I’m traveling this week, with lots of 0300 starts and wasn’t planning to post, but I just got into the gym at the airport hotel I’m staying at ahead of tomorrow’s pre dawn flight, and MSNBC is on the TV. And the Democrats are actually voting to table (put it to the side and not take up impeachment) an impeachment resolution of the President. This is happening despite only 89 members of the House Democratic caucus publicly stating they support starting an impeachment inquiry!
I have no idea whose idea this is, but I cannot state loudly or strongly enough how galactically stupid this is. Strategic and political malpractice at the highest levels! When this passes, meaning the House will not move to take up impeachment at this time, and it will pass, the President will spend the next week crowing about how he’s been cleared. He’ll use it to chew up the information space that should be devoted to the spillover onto him from the Epstein case, from his publicly going full in on blood and soil herrenvolkism where racism and anti-Semitism in defense of Judaism and Jews equated with Israel and Israelis is no vice, and the upcoming Mueller hearings in the House.
The motion to table just passed: 136 Democrats for, 93 against, and 1 present (abstaining). 194 Republicans and the 1 Independent (Amash?) voted to table it as well. So for now, the House, with overwhelming bipartisan support, isn’t going to do anything more on impeachment and I expect the President will start screaming about being cleared any time now.
Completely irresponsible political theater!
Open thread!
PS: Before anyone asks, I think the House should have a special select committee on impeachment focusing all the investigations through one point leading to either impeachment or exoneration. That’s not what happened with today’s strategic stupidity.
Adam L Silverman
I’ll be over here in the gym with the useful dumbbells if anyone needs me.
?BillinGlendaleCA
So Speaker Silverman, what would you do? You don’t have the votes in your caucus to either impeach Trump or refer it to Judiciary.
eemom
Yeah, you’ll need those. That thundering sound you hear is the Pelosi Dick Sucker Zombie Brigade coming for your ass.
Another Scott
Don’t panic, grasshopper. Congress.gov:
He apparently has done this more than once.
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Special select committee on impeachment to focus and drive all the investigations. Judiciary, Intel,
Ways & Means, and Oversight all feed it.
One point of contact for media and Americans. Basically a legit and righteous version of what Boehner did with his special Benghazi committee. I did a whole post on this a while back.
eemom
Oooops, too late.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: I don’t think the Speaker has enough support in her caucus for that.
ETA: I agree with you that one committee to investigate Trump’s misconduct is a good idea.
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: he’s filed the bill several times, this is the first and only vote.
I’ve got no issue with Green pushing for this, but you don’t bring this to the floor for a vote until you’ve got the votes to actually do it.
Chyron HR
Oh boy, the “eemom’s psychotic break” thread came early tonight.
Cheryl Rofer
Adam, I’ll volunteer if you’ll recommend me!
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: Maybe I’m misreading the congress.gov link, but it says that there was a vote to table in December 2017 that was 364-58. So today’s vote of 332-95 is actually a little bit of progress, toward impeachment.
I don’t think it illustrates any great divide or anything else in the Democratic House.
I don’t see a problem with Pelosi having a vote on it either. There’s a few hours of Twitter noise, then they move on to something else.
Just like last time (in the last congress).
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: Tribute?
Adam L Silverman
@Chyron HR: Here at Balloon Juice we try to give the audience what it wants!
eemom
@Another Scott:
Indeed. Why should ANY white man panic? You’re not the parent of the next Eric Garner whose murderer the “attorney general of the united states” is going to personally let off the hook…nor a brown toddler locked in a cage….nor a brown adult working his fingers to the bone targeted for an ICE raid….nor a kid drinking lead water…..ad infinitum. You’ve got all the time in the world.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
I assume Maggie has been delegated that from the last time. //s
Mike in DC
My vain hope is that 20+ Dems come out in support of an impeachment inquiry following Mueller’s testimony next week, then the holdouts catch hell at town halls in August, so the dam breaks and things get underway after Labor day.
different-church-lady
Unclear on why I want to download an app that ages my falce when I can JUST LOOK IN THE FUCKIN’ MIRROR AND WATCH IT HAPPEN RIGHT HERE IN REAL TIME
(DCL +7 potentially…)
TenguPhule
@eemom:
You do realize Adam is Jewish, don’t you?
“And that train is never late!” //
debbie
I agree with your P.S., and I like that it’s named what an actual impeachment committee would be named. Just to freak out Trump.
TenguPhule
@Mike in DC:
I too would like a unicorn that shits gold bricks.
eemom
@Adam L Silverman:
Really. You think I’m psychotic too, huh?
Another Scott
@eemom: Non-sequitur.
Green’s bill won’t do anything about the issues you raised. You know that.
(sigh)
Did it change anything in December 2017?
They were right then, and they’re right now.
Work has to be done before Impeachment will succeed in the House. That work is in progress.
Patience.
Cheers,
Scott.
different-church-lady
@Adam L Silverman: I WANT ICE CREAM!
bystander
Anyone else expecting twitler to start tweeting “stay strong wink wink” to his pal Epstein?
Also has anyone noticed that twitler admires 2 avowed, card carrying Communists, VP and KJU? So why not the Squad? Not enough murders?
eemom
@TenguPhule:
That wasn’t really directed at Adam, but whatever. Didn’t think you subscribed to the Jews are not white school….but whatever that, too. After all, I AM the psycho here.
debbie
@Another Scott:
If the GOP forced more than 60 votes to try and end ACA, then Green ought to be allowed his handful of bills.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@eemom: Excuse me, how is the Speaker or the House supposed to stop all these things?
Ohio Mom
I agree about having one committe manage all the investigations — that seems the most elegant, in the mathematical sense, approach. I’d like to see the investigations be as prominent as those silly Benghazi hearings were. I keep hoping we’ll get there.
I am not convinced though that it matters that Trump will crow about this ridiculous motion, claiming that it clears him.
