Clyde_Style wrote:thebuzzardman wrote:I don't think Trump and Giuliani are specifically blindsided by McGahn.
I agree Trump is a pretty stupid individual.
But like all grifters and con men, he's good at having a finger on the pulse of who he is going to con. He also has profited and made a career and a lot of money of by knowing where the seams are in the law and when you can use money and power to intimidate and get away with things/make things happen.
(I know I'm opinionating here - I can back these statements up if need be)
As has been covered in here and in numerous news sites, Trump/Rudy G are banking on the fact that Mueller will present his findings to Congress and they figure after that, it's a "popularity contest" so Trump's efforts are into sowing doubt/discrediting the investigation and figuring that if the Republicans hold a majority, he'll skate. Sure, people will go to jail and he'll take some knocks, but I'm guessing he figures he'll survive it and be able to weather the storm by going on tweet storms along with the Fox News propaganda organ blaring full blast, he'll maintain his base. Since the Republican party has not shown any inclination to stand up to Trump and would rather just hold office and power, Trump figures (possibly correctly) he'll be able to bombast and brass his way out of it, like he has all of his adult life.
Now, I understand the arguments why this may not be so, but there's a certain logic to the Trump/Rudy playbook, but more to the point, I think THEY think this is a good approach.
Unless Trump winds up in jail, this is also possible hedging towards a post presidential career, either where he resigns or makes it until the next election and (if) he isn't re-elected, where he can proceed to profit over people's political divisions by running with something that splits the difference of Breitbart and Alex Jones and Trump can be the face of the "resistance"
Won't work
A house majority will unleash a fury of congressional committees that will make the Benghazi fraud look like a picnic. Those kinds of investigations result in hearings and the kinds of public disclosures the special counsel doesn't engage in. And those committees would obviously coordinate with Mueller so as to only reveal what Mueller has not yet acted upon just as the Senate Intelligence Committee has been doing due to the rare cooperation of GOP Senator Burr who has not played along with the rest of the GOP.
So post November mid-terms, it will get many times more brutal for Trump than it already is and we're only in the early stages of disclosure from Mueller's investigation which will ramp up another notch next month with Manafort's 2nd trial for conspiracy against the U.S.
If somehow Trump were still a free man in 2021 he will likely have been cut off from his credit lines as he will have little further use to Russia and he will be suffering from a combination of loan defaults and seizure of assets by state authorities.
The disgrace he will have undergone means any late career move into TV demagogery will have a limited remaining audience. It may put food on the table, but it will be very fringe if he thinks he can remain at the center of some Trump TV organization as its leading personality due to his obvious cognitive decline.
Trump's future is pretty bleak and there will be no soft landings for him no matter what is being cooked up by the addled minds of whatever he calls his brain trust.
And unless he is ousted via impeachment or resigns or croaks, I do expect indictments. I haven't gone by the MSM playbook so far and I see no reason to now. The larger media companies have repeatedly crapped the bed and they rarely connect the dots particularly well.
Most of my point is what I think they think.
I "think" they are banking on it being political. That's the only thing that makes sense.
The rest of your situation seems incumbent on the Democrats achieving a majority. Maybe. Possibly. This country has been voting strongly republican for a while now. Let's see. I don't have much faith in the people to see this situation for what it is. If it is a "majority" that decides to show the republicans the door, it will be close. We'll see.
I get a lot of your point, 99% of them. I know the mainstream media has been off. However, a lot of norms have been crossed by Trump, the GOP, the DC establishment in general, and frankly, what the people of the USA are willing to put up with.
In fact, I'm not sure how norm, or how good a norm normal is in this country. On the one hand, we have a decent rule of law etc. On the other hand, there's a deep authoritarian stain in the country and a real comfort in using the actual law to abuse the sh*t out of various groups and individuals. So, not feeling the whole "omg, norms are being abused" articles I read.
I'm not skeptical of your analysis. I'm skeptical of where the mentality of a large number of citizens is at.
It's a TOWN HALL!
