Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

This really is a full service blog.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Let me file that under fuck it.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Trump Crime Cartel / Pretty Face But No Spine

Pretty Face But No Spine

by | 154 Comments

This post is in: 

Jeff Flake, one of the most fraudulent hacks foisted upon us in recent memory, has some words for his former Republican colleagues:

President Trump is on trial. But in a very real sense, so are you. And so is the political party to which we belong.

As we approach the time when you do your constitutional duty and weigh the evidence arrayed against the president, I urge you to remember who we are when we are at our best. And I ask you to remember yourself at your most idealistic.

We are conservatives. The political impulses that compelled us all to enter public life were defined by sturdy pillars anchored deep in the American story. Chief among these is a realistic view of power and of human nature, and a corresponding and healthy mistrust of concentrated and impervious executive power. Mindful of the base human instincts that we all possess, the founders of our constitutional system designed its very architecture to curb excesses of power.

It goes on like that, but I will spare you because I hit my gag reflex and I am sure you were close, as well. Let’s cut to the chase- Jeff Flake had three years, one while Trump was running, two while he was President, to demonstrate these rock-ribbed conservative principles he allegedly holds so near and dear, and not once did he do any fucking thing to live up to them. Sure, he was publicly concerned, and he did the talk show circuit, but not once when it mattered did he vote against Trump or go against the party line. And to top it all off, he then cut and run and didn’t even run again for the Senate (which is great, because we got Sinema).

That’s how important his principles are. He can sod off.

Reader Interactions

154Comments

  1. 1.

    germy

    It seems that the charts and graphs on the Insurance threads are throwing error messages.

    Not sure if it’s just my computer.

  4. 4.

    hugely

    oh and to @op the party to which flake belongs isnt a conservative party nor “sturdy pillars”, its the weak amoral point within our body politic where a foreign adversary was able to compromise our democracy wreak havoc.

    maybe Amash can explain it to them.

  8. 8.

    donnah

    We’ll see more of the former Trumpers come forward, probably, as election time draws near. On MSNBC they speak up about the damage Trump’s done to the party, but they don’t explain why they didn’t speak out in the first place. I do enjoy listening to them, though, as it shows that the Republican party is composed mostly of liars, cheats, and cowards.

    I saw a headline just the other day where Scaramooch was warning everyone about how Trump is going to go apeshit between now and the election, especially after being impeached. Even if we take everything these cowards say with a grain of salt, they might convince a few Republican fence-sitters to stay home on Election Day. That’s fine with me.

  9. 9.

    Shalimar

    @donnah:

     the damage Trump’s done to the party

    Even the never-Trumpers always talk about the party. Republicans first, Americans never. Fuck their party. He has done far more damage to the country.

  11. 11.

    schrodingers_cat

    I am in awe of the people marching all over India against BJP’s plans to make Muslims second class citizens. BJP has already killed 11 protestors. Far braver than Jeff fucking Flake

  12. 12.

    debbie

    He can start a crybaby club with Mitt Romney. They had years to divert this catastrophe, but chose not to for very selfish reasons.

  15. 15.

    artem1s

    I call a heaping pile of BS. It’s the I am so sorry and regret my support of W tour, part duex.
    He’s only reminding his lovely party that everyone will be back on board once they install their new savior Dense. He’s just the warm up band for the GOP leadership’s Swaggert tour of the MSM. They will all take their tours, confess their sins, repent, cry, and collect their speaking fees. GD con men every one. And then as soon as they can, they will turn around and elect someone even worse than the last one. Probably Darth Cheney II.

  16. 16.

    cmorenc

    @germy: 

    It seems that the charts and graphs on the Insurance threads are throwing error messages.

    Not sure if it’s just my computer.

    It’s not just you – that chart in David’s HC thread is intermittently wreaking havoc on surfing even completely separate, unrelated threads by other front-pagers.

  18. 18.

    WereBear

    @donnah: Even if we take everything these cowards say with a grain of salt, they might convince a few Republican fence-sitters to stay home on Election Day. That’s fine with me.

    I have been honing my Basilisk Stare of Death for any loudmouth Trump fan. But they are oddly silent of late :)

    Being cowards, they may be afraid to show up in the small towns where they predominate. Which is fine!

