Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

The next time the wall wtreet journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Bark louder, little dog.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

In my day, never was longer.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

You are here: Home / Politics / Goddamned Traitors / Ted Lieu Live Tweets Hicks Testimony

Ted Lieu Live Tweets Hicks Testimony

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They are on a lunch break. You can follow along here when they return.

ETA: Adam says Hicks has left the building. So you’ll have to make do reading Lieu’s old tweets here.

 

Reader Interactions

186Comments

  1. 1.

    ThresherK

    I really wish they’d gone full Animal House and proclaimed “double secret immunity”.

  6. 6.

    rikyrah

    Yes…keep pressing.
    THIS is vetting. And, it needs to be done.
    This isn’t a cheap shot.

    Reporters should ask Biden why he thinks he’ll succeed in cutting deals with Republicans where Obama failed, because it sure seems like he’s flat out saying it’s because he’s white. https://t.co/nWQKRdWnJt

    — Adam Jentleson ?? (@AJentleson) June 19, 2019

  7. 7.

    Kay

    She’s the most special former public employee ever. The rules don’t apply to the low quality Trump hires. VIPs – each and every one of them.

    Is this what she had her existential crisis over? Whether to go in there and stonewall? Hardly seems like a decision, let alone a full blown crisis.

  8. 8.

    rikyrah

    Ari bringing receipts ??

    James Eastland killed 121 of 122 civil rights bills in Senate Judiciary Committee from 1953-1965. Only 161 of 13,524 African- Americans in his home county were registered to vote before Voting Rights Act. “I am opposed to every word and every line in it” he said of VRA https://t.co/KDGLyQbehK

    — Ari Berman (@AriBerman) June 19, 2019

  9. 9.

    germy

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump raised $24.8 million less than 24 hours after kicking off his reelection campaign, a figure that dwarfs what the top Democratic contenders took in over the course of months.

    The staggering total was announced in a tweet on Wednesday morning by Republican Party Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. She declared that it was proof that “enthusiasm across the country for this president is unmatched and unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”

  10. 10.

    rikyrah

    Connie to Joe Biden:

    There is no punchline here, no emoji or funny meme to soften the harm of your words. That segregationist never called you “boy” because you are white. If you want to boast about your relationship with a racist, you are not who we need to succeed the racist in the White House. https://t.co/gULBDb9kMp

    — Connie Schultz (@ConnieSchultz) June 19, 2019

  11. 11.

    randy khan

    And to be utterly clear, the White House can’t actually prevent her from testifying if she wants. There is literally no law that prevents her from speaking to Congress, so long as she doesn’t talk about things that are classified in public. The Administration’s position that it can direct people not to testify is even more nonsensical than its executive privilege claims.

  12. 12.

    Kay

    Compare/contrast:

    In eleven hours of testimony, former secretary of state and current Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton answered questions in a long-awaited appearance before a House committee investigating the Benghazi attacks.
    It’s the eighth Congressional investigation and the third time Clinton has testified

    Must be nice to be a Trump employee. The rules don’t apply.

  14. 14.

    randy khan

    @germy:

    President Donald Trump raised $24.8 million less than 24 hours after kicking off his reelection campaign, a figure that dwarfs what the top Democratic contenders took in over the course of months.

    As comparisons go, this one is pretty meaningless.

  15. 15.

    glory b

    @Kay: A good place to note this, re: Kellyanne Conway, but violations of the Hatch Act and similar laws can be a CRIME. Google Jane Orie and Joan Orie Melvin if you don’t think so.

  16. 16.

    randy khan

    @rikyrah:

    IIRC, Ms. Schultz is married to Sherrod Brown. Not that, based on what I know, he has much influence over what she posts and writes.

  17. 17.

    Jeffro

    @randy khan: Maybe our legal eagles here on BJ can weigh in: can’t all of these subpoena-defying, non-testifying MFs be brought up on contempt and/or obstruction charges for this kind of conduct? Fines? Anything?

  18. 18.

    rikyrah

    Forgiveness Is a White Privilege
    Michael Harriot
    Yesterday 5:30pm

    If only black people would accept personal responsibility for their actions and teach their children how to behave better, then we wouldn’t have all this controversy. Geraldo Rivera even explained that the children killed by police brutality were actually committing “urban suicide” and proposed that—instead of protesting by wearing an “I Can’t Breathe” t-shirt—Lebron James could help solve the problem by wearing a “Raise Your Children” tee.

    Yes, he actually said that.

    On television.

    They believe this, too. After all, the religion of right can see God’s grace in America’s spacious skies, her purple mountains’ majesty and her liberty and justice for all. This is a country that gives everyone what they deserve, and if you fall short, then it must be your fault.

    Unless you are white.

    If you are white, then America is the land of “second chances”—especially if you are a white child. Simply by being born with white skin, this sweet land of liberty a bequeaths you an endless supply of mulligans.

    Take, for instance, the case of Kyle Kashuv, who survived the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman-Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., became a conservative, pro-gun advocate and was subsequently accepted to Harvard University.

    The Root’s Dara Sharif writes:

    On Monday, Kashuv shared his astonishment that Harvard had rescinded his admission because of his use of racial slurs in texts he sent two years ago, HuffPost reports.

    The texts included repeated use of the word “nigger,” including the uhm, observation: “like im really good at typing nigger ok like practice uhhhhhh makes perfect son??!!”

    HuffPost reported last month on the existence of the racist messages, for which Kashuv, now 18, apologized, saying: “We were 16-year-olds making idiotic comments, using callous and inflammatory language in an effort to be as extreme and shocking as possible.”

    But in a case where actions seem to have had consequences, Harvard apparently decided to nix Kashuv’s acceptance into the Class of 2023.

    The news immediately riled up the entire class of conservative punditry. The New York Times’ Caucasian apologist editorial staff rang the alarm and dispatched columnist David Brooks to explain why this innocent little sayer-of-racist-shit should be excused from his actions.

  19. 19.

    Kay

    @randy khan:

    She chose her loyalty and personal relationship to the Trump family over the public. It’s a shame we had to pay her for any period of time. She never worked for us.

  20. 20.

    Plato

    Why is Lieu tweeting like a hapless common man, instead of acting like a powerful congressman?