He’s always crowing about himself, it is just more noise, and soon there will be yet another topic of the crowing.
different-church-lady
@eemom: only until I’m +3 or so….
eemom
@Another Scott:
There is a constitutionally prescribed remedy for a brazenly lawless administration which needs to be taken NOW.
And it is not a non-sequitur to point out why your privileged white ass feels no urgency.
So shove your condescending sigh up the foregoing.
TenguPhule
@eemom:
I’m sorry, what part of actual Nazis are running the government was not clear the first time?
Leto
@?BillinGlendaleCA: As speaker she needs literally no support to do this. Also a special select committee, or an impeachment inquiry, has no timetable. Before you even begin impeachment talks, you have an inquiry. Let me restate for the eternal hard of hearing: zero timetable. Like the Mueller report had no timetable.
I’m actually in the camp of, “Impeachment Won’t Happen”. Basically because we’re out of time. Even if we start an inquiry today, based on our two current past examples, it’ll take at least a year and that’ll put us into the middle of the 2020 election. The House would never move forward with it, even if we did have 218 votes and wanting to uphold the rule of law, and will punt it to the electorate. Also I’m of the firm belief that even if we did catch Trumpov doodling underage children, taking $$$/information from Russian/whoever, AND snorting coke off the Resolute Desk, we will still won’t have enough Dems to move forward with impeachment. Enough of them will hem and haw, saying now is not the time, he’s not worth it, and everything else under the sun. Not even mentioning Republicans because why would you?
Also the “drip drip drip” theory is bullshit. At this point, wtf else do you (imaginary undecided voter) need at this point? We’ve had 2 1/2 years of this shit. Wtf else do you want? What new imaginary piece of information will make the difference? How much lower do you need him to go (don’t worry, he’ll reach it). It doesn’t matter. At this point if you can’t decide between the two, America deserves it’s third world status. Back to my beer garden.
Another Scott
In other news, GovExec:
Good, good.
Cheers,
Scott.
Harbison
“Great Grandma, what do you do to fight against Trump and the Nazis when you were in Congress?”
“Well, dear child, I voted to table an impeachment inquiry of the Trump because we would have probably lost in Senate, anyway.”
TenguPhule
@eemom:
My bad, its been a long day and I my eyes saw Another Scott as Adam Silverman.
Mike in DC
@TenguPhule: I should clarify that I think the window for commencing the inquiry only extends to the end of 2019. If the appetite for doing so is not there by then, no way in hell will it happen in 2020.
Adam L Silverman
@eemom: No I don’t. Intemperate and inflammatory at times, but that’s most of us here at times. What I was doing was being a smartass in response to that comment.
TenguPhule
@Leto:
3 more months and I’ll throw my towel in after yours.
Another Scott
@eemom: I don’t think the Constitution says that Impeachment needs to start July 17, 2019.
Nobody would have been happier than me to have Trump impeached on 1201 PM EST January 20, 2017. That didn’t happen.
Politics is slow. You really need to accept that. Yelling at me and others here isn’t going to speed up the process.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
different-church-lady
@Adam L Silverman: WHERE’S MY ICE CREAM, SILVERMAN??2?
Steeplejack (phone)
@Another Scott:
Good catch. This is Green’s regular gadfly motion.
I’m sitting in the Lost Dog Café sipping an eponymous draft and waiting for some pizzas to go, so it’s not a good research situation.
TenguPhule
@Another Scott: My only concern is that any deal Pelosi and Schumer make, Trump will happily break once the actual money is legally available to the federal government again.
Because that’s how he rolls.
zzyzx
I’m not really all that worried if Trump wins a few news cycles in the middle of summer 15 months before the election. This will all be forgotten in a few days when the next insanity happens.
TenguPhule
@different-church-lady:
Your choices are Mayo Icecream or Ketchup icecream.
TenguPhule
@Mike in DC: If they don’t kick things off by October, they’re never going to. Congressional recesses will see them gone till 2020 and then all hell breaks loose.
Steeplejack (phone)
@different-church-lady:
There’s my screamy girl! I’ve missed you.
TenguPhule
Contempt Votes on Barr and Ross have passed.
/not holding my breath on actual enforcement to happen
different-church-lady
@TenguPhule: Jesus, don’t let Loomis get wind of this!
Eolirin
@Leto: The house moving to impeach so that the senate can exonerate gains us very little. It’s not clear if it helps or hurts with the election.
And nothing even has the potential of changing until the election, unless Trump becomes so toxic the Republicans turn on him, and they have their own closed media universe, so that isn’t realistically going to happen.
It’s important to recognize that we really have no power here, at least as far as getting rid of Trump is concerned, and the only power we’re going to have are the elections. This far out from them nothing really matters. The electorate is mostly tuned out and has a short memory.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Adam L Silverman:
I don’t think that as a front-pager you should be piling on, or giving that appearance.
TenguPhule
We are in the worst timeline.
We tried the KFC Cheetos sandwich so now you’ll have to
As if one fat orange monster wasn’t bad enough.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Put them together, and they’re Adam Scott, or Another Silverman
More than any of these symbolic votes, I’m interested in whether Nadler has managed to convince the member of the Judiciary to turn the questioning of Mueller over to a single lawyer who won’t be seeking to speechify and get a viral clip. He’s a reluctant and notoriously close-mouthed witness, and Dems have half of (I believe) three hours worth of five minute intervals, and I don’t know if breaks and parliamentary stalling count against the three hours. Anyone? It’s a huge challenge to get him to say something damning of trump, in spite of himself, in a way that’s black-and-white enough for lazy people. In the middle of summer.
Cheryl Rofer
The problem is not entirely Nancy Pelosi.
Moderate Democrats are getting skittish about confronting Trump’s racism. Seriously?
