Here's the logic: There will be no general election in 2020.

[Eyeball_Kid]

So far, Trumpy has been able to block all avenues to the public disclosure that Trumpy is a traitor, a Russian agent, a criminal, a financial fraudster, and a sociopath. His motivation is that he will not lose. He'll win every battle, every fight. That's the ultimate "brand". Always a winner.

Trumpy's actions thus far show that he will fight tooth and nail to keep his brand as he wants it. He'll not only defy subpeonaes, he'll defy court orders and court judgements. If the Supreme Court votes in favor of separation of powers, Trumpy will defy the Supreme Court. If Congress impeaches and the Senate convicts, Trumpy will refuse to relinquish power. He will. If the election goes against him, he'll not only commit election fraud, but vote fraud as well. And if that doesn't work, he'll declare a national emergency because the elections are rigged, and he'll declare that the elections are null and void. He'll go the full circuit. He'll tell his followers to take to the streets to prevent a coup. But that can get really messy. Rather than risk a loss, Trumpy will simply nullify the election.

In short, the only logical sequence available for Trumpy is to act like a Dictator. That's what he's doing right now. He'll not only ignore Congress, but he'll also ignore the Judicial Branch. There can be no assumption that Trumpy will respect ANY aspect of Constitutional law. Trumpy is dead serious. He will NOT relinquish power in any manner that resembles civility. He'll have to be removed from office physically. He won't go otherwise. Impeachment/conviction won't work; an election loss won't work. Right now, he's telling all of us that he's the sole ruler of the nation, and he's daring anyone to stop him. Right now, he's the emerging Dictator. He has a few more loose ends to address, but now he knows the path to dictatorship and he's in the fast lane. We are on the brink of losing the Constitution and the Rule of Law.

Trumpy will declare a national emergency and suspend the Constitution before he can be politically removed from office. Every day that passes in which Trumpy is not stopped, he grows stronger. He now owns the DOJ (Rosenstein and Barr are on his "team&quot , the SCOTUS and federal judges, he owns the Senate, and he owns nearly all of the media. Sure, he's disliked by over 60% of the electorate, but he doesn't give a damn about them. He's completely lawless and he'll always be that way until (and if) he's physically stopped. Every action he takes brings him closer to complete control. Remember, his goal is to win at any cost. He will not be told "no."

[leftofcool]

1. This is what my husband thinks will happen too

In 44 years of marriage, this is the only thing we have ever disagreed on politically speaking. I say cooler heads will prevail

[elleng]

2. or hotter heads,

https://www.google.com/search?q=u.s.+revolutionary+war&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=fYA42wKrxDWCxM%253A%252CJNm2YfuinMz01M%252C%252Fm%252F0jnh&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kSUxGaNmtzoSPbLaHDeYt0OcflBEQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiU5O3quu_hAhUNhuAKHWE7BroQ_B0wHHoECAsQBg#imgrc=fYA42wKrxDWCxM:

[leftofcool]

7. I will take the hotter heads as long as they are frog marching Trump out of our House

[HipChick]

3. I agree...hope folks are ready for what's coming....

[blueinredohio]

33. Agreed one thousand percent

[Wounded Bear]

4. I hope it doesn't come to that...

but the scenario seems less and less far-fetched every day.

[Eyeball_Kid]

90. If Trumpy backs down, he loses. He knows it.

His logic is concrete, black and white. He runs on a zero sum game. If he backs down, he loses. If he continues to stonewall and he succeeds, he not only wins, but he becomes OUR DICTATOR. He becomes our dictator because he then knows that he can overrule ANYTHING coming his way, and he will overcome ANY opposition. That the logic of his thinking.

It's his kind of thinking that is a requirement for dismantling the Constitution. He now has the backing of the DOJ, the GOP (all of it), many of the pressure points in the Judiciary, the right wing media (that dominates the creating of the political narratives), and his fascist fans.

[pangaia]

5. I have to agree with you.

[rusty quoin]

6. This is what we are frightened about. He will not relinquish power because he is crazy.

[trueblue2007]

8. GREATER POWER will take him out...... Aliens !!!

Earth must prepare for close encounter with big heads .......

