The September 2019 US Politics Thread is great Great GREAT GR8

"Trump had no choice to dissolve Congress, unfortunately", stated a troubled Graham.

CONFIRMED: Pelosi will announce a formal impeachment inquiry later today AND share that she personally supports impeaching Donald Trump.

— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) September 24, 2019

So dumdum just said he'd release the full transcript of the call tomorrow ... but no word on the whistleblower report, which apparently goes much deeper.

Seeing these two hi-five each other...well, these are strange times!

Yes, this is an emergency. We don’t have the luxury of time w/ another committee.

Judiciary has been investigating& putting the pieces together for months. Impeachment belongs there.

We must honor jurisdiction, historical precedent,& work done + allow Judiciary to move forward. https://t.co/CM0gXN7T1i

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 24, 2019

"I find the willingness of the House to initiate impeachment proceedings against our magnificent president to be deeply troubling," said Mitch McConnell, looking deeply troubled, "I can see no good coming from this decision," he added, looking even more deeply troubled.

I feel like AOC will accept and/or signal-boost ideas she agrees with, wherever they come from...and on the other hand, she'll call out shitty ideas whether or not they come from "her team."

Aimless is that a real McConnell quote or are you yanking our chains?

Anything dems can do from this point on to distance themselves entirely from *smug crossed-arm pose from opening credits of TLC reality show* from here on out is highly advisable.

From this point on AND from here on out. This point is key.

Reminds me of when she was buddying up with Ted Cruz

xxxp

Aimless is that a real McConnell quote

if you have to ask... I ventriloquized him.

Co-sign. https://t.co/jAoOgky3ps

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) September 24, 2019

So dumdum just said he'd release the full transcript of the call tomorrow

weren't there, like, eight calls?

Interested to see how many/how quickly/how stridently gop senators come out against the principle of impeachment proceedings in the house.

XP To be fair, three of those calls were meant for Papa John's.

feel like AOC will accept and/or signal-boost ideas she agrees with, wherever they come from...and on the other hand, she'll call out shitty ideas whether or not they come from "her team."

― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Tuesday, September 24, 2019 2:27 PM (

Remember the exchange with Ted Cruz?

GOP Senators now have their impeachment talking points: The investigation should be “bipartisan” and advance “behind closed doors.” Coming out of their weekly policy lunches there’s been a chorus of those newly memorized, boilerplate phrases

— Matt Laslo (@MattLaslo) September 24, 2019

republicans finally interested in oversight, just when the investigation endangers the president. definitely a good faith proposal

a very translucent process

lmao the official WH transcript is gonna be full of so many "Sir"s and [Ukrainian President crying]

the equivalent of EXPLETIVE DELETED

what are the odds that the whistleblower is Bolton

very low

This seems likely

I sincerely believe Trump is gonna basically offer to act on guns and prescription drugs in exchange for the House not impeaching him.

I truly believe that’s how this man’s brain works. https://t.co/oEhLXeC7Hl

— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) September 24, 2019

We have been informed by the whistleblower’s counsel that their client would like to speak to our committee and has requested guidance from the Acting DNI as to how to do so.

We‘re in touch with counsel and look forward to the whistleblower’s testimony as soon as this week.

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) September 24, 2019

Would be something if the whistleblower came across something so alarming they brought it forward through formal channels, waited patiently while this blew up, got permission to talk to Schiff et al, then showed up and told them it was nothing.

You don’t want to get impeached when so many of your party’s representatives have already announced their retirement in 2020. Will Hurd seems likely to vote for impeachment for example.

t'would be appropriate in these surprisedprairiedog.gif times it the whistleblower turns out to be Tiffany

He thought they were alone now, didn't seem to be anyone around

Whistleblower currently getting blitzed with anonymous OpEd writer.

Lol Granny

I too laughed @ Granny D

Anyways I am sure that the "transcript" will be generously covered with Sharpie.

And that the impartial individual to whom it is released will be John Barron from the Pmurt PR Agency.

happy infrastructure week

road to impeachment

The Strategic Case for Impeaching Donald Trump

What to do? Zero-sum game theory offers some useful advice.

In zero-sum games, one actor’s gain is always the other actor’s loss. The optimal strategy to pursue in this instance is called “minimax.” A minimax strategy anticipates that the other actor will adopt the most punishing strategy possible — and, in response to that strategy, takes the course of action that minimizes the damage.