Some House Democrats from purplish states are complaining that too much time and attention have been spent on Trump’s racism. It’s not clear what they would have done, because they are whining anonymously to New York Times (and other) reporters.
Greg Sargent:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Leto:
Technically, impeachment just requires a vote of the House, they could literally do it in 15 minutes. I do understand the impeachment process(when it’s done right), I’m old enough to live though two Presidential impeachments(Nixon and Clinton).
Mary G
They just voted Barr and Wilbur in contempt.
Martin
@Mary G: Good. More of this.
Sloane Ranger
Jake Tapper was all Dems in Disarray on The Lead earlier with reports of moderates telling reporters off the record that, while they felt they had to publicly support “The Squad”, they were unhappy as they felt they got precious little support back and last night’s vote of censure allowed the Thugs to portray the entire party as rampant socialists planning to seize and redistribute all private property.
I don’t know much about how the House of Representatives works, but I do know that,even in the House of Commons with it’s much stronger party structure, if a backbencher wants to ignore the Party leadership and put forward a Private Members Bill, there is a mechanism to do so.
In this case, I think it’s been useful. There has been a lot of discussion here recently about starting Impeachment proceedings. This has been a reality check, proving what cooler heads had suspected, there aren’t the votes there for it. What happens next is up to Party members. They now know who stands where. If those who voted against start catching merry hell from their constituents, they’ll come on board, if those same constituents either support them or remain silent – they won’t.
Jay
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_process_against_Richard_Nixon
27 House Resolutions were introduced starting in 1972 to Impeach Nixon. None passed or made it to Commitee.
Each one did move the Overton Window on Impeachment.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the ReThugs held 10 different Bengahzi!!!!!!!! hearings, none of which had any results in the House or Senate, but did move the Overton Window in the MSM, Wingnuttia and the Low Informed.
Mike in DC
@TenguPhule: Right, so September is pretty much it. It would help if the leading presidential candidates all supported the initiation of an impeachment inquiry.
Jay
@Sloane Ranger:
Jake Tapper at CNN had a full metal Nazi with blood dripping from his hands on yesterday, Richard Spencer, to explain why Dolt45 wasn’t racist.
the Conster
Who enforces contempt orders against members of the administration? The DOJ? Oh.
Jay
@Mike in DC:
October probably, September starts slow.
kindness
There is a reason Nancy wanted them to wait. Nancy knows how to count votes. Nancy knew the votes weren’t there.
For all of you who say Nancy is failing the Democratic Party, you might not agree with Nancy but Nancy is right. This isn’t her fault.
Cheryl Rofer
@Sloane Ranger: I’ve just been responding to Tapper’s thread on the whining from “House Dems 1-4.”
AOC and the Squad stand up and speak out. They use their own names.
Here is the world’s tiniest violin playing a sad song for House Dems 1-4. ?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Sloane Ranger: I didn’t see the Tapper segment, but I skimmed over this thread where he talks about it, Dave Weigel, ex- Randroid and ex-Naderite who now seems at least Bernie-curious, was not impressed
Though I will say there are actually four anonymous cowards whining to Tapper, and I say that as a (relative) moderate myself. If you don’t have the guts and the character to be quoted by name, don’t go slagging fellow Dems to the Broderist Caucus. I blame the idiot emo-Bernie-Bro Chakrabarti* for a lot of the chaos of the last couple of weeks, but at least he isn’t hiding behind “one prominent Hill staffer” or the like.
* with the caveat that Nancy Pelosi is the leader of the caucus and handled the situation badly in several different ways.
Martin
@Sloane Ranger:
Well, maybe if the moderates had a fucking spine, they might see fit to ensure the socialists aren’t doing all the work out there.
TenguPhule
@kindness:
As Speaker, Nancy is expected to cajole, bully, bribe and otherwise corral votes from her caucus as needed for important issues.
It would be nice if stopping Donald Trump from initiating a Fascist takeover of the federal government was one of them.
Jay
@the Conster:
The Sergeant of Arms for the House and Senate, and the Deputy Sergeant of Arms who does not report to the DOJ, and can also call in the Capital Police.
debbie
@the Conster:
Trump’s not a strategizing kind of guy. Someone must have figured out this trick (Rudi?) and told him how to go about doing it.
Baud
@Mary G:
Kudos to House Dems.
Chief Oshkosh
@Adam L Silverman: Careful, Adam. Pretty soon some people around here will start saying you’ve gone all emo on us…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Sloane Ranger
@Cheryl Rofer: I never said any of these people are providing Profiles in Courage. There seems to be very little of that among the political class in either of our nations.
TenguPhule
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Trump’s approval rating among Republicans went up five points.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule:
A good Speaker can do that on the margins, you can’t push a chain.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chief Oshkosh: I wouldn’t use the phrase “all emo on us;” just stick with emo.
Frankensteinbeck
A tabled impeachment measure is not going to get more than five minutes in the national spotlight, if that, especially since Trump will step on his dick again before the end of the day. Just watch. Passing impeachment in the House and having it voted down in the Senate would dominate the national news for quite awhile, and the unanimous verdict from grassroots to pundits would be that the Democrats are weak and useless failures. Do you think more than the tiniest handful of people screaming for Trump to be impeached now would go “Oh, well, they tried, so I’m happy with them.” Hell, no. No political credit would be gained passing impeachment now. No practical effect in stopping Trump would be gained. That leaves balancing the desire of her caucus to make moral statements and public gestures, which I assume this is.
My guess, and this is only a guess, is that Pelosi is slow-walking this until next year, because what she actually wants is the investigations to be dominating the news during the Presidential campaign, and if the Senate votes down an impeachment resolution for all Democrats to be able to point fingers at McConnell as an extra reason to vote. That won’t work if impeachment fails now. All we would get is everyone remembering Democrats are losers.