[rusty quoin]

9. Oh nah...not so funny.

[trueblue2007]

10. that movie gave me the creeps. i can't stand it.

something about them is so evil.

[struggle4progress]

11. Really? And everybody else would just go along, in your opinion?

[onecaliberal]

26. So far they have done just that. Biggest criminal in Us history is occupying the White House

And we’re not trying to impeach. The strongly worded letters and waiting is bullshit. The subpoenas should have been ready on Day 1 when we took over the house. Dems need to start up with really good attorneys.

[Mme. Defarge]

12. There will be an election,

Trump will lose by indisputably overwhelming numbers, and he will resign his office before President Biden is sworn in so that Mike Pence can pardon him.

[Eyeball_Kid]

49. Your words lower my blood pressure.

This is how it SHOULD work. It's comforting and, in its own way, it's logical, based upon assumptions with which we are all familiar. You know, it's the will of the people.

But a very different rubric has emerged, and this is what's frightening. Trumpy is creating his own reality based upon the POWER he has accumulated. His propaganda machine is pervasive. He's learned all about the levers of power in the White House. He has the option of swift action and swift decision-making, as long as he disregards Congress, the Courts, and the Rule of Law. And he's doing all of that. Meanwhile Congress and the Courts move like turtles, as it should be in a democratic republic.

One of the advantages of dictatorships is that the dictator CAN and DOES move quickly and without "needless" deliberation. This allows him to be ruthless and even murderous. Trumpy can treat citizens like pond scum, and he is already.

Right NOW, we are in a "hair-on-fire" situation, but no one seems to be sounding the alarm. When pundits refer to a Constitutional Crisis, the guts of the crisis seem to be hidden behind the glitz of polished news entertainment. All of the pundits who raise the specter of the Crisis do so with an eloquence that belies the horror of the still-emerging coup. The "coup" is the one that Trumpy is engineering. It's the one in which the Legislative and Judicial Branches of the Government are rendered subordinate to the Executive. It's the one in which Trumpy is above all law and all rules. It's the one in which Trumpy IS the government, just as Trumpy IS the Republican Party.

All through Trumpy's political career, he attacks his adversaries with the same descriptions that a person with common sense would attribute to Trumpy's own behavior. He told us that the 2016 election was "rigged" by Democrats. HE rigged the election. He told us that the Press is the enemy of the people. HE'S the enemy of the people. Now he's telling us that he quashed a "coup". HE'S the coup.

But we're all sleeping through the transformation of the nation into a dictatorship. It seems we don't care, as long as we can watch all of the motions on cable TV. The Revolution into Trumpy's dictatorship is headline news. We watch as if it's not really US who are being subjected to the stripping of our Bill of Rights. After all, we can still buy cars and crossovers (that really have no special function save the satisfaction of buying a brand that we want to fuse with our own personality) and wonder about the side effects of the wonder drugs being relentlessly advertised on cable shows. We can still buy a big, juicy hamburger and "test-sleep" a mattress for 90 days before buying. As long as oligopolistic capitalism cradles our need for convenience and comfort, we seem to be all-in, our civics be damned if necessary. This is what makes our conversion to Trumpy's dictatorship so easy.

[pangaia]

52. Agreed. That's all I can say.

Even T-Bills and Bonds won;t be safe.

I say that a bit tongue in cheek, but it is also truthful

[Brawndo]

62. Bread and Circus is as true today as it was in ancient Rome

I agree completely, we are sleep-walking into a dictatorship. What's worse is that most of us think an election will fix it, they'll allow a charade but not a fair election. By all means GOTV but at the same time, prepare for them to throw out the rule of law and all that goes with that.

I believe that we will ultimately win, there are more of us than them, but we will likely have to bleed before we earn our democracy back.

[dawg day]

13. How can he nullify the election?

If he loses, on January 21, 2021, he ceases to be president. Then the secret service -- who are now bound to protect the new president-- will have to escort him out of the White House.

It will be ugly and nasty. But the secret service isn't going to help him stay in office illegally.

More likely he will spend the months after the election pardoning everyone he can, including his sex-buddy Epstein.

[MFM008]

31. Yes then he

Officially becomes a squatter...
The next president can bodily throw him out.

