Respectful: The Passing of John McCain

He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.
-- William Shakespeare, Hamlet (Act I)

So the news came tonight that Sen. John McCain, former Presidential candidate in 2008, primary challenger in 2000, passed away from the brain cancer that plagued him his final year.

Much of McCain's biography - the reckless youth of being a Navy family brat, the wartime pilot shot down over Vietnam and tortured as a POW, the years of Arizona politics from Congressman to Senator to Presidential hopeful - will get rehashed elsewhere, here I need to speak to the personal feelings I have for the man and for the Republican Party he tried to lead for the last twenty or so years.

Back in those days, before I turned Apostate, I tried being a Republican along the moderate lines of an Eisenhower or Teddy Roosevelt. By 2000 that meant following McCain, who presented himself as a Reformer with regards to elections/campaigning and other issues (although on key GOP issues like abortion and tax cuts he remained devout). I followed McCain because the alternative was George W. Bush (aka Bush the Lesser), and by 2000 I had no love for the Bush family at all. Jeb in particular - pandering SOB who fell assbackwards into the Florida governorship in 1998 - had earned my personal hatred for a hundred lifetimes.

But I truly believed McCain was genuine, a possible chance at getting a Republican candidate who had the charm and political will to make effective changes. I was angry at the party sabotage of his South Carolina primary, and I regretted the fact that by the time I was in the streets of Ft. Lauderdale waving McCain signs that March that McCain had to suspend his efforts.

I will still argue - for all that I know today about McCain and all the other possibilities between then and now - that if McCain had been the GOP nominee in 2000, our nation would have been better off than the disaster that ended up being the Dubya years.

I lost a lot of admiration for him during the 2008 campaigning, when he kept pandering to the GOP deep-pockets and kept making grandiose promises that ended up being staged phoniness. I still can't believe he stood up David Letterman on the excuse of responding to the Economic Meltdown of 2007-08, only to end up getting caught on-camera preening for yet another Beltway talking head show. Why did you sink that low, boss?

But there will be moments that stick out for me, the moments when he tried to speak to our better angels during a bitter 2008 campaign, when the Far Right media was going out of its way to fearmonger about Obama. In a place and in front of people who could have turned against him, McCain spoke well of his Democratic opponent, tried to speak to a "respectful" position that tried to make it clear that while Republican and Democrat may be on opposite sides of an argument we were all still Americans:

"No, ma'am. No, ma'am. He's a decent, family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign is all about. He's not (an Arab). Thank you."

He respected others. At the end of the day, despite political pandering at times, despite sticking to agendas that were oft-times partisan, McCain kept the Faith. He kept the Faith about America and about fellow Americans and did what he could to keep his party base from going off the rails into the pit of race hatred and worse.

That and the fact McCain had a level of self-deprecating humor that made him a decent Saturday Night Live host.

It's a damn shame McCain died knowing full well the current bastard in the White House took the dark and easy path of racial pandering, the path McCain refused to take. In the end, McCain was willing to risk the loss of 2008 to retain his own integrity, an integrity the cheater in 2016 never had.

There was little love lost between McCain and trump: McCain the military man who suffered as a Prisoner of War in Vietnam, trump the goddamned draft dodger who had the discourtesy to insult McCain for being a "loser" who got caught and tortured. This is how our nation is right now: the worst possible man with political power, likely mocking the more honorable soul whose passing will be better remembered. If anything, McCain will have the last laugh: Obama was invited to speak at McCain's funeral, not trump.

I shook McCain's hand once. It might have been 2005 (maybe 2004), and it was before he broke my heart in 2008. While working at the University of Florida, I came across a setup in the Reitz Union grass plaza for a graduation ceremony and found out that he would be the honored speaker. I took a seat along one aisle, not realizing it would be the aisle where the parade would head to the stage. So there I was completely surprised and shaking his hand and telling him I voted for him in 2000 and he smiled and nodded and that was about it.

McCain will likely be the last Republican I will ever respect, even just a bit, even through all the disagreements I eventually had when he surrendered enough of his identity as a "reformer" for party power in 2008 and afterward.

I grew to regret what had happened, partly despairing that a lot of it was because his Republican Party kept sinking into that racist fearmongering morass, and that rather than reform it or abandon it to retain his honor he sank with it. But in some respects a Great Man has passed, possibly the last one who tried to save something that didn't want to be saved.

I am looking up in the sky tonight for comets. The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.

An Honest Question to the Modern Republican Party

I am not trying to be snarky or subversive or partisan. I understand this question may be perceived that way, but it's not. I want an honest answer out of it.

This is coming from the observations that:

• One Congressman - Chris Collins (R NY) - and people within his circle are all facing criminal charges stemming from Insider Trading.
• A second Congressman - Duncan Hunter (R CA) - and his wife are facing criminal charges regarding Campaign Finance Fraud involving questionable spending habits.
• A third Congressman - Jim Jordan (R OH) - is facing accusations he covered up / ignored sexual assaults - which could be felonies - by a doctor who worked for the same Athletic Department at Ohio State University.
• The current Republican occupant of the White House - someone I admit I cannot call President because he sickens me - is a well-documented sexual assaulter who is either the focus of or a part of ongoing criminal investigations into A) a family-managed non-profit accused of illegal conduct, misspent funds, and other acts of fraud, B) working with a foreign power to subvert, corrupt, hack, and otherwise steal the 2016 Presidential Election, C) committing acts of Obstruction to stop federal agencies from investigating that foreign power's intervention in that campaign as well as corruption of officials receiving high ranking jobs in government afterward, D) paying off mistresses to hide affairs during his third marriage, in some cases using campaign funds (against the law), with implications he gave his handler direct orders to do so, E) openly violating the Emoluments Clause written into the Constitution itself. I'm not even getting into his human rights violations involving immigrants and asylum seekers, nor his disregard for international treaties and trade agreements.

With all that I've pointed out as publicly documented scandals involving Republican party figures - some of them key leaders among the ranks - this is the question I am posing to the entire Republican Party.

With all your obsessions with attacking Democrats - not even specific individuals like Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama (who never faced serious criminal investigation before or during his tenure), I am talking about the whole party -  as corrupt or crooked or deviant, why the hell are you worried about them when your own house is a goddamn mess?

You do understand how hypocritical the Republican Party seems to any rational outside observer, when you are bashing Hillary for all the sins she's been accused of ("But her emails") while your own party leadership are violating legal, ethical and moral standards across the board?

Any sane and responsible party leader would be at the least gathering everyone in a backroom somewhere behind closed doors and yelling at the rank and file "GODDAMMIT WILL YOU KEEP YOUR OWN DAMN NOSES CLEAN!"