  22. 22.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    There’s less tolerance for bullying and racist slurs in schools now. It’s a higher standard. Most kids are meeting it. Some won’t, but not everyone is up to a higher standard. It’s merit-based. The kids who meet the higher behavior standard will be rewarded and those that don’t, won’t. It’s really Kid Raising 101. Raise the bar when they meet it, and see if they can go higher. It’ll be hard for some to adjust but if you want to raise the standard there’s always a learning curve. The old standard was too low, and it harmed people.

  23. 23.

    burnspbesq

    @rikyrah:

    The biggest problem isn’t that Joe might think that. The biggest problem is that it might be correct.

  24. 24.

    TenguPhule

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday ruled out a congressional censure of President Trump, a move some lawmakers have suggested as a less divisive alternative to launching impeachment proceedings.

    “No. I think censure is just a way out,” Pelosi told reporters. “If you’re going to go, you’ve got to go. In other words, if the goods are there, you must impeach, and censure is nice, but it is not commensurate with the violations of the Constitution, should we decide that’s the way to go.”

    She added that a censure of Trump would be “a day at the beach for the president, or at his golf club, or wherever he goes.”

    Pelosi, speaking at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, continued to counsel a deliberate approach to building a case that Trump attempted to obstruct the investigation of Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. She has been resisting calls from 70 House members — all Democrats but one — to launch impeachment proceedings.

    On Wednesday, Pelosi cautioned against a scenario where Trump is impeached by the Democratic-led House only to be acquitted by the Republican-led Senate.

    “I don’t think you should have an inquiry unless you’re ready to impeach,” she said. “What I believe is that when we go forward, if we go forward, it has to go deep. It can’t be the Democrats impeach in the House; the Senate, in his view, exonerates. . . . This president must be held accountable.

    Pelosi added that she does not “feel pressure from my members to do anything, and I have no pressure on them to do anything.”

    What the fucking fuck? Is this bad reporting by Wapo or does the Speaker not realize just how mixed her message is?

  25. 25.

    The Dangerman

    @ThresherK:

    …full Animal House and proclaimed “double secret immunity”.

    I’d say Survivor and she found a secret immunity idol. Just as valid.

    Only problem with a Survivor reference is Trump would have been voted off before he hit the beach.

  27. 27.

    trollhattan

    Ted Lieu’s Twitter page is a treasure trove of…stuff, including videos from Trump’s klan rally. Ted Lieu understands the 21st century.

  29. 29.

    TenguPhule

    @randy khan:

    The Administration’s position that it can direct people not to testify is even more nonsensical than its executive privilege claims.

    And yet somehow our Democratic representatives are absolutely hopeless when it comes to holding them in contempt for their bullshit.

    This is not a winning strategy to get people to vote for Democrats in 2020. It is a sure fire way to get to “Burn everything to the ground” in 2021.

  30. 30.

    Plato

    It’s official, it’s all brexshitters now with the least insane guy getting kicked out.

  31. 31.

    Mandalay

    CNN did a whole segment on Hicks, pointing out that she wanted to co-operate (solely because she showed up), and repeatedly called her “Hope”.

    Hicks doesn’t know or care about the existence of those lapdogs, and wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire. Why are CNN employees repeatedly referring to her by her first name only?

    What next….Trump’s KKK coffee boy will become “Stephen”?

  32. 32.

    TenguPhule

    @Plato:

    Why is Lieu tweeting like a hapless common man, instead of acting like a powerful congressman?

    His chain of command apparently is incapable of doing their job.

  33. 33.

    TenguPhule

    @Plato:

    It’s official, it’s all brexshitters now with the least insane guy getting kicked out.

    Tony Jay’s report is gonna be epic.

  34. 34.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:
    At 18 you can vote, serve in combat zone, sign contracts and two short years earlier it’s OK to be a complete moron and racist ass? Not sure I see how this works…..

  35. 35.

    TenguPhule

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) warned fellow Democrats Wednesday that their words could be misrepresented by Republicans as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) continued to draw fire for repeatedly describing U.S. detention facilities for migrants at the southern border as “concentration camps.”

    Pelosi told reporters that she was not “up to date” on Ocasio-Cortez’s comments and that she had not spoken to her about them. But, at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Pelosi said she had some advice for Democrats more broadly, given “how politically charged the atmosphere is.”

    “Understand that while the Republicans have no interest in holding the president accountable for his words, they will misrepresent anything that you say,” Pelosi said. “Just, if you have one word in the sentence that they can exploit.”

    Starting with a live stream on Instagram on Monday, Ocasio-Cortez has repeatedly said that the Trump administration is running “concentration camps” at the U.S.-Mexico border, drawing criticism from Republicans who claim she is demeaning Jews exterminated in the Holocaust.

    During her live stream, Ocasio-Cortez used the phrase “never again,” which is widely associated with the Holocaust. But the freshman lawmaker has argued she is using the term “concentration camps” in a broader context and that not all concentration camps are the equivalent of “death camps.”

    “The US ran concentration camps before, when we rounded up Japanese people during WWII,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet Wednesday. “It is such a shameful history that we largely ignore it. These camps occur throughout history. Many refuse to learn from that shame, but here we are today. We have an obligation to end them.”

    In another tweet Wednesday, she said Congress should not give the Department of Homeland Security “one dime” to construct “these camps.”

    Nancy Pelosi is making a mistake.

  36. 36.

    rikyrah

    Someone asked about Police Reform, and whether Biden can be counted on for Police Reform, like the plan Julian Castro has proposed.

    It’s more than fair for people to press this issue. This is an absolute REAL issue. And, if he wants for people to get past the ‘history’ of the 1994 Crime Bill, then he’s going to have to act like he understands the anger and real demands that we expect in 2019. Without a clear cut plan, and verbalization of said plan, this is an issue. And, it’s real. And, it’s called vetting. And, it’s something that WE have the right to demand from a Democratic Party Nominee.

  37. 37.

    patrick II

    “I am opposed to every word and every line in it” he said of VRA

    So, John Roberts is plagiarizing?

  39. 39.

    rikyrah

    @TenguPhule:

    They ARE concentration camps. People are DYING.
    The thing is that the Germans took better records of their prisoners.

    Your cleaners has better record keeping for your clothing than these people have for human beings.

  41. 41.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Will remind folks..wasn’t just ‘Ni**er.’ He was also ‘ hate the Jews’ too.
    Funny how all his defenders keep on leaving out the anti-Jew part of his diatribes.

    Uh huh
    Uh huh

  42. 42.