[pangaia]

53. IF IF IF he loses, there will BE no Jan 21, 2012 as it should be. He will NOT leave.

[Eyeball_Kid]

74. Remember the Patriot Act?

Someone tell me that I'm wrong about this, eh?

In the Patriot Act is a provision that gives the President the power to suspend the Constitution and call a national emergency if there is a threat to the integrity of the United States. Trumpy can merely declare a national emergency AND invoke the Patriot Act to suspend the Constitution. His declaration of a national emergency a few months back to justify the building of the Wall was a test run. His declaration is still standing. The Courts have YET to declare that his national emergency is illegitimate.

As the authoritarian, Trumpy can FRAME THE NARRATIVE about his impending loss as an attempted takeover by illegitimate (Democratic Party) forces. He will construct the narrative that his impending defeat has nothing to do with the will of the people, because he already has in place the lie that he's the most popular president in history in the greatest economic boom in world history. He'll do all he can to make it real. It's his only remaining move to stay out prison and financial ruin.

[Thekaspervote]

77. Agree! The experts in the know say this.

If the experts start saying there will be no election... then worry. Until that time these kinds of posts are shear speculation that puts everyone on edge.

[NanceGreggs]

14. ...

[Eyeball_Kid]

50. Eye-roll, indeed.

It's difficult to believe that the common decency that most of us hold dear to ourselves will pull us through this mess. I'd surely not be writing in an alarming fashion if I were observing that our common decency was the engine behind the emerging power structure led by the frightening Trumpy and his terrifying view of his own position in our lives.

In a flashing moment, I can be right with you. I can rest assured that the Constitution can weather this shit-storm.

But Trumpy's logic brings me back to the fact that authoritarian dictatorships have emerged from representative forms of government all over the globe and in all of history. We are not immune from authoritarianism. Trumpy, from my reading of US history, is the FIRST president who is summarily ignoring Congress AND the Courts. He is positioning himself as the unitary authority of all of government. He's overtaken the leadership of the DOJ. This is serious shit alright, AND it's embedded in the logic of Trumpy's desperate attempts at survival. He's made dictatorship the ONLY way he can avoid losing everything.

[pangaia]

55. America has been an open wound to this possible infection since it's beginnings.

It was, perhaps, just a matter of time...

[Alea]

15. lol

[SammyWinstonJack]

22. Right?

[Salviati]

16. There were two presidental elections during world war 2

If actual literal Nazis aren't enough to derail our election, these trumped up erzatz third rate knockoff nazis aren't either.

[pangaia]

56. There weren't Nazis at the head nor controlling half of Congress

[betsuni]

17. His own staff won't obey his orders.

[Eyeball_Kid]

63. I hope that internal dissent derails his power-grab.

But he simply fires the disloyal and finds a lackey for a replacement. He's done this over and over.

I recall a book written by George T. Lock Land in the 1970s entitled "Grow or Die: the Unifying Principle of Transformation." Land describes three kinds of growth in all of nature: Accretive, Duplicative, and Mutual. He applied these kinds of growth to political movements as well, and mentioned that societies can advance or regress as responses to various kind of pressure. Democracies, said Land, are an expression of "Mutual Growth" in which change occurs as a result of exchanges of information within a society: a self governance model. Authoritarian regimes can begin as "accretive" and can advance to a replicative stage, such as the communistic, "dictatorship of the proletariat" governments of the Soviet Union, the fascism movements of the 1930s, and the present imperialistic movements of Putin's Russia.

From this point of reference, Trumpy's authoritarianism is a rebuke of the "mutual growth" model of government and societal functioning. He is making all of government in his image and likeness.

Few events would be as relieving and satisfying than to witness the dismantling and destruction of Trumpy's power and influence, and a restoring of the power of the Constitution as the governing force in our nation. I just don't know if ONE political party, in ONE chamber of Congress, has the power to enact that kind of change.

[Liberal In Texas]

18. What? You have a time machine?

Who knows what's going to happen?

This scenario could occur. Not likely. I do think the Orange Siberian Candidate is going to scream all the way out of the White Hose.

But to turn the country into some sci-fi weird thing, probably not.

