One year on, I'm happy Trump won

[Broken_Erika]

I don't think Trump will survive Mueller. What the Republicans do without him will be interesting to see.

After token Condemnations they'll forget he ever existed, or they'll insist he was a democrat.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I don't think Trump will survive Mueller. What the Republicans do without him will be interesting to see.

I don't agree. I cannot see Mueller bringing criminal charges due to lack of precedent and the legal wrangling it will create.

He'll turn over all the evidence of corruption to Congress and let them decide. This is what happened with Nixon except the Dems controlled Congress then and they were working toward impeachment at that point.

When Mueller turns over his binders of evidence, reports and recommendations to Congress they will promptly declare them fake news and that no crime was committed.

We're stuck with him for 4 years unless Mueller gets bold and charges him. I just can't see that happening

 

[onejayhawk]

I don't think Trump will survive Mueller. What the Republicans do without him will be interesting to see.

I mostly agree with Hobbs. Successful prosecutions either have anonymity or a rising tide of expectation. Mueller has neither. Regardless of his findings, the expected response is, "Is that all? More than a year and X $Million and this is all the dirt you could find?"

On the other side of the political fence, a year ago DoJ began an internal review of Comey's email investigation. That one does have anonymity.

J

 

[AdrienIer]

Amusing, Comey is a Republican yet he is "on the other side of the political fence"

 

[dutchfire]

I don't agree. I cannot see Mueller bringing criminal charges due to lack of precedent and the legal wrangling it will create.

He'll turn over all the evidence of corruption to Congress and let them decide. This is what happened with Nixon except the Dems controlled Congress then and they were working toward impeachment at that point.

When Mueller turns over his binders of evidence, reports and recommendations to Congress they will promptly declare them fake news and that no crime was committed.

We're stuck with him for 4 years unless Mueller gets bold and charges him. I just can't see that happening

I expect that Mueller will wait until 2019 to hand in his reports. Who knows what Congress looks like by then? Typically, special investigations take several years (https://fivethirtyeight.com/feature...pared-to-past-special-counsel-investigations/) and there seems to be a sufficient amount of things to investigate in this case.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Amusing, Comey is a Republican yet he is "on the other side of the political fence"

The GOP has launched a smear campaign against Comey and Mueller in hopes that they can win the battle of public perception and discredit everything those two do or did. This will enable the Republican Congress to sit on any reports or findings after they are released with little backlash from their base.

I expect that Mueller will wait until 2019 to hand in his reports. Who knows what Congress looks like by then? Typically, special investigations take several years (https://fivethirtyeight.com/feature...pared-to-past-special-counsel-investigations/) and there seems to be a sufficient amount of things to investigate in this case.

I don't know what Congress will look like but I know that the Democrats will not have the votes to impeach Trump. I doubt that a Republican minority would suddenly turn on Trump and side with the Democrats on this either.

 

[Lexicus]

He's just letting them die, which is completely not the same as killing them.

Can't tell if being srsly or not.

 

[Takhisis]

Can't tell if being srsly or not.

It's a post made by me, so…?

 

[Broken_Erika]

Surely you can't be serious?

 

[Takhisis]

Stop calling me Shirley.

 

[FriendlyFire]

I mostly agree with Hobbs. Successful prosecutions either have anonymity or a rising tide of expectation. Mueller has neither. Regardless of his findings, the expected response is, "Is that all? More than a year and X $Million and this is all the dirt you could find?" On the other side of the political fence, a year ago DoJ began an internal review of Comey's email investigation. That one does have anonymity.
J

Watergate took three years
And it would be HILARIOUS if Muellur produce evidence that Trump entered into a conspiracy with the Russians to break into the DNC to steal / spy on them ( add in charges of tax, fraud, money laundaring & obstruction of justice).
I would have the most delightful time watching Republicans twist themselves into Pretzels over this just to eek out another election win.

I'd imagine the house of cards collapses after the election victory

 

[Broken_Erika]

Watergate took three years
And it would be HILARIOUS if Muellur produce evidence that Trump entered into a conspiracy with the Russians to break into the DNC to steal / spy on them ( add in charges of tax, fraud, money laundaring & obstruction of justice).
I would have the most delightful time watching Republicans twist themselves into Pretzels over this just to eek out another election win.

They'd pass an emergency law declaring the results of the investigation top secret and then launch an amphibious invasion of either Nepal or Bhutan to distract everyone.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I think Mueller will give the obstruction charges to Congress, but the money laundering and maybe RICO will go to state courts and by pass congress. Or maybe he will just go after everyone but Trump on the money laundering. I don't see Mueller pulling any punches.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I think Mueller will give the obstruction charges to Congress, but the money laundering and maybe RICO will go to state courts and by pass congress. Or maybe he will just go after everyone but Trump on the money laundering. I don't see Mueller pulling any punches.

Long about February of 2021 seeing the feds seize D'ump's assets in a RICO case would be the ultimate prize. "Former president dies a pauper" would be the greatest epitaph imaginable for that slimeball.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I think Mueller will give the obstruction charges to Congress, but the money laundering and maybe RICO will go to state courts and by pass congress. Or maybe he will just go after everyone but Trump on the money laundering. I don't see Mueller pulling any punches.

