# Cohen's warning **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 1, 2019, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364 "2019-03-01T03:23:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/61 "2019-03-03T03:09:59Z")
Not to be a Junior Mod, but shouldn’t threads about warnings go in ATMB? I’ma report this thread for relocation, then settle back and read it… ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/62 "2019-03-03T03:11:28Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > One way would be to facilitate Russian interference in the 2020 election—this time to the point of actually changing vote totals in the machines. I think there’s around a 50/50 chance that Trump will get re-elected in 2020 due to widespread fraud (with or without Russian interference). But 2024? I don’t think even the Republicans will be able to steal a third term. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/63 "2019-03-03T03:21:24Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > This reasoning is mentioned [under “TFTSTHAN” on this webpage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies#Propositional_fallacies) or [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TFTSTHAN). Where? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/64 "2019-03-03T03:27:46Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Not to be a Junior Mod, but shouldn’t threads about warnings go in ATMB? > > I’ma report this thread for relocation, then settle back and read it… Okay, nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/65 "2019-03-03T23:29:13Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I think there’s around a 50/50 chance that Trump will get re-elected in 2020 due to widespread fraud (with or without Russian interference). > > But 2024? I don’t think even the Republicans will be able to steal a third term. If the GOP gets in again in 2020 due to widespread fraud (Russian or otherwise), then the odds that there will be elections _at all_ in 2024 go way down. Or if there are any, they will be of the banana-republic/Putinesque “95% of votes were for Our Leader” variety. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/66 "2019-03-04T01:09:41Z")
I like to think that in the worst case, he would not be hauled out of the Executive Mansion in handcuffs or a straight jacket. I prefer to think if it reaches that level, once the sedation took effect, he’d be hauled out on a gurney to an ambulance to a mental health facility. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/67 "2019-03-04T01:17:06Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > If the GOP gets in again in 2020 due to widespread fraud (Russian or otherwise), then the odds that there will be elections _at all_ in 2024 go way down. > > Or if there are any, they will be of the banana-republic/Putinesque “95% of votes were for Our Leader” variety. I think they’re too smart to do away with elections entirely. Folks do love that pageantry of a contest and all that. Too many people focus on the regimes of Hitler and the like and don’t realize that what we’d be far more likely to see is “Fascism-American Style” (Sounds like the title for a bad TV series, doesn’t it?) in which all the forms are followed but the substance is lacking. And as far as hacking in 2020 goes, there is the fact that a big fat zero has been done to secure the elections against foreign interference. But once you leave the door open there’s no telling who’s gonna walk in. The Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, the Israelis, the North Koreans, the Albanians, for Christ’s sake. You’d thing that folks who are sooooo concerned with “voter fraud” would want to see the American President actually picked by _Americans_, but nooooooo. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/68 "2019-03-04T01:44:55Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > And as far as hacking in 2020 goes, there is the fact that a big fat zero has been done to secure the elections against foreign interference. But once you leave the door open there’s no telling who’s gonna walk in. The Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, the Israelis, the North Koreans, the Albanians, for Christ’s sake. You’d thing that folks who are sooooo concerned with “voter fraud” would want to see the American President actually picked by _Americans_, but nooooooo. Americans are hackers too. Maybe the next president will be decided by a 300 pound guy living in his mother’s basement. What’s more american than that? ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/69 "2019-03-04T03:48:34Z")
I’m more worried that Trump will actually win re-election – legitimately. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/70 "2019-03-04T15:49:27Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I can see the latter happening. > > Maybe this, but thump will not want to take a chance on being seen as a loser. > Thanks to all who played for humoring me on the “will he or won’t he?” thing. Geez, we’re now officially a banana republic. Your hypothetical left out perhaps the nuttiest visual of all. If Trump was indeed refusing to leave the White House on January 20, \*of course \*he’d set up a mini-inauguration of his own in the Oval Office at noon, competing with the actual ceremony in front of the Capitol (and broadcast on Fox News). And he’d claim his inauguration had far more audience members there in the Oval than there were out on the Mall. > [@Velocity](#): > > IIRC, on Jan. 3, the new Congress hasn’t taken office yet so it would still be a 53-47 Republican majority. I could see a substantial number of Republican senators voting with the blues on this one, though. I believe the new Congress is sworn in and takes office on January 3 every two years. Certification of the election results would be by the new Congress. I’m almost positive about that. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/71 "2019-03-04T16:15:34Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > I’m more worried that Trump will actually win re-election – legitimately. Back in July 2016, when Clinton was ahead by close to 20 points in the polls, my wife visited her overwhelmingly “blue-collar-union-member-but-fairly-progressive-on-social-issues” relatives. She came back saying, “Trump could win.” So, yeah, I’m also worried Trump could win re-election because people vote for him, and not just because someone cheats, manipulates, suppresses or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/72 "2019-03-04T16:15:43Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Now, something I CAN see… if a Democrat wins in November 2020, I can see thump vacating the White House the very next day in a ginormous tantrum. And I can see him ordering everything he installed in the OO and in the family quarters to be removed and hauled off to a dump or maybe burned on the WH lawn (okay, probably not that). Gold curtains, gold bathroom fixtures, etc. I can definitely see that. But I can’t see him leaving quietly and with dignity like a grown-up with class. Why would he stop with the stuff he installed? He’s a real estate guy. When there’s a tenant/landlord dispute that results in the tenant leaving or being evicted, it’s not uncommon for the tenant to totally trash the place before he goes. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/73 "2019-03-04T16:20:12Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The White House is a non-issue. Living in the White House does not make you President. If Trump loses the 2020 election (or is impeached) he will cease to be President on a certain date and somebody else will be President. If Trump is still living in the White House after that, he’ll be doing so as a guest. **He’ll no longer have any authority beyond choosing what he wants for breakfast.** He can’t issue executive orders and declare national emergencies or veto laws. He’ll revert back to being an annoyance rather than a serious problem. If Fox wants to pay him to whine on TV, so what? We already have dozens of people doing that. (Bolding mine.) I don’t think he’ll have even that much authority. Doesn’t the White House domestic staff work for the President? I can imagine him waiting for someone to come take his order, and then storming into the kitchen to scream he wants his Egg McMuffin and Diet Coke, only to be met by blank stares and a quiet statement: “We don’t work for you.” ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/74 "2019-03-05T15:05:05Z")
[Robert Reich](https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBUnrRI?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare) on the topic _what if thump refuses to leave office_: > [@](#): > > Among the most chilling words uttered last month by Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, were “given my experience working for Mr. Trump I fear that if he loses the election in 2020 that there will never be a peaceful transition of power, and this is why I agreed to appear before you today.” > … > > Trump’s emissaries have already seeded the battlefield. Last April, Sean Hannity of Fox News predicted that an attempt to impeach Trump (or presumably remove him from office any other way) would cause “fighting and dividing this country at a level we’ve never seen … those that stand for truth and those that literally buy into the corrupt deep state attacks against a duly elected president.” > > Trump’s former consiglieri, Roger Stone, has warned of “an insurrection like you’ve never seen” and claimed that any politician who voted to oust Trump “would be endangering their own life.” > > Just last month, Steve Bannon, another of Trump’s bottom feeders, predicted that “2019 is going to be the most vitriolic year in American politics since the Civil War, and I include Vietnam in that.” He didn’t make a prediction about 2020, but we can guess. > > We should take seriously Michael Cohen’s admonition that if Trump is defeated in 2020, he will not leave office peacefully. > > Republican leaders as well as Supreme Court justices and civic and religious leaders across the land must be prepared to assert the primacy of our system of government over the will of the man who refuses to lose. > … “Would be endangering their [sic] own life”?? WTF?? ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/75 "2019-03-05T15:29:29Z")
“an insurrection like you’ve never seen” They can claim this type of bullshit all they want. Just keep in mind that the people who would be involved in such an insurrection are the tiki torch douchebags and 4chan trolls. Nothing to fear. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/76 "2019-03-05T15:31:37Z")
Can’t edit. Also, the one’s making these claims sure do have a way of going to prison. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/77 "2019-03-05T15:35:16Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Trump’s former consiglieri, Roger Stone, That makes Roger Stone Trump’s Silvio Dante! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/78 "2019-03-05T15:39:27Z")
But the Antifa… ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/79 "2019-03-05T15:55:27Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > [Robert Reich](https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBUnrRI?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare) on the topic _what if thump refuses to leave office_: > > “Would be endangering their [sic] own life”?? WTF?? What’s the [sic] for? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364/80 "2019-03-05T16:40:39Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > What’s the [sic] for? 😕 The sentence appears in the article as > [@](#): > > Trump’s former consiglieri, Roger Stone, has warned of “an insurrection like you’ve never seen” and claimed that any politician who voted to oust Trump “would be endangering their own life.” In this part > [@](#): > > any politician who voted to oust Trump “would be endangering their own life.” “their” should be “his” or “her” or both, since the antecedent is the singular “any.” I know these days we use _their_ (plural) because nobody wants to use the technically correct singular _his_, but I’m not lettin’ Stone get away with anything. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohens-warning/830364.md?page=5)