it's shocking to me that the Republicans in Congress haven't signaled by now. The smock around this fire has been overwhelming for a long time now.

Most of them aren't too bright, either.

trying to save their own careers, lifestyle and/or freedom. Their hope is that there are enough uninformed, misguided and deplorable voters to save them ultimately. But the noose is tightening. Some are bailing while they can, eg Paul Ryan, while others are in too deep like McConnell. The latter have no choice but to fight it every step of the way.

Well played ma'am, well played.

Even though I generally disagree with the Republican agenda, I think you could point to some Republicans in the past who at least thought they were doing both.

Now being in Congress is just a foothold to being a lobbyist, or news "analyst", or helping out business cronies, and as far as the lower-income or lower-educated people who support them, they're just useful tools when wedge issues come along.

This is greed, pure and simple.

That way they can keep their base and get rid of the hated Trump monster at the same time.

But they seem to be still goose stepping with twitler.

. . .when 2 things actually occur:
1) The realization that the dems are in charge kicks in
2) The tenor change when those dolts in the Freedumb Caucus become marginalized toward extinction and nobody listens to them anymore.

The obeisance to PINO may greatly moderate at that point.

What a nice thought those idiots no longer have any say...

I had dinner with my maga sister yesterday, and she was practically in tears when saying that she thinks the investigations are rooted in hate and of no consequence. What about Hillary, etc.

investigations into Hillary’s emails would be rooted in hate? I bet not. Hypocrisy is hard for most people to see.

But told me that Hillary paid off women, like trump.

I could never get her to see how the birther thing was racist.

That Hilary’s been investigated time and again, and always cleared of suspicion. You just can’t explain that to a MAGA.

It's not like he's actually getting anything done legislatively. I guess low gas prices help.
Who except the koolaid drinkers would actually think he's doing a "good job"?

I keep waiting for this to start chipping away as the non-Gopers decide he's too big a jerk, and then the conventional GOPers, the ones who voted for Rubio, start thinking he's too much trouble. At some point surely they'll start thinking one of the other guys would be better in 2020?

But we just have to keep being reminded that 44% of our fellow Americans are stupid or nasty or both.

...and those who aren't nasty are extremely stupid.

Their actual self-worth and internal identities are tied to Trump at this point. They have bought into politics as a zero-sum game and they cannot abide "losing" to the "libtards" no matter how much actual pain and damage is caused by shit gibbon and the minions.

I do not think the dead-enders will EVER be reached...just like those who to this day swear Nixon was screwed in Watergate, there will be Trump defenders even into the climate apocalypse...

and his approval rating will drop to around 30% and I think he would be forced out.

In general as long as the economy is good and they can have their sports entertainment they are happy. I predict his numbers will fall after football season. I had a someone tell me that they finally got a job after Trump was elected and that's the only thing they can go by. Sad, but typical, and it applies especially to the bottom of the economic barrel who are always on the edge in fear of losing the very little they have. Let the economy falter a little and they are gone. Presidents always het the blame or the credit for the economy even though they have very little to do with it. Remember, we political junkies are a minority and to win elections we need to get some of the apathetic to vote, but we only need a majority (plus a little to counter skulldeggery). Trying to get all the votes is not worth selling your soul for. Look at Nixon. Right now I am very happy that we have at least control of the house and see great potential for 2020. As usual Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida will be the battleground and at least 2 out of the 3 are looking great.

Maria talks on Friday, we could be lucky and a whole bunch of republicans could decide to quit to spend more time with their families. Might find some journalists too.

On the Clinton Family Foundation

It's the endless GOP investigations last hurrah.

Benghazzzz: House GOP Says Goodbye To Its Never-Ending Clinton Investigations
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016221783

Oh and the US Attorney that the QAnon marks were sooo convinced had all the details isn't going to be there.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016221786

...Kasich.

and maybe Nikki Haley to try to get back women.

it became public in order to distance herself from trump. And then just this week it came out that while still UN Ambassador she admitted she would use trump's excesses as negotiating tools with other diplomats—meaning if they didn't play along it would get worst.

I don't think it will work as she stayed at the trump party too long.

left that meeting ashen-faced and shocked. And I believe Feinstein and Waters predicted impeachment. Wonder how much of what we now know in the public realm was part of that briefing. They probably heard more.

