"I will always remember this clip as the moment when I became absolutely convinced that Trump's presidency wouldn't last a full term. "



Want to make a bet on that?

I'm with Old Zircon. I think the most likely course of events is 1. Trump fires Sessions, 2. Trump fires Mueller, and 3. Congress ultimately does nothing about it.

Paradoxically, I don't know what's going to happen, I only know what I'm convinced is going to happen.

Trump will still be Trump. Even if he survives the current crisis, the steady drumpfbeat of scandal, reckless folly, and clumsy deception can only continue. If the GOP loses in 2010, Trump will be impeached, and even if the votes aren't in the Senate to convict, the trial will bring so much shit into the open. This guy has forty years of skeletons in his closet. Skeletons on Skeletons.

We're not talking about bringing back Hillary. We're talking about Mike Pence, who ought to be conservative enough for anybody, and who has got to be more emotionally stable and competent. I'm sure that right now, a majority of Republican congressmen would exchange Trump for Pence in a New York heartbeat, if they weren't such political cowards.

Of course, this is uncharted territory. The Republicans may decide that, in order to prevent voter fraud, we need to make voting illegal. We're always one 9/11 away from a total fascist takeover.

He has to fire Rosenstein first, THEN whoever he appoints to replace Rosenstein can fire Mueller. Rosenstein is Trump's man, for sure, but doing that is not only open obstruction of justice, but that opens up the knives from the Kochs, who are drooling at a reason to show what happens to the nouveau riche like Trump when they cross the Old Money.

The likely scenario is not the death trigger of self-pardon. It's self-pardon followed by immediate Boss Tweed style self-exile in the middle of the night to Russia. Self-pardon has no precedent and would mean an absolute end to the Republic if nothing wasn't immediately done in the legislature about it. Add to it that we're going to be coming up on riot season in a few weeks, late August to early September. If this hits during the middle of riot season, expect mass exodus of money from the elected class and a crash in the market mid-September. The August 15-September 15 riot nexus is what will break Trump. If he survives it, he'll survive anything.

"The Kochs will put an end to it" has been predicted here since literally Trump's candidacy announcemen. I would bet heavily on it not coming true this time either.

I don't think trump can pardon himself.

The precedent is that a sitting president cannon be charged with a crime.

If he cannot be charged and convicted of a crime, there is nothing to pardon.

If he's impeached and then charged with a crime then he no longer has the power to pardon himself.

I highly doubt "I pardon myself for any future convictions" will be taken seriously by any court.

The Earth is supported in space by four mighty elephants. Each elephant stand upon four turtles. After that, it's turtles all the way down.

I think "less obviously evil" really means less evil. I'm not expecting the GOP to give up an election which, according the constitution, they won. I'm expecting Trump to be driven from office, because he's a criminal.

JHM, the only major difference between Trump and the rest of the GOP leadership is impulse control.

You know who else was a criminal? Saint Reagan. You think the GOP cares?

"Impulse control" isn't nothing.

I've got nothing more to add to this. My best guess is my best guess. I can be wrong, but I don't have another, better guess in reserve. We'll see.

B

They're already giving security briefings to Hatch. Ryan would not accept the presidency. He only wants the presidency if he can win a Reagan style mandate, and he is tainted goods to the current crop of revolutionaries, as he's too close to the last crop of revolutionaries.

Nobody is going to turn down the presidency. It will go straight down the line like Nixon, stopping on the vice president and riding out the term.

PoeTV likes making a lot of "cynical sensationalism" predictions, some of which border on conspiracy theory. You can track them through the debates, all the way back to the "Trump announces he's running for president video"

Here's a timeline of such predictions off the top of my head:

"He will drop out by the 2nd round of primaries. It's only a stunt. He'll melt away at the first sign of having to disclose finances."

"The Koch's will end him and prop up Cruz or Kasich at the last minute before the nomination is final. Nothing can ever get done in politics without the Koch network's full approval."

"Trump is just a plant to intentionally derail the Republication party. He was close friends with the Clintons and other leading Democrats. He's not just going to flip like that! This is all to assure Hillary's win."

"He only has a slim chance to win, but if he does he's going to turn out to be a more progressive president than Hillary because he opposes the TPP!"

"He won, but he's going to quit within the first few months because he never wanted to win."

"He hasn't quit, but he's going to be impeached in the first 6 months."

"He could be impeached, eventually, but that's a bad idea because Pence something something mainstream support. It's best to keep Trump in office as long as possible because that will mean an even bigger total collapse of the GOP, just like the last 8 years we've predicted they were about to collapse."

"I hear they're prepping Betsy Devos to take over because all 15 of the preceding succession candidates are going to turn it down unless they're promised to be the next Reagan!"


Guys, it's going to run its course like the Nixon timeline, only with an insane Republican legislative dragging it out longer and more damage done before it ends.