Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

This blog will pay for itself.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

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

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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Open Thread: SOMEBODY Is Not Having A Good Day

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113Comments

  7. 7.

    Jay C

    Hope the judges were worth it, Susan.

    Of course: She got to maintain her Official Republican Hack credentials in good standing!

    And only at the cost of a few “concerns”!

    And a “worry” or two!

    And, naturally, the physical toll of having to maintain a furrowed brow over all those concerns….

  8. 8.

    Jeffro

    C’mon, Dems, pick up on this: you’ve got him totally on the ropes, now start the drumbeat for “the only way out of this is removal or resignation.”  Remind the GOP that they still have 12(!) months until the election.

     

    I’d much rather see trumpov dragged all year and lose in a blowout, but frankly the GOP is going down in 2020 regardless and the man has the nuclear codes.  Push him to resign with ‘honor’ and ‘record X, Y, and Z’.  “He’s so awesome, he didn’t even need to finish his first term!  GREATEST EVAR!!1!”  Whatever, just get him out of there.

  10. 10.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @Roger Moore: Not confused :-). I saw your disagreement earlier, and responded to it.

     

    I don’t disagree with what you say – I just don’t agree that it rules out the possibility. Trump is *cunning*. He knows appearances. He’s not at all bright, but he’s not *stupid*. (Yes, he acts extremely stupidly, because he believes very stupid things. A bright person would realize the beliefs were stupid; he doesn’t. That’s why he *acts* stupid, but why I say he’s not actually stupid – just, not at all bright.)

     

    And he doesn’t want to go to jail – if he thinks that’s a real possibility, I don’t think there are any depths he won’t sink to. If he weren’t *directly* implicated, I’d agree, he’d throw *everyone* under the bus. But I’m betting he’s realizing he’s in the proverbial sheep dip.

  13. 13.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

     

    Given that Uber has multiple complaints from multiple women about drivers harassing them, driving them to remote locations, etc, it’s probably a CYA move, and yet another reason I use Lyft when necessary.

  14. 14.

    Rand Careaga

    We are informed by the White House that the short-fingered vulgarian stopped by Walter Reed last weekend on a lark, and that he remains, as his personal physician once attested (in a statement dictated by his patient) “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”

     

    This, of course, does not refer to his political health, which is looking the least bit parlous this week. And you know, I wonder whether the short-fingered vulgarian might want to steer clear of Deep State physicians as the GOP Senate caucus ponders its narrowing options, because at this rate impeachment in the House looks inevitable, and acquittal in the Senate, while certainly doable at McConnell’s fiat, is…eh…not necessarily a good look, you know? Perhaps “deceased” would play better than “disgraced?”

     

    I recall reading that it is possible for skilled medical personnel discreetly to administer an air embolism. There would be a state funeral, a lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda (gold-plated coffin), a spot in Arlington, funeral oration by President Pence. David Brooks and the other usual suspects in the punditocracy would exhort us to come together for a period of national healing, putting all the unpleasantness of the last three years behind us…I’m not really seeing a downside for the GOP here.

  16. 16.

    chopper

    Best they have is Trump isn’t so corrupt to have actually ordered extortion, he’s just corrupt enough for it to be easily believed he wanted to extort Ukraine, & he’s surrounded himself w people who assumed that’s what he wanted, & who followed what they thought was his order

    ah, the henry II defense. didn’t really work for him either.

  20. 20.

    Elizabelle

    Danny Heck’s comment to Sondland is marvelous.  Talking about what his family sought when they emigrated here.  About patriotism.

     

    And why doesn’t the same standard apply to Trump’s cronies (list of names).  And Trump.  Why is that?

  24. 24.

    trollhattan

    @Rand Careaga:

    I’d like his fate to be getting stuck in Taft’s bathtub and drowning, but I’m not picky at the end of the day.

     

    “How can I miss you when you won’t go away?”

     

    Merrick Garland can preside at the wake.

  26. 26.

    bluehill

    @Major Major Major Major: I’ve been in a lot of taxis that have had a small device that looks like a camera pointed towards me. I assume that they’ve been record

     

    @Roger Moore: I think some taxis have small cameras in them. I’ve been in a few. Assume they can record don’t know if they actually do or it’s more of a deterrent.

