Wednesday, December 13, 2017

The Toughest Road


Donald Trump likes to think of himself as a winner. So does Steve Bannon. But neither man won last night in Alabama. Quin Hillyer reports in The New York Times:

Donald Trump and Steve Bannon are politically impotent. 
The president and his former grand strategist threw considerable weight behind Roy Moore, the polarizing Republican Senate candidate in Alabama. For the second time this year, the state that gave Mr. Trump crucial early support during the presidential campaign — and his first senatorial endorsement — has rejected the candidate Mr. Trump endorsed for the Senate.

That's because the people Trump has scapegoated -- and others Trump thought were on his side -- came out to vote for Doug Jones:

Extraordinarily high turnout among African-American voters pulled the Democratic nominee, Doug Jones, a former United States attorney, to a narrow victory. Mr. Moore was held back by a significant resort to write-in ballots (some 1.7 percent of the total, a fact on which Mr. Trump quickly fixated) that presumably came from voters who ordinarily lean Republican — suburban professionals, especially women — along with tens of thousands fewer suburban Republicans voting at all. For example, in Shelby County, neighboring Birmingham, Mr. Trump earned 73,000 votes and a 51,000-vote margin, but it appears that Mr. Moore won 36,000 votes and a 9,000-vote margin.

The walls are closing in on Donald. And as Robert Mueller moves to indict members of his family -- his son-in-law chief among them -- Trump will increasingly become unglued. His next step will be to try and fire Mueller.

That will initiate a constitutional crisis. The toughest road is still ahead.

Image: History Asia

12 comments:

Steve said...

The democrat narrowly beats the pedophile. Well its progress, imagine if he had not been identified as such. Likely Moore would have won.

I have not heard if this will restore balance to the system. Hopefully the Trump agenda has been permanently dismantled. I am sure 2018 will see the Democrats retake the house and senate and lets hope jettison some of the baggage.

As for Trump and Muller. I am not a Trump fan. If Trump says the sky is blue I will have to agree with him. Mueler is a tool of the deep state. The reason for his being is the dossier.
The dossier was a creation of Hillary Clinton. Once the door is open to a prosecutor in the USA there are going to be charges. So far none of the charges relate to collusion with the Russians. Now if you get a warrant to search the house for drugs and you find child porn its still a crime. That is the situation Trump is in now.

However I doubt any of the charges will stick. Your never going to prove a moneylaudering case against a businessman in the USA. No one has ever been charged or arrested for the 2008 banking collapse.

In the end Trump will pardon anyone who plead guilty and I would expect all his kids to plead the fifth so they cant face process charges.

My guess is that Trump faces a primary challenge in 2020 and loses.

Owen Gray said...

Hillary Clinton is not the source of the dossier, Steve. It came into being because Trump's Republican opponents wanted opposition research on him. When Trump got the Republican nomination, the dossier was handed over to the Democrats. Republicans paid for the information which Clinton used against Trump.

The splintered Republican Party is the source of Trump's troubles. That division was on full display yesterday.

As for the future, we'll see what happens.

Steve said...

I dont see CNN, NYT or any current news organization as a definitive source. It seems we live in a time where truth is a matter of choice.

However
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/24/politics/fusion-gps-clinton-campaign/index.html

Your understanding seems to be incomplete. The Repugs used fusion for op, but did not fund the Steele fabrication. Its a case of media misdirection.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/conservative-republican-website-trump-russia-dossier-fund-1.4376776

Alternative sites are already reporting that a Clinton supporter at the FBI orchestration the whole thing which started with the very questionable FISA wiretaps during the campaign and transition.

Toby said...

I have a suspicion that there are many Alabama women who told their husbands that they were voting for Moore but in the privacy of the voting booth marked their ballot for Jones.

Owen Gray said...

I suspect you're right, Toby.

Owen Gray said...

Read you own sources, Steve. The original funding for the dossier did not come from Hillary. Your disgust for Hillary has led you you to arrive at conclusions which simply aren't true.

Steve said...

"During the 2016 election cycle we retained Fusion GPS to provide research on multiple candidates in the Republican presidential primary, just as we retained other firms to assist in our research into Hillary Clinton," wrote the site's editor in chief, Matthew Continetti, and chairman Michael Goldfarb. They continued: "The Free Beacon had no knowledge of or connection to the Steele dossier, did not pay for the dossier, and never had contact with, knowledge of, or provided payment for any work performed by Christopher Steele."

I guess its a matter of interpretation. My read is that the Repulicans did hire this group to reasearch Trump. Perhaps the work was the genisis of the infamous Steele document. This statement makes it clear at the time the republicans left the party there where no golden showers.

Owen Gray said...

True, Steve. With Trump in the oval office, people forget how many enemies Trump used to have in the Republican Party. Senator Shelby's advice to write in the name of another Republican is a reminder that those enemies are still there.

The Mound of Sound said...


Steele was initially retained by Republicans out to stop Trump. When Trump won the GOP nomination Steele's Republican patrons walked and Steele's firm got the Dems to fund the investigation.

From what I've read, Steele claimed the dossier, assembled from his conversations with Russian sources, was about 70% reliable. He never claimed it was gospel. I've also read that his assessment has already been borne out, validated.

This "Deep State" business is puerile. It's a catch-all term that seems to mean many things to many people.

Owen Gray said...

The dossier was meant to confirm what members of both parties felt, Mound -- that Trump was unfit for office. That conclusion has been borne out time and time again.

Steve said...

Okay, lets assume Steele was a straight shooter. There are for sure some facts. However
the golden showers do not pass the pee test. That was click bait. Which begs the question
about top level intelligence. If your using click bait to prove the argument, your
not even having a debate/

Owen Gray said...

Intelligence says it's not unusual to get targets in compromising situations, Steve. That business hasn't been proven. But it's not unusual procedure. Once again, it's too soon to write this information off.