US Politics, December 2019: Profound procedural deficiencies

I scoured Twitter for posts about what happened on the Hannity show tonight (cos fuck watching it), and he did actually appear, but stated he was joking about it.

though you wonder what percent is joke, what percent is intentionally stoking fires

they did actually misquote his call by omitting a word. on the scale of transgressions, it's a mere raindrop compared to the torrential downpour Trump's responsible for in that arena

remember when hannity appeared on trump with stage and was sharply reprimanded by fox execs? boooooooy you better believe he felt bad after that!!!

they did actually misquote his call by omitting a word

did they? which word, in which sentence? i missed this.

but even if it is truly "us" vs "me", as trump suggests, that means that what he actually said was "i want you to do the country a favor by investigating joe biden, one of my political opponents, in exchange for money", rather than "i want you to do me a favor by investigating joe biden, one of my political opponents, in exchange for money". i may be tripping balls here but it seems like he's a treasonous motherfucker in either transcription

if Hannity were to have a stroke and die, who would be the next Fox anchor to carry Trump's water?

it was "do us a favor", they quoted it as "do a favor" or "do me a favor" or something.

it's a nothingburger but of course that's what he's focused on

how does this moment even get captured, in history? is someone keeping track of this shit any more? jfc

it’s all right here km

if Hannity were to have a stroke and die, who would be the next Fox anchor to carry Trump's water?

https://thedailybanter.com/.image/t_share/MTU4NzIxODE2MTg4MTY3NzU0/tucker-carlson-f-4.jpg

This is about as perfect a summation as you can get.

House Dems: Trump pressured a foreign government to target an American citizen for political gain.

Jim Jordan: Those are not the facts.

My response: Let’s actually go through the facts. pic.twitter.com/quacTD25re

— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) December 12, 2019

I think I'm catching fumes from what our poor friends in the UK are going through tonight because like I just don't even have the tiniest sense of humor about these nihilistic motherfuckers rn. And anyone who gives them the slightest bit of slack needs to get fucked.

tucker carlson's mouth looks like one of the singing pieces of fruit on cookie monster's "healthy foods" video

xxp

This impeachment reminds Louis Gohmert of the trial of Socrates. Also it’s a Stalinesque proceeding. Also: Hillary.

It doesn't remind me nearly enough of the trial of Socrates.

I prefer the guillotine over hemlock

if it remotely resembled the trial of socrates it would be fucking amazing

I keep thinking of the movie Embrace of the Serpent, where the main characters go on an expedition in 1909 and come across a Catholic Mission. And it's brutal, run by a sadistic, asshole priest, but at the core, it at least resembles Catholicism. and then they come back to the same place a little over 30 years later, and now the people of the mission seem to claim they're Christians, but the mission is run by a crazy Brazilian guy who thinks he's the Messiah. the population of the mission has morphed drastically into a crazy, distorted approximation of the previous Catholic mission, but they insist they're Christians.

that is what I think about every time I run into a conservative Christian who claims they are an "insignificant being, made perfect by the love of Christ" out of one side of their mouth. and then call women "cunts" and talk about executing Muslims.

they could all use some ayahuasca

but is it a fact that he's rapidly declining and his handlers are becoming aware etc? ... i guess he does seem less energetic but what does he do right now that requires fast movements? when i catch clips of him at rallies he seems pretty much the same. is he really succumbing to physical collapse before our eyes?

He's not golfing anymore. They've had him come out of the bottom of planes so he only has half a staircase to climb down, and Melania holding his hand on the other side while he clings to railings. He has spaced out in public and stood still, swaying, until someone nudges him to move again. At the rallies, he's getting sweatier faster, and clinging to the podium nearly the whole time, no swaggering or gesturing in the manner of even two years ago. Plus there's the back brace / possible diaper situation I've noted before.

(And since the incident where he asked the girl who just told him her parents had been murdered "and where are they now?," any White House photo op I've seen has had him sitting down while the supplicants have to stand beside him -- but that might not be new, I just noticed it for the first time then due to the extremely weird staging of that extremely horrifying conversation. Feel like it's been a while since he's been filmed magnaminously sweeping into a room to greet waiting dignitaries, or to present a pile of hamberders to female athletes or w/e too, but it's just an impression and wouldn't be a definite indicator of anything.)

Dear god, how had I forgotten 'hamberders'

While I'm sure they'll cover as much as possible to make him seem competent to stand again, rather than lose the idiot base, replacing Pence as running mate would be a massive tell that his handlers and Mitch & Lindsay know most of the air is out of the balloon.

