Are using Peggy Noonan's characterization of Trump as "weak and sniveling" - I have been waiting for Trump to explode over this!

Behind a paywall:

trashes #IMPOTUS, these actions indicate a worrisome crack is weakening our democracy. No government can endure a leader is as venal and incompetent as Trump, but these passive aggressive acts by Republicans aren't the solution. Our Constitution only allows one option to safeguard the government from a failed president; Impeachment. The current GOP controlled government remains enthralled to Trump and too frightened of their gerrymandered base to even whisper the word in public.

It's all a mini-echo of what happened after the fall of the Soviet Union -- strong men with training and knowledge grabbed everything they could, creating mini-fiefdoms that now rule that nation.

Yes, a little bit of bad karma for us -- perhaps we should not have danced about with such glee when their nation dissolved.

It can only be used as an accusation of wrongdoing. "Acting like a jerk" does not fall under the rubric of "high crimes and misdemeanors." Using his office to enrich himself does, but that might invite closer scrutiny of many of the Republicans voting for an impeachment--scrutiny I'm sure many of them would prefer to avoid.

If articles of impeachment are drafted, and IF a credible accusation of crimes committed in office can be formulated, I'm sure that the House would stand a decent chance of voting for impeachment. The Senate might even go for removal from office. All they need would need would be for all Democrats and 20 out of the 52 Republicans to vote for removal from office, and it's a done deal. Trouble is, Pence, if not also accused of of misdeeds while in office, gets sworn in that afternoon.

So, what's worse, a Republican George of the Jungle with all the innocence of Snideley Whiplash, or a Republican Ayatollah taking his place?

There's a lot of preliminary work that needs to be done long before Congress is going to get cracking on removing this nincompoop from office. There seems to be ample evidence for claims of obstruction of justice and abuse of power (two of the counts the House was drawing up against Nixon 43 summers ago). What needs to happen at this point is rallying public support for impeachment, which is a political process, not a criminal process. A District Attorney can indict the most popular man in town for a crime if he has evidence; impeaching the president first requires eroding his public support.

The Republicans in Congress will have to be convinced they're in danger of losing their majorities before they'll take action. They will have to actually lose their majorities if Congress is going to impeach Trump. But the necessary ground work should be done now.

Bear in mind also, that apparently we are now being governed by people who have never run for office, have not been elected, and are answerable only to the President they are simply ignoring. That's a pretty frightening thing for Democracy.

And when you get a bunch of military men who are suddenly ignoring their CIC and instead issuing orders to their CIC, that, boys and girls, is called a coup.

his weight sure it growing and growing.

... didn't know how I'd feel. At least with people attending to Trump, we could be pretty sure none of their agenda would get accomplished, since he swings back and forth like a.... like a..... Oh, drat. Like a swing!

Potus hires and guides and oversees. One person does not run our government agencies. That's not possible. But if there are dozens of captains, the ship has no heading, and never arrives anywhere.

Add to this the fact that so much staff was never appointed, and that it's a revolving door, and really, things are really dysfunctional.

Not good for us, or anyone. His voters wanted a shake up. This is just chaos, arson, fraud, larceny, and any other felonious damage imaginable. We like to laugh at little hands, but there's nothing funny about a superpower run amok.

They are just waiting for Mueller to finish his investigation. I'm guessing early 2018.

working around the problem president.

That creates a power vacuum that someone will step in to fill and there will be strife. I know, I know - it already is rife with strife. So we'll get more. Yay, us!

I know it's Trump and I know he's horrible - but I'd rather he were tossed from office than have a de facto president.

It's like trying to operate around the cancer instead of removing the tumor itself.

The cancer remains and it will spread.

All I'm really saying is - this - all of it from Nov. until now - is very ugly and very dangerous.

And it's getting uglier and more dangerous.

The republicans, as the majority party, refuse to act and it will only get worse.

Trump might speak of the GOP as separate from him but Trump and everything he does is squarely on the GOP.

What is going on now is like some strange hybrid folktale that's a combination of "the boy who cried Wolf" and "the emperor has no clothes".

Over the months it has become abundantly clear that you can't take seriously anything this man says. He'll lie about the most trivial things. He spent so much time planning himself on the back it's amazing that both the shoulders are dislocated. He absolutely fits with what the Republican Party has been doing for 40 years or more – – they just make up shit that supports whatever position they want to take at the time. Trump just does it more
obviously.

It is a testament to the stupidity of the American public that the Republicans have gotten away with it all these decades. But I think, as they say, the chickens maybe coming home to roost. Trump has managed to underscore that much of what is being said is just purely lies.

Could we be waking up from our fever dream where cutting taxes leads to such incredible economic growth that the deficit shrinks, where armies of the damned mass just south of Harlingen, and whites will resume their thrones to lord over the poor browns.

Few are buying the bullshit any longer. Even the Republicans seem to be waking up to the horrifying conclusion that they actually have to govern and that Trump is just a distraction. He is just going to keep on tweeting and every month or so he'll have a rally to refill his deflating ego.

I think some of them are beginning to hope that he just goes away.

then 911 happened.
But he somehow managed to screw up his popularity again.
So I can't help but think the Coupster is banking on a war.

Link to tweet

Three years before Ludwig van Beethoven shook his great fist at the thunder & lightning raging outside his window and fell back dead on his bed, his Ninth (last) Symphony was given its first performance in Vienna. Beethoven, a homely, dumpy, shaggy-headed little figure, stood in the orchestra, eyes fixed on his score, awkwardly beating time. He was not the official conductor. The players had been instructed to pay him no attention. He was so deaf by that time that he could hear nothing of the great, surging music called for by the pinny, almost illegible little notes he had made...

At first I thought the subject read, "...Incredible Shirking President"