    TenguPhule

    @rikyrah: I agree with you. And the House and Senate Democrats should all have AOC’s back on this one. Its ludicrous to remonstrate about watching their own word choices when Republicans are total shits and liars because it gives the Republicans a legitimacy they sure as fuck do not deserve.

  43. 43.

    James E Powell

    @burnspbesq:

    Agree completely. This was essential to McConnell & Ryan’s successful opposition to anything and everything Obama tried to do. Because he is black – and I mean simply because he is black and no other factor – Republicans knew they would never lose the support of ~40-45% of the country. No matter how ridiculous, inconsistent, at odds with reality, or just plain stupid their opposition was, that percentage would support them because they were “standing up to that N!!!” They were helped in this by the press/media who persist in protecting racists by refusing to acknowledge the racism at the core of every Republican campaign and covering the regular blatant examples with euphemisms and “but some say” treatments that minimize or separate them from the Republicans.

    Another problem. Over the years, I’ve had this discussion with Democratic voting tote-baggers who insist I am wrong or that I am overstating the case. I had hopes that the Trump regime’s fairly open racism might open their eyes, but I’m not hearing it.

  44. 44.

    Mandalay

    @Plato:

    Why is Lieu tweeting like a hapless common man, instead of acting like a powerful congressman?

    Lieu’s tweets are great for winning over those who are already on his side, but I suspect that for Joe Sixpack who doesn’t follow politics closely they are counterproductive. He’ll probably just conclude Lieu is a self-absorbed jackass.

  45. 45.

    rk

    Bush and his officials ignored congress, they brazenly lied. No one was ever held accountable for anything. No one paid a price for the banks fiasco. This lot learned that there’s consequence for anything. Why should Hope Hicks not lie? What price will she pay for not answering questions? If democrats cannot or will not do anything about the stonewalling then that’s their problem and either they have to figure out how to fix it or just stop the investigations. Complaining over twitter is nonsense. It accomplishes nothing of substance. Democrats are great at twitter. Republicans are great at getting away with criminality.

  46. 46.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Meanwhile…

    Bernie Sanders @ BernieSanders
    Bernie Sanders Retweeted POLITICO
    The cat is out of the bag. The corporate wing of the Democratic Party is publicly “anybody but Bernie.” They know our progressive agenda of Medicare for All, breaking up big banks, taking on drug companies and raising wages is the real threat to the billionaire class.
    POLITICO @ politico
    Centrists are coming around to Elizabeth Warren as an alternative to Bernie Sanders

    it is not impossible that Bernie Sanders declaring war on SPW could give her a huge boost in the primary. It also not impossible that he will had trump the general, again.

    But he sure does make Whole Foods Hippies feel special. So there’s that.

  47. 47.

    TenguPhule

    @burnspbesq:

    The biggest problem isn’t that Joe might think that. The biggest problem is that it might be correct.

    Hillary Clinton would like a word with you about that.

  49. 49.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    I don’t understand why Hicks was allowed to leave, if she was refusing to cooperate. Also the Republicans who were complaining about Lieu’s tweeting can fuck themselves.

  50. 50.

    Mandalay

    @rikyrah:

    If you want to boast about your relationship with a racist, you are not who we need to succeed the racist in the White House.

    Can we all at least agree that Uncle Joe is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy?

  51. 51.

    TenguPhule

    Pelosi also shared that she has reached an agreement with the Justice Department to view a “less redacted” version of the Mueller report.

    House Democrats had previously insisted on access to the full report, without redactions. Pelosi said under the new agreement, “many more people than just leadership” will be able to view what Justice is offering.

    She said she accepted the agreement because “I’m afraid I really don’t trust the attorney general of the United States, and I’m afraid that he may, depending on what is in there, try to, how do you say, deal with ongoing matters in a way that is not constructive for our Constitution.”

    Are you fucking kidding me?

  52. 52.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud:

    I’m happy to hear they’re not all bad.

    They were smart enough to support Hillary in 2016 too.

  55. 55.

    oldgold

    Robert “A Day Late and Dollar Short” Mueller needed to indict or make an unambiguous referral to Congress.

  56. 56.

    Mandalay

    @TenguPhule:

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) warned fellow Democrats Wednesday that their words could be misrepresented by Republicans

    A bit rich coming from someone who said last week of Trump “I want to see him in prison”.

  57. 57.

    TenguPhule

    Adam says Hicks has left the building.

    By failing to assert the full measure of Congress’s inherent powers, the House Democrats are losing that power.

    Power of the purse, Subpoenas, Investigations. That’s all being treated with snide contempt by the Republicans now.

  58. 58.

    TenguPhule

    @Mandalay:

    A bit rich coming from someone who said last week of Trump “I want to see him in prison”.

    Like I said, I think she’s making a mistake. A big one.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @Mandalay:

    I wanted to update my response to Biden with you. While I did not object to him putting his hands on the little girl’s shoulders, I do object to him telling boys it is their “job” to monitor their female relatives. Just gross to say to boys OR girls. I don’t care how old he is. He needs to learn something new. The idea that he just gets to promote these archaic ideas because he’s an old man and refuses to learn anything is self-indulgent. Stop. Stop saying these things.

  60. 60.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @germy: So I am betting by next week we will hear out these fund raising figures were faked, by Trump’s handlers, to placate Trump, using a Russian bank loan.

  61. 61.

    Chief Oshkosh

    If there is not such thing as “absolute immunity,” why not hold her in contempt immediately, on the spot? Just because she’s “relying” on the justice department and WH attorneys for advice doesn’t mean she’s protected from her own duplicity and/or stupidity.

    This stuff happens because the Republican’s don’t value or respect our constitutional system. OK. But they should be made to fear it.

  63. 63.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: it reminds me of older relatives cloyingly and creepily asking twelve or thirteen year olds if they have a boy/girlfriend yet?, but creepier.

  64. 64.

    J R in WV

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I’m a hippy, and I like Whole Foods, not that there’s one within driving distance of our farm in WV. But all that said, Bernie Sanders is a Russian stooge not fit to take out AMerica’s garbage. Sanders has been a totally ineffective Senator!

    Sanders is a presidential candidate incapable of telling an interviewer how he plans to execute his central issues, should he win election, back in 2016. Most importantly, over the past 3 years since that shameful interview, he still can’t describe any strategy to implement any of the “Big Ideas” Sanders touts. So he doesn’t intend to ever devise a plan to implement his thoughts about health care, banking regulation, education, none of that will even be considered unless he wins the election.

