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

sounds like he's.... increasingly isolated

Someone leaked a photo:
https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/long-white-hair-outgrown-fingernails-pills-dark-rooms-and-tissues-to-picture-id515543846?s=2048x2048

Really just a matter of time until he's refusing to do business from anywhere but his couch cushion fortress.

“the Democratic impeachment inquiry.”

Seeing this everywhere now, it’s the HOUSE impeachment inquiry ugh

OK, Nunes is roughly my age. Plenty of dudes in my high school had that look.

Me too and I wouldn't have voted for any of them for anything except maybe picking up the keg.

process stuff:

CHUCK TODD: And one last thing, on the Senate trial, is one of the reasons you’re not going to fight to try to — in the courts right now for Bolton is that you believe – -there’s this theory that’s been on, I think, Talking Points Memo, a liberal news organization, Josh Marshall. There’s a legal theory running around that it’s a lot easier to get the Chief Justice to compel John Bolton to testify at a Senate trial than it would be waiting around to get him to Congress. Do you buy into that theory?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF: I think that may very well be true. Now, people like John Bolton, whose deputies had the courage to come in and testify, are going to have to answer one day why they saved what they knew for a book rather than tell the country when the country needed to know. But I do think that when it comes to documents and witnesses, that if it comes to a trial, and again we’re getting far down the road here, that the Chief Justice will have to make a decision on requests for witnesses and documents.

followed by this:

Some readers have said this is wishful thinking: why would John Roberts of all people help out here. This is the wrong way to look at this. I don’t know how Roberts will balance his partisan leanings with institutional or ethical considerations. The point is more one of speed. Given his role of Chief Justice, the composition of the Court and more, all these question will ultimately fall to him, whether through the conventional appellate process or at a Senate trial. The key in a Senate trial is that the decision comes quickly and in the open.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/adam-schiff-seems-to-agree

Maintaining a sanctuary to work and think

The plot sickens

The big picture is that when you have a crooked pres who makes it clear he wants foreigners to take out his political rivals lots of shady folks come out of woodwork https://t.co/VwFIrnRNG5 via @TPM

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 24, 2019

why would that ledger be a forgery? the manafort became phenomenally wealthy working for the ukranian president who threw his opponent in jail is well documented. he is in prison for not disclosing all the money he made here.

Can you believe people lie and create propaganda like this to keep you confused?

it's just these deflections are so fucking stupid. i won't belabor the point.

Forgery has been practiced since the Sumerians used cylindrical personal seals to make impressions on mud.

It's just endless muddying, and honestly, when I read stories like that, I feel my mind slipping into this state of semi-credulity where I start to wonder if somehow it's true even though I know it isn't. Just being exposed to it feels corrupting.

Bud Cummins

Nickname: Turbo Diesel

I encounter some kind of cognitive block when I try to picture this

right, how could a face get any more constipated-looking

The House Intelligence Committee is in possession of audio and video recordings and photographs provided to the committee by indicted Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News. https://t.co/o0Up5JoKIj

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 24, 2019

Giuliani-Trump pee sex tape?

With tax returns?

...and nudes?

Generally sex involves nudity

I hope it's a real game changer like audio of president bragging about sexual assault, or video of him saying he fired Jim Comey because of the Russia investigation

imagine if it's the transcript of a phone call where he gets caught bribing Yelensky!

wow fucked up

Generally sex involves nudity

Trump keeps his jacket and buttoned shirt on during coitus, carefully folding the base of his tie up and resting it upon the rump & small of the back of his unfortunate partner

oh look my lunch just came up

xp relatable tbrr

Over a week, still no golf.

according to 538 support for impeaching Trump has gone down a couple % points since the Ukraine thing started

whatever the GOP is doing it's working

I don't know if it's The Muddle so much as the bloom being off the rose.

people are so dumb they probably think he's been impeached already and don't support impeaching him again.

Also, Americans are so annoyingly stubborn and contrarian it's possible that support has dropped because they know it's going to happen, so now they're more against it.

They talked about this on the podcast, some of it is an artefact of methodology. They used to group together polls asking 'should be removed' 'should be impeached' and 'investigations should begin'. Not surprisingly, support was largest for the mildest option. But not that hearings have begun, nobody asks the last question, and support looks like it's going down.

Not surprising, the Times told me yesterday that congress has played to a draw on impeachment.

Impeachment is a really serious thing. Playing to a draw is a big achievement, and a gigantic embarrassment for Trump!

Yeah, just like the conclusion of the Mueller report. Maybe he did it, maybe he didn't, who are we to say? It's a draw!

The GOP noise machine can force a draw In the unlikeliest of situations just by taking a position opposite of reality. And the GOP automatically wins all draws. See Kavanaugh, Brett.

it plays into the victim narrative that strengthens their base

but who cares.

removing trump is the right thing to do. he has no business being president.

I mean, he is not going to removed, that's why it's never going to be more than a draw :) But the hearings shed light on an attempt to cheat in the elections next year, and it's pretty clear that if Trump thought he'd gotten away with it, he'd cheat again. And again. And again. It should also be pretty clear that it did actually take quite a bit of time, and quite a bit of work, to concoct this attempt to cheat, so shooting it down, making sure it amounts to nothing, getting rid of all the low-level people who helped make it happen, will mean he will start again from scratch, when he inevitably tries to cheat again.

The best part of this clip, which you can barely see, is Bret Stephens engaging in an epic eye roll when I say, “I’m from America.“ You can just glimpse it at the 32-second mark.pic.twitter.com/lfkNt0tTjK

— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) November 25, 2019

Impeachment also makes it much harder for Trump to get anything done

And I just saw in the New York Times that he's a workaholic, so you know how much that is going to sting.

#riseandgrind

It should also be pretty clear that it did actually take quite a bit of time, and quite a bit of work, to concoct this attempt to cheat, so shooting it down, making sure it amounts to nothing, getting rid of all the low-level people who helped make it happen, will mean he will start again from scratch, when he inevitably tries to cheat again.

pretty sure that there's ongoing stuff that's just as bad as ukraine if not worse. it's hard to imagine trump only engaging in one scheme to rig the election toward himself.

evidence level: 0.5%
gut feeling level: 110%

Impeachment also makes it much harder for Trump to get anything done

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, November 25, 2019 9:49 AM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Thank goodness we've finally thrown a spanner into the well-oiled and efficacious machine that is the Trump administration.

pretty sure that there's ongoing stuff that's just as bad as ukraine if not worse. it's hard to imagine trump only engaging in one scheme to rig the election toward himself.

evidence level: 0.5%
gut feeling level: 110%

― Peaceful Warrior I Poser (Karl Malone), 25. november 2019 17:00 (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

There's a bunch of shit going on different places, no doubt, but I really don't think Trump can do more than one scheme at the time. Let's be honest, he couldn't even do this one. And the whole problem with the Russia thing was that it really wasn't Trump doing anything either, he just happily accepted all the criminal shit people did for him.

i hope the early external and internal polls look so bad for him next year that he campaigns so extensively that his heart gives out during a rally

There is a non-negligible chance that the staunchest of his supporters would adamantly insist that their deceased Great Leader remain the 2020 GOP nominee.

War Crimes Tribunal of the Network Stars (Old Lunch) at 10:02 25 Nov 19

Impeachment also makes it much harder for Trump to get anything done

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, November 25, 2019 9:49 AM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Thank goodness we've finally thrown a spanner into the well-oiled and efficacious machine that is the Trump administration.

I feel like there are less of those stories about executive orders that like raise the acceptable amount of rat poison in baby formula by 1.74 percent

but they really have no agenda at all anymore they did in the early days