But you're not. None of you, not the vacating and fleeing Paul Ryan, not the obstructive and offensive Mitch McConnell, not your party spokesfigures Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, not even the "adults" in the room like John McCain or Lindsey Graham or Mitt Romney (yeah, that's how bad it is that the Plastic One with all his corporate greed is now the moral leader of the GOP).

Answer that question, Republicans. Why berate anyone else for criminal misdeeds when your party is getting caught nearly every other day breaking federal and state laws?

August 21 2018: A Day of Great Schadenfruede

In the immortal words of the Hungarian Tourist, MY NIPPLES EXPLODE WITH DELIGHT

Oh, you need context for my schadenfreude. It goes like this:

Right around noontime today word started trickling to Twitter that big things were afoot in New York City regarding trump's "In DEEEEEEEP SH-T" lawyer buddy Michael Cohen. In Virginia, the jurors for the Paul Manafort Bank Fraud trial - not to be confused with the Manafort Campaign Fraud trial scheduled for DC this September! - were sending letters to the judge about their forms for "Guilty/Not Guilty" to see if there was a third option for "We're Stuck". It was less a sign that it was a Hung Jury on all 18 COUNTS Manafort was facing, and more a sign they had decided on some of them and needed confirmation on the ones they could not resolve.

By 3:00 PM EDT, word had gotten out that Cohen was going to plead guilty by 4:00 PM to some of the charges he was facing involving illicit payoffs to women trump had affairs with and was trying to bribe to keep them silent during the 2016 campaign. Referring to Adam L Silverman at Balloon Juice:

According to the reporting, which is changing and updating as new details emerge, Cohen will plead guilty this afternoon to bank fraud, tax fraud, and campaign finance violations. The New York Times is reporting that this will be a straight guilty plea – there is no cooperation agreement at this time...

Granted, it looked like Cohen was going to play the role of a loyal capo and take his prison time for the don. There was/is still wriggle room for him to plead out down the road.

Still, just as that was getting Twitter aflutter, the jurors in the Manafort trial sent another note to the judge around 4:09 PM, let me link to Southpaw's tweet here for this bit:

It looked like the jury - which was not sequestered - saw the Cohen thing happening and they decided "Fuck it, let's make this a double-header and get ourselves home in time for Wheel of Fortune."

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

So while trump's personal lawyer who may literally know where all the bodies are buried was begging for jail time in New York, trump's associate and campaign manager during much of 2016 was found Guilty on eight of eighteen charges relating to Bank Fraud, Tax Fraud, and Ostrich Suits Failing to File Appropriate Paperwork. As someone else on Twitter noted, if they ever make a documentary movie about this day, the filmmakers would have to use a split screen to show both courtrooms at the same time. Like my fave Woodstock, but with more happy people dancing in the background.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Of the two moments, Cohen's is the bigger worry for trump. Manafort's convictions are related to things that barely had anything to do with trump or his campaign: Again, that's in the September trial coming up. All this jury did was establish Manafort is a criminal who could have financial reasons to commit the other crimes the later trial is focusing on.

Cohen, meanwhile, not only has direct dealings with trump for years, he also is confessing that his deals he made to these women happened with trump's knowledge. Yes, trump is not directly named, but the implications are there:

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court Tuesday to eight criminal counts, admitting that "in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office" he acted to keep information that would have been harmful to the candidate and the campaign from becoming public during the 2016 election cycle...

Appearing in court on Tuesday, Cohen said of the charge linked to (Playmate Karen) McDougal that it was done "for the principal purpose of influencing the election." Regarding the charge linked to (porn actress Stormy Daniels), Cohen said the money "was later repaid to me by the candidate."

Assistant US Attorney Andrea Griswold said prosecutors would have been prepared to present evidence during a trial that these were so-called hush payments.

"The proof on these counts at trial would establish that these payments were made in order to ensure that each recipient of the payments did not publicize their stories of alleged affairs with the candidate," she said...

The "candidate" is not named, but trump is essentially an unindicted co-conspirator at this point.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHEHAHAHAHAHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHA.

For all of trump's bluster about all of these investigations - Mueller's investigation into trump's ties to Russia and likely Obstruction of Justice trying to protect ally Michael Flynn (already pled Guilty), the federal investigations in Cohen, the state investigations into the corrupt trump Foundation - being JUST A WITCH HUNT, every investigation has proven results in uncovering trump's entire criminal empire (and the interconnected corruption of fellow travelers in the White Collar Crime Industry).

trump can well try to pretend his innocence in all of this, but his ties to each and every guilty person found out brings to light his own twisted, greedy, corrupt ways.

It would be a complete delight to watch all of this unravel, but I still dread this one truth: A wounded and cornered animal can be one of the most dangerous creatures in the world.

trump is getting cornered right now, finding fewer places to hide. he's wounded, losing key allies - seriously, WHO is left that can handle trump's expected attempt for reelection in 2020? - and exposing himself to a world he can't keep lying to every day. The odds of him lashing out have gone UP not down.

trump is getting to the point - maybe already has - where he has nothing to lose by blowing up the whole damn thing.

Hence the schadenfreude. Part of me wants to party forever now, part of me dreads trump's response.

Stay vigilant, peeps. We're not to a safe place yet.

Like The Father That Begets Them

These lies are like the father that begets them:
Gross as a mountain, open, palpable.
-- William Shakespeare, Henry IV Part I

Under Republican rule, lies have become the coin of the realm.

It's just... it keeps getting worse. The brazenness of lying defended to the public, as trump's media legal spokesmoron Rudy Giuliani just went on television today to claim "Truth isn't truth" (via Emily Stewart at Vox):

The former New York City mayor claimed that truth isn’t truth in an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd on Sunday. Todd played for Giuliani a string of clips of him discussing whether or not Trump would sit for an interview with Mueller, showing how his story has changed over time...

“I am not going to be rushed into having [Trump] testify so that he gets trapped into perjury,” Giuliani said when asked by Todd about why Trump’s legal team’s negotiations with Mueller have dragged on. “And when you tell me that, you know, he should testify because he’s going to tell the truth and he shouldn’t worry, well that’s so silly because it’s somebody’s version of the truth. Not the truth.”

“Truth is truth,” Todd interjected.

“No, it isn’t truth. Truth isn’t truth,” Giuliani replied...

This isn't some half-assed philosophical debate over the nature of Reality. This is supposed to be about matters of Law.

Yet Giuliani is taking a stated position that truth is not truth, that in some way the truth is meaningless in this investigation into Russian interference of our elections and into trump's possible Obstruction of that investigation...

That Trump and the people around him aren’t exactly married to truth and fact is no secret. The president’s lawyers have reportedly worried about Trump speaking with Mueller precisely because they think he might get caught in a lie...

