Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Republicans in disarray!

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Come on, man.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

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

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Optimism opens the door to great things.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

This blog will pay for itself.

“woke” is the new caravan.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

You are here: Home / Politics / Impeachment Inquiry / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: The Tang of Terror

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: The Tang of Terror

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(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)
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From the Washington Post, paper of record for the company town where the monopoly industry is natioanl politics:

House Democrats said Monday that the House will vote Thursday to formalize procedures for the next phase of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Democrats said the move would “ensure transparency and provide a clear path forward” as the inquiry continues.

The White House responded by taking a swipe at Democrats. Press secretary Stephanie Grisham accused them of “conducting an unauthorized impeachment proceeding” and declined to comment fully until the text of the resolution is released.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), meanwhile, said that a former deputy national security adviser had “no basis in law” to skip a deposition Monday and that his failure to appear was further evidence of Trump’s efforts to obstruct Congress…

Elsewhere in the Post, “‘It feels like a horror movie’: Republicans feel anxious and adrift defending Trump”:

Republican senators are lost and adrift as the impeachment inquiry enters its second month, navigating the grave threat to President Trump largely in the dark, frustrated by the absence of a credible case to defend his conduct and anxious about the historic reckoning that probably awaits them.

Recent days have delivered the most damaging testimony yet about Trump and his advisers commandeering Ukraine policy for the president’s personal political goals, which his allies on Capitol Hill sought to undermine by storming the deposition room and condemning the inquiry as secretive and corrupt.

Those theatrics belie the deepening unease many Republicans now say they feel — particularly those in the Senate who are dreading having to weigh their conscience against their political calculations in deciding whether to convict or acquit Trump should the Democratic-controlled House impeach the president.

In hushed conversations over the past week, GOP senators lamented that the fast-expanding probe is fraying their party, which remains completely in Trump’s grip. They voiced exasperation at the expectation that they defend the president against the troublesome picture that has been painted, with neither convincing arguments from the White House nor confidence that something worse won’t soon be discovered…

For Republicans, the political conundrum is a problem of their own making, argued William A. Galston, a senior fellow in governance at the Brookings Institution. “They normalized a president whose conduct they are now being asked to judge as so abnormal as to warrant his removal from office,” he said.

“To the extent that they quietly harbor conscientious objections to what the president is doing — or, even more spectacularly, how he’s doing it — they have to weigh the calling of conscience against political considerations,” Galston added. “There’s a reason why ‘Profiles in Courage’ is a very short book. Courage is not the norm. It’s the exception.”…

(This longish read is particularly worth a click; the details are schadenfreude-licious.)

Obvious conclusion: BOO HARDER, everybody!

(Jim Morin via GoComics.com)
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Reader Interactions

156Comments

  4. 4.

    Bruce K

    I don’t know if the GOP’s plight is so much a horror movie as a re-enactment of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus (not Goethe’s Faust, and definitely not The Devil and Daniel Webster); they made the bargain with Mephistopheles when they decided on the Southern Strategy, and now Old Scratch has come to collect his due and they’re trying to find some way out.

    Not like they didn’t have their chances to back out, either. They certainly could have rejected Trump before it was too late.

  5. 5.

    Sloane Ranger

    I’m confused. For the last couple of weeks the Republicans have been complaining about the secrecy and lack of transparency of the investigation and saying the whole House should be involved. Now that the whole House will have an opportunity to be involved they are saying that this is unfair and wrong.

    Have I got this right?

    In our own Constitutional crisis, the House of Commons failed to reach the necessary 3/4 majority to trigger a General Election on 12 December but the Government will be bringing a motion to the House today to amend the Fixed Term Parliament Act to allow for an election on 12 December. Motion to go through all its legislative stages today. This may pass. All it needs is a simple majority and Lib Dems and SNP may support it.

  6. 6.

    Bruce K

    @Sloane Ranger: It’s a variation on Cleek’s Law; the GOP position is that whatever Democrats are doing today is wrong; updated daily. And if you ever wanted a contemporary example of doublethink, there you go.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I’m guessing Lt. Colonel Vindman still intends to testify today. Right? This Guardian article seems to imply he may have changed his plans with statements such as,

    Vindman’s planned opening testimony, describing what he felt was a shocking swerve of US policy toward Ukraine, was published late Monday by CNN and excerpted by the New York Times.

    The excerpts indicate that Vindman, who planned to testify in defiance of a White House gag order, was prepared to corroborate previous, damning testimony that the Trump administration mounted a campaign to pressure Ukraine into announcing an investigation of Joe Biden, in exchange for military aid and a possible White House visit.

    And

    Vindman, a Ukrainian-American immigrant and the current European affairs director at the national security council, planned to indicate in his testimony that he raised an internal alarm about the shadow US policy toward Ukraine. His opening statement suggested that he might have been one of the White House sources for a whistleblower report that kicked off the impeachment inquiry.

    As in “he planned to indicate but has now changed his mind” not “he plans to indicate”.

    Just sloppy writing, right?

  14. 14.

    different-church-lady

    It’s as if Trump was trying to prove he’s a barbarian with that announcement.

  15. 15.

    tokyokie

    @OzarkHillbilly: As a former longtime newspaper copy editor, I’d say that the hedging language was added because the statement hasn’t been delivered by Vindman yet. The way it’s written covers his testifying or not testifying. Were it in simple future tense, and he decided not to testify for some reason, then the story would be inaccurate.

  16. 16.

    msb

    “There’s a reason why ‘Profiles in Courage’ is a very short book.”
    And today’s Rs aren’t going to make it any longer. I should call my Congresscritter and urge him to vote yes on Thursday (he won’t).

  17. 17.

    David ??Booooooo?? Koch

    I ❤️ Nancy Pelosi.

    The repuks have been demanding open hearings so she’s gonna make them own it with a vote.