    I wonder who he expects to carry out his grand scheme?

  65. 65.

    Betty Cracker

    Soon the “electability” question won’t be whether America is ready to vote for a woman but whether Biden can stop stomping his own dick long enough to sew up the nomination.

  66. 66.

    jimmiraybob

    President Donald Trump raised $24.8 million less than 24 hours after kicking off his reelection campaign…

    Is this in cash of bone-saw futures?

  67. 67.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Plato: He is actually a powerless congressman. The only people with any actual power in the House of Representatives are the leadership teams of each party, the chairs, and to a lesser extent the ranking members. And everyone but the Speaker and minority leader only have as much power as the Speaker and the minority leader give to the members of their respective caucuses. Congressman Lieu has no power to unilaterally do anything in the House. Technically, if he was a senator, he’d have far more unilateral power. Technically because those rules have not been officially changed. In reality he’d have no power whatsoever as long as Senator McConnell is majority leader. McConnell has done two things in this regard. The first is to turn the Senate into a parliamentary body, which it is not designed, nor intended to be. The second is that all power and prerogatives flow from McConnell. Senators, whether in the leadership teams of each party, whether committee chairs, whether ranking members, or just individual senators only have the power that McConnell decides they should have at any given time. Everything in the US Senate is being driven top down by McConnell. The committee chairs have no independence. The minority caucus is there for show. It doesn’t have to be this way. Members of McConnell’s own caucus could change this, but they don’t and they won’t because they are 1) scared of McConnell and 2) unwilling to challenge him because he brought them back into the majority and therefore power.

  70. 70.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Yep. And while he’s at it, stop making the handsiness issue a punchline at public events. “See reporters — SHE hugged ME, har har har” kinda pisses all over the sincere “Things have changed; I get it” video. Can’t Dr. Jill have a word with him FFS? I’m not voting for Biden in the primary, but there’s a good chance he’ll end up our nominee, so I’m interested!

  71. 71.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mandalay: He prefers it be pronounced Stefvan, Stefvan Millahr. Sounds more European. He hopes it’ll protect him from the other white supremacists when they figure out he’s Jewish.

  73. 73.

    Mandalay

    @Kay: Did you see how he spoke to Joy Reid on Monday? (It’s worth noting that this clip on MSNBC edits out the first part of Biden’s response to Reid.)

    And of course the purity snowflakes here will stay silent on his behavior towards Reid because for some bizarre reason they don’t want to criticize any of the Democratic candidates for anything they do wrong.

  74. 74.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule: Both of them are correct. They are concentration camps and no matter what the Democrats say or do, the Republicans and the conservative movement and media ecosystem that supports them will misrepresent what they say for their own purposes.

  75. 75.

    kindness

    I’m no Kreskin but here is what I see:

    Donald Trump is trying to push the impeachment so that it goes down quickly without the relevent data so that when Mitch’s Senate immediately votes against impeachment, Trump can run on victory and see how I overcame Democrats & Witchhunt!

    Nancy Pelosi is right. This needs to come out completely before tossing this beast into the oven to bake. Progressive Democrats should take heed.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    @Mandalay:

    No. I try to avoid him. I did want to address you because we argued over his last fuck up.

    I don’t like him but I’m enough of a “purity snowflake” to know that if I’m stuck with him I don’t want him all dinged up.
    I want to win, Mandalay. I believe I have made that clear from the outset :)

    We won’t win if we’re fractured. That is a fact. So. I’ll take one for the team.

  79. 79.

    Bill Arnold

    @rikyrah:
    If AOC gamed it out beforehand, then fine. That’s how I read Pelosi’s comments. That when talking about easily gamed subjects (in this case because of decades of honed experience) one must be careful.
    Seen on twitter, about captures it for me:

    AOC: Close Concentration Camps!
    GOP: Study history—they’re NOT Concentration Camps
    Historians: Yes they are
    GOP: No—ask Japanese
    Japanese: Yes they are
    GOP: No—ask Jews
    Jews: Yes they are
    GOP: No—we simply detain large numbers of refugees under armed guard
    Dictionary: ? pic.twitter.com/reh0x5NuHu— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) June 19, 2019

  80. 80.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule: It may be that MSNBC/NBC got it wrong. That she left for lunch during the lunch break. But the way they reported it, it sounded like the hearing was over and done.

  81. 81.

    J R in WV

    @Mandalay:

    Can we all at least agree that Uncle Joe is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy?

    I will give you “clean” — otherwise, none of those things. He looks just almost bright enough to sell cars, maybe Corvettes, to people dumb enough to buy cars from Biden. He seems simpleminded to me, in most every way. I was amazed and disappointed when Obama picked him for VP, but I guess that worked out OK. I think we were very lucky, because Biden would have ruined everything Obama stood for had he taken over as President.

    Biden has made it obvious he doesn’t really stand for Democratic Party goals at all. He’s a rich Delaware businessman wannabe. I’ve been to the Carlyle on the upper East Side of NYC, it’s a swell place, we went there to see and hear Judy Collins. Biden went there to make money by promising to work for the Wealthy, not to support Democratic ideals.

    I will grant that Biden would probably be less destructive than Trump is, but that’s pretty weak tea. He’s perhaps a little less harmful than Sanders would be as a Russian stooge, also weak tea. Every other real Democratic candidate is better than Biden, even Hickenlooper…

  82. 82.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: And now we know why Sirota is tweeting like a lunatic.

  83. 83.

    germy

    @Adam L Silverman: I know he thinks if he just keeps tweeting; tweeting hard enough, he can turn this around. He reminds me of Abramson, the guy who made stuff up thinking it would come true.

    Didn’t Sirota recently tweet some polls that he cropped?

  84. 84.

    joel hanes

    @TenguPhule:

    You know, your Green Lantern belief that if Nancy Pelosi just wants it enough, _someone_ will take these fuckers to some jail somewhere is getting very tiring.

    There is no enforcement mechanism.
    Inherent contempt hasn’t been used in many decades.
    Evil trolls man the DoJ.
    The House does not have a jail, nor a jailor.
    The Supreme Court is not on our side.

  85. 85.

    Baud

    @J R in WV:

    He’s a rich Delaware businessman wannabe.

    IIRC, he’s actually not rich, at least compared to other high level officials.

