Impeachment

[neoplacebo]

I watched Jim Jordan on This Week on ABC this morning; it was quite funny. He was wrestling with himself and there was no one there to look the other way. It was pathetic, especially when he asserted that we did not see or hear what we saw and heard trump say about asking China to investigate Biden and/or his son. It reminded me of a particularly bad fifth grade debating contest. Jim lost.

Have you been writing HuffPost articles and headlines on the side?

Jim Jordan Doesn’t ‘Think’ Trump Did Something He Actually Did On Camera
The GOP congressman repeatedly claimed that the president wasn’t serious when he said China should investigate Joe Biden.

No, but I think I could. How about this one? "Trump Orders Whistle Factory Shut Down in Preemptive Move"

Then he realized that whistle products are the last remaining American industry
Yet another trump quandary rears its head. What will pp say?

Before the season is over, trump will ban the use of whistles at all NFL games and direct that all officials carry a gun instead to signal the end of a play.

[GoCubsGo]

@realDonaldTrump
·
21m
As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over...

Someone please tell the House to move faster.

[neoplacebo]

@realDonaldTrump
·
21m
As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over...

Someone please tell the House to move faster.

Shit; he forgot to mention that he's a stable genius.

[O Really]

How did the United States ever get into a condition where behaviours of a person like Trump are even arguable as acceptable? How can there be anybody who thinks threatening to ruin the economy of an ally is a good thing to do? How is it acceptable for a President (with or without an asterisk) to get into an insult war with garden-variety citizens, some of whom are kids? How can anybody think a person with such a thin skin that he can't deal with criticism from a kid is capable of handling international relations? Even if you like what you think Trump's policies are on issues like taxes and immigration, and you think Dems and Trump-haters are just out to get him, how can you think his own conduct and responses are the best approach? If people think you're a child molester, does it really help change that perception if you tweet out pics of little girls in bathing suits sitting on your lap?
If somebody says you're uncouth, is it really in your best interest to fart in their face?

[Vrede too]

@realDonaldTrump
·
21m
As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate,

Redundant "reiterate".

if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom,

I though maybe you added that.

consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy [sic] of Turkey (I’ve done before!).

When?

They must, with Europe and others, watch over...

Someone please tell the House to move faster.

Shit; he forgot to mention that he's a stable genius.

Fwiw, I expect that he will mismanage any withdrawal as badly as he has already mismanaged the US politics of it and the English language, but I am not opposed to leaving Syria in principle.

'Leaving them to die': Trump allies blast decision to withdraw troops from Syria

[Vrede too]

How did the United States ever get into a condition where behaviours of a person like Trump are even arguable as acceptable? How can there be anybody who thinks threatening to ruin the economy of an ally is a good thing to do? How is it acceptable for a President (with or without an asterisk) to get into an insult war with garden-variety citizens, some of whom are kids? How can anybody think a person with such a thin skin that he can't deal with criticism from a kid is capable of handling international relations? Even if you like what you think Trump's policies are on issues like taxes and immigration, and you think Dems and Trump-haters are just out to get him, how can you think his own conduct and responses are the best approach? If people think you're a child molester, does it really help change that perception if you tweet out pics of little girls in bathing suits sitting on your lap?

Found:

They can build the wall out of all the subpoenas

If somebody says you're uncouth, is it really in your best interest to fart in their face?

Maybe, it's better than farting in the face of someone that thinks you're couth.

[Vrede too]

WI's Sen. Ron Johnson (sort of), Rep. Mark Amodei, Judge Napolitano, Sen. Romney, Tucker Carlson - The GOP rats are starting to desert the rapidly sinking POSPOTUS ship. Before long there will be a traffic jam at the lifeboats.

As Evidence Mounts Against President, Some Republicans Keep a Careful Distance

Colin Powell: Republicans Terrified Of Speaking Out Need To 'Get A Grip'

Defining 'desertion' pretty loosely, the list is now:
Sen. Romney (UT)
Sen. Susan Collins (ME)
Sen. Ron Johnson (WI), sort of
Rep. Mark Amodei (NV)
Rep. Will Hurd (TX)
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA)
Rep. John Curtis (UT)
Former Rep. Joe Walsh (IL)
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell
Judge Napolitano
Tucker Carlson

Joe Walsh says 'traitor' Trump 'deserves to be impeached'

[GoCubsGo]

How did the United States ever get into a condition where behaviours of a person like Trump are even arguable as acceptable? How can there be anybody who thinks threatening to ruin the economy of an ally is a good thing to do? How is it acceptable for a President (with or without an asterisk) to get into an insult war with garden-variety citizens, some of whom are kids? How can anybody think a person with such a thin skin that he can't deal with criticism from a kid is capable of handling international relations? Even if you like what you think Trump's policies are on issues like taxes and immigration, and you think Dems and Trump-haters are just out to get him, how can you think his own conduct and responses are the best approach? If people think you're a child molester, does it really help change that perception if you tweet out pics of little girls in bathing suits sitting on your lap?
If somebody says you're uncouth, is it really in your best interest to fart in their face?

