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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

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… 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…

Reader Interactions

59Comments

  1. 1.

    West of the Rockies

    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.)

  3. 3.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    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

  6. 6.

    frosty

    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.

  8. 8.

    Raoul

    @??? 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!

  10. 10.

    David ??Booooooo?? Koch

    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

    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

    @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?

     

  14. 14.

    Anne Laurie

    @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.

     

  16. 16.

    mrmoshpotato

    @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!

     

  18. 18.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @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

    @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.”

     

  21. 21.

    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.

    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.

  26. 26.

    mrmoshpotato

    @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!

  38. 38.

    satby

    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!

  41. 41.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @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.”

  43. 43.

    RandomMonster

    @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

    @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!

     

  46. 46.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    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

    @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?

     

  52. 52.

    Butter Emails

    @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.

     

  54. 54.

    H.E.Wolf

    @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

    @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”

     

  57. 57.

    H.E.Wolf

    @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

    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

    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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