A lot of what people are talking about now has been discoverable since 2017...Abramson has been talking about all of this, including the middle east connection, for a long while. So perhaps the briefed congresspersons heard more.

I'm amazed none of them have leaked details...since this goes to national security, democratic integrity, global dynamics, etc..

where it seemed like it would never happen then it does suddenly. It works like that a lot it seems—Watergate, the end of the Vietnam war (people clinging to helicopters), the collapse of the Berlin wall and the USSR, and now trump's denouement.

Without parameters, "suddenly" doesn't have that much meaning.

But I'm sure if you turn out to be wrong about suddenly that you will certainly admit your mistake.

And two years later, here he still is.

I’m going to stand by my original prediction I made on January 20th. Donald Trump will leave kffice January 2021, after losing reeelection and not a day sooner. So far, I haven’t been wrong.

and that's to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

I don't think he's going anywhere.

People keep saying he will resign. But he's not Nixon. We can't count on "history to repeat itself". Trump will never quit. He does not have the humility.

Thing is, I thought that might happen before the midterm elections. Once it became clear that they'd lose the house and possibly the senate, Republicans would try to get rid of the Orange One in an effort to minimize the damage.

The problem is Trump's base. It's a minority, but it's a large enough minority that Republicans often can't win primaries without it. That puts them in a catch-22 - they can't get to the general election without embracing Trump, but can't win the general election if they do.

Its the malignant narcissist's way.

He can't even find someone to take the Chief of Staff job. Soon Mueller is going to indict dozens of people in and outside the Whitehouse. Trumps children are in danger of being indicted.

The House is going to subpoena all the Whitehouse staff who lied to them. They will either come clean or they will go to prison. Cabinet members will be subpoenaed. Some of them will go to prison.

Trump will do what he has done his entire life when he knows he can't win. He will quit and attempt to make a deal.

Without one, he faces prosecution as soon as he leaves the White House, whether he goes voluntarily or involuntarily. He cannot count on a pardon. Aside from successfully proclaiming himself President For Life, he has no where to turn.

it must include forfeiture of his ill gotten money, money he received in violation of the emoluments clause, money he got from his golf outings to Mar-el-Loco. He needs to pay back taxes where he cheated, needs to pay big fines where he laundered money. In other words, I can go along with a deal for his resignation as long as we bankrupt the sob and his crime family.

he can go hang himself with his belt.

I'd take that too.

the stage will be set for this all to happen again in the future. We are where we are right now because Nixon did not die in prison.

Has he EVER backed down?

Ever?

Has he done anything remotely like this since he came up the escalator?

He will do what he does, try to bully his way through it.

FURTHER, the only thing keeping him from the law is being POTUS, and to protect his spawn and SIL - the power of the pardon.

He will continue to keep the 40% zombie base, because the more wrong they are, the more they dig their heels in, so if you think they will move past "he is taking on the machine" lunacy, that isn't happening.

AND, he will lord over them and keep them in a froth, and elected GOP officials will continue to do nothing or defend him because a lot of them are sick as he is and think the way he does, and those that don't fear his base INFINITELY more than any level of decency or ethics that may exist in what little bit of soul they have.

He will run again, and it will be a complete shit fest.

If he loses, it is going to get surreal with some kind of OJ like fleeing to Russia, or ugly along the lines of the final scene of Scarface.

He has barely gotten by these past 2 years with Nunes and McConnell and the crew covering his fat ass. He has not a clue what he is in store for come January. He is not strong enough to handle it. He may very well keep his Freedumb caucus in the House because they reside in gerrymandered districts but he is going to lose people in the Senate, people who get elected state wide.

He will not make it to the next election. We have only seen a fraction of what Mueller has on Trump. Republican Senators are going to have to decide between a traitor and democracy. There will be enough Republicans in the Senate to convict Trump in impeachment. Trump had better start dealing now. I see cracks in the corporate controlled right wing M$M. If the M$M starts reporting the truth, if the right wing narrative changes, just that will bring Trump down, mentally and physically.

I look for Trump to have a nervous breakdown in the coming months. I can feel a shift in the force, it's only going to get worse for Trump and his complicit enablers.