  20. 20.

    JPL

    If you were to give him benefit of a doubt, maybe his oped piece was to give cover to McSally and Sinema.

    lol nah he want a job on CNN since Fox brushed him aside.

  21. 21.

    VOR

    @Ten Bears: 
    Flake is probably right there would be more R votes for impeachment if they could vote anonymously. I can’t be the only one who wakes up every morning wondering what chaos awaits.

    But they are afraid of being primaried, Trump’s >90% approval rating among Republicans, and being called names on Twitter. Cowards all.

    Notice Flake is upset about damage to the party. Not the World, not the Nation, not our alliances, not our international reputation, just the party. I used to laugh during the 2008 campaign every time I saw McCain’s “Country First” slogan.

  22. 22.

    BruceFromOhio

    @donnah: 

    Even if we take everything these cowards say with a grain of salt, they might convince a few Republican fence-sitters to stay home on Election Day. That’s fine with me.

    This. Please proceed!

  23. 23.

    Sloegin

    The Christianity Today editor that wrote that Trump should be removed from office had also announced his retirement back in October. Some real moral courage, that.

  24. 24.

    Ken

    We are conservatives. The political impulses that compelled us all to enter public life were defined by…

    …a boot, stamping on a human face, forever.

  25. 25.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Civil servants and soldiers have no real choice If they strongly disagree with a policy or policies. They can shut up and do their job or they can resign.* Jeff Flake was neither a civil servant nor a soldier. He was a senator. He not only had the right to stand up and oppose policies he thought were wrong, he had a duty to do so. He failed.

    *This does not include following illegal orders.

  27. 27.

    WaterGirl

    @germy: It’s not just you.  Multiple people mentioned it yesterday, and I wrote to David Anderson to let him know.

    @hugely: Your mention of a key tells me you know a 100 times more than I do about tableaus, which is nothing.  Can you say more?

  28. 28.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Sloegin: This is not an exclusive trait, I see it in the old guys at work. Solid corporate citizens up to the retirement announcement, then suddenly each finds a voice that … wasn’t … there before? “Now that I can’t be damaged by speaking my mind, I’m going to speak my mind!” Yeah, thanks.

  34. 34.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @schrodingers_cat:  They give me courage for our collective future.
    The world needs a strong, democratic India.

    ETA “strong democracy” must include respect for and protection of all peoples and cultures, and their fundamental human rights.

  35. 35.

    germy

    Those ungrateful bastards.

    I guess the magazine, “Christianity Today,” is looking for Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, or those of the socialist/communist bent, to guard their religion. How about Sleepy Joe? The fact is, no President has ever done what I have done for Evangelicals, or religion itself!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2019

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Raven: I probably should have specified that I was talking about upper level civil servants and flag officers.  The ones who could do something about policy anyway.  People at the levels that you and I were at didn’t have much influence.  Regardless of that though, Flake, as a senator, was in a position where he could have spoken out and voted against Trump policies, but he did not.

  37. 37.

    Amir Khalid

    @germy:

    Someone should tell Trump that, being head of a secular government, it is not for him to do anything for evangelical Christianity or indeed any religion, beyond protecting its adherents’ rights.

  38. 38.

    Eric U.

    Flake should have included a long preamble about why he never stood up to Trump and why other Republicans should show the courage that he never did.  Or else it’s just hollow posturing in line with all the other times he has done the same in the past

  39. 39.

    CaseyL

    To paraphrase Walter Matthau, I have more courage in my smallest fart than Flake does in his entire body.

    The entire GOP is nothing but grifters and bigots.  That’s all they are.  And they reflect their voters very accurately.

    OT: I wasn’t sleepy at all last night.  Went to bed, read for a bit, gave up and got up.  And the weird thing is, I feel great.  Not angsty, not anxious… and not sleepy.  Mind you, I might collapse into an unconscious heap before noon!

  41. 41.

    ThresherK

    Remove “And so is the political party to which we belong” and “We are conservatives” and all the rest of that statement could be said by anyone.

    Since inaugration day Flake has had one opportunity after another to (as my father would chide me) “say it like you mean it”, and has failed them all.

  42. 42.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @WereBear:

    I believe the Christianity Today article was motivated by wanting Pence.

