Tag: Trump

V-Log: Negative Polarization And The Continued Support Of Military People For Trump

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Some thoughts.

V-Log: Trump & Russia — The Ultimate Deluxe Theory

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

What if Trump was a Russian plant from the beginning?

V-Log: A Clueless American Talks Brexit & Trump’s Ultimate Fate

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Just some idle rambling about the connection between Brexit and Trump.

V-Log: The Trump Endgame — State of Play For Jan. 12, 2019

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Now what.

Trump Endgame: State Of Play

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

It seems to me that a lot of political observers mistake the near-constant state of chaos during the Trump Administration as a sign that THE crisis we’ve all been hoping for and expecting is just around the corner.

I’m of a mixed opinion on that.

My back-of-the-envelope speculation is we’re going to know pretty soon if they’re right or not. Either this all ends by the end of 2019, or the talk about his political demise will simply bleed into the eventual and inevitable discussion about him grooming a younger, more focused protege who will guide his “legacy” for the next four to eight years after 2025.

At this point, I honestly don’t know which direction it’s going.

Right now, I’m tentatively in the latter camp. Trump is the avatar for some pretty significant demographic and economic macro trends in America society and while he’s an incompetent, deranged president, there simply isn’t the political will to unite to get rid of him in any manner other than simply waiting for him to end his second term.

So, what I’m saying is, we’re hurdling towards a point where our desire to get rid of Trump is equal to our inability to unite the political world enough to actually do it. He has a nice economy, a sold 40% of the population is pleased with this performance and, well, there you go.

There’s always the chance that the economy might falter, but there’s also the chance of a major terrorist attack of war that would make Trump a “hero” enough to stick around for as long as he possibly can. Add to this that the Democrats are playing by the “old rules” that are, like, fact based and stuff, while MAGA is playing by the “new rules” that are based on avarice for power.

So, we wait. We wait for Mueller to release his report, Trump to fight its release, it go to SCOTUS…and….I don’t know. It could be blocked 5-4 and we simply suffer for the next six years, or it’s released and…away we go.

But we honestly don’t know what will be in the report or if he’ll even file a formal one.

The point is — unless something jaw dropping happens pretty soon, Trump ain’t goin nowhere.

V-Log: 2019 Is Going To Be Lit

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Just some idle rambling about Trump’s fate going into 2019.

The Trump Endgame

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

As of late 2018, here’s what I think the Trump endgame is going to be — Trump will ultimately fall back on the Nixon legal theory that “the president can’t obstruct justice” and that, as they say, will be that. He’ll also move the goal posts when it comes to Russian collusion / conspiracy to such an extent that that, too, will be mooted.

While all of this is going on, Trump will feel MAGA a daily dose of conflation, confusion, muddling the waters and general demagogic mindfucking. Ultimately, things will be so warped that by 2024, Trump will be as unpopular as ever, but he’ll use his Hitler-like charm with the volk to pick some young, ideological asshole across the finish line and it’ll be THAT guy who does the REAL damage for any number of reasons.

Having said all that, let’s look at the idea that Trump would go full Nixon. One thing, just from casual, passive observation of FOX News I see through my Twitter feed, is that the idea that Trump would do the most Trumpian thing ever and appoint his own special prosecutor to look into UraniumOne seems, at this point, almost a foregone conclusion. I could see Trump appointing such a special prosecutor and offering the Democratic House the following deal: I get to fire Mueller in exchange for getting rid of my insane UraniumOne prosecutor. I see that as something that might happen between now and January 1st. It would be just like Trump to do something that insane while everyone was relaxing on, say, Christmas.

So, if Trump goes full Nixon, he probably will survive. What Trump lacks that Nixon had is honor, so I could totally see Trump appointing his own special prosecutor, and saying that as president he can’t commit obstruction of justice. Any order on the part of SCOTUS for him to testify he ignores and wallow in a staggering Constitutional Crisis for the next six or so years. Trump really doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself and the idea of tearing the country apart in such a manner wouldn’t phase him one bit.

