I had a horrible thought yesterday afternoon. It led to a horrible belief that has now solidified into a horrible certainty.
A Facebook friend had said, “I want to scream when Pelosi says, about impeachment: ‘We’re not there yet.‘” I’ve heard lots of folks say that, and sometimes I’ve felt the same way. But I’ve also been telling myself that Nancy the Knife Pelosi has been around the block a few times. She’s cagey enough to say ‘not yet’ to impeachment in order to seem reluctant to engage in a process that could most definitely would be seen as primarily political. But all the while she’s prepping for impeachment like a boss.
I said as much to my friend — and when I said it, I believed it. Or at least I wanted to believe it. This morning, I think there’s a pretty fair chance that I was just full of shit. Why? On account of I’ve now read that Pelosi says the only real way to rid ourselves of this turbulent fuckwit is to defeat him in 2020 by a margin so big that he can’t challenge the validity of his loss.
Which is when I had the horrible thought. Which was as follows: There IS no margin of victory so large that Comrade Trump wouldn’t challenge it. And that led to this horrible belief: Even if he was impeached by the House and convicted in the Senate, he’d refuse to accept it. Which led inevitably to this horrible certainty: Motherfucker ain’t gonna leave without an ugly fight, no matter what.
Let’s face it, Trump has ignored every norm, every standard of presidential behavior, every yardstick of diplomacy, and every rule of protocol so far. So why in the hell would we assume he’ll abide by our tradition of a peaceful transition of power?
He won’t. He just fucking won’t. It’s horrifying for me to say this, but even though he doesn’t really even want to be president, I can’t imagine him just giving it up. No matter whether he’s impeached or defeated in 2020, he’s going to claim the system has been rigged against him. He’s going to claim his enemies have conspired against him. He’s going to claim his defeat is a fraud perpetrated by deep state traitors. He’s going to rage and complain and threaten and bellow that he was somehow cheated.
And a lot of his supporters will believe him.
Here’s another horrible but true thing: Trump won’t care how much damage he does before he leaves. He won’t care about the harm done to the office of POTUS, to the system of checks and balance, to our entire system of democracy. He won’t care if he leaves the nation in shambles. Trump is the kind of guy who’d shit in the driver’s seat if he thought you were going to repo his car.
I really believe we need to start thinking in those terms. I think we need to accept the fact that no matter the circumstance, Comrade Trump is not going to make a peaceful and dignified exit from the White House. He’d rather burn the place down.
With that in mind, there’s no reason the House of Representatives shouldn’t start a long, detailed impeachment process. We’re going to have to pry this jamoke out of the White House with a tire iron; we might as well take a few deep breaths and get started.
gregfallis.com 
I fear that he won’t lose the election because I’m not sure there will be an skeleton in 2020. Two years ago I envisioned the scenario that, on the eve of the election, “many sources” “say” there may be violence and therefore to protect the public, we will need to delay the election until stuck time as the public can be guaranteed safety to vote. It will ask be to protect “us.”
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I think there are at least two questions to look at here. 1) CAN the president delay an election? 2) Even if he can’t, would Trump TRY to delay an election?
I think — and since it’s never been tested, who the hell knows? — there’s no way any federal jurisdiction can delay elections run by the states. But I’ve no doubt Trump would try to delay one if he thought it helped him.
But we didn’t even delay an election during the Civil War. I don’t think — and, again, I’ve been consistently wrong when it comes to shit Trump will do, so what the hell do I know — even Trump could wangle the states to give up their power.
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Cohen said as much at his hearing. It seems your instincts could be right, Greg.
Also, this documentary about Mussolini seems to be the playbook that Trump has used from the beginning, clown, scapegoats, later blackshirts beating people at polling places, aligning himself with other dictators. The story is all there. Full episodes are available online. https://www.pbs.org/tpt/dictators-playbook/episodes/benito-mussolini/
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And you see why I feel so without hope, right? The dictatorship is well established; he feels completely above the law and entitled to do anything he damn well pleases. No one in our government, aside from a few new players, opposes him in any concrete way. They are either gutless or worse, bought off. How will this era conclude? I’m hiding my eyes.
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Also, does she really believe that there will be “a margin so big that he can’t challenge” it? Really? Does she remember back to when no-one thought he’d ever get elected? Where is that margin going to come from? Certainly not the half-dozen or so Trumpanzees who have become pissed off with him for one reason or another. And doubtfully from all the idiots who didn’t vote (who won’t vote again). Remember the Blue Wave that was going to happen in mid-terms…? Oh right, not so much. There’s only one way out of this catastrophe, and it’s ugly. Otherwise you’ve got him for another six years. And perhaps until he finally dies, by whatever method that might eventually be.
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