Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

I was promised a recession.

Come on, man.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Optimism opens the door to great things.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Consistently wrong since 2002

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

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

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

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

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

The words do not have to be perfect.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

You are here: Home / Politics / Impeachment / Impeach the Motherfucker! / Nothing Short of Explosive

Nothing Short of Explosive

by | 160 Comments

This post is in: 

Some “very smart*” people are saying, impeach now, don’t wait, if Dems investigate then Dems will lose with subpoenas, hearings and testimony. Took all I had not to throw my computer through the television.

 

*very smart in their own minds. We see them for what they are…

Open thread

 

Reader Interactions

160Comments

  3. 3.

    smintheus

    Some “very smart*” people are saying, impeach now, if you investigate Dems will lose with subpoenas, hearings and testimony.

    Yeah right, because the truth has a well known conservative bias.

  10. 10.

    Jeffro

    I’m not sure why this is so complicated. Just continue to follow the facts (including this call, and calling Rudy in to testify) wherever they may lead. There is no downside for Dems here: we either impeach, convict, and remove trumpov from office or he limps into Nov 2020 (14 months from now!) utterly batshit and repulsive to a large majority of American voters.

    Just hold the hearings and take the votes. No need to overthink this shit.

  11. 11.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mary G: IANAL much less a Constitutional scholar, or parliamentarian, but bring Rudi in to closed session first with the Intel committee. Soften him up. Keep him away from booze for a few hours. Then bring him in for public question ing with Barry Berke. Or Chuck Rosenberg. Or Joyce Vance.

    ETA: Again, not a lawyer, but maybe Ted Lieu and Eric Swalwell could go on a field trip, go out to the Hamptons and talk to the former Judi Nathan. No swearing in, just an informal get-to-know you session. Have a picture taken after. Nosferatu would be on the first abandoned ghost schooner back to Transylvania

  14. 14.

    Jeffro

    @Mary G: Somehow I don’t think Sam’s two statements line up. Dems might be split on whether or not to call Rudy, but it’s the GOP lawmakers who fear a Category 5 shit show.

  17. 17.

    zhena gogolia

    @Aleta:

    I read that to my husband just now and he said, “I want to see Raymond Burr question Trump.”

    (We just watched Perry Mason.)

  20. 20.

    Ruckus

    I do believe this is getting serious now.
    It’s not just a political battle, it is a battle to remain anything like an actual country. If enough republicans back trump, how will that bode for any kind of future as the nation we are supposed to be even if we never really have been? I hope that this wakes up enough people to see that corrupt people who think that money is everything, so more is always better have to be restrained from being able to screw everyone and that this is the end of the republican party.

  21. 21.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Japa21:

    Frank Thorp V @ frankthorp
    SASSE after reading the whistleblower complaint: “Really troubling things here. Republicans ought not just circle the wagons, and democrats ought not have been using words like impeachment before they knew anything about the actual substance.”

    He of course threw in some weasel words about Democrats jumping too fast to impeachment. NY Rep Elise Stefaniak wants it made public, but she opposes impeachment

  23. 23.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Japa21:
    Ben Sasse read it and said Republicans should not be quick to latch onto talking points because… I can’t remember his phrasing, but basically ‘there is some disturbing shit in here.’ For some reason that is also reason Democrats shouldn’t impeach.

  24. 24.

    Ruckus

    @Mary G:

    Some lawmakers fear a category five shit show.

    That was last week. We are up to a category eight now. Who the hell knows about tomorrow.

  26. 26.

    chris

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I know it’s awful that we’re in this situation and all, but I’m finding this pretty exciting so far.

    Heh,I felt that way during Watergate. I thought it was an historic, once in a lifetime event. Guess not :-/

  29. 29.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Mike in NC: I am honestly mixed on that. I think the man needs removed for the sake of the nation.

    Which actually is the source of my concern. If he is impeached and the senate votes to ignore that and keep him in office it’s over a year prior to the election. That leaves him with the taint of victory, and a year to bloviate and obfuscate and even blither his way to, well, the potential exists that with a little help from his friends he has a second term.