Something really, really bad would have to happen politically — or economically — for Trump to come anywhere near being forced out of office any time soon. I’m not even sure the Democrats have the guts to impeach Trump right now. So, in the end, we might have Trump dead to rights to any number of pretty staggering political crimes and…nothing happens.

Thus, in a way, Trump would be a lot like Reagan after Iran-contra. He’d just kind of drift through office, being a dick and after he’s out of office, the center of gravity in the Republican Party shifts to the right in a mindboggling way and 20 years from now Republicans will talk about Trump the way they used to talk about Reagan.

The 3 Things That May Force Trump Out Of Office In 2019

At this point, my expectations are so low when it comes to Trump ever actually being forced out of office for any reason other than the fact that he can’t run for a third term that this is just me idly daydreaming. — Shelton Bumgarner

No Deal Brexit
If I was a betting man, No Deal Brexit is probably the one I would lay money down on. I say this because really, 20% to 30% of Trump’s popularity comes from the strong American economy. If No Deal Brexit happens and is as bad as we all fear, the global economy could come to a screeching halt and with it Donald Trump’s presidency. Not only would “rich MAGA” leave Trump, but a lot of ignorant poor MAGA would too. They would do the “Pence Pivot” on a dime and we’d all be arguing over how much Pence hates gay people, not Trump’s many, many, many crimes. Of all the ways Trump leaves office, this is by far the most likely. I say this because No Deal Brexit seems like it might actually happen.

Proof Of Trump Being A Russian Agent
This one is pretty much just a liberal fever dream. While it’s pretty much self-evident at this point that Putin and Trump have a lot more than a simple bromance going on, how we would actually get _proof_ that Trump is a Russian agent is beyond me. But it would have to be nearly the Constitutional definition of treason for this to happen. Anything less and Trump and his cronies could spin it in any number of different ways and we’d just muddle through like we always do.

A Huge Jeffery Epstein Revelation
Again, this one would poses a real risk to Trump, but it’s extremely unlikely. While the Epstein affair is sordid and horrible and a travesty of justice….I just don’t see what I want to have happen — Trump’s close relationship to Epstein be shown to be much more proactive than we understand it be now — simply isn’t going to happen. Trump was close to the guy, but as of right now it doesn’t appear that he was THAT close to him.

So, I honestly don’t see anything happening to Trump. He’s a mad, tyrannical king for the time being.

The Odd Case of Jeffrey Epstein, #MeToo & Donald J. Trump

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I’m no expert on this situation. In fact, in real terms, I barely know what’s going on. But I do know that there is credible evidence linking skeezy billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and Donald J. Trump, 45th president of the United States. Trump has, in the past, called Epstein something like his “best friend.” And there’s enough evidence floating out there publicly to indicate that Trump is, in fact, some way connected to Epstein and his sinister flying pleasure mobile.

I only bring this up beyond the obvious icky nature of it all because the only thing that brought down Italy’s Trump, Silvio Berlusconi, is, well, an underage prostitution ring. So, in a sense, I guess what I’m saying is we should seriously look into Trump’s involvement in the Epstein affair, no matter where it takes us.

Bill Clinton was also a member of the murky sinister world that Epstein was involved in and if he happens to get wrapped up in whatever criminal proceedings occur while we go after Trump, so be it. I honestly don’t fucking care. As I’ve said for 3 years now, Trump’s an existential threat to the American Republic and we have to figure out a way to bring that fucker down politically.

It’s just odd that this story hasn’t gotten more publicity. The Epstein case is like the motherload of all potential targets for the #MeToo movement. And, yet, it continues to be hidden in the shadows and the fact that Trump is / was really tight with Epstein — or at least was about the time he was committing his heinous crimes should be enough for us to take a second or third look at what, exactly, happened.

Will anything come of this? Probably not. The men involved are simply too powerful and they’ve already shown that they can bend justice to their will, so I don’t honestly see anything different happening going forward.

It’s a tragedy, however.