  86. 86.

    dww44

    @Chief Oshkosh: I’m not sure that Congressional Dems have begun to really understand that we voters who did our best to give them some power expect a bit of reward in the form of a public victory or two vis-a-vis the Trump Administration and its GOP enablers. I don’t pretend to know what 11th dimensional chess Pelosi is playing, but I honestly do think she’s misunderstanding the mood of the country that gave her power to DO SOMETHING about Trump. She’s not the only one. Lieu’s on my TV a lot and he says all the right things, and smiles a lot, but provides no assurances that anything’s gonna change any time soon.

    Jim Himes was on Morning Joe earlier and was talking about Mueller not wanting to testify, yada ,yada. Scarborough blew a gasket and pushed back and asked Himes how much tax payer monies Mueller’s team spent. Didn’t that surely entitle Taxpayers the right to hear Mueller in an open committee hearing reading the report aloud if nothing else? Asked Himes why the Judiciary committee ( or whichever one he’s on) didn’t just subpoena him already and force him to testify.

    Congressional Dems need to speed things up in a way that’s visible and they need a way to figure out how to WIN every now and then. Otherwise, our side is gonna be hurting come November 2020 due to our inability to capitalize on our Nov 2018 victory. Forget all those bills Dems are passing that are NEVER gonna be signed into law. To date, the imperial Presidency is winning the day. Perhaps, too, they could improve their messaging by taking a few cues from Rep. Katie Porter.

  87. 87.

    joel hanes

    @Mandalay:

    but I suspect that for Joe Sixpack who doesn’t follow politics closely they are counterproductive.

    I know Joe Sixpack, and his friends, pretty well.
    They don’t follow politics closely.
    They’ll never hear about Lieu’s tweets.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    She’s running a great campaign. Especially for someone will all those electability problems.

    I thought she texted me because it’s my birthday and the person added “go Warren!”, but it was actually a relative :)

  90. 90.

    J R in WV

    @Mandalay:

    Did you see how he spoke to Joy Reid on Monday? (It’s worth noting that this clip on MSNBC edits out the first part of Biden’s response to Reid.)

    And of course the purity snowflakes here will stay silent on his behavior towards Reid because for some bizarre reason they don’t want to criticize any of the Democratic candidates for anything they do wrong.

    I did see that. I compare it to Trump’s conduct in that debate when the candidates were encouraged to move about the stage, when he stalked Hillary Clinton like Frankenstein’s monster. Except that guy was actually not a bad guy, and Trump is.

    Biden isn’t a good guy, his body language reveals his weaknesses.

  91. 91.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman: Would really like to see Harris/Warren, will settle for Warren/Harris.

    The 17-18 other knuckleheads should just fill out a questionnaire indicating which Cabinet posts they’re interested in, and depart with all due haste.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Horrible Bernie is attacking her on twitter- claims the “centrists” are moving to her to stop him.

    He’s really obsessed with himself. The sun rises to shine on Bernie. The DNC exists to thwart him.

  95. 95.

    Adam L Silverman

    @dww44: She’s not playing 11 dimensional chess. She’s trying to manage and mitigate the fact that even as the second most powerful person in the US government, she has very little power. She can’t unilaterally pass legislation. She has no control over advise and consent. And she has no unilateral ability to actually force a lawless executive and his lawless appointees to do anything. Everyone who has spent the past 40 years making a fetish of the Constitution and its original intent are both demonstrating that they never cared about any of that and/or learning the hard lesson that the Constitution are words on parchment. Nothing more, nothing less.

    A good strategist knows that the most important resource is time. Right now she is trying to both create and leverage time.

  96. 96.

    Adam L Silverman

    Apparently I misunderstood the MSNBC/NBC reporting. Hicks is back now that the Judiciary Committee is back in session after the lunch break.

  97. 97.

    Betty Cracker

    Michael Cohen covered up the scandal (temporarily), and Falwell endorsed Trump. I wonder what they have on Franklin Graham?

  102. 102.

    germy

    LOL

    That Sanders is such a threat to the establishment that they're warming to Warren, their one-time sworn enemy, as an alternative is a true credit to Sanders.— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) June 19, 2019

  103. 103.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jeffro: We both know how this turns out because we understand that the Democratic Party is fundamentally unable to do politics. The anti-circumcision guy and the self help woman author are going to be the ticket, Bernie will then run as an Independent, the President will win the electoral college by one vote, and he will immediately declare that Ivanka is the Crown Princess and Heiress Apparent. Senator Collins and Senator Romney will tell everyone they are very, very, very concerned. Senator Graham will open an investigation into Senators Warren and Harris for reasons.

  104. 104.

    Kay

    Bernie Sanders
    ‏Verified account
    @BernieSanders
    Follow Follow @BernieSanders
    More Bernie Sanders Retweeted POLITICO
    The cat is out of the bag. The corporate wing of the Democratic Party is publicly “anybody but Bernie.” They know our progressive agenda of Medicare for All, breaking up big banks, taking on drug companies and raising wages is the real threat to the billionaire class.

    That new lady is beating me and it isn’t fair. Now they have to demand the ouster of Perez.

  106. 106.

    the Conster

    @dww44:

    Oh fer fuck sake stop with Nancy Pelosi needs to do something. What? All the white male pundits on twitter screaming at her could take their *superior* opinions and march to Mitch McConnell’s office and scream at him, since he can end this tomorrow, and Pelosi could use the support. Why aren’t the 7 Senators who want to be president demanding McConnell do his job and bring the election protection bill to a vote, to protect the election they want to win? I’m sick of hearing them say Pelosi should impeach.

    1. She doesn’t have 218 votes
    2. It doesn’t remove him or change his behavior
    3. A failed impeachment by Senate acquittal gives the lunatic receipts proving he’s *innocent*
    4. The House will have used up all its ammo instead of being able to tell the story of Mitch’s and lunatic’s criminality up to the day of the election, through the Committee investigations.
    5. Nancy Pelosi has top notch counsel she hired when they won the House back, which requires that the courts back them up so it makes it harder for SCOTUS to go contrary.

    Through my engagment on twitter with Nancy IMPEACH NOW screamers, none of them know how anything works. They think he can be forcibly removed once he’s impeached. The level of civics ignorance is astounding, and no matter how many times I ask, no one can answer what happens after a failed impeachment with many months to go still before the election

  107. 107.

