From the Washington Post:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff left little doubt with fellow Democrats Wednesday that they plan to move swiftly to impeach President Trump as soon as this month.
According to multiple Democratic lawmakers who attended a closed-door Capitol meeting, Pelosi announced no firm decision or timeline in moving toward a vote on Trump’s impeachment. But, a day after Schiff delivered a 300-page report detailing charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress against Trump, she made clear what lies ahead in the House.
“Are you ready?” Pelosi (D-Calif.) asked her colleagues, after describing grave constitutional circumstances posed by Trump’s alleged wrongdoing surrounding his dealings with Ukraine and his subsequent decision to stonewall the House investigation into it.
The caucus, according to multiple members, erupted with shouts of approval.
“We’re moving forward,” said one member, summarizing the thrust of Pelosi’s remarks and speaking on condition of anonymity to candidly describe a private meeting. “We’ve got a job to do whether people want to testify or not.”
Pelosi then turned the room over to Schiff (D-Calif.), who received a standing ovation before saying a word, the members said.
Schiff proceeded to run through the major findings of the report, add context to some of the key events the inquiry has uncovered, and explained to colleagues why, among other things, he did not wait for additional witnesses — such as former national security adviser John R. Bolton, who met with Trump to discuss Ukraine policy — before issuing his report…
In a separate closed-door meeting elsewhere in the Capitol basement, Vice President Pence rallied Republicans against impeachment — encouraging the GOP rank-and-file to “turn up the heat” on House Democrats and accuse them of focusing on impeachment instead of solving the nation’s problems.
Pence praised Republicans for sticking together and defending the president, telling them he and Trump were proud of their work standing up for the president. He also criticized Pelosi and House Democrats for what he called shameful behavior — not just the impeachment proceedings against Trump but also claiming Democrats had turned a blind eye to other issues that affect people’s everyday lives…
Julia Ioffe responds to Tucker Carlson’s question “Why is Putin so bad?” pic.twitter.com/NpeZyp02CT
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) December 4, 2019
Mary G
It seems to be going well.
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
OzarkHillbilly
George Zimmerman sues Trayvon Martin’s family for $100m Because he’s the real victim.
I’m not going to say anything else on the grounds that it would probably get me thrown out.
ETA: just in case anyone was wondering:
WereBear
Republicans are like the kid turning all the D’s into B’s on their report card. Their fantasies are their reality.
OzarkHillbilly
Biden has a new ad: We need a leader the world respects
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s a good ad.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
That used to be a universal policy before the Republicans ended it with Obama IIRC. But both sides.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Yep,I think it is a good idea to adhere to that norm even if the GOP has abandoned it. Not that anyone will actually notice, but it costs us nothing.
germy
My wife is eating breakfast in the kitchen. She just put the radio on Public Radio. Guess who is being interviewed in the studio?
Turley.
Baud
@germy: GOP getting it’s money’s worth out of him.
How come the media never worries about balance when it comes to presenting their side?
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone ???
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
WereBear
@Baud: $$$$$$$$$$
I have a new comeback for those who whine “But how will we pay for all that”?
A great start would be confiscating the wealth of anyone who betrayed our nation to the Russians. Traitor money will cover a LOT.
Steve in the ATL
@OzarkHillbilly: Larry Klayman is the attorney you hire when Orly Taitz is not available
Raven
@Steve in the ATL: I got a ticket for a “reasonable” price!
OzarkHillbilly
Heh:
Good luck pushing that boulder up the mountain
Feature, not a bug.
Otherwise, to this layman’s eyes, the trial is not going well for Musk. I can’t say it will be enough because I know proving defamation is very difficult. I’d like to think it would at least take some of the shine off this shameless self promoter’s reputation, but I doubt his fans will even blink.
OzarkHillbilly
@Steve in the ATL:
Yep, well known for his stunts. And his idiocy.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: When you put reasonable in quotes, I’m afraid to ask.
