It will all end in tears - but how will we get there?

It's good that Donald Trump left Washington on Friday afternoon for his first and maybe last foreign trip. If he had stayed any longer, Donald's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Administration might have collapsed into a sinkhole.

Before Air Force One lifted into the sky, Riyadh-bound, our President had presided over the most remarkable fortnight of Unforced Errors since Adolph Hitler kept his 6th Army in Stalingrad (yep, Godwin's Law again). Here is a nice compilation of events that transpired last week:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/us/politics/trump-news-politics-week-in-review.html

Hmmm. Seems like this Russia thing just doesn't want to go away. Hazy on the details of why "this Russia thing" may be so important? Dig in, compliments of our old friend, Bill Moyers:

http://billmoyers.com/story/the-trump-resistance-plan-a-timeline-russia-and-president-trump/

Well, that all is bad for the optics. So the question becomes, how will Trump leave the White House - Quietly? Screaming? Perp walk? Stretcher? At this point, it doesn't look too good for the President, even if his Zombie Republican allies in Congress work to keep him employed.

Vegas doesn't allow non-Sport bets, but you can still make plenty of coin on placing Trump-based bets! Plenty of world betting sites agree on these odds: 11/10 Trump serves a full term. 4/6 he leaves early. Here are two of these sites:

https://sports.ladbrokes.com/en-gb/betting/politics/international/us-elections/donald-trump-specials/225147663/

http://www.paddypower.com/bet/politics/other-politics/donald-trump?ev_oc_grp_ids=2944322

As any bookie knows, the smart bet goes with the Inside Info. Now, let it be said that The Daily Kibitz does not traffic in such unseemly gossip. However, there has been plenty of above-board news, so much that we feel confident in presenting a list of probable outcomes to this mess. In order of least likely to happen:

1) Resignation. Fuggedaboutit. Did Roy Cohn ever quit? Double down, compounded, to the Nth degree. No amount of damning evidence will make a difference. No salacious videos of cavorting Russian hookers will matter. He will never willingly leave on his own.

2) Impeachment & Conviction. Although the prospect of a President Pence may gladden the hearts of many Republican members of Congress, the probability of them acting as one body to vote to impeach and then vote to convict is politically improbable, if not impossible. It is Trump's party; they are stuck with him, both Houses of Congress.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/chance-donald-trump-impeached/

3) Impeachment. No conviction. If the investigation and procedurals stretch out through 2018 (it might!), the Democrats will use Trump as a mid-term election cudgel and perhaps gain the House and probably the Senate. Even if the Dems have the Senate votes to convict by early spring of 2019 they might not: Trump could be more useful to them as a punching bag, leading up to the 2020 election.

4) 25th Amendment, Section 4 removal. There has been a continuing and building buzz about the mental health status of our President. His father died of Alzheimer's disease. If he becomes severely mentally ill, this could be a tool for his departure. But it would take a lot more than what is currently evidenced:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/05/no_the_25th_amendment_is_not_the_solution.html

5) Kept quiet in a darkened room, a figurehead while others do the work. This happens to be my own prediction. I strongly suspect that if our President has degenerative mental health issues, his staff/family will do EVERYTHING to shield it from the world. He will appear in public less and less. His tweets will become far more formalized, being written by his staff. He may even spend more time in Mar-a-Lago than he does in the White House. If this comes to pass, then the center of political power shifts to Mike Pence as de facto President, and the House Freedom Caucus get its way on most of its wish list.

There are those among us who question why so many are upset. "He won! She lost. Get over it!"

If one has been asleep over the last two weeks, much less since January 20, allow me to present this wonderful graphic depicting the HUNDREDS of false claims made by our President. It is really comprehensive and gives one the ability to sort through any number of categories. So much fun!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?hpid=hp_no-name_graphic-story-a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.cabc842df7ef

Of course, lies and falsehoods are just part of the ongoing story. There is this kind of (daily) inept performance:

"All in all he's just another prick in the wall"

So, how is it going to end? Here's something to ponder: President Trump gets removed, by hook or by crook. VP Mike Pence becomes President. But it becomes revealed Pence covered up for General Michael Flynn when he was  head of Trump's Transition Team. So he is removed, too. That brings up Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan. He becomes President Ryan, but it is revealed that he knew about the Russian involvement with Trump and directed others to Shut Up about it. He is removed, too. That brings us to the President Pro Temp of the Senate, Orrin Hatch. He becomes President Hatch. And because he's been detached from the Trump mess, he remains, our first Mormon President!

