Because you need to steel yourself for the worst, Musa al-Gharbi at Counterpunch explains "Why Trump Could Win in 2020." You might summarize it as "incumbency has its advantages," or that folks tend not to abandon bad situations quickly, but read it anyway; it's very informative. Also, too, "what matters most is not how the public feels about the incumbent, but how they feel about the most likely alternative." If Democrats serve up another cautious technocrat who worships at the altar of "innovation" and "entrepreneurship," they'll lose to Mr. Trump. (Yes, that means they've got a much better shot if they nominate Bernie Sanders next time.)
On the other hand, Rob Kall at OpEd News thinks we have a path to get rid of both the President and Vice-President and replace them with a Democrat, without impeachment. Convincing Messrs. Trump and Pence to step down because they're on the precipice of going to jail might be the sounder half of the plan -- for a Democrat to take over from them, Democrats would have to retake the House, and no one snatches defeat from the jaws of victory like a Democrat.
Robert Parry at Consortium News wonders if a "soft coup," i.e., a deep-state coup, could take down Mr. Trump over persistent concerns over his ties with Russia. His verdict: maybe, but what would we have won? The undemocratic "deep state" would win, not us, the real owners of democracy. Frankly, I wonder if the "deep state" is all that upset about Mr. Trump, since the deep state doesn't care if more than 20 million people lose their health insurance, and probably rejoices at the prospect of lower taxes on the rich, less regulation of banksters, and more corporate welfare via Mr. Trump's boutique infrastructure plan.
U.S. Supreme Court won't hear an appeal of the 4th Circuit Appeals Court's decision to strike down North Carolina's draconian Voter ID law. But that's because North Carolina's Governor and Attorney General, both now Democrats, don't want to continue the appeal, and so the Republican-held state legislature is trying to do it. If the legislature can establish standing to appeal, I'm sure the Court will hear it -- though I'm also sure swapping out the late Justice Scalia with Justice Gorsuch will have no effect on the decision, since being 30 years younger doesn't give you two more votes on individual cases.
Far-right Senate Republicans (I won't call them "conservatives," as the Wall Street Journal does, far too charitably) want to gut Medicaid even more than the House bill already does. And I'm sure that absent a lot more creativity from the American people (who barely have town halls to ventilate their anger anymore, I wonder why), they'll do it! I mean, with 52 Senators in the caucus, which Senators can you lose: the two "moderates" who only buck leadership when leadership allows it, or the three far-right nihilists demanding more cuts? (I wish it meant more that Medicaid is actually pretty popular with Trump votaries, but Trump votaries are also the kind of people who'll say if we can't get it, no one should, a sentiment for which I do not entirely blame them.)
Finally, in a truly chilling development that also further demonstrates the complete uselessness of Republican "moderates," Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) alerts one of his big donors to the presence of a "resistance" leader in his own bank's management! And she then resigned, citing the resulting harassment from her bosses as one of the reasons! If I'm Mr. Frelinghuysen's next opponent, I'm running an ad about this -- what he did likely isn't illegal, but it is the mark of a coward who can't win arguments on the merits. How do we prevent this from happening to us? Make sure our bosses know that every time they fuck with our free speech they will summon a thundercloud.
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