    So I’m hoping for about 6 months of investigation. Make it productive. Turn over all the rocks. Expose all the slime trails – follow them through every admin office and if those happen to be spouses of senators just keep following those trails. If it uncovers some Democrats just keep following the trails – it only strengthens the case (despite feeding both-siderism).

    Let the Senate get a chance in March, or even May. Line them up and knock them down. Articles of impeachment on his cabinet and his judicial appointees and all the rest.

    Tick tock…

  31. 31.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    reporter for The Hill, so, grain of salt and all that

    Olivia Beavers @ Olivia_Beavers
    NEW: A source familiar w/ matter tells me the whistleblower complaint has been declassified.

    Details unclear about it being released to public, but the declassification is done, I’m told.

    ETA: here we go…

    Rep. Chris Stewart @ RepChrisStewart
    BREAKING NEWS: The whistleblower complaint has been declassified. I encourage you all to read it.

  32. 32.

    jl

    ‘ Some “very smart*” people are saying, impeach now, if you investigate Dems will lose with subpoenas, hearings and testimony. ‘

    Not sure what that means. Tamara wants to impeach right away or does not? Does “very smart” mean very smart, or not very smart.

    @Jeffro:Need to proceed quickly and forcefully but also deliberately. Two considerations I see in how to proceed. One is to present the case to the public in a simple, honest and clear way so that the majority of the voting population understands why the country needs to proceed to an impeachment even if the outcome of the trial in the Senate is in grave doubt. And be willing to respond to lies and smears quickly loudly clearly and forcefully.

    And as I typed a day or so ago, it should be obvious to large majority of the voting public that Trump is weak minded, malicious completely unscrupulous, and very dangerous. Even without a conviction, a forceful and deliberate process will discredit this dangerous administration, it will put underlings and flunkies on notice that there will be consequences. Will help keep the administration under watch.

    I wouldn’t worry about whether it goes to fast or too slow. And there is no reason to impeach just Trump. Impeaching Barr might be just as important to do in order to put crooked flunkies on notice.

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    sounds like consciousness of presidential guilt on the part of senior White House officials…

    Michael S. Schmidt @ nytmike
    NEW: The whistle-blower raised alarms about how the White House handled records of the conversation and the whistle blower identified multiple White House officials to corroborate his account

    Kate Brannen @ K8brannen
    When the call was over, senior White House officials pulled the verbatim transcript out of the system that it is traditionally stored in and put it into a separate system reserved for extremely sensitive/highly compartmented programs.
    The call had nothing to do with highly classified programs, but by moving it into this separate system, the White House could control who could see the transcript: only a very small group of people.

  34. 34.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: These are the same morons that don’t want to invite Stormy Daniels because it will cause a scene. The whole point is to call her because it will drive the President and his surrogates, including on the Judiciary Committee, to make a scene. You want must see TV? Stormy Daniels going dominatrix on Collins, Gym Jordan, Gohmert, Gaetz, etc? She’s smarter than all of them put together.

    And this is the same reason you call Rudy. You call Rudy and you let the professional majority counsel, Barry Berke, do all the questioning. He gets 30 minutes and then the GOP can go. Within 5 minutes Rudy will have committed perjury multiple times as he tries to adjust his testimony on the fly and keeps contradicting himself. Even better, they should contract with Stormy Daniels and let her question Rudy.

  35. 35.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    it just. won’t. stop….

    Josh Rogin @ joshrogin
    [email protected] on Giuliani: “The Ukrainian initiative appears to have begun in service of formulating a rationale by which the president could pardon Manafort, as part of an effort to undermine the special counsel’s investigation.” Wow.

  36. 36.

    Wapiti

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Does privilege apply when the attorney is doing illegal acts for the client? In any case, maybe just quiz Rudy on what Rudy did. I think he’d have to take the Fifth.