  18. 18.

    Mary G

    Politico reports Republicans in disarray!

    0/28/2019 09:56 PM EDT
    TALLAHASSEE — The Republican Party of Florida on Monday postponed its biggest annual fundraiser, a move that some officials blamed on lackluster interest from donors.

    Planners were having difficulty selling table sponsorships to the Statesman’s Dinner, and money that Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged to raise for the event has yet to arrive. Event planners also couldn’t land a keynote speaker for the dinner, which was scheduled for Nov. 9 in Orlando.

    Bwah ha ha ha ha, sad!

  22. 22.

    Barbara

    @OzarkHillbilly: Not sloppy writing, rather, unsloppy writing. Another way to write it is that he is scheduled to testify. Nothing is certain until actually happens.

  23. 23.

    debbie

    It was disconcerting listening just now to NPR’s reporting of Trump’s designs on Syrian oil fields.

  24. 24.

    trnc

    It was disconcerting listening just now to NPR’s reporting of Trump’s designs on Syrian oil fields.

    Did they treat it as a disturbing story, or was it disconcerting despite them putting a shiny glow on it? I’ve been half expecting NPR to find a few DT fans to interview from the baseball game.

  25. 25.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Aleta: You’re welcome. When I first processed that shot(actually 81 shots) though the image stacking program, I got star trails. I eventually found that one shot had the trails, I think that one shot recorded an aftershock of the Ridgecrest quake(I checked the USGS earthquake site and there was a 2.0 quake while I was shooting).

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Sad, necessary, but still sad:

    Little Bay Islands is the kind of place where you can leave your doors unlocked, go on vacation for three weeks and return to a perfectly undisturbed home. The owner of the only store in town keeps irregular hours, and in his absence leaves a container with coins and wrinkled bills on the counter. Residents take what they need and make their own change.

    The tiny island community in Canada’s easternmost province, Newfoundland and Labrador, is home to 54 year-round residents, and more in the summertime. Most families have been here for generations, subsisting on the once-booming fishing industry.

    But on 31 December, electricity and water will be switched off and ferry service discontinued. Little Bay Islands is the latest isolated village to agree to resettle on the mainland as part of the province’s community relocation policy, which offers government compensation to people who leave remote areas.
    ……………………………….
    Ted Grimes has lived all of his 70-odd years on Little Bay Islands. His parents and grandparents did too. But in early 2019, he – and everyone else – voted to resettle the community: he didn’t want to be abandoned along with the island.

    “I don’t really want to leave, no. But I had no other choice,” said Grimes in a reluctant phone interview.

    Instead, he will use his government cheque to resettle in a cottage in the town of Lewisporte (population 3,400), leaving behind a lifetime’s worth of mementos on the island. “The sentimental stuff, you take. Some of the stuff the kids and the grandkids gave us, you can’t throw it out,” said Grimes. “It’s gut-wrenching.”

    The town’s decline began in earnest in 1992 with the cod moratorium. To manage dwindling Atlantic cod stocks, the federal government plunged 30,000-plus people across the province into unemployment overnight.

    Little Bay Islands stuck it out longer than most by switching to snow crabs, but that industry eventually closed down too, back in 2009. Soon, only elderly people remained. The store shuttered, as did the school in 2018 after two consecutive years with no students.
    …………………………..
    By New Year’s Day, Mike and Georgina Parsons – and their dog – will be the only permanent residents of Little Bay Islands. At 53 and 44 respectively, they are the island’s youngest full-time residents. They moved to the community a few years back, attracted to the idea of living off the grid in Mike’s hometown, and have spent the last couple of years preparing for a life of solitude on the edge of the Atlantic.

    As winter draws near residents have been slowly filing out, each weekend bringing more farewells. At least half the numbers in the phone directory have been disconnected. Many residents intend to return to their homes in the summers, but for others this may be goodbye.

    Watching his parents and other residents pack up and go is tough, said Parsons. “In spite of the fact that 100% of the permanent residents here voted to leave, I know that to actually do it, to pack up their things and leave, is just heartbreaking.”

    When everyone is gone, he and Georgina will rely on solar panels, a freshwater well, stockpiled food, a satellite connection and other off-grid features to live their secluded life on the edge of the Atlantic. There will be a few weeks each winter where Arctic ice chokes the bay, making it impossible to cross over to the mainland. Then, they will be completely cut off, left alone to witness the town’s fiery sunrises and the dead silence of starry winter nights.

    Not for everybody, but it sounds like heaven to me.

  32. 32.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Not for everybody, but it sounds like heaven to me.

    me too. My natural inclination is to be an introvert. Long stretches of solitude with stars at night and gorgeous sunrises sound wonderful. But I’m more than a decade older than Mike and age has some considerations too.

  35. 35.

    satby

    @different-church-lady: people are free to stay there, they just have to live off the grid. From the article:

    the province compared service delivery with paying each household between $250,000 and $270,000 to leave. It estimated it could save $20m over 20 years by resettling the community.

    Seems a reasonable trade-off for both the townspeople and the taxpayers, since the fishing industry that was the town’s source of jobs is gone.

  36. 36.

    Waldo

    Those theatrics belie the deepening unease many Republicans now say they feel — particularly those in the Senate who are dreading having to weigh their conscience against their political calculations …

    This made me lol. It’s ALL political calculations with these f*ckers. Always.

  38. 38.

    frosty

    @debbie: For me it’s not Colbert, but John Oliver. I can’t commit to watching late night every night but once a week is manageable.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby:

    age has some considerations too.

    Yeah it does, which I’m sure is why the vote was 100%. Living where we do is probably the best compromise for us, and even at that I suppose I could have died before I made it to the hospital when I got aspirated pneumonia.