Ok I actually agree with this scenario and that gives me some hope.

 

[Birdjaguar]

The big question in my mind is whether or not whatever Mueller sends to Congress will be made public.

Hope Hicks will be a key player. If she rolls and tells the truth Trump will have lots of trouble. If she either lies or takes a bullet for her boss, then at 29 she has f'ed her career. She knows a lot. She'll know who knew what when. And I think that Mueller has had her testify in front of a grand jury so she has to be honest or face perjury charges. I think that if Trump had not been elected President, Hope would have been his next choice for wedding bells.

 

[metalhead]

On social justice issues, we're seeing that people actually feel the need to organize and fight for them, and even to include others as allies rather than Balkanizing. Liberals I've talked to have shown a rapid gain in their understanding of intersectionality - that things like class, race, gender, sexuality, etc. are all interrelated, meaning that collaboration among many different interest groups is critical. And it's just beginning to show results.

With Trump's abhorrent judicial nominees, and potentially more SCOTUS picks to come, this may not matter much. If the U.S. Senate keeps waving through white supremacist bloggers to sit on the federal bench, the country will be changed fundamentally in a way most people probably will not see or understand but will become reasily apparent in the next 10-20 years. I appreciate the sincerity of your take, I really do, but a Clinton win would have at the very least put her pick on the Supreme Court. If the Senate remained Republican, she might get through some qualified centrists to sit on a few courts. Had the D's taken control, the courts would have seen a wave of HER nominees stocking the backlogged vacancies that have piled up since 2014, not Trump's.

And that doesn't even touch the likely permanent damage Trump has already done to our ability to project power by basically destroying the State Department. Rebuilding it to where it was even a year ago is going to take decades. And that's after only 1 year. After 3 more years, the entire institutional memory of how we project diplomatic power will have been completely wiped, as has already happened with much of the senior staff as well as the foreign service and diplomats. It's depressing, to say the least. It's not inconceivable that we will be largely unable to do effective diplomacy by 2020.

I don't disagree with your premise, but your premise is, fundamentally, nothing more than reflecting the reality of the American political pendulum. Fact is, the real damage Trump is doing is not because of all the Republican stuff he is doing. Watering down civil rights and environmental protection, rolling back regulations, knee-capping the CFPB, cutting taxes for rich people - these all would have happened under a Rubio or Bush III presidency. Those are the things that Republicans do. But they also at least respect the role of the State Department in advancing America's interest. They appoint qualified Secretaries of State. They also at least respect the role of the judiciary, and strive to appoint qualified judges to the bench, even if they are pretty conservative.

Trump is doing a whole different level of irreversible damage to the Republic. You don't need to engage a hypothetical Hillary Clinton presidency to presage that no amount of Democratic electoral malaise is worse than what Trump is doing to the future of the country.

 

[onejayhawk]

Watergate took three years
And it would be HILARIOUS if Muellur produce evidence that Trump entered into a conspiracy with the Russians to break into the DNC to steal / spy on them ( add in charges of tax, fraud, money laundaring & obstruction of justice).
I would have the most delightful time watching Republicans twist themselves into Pretzels over this just to eek out another election win.

I'd imagine the house of cards collapses after the election victory

Initial break-in to resignation was two years and 53 days. The special investigation was launched ten months after the break in and ran about 15 months.
It would be many things if such evidence was produced. Hilarious is not one of them, but ironic you can have.
All politics is a house of cards. Watch House of Cards to see how it's not done.

I think Mueller will give the obstruction charges to Congress, but the money laundering and maybe RICO will go to state courts and by pass congress. Or maybe he will just go after everyone but Trump on the money laundering. I don't see Mueller pulling any punches.

Agreed, which is what this is funny.

Amusing, Comey is a Republican yet he is "on the other side of the political fence"

J

 

[AdrienIer]

The mother of one of my best friend works at the US embassy here in Paris. Since Trump won she's been doing the work of senior officials (like doing the embassy budget by herself) despite being a mid tier employee, because Trump didn't bother to send an ambassador until august (confirmed in november) and his state department didn't send any senior person at all. The embassy staff is overworked and the embassy itself is inefficient. And this is the embassy in France, which is allied to the US and a stable country. I'm more concerned about the embassy in Afghanistan which only got an ambassador confirmed in late september. Or the embassies in Saudi Arabia and Turkey that are still vacant

 

[Verbose]

The mother of one of my best friend works at the US embassy here in Paris. Since Trump won she's been doing the work of senior officials (like doing the embassy budget by herself) despite being a mid tier employee, because Trump didn't bother to send an ambassador until august (confirmed in november) and his state department didn't send any senior person at all. The embassy staff is overworked and the embassy itself is inefficient. And this is the embassy in France, which is allied to the US and a stable country. I'm more concerned about the embassy in Afghanistan which only got an ambassador confirmed in late september. Or the embassies in Saudi Arabia and Turkey that are still vacant

Actually, last time I looked, the ONLY three US embassies in the Arab World currently staffed with an ambassador was Morocco, Algeria and Bahrein.