    TenguPhule

    @joel hanes:

    You know, your Green Lantern belief that if Nancy Pelosi just wants it enough, _someone_ will take these fuckers to some jail somewhere is getting very tiring.

    There is no enforcement mechanism.

    There are two ways this National Nightmare ends. Peacefully or ugly.

    Right now everything is pointing to ugly.

  109. 109.

    Mandalay

    @Kay: Well we both want to win, and neither of us have a crush on Biden. Our real point of difference is that I don’t believe Biden will win against Trump. Trump will thrash him like a rented mule.

    Trump’s team will paint Biden as a racist, a groper and a misogynist, and they will have a zillion reels of tape to back it up, however unfair those clips may seem to some.

    And those here who gloat over Biden being “4 points up in Texas” need to get a grip on how little polling means at this stage. Biden has a ton of baggage, he’s a lousy campaigner, and a campaign based on being against Trump is a disastrous strategic error.

    Those believing that the Trump Administration truly “fear” Biden as an opponent need to ponder why the media are getting that “leak”.

  112. 112.

    trollhattan

    @Kay:

    I want to win, Mandalay. I believe I have made that clear from the outset :)

    MONSTER! :-P

  118. 118.

    TenguPhule

    @the Conster:

    She doesn’t have 218 votes

    She’s not leading on this. She’s also saying that lesser measures are useless. None of her whips are engaging to get more Democrats in line on this.

    People are watching.

    2. It doesn’t remove him or change his behavior

    If Congress will not do its duty, then can we have them admit the Constitution is just a piece of paper and finally stop pretending otherwise?

    A failed impeachment by Senate acquittal gives the lunatic receipts proving he’s *innocent*

    The Impeachment process does not mean an immediate vote by the Senate. People who complain about others not understanding the process should know better.

  121. 121.

    Baud

    It’s hard to believe that Bernie’s speech on democratic socialism didn’t win over more voters.

  122. 122.

    the Conster

    @TenguPhule:

    Gee, who’s judgment should I trust? Nancy Pelosi or *checks notes* a Balloon Juice commenter?

    The House is doing its oversight duty. The Committees are in court with their requests. The Select Committee on Watergate held hearings for over a year before an impeachment inquiry was opened. Nothing says strategery quite like reacting to a bunch of screaming meemies on the internet.

  124. 124.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman:

    But managing risk is as much art, or artisanry, as science.

    The problem is that it looks like high risk, low return from an island in the middle of nowhere. Normally when you’re buying time, its because your side needs that time to consolidate and deploy. But I’m not seeing what, if anything, we have to show for it. All signs still point towards Congressional Democrats trying to play by rules that are no longer in effect for the enemy.

  126. 126.

    The Lodger

    @Baud: I think “wannabe” applies to “rich” and possible “businessman.” “Delaware” is genuine, though.

  130. 130.

    TenguPhule

    @the Conster:

    The House is doing its oversight duty. The Committees are in court with their requests. The Select Committee on Watergate held hearings for over a year before an impeachment inquiry was opened.

    1. The House is being stalled and frustrated.

    2. The courts are being turned into partisan mockeries.

    3. We’re already well past the point of Watergate’s shocking admissions and the response of Republicans en masse has been “Fuck you, what are you going to do about it?”

  133. 133.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Alex Thompson Retweeted Eric Bradner
    Biden advisers seem to keep throwing their boss under the bus. “Biden had previously been warned by advisers not to use Eastland as an example of someone he could work with despite many sharp disagreements, two people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.”

    I’m seriously starting to wonder if his son’s death didn’t break something. Bringing up Eastland at all is a “What the ever-loving blue-eyed fuck?” moment. Bringing him up when people have already pointed out it’s a real bad idea ? WTELBEF?

    Somebody needs to have a sit-down with him.

  134. 134.

    Adam L Silverman

    Biden’s surrogate on MSNBC is not digging him out of the hole at all.

  136. 136.

    Adam L Silverman

    @the Conster:

    Nothing says strategery quite like reacting to a bunch of screaming meemies on the internet.

    I’ve taught strategy to senior uniformed and civilian leaders and I can honestly say this is exactly how we teach them to do it.//

  137. 137.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: was gonna guess Ed Rendell-ish White Guy….

    then I turned it on

    “we have to unite this country”

    with long dead and mostly forgotten segregationists?

  138. 138.

    TS (the original)

    @TenguPhule:

    Nancy Pelosi is making a mistake.

    Big time on this. Why should dems go soft on reality because of GOP reaction?

  139. 139.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: do you bring Matt Stoller in for guest lectures?

    ETA: as to Pelosi: I’ve heard of one Dem Rep who is actually against not just impeachment but investigation> Jeff Van Drew thinks it’s time to move on. I don’t know how many of those there are. Is he the cockroach who stays in the kitchen when you flip the light on?

  140. 140.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman:

    the Democratic Party is fundamentally unable to do politics.

    Well yeah…but…but there are occasional flashes of competence. I swear I saw one just the other week…

  141. 141.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Tenar Arha: Yep. His parents moved to south Florida to Israel in 1990. He was born there. My guess, knowing what I know about Israel’s, specifically Israeli Jews’, horrendous, horrific, and almost never remarked or reported on racism problems, that he probably grew up marinating in this stuff.

  144. 144.

    kindness

    @TenguPhule: You are listening to the screams in your head and refusing to hear what anyone here is telling you. Impeachment takes time. It isn’t magic. The House is progressing down that road and if you try to rush the House (move forward without the backing of the American people and a couple of horrified Republicans (just like they did with Nixon)) Trump will win in the end. Calm down. It is going according to plan, just not your plan.

  146. 146.

    Aleta

    OT

    (Joy Harjo) was appointed 23rd poet laureate of the United States Wednesday. As a member of the Muscogee Nation, she will be the first Native American to serve in that honorary position when she begins this fall.

    “My role as a poet is as a healer,” says Joy Harjo. “Poetry is a healing force.” “Poetry came to me at a point in which I had no words to express the depth of experience of being native in this country,” she says.

    In her late 30s, she learned how to play the saxophone and has since released several CDs and toured around the world with her band, the Arrow Dynamics.

    “I came to poetry first through music,” Harjo says. “My mother wrote songs and sang in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She particularly liked to write ballads, heartbreak-heartache songs, and so I grew up with a lot of country swing musicians in our house playing music. I loved the poetry and song lyrics. For me, it was like merging rhythm and meaning and sound. Songs can make you feel better. They could shift the whole world.”

