Tag: We Are So Fucked

So What’s The Delay On MAGA Shitheads Outing The Trump Whistleblower?

Can’t impeach Trump if you’re talking about the whistleblower, now can you?
Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

When last we saw the rabid racist misogynist mob that is MAGA, they were teeheeing about learning the identity of the Trump whistle blower. As is my nature, I assumed the absolute worst-case scenario. And, as is also often the case, that worst-case scenario did not happen.

For the moment, outside of bullshit echo-chamber of the extreme Far Right, the Whistleblower continues to enjoy a measure of “practical obscurity.” This likely to change at any moment, however. I suspect what may be happening is two things. One, for the moment cooler heads have prevailed given that it’s like, a Federal crime and stuff, to out someone like the so-called Orange Crush. But I suspect I’m giving the shit head Republican leadership way, way, way too much credit. They’re probably doing extensive oppo on the guy was we speak.

They already have a few days worth of talking points built-in. Apparently the guy has some job-related connection to both Joe Biden and….gasp…Susan Rice. Republicans just babbling about that at the top of their lungs at every opportunity would cause Maggie Haberman of The New York Times to ever-so-seriously tell hayseed rubes like me in fly overstates that OBVIOUSLY Republicans are winning the impeachment messaging battle and Trump’s political genius shines through yet the fuck again. And, besides, you didn’t even read the link, did you, dipshit.

And that, in itself, may be true to a certain extent. But the issue of how, exactly, the poor guy’s name will be pushed into the mainstream is, in itself, a significant issue. I still think Trump, who has the willpower of a 2-year-old will blurt the name on Twitter one morning and “joke” that MAGA should teach the guy a lesson about crossing House Trump. (Or some sort of bullshit dog whistle nonsense.)

There’s a good chance the guy will be murdered in cold blood by a over zealous MAGA asshole with an AR-15 and then Republicans will have to, at long last, defend Trump murdering someone (indirectly.) They will say that Trump was joking and that he can’t be held responsible for the actions of someone who is obviously mentally unstable. But they will also babble on about how OBVIOUSLY we can’t continue the impeachment proceedings because people are getting hurt.

I would like to think this messaging won’t work but for maybe about 24 hours. As it sinks in what has just happened, you might see that only base-concentric political strategy come back to bite Trump and his sycophantic Republicans in the ass. What good is a cult base if the entire non-cult electorate hates you on an visceral level. I guess Republican Senators will believe that as long as they can get past the primary they still have a good shot in the general. And, of course, they must at least have some hope that a politically pardoned Trump will AGAIN directly meddle in the 2020 election and save their ass that way.

Remember, the moment Trump is acquitted, he’s going to become extremely brazen. He will bribe Electors. He will pardon anyone he wants to pardon. He will indict Joe Biden (or whomever). He will at last be free of any semblance of political restraint. The ICE Camps will be weaponized and he will began to rant about the need for a new Constitutional Convention to “balance the budget.”

I guess the point is, the stakes could not be higher when it comes to impeachment. The Republicans are so craven that they simply will not be able to control themselves now that they now the Whistleblower’s name. It’s just a matter of how and when at this point. They crave the opportunity to “kavanaugh” him to such an extent that Maggie Haberman is writing story after story about the poor guy’s character flaws since birth. The risk is, of course, that things will get out of control because, well, Donald Fucking Trump is a ranting lunatic.

The clock is ticking.

I welcome feedback. If you ain’t got haters, you ain’t poppin.

migukin (at) gmail (dot) com.

Fuck MAGA. Fuck Trump.

Trump Whistleblower Pandamonium Cheat Sheet

Truth.
Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Right now, deep in the dark bowls of the fascist Republican Party, an army of oppo men are digging through the bio of the Trump whistleblower. They know they have a deadline — when the House has its first serious impeachment vote.

There goal is to end stop the vote altogether or to blunt its impact in the eyes of the base.

So, here’s what to look for today.

— Does Trump just…tweet it out?
Does he get really excited and simply start ranting about the poor guy the moment he finds out who it is? He doesn’t care that it’s against the law to do so, he may simply start ranting about it without even thinking about it. Remember, all that matters is power for power’s sake and messaging the base. Everyone, and everything, else can fuck off.