    And yeah, I’m assuming we have counsel interview him, not 5 minutes per congresscritter.

  38. 38.

    jl

    There are half a dozen other administration officials who deserve impeachment. So if things go totally horrendously for GOP, and the Senate does convict (IMHO, that would be a miracle, though), or he resigns, then can move on to others. Take the easiest ones first, the ones with slam dunk evidence (cough.. Barr… cough…) Then probably Ross. I think very clear evidence both have lied about important issues repeatedly. Just go down the list.

    Maybe Pence can stay. Every major Democratic candidate beats pence by around 20 to 25 points in current polling.

    Edit: actually, can move on to other impeachments regardless of what happens to Trump. So, do Trump, Barr and Ross.

  39. 39.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Even better, this also really make the “It had nothing to do with the IC community so we had to deny the law” excuse obviously false.

    They put damning evidence into a highly.secure location intended for highly classified data, just so they could keep people from seeing it.

    Its both consciousness of guilt AND obvious their initial coverup was ALSO illegal.

  40. 40.

    sanjeevs

    I’m going to speculate that this story is also connected.
    Last week Facebook removed a number of pro-Trump Facebook pages which had built up huge followings. The pages were run from Ukraine.
    https://www.newsweek.com/popular-info-facebook-donald-trump-1460983

    The implication of this story is that someone in Ukraine had built up the ability to penetrate that news bubble that Trump supporters live in.
    And the Ukranians may still have this ability . Its not easy to determine who runs FB pages.

    Andy it actually makes perfect sense for Ukraine to do this. Russia is a threat so the logical thing to do is do as much as they can to duplicate Russia’s tactics in 2016.

  41. 41.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The cuckolded Marine up in New Hampshire would also be a good person to interview given that his now ex-wife appears to be tied up in whatever cyber security scheme that Giuliani is involved in with a couple of Russian oligarchs who live in Florida.

  43. 43.

    Mary G

    @Adam L Silverman: Exactly. He couldn’t even handle Fox’s token liberal without screaming, waving his phone, calling people idiots and morons, and threatening to sue for libel. He’ll implode in Congressional hearings.

  44. 44.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    The whistleblower complaint has been declassified. I encourage you all to read it.

    This I do not understand. Surely the obstruction-obsessed nincompoops in the White House would never declassify the complaint if it were even moderately damning. I’m going to hope this, like the pseudo-transcript and Nunes’s reports, is another example of schemes that seemed brilliant in their head but turn out to be disasters.

  46. 46.

    HRA

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I sent this at the 5 pm thread down below.
    It is the 2nd statement by Sasse shown to me Raoul’s reply later.
    Republican Senator Ben Sasse after reading the whistleblower complaint: “Republicans ought not to be rushing to circle the wagons to say there’s no there there when there’s obviously lots that’s very troubling there”

  47. 47.

    Mary G

    What are the chances that:- trump rolls on Mike Pence- Mike Pence rolls on everybody: Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Devin Nunes, etc.- President Pelosi happens- She makes Hillary her VP- Steps down, we get President HRC- trumper heads EXPLODE- NIRVANA??????— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) September 26, 2019

    Zero chance, but a lovely dream.

  48. 48.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @Kirk Spencer: My thoughts are similar. Drag this on, bring in everyone, smear and tar this MOFO with all his crimes. Get his taxes. Then vote on it just before or after summer break. It’s either so bad Senate will have to vote to impeach or look weak not impeaching. Just in time for public opinion to be fired up to get rid of them all. A girl can dream.

  49. 49.

    Ken

    @zhena gogolia: Perry Mason is overkill. Sure, he always managed to get someone to confess to the crime on the witness stand, but Trump blurts out his confessions every day on national TV.