    @different-church-lady:

    Two-thirds of Canada’s 37.5 million inhabitants live within 100 kilometres of the country’s southern border with the US, a horizontal strip of land that constitutes just 4% of Canada’s territory. Rural and remote areas in the rest of the country have long struggled to access services like healthcare, utilities and the internet.

    I suspect it will be going on for a long time to come.

  42. 42.

    Jeffro

    @Mary G: They can’t land a keynote speaker for a Nov 9th dinner? It’s Oct 29th!! Why, it’s almost as if they…have no real support, other than Koch/Russian money and a few rabid mouthpieces.

  45. 45.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: I was talking to a very dear 40+ year friend yesterday. The topic was whether I should relocate my purchased space at the market because so far my location has been disappointing. I said it probably wasn’t worth the huge effort when right now I expect to retire fully next year, and she pointed out that a year is now 1/6-1/15th or so of my expected lifespan, not a piddly timeframe that I should just endure. She’s right too.
    Much as I would love the adventure of living on an isolated Atlantic island, I would spend my last seconds of life in deep regret if a survivable heart attack took me because I was too far from medical help.

  46. 46.

    Another Scott

    @debbie: I was half asleep listening to it, but I did like that they had an expert on saying that “seizing the oil” was totally illegal under international law (but it slightly more diplomatic language). Actual news was there in the story, but listeners had to dig for it much more than they should have.

    NPR as an organization is still pretty good (they’re much more than ME and ATC), but they really need to stop normalizing Donnie and his minions. And they need to instruct their news people and politics reporting people that laughing at what they’re doing is not appropriate. Yes, I’m looking at you Ailsa Chang. Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  47. 47.

    Jeffro

    @debbie: His “TAKETHEOIL!” Schtick is easily one of the top two or three ‘ranty-old-drunk-at-the-bar’ bits. I mean, seriously my fellow Americans, isn’t that where you’ve heard this nonsense before? Beyond dumb.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: I said something like that on a different issue the other day. There are of course, other issues that get in the way, like would Canada even be willing to accept Floridians?

  49. 49.

    Another Scott

    @OzarkHillbilly: Speaking of… Twitter:

    HumanScumHat @Popehat

    Ukranian 1: ANYONE ELSE YOU WANT CALL? HERE IS MY CELL PHONE. YOU CALL INTERPOL?

    Giuliani: please please it was .. they were mistakes

    Ukranian 2: YOU ARE WORSE CRIMINAL WE EVER MEET, AND WE LIVED IN FLORIDA

    FBI Agent On Speaker Phone: guys guys stop shouting it’s kinda echo-y

    12:26 PM – 25 Oct 2019

    That will never grow old. :-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  50. 50.

    Patricia Kayden

    … "But he hasn't got anything on," a little child said.The punditocracy roared, loudly, so as to demonstrate their respectability."Even if you abhor the emperor's new clothes, you must respect the office!" one said."This child is an affront to civility!" cried another.— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) October 28, 2019

  52. 52.

    Aleta

    @OzarkHillbilly: Same.
    Sounds like in summer there may be a ferry? Privatized, and/or boats not big enough for cars perhaps.

    I’ve seen on a couple of islands how the understanding of a place changes when the full timers and the older people who grew up connected to the coves/tide patterns/community aren’t around. And the service people for vacationers are seasonal for the jobs instead of year-rounders. The older communities were a little like ecosystems because of depending on interdependence. The story telling was great, I guess because there was time, and conversation was a main entertainment. Parallels to here sometimes.

  53. 53.

    Ken

    @Jeffro:

    They can’t land a keynote speaker for a Nov 9th dinner? It’s Oct 29th!

    In fairness, they have in deference to Trump adopted his style of planning, i.e. not planning.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    Kate Brannen
    @K8brannen
    · 10h
    Ambassador Sondland testified that neither Fiona Hill, nor John Bolton nor anyone else on the NSC staff ever raised any misgivings about what was going on

    Directly contradicted by Vindman. That’s a bold lie Sondland told. These people understand how this works, right? They call them in separately and depose them because then they can’t get their stories straight with the other witnesses. That’s the point of it. It’s not a “trick” or a “trap”. It is the fact-finding process.

    The witness order has been good though. When they’re called is important. Schiff does a good job. You want the big shot “celebrity” Trump liar prior to the earnest low profile public servant.

  55. 55.

    SFAW

    @Waldo:

    This made me lol. It’s ALL political calculations with these f*ckers. Always.

    Outside of Mitt “What Am I This Week? Pro-Trump or Anti-Trump?” Romney, that is

  56. 56.

    PPCLI

    @different-church-lady: Newfoundland and Labrador is a very poor province, there were a lot of those tiny outport towns with no work for anyone and many of them remain, and they are incredibly expensive for the province to support. People have the option of staying, the province is just ceasing to subsidize them, and it is paying extremely generous compensation to anyone who wishes to leave.

  58. 58.

    Another Scott

    In other news, the slow boil in Iraq is continuing… Al Jazeera:

    […]

    An Iraqi government committee investigating the first wave of demonstrations, which took place during the first week of October, found 149 civilians were killed because security forces used excessive force and live-fire to quell protests.

    Its report, which said more than 70 percent of the deaths were caused by shots to the head or chest, held senior military commanders responsible but stopped short of blaming the prime minister and other top officials, saying there had been no order to shoot.

    Meanwhile, Shia religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr on Monday called on Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to announce early parliamentary elections overseen by the United Nations and without the participation of existing political parties.

    Scores killed as Iraq forces clash with protesters

    Al-Sadr’s bloc, which came first in a 2018 election and helped bring the prime minister’s fragile coalition government to power, said on Saturday it was going into opposition until the demands of protesters were met.

    On Monday, Iraq’s parliament voted to dissolve the provincial councils, cancel the extra privileges for top officials, and summon Abdul Mahdi for questioning.