    Not really. Ms. O and I know the article’s author and he is not a Pence fan (although Pence would be more acceptable to him on “moral” grounds than Trump). His facebook feed is now full of exceptionally vile and badly spelled comments from offended evangelicals.

  44. 44.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @WereBear:   It sounds like he is in the wrong religion, then.

    Can’t speak for Mark Galli, but we exited that religion some years ago. It was definitely wrong for us. Some people are too embedded psychologically, emotionally and socially to leave, and of course the religion is structured to make exiting very hard. It’s a tight, almost hermetically sealed culture.

  46. 46.

    MagdaInBlack

    @schrodingers_cat:

    ive been following that and thinking the same

    ETA I’ve recently read “Cracking India” – Babsi Sidhwa, which left an impression, so Im paying attention to this.

  47. 47.

    schrodingers_cat

    Balloon juicers with a large Twitter following amplify what is going on in India. BJP led government is trying to stifle the protests and shutting down the internet to stop the news of unspeakable police brutality from getting out.
    Thanks

  48. 48.

    germy

    IBM Research has discovered a new battery solution that sources materials from seawater. Batteries tend to require the use of heavy metals for creation, including both nickel and cobalt. The extraction of these metals are a cause for concern for many with both humanitarian and environmental impacts in play.

    IBM is essentially announcing a potential alternative to lithium-ion batteries – and not just an alternative to some of the main ingredients. What’s more, IBM states the batteries perform even better than current lithium-ion batteries. Citing greater efficiency, faster charging, as well as higher power and energy density. These batteries are not just environmentally sound, but are also more capable in general. Further adding to their appeal, IBM states they are cheaper to produce thanks to their lack of heavy metals.

    The issue is that they are currently far from being in a finished state. IBM’s announcement does not even suggest the company intends to build the batteries itself. Instead, the collaboration with the other vested companies is intended to flesh out the technology and create an environment where it becomes easier for other companies to produce the seawater-sourced batteries in the future.

    https://screenrant.com/ibm-seawater-battery-tech/

  49. 49.

    germy

    Therapist: "You need to stop all this negative self-talk."

    Me: "You're right, I've been an idiot."

    Therapist: "See, that's the problem."

    Me: "I know, I'm sorry. I'm such a fucking failure."

    Therapist: "This is the opposite of what I want."

    Me: "I am literally Hitler."

    — Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) December 18, 2019

  50. 50.

    BC in Illinois

    @germy:

    The fact is, no President has ever done what I have done for . . .   religion itself!— Donald J. Trump

    Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism – – they were NOTHING,  until Trump arrived.

    (And did what, exactly?)

  53. 53.

    Another Scott

    @Shalimar: The GOP could have stopped Donnie the day after he rode down the escalator (the day after JEB! announced). They didn’t because they value power more than anything. These fake tut-tutting comments by Flake and all the rest aren’t worth much of anything. They’ll be forgotten by tomorrow.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  54. 54.

    Hoodie

    The problem with a lot of these “principled conservatives” is that resisting Trump does not require some justification that aligns with a particular political philosophy. Trying to shoehorn it into political philosophy inevitably turns into the type of weakness displayed by people like Flake, a prudential weaseling where you end up basing your approach to Trump on the needs of your “team,” i.e., on whether it forwards the particular political agenda associated with your nominal philosophy, rather than looking at the more universal reasons that Trump is unacceptable.

    For example, look how evangelicals twist themselves in knots to support Trump because he forwards their political goals, while he steamrolls over their own standards of personal behavior. Yes, many evangelicals are hypocrites, but I’m sure a lot of them do actually hold themselves to the standards of personal behavior they espouse. However, thinking in terms of what enables the “team” to win has sadly caused them to horribly compromise themselves. Liberals can be vulnerable to a similar problem when thinking politically about which particularly strategy for dealing with Trump will produce the best outcome for their particular political agenda.

    Trump evokes a dark side of humanity. He’s an angry, twisted tangle of insecurities and resentments, and he brings out the same in people around him. Everyone has ugliness within, and civilized life necessitates suppressing or otherwise ameliorating this ugliness. The mere existence of but Trump has caused a lot of people to quit doing that. You need someone like Fred Rogers to counterbalance Trump, not a political philosophy.

