Trump so badly wants to be a fascist dictator.

Wilbur Ross is ****ing senile.

He's not commuting the sentences though. The article in the paper today says a new governor could proceed with these executions.

Still, this is a very bold move by him and it really only has political downsides. I'm sure people are firing up a recall effort right now. It could be that the balance is shifting and a referendum would turn against it, but Newsom is definitely leading here and not just following.

If When Newsom runs for President I won't forget this. It's not just about the DP. He has principles and he's acting on them.

If he loses in 2020, I don't think it's likely to be a normal/peaceful transfer of power. It's really scary to think about.

I'm skeptical of the whole "Trump will cling to power if he loses" story. How? Everything Trump has gotten away with is because of his Republican enablers. If he loses in 2020, are Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy going to support his claims of massive electoral fraud? Are federal police going to listen to Trump's orders to block the new president from moving in to the white house?

Trump is nothing without his enablers and I just don't see there being any institutional support for craziness like that.

Kinda all depends on what the Mueller report says. If it makes it clear the Republicans are corrupted by Russia, Cocaine Mitch might be on board with King Trump.

Given the vast respect for the law and norms shown by republicans to date this view has strong evidentiary support.

I still think he's too much of a pussy to actually try anything like using the military to stay in power. He's a big blowhard who likes to talk tough, but he's also the guy who needs his chief of staff to fire people because he's afraid to do it himself and who backs down and settles whenever he's really challenged in any legal fight. He doesn't have the stomach to do what it takes to be a real dictator in the face of any real opposition.

That said, I'm sure the Twitter gaslighting about how the election was stolen from him will be worse than anything we've seen so far and it is worrying to think about what kind of violence could spring up from some of his millions of loyal psychopaths out there when they convince themselves that socialists have stolen their country from them.

What will happen if Trump screams "VOTER FRAUD", particularly if he loses Wisconsin and Michigan (conveniently now under Democratic governors)?

I’m less worried about Trump not handing over power at all than I am about there being no one willing or able to hand over departments and files or explain how things work to the new team.

We'll be fortunate if they don't delete and destroy everything on the way out.

There is no way anyone under Trump is gonna bother with a transition, anyone new coming in will have to come in cold.

He couldn't hold his party together during the government shutdown. He can't hold together his party on his national emergency declaration. How the **** is he going to hold his party together to support him stealing an election?

It's his usual tactic of blustering with a maximalist position and then backing down in the end.

I think Trump is too lazy to really do this and I'm not sure he really wants it - like maybe he didn't want to be POTUS. He wants some applause, money, and to play golf. If it was a coup he wanted he's alienated the military leadership way too much. Also, to take over power he needs to very seriously share the wealth. Look at Putin - he's made people billionaires left and right. Trump has support in the right places, but it's too weak. He needs to have a lot of the right people thinking there's absolutely huge upside potential to supporting his coup. So, maybe a biker riot where the cops stand back and don't do anything to stop it is what he can muster.

WE MUST RUN REELECTION IN MICHIGAN

They are going to try all kinds of **** on the way out.

No doubt it'll be a huge cluster****, but as far as learning how things should work, I would hope any incoming transition team would be working as much as possible with Obama officials to restore previous norms rather than depending at all on the outgoing administration. It's not like they have to completely reinvent the wheel with no one knowing how the presidency works.

Trump will hand over power. He'll just completely trash all faith in our elections as he's doing it, and set the stage for a right-wing demagogue to seize power for good later on.

Come on death for me before that happens. One time baby.

His party doesn't seem interested in finding out what role Russia had in Trump's winning the 2016 election. Trump has laid the groundwork for claims of election rigging in 2020. I expect something nutty to happen if he loses. Either Republicans will sign on like they generally have so far, or they will respond appropriately when he goes off the rails. If there's one time when impeachment or 25th amendment is still possible, its that two month period between the election and the inauguration of a new president.

Who knows whether Trump will peacefully hand over power or not? I suspect if he has a slew of indictments waiting for him outside the gates of the White House, he’ll have massive incentive to do whatever it takes to avoid going to prison. At the very least he will destroy everything imagineable trying to win the next election.

Senate votes to block emergency declaration 59-42

12 Republicans vote Yes:
Lamar Alexander
Roy Blunt
Susan Collins
Mike Lee
Jerry Moran
Lisa Murkowski
Rand Paul
Rob Portman
Mitt Romney
Marco Rubio
Patrick Toomey
Roger Wicker

Cory Gardner just giving up on being re-elected?

( twitter | raw text )

Looks like "the democrats might use this power for good" carried the day.

LOL BEN SASSE



0% chance his butt buddy Jake Tapper brings this up on his show.

I DECLARE VETO