Wag
@OzarkHillbilly:
What the hell is it with every two-bit GOP worm deciding to sue for $100,000,000 or more. When did this become a thing? Nobody in their right mind takes these suits seriously.
Bullies, each and every one
Steve in the ATL
@Raven: score! And I hope we can….
chatted with some guys from a ball bearing company at the hotel bar last night. One went to anOSU, two went to Clemson and live in Greenville. They’re all pumped for the playoffs. Not an Alabama fan in sight!
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: $220, it’s half what the last two SEC Championship Games have been. I had to sell my National Championship tix two years ago so this will be my first trip to the Benz.
Raven
@Steve in the ATL: Dabo is a whiney fuck.
Steve in the ATL
@Wag: you can’t even negotiate with a starting number like that. When I have a case I want to settle, I’ll tell the plaintiffs lawyer to make a reasonable demand, don’t give me something stupid. If they come back with something stupid, we litigate it and they just lost a quick, easy lay day.
trnc
@germy: Blecch!
trnc
Or Half Ass Nosferatu.
Steve in the ATL
@Raven: yeah, it’s annoying. Don’t really know how good Clemson is since they haven’t played anyone. Weakest schedule I’ve ever seen, but not their fault the ACC is so bad. OSU has at least played penn state, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
hell, Auburn might be better than OSU or Clemson.
Raven
@Steve in the ATL: The mighty Whahoo’s should give em a test.
trnc
Probably when they realized it worked pretty well for DT as a substitute for actual business skills.
Steve in the ATL
TV question: why does Kelly Clarkson have a talk show?
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
Markos spent the past year wildly promoting single payer as a political winner, denouncing everyone who had doubts. From his tone, you can tell he’s in shock.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: That’s not so bad, I was in fact expecting double. Enjoy it.
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Yea, me too! I jumped on it and now I have to stay off StubHub so I don’t see them drop further.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: Heh.
Baud
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch:
Too many people are addicted to their bubble.
I’m starting to think maybe the Democrats aren’t feckless, but realize that LEADERSHIP can only get you so far with the voting public.
Baud
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch:
The Sarandon theory said Trump as president would be a good thing because it would lead progressives to rise up! And that happened to some extent. But the risk always was that the voters would focus on the problem at hand (fascism) and deprioritize bold policy actions.
We’ll see how it plays out, but that’s seems to be the current state of affairs.
debbie
I saw a tweet from Stonekettle about Nunes stating that Democrats were pushing conspiracy theories. I have a horrible feeling that Trump has created a new generation of Trumps and that they are proliferating like rats. This isn’t going to end for a very, very long time.
Matt
Lock them ALL up.
WereBear
@Baud: Of course tRump is NOT a good thing. But I also see him as inevitable.
The more they juiced up their voters with hate and paranoia, the more they wanted it straight in a vein, instead of the veiled words and superficial politeness of the Republican politicians they were offered. Not excited by Romney, pandering with Palin wound up shocking independents, and had reached disillusionment and boredom with the early 2016 field of candidates.
tRump was the sugar frenzy of their toddler dreams.
Baud
@debbie: Nunes is not new generation. But we will be dealing with this for a while.
Baud
Today show showing the Biden ad.
Quinerly
@Baud: ?❤️???
Baud
@WereBear:
There’s only one silver lining to Trump. It exposed a rot we were ignoring for too long, possibly before the rot was ready to be exposed. Hopefully, we can do something positive with that knowledge.
debbie
Great response from Ioffe!
debbie
@Baud:
He’s 30 years younger than Trump, so yeah, new generation. I know it may not seem so to you youngsters, but… . ;)
Baud
@Quinerly:
Honestly, kudos to the Biden team for jumping on this. Other candidates should have been on the ball as well.
I still don’t prefer him, but he won this morning.
debbie
@Baud:
The 1980s and that goddamn Gordon Gekko have much to answer for.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s a great ad; embedding it below for folks who’re reluctant to leave the boat:
It works on two levels because being laughed at in public by important people is Trump’s worst nightmare, and it highlights a serious advantage Biden has over opponents: foreign policy experience. (Of course, he voted for the Iraq War, but that’s only an issue for female candidates.)