  58. 58.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Jeff “tits on a boar” Flake

    Not to be confused with Donald “Man-tits on a boor” Trump.

     

    [NB: Feel free to substitute “boob” for “boor,” or anyplace else it might be appropriate.]

  59. 59.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy:

    The issue is that they are currently far from being in a finished state. IBM’s announcement does not even suggest the company intends to build the batteries itself. Instead, the collaboration with the other vested companies is intended to flesh out the technology and create an environment where it becomes easier for other companies to produce the seawater-sourced batteries in the future.

    Something tells me there is more than one issue and there won’t be a cheap solution.

  61. 61.

    SFAW

    @Sloegin:

    The Christianity Today editor that wrote that Trump should be removed from office had also announced his retirement back in October. Some real moral courage, that.

    His courage is still an order of magnitude or two greater than Flake’s.

     

    Flake and Suzy Collins should have a brow-furrowing contest. Not sure who would win.

  63. 63.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yeah. There’s lots of stuff in seawater, but the second law of thermodynamics tells us that it will take significant energy to get it out.

    As I usually do, I’ll say I’d like to see a lifetime energy balance for this scheme. Not clear to me that people do that any more.

  64. 64.

    germy

    @OzarkHillbilly:  These sort of articles always start out sounding like it’s a huge breakthrough, and then the final paragraphs admit it’s very early in a theoretical/development stage.

    I thought the concept was interesting anyway.

  69. 69.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Cheryl Rofer: People have gotten used to science making miracles happen. Sometimes I think this is our greatest obstacle in the fight against climate change. Why do the hard work of controlling carbon when science will save us?

    @germy: Yep, they want to get some good PR out of it just before they abandon the project as one which will never reach fruition and return a profit.

     

    ETA off to find a nap.

  70. 70.

    Immanentize

    @germy: my neighbor is a battery scientist at Tufts.  His focus is, regardless of material, weight.   Batteries got to get lighter both for applications and for making massive storage systems.

    He is looking at materials and micro batteries.  It is all so interesting.  Meanwhile, Congress in their stop gap gap budget just took out almost all renewable credits.

  72. 72.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: hahaha.

    Trump: What a pathetic excuse for a human being.

    Could one of you artists make that into a car magnet?  I would buy 10.

  74. 74.

    debbie

    @germy: 

    I wonder if Trump thinks Evangelicals are as evil as Jews but also have to vote for him? I wonder what it’s like to know that his supporters hate him too? //

  76. 76.

    danielx

    @MattF: 

    He does have great political hair, just like Pence. However…he has somehow missed the fact that the Republican base is composed of mouthbreathing Faux Nooz devotees, plus those for whom Fox is too mainstream.
    Flake is a senator I’ll bet David Brooks simply adores.

  77. 77.

    J R in WV

    @Amir Khalid: 

    Someone should tell Trump that, being head of a secular government, it is not for him to do anything for evangelical Christianity or indeed any religion, beyond protecting its adherents’ rights.

    Actually, Trump hasn’t even done that, properly. He HAS made it more possible for RWNJ bastards to hate on Gay and Trans folks in public, but otherwise has made a mockery of religion in every way possible, by wiping his feet on both the words of Jesus and the Constitution.

  79. 79.

    danielx

    Speaking of adoration, I love hitting the end icon on the new page so I can see Tunch’s glowering visage.

  80. 80.

    J R in WV

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Ms. O and I know the article’s author and he is not a Pence fan (although Pence would be more acceptable to him on “moral” grounds than Trump). His facebook feed is now full of exceptionally vile and badly spelled comments from offended evangelicals.

    Perhaps because a large proportion of evangelicals are both vile and badly spelled?

  82. 82.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Flake is a bit florid but “Conservative is supposed to take the pessimistic view of human nature” isn’t a bad point, except Conservatives really don’t. It’s really about letting one’s lizard hind brain do the thinking.

  84. 84.

    Cam-WA

    If you know anything of Flake’s longer history, you know that this piling on isn’t quite fair. He DID speak out against Trump, so the comparisons to Collins are not apt. And as for his votes, he voted “conservative.” What else would you expect of him? He IS a conservative, just not a Trumper. I would NEVER support Flake in an election.