  52. 52.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    These records indicate that attorneys representing Trump and Manafort respectively had at least nine conversations relating to this effort, beginning in the early days of the Trump administration, and lasting until as recently as May of this year. Through these deliberations carried on by his attorneys, Manafort exhorted the White House to press Ukrainian officials to investigate and discredit individuals, both in the US and in Ukraine, who he believed had published damning information about his political consulting work in the Ukraine. A person who participated in the joint defense agreement between President Trump and others under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, including Manafort, allowed me to review extensive handwritten notes that memorialized conversations relating to Manafort and Ukraine between Manafort’s and Trump’s legal teams, including Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

    my emboldening

  59. 59.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: Bakaj and Zaid are waiting for the Acting DNI to authorize them to be read on, so they can read the complaint and properly represent their client.

  61. 61.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @dmsilev: Details unclear about it being released to public, but the declassification is done, I’m told.

    Seems like declassification is the step before public release? and I’d be very surprised if there aren’t significant redactions. Barr’s slimy paws have been all over this, I’m sure.

  63. 63.

    clay

    @TaMara (HFG): This is ALL happening fast, too fast to really process. After 2.5 years of dripdripdrip, it’s becoming a flood. What does it all mean? What will happen? I don’t want to get my hopes up; we’ve been let down too many times. But it feels like something is shifting.

    I just want it all to be over. Let me think about something else for a goddam minute.

  64. 64.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s been declassified. Now it just has to be posted on an outward facing unclassified server. My guess is that it’ll go up on the HPSCI website as soon as they can get it posted. The question now is how much is redacted.

  70. 70.

    Mandalay

    Well this tweet from Republican Rep. Chris Stewart earlier this evening is noteworthy, given all the swooning and jerking going on…

    I have reviewed the whistleblower complaint made available to the House Intelligence Committee. I do not believe this alone warrants the impeachment of President Trump. This complaint should be declassified and made available to the public.

    Nice hedge there (“…this alone…“), but I suspect that this will be the Republican approach to defending Trump on an ongoing basis: “Yeah, nah. not great, but not that bad either…“.

    It doesn’t matter what gets unearthed. They will defend the indefensible unless/until their own Congressional seat is under threat.

  71. 71.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Frankensteinbeck: They decided it was going to get out, and decided to switch to finding some convoluted reading of it that makes it all innocent? Which will be conventional wisdom by the end of the week?

  72. 72.

    Mary G

    @Adam L Silverman: It is clear whether or not the Congresscritters who read it today saw the whole thing? I keep reading that they did and that no, the administration only put out a part of it.

  73. 73.

    jl

    @clay: This stuff didn’t come out nowhere all of a sudden though. Rudi’s secret mission for the US State Department wasn’t conducted very secretly. There have been reports that he was shuttling back and forth to Ukraine as Trump’s fixer and muscle for almost a year. Exactly what it was for was not clear, some hints it was to dig up dirt on Biden, get some excuse to pardon Manafort. On the way back and forth some intriguing with Iranian dissident groups, mostly MEK. Giuliani is not a very discreet man.

    Thing is the major corporate media outlets in the US consider some stories worthy of coverage and promotion and some not. Giuliani’s adventures in international mystery were in the ‘not’ category.

  74. 74.

    Matt McIrvin

    If Trump shot that guy on Fifth Avenue, the main effect would be that we’d all become experts on the many obscure ways it’s technically not a crime to shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue.

  76. 76.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mary G: With Whoopi taking a leave of absence from the The View to play Mother Abigail in “The Stand”

    That could be cool, I hope they do a good job. I loved that book thirty-five-odd years ago…

    Ana Navarro will he filling in for four months.This comes after NutMeg McCain begged ABC not to hire Ana.

    and speaking of books/movies from my childhood: what was the name of the spoiled rich girl in Willy Wonka who was enraged when she didn’t get everything she wanted?

  79. 79.

    mrmoshpotato

    Kinda OT but not really on an ‘Impeach the Motherfucker’ topic – just watched the clip where Dump tells the Ukranian president that it would be nice if he patched things up with Putin.

    I’m in awe of Zelensky for not replying, “Just because you suck Putin’s asshole doesn’t mean we all do, you fascist, orange, Soviet shitpile.”