Yes, he is not a "tough" guy.

But, this "not a tough guy" bullied his way into being POTUS, and every step of the way people here have said he was going to drop out before the nomination, after the nomination, after he got elected, his first year ...

End of the day the math is the math.

He wants the job to advance his and his scumbag families interests, he wants the job because he likes everyone having to kiss his ass, he likes going to his rallies and having the pods cheer him on, and he NEEDS the job to protect him and his family.

Why on earth people think someone who needs his position to avoid being indicated, and to pardon his kids and Jared defies reality.

he has been able to get away with his shit for the same reason racists who kill innocent black people have been able to get away with it.

Not disputing what you said. Some, maybe enough, Republicans will turn against Trump. But, I'll believe it when I see it.

Remember this, the Senate and House covered for him for 2 years. When Trump wanted to put out propaganda he did a hate fest and the M$M followed him, writing about his every hateful word.

Come January Trump is going to face something he didn't have to face, a Democratic House, with a tough as nails Speaker. Trump can still call his press conference and spread his hate and the M$M will run to cover him, but now, Nancy Pelosi can also call a press conference to counter Trump's hate and the M$M will also flock to cover her.

The emperor has no clothes and Mueller, Pelosi, Schiff, Nadler and all the rest, are going to expose Trump. What could be worse for a narcissist than to be humiliated? Have faith, it's coming. Trump is not a strong person, his fixers are cooperating with law enforcement. He soon will only be left with a handful of protectors, his family.

...starts with a drip. We've seen the drips turn into drops and soon the waterfall will come.
The absurd theater of Whitewater took over four years, and those allegations were nothing compared to this investigation.
Mueller has to untangle years and years of financial flim-flams and lies. I believe that Mueller is indicting as he goes along.
Clearly Mueller is approaching the stinking head of the fish.
Mueller may indeed be biding his time for the January swear-in of the new Congress, but the Senate will still hold the last word. Faced with insurmountably evidence of multiple crimes, the Senate can either dig in and possibly provoke a civil uprising, or they can do the right thing and impeach.
The big issue that I see is the final report. What happens then? What if Mueller releases what certainly appears to be an overwhelming indictment of guilt by the IPOTUS? Does the DOJ circle the WH? Do we back up the wagons at the front door? What about the offspring - are they detained?
Whatever the outcome, we are in for an unprecedented event for our country. Buckle up, indeed.

Wait till they are released, its hard to lie about recordings.

According to a report I read this morning, Butina has most likely been the subject of Federal wiretaps throughout her residency in the US. She was not registered as a foreign agent and, therefore, she never had any kind of diplomatic immunity. The person who was saying this indicated that if this is the case, any person she did business with is likely captured in those surveillance wiretaps/monitoring, so that could roll up a fair number of people within congress in addition to the people within the NRA, among others who have benefitted from Russian money.

He wont resign.

either of himself or his kids.

He thinks he is so all-powerful, though (like God), that it would take really having the goods on him to convince him that prosecution & prison are going to happen. That's another problem with arrogant narcissists with ego disorders. They think they are so smart and crafty that they can get out of anything. So there will have to be real, damning evidence. In that case, his kids may "convince" him to make a deal.

I wonder if Cohen would have been investigated were it not for Stormy Daniels?

It is really impossible to keep up with all of them. Possibly that is the point?

...he certainly puts the Senate at risk, though netting 4 seats is not a given for us. And they could lose even more ground in the House.

The party, as a whole, may choose to suffer short-term losses rather than risk alienating the base. But individual Republicans at risk of losing their seats will have to decide whether distancing themselves from Trump is the way to go.

We may reach a tipping point with regards to Trump, but I'm not sure I'd say his departure will be sudden. The case against him has been mounting for quite a while.

The Republican Party will more than likely lose the White House. Without Trump on the ballot, that's pretty much a guarantee.

Trumps Whitehouse is falling apart. Cabinet members are resigning and he can't replace them. He can't find anybody who is legit to take their places. Complete dysfunction is now in place. Trump cannot survive much longer.

The Wheel of Justice grinds slow but exceedingly fine.

I believe that's what happened with Nixon. After the tapes came out he suddenly resigned. Mueller has lots of tapes.