There are normal concerns of any lawyer that a client can fall apart, make misstatements, get caught lying. There are few guilty who can speak to truth without begging for a plea deal. There are many innocent who can lie out of fear or misunderstanding. But in trump's case, the lawyers' problem is that he is a constant bullshitter, switching stories even in mid-telling because he wants to tell the version that makes him look best. trump is likely to lie no matter what, and more likely to lie even when he doesn't need to. And in this investigation into trump's Obstruction, all it takes is one to nail him in a court of law.

So here comes Giuliani, trying to set up the argument that lies are not a problem, that evidence can be ignored, that the legal requirement for truthful testimony is meaningless. He wants juries to think acts of Perjury are no big deal.

Giuliani wants to create a world where truth has no merit, no value, no purpose save what trump and his buddies want it to be.

This isn't just insane. This violates every ethical and MORAL standard in the books. Giuliani is not only approving of Perjury and false testimony, he's encouraging it to happen and for everyone else to applaud it.

This is not how law should be practiced.

Can someone in a position to do so file an ethics complaint to the appropriate legal Bar association?

This horrifying display of unethical behavior should not be allowed.

Woodstock Anniversary 2018: Musicians Mulling Magic

It is, once again, time to remember a powerful moment in American History.

Time to break out a clip of one of the most powerful performances at Woodstock:

Santana's set is regarded as one of the highlights of that weekend. His drummer Michael Shrieve had been singled out as giving one of the best instrumental performances, period.

Well, they had 500,000 people to impress. They had to step it up and give a show of a lifetime.

August 12: Emperor Norton Day!

On this day in 1869, Norton I Emperor of the United States and at times Protector of Mexico issued this decree:

Being desirous of allaying the dissensions of party strife now existing within our realm, I do hereby dissolve and abolish the Democratic and Republican parties, and also do hereby decree the disfranchisement and imprisonment, for not more than 10, nor less than five, years, to all persons leading to any violation of this our imperial decree.
-- published in San Francisco Herald 13 August 1869

If there was a choice between two failed businessmen in donald trump or Joshua Norton, I'll take the one who's NOT a sociopathic bastard. Long Live Emperor Norton!

Florida Primaries 2018 Midterms: Get Ready to Vote

As noted, this 2018 is a Midterms cycle, where Congressional seats are always up for A) vote if you're a Democrat or B) bid if you're Republican or C) patience if you're No Party Affiliate because here in Florida the primaries are closed. There's also key state elections like Governor and legislative offices, although most of those aren't competitive until the General election in November. Here's a handy guide to Florida's elections if you need it.

However, with the Primary vote coming up this August 28 - with Early Voting the week or so before, please use when/if you can - it's necessary to get the word out that HEY YOU MUTHAS GET THE GODDAMN VOTE OUT THIS YEAR.

Ahem. Yeah. Primary voter turnout is terrible in this nation and very much so here in Florida. WE NEED BETTER INVOLVEMENT, AMERICANS.

As a Polk resident, I shall present links to you for our county's Primary ballots. To the other counties in Florida, this page has a navigation tool to get to your Elections' office website for your ballot info. CHECK IT OUT, PEEPS.

Anyway, here's the Polk County Ballot if you're Democrat.

Here's the Polk Ballot if you're Republican.

Here's the Polk Ballot if you're Independent/Third Party. Yes, there are local issues to vote for. PLEASE SHOW UP FOR THESE VOTES.

For any recommendations I can make for you here, as a NPA I have no vote for either Democrat or Republican. My personal preferences over the past decade or more of me blogging here, however, has made it clear I AM NOT IN THE MOOD TO SEE REPUBLICANS WIN, GODDAMMIT. They have been terrible for the state of Florida and they are a disaster for the United States. It's been pretty much one-party rule in the Sunshine State since 1998 and the Republicans have repeatedly failed to respond to residents' needs on Education, Environment, Development, Healthcare, Medical Marijuana, and Infrastructure matters. If you're a registered Republican and you're voting in this year's Primary, do us all a favor and add a NONE OF THE ABOVE option to your ballot. Since you probably can't, whatever you do PLEASE DO NOT VOTE FOR RICK "NO ETHICS" SCOTT for the Senate race (this means balloting for "Rocky" De La Fuente? sure let's go with that) and PLEASE DO NOT VOTE FOR ANYBODY BACKED BY trump... which means please do NOT vote for Ron DeSantis (P.S. I am not a huge fan of Adam Putnam either, since that SOB is owned by the NRA, so if you can vote for whichever of the other GOP candidates for Governor is not a raging misogynistic racist).

For those voting Democratic, you have options for Federal and State offices. The big one is the choice for Governor, where there's a lot of potential names to choose from. I've been leaning toward Gwen Graham from what I've read about her policy stances, plus I am earnestly voting for every woman candidate possible because FUCK our current culture of toxic masculinity needs a goddamn kick in the literal and metaphorical balls.

As for the local elections, I need to read more on the School Board and County Commission candidates to find out which ones will actually SERVE the public trust and make our communities better.

That said, Early Voting starts August 18 and runs until August 25. USE THAT if you know you will be busy on Tuesday August 28.

GET THE GODDAMN VOTE OUT, DEMOCRATS. Especially now, and ESPECIALLY IN NOVEMBER.

Personal Note: Royal Palm Literary Awards

As a member of the Florida Writers Association, I submitted an unpublished short story "A Face In the Light" to this year's Royal Palm awards to see how it would do.

I am one step away from being a Finalist/winner for the Short Fiction category this year!

The finalists will be announced this October.

Wish me luck!

I Survived Tampa Bay Comic Con 2018: Surprising Amount of Walking Within Such a Small Space

I dunno if I ever mention in my previous discussions of attending comic cons, but there is a massive difference in floorspace between the Orlando (Orange County) Convention Center and Tampa Convention Center. I mean, Orlando's West Hall alone is arguably double the length and equal the height of Tampa's. On the bright side, it's a vast improvement over previous Tampa Bay comic cons when they were held in standalone hotels' meeting rooms out near the airport. With the convention center, you at least get enough places to host discussions and guest star speakers.

Still, it's an adventure just to even get inside Tampa's center for the annual Tampa Bay Comic Con, which I shall document here for the amused and amazed to enjoy.

Parking was a nightmare this year because the nearest parking garage - next to Amelie Arena - was blocked off for some reason (there is ongoing construction next to it which may be an expansion). After that, they had rearranged the entry point from the south side (facing the Channel) to the north side (facing the River). This *did* create a nicer pathway in as this video attests:

Yes, I filmed this portrait instead of landscape. Sue me.

Meanwhile, here's further documentation of the long long day I spent hanging out with fellow gamers, readers, writers, geeks, nerds, spazzes, goofballs, motorheads, sportos, waistoids, dweebies, dickheads, and other religious denominations.