@TenguPhule:
…and this has exactly what to do with the House voting to impeach Donald Trump? Pelosi is doing the things within her power. A lot of those are slow or don’t show up on the news or both.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What’s funny is that the lefty internet will now cite Tapper’s Twitter quote of House Dem 1 as proof positive of Pelosi’s true agenda.
Chief Oshkosh
@Jay: Uh oh, Jay, pointing out actual history like this will get you labeled as emo.
the Conster
@Jay:
To arrest Barr and Ross? Is that going to happen, really? We’re going to lock them up? Where? The DC jail?
Cheryl Rofer
@Sloane Ranger: I wasn’t criticizing you. Just adding my little bit.
Jay
@the Conster:
Both the House and Senate have their own jails. The record for incarceration was 165 days with a fine of $5,000 a day.
TenguPhule
@Frankensteinbeck:
I hope this is not the actual plan.
Jay
BTW,
It’s a Russian App.
Heads up.
the Conster
@Frankensteinbeck:
Thank you, I agree with every word. Anyone counting on the media to conduct due diligence oversight and act in good faith to *educate* the public about Trump’s crimes- WHICH ARE REPORTED ON EVERY DAY – needs to re-read the thread about CNN inviting Richard Spencer on to discuss whether Trump is a racist. Nothing says *exciting* cable coverage quite like showing an empty chair where a witness should be, or a painful reading into the record of documents requested that the WH stonewalled. We need the courts to come to the Dem side, and then we’ll see what we can get.
Slow walking the committee investigation findings up to the day of the election is the way to do it. The electorate in this country has the attention span of a fruit fly.
Jay
@Chief Oshkosh:
Yeah, I know. More so because I’m Canadian.
the Conster
@Jay:
Where are these jails?
Barr has an FBI security detail – the Sergeant at Arms is going to what, tell them to step aside on the orders of Nancy Pelosi?
TenguPhule
@Frankensteinbeck:
She hasn’t even started the inquiries normally associated with determining the appropriateness of recommending articles of impeachment be considered in the House. We all get that its a process, the problem is that it has to actually start for it to run through all of the procedural check marks.
Jay
@TenguPhule:
There’s a dead period in most cycles between October and February.
Most of the public doesn’t have the attention span for year long campaigns and MSM incessant horseracing and bloviating doesn’t help,
Scandals do.
Jay
@the Conster:
In the secure basements of both the House and Senate.
Frankensteinbeck
@TenguPhule:
You have a better plan that does not require Mitch McConnell to magically discover his conscience and not merely allow but push his caucus into convicting Trump? We’re not getting rid of Trump until 2021. A failed impeachment now would do nothing to help us in the 2020 election. Everything else is getting challenged in the courts, and that’s a slow process.
Raven Onthill
Saw your title and burst out laughing.
Frankensteinbeck
@TenguPhule:
Sorry, I must be imagining all those demands for information and witnesses that the White House has refused to provide, or arranging Mueller to testify, or the court case to get Trump’s taxes. The investigation is happening. It is slow and it gets barely a mention on the news until something super-dramatic happens.
the Conster
@Jay:
no, it really doesn’t
Raven Onthill
This may be because the fascist collaborators of the Problem Solvers Caucus has the votes to make this very difficult. But it looks awful and, yes, Trump is crowing. We corvids are thinking about suing for theft our our intellectual property.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: you think he has the Morrissey catalog on shuffle for his workout?
eemom
@Cheryl Rofer:
uh, chicken and egg much?
When the so-called “leader” refuses to lead, guess what.
IOW:
@TenguPhule:
Jay
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@eemom: who’s your representative, and where does s/he stand on impeachment?
who are your Senators? Are either or both Republican? Will they stand up to Mitch McConnell when Nancy Pelosi shows “leadership”, as your rage-and-third-box-of-Franzia-blush-addled mind understands it?
eemom
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Guess it’s time for my daily psycho question.
Is there no point at which Pelosi’s failure of leadership becomes obvious enough that you people will stop making excuses for her?
Or, to use my preferred intemperate/inflammatory phrasing, when are you gonna stop bending over backwards to suck her limp dick?
Steve in the ATL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: eemom is a lawyer, so she probably drinks premium boxed wines now. Back when she was in high school? Defiantly Franzia and California Coolers.
Steve in the ATL
@eemom:
Rotating tag line?
eemom
@Steeplejack (phone):
I’ve ordered from but never been there. Do you recommend the ambiance?
MisterForkbeard
@eemom: Both things are true. You can think Pelosi should be doing more *and* acknowledge that she’s got a giant chain around her neck in the form of squeamish idiot moderates.
Seriously, there are Democrats complaining about censuring Trump for obvious racism when polls all indicate that the country largely agrees that Trump is a racist fuckwad.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Steve in the ATL: Seagram’s Golden Wine Coolers? Or Bartles and James?
Mandalay
@eemom:
Not if you’re there.
surfk9
I think the impeachment inquiry will be started in October after the government shutdown that is sure to happen. Tack the bad publicity on to the end of the bad publicity that Trump will get from the shutdown and keep it rolling through the campaign season.
Jay
SiubhanDuinne
@TenguPhule
In the last few months there’s been so much idiomatic Spanish tossed around that in my head I automatically pronounced this as cah-HO-lay.
Another Scott
@SiubhanDuinne: :-D
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jay
So, it wasn’t Nancy.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@eemom: As an attorney, have you researched the case law and legislative history surrounding impeachment? As a non-lawyer, it sounds that you haven’t.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@eemom:
Wow. You’re being incredibly rude. Way over the line
Baud
I can’t believe Chris Hayes is covering the new information about the Trump Epstein connection. I thought the media would ignore it since it’s not as exciting as email server protocols.
Baud
Way to go, Kentucky.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/453519-rand-paul-blocks-senate-vote-on-9-11-victim-compensation-fund
Jay
Mor Epstein, mor corruption,
Ruviana
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Just so long as it’s not Scott Adams I think we’re good.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: sure am glad Jon Stewart went after the Democrats for this. Asshole.