How do we get by until it's all over? Engaged patience. Activism. Resistance. Resoluteness. Of course, the most fun antidote is 24/7 sedation, as prescribed by The Ramones:

Hard to believe these guys are have been dead for so many years now. On second thought, it's easy to believe. Just imagine Donald Trump as an extra for this video, walking around like he belongs..

Has The President Gone Too Far?

In an action causing Congressional cries of "Treason!" and "Impeach!" President Hillary Clinton today fired FBI Director James Comey. Press Secretary Brian Fallon confirmed the dismissal, stating that the President was following the recommendation of Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Comey's official firing offense was identified as his October 2016 reveal to Congress that then candidate Clinton was back under investigation for her private email server practice. Since then, President Clinton had embraced Comey as a member of her national security team and had claimed to be happy with his performance. Until now.

Sources insist that the firing stems from Comey's role in directing new investigations about Russia and its possible collusion with Clinton campaign and administrative officials. Just a day before his dismissal, Comey had requested more money and agents be dedicated towards this investigation.

"Let's keep this simple," said a former senior intelligence officer. "A hostile country assisted a presidential campaign in winning the White House. It hacked our system. It flooded our social media with anti-Trump disinformation and pro-Clinton advocacy. It stole embarrassing information from the Republican National Committee and released it to the press. It tapped into state voting records. There may be evidence of widespread financial quid pro quo between Russian and Clinton campaign individuals. What has happened to our country has been a secretive act of war, aided and abetted by the Clinton Administration, colluding with our enemy. At the very least, these are a series of damning capital crimes."

Clinton, who won the Presidency through the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote by 3 million votes, has been embroiled in controversy since her Inauguration. She has refused to release her taxes, despite suggestions she and her family have benefited financially from Clinton Foundation donors and foreign investments, including those from Russia.  She has no Blind Trust, therefore she continues to accrue profits from Clinton-oriented enterprises.

Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and her daughter Chelsea Clinton Mezvinsky, act as Special Advisors and have emerged as her primary counselors, despite possible conflicts of interest. Chelsea's husband recently came under fire for selling $500,000 per share allotments of his Mezvinsky hedge fund to Chinese investors seeking influence in the Clinton government.

President Clinton's former National Security Advisor, Thomas Pickering, resigned after revelations that he was a foreign agent for Turkey and had numerous unreported meetings with Russian government officials; he had been paid $37,000 for attending a dinner in Moscow celebrating RT, a propaganda outlet.

Clinton has cloaked the once-public White House Visitors Log, keeping secret any visits from corporate executives, lobbyists and foreign agents. The Clinton White House has also introduced a set of weakened ethics rules for lobbyists becoming staff and has issued secret waivers that allow what the ethics rules do not.

However, these and many other troubling aspects to the young Clinton Presidency pale in comparison to the firestorm that has erupted following the abrupt departure of James Comey. In a tweet made last night, defeated Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump declared:

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have both weighed in on the controversy, declaring it "worthy of a Special Prosecutor". "Any candidate nominated by President Clinton to replace Mr. Comey is going to be tainted.  We need an independent look at what is really happening here, free of all politics. Let Justice be served," said Mr. McConnell.

In reaction to the onslaught of negative press and plummeting poll numbers, President Clinton indicates that she will continue with her conflicting, confrontational, irrational, thin-skinned and unorthodox governing style:

The Very, Very Best 100 Days Since Andrew Jackson

Former President George W. Bush, overheard while exiting from Donald Trump's Inaugural Address: "That was some weird shit." Yes, Mr. Bush, it really was. And it remains so as we enter into The Second Hundred Days. But first, let's take a quick look at the good things that have happened during the first 100 days:

-- It's over! We all survived!! We're 7% done with the Trump Presidency, which means we have only 13 more of these 100 day segments ahead of us.

-- General Michael Flynn is gone and The Mad Hungarian Sebastian Gorka is going. Hard to believe they were National Security Advisor and Deputy Assistant to the President. That was scary close.