— How cocky are House Republicans today?
The reason why I think the name is going to pop out far sooner today than we realize is it gives House Republicans something to pivot to whenever they’re asked about Trump’s many, many, MANY crimes. So, they’re going to either be really cocky or they’re going to be chomping at the bit to talk about the guy…which is why I think Trump’s going to make it easy for them to do it. Things may grow extremely surreal when what Republicans think is going to happen — that impeachment comes to a grinding halt — does not, in fact, happen.

— The public’s reaction
Usually, it takes 24 hours for us to be able to gauge the public’s reaction. There’s a chance that Nancy Pelosi may sense some nervousness in her caucus and delay the vote — and maybe never even hold it. It will be just like after the “bad optics” of Mueller’s testimony . We’ll know Trump’s a criminal but there simply won’t be the political will to do anything about it….AGAIN. It may be she chokes for no other reason than she needs time to whip her caucus to keep going.

And, just for the record, if you’re some sort of dipshit fuck face MAGA person reading this gleefully — fuck you, you fucking piece of shit.

Bonfire Of The Vanities — The Trump Whistleblower’s Name As 2019’s ‘Blue Dress’

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

So how does it happen? How does this poor guy’s name bounce into the mainstream media? The only reason why I think it’s going to happen within 24 hours is Republicans want to be able to rant about it as the House does its first serious impeachment vote.

The closest approximation in the past to what’s going on is the window between when Matt Drudge reported the Blue Dress and when it bounced into the mainstream press. The Blue Dress was the first time when there was a pretty big difference between what “normal” people knew and what people with Internet access knew. In fact, I think this is a prime example of how history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

There are likely too endgames. Either Trump doxes the guy tomorrow in a manic tweet storm, or it slowly builds to a boil during the course of the day. Just about the time the actual vote happens, the guy’s name will be widely known enough that Republicans will scream at the top of the lungs that it’s all a Deep State plot on the part of Joe Biden and why isn’t Hunter Biden in jail yet?

This is where things may get interesting. About 35% of the electorate will think that impeachment is over. We know the whistleblower is just a partisan hack and so that means Trump’s politically pardoned AGAIN, right? He can get on the phone with MBS in Saudi Arabia, Little Rock Man in North Korea or Putin in Russia and have them directly hack into our election systems without anyone caring, right? Meanwhile the rest of the electorate will, after about 24 hours of processing this bullshit, be ready to rock and roll.

This will be a very tragic and surreal moment in our nation’s political history because when what 35% of the electorate thinks should happen, doesn’t happen, they’re going to freak out. And the one person likely to freak out the most is Trump himself. That’s why I think he will get so worked out about who the whistleblower is, that he may say what to him is a throwaway line, but to some crazed MAGA person is a, “Hey, go kill that guy for me, ok?”

I honestly don’t know what is going to happen. While messaging to the base for fascist Republicans is far, far, easier now, the average non-MAGA person is not going to follow their weird logic whereby if someone is connected to your political enemy, you somehow are granted immunity to whatever crime you commited.

I guess theoretically it could go either way. But, I don’t know. I think even Chris Wallace MIGHT have a tough time giving Trump a political pardon on this one. And, yet, maybe not. Maybe I’m so wrapped up in the anti-Trump mob mentality of Twitter I’m missing something obvious about Nancy Pelosi’s political calculations.

Maybe Trump will be on the phone with Putin Friday afternoon, bragging about how he bested Nancy Pelosi yet again and how he is looking forward to Putin hacking into our election system….again.

Wargaming The Coming Trump Whistleblower Clusterfuck

This is America.
Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Some observations.

This news broke the night before the first serious impeachment vote. This gives all House Republicans more than enough cover to vote against it.

Republicans may have learned the wrong lesson from the Mueller Report. They think this will drain support for impeachment. They think everything will go back to normal and Trump will be politically pardoned AGAIN so he can turn around and to exactly the same shit by Friday afternoon. While this is — I guess – at least a possibility, it seems at least from what I can tell that the impeachment train has, in fact, left the station.

There’s a real danger Trump is both so stupid and so craven that he will tweet out a 21 Century version of, “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” He will “accidently” dox the poor guy and he ends up dead. The Republican talking points will be three fold. Trump was “joking,” he can’t be held responsible for the actions of a mentally ill person, and we have to end the impeachment process because people are starting to die.

