Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

People are complicated. Love is not.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

The revolution will be supervised.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

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

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Impeachment Inquiry Open Thread: Today’s Takeaways

Impeachment Inquiry Open Thread: Today’s Takeaways

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  1. 1.

    PVDMichael

    let’s all thank Speaker Pelosi for getting a continuing resolution out of Trump with increased funding for Census prep… granted, the resolution only buys a month…

  3. 3.

    Joe Falco

    I helped make a caramel cake from scratch tonight, and the kitchen smells wonderful from the caramel frosting. A night well spent.

     

    Oh yeah, impeach the stooge!

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    Schiff and his team have done as good a job as we could have wished. The Republicans’ refusal to break from Trump is on them, not on any failure or limitations of what Schiff has done.

  5. 5.

    Amir Khalid

    I don’t know what the short term ramifications will be, but Adam Schiff over the past two weeks has laid out a case against this president that will stand the test of history and will damn every Republican who votes to keep him in office.

    I don’t know that Republicans in the US Senate fear damnation more than they fear The Wrath of Trump.

  6. 6.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Amir Khalid:  Fackin’ GrOPers are all atheists.  How do I know?  B/c they have literally no fear of eternal damnation for their sins.  None at all.  And they know they’ve sinned greatly.

  7. 7.

    Sebastian

    I still think this will come full circle with Russia 2016. Once the modus operandi is clearly established beyond any doubt, all the other actions like Wikipedia and DNC emails, Trump Tower meeting, Mayflower Hotel, RNC platform change, etc will be seen in completely different light.

    What is missing here is the clear evidence of Putin’s hand behind all this. Once it becomes clear that he is behind this, the GOP Senators will suddenly be in a very difficult situation.

    This is far from over. But it might just be the beginning of the end.

  8. 8.

    Jay

    The crimes don’t take a day off, do they?

    As part of a coordinated effort that undermined the freedom of the press, the U.S. government tracked, detained, and interrogated journalists who were reporting on conditions at the U.S.-Mexico border. Now, we’re suing on their behalf to defend their First Amendment rights.

    Together with the New York Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, we’re representing five photojournalists who traveled to Mexico in late 2018 and early 2019 to document the experiences of people traveling by caravan towards the U.S.-Mexico border. Their photographs were subsequently published by news outlets such as The New York Times and The Intercept.

    On multiple separate occasions, border officers detained each journalist as they sought to return to the U.S. They interrogated the journalists about their coverage of the caravans of people traveling, and asked them about their observations of conditions at the U.S.-Mexico border, including in shelters. A couple of the journalists were also presented with a book of headshots and asked to identify people they recognized. Some of the journalists were forced to disclose the photographs they had taken in Mexico to border officers, and one officer captured some of these photos with a cell phone.

    The interrogations and searches were part of a concerted government effort. A secret government database leaked to the public in March 2019 revealed that the five journalists were specifically targeted as part of a broad group of people including lawyers, a pastor, and immigration advocates working at the southern border. Reporting on the database also revealed that the U.S. government coordinated with Mexican authorities to monitor these individuals.

    https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/the-u-s-government-tracked-detained-and-interrogated-journalists-were-suing/

  9. 9.

    frosty

    @Sebastian: But it might just be the beginning of the end.

    Or, as Churchill said, “The end of the beginning.” I’m confident we’re that far along. In late September I was getting the same feeling as the summer of ’73 when the wheels came off the cart in Watergate. At this point, I feel like the cart’s dragging on the ground, all the baggage has spilled everywhere, and the mules are looking at the driver with an eyeroll that says “WTF?”

  10. 10.

    StringOnAStick

    I’m looking forward to other house committee investigations being broadcast live from the capital.  The more weeks this goes on , the more he tweets himself into additional impeachment articles.  The longer the msm keeps saying “bombshell revelations today”, the more it penetrates the bubble of those who pay no attention to politics.

