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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Impeachment Inquiry Open Thread: Watching History in Real Time

Impeachment Inquiry Open Thread: Watching History in Real Time

by Anne Laurie|  November 17, 20191:39 am| 59 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Trumpery, Decline and Fall, Let A Thousand Watergates Bloom

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Don't think I have ever been on a flight when EVERYONE is watching the same thing (except long ago, when you had no choice) #ImpeachmentHearing #constanttraveler #friendlyskies #ambassadoryovanovitch pic.twitter.com/vzG5YHUu7M

— Georgiana Platt (@gianabanan) November 15, 2019

People on Twitter like to complain about Twitter, but today is one of those days where my feed is full of tweets that are giving me new information, helping me see things from a different perspective, and making me laugh.

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 15, 2019

"A fateful convergence of events Friday reflected a culture of corruption and intimidation endemic to the circle of a President who vowed to drain the swamp but instead became its incarnation." https://t.co/E2lULDIwYx

— Vicky Ward (@VickyPJWard) November 16, 2019

… Whether Americans ultimately come to believe that the President’s alleged misconduct merits the terrible sanction of removal or come to believe the Democratic impeachment attempt is narrowly political and unjustified, this was a clarifying day.
At a time of swirling misinformation, propagandistic pro-Trump news coverage and conspiracy theories, it showed that while facts may be under assault, they can ultimately still emerge in a way that will allow history to render a judgment even if the fractured political climate makes that it impossible in the moment.
Friday piled more testimony on the mountain of evidence suggesting that the US is in the grip of not just the most unorthodox, but the most corrupt presidency of the modern era.
The Stone and Yovanovitch dramas did not take place in isolation. They fit into a pattern of questionable behavior clouding Trump’s entire political career. The sheer weight of such evidence confounds his supporters’ claims that the real problem is that Democrats and the media are caught up in some kind of “Never Trump” mania that amounts to a coup.
This, after all, is a President who demanded misplaced personal loyalty from FBI chief James Comey, then fired him and said he did it because of the Russia investigation. Trump also repeatedly berated his first Attorney General Jeff Sessions for honoring an obligation to recuse himself from the Russia probe…

no idea how Americans will react to what we’ve all seen

but the most honest and objective way to describe it is this:

witnesses called by Dems, w/help from Trump himself, have powerfully reinforced the case for presidential misconduct

GOP has barely offered any defense at all

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) November 15, 2019

"President Donald Trump is dishonest about a whole lot of things. But he is rarely as comprehensively dishonest as he has been about his dealings with Ukraine and the impeachment inquiry they have triggered."

Impressive fact-check by @ddale8: https://t.co/kchCIXIhw9

— Vicky Ward (@VickyPJWard) November 16, 2019

We expect presidents to be extraordinary people, and assume that they also would be extraordinary criminals. But Trump is braindead street hustler who happened to inherit 200 million dollars. https://t.co/WoJlxrx5bH

— Every Chicken Sandwich Is A Policy Failure (@agraybee) November 15, 2019

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Reader Interactions

59Comments

  1. 1.

    West of the Rockies

    November 17, 2019 at 1:51 am

    Yet another big race goes Team Blue (Louisiana).  I’m feeling better about the chances of the bloated orange blob being a one-and-done president.  May humiliation, diminished pleasure, mounting pain and misery await him post 1/21/21.

     

    Thanks for the thead, AL.  I know the new format is challenging.  When I taught at the local community colleges, I had to learn 6 different online platforms in a 9 year span.  It was not fun.  (Web CT, Blackboard, Angel, Moodle 1, Noodle 2, Canvas.)

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    November 17, 2019 at 1:57 am

    @West of the Rockies

    Web CT, Blackboard, Angel, Moodle 1, Noodle 2, Canvas.

    Sounds as if it could be the seating chart for the dais at a rap convention.

    ;)

  3. 3.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    November 17, 2019 at 1:59 am

    GOP has barely offered any defense at all

    I’ve speculated below that this is because: 1) they can’t defend it because they know it’s indefensible, and 2) they’re holding out hope that the DOJ IG report on FISA “abuse” will upend the foundations of the Russia investigations that led to the Mueller Special Counsel investigation as well as derail impeachment proceedings

  4. 4.

    Keith P

    November 17, 2019 at 2:03 am

    @West of the Rockies: I’m still hoping the stress of the whole thing breaks him before then. Well, that and triglycerides.