It really defies credulity. I expected trump to be a shitshow, but how do we describe whatever this is.

Hope RBG is right and all this will be seen as an aberration.

[neoplacebo]

How did the United States ever get into a condition where behaviours of a person like Trump are even arguable as acceptable? How can there be anybody who thinks threatening to ruin the economy of an ally is a good thing to do? How is it acceptable for a President (with or without an asterisk) to get into an insult war with garden-variety citizens, some of whom are kids? How can anybody think a person with such a thin skin that he can't deal with criticism from a kid is capable of handling international relations? Even if you like what you think Trump's policies are on issues like taxes and immigration, and you think Dems and Trump-haters are just out to get him, how can you think his own conduct and responses are the best approach? If people think you're a child molester, does it really help change that perception if you tweet out pics of little girls in bathing suits sitting on your lap?
If somebody says you're uncouth, is it really in your best interest to fart in their face?

It really defies credulity. I expected trump to be a shitshow, but what we have defies belief.

Hope RBG is right and all this will be seen as an aberration.

It's a conflagration of aberration. I just cannot understand how any sane normal GOP pol can publicly support this moron. The standard rationale is party loyalty but hell, there has to be some kind of limit to that. Besides, if the dumbass is thrown out of office or just quits, there will still be a GOP "president" in the form of a lobotomized religious nut who looks like a game show host. Lots of susPence.

[Vrede too]

It really defies credulity. I expected trump to be a shitshow, but what we have defies belief.

Hope RBG is right and all this will be seen as an aberration.

WW2 was "an aberration." Just sayin'.

It's a conflagration of aberration. I just cannot understand how any sane normal GOP pol can publicly support this moron. The standard rationale is party loyalty but hell, there has to be some kind of limit to that. Besides, if the dumbass is thrown out of office or just quits, there will still be a GOP "president" in the form of a lobotomized religious nut who looks like a game show host. Lots of susPence.

"sane normal GOP pol" - Good one . The Repugs are not yet tolerant enough for a flaming gay (nttawwt) POTUS like VP Q-tip would be.

[GoCubsGo]

It really defies credulity. I expected trump to be a shitshow, but what we have defies belief.

Hope RBG is right and all this will be seen as an aberration.

WW2 was "an aberration." Just sayin'.

Well, that's one of the scariest statements I've ever heard.

It's a conflagration of aberration. I just cannot understand how any sane normal GOP pol can publicly support this moron. The standard rationale is party loyalty but hell, there has to be some kind of limit to that. Besides, if the dumbass is thrown out of office or just quits, there will still be a GOP "president" in the form of a lobotomized religious nut who looks like a game show host. Lots of susPence.

"sane normal GOP pol" - Good one .

GOP probably needs to be changed to Pot-Party of Trump.
The Repugs are not yet tolerant enough for a flaming gay (nttawwt) POTUS like VP Q-tip would be.

[O Really]

GOP probably needs to be changed to Pot-Party of Trump.

Getting closer to Pol Pot with Trump...

Pol Pot reformed Cambodia as a new, one-party state called Democratic Kampuchea. Seeking to create an agrarian socialist society, his government forcibly relocated the urban population to the countryside to work on collective farms. Those regarded as enemies of the new government, including Buddhist monks and ethnic minorities, were killed. These mass killings, coupled with malnutrition, strenuous working conditions, and poor medical care, killed between 1.5 and 2 million people, approximately a quarter of Cambodia's population, a period later termed the Cambodian genocide.

[GoCubsGo]

GOP probably needs to be changed to Pot-Party of Trump.

Getting closer to Pol Pot with Trump...

Pol Pot reformed Cambodia as a new, one-party state called Democratic Kampuchea. Seeking to create an agrarian socialist society, his government forcibly relocated the urban population to the countryside to work on collective farms. Those regarded as enemies of the new government, including Buddhist monks and ethnic minorities, were killed. These mass killings, coupled with malnutrition, strenuous working conditions, and poor medical care, killed between 1.5 and 2 million people, approximately a quarter of Cambodia's population, a period later termed the Cambodian genocide.