[Kablooie]

19. I've been thinking the same thing.

He might deliberately do so many shocking and illegal things in the open in order to start people protesting against him.
He would push things until violence breaks out, either from real protestors or planted ones.
Once there is violence he can declare martial law, suspend the Constitution and then we are truly fucked.

I expect something along these lines and if Trump or his people are indicted Federally, Barr can step in and cancel it.

You may be accurate in that the 2020 election may never really occur.

We are actually getting close to losing the United States of America and this is more McConnell's fault than Trump's.
McConnell has the capability of rallying the Republican Senate to vote to convict if there was an impeachment but he won't do it.
He is the one who protects and enables Trump's presidency more than anyone else.

[pangaia]

59. ++++

"WE" need to push this. McConnell and REPUBLICANS will be the cause of the downfall of Democracy in America.

[myohmy2]

20. "Every day that passes in which Trumpy is not stopped, he grows stronger."

...say no more...

...

[Crash2Parties]

21. Except...aren't elections run by the states?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

23. Really?

Back at the beginning of the century a lot of people were absolutely convinced that Bush would find a way to cancel the election in 2004. Just in case you can't recall, that didn't happen we had an election.

Even Abe Lincoln, who famously suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War, didn't cancel the election.

I honestly get very tired of these truly dumb predictions.

[Skittles]

24. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[C Moon]

25. :D

[Lucky Luciano]

27. Welcome to Camp Cucamunga.

I remember the right wingers saying the same about Obama.

I believe fuckface would love to do those things, but he can’t and won’t.

[brettdale]

28. There will be an election, and there wont be

A tape turning up with Trump saying the N word.
A tape turning up with Trump getting urinated on.
A Tape turning up with Trump groping an underage beauty contestant.
A tape turning up wth Trump colluding with Putin to steal the election.

What will win the dems the election will be...

PEOPLE TURNING UP TO VOTE.

THAT SHOULD BE THE ONLY FOCUS UNTIL ELECTION DAY!!

[Funtatlaguy]

29. How great would it be if there was a tape with all four of those.

“Hey Pootie, tell me more about us stealing my election while I’m groping this young n word beauty contestant while she pees on me”.

[Cracklin Charlie]

71. Putin told everyone Trump gave his lover Kim 2 million in ransom

There might be tapes.

[Kurt V.]

30. i see ppl in this thread aren't taking this seriously. the experts that study authoritarian

govts say trump is on this path.

[pangaia]

66. Kurt V sure knew all about this stuff...

[bearsfootball516]

32. Lol not happening

[Codeine]

34. Hysteria is not altogether helpful. nt

[pangaia]

67. Nothing hysterical about it at all.

[Codeine]

79. Yes, it most assuredly is.

We have survived global wars, the partitioning of the nation and the destructive conflict that followed, and the transitioning of our national economy from a slave-powered agrarian state to the Industrial Age with our democracy and elections intact. A cantaloupe-colored conman won’t be the death of us.

[Agschmid]

35. This isn't going to happen.

Unrec.

[wishstar]

36. No, simply because campaigns/elections are huge money makers for corporate media/consultants etc

Trump campaign director already announced they will spend over a $$Billion on his campaign. Elections are too much of a cash cow in our capitalist economy for a Repub Administration to ever cancel the general election when they can use the election to draw in millions of contributions and many people become wealthy from the political treasure trove.

[pangaia]

68. Not is the election is cancelled a week before..

[GulfCoast66]

38. And then lock all we Liberals up in closed Wall Marts?

Hysterical panic is no more attractive on the left than one the right.

There will be an election. Whether we win is the only question mark.

[Tarc]

39. Overblown, unhelpful hysterics

Go back to Jackpine, please.

[Captain Stern]

40. I've heard all of this before.

There were a lot of folks that said Dubyah would do something similar....it didn't even get close to happening.

And there were a lot of folks that were pretty sure Obama would do the same thing.....of course, that didn't get even close to happening either.

There will be an election in 2020. The biggest danger to our country regarding that election, isn't that trump will lose it, and refuse to accept the results, it's that he'll win.

[WSSlover]

43. If Donald Trump does do all the things that people predict he'll do,

and he does win the Election, we're in big trouble.