A selfie for the day. And yes, I went solo again to a comic-con.
Things just kinda are that way.

It's around 11 AM and there's already a healthy lineup for fans seeking autographs.

This was a packed con this year. Last year's had a smaller turnout due to Miami's Supercon
conflicting with celebrity schedules drawing away the fandom.

 

I had attended a writer's panel on writing Villains, and this is their Bard's Tower pavilion.

One of the things that's happened the past few years is that the cons
have been widening the walkways. There's still a few alleys that are narrow
but now there's a few wide areas to help with foot traffic.

NOW ALL THEY NEED ARE PLACES TO SIT (ow my feets)

Hey, I found writer/fellow Gainesville survivor William Hatfield's booth... but he's vanished!
Prolly at another writer's panel...

Well I *did* find comic book author/guy-who-brought-a-llama-to-my-nephew's-birthday-party-ages-ago person John Crowther, who's busy promoting his latest series of biographies of famous wrestlers such as Lenny "The Genius" Poffo (who was off to the side discussing quantum mechanics with a n00b, I believe).

Oh, there's Hatfield, ready to discuss writing about strong female characters in fantasy/science fiction!

There were a couple of interesting panels this year, and a couple of writing ones that had newer topics than earlier, so the day was fun for the writer-wannabe that I am.

And back again to the Guest Star area. The vendor hall is on the top floor, while the meeting rooms
are on the bottom floor. It gets hectic going up and down, but where else you gonna go...?

Now this was something I had just noticed at the MegaCon convention earlier this year, but had little idea was the deal was. There's a thing about "Mystery Boxes" where you buy this themed box that's filled with collectibles of some kind, and people were circling the pavilion waiting in line to buy a box. Thing is, you have no idea what you're getting until you get it. If anything, you're getting a fancy carry box. The TARDIS box was tempting but Gods Old and New it was expensive. At the price they were offering, it needed to contain an actual Doctor in it to make it worthwhile.

The Mystery Box pavilion was at the north end, with the Guest Stars at the south end, and between it all were the walkways.

At this end of the vendors' universe sat the Signing Booths for our celebrities who dared survive the trip to Tampa. Save for one:

Camren "Selina Kyle" Bicondova wasn't able to get a flight out in time for Saturday.

Bummer. I was going to try to ask her "just what the hell kind of drugs are the Gotham writers on? That is some crazy-ass storytelling going on with that show."

Anyway. There were other celebrities to see. Although I was really only keen on two others for the day.

One was this guy who's become a cult favorite for his performance in Game of Thrones uh Hot Fuzz: YARP.

It's kind of hard to see Rory McCann under that hat, but he was a hoot and a half talking about how
he went from lumberjack to the Anti-Hero of millions. However, he *did* lose his harmonica some point
during this Q&A, and he threatened to eat every f00king chicken in the room.

McCann did mention that for him the Game of Thrones series had ended - filming the live-action parts already done - and so he knows how it all ends... which is more than can be said for a certain author who won't freaking finish the novels!!! I don't care what Neil says, GRRM is our bitch. GET TO WORK.

And then, it was time, to say hello to...

AND IT'S NEGASONIC TEENAGE WARHEAD. To whomever is buying up the Fox movie studio in order to get all Marvel movies under one umbrella: STANDALONE MOVIE! With fewer dick jokes and more biting sarcasm.

I have no idea who the person walking in late to take a seat is. I didn't think to ask for an autograph or anything...

Seeing Brianna Hildebrand was kinda the last thing on the day I wanted to do, so after that it was straight home to feed the cats and regain my strength for the battles ahead.

How fares the comic cons in your corners of the world?

P.S. I plan on being at Clermont Comic Con in November. JOIN ME AND DIE. Um, Cake Or Death! There that's better.

P.S.S. I only realize just now writing this that I did NOT SEE any of the organized cosplayers like the 501st this comic con. Unless they were in a part of the vendor floor I didn't walk by... and I did not see any R2 units like always. I didn't find the droids I was looking for! /cries

The Fredo-In-Chief Wants You To Know He's Smaht Not Dumb Like Everybody Says

I know a guy...walks into a bank with a bottle, tells everybody it's nitroglycerin. He scores some cash off of the teller. On his way out, he drops the bottle. It cracks on the floor. He slips in it. He smacks up his head. They get him. The nitroglycerin was canola oil. I know more fucked-up bank robbers than ones that know what they're doing. I doubt one in ten could tell you where the dye pack is. Most bank robbers are fucking morons. 

-- Jack Foley, from Out of Sight

(And yes, that's not a typo in the headline: it's common practice to spell out the accent used when quoting a movie, and that's how the late great John Cazale said it)

We never accused donald j. trump of being intelligent, or smart. Clever, probably, you don't get to figure out how to con people out millions of dollars if you didn't have some skill set. Devious always, and bullying and short-sighted that's pretty fucking obvious.

But as you look more and more at this criminal organization known as the trump Empire, the more you see a mafia-esque group of wannabes who all play at being Michael Corleone but all turn out to be an army of Fredos. It becomes less "How did these morans trick so many people into voting for them?" and more "No wonder they got help from Russia to cheat their way into the White House."

Because that's where the Fredo-in-Chief trump is going with his ongoing ragefest on Twitter to cover up his crimes. Just this morning, in fact, link provided to Digby's Hullabaloo site:

Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!
8:35 AM - Aug 5, 2018

Where trump gets a few things wrong:

1) he'd already tried to cover for that June 2016 meeting between donald junior and Russians, meaning that he's either lied then or lying now. Given this is trump, it's likely both.
2) trump's claim that the meeting was "totally legal" and "done all the time in politics" conflict with what's already been revealed about that meeting.
3) The "totally legal" argument goes against the US Code 52 s.30121: It shall be unlawful for—
(1) a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make—
(A) a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State, or local election;
(B) a contribution or donation to a committee of a political party; or
(C) an expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication (within the meaning of section 30104(f)(3) of this title); or
(2) a person to solicit, accept, or receive a contribution or donation described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1) from a foreign national...

4) Where the "Other thing of value" applies to Russia claiming they have "dirt" on Hillary Clinton that trump and the Republicans could use to disrupt the 2016 elections in their favor. The "Solicit, Accept, or Receive" comes into play from the fact that donald trump junior was so very eager to get that dirt and arranged that meeting.

This should be a very simple rule: DO NOT WORK WITH FOREIGN NATIONS OR TAKE ANY FOREIGN MONEY WHEN RUNNING AN ELECTION CAMPAIGN. Yet there trump is, arguing that it's all legal and that his ignorance of the law is a defense.

One of the first things they taught me in High School Latin was this phrase: Ignorantia juris non excusat. Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse. But then again I doubt trump studied Latin, or even remembered what he failed to learn in High School.