Steve in the ATL
@Ruviana: no, Adam Scott, the Australian golfer my wife has the hots for
Jay
https://itsgoingdown.org/cracks-in-the-ice-history-abolition-the-path-ahead/
Raven Onthill
@Cheryl Rofer: I suspect not the moderates but the actual right wing, collaborators like Gottheimer. :-(
James E Powell
@Adam L Silverman:
This is exactly what they should do and I’m at a loss to understand why they haven’t done so already. The Democratic opposition to Trump is coming across as aimless, ineffective, and doomed. And that’s how ardent Democrats feel about it.
Martin
They’re chanting ‘Send her back’ at Trump’s rally.
We continue to slouch toward Kristallnacht.
Sab
@Jay: So if their funders divest, do the prisoners starve?
Just wondering. I don’t trust any govt. agency to do the basics.
ETA and I say this as someone who has several very decent, hardworking federal employee relatives just trying to do their jobs.
Mike in DC
“Send her back…send her back…send her back” being chanted at Trump’s rally in NC as he talks about Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Is there a level of rage above “incandescent”? Fuck these snaggletoothed, knuckledragging inbred redneck cousin-fuckers FOREVER AD INFINITUM.
Oh, are those unfair negative stereotypes? My bad.
eemom
@?BillinGlendaleCA: @?BillinGlendaleCA:
Hard to do; there are so many tons of it.
Keep up that bending. Good for the spine.
Another Scott
All 11 Virginia Democrats in the House voted to table. BlueVirginia.US:
(Beyer is my representative.)
I think he’s exactly right. FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mike in NC
@Martin: As Fat Bastard kicks off his bid to win in 2020, expect some really ugly incidents and probably extreme violence at the rallies.
karen marie
Democratic Party can get stuffed. I don’t know what happened to Nancy Smash, but I am brutally disappointed.
eemom
@Martin:
Yeah, but there’s a sweet spot RIGHT before we get there which Pelosi has in her crosshairs.
TenguPhule
@Jay:
Congress is on recess for most of that period.
Sab
@Another Scott: Wish I could get my spouse to read this. He gets all wound up by cable news and the internet.
We shriek at each other on dog walks. It’s nuts. We are on the same side and the dogs can’t vote (tgfsf).
Mike in DC
@eemom: She’s like a coach sitting on a small lead, playing prevent defense, afraid to take a risk and commit a costly turnover.
TenguPhule
@Frankensteinbeck:
Different kind of investigation. What the House is doing right now is normal oversight investigations. They’re not the articles investigations that are part of the actual impeachment process.
Sab
I have eemom in my pie filter, so why do I have to read about Sarah Palin?
ETA only regular jackal pied.
Gin & Tonic
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: You must be new here.
Another Scott
@James E Powell: It’s probably too big a job for one committee at this point.
Repost: NBCNews from May 27:
Dumping everything on one committee at this point is probably a good way to slow it down. There’s a lot of sorting that needs to be done.
Cheers,
Scott.
Steve in the ATL
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: that’s called “on brand”
germy
Meanwhile, more quality hires:
Yes, THAT Monica Crowley.
TenguPhule
@Mike in DC:
Yo!
Gin & Tonic
@different-church-lady:
Oh, come on, citizen, surely you want to make your uncompensated contribution to Facebook’s facial-recognition software development team. If you don’t provide your data for free, Mark Zuckerberg might actually have to pay for it, thus diminishing his profit margins.
germy
TenguPhule
@Another Scott: Trump has figured out the obvious solution to thwart justice.
Keep committing so many crimes at a rate where the investigations can’t keep up and thus never get to submit their findings in time for them to do any actual good.
Sab
@germy: Why the phuck do I pay taxes?
I have a RWNJ sibling who has bailed as a R party member.
I might call and chortle tonight.
TenguPhule
@germy:
I think this is supposed to work a like roach motel. All of the Roaches gathered in one place for extermination instead of spread out all over the place and risking us missing a few..
Marrtin
@TenguPhule: The gish gallop of criminality.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@James E Powell: One reason that a single committee might have issues enforcing subpoenas, the courts won’t enforce subpoenas unless they’re related to legislation. It could be a sticking point for a separate committee and a reason to keep it under normal committee jurisdiction. If you start calling it an impeachment committee, then you probably don’t have the support within the caucus and it raises expectations.
Jay
@Sab:
They are organized not as Private Prisons, but instead Real Estate Corporations, but they lease assets and rely on external cash flow to be profitable, even at $770 a head a day, ( equvalent to a 3 Bedroom Suite at Hilton Vegas, meals and drinks).
While they pay their “prison guards” up to $15 an hour, they generally “subcontract”, so basically, all the way down the human chain from Middle Management on down, their rental/lease chain, their logistics chain and their vehicle chain, somebody’s carving 15% -20% off the top.
From top to middle they are paying $13.6 million to $658,000 a year.
When the manufactured “Border Crisis” dries up, ( 2 blocks north of Homestead, there are 500 empty beds for children and infants in a federal HPSC Facility, meanwhile 168 children and infants are held at Homestead, some for 120 days past the mandated 72 hours), the Corporations will declare bankruptcy, all the assets are leased, and the cash flow, will have all been siphoned off.
Bank of the West pulled out, because activists/antifia proved that “owned” facilities claimed by GEO, were either leased, or empty lots with Federal assets from tent buildings to fencing, “borrowed” from ICE/FEMA/CBP/US Army.
It is what has The Squad and the activist community so pissed at Pelosi et al. Not a penny of money passed for “the Border” is going to make things better at the Border.
I expect that when the cash flow dries up, this Administration will move on to the next step after For Profit Concentration Camps.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@eemom:
Might want to get cracking at it then, instead of spouting uninformed blather.
TenguPhule
@Jay:
All solutions final, no returns allowed.