    Those that think he was a “coward” for not running again might think about what would have had happened had he run and won the Republican primary; Sinema would not have won the general election. Flake’s retirement paved the way for her narrow win.

  86. 86.

    J R in WV

    @WereBear:

    Don’t have to tell me, I escaped from the Southern Baptists.

    You might be interested in this Wartburg Watch web site, which is intended for folks escaping abuse in various Calvinist fundagelical evangelistic churches.

    Evidently in most of those churches it’s OK for a minister to grope, fondle or otherwise take advantage of girls and women, as long as it’s done with a little privacy so the others don’t get jealous.

    And it is always the fault of the little girl or woman, never the fault of the “youth minister” or other male leader. And one of the rules is that women can’t be leaders… whut?

  87. 87.

    Jerzy Russian

    @WaterGirl: 

    Can’t speak for Mr. X, but when I push the down arrow (that is near the top of the page) on my phone, it sends me to the bottom of the page where Mr. Cole’s twitter feed often has a picture of Tunch. Perhaps that is what he meant?

  88. 88.

    Matt

    The political impulses that compelled us all to enter public life were defined by sturdy pillars anchored deep in the American story.

    That’s a heck of a euphemism for “white supremacy”.

    The only apology I’m going to take seriously from the likes of Flake is one in their suicide note.

  91. 91.

    Princess

    @schrodingers_cat: I’m following you on twitter and reposting whenever I see one of your tweets or anyone else tweeting about the protests. Thank you for doing this, and for reminding us to help.

  92. 92.

    WaterGirl

    @Jerzy Russian: Thanks.  I did wonder if that was it, but the down arrow takes me way further down the page than John’s twitter feed, but that may depend on your device.

    edit: love the formal “Mr. X”!

  94. 94.

    James E Powell

    Trying to imagine anyone in the Republican Party who cares what Flake has to say.

    Flake: You and our party are on trial! Our principles!

    Republicans: Great, now go home and get your f***in’ shinebox.

  95. 95.

    Another Scott

    @germy: Donnie’s voters could have gone elsewhere if he wasn’t on the ballot.  (How they would have done that is an exercise for the reader.)

    The GOP is the master of dirty tricks as we know.  If they really didn’t want him to be the nominee, they could have stopped him.

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  96. 96.

    mrmoshpotato

    @BC in Illinois:

    Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism – – they were NOTHING, until Trump arrived.

    (And did what, exactly?)

    “Sucked the Kremlin’s asshole since 1987” for $200, Alex.

  97. 97.

    mrmoshpotato

    @SFAW: Can an overly furrowed brow rip a hole in the space-time continuum?  What about being very concerned but not doing a fucking thing?

  101. 101.

    EthylEster

    @JPL: McCain had more courage that (sic) Flake.

    Low bar. Flake had/has no courage.
    Ultimately JMcC stood up for the right.
    But he also did a fair number of despicable things as a Senator.

  102. 102.

    mrmoshpotato

    I’m all for a Space Force if we use it to launch every fucking member of this criminal administration straight the fuck into the sun

    — Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) December 20, 2019

    We could crowdfund it.

  103. 103.

    Raoul

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: If nothing else, the media ecosphere may from time to time now have to acknowledge that the evangelical voter base is … divided! (They seem to love America is divided stories, so OK how about Christians can’t agree stories? It’s been true – though of course true believers have not considered liberal mainline Xtians to be for realz).

  104. 104.

    Zinsky

    Absolutely!  The wanker Flake is no moral hero.  Maybe he can use some of his hair spray to seal Trump’s mouth shut!

  106. 106.

    SFAW

    @Cam-WA:

    If you know anything of Flake’s longer history, you know that this piling on isn’t quite fair. He DID speak out against Trump, so the comparisons to Collins are not apt.

    I know you mean well, but come on. He and Mitt Romney and Collins (and a host of other Rethugs) talk a great game, but that’s all. And Collins has sometimes discussed her issues with the Traitor-in-Chief, although usually in a much more mealy-mouthed way.

    Talk is cheap. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (and various other non-Van Drew Dems) exhibited far more courage in their impeachment votes than Flake ever has in anything. So, no, he doesn’t get any kind of a “pass” for being a quisling.

    Sinema getting his seat is about the only thing he (indirectly) did of any value. and she only got it because he’s a cowardly shit.

