US Politics, January 2020. Because we hate ourselves.

Good morning!

not sure how to reconcile the fact that 1) most people think a prominent supreme court attempt to repeal the ACA this year would be bad electoral politics for the GOP, and so only worth doing if you expect to win the case 2) quite a lot of the GOP seems to be operating on the assumption that the case doesn't stand a chance.

"The entire ACA is unconstitutional because the mandate penalty remains law but is currently $0!"

"Cool story, guys. Anyway, we're expanding Medicaid under the ACA."

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 9, 2020

somebody's the mark here, and given the tx state gop is involved, i like to think it's them. but who knows.

“I will send them over when I’m ready,” Ms. Pelosi said at her weekly news conference on Thursday morning, “and that will probably be soon.”

this is weak sounding as i feared it would be, but i'm glad that it's happening now and not in late february or something. the potential gains to be made by waiting to send the articles were 1) extract concessions from senate GOP/mcconnell on additional witnesses, 2) hope that news reveals more trump corruption, 3) pressure senate GOP swing votes to either do something responsible by not standing in lockstep opposition, or at least get them to make clear their fealty to trump ahead of the election.

they didn't get 1), they got a little bit of 2), and if there was an effort to make 3) happen it seems to have passed without incident

And in a bid to signal to Ms. Pelosi that her time was running out, Mr. McConnell signed on to a resolution introduced by Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, that would alter Senate rules to allow the impeachment charges to be dismissed without a trial if they are not delivered within 25 days of House approval.

impeachment articles were approved dec 18. 25 days is ~ january 12. this coming monday. well, she held onto them as long as she could, i guess.

what would not be weak? No snark intended.

xpost

it's not her fault at this moment, it's the situation they find themselves. there's not really a strong way to rephrase it.

I thought a POLITICAL GENIUS could come up w/ something

she has an Obama 9-dimensional chess set at home

this pretty much nails it

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7IUnVnFKhU/?igshid=fp0flmpci849

good morning!

mcconnell has told gop senators to expect a trial next week, apparently

'How has your life improved since you intentionally decimated your genital region with a disc sander?'
'Mm...eh, y'know...mmmrrmmmm ehhh huhhhhhnnnnnnggggggh GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHI don't know, it just has. It just has.'

Quite the nugget in this WSJ story --->

"Mr. Trump, after the strike, told associates he was under pressure to deal with Gen. Soleimani from GOP senators he views as important supporters in his coming impeachment trial in the Senate, associates said" https://t.co/3xxLFJ6XTk

— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) January 10, 2020

hmm, wonder if this could possibly related to known warmonger lindsey graham somehow hearing about the plan to assassinate soleimani days before the strike, on a golf course, despite none of the democrats being briefed about it

so at least sticking with Obama on this amirite

#US to #Iraq: We’re staying. pic.twitter.com/bnliyZY9O1

— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) January 10, 2020

Narrator: He was not a force for good in the Middle East.

YES WE ARE. and we will stay until everyone sees that. they will thank us in the end!! after they pay back the trillions they owe us for the forcing of good that we did

and we take their oil

the dinosaurs were Americans

*** MISSION ACCOMPLISHED ***

democratic congressman from ISIS

our right, appropriate force posture

the plan to assassinate soleimani days before the strike, on a golf course

I totally know what you meant but the wording allows several amusing misreadings

https://twitter.com/search?q=%22Hose%20Republicans%22

this is such a funny thing to lie about pic.twitter.com/TwZcTPQtJQ

— Dr. Smallpenis (@CNNRGLDN) January 13, 2020

good afternoon!

this seems like a bad thing for the President of the United States to retweet

The corrupted Dems trying their best to come to the Ayatollah's rescue.#NancyPelosiFakeNews pic.twitter.com/a0ksPHeXCy

— داون آندر (@D0wn_Under) January 13, 2020

OIC u have not been informed that we've dispensed with norms, no worries, it's a common misapprehension

Washington — The White House is preparing for some Republican senators to join Democrats in voting to call witnesses in President Trump's impeachment trial, which could get underway in the coming days.

Senior White House officials tell CBS News they increasingly believe that at least four Republicans, and likely more, will vote to call witnesses. In addition to Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah and possibly Cory Gardner of Colorado, the White House also views Rand Paul of Kentucky as a "wild card" and Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee as an "institutionalist" who might vote to call witnesses, as one official put it.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/impeachment-trial-white-house-expects-republican-defections-on-calling-new-witnesses-in-the-senate/

important background for those not aware:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the question of whether to call new witnesses in the trial would be decided by the full Senate after the trial gets underway. A simple majority of 51 votes will be needed to approve motions to call witnesses, meaning Democrats would need to convince four out of the 53 Republicans in the Senate to vote with them to compel testimony.

whose brows can we furrow up in here

the only good thing about mcconnell being an utterly amoral scoundrel who enjoys the suffering of his opposition of any party, providing he has cover, is that no at risk gop sen has one iota of confidence in him to meet a supportive agreement in their own positions or at home. he better be paying straight cash homey, by which i mean my sen.

Lotsa Parnas stuff dropped

House Intel is releasing some of the documents from Lev Parnas - including this scrawled note: "get Zalensky to Annonce that the Biden case will Be Investigated" pic.twitter.com/m3slygGDOj

— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) January 14, 2020

Um holy sh*t. This certainly makes it sound like Parnas and co. were actively tracking Yovanovitch's movements. This could explain why Yovanovitch was moved out of Ukraine so quickly. https://t.co/4rBRB06ZGN pic.twitter.com/5Gc8WcGPih

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) January 14, 2020

why were they tracking her movements (and security detail!)

were they thinking of killing her? does that make sense given the case?

that's too speculative. i withdraw the post. but so odd

One of those guys tracking her is now running for Congress.

maybe they just wanted to give her a hug

i guess they were planning to intimidate her in some way--so she wouldn't say anything about the "investigations"

there will be no withdrawing of posts!

on the one hand this is really serious.

on the other hand, I’m dying: “what’s the word bro? any good stuff?”

BREAKING: Michael Avenatti was taken into custody by federal agents during a disciplinary hearing at California’s State Bar Court https://t.co/aKwub5VclW

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 15, 2020

#basta

New Pew polling:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ENyHh_mXkAMfwSD?format=jpg

India and the Philippines fall into line with Modi and Duterte, but interestingly Brazil demurs.

Interesting discussion further down about how confidence in Trump has up among members of populist far right parties over, been flat to down among the rest of foreign citizens.

Merkel still wins in a plurality vote for world leader:

Merkel: Sweden, Netherlands, France, Germany, Canada, UK, Spain, South Korea, Australia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Japan, Tunisia, Italy, Brazil
Putin: Russia, Bulgaria, Greece, Slovakia, Indonesia, Turkey, Czech Rep
Trump: Phillipines, Israel, Kenya, India, Poland, Hungary
Xi: Nigeria, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico
Macron: Lebanon

surprised by the high ratings in kenya and nigeria

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/14/michael-flynn-seeks-to-withdraw-guilty-plea-trump#_=_

8/89 in Mexico, lol

dunno so much about kenya but it's utterly unsurprising why nigeria would be in favour - i know several nigerian families professionally and they all have in common a strong patriarchal culture where the dads are larger-than-life domestic tyrants (even in the nicest possible way!) and success in business is seen as next to godliness