Whether or not all that smoke coming out of Mar-a-Lago comes from baskets of burning rubles—I personally find it difficult to believe that, for example, the GOP platform’s Ukraine plank was switched out with no money changing hands—I’m thinking that the short-fingered vulgarian will eventually have to take the political hit of firing Mueller (or rather, of firing a sufficient number of people at Justice before he drills down to someone who will fire Mueller on his behalf), because on the basis of what I have read of the man, the former FBI chief can be quite persistent in his investigations, and I do believe that even aside from the election shenanigans, there is Rooskie money tied up in El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago’s businesses in ways that he very desperately does not want to come to light. Still, it’s difficult to know at this point what he’d have to do for the GOP to cut him loose. At this point he could rip open an infant’s thorax on live television in prime time and devour its beating heart without shedding enough Republican support to put him in constitutional danger, and from what I can tell, most of his “base” would be cool with baby-eating if it pissed off “liberals.”

We’re sailing through uncharted and highly polluted waters (oh, and did anyone check out Pierce today?).

cordially,