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
No lie told.
WereBear
@Baud: I agree. This Administration is SOOOOOOO obviously awful that even the lapdog media are realizing just how fulla crap they are trying to push that “both sides” nonsense.
If our corporate media goes down too, that’s also an upside. Considering they suffer no consequences from outright lying and obfuscating.
Baud
@debbie: He’s only half the problem. To my knowledge, Gekko wasn’t a white supremacist.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: can we steal other posters’ catch phrases? Blech!
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: @WereBear: No no noooooo, You guys are ignoring the economic anxiety on display in diners all across America.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Hope you survived yesterday’s concreting without too much pain.
debbie
@Baud:
True, but his callousness sure set the bar low.
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
By participating in this blog, you waive all intellectual property rights and agree to resolve disputes through arbitration.
Part of WaterGirl’s site redesign plan.
Betty Cracker
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch: The weird thing is that the popular revolt against single payer happened totally organically! The giant corporations that profit from the current system didn’t deploy propaganda to scare people or use their media influence to blow up coverage of the issue out of all proportion at all.
OzarkHillbilly
@Steve in the ATL: You can’t steal that which is freely given.
@debbie: The shoulder’s not too bad because I was careful with it. Unfortunately that placed excess strain on my elbow which is killing me today. And I have more to go today… If I can. I’ll have to try at least.
Immanentize
Not getting enough play so far:
Quinerly
@Baud: I’m warming up to him. Still wish he hadn’t run. I think he is too old.
BUT if he will be bold and pick Harris (or Abrams) early for his running mate and promise one term only, I think he will win over a lot of people.
I think for the most part, people are exhausted with Trump. All the drama. I know I am. People want a return to some sort of normalcy and an adult to try to undo some of this shit. And I’m talking about people who don’t follow politics closely.
And, no, ideally he wasn’t my first, second, third choice. But he might end up being the only choice.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: You said you had to do 5 yesterday. What’s your goal today?
Quinerly
@Immanentize: Morning Joe did a segment on it.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Does that matter though? A ballot doesn’t care what caused the voter voted the way they did. And the MOTU are never going to voluntarily refrain from propaganda, so it’s a constant in the system.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: Has Mifsud’s body turned up anywhere yet?
Immanentize
@Quinerly: Biden is still not my first, or fourth, choice. So I will vote for the first of my choices still in the race when the primary reaches me (late). I think Abrams may be a likely Biden choice if not for VP, then as full time surrogate before the primaries.
Immanentize
@Baud: But as you have pointed out, no voter has voted. We really don’t know what primary voters think about single payer or Warren, except through the lens of a massive, monied campaign which has included at least two new rich anti-Warren candidates (Deval who?)
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: Don’t tell anyone, but he’s living in my basement trading history lessons for room and board.
OzarkHillbilly
Colin Kaepernick is the black Grinch for those who dream of a white America
– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
And just hearing his voice is so soothing after these years of Drumpf’s inane braying.
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
Shill Barr “received a tip” that his soldatos should check Fort Marcy Park, also Chappaqua.
Immanentize
@Quinerly: I think Gina Haspel is going to win this knife fight with Barr.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: Damn, and my son’s not living in Meffa anymore. A missed opportunity.
Baud
@Immanentize:
Agreed. But everyone seems to think her drop in the polls is based in large part because of wariness about M4A. It’s not over by any means, but it also suggests people need convincing, as opposed to people who were just waiting for a candidate to be unapologetically progressive on health care.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I understand that propaganda is baked into the system. I’m pushing back on the smarmy gloating about lefty bubbles, etc. There are plenty of bubbles to go around, IMO.
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
Many years ago, I was renting in Beffa. But when I referred to it that way, people gave me the “Whut?” look.
NotMax
Should you ever find yourself in that weird frame of mind when nothing but vegetating – preferably half asleep – while slogging through a piece of purest cinematic dreck will do, guess what was found skulking in the nether regions of Prime?