TenguPhule
What drives me crazy is that he abuses the fuck out of the media and they respond by catering to him harder.
TenguPhule
@Baud:
Don’t forget Utah.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
@germy:
I had mercifully forgotten all about Monica Crowley, but NOOOOOOO you have to go bring her up again, like last night’s supper.
TenguPhule
FTFNYT. One asshole down.
Sab
I am absolutely not an economist, but the inverted yield curve freaks me out, especially with morons in charge.
Jay
@Jay:
ETA, their shares have been highly profitable for investors and they also shovel money out in dividends.
It’s basically a Ponzi scheme built on Concentration Camps and Concentration Camp labour. Adam Tooze would understand.
Sab
@Jay: That’s not very reassuring.
TenguPhule
Amnesty International calls for closure of migrant child detention center
This is America in 2019.
Raven
I see numb-nuts is dominating BJ again.
Jay
@TenguPhule:
CNN ain’t been media for a long, long time.
Steve in the ATL
@Sab:
Which you makes you eminently more qualified than Arthur Laffer!
TenguPhule
And the judge ordered Trump’s minions to get back in compliance in the summer of 2018. Its a year later and the ruling is openly flouted without any consequences of note to the perpetrators.
Steve in the ATL
@Raven: must be a day that ends in “y”
RAVEN
@Steve in the ATL: I guess, even pied it makes this place almost unreadable.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
okay, I’ll admit, I’m wondering about the context (for lack of a better word) here
TenguPhule
@Steve in the ATL:
You really hate working pro bono for the unions instead of a tumbrel number that much? //
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL: That’s a low bar.
James E Powell
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
The suggestion was for a select committee to oversee and coordinate a number of investigations. That’s not that hard to do. There are matters of procedure that the geniuses in the house leadership and their attorneys could solve in 24 hours. They’ve had six months.
Sab
@Jay: I believe you. I am deeply concerned that as an American my go to source of information is some random guy from Canada on the internet.
Although we actualy have a history of reading each other for years. But I trust you get my point.
Dan B
After the “Send Her Back” rally Trump tells reporters that “He doesn’t know anything about it, but the fact that she married her brother should be checked out.” (Not a precise quote.)
I hope Nancy has insisted on extra Secret Service for AOC.
TenguPhule
@Dan B:
I hope the Secret Service can still be relied upon to defend Democrats they’re assigned to.
Steve in the ATL
@TenguPhule: give me my full hourly rate or give me death!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
?BillinGlendaleCA
@James E Powell: That’s not the way I took the suggestion at all, I was thinking more like the Watergate Senate Select Committee in 1973. The problem that such a committee would face is that it’s investigative in nature and it not tied to legislation. That’s when it would run into problem enforcing subpoenas with the courts. I’m not sure what a committee overseeing the other committees would do.
Another Scott
@Dan B: Twitter:
Excellent.
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Dan B:
I believe it would be the Capitol Police.
Sab
@Steve in the ATL: Yes it does. I don’t write stuff on deli napkins. I use those to wipe my mouth, and then I write on paper. But I am weird that way.
Also tidy.
Jay
@Sab:
There are families and facilities through out the US that can properly house and care for these people with room for about 550,000 to spare.
So why is ICE/CBP holding them in unneeded For Profit Concentration Camps and CBP Concentration Camps on the Border?
Why are Children forced to make a Sofi’s Choice?
NotMax
@Dan B
I can’t possibly be the only one to whom it is blatantly obvious the chant was instigated by (paid?) plants positioned in the audience.
chris
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: About what you’d expect.
Miss Bianca
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: You must be new here.
@Gin & Tonic: And I see you beat me to it. Mais bien sur! : )
Dan B
@James E Powell: I thought that Pelosi had recommended a special committee , or select committee, to coordinate the information sharing snd investigations about a month or two ago. It may be in the works but with so many investigations it may be challenging to find staff to assist with the mountains of evidence determining strategy, and tactical decisions.
Time to google (or nap)
lamh36
@Dan B: Ah …you mean Ihan?
The threats and slander is against her more than any of the other squad members.
Dan B
@TenguPhule: The thought occurred to me – right wing SS agent.
lamh36
The number of “journalist” tweeting Chump’s slanderous words against Rep Omar…and NOT in the same tweet reporting that Chump is a LYING…is disgusting. SMH…the MSM political press is a bunch of enablers for fuq’n clickbait. To every last one of them, all I’ma say is…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2ce73e9e5d59f63b9fecc225d2cde8e8087d792a7d71dff24788a49d8b8539d2.gif
Jay
@Sab:
Back in Reagan’s regime, I was part of the Underground Railroad/Sanctuary Movements. So I am both watching this carefully by following people who are watching this carefully,
And not haring off chasing the Dolt45 twit du jour,
And pressing my Government to tear up the First Safe Harbour Agreement with the US, because the US is no longer a safe country for refugees.
Brachiator
@germy:
Wow. Trump isn’t even pretending anymore. Not even making the slightest effort at choosing people on the basis of competency. This woman is Fox News approved and Putin certified.
She also has strong birther cred.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
However it would be directly tied to the exercising of an authority and purview specifically assigned to be undertaken by the House by the Constitution, which bolsters the case for upholding subpoenas.
Gin & Tonic
@TenguPhule: Do you *ever* include a fucking link?
Jay
@lamh36:
Yup, double yup.
Jay
Dan B
@?BillinGlendaleCA: My ‘lack of sleep, thanks racoon parties last night’ … yake is the select committee could coordinate investigations to reduce duplication and provide a central media point of contact. They could also discuss strategy so we don’t have 50 separate efforts and discuss tactics. They don’t have to dictate tactics or strategy just inform all the committees of the preferred pursuits.
Gin & Tonic
@Sab:
True story: the routing protocol that’s been at the heart of the modern Internet for over 20 years was first sketched out on a cocktail napkin.