What does this have to do with Trump and the Democrats in Congress? It is safe to assume that Trump will continue to abuse the powers of the presidency as long as he is in office. The Ukraine example shows that he is not above using presidential authority for partisan gain. Furthermore, when he is not doing those things, he is pursuing other policies that harm the U.S. economy and the national interest.

Would impeachment stop any of that? No, not directly. What it would do, however, is distract the heck out of him. To say that Trump can be easily distracted would be an understatement — his short attention span occupies a healthy portion of the #ToddlerinChief thread. Sharpiegate exemplified how Trump obsessed about a small thing so much that it became a more scandalous thing.

As Matthew Dallek noted recently in The Post, one of the reasons Trump is such a micromanager is because the weightier aspects of the job overwhelm him: “Where his predecessors sometimes knew so much that they got obsessed with the details, Trump knows so little that microscopic concerns seem almost to be ends in and of themselves.”

So why impeach Trump? Because he will obsess about it. The moment it becomes a live option, the moment a trial in the Senate seems conceivable, he will talk about nothing else. He will rant to his staff and bore foreign leaders about it. He loves a fight. And every moment Trump thinks about impeachment is a moment he is not thinking about doing even more reckless things, like trying to compromise the independence of the Fed, or launching a larger trade war, or stumbling into a real war.

Let me be very clear: I am suggesting that the House impeach Trump for two reasons: 1. He has committed high crimes and misdemeanors; and 2. Impeachment will distract Trump from further harming the national interest.

This is not a perfect strategy. It will sap the energy of the executive branch, something Alexander Hamilton would dislike. There are some small risks to Democrats in 2020, although an impeachment trial would also highlight Trump’s egregious abuses of power. It is possible that if impeachment happens and then the Senate fails to convict, Trump will feel emboldened.

Still, Trump is not going to stop doing what he is doing, unless he gets distracted by something else. In a zero-sum world, it is far better to have him obsess about his political survival rather than, say, nuking a hurricane. In the zero-sum political world that Trump has made, impeaching him is the best possible response strategy to his abuses of power.

If history is any guide, impeachment proceedings will suck every bit of oxygen out of Washington, DC for the foreseeable future. It will becalm all the democratic presidential candidates' campaigns, too, as it becomes 'the only issue that matters' and they all agree on it - unless maybe Klochubar sucks hind tit. Also, it will become the single issue upon which all 2020 campaigns for congress will pivot, too.

This seems unavoidable now.

they don't actually agree on it! biden apparently only supports impeachment if trump does not release the whistleblower complaint. everyone else (incl. pelosi) says that's beside the point.

although that is extrapolated from reporting of statements that haven't actually happened (see https://www.politico.com/news/2019/09/24/joe-biden-trump-impeachment-000013 and below). could easily imagine biden toughening his position given the momentum.

NEW — Pelosi is going to call for an impeachment inquiry this afternoon and, I’m told, she will likely NOT make it conditional on Trump refusing to produce the whistleblower report. https://t.co/b2C5XZ6uo7

— Sam Stein (@samstein) September 24, 2019

As Matthew Dallek noted recently in The Post,

Articles of impeachment must include the violations of the Emoluments Clauses, two critical anti-corruption clauses of the Constitution.

Trump keeps taking substantial money from the Saudi Government eg. That's impeachable.

— Zephyr Teachout (@ZephyrTeachout) September 24, 2019

remember when this dirtbag was gonna save us all?

#BREAKING: In local news interview, former FBI Director James Comey comes out against impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump, saying, "I think the American people would be let off the hook if Donald Trump were removed from office."

— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) September 24, 2019

Lol

what a huge fuckin dumbass comey is and always was

his opponent got more votes you dumb idiot

"Let off the hook?" What is that supposed to mean? Like we all deserve 4 years of Trump or something?

"do whatever crimes want for at least four years" is not being let off the hook imo

that guy is so fucking embarrassing it actually causes me physical pain

lames comey

You don’t want to get impeached when so many of your party’s representatives have already announced their retirement in 2020. Will Hurd seems likely to vote for impeachment for example.

this is a good point, but unfortunately impeachment articles passing the House is not the issue. The only GOP Senator I can imagine currently voting for impeachment is actually Romney which is sad lol

i'm not saying he's going to be removed from office, but the size of the vote is not irrelevant. it sends a message.

GOP reps being forced to vote for trump also seems like it could increase the rate of retirements which is good electorally (not that the house seems in much danger in 2020 right now)