Impeachment. How Will this End Up?
Nancy Pelosi just announced a formal impeachment inquiry of the conduct of Donald Trump. Here we go. Let’s make some predictions…I would like to hear what others think.
My prediction: This is the beginning of the end for Trump. As this proceeds and truth comes to light, I believe that the Republicans will FINALLY realize that the jig is up. In order for them to have any chance at winning 2020, they need Trump out quickly so they can field some other candidate. The veil will be lifted and everyone will run from him. Wishful thinking? I don’t think so.
What do you think?
I’d like to think you’re right. We shall see.
1Fanfare impeachment inquiry – fanfare impeachment inquiry
That trumpet just hit a sour note.
I posted this news earlier but the excitement of her finally committing to an inquiry was tempered by a LARGE CAVEAT and it had a distinct odor of Pelosi incrementalism about it. See below:
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HOWEVER…
But some members of Pelosi’s caucus, including representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are already pushing back against the possible creation of a select committee. They fear such a move could delay the investigation process and create friction with the committees already probing Trump’s actions.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) Yes, this is an emergency. We don’t have the luxury of time w/ another committee.
Judiciary has been investigating& putting the pieces together for months. Impeachment belongs there.
We must honor jurisdiction, historical precedent,& work done + allow Judiciary to move forward. Tweets from the Guardian
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Pelosi’s MO has always been wait and see, avoid the bad I word. Slooowwww going keeps the umbrage tamped. Doesn’t it Mme. Speaker? She just reworked the whole process into low gear.
Manu Raju✔
@mkraju
NEW: Emerging from Pelosi’s office, House Ways and Ways Chairman Richard Neal says each of the six chairmen will continue to investigate under the umbrella of an impeachment inquiry. “The other committees are going to act under the umbrella of formal inquiry,” Neal told us.
News: The whistleblower wants to testify but first, he/she wants to sit down with the DNI to talk about testitying. Wonder how that will go?
2I agree El Jefe.
3It’s the beginning, and it may take awhile, but at some point Mitch McConnel & a few other Republicans will make their way from the Capital building to the White House for a Nixonian conversation.
I don’t think so. The Birchers (they are certainly not Repulicans or Conservatives) are slower than Democrats who supported Hillary.
4I expect division and indecision from the GOP bigwigs at first, lukewarm support for investigation, shouty defiance from the Fox Trump supporters, and furtive glances at polling data. Then within a couple of days the Wall Streeters, Bible Thumpers and news execs will have decided, and we’ll know, from a bold stance on Fox News if it’s pro-Trump, or from whispered news stories about emissaries from GOP Central to Trump seeking his quiet departure. If not. They’ll know not to approach him without ammu ition in hand to end him forever, so we’ll see.
5He survives through the election. Senate Republicans like John Cornyn, Moscow Mitch and Ron Johnson will continue to provide cover because they know that if he goes down before the election the result will be an even worse bloodbath than what they’re already facing.
I do believe that when he loses the election, he will resign right before the end of his term and receive a full pardon from Pence.
6I agree – this IS the beginning of the end for Trump.
7But before the curtain falls, the country and the people will suffer one way or another, I’m afraid. (Here in my neck of the woods, I’ve seen some really, really devoted trumpists.)
Also, he is now like a cornered animal – his current situation makes him very dangerous. So I would definitely not celebrate or say “pass the popcorn” or something like that. At least not yet.
All that said, Trump really did not leave Pelosi any choice this time.
While we ALL know he’s worse than Benedict Arnold by a factor of at least 100 and is the chosen spawn of Satan, the repugs couldn’t care less. They’ve already gotten 2 SCOTUS justices out of him and they know they’ll get 2-3 more if he’s re-elected.
To get a 7-2 Supreme Court majority (that will last for 50 years), they’ll put up with ANYTHING else that the POS does.
And he WILL get re-elected if our Dem “leadership” doesn’t unite against him and quit skull-effing each other (and us) with these AWFUL DESTRUCTIVE DEBATES.
8The Republicans quickly field some other candidate? I don’t know if you have noticed, but the Republicans have been cancelling the primaries and going directly to dictatorship.
9I suspect that a substantial fraction of Republican pols are too high on their own supply to understand the situation, and will continue to posture and bloviate while lashed to the Orange Whale while he thrashes in the agony of impeachment.