  27. 27.

    trollhattan

    @Mnemosyne:

    My spouse only uses Lyft but virtually every ride is somebody who drives for both companies. You’re only controlling who gets the money, not who the driver may be.

     

    I’m pissed Uber bought Jump, who provide all the e-bikes and half the e-scooters in town. I’d like to use them but won’t sign up with Uber. Sucks to be me.

  28. 28.

    gene108

    Gator MacLunkey, the judges are sooooooooooo worth it

     

    GOP maybe out of power for a couple of election cycles, but will come roaring back, as Democrats fail to deliver utopia to disaffected voters.

     

    Dem’s crushed Republicans in 1974. Won a close Presidential race, in 1976. Lost the Presidency and Senate by 1980.

     

    Those judges will be able to stop any Democratic plans, which are popular, for decades to come.

     

    A 35 year old Trump appointee can serve for 40-50 years. We won’t get rid of the Trump stink, with regards to judges, until sometime between 2060 and 2070.

  29. 29.

    Jay C

    @chopper:

    ah, the Henry II defense. didn’t really work for him either.

    Funny, I just saw a video clue on Jeopardy! last week featuring the penance of Henry II (kneeling shirtless at the altar in Canterbury while various monks beat him with sticks)*. That would do for Trump just fine, I’m thinking. Better, since they didn’t have television in 1172…

     

    * no one got it right

  32. 32.

    piratedan

    waiting for the end of this Guy Ritchie movie of an Administration where all the bad guys have shot each other dead with incriminating testimony and we’re sitting here in the bar wondering if we’re really in the clear after all of this shit has gone down…

  35. 35.

    Jay

    CNN: SONDLAND CONFIRMS TRUMP WANTED QUID PRO QUOMSNBC: SONDLAND TIES PENCE AND POMPEO TO EXTORTION SCHEMEFOX NEWS: HAVE YOU EVER TRIED TO KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN WHILE SNEEZING? IT’S IMPOSSIBLE— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) November 20, 2019

  37. 37.

    Martin

    Josh notes importantly that the ‘I want nothing, I want no quid pro quo’ conversation came the day after the WH learned that the whistleblower report would go public. So, that conversation was Trump preparing his defense. So, that whole line of inquiry will be shot down in time.

  38. 38.

    Roger Moore

    @Mnemosyne:

    The problem is that Uber is just compounding a bad situation.  Yes, they have a real problem with bad drivers, but recording people’s rides won’t fix it.  Instead, they’ll have a problem with bad drivers and a PR problem that they’re recording people surreptitiously.  What they need is a panic button in the app that starts A) alerts somebody back at HQ there’s a problem and B) starts sending information back to HQ so they can see what the problem is.  Knowing the feature is there will keep the drivers under control, but it needs to be under the control of the passenger, not under control of some algorithm at Uber.

  40. 40.

    Mnemosyne

    @trollhattan:

     

    Yeah, most drivers down here seem to drive for both. I don’t have a problem with that since Lyft seems to have *slightly* higher hiring standards.

  43. 43.

    bluehill

    @LongHairedWeirdo: Trump is a survivor who’s only cares about himself. What worries me more is that the traditional checks (i.e. Congress) are not working well or aren’t working at all. The somewhat sane repubs retired so the ones that are left are committed whether they want to be or not. Even if they recognize how unconstitutional Trump’s actions are, they already compromised whatever ethics and beliefs they had, so they might not see any way out other than following along to whatever end Trump is leading them to. Ride or die.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    @Roger Moore:

     

    Yeah it’s basically a totally useless PR move akin to PG&E randomly turning off customers’ power. It sure isn’t going to inspire me to use Uber.

  46. 46.

    Elizabelle

    Sondland:  I’ve been very forthright.

     

    Sean Patrick Maloney:  basically — paraphrasing:  this is your third attempt at getting it right though, right?  And that was a doozy of a statement this morning.

