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

Could see that trying to maintain some level of credibility for the witness might be of use. So immediately removing him from the role might not work for using his testimony well. But since this is a t crony his ability to maintain his own credibility might be compromised.

Dr. Fiona Hill has released her opening statement, @mkraju reports.

“Based on questions and statements I have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country...

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 21, 2019

good morning!

Stevolende at 5:12 21 Nov 19

Is anybody else from the diplomatic service voicing concern/disgust about the continued employment of Sondland as a foreign ambassador. Is there any backlash? Or is the environment right for such a thing?

I mean if they axe him the job will just go to Jon Voight or Larry the Cable Guy

don't front on my boy Chuck Woolery

Amen to this! This bullshit idea that Ukraine had any interest, time or resources to fuck with our elections is really stupid and obvious Russian propaganda.

One other obvious thing someone else observed is that if Ukraine and its leadership was so corrupt and interfered in the 2016 elections ... why would you task or trust them to conduct an investigation into corruption in the first place?

still pissed that Andrew WK was denied an ambassadorship

especially given the fact that this chucklehead got in

Amen to this! This bullshit idea that Ukraine had any interest,time or resources to fuck with our elections is really stupid and obvious Russian propaganda.

This isn't really true. The Poroshenko government had a strong reason for wanting to prevent a key advisor to Yanukovich from becoming the right-hand-man of the US president. They had the interest, time and resources and the black ledger that took Manafort down is still shrouded in a certain amount of mystery. That's different from saying that the Democrats actively worked to solicit interference.

you must be a russian agent

Alternatively, it's just about possible that more than one country in the former Soviet Union has a dodgy security service and politicians.

I have been watching people making phone calls my entire life. My hearing is, and has been, great. Never have I been watching a person making a call, which was not on speakerphone, and been able to hear or understand a conversation. I’ve even tried, but to no avail. Try it live!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2019

I am, and have been, a total dumbass my entire life

“I have been watching people making phone calls my entire life. My hearing is, and has been, great.“

Gotta listen and not watch if you’re trying to hear something Donnie!

he obviously never talked to my mother on the phone .

I am a charter member of the Phone Call-Watching Society of America and have logged 3,000 hours of call observance in strict accordance with Society guidelines. Never, and I mean never, have I

Is he capable of behaving/speaking like a faint simulacrum of an actual human being for one entire 24-hour span of time?

15 tweets in two hours. Quite a busy morning for the big boy president.

"Never have I been...able to hear or understand a conversation. I’ve even tried, but to no avail."

Holmes:

My recollection is that Ambassador Sondland stated, “Dammit Rudy. Every time Rudy gets involved he goes and f---s everything up.”

— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) November 21, 2019

That's certainly my impression of Rudy.

Or to put it more broadly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz6_9ReEGuY

Rudy was on Glenn Beck's show (he has a show? is he blind yet?) still claiming he's working with Ukrainians to get the goods on Biden et al.

I can't post the clip right now, but someone observed that Trump was leaving the plane yesterday he used the shorter back stairs, was dragging his left leg a little, and wasn't moving his left arm at all ...

otm to whoever suggested keeping an eye out for when he golfs next. he definitely seems like the kind of guy who, when told to rest, would take it easy for a couple of days then stubbornly return to regular activity. maybe he'll reinjure himself.

(semi related, indictments against Netenyahu reportedly imminent ... )

🐦[Holmes:

My recollection is that Ambassador Sondland stated, “Dammit Rudy. Every time Rudy gets involved he goes and f---s everything up.”
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) November 21, 2019🕸]🐦

https://i0.wp.com/equality365.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Stephen_Tobolowsky_Mercer_island.jpg

he's just a big goofball rich guy who realizes the absurdity of his life.

Sondland mildly likeable within this particular context (mostly because it's swell to see a big-money Trump donor joyfully and publicly hand Trump a gift-wrapped set of his very own balls) and undoubtedly a nightmare and a must to avoid in pretty much every other imaginable context.

I do think there's something noteworthy about the one rep yesterday (don't recall which) who evoked Sondland's Holocaust survivor parents and how that experience may have injected a teeeeeeny sliver of decency and higher sense of the public good in dudes like him and Cohen who otherwise enjoy lives of flagrant steaming turd-dom.

(I guess Sondland's mother fled Germany prior to WWII but the point stands.)

apropos of nothing i'd like to point out it is Budd Dwyer's birthday today

I wish I would've met you
Now it's a little late
But today is still your birthday
So let's all have some cake

Dammit Rudy

A message to you: stop that messin around

time you straighten right out, better think of your future, else you'll wind up in jail

sondland seems like a massive prick to me

Me too. Just some nihilistic rich dude.

Rudy can fail

Sondland should end up in jail, fuck him.

'nihilistic rich dude'

Do u really need that extra modifier?

potential december thread titles, suggested in this thread:

The President Speaks Loudly
okay from what?
everyone's hair was on fire
I WANT NOTHING, I WANT NOTHING, I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO
Dammit Rudy...

Can't believe no one itt wants to have a beer with Gordon Songland.

What do u guys think of fiona hill?

She seems kind of hawkish but maybe this no nonsense approach will play better.

The line about being from the same part of England as George Washington’s ancestors seemed sort of bizarre.

I like her, she seems smarter than fuck and tolerates no fools. Actually I'm very impressed by everyone I've seen who works in the foreign service and the State Department. I feel bad for all of them since they obviously have build important careers doing important shitty work in other countries and now they're all getting thrown under the bus by idiots.

I wasn't expecting today's hearings to be very interesting but now I want to see how HIll responds to Nunes' gibberish bullshit. She already pointed in her opening testimony that she has no time for this Ukraine conspiracy crap.

Apparently she was already pretty prickly in response to their BS in the closed hearings.

hill seems fine, but her testimony will probably useless. she's there to be a fact witness on ukraine, to rebut one of the many republican lines of attack, that there is this big conspiracy by ukraine to interfere with elections. democrats already know that's bullshit. republicans might too, but does anyone think that "facts" or "experts" are going to suddenly change their mind?

especially once it comes out that hill once smiled to a democratic operative in an elevator, which would mean that she's in on the hoax as well, etc