The art of the steal
By 
This is totally normal now. I’m not being hyperbolic: the president of the United States saying things in public that make him sound exactly like a banana republic caudillo is now so routine that it barely causes a ripple in our increasingly decadent political culture:
President Trump on Sunday retweeted a post from Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. that said Trump’s first term should be extended by two years as payback “for time stolen by this corrupt failed coup.”
Falwell, an avid and vocal supporter of Trump, was alluding to the recently completed investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election that special counsel Robert Mueller conducted.
“After the best week ever for @realDonaldTrump – no obstruction, no collusion, NYT admits @BarackObama did spy on his campaign, & the economy is soaring. I now support reparations-Trump should have 2 yrs added to his 1st term as pay back for time stolen by this corrupt failed coup,” Falwell tweeted.
Trump followed up the retweet with tweets of his own alleging two years of his presidency were “stollen” that “we will never be able to get back.”
Observations by various chin-scratching pundits that we may be heading towards a constitutional crisis are painfully naive and/or willfully ignorant.
What do Trump and his countless enablers in and around the Republican party have to do, fire on Ft. Sumter?
I’ve said this before, but anyone who assumes there’s definitely going to be a presidential election next year, or that its results will necessarily be honored by the regime currently in power, is assuming too much.