TenguPhule
@Gin & Tonic: I did, its part of the preceding linked story and FYWP locked me out of an edit.
eemom
@Sab:
“only regular jackal pied”
That was the proudest moment of your life, wasn’t it?
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
k, you win. I promise I won’t even try snark anymore.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
MItt Romney, who is sitting quietly pretending everything is fine, used to brag that his father marched with Martin Luther King. It wasn’t quite true, though old George did take part in civil rights marches. But Willard used to think that was something to brag about. Just a few years ago.
Now he’s sitting quietly, pretending everything is fine.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: During the Maidan protests in Ukraine 5+ years ago, these were called “titushky.” Everybody knew the score.
Dan B
@NotMax: So who would be setting up the plants, Stephen Miller, or some campaign hack? Somebody has to select the chants.
Oh, that’s what they are talling about when they say “infrastructure”.
SiubhanDuinne
@Gin & Tonic:
Forget it, Gin.
It’s Tengu Phule.
different-church-lady
@eemom: Are you under the impression that there is someone else in the House that can herd these cats into the formation we desire?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Were I good at your inter tubes, I would make a picture of Kellyanne Conway in a fake mustache and fedora. In order to suggest she had disguised herself, to act as that plant. I’d probably go with Groucho glasses
Hell, it might just as likely have been Thom Tillis and Richard Burr.
Baud
I was just thinking, who haven’t we heard from recently who could make everything even worse than it is.
different-church-lady
@Raven: You’re going to have to be more specific.
Dan B
@lamh36: I was thinking of AOC as well but she and Ilhan are both at risk. The hijab makes a target for a nut case. AOC is easy to spot in a crowd.
In our neighborhood they’d blend in. My rep is Pramila Jayapal. Her campaign launch was a couple blocks from us and there were at least 30 women in hijab, plus latin@s, and more – 25% white people.
But many places they would be easy to spot.
Jay
Not a nice story at all. Not unexpected given their Facebook pages.
different-church-lady
@Gin & Tonic: See, that’s what happens when you have a paperless office.
Mary G
She’s creeping up:
Raven
@different-church-lady: You can’t see someone who posts constantly night after night?
Martin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
She’d be in blackface with a Charlie Chan mustache and payots, just to cover all of her bases.
Keith P.
“Mr. President, in light of the recent charges against Jeffrey Epstein, where was this photo taken, and by whom?”
Martin
@Mary G: There’s no fucking way she doesn’t win CA as things stand now.
Jay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
You can just hire them online or from an Agency.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/399002/
NotMax
@Dan B
If forced to speculate, I’d go with James O’Keefe or some similar denizen of the drainpipe of the sub- sub- sub-basement of humanity like him as handling the scut work and recruitment on instruction from the campaign.
different-church-lady
@Raven: I gotta admit gainful employment has been keeping me from my usual vigorous commentambling.
Dan B
@Gin & Tonic: So Hon. John Roberts was a titushky at the Brooks Bros Riot….
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: Only if it’s mission is to pursue impeachment, then that would usually be done by the Judiciary Committee.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Dear god. I just got back from my writer group and saw clips of Trump’s rally. “Send her back!” I feel sick.
Leto
@NotMax: @?BillinGlendaleCA: Bill has unfortunately made that claim twice now, when the evidence in hand (that federal judges hold subpoena’s issued via impeachment inquiry committees in higher regard/act on them faster, more urgency) directly contradicts that. A few months ago I posted articles from Lawfare Blog about that very topic. It’s gratifying to see zero people read them.
Also if someone could please post the direct legislation that all ten Benghazi hearings pertained to, that would be great. (Narrator: that’s simply a Trumpov legal tactic meant to delay)
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Missed all of this, mercifully. “Send her back!”? I take it this is the new “Lock her up!,” or are they doing both?
Utterly disgusting, regardless.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Leto:
This is what I said. The problem is that there isn’t support within the caucus to support an impeachment inquiry. No the Speaker can’t do it without the support of the caucus. If it’s NOT an impeachment inquiry, then it has to be relevant to a legislative purpose. IIRC Benghazi was handled by the Oversight Committee and the Obama White House didn’t cite privilege and permitted folk to testify. Trump won’t allow folk to testify.
Link, please.
oatler.
“Let some princeling of a foreign State set foot in America, and lo! all the inhabitants are tumbling over one another in their desire for a glimpse of him—a desire which is the natural and pathetic outcome of their unsatisfied inner craving for a dynasty of their own.”
Max Beerbohm
Steve in the ATL
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
When our second daughter was born, we took our first daughter into the NICU to meet her. She took one look, turned away, and said “Send her back!”
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
As each chamber of Congress has the innate power to set and define its own procedures and rules, a select committee could be established and empowered to investigate a delineated roster of suspected impeachable offenses, whether that includes drawing up and submitting articles of impeachment or else leaving that step to Judiciary, based on findings of the select committee..
karensky
@Adam L Silverman: Yes!
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
From what I’ve seen on FB, I gather this filth is directed at Ilhan Omar. Now I feel sick. This is appalling.
ETA: I hate to say it, but I fear for her life. The hatred out there….
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: This is true, however this Select Committee might find it difficult to get the courts to support their subpoenas.
Bill Arnold
@chris:
Interesting. The “little pieces, little pieces, …” is on the c-span video, but not in the cspan transcript!!!
At about 50:57
President Trump in Greenville, North Carolina (July 17, 2019)
Very interesting. I wonder how that happened.
Dan B
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Ffintan-o-toole-trial-runs-for-fascism-are-in-full-flow-1.3543375&h=AT2OXCi0qdNwUmq1DBYc6IFdKfy004FFqmENvWOa4v7s8bMtoL0Wtz7PrDl5ZltmA5vE7n2mpwKMrP8trh28kmtZ_7R1-gOkuMV7RJTWJQUVk1rM9aM2Y2TtB9duYz6r3-vL0QwkhY7G_5dpb9hJsOrggGoGjmc&s=1 /
Attempt at a link. A columnist at the Irish Times describes how Trump Admin’s actions are tests to determine how to ramp up the takeover of democracy.