    Abdul Mahdi has proposed a laundry list of reforms, including hiring drives, increased pensions and promises to root out corruption.

    President Barham Salih has also held discussions with the UN on electoral reform and amendments to the 2005 constitution, but the moves have not appeased protesters.

    In solidarity with demonstrators, four MPs resigned late on Sunday.

    (Emphasis added.)

    The Iraqi people have legitimate grievances that must be addressed. But I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Daesh-types were trying to increase the violence, or reports of violence, to make compromise impossible.

    Things are far from over as a result of W’s stupid, stupid decision… And Donnie’s plans to “break the international order” continue to advance. Grrr…

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  60. 60.

    Jeffro

    Fox News sure is going all in on the crazy – they’re running segments insinuating that Vindland (a US Army officer!) is actually a Ukrainian double agent. Seriously!

    GOP putting its Reps out on the other news shows trying out the same ‘spin’. What vile, vile people. But I guess this is what happens when your candidate has already mocked American POWs and Gold Star families.

  61. 61.

    Jeffro

    Btw I’ll link to it later but Michael Gerson – who I normally couldn’t give two flips about – is done trying to warn or turn around American evangelicals. His piece in the WaPo today really lets them have it.

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Chances are most of us are well informed on this issue, but if not and you want to get your rage on :The fight to stop Nestlé from taking America’s water to sell in plastic bottles

    The network of clear streams comprising California’s Strawberry Creek run down the side of a steep, rocky mountain in a national forest two hours east of Los Angeles. Last year Nestlé siphoned 45m gallons of pristine spring water from the creek and bottled it under the Arrowhead Water label.

    Though it’s on federal land, the Swiss bottled water giant paid the US Forest Service and state practically nothing, and it profited handsomely: Nestlé Waters’ 2018 worldwide sales exceeded $7.8bn.

    Conservationists say some creek beds in the area are now bone dry and once-gushing springs are reduced to mere trickles. The Forest Service recently determined Nestlé’s activities left Strawberry Creek “impaired” while “the current water extraction is drying up surface water resources”.

    Meanwhile, the state is investigating whether Nestlé is illegally drawing from Strawberry Creek and in 2017 advised it to “immediately cease any unauthorized diversions”. Still, a year later, the Forest Service approved a new five-year permit that allows Nestlé to continue using federal land to extract water, a decision critics say defies common sense.

    Strawberry Creek is emblematic of the intense, complex water fights playing out around the nation between Nestlé, grassroots opposition, and government officials. At stake is control of the nation’s freshwater supply and billions in profits as Nestlé bottles America’s water then sells it back in plastic bottles. Those in opposition, like author and nutritionist Amanda Frye, increasingly view Nestlé as a corporate villain motivated by “greed”.

    …………………………

    “The argument that there should be some flowing stream bed [in upper Strawberry Creek] – we don’t necessarily believe that and that’s what we’re testing for,” Lawrence said.

    Ultimately, the debates’ particulars lead back to a question at the heart of issue: Should water be commodified and sold by private industry, or is it a basic human right?

    Former Nestlé CEO and chairman Peter Brabeck labeled the latter viewpoint “extreme” and called water a “grocery product” that should “have a market value”. He later amended that, arguing 25 liters of water daily is a “human right”, but water used to fill a pool or wash a car shouldn’t be free. At its current pace, the world will run out of freshwater before oil, Brabeck said, and he suggests privatization is the answer.

    While conservationists agree that pool water could be subjected to fees, Nisha Swinton, senior organizer at the Food and Water Watch environmental group, says the public – not a company that “has to appease their stockholders and make money on privatizing water” – should be responsible for that.

    “This is not an issue for a multinational corporation to have control over – this is an issue for the public to hang on to and protect as their own,” she said.

    There is also some explanation of the complexities of applicable laws. And then there is this:

    Nestlé is now fighting a lawsuit that alleges it is selling what is technically groundwater, which is different than spring water, and generally less desirable.

    Head? Meet desk. A spring is groundwater that has been forced to the surface thru cracks in the subsurface geology by water pressure. The only difference is one is under the sun and the other isn’t. Well, that and spring water is quite likely to contain fecal matter and have *dead decaying animals* in it. The rest is pure marketing.

    ** I once surveyed a cave with a spring on private land that the landowner used as a water source. Several hundred feet upstream of his pipe we found a dead deer, probably dragged in by a bear. the bear was thankfully not in residence. we debated whether or not we should tell the landowner. I think we did.

  67. 67.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Aleta:

    The older communities were a little like ecosystems because of depending on interdependence.

    That’s a good way to put it. I think the ferry service is being discontinued after the last goes. The Parsons will have to keep their boat up to snuff and any summertimers will need to make their own arrangements.

  68. 68.

    PPCLI

    @Kay: It’s frustrating to see journalists repeat the lazy line that Sondland “broke with Trump”. The testimony was very calculated, as was the document that the Republicans and journalist stenographers keep referring to as a “transcript”. The conspirators as a group figured out what bits it was impossible not to have come out one way or another. They would admit to the least damaging possible versions of those things they couldn’t hope to keep a lid on forever, and then argue that the acts were innocuous, or at least not impeachable offenses. Obviously, the admitting the true quid pro quo “begin investigation specifically of Joe and Hunter Biden, announced explicitly in a CNN interview, along with support resurrecting the Seth Rich conspiracy etc. in exchange for releasing military aid and other forms of support” was a non-starter. They seem to have settled on the line that the pressure was for a general investigation of corruption, not specifically Biden, and that the quid pro quo was the offer of a meeting with the president, not the release of military aid and other forms of assistance.

    Sondland’s testimony was meant to support that line, while not admitting to anything else. Happily, it is falling apart.

  69. 69.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Agreed. They’ve managed it well. Trump really did self-impeach. Amazing. And all of Congress knew about the aid being withheld so Pelosi knew and she knew why. For months.