This is trump, trying to get ahead of the scandal where Mueller is getting ever closer to tying trump's campaign - especially his own son - to the Russians already charged by Mueller of interfering/hacking the elections. But this is also trump, throwing his own son under the bus by making it so very clear that what junior did violated the US Code I quoted above.

It takes a certain level of stupidity to think that confessing to shit you've done can somehow be accepted or ignored, that your own argument of "it wasn't illegal!" would somehow sway the prosecutors about to put the hammer down on you. The smart move is to separate yourself from the evidence as much as possible and keep your own damn mouth shut.

Here's proof number 9718 that trump got help from Russia to steal the election. He doesn't have enough brain cells to even realize the smart play is to shut up.

Break out the Popcorn GIFs, this coming week is gonna be a doozy. 

What If: The Timeline Where Hillary Won

I admit, I wake up nearly every morning wondering about this.

Would we - America, the world, Humanity as a whole -  be in such a dire place we are right now where trump causes chaos and criminality on an hourly basis?

What would it be like in a 2018 where voters in key states - Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and especially Florida - decided in 2016 not to be a dick and avoided voting for Jill Stein or trump himself?

What would it look like to wake up in a world where Hillary was President?

Okay, for the Hillary haters out there who'd be screaming OH SHE'D BE TAKING R GUNZ AND GAY MARRYING OUR KIDZ AND SHOVING US INTO CAMPS will you KNOCK THAT SHIT OFF. In the eight years of Bill Clinton and eight years of Barack Obama, your worst fears NEVER HAPPENED and the odds are it wouldn't have happened under Hillary either. Christ. You PARANOID FUCKWITS.

But that's the world we'd wake up to. Every morning, Fox Not-News and Drudge and Rush Limbaugh and the whole fearmonger wingnut army would be up and angry, yelling about whatever slight they think Hillary dropped on them the day before, screaming for her impeachment and letting the worst of them drop the "Lock Her Up" chant for shits and giggles. Just think of all the anger and outrage that happened under 8 years of Obama, only this time with the special vitriol that Republicans have for Hillary.

We'd wake up to a world where the Congress likely remained in Republican control. There's little evidence that a shift in Hillary's favor would have meant the same shift for House and Senate Democratic candidates. So that would mean several things:

• House Republicans would be blocking every attempt by the Clinton White House to firm up Obamacare and other health care reforms Hillary argued for. The sputtering self-inflicted damage Republicans did trying to destroy Obamacare would still be at full throttle, as they'd know Hillary would block their attempts meaning they could repeat themselves and never fear the chance of getting blamed for wrecking it. We may even have gone into another Republican-forced Shutdown by now, because Gods help us every time the Republicans pulled that shit they still won the damn midterms afterwards.
• Senate Republicans would be blocking Hillary's attempts to fill the Supreme Court and other Judiciary seats. Knowing McConnell's desire to screw Obama out of a SCOTUS legacy, he'd carry that hatred over against Hillary. And the excuse this time would be "Well, we dare not appoint any judges while the President is under criminal investigation." (Yes, that IS the argument Democrats are trying right now to block trump's attempt to fill Anthony Kennedy's vacating seat, but it's a hard one to make legally: Dems are better off arguing that Kavanaugh will offer unethical Quid Pro Quos with trump should trump ever find himself under arrest and making Supreme Court appeals to avoid trials) As a result we'd like be seeing an 8-seat Supreme Court with Kennedy holding off his retirement, and Merrick Garland sitting there on the sidelines wondering if he should sue McConnell for emotional damages.
• Speaking of "criminal investigation," we'd likely be in the 18th month of MORE congressional hearings into BEHGHAZI, and HER EMAILS, and the fervent hope that the DNC were hiding things in their servers rather than the fact that Russians were illegally hacking us. Where trump whines about legitimate criminal investigations into Russia's interference - and trump's acts of obstruction / possible conspiracy - Hillary will most likely be weathering each faux accusation by Fox & Friends every morning and wondering when her breakfast toast arrives.

So that's some of the bad stuff we'd be seeing.

In terms of international woes, there's every likelihood the mess in the Middle East would remain a mess. Syria's Civil War would still be a pit of bloodshed and heartache. Half our allies in the region - Turkey and Egypt in particular - would be nightmarish dictatorial hell-holes. The situation with Russia invading Ukraine would still be a pressing matter for NATO. North Korea would still be an annoyance in Asia.

It's just in those situations, we wouldn't be overwhelmed by the internal chaos of a trump regime. We wouldn't worry about a State Department ravaged by incompetent leadership - Bye, Rex! - that gutted needed foreign policy experts and sabotaged our nation's abilities to retain strong connections to our allies. There'd at least be some sense of stability.

The United States would not be an isolated, hated nation the way we are now under trump. NATO would not feel bullied. Our Asian allies would not feel abandoned. Canada, for God's sake, wouldn't be in a trade war with us.

That's the other thing: No tariff war. Hillary would never have pulled the stunts trump has raising tariffs on steel and other products. We wouldn't be caught in the crosshairs between an angry China, angrier EU, royally miffed Mexico, and a super-pissed Canada.

We would not have the scandals of Cabinet Secretaries like Scott Pruitt ripping off taxpayers and breaking environmental standards that keep Americans healthy. That depends of course if McConnell's Senate decided to let Hillary HAVE a hand-picked Cabinet in the first place.

The nuclear arrangement with Iran - backed by NATO - that trump is trying to derail would instead be in full force, and nobody except the warmongers would be angry about that.

Putin would still be scheming and getting his Russian hackers to try and wreck the 2018 midterms in ways to get the U.S. to drop the sanctions against himself and his cronies, but our intel agencies would be operating with the belief that their President has their back.

Our immigration policy would not be the nightmare it is now. While the Far Right Republicans in Congress would never approve any Hillary-backed reforms, we won't at least be coping with trump's hideous travel bans and we won't be arguing over the deluded "need" for a border wall with Mexico. The current trump practice of separating children from their families as they seek asylum? THAT particular nightmare shouldn't even be dreamt of in Hillary's timeline.

We wouldn't have a madman causing ulcers every morning when he tweets his insanity. Half of social media wouldn't be yelling and screaming at the other half. Well, not as much as it would normally be yelling.

In this world, trump would be busy wasting other people's money on his failing TrumpTV channel, struggling to find enough advertisers to keep it floating while most wingnuts remain watching Fox Not-News for their anger fix. His rage-filled tweets wouldn't cause stock market drops. Hillary's tweets won't do a damn thing, because she rarely showed the habit during her campaign and most likely as President would stick to messaging through her Communications Office like every other President before her.