[pangaia]

70. I wish people would STOP comparing this to Bush or Watergate. or whatever.

There has NEVER in all of American history been anything even remotely resembling this situation. Not even the Civil War !

[Brawndo]

76. It's due to a failure of imagination

The thinking being because it hasn't happened here before that it can't happen here. "That's just crazy" well guess what? The president* is crazy, his party is corrupt and their voters have been fed a steady diet of hate propaganda for the last 30 years. Fail to recognize this reality at your own peril. Don't be naive, and never do your opponent the service of underestimating what they're capable of, especially when they've been taught to hate you.

[Codeine]

78. When I was nineteen

I insisted it would happen under Bush41. It’s just a symptom of the lack of historical perspective I suppose.

[rownesheck]

41. Because dipshit

is a reality TV piece of shit, maybe our candidate and he could have a UFC style fight for control of the presidency.

[mountain grammy]

44. I think it's entirely possible.

[prodigitalson]

45. He will fire his way to a situation in which all the key

positions are filled with people willing to violate the law and ignore any judge telling them to stop.

He has groomed 35-40 percent of the population to believe absurdities and will lead them to commit atrocities if not stopped by impeachment or or at the ballott box.

If he gets reelected, it will be our last real election.
.

[many a good man]

46. Not enough electoral votes

One possibility to watch for is widespread disruption to the voting in several states, whether it be by hacking or bomb threats or who knows what.

States will scramble to figure out what to do and call new elections but it won't be in time for the Electoral College vote.

No candidate will receive the required 270 votes so the election will go to Congress where each state gets one vote, which means Trump will "win."

Republicans know they can't possibly win a fair, democratic election so they will choose a different path.

[Andy823]

47. The republicans were saying the same thing

About Clinton, and then the same thing was said about George W. Bush, and again about Obama. I agree this guy is a total asshole, but one way or another he will leave the WH.

All the doom and gloom just makes things worse. People don't need to be depressed more, they need to do whatever they can to stay sane, and encourage everyone you know to get out and VOTE trump out of office next year.

[malaise]

48. That will not happen

Take it to the bank

[DeeDeeNY]

51. Michael Cohen said this when he testified before Congress

Last edited Sat Apr 27, 2019, 11:59 AM - Edit history (1)

[Hoyt]

54. White wingers said something similar about Obama. If we turn out the vote, trump will be gone.

[Afromania]

57. The only reason peop[le are not rioting in the streets is that they believe in our Democracy.

We believe there will be elections, its intrinsic to us; even when we aren't all voting like we should. If he somehow stops the elections this country WILL be in the streets. Good and sane people tend to have a really long fuse and something that ridiculous would probably be the end of it. Part of the reason things have managed to get this far is that we always keep believeing order will be restored via elections.

My biggest fear was the military eventually turning on him when he decided to launch an illegal military action against some random country for something stupid. I don't worry about that so much anymore, but with this guy the insanity is enough to make you think the absolute worse.

[katmondoo]

64. I think you are right, I still feel we will get back to normal after the election

The Trumper will end. I only hope I am not wrong but we have survived so much over 250 years that I still feel this too shall end.

[MineralMan]

58. Elections are not handled by the federal government.

They are run by the individual states. There is no mechanism that would enable a President to cancel elections. None whatsoever. So, such a fear is unfounded, I believe. there will be elections, as usual, in our 50 states. Some of those elections will be fairly run, while others may not be so fair. But, there will be elections in 2020, including a presidential election.

The states hold an enormous amount of power in our society. Our federal government was designed to be relatively weak, compared to many other nation's governments.

Watch. You'll see.

[ADX]

60. If Chump tries any bullshit either before or the 2020 election...

...it's not going to go the way he thinks it will, believe that...

[Ms. Toad]

61. Cut the conspiracy crap.

We're supposed to be the party based in reality. This just makes us look as goofy as the other side did when they said similar things about Obama.

[Codeine]

80. I for one am enjoying our nation-wide Sharia laws

and the forcible confiscation of all firearms.

[Ms. Toad]

89. You're a few years behind the times

When Trump came in, he reversed everything Obama did. So no more Sharia law, and the government is now giving away free guns, instead of welfare phones.

[Mme. Defarge]

65. KEEP CALM

and GOTFV!!!