     

  5. 5.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 17, 2019 at 2:11 am

    @West of the Rockies:

    When I taught at the local community colleges, I had to learn 6 different online platforms in a 9 year span.  It was not fun.

    But it’ll make life easier.  Hehehe

     

  6. 6.

    frosty

    November 17, 2019 at 2:17 am

    questionable behavior clouding Trump’s entire political career

    Fixed the original text.
    ETA: And it was easy! First time flipping between text and visual — I think I’m starting to fanboi about the site rebuild.

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    November 17, 2019 at 2:20 am

    @mrmoshpotato

    And usher in the (*snicker, guffaw*) paperless office.

    ;)

  8. 8.

    Raoul

    November 17, 2019 at 2:22 am

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Don’t recall now who of the wonks I follow who said it, but she mentioned that something like 45 days ago something happened in a closed session about that FISA issue, and ever since, the RW jackels have been mum. She posits the news will not favor them, but acknowledged she was just extrapolating.

    eta: Or something like that. It’s late, I should be asleep!

  9. 9.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 17, 2019 at 2:50 am

    @NotMax: Paper cuts are out.  Head wounds from slamming your head into your keyboard are in.

     

  10. 10.

    David ??Booooooo?? Koch

    November 17, 2019 at 2:57 am

    G. Elliott Morris

    ✔ @gelliottmorris

    Buttigieg’s rise, in Iowa and New Hampshire, has cost both Biden and Warren support. Punditry says he is a “moderate” alternative to the former, but his strength among educated white liberals is probably more threatening to Warren.

    The last Selzer poll (Gold Standard) was 2 months ago: it had Pete at 9% and Warren rising at 22%.  Now Pete has gained 16 points and Warren’s momentum has reversed and dropped 6 points.

    What this tells me is “educated liberals” are professionals (ie accountants, teachers, IT, engineers)  who are happy with their insurance and they don’t want to be forced out of it and into Medicare.   They want Medicare to be a voluntary option, not a mandate.   Warren’s embrace of a M4A mandate has become a deal breaker.

  11. 11.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    November 17, 2019 at 2:57 am

    News bubbling out that the trip was related to chest pain.

    i figure we’ll learn it was chest pain in 48 hours.

  12. 12.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    November 17, 2019 at 3:01 am

    @David ??Booooooo?? Koch:

     

    But M4A polls really well among Brooklyn baristas, white college students, and AOC’s primary electorate. What could possibly be wrong about decreeing it into place?

     

  13. 13.

    David ??Booooooo?? Koch

    November 17, 2019 at 3:03 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

     

    Word has it he was guzzling a cheese burger and a sausage pizza with extra cheese on his way to the ER.

     

  14. 14.

    Anne Laurie

    November 17, 2019 at 3:20 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I’m seeing a theory on twitter that ‘panic attacks’ can present as chest pain / possible heart attack… especially in men of Trump’s age & girth.

     

    Seems quite possible to me — especially since, after a certain candidate’s recent (not-panic-attack) ‘heart incident’, the Oval Office Occupant’s handlers are gonna be super-paranoid about chest ‘discomfort’, etc.

     

  15. 15.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    November 17, 2019 at 3:38 am

    @David ??Booooooo?? Koch:

     

    “With an extra layer of grease, ladled on top. And don’t forget the salt!”

     

  16. 16.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 17, 2019 at 3:39 am

    @Anne Laurie: What’s there to panic about?  Dump’s totally above board.  In fact, he created boards – no, trees.  And he was luxurious and classy at their creation!

     

  17. 17.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 17, 2019 at 3:41 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: “Beef.  Dipped.  No, not in the gravy – in the fry oil.”

     

  18. 18.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    November 17, 2019 at 3:43 am

    @Anne Laurie:

     

    Here’s hoping that his personal physicians are so misled by the outstanding physical condition that they’ve mistakenly announced that they miss the lead up to a massive MI,

     

  19. 19.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    November 17, 2019 at 3:46 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

     

    “And yes, I’m going to keep my ass planted on the couch, in a chair, on the toilet or wherever I can relax, watch TV and tweet about all the stuff that makes me mad.  Where’s my dessert? I want my fucking dessert.”

     

  20. 20.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 17, 2019 at 3:46 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Massive MI?

     

    A massive Michigan victory over Ohio State in two weeks?

     

  21. 21.

    Redshift

    November 17, 2019 at 3:46 am

    It really annoys me that people still reference that “drain the swamp” bit as if he actually meant it in the normal sense. It’s been perfectly obvious from the beginning that he meant “get rid of the people who stop us from doing whatever we want,” not rooting out corruption.