In a HillaryWorld, it'd have been a world much like Obama's after 2011: Republicans yelling and fantasizing over their latest conspiracy theories and blocking any Democratic agenda, while the Democrats chug along trying to make sure government works and the planet doesn't blow up.

Would it have really been as horrifying a reality as the one we have now???

Damage Control For the Next Ten Generations... If We Survive This

(Update: Thanks again as always to Batocchio at Crooks And Liars for the link to Mike's Blog Round-Up! Please stay and peruse the other articles...)

We're facing once again the Republican Party obsession with massive tax cuts for the super-rich - trump is proposing an Executive Order to recalculate Capital Gains to the tune of $100 BILLION - and we are reminded once again that these greedy sons of bitches are not listening to the American people.

There's a beautiful article on Slate.com by Osita Nwanevu that needs to be read in its entirety:

Recent polling tells us too that support for increasing taxes on the wealthy is high, as it has been for many years now. Sixty-two percent of Americans believe that the rich pay less than their fair share in taxes, according to Gallup. Last year, the Public Religion Research Institute found that 72 percent of Americans—including 74 percent of white working-class Americans and 58 percent of Republicans—support hiking taxes on those making $250,000 or more a year.

Yet, according to the New York Times, the Trump administration is not only considering cutting capital gains taxes by $100 billion over the next 10 years. It’s openly floating doing so via an administrative mechanism that the George H.W. Bush administration deemed illegal. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the administration was mulling a change that would allow taxpayers to account for inflation in calculating capital gains, reducing the amount of tax that would be paid when the asset is sold. It is estimated that around two-thirds of the benefit from this change would go to the top 0.1 percent of income earners.

In a well-functioning democracy, doing such a thing, given the state of public opinion on taxes and the wealthy, would likely be politically fatal. Fortunately for the Republican Party, we live not in a well-functioning democracy but in the United States, and the Trump administration and conservatives backing this have surmised, correctly, that they can probably afford to publicly consider (this tax plan of evil) on the basis of a few assumptions.

The first is that most Americans aren’t paying terribly close attention to policy reporting at the New York Times or anywhere else. This is a safe bet at all times. The second is that the Republican base is willing to swallow just about any policy this administration pursues out of sheer antagonism toward the Democratic Party and the people it represents, who they believe might unravel the fabric of our country or upend the nation’s demographic balance, which is about the same as America’s fabric to them anyhow. The third is that the structural advantages the Republican Party currently enjoys—namely the composition of the Senate, gerrymandered House districts, the Electoral College—will help insulate them from the political consequences of proposing and implementing unpopular policy, as will their efforts to augment those advantages with policies that disenfranchise black voters...

Nwanevu is mostly pointing out the arguments I made earlier about the sins of Minority Party Rule: the Republicans do not really represent the will of the Majority but they've successfully figured out how to rig the electoral game. For awhile there they pretended to be a Majority Party, but lately they've been so reckless they don't even care that they're passing laws that benefit the elite few at the expense of everyone else.

Worse, these moves are destined to blow up on the country a few years down the road, likely at the moment the Democratic Party is able to work their way back into some part of federal government control, at which point the needs of fixing the damage - increasing taxes on upper incomes, cutting back on certain spending, borrowing more money to fill the deficit gap - will give Republicans the excuse of railing against Tax-And-Spend Democrats and fake their outrage back into power. We've seen this movie before, and enough voters and Beltway idiots buy into that lie.

Still, the only sane response to this is voter turnout: Turnout on such a massive scale, and favoring Democrats at such a scale, that the Republicans lose control of both parts of Congress with veto-proof majorities. Granted, that's impossible this election cycle because the Senate is only voting on a third of its seats and the best Democrats can do is 57 (three short of 60 to avoid Cloture and well short of 67 for two-thirds override) seats. But they gain enough seats this 2018 they can build on that towards 2020 and gain even more seats (and hopefully vote trump out of office and into a jail cell at the Colorado Supermax).

It's got to be turnout that can overpower Republican gerrymanders. It's got to be turnout in Red States that can rattle the hold the Republicans have on those places since the Reagan Era. It's got to be overwhelming enough for the US House that if the Republicans can rebound in 2020 they still won't earn enough seats to retake that part of the legislature.

And if the Democrats DO regain control of Congress, for God's Sake DO SOMETHING to break Republican rigging of the elections. Pass any and all laws to stop gerrymandering (even if Dems benefit from it in Blue States: IT IS NOT WORTH PROTECTING). You need to increase the number of House districts, something that hasn't been done since 1929 and is something that makes gerrymandering too easy to pull off. You need to give the Elections Commission more teeth in enforcing rules against foreign money and illegal (often negative) campaign ads. You need to pass laws creating universal voter registration, increased spending on balloting systems and protection from hackers. TAKE VOTING MORE SERIOUSLY, DEMS.

In the meanwhile, the Democrats need every bit of support to regain control for the American majority. They need your votes, they need your love. America, we can be better than the greed and viciousness of the Republican Party. We can put into office those who WILL respond to the wishes of the people.

Your voice isn't just for polls, or Twitter posts, or Facebook rants. Your vote is your voice and your power, and you need to use that more than social media now and always.

For the LOVE OF GOD, STOP VOTING REPUBLICAN. And get the damn vote out!

The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled Was Convincing Enough Americans To Avoid Voting

This is a thing that annoys me to no end.

To refer to a Pew Research article on the problem, by Drew DeSilver:

The Census Bureau estimated that there were 245.5 million Americans ages 18 and older in November 2016, about 157.6 million of whom reported being registered to vote. (While political scientists typically define turnout as votes cast divided by the number of eligible voters, in practice turnout calculations usually are based on the estimated voting-age population, or VAP.) Just over 137.5 million people told the census they voted in 2016, somewhat higher than the actual number of votes tallied – nearly 136.8 million, according to figures compiled by the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, though that figure includes more than 170,000 blank, spoiled or otherwise null ballots. That sort of overstatement has long been noted by researchers; the comparisons and charts in this analysis use the House Clerk’s figure, along with data from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) and individual nations’ statistical and elections authorities.

The 55.7% VAP turnout in 2016 puts the U.S. behind most of its peers in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), most of whose members are highly developed, democratic states. Looking at the most recent nationwide election in each OECD nation, the U.S. placed 26th out of 32...

Goddammit America. When there's 245 million or so Americans able to vote, and only 157 million or so register, that's 88 million or so who just aren't taking the time to do their civic duty. Worse, we get about 137 million actually voting out of that 157 million, so add that 20 million missing and we've got 108 million Americans refusing/failing to use their power and voice in our nation's interests.

The Democratic (people vote for leaders)-Republic (institutions are regulated and balanced to ensure no one part is dominant) form of government we have survives on the involvement of its citizenry. When this many people make themselves unavailable, when this many refuse to use their voice and participate, it only allows the more extreme citizens - the ones obsessed with things everybody else do not think are problems, the ones more interested in abusing the system to their profit - to overtake the reins of power and fuck the country over due to their inflexible, oft-times corrupt ways.