[moriah]

69. The ONLY way this would happen is if someone had the audacity to....

... do something Illegal and Not Allowed To Be Said On DU Because It's ILLEGAL and a THREAT....

...to our current (p)Resident.

And given all the "trumpets"/"Trump/Pence" jokes, I sincerely hope no one does anything that stupid three and a half years into his tenure... or I might just have to convert to Christianity, because Pence would be the bigger Beast that took over after Trump was in a coma for three days, and I'd truly believe End Times Prophecy was happening.

So please, nobody do anything that stupid.

[marylandblue]

72. That's an extreme outcome, and not how it's done these days.

Even the likes of Vladimir Putin have elections and obey the outcome. They just make sure the outcome is what they want. Which Trump will try to do.

But if he fails he may scream fraud and demand that his brownshirts start protesting, but in a few days, he'll have his next plan to stay out of jail. Which probably will involve using Trump TV as a platform to make a royal ass of himself. And it could work, too. He could make it more painful to prosecute him than to let him go. And he knows it too. It's been his MO all along.

[whopis01]

73. And the perfect streak continues. n/t

[hughee99]

75. Every 4 years, someone comes up with this sort of stupidity.

I remember when Obama, Bush and Clinton we’re going to declare a national emergency, and cancel elections to stay in office.

[Nancy Waterman]

81. I totally agree

The one dependable thing about Trumpie is that there is no line he won't cross, no boundary that holds him. He is a sociopath and a megalomaniac. The promise of likely indictments if he leaves office is only a further incentive for him to hold on no matter what.

[Cold War Spook]

82. The Republicans in Congress will follow Trump only so far.

If he does anything that will cost them their jobs and the money they make because of it, they will do whatever they have to to get rid of him.

[Joe941]

83. Uh. Nope.

[Locutusofborg]

84. The right wing said the exact same thing about Obama

That he would: 1) declare a national emergency in 2012; 2) refuse to leave office in 2016. I hate it when Democrats echo right wing memes.
“No, President Obama Has Not Said He Is Refusing to Leave Office”
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-obama-refusing-leave-office/story?id=44575517
“Texas Governor Deploys State Guard To Stave Off Obama Takeover”
https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/05/02/403865824/texas-governor-deploys-state-guard-to-stave-off-obama-takeover

[Eyeball_Kid]

94. I'd call that "wishful thinking."

From my POV, nothing would be sweeter than a swift and complete removal of Trumpy from office. But the steps that reach this result are more complicated and slower moving than Trumpy's (eventual) unilateral decision to chuck the whole Constitutional thing and raise the flag of a dictatorship. He can do this within hours while the Dem House contemplates the ten thousand variations of the outcomes of every single subpeona.

By definition, democratic republics make policy through deliberation, debate, and voting. Autocrats, OTOH, dispense with all of those nicities and just issue orders. This is what Trumpy wants. It's obvious from his every day actions through the past three years.

We can't just say, "No, it won't happen." Government overthrows happen all the time. The USA is not an exceptional place where these things will never happen.

Another poster wrote that these suspicions were also raised when Obama was prez. But the problem with that comparison is that Obama never acted as if he wanted to be the autocratic ruler. Right wing operatives just made it up. Trumpy, OTOH, is duly following a pathway of decisions that inevitably leads to dictatorship. But we'll see. If the House can show the power it theoretically has in opposing Trumpy's Constitutional coup and stop him in his tracks, I'll be one happy camper.

[stillcool]

85. anything is possible..

I think we have elections, and declare invalid most of the votes in key states. Would anyone notice? Declare the winner with bogus numbers. If anyone questions, they will be told they are a whacked-out conspiracy theorist. After all, no one ever changes the vote totals. They can't do that. Until people check, but even then...who would believe it?

[Mersky]

86. This is a worst case scenario.

Let's not lose our heads over a small percentage chance of such happening. There are things we can do to thwart this or any other dire outcome.

