingerly with folks who crossed my path, but the overwhelming emotion I perceived was not anger, which I expected, but fear.
Recent immigrants, naturally, feared the current administration. On Saturday, my wife went to a long-awaited appointment to get a passport for her home country. The line at the consulate was enormous. Permanent residents with papers, good jobs, and stability were queuing up to obtain documents from their home country, “just in case.”
Federal employees, including a couple of spooks, expressed their fear of an executive branch denuded of experienced public servants, laid bare to Chinese and Russian intrigues. A good friend who works in the intel community said that, over the past year, the Chinese and Russians have become incredibly aggressive in their clandestine operations – even more than has been reported in the press. Having an under-staffed, headless national security apparatus would be perilous at any time; now, it could be fatal.
Folks at the RV show seemed to perceive Trump as the last gasp of “good ole’ boy” America. More specifically, they remain convinced that the amorphous “they” are comin’ for their guns. The other, overwhelming observation was the many people working at the show as ticket-takers and doing odd jobs: they were elderly folks, some with limited mobility, one on oxygen. It was clear that they were spending their “golden years” taking odd jobs to survive. I think there are lots of folks in “Red” America who could be persuaded by the right message/approach on health care and the social safety net.
What I didn’t hear was much belligerence, for or against Mr. Trump. The overall sense was one of exhaustion with the news, exhaustion with the constant political combat. This surprised me. I was expecting a lot more fighting spirit, on all sides of these debates. People just seem exhausted.
Does this exhaustion favor Trump and a further slide towards authoritarianism? Or does it mean there’s still hope that our institutions may be saved? I don’t know.
I do know this: I was expecting to see a much greater divide between blue and red. Instead, what I saw was a a class divide. Those with large bank accounts and diversified portfolios were less fearful, more sanguine about the fate of the Republic.
The rest of us, the unwashed masses of every race, religion, and political hue, were exhausted and fearful.
Sorry for the long comment, but I am trying to process it all. It’s a unique national moment, and I’m not sure what to make of it.
I’ve spent a good deal of time in Northern and Western VA and have met and worked with quite a few Hispanic folks and have yet to meet any who didn’t speak passable English (I speak Spanish as well). I have met landscape gangs where just the foreman spoke any English but that doesn’t seem to be what you were talking about.
Also, the voters of VA (or at least Democrats and Indies) don’t seem to be exhausted and indifferent to Trump or did you miss the 2017 elections?
Where I teach, and shop, there are plenty of folks who speak very limited English. I’m not saying that one must speak Spanish to function in these areas, but it allows me to have more detailed conversations with folks I encounter. As a teacher, there are many parents of my students who speak NO English. I did not mean this as a criticism of these recent immigrants – they simply haven’t had the time or occasion to learn much English.
Also, while I used the word “exhausted,” I most certainly did not say folks are “indifferent.” Yes, Democrats were refreshingly motivated and united in state elections in November. I’m not sure how that translates into grassroots action in the event of a constitutional crisis, which is where I fear we’re heading.
My larger point is that the emotions I sensed were fatigue and fear, more than anger, among a wide variety of people. I just didn’t encounter the bellicosity I was expecting. How many (peaceful) insurgent or resistance movements have been motivated by fear, and how many by anger? This is a historical question I had not considered.
Your mileage may vary and my sample may be biased in any number of ways.
You write:
You need to go to the cities and talk with the younger people and ghetto dwellers to hear belligerence. Older people…and by that I mean over about 40… generally seem only to be exhausted and worried about their future and the future of their families. And no wonder…the country has been through a lot in the previous couple of decades.
The unmasking of Bill Clinton as a sexually obsessed fool and liar instead of a well-functioning president, the theft of the two Bush II presidencies backed…or at best passively accepted…by both parties, 9/11, the Iraq War, the hope offered by the growth of the digital info world and the taking over of that world by hostile, globalist corporate forces, the continuing rise of wanton and usually random violence in the country, the shipping out of much of the industrial economy to low-wage countries and the resultant economic breakdown in the late 2000s, the fall of the middle class, the decay of the country’s physical infrastructure, the shattering of thousands of years of widely accepted sexual…”preferences”…and the societies that were based on them, the unmasking of Barack Obama as a tool of the Permanent Government instead of the fervently hoped-for “Peace President,”t he rise of China as a more-then-just-competitive world power, Putin’s rise as essentially a hostile dictator controlling a serious nuclear arsenal, the changes in the climate and the threat of much worse changes to come, etc.
And then there was Trump, followed quite rapidly by the concept of false news and the misuse of social media as a propaganda weapon.
The cappers.
The end result?
Sure.
People are now mostly confused, especially people who have lived through this rapid, ongoing decline. They don’t know who to trust anymore…except of course for the Fox News addicts, who are by and large belligerent as hell in defense of Trump. At least they have something to trust, stupid though it may be. They’re stupid, too. You cannot eliminate the stupid from the human genome; you can only either attempt to control it or use it as a weapon…as has been the case with Trump and the Republican party.
And so here we jolly well are, aren’t we. Two Democratic presidents and two Republican presidents later…if of course Trump can be accurately labelled a “Republican”…still accelerating down the tubes.
It’s no wonder many people are not belligerent towards the bad actors on both sides of the UniParty aisle. They are too shell-shocked to be belligerent. Too frightened. Too fucking exhausted. Societally shell-shocked. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder on a national…possibly even global…level.
You also write:
Yup.
“More sanguine about the fate of the Republic?”
No surprise there. “Republic” is the first part of the word “Republican,” and if nothing else, the Republicans have always taken care of the upper middle and wealthy classes. As long as they remain in the catbird seat, those with large bank accounts and diversified portfolios simply have less to fear than the rest of us.
Will this situation change?
I really don’t know. I used to think that it would; I used to think that the flow of evolution which has marked the entire history of life on earth would continue the way it has gone since time immemorial.
Intelligence, ever upward.
I’m not so sure anymore.
Maybe artificial intelligence is the next step in evolution. Or maybe a blend between human intelligence and AI-assisted intelligence.
Whatever.
I do know this:
Unless we get out shit together…and quickly…there is a serious reckoning approaching. It may be economic; it may be nuclear; it may be climate-driven or it may be a combination of all of those things plus other, heretofore unforeseeable events, but we can’t keep on the way that we are going without drastic consequences.
Hunker down, AngryTeacher. There’s more right around the next news cycle.
Bet on it.
AG
Thanks for this thoughtful, insightful personal account.
I live outside a small rural town. However, it has become somewhat of a mecca for retired professionals, so our friends tend to be educated and quite liberal. In every day life, however, we encounter people of all backgrounds, which in a rural community means you know almost every one you deal with by name. Unless we have some indication of their political leanings, we stay away from political discussions. Traditionally this has been a very conservative community, and not always in the best sense of the word.
Having said all that, there is a lot of anger here. Followed quite closely by depression and anxiety. Always been a politically active community, but Trump has lit a fire under many people who have never before been active or have really stepped up their activism. We have at least half a dozen resist groups in a county of 18k. Our Indivisible group has over 200 people receiving our weekly action email. We completely overturned the city council of the largest town in the county with margins of 20-30%.
I am a no. Don’t think any big irrevocable breakthroughs are coming at all.
At least today…try me tomorrow.