US Politics, October 2019 — I guess statement you could say with thread. I made a thread. The thread was PERFECT.

the GOP is all chained to him and he is petulant and vicious - anyone wavering in the direction of censure would be "joining the witch hunt," "a big time Coward, practically a traitor, really one of the worst traitors in american history," "a real loser and as everyone knows an ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!!!" etc. just wait til they get primary challengers. "Very excited today to support Brad Blah who is WITH US and against the fake, traitor coward Bob Blerg, one of the worst Witch Hunt guys, and I think really a Democrat!"

"Bob Blerg never came to congratulate me when we won (by huge margins) in 2016, he has no committment to making America great again! So good to see real Republican Brad Blah going up against this weak, witch hunt traitor. As your president, We must DRAIN THE SWAMP!!!!"

The most incredible thing about the Bill Taylor testimony to me was just how long and how fucked up the whole sad caper was, and how many were trying to stop it and get them to understand it was fucked up, and then Trump went on the phone and basically made the whole thing explicit. It's like if Watergate was really Nixon trying to get everyone to spy on the Democrats, and then took a phonecall with someone saying that we'd better watch what those sneaky Dems are doing, and then released the call of his own free will.

3D chess!

I heard Bob Blerg was thinking of retiring, so maybe he will turn on Trump on his way out.

We have a decorated Lt. Col. who is testifying as a corroborating witness to Sondland demanding dirt on Biden, and already the GOP line is that he's really a Ukrainian spy.

Although it could be difficult to prove he's a spy now that Sondland is saying maybe there was a quid pro quo after all.

I know it's not really relevant, but this big Danish news site I was reading is consistently referring to the security advisor as Michael Bolton, and I honestly think it might be an auto-correct they haven't adjusted.

lol

Michael Bolton is 100% deep state.

weird. so this guy Vindman has a twin brother and they have offices opposite each other in the west wing

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/us/politics/who-is-alexander-vindman.html

it's not just one spy, there's a sleeper cell in the WH!

xpost https://www.austinchronicle.com/binary/f372/screens_feature2-1.jpg

Said I loved Trump
(But I lied)

Very suspicious, which brother was it, who really made the call? Are they really secret lovers claiming to be twins? Which one is merely standing next to a mirror?

WHICH HUNT

Which witch is which!?!!

Moreover, it was a heck of a job to track him down, Trump emphasized. “You know, these people are very smart,” he said. “They’re not into the use of cellphones anymore . . . . They’re very technically brilliant. You know, they use the Internet better than almost anybody in the world, perhaps other than Donald Trump.”

I would now like a reporter to hand Donald Trump a laptop and then demonstrate how to open a web browser and navigate to a website by entering a URL. I would very much like to see his fumbling, failed attempt at accomplishing this rudimentary task.

Although I guess if 'getting other people to print out web pages for you' is the metric by which one is measuring internet mastery then he's basically achieved god-level status.

It would be like that episode of "Review" where Andy Daly has the secretary spell out, character by character, the full "google" address.

(Needless to say, I looked for a clip, but "review google show" is pretty much a dead end.)

Actually, he'd perform the task flawlessly but ingrained habit would have him navigate directly to RussianPissFiends.net

(there, that's satisfied my "one Trump piss tape joke per calendar year" rule)

Pssht, RussianPissFriends.net is not a real website. But I do $en$e an opportunity!

Oh, RussianPissFIENDS.net! Hold on ... no, not a website, either, but there are two sure-thing moneymaker sites sitting out there for the taking.

Rep. Jim Jordan told reporters this morning that testimony from Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the White House's top Ukraine expert and a decorated veteran, would not change the “fundamental facts” surrounding the phone call between President Trump and Ukraine President Zelensky.

He also pointed to Thursday’s scheduled vote in the House, saying that it shows Democrats “realize this process is completely unfair, partisan."

Oh u mean the vote you demanded?

To make it less partisan and more fair, all the Democrats should recuse and let the Republicans run it all again.