  109. 109.

    ola azul

    Voting “present” paves the way for all sortsa mischief.

    If this seemingly absurd, disastrous scenario comes to pass, as so many formerly absurd, disastrous scenarios already have, no doubt Tulsi will triumphally descend upon the treasons-greetings GOP debutante ball like a deus ex machina bearing Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate (spoiler: Tulsi was Trump’s agent in Hawaii all along!) and the Crowdstrike server Hillary has been dutifully squirreling away in THE Ukraine with the help of Soros millions.

    For fuck’s sake.

    The singular metasticizing perfidy of the idiotic timeline in which we live is made all the more insulting by its world-historical delusional exponential stupidity.

  110. 110.

    SFAW

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Can an overly furrowed brow rip a hole in the space-time continuum?

    I tend to think not, considering brows have been overly furrowed for a number of years

    What about being very concerned but not doing a fucking thing?

    That’s just status quo for Suzy et al.

  112. 112.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @germy: The fact is, no President has ever done what I have done for Evangelicals, or religion itself!— Donald J. Trump

    Sadly or scarily, it’s actually true–just not in the way he thinks.

    He just doesn’t do irony, does he?

  114. 114.

    Bill Arnold

    Flake’s position is curiously similar to the Christianity Today editorial’s position, though he’s a Mormon. (It is the correct position for Republicans, to be clear.) Washington Examiner link for those who have used up their free WaPo clicks.
    Jeff Flake: GOP ‘denying objective reality’ when agreeing Trump did nothing wrong (Mike Brest, December 20, 2019)
    Specifically, this part:

    “But what is indefensible is echoing House Republicans who say that the president has not done anything wrong. He has.”
    “The willingness of House Republicans to bend to the president’s will by attempting to shift blame with the promotion of bizarre and debunked conspiracy theories has been an appalling spectacle,” he said. “It will have long-term ramifications for the country and the party, to say nothing of individual reputations.”

    I’m OK with anything resembling a spine in Republicans, because they treat defectors (is there a better word for honorable disagreement) so badly.

  116. 116.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Adorable. I’m looking for something more along the lines of “The Russthuglican party will spend Christmas walking into the sea with its pockets full of rocks and carrying 50-lb dumbbells.”

  117. 117.

    Raoul

    WaPo front page:
    White House Threatened to Veto Spending Bill Over Ukraine Payments
    Language in the legislation would have required the prompt release of future military aid. A veto could have led to a government shutdown beginning today.

    Jesus. The Dems could have leveraged an absolutely perfect illustration of how this White House is playing Ukraine against the public interests of the nation. But they chickened out because some might have blamed Nancy for a shut down.

    ETA: Also, “Such a scenario would have injected yet more chaos into a Capitol riven by partisan warfare.” Fuck you, WaPo. Impeachment is not partisan warfare. It is a necessary corrective on a reckless Admin.

  118. 118.

    J R in WV

    @EthylEster:

     

    @JPL: McCain had more courage that (sic) Flake.

    Low bar. Flake had/has no courage.
    Ultimately JMcC stood up for the right.
    But he also did a fair number of despicable things as a Senator.

    McCain also did despicable things as a member of the USN, which is why he never made Admiral, while both his father and grandfather did.

  121. 121.

    trnc

    @germy: 

    The fact is, no President has ever done what I have done for Evangelicals,

    Its true. He made open corruption and sexual promiscuity safe for Falwell and other professional christians.

  124. 124.

    lumpkin

    Nowhere, in all that flowery, hand wringing verbiage does Flake come right out and say that trump should be removed from office. Coward.

  128. 128.

    Fair Economist

    The “batteries from seawater” sounds like puffery to me. There’s no elements in seawater you can’t get elsewhere, so seawater wouldn’t actually be needed for any new battery technology. The only value would be if there is some element economically extractable from seawater, and for most elements that doesn’t work, as Cheryl points out.

    If it’s not *total* vaporware, it’s probably about sodium-sulfur batteries, both of which are found in reasonable concentrations in seawater. Right now sulfur extraction from seawater is not economic, but unlike other efficient battery chemistries, it’s true you could get enough of both from seawater at economically plausible extractions to make as many batteries as we could possibly need, unlike lithium, where we don’t currently know about enough to run the entire world solely on lithium batteries.

