US Politics, November 2019: These people are truly sick.

suspect you're gonna hear the word "damning" a lot today, Taylor basically laid out an hour by hour recap of all the crimes Trump committed

hope william taylor is an expert on how the hacking of the DNC was actually done by ukraine, not russia, and was masterminded by the democrats, before the election, in order to make trump look bad later, because they knew he would win...hunter biden was involved

because he's about to get 45 minutes straight of questions about it

triple hearsay, you say

My suspicion that if anything about this goes viral it isn't going to be from the Dems' side of questioning, it's going to be one of the witnesses slapping down Nunes a la "have you at long last no sense of decency sir"

While they have him under oath, they should also ask about the loch ness monster and the lunar landing, just to get that stuff cleared up.

Lol i just got the waterboys joke some deep big music synapses

In the transcripts, a lot of witnesses reacted to GOP conspiracy batshitery with head scratching, iirc.

The Dem's interlocutor apparently has a lot of experience prosecuting organized crime.

My suspicion that if anything about this goes viral it isn't going to be from the Dems' side of questioning, it's going to be one of the witnesses slapping down Nunes a la "have you at long last no sense of decency sir"

was just thinking about that this morning, daydreaming about a scenario where some respected republican, soon to be disrespected says something like "i don't have to ask about your sense of decency...it is evident that you have none" and air horns start going off

Taylor has also implicated Pence in this

yup their style is to accuse you of what they’ve done, while claiming the injuries you’ve plainly got from them.

Nice aside from Goldman -- "I want to spend some time reading the transcript -- as we've been encouraged to do."

Nunes, in his opening statement, said that the closed door hearings took place in a "cult-like atmosphere"

jfc

Well he's not wrong. All of US federal politics is taking place in a cult-like atmosphere now.

lol The White House official reaction to impeachment mimics that of Fucker Carlson: that it's "boring." Seems like a solid defense.

One wonders if this new talking point is intended to dissuade viewers from paying attention to what's being said. pic.twitter.com/ntEit9mXXZ

— Amy Gardner (@AmyEGardner) November 13, 2019

Drop the Chalupa

lol Nunes is a fucking joke

hillary = drink

bout to be fucked up in about 10 minutes here

oh, definitely. i mean, that's going to apply to everyone, not just blowhard rightwingers. no one in the United States - not a single person - read the mueller report. no one (zero. zero people) bothered to read the executive summary, less than a dozen pages in total. even the authors of the report got too bored and tired after a couple pages, so there was a series of resignations among the report writers. that's why it took so long - the turnover, and then the archival research that the final report writer had to undertake to try to figure out what the original writers were trying to convey before they got too bored

there's no fucking way that 99.999999999% of americans are going to follow this. we will have to hope that late night hosts and podcast hosts can relay the most important points to everyone in a headline friendly, 10-words or less format

xp to how republicans think this is boring

Nunes doesn't understand how cybersecurity works, how elections are run, how the government works, or really anything. I'm surprised this guy can wipe his own ass. He's rivaled only by Jordan and Trump in the idiocy race.

the #1 question on the mind of most americans this morning is "do they vote on kicking out trump today? i heard they're going to do that this week or something"

I believe the proper term for Nunes is "shitweasel"

The BS has begun!

Was anyone around for the Watergate hearings? That must have been equally as 'boring' day to day. I mean aside from the John Dean stuff or whoever

in other news... PROJECT GUARDIAN!

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday unveiled a program that aims to reduce gun violence including through the creation guidelines to prosecute those who make false statements while trying to get a gun.

The five-point plan includes "Coordinated Prosecution," "Enforcing the Background Check System," "Improved Information Sharing," a "Coordinated Response to Mental Health Denials," and "Crime Gun Intelligence Coordination" according to a DOJ statement.

The department seeks to coordinate prosecution under the "Project Guardian" program by considering federal prosecution for those who were arrested for possessing a firearm, are believed to have used a firearm while committing violence or drug trafficking or who is suspected of actively committing violent crimes in connection with a criminal organization.

To enforce background checks, attorneys general, in connection with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) will create or renew guidelines for prosecuting those who make false statements while trying to get a firearm. Those who have been convicted of violent felonies and domestic violence misdemeanors, among others, will be given special emphasis.

The plan would also give information on those who have been issued denials under the national background check system to state and local law enforcement, update information into the background check system when there is new or additional information about those who are prohibited from owning firearms because of their mental health status and encourage using tools to identify trigger pullers.

Attorney General William Barr said in a statement that the plan shows the DOJ's commitment to reducing gun violence.

"Project Guardian will strengthen our efforts to reduce gun violence by allowing the federal government and our state and local partners to better target offenders who use guns in crimes and those who try to buy guns illegally,” he said.

He also said during a press conference in Memphis, Tenn., that the program would be applied with exceptional "vigor" in areas with high levels of gun violence.

"We're going to apply it with special vigor where gun violence is the highest, in places like Memphis," he said.

Can't believe we just solved gun violence!

Next stop: the DOJ will announce prohibitions on all guns without sufficient padding on the grip or something similarly efficacious in ending this scourge once and for all.

I suspect they’re about to just start arresting everyone who’s ever purchased a gun who isn’t a straight white Christian

straight white christians will be able to continue purchasing as many guns as they can possibly fit in their household, under the "straight white christians with guns make the world safer" exemption

they're finally going to start enforcing all those regulations that are already on the books

Ending gun violence by stressing with heretofore unseen emphasis just how very illegal gun violence is.

I like how it's all focused on guys who use guns in crimes... but up to the point that the crime is committed, owning all those guns is a-okay!

also tbf these hearings are p boring if you've been following along

this guy is p hilarious though

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a key Trump ally on Capitol Hill, offered a novel defense of the president Wednesday, arguing that the truth is subjective.

“I think what happens is, when we start to look at the facts, everybody has their impression of what truth is,” Meadows told reporters at the Capitol.

they're finally going to start enforcing all those regulations that are already on the books

lol good one

So this guy's line of questioning is that the so-called irregular channel was irregular but not totally outlandish, yet maybe Taylor should have been ... more concerned?

kinda weird that of all the crimes committed in office this is the one that blows up

He could shit on someone on 5th avenue

I've been in meetings all morning, is there a good summary being compiled somewhere (none offense to y'all).

Trump Did It

Was anyone around for the Watergate hearings?

I was. I even watched a fair amount of them, since I was a student, not working at a job. Yes, they could get a bit tedious at times, but the novelty of watching how Congress really operated, plus the historic context of the first impeachment proceedings in a century, made it interesting most of the time - for anyone inclined to be interested in such stuff. Most people got their version greatly condensed on the evening news - at a time when the FCC meant something and the FOX News 24-hour propagandistic approach did not yet exist.

In fact, it was the Watergate reportage in general that galvanized the right wing to emasculate the FCC, eliminate the Fairness Doctrine, and constantly whip PBS and major network news as rotten with "liberal bias". With the election of Reagan, clearing a path for conservatives to control the airwaves and cable was among their first priorities.

jesus I walked away for 10 minutes and now wat the fuck is going on. Is this Jordan?

re: Barr's gun announcement, to anyone with half a brain "special vigor" is just a nice way of saying "selective enforcement".

Shouty guy who doesn't own a jacket = Jordan.

Jordan took too many pep pills this morning

Wish he'd take a cyanide

Ratcliffe is all "lemme get my sound bite! Heeyyyuhh no stop ruining my soundbiteuhhh!! Gosh, I worked super hard on it and everything"