    She has been the single most effective person re: Trump. In some profound way she has his number. I’m so grateful for what “held”. The institutions and people who didn’t collapse. I’m sad that IMO the DOJ was one of the weaker entities. I didn’t know that. The institutions and entities who fail in this were weak going in. They failed to serve their purpose when it counted. They shouldn’t be respected. They haven’t earned the reputation they enjoy. It was a gift they were handed earned by others and they pissed it away. They blew thru their inheritance.

  70. 70.

    SFAW

    @Jeffro:

    Fox News sure is going all in on the crazy – they’re running segments insinuating that Vindland (a US Army officer!) is actually a Ukrainian double agent. Seriously!

    If I’m correctly understanding a relevant Cole tweet — which I might not, of course — it looks like the key person pushing that idea is war criminal John Yoo.

  71. 71.

    Kathleen

    @Waldo: I responded to that article in the Post by saying, “Republicans” and “conscience” in the same sentence? Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!” (H/T rikyrah)

  72. 72.

    RAVEN

    @OzarkHillbilly: Ever see THE WIDOW OF SAINT-PIERRE?

    A man gets drunk and commits a senseless murder. He is condemned to death by guillotine. But in the 1850s on a small French fishing island off the coast of Newfoundland, there is no guillotine, and no executioner. The guillotine can be shipped from the French island colony of Guadeloupe. But the island will have to find its own executioner, because superstitious ships’ captains refuse to allow one on board.

  73. 73.

    SFAW

    @David ??Booooooo?? Koch:

    The repuks have been demanding open hearings so she’s gonna make them own it with a vote.

    But they wanted the hearings to be open a month ago, so now it’s TOO LATE, and all previous hearings (i.e., behind closed doors) were all just lies spewed by enemies of Dear Leader. So no impeachment, no impeachment, the Dems are the impeachment.

    Also, glad to see you finally changed the “Merry Christmas.” After, what, two years?

  74. 74.

    PPCLI

    @SFAW: Indeed. He explicitly used the word “espionage”. This is a professor of law at a prestigious law school.

    Vindland received a Purple Heart for injuries suffered from an IED in Iraq. I wonder if the Republicans on the committee will break out their Purple Heart bandaids from storage.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Single biggest disappointment on the political side for me is Schumer. Jesus but did he collapse before the mighty power of Donald Trump. Single biggest disappointment on the non-political entity side for me is the DOJ. They’re useless. In some cases they’ve been an active impediment to justice and law enforcement. It shocks and saddens me.

    We had a corrupt prosecutor one county east of here for years. They’re elected and he kept getting re-elected until the state bar pulled his ticket. But you think of these federal people – or I do- as not on that low level and it turns out they are. The jobs are really prestigious and the top jobs are almost a guarantee of lucrative private sector work when they leave government. But they’re low quality hacks. That shocks me.

  77. 77.

    Raven

    It’s pouring here and supposed to all day and tomorrow. Looks like yesterday was a good day to pick to go offshore. I was a good trip and I landed a “just undersized” amberjack and some other stuff I couldn’t keep but I did catch enough for a few meals and it was an affable group. One guy had an electric reel which was a little annoying until O learned that he had a plate in his wrist and couldn’t fish without it. Gotta be careful judging!

  78. 78.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    She has been the single most effective person re: Trump.

    Yeah, she’s done a pretty good job, the “not moving fast enough” crowd notwithstanding.

    I’m half-expecting he’ll be starting with “Lock her up!” at his rallies at some point in the not-too-distant future

  80. 80.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Perhaps naively, I keep hoping DoJ employees will come forward to talk to Congress about the horrendous abuses of power they’ve witnessed, but so far, there’s nothing. Maybe people have and complaints are wending their way through the system. I sure hope so. Absent that, and assuming we survive this unprecedented assault on our democracy, the next administration is going to have to take that organization apart brick by brick.

  84. 84.

    Gelfling 545

    @tokyokie: Perhaps but there are better ways to deal with the uncertainty. Is expected to testify or is scheduled to testify come to mind.

  85. 85.

    Raven

    @Betty Cracker: 30a but I went offshore out of Destin twice. It’s been really rough fishing on the first boat and in the surf but I do love it. We had a plumbing issue that cost us a day but our hosts/friends were cool and let us stay a couple of extra days. It’s funny, apparently I made the plans to stay withouh telling my bride because, when I got back last night, she was all packed up. It looks like the best we’ll get on this last day is a trip to Panama City antique stores and maybe a drive to see how the hurricane repairs are coming.

  87. 87.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @OzarkHillbilly: In many areas, the laws are different for surface water and groundwater. The “desirability” is marketing, but the lawsuit might be a trap to create a shift in legal status.

  89. 89.

    Betty Cracker

    @Raven: Destin is one of the prettiest beaches in FL, IMO. I guess those storms are headed toward the peninsula, and I hear it’ll cool off briefly once they pass. Had to shut the windows and turn the A/C on this morning, it was so damned muggy!

  93. 93.

    geg6

    @satby:

    Hmmmm, I’m a major introvert, too. But I prefer to take refuge in the anonymity of crowds. Preferably (and where I hope to finally return to when I retire) an urban crowd. I love a city!

  95. 95.

    RAVEN

    @Betty Cracker: 30 a is better but they are doing their level best to wreck it. Seaside is where they filmed the Truman Show and it’s exploded here since then. We rent a funky old house that was a BOQ at Eglin that they moved here in the 80’s. If you want to read an interesting book about the area I suggest

    The Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera, An Insider’s History of the Florida-Alabama Coast
    I read it and dug up Hardy’s email and wrote him how much I enjoyed it. We ended up having coffee and shooting the shit and he was great fun. Did his doc in history at UGA but taught at Jacksonville State and is an, blech, Auburn fan. You know how those SEC rivalries are even if we have been relegated to to BJ dustbin by the whiners!