     

    Maloney’s been the most pugilistic of the Dem questioners (that I have seen).  I didn’t like it that much, because it was pretty much the browbeating the GOP does, and I think he could have toned it down.  He did get applause from the audience when he finally got Sondland to admit that investigating Biden would benefit Trump.

  48. 48.

    Mr. Kite

    It’s the new Business Intelligence Division at Uber. Record conversations in their cars, including phone calls, tag them with customer name and location, upload to the cloud and transcribe.

  50. 50.

    cwmoss

    @Roger Moore: Might have a problem with criminal wiretapping statutes too. Some states make it a crime to record in-person conversations without consent of all participants

  51. 51.

    Yutsano

    @Mnemosyne: I used a couple of Lyft drivers when I was in the Midwest. I found them much more pleasurable than Uber. Not to mention Lyft has better rates. Deleting Uber now…

  56. 56.

    Doug R

    @Jay C: Funny, I just saw a video clue on Jeopardy! last week featuring the penance of Henry II (kneeling shirtless at the altar in Canterbury while various monks beat him with sticks)*. That would do for Trump just fine, I’m thinking. Better, since they didn’t have television in 1172…

    That would have been appropriate for Bill Clinton, but trump’s done actual crimes.

  57. 57.

    ThresherK

    @different-church-lady: Porky was a hotel guest. Daffy was the desk manager who had all the “solutions”, which ended with sending up a mouse to get rid of the elephant.

     

    Sooooo, who is the Daffy in this scenario?

  58. 58.

    AxelFoley

    Can I just say that I REALLY love the new website.

     

    Watergirl and Alain, you two did a freakin bang up job. I tip my hat to you, milady and good sir.

  60. 60.

    Shalimar

    Drudge started posting negative headlines about Trump after the El Paso Walmart shootings in August.  His antipathy is not new.

  61. 61.

    Elizabelle

    Sondland is getting punchy, and relaxing more.  It’s been a long day.  I suspect he’s relieved to have this mostly done.

  67. 67.

    Doug R

    @Roger Moore:

    The problem is that Uber is just compounding a bad situation.  Yes, they have a real problem with bad drivers, but recording people’s rides won’t fix it.  Instead, they’ll have a problem with bad drivers and a PR problem that they’re recording people surreptitiously.  What they need is a panic button in the app that starts A) alerts somebody back at HQ there’s a problem and B) starts sending information back to HQ so they can see what the problem is.  Knowing the feature is there will keep the drivers under control, but it needs to be under the control of the passenger, not under control of some algorithm at Uber.

    You do realize that this is the same company that disabled Volvo’s safety features on the Uber “self-driving” Volvo that struck and killed that pedestrian pushing their bike across the road.

    Volvo’s own testing showed that in 15 out of 17 scenarios their car would have stopped in time, and the other 2 scenarios it would have been travelling at less than 10 mph.

  68. 68.

    JWR

    Boy, that Devin guy sure can spin a (conspiracy laden) yarn, can’t he? The bad part is that this guy actually believes a lot of his own bullcrap.

  69. 69.

    germy

    @NotMax:

    Nunes is wearing a suit jacket that was instant visual shorthand for gangster in movies of yore.

    It’s a silent shout-out to his good friend Roger Stone.

  70. 70.

    Roger Moore

    @cwmoss:

    Might have a problem with criminal wiretapping statutes too.

    I have a good guess about how they’ll deal with that.  They can basically impose accepting rides being recorded as a condition of driving for/being driven by them.  They can pretty easily impose it on their drivers as a condition of driving for them*, and for passengers they can bury it in the fine print of their user agreement.

     

    *But the drivers are totally still independent contractors, not Uber employees!

  71. 71.

    Raoul

    I still give this low probability (but that it is non-zero is bad): Pence, Pompeo etc are end-times freaks. Trump is cornered and in a spiraling panic. And has ‘the button’ for our nukes.

    It really wouldn’t take that much instability in the Middle East, exacerbated by idiot moves like this admin keeps making, for a major ‘go boom’ moment. At which point we find out if the whole dame place is just a giant doomsday cult.

  75. 75.

