US Politics, October 2019 — I guess statement you could say with thread. I made a thread. The thread was PERFECT.

xp, clearly not alone in that take; i hope they both get sucked down in the quagmire and their kompromat comes out anyway

its particularly infuriating b/c the reality is the Dems waited pretty much as long as they could before impeaching, the Ukraine stuff was so blatantly illegal that it basically forced their hand

we could only wish in every sense was true

"Here's my hand. Now force it!"

Cannot see tiny hand

a good chunk of twitter seems to be using the moment to provide some historical perspective on lynching, so silver lining i suppose

should have stuck with witchhunt

a political mob seeking an outcome regardless of facts.

Incredible how un-selfaware all these ppl are

"I know you are but what am I" is basically the party motto now.

Incredible how un-selfaware all these ppl are

sadder galaxy brain: they are very aware

i'm sure Grifter or an ally will bring Clarence Thomas into this in a few hours

"the President isn't getting due process!"

"Hey provide us these people and documents so we can--"

"No"

XP Newt brought it up on The View (which he was guest co-hosting) this morning.

yes, should've put my chips on that vermin

https://www.mediamatters.org/view/view-foxs-newt-gingrich-says-lynching-isnt-automatically-only-black-experience

Lotsa fun details emerging:

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/22/william-taylor-ukraine-testimony-trump-054259

Pfft.

BREAKING: Anonymous author of NYT Trump ‘resistance’ op-ed to publish a tell-all bookhttps://t.co/wd4Z6728ha

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) October 22, 2019

"It is I, friend to Pierre Delecto!"

#basta

Taylor's full statement is here.

https://i.imgur.com/6oaREa1.png

wow, john bolton the warmongering asshole...relatively ethical actor in this shitshow? wtf

That detail's been public for a bit but yeah.

John Bolton, welcome to the resistance

Taylor's statement pretty much confirms the exact thing the president is trying to deny

will it really matter is the question

https://i.imgur.com/qFnOCiK.png

Mr. Danyliuk: it seems you have stepped in a Pynchon novel, Mr. Taylor

I mean the crazy thing about this is that Ukraine is just one of dozens and dozens of countries receiving millions in U.S. assistance

Does anyone really *not* think Trump is running his protection racket on them, too?

depends what you mean by "matter" - will GOP congress start to desert him? no

xp

Taylor's statement pretty much confirms the exact thing the president is trying to deny. will it really matter is the question

Matter in what sense? Because asshole is going to get impeached. The sub-question is, will impeachment matter? I don't know!

xxp He only has one Rudy to go around

my guess is that at this point Pelosi is just trying to make sure she has an airtight case that will give enough cover to swing district Dems to vote to impeach. This looks extremely likely, at this point.

The Senate is a different game.

if impeachment were decided by a neutral jury rather than by the Senate, you'd just have to drop Taylor's testimony and then rest

again: impeachment is not decided by the senate

xp but yes

fine, removal (which is deciding whether impeachment was warranted)

his opening statement is very well crafted, and genuinely insightful in certain ways. like this:

https://imgur.com/a/8ZYp9Nw

the trump stooge (sondland) parroting back trump's own alibis/explanations for his corruption: he's a businessman, and these people owe him. which fits with his longtime strategy of taking something hostage (ukraine military aid in this case) and then threatening to sue unless he extracts something that he wants. he's been a conman since he was born - he inherited his bullshit from his fuckface father and got dealt in with $millions when he was 3

https://i.imgur.com/f4GhsUf.png

that is pretty damning

The only defense I can imagine the GOP mustering*, in the House or Senate, is "Yes, this is bad, but does it warrant impeachment or removal? No." But of course that then begs the question, what punishment *does* it warrant? "Let the voters decide"?

*My imagination does not take into account their imagination.

heh

Trump has said McConnell told him his call with the Ukrainian president at the center of the impeachment inquiry was “the most innocent phone call” and was “perfect.”

But when asked about it Tuesday, McConnell said, “I don’t recall any conversations with the president about that phone call.”

“We’ve not had any conversations on that subject,” McConnell told reporters at the Capitol. Asked whether Trump was lying, he demurred. “You’d have to ask him,” McConnell said.

GOP is basically Chappelle in the R. Kelly sketch

the statement did mention pence, who seems to just blindly stumble his way in and out of the scene like a distracted mule. he comes across like a total stooge, but it's difficult to tell if he understands the role he's playing

TPM has busted out the rare full page headline banner. where were you on the day bill taylor totally blew it wide open

https://i.imgur.com/48Y8KS2.png

Abandoned military base in Manjib, Northern Syria

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCKc4JoWgZY

Looks like our troops occupying it really were spirited away in the middle of the night.

don't care about TPM, get back to me when there's Drudge sirens

https://i.imgur.com/ZtEqBQ0.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/9BvAbIg.gifhttps://i.imgur.com/08ZMhoR.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/9BvAbIg.gif

i will say that if taylor expresses himself as clearly irl as he does in his opening statement, he will be a very useful central public witness

I don't think we're going to see any public hearings in the House

he would asked to publicly testify as part of a senate trial, i would hope.

I think if we leave a bottle of rotgut in the prez quarters we might get a full Face in the Crowd meltdown (more his style than Nixon talking to the paintings).

...unless lindsey graham interrupts the roberts-led proceedings to deliver a speech to save the foundations of america, like he did during kavanaugh