  11. 11.

    LAO

    It’s painful to say but Senate Republicans won’t vote in favor of Impeachment/removal unless their internal polling shows that they’ll lose their majority if they stand with Trump.

  14. 14.

    Mary G

    @Sebastian: Some resistance groups have started using FOIA requests which don’t always get caught and blocked. They’re probably handled at lower levels where career professionals may be letting them through as passive resistance.

      David Fahrenthold’s story in WaPo today Secret Service spent more than $250,000 at Trump’s properties in first five months of his term, records show

    Those records, obtained by the group Property of the People after an open-records lawsuit, detail some of the revenue that Trump derives from U.S. taxpayers.

    The president has set up an extraordinary arrangement: He kept ownership of his businesses — and then visited them repeatedly, bringing along aides and security officials, and charging the government for what they bought.

    Documents released previously had shown $84,000 in federal spending at Trump properties in the first months of Trump’s time in office. These records, detailing spending on Secret Service credit cards, show another $254,000 by the Secret Service alone.

    The Property of the People had filed a FOIA request, which was rejected, so they filed a lawsuit that couldn’t be stalled. Congress is still trying to get these records.

    So there are probably hundreds of scams small and large to be unearthed. Probably take decades to find them all.

  15. 15.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Jay:  Which is why they’re almost *certainly* going down with this ship. Step out of line, your entire future career as a talking head and overpaid think-tank stooge goes up in smoke, not to mention future runs for office, or appointments in future GrOPer administrations.

  17. 17.

    kindness

    MoscowMitch will not allow the Senate to off Trump.  He’ll make the Republicans toe the line.  That’s why the House has to throw everything at Trump.  So when the 2020 elections come, enough Americans are so disgusted that we get a Democratic President and Senate.  And screw the Democratic money folk pissing in their pants over a Warren presidency when we have Trump as president.  Damn!

  18. 18.

    Jay

    five antiracists were arrested on saturday. a dear friend of mine was charged with a felony for allegedly bleeding on a cop. they were bleeding because a white supremacist punched them in the face. bail exhausted the fund. please help fund their defense.https://t.co/ETwoepceIl— molly conger, communist degenerate (@socialistdogmom) November 20, 2019

  20. 20.

    lol chikinburd

    I know it’s been said, but it bears saying again:  We are better than that; they demonstrably aren’t.

  21. 21.

    James E Powell

    I want to see some committee go after the money corruption, the stuff the ordinary average American understands and dislikes. We need those tax returns and we need the financials from the accounting firm. I’m afraid Trump’s justices are going to rule that we can’t have them.

  23. 23.

    David ??Booooooo?? Koch

    Dump lobbied gop senators who are theoretically on the fence like Mittens and Collins and this jury tampering didn’t bother the media.   Yet I’m old enough to remember how media freaked out when Bill Clinton bumped into Loretta Lynch at an Arizona airport.   IOIYAR.

  24. 24.

    Jay

    @kindness:

    Moscow Mitch’s turn “at bat” is anywhere from a few months away, to many months away.

    A lot can happen between now and then.

    The King could die, Mitch could die, who knows, the damned horse might even learn to talk.

  25. 25.

    scav

    I’m taking an unexpectedly profound pleasure in the caliber of professionally able shit-kicking that women are bringing to this process.  Never doubted they could, but it’s ever so apposite now, towards these individual(s).

  27. 27.

    Mary G

    The attacks by private equity vultures trying to kill off a free press are ramping up. Deadspin was murdered. Hearst is union-busting. Places like The Epoch Times and Sinclair want monopolies where every article comes from the central office.

    Shep Smith is making his first public remarks since leaving Fox News. “Intimidation & vilification of the press is now a global phenomenon,” he tells @pressfreedom gala. “We don’t have to look far for evidence of that.”— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2019

    Shep Smith just announced: he is donating $500,000 to @pressfreedom— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2019

  29. 29.

    oldgold

    During the Mueller investigation I commented  ad nauseam about the importance of time and timing.