    ITMFA!

  80. 80.

    Mandalay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The whistleblower complaint has been declassified. I encourage you all to read it.

    Well that’s mighty white of Rep. Stewart, suddenly eager for sunlight to shine on everything.

    I wouldn’t have dreamed of looking at it without his prior approval.

  81. 81.

    TS (the original)

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: And the Earlier tweet of Rep. Chris Stewart

    I have reviewed the whistleblower complaint made available to the House Intelligence Committee. I do not believe this alone warrants the impeachment of President Trump. This complaint should be declassified and made available to the public. (my bold)

    And then he went on Fox News to pass that on to the faithful (and on all his web sites he does NOT say which party he represents – they really are cowards)

    Edit: Oops: Already posted above

  82. 82.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Wapiti: Crime-fraud exemption. They can separate Giuliani from his client, the President, if they need to in order to prosecute him.

  83. 83.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Matt Oswalt @ MattOswaltVA
    5h5 hours ago
    after all he’s done, Trump getting impeached over a phone call to Ukraine is like Al Capone going to jail for tax evasion, Houdini dying of an appendix and Al Pacino winning his only Oscar for Scent of a Woman

    Hoo-ah!

  84. 84.

    West of the Rockies

    The 11th Hour (MSNBC) hasn’t said anything about the report being declassified and available.

  88. 88.

    smike

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    He of course threw in some weasel words about Democrats

    Yep. And I read a cnn piece yesterday by Silly Cillizzzzzz….. oh sorry, I must have dozed off there. Anyway, he was ever so concerned that all other legislatin’ will now come to a standstill. And just when we were this close to getting gun legislation through the senate. /s

  89. 89.

    dmsilev

    @Adam L Silverman: That Tweet just links to this morning’s revelation of Trumpian crimes (the call memorandum), not this evening’s promised revelation of Trumpian crimes (the whistleblower report).

  90. 90.

    lgerard

    I’m starting a movement to nominate this whistleblower for the Nobel Peace Prize.

    It is the only fitting conclusion to this Sad! episode of our history

  92. 92.

    Jay

    @joel hanes:

    @sanjeevs:

    @sanjeevs:

    Keep in mind the that these are “private” groups in Ukraine that are recycling IRA agitprop for:

    – service to Pro-Russian Ogliarches,

    – clickbait.

    Some Macedonian sites made over $140k a month in ads from posting clic bait in 2016, when the median income was $640 a month.

  93. 93.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: I saw conflicting reports in the print news media. I have not heard one Democratic member of Congress complain that they got a redacted version to read.

  98. 98.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    If they got a redacted version, the full version must be a doozy.
    The look on Schiff’s face and his tone says not redacted. Or this is far, far worse than anyone suspects.

  102. 102.

    joel hanes

    @dmsilev:

    Veruca Salt

    It’s such a great name, because the Italian word “verruca” means “wart, and the German word verrückt means “crazy”. I think there’s a Dutch cognate that means “despicable”.

  104. 104.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TaMara (HFG): The delay will be having to strike the classification markings, redacting anything that should be redacted such as personally identifying information (PII), and then scanning the thing in and posting it as a pdf.

  105. 105.

    Mary G

    NEWS: Sources familiar tell me the whistleblower complaint has been declassified with minimal redactions but not yet released to the public. The expectation is that it will be released in the morning.— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) September 26, 2019

    Schiff has the choreography down.

  109. 109.

    Jay

    Attorney for Jacob Gitman is requesting that I take down this article because I'm causing reputational damage. "Please [don't] address this matter with an update. Now that SEO is so advanced, doing so would make the links more prominent in Google results."https://t.co/as0WOyuyw0— Scott Stedman (@ScottMStedman) September 25, 2019

  117. 117.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Mine as well.
    Some in this maladministration may be doing the right thing on their own or because they want not to be in on the legal shit when it hits the fan. Self immolation not usually known for having the best outcome.