[Inkfreak]

87. Bullshit.

[Eyeball_Kid]

93. I hope that there are other alternatives to the logical progression of statements and action.

You can call the logic of the situation "bullshit", but you may have to reconsider if you review all of Trumpy's actions and statements to date. You have to take into account that he's pulled in the DOJ leadership, the GOP leadership, and of course, he has most of the electronic media (especially the framing of the narratives) on his side. He holds immense power. Right now, the ONLY opposing force is a majority in the House. That's it. And so far, they have NOT taken action that definitively invokes the Rule of Law and the Constitution. It's been sternly worded letters and carefully crafted statements thus far.

Will Barr or Mnuchin actually face arrest and/or jail time for defying a subpeona? We don't know because no one has dared act on the defiance. So this is where we stand. The pathway to dictatorship is narrow but, from Trumpy's POV, logically consistent and inevitable. So far, he has bulldozed through every attempt to stop him. He won't quit.

[Mersky]

88. It's time to get thrifty, and vote-y:

Don't like the future that Ayn Rand worshipers have in mind for the rest of us? Then fight with your pocketbook.

Go look for that kitchen doodad at a thrift store before buying new. Niece wants a printer for Christmas? Give her your underutilized laser printer that works great (box it up all fun like, and it'll be new to her). I've been fixing super cheap side dishes like beans and cornbread to cut down on grocery spending and processed foods.

I'm basically drawing down my budget. In exchange, I'm gonna spend on campaign contributions. Should I have to do this? Ideally, no, but this is how it is until Citizens United is undone. Every time I wash a load of cloth napkins, I feel like I'm fighting 'the orange man' Going without the usual, ironically, makes me feel more free. I believe many readers on this site already are doing such for environmental reasons, which is where it all started for me. Every year he's been in office, I've chosen to consume less and less.

Get out the vote! Now! This year!

Every time I helped someone register to vote last year, I learned something about where people are at in the electorate. Aside from the recently moved, the number one reason folks weren't registered was because they thought they were too young to vote! It's a serious problem. So many think they have to be 21! In Texas you can become a volunteer deputy registrar (VDR). I'd like to think some of the newly registered felt a sense of having some skin in the game of political turnings. We need more young people to vote!

I could rattle off other things, call your congress critters, protest, etc... Main thing is, there's plenty to do between now and the possibility of the sky falling.

[onenote]

91. Ridiculous.

Sorry, But this is the kind of ridiculous stuff the tin foilers on the other side used to say about Obama.

[Eyeball_Kid]

92. What is it about Trumpy that ISN'T ridiculous?

All I'm doing by posting is following, in elementary terms, the logic of Trumpy's actions and his statements. There is NOTHING that's coming out of the blue, nothing that merits the ignoble "Tin Foil Hat." Watch what Trumpy is DOING. And surmise about where his next actions will go based upon what he's done. There is a logical progression.

If you recall the old Corrections meme, A good predictor of future behavior is past history. We're all creatures of habit. Trumpy's BRAND is at stake here, and for Trumpy, branding is everything. He's said over and over that he will never lose. He means it. Of course, he distorts reality to claim victory in many cases, but he's been consistent. He is lawless and he'll do ANYTHING to win. You know this. I know this. We all know this. It is not wise to listen to his words, observe his actions, and then deny that the logic of his actions will lead to Trumpy claiming to be the authoritarian leader of the nation, to be its Dictator. There is a narrow path to Trumpy's escape from personal, political, and financial ruin. And that path leads to a suspension of the Constitution and a declaration of a national emergency that invokes the Patriot Act.

[onenote]

95. The OP is just another in a long line of absurd predictions about Trump

Over the past two plus years, all sorts of wild predictions about what Trump will do have been made on DU. And they have almost entirely been wrong by a wide margin. Some examples: Trump will drop out of the race for the Republican nomination during the primaries; Trump will drop out before (or at) the convention; Trump will drop out before the Electoral College meets; Trump will resign before inauguration day; Trump will be dead of a heart attack in his first year in office; Trump will fire Rosenstein on Monday (or Tuesday, or Wednesday, or Thursday, or Friday, or Saturday or Sunday); Trump will withdraw Kavanaugh's nomination; Trump will declare a national emergency and take Saturday Night Live off the air; Trump will invade Venezuela when the Mueller report is released; Trump will resign when the Mueller report is released; and so on and so on.

So, while the OP prediction is ridiculous, it has company.