Think about this: if that 108 million who didn't show counted as a None of the Above/Vote of No Confidence, neither Hillary (65 million) nor trump (62 million) would have won, hell they would have been embarrassed.

Back to DeSilver:

One factor behind Belgium’s high turnout rates – between 83% and 95% of VAP in every election for the past four decades – may be that it is one of the 24 nations around the world (and six in the OECD) with some form of compulsory voting, according to IDEA...

There's been an argument for Automatic (universal) Voter Registration - that every American citizen when they turn 18 or become naturalized gets their voter ID confirmed without the hassles of filing paperwork - as a means of countering the voter suppression efforts the Republicans are constantly attempting (and sometimes succeeding at). Some states already deploy a form of AVR, it's just a question of getting EVERY state to do it...

Back to DeSilver:

In the U.S., by contrast, registration is mainly an individual responsibility. And registered voters represent a much smaller share of potential voters in the U.S. than just about any other OECD country. Only about 64% of the U.S. voting-age population (and 70% of voting-age citizens) was registered in 2016, according to the Census Bureau report, compared with 91% in Canada (2015) and the UK (2017), 96% in Sweden (2014), and 99% in Slovakia (2016).

As a consequence, turnout comparisons based only on registered voters may not be very meaningful...

No matter how they’re measured, U.S. turnout rates have been fairly consistent over the past several decades, despite some election-to-election variation. Since 1976, voting-age turnout has remained within an 8.5-percentage-point range – from just under 50% in 1996, when Bill Clinton was re-elected, to just over 58% in 2008, when Barack Obama won the White House. However, turnout varies considerably among different racial, ethnic and age groups...

Argh. For a nation that's supposed to represent to the whole world how elective governments should work, we're doing a shitty job when it comes time to walk the walk.

One thing I see online is this ongoing call by (oddly enough) Progressive/Far Left Democrats to get the Dems to entice the "(White) Working Class" voting bloc as a means of flipping control of government from Republicans. As though that voting bloc can be enticed away from their Far Right fear-driven world-view.

But there's an even better solution, Democrats. There's between 88 to 108 million Americans who aren't bothering to register, at least 20 million who are registered but still won't show up. If you can just find out what it will take to get that 20 million to check in and show their support for the Democratic side of the issues, that could create a more reliable, less racist voting bloc to get your Party over the gerrymandering and geographic hurdles the GOP has been using the last 10-30 years to stifle the Real Majority voice.

There's got to be a better effort at getting the vote out. And the next time you get control of the Congress like you did in 2006, will you do yourselves a huge fucking favor and get that Automatic Voter Registration system in place nation-wide. Christ. You gotta fix this Dems, the Republicans sure as hell won't.

July 27 2016 A Date Which Will Live In Infamy...

trump publicly called on Russia to "find Hillary's missing emails," which in Far Right Wingnut Conspiracy-Speak meant "Hey, hack her server to find embarrassing shit."

A Daily Beast article from that day:

During a Wednesday press conference in Florida, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump encouraged Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s “missing” emails from her tenure as secretary of state. “Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” he said. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens. That will be next. Yes, sir.”

Betty Cracker commentary from Balloon Juice:

As Adam noted yesterday, the DNC hack isn’t just standard intel gathering that virtually all governments do. The decision to use WikiLeaks as an outlet to publicly release the information to interfere with an election “meets the definition of an act of cyberwar,” according to Dave Aitel, whose Ars Technica editorial was quoted in Adam’s post...

So to recap, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump openly “adhered” to a hostile foreign government and encouraged it to commit an act of war on the United States...

A more detailed review from Aaron Blake from the Washington Post:

There are many, many potential problems with this scenario — and not just for Clinton's campaign, but also for U.S. national security. Indeed, the logical extension of his comments is that a foreign power would be deciding how to handle possibly sensitive information about a potential U.S. president...

But Wednesday's comments ratchet things up even more. Even as he contended that he's not the preferred candidate of Russia — as Democrats have alleged and Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested — he's now hoping Russia has potentially damaging information about a possible U.S. president.

That's stunning. And while Trump did not say he wants Russia to use those emails for blackmail or espionage purposes, his previous comments make clear it's a possibility he's very well aware of...

My take back in the day:

It doesn't matter that Clinton's email server has already undergone a complete federal investigation, where the worst the FBI found was that it was improper that Clinton was doing this (following how previous Sec of States did their private servers!).

Trump is taking the Far Right Narrative that Evil Clinton is still hiding something, anything, and they want to get at it by hook or by crook. Preferably by crook.

This is insane. This would be like having Richard Nixon asking Red China to wiretap Muskie (didn't have to, he hired his own). This would be like having Teddy Roosevelt asking Canada to intercept telegrams sent by Alton B. Parker back in 1904. This would be like John Adams asking the kingdom of Norway to raid Thomas Jefferson's home for his personal papers...

And for all those takes, what really did happen because of what trump said to the world that day? Refer to David A. Graham at the Atlantic just this July 13 2018...

The broad outlines of Friday’s indictment by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, charging 12 Russians with conspiracy, identity theft, and money laundering in connection with hacking during the 2016 presidential election, are not surprising. The hacking of the Democratic National Committee has been public knowledge since July 2016, and even then, the authorities publicly stated that the perpetrators were Russian government officials. Other details, such as the apparent involvement of WikiLeaks and Trump adviser Roger Stone, were also known. Some of the details, however, are striking...

On July 27, 2016, at a Trump press conference in Florida, the candidate referred to 33,000 emails that an aide to Hillary Clinton had deleted from the former secretary of state’s personal email server. The DNC had recently announced the Russian intrusion, and Trump speculated that if Russia broke into the DNC, it would have accessed Clinton’s emails, too...

(trump) was encouraging a foreign adversary to illegally hack into messages by a former secretary of state that might contain sensitive information, then release them publicly.

Trump had good reason to believe that Russia was listening. The previous month, his son, Donald Jr.; son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, had a meeting at Trump Tower with Russians who they believed were offering damaging information about Clinton. (The meeting wasn’t revealed to the public until 2017, and both the Russians and the Trump campaign officials say no dirt was exchanged.) Prior to the meeting, Trump Jr. had received an email stating that the meeting was “ part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

Mueller’s indictment offers new evidence that Russia was listening—and acting on Trump’s request. The indictment charges 12 officers of the GRU, Russia’s military-intelligence agency, with hacking intended to interfere with the election...

This is asking a foreign power to spy on an American citizen, to spy on an American who worked as a Senator and Secretary of State, to spy on an American running for the Presidency.