  96. 96.

    Matt

    they have to weigh the calling of conscience against political considerations

    Protip: if they’re still “weighing” this, it’s because they don’t have a conscience.

  97. 97.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Lived in St John’s Nfld 76-77 while now ex was on sabbatical at the U there. A beautiful province with a fascinating history. But oh so isolated!

  100. 100.

    Betty Cracker

    @RAVEN: Cool! That book sounds like something I would enjoy and also my aunt who loves the old Redneck Riviera — gift idea! You’re not a drinker, so maybe you haven’t been to the Florabama since it was rebuilt? Sad to see what they’ve done to it. Just another boring tourist trap now.

  102. 102.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Jeffro:

    is actually a Ukrainian double agent

    Well, he came to this country when he was three years old, so it’s clearly the deepest of deep cover operations, planned out by the nefarious Ukrainians for that time 40 years hence when America chooses to elect an ignorant racist buffoon as President. Let’s see, who was the leader of Ukraine then? One Leonid Brezhnev, because Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union in 1979 – my head is starting to hurt. How does this work again?

  103. 103.

    Kay

    @PPCLI:

    It’s frustrating to see journalists repeat the lazy line that Sondland “broke with Trump”. The testimony was very calculated,

    I agree that it’s frustrating but I don’t think the testimony was calculated. Unless you mean “poorly and clumsily calculated”

    He told a flat-out lie in a sworn statement although he must have known they were calling other people after him. A frequent flier in a county criminal court would know better than that. He can’t be new to depositions. He has a hotel company.

    They think they’re untouchable, and can you blame them?

    Erik Prince, of the DeVos plutocrat clan, was referred to DOJ for lying to Congress 6 months ago. They have done nothing.

    Kushner’s advice to Trump was basically ignore the impeachment- no one will enforce anything. Now, that was probably bad advice but that’s what he believes. These people are completely convinced they’re above the law. Why?

  104. 104.

    p.a.

    @Jeffro: If drumpf survives this, the Rethugs won’t be his party (puppets come and go); they will be Rupert’s party lock, stock… Ahh, but they are already, correct?

    Given what the Murdochs have accomplished and are trying to accomplish in the English speaking world, I wonder if there are Russian connections? How far back? SovUn days?

  108. 108.

    Aleta

    National Review
    CNN Is Not So Different from Breitbart

    Charles P. Pierce @CharlesPPierce
    Charles P. Pierce Retweeted National Review

    Lemonade is not so different from antifreeze.

  109. 109.

    NotMax

    @Kay

    See: Leona “Taxes are for the little people” Helmsley.

    The bozos driving this bus make Charles R. Forbes look restrained and sedate.

  110. 110.

    p.a.

    @Gin & Tonic: Taibbi once wrote about Rethugs: they’ll swallow anything as long as it gives them a demon to fight. Fred Clark has written extensively, and more generally, about this mindset that has to set up (straw) villains to soothe the ego; make their mundane selves virtuous by comparison.

  112. 112.

    geg6

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    That’s what homes and libraries are for.

    I hate the emptiness of rural and semi-rural suburban areas (which is where I am stuck living right now). And the people, to be honest. All Trumpian assholes in those places. At least here in PA, my state from which I do not plan to move. I was never so happy as when I lived in the city and it still makes me happy just to be there when I can get into town. I really want to retire there. My life would be heavenly just not having to own a car. That, in itself, would make it worth it.

  115. 115.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    These people are completely convinced they’re above the law. Why?

    Because they’re rich, and rich people by and large are above the law. August Busch IV has a whole section of his Wiki page entitled Legal troubles including such gems as

    Accident resulting in death of Michele Frederick (1983)
    Car Chase (1985)
    Death of Adrienne Nicole Martin (2010)
    Helicopter Incident

    That last one is a laugher. Maybe he really was sober. Maybe not. But when somebody decides a strip mall parking lot is a helipad on a whim, you gotta think about revoking their license to fly at the very least.

  116. 116.

    Immanentize

    I’m waiting at the Docs to see if my first blood pressure medicine is helping. But I take it in the morning! (At least thanks to this crew, I know to ask that question)

  117. 117.

    geg6

    @Kay:

    Kushner’s advice to Trump was basically ignore the impeachment- no one will enforce anything. Now, that was probably bad advice but that’s what he believes. These people are completely convinced they’re above the law.

    Just read an article (on TPM? or New York mag?) that says it’s Jared who is running the inside the WH impeachment response. Seriously. Apparently, he’s telling the Repubs and staff that there is nothing to any of this and they should not worry at all.

    I really want him in prison. He’s so banally evil.

  118. 118.

    Gin & Tonic

    @p.a.:

    make their mundane selves virtuous by comparison.

    Unfortunately you see this all too often. The American-born on some level can’t understand the mindset of an immigrant being more of a patriot of their adopted country. Vindman certainly has no memory of the Soviet Union, and if his parents fled from there (this was at a time when small numbers of Jews were being let out, via Israel) they would have no particular fondness for the old country. They’d have spoken Ukrainian and/or Russian in the home, because that’s what immigrants do, but Vindman joined the Army, served in-theater, was wounded, worked his way up to Lt. Colonel, obviously has had the highest possible security clearances, I mean, WTF? Maybe he’s just a patriot in a way that Laura Ingraham is incapable of understanding.

  119. 119.

    PST

    Say what you will about the New York Times, it often carries unique stories that are devastating about Trump. I presume his supporters won’t notice or care, but this story goes into great detail about how Trump nearly derailed the al-Baghdadi mission with his sudden, erratic betrayal of the Kurds.

    When the international manhunt for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, zoomed in on a village in northwestern Syria, the United States turned to its local allies to help track the world’s most-wanted terrorist.

