We'll have to say goodbye to all this intrigue in three weeks, but in the meantime I can't help but enjoy it. How long before we see the first anti-Pence tweet from Trump? Pence can't bring himself to support the ridiculous Gohmert lawsuit against Pence to grant Pence the power to select Trump electors. Huh? This all passed bizarre a long time ago. But if Trump might still be thinking of a Pence-delivered pardon, he'd not want to piss off Pence, even though we haven't yet seen a limit to how much Pence will abase himself before Trump.

Yeah, just enjoy it. There's nothing they can do to flip the election. Trump is desperately maneuvering to make himself immune to indictments and nothing will work. I was reading an article and the writer did not think Trump was going to get convicted much less go to jail because we have never jailed an ex-president. That's true but Trump has always played the iconoclast of normal politics. He was always the first president to do this and the only president who ever did that. So, he may well end up the only ex-president to do to prison time. The problem is, he broke the law so flagrantly and KEPT DOING IT with this "So what are you going to do about it?" attitude that so many indictments may roll down that he just can't dodge all of them. A few of them will have to stick. Even the least of them will likely land him in the pokey. I mean, there are campaign finance violations all over the place. I fully expect a tax evasion charge coming. The Mueller Report is going to come back in focus, I expect, and the Russian connection is going to be exposed. His handling of the covid pandemic may also bring charges--downplaying it while on tape admitting how deadly it is.

This article said he will self-pardon but aside from the courts disallowing it, he won't be president when the charges come down and so he will not have any pardon power. I also suspect that his pardons may also get him in trouble. They were all purely out of self-interest and to keep associates who know too much from talking. Moreover, I expect very damaging stuff to keep leaking out for years to come. If that happens, I can't see him staying out of prison.

I'll never understand why Trump would accept the nomination when he couldn't release his tax returns. That was the beginning of his downfall. Everyone knew right there that he had something to hide. So big-headed he couldn't turn it down, I guess.

So, yeah, we're watching this guy twitching at the end of a rope right now and we may as well enjoy it because he has it coming. No matter what he gets, it won't be enough in my book.

The Economist has published an alarming article titled "America’s former defence secretaries sound the alarm over Trump"

The theme is how the president’s desperate effort to overturn the election raises fears that he will try to suborn the armed forces. Dick Cheney got all ten living former defence secretaries to sign a letter published in the Washington Post on January 3rd. It says “Efforts to involve the US armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory. Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.”

This adds to the recording of Trump bullying Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” in Georgia. The Economist explains that Cheney was tipped over the edge by concern that Trump might deploy the armed forces against opponents, after Michael Flynn said Trump could take military capabilities and basically re-run an election in swing states. The worry is that after purging the Pentagon, pro-Trump officials might be mobilising to secure levers of power, with some political appointees asking about the mechanics of troop movements.

All the signatories, including Mattis and Esper, saw that it was exceptional circumstances. The Pentagon purge of respected incumbents, replaced by people like Corey Lewandowski, Mr Trump’s former campaign manager, comes together with Trump angling for war against Iran, and Biden complaining that his transition team had met with obstruction from the Pentagon’s political leadership. One source said the Trump appointees in the Pentagon have behaved in an extraordinarily dangerous way already in the transition, cutting off briefings to the new team.

William Cohen suggested Trump is possibly going off the rails and wanting to act like some mad Lear, firing off weapons.

Robert Tulip wrote:The theme is how the president’s desperate effort to overturn the election raises fears that he will try to suborn the armed forces. Dick Cheney got all ten living former defence secretaries to sign a letter published in the Washington Post on January 3rd. It says “Efforts to involve the US armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory.

Robert Tulip wrote:This adds to the recording of Trump bullying Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” in Georgia.

Cheney and other former defense secretaries are right to be concerned. It's pretty clear that Trump will stop at nothing to try to overturn this election and there are far too many right-wing enablers in Congress who are pushing this narrative of election fraud. It's also evident, if you listen to the conversation with Raffensperger, that Trump believes his own narrative. So what will he try to do next? And how far will the right-wing militia type people go to defend him? I fear for this American experiment. It can be argued that the Civil War never really ended.

If you watched Ken Burns's documentary on the Civil War, he interviewed historians who did, in fact, say that the Civil War has never ended. It's just as true that segregation never ended and whatever progress we have made in that area has been met with bitter, angry, crazy reactions from a sizable percentage of whites who clearly resent it. The trouble is, you can't tell where it will come from. I remember living in an apartment complex and a neighbor of mine was this nice old guy. So calm and even-tempered. We would talk a bit. Then once a few of us were talking and somehow Lincoln was mentioned--I don't remember why. Suddenly, this nice old guy launches into a tirade of how Lincoln was a traitor and should have been hung because he freed all the niggers when everybody knows they were better off as slaves and all he did was fuck up the country. I must say, I did not see that coming. Not from him. He was such a nice old man. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he turned into a batshit crazy, racist, bitter old man. I hardly spoke to him after that. Who knows what else might set him off?

Trump tapped right into that white rage and resentment. That's why a lot of white people you see who seemed so cool and wonderful voted for Trump. You wonder how but the reason is because inside them is a batshit crazy, racist, bitter nut case who is grateful that Trump is talking about the REAL issue that has needed to be talked about for so long and doesn't care if them fucking libtard asswipes start screaming RACIST at him. He's a man! A real man!!! That's what's there, folks. I'll guarantee it.

And they aren't yelling for Trump to sit down and shut up. To them, he's exposing this fraudulent system for what it is. Everybody knows it's rigged! He has the guts to say it and they hate him for it!! He deserves another four years, hell, he deserves 20!! They may never say it aloud but they say it with their vote.

So could Trump try a military "solution"? Sure. I think so. Will he succeed? I doubt it but how much damage will have been done and what lessons will a future demagogue take from all of it? Especially, if he is not thrown in prison for what he's doing?

Trump did a lot worse with white men than in 2016, but several percentage points better with women and minorities, according to The Guardian. That doesn't mean racial grudges didn't motivate many of his voters, but of course it rules out racism for his minority voters. There seems to be wide liking for the "No bullshit!" vibe they get from Trump. He's destructive, and that's not a bad rap for his admirers. If Washington politicians represent for them the swamp, they'll like the guy who treats government with absolute contempt. White resentment is a big part, yes, but it appears that other groups participate in the resentment, too, and have things in common with whites.

This webpage has Trump's hour long call with officials in Georgia. I'm listening to it while I type this. Trump nauseates me.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... story.html

The American media have been lying about right wing protesters and demonstrators for years. All of those lies have been proven true with the storming of the Capitol today. Great going, morons.

Trump is a cancerous pimple on the ass of humanity. I absolutely can't wait until that piece of human feces is removed from office.

geo wrote:It's pretty clear that Trump will stop at nothing to try to overturn this election and there are far too many right-wing enablers in Congress who are pushing this narrative of election fraud.

Well, what do you know, he actually did call on the mob to leave off of trespassing on the Capitol. Of course he preceded this with a repeat of "our landslide victory was stolen." For a pot-stirrer, pushing the reckoning down the road is a win, and if Trump had not at least gone through the motions of calling for law and order, he would not ever have had a chance of a come-back. Who knew we would have a reason to be glad he wants to run again?

President Shit for Brains should be charged with inciting a riot. The killing during D.C.’s riots rest entirely on PSfB’s lap.