    He’s not lying when he boasts about having drained the swamp. Having anyone who tells him no fired, hollowing out the State Department, appointing a toady to the Justice Department, it’s all part of that.

  22. 22.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    November 17, 2019 at 3:54 am

    @West of the Rockies: Woke up to the news that Trump briefly went to the hospital yesterday (?) and then the D win in LA. Mr DAW said that was probably what sent Trump to the hospital.

     

    I’m in Casablanca. Eat your hearts out.

     

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 17, 2019 at 4:01 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

      myocardial infarction

  24. 24.

    David ??Booooooo?? Koch

    November 17, 2019 at 4:01 am

    They probably took him to the hospital to perform an angiogram.

     

  25. 25.

    Mary G

    November 17, 2019 at 4:03 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m shocked.

     

  26. 26.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 17, 2019 at 4:04 am

    @Redshift:

    It really annoys me that people still reference that “drain the swamp” bit as if he actually meant it in the normal sense. 

    *rubs two brain cells together*
    He’s nominating a bunch of bankers and other rich fucks for his Cabinet. Oh! ‘Drain the swamp’ was bullshit!

  27. 27.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    November 17, 2019 at 4:11 am

    @Mary G: About LA? Me too!

     

     

  28. 28.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 17, 2019 at 4:11 am

    @Mary G: Sit down for a second.  I have to tell you about the gambling at Cafe Americain.

     

  29. 29.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    November 17, 2019 at 4:14 am

    @mrmoshpotato: Oh that! That movie has so many memorable lines.

     

  30. 30.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 17, 2019 at 4:18 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Sounds like a reason to drop out of the race.

     

  31. 31.

    satby

    November 17, 2019 at 4:19 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: damn, that’s on my bucket list, so I am jealous just a tiny bit. Enjoy!

     

  32. 32.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 17, 2019 at 4:19 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I didn’t see 22.  Are you really in Morocco?

     

  33. 33.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    November 17, 2019 at 4:22 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I’m in Casablanca.

    Isn’t that in one of the shithole countries?

     

  34. 34.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    November 17, 2019 at 4:23 am

    @mrmoshpotato: Yes, I am. The cruise ship I’m on just docked. We’re here for the day. I’m sorry not to see more.

    ETA: Isn’t Trump in jail yet? I see Roger Stone was convicted.

  35. 35.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 17, 2019 at 4:23 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Cool.

     

  36. 36.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    November 17, 2019 at 4:24 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I believe it is.

     

  37. 37.

    John Revolta

    November 17, 2019 at 4:48 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Don’t gimme that. Casablanca is a made-up movie place, like Endor or Oz or something.

     

  38. 38.

    satby

    November 17, 2019 at 4:54 am

    Trying to decide if I should go back to bed for an hour or so. The oldest dog woke me at three to go out and because she had emptied her water bowl, but then the other two had to go out too, so that woke me totally up. I’m two coffees into my very early morning and just feel like snoozing anyway.

    But I probably won’t sleep ? because I had 5 hours of it. Gah!

  39. 39.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 17, 2019 at 5:05 am

    @satby: Try it.  Maybe you’ll like it.

     

  40. 40.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    November 17, 2019 at 5:19 am

    @John Revolta: Actually, there’s a Rick’s Cafe here but it was built to match the movie and milk the tourists. The movie was filmed in a constructed set in Hollywood. So it is sort of fake.

     

  41. 41.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 17, 2019 at 5:19 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

      It would be a face saver he could accept. “I totally would win any Senate trial but my Doctors say the strain of my responsibilities are having a detrimental effect on my health. Therefor I am resigning effective 5 PM today. President Pence has an announcement to make at 6 PM regarding Truth! Justice! and the American Way! ™ I will enjoy my well earned retirement in Mar a Lago untroubled by any drummed up criminal investigations. Thank You all very much, and God Bless Trum… I mean America.”

  42. 42.

    billcoop4

    November 17, 2019 at 5:22 am

    @West of the Rockies: 

    With Canvas being the only good one.

  43. 43.

    RandomMonster

    November 17, 2019 at 5:35 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I would gladly accept a Trump resignation, and even a Pence pardon. The state trials against Trump could continue apace, and make the rest if his years miserable.. And no worries about Pence winning an election, he has all the charm of a microbial mat.

