Honestly, how much more of this incompetence and nonstop international distress do we have to endure

[butdiduvote]

Just curious how many, if any, of you think he's on his way to impeachment? Are we really stuck in this state of perpetual fear and outrage for another 4 years? Is there really no hope of admitting we messed up and ending this nightmare before the damage becomes greater and longer-lasting than it already is?

I admittedly am not that knowledgeable on the subject of impeachment, so I was hoping those who are could help give me some perspective. Do the lawyers coming out against him have any power at all beyond stopping each destructive action he takes after he does it? Do they have no say in determining whether he is unfit for office and should be impeached?

[elleng]

1. Highly unusual situation,

not exactly in the 'mold' of impeachment (High crimes and Misdemeanors,) so I'm not betting but I don't see it enduring for 4 full years.

[bdamomma]

4. High Crimes and Misdemeanors

sounds about right to me.

[elleng]

8. Right, that's what impeachment calls for but,

'prosecutors' need to prove/offer such. So start compiling those he's committed.

'High crimes and misdemeanors is a phrase from Section 4 of Article Two of the United States Constitution: "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."

"High" in the legal and common parlance of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of "high crimes" signifies activity by or against those who have special duties acquired by taking an oath of office that are not shared with common persons.[1] A high crime is one that can only be done by someone in a unique position of authority, which is political in character, who does things to circumvent justice. The phrase "high crimes and misdemeanors" when used together was a common phrase at the time the U.S. Constitution was written and did not mean any stringent or difficult criteria for determining guilt. It meant the opposite. The phrase was historically used to cover a very broad range of crimes.

The Judiciary Committee's 1974 report "The Historical Origins of Impeachment" stated: "'High Crimes and Misdemeanors' has traditionally been considered a 'term of art', like such other constitutional phrases as 'levying war' and 'due process.' The Supreme Court has held that such phrases must be construed, not according to modern usage, but according to what the framers meant when they adopted them. Chief Justice [John] Marshall wrote of another such phrase:

It is a technical term. It is used in a very old statute of that country whose language is our language, and whose laws form the substratum of our laws. It is scarcely conceivable that the term was not employed by the framers of our constitution in the sense which had been affixed to it by those from whom we borrowed it."[2]'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_crimes_and_misdemeanors

[diva77]

12. The line of successors if president is impeached...

United States presidential line of succession

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_line_of_succession

No. Office Current officer
1 Vice President Mike Pence (R)
2 Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan (R)
3 President pro tempore of the Senate Orrin Hatch (R)
4 Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R)
5 Secretary of the Treasury Adam Szubin (D)
6 Secretary of Defense James Mattis (I)
7 Attorney General Dana Boente[a]
– Secretary of the Interior Kevin Haugrud
8 Secretary of Agriculture Michael Scuse (D)[a]
9 Secretary of Commerce Kenneth E. Hyatt
10 Secretary of Labor Edward C. Hugler[a]
11 Secretary of Health and Human Services Norris Cochran[a]
12 Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Craig Clemmenson
- Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao (R)
13 Secretary of Energy Grace Bochenek
14 Secretary of Education Phil Rosenfelt
15 Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Snyder
16 Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly (I)

[democratisphere]

2. Hope it ends soon. We will all sleep alot better.

[bdamomma]

3. He is racking up some serious charges

when are the Lawyers going to present all these offenses?

[msongs]

5. oh about 3 years and 50 months is all nt

[Ms. Toad]

15. Oh please, no.

I can't take 7 more years . . . (I think you mean 50 weeks, not months )

[NewDealProgressive]

6. As much as they decide to give us.

Apparently, there's nothing that can be done about it. No one is going to stop it.

[D_Master81]

7. even if they did bring charges

even if charges ever came out, Trump aint getting impeached. You think 17 current repub senators are going to vote against him? Unless he dies in office or decides being President just isnt his thing, we have damn near 1450 more days of this minimum.

[LuvLoogie]

9. Don't fret. Just keep swinging...

Everyday, remind even just one person why you think trump sucks.

[Phoenix61]

10. Not to burst your balloon

but even if Twitler does get impeached that leaves us with Pence. Better, but still needs to be watched like a two year old. So less fear but we will need to stay keep pushing just as hard.

[butdiduvote]

13. I know.

But he will be severely hurt just by being associated with such a bad candidate from the get go. Plus, we can work on him next.

[Phoenix61]

14. And we will be organized

and have it down to an art.

[manicraven]

11. Maybe a few months ahead of the two-year mark depending on his poll numbers, if these rallies

and protests are still going on and/or if he's embarrassed the GOP enough and/or outraged Trumpsters by causing renewed economic hardship (recession that will be due to GOP/tRump policies?)--the GOP will get rid of him. Another possibility is if something comes out that can't be swept away, such as direct, irrefutable links to Putin and hacking, subsequently lying about such ties, and so on. Or, maybe if a video ever surfaces or his tax returns with something damning on top of everything else he's been doing...

Or, if he has a completely shocking meltdown that even Fox News and Trumpists can't ignore, which is possible since he's already clearly mentally unstable, ridiculously thin-skinned, in over his head, and under tremendous stress as the citizens are continuing to rise up against him and the media is now challenging him--even mocking him--and his deceitful team, the GOP would be forced to remove him, which they'd have Pence, so why not? What would they have to lose at that point? They'd probably pat themselves on the back and crow about how they stepped up and removed an unfit president and will now steady the ship, so to speak...

A lot of maybes but it's only been a couple of weeks and already he's been tearing up our alliances, such as threatening to send troops into Mexico, causing unnecessary internal havoc, tweeting like a petulant child, insulting people, continuing to lie, falling in the polls, and, most importantly, violating the Constitution (per Judge Robart who said for tRump's Muslim ban order to be constitutional, it had to be "based in fact, as opposed to fiction&quot .

When you look at the totality of things, the odds of tRump surviving politically intact for four years looks very unlikely.

[oberliner]

16. Four years, at least

There will not be impeachment. The Republicans control Congress. Not to mention that the VP is no bargain either.

In the midterms, more Democratic seats are up than Republican ones.

Not to be a downer, but it is going to take something extraordinary to end this national nightmare.

[sofa king]

17. Honestly, that's not the question to ask.

The last Worst President Ever only floundered around for eight and a half months before he dove out of the way of the worst terror attacks in our nation's history. Then he got whatever the hell he wanted for seven years.

This Worst President Ever is even more ignorant, more malevolent, and more vindictive. He's brought along a gaggle of co-conspirators who don't even know what they don't know. But you can bet your ass that they know what they want: a free hand with no interference.

Here's the thing about criminal politicians: they often look stupid because they don't give a shit about what is legal and what is not legal. They constantly run afoul of the law because to them it's merely an inconvenient obstacle between them and their objectives.

You can't paint every thing they do in the same shade of stupid. As a bully, a con-man, and a manipulator Donald Trump is very, very well practiced. Perhaps even clever.

So the question you need to be asking yourself is "what size disaster does Donald Trump need to generate in order to be forgiven for everything and to get everything he wants, and how soon must it happen?"

How many kilotons is that going to take, and when? Every day that he struggles advances the timetable, and increases the magnitude of the event he will need.