This may work with The New York Times‘ Maggie Haberman for about 24 hours. But I suspect that this won’t hold much water with the average person who is isn’t on Twitter and is too busy paying their mortgage to care about impeachment. Should there be any type of impeachment-related violence then guess who most people will hold responsible — it’s not going to be Nancy Pelosi. Though you know that’s exactly what every Republican is going to scream at the top of their lungs. I guess it might work? But I have at least a modicum of faith in my fellow Americans not to fall for that bullshit.

But, really, the battle lines are now drawn. Either you are so partisan that you think it’s “game over” for impeachment because the whistleblower worked with Joe Biden and Susan Rice as part of his job, or you don’t. Either you believe in the rule of law, or your a Republican MAGA fascist.

We’re entering the political equivalent of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Two Tribes video. This is now a political war for the ages. I still suspect that Trump is going to completely lose his fucking mind in a rather spectacular fashion before all of this is over. But I could be wrong.

Buckle up.

We May Be In For An Epic ‘Holy Shit’ Moment In Regards To The Trump Whistleblower

Oh boy.

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

So. It appears as though the mouth breathing, knuckle dragging MAGA people have finally gotten their wish — the identity of the whistleblower. I don’t know this for a fact yet, because even though “Real Clear Investigations” claim to have out him, his name isn’t trending yet.

But the issue is — if it’s true, then it gives Trump supporters something to scream about other than the massive number of crimes Trump has committed. All they will do now is try to “kavanagh” him by ranting about his character, or personal political ties, or whatever. They know that as long as the base can “own the moment” in a conversation online, it’s a win for them.

The endgame for MAGA is his death. They want him murdered. They’re so wrapped up in the House Trump cult, that they’re not exactly thinking clearly. Their thirst for blood will overshadow some pretty basic….uhhhh….political considerations? They’re not doing 8 dimensional chest, they’re barely grunting. Any energy they can expend ranting about the nature of the whistleblower is time and energy they don’t have to spend defending the indefensible on Trump’s part.

They want the average person to know more about the whistleblower’s entire life story than what we now have Trump dead-to-rights on. And, so, Trump is likely to survive politically…as long as the whistleblower isn’t murdered in cold blood after a Trump tweet on the subject. Then things get a little bit more dicey for House Trump.

In a sense, the battle lines are now drawn. On one hand, you have 60% of the electorate who are growing more more alarmed by Trump’s vast criminal activity, and on the other hand you will have 40% of the electorate who will seethe with rage against the fact that the whistleblower came for — for any reason — to attest to these crimes.

I don’t know if I should be frightened or just resigned. Honestly, at this point I find myself thinking about how, exactly, I might escape death in an ICE camp at some point in Trump’s second administration.

Wish me luck.

The Tragedy Of Trump’s Impeachment

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Trump’s impeachment is a tragedy. But not in the way that the insane fascists who continue to defend him would have you believe. It’s a tragedy because what should happen, won’t happen and yet Trump has to be impeached for history’s sake, if nothing else. In other words, Trump — at least as of right now — is going to get acquitted by the Senate because political tribalism in America has reached the point where there are two political worlds at cross purposes in America.

There’s the 35% MAGA electorate who feels so disenfranchised that willfully accept a government of grifters who run the nation like a smash-and-grab operation simply because they enjoy drinking liberal tears. Meanwhile, everyone else is astonished at the level of systemic criminality in the Trump Administration and struggle to understand why MAGA is willing to burn everything to the ground to protect a very lucky moron.

At this point, anyone who argues against impeachment either has some sort of vested interest in House Trump or they’re not working in good faith. Given that Trump is accused specifically of election meddling, the idea that we should “let the people decide” Trump’s fate is completely irrational. It doesn’t matter how long it takes (within reason) Trump has to be given due Constitutional process and convicted. If he’s not, he will be politically pardoned AGAIN and will grow even more brazen. Are we supposed to just sit back and let Trump bribe individual electors then pardon them? I mean, strictly speaking, in the eyes of fascist Republicans, such behavior would not be impeachable because “abuse of power is not illegal.”