If someone were to snag his phone and click 'sign out' in his Twitter app, his capacity to navigate the internet would immediately turf out completely.

if you think Trump can't use the Internet, I have a monthly politics thread you ought to read

I'm surprised he hasn't tasked Barr with scouring the globe for AOL installation CDs.

WaPo headline: "‘Lock him up’ chant ignites a debate among Democrats: Give Trump his own medicine, or stick to the high road?"
Democrats quoted in response to the World Series chant: one.

As a protest against a man who has stated outright his belief that he shouldn't be subject to the due process which might result in his legal incarceration, I'd say that chanting 'lock him up' is a helluva lot higher road than many of the other ways people could register their displeasure.

i'm ready to see the take where trump is a crypto quant playing a moron and navigates the net the darknet and time and space with evil mastery whenever off camera.

when you've lost Liz Cheney, etc.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) called out conservatives who have been attacking Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and other witnesses in the House impeachment investigation on Tuesday morning.

After complaining about Democrats’ handling of the investigation during a House Republican leadership presser, Cheney switched tracks.

“Now I also want to say a word about something else that’s been going on over the course of the last several hours and last night which I think is also shameful,” she said. “And that is questioning the patriotism, questioning the dedication to country, of people like Mr. Vindman, Lt. Col. Vindman, who will be coming today, and others who have testified.”

The Republican lawmaker urged for Vindman’s critics to “show that we are better than that as a nation.”

“We’re talking about decorated veterans who have served this nation, who’ve put their lives on the line, and it is shameful to question their patriotism, their love of this nation, and we should not be involved in that process,” she continued.

urged for Vindman’s critics to “show that we are better than that as a nation.”

NARRATOR: They did not

You know, they use the Internet better than almost anybody in the world, perhaps other than Donald Trump. And Donald Trump can also ride his bike real fast!"

It will be intersting to see how the GOP's eroding respect for the military (while still championing The Military in the abstract, natch) will play out in the long run.

Silly Liz, they're only heroes when they're on the battlefield; once they get into politics they're swamp-creatures.

As are you (I say to my high school classmate Rep. Cheney)

McCarthy says "I thank him for his service, but he is wrong".

Incredible piece of shit.

The fact that they would turn on military and FBI/intell services for Donald friggin Trump means they would turn on them for ANYBODY. Cult masquerading as a political party.

hmmm, maybe. but have you ever considered the possibility that everyone except trump and his small circle of advisors is lying? because that's what you'd have to believe, in order to think that trump is innocent. and that's what i believe #maga

Am I wrong in remembering that this tendency only really began with Trump responding in a Trumpian fashion to military-adjacent critics of Trump (eg the Khans, McCain)? And that prior to that the military (at least in terms of their public commentary) was pretty much sacrosanct among the GOP?

Well, sacrosanct as cudgels to use against Democrats. They don't give a shit about veterans.

Dead veterans they like.

yeah can't remember the GOP ever knocking John Kerry

xxpost Yeah, which is why I specified their public commentary. I mean, I don't think they actually give a fuck about farmers in the heartland, either, but they somehow refrain from voicing their true opinions about that gaggle of hayseeds.

it really is a tough judgment call to make: is this lifelong con artist self promoting sleazebag pathological liar lying, or is the whole of the leadership ranks of the military and intelligence agencies lying because they are jealous of said lying con artist. Lol jk it's not a tough judgement, haters gonna hate, we all know this.

At any rate, it'll be fun if the GOP manages to well and truly alienate any of the agencies/institutions they've traditionally aligned themselves with, all for the sake of shielding the fragile ego of a ochre-hued rascal who only switched over to their side so he could let his racism find its full flourish.

Oops.

Source familiar with Vindman’s closed doors deposition says he has testified that he took notes during the July 25th phone call, and made two or so recommended edits to the summarized call transcript that weren’t used in the end (ie using company in place of Burisma)

— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) October 29, 2019

jeez - so he was trying to help trump cover his tracks, and they ignored his advice?