Fearless predictions:
Nancy SMASH will orchestrate the pace so that the vote for impeachment does not happen until next year. In the mean time, drip drip drip: we will learn much more, and the final Articles of Impeachment will be a devastating portrait of a not-very-bright thug who imagines himself to be Don Corleone. Money laundering for Russian gangsters will be an important subtext.
Impeachment will pass easily in the House.
Fox News will start to distance itself as the carcass of the Trump Presidency begins to stink.
To avoid being caught in the cleft stick of having to either convict or acquit, just a few months before an election, Senate Republicans will try to tell Trump that he must resign, offering medical incapacity (dementia) as a face-saving cover.
He will refuse. The Republicans will consider Article 25, but demur.
The Senate will not convict.
Blue wave in 2020: Warren becomes President, the Senate has a 50/50 chance of flipping. Dem majority in the House grows. Several statehouses flip, including a couple R-gerrymandered states. Republican governors begin retirement planning.
Texas trembles on the verge of flipping, but stays R for one last cycle.
Trump spends the (short) remainder of his public life defiantly fighting legal accountability, like a boxer that’s been KO’ed too many times; his decline into dementia accelerates, and Jarvanka assume conservatorship around 2023. Court proceedings expose that the Trump organization is a series of empty shells, and has been fueled by Russian funds for many years. Fines and civil damages take the rest.
10Trump will not comply with the Nixonian conversation.
11He will stay until the army shows up to forcibly remove his sorry derrière. Pence may pardon him from federal crime, but there are several state investigations which are ongoing that do not fall under the pardon power. He may end up behind bars yet.
I like that Pelosi is involving the six committees mentioned. I would like to have those committees roust out not only Trump but as many cronies as possible; they have been as obstructive as possible and deserve spending some of they hard bribed money to enrich DC lawyers.
12If Moscow Mitch is starting to make noise about what the whistle blower brought forward, maybe, perhaps, possibly, something might actually happen?
Maybe?
Perhaps.
Of course, it could just be a case of not liking his name so he has to be seen to be doing SOMETHING.
13@ Maryelle 11:
Not the army. That would set a terrible precedent [or as Trump tweeted, a “terrible president.” (Hmm — he admitted it? How ’bout that?)]
The US marshals, however . . . . They ARE after all, Federal law enforcement agents.
14And the guy who was happy to bellow, “You’re fired!” on tee-vee then sent a private citizen to fire Sessions will meekly hold out his wrists for the handcuffs.
Because he’s all bark, no bite. But we knew that already.
and Pence?
15All of the above are lovely sentiments. But have you been in a coma since July of 2019? From the Republican side of the aisle you will hear CRICKETS. When one is complicit in a crime, one does not call for an investigation. Deny, Deny, Stonewall, Lie. That will be the game plan. The House will impeach. The Senate will not field a super majority to convict. The Trumpistas will view that as exoneration. Republicans in general will continue to hold their noses and vote straight party ticket. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t impeach–impeach the bastard already. El Jefe, you are the one who keeps talking about the Democrats waiting for someone else to take care of the problem. The solution is to win the election. Field our best candidate, not our most “electable” (read: whitest, oldest) candidate. Put forth our best ideas and vision for the future. Be candid that these idea will be subject to the legislative process but the beginning of the process will be pushing for the whole enchilada. If we can’t win by actually articulating what we want to do instead of how bad it stinks at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., we aren’t going to win by waiting for the Republicans to grow a collective conscience. Let’s figure out who best represents us. I’m in Iowa, I’m active in the caucus and Buttigieg and Warren are on the short list. Warren needs to move beyond merely connecting with her audience and use the rhetorical devices of inclusion to turn a disparate group of supporters into a United Team who look to each other and see the vehicle for victory. Mayor Pete is better at this but not as steeped in policy as Senator Warren.
16That was July of 2017
17If we don’t stand for something we will end up standing for anything. trump is not good for this country. He is not looking to make us better. He is looking to make America a 3rd world country with he and his family/friends at the head and rich. He destroys everything he touches. We need to take a stand NOW! even if we should it screw up.
18McConnell suddenly supports better voting security.
19Republicans suddenly support giving the whistle-blower complaint to the Senate.
I think they know something we don’t … yet.