    Roger Moore

    @Doug R:

    You do realize that this is the same company that disabled Volvo’s safety features on the Uber “self-driving” Volvo that struck and killed that pedestrian pushing their bike across the road.

    I didn’t say Uber wouldn’t continue doing as the idiots in charge there see fit.  They are obviously convinced of their own genius to the point they are unwilling to accept anyone else’s opinion of their actions.  I’m just saying this is an incredibly stupid approach to things.

  76. 76.

    trollhattan

    @Doug R:

    We didn’t even know our Volvo had that system, until the windshield was replaced with a 3rd party one that somehow screwed with the pedestrian avoidance system and started randomly activating. AAAKKK!

    I’m here to testify, it works. (after glass re-replacement.)

    Stupid Uber

  78. 78.

    David ??Booooooo?? Koch

     

     

    Russians/Dump Brown Shirts trashing Sondland’s hotels on Yelp with one-star reviews.

  80. 80.

    Ksmiami

    @gene108: any judges appointed under this criminal need to be ousted- the entire gop edifice in government needs to be purged root and branch – call it the 2020 anti corruption act

  82. 82.

    Aleta

    I’ve appreciated the thought that went into the website navigation design, so fast and easy to use today while concentrating on a bunch of other things at once. Slick.

  83. 83.

    Roger Moore

    @sukabi:

    rather than recording all rides they could actually vet all drivers.

    But vetting drivers costs money! That might make them unprofitable lose even more money than they already are.

  89. 89.

    Sab

    Yuck. My hometown newspaper, which used to be the flagship paper for Knight, just sold itself to Gannett.

     

    I guess  I should be grateful that we still have a paper. Bu I am not. Our free wwekly is still okay.

  92. 92.

    Immanentize

    @piratedan:
    Now the town of Jersey City is quieting down again
    I’m sitting in a gambling club called the Lion’s Den
    The TV set was blown up, every bit of it is gone
    Ever since the nightly news showed that the Monkey Man was on
    I guess I’ll go to Florida and get myself some sun
    There ain’t no more opportunity here, everything’s been done
    Sometimes I think of Tweeter, sometimes I think of Jan
    Sometimes I don’t think about nothing but the Monkey Man

  93. 93.

    David ??Booooooo?? Koch

    The questions at tonight’s debate better focus on today’s bombshells.   We can discuss policy on another night.

  94. 94.

    Jay C

    @Aleta:

    Sondland is such an arrogant piece of smarm.

    True; and I think Schiff and his crew have done an inspired job of dealing with him in this hearing. It’s the classic way of dealing with a shifty weasel of a witness: measured, respectful on-point questioning at the start to get the preferred testimony on the record: but then finish with a thorough reaming by a hard-ass to make the point of the guy’s shifty-weaselness.

     

    And well, it WAS the Republicans who wanted, nay demanded that all this stuff be right out in public….

  95. 95.

    germy

    And now CBS News goes directly to the republicans to let them air their talking points.

     

    They really want repubs to have the last word.  (they’re talking a mile a minute)

  96. 96.

    Sab

    @lamh36: I think Harris’s problem is she is everyone’s strong number two, but that doesn’t make her number one.

     

    I am a Warren supporter, but I do really like Harris.

     

    There have been zero primaries yet. Hang in there.

  97. 97.

    Aleta

    @Jay C: Him laughing when one of the underlying subjects is the threat to Ukraine security sums up the attitude of the whole bunch.

  102. 102.

    Another Scott

    @gene108:

    It’s bad, but not hopeless. Repost – Brookings from December 2018:

    Despite the 29 circuit appointments, Trump and company have only modestly changed the party-of-appointing-president balance on the court of appeals. Of Trump’s 29 circuit appointments, 19 replaced Republican appointees. Of the 16 current and announced vacancies, 9 were created by Republican appointees.

    To be sure, Table 1 shows that when all current vacancies are filled (and were no more to occur), Republican appointees would comprise 54 percent of all active circuit judges, up from 44 percent on Inauguration Day. But only one court of appeals, that of the Third Circuit, will have changed from a Democratic to a Republican-appointee majority, although there will be noticeably more Republican appointees on the Second, Ninth, and Eleventh circuits’ courts. Mainly, though, the Trump circuit appointments have strengthened Republican-appointee majorities on four courts that already had such majorities—those of the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth circuits.

