Could it be Paul Ryan?
Holy smokes @celticwitch. Reading that hit me like a ton of bricks (by which I mean I barely survived/probably need an MRI).
Paul Ryan riding back in on a dark horse (@jeanne-mayell, say it ain't so!) would be like that, too, wouldn't it? Getting stabbed in the heart in 2016, barely holding it together as a nation, finally seeing some glimmer...some hope, and then WHAM. Paul Effing Ryan.
If in '16, there was the sound of a collective wail, in 2020, there'd just be the sound of everyone on both coasts straight up passing out. Probably for good.
He's like the pretty boy mega church minister that you know is also a champion embezzler. And he secretly hates all children. And corgis. But no one down at the splashy new 4-story sanctuary he put in ever wants to see the light, so he just keeps getting richer and more popular and more diabolical with every passing Sunday. He's the devil in Brooks Brothers and veneers.
But typing this, I feel the energies of beings far more celestial kind of laughing/singing, like "lighten up, buttercup." That tends to happen whenever I'm needlessly catastrophizing. So now that I've played out this little drama about Ryan, I feel pretty content that he (probably, surely) won't be the guy.
"Power behind the throne" is worrying, but there will always be folks pulling strings, I imagine.
Never mind Eddie Munster Ryan! He will resurface in politics like the weasel he is, but not soon.
The thought of Nikki Haley scares me because some on here saw her (or a woman who looks much like her) as president. This includes me. I saw her on the podium at an Inauguration, making her speech, but the crowd was divided - some cheered her, others were sobbing uncontrollably and I felt a sense of betrayal in the collective.
Wow-- your Mom said that? I can only imagine you looked up for pigs in the air!
Ha! For real, though. Pretty sure I checked to be sure I hadn't died.
But even though she's a regular consumer of rightwing propaganda (plus all the additional she's being pelted with by Russia & Co.), I'm not worried she'll change her mind. You don't know my mama, but trust me when I tell you that she's too stubborn and too proud to do any such thing. That she came to this decision at all can only be a miracle of her second Saturn return. ?
P.S.
This probably isn't necessary, but you said "trauma alters the genome." I'm annoying, so please forgive me, but I just want to be clear: Trauma can't change our genes (i.e., our genetic code sequence). What it can do is impact the activity and expression of our genes through epigenetic factors, which refers to things external to the DNA itself. So, for example, eating a diet poor in nutrients (external to DNA) can suppress the activity of all types of genes related to health and fitness, or even be linked to DNA damage. The same process applies for the epigenetic factors associated with trauma.
@celticwitch and @vestralux : Yikes! I'm sure glad that I'd already finished dinner; otherwise the thought of Eddie Munster running would have ruined my appetite. "The devil in Brooks Brothers and veneers" -- perfect description! And anybody who hates children and Corgis is downright evil. Thank you, Vestralux, for making me laugh out loud! It softened that scary thought.
It wouldn't surprise me, though, if the Rethugs cook up something behind the scenes with Munster/Haley. They see Blotus unraveling. Also, let's remember that Munster just came out with a book -- perfect timing, eh? Ex-Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld is running against T. and said something funny today -- he's asking the Dems to vote for him in the Rep primary, and then in the general election go ahead and vote for the Dem. More than anything, he feels it's critical that the 45th not become the 46th.
I remember reading those predictions at the time and resonating to some degree with the image (woman, dark hair, blue dress), but not feeling confident that it would be Kamala Harris, as some here wrote. (My own vision from that time involved a male, so ...)
I'm wondering all of a sudden about Howard Schultz. Could he be preparing for a comeback? (Hope not.) Unrelated, but some of the Democratic contenders are sure to be dropping out soon.
She's an extremist. I hope it doesn't come to pass.
I hope it doesn't either, but I'm not so sure she's actually an extremist. I think she's just an ambitious political strategist.
She was governor of my state once upon a time, and trust me when I tell you that the extremists in her party didn't want her for the job either. But to get that job in that state at that time, you couldn't do better than play up the "Tea Party darling" image. Then she got to office and was largely just a standard regulation Republican. The Southern variety, which is to say super conservative/red/right. So, not a moderate, but nothing we're not used to.
Sometimes she surprised us, like when she finally determined that the Confederate flag should be removed from the statehouse grounds (you cannot imagine the cacophony of horrified gasps heard 'round the state that day, woe betide your fragility and privilege). Or when she pushed state prosecutors to seek the death penalty in Dylann Roof's case (more for the passion she showed than her ask). Otherwise, she was pretty pro forma NeoCon fare.
Though, there was that one time she bless your heart'd Trump after he attacked her on Twitter because she had the audacity to say he should release his taxes. And really, bless it.
Since her time serving the guy as ambassador to the U.N., she seems to have moved even further from her Tea Party branding days. She's occasionally shown what used to be called ordinary decency, but in the age of Trump has somehow become "moral courage." Haley's an American Sikh (who says she's also a Christian) and the child of Indian immigrants, so her voting record is probably hard to understand for most American progressives. But she's an ambitious strategist from Nowhereville, South Carolina. She's basically the Republican party's Hillary Clinton, except she did one better and got herself an Army National Guard officer content to play First Gentleman. No Bill necessary.
Hmm. Even more concerning now that I've laid it all out for myself.
Maybe she will run. She was trending on twitter last week due to her reply to a Trump nasty tweet where she told him that tweet wasn’t necessary. Maybe she is distancing herself from all things Trump.
https://www.theroot.com/even-former-united-nations-ambassador-nikki-haley-is-an-1836922298
I think you could be right. Although, she'd been doing this in dribs and drabs since taking the post as ambassador. Haven't seen much since she left it, but I also hadn't been paying attention until now.