Leto
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Again, she doesn’t need the support of her entire caucus. Again, an impeachment inquiry has no set time length. Again, courts move faster on resolving subpoena issues wrt an impeachment inquiry versus normal oversight. Again, an impeachment inquiry is not articles of impeachment. It’s the fact gathering process on steroids.
You understand that we won’t see Trumpov taxes returns, correct? That the Chairman of the House Ways and Means has stated, numerous times, that because of how slow the courts move, we won’t see his returns until after 2020? How many witnesses have been subpoenaed and have simply ignored it? Of the subpoenaed, how many have shown? 1 (Hope Hicks). 1 was allowed to provide written answers because she wouldn’t come in (Don McGahn’s CoS). Know what her 100+ responses were: “Trumpov WH said I don’t have to answer this. Go fuck yourself!”
As all of our lawyers here have stated, the courts move slow, deliberately so. Trumpov knows this and is using it to his advantage. Each appeal takes months, and he has many left. We’ll still probably be in the appeals process for all of this by the time 2020 really kicks off.
I’ll amend my first post: not only won’t there be impeachment, there won’t even be an impeachment inquiry. There won’t be any select committee, there won’t be shit except for the normal oversight that’s happening now, of which he’s making a mockery and paying no price. Kewl.
Edit: links? Google ”Lawfare Blog Impeachment Inquiry”
Amir Khalid
@germy:
It seems that people exist who are unaware that Arabs come in all shades, from Scandinavian white to sub-Saharan black.
Elizabelle
@Dan B: This might be an easier link.
The Irish Times: Fintan O’Toole: Trial runs for fascism are in full flow
Babies in cages were no ‘mistake’ by Trump but test-marketing for barbarism
From June 26 of last year.
Bill Arnold
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Seconded, would like to read those as well.
(There are also reasons, e.g. links make a place more important to search engines.)
plato
“Checks and balances”. How quaint.
The (corrupt and illegitimate) president is the new king, screw the democracy.
Dan B
@Leto: And by the time the courts begin to act the judiciary may be controlled by the Federalist Society.
Sounds like the coup is already well underway and Trump is just providing the fog to hide the war. If there are hundreds of deaths in ICE camps the protests could be an opportunity / excuse for martial law. Cancel the election? Close some media or take over Google?
How will corporate leaders and stakeholders react? Seems like Wall Street may crash. Or would it?
Does Jay need a good cook and a handyman?
Anonymous
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
That’s now eeMom rolls.
I think the real Impeachment Inquiry will start next winter, probably n February. That’s when Nixon’s impeachment inquiry started, for one thing. Although the Dems had both houses, they did need Republican votes to convict, and once the tapes popped into view, suddenly they had the prospect of those votes.
I know that’s optimistic. I also optimistically believe the courts will order records turned over to the various House committees eventually, and before the 202 elections start. I would like to see an Impeachment vote in October of 2020 at the earliest. That’s best for the election, I think.
Lots of optimism, I think…
Dan B
@Elizabelle: Thanks! It seemed crazy last year. Now not so much. The pattern seems apparent.
Elizabelle
@Dan B: It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since that article.
Leto
@Dan B: @Elizabelle: Former SoS Madeline Albright wrote a good book about the re-emergence of fascism around the world. Tied it into her families flight from it. Good quick, depressing read.
SFAW
@Another Scott:
Not that any “journalist” has the stones to ask it, but I’d pay good money — the equivalent of a six of PBR, at least — to hear someone ask the Racist-in-Chief “Sir, that’s all well and good, but SOME PEOPLE SAY that you’ve tried to boink Ivanka, but you’re afraid of Jared. So, are you still boinking your daughter? Does Melania approve?”
Hell, I might even make it a case of Bissell Brothers’ best.
ETA: Yeah, I realize that, for consistency, it should be “trying to boink,” but I’m trying to pull an LBJ here.
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
You can’t try to make sense of this crap. It’s not about understanding anything about Arab peoples. It’s race-baiting bigotry and fear mongering, and the lie that Obama was some kind of stealth Muslim out to destroy America.
Also, many white racists think that they have a right to define mixed race people and to place them into categories based on their own needs and fantasies.
Elizabelle
@Leto: Read most of that book. How awful to have all those ugly forces assembled again. Bookending Secretary Albright’s life.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Leto:
I think you’re wrong here, she’s needs a resolution to amend the rules. That would require a majority. I agree we won’t see an impeachment inquiry, unless a majority of the House supports it.
cwmoss
@Steve in the ATL: I upvote this or whatever.
cwmoss
@Steve in the ATL: Not Adam Scott, creator of the Single Greatest Event in Television History?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@?BillinGlendaleCA: One thing I’d like to highlight from the Lawfare piece that Leto mentioned:
cwmoss
@SiubhanDuinne: Well played! Well played, indeed! [slow clap]
Steeplejack
@eemom:
Late back to this thread, but maybe you’ll see this.
The Lost Dog’s ambience is okay. Nothing to write home about, but it’s pretty good. It’s not a place I would go to “hang out.” I go there for the food, which is surprisingly good. Usually I get one of the sandwiches, but lately I’ve been hitting the pizzas, which are very good. The crust is amazing. Had to write a “Dear John” letter to Brick’s and tell them that I was seeing other restaurants now.
Also, I don’t think I have ever been there at night. I tend to go for a late lunch or to pick up something on the way home from somewhere. Tonight I was en route to Sighthound Hall to hang out with my brother.
celticdragonchick
@eemom:
Hell fucking froze over. I agreed with eemom.