What happens if the Mueller investigation is stopped?

[_Hawkeye]

I'm not convinced we'll ever know what Mueller's team knows even if the investigation goes unabated. I'm far less convinced if it is prematurely ended. The team likely still is discovering new information, so any premature ending of the investigation may keep information forever in the dark.

Well that's pretty depressing. So what's all the hoopla of the Mueller investigation about if Trump can just have him fired and keep the information secret forever? The GOP obviously doesn't care about upholding the Constitution, otherwise they would have impeached Trump long ago.

[Guest]

Well. People need to vote. It's as simple as that. The GOP and the President need to be held accountable at the polls. To quote Napolean, "Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake."
- Doc

Gerrymandering kinda neutralizes the voting threat to the GOP's toxic agenda.

It just blows my mind how they've managed to undermine our democracy lately. They refused to confirm Obama's supreme court appointee so Trump could put a young religious nut on the bench who is likely to be there 3-4 more decades. They've gerrymandered the living crap out of congressional districts across the country to where the Dems would probably need to get 80% of all votes in order to obtain a majority in Congress. HC beat Trump by 3 million votes because states like New York and California aren't allotted enough electoral votes, effectively making a red vote from South Dakota worth three times as much as a blue vote.

I googled "who gerrymanders the most" and got this really, really good hit:

http://election.princeton.edu/2012/12/3 ... o-it-myth/

TL;DR - You're right, and science proves it. And it's a lot larger than what we think it is.

The Supreme Court said that the people of each state can have a ballot initiative for an independent group to draw up the districts. That can be done now. The People don’t have to wait until 2020.

[_moksha]

The Supreme Court said that the people of each state can have a ballot initiative for an independent group to draw up the districts. That can be done now. The People don’t have to wait until 2020.

Even if it is on the ballot, States with a Republican majority can vote it down.

[_EAllusion]

The Wisconsin gerrymandering case will have a decision by the summer. It's probably going to be a 5-4 in favor of curtailing gerrymandering with Kennedy the swing vote, but it's still uncertain. If Garland was appointed, it would've been a guaranteed victory, so that alone speaks to the significance of Trump's election.

Hawkeye - It's hard to estimate how many votes Democrats need to exceed Republicans by to take a raw majority in Congress. That's because fluidity of candidate strength at the district level. This year, common estimates are low as 4% and high as 9%. Right now Dems are up around 8ish percent in the national preference polling, which suggests a coin-flip chance of taking the House.

Those numbers seem small, so what you have to wrap your head around is that a victory of even a couple of % in national preference is a solid victory in American politics. Clustering and active gerrymandering has created a situation where Republicans can lose badly for what occurs in ordinary American politics and still control everything. Dems theoretically could win by 8% and still lose the House. 8% is a legitimate landslide swing.

[_EAllusion]

I see that Trump is attacking Mueller again this morning. I don't know if I would've guessed this, but others have been keen to point out yesterday is the first time he mentioned Mueller by name in a tweet. This is the next phase of attack.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Trump is just a sack of crap. I'm reading various comments from GOP'ers telling Trump to back off. We'll see.

- Doc

[_subgenius]

The Supreme Court said that the people of each state can have a ballot initiative for an independent group to draw up the districts. That can be done now. The People don’t have to wait until 2020.

Even if it is on the ballot, States with a Republican majority can vote it down.

The gerrymander issue is yet another distraction by DNC in an effort to distract their base from the fact that they have no platform to attract votes.
Ask yourself, what do governorships and Senate seats have in common?
They cannot be gerrymandered.

When Dems lose a statewide election, which they have done a lot of, "gerrymandering" ain't the boogeyman.
Simply put, the DNC has lost touch not just with the white working class but with a much broader segment of voters.

The DNC current ploy over gerrymandering is yet another indictment on their larger political failure.

[_Hawkeye]

The DNC current ploy over gerrymandering is yet another indictment on their larger political failure.

Ploy? It is a statement of fact that should bother anyone who cares about the integrity of our representative democracy. It is also a fact that voter suppression laws have had a negative effect on Dem voter turnout. It is also a fact, revealed just today, that illegal tactics using social media have been used by the Trump campaign to manipulate voters.

But you don't care about any of this because you're a political shill for the Right who cares about nothing so long as his team is in power and they're in a position to cheat in order to stay in power. Your remark about dems failing to get enough votes smacks of ignorance since they regularly get more votes and yet Republicans win more congressional seats due to gerrymandering. Your comment about the Senate also smacks of ignorance since it is the reason why Republicans only have 51% of the Senate as opposed to 56% of the House. Governorships are irrelevant. The Governor of California alone governs more people in his state than 25 Republican Governors do from Red States like South Dakota and Idaho.

How Republicans Lost the Vote and Won the House

"But Republicans also benefitted from the way the districts were drawn in large swing states. There were four states without any uncontested races—Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—where the Democratic candidates received a majority of the votes but Republican candidates won a majority of the seats. Republicans got just 49% of the vote in those four states, but won 36 seats while Democrats won just 17. That's about 10 more seats than Republicans would have been expected to win on the basis of the vote totals alone."

[_AmyJo]

The Dems are planning to impeach Trump regardless of whether Trump fires Mueller, after they take back the house in November.

Trump's firing Mueller only makes it worse for himself (obstructing justice.) Every time he tweets he's giving fuel to the prosecution. Because he's a dumbass. He was smart enough to get elected.

He isn't smart enough to keep his mouth shut. He keeps digging the hole a little deeper each time he tweets.

He's coming unraveled between the Mueller investigation and now the Stormy Daniels affair shining a floodlight on his corruption.

His son Donald Jr and wife Vanessa filed for divorce this past Thursday. His family is coming unglued because of all the lies and shenanigans they keep spinning pretending everything is "normal." Vanessa likely woke up and realized her husband is a minnie me version of his dad. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors? But if he's anything like his father, she's seen enough already.

Will Melania be next, I wonder? With Stormy bringing down the [White] House, it is possible Melania has had her fill of her sleaze bag husband. Pre-nupitals or no pre-nupitals. One thing discussed this morning on news was that one reason Trump wanted to keep his affair with Stormy hushed is because of his pre-nupital with Melania. This may be the leverage she needs to make it null and void if she decides to sue him for divorce.

The Trumps are coming apart at the seams! Javanka is the next to go. It makes for a most unstable presidency. We are on the brink of something cataclysmic unless the Congress acts quickly to protect us from the President who is unhinged. Waiting for the mid-terms may be too late. They are irresponsible!

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

https://www.msnbc.com/kasie-dc/watch/se ... 9103683563

Small clip - Senator Van Hollen, "Trump is acting very guilty."

- Doc