Robert Kuttner of The American Prospect writes:
Kuttner on TAP
Making Russia Great Again. One of my favorite quotes is from the British historian A.J.P. Taylor, who was referring to the aborted democratic revolutions of 1848: “History reached its turning point, and failed to turn.”
Will the week of July 15, 2018, be remembered in the same way? By all rights, this should be the beginning of the end of Trump’s presidency. Republican defenders can swallow a lot, but flagrant treason is a bridge too far. Or is it?
Polls now show that increasing numbers of Americans are likely to support a Democrat for Congress, in order to rein Trump in. Even Fox News found the Putin embrace too much to swallow.
If the Republican leadership had a shred of decency and patriotism, they would go beyond the verbal distancing and begin to limit Trump’s powers. Several pieces of legislation would do just that, including bills to punish Russian behavior and to protect the Mueller investigation.
But here, Republican partisanship trumps the all but universal recognition that Trump is both a psychopath and a traitor. Despite the verbiage, Republican leaders continue to protect him.
Trump’s belated attempt at damage control—that he had garbled a double negative and had meant to say something like, “Why wouldn’t Russia meddle in our election?” rather than “Why would Russia?”—was beyond laughable; at a dozen other points in the joint press conference Trump insisted that he believed Putin’s denials.
The Republican leadership could advise Trump now that he needs to resign or face impeachment by a bipartisan effort. But Republicans fear alienating the hard-core Trump base.
So this wretched interregnum will continue a while longer, with Trump at odds with his entire administration and the national security establishment on the Putin question, yet Republicans too divided and paralyzed to act.
Trump’s latest footsie with Putin increases the odds that Democrats will win the House by a wide margin. Once Robert Mueller’s report is made public, the extent of Trump’s financial dependence on the Kremlin will become clear, as will the specifics of his collusion with Putin, and Democrats will proceed with impeachment.
Mueller is now likely to accelerate his efforts to get the report wrapped up. So yes, this week marked a turning point. But the turn will take a little while longer. ~ ROBERT KUTTNER
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It looked to me as though Trump struggled to be able to read that brief sentence. A sentence that he had time to practice. Then he spelled collusion incorrectly.
How much longer?
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This is a telling digression. My son insisted that I watch a new show in which Sasha Baron Cohen tricks politicians under false pretenses and great disguises. He starts with Bernie Cohen who believed he was talking to a legitimate person. When Bernie explains how income disparity is hurting our country, Cohen tries to confound him with a lot of number moving including moving the 99% to the 1%. Bernie looks him squarely in the eye and says,”I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Likewise, Cohen goes to Republicans to get them to support guns for young children including toddlers. Not only does he get support from them, they agree to film an advertisement for the group! It was sadly funny. The Republican party has too many members that are morally bankrupt or out of their minds. We used to call these people the “fringe,” but now they are mainstream. The Democrats have faults too, but not on this level of insanity. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/18/how-sacha-baron-cohen-fooled-the-nations-leaders-728975
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You mean Bernie Sanders?
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You’re right. Bernie Sanders.
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Let’s not get too excited about Republicans seeing the light despite their comments on Helsinki. Amazing how quickly they snap in line to pay off their masters and continue to fool their rubes.
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It should not be forgotten that in addition to the possibility of impeachment or resignation, the Vice President stays largely silent. Yes he is supposed to support the US President, but should he support Treason? The answer to this seems certainly morally clear to me and politically as well as the circumstances are so far from any moral or legal norm or precedent in history. Trump’s behavior defies reason and so Pence should take some kind of stand IN DEFENSE OF COUNTRY. But he doesn’t. He lies in wait for events to unfold. Perhaps his unspoken wishes will come true (likely in his thoughts). He should not become president if the nation were so fortunate to see Trump leave offfice… maybe “president ad interim” with lame duck powers only until a real election is held (equipped with new candidates up for part nomination etc…
I can dream … but here is what I wish… everything is turned upside down right now and this includes the laws set in place to uphold Democracy. Perhaps, now that it is conclusive that Russia meddled with the US election… perhaps it is time for drastic and necessary measures. Congress should vote to nullify the election results… YES NULLIFY because in reality we did not have “an election” given proof that foreign interference was involved. It must be made a top priority to work on the safeguarding of the election system from hackers and require a new presidential election including nominating the party candidates … given the circumstances. I CAN DREAM! Starting anew would let Russia understand just how seriously the US supports the Democratic ideals on which this nation was founded. I can dream.
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Pence is owned by the Koch Bros and their agenda. Pence will quietly wait this out because he is really the “chosen one”. We will be in a real heap of trouble when this happens.
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I’ll take Pence the theocrat over Trump the Nazi.
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Because we aren’t in a big heap of trouble now??
What would Pence do that Trump has not already done or the Republicans in Congress have not already done?
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