    The American allies, a Kurdish-led force that had partnered with the United States to fight ISIS, sent spies to watch his isolated villa. To confirm it was him, they stole a pair of Mr. al-Baghdadi’s underwear — long, white boxers — and obtained a blood sample, both for DNA testing, the force’s commander, Mazlum Abdi, said in a phone interview on Monday.

    American officials would not discuss the specific intelligence provided by the Kurds, but said that their role in finding Mr. al-Baghdadi was essential — more so than all other countries combined, as one put it — contradicting President Trump’s assertion over the weekend that the United States “got very little help.”

    Yet even as the Syrian Kurdish fighters were risking their lives in the hunt that led to Mr. al-Baghdadi’s death this weekend, Mr. Trump abruptly shattered America’s five-year partnership with them.

    He decided to withdraw American troops from northern Syria, leaving the Kurds suddenly vulnerable to an invasion by Turkey and feeling stung by an American betrayal, and throwing the Baghdadi operation into turmoil as the Kurds suspended their security cooperation with the United States to rush off and defend their land.

  120. 120.

    Immanentize

    @geg6:
    Just a side note on cars. My mother never drove. Ever. Just walked or took a bus if she needed to get someplace. So when my Dad died, she sold his car and has had no payments, repairs or insurance cost which has made her Social Security sufficient.

  123. 123.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Aleta:
    In 76-77 Memorial U in St John’s had one of the very few undergrad through PhD FolkLore depts in NoAmerica because of the large number of isolated outports where ancient songs and stories were still a vibrant part of local life.

    The yr we were there I talked to U students who hadn’t seen a car or a TV program until they left their outpost for the U

    Professional folklorists loved the opportunity to study the culture.

  124. 124.

    RAVEN

    @Immanentize: It was interesting. We got to shootin the shit when he revealed his injury. I then got to go through my litany of injuries and the dude said,”man, I’m really impressed the way you are hanging in there at your age!My grandpa was really old when he was 70″! Not much I could say cept “thanks”!

  125. 125.

    PPCLI

    @Kay:

    Unless you mean “poorly and clumsily calculated”

    Yep. That’s exactly what I mean. These guys are morons who are in way over their head. But my point was that Sondland was following a roadmap worked out by Deadbeat Donald and his grifter/lawyers, not freelancing to save himself.

    ETA: He may well have felt untouchable because there was a wink/nudge guarantee of a pardon, or he believed Trump would win another term and the DOJ could stonewall until the statute of limitations ran out, or he was wildly overestimating his ability to bluff his way out of the situation, or…

  126. 126.

    The Dangerman

    @Jeffro:

    Fox News sure is going all in on the crazy – they’re running segments insinuating that Vindland (a US Army officer!) is actually a Ukrainian double agent.

    Insane. He’s actually a space alien.

  127. 127.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @p.a.: Probably moose.

    @geg6: Libraries are full of people, no silence there. And homes have refrigerators and freezers with the most annoying of hums. ;-) There is no silence like a winter’s night. But I get where you are coming from. There are times when I feel the need to get back to the city, just to see a face in a different shade than the one I see in the mirror, if nothing else. I was at my son’s the other day and we discussed what we should have for lunch. A wealth of choices. I remarked to my son that I miss having that. But sometimes, after a few hours it begins pressing in on me and I feel the urge to scream and I have to get back to our quiet little corner of the Ozarks.

    I lived in the city for the first 40+ years of my life and liked it. Than a small town for another 10 that wasn’t so enjoyable. Now here. Here, I die.

  128. 128.

    rikyrah

    This is one of the best explanations that I found at another blog, as to why so many in the MSM got the vapors about Dolt45 being booed:

    GOVCHRIS1988

    You know what, I’ve been thinking about the reaction from a lot of these white pundits to Trump getting booed and I see a connection with the Sevier County, Tennessee commissioner. Baseball is called, “America’s Pastime” for a reason. It is probably the only sport that is white dominated. Sure, there are Black players and Latino players, but mostly its a white sport dominated by white people. It is also very conservative. Hell, Bush owned a team. And the World Series is something ardent fans of baseball go to. I mean, these folks put away money just in case their team gets to the World Series.

    When Trump got booed like that by their own, they can’t deny that its just Liberals or Democrats or the Deep State. These are voters that Trump needs in his corner come November 2020 for reelection. And they booed him at a World Series game. I think these pundits, even if they have disdain for Trump and saw not just rejection of Trump, but rejection of them.

    Trump is the embodiment of a Mad Men type white man. A white man, who is in a job that he has NO qualifications to be in, shouldn’t be rich, shouldn’t be free (muthafucka should have been in jail years ago) who has gotten away with more shit than anyone and has the confidence of a 10 inch dicked, 6 foot 4, buff handsome God for NO reason other than he’s white. He is their avatar. Their sign that they are still in charge. It disturbs them how hated he is. Yeah, he’s brash, he’s rude, he’s crude, narcissistic, egotistical, racist, sexist, homophobic, just plain ugly, but he’s white. The whiteness should trump all of that, and they are shocked it doesn’t.

    I also think like Trump, they hate and are obsessed with how beloved the Obamas are. They are beloved the world over. It disturbs them totally how Barack Obama outshines his predecessor and successor. It disturbs them how he moved Bill Clinton away from being the Democratic golden boy to just a former president. It disturbs them how he is able to just teflon off their hate and shine brighter.

    The hate and disdain of Trump is of course Trump’s fault. He never tried to moderate himself or control his negative base instincts. But, to white America, its also a sign that they as an institution are being rejected. Think about it. The chart toppers are mostly black and people of color, or they are written and produced by black and people of color, or they have guested black and people of color on their singles. The style world is now interested more and utilizing black or people of color. More models are being used that are dark skinned, with kinky hair than light brite and using wigs that are white centered. We dominate sports, and the sports we don’t dominate are an afterthought. We are breaking into more lead roles on film and television, centered on us. We are now the love interests, not the sidekicks. We are becoming more bosses and CEO’s and Chairmen of the Board of companies. Shit is changing from where it was and white men are freaking the fuck out. Its why you get this nonsense now.