    Well, here we go again.

     

    Except here, the problem is not that the investigation is proceeding too slowly without punctuating big moments to frame the narrative. Rather, this investigation is moving too quickly with big moments coming bang bang rattatat-tat!

     

    Even when paying close attention, it seems like a blurrrr.

  31. 31.

    Martin

    Democrats are going to have to decide whether they’re going to play hardball on impeachment. The hearings in the Senate will be led by Lindsay Graham, and the president obviously has dirt on him. Democrats need to push that into the open, otherwise this is rigged from the outset.

  32. 32.

    SWMBO

    Remembering beloved efgoldman.  Watergate took almost 2 years before Nixon resigned. There has been so much shit uncovered and more still to find (tax returns, emoluments, etc.) that it was hard to counsel patience but he did.  If he’s out there watching over us, he’s probably trying to get us to remember this.  And he’s also commenting a hearty and heartfelt Fuck ‘em.

  35. 35.

    Sebastian

    @Jay:

     

    They have shown to be authoritarians and to be corrupt to the bone. On top of that they are stupid and high on their own CT supply. The only way this will end is with mass legal action or violence.

  37. 37.

    piratedan

    based on the behavior that we’re seeing exhibited by GOP Congressmen, GOP Senators and the administration and their actions in the Judiciary, I am becoming more and more  convinced that HRC didn’t lose the 2016 election.  I am becoming more and more sure that votes were not only suppressed, I also believe that votes were not counted and even flipped.  The thing is, I think the GOP knows this as well and I think that they are fully aware that it took place and even encouraged it.  All bought for with Putin’s money, and logistics.

     

    Anyone can see the the evidence is damning, anyone who wasn’t already compromised would have fled or is in the process of doing so.  My guess is some of the folks (i.e. the ones that are retiring) are seeing the writing on the wall and are hoping to avoid the backlash when it falls. How delicious would it be for Putin to see the entire GOP rendered moot as a political party and the ensuring chaos would take decades to clear up (and even if that isn’t case, it may still take decades to clear up because we have a certain portion of the country that simply doesn’t give a shit allows it allows them to get their hate on against an entire buffet of choices) and we’d be in a constitutional crisis in attempting to deal with treason on such a scale.

  39. 39.

    Mary G

    Based on the GOP reaction to the hearings it appears they have made the decision to turn their back completely on several key groups of voters: those who can read,those who can think for themselves, those who have a sense of logic, patriots, people who care about the rule of law.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) November 21, 2019

  41. 41.

    HumboldtBlue

    @piratedan:

     

    I don’t recall where I read it but watch Carl Rove’s reaction to the Ohio results when it’s called for Obama in 2012.

     

    The argument was the GOP thought the fix was in and were shocked the election stealing hadn’t quite worked.

     

    They made sure it worked in 2016.

  44. 44.

    mrmoshpotato

    @StringOnAStick:

    The more weeks this goes on , the more he tweets himself into additional impeachment articles.

    This jackass? But he’s so measured with his communication and chooses his words wisely.

    “My daddy Vladdy said I didn’t call him at xx:xx on the xx of x to beg for Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election!”

  45. 45.

    JaySinWA

    @Amir Khalid:

    I don’t know that Republicans in the US Senate fear damnation more than they fear The Wrath of Trump.

    They figure they can get forgiveness from god but not from Trump, at least not without even further humiliation and debasement.

  47. 47.

    JaySinWA

    @LAO:

     

    @Jay:

    I suspect the Senate Republicans won’t budge until McConnell decides it is no longer in his interest to support Trump. His triggers may not be solely in line with keeping an R majority Senate.

  48. 48.

    hervevillechaizelounge

    @HumboldtBlue:

     

    Rove’s on air melt-down is exactly where my mind went as well.