El Jefe, while we wait let’s keep a fork near our TV:
20https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EFRAK-EW4AA7QVc.jpg
There was another piece of news today that seems to have flown under the radar of the impeachment goings-on:
Michael Flynn is reportedly going to take the 5th. The implication is that Dolt 45 promised him a pardon for keeping his mouth shut. Which is, of course, obstruction of justice. It’ll be interesting what comes to light about this during the inquiry. Flynn may be left holding the bag, while he rots in prison.
211) Wonder if this will play the same role as Nixon’s, judicially ordered, release the full transcripts of his recordings where even his thuglican “defenders” decided he had gone over the line.
2) Considering that the RNC and demented donnies reelect committe have been “formally” merged and are one now, the RNC agreed to change last year, so no hyperbole one must wonder if the thugs can even dump him without his cooperation.
3) Since the state thuglican parties have already cancelled state primaries and caucauses and this process drags out until the end of the year would the state thugs even be able to reverse course and run primaries and/or caucauses in time for 2020 election? If not do the thugs revert to power brokers in “smoke filled” rooms to select alternative candinate?
4) If he does agree will he, and his minions, still control the thuglican nomination process? End up with one of his spawn running?
22Big Effing Nothing Burger! Orangeshit will survive, be re-elected, the U.S. will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Putin Inc. Aaaaargh!
23“My prediction: This is the beginning of the end for Trump. As this proceeds and truth comes to light, I believe that the Republicans will FINALLY realize that the jig is up. In order for them to have any chance at winning 2020, they need Trump out quickly so they can field some other candidate.”
Ah, no. I think they see it as this: in order to have any chance of returning to power in less than a decade, they need to get rid of Fat Donnie and Little Mikey so they don’t drag down the Louie Gohmerts and Miss Lindseys’ of the party.
24I believe Pelosi is more interested in securing an electoral victory than in impeachment. I believe she is going for the death by a thousand cuts rather than the axe-fall of impeachment. I believed her when she said she wanted Trump in jail, and I believe that is still her priority.
252020 is going to be a year composed of nothing but Octobers, as in the “October surprise” that traditionally surfaces the month before ballots are cast. To paraphrase another odious Donald (Rumsfeld), you go to impeachment with the scandal you have, not the scandals you wish you had.
But like sprouting seeds, some of the currently unknown yet more vile instances of S*hitgibbon mal-governance may push their way towards the surface to release their stench to Congressional investigators and the public. It’s going to be that kind of atmosphere.
It would be delightful to watch Republicans hold their breaths, trying to avoid breathing in the rank odor of true Trump exposed, until their districts turn blue.
26How will this end up?
27We can theorize, speculate, and prognosticate until Donald f**king Trump is in prison, or his stormtroopers kick our doors in.
And everything in between.
IMHO our predictions now are based on ancient history.
Like 40someodd years ago, with Nixon.
When there were 3 network news outlets, and print media.
Period.
The 2016 election was decided by people who’s pragmatic source of information was Fox news. The rest was Facebook news. Don’t get me wrong,
The Motherfucker needs to be impeached.
And we need to do it because it’s the right thing to do.
But make no mistake, the infrastructure put in place by the right for decades wholeheartedly spread the propaganda put out in nauseating amounts.
Because it costs them nothing.
But they benefit exponentially from it.
I know I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.
The real war is the control of the narrative.
And they’ve been kicking our ass for decades.
Donald fucking trump is just the best at rubbing our noses in it
And if anybody thinks they’ve seen the worst examples of fake news/ propaganda before now, you’re naive.
28Impeachment proceedings have begun. The calls for violence are about to multiply.
I highly recommend for anybody who didn’t read Grandma Ada’s reference to Goebbels 19 Points of Propaganda, to do so.
And keep in mind that today we are the enemies referenced in this ideology.
Then remember who the enemy was when Goebbels wrote it.
Remembering how it turned out for them, is instructive.
All I can say is I am convinced that at some point in the impeachment hearings, Trump will brag about its TV ratings.
29ITGDMFN!
30True to form! Avis tries harder. Most salient comment on this fragile thread.
31The instant Combover Crime Lord leaves office, he goes under indictment for several crimes in the state of New York, and the new president, whoever that is, cannot pardon him for them. That means he will never leave office willingly.
Expect something to happen in the next year that will provide some context that he will use to try to nullify next year’s election. After all, Putin has done it before, and C.C.L. will certainly ask him how. He may have already done so. After all, we have only the White House’s account of what was said on that one phone call. As I understand it, there were more than one, and Pooty-Poot could well have been on one or more of them.
32