Fight the Fatigue!

One of Trump's favourite tactics, when some news goes against him, is to stir up more controversy.  Say or do something so outrageous that the rest of the world looks at that, rather than at the oopsie he's just done.

Take, for example, the testimony of Clinton Watts, in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee.  He said that not only is Russia employing "active measures" to affect election cycles in other countries, but that the President himself has become a cog in such machinery and has used these measures against his opponents.

Think about that.  A sitting president is colluding with the US's principal enemy to get himself into office.

That casts doubt not just on Trump, but on every single person voted in during this last election.  How deep is this rabbit hole going to go?

Okay, let's say that Trump leaves (the Republicans are already calculating what happens when he leaves, not if).

Then we're stuck with Pence.  This really isn't the guy we would have voted in...he's the only one who'd put up with Trump long enough to get into office. His record on a whole host of things makes him odious in the extreme.  The only way he's palatable is in comparison to Trump himself.

I think this is really why he's smiling in all his pictures of Trump...he knows he's next.

But should we be stuck with Pence?  he was elected in the same tainted election that Trump was.

Okay, let's say for the sake of argument that we throw him out as well...who does that leave?

According to wikipedia:
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    Steven Mnuchin (R)
6    Secretary of Defense    James Mattis (I)
7    Attorney General    Jeff Sessions (R)
8    Secretary of the Interior    Ryan Zinke (R)
–    Secretary of Agriculture    Mike Young (D)[a]
9    Secretary of Commerce    Wilbur Ross (R)
–    Secretary of Labor    Ed Hugler (I)[a]
10    Secretary of Health and Human Services    Tom Price (R)
11    Secretary of Housing and Urban Development    Ben Carson (R)
–    Secretary of Transportation    Elaine Chao (R)[b]
12    Secretary of Energy    Rick Perry (R)
13    Secretary of Education    Betsy DeVos (R)
14    Secretary of Veterans Affairs    David Shulkin (I)
15    Secretary of Homeland Security    John F. Kelly (I)

That doesn't even mention the National Security Council, or the shadow council Bannon has put into place.
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At this point, I'd say we're fairly well screwed here.  There's not a person on that list I'd be happy to see as president.

Bottom line, I suspect that pretty much any of these people will do a better job than Trump, that's simply axiomatic.  We do still need to get rid of Trump.

But how much better?  I just can't be terribly optimistic for the course of the US over the next four years.