  118. 118.

    piratedan

    @Adam L Silverman: well…. he IS a Republican, what seems wrong to the jackaltariat, y’know, like separating families seeking asylum, stealing money from other federal agencies to build a wall that couldn’t get approved in Congress and support for white nationalists, seems to be pretty much okee dokee to them, so perhaps they’re operating from a completely different “roster of ethics”…

  121. 121.

    patrick II

    I just saw on MSNBC that Warren has moved ahead of Biden in three new state polls. So maybe Trump has actually harmed Biden – – which may end up being the most pyrrhic political victory in American history.

  123. 123.

    frosty

    @Mary G: I *was* exhausted. Now I’m energized. This feels like when Watergate broke loose. I spent a year reading the comics page and throwing the rest of the paper away because I couldn’t bear it — much like the last 2 yrs. Once the hearings started and Dean, Butterfield, et al were in the news I read it front to back.

    I’m feeling very positive for the first time in a long while.

  124. 124.

    Ruckus

    Interesting email today. From the LA County registriar-recorder/county clerk.
    They are trying to make it easier to vote and to get more people to vote. Simply amazing. OK not so much in CA.
    They are having events around the county – a mock election showing all the ways to help get your vote in and counted – using, wait for it, paper ballots.
    Having voted in OH in 2000 and 2004 and standing in the rain for 4 hrs to vote in 2004 because of Ken fucking Blackwell, it is refreshing to live in a state that actually wants everyone to vote and makes it as easy as possible and as accessible as possible.

  126. 126.

    Kattails

    OK slightly OT but I did get to go to Elizabeth Warren’s town hall in NH this evening. Well attended, prob. not a record-breaker, but I’d gotten in early enough that I could actually sit down!
    Themes: she did come straight out for impeachment before anything else. Then gave homily about childhood, sick father, mom got minimum wage job which back then could actually support 3 people. She gave a shout-out to the union strikers. LOTS on support for teachers and elimination of student debt for higher education. Opening up opportunities for all. Some of this I’d heard online, but hearing her live made the mechanisms for working up Medicaid for All make more sense.
    Got the big cheers for teachers, impeachment, and saving democracy, which kind of surprised me. New Englanders are not much into demonstrativeness, so when you hear a real loud cheer you pay attention.
    Although a town hall, only got to 3 questions & 2 were around health insurance. She broke down how the excess wealth tax (i.e. the Stupid Money tax) could be allocated. Then went into Selfie Mode. The line formed instantly but too much chaos for me so I went shopping and then came back, got in line and waited for a mere 10-15 minute or so. Nice to be local. Anyway, I was very impressed by this whole selfie thing once I actually participated. Volunteers took your bags just before the steps and asked if your camera was ready. I’d watched from in back but she did really shake everyone’s hand and lots of hugs, then the helpers on stage took the pic and then you were off–it was disorienting for me so I can’t imagine how much more so for her. YET she made some kind of real contact in that minute or two. I’d watched her pat nearly everyone on the back as they left, meaning that although they needed to keep moving she had not actually dismissed them. As I stepped off the dais, she said something like “stay with it” and I tripped over my own tongue replying. Another young volunteer handed me back my handbag. Organization at that level this early?
    How the f*cking hell she manages to stay focussed on every single person in that line for however long just boggles me. This is a small town. Washington Square? Thousands of people? handshakes, smiles, FOUR HOURS?

  127. 127.

    lgerard

    Avoid the rush, get your tickets now!

    Trumpstock, an event set to take place in Kingman next month, will include elected officials as well as pundits and political hopefuls, some with controversial backgrounds, for the same singular purpose: supporting President Donald Trump.

    Marco “taco tricks on every corner” Gutierrez will be one of the featured speakers ( and one of the few I have ever heard of)

    It may be his last appearance before he shuffles off to that metaphorical upstate farm to join Joe the Plumber and Jeff Gannon.

  128. 128.

    frosty

    @joel hanes:

    do Trump, Barr and Ross. Mnuchin. And I want the duplicitous slugs at EPA and Interior too.