  129. 129.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @hugely:  He was involved in the Forrestal fire, but I put that down to bad luck/bad at his job.  I was really wondering about “despicable.”

  130. 130.

    Another Scott

    @Fair Economist:

    Horse’s mouth:

    […]

    Many battery materials, including heavy metals such as nickel and cobalt, pose tremendous environmental and humanitarian risks. Cobalt in particular, which is largely available in central Africa, has come under fire for careless and exploitative extraction practices.1

    Using three new and different proprietary materials, which have never before been recorded as being combined in a battery, our team at IBM Research has discovered a chemistry for a new battery which does not use heavy metals or other substances with sourcing concerns.

    The materials for this battery are able to be extracted from seawater, laying the groundwork for less invasive sourcing techniques than current material mining methods.

    IBM researchers work in the IBM Research Battery Lab to combine and test unique materials and formulations for more sustainable battery technologies.

    Just as promising as this new battery’s composition is its performance potential. In initial tests, it proved it can be optimized to surpass the capabilities of lithium-ion batteries in a number of individual categories including lower costs, faster charging time, higher power and energy density, strong energy efficiency and low flammability.

    New battery design could outperform lithium-ion across several sustainable technologies

    Discovered in IBM Research’s Battery Lab, this design uses a cobalt and nickel-free cathode material, as well as a safe liquid electrolyte with a high flash point. This unique combination of the cathode and electrolyte demonstrated an ability to suppress lithium metal dendrites during charging, thereby reducing flammability, which is widely considered a significant drawback for the use of lithium metal as an anode material.

    […]

    Overall, this battery has shown the capacity to outperform existing lithium-ion batteries not only in the previously listed applications, but can also be optimized for a range of specific benefits, including:

    * Lower cost: The active cathode materials tend to cost less because they are free of cobalt, nickel, and other heavy metals. These materials are typically very resource-intensive to source, and also have raised concerns over their sustainability.

    * Faster charging: Less than five minutes required to reach an 80 percent state of charge (SOC), without compromising specific discharge capacity.

    * High power density: More than 10,000 W/L. (exceeding the power level that lithium-ion battery technology can achieve).

    * High energy density: More than 800 Wh/L, comparable to the state-of-art lithium-ion battery.

    * Excellent energy efficiency: More than 90 percent (calculated from the ratio of the energy to discharge the battery over the energy to charge the battery).

    * Low flammability of electrolytes

    […]

    It sounds like an improved lithium-based battery, without nickel or cobalt. It sounds like a potentially important improvement. The seawater stuff isn’t why, of course.

    Who knows though, until they publish something peer-reviewed.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  131. 131.

    hugely

    @Omnes Omnibus: yea im too young to know much other than he was an admirals son and grandson and acted like it at Annapolis. I can’t say despicable other than 2nd hand source says he was a jerk at usna. Plenty of accounts of him being a jerk post Navy. I confused Oriskany and Forrestal yep, so anyway not sure I add anything here lol

  132. 132.

    Fair Economist

    @Another Scott: They don’t say anything about lithium, so I doubt lithium is involved since it’s very trace in seawater. Mostly this sounds like some kind of sodium battery (very fast charging) although that wouldn’t qualify for “low flammability”.

  134. 134.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @O. Felix Culpa: Not really. Ms. O and I know the article’s author and he is not a Pence fan

    That’s good to hear. I am so sick of all of Christianity and all Christians being lumped by the mainstream media into “Evangelicals” who we are then told are all for Trump. It’s just not true.

    I assume it happens because A. pure laziness and B. the total lack of education regarding religion in general a typical news media journo has, and C. what is becoming a very millennial trait lately: being spiritual but not being affiliated with any particular religion. So they just unquestioningly accept the RW Christian trope that they are the only Christians.

    I mean, seriously, when was the last time we had CNN bring the pastor of a Congregationalist church on to give their point of view? And my in-laws Lutheran church is pretty darn progressive in it’s emphasis on accepting LGBTQ members and working on helping poverty in their community. Not to mention Jim Wallace’s Sojourner’s organization is incredibly focused on social justice. And hey, I’ve even got a few Mormon friends who are open about not supporting his immoral behavior.