How can that NOT fit the definition of treason spelled out in the US Code? "Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States..."

On this day in 2016, donald trump went on live television and committed an act of treason asking Russia to interfere with the elections, putting into play another part of what is turning out to be the Crime of the Century: Theft of the electoral process of the United States.

Everyone saw the crime taking place, and for now the thieves are getting away with it.

Do not forget this day.

Darkest Timeline Discussion: Choose The Form Of the Destructor

Right now, considering all of the scandals competing for attention in the blighted landscape that is trumpWorld:

• the ongoing investigation into Russia's hacking of our 2016 elections;
• the lawsuit(s) against trump's business dealings violating the Emoluments Clause being allowed to proceed;
• the growing revelations about trump's payoffs to various mistresses before the election - that can well violate campaign finance laws among other state-level criminal malfeasance - now bringing up trump's personal financial handler Allen Weisselberg, meaning trump's hidden business dealings with Russian mobsters may well get exposed any day now;
• trump's idiotic tariff wars threatening to trigger an economic implosion, even with the vain attempts to buy off the Agribusiness industry;
• the likelihood trump will pull off a rubber mask to expose his identity as a secret Richard Nixon clone all along

It's not a question "if" trump's administration ends in 2020 it's a question "how bad is the destruction going to be when the damn corrupt edifice collapses into the ocean".

Just what are the outcomes of all these crazy situations?

1) Republicans in control of Congress/the Cabinet just say "fuck it" and remove trump either through Impeachment or the 25th Amendment.

They'd have good reason to. While trump *is* popular still with the Republican base, that base has shrunk and there's evidence that a lot of Independent voters who went GOP in 2016 are avoiding the party now like the plague. Meanwhile, trump's unjustified tariff wars are causing economic chaos and his bailout offer to Agribusiness to offset the damage done to that industry goes against the conservative mindset of the more traditional-minded Republicans. The general chaos that revolves around trump makes it hard to get anything done (even for a lazy Congress, Republicans do want to get a few things on their agenda done): The scandals surrounding trump make it hard to focus on doing anything other than damage control. For all the issues that can affect an election, people still vote by emotion and there's a LOT of unhappy people angry at trump (and by extension the Congresscritters enabling him). In short, trump may not be helpful in the November midterm elections.

Sad thing is, the sanest response to trump's insanity is one that will not happen. For all the damage trump is doing to their own brand, these Republican leaders are cowards and self-serving fools yearning to hold onto power of controlling the three branches of Federal government (and a lot of state governments as well). They're terrified of losing their base AND their deep-pocket SuperPACs (some of which are corrupted by Russian affiliation anyway) to where they'll just ignore the warning signs and just hope this storm blows over. Even after the Primaries are done, don't expect the surviving GOP incumbents to do ANYTHING in Congress to make trump answer for the things he's doing wrong.

2) Democrats win the Midterms either by winning control of the House (likely) and/or winning control of the Senate (less likely) along with winning enough Governorships and State Legislatures (toss-up) to reduce the influence of Red State politics.

In this situation driven by 65 million angry American voters (or more), one of the Congressional houses switches to a political opposition willing and able to investigate/hound trump for every sin he's doing. Especially on matters involving Emoluments, and on trump's horrific anti-immigrant policies.

Even if it's a divided Congress (Dem House, GOP Senate) there is enough likelihood that they would pass legislation compelling trump and his White House to play by the rules. For example: Taking away the President's authority to create tariffs; allowing asylum seekers easier entry along with their families; cutting funds for ICE as punishment for mistreatment of immigrant kids; public investigations into trump's use of hotels to encourage foreign agents to give him money; public revelations of trump's federal income tax returns; creating legal protections for the FBI and Justice Department to prevent trump's meddling/threats to fire anyone investigating him.

There's a lot of things a Democratic branch of government could do to make life harder for trump to run his con games. In the right circumstance, trump may come to believe he won't be able to continue his con games and quit (he does have a tendency to cut and run).

Problem with this scenario: there is every likelihood the remaining Republicans in a Democratic-controlled Congress will run interference for trump just to spite the Democrats. They may get hammered in the 2018 Midterms but the GOP is obsessed with winning at all costs... and they've got the 2020 Presidential cycle to think about. In every previous time in the post-Reagan Era they got embarrassed for their extremist positions - 1992, 1998, 2006 and 2008, 2012 - instead of moderating themselves they doubled down on the crazy, and were rewarded every time - 1994, 2000, 2010, 2016 - with more political control. Outside of major loss of seats - say, losing 50-100 seats in the House and losing every Senate race in 2018 - the Republicans will likely remain defensive of trump and the Far Right factions, meaning trump can survive into 2020 and we risk the likelihood he'll campaign for re-election (with no guarantees he'll get the curb-stomping he deserves).

Another problem: if the Democrats win even one part of Congress, there is every likelihood the fear-mongers of the Far Right will scream "illegal" or "conspiracy" or "stolen votes". trump is already trying to set up the insane narrative that Russia will hack the Midterms in favor of the Democrats. The mood of the Far Right - even with them in control of the government - is still paranoid and on edge. The possibility of a violent response to a Democratic victory this November isn't a fantastic improbability.

3) For any old crazy reason, trump orders a halt to the Midterm elections.

One of the major steps in an Autocrat-Wannabe's efforts to achieve Full Dictator status is to suspend scheduled elections. trump could come up with any crazy and unproven excuse - such as his claim of Russians hacking into the 2018 elections to favor the Dems - and just before the November vote issue an Executive Order to the states to stop the vote because of "illegality."

This would have the effect of preserving - at the moment - Republican control of everything. It would also go against every democratic norm our nation's lived by since the American Revolution. We've NEVER suspended federal elections before, especially on this scale. Even in the middle of the Civil War - when 11 states were fighting to not even BE in the United States - the Union states still held Midterm elections in 1862 - which saw pro-Southern Democrats win gains in the House - and a Presidential election in 1864. Major wars like World War II, Korea, and Vietnam saw elections happening during them as well (with major party changes happening between Korea and Nam).

If trump tries to shut down the vote, there'd be a flurry of legal action, and then a possibility that only the Blue (Dem) States will hold them while the Red (GOP) States (especially the ones threatening to flip Blue) refuse to hold theirs. And then things would get messier from there. If trump succeeds in an effort to suspend elections, that may well be the trigger to start mass protests on a scale we haven't seen since the 1960s... with all the accompanying violence and tears we had those years coming back with a terrible vengeance.

None of these situations are appealing, all of these situations have a possibility of happening.

There is no calm, sane solution awaiting us here.

I would love to get a citation on the person who made this, I pulled it off Google Images

I'm starting to think the Mayans were off on their Apocalypse calendar by 4-5 years...