  129. 129.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Sloane Ranger: As soon as I heard the statement from Pelosi that the next phase would be open hearings, I predicted in these pages that the same Republicans would be screaming about why open hearings were a terrible thing and we needed to close them. Not that hypocrisy and making up the “principles” as they go along is that hard to predict.

    Now explain the General Election to me. I can’t remember whether BoJo was trying to prevent that or encourage it. I do remember that whether or not an election happened before Brexit was a big deal, but I can’t remember for which side.

  131. 131.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Aleta: I love a winter snowfall, especially at night. Just the softest of hisses and if there is a full moon, the clouds glow.

  135. 135.

    moonbat

    @Betty Cracker: Forgive if this has already been pointed out, but it was pretty clear that the DOJ was being made into an agency in service to the Republican Party under Bush II. Only some of the political appointees he put in there were outed after the scandal broke. The rest remained and just rotted the agency from the inside.

  138. 138.

    Amir Khalid

    @geg6:

    Just read an article (on TPM? or New York mag?) that says it’s Jared who is running the inside the WH impeachment response.

    His father-in-law considers Jared supremely competent and up to any task. And I think Nancy Pelosi too would say, Jared is exactly who she would want in charge of the White House impeachment response.

  139. 139.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Raven:
    My ex is the fisherman. He caught a lot of fish, but exactly what I don’t know.

    He fished a lot the 2 summers we were at summer institutes in Aspen. After our divorce he did a sabbatical in New Zealand partly because of the fishing opportunities

  140. 140.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: I went through one back in the 80s. Dumped 18-24″ on the STL area. The city just flat shut down, after about a week there was a trickle of life again. Took a full 2 weeks before there was anything even close to normal.

  141. 141.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Gin & Tonic:
    How did you end up doing that? Sounds like you’ve got an interesting tale there.

    Did you gather blueberries? The fabulous blueberries growing wild were one of the best parts of living there.

  142. 142.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Single biggest disappointment on the non-political entity side for me is the DOJ. They’re useless. In some cases they’ve been an active impediment to justice and law enforcement. It shocks and saddens me.

    Why does it shock you, Kay?
    If you knew Barr’s history, this should have been obvious.
    There were so many in the MSM who were desperate for a ‘regular Republican’, that they glossed over that the muthaphucka wrote a nineteen page cover letter for the job.
    And, all that was in his background that they glossed over, but, those that I look to to review nominees told me exactly who Barr was, and nothing they said about him turned out to be false. It was all true.

    The part of White Supremacy on the part of the MSM, in their continued desperation to normalize Dolt45. They keep on searching for ‘regular Republicans’.

  143. 143.

    Kathleen O'Neill

    @Immanentize: I’m 70 and live in the heart of the city with access to bus line (I’m still working and will be till the day I die) but I have been flirting with the idea of getting rid of my car. Still not sold on the idea but thought persists. Your story triggered that thought. Thanks!

  144. 144.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Ladyraxterinok: I wanted to see the sunrise from Cape Spear. Nobody told me that it was almost never visible because of the fog. Yes, I ate lots and lots of wild blueberries.

    The trip across the interior was a pretty miserable slog. Then I wanted to get up to L’Anse aux Meadows, but the road was gravel at that time, from just north of Gros Morne, so that was a non-starter.

    Not my best trip.

  145. 145.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Aleta:
    The U has quite an archive holding I believe. I think there was maybe a way student papers done as projects in dept courses were preserved.

  149. 149.

    bemused

    @p.a.:

    Trump supporters love their fantasy of trump. The more despicable he is, the more they adore him because, imo, they wish they could do all the hideous things trump does and suffer no consequences.

  150. 150.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    The witness order has been good though. When they’re called is important. Schiff does a good job.

    This is when having a former prosecutor as head of the Committee helps :)

  151. 151.

    hueyplong

    @rikyrah: Kay can speak for herself, but my take on her comment is that she thought the DOJ wouldn’t be such a pliant tool in Barr’s hands.

    Very possible that I am simply reading her words to confirm to my own thoughts

  152. 152.

    Ruckus

    @Bruce K:
    Double think?
    Having trouble understanding that there is any thinking going on in the republican party. They are just screaming out every time they bang their heads against the wall they’ve built around themselves. Their “leader” isn’t, doesn’t, can’t lead, he just stumbles around, screaming the world hates the great him, while he’s actually a self inflicted, wounded 73 yr old bigot with the mentality of an obnoxious, idiotic 5 yr old bigot, with political instincts to match.

  153. 153.

    Immanentize

    @NotMax:
    Hi there!

    The project goes well. The Immp pointed out that it was a fine metaphor for him — where caffeine intersects with nerd culture

  156. 156.

    JAFD

    @geg6: I don’t own a car. But:
    I live within walking distance of ‘ethnic’ supermarket, with good bread, fruits, veggies; close to several bus lines with connections to doctors’ office, RR station, hobby shop, library, NYC, other suprmarkets
    but
    times when you want to attend weekend events in suburbs, find yourself checking watch for ‘last train/bus that’ll get me home’
    or find that that’s the ‘bus home for workers from XYZ Mall’, is sardinepacked
    or want to stock up on spaghetti sauce, or other ‘stuf in glass jars and bottles’
    or need to get ‘home furnishings’ home from store, or maybe returned.

    Is good to have account with rentacar company. Maybe even worth it to have AMEX card that includes ‘additional rental insurance’. IMAO, is best to deal either with Enterprise (less expensive) or Hertz (they’re used to dealing with unusual situations), YMMV

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