He's saving relocating dems, the judiciary and Congress for his second term.

[billy.pilgrim]

How did the United States ever get into a condition where behaviours of a person like Trump are even arguable as acceptable? How can there be anybody who thinks threatening to ruin the economy of an ally is a good thing to do? How is it acceptable for a President (with or without an asterisk) to get into an insult war with garden-variety citizens, some of whom are kids? How can anybody think a person with such a thin skin that he can't deal with criticism from a kid is capable of handling international relations? Even if you like what you think Trump's policies are on issues like taxes and immigration, and you think Dems and Trump-haters are just out to get him, how can you think his own conduct and responses are the best approach? If people think you're a child molester, does it really help change that perception if you tweet out pics of little girls in bathing suits sitting on your lap?
If somebody says you're uncouth, is it really in your best interest to fart in their face?

It took a long time, but has pretty much methodically been happening forever; this particular phase is mostly a reaction to the New Deal. Then as now, the popular support doesn’t fit the agenda and must be minimalized, while the agenda must be disavowed at all costs. Remember when ALEC was a conspiracy pushed by liberals; then suddenly ALEC was nothing but old news after several state legislators let some of ALEC’s letterhead slip through on their ALEC written bills. The agenda must be protected until it can’t be (trump or whatever), then they simply walk away and deny they ever said/did/supported whatever/whoever.

Their agenda is based on everything from the Koch backed John Bircher libertarians doing as they please to full on socialized profits guaranteed to any industry (war, health, and control). The biggest push came with Reagan and his voodoo economics turning everything any reasonable thinking person could imagine on its head. Sure, give everything to the people that already have things and they in turn benevolently bestow riches on us in return for us giving them our riches didn’t sound so sweet or smart but they had a salesman with a voice and with a face that could call up a tear.
Then Roger Ailes 20 year old dream of a republicon infomercial playing “fair and balanced bullshit” 24 hours a day into homes everywhere
then came Bush’s war which help to the minor way by shoring up cash flows and jobs in the war industry
everything was moving along at a fairly moderate pace until as luck would have it a black man became president. Now every ass hole who never voted in his life, never cared anything about politics, suddenly recognize that a black man has taken over the White House. From there it was easy, Photoshop the silhouette of a dick under Michelle’s dress,
create strange timelines of an African man running a newspaper ad in Hawaii of his newborn son because he had a plan that would somehow involve this child growing up to be president of the United States, but doing this in such a way that the millions of American parents who had the same intentions for their young sons wouldn’t stand a chance,
no conspiracy was too outrageous, Obama was transgendered, Michelle was transgendered, Obama didn’t wear a flag pin, or Obama wore his flag pin in the wrong place.
From there healthcare is socialism is easy,
from there Sarah Palin is easy,
from there Hilary has an underground pedophile sex parlor is easy.
From there Hilary is unfit to be president it was way too fucking easy

Feed them the bullshit and they will come.
disguised as one of so many bull-shit distraction programs, but having nothing to do with agenda except to get out the vote:
Brown people are bad,
Guns are good – the 2nd is Absolute – never mind the long list of guns and other defensive weapons you are not allowed to have,
abortion is murder (remember now, the murder part is an in state thing, as long as my rich kid can take a 3 day shopping and an abortion vacation over state lines, that wouldn’t really be murder – so let’s don’t mention that the parents who murdered their child actually murdered their child),
wars on Christmas and the 4th of July, great on the 24 hour cycle
death taxes gonna take your mobile home away from your children (never mind that the hospital and insurance company already did),
Brown people, are really bad and will take your stuff and you jobs and your healthcare and will not pay any taxes
socialism is really bad, probably even worse than Brown people,
liberals hate America,
liberals want to destroy America,
etc. etc. etc.




Remember all the Republicans who suddenly became Independents during the Bush administration, but after dropping the Republican Party they claimed to have never voted for Bush.

[Vrede too]

GOP Sen. Rob Portman just denounced Trump’s Ukraine call — days after the president praised him

... The GOP rats are starting to desert the rapidly sinking POSPOTUS ship. Before long there will be a traffic jam at the lifeboats.

