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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCharles P. Pierce: The Mueller Bombshell Proves Republicans Are Running Out of Time
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a15893218/trump-fire-mueller-russia/The Mueller Bombshell Proves Republicans Are Running Out of Time
History will not be kind to Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and others who stand by idly.
By Charles P. Pierce
Jan 26, 2018
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1902.
So, if I read the state of play correctly, special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the president* and the president*s administration* for obstruction of justice, and Mueller has been running this investigation for seven months knowing that the president* came within an ace of firing him last June for the purposes of, ah, obstructing justice. Hes had this information in his back pocket every time a member of the administration* came before him under oath. Ive never been a criminal defendant charged with obstruction of justice, but this seems to me to be a bad situation for an obstructor of justice to be in.
The major scoop in The New York Times that has shaken up the world can be read in a number of different ways that all lead to the same conclusion. Right from jump, the president* has been scared right down to his silk boxers of what Mueller would discover regarding his campaigns connections to Russian ratfcking and regarding his business connections to freshly laundered Russian cash. This conclusion does not change even if you think that White House counsel Don McGahn leaked this story to make himself the hero or to cover his own ass. This conclusion does not change even if you think the ratlines off the listing hulk of this administration are thick with fleeing rodents. This whole thing remains a product of the president*s guilty mind.
(And the story did shake up the world. The president* went before a gathering in Davos on Friday and began raving about fake news and the perfidy of the American media. He got booed. Many cats were called. No shoes were thrown, but George W. Bush set a pretty high bar there.)
The story does explain the curious frenzy over the last week: the president*s saying that hes looking forward to a chat with Mueller, and that he might even deign to have the chat under oath; the apparent rush to present the Congress with a half-baked compromise plan on immigration that has no chance of passing the House of Representatives; and the fact that the president* took every member of his inner circle except his wife to Switzerland. I suspect those folks heard the baying of the hound even before Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman did. More ominous is the possibility that McGahnor whomeverleaked this story because the president* is thinking about firing Mueller now, or in the near future, and whoever the leaker was understands very well what a monumental calamity that would be for all concerned.
You would think that we would see the wheels turning now. You would think that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell would find some slivers of patriotism between the cushions of their sofas and step up to fulfill the constitutional obligations of their respective offices. There is a genuine crisis on their doorsteps right now, and, next week, the president* is supposed to give his State of the Union address, and god alone knows what hes going to say. They have not moved. They have given no indication that they will move. History will brand them as cowards and as traitors to the countrys best ideals. Historys not going to be kind to a lot of people who are living through these insane times.
pbmus
(12,422 posts)not fooled
(5,801 posts)Are those mountains in Switzerland?
BobTheSubgenius
(11,564 posts)They haven't had locomotives like in Europe that since WW2.
Whatthe_Firetruck
(558 posts)I believe that's a scene from Back to the Future 3, filmed with a scale model train in California.
kimmylavin
(2,284 posts)I think that's the train crash from Back to the Future III?
alterfurz
(2,474 posts)Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,771 posts)causing history to brand them cowards and traitors to the countrys best ideals because it already has.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)in their jail cells.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,771 posts)and seldom seems to come to the powerful, but I'm still holding out some hope. I don't like to see people suffer, but for all the suffering they cause others, it's what they deserve.
Abouttime
(675 posts)There will be tribunals, there will be a truth and reconciliation process. This is the equivalent of a civil war. We will win without a shot fired I bet but it doesnt mean that the opposition, the traitors, the treasonous bastards must not be totally ruined.
We must destroy them and all that follow them to prevent this from ever happening again.
The way it sits now thousands, maybe tens of thousands are guilty and must go away. I am talking the entire apparatus of the Republican Party, right down to the local level, because they are all guilty of conspiring to steal a Presidential election.
Now, once tRump is removed if they decide to take up arms, then were looking at possibly hundreds of thousands of tRump supporters rounded up and sent away.
Unfortunately we are in the middle of a constitutional and civic crisis, its a civil war, the shooting just hasnt started yet.
The_REAL_Ecumenist
(728 posts)GAOL will be a a kindness. THEY ARE TREASONOUS F#CKS!!
DownriverDem
(6,230 posts)they are part of those repubs who are trying to bring the end times. If so, they don't give a damn about how they look or what they aren't doing.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,771 posts)Trump is president. All bets are off.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Faux pas
(14,687 posts)diane in sf
(3,917 posts)Amaryllis
(9,525 posts)erronis
(15,324 posts)While most of the public face of this administration and congress seem like 4th grade imbeciles (and consequentially bullies), they may not know about the plans to "rescue" the US from the grips of supposed representative democracy.
The icing on the cake of "America" hides a growing infestation of internal corruption and infecting agents.
It is fixable, but first remove all the icing - all the platitudes about "melting pot" or "the land of milk and honey." First expose all of the faults, crimes, warts, misogyny, slavery, cowardice, incestuousness. Make every person, every family, every town, politician, official come clean. Not for punishment or justice, just for acknowledgment of our joint humanity.
BobTheSubgenius
(11,564 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)mcar
(42,366 posts)Well said!
Hekate
(90,769 posts)Coming back later.
gademocrat7
(10,665 posts)Excellent article.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,027 posts)mnhtnbb
(31,399 posts)to absorb all the shit he produces.
dchill
(38,516 posts)lindysalsagal
(20,718 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)HenryWallace
(332 posts)Sorry Charlie, until we figure out how to win elections these guys get to write history.
This article could have just as easily have been about these guys watching "W" lead us into a make-believe war.....
Pluvious
(4,314 posts)IIRC that occurrence was in Iraq, a country he caused to be leveled.
I'd think if Donnie Two-scoops were to give a speech in a Puerto Rico, I'm sure he'd be dodging more than just a few shoes !!!
DoctorJoJo
(1,134 posts).... after all, if both The Orange Buffoon and his pitiful sidekick, Pensive, are disposed, he becomes President Ryan. And then he can begin his ultimate wet dream--ending Medicare and Social Security. Good luck with those vouchers!!
Response to babylonsister (Original post)
OnyxSharpie This message was self-deleted by its author.
Perseus
(4,341 posts)To continue to think that they care about what history will say about them, that they have an ounce of patriotism in them is a waste of time.
People like the man-child, Ryan, McConnell, and many others have no sense of consequence and because of that they cannot care less about history not being kind to them. If they had a grain of care in their souls they would at least think about the world they are leaving for their kids, about the horrible future their kids will also endure, but because they don't think ahead, consequences don't exist for them, they just move forward with their evil agenda.
I have to think that some writers use those lines "History will not be kind to them, etc." to try to get some reaction form them, but they really don't care, anyone who expects them to react as a patriot would, is loosing their time. We have to come to terms that the criminal mind woks in different ways. A murderer will go to a pub to meet his/her friends to drink a few beers right after committing a crime, as if nothing had happened, and that is the way these republican crooks act. The live in "the now", they don't think ahead, the don't even care if some of the people they are hurting live under the same roof as the do.
So please, stop with the "History blah, blah, blah", they don't care, they really don't.
malthaussen
(17,215 posts)Try as I may, I cannot see why the current bombshell-du-jour is anything other than the usual damp squib. Everyone knows Mr Trump wanted to fire Mr Mueller, everyone knows he wants to obstruct justice, and the current revelation provides no proof with which to hang him. It might serve to demonstrate intent, but I reckon Mr Mueller has lots of goodies that can do that. What makes this demonstration of intent more glaring or significant than all the others?
-- Mal
Hayduke Bomgarte
(1,965 posts)No... I wouldn't. They could neither spell nor define patriotism.