None other than that strong contender for bottomest of the bottom of the barrel, Frankenstein’s Great-aunt Tillie.
It takes a pointedly peculiar skill set to make a movie which manages to fail so blatantly at every level, by any metric. If you manage to make it all the way to the end credits (wouldn’t bet a plug nickel on that), 100 minutes which would impel any skunk to reach for a nose clamp. Filmed in glorious Muddyvision, with the benefit of an audio track recorded using the patent pending Two Cans and a Piece of String system, thankfully making so much of what is said unintelligible.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Sure, there are bubbles galore. But as you know, Democrats are constantly subject to chastisement from the left about doing it wrong, so I think it’s a human response to that attitude to want to throw evidence that reality is more complicated back in their faces.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Next you’ll be trying to tell us that the Tea Baggers were not a groundroots, from-the-bottom-up, completely organic movement from voters sincerely concerned about the direction of the country.
If you DO plan to try that, please give me a warning, so I can get my fainting couch. [Unfortunately, my clutching-pearls are at the dry cleaner.]
Cheryl Rofer
Pelosi is supposed to give a statement on impeachment at 7 Eastern.
Immanentize
@Baud: I am waiting to see whether Warren’s really excellent skills in retail politics matter in the first two states. It may be that such efforts just don’t produce the results they used to in this noisy world. I do think that gender is openly looming larger this year than I remember it in 2016. It was all over the place then, but Democratic voters weren’t openly saying they worry about voting for a woman. But some of my friends say just that this year.
Kay
@Immanentize:
And the group that was formed to attack Warren on Medicare for all have already announced they will attack any candidate on any Medicare buy in or any public option.
I was looking at my health insurance plan yesterday and the “choices” are kind of amusing. It’s all laid out in rows which set of options I can pick but it’s really a fake choice. The differences are so minor. I’m to the point where I think “the menu” is designed to create the illusion of choice and control and downplay the fact that it went up +/- 40 dollars a month no matter what I pick.
Baud
@Immanentize:
Once bitten, twice shy.
SFAW
@NotMax:
I hope I’m never that desperate/drug-addled. But bless you for sacrificing yourself for the greater good. [NB: “Bless you,” as distinguished from “Bless your heart,” of course.]
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: I only managed 4 of the 5 large ones (I had some things I had to do first and ran out of time), so today I have to get that 5th one done. Then I have 10 smaller, shallower ones to do. It would be nice to get them all done because we are supposed to get rain tonight but it won’t be the end of the world if I don’t. The weatherman now says I’ll get another shot on Sat/Sunday. I’ll probably throw a tarp over the 10 and wait till then.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
@Baud:
I should add I’m not talking about Warren here. I’m talking about the lefty talking heads on the internet and progressive media.
Barbara
@OzarkHillbilly: I respect Kareem, and I think Kaepernick is brave, but part of me thinks that if his goal was to keep playing football he needed to have a plan that went beyond making kneeling an end unto itself. I also find his “who me vote?” stance childish.
satby
@Baud: funny you should mention bubbles. One of them was popped last night, but of course Sanders supporters had to disrupt
the meeting. Not disrespectful at all.
Since my fucking eyewitness testimony that he has AA supporters here in South Bend hasn’t been adequate.
Don’t like the guy, fine. But the lies need to stop.
Kay
@Baud:
Oh, the centrists should be thanking her. She took all the heat on health care for months. Now the same groups move to attack Medicare buy in and a public option and those are now the centrist position. If she hadn’t have done Medicare for All they would have done the same damn thing to Biden or Buttitieg on their plans because those would have been the “too liberal” plans.
Booker, Biden and Buttitieg are now all running ads against one another, which is how a D primary between centrists usually goes. It’ll be just as divisive but in a narrower range.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Maybe we need to define “Democrats” and “the left,” which you’re speaking of as if they’re two entirely separate entities. I think they’re groups that, if represented in a Venn diagram, would mostly overlap. Shitting on an important party constituency seems unfair and also unwise.