    “Poetry demands that you stop, put everything down and listen, and you listen in poetry with your soul,” she says. “That’s part of what I plan to do here: to make connections with poetry so that we can hear across these divisions and these lines that are hurting everyone.”
    …
    One of Harjo’s first projects will involve using her new pulpit to humanize Native Americans for a country that still harbors so many misconceptions about them. “We all need humanizing,” she says, “but especially natives because we’ve been so bound and ‘disappeared’ by images that really have nothing to do with us. That means bringing communities together to listen to poetry and to hear each other.”

    “We’ve always been here,” Harjo notes wryly. “I guess it’s a renaissance of publishing.” Along with several other editors, she is currently working on a major new historical anthology of native nations poetry called “When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through” (forthcoming August 2020, W.W. Norton). Her own new collection of poetry, “An American Sunrise,” will be published in August, a month before she gives her first public presentation at the Library of Congress as poet laureate on Sept. 19.

    Harjo’s mother died in 2011, but she knows how proud she would have felt to see this moment. “The experience of poetry was so close to her heart. I kind of carried that gift from her and took it to another place.”

    ‘Singing Everything’
    Once there were songs for everything,
    Songs for planting, for growing, for harvesting,
    For eating, getting drunk, falling asleep,
    For sunrise, birth, mind-break, and war.
    For death (those are the heaviest songs and they
    Have to be pried from the earth with shovels of grief).
    Now all we hear are falling-in-love songs and
    Falling apart after falling in love songs.
    The earth is leaning sideways
    And a song is emerging from the floods
    And fires. Urgent tendrils lift toward the sun.
    You must be friends with silence to hear.
    The songs of the guardians of silence are the most powerful —
    They are the most rare.

    “Singing Everything” copyright © 2019 by Joy Harjo. To be published in “An American Sunrise,” by Joy Harjo

    More at WaPo

  149. 149.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It isn’t that his son’s death broke him, it’s that he represents an era in America and American politics, in both parties, that ended in 1994 and was slowly ending for the thirty years before that. Biden is, by and large, the last gap of the last generation. Bill Weld is too for his part. The America they grew up in, the American political system they worked within and served in, and the price of doing business in that America are long, long gone. Biden, even if he realizes this reality, and my guess is he most likely does, can’t break free of what he’s doing and been doing, because this is how he knows and understands politics to be. He is a man out of time. Both out of the time that he is a product of and out of time because how he understands himself as a politician and a leader no longer has a place in America.

  151. 151.

    the Conster

    @kindness:

    Somehow the screamers don’t seem to understand that the BEST CASE SCENARIO for impeachment is President Pence and his pardon powers. He’d keep all the same policies that the lunatic’s base loves, with the same evil but with way less crazy and that pious demeanor. He’s a true believer. The media would fall all over themselves to turn him into a savior in the run up to 2020. They both need to be voted out together. It’s the only way.

  157. 157.

    TenguPhule

    @kindness:

    Impeachment takes time.

    And time is something we’re running out of.

    As I’ve said before, we’ve got until about October to start impeachment proceedings. After that, its too late. What they should be doing is getting ready for it. Start working the naysayers towards supporting an impeachment inquiry and preparing for the House hearings.

    They’re not. The messaging from the House Democrats is all over the place and Pelosi is one of the worst offenders.

  158. 158.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Re: Hope Hicks’ (non-)testimony. IANAL, so I may be missing some obvious legal thing, but why, per reports and tweets, is the DOJ lawyer* saying “Objection!” to every question and telling her not to answer instead of just having her take the 5th?

    *(or possibly the WH Counsel — I’m not clear on who her legal advisors are for this Judiciary Committee hearing.)

  159. 159.

    joel hanes

    @kindness:

    It is going according to plan, just not your plan.

    Like Wilmer, TP has no plan, nor does it seem to recognize the need for a plan.
    It has outraged sensibilities, and believes that should be enough to win.

    Back into the pie filter with it.

  160. 160.

    rikyrah

    @Betty Cracker:

    NEW: New chapter in Jerry Falwell Jr.’s pool boy saga involves naked photographs. https://t.co/42hEZ1SBfk

    — julie k. brown (@jkbjournalist) June 19, 2019

    New?
    I always had assumed that it involved photos or film.
    Only the unimaginative believed the bullshyt being shoveled by these folks.

  162. 162.

    the Conster

    @TenguPhule:

    What are you talking about? The entire point is the election. What do you think all the internet screaming idiots will say when the House votes to impeach and nothing happens? What do you think our moronic media will talk about?

  163. 163.

    The Moar You Know

    218 House Dems.

    70 in favor of impeachment at the moment, plus Amash. 148 not.

    Make Pelosi do it. In order to do so, you’re gonna have to move a lot of votes that are not there. It’s not going to get handed to you on a platter. If Pelosi did it now, she wouldn’t even have enough votes to convict. And that really would be the worst possible result: exonerated by Democrats.

  164. 164.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    ETA: as to Pelosi: I’ve heard of one Dem Rep who is actually against not just impeachment but investigation> Jeff Van Drew thinks it’s time to move on.

    I never heard of him, so I looked him up.

    Van Drew said during his campaign that, if elected, he would not support Nancy Pelosi to be the next Speaker of the House,[23][24] His first vote in Congress was “no” for Speaker which was recorded as “present” under the rules.[25]

    And he’s a member of the Blue Dog Coalition. I didn’t even know that was still a thing.

  165. 165.

    randy khan

    @TenguPhule:

    She doesn’t have 218 votes

    She’s not leading on this. She’s also saying that lesser measures are useless. None of her whips are engaging to get more Democrats in line on this.

    “She doesn’t have 218 votes” was putting it mildly – she doesn’t have 75, and there’s no way that mere whipping would get her to 218.

    Actual leaders have some idea where their followers are willing to go, and in this particular case the followers are looking around at the general atmosphere and discovering that in most districts there isn’t an outcry for impeachment right now. The polling suggests that the trend is moving that way, but it’s nowhere near strong enough *now* to force the issue.

    You probably don’t like this (and on some levels I don’t like it either), but as a practical matter Pelosi almost certainly sees impeachment and the run up to an impeachment votes as tools to get Trump out of office. She’s not going to set an impeachment vote, or even allow formal proceedings to begin, if she thinks it will be a waste of effort or would actively hurt achieving her broader goal.