    […]

    Given these patterns, and given the current environment and president, Democratic appointees seem unlikely to create many vacancies voluntarily over the next 18 months, and if they don’t, the party-of-appointing-president balance that Trump and his allies have achieved in his first two years may not look much different at the end of four years, and look similar to the 100-Republican-appointee majority that Obama inherited in 2009. Republican appointees may leave active status, but not at the pace of the last two years, limiting Trump’s ability to continue staffing the appellate courts with highly conservative appointees.

    HTH.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  104. 104.

    Mr. Mack

    Apologies if this has been addressed, but I’ve noticed that in every opening statement, Nunes refers to Burisma funneling money into Hunter Bidens’ domestic account.  Is that a (crooked) way to say he was paid?  I mean, Vanderbilt routinely funnels money into our domestic bank account, every two weeks in fact.  Yet, this is never cleared up?  I get that if the committee slaps that down, it is giving the assertion oxygen, but it’s such a slimy insinuation.

  107. 107.

    trollhattan

    @Sab:

    That’s like being kept on life support just in case Cheney needs another heart.

    Sorry!

    Our dead tree paper just announced they’re ending Saturday delivery. Drip, drip, drip.

  108. 108.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mr. Kite:

    Record conversations in their cars, including phone calls, tag them with customer name and location, upload to the cloud and transcribe.

    4. Profit!

    I wish that definitely was a joke but you just wait.

  109. 109.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Betty Cracker: Must be viewed several times. Heck, the “who benefits part,” while possibly more important to impeachment, is actually eclipsed by the “let’s be really clear about what it took to get it outa ya” finale.

     

    Sizziling.

     

    Might one dare to call it — pizzaz?

  110. 110.

    Another Scott

    I got curious and decided to look and see if Donnie’s handwriting has gotten substantially worse since his recent unscheduled visit to the hospital.

    It looks quite similar to his screed against KAJ in 2017.

    (Yeah, it’s scrunched at the top right margin. Yeah, he can’t spell Zelenskyy. But the penmanship hasn’t changed much at all to these eyes.)

    So, I’m guessing if he had a “stroke”, it didn’t affect that part of his brain.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  111. 111.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @bluehill: it’s an interesting thing, too.

     

    I’ve been told (so, this is, at best, secondary source) that when Hitler’s Final Solution was revealed, nearly everyone in the room was horrified and shocked.

     

    Except – they’d all taken actions that led to this precise point. At this point, every single one of them realized that if they went home and said “I did X_and_such, which, clearly, obviously, and objectively led to *this*, but I never *intended* it to come to this…” even their most trusted family member would be looking at them like a kid with a chocolate frosting-smeared face insisting someone else ate the last piece of cake. Except, you know, in horror.

     

    And it’s not unlike the Milgram experiment. That experiment was horribly unethical… but I can’t deny that I’m glad we *know* that people will do stupid, ugly things they know damn well aren’t right, for stupid reasons.

     

    And this is why people who give a damn at all about doing the right thing have to stop every once in a while, and *think*. Ain’t been none of that on the GOP side since 2016 at a minimum.

     

    But you’re right – they’re *all* aiding, abetting, and helping to cover it up, because they’re riding the tiger, and have to hope like hell they can stay on.

  112. 112.

    Elizabelle

    @LongHairedWeirdo:   That’s a really interesting comment.

     

    Although, the “shocked and horrified” could have been the Nazis trying to salvage their reputations post-war.  Apparently Albert Speer was the most successful in that aspect.

    But yes, there was likely a continuum and several may not have realized their actions were leading to that.

  113. 113.

    J R in WV

    @trollhattan:

     

    Find myself agreeing with a pack-the-court strategy, however remote the odds of doing so. That, and impeaching Kavanaugh.

     

    I don’t want to impeach Kavanaugh, I want to indict him for multiple rape counts.

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