Mel
@Wag: It’s the whole purpose of the suits: to bully the parties being sued, and to intimidate others so that people who have been wronged by right wing nutjobs will be frightened to sue for fear of baseless but expensive and emotionally exhausting countersuits.
Even if the suit ends up getting dismissed before going to trial, it still costs the defendant a huge amount of emotional energy, lost time, stress and in some cases damage to their reputation. Add to that the costs of retaining an attorney to advise them and to respond to the initial filings, and you can see why these phoney- baloney suits frighten more people than just those who are being immediately targeted.
As for why it is happening so frequently and si blatantly over the past few years, just take a look at Trump’s legal history. He appears to have long used crap countersuits to break the will and the bank of individuals and small businesses who have tried to sue him to get something as simple as the money that they are owed by Trump or one of his businesses. If the tactic works for their creepy hero, then other creeps figure: why not try it themselves?
When people repeatedly see others who have just cause for their legal actions get dragged through the mud and financially drained by these ridiculous countersuits, it becomes less likely that future victims will feel safe filing a legal action.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
They shat first.
They overlap, but being a Democrat doesn’t exclude being harmful. Tulsi, Zell Miller, Joe Lieberman, etc. were all Dems.
germy
@Gin & Tonic:
Unlikely, after the concrete work OzarkHillbilly did yesterday.
Baud
@Kay:
Agree. The centrists benefit to the extent M4A receives the media’s attention.
Kay
The dual enrollment programs are WILDLY popular. But they’re expensive. The money comes out of a public school district budget along with state aid. So we can hide the cost on the public school’s books for a while and pretend it doesn’t cost anything extra but eventually that won’t work and we’ll be asking for more money.
Should it be means tested? I have to tell you, one of the reasons it’s popular here is it’s used by both lower income and higher families here (our school is about 50% free and reduced lunch) and we don’t have any billionaires but we definitely have “millionaires” if that means a million in assets including residence, business, retirement savings, etc.
Should we means test it? I can almost guarantee public support will drop dramatically if it’s no longer “free” but instead just free for the bottom 50% and the top 50% have much higher turnout.
OzarkHillbilly
@Barbara:
The problewm with that is the fact that if he wanted to keep playing football he needed to “shut up and dribble” to quote a notorious RW talking head. As Jabbar himself notes in that piece:
Betty Cracker
@Baud: “They shat first” is not only a brilliant counterpoint, it should be a rotating tagline. ?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Will the new ad agency allow “shat”?
SFAW
@germy:
I’m still laughing.
germy
Kay
@Baud:
It was one of those epic pile-ons they do. They’re always amazing to watch. It really is like watching a group of kids on a playground when they herd and then swerve in one direction after a single kid, running.
I wish health insurers would spend less time and money on protecting their industry and more time on making their product less shitty. I know they get a lot of bang for the buck with lobbying but this really is a choice they make- they could take all that creative energy and apply it to their product.
Baud
I’d imagine most spouses would be upset, but I still found this funny.
germy
Baud
@satby:
Baud
@Kay:
Making their product less shitty makes it more attractive to costly sick people.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: It wouldn’t bother me in the least if my wife held Alisha Wainwright’s hand.
germy
Here’s HRC on the Howard Stern show talking about Bush’s reaction to #45’s first speech as president:
chopper
@NotMax:
i’ll have to wait for the digitally remastered 8K version.
MomSense
@germy:
I was in my car in the way to work and yelling at my radio. Probably scared the drivers I passed on the highway.
germy
Hillary Clinton talks (Howard Stern interview) about how Lindsey Graham has changed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEhz5yFNgRg
germy
Hillary talks about “holding back” while debating Trump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgs6jMc3PQQ
WereBear
@NotMax: I am something of a connoisseur of bad movies but this is a new one on me.