-- Steve Bannon's role in the White House has apparently been diminished after calling Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, a "cuck". However, like a bad fungus, he's still within the "inner circle", primarily because he'd unleash Breitbart News to bad mouth the administration incessantly. Also, he represents this truly awful political crime family: The Mercers. Wow, they make the Koch Brothers seem like The Doublemint Twins.

-- We now know that Jared "The Cuck" Kushner knows everything we do and don't know.

-- We know that if you take away his vowels, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus becomes RNC PR BS.

-- Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is not a laughingstock, although he has curious viewpoints regarding Corporations and Employees, among many other legal matters.

-- Obamacare seems resistant to AHCA.

-- Fox News CEO/Founder Roger Ailes, ratings king Bill O'Reilly and company president Bill Shine are all kaput, thanks to the toxic corporate atmosphere there that resulted in numerous sexual assault allegations... and payoffs.

-- The Emoluments Clause in the U.S. Constitution has received much attention. If President Trump doesn't leave office prematurely via the terms of the 25th Amendment, his (and his family's) business wealth gain from being President might do it, says CREW.

-- The

 was found!! Henceforth, the USS Carl Vinson will be known as the USS Waldo.

-- Our President owned up to his chronic lies, fabrications, embellishments, whoppers and 180-degree policy turnarounds by admitting, "I don't stand by anything."

-- We now know that Andrew Jackson would have prevented the Civil War had he lived, even though he was a virulently cruel slave owner. And the President posed a question no one had thought before: "Why was there a Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?" Stumper, for sure. But he provided the answer Jackson would have said: "There's no reason for this!" He then went on to suggest that "there's no reason there's not peace between Israel and the Palestinians. None whatsoever." Finally, peace is at hand! Next, Trump tackles the acrimony between India and Pakistan,  Russia and Poland, and Cubs and White Sox fans.

-- The Muslim Ban remains Banned.

-- Mexico won't pay for The Wall if it's ever built.

-- We know about "Gaslighting":

I could go on and on about all the good things that have happened over the last 100 days. But believe it or not, some other not-so-good things happened to our country. Here is the best analysis, by far,  I've read regarding The First 100 Days:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/01/a-hundred-days-of-trump

Yup, that is a terrific take. Then there are the Fact Checkers at the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/05/01/president-trumps-first-100-days-the-fact-check-tally/?utm_term=.14607f21fd28#comments

And here is a fun look from the Pulitzer Prize winners over at PolitiFact, who have been keeping track of all the campaign promises Candidate Trump made. Their take is an interesting blend of promises made, some kept and a whole bunch that fail the smell test:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/

Okay, that has been a whole lot of reading and reviewing. I can feel your eyes glazing over. And isn't that the point of all his shenanigans? One gets worn down and tired, then things get allowed. Well, here is one anonymous angry commenter who is Not Going To Take It Any More (shield your eyes if you are faint of heart):

"I really do feel for Donnie, when I think about it. After all, he "inherited a mess." It's so unfair, when every other president in the twentieth century has coasted into office to find nothing but legislators showing bipartisanship, domestic and international peace and tranquility, justice and civil rights for all Americans, and absolutely no problems of any kind to worry about.

But seriously, you fucking piece of shit - you KNEW what you were getting into. Everyone knew that there were very serious problems and challenges the U.S. government had to face, both domestically and internationally. And you told everyone during the campaign that you were going to fix everything on "day one," that you were the only man who could fix it, that you would bring in the "best people," that you were going to make the "best deals," that people were going to be "sick of winning."

Well so far you haven't done a goddamn thing except lie, tweet bullshit, appoint your family to government positions and play fucking golf. Oh, and you have been an national embarrassment on a scale so epic that if embarrassment could be harnessed and used as energy the U.S. would have no worries about drastically reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. The only thing people are sick of, you fat, freakish, farcical fool, is you. Go fuck yourself Donnie, and take your gang of Nazis, sycophants and your worthless fucking brood with you."

Well, if anything, The Trump Years have witnessed the complete Death of Subtlety in Politics and Civil Discourse. What would Andrew Jackson have done? I guess we'll never know, but I suspect challenging someone to a duel would have been a real possibility.

In the meantime, reward yourself for having made it through this post by thoroughly enjoying one of the very last performances of the late, great Sharon Jones as she observes the oh-so-topical song, "100 Days".

Oh, Sharon, we loved you madly!