So we’re going to have hearings. Both sides will make their case. Trump will be caught dead-to-rights for an array of “high crimes” that should remove him from office…and nothing will happen. Republicans will stand fast, babble about “letting the people decide” and then cackle in the darkness as Trump lurches towards full-blown Putin autocracy. That’s the point, that’s what they want. A Constitutional Convention will be called at some point in Trump’s second term and American Carnage will be codified. The ICE Camps will be weaponized and thousands of political prisoners will die in them.

And, so, really, impeachment is more about how we want history to remember us as a Republic. Did we submit to tyranny, or did we go down fighting?

Republicans Are Fascists

Not well.
Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Sometimes macro political trends are not obvious until after they’re complete. But the current impeach process has sped up some significant macro trends in American political life to the point that one thing is definitely clear: Republicans are fascists.

What I mean by this is they no longer believe in liberal democracy or civil society. Really, the only thing that has to happen at this point is a car bomb go off in Times Square and a MAGA person claim credit for it. Once Republicans go on TV to say that the impeachment process has to end because of the violence, they’re fascist. If their first reaction isn’t “Holy shit, what have we done,” but “People dying means a political victory for us” then, well, that’s all she wrote.

It doesn’t have to be a car bomb. Trump could dox the whistleblower on Twitter and tell MAGA to “teach him a lesson.” The list goes on.

The most unsettling issue of all of this is that it’s an institutional thing. There’s no going back. Republicans are prepared to defend Der Fuhrer for any legal transgression. When you reach that point of political devotion, there are going to be massive consequences no matter what the ultimate endgame of impeachment.

In other words, we all have to take a deep breath and take what’s happening seriously. Republicans are hell bent on an institutional level to turn America into nothing more than a Putin-style “manage democracy.” They will lie. They will cheat. They will encourage and embrace violence. Republicans want a nation where plutocrats pay not taxes, there’s no middle class and pretty big chunks of the Constitution are a dead letter.

The more I think about it, the more I believe Trump’s big second term goal is a Constitutional Convention. He will want to codify American Carnage into the Constitution to prep the way for Kris Kobach, or Tom Cotton or Don Jr to finish the job he started.

I have no hope that there’s anything we can do to prevent this from happening. In the short term, maybe, just maybe, Republicans will overreach and we MIGHT get one sold presidential cycle where we can all breath a sigh of relief. But that’s very, very iffy. More likely, Trump will be acquitted, he will far more brazen about everything and the ICE camps will be weaponized. A rouge Constitutional Convention will completely revamp the document.

There might be a little bit of a death rattle here and there. But the center-Left is simply too unorganized and divided to do anything, in real terms, about what is about to happen.

Goodnight, and good luck.

Trump’s ‘This Is Fine’ Gotterdammerung Defense

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

It appears as though Fascist Republicans settling on a very Putinesque defense of Trump going into the actual official impeachment process. Their messaging into this crucial moment in Trump’s administration is literally the “This is fine” meme. They want the average person to shrug at this egregious abuse of power because “everyone does it” and because Trump did not do something as explicit as the “smoking gun” of the Nixon tapes that, well, lulz.

There are a number of other related defenses involving social media that Trump-friendly people tell themselves to allow a good night sleep, as well. The chief of these being that only because of the excesses of partisan social media is what Trump even a big deal. Other presidents over the years did the same or worse and we just did not know about it or care. This plays into the Stormy Daniels playbook of scandal management quite well.

As I have repeatedly said, a sign that Trump is not, in fact, a political genius is how badly he’s bungling House Trump’s messaging of what he did. If he was smart — which he is not — he would take the L on impeachment itself and hang back for his acquittal in the Senate. All that’s required is a modicum of self-discipline. Don’t get mad. Don’t freak out. And don’t rile people up unnecessarily. Unfortunately for Trump’s allies, he is not known for have any of these traits.

On a strictly political level, House Trump’s, “This is fine,” defense, which aims to frame what Trump did as “bad” but not impeachable is a pretty safe bet. If you essentially tell people in absolute terms that in the end the interpretation of what Trump did should be done through the prism of partisan politics, then, well, Trump survives. There’s no sexxy tape of Trump saying something anything impossible to spin, so lulz. Trump’s acquitted by the Senate and free to turn around and do the exact same thing he was just aquitted for within 24 hours. He will be even more brazen with it, however, because when he inevitably gets caught AGAIN, Republicans will say, “You’re just out to get Trump. Let the people decide.”