  169. 169.

    J R in WV

    @Baud:

    @J R in WV:

    He’s a rich Delaware businessman wannabe.

    IIRC, he’s actually not rich, at least compared to other high level officials.

    I was more speaking of his attitude than his bank balance. Bob Byrd wasn’t rich either, still lived in the little house he bought as a congressman when he died — as opposed to Mitch McConnell… or even Joe Manchin.

  170. 170.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Adam L Silverman: If all rank-and-file are equally powerless, then all rank-and-file are equally strong, and therefore there would be power in numbers. I wonder if there is a critical mass of House members whose voters overwhelmingly support rigorous investigations (immediate contempt votes, subpoenas, etc.). “Critical mass” would vary with media chops, but if, say, five House members decided to stake out a position of demanding rigorous investigations and coordinated on daily dumps of red meat to the press, I wonder if that would nudge Speaker Pelosi into action. I mean, she just did a mike-drop, shut the elevator-doors “Obstruction of justice!” walk off. Who the f#ck does she think is in a position to do something about that? And how much is she going to fight her members when they decide to do the whole “balance of powers” thing?

  171. 171.

    Josie

    @TenguPhule:

    As I’ve said before, we’ve got until about October to start impeachment proceedings. After that, its too late.

    I don’t understand your timeline. Why is it too late? I would hope that the proceedings would only end right before the election, giving the Senate no chance to exonerate. To my mind, later is better.

  172. 172.

    joel hanes

    Repeating:

    Whenever His Catholic Majesty Ferdinand of Aragon, most powerful and wise prince, was about to embark on some new enterprise, or make a decision of great importance, he went about it in such a way that, before his intentions were known, the whole court and the people were already insisting and exclaiming that the king must do such and so.
    Then he would announce his decision, just when all hoped and clamored for it.
    — Francesco Guicciardini, _Maxims_and_Reflections_ Series C 77

  174. 174.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Adam L Silverman: If I’m understanding you correctly, you’re saying Speaker Pelosi is being strategic by careful management of one of her few resources: timing. OK. That’s great. Counting backwards from election day, when should impeachment proceedings/investigations/other-parts-of-process begin in order to have maximal impact? Wouldn’t the House Dems be able to regulate that pace? Or do the current investigations count as part of “other-parts-process”? No snark, etc., intended. All of this is way outside of my wheelhouse.

  175. 175.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @the Conster:

    Through my engagment on twitter with Nancy IMPEACH NOW screamers, none of them know how anything works.

    You might consider that your population sampling is slanting your views on people who are voicing a desire for impeachment. Not to go all Trump on you, but there are good people on both sides of this issue.

  176. 176.

    the Conster

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    Even Laurence Tribe and Malcolm Nance are screaming at Pelosi, INSTEAD OF MCCONNELL, blaming her for inaction for every one of Trump’s monstrosities. Sorry, but if they know something i don’t about the efficacy of impeachment to stop/remove Trump, they should share it with Pelosi. Cuz impeachment ain’t it.

  177. 177.

    Citizen Alan

    @Jeffro:

    Would really like to see Harris/Warren, will settle for Warren/Harris.

    While I love them both, for God’s sake, can we please have a VP nominee who’s extremely popular in a swing state?!? Picking a Senator from either Massachusetts or California achieves nothing except maybe “good optics,” and we saw how far that got us with Lieberman.

  179. 179.

    Dan B

    @kindness: I sorta agree with Tenguphule but my take is the problem is the optics. Nancy seems to be talking to the political powers on the Dem side. If she were talking to the bigger public she should stick to one message, and minor variations of it. Message: We are investigating Russian interference in America and other possible leads provided by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. This will take time because we must be thorough.

    Any other messaging is just talking about inside political manuevering. She could talk about setting up a special panel to coordinate all the investigations.

    Our friends believe Nancy and other Dem leaders are being weak. They have yet to hear that the process takes time and why being thorough is crucial.

    McConnell keeps packing the courts and tge HOP keeps ignoring the law. Our friends are afraid it’s going to be too late. It might already be but it woukd be better to hear the Dems are moving forward relentlessly than “We can’t impeach now.”

  181. 181.

    TenguPhule

    @Josie:

    I don’t understand your timeline. Why is it too late?

    Congressional Recesses and factoring in the traditional Congressional delays on hearings, court challenges, various arcane rules and procedures means that any later then that and we wind up with a “No Impeachment proceedings during an election season because it could cost us Democratic House and Senate seats in red states”

    And trust me on this, if Speaker Pelosi slides on impeachment inquiries in 2020 with “we can’t impeach during an election because its better to just vote him out” she’s done as Speaker of the House and the coalition of anti-Trump support is going to fracture like a glass ball meeting a stone floor. Shit will get ugly very fast.

  182. 182.

    TenguPhule

    @NotMax: I’m tired and angry and sick of this whole “Don’t question Nancy Pelosi” fetish that seems to be developing. Its the exact same shit we rightfully condemned in the Bernie supporters. Its the same holding out for a hero that Mueller used to inspire.

    I want this to come out right in the end peacefully. I’m not a complete lunatic. I have self-interest and moderate self-preservation.

    But every passing day all I see is our side trying to whistle pass the graveyard. Resting on the laurels of 2018 is as foolish now as relying on 2012 was in 2016.

  183. 183.

    TenguPhule

    @the Conster:

    What do you think all the internet screaming idiots will say when the House votes to impeach and nothing happens?

    For the 10,000th time, Impeachment proceedings are not just a quick vote to send it to the Senate.

  184. 184.

    joel hanes

    Warren has plans, and has demonstrated her ability to effect those plans through legislation. .

    Sanders has morally-motivated goal statements, but no plan to achieve them. Further, he doesn’t seem to have any ability to formulate a plan, nor even really to recognize that a plan is needed.

    She does. He postures.
    If elected, she will use the Presidency to accomplish things.
    If elected, he will be the President.

  185. 185.

    debbie

    Based on the 100% stonewalling by the Trump administration, can’t Mueller be compelled to testify and answer questions about his report?

  186. 186.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @the Conster:

    Sorry, but if they know something i don’t about the efficacy of impeachment to stop/remove Trump, they should share it with Pelosi. Cuz impeachment ain’t it.

    So people who probably do know more than you (and me) are saying that Speaker Pelosi should start impeachment proceedings.

    OK. Sounds good to me.

Comments are closed.