Defining 'desertion' pretty loosely, the list is now:
Sen. Mitt Romney (UT)
Sen. Susan Collins (ME)
Sen. Rob Portman (OH)
Sen. Ron Johnson (WI), sort of
Rep. Mark Amodei (NV)
Rep. Will Hurd (TX)
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA)
Rep. John Curtis (UT)
Former Rep. Joe Walsh (IL)
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell
Judge Napolitano
Tucker Carlson

[GoCubsGo]

So assuming that the Orange One continues to obstruct the impeachment investigation, when this gets to trial in the Senate will all these witnesses be compelled to testify? If so, this trial could take a really long time.

Or does the obstruction shitshow just move to a different stage?

[Vrede too]

Trump bars Gordon Sondland, key player in Ukraine controversy, from testifying in impeachment investigation

POSPOTUS, the lifelong cowardly Chickenhawk in Chief, is pants-wetting terrified of the truth and detests the American people. Hence, he even bars REPUBLICAN EU Ambassador Sondland from testifying.

So assuming that the Orange One continues to obstruct the impeachment investigation, when this gets to trial in the Senate will all these witnesses be compelled to testify? If so, this trial could take a really long time.

Or does the obstruction shitshow just move to a different stage?

I suspect there will be big fights over the limits of executive privilege, eventually settled by the courts.

The big questions are just how unpatriotically partisan SCOTUS will be, and how American voters react to the obstructionism. We've been here before, August 12, 1974:

[O Really]

Think of what we used to consider as unacceptable and/or disqualifying for a President or political candidate. Campaigns have been wrecked by stuff like minor hanky-panky on the "Monkey Business," riding a tank in a parade, having had mental health treatment, various unfortunate choices of words, etc. Had the Clintons actually done what was alledged in Whitewater, it still would be minor real estate sleaze with a little law bending. The Teapot Dome scandal was held as the most awful corruption of a President's administration for years, and now we have "Teapot Dome" activity as business as usual now. I wouldn't try to argue that all previous Presidents were perfect exemplars of political piety, but every one of them knew what was right and wrong and what at least had to be hidden. With that, when you caught somebody in corruption or other sleaze, you could righteously run them off. With what we have now, where sleaze is the norm, expectations of politicians is so low every new instance just gets another "oh well." Look at the idiots who always say "all politicians are the same." They're not, of course, but the fact that a significant number of people think so just shows how effective the effort to lower the performance expectation bar has been. I used to think America could be cured with a new administration and a good house-cleaning. Maybe so, but I no longer think the people have the will to make it happen or demand that it happens. The country is screwed and doomed.

[GoCubsGo]

Think of what we used to consider as unacceptable and/or disqualifying for a President or political candidate. Campaigns have been wrecked by stuff like minor hanky-panky on the "Monkey Business," riding a tank in a parade, having had mental health treatment, various unfortunate choices of words, etc. Had the Clintons actually done what was alledged in Whitewater, it still would be minor real estate sleaze with a little law bending. The Teapot Dome scandal was held as the most awful corruption of a President's administration for years, and now we have "Teapot Dome" activity as business as usual now. I wouldn't try to argue that all previous Presidents were perfect exemplars of political piety, but every one of them knew what was right and wrong and what at least had to be hidden. With that, when you caught somebody in corruption or other sleaze, you could righteously run them off. With what we have now, where sleaze is the norm, expectations of politicians is so low every new instance just gets another "oh well." Look at the idiots who always say "all politicians are the same." They're not, of course, but the fact that a significant number of people think so just shows how effective the effort to lower the performance expectation bar has been. I used to think America could be cured with a new administration and a good house-cleaning. Maybe so, but I no longer think the people have the will to make it happen or demand that it happens. The country is screwed and doomed.

Yikes, that's a rosy picture of our future, but sadly most probably correct. Part of Cheetohead's legacy is crashing norms, not for the better. Fidelity to country and law, nope. Civilised discourse, forgetaboutit.

Do you know the answer on the impeachment trial I was asking above? Would witnesses be compelled to testify, or can they hide behind executive privilege and make it a very long drawn out affair?

[neoplacebo]

Think of what we used to consider as unacceptable and/or disqualifying for a President or political candidate.........The country is screwed and doomed.

Yep, I agree; today the trump cult has prevented a State Dept official from testifying and pronounced the entire inquiry into his actions illegitimate and a "kangaroo court" with apparently no shame. It's possible that trump does not consider any of those members of Congress to have been elected to their positions by the people they represent. It really is unprecedented wingnuttery that a lot of folks seem to not even care about that aspect of it. And then there's the cult itself that praise this behavior from the leader of their cult.