And then Trump bribes individual Electors. Or the Russians hack directly into our election systems and change votes. Or Barr indicts Trump’s Democrat opponent in Oct. 2020. We will be nothing more than a Russian-style “managed democracy.” House Trump really will be The Thousand Year Trump and Trump’s vision of American Carnage becomes a reality.

So what could go wrong?

Trump.

While I suppose Gold Boy Jared might be able to stick some thorazine into Trump at some point, Trump is probably going to freak the fuck out at the prospect of even being impeached. He will become transactional with his Twitter offices, telling people what he wants them to do. When people start dying, Republicans will turn around and say, lulz, we can’t impeach Trump because people are starting to get hurt. While the prospect of people essentially dying to save the Dear Leader may make Fox News viewers spooge their pants, for a lot of average Americans who otherwise are raising their kids this would be very, very uncool. They are likely to grow quite alarmed and the pace of impeachment will grow faster, not slower. When the average person is shook awake at what’s happening to their otherwise peaceful nation at the hands of a deranged version of Being There’s Chauncey Gardner, Trump’s fire break of public indifference is likely to evaporate.

Or if Trump goes batshit insane in a very public manner, that, too, is another non-political problem that Republicans will have to deal with. And they’ll defend it without blinking an eye. Trump shooting out a dick pic on Twitter. Or spewing racist obscenities during press conferences will get a big old lulz from Republican leaders. Or they’ll just not comment. If there’s any doubt that Republicans are old fashion fascists now, the fact that this scenario is, while worst case, is not really all that hysterical, gives a good indication of how true my assessment is.

So, as of right now, Trump is probably going to get aquitted. If you frame the facts of the case as an absolute partisan issue then there can be no other endgame. And there does seem to be some indication that Trump is finally letting the Adults handle messaging. Having said all that, there are also a lot of unknowns.

All I gotta say, is, for Trump to actually be convicted in the Senate, the bolts are going to have to start popping of American civil society in some rather unexpected and spectacular ways. We’re going to ender a surreal period in our nation’s political history when anything, anything can happen and does happen on a minute-by-minute basis.

Buckle up.

Republican Fascism & Shutting Down The Government As A Trump Gotterdammerung Impeachment Strategy

Buckle up.
Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

The thing about Mueller’s testimony to Congress being such a dud is both sides learned the wrong lesson. House Trump got cocky. They thought they could begin the second, more sinister phase of Trumplandia without anyone doing anything about it. The Trump opposition, meanwhile, began to think Trump was simply a political force of nature that they could never defeat.

But, guess what — Trump is a self-own artist.

It’s darkly humorous how eager Maggie Haberman of The New York Times is to say in a quiet, droll tone how Trump is using his native Leadership Principle abilities to subtly influence various portions of the electorate with his political genius.

This, of course, is complete and total horseshit. Trump’s a barely functioning human being much less some sort of modern day Machiavelli. What Trump is, is very, very lucky. Someone like Trump was bound to pop up at some point between 2016 and 2024, it was just a matter of whom. And, really, I grow ever more concerned about who will be Trump’s fascist successor than I am he himself — not that he’s not an autocrat wannabe. As Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare once quipped, “Trump’s malevolence is only mitigated by his incompetence.” Or something along those lines.

The Real Trump.

In other words, Trump’s nothing more than a deranged version of Being There’s Chauncey Gardner. That’s it. That’s all that’s going on. This brings us to some potential gotterdammerung impeachment strategies on the part of House Trump. I see these likely happening for no other reason than Trump is hysterical the thought of simply being impeached. When he faces a trial in the Senate, his mental state is likely to explode, not implode. We may face weeks of a demonstrable insane person running the government until the painfully slow wheels of government get around to convicting Trump — not really on the matter at hand, buth is extremely unstable mental state. (The 25th Amendment is a dead letter for the time being.)

Anyway, one of these potential gotterdammerung impeachment strategies is holding the government hostage. House could shut the government down and simply say, “You don’t get your government back until you end the impeachment process.”

This will, for about 24 hours, dominate the impeachment narrative. Maggie Haberman will coo at Trump’s political genius. The MAGA talking heads of FOX will huzzah. And, honestly, it might work given how fucked up the world is right now.

But it might not.

