It’s agonizing. You can look ahead and see the whole chain that will eventually topple, but right now you’re stuck just watching them fall o n e b y o n e. It’s like how you can look back on Nixon now and think Watergate break-in, boom, Nixon resigns, when it was actually months and agonizing months of boring hearings disrupting my cartoon viewing habits.
So now Roger Stone has been arrested, and the indictment forges a link to Steve Bannon. Now the waiting begins for the next domino to fall.
Maybe Stone will squeal like a pig and accelerate the rate of the whole process. One can hope.
In fact I quite enjoy the slow pace. Call it schadenfreude, but I’d like to picture Trump watching his enemies closing in slowly, while he is becoming more anxious every day.
Eventually the Head Pig will fall, but we’ll still have Pence, voter suppression and gerrymandering. To paraphrase a famous story attributed to Bertrand Russell and others, it’s pigs all the way down.
This news made me feel the need for music. Freddie Mercury-style music, more specifically.
Music.
Too damn slow if you ask me!
And where there’s Bannon, could the Mercers be far behind? Robert has “retired” and gone into seclusion.
As for Pence, perhaps the “Gen. Flynn lied to me” defense will start to crack.
rietpluim,
Clearly you’re not a government worker, or contractor, or employee/owner of a business that depends on them, or a person who depends on US government programs for basic needs, or even someone who knows such people.
As horrible as Pence would be, he probably wouldn’t have shut down the government, especially over something as obviously stupid as the wall.
One way or another Trump needs to be gone, the sooner the better.
The reason I don’t like the slow pace of the dominoes slowing falling is that it gives Trump, Stephen Miller, and various ne’er-do-well Trump lackeys time to do more harm.
Today we are seeing delays at two major airports, including LaGuardia in NY, thanks to air traffic controller staffing issues. Trump’s shutdown is having more bad effects, some of them dangerous, than is being acknowledged.
About the slow pace though, I do appreciate that Mueller and his team are methodical and thorough.
Pence is probably better at hiding his malice and batshit crazy, but that’s what makes him dangerous.
We’ve got to get rid of all the Republicans, root and branch, and start over with a better conservative opposition party. The fastest way to do that is to leave the lunatic in charge until he can fully wreck the boat, not to let somebody else take charge who would have a better chance of winning an election.
Yes, this will cause much suffering in the short run — but not as much as the outright ruination that could be caused by another four years of Repub administration.
Not only has Pence revealed himself in the past to be a dangerously loony right-wing religious nut of the sort who I’m hesitant to see near the nuclear football, but even if he decides not to start World War III don’t forget what a terrible governor he was in Indiana. I have relatives living there, and they say the Indiana Republican Party was getting ready to primary him because he was such a failure and an embarrassment. He not only weakened his party in Indiana — and I remind you that Indiana is a [i]very[/i] red state, at one time a few decades back over 75% of adult males were members of the KKK — but he cost the state a lot of money as well through his shenanigans. If he becomes president, it won’t be an improvement in terms of policy although at least he probably won’t be on Twitter at 1 AM.
The devil you know and the other devil you know. What a choice. My ideal scenario is to impeach Trump but not convict him. Tie him up with investigations and as many lawsuits as he has coming. Don’t let Pence become Prez, because he’s shown what he is in Indiana, and I don’t want him to have that kind of responsibility. Rather, take him down either before Trump or at the same time (I’d prefer the latter, so Trump can’t fill the vacancy with McConnell or one of the Koch boys).
This shows that I have a lot of faith in Mueller. I’m not really happy about relying upon faith, but that seems to be where we are just now.
Cross posted from the Political Madness All the Time thread:
From Wonkette’s coverage:
Much more info and telling details have been posted on that thread. Scroll up.
rietpluim, #1
Here’s something to enhance the schadenfreude.
Yes! The Watergate hearing disrupted my preferred TV watching, too!
Now, I watch the current president & associates and realize I’m still watching cartoon 45 years later.
Saad Stone has a… Nixon tattoo… on his back? No satire…?
What a Maroon and Lynna To be fair I couldn’t tell what would do the most damage. As others have pointed out, the vice president is no better. The best thing is the entire gang kicked out of Washington and then roasted slowly above the fire, but that is not a very realistic scenario.
“Maybe” Stone will squeal? He’ll roll over faster than anyone, he’ll be begging to tell them more than they want to know.
A rapper and former criminal called 50-Cent (I hadn’t heard of him before this interview) astutely predicted than all these people would flip, since they were basically middle-class white people, and weren’t experienced in having really tough things happen to them. That, none of them being from the hood, none of them would be able to take the pressure.
Also, that, even on the street, things change when federal time is involved, since one must do 85% of one’s sentence before being up for parole. And that, unless people were in danger of actually being killed, or their families killed, everyone cooperates with prosecutors, as they really have no other good choice.
So, note to self: when committing federal crimes, don’t have accomplices.
https://youtu.be/KfU69_up02Y
For me, New Atheism was never about Islam, but 1) the growth of Christian Theocracy under Dubbya, and 2) the idea that atheists ought to stand up, say enough is enough and work to destroy the barbarism that is theism (yes, even the feel-good liberal versions). With Trump’s ascension to the purple, I had hoped that public, fuck-all-religionists, public atheism would rebound, but it seems that it’s too far gone for that.
I rather expect that on January 20, 2021, the retiring president will have a last name starting with P — either Pence or Pelosi. In the former case, all it takes it Trump’s resignation. In the latter case, it requires that Pence turn out to be ensnared in the high jinks pervading this White House, which is possible but not certain. But wouldn’t Trump get to appoint Pence’s replacement? Yes, he could appoint, but his appointee could not take office without majority votes in both houses of Congress. Does anyone think the Democratic House of Representatives would give Trump his choice of veep? That would put Pelosi on deck, to be sworn in as president if Trump gets pushed out. Of course, I did say “retiring” president, so it would be necessary for an incumbent President Pence to be rejected at the polls (undoubtedly a slavish GOP would nominate their accidental president). If it were President Pelosi, I would expect her to bow out after serving as a dynamic caretaker (rather than campaigning for election). Here ends my wild speculation.
I have my doubts about Stone rolling over. He has almost certainly been promised a pardon. Whether that promise will be kept remains to be seen, but the promise has been made.
Stone is a life long invenerate liar. He is of no use to the Special Council as a witness and will not be asked to flip.