    What, no love for Kavanaugh? The judicial branch wants in on the action, too!

  131. 131.

    Sebastian

    @Mandalay:

    Until their own life is in danger.

    We have reached the stage where it will become clear who protected the country and who sold it out. When this is all over, dozens will end before the firing squad.

  134. 134.

    Redshift

    @Aleta:

    Trump, Giuliani, and Manafort: The Ukraine Scheme
    by Murray Waas in the NYRB daily blog

    Murray Waas is good for this. He used to cover the Mob. (I got to meet him at the first YearlyKos/Netroots Nation, where he regaled me with tales of the days when the convention hotel/casino was Mob-run.)

  138. 138.

    Miss Bianca

    @Frankensteinbeck: Shit, that’s what I’m wondering – how come Trump didn’t just immediately declare that this was “classified material”? Or can he only *declassify* at will, not classify at will?

  139. 139.

    frosty

    @Kattails:

    How the f*cking hell she manages to stay focussed on every single person in that line for however long just boggles me. This is a small town. Washington Square? Thousands of people? handshakes, smiles, FOUR HOURS?

    And here I’m thinking that my main argument against her is that she’s too old and the Presidency takes a lot of physical and mental effort …. OK then!

  140. 140.

    frosty

    @smike: Popcorn’s OK, a little high in carbs though, if you’re worried about that.

    If carbs are an issue but calories aren’t, Planter’s Mixed Nuts!! If both are an issue, I weep for you my friend.

  142. 142.

    Redshift

    In related news, this is how even in a local election, you hang Trump around the neck of the Gooper like millstone:

    At 17, I swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution as a new cadet at West Point. I take that oath seriously.

    That’s why today, like so many public servants here in our district, I’m fighting to protect our community and our values. That’s what service and leadership demand, but that’s not how my opponent Tim Hugo operates. Even as our president seeks the support of a foreign power in a US election, Tim Hugo not only remains silent, but actively assists his reelection effort.

    Our community deserves better. Our district deserves better. Our country deserves better. On November 5th, 2019, we will send a message.

    That’s an email yesterday from Dan Helmer, who’s running for the VA House of Delegates against a longtime Republican incumbent in a district that has turned blue.

  143. 143.

    frosty

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Good to have a live upclose confirmation. All I see is clips on the internet and they look pretty good to me.

    PS OT: Went to college in Claremont, my sophomore roommate was from Glendale, visited his folks, so I know I’ve at least crossed the border into your “70 suburbs in search of a city” town. :-)

  144. 144.

    Redshift

    @Miss Bianca: I suspect that classifying something requires following an actual procedure, and that’s too much of a bother for Trump and his immediate cronies (and the competent intelligence staff aren’t going to volunteer any help.) Also, just classifying it won’t keep it out of the hands of the intel committees.

  146. 146.

    smike

    @frosty:
    It seems like I’ve heard something about nuts + popcorn (and maybe some caramel, or something…)

    I like my popcorn with olive oil + nutritional yeast. I think I may have learned that from someone on this blog years ago. Whoever it was, thanks.

  148. 148.

    Mai naem mobile

    @Mike in NC: I want Trumpov impeached right at Christmas. This way all those FOX News watchers know for sure that the Dems indeed have declared war on Christmas. Also too, I get to see the whole Trumpov family look sad and defeated. Be Best!

  149. 149.

    joel hanes

    @smike:

    NICK: Why, that’s nothing but a two-bit ring from a Crackerback jox

    ROCOCO: I’ll sell it to you for five thousand dollars.

  150. 150.

    Sebastian

    @dmsilev:

    I wish I remembered but I just spent 45 minutes looking for my wallet, glasses, and phone. My memory is age appropriate to say the least.

    But making things easier, all I read is BJ, TPM Prime, and (please don’t judge me) Palmer Report plus all the usual peeps on Twitter. So it had to be in of those places.

