The Firing of James Comey

James Comey was fired yesterday and this should worry people.

Now I will be the first to admit he probably didn't need to have his job anymore after his sabotage of the Clinton campaign, yes I know there were other reasons she lost, but the reality of it is if any one of those reasons weren't there she likely would have won. But the particular circumstances of this firing are certainly cause for alarm.

With regards to the man himself, I originally thought he was a shill for the Trump campaign, and his eleventh hour "reopening" of the email investigation was his way of getting in with the administration when they took office. Events since then have forced me to reconsider, I think in reality he is just really bad at politics, national politics anyway, I guess he must have had some decent chops with the Bureau to get to a position to be selected to head it, possibly it went to his head and he thought if he got his name into the public consciousness he could parley that into a Senate run or something down the line?

Whatever the reason it seems he truly didn't intend to play ball with the president regarding the FBI investigation of the campaign's links to Russia, and any goodwill he might have accrued was rapidly eroded by that.

It's clear that The Toddler does not care about the optics of the situation, which is fair as he really never cares about that shit anyway, but virtually everyone else who holds elected office has an opinion and for the most part it is pretty negative, you just don't fire the guy who is investigating you, particularly after you have already fired two other people, Preet Bharara and Sally Yates, for doing similar things. the difference of course is those two didn't head up the freaking FBI. Some are talking about this blowing up into a full fledged constitutional crisis and I can't say they are wrong to think it might.

I've been saying this for a while, and my mom thinks I am over reacting, but The Toddler has no respect for the rule of law, not as it applies to him anyway, I suspect impeachment proceedings will happen before his term is up, definitely after the midterms if not before, but I see no evidence that he would give the results of those proceedings any more respect than he has the rest of the laws and rules meant to reign in his power. So let's say the Comey firing tips the scales and articles of impeachment pass both houses and The Toddler is suddenly convicted of something, what then? I don't see him saying"Welp, ya got me!" Do you?

How do you force a president to obey the law? He doesn't care about the Republic, he doesn't care about his party, nor the dignity of his office. So what if he chooses not to go? Who arrests him? Secret Service, Washington DC police, the army? Who gives the order? What if they don't obey? After all police and the military voted pretty overwhelmingly for him. My mom trusts that there are enough sane officers out there to do what is needed, but I don't know why, those entrusted with weapons for our protection haven't precisely had a history of using them with discrimination or anything. And any dissent would be horrifying in this situation, can you imagine a mutiny in the White House among whatever unit is supposed to take him in? Even if it is a minority of the group that's still nearly unthinkable, and god help us all if it goes wrong, if The Toddler is killed during it or has enough loyalists to avoid arrest initially.

But if no one is willing to escalate that far, then how do you deal with it? Just sort of let him lurk around the White House and have Mike Pence do all the work? Maybe he sets up a government in exile in Mar-a-lago or something.

I realize this sounds far fetched, but you have to understand that the checks and balances, such as they are, in our system work only as long as those who are subject to them allow them to work, The Toddler has repeatedly denied that assorted federal judges up to and including the Supreme Court shouldn't be able to reign him in, no not shouldn't, can't reign him in. Is it such a stretch to think he will say the same thing about any body that works against him?

I am not saying live in terror, nor am I saying that we shouldn't act against him, but let's be honest with ourselves, this is an incredibly dangerous time and it's only gonna get worse. I hear rumor that he is considering resigning voluntarily because the job is hard, and honestly that would probably be the best result possible, it's what I am crossing my fingers for anyway.