     

    The campaign to make election-stealing palatable to rank-and-file republicans has been going on for years:  the bogus lies about “illegals” voting, the voter-fraud “experts” with no empirical data, the conspiracy documentaries financed by RT.

     

    In my true-blue state there were two rich elderly couples arrested for voter fraud in 2016.    I’m just extrapolating but I assume they voted for Trump twice to counteract the (presumed) illegal votes.

     

    Coming soon of FauxNews: “Yes, maybe we changed votes but what choice did we have? “

  49. 49.

    Mandalay

    @Martin:

    …Lindsay Graham, and the president obviously has dirt on him

    It’s not obvious to me. Trump can put an end to Graham’s career as a Senator, and subsequently as a DC grifter, anytime he feels like it. Trump really can ruin the rest of Graham’s life on a whim.

     

    That threat is enough to get Graham do to Trump’s bidding. There’s no need to complicate it beyond that (unless you have actual evidence of course).

  50. 50.

    Jay

    @JaySinWA:

     

    each ReThug Senator, retiring or otherwise, has a mix of local and and national conditions that will dictate their vote on impeachment and many of those factors may/will change over time.

     

    as a result, “predicting” an impeachment vote, for or against,  isn’t simple outside of a couple of handfulls of Senators.

     

    not every Senator has a Wingnut Welfare job offer waiting, not every Senator’s catered primary will result in reelection or paid martyrdom. Some will find themselves ostracised in their suburbs and their car dealerships failing, or Portland Hotels.

  51. 51.

    Chris T.

    @StringOnAStick: The longer the msm keeps saying “bombshell revelations today”

     That they (newspapers and TV news and the like) are finally doing this is a good thing … but: bombshell? Trump is a crook! Water is wet! Birds sometimes poop on your car!

  52. 52.

    Ruckus

    @LAO:

    And we know that there will always be polls that show whatever the republicans want them to.

    But even then he’s got what 40% max? It hasn’t gone down but it’s not going up and the 60% who are not on his side and those who haven’t voted recently for whatever reason may not even be asked their opinions, but they sure seem to be vocal and they march and work towards beating his ass. I don’t know that it will work but I think he’s losing ground every day and will continue to do so if it is necessary to vote his ass out a year from now.

  53. 53.

    Mary G

    Twitler’s getting ready to round up the homeless and put them in camps in California.

    (WaPo) White House officials will soon present President Trump with a plan to crack down on homelessness in California, days after ousting a top federal official appointed during the Obama administration, according to two senior administration officials.
     

    The plan is expected to be shown to Trump in coming weeks, officials said, perhaps as soon as next week. Trump will be able to select ideas for how to address the growing homeless problem in several major cities.
     

    One person involved in deliberations said the administration’s plans are likely to target homelessness in Los Angeles and could include repurposing existing federal property, but the exact set of policy options to be presented to the president could not be learned. As part of the talks, officials have also discussed moving homeless people from specific areas and condemning certain properties, though it’s unclear whether those options will make it into the final plan.

    He can try, but I’m up to protest.

  54. 54.

    Ruckus

    @Mary G: 
    These are the same people they have been avoiding for a long time.
    They are anything but leaders, however they need followers. So they attempt to lead by lying, by traitorous actions, by being bought by foreign powers and that’s anything but leading, that’s totally following and following the very wrong among us.

  56. 56.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Mary G: Hmmm, where are they going to ship them, off to Manzanar?  On a DTLA development forum a commenter talked about shipping(literally)  them  off to San Nicolas Island.  One thing that the Trump folk really don’t understand is that once they take custody of these people, they become responsible for their welfare.

  59. 59.

    WereBear

    @kindness:And screw the Democratic money folk pissing in their pants over a Warren presidency when we have Trump as president.  Damn!

    Yes.

    They are all tangled up in “we need this money to be elected” and that’s part of the problem.