  151. 151.

    Bruce K

    Would it be presumptuous to call the released call transcript the political equivalent of 3.6-roentgen dosimeter readings?

  155. 155.

    Bruce K

    @Sebastian: Sorry, I think I may have gotten too obscure. It’s a reference to the Chernobyl disaster: initially, the staff at the stricken reactor reported radiation readings of 3.6 roentgen per hour (probably derived from 1,000 milliroentgen per second), because that was the upper limit of the dosimeters they were using. They reported those readings up the line, and by the time the report reached the Politburo, everyone assumed that the numbers were accurate, describing a bad situation, not a catastrophic one. They were even discussing plans to get Reactor 4 back online and producing electricity by the end of the year.

    Then the army sent in trucks with better sensors, and got a reading that was four orders of magnitude worse.

    I might have overestimated how much the Chernobyl miniseries has penetrated popular culture. But the point is that the released transcript may have struck the GOP as “bad but survivable”, while the actual truth may be closer to “abandon ship, every man for himself”.

    (Another fun anecdote that didn’t make it into the miniseries: the general in charge of cleanup estimated that decontamination of the surroundings could take up to seven years. The number-two guy at the Politburo told him that if it wasn’t done in seven months, they’d throw the general out of the Communist Party. The general’s response was that in that case, they might as well take his Party card right then and there, because there was no way in hell to accomplish that task in that timeframe.)

    (The General wasn’t thrown out of the Party.)

  156. 156.

    VOR

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I think claiming Warren is too old would be a challenge for Trump since he is at least 3 years older. But someone younger on the Dem side could use that line of attack.

    But what do I know? They used it against Hillary who was two years younger than Trump.

  157. 157.

    Ken

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The delay will be having to strike the classification markings, redacting anything that should be redacted such as personally identifying information (PII), and then scanning the thing in and posting it as a pdf.

    I thought they’d streamlined that process to taking a photo with your unsecured cell phone and sending it to Twitter.

    (You may remember that from a few weeks ago, before it got pushed off the page by the twenty-three successively worse Trump scandals.)

  158. 158.

    dimmsdale

    @Kirk Spencer: I realize this thread is as dead as Ulysses S. Grant, but I completely agree with you. Dems control the pace and velocity of the impeachment hearings, as well as the scope. The scope needs to be as wide as there are crimes committed by this administration, and exactly as long as it takes WH/Republican criminals to get tired of delay and avoid, and SHOW UP.

    I will add that when a (hopefully, although way out over my skis on this) Dem Senate is elected, EVERY SINGLE ONE of the administration functionaries covered by the Presidential Records Act, who were charged with keeping their communications part of the public record, will be charged to the full extent of the law if they evaded the Act. Cabinet officers, lowly functionaries, I don’t care–these clowns are playing fast and loose with public institutions, as if they’re part of a cheap shabby local zoning bribery shop, and THEY NEED TO GO TO JAIL for evading the Act. That’s the only way such massive failures of the public trust get remedied. (‘forward not back’ my ASS.)

  160. 160.

    J R in WV

    @TaMara (HFG):

    My thoughts are similar. Drag this on, bring in everyone, smear and tar this MOFO with all his crimes. Get his taxes. Then vote on it just before or after summer break. It’s either so bad Senate will have to vote to impeach or look weak not impeaching. Just in time for public opinion to be fired up to get rid of them all. A girl can dream.

    Absolutely. They need to go deliberate and purposeful AND slowly, to build to a crescendo that comes near the election, perhaps mid to late September? in other words, about a year from now. Make it look really dangerous for Trump to be the only candidate in sight for the Republican party…

    They can get the knives sharpened and practice up that hard work with impeaching Barr and Wilbur Ross, who can go immediately. Ross is totally guilty of perjury and money laundering with his pet bank in Cyprus, an island famed for their non-existent banking regulatory structure. Much more, probably. They need to be hiring former FBI agents and treasury agents who work on human trafficking and money laundering…

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