     

  44. 44.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 17, 2019 at 5:37 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: P.S. I’m luxurious and tremendous!  My Daddy Vladdy, my lover Kim Jong Un, and Bonesaw Arabia all say so!  Not a Soviet shitpile mobster conman!  And not a crook!

     

  45. 45.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 17, 2019 at 5:39 am

    @RandomMonster: Way to dump on microbial mats.  You monster!

     

  46. 46.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    November 17, 2019 at 5:52 am

    I’m curious if the reason Anne Laurie is having fits over the editor is because the front pagers have been dumped onto Gutenberg. If so, there’s an easy fix.

     

    (Loathe Gutenberg myself. I found I could work with it if I thought of it as a clunkier implementation of Word’s “all formatting is on the paragraph level”. Loathe Word, too.)

  47. 47.

    RandomMonster

    November 17, 2019 at 6:05 am

    @mrmoshpotato: You are so right. Microbial mats are much more personable. I’m struggling to reach the appropriate metaphor. As likable as advanced toe fungus? Flesh-eating bacteria?

     

  48. 48.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 17, 2019 at 6:16 am

    @RandomMonster: Hehe not sure.

     

  49. 49.

    Ksmiami

    November 17, 2019 at 7:46 am

    @mrmoshpotato: myocardial infarction is I think what he was implying…

     

  50. 50.

    Bruce K

    November 17, 2019 at 8:01 am

    @RandomMonster: Perhaps a leaky Superfund site?

     

  51. 51.

    Uncle Cosmo

    November 17, 2019 at 8:16 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Next thing you’ll try to convince us you’re 5 feet tall & rode into town on an express train wearing a blue dress. Not falling for that one, nossir…:^p

     

  52. 52.

    Butter Emails

    November 17, 2019 at 9:16 am

    @David ??Booooooo?? Koch:

     

    The more likely explanation would be the unceasing attacks on Warren as both a far out leftist and neoliberal shill along with the continual fluffing of Buttigieg in the media that educated white liberals consume.

     

  53. 53.

    Warblewarble

    November 17, 2019 at 9:23 am

    Bouncing in the back seat asking is he in jail yet,IS HE IN JAIL YET>

  54. 54.

    H.E.Wolf

    November 17, 2019 at 9:41 am

    @West of the Rockies:

    Yet another big race goes Team Blue (Louisiana).

    PostcardsToVoters.org reported that 67,893 postcards went out under their auspices, written by almost 2,400 volunteer writers. (I wrote 10.)

    Voter turnout – as in KY and VA on Nov. 5th – was up significantly. FL postcards to get out the vote in 2020 are in progress for the next several months. Details can be found at

    These postcard efforts (there are lots of groups) remind me of the pink-hat project for the 2017 Women’s March… a harbinger of something big.

  55. 55.

    Jay C

    November 17, 2019 at 9:53 am

    @Redshift:

     

    It really annoys me that people still reference that “drain the swamp” bit as if he actually meant it in the normal sense. It’s been perfectly obvious from the beginning that he meant “get rid of the people who stop us from doing whatever we want,” not rooting out corruption.

    And unfortunately, it works with “the base” – who really are, in many senses of that word – an unswayable bloc whose notions of how a President should act seem to come entirely from TV thrillers: and whose principle political`motivation is “revenge” against their domestic “enemies”

     

  56. 56.

    Joey Maloney

    November 17, 2019 at 9:55 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Morocco is one of my favorite shithole countries. Casa is okay, but you gotta get up in the Atlas mountains, it’s just gorgeous.

     

  57. 57.

    H.E.Wolf

    November 17, 2019 at 10:54 am

    @H.E.Wolf:

    Oh drat. In my previous comment, I messed up the URL for Postcards To Voters.

    It’s PostcardsToVoters.org  (this is the cut-and-paste version).

    My favorite parts of postcard writing are the amazing variety of city names, and the vintage postage stamps available online.

    Also: the act of resistance.

  58. 58.

    Mary Ellen Sandahl

    November 17, 2019 at 11:13 am

    That panning shot of airplane screens all on the Hearing is a little jolting. Wish she had strolled along the aisle to see more. Too bad about the narrow fone-format – otherwise might have made a really telling banner image. On the order of Nancy SMASH Points the Finger of Doom.

  59. 59.

    Kattails

    November 17, 2019 at 11:32 am

    Re Trump’s hospital visit, I couldn’t help wondering last night whether Vladdy was getting a bit tired of his minion, finding him more of a liability than an asset at this point. I’m sure he could find a way to solve the “problem” if he really wanted to.

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