“It’s a little too quiet” - US Politics February 2021

I think that they used a quote from Lee about the Tommy Tuberville phone call

my god Leahy just has no business doing this

yeah, Leahy just shit his pants

roberts would have been an improvement tbh

If this was Korea, they would have already cleared the benches and there would be blood everywhere

ok, so mike lee is making a big fuss at the end of the day that's all about the insurrection, and in the process, ends up digging up the almost-forgotten chestnut that on the day of the insurrection, both trump and rudy giuliani were trying to get a hold of tuberville to rig the election. cool

or not digging it up, I just mean, bringing even more attention to it? i don't even know anymore.

roberts would have been an improvement tbh

― Zach_TBD (Karl Malone)

https://s.abcnews.com/images/US/supreme-court-roberts_hpMain_20200707-232614_16x9_1600.jpg

Roberts would rather have a root canal that oversee this shitshow

just strike it who gives a shit wasn't even a key point

Cicilline casting shade on his republican colleagues was my favorite part of this, and I'm glad it resulted in Lee's whiney pleading at the end

Easiest thing in the world is proving Trump's complete abdication of duty in not calling out the National Guard. He didn't call out the National Guard--done. (Is that actually part of the articles, or are they limited to incitement?)

Easiest thing in the world is proving Trump's complete abdication of duty in not calling out the National Guard.

NRO types who want Trump impeached have lamented on Twitter that the House should've used this argument, but we forget it will make no diference.

They have been making that argument, very forcefully...but right, it won't change anything.

it won't make a difference, but that really stood out for me, why weren't they deployed

I don't know why they didn't throw in the Georgia phone call as well

iirc they did earlier?

it was in there too

they played audio of Trump begging for 10K votes

to change it by 11,780 votes, one more than he would need to win

how is that not criminal

how is that not criminal

The Fulton County prosecutor has the same question, fortunately.

Leahy is fine

I don't know why they didn't throw in the Georgia phone call as well

Leahy has next to no idea what’s going on, it was painful enough during the first impeachment

don't think that's true. he's 80 but not demented, just has the voice of a 1000 year-old. wait til you get to be 80

you think that's far off but it's way closer than you think

it’s not his voice it’s that he’s often confused about what is going on

huh?

doesn't seem confused to me

not sure what Pat Leary’s mental acuity has to do with my own sense of mortality

One thing I always notice about that Georgia phone call is that Trump misspeaks: "I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have"--he means to say "one more than we need," no? I'm surprised the Republicans haven't pounced on this as irrefutable evidence that he didn't mean what we know he meant.

It's a tiny grain of sand in what today was all about, but I also thought Leahy came across pretty poorly in that kerfuffle at the end. There seemed to be a microphone issue that compounded the problem.

wait til you get to be 80

Our new president is a mere child of 78. There's a reasonably good chance that in the next couple of years we shall see his aging process accelerate to the point where his energy level will limit his participation in daily governance to a degree we haven't seen for many decades.

otoh, presidents have traditionally spent large amounts of time doing stuff like meeting with groups of Eagle Scouts or Teachers of the Year from various states, signing proclamations about this or that triviality, or consulting with advisors about how some policy wrinkle might affect the re-election of a senator in a purple state and how to finesse that so as not to jeopardize a different bill in their committee.

It's not like there's no water to squeeze out of a president's schedule.

caek otm that one of Trump’s major sources of aggravation must be that the prosecution has this slick video presentation with never before seen footage!, which totally appeals to his sense of showmanship, while obviously his team is unable to show video that casts him in a good light, let alone having a wow factor.

xpost Isn't there some possibly apocryphal story about Nancy Reagan asking the astronauts to do another orbit of the planet before landing so that Ronnie could get another hour sleep?

do we care?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JTtI3D6lqk

In a world where Trump's (second) acquittal wasn't a foregone conclusion, I'd think that another obstacle for his counsel would be the fact that the prosecution has been peers speaking to peers about a traumatic event that they collectively experienced while the defense are a couple of last resort strip mall also-ran goofballs trying to argue that the bill of rights allows their client to shout 'fire' outside of a crowded Capitol building without being responsible for the torch-wielding mob that forms in the aftermath. Like I half expect some shellshocked senator or another to give one of those mealy mouthed clowns the paintbrush for trying to undermine the seriousness of what they all just relived today.

For real. I would love to see someone just grab Josh Hawley’s head and force him to look at the goddamn monitor. It’s fucking pathetic that these cowardly scumbags are so afraid of their own constituents. Does Bernie get a chance to yell at them?

Also pathetic: their constituents

Isn't there some possibly apocryphal story about Nancy Reagan asking the astronauts to do another orbit of the planet before landing so that Ronnie could get another hour sleep?

Yup. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/15/science/space-agency-switches-time-of-shuttle-landing-on-july-4.html

wasn't Nancy instrumental in shifting Reagan to how far right he was.
Heard he might have passed as human at one point prior to that.

There’s a Kitty Kelley book about the Reagans that said Nancy was known for giving the best blowies in Hollywood.

If Republican officials didn’t think the MAGA terrorists believed they were doing what Trump wanted them to do, why did so many of them call Trump and ask him to tell the mob to stop attacking the Capitol? https://t.co/YkRoS4Hl6E

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 10, 2021

Senators coordinating with Trump during the riot, possibly to give the rioters more time, is a new angle that I wasn't expecting would come up in this trial.

Also, wondering if we are going to get more details about who gave the orders to limit the police and national guard presence.

On the one hand, I'm glad this new information is making it out to the public, but it makes the foregone result of this thing even more depressing.

it's not donald trump's fault the rioters went to the capitol, it was in fact pierre l'enfant, the architect of washington dc pic.twitter.com/rdOusGuq2t

— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) February 11, 2021

ok thats pretty funny actually, hats off

spectacular

Thing is, this is actually dumb, if you're familiar with the city.

Trump told people to "walk down Pennsylvania Avenue." Actually if you're at the Ellipse, Pennsylvania Avenue is not the direct route. You use Constitution Avenue or Madison Drive. I have lived/walked/biked/driven in DC since 1976 and Pennsylvania Ave. is almost useless and usually too much hassle.

OANN reporting something actually dumb, who would have thought?