A distinction without a difference. Not realizing that the Presidency of the United States is not a level-entry political job is ignorance; attempting to treat it as such is arrogance.
Taken this from elsewhere, but it must suck to be lawful evil in a chaotic evil environment.
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I agree with this. Not to say that Trump is not also arrogant, but his predicament is largely due to his ignorance. His arrogance comes into play in his unwillingness to learn anything new.
Trump is like Brer Rabbit hitting the tar baby, and everything he’s doing is only making it worse for himself. He thinks Sessions is at fault for the Independent Prosecutor, but really the IP appointment wasn’t triggered by the Sessions recusal, it was triggered by the Comey firing and Trump announcing that it was Russia related.
So now Trump thinks he’s going to solve his problems by firing both Sessions and Mueller. Anyone with half a brain who follows politics even slightly would realize that this course of action will only magnify the pressure on Trump. But Trump himself has neither of those characteristics, and he doesn’t appreciate even such basic facts.
In a normal world, absolutely. This isn’t eleven-dimensional chess, or even one-dimensional chess, it’s just throwing the pieces around the room. If Sessions quits or gets fired then we know the reason why because Trump actually said it out loud - he’s pissed that Sessions recused himself from the investigation and didn’t quash it on Trump’s behalf.
But the “pressure” on Trump isn’t self executing. Have Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell done anything lately to suggest they’re willing to rein Trump in? Like, at all? If Trump thinks he can fire Sessions and Mueller and dare anyone to do anything about it, he may be 100% right. The Senate can try to extract promises from a new AG nominee, but those aren’t self executing either.
I don’t get your point here. Ryan and McConnell don’t appear to have done anything to rein Trump in, but Trump is still frothing at the mouth anyway. So obviously he’s feeling the heat. Question is whether whatever he’s feeling now will be ameliorated by firing Sessions and Mueller, or exacerbated. It seems obvious to me that it will be the latter, and the fact that this is not also obvious to Trump is because of his cluelessness about politics.
[It’s being reported that some of the better known possible AG replacement possibilities - i.e. Christie and Giuliani - are starting to edge away.]
I think you’re right that it won’t affect how he feels about anything, and people will still be asking questions, which is what sets him over the edge. But he seems to have lived his whole life this way. In terms of what actually threatens him, removing Sessions/Mueller could end up helping him. I suspect Mueller’s eventual report will have a bunch of really bad stuff about the Trump Organization’s finances in there, and preempting that could be worth any amount of heat from the press. Whatever it is, it’s not normal though.
Anything Mueller could dig up could also be dug up by Schneiderman or another state AG. Or another independent counsel.
The likelihood that Trump could in any way benefit from firing Mueller is infinitesimal, IMO.
It’s ignorance but it is also contempt and hostility toward that which he does not know, which is also something he has in common with many of history’s dictators. It’s not just that he doesn’t understand the system; the fact that the system doesn’t comport with his understanding of how things ought to work is itself evidence of a flaw in the system’s design. It’s like when some sourpuss tries to learn how to play chess, realizes he sucks at it because he’s never played before, but then rather than accepting this and trying to study up on how to become better, chucks the pieces across the board and says “What a stupid game! Tic-tac-toe is soooo much better”
Or, as a different meme has it, it’s like playing chess with a pigeon - the pigeon will just crap all over the board, then strut around it acting like he won.
State Attorney Generals only investigate state crimes: they don’t investigate violations of federal election laws, treason…
The expectation is that there would be no other independent counsels: the new Attorney General wouldn’t appoint one. And a Republican House and Senate wouldn’t pass legislation (and Trump is there to veto anything).
I as responding to a claim that the IC would discover “a bunch of really bad stuff about the Trump Organization’s finances”. That’s something a state AG would uncover.
I don’t think these assumptions will necessarily hold if the outrage is high enough.
But they do investigate violations of state income tax laws and other financial dealings in their states.
Preet Bharara is available, Gov. Cuomo.
Oh, btw, has Trump not realized that Private Citizen Sessions could testify at will about anything he cares to?
If JeffBo agrees to quietly depart to spend more time with his family, Trump will regretfully announce his departure while praising him for his loyalty and vision.
If Sessions ends up going, whether actually fired or simply being pressured by relentless criticism to resign, then anyone offered the job would have to be crazy to take it, or at least would have to believe that the short-term prestige of holding the position would outweigh the misery and the blow to one’s self-esteem of having Trump as a boss.
It would be sort of like agreeing to date a serial philanderer and abuser; you’d have to be able to convince yourself that he’s really going to reform, and he’s not going to treat you exactly the same way that he treated all those other people. Of course, both Christie and Giuliani seem to possess the type of relentless self-promotion and lack of concern for ethical behavior that might lead them to ignore all of that and take the job anyway.
True. One of my primary objections to Trump was his lack of experience, and and even weightier objection was his unconcern about political norms. Together, this says: “I don’t know how to work in the political arena, and I am uninterested in learning.”
I think it’s worth saying that while I agree this thinking is what hampers Trump, it’s not fatal to any idea that government should be run “like a business.” When I say that phrase, I mean there are certain aspects of private business, such as accountability by cost center, that provide useful models for governing. I don’t mean that we literally map every business reality on to a matching government function.
Both of these guys are into self-promotion (especially Christie), but I’ve seen no indication that either of them have a lack of concern about ethical behavior. YMMV.
In any event, I think the job is a better fit for a low profile guy that few people have ever heard of. A guy like that has a lot to gain by being in a high profile job like AG even for a short time, and if after a bit he gets trampled by a stampeding Trump, he’s still better off than he was when he started, and he goes on to a better career in politics, law, or possibly business.
Thing about people like Christie and Giuliani is that they’re pretty high profile already. They don’t need this job in order to become national figures. For them, there’s really only a downside, as I see it.
(bolding mine)
Just one? 
I think Giuliani is actually clueless enough to accept, without for a second thinking about the longer term consequences. The man is a fascist anyway. He’d take that ride right along into Martial Law if Trump decided to take it there.
I don’t think Sessions will resign, he’s already been replaced in the Senate and the next Senate election in Alabama isn’t until 2020. He might run for Governor, but he’s more a creature of Washington and I don’t know how that would play down here.
If President Trump is feeling mean-spirited, he’ll wait until August 16th (the day after the Primary election is held) to fire Sessions, just so he can’t try and jump back into his seat.
But Trump wouldn’t do that now, would he…?