As it sinks in to the average person what is going on, there’s a decent chance this won’t slow impeachment down at all. It will, in fact, only heighten the sense of urgency and build pressure for conviction. This would go with my general belief that if Trump is convicted, it won’t even be because of the actual politics of what he’s accused of doing — it will be his complete and total mishandling of House Trump’s reacting to the impeachment process.

Another, more ominous, potential gotterdammerung impeachment strategy is Trump becomes transactional in his Twitter offenses. He starts to tell people what he wants them to do, in other words. He doxes the Whistleblower and “jokingly” tells people to “teach him a lesson.” Or a few carbomb’s explode in New York City with pro-Trump people claiming credit. Again, initially, things will be on House Trump’s side because generally a lot of people do not want Trump to be convicted. A lot of very powerful people — on both sides of the political spectrum — have a vested interest in Trumplandia lasting a full eight years.

But…

There’s also a good chance that once the shot wears off, the average American who to date has been pretty blase about impeachment will freak the fuck out. This is yet ANOTHER example of how Trump is not what Maggie Haberman would have you believe — Trump’s political firebreak is apathy. If people start dying in some last-gasp gotterdammerung impeachment strategy on the part of rabid Republicans, there’s a pretty good chance the average moderate American might stop thinking about raising their kids and paying their mortgage long enough to demand Trump be convicted by the Senate as soon as fucking possible.

I would say the most important thing to remember is the country can not withstand this much political turmoil without something really fucking bad happening. I simply can’t case out the endgame right now. And whatever the endgame is, we’re in a new political era. We will no longer be in the post-9/11 Era, we will be in either the American Carnage Era or the Post-Trump Era.

Ivanka Trump’s Political Future

Vice President Ivanka Trump?
Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I am not prepared to believe Trump finally faces an existential threat, at least on a political level. Politically, he’s fine. The Republican Party is now the fascist Trump Party and he is likely to be acquitted on the facts before us and go about his merry way. He will bribe individual Electors, get Russia to directly hack into our election systems or he will simply get Bill Barr to indict his opponent in Oct. 2020.

But let’s daydream. What if Trump loses his mind during the process of impeachment or, say, there’s MAGA violence that makes the average person so furious with House Trump that Der Fuhrer finally meets his political match — himself. Who would President Pence pick as his Veep?

This is a far more complicated question than you may at first imagine. Pence wants to use the MAGA base to win two full terms on his own. So, it’s unlikely he would pick someone like Nikki Haley because she’s, well, not a Trump. That leaves Ivanka and Don Jr. The reason why I doubt it would be Don Jr. despite his popularity with the MAGA base is he’s such an outlandish hothead that he would likely use his position as veep to challenge Pence for the 2020 Republican nomination.

That leaves Ivanka.

It’s likely Ivanka would be nominated and confirmed by the Senate at lightning speed the moment Trump was somehow finally physically dragged out of the Oval Office. Pence would see Ivanka as the “safe” member of House Trump that would help him on a number of different levels. Ivanka as his veep would reassure MAGA as to his fidelity to House Trump. He would get to name the first woman — and Jewish — veep in American history.

Really, given how little the veep position really does, Ivanka is pretty much perfect for the job. You could pace out any number of different nightmare scenarios involving unintended consequences to this move, but that’s pushing it. Ivanka is an example of someone who thinks that the are “owed” something simply because of their connection to someone who paved the way. She’s in a curious political position because her bonkers brother is far more appealing to the MAGA base, while she herself is at least superficially someone who might for a heartbeat bring the nation together. The moment it sank in how bad she was on a practical level, the usual political divide we inhabit would kick in again.

Put another way — not even Ivanka could coast to the Republican nomination in any traditional manner. Her only real shot at ever becoming president would be if Pence somehow magically found enough shame to resign in disgrace. I just don’t see that happening. Pence at this point is more likely to do exactly what Trump would do only with a theocratic bent to it.

But I do suggest you keep an eye on Ivanka. If there was some sort of last-ditch effort at having a compacted resignation on Trump’s part (this will never happen) then maybe Ivanka-as-veep might be a bargaining chip desperate Republicans might use to coax a reluctant Trump out of office. Or, maybe they might use her as veep on a more basic level — to simply get Trump physically out of the Oval Office should he miraculously be convicted by the Senate.