Well, difficult to see how proving Russian hacking would result in being rid of Trump.It seems improbable (but not impossible, nothing is impossible these days) that the Trump campaign was directly conspiring with the Russians. That said we are in such a sorry state that the Trump reality TV show is probably preferable to having Pence in there, dismantling the social safety net with cool efficiency while simultaneously ratcheting up the police state and deregulating us back to the stone age.

President Twitter Troll regularly spouts Kremlin propaganda and is set to name the CEO of Exxon/a possible Russian agent to be Secretary of State. We have a president-elect contradicting our nation's own intelligence agencies and siding with the Russians. It's probably nothing.

One of the questions is whether McConnell (and Ryan) are going to back the independent 9/11-style Congressional investigation or more like the Banghazi-type?

If it's the Benghazi-type, then it would go through existing House and Senate committees (probably Intelligence or Homeland Security, who already have security clearances and received preliminary briefings). In this scenario, Republicans control the shots and have the ability to make the hearings be a sham. They control the power of the subpoena. They can prevent Democrats from doing any subpoenas they don't want. They control who does and does not testify, and whether it's public or private. In short, they control whether this Congressional investigation is legitimate or a façade.

If it's a 9/11-style commission, then it's a joint commission including equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats, Senators and House Representatives (usually 12 members -- three Dems and Reps from the House and three each from the Senate). This has a much greater chance of being conducted fairly and having the public's trust afterwards.

The Republicans will circle the wagons as they always do. Mitch McConnell as the voice of moral, ethical justice? Please. And little Paulie Ryan will only do what Atlas Shrugged tells him to do. Funny how someone, whose family once depended upon public assistance, can have such a hard-on for keeping it from other people in need.

@4: By "like the 9/11 Commission" do you mean to refer to a commission that is set up to fail, starved of funds to do a proper investigation, and both denied access to the truth and misled by senior Pentagon officials and relevant federal regulatory agency staff?

Wake up Sheila

False hope is a sorry companion. That said, might it be possible that if enough evidence were uncovered by the White House investigation that the Electoral College could decide to postpone voting until after the Congressional investigations are complete, with the Obama (or maybe Biden) administration staying on until this jaw dropping development is resolved?

"The 'intelligence community' "

In other words, Intelligence-Americans. It's got a ring to it.

@8:

I doubt Congress would allow either of them to continue to run the Executive Branch after their terms expire on January 20th. More likely they'd have to appoint Ryan, as House Speaker, to serve as interim Executive, per the Presidential Succession Act.

Perhaps Trump owes money to Russian oligarchs?

#10

I agree, but hope against desperate, bordering on pathetic, hope, the electors would decide to delay their vote, or be forced to delay it through litigation, before the 20th, as it becomes clear that the election was thoroughly compromised. Obama would then immediately resign, and Biden, being next in the line of succession, would become president and run the country until a new one took over. The Supreme Court would then decide that a revote is, given the egregiousness of the tampering, the only alternative. And all the Bernie, Jill, Gary and no-one voters realize the self-destructive and dreadful consequences of thinking one's personal conscience is more important than the common good.

@11

Do you think Trump had sex in Russia? Because if he did, the Russian government will have his sextape.

Bit bloody late doing it next year. This guy should not be made President until this is fully investigated. Which I guess is Obama's plan. Right before the big day.
Murdoch should be investigated as well. He has seriously allowed the liars to be fed to trump's supporters.
I do apologise for Australia, for these wicked men, Murdoch and Assange.

@13: Not to worry, Putin has no interest in making his sexual assignations available for public consumption.

@13 I would guess that President elect pussy grabber holds little concern over his sex scandals and let us not forget his I could shoot someone on fifth Avenue and not lose any votes statement BUT Trump seems extremely guarded when it comes to revealing the contents of his wallet.

Trump picked up a net 162 votes in the Wisconsin recount that completed Monday.

Those pro-Trump Russian election hackers SUCK!

I used to agree with Dan on everything. But now looking at Savage Love makes me sad. Sad because it's the strongest reminder of how Dems have been brainwashed over to the right. It used to be that Dems were the anti-war party who didn't buy into the Republicans' dangerous "evil Empire" anti-Russia bullshit. And it was the Republicans who made paranoid, responsibility-evading bullshit excuses for losing elections. But now like millions of other Americans, Dan's been body-snatched by neo-Republicans into Russia-bashing. One can count all the reasons why Clinton lost -- some of them the fault of herself and her party -- all of which Dan has heard a thousand times over. But it's easier to blame an a foreign government than own up to your own shit. As if America is some banana republic that can be manipulated by a foreign power ... You really think your country and system is so weak that Russia can corrupt it with a few leaked e-mails?

I liked the world better when you could tell the left from the right. Now Dan and so many other gay allies dump on the left while engaging in this neo-rightwing McCarthyite shit. God it's a nightmare, please wake me.

We'll know if Pence was involved if the GOP goes after this. This is a win for the GOP if they can get rid of Trump and leave Pence as the figure head to sign off on all their terrible ideas. Bye Bye felicia Social Security, Medicare, Minimum Wage... Good luck America

Somebody should investigate Facebook's flagrant violation of FCC advertising rules that allowed Trump's data-propaganda machine to micro-target people by gender, ethnicity, affiliation, etc.

Trump’s presidential election victory is the most successful digital voter suppression operation in American history.

@16

Sure. But don't forget that there are allegations of Trump having sex with minors, including rape. You think Putin's folks would have scruples about setting him up with an obvious minor to they could get him on video?

@18. Xian-Qi. This is a time of reckoning for the US, in Buddhist terms it's called thrown karma.
When suddenly the shit hits the fan, and energies are thrown all over the place.
Still. Russia? Putin is a really nasty inhuman kind of person. He has no heart.
And it's obvious with trump's pick for Secretary of State that some thing like a inside coup has taken place with outside help.