    Besides, we used to give to the DCCC, involved with a group which put up a Democratic challenger to Stefanik; we got not one penny back.

    That is an outdated paradigm. They should wake up.

  60. 60.

    Aleta

    @Mary G:

    could include repurposing existing federal property

    could include diverting public money to private rackets, with unmeasurable suffering

  61. 61.

    opiejeanne

    @Joe Falco: I made Parker House rolls today, and the stupid recipe said I should let them rest in the fridge before baking. They  didn’t rise much and while the dough was beautiful, the rolls were flat wads of half-risen bread. Looked up another recipe that said to let them rise again in a warm place before baking (duh!) Going to repeat the process tomorrow.

     

    And yes, impeach the asshole!

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    @Jay

    Whether any will demonstrate the sliver of courage sufficient to virtually say “I regret I have but one cushy job to give to my country” remains unknown.

    All it takes is one to break the logjam and provide cover for others to follow.

    (Yeah, mixed metaphors.)

  63. 63.

    opiejeanne

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Once they take custody of the homeless in LA, those people will disappear. As you said, out of sight = out of mind.

    Curious as to what authority the Feds have over homeless US citizens living in Los Angeles. Are they going to send ICE in to arrest the homeless

     

    Oh, and Trump wants to start executing Federal prisoners, saying he’ll take it to the Supreme Court. No one has been executed by the Feds for about 16 years, and Trumpy wants to start it up again.

  64. 64.

    Nelle

    @HumboldtBlue: Go back much farther.  Election night 2000, 7:15, CST.  I’m driving, listening to the radio.  They called Florida first for Gore.   They were interviewing a Bush campaign official who flatly said, “That’s not right.”  I was telling at the radio – “Why aren’t you saying, I expect it to change Or “Let’s wait till all the votes are in or Slow down”?  It was a chilling flat certainty.

     

    Then in 2004, those Ohio votes went down to Kentucky to be counted.  Something real hinky there.  Kerry promised he would fight anything suspicious but that fight just melted away.

     

    I think the lack of fight emboldened them.  They were too far into their bubble that they just didn’t think real Americans would vote for a Black man so 2008 was a shock (thanks to Sarah Palin ).  So they tried their comeback on ’12.  You are so right on Rove’s shock.  Putin as an ally made it happen in ’16.

     

    There is no substitute for getting the vote out.  No votes can be remotely close.

  65. 65.

    Amir Khalid

    @opiejeanne:

    As I recall, some American states ran into trouble with executions when European drug companies refused on moral grounds to keep selling them the drugs they were using to kill people. Could Trump’s bloodlust be likewise thwarted, or could he resort to hangings and firing squads?

  67. 67.

    Martin

    @Mary G: CA will sue and win.

     

    That said, so far the cities have managed to fuck up any plan to improve housing, and that’s blocking any plan to address homelessness.

  70. 70.

    Warblewarble

    Never underestimate the quiet ladies,history will show that Fiona Hill has Putins measure,and if she had his balls in a vise she would be tightening it. Meanwhile his minions will have their nuts squeezed. We heard them yelp. Keep them yelping,music to my ears!

  71. 71.

    TriassicSands

    If senate refuses to do same, the result in 2020 could easily be the same. — Matthew Dowd

    Not easily! There could be a number of closer than expected races, but reversing some of the huge margins of past races will not be easy and in most, if not all, cases won’t happen. Bevins in Kentucky was much more unpopular than Republican senators are (generally). And it was hardly an “easy” win for the Democrat.

  72. 72.

    droog

    Fiona Hill migrated to the USA but I think Trump won’t be tweeting telling her to go back to her country like he did with the Squad. There’s something different about her, or maybe it is something she doesn’t have? And yet no matter how pensively I stroke my chin I can’t figure out what it is.

  74. 74.

    The Pale Scot

    Jesus, I’ve been wanting to call Washington Journal and say the something like that for twenty years, It use to be a great show

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