Where is it? Where is the opener? What happens below? What happens next?

The trap door is the Mueller report.

The opener is when he submits it to the Attorney General.

What happens underneath depends a lot on whether he proposes an indictment of the President for any crime.

What happens after that depends on the new Attorney General Barr, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic majority in the House.

All of it is likely to happen in the first quarter of this year.

We saw recently that the Trump base is capable of erosion, but surprisingly little given the clarity of the events surrounding Trump’s “proud” closure of the government.

In theory, there may be some ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ but the Constitution requires two-thirds of Senators to vote to convict a President (thereby removing him from office), so unless the Republican leadership gives up on Trump for whatever reasons, it makes little sense to pursue impeachment in the House.

What will happen psychologically to Trump is hard to forecast. He might quit while he can, as did Nixon. He might seek authoritarian powers by simply trying to declare an emergency. The Supreme Court hates the idea of being ham in a sandwich but Roberts appears more likely to play a positive leadership role. So who knows?

If the Trump Presidency ends, Pence becomes President. But, with less than two years left in Trump’s term, the Democratic House can keep Pence in check.

Therefore, the next step back towards normalcy is the 2020 election.

I see a number of “outstanding human beings” [two for example Kamala Harris and Howard Shultz] emerging to compete in 2020.

Therefore, I am becoming positive and optimistic.

Let’s hope we will have learned ‘a thing or two’ and take steps to prevent such a dangerous Presidency from ever happening again.