Great post / username / login name triple combo btw, OL.

Great post / username / login name triple combo btw, OL.

from CNN:

If the Labour Party’s election night goes as disastrously as initial results are indicating, the Democratic Party may see a cautionary tale for the 2020 presidential race.

Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn took his party way to the left, leaving the more moderate ground where many voters feel most comfortable, including some in his own party and outside. He promised revolutionary change, a fundamental overhaul of society, heavy new taxes on the rich and a far bigger role for the state in the economy. Sound familiar?

oh jesus christ stfu

xps - Because replacing Pence would be a massive tell, it probably won't happen.

Of course, if Trump were to die any time before the election, the GOP would be well and truly fucked. If he runs, wins, and dies right after the electoral college vote is finalized, the GOP would just carry on, secure in their holding the White House, even if it's the idiot cipher Pence who sits in the Big Chair.

The main rule seems to be to grab at power the best way you can, grab as much as you can, grab it as soon as you can, hold it as long as you can, and figure out the details as you go.

why I rarely post anymore

xxp is that Cillizza

it's not, actually! but it sounds so much like him.

Some folks Matt Bevin pardoned the week he left office:
—a guy who pretended to be a cop so he could carry out a home invasion and murdered a man in front of his wife and kids (brother gave Bevin money)
—a child molester
—a guy who hired a contract killer https://t.co/9q0mZUheRs

— Big Structural George Bailey (@samthielman) December 12, 2019

obviously I know what the cops in this country do and do not do but seriously Bevin deserves to be locked up for this, setting a precedent that you can basically get away with murder or child rape if you donate big to a Republican seems pretty bad

the wonders never cease

good morning!

criminal justice reform one donor at a time

There's been a lot of angst around McConnell saying he'd follow the White House's lead regarding a Senate trial. While I think it makes sense for Democrats to roast him over this, I kind of also think the more influence Trump has over the trial, the better. If it were entirely the Mitch show, I'd expect all the ruthlessness he can muster to shut it down quickly and minimize it as much as possible. If Trump injects himself into the process, I can see it quickly getting out of control and turning into an incompetent shitshow, which is probably a good thing. The fact that Trump has been saying he wants a full trial just helps push it in a direction that's ultimately favorable to Democrats. Idk though, maybe I'm reading this wrong...

Trump has been saying he wants a full trial

I don't doubt he thinks he can devolve it into such a circus that the disengaged public simply dismisses it as a botched show trial instead of resolving a serious constitutional crisis.

i don't think trump saying he wants a full trial actually means that he wants a full trial

It's hard to know, but I think Trump really believes his bullshit, that the call was perfect, that he did nothing wrong, and that he wants a chance to mount a full defense and clear his name. Anything that encourages him to pursue this view seems good to me.

yeah, i agree. trump wants it to be a spectacle. he wants hunter and joe biden on the stand, he wants schiff and pelosi (?!) on the stand, etc.

i don't think it'll make a difference in the outcome - trump is obviously totally innocent and this whole thing is a conspiracy that we're all in on, even if we don't know it yet, because of the deep state etc - but with greater spectacle comes a greater chance of chaos and mistakes. GOP has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory many times before (ie roy moore), you never know. plus, with greater spectacle comes more entertaining political action that will be fun to recount as we're burning alive during the latter half of this century, if we're unfortunate enough to live that long, good mourning

xps

Acquittal in the Senate is a foregone conclusion. At this point the optimal outcome is a solid day of Trump-as-witness foaming at the mouth, which can then be turned into a thousand campaign ads for the Democratic nominee, whose campaign slogan will be "It's me...or four more years of that."

thank god . . . the supreme court

BREAKING: Supreme Court agrees to consider Trump's bid to keep his financial records away from Congress and a New York grand jury. Court will hear three Trump appeals.

— Greg Stohr (@GregStohr) December 13, 2019

wowza

Is this sooner than expected?

This will only postpone matters compared to dropping the stay and allowing the appeals court ruling to stand.

that was never going to happen

It will be funny in eight months when Trump has been "exonerated" and every last paranoid witch-hunt accusation is borne out in a document dump revealing his oligarchic laundromat

what's another three years of nose-holding

there's going to be shit coming up about him for the rest of our lives

it will be a fifteen-flusher for sure

many toilets died to bring us this information

Lol.

there's going to be shit coming up about him for the rest of our lives

And up through the ground come a bubblin' crude.