Gin & Tonic
@MomSense: Lucky for me, I have a radio which pulls in stations that don’t have to be yelled at, thus allowing a less stressful drive.
germy
O. Felix Culpa
Kay
@Baud:
My daughter is in health care and she thinks they’ll do nothing on cost. She is optimistic though because she thinks the science of health care is moving really rapidly toward earlier and less costly and more successful intervention. Not “prevention” per se- detection. Seeing a specific problem developing 10 or 20 0r 30 years down the road. Imaging has gotten cheaper so they’re using it find problem areas earlier. It’s a bit of a bubble right now- there are a lot of scammers which enrage her- but she thinks that will thin out and the quality stuff will survive. It’s cheaper to treat early than it is to treat later and it works better too. People are much more compliant with “your heart is not as healthy as most peoples your age so do THIS and THIS” than they are to “eat right and exercise!”. “Don’t smoke” is less effective than “this scan shows the lung tissue thinning that precedes COPD and you have that”
It’s kind of nice how evangelical she is about it- she’s like “good news!” :)
Tenar Arha
@OzarkHillbilly: I think he did? If the ad was released last night, Trump was in the air or landing before it was released. (I’d google the scheduling but I haven’t had enough of my lowered caffeine coffee yet for that ;)
OzarkHillbilly
@Tenar Arha: As noted in my first comment on it:@OzarkHillbilly:
I have no idea if CNN’s reporting is accurate.
JoeyJoeJoe
@WereBear: Be sure to check out Spookies (1984) featuring a super young Mariska Hargitay in that case
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
That ad has an extremely brief image showing Trump standing at the top of the AF1 stairs. There are two great things about the picture:
1. The angle is such that the viewer can’t help being reminded of Trump’s fear of falling down a flight of stairs; and
2. The only letters on the fuselage that really show up spell “NIT” — which he is!
That photo was chosen with extreme care. Like (most?) others here, Biden is far from being my preferred candidate, but if he is smart enough to hire campaign staff smart enough to find an agency smart enough to create that ad (and in < 24 hours), I’m not as worried about him as I was.
laura
@germy: I heard about 20 minutes of the interview and it was warm, engaging and made me want to keep driving just to keep listening. Say what you will about Stern and his antics but he is one of the best long form interviewers – prepared, nimble and allows for surprising turns and his guests find the experience refreshing, non formulaic and a safe space to be candid and enjoyable.
I cant wait to hear the entire interview.
rikyrah
@Steve in the ATL:
she’s White.
She can appeal to ‘ Middle America’.
She’s on the youngish side – in terms of talkshow hosts. If she catches on, they can have her on tv for a decade at least.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ozark,
I know you’re pouring concrete pillars — what is the project intended to be next summer when you wrap it up?
Sorry to hear about your elbow, could be more annoying than a shoulder.
Uncle Cosmo
Winner, winner, rubber-chicken dinner. After all the squeeing & fangirl/fanboying for candidates of the “correct” skin tone or genitalia or grand ideas, we get back to the necessity of removing the Orange Carcinoma from the body politic as jobs 1 through 10. Which IMO is exactly where the AA women who are the backbone of the Democratic Party (& we are repeatedly told we must listen to but so rarely do when we don’t like what they’re saying) have been all along.
Bangalore! That’s where I’ve been for months now – fully aware of Biden’s limitations but seeing no viable alternative.
IMO there is a substantial chunk of the electorate – 10-15% – that voted for Mango Mussolini for various reasons not all (& for some not even mostly) related to bigotry & misogyny, & didn’t at all get what they thought they would. Now they want things to be the way they were. I call them the “pleasegodmakeitdidn’thappen” caucus.
Uncle Joe is the guy who can say to them, A few people went completely nuts 4 years ago – but y’know, a lot of not-really-bad folks went a little bit crazy too. C’mon home. Let’s go back & pick up where sanity left off. And having that extra 10-15% of the electorate can make the difference between a victory that leaves the nation vulnerable to a neofascist resurgence at the drop of a MAGA hat, & one so massive we can send them scurrying back under their rocks for a generation while we clean the place up.