    So yeah, it doesn’t surprise me CT is likely full of people who don’t think this President is a good man at all.

  135. 135.

    Kent

    If Flake and Collins and any of the other so-called “centrist” Senators had wanted to actually put the brakes on Trump’s worst impulses they could easily have voted against McConnell’s abandonment of the filibuster for SCOTUS appointments. Only would have taken two GOP votes to stop that in its tracks. And would have forced Trump to find SCOTUS appointments that could have gained at least 8 Dem votes. Something he could have easily done and still found conservative judges.

  138. 138.

    Aleta

    @Another Scott: Cobalt-free, etc. sure would be nice. You’ve probably seen a lot of this information about deep sea mining and increasing need for battery production for electric cars.   The images are good. (Two articles in separate comments.)   I think the mining part is getting increased  coverage this year because of environmental concerns vs the pressure to start mining soon.

    1/2 BBC :  The future of electric cars may depend on mining critically important metals on the ocean floor.  That’s the view of the engineer leading a major European investigation into new sources of key elements.

    Demand is soaring for the metal cobalt – an essential ingredient in batteries and abundant in rocks on the seabed.

    Laurens de Jonge, who’s running the EU project, says the transition to electric cars means “we need those resources”.

    The BBC’s David Shukman explains how deep sea mining works

    He was speaking during a unique set of underwater experiments designed to assess the impact of extracting rocks from the ocean floor.

    In calm waters 15km off the coast of Malaga in southern Spain, a prototype mining machine was lowered to the seabed and ‘driven’ by remote control.

    Cameras attached to the Apollo II machine recorded its progress and, crucially, monitored how the aluminium tracks stirred up clouds of sand and silt as they advanced.

    …

    So for any organisms feeding by filter, waters that are suddenly filled with stirred-up sediment would be threatening.

    “Many species are unknown or not described, and let alone do we know how they will respond to this activity – we can only estimate.”

    And Dr de Stigter warned of the danger of doing to the oceans what humanity has done to the land.

    “With every new human activity it’s often difficult to foresee all the consequences of that in the long term.

    “What is new here is that we are entering an environment that is almost completely untouched.”

  139. 139.

    Aleta

    @Aleta:

    2/2  (Long article.  Besides this environmental description, there is lots of info on the test mining that is starting now.  The reporting is trying for balance I think, and the mining companies are interested in getting their information out as well.)

      Nature  Smothered by sediment    (from July 2019)

    Mining in the CCZ, if it does happen, is still almost a decade away, with Global Sea Mineral Resources aiming to open a commercial deep-sea mine by 2027. When it does kick off, the scene at the ocean bottom will look something like this: robotic machines as large as combine harvesters will crawl along, picking up metallic nodules and sucking up the top 10 centimetres or so of soft sediment with them. Because the nodules grow so slowly, mining them will effectively remove them from the sea floor permanently, say scientists.

    The nodules are an irreplaceable habitat for many of the creatures that live in the CCZ. “For most of the animals in the direct vicinity, mining will be lethal. It will wipe out most of the large animals and everything that’s attached to the nodules. That’s a given, I would say,” says Henko de Stigter, an ocean-systems scientist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research in Texel, whose assessment is shared by many researchers.

    But the impacts of mining in the CCZ would be much broader than just killing the ecosystem around the nodules. As the collectors moved across the sea floor, they would stir up large clouds of soft sediment that would disperse, possibly for tens of thousands of kilometres, before eventually resettling. At high densities, sediment plumes can bury and smother the animals on the sea floor. Just how far the sediment will disperse remains unknown. “We’re only starting to see how far the plume reaches and we’re still very far from knowing what the effect will be,” says de Stigter. Next month, he will test the impacts of a prototype nodule harvester in shallow Mediterranean waters.

    Scientists are also carrying out laboratory and computer simulations to assess the impact of the disturbed sediment. One computer-modelling study, published in January (B. Gillard et al. Elem. Sci. Anth.7, 5; 2019), found that the sediment could take up to ten times longer to resettle than is currently assumed, meaning it will probably travel farther in the water column. And some researchers say that even trace amounts of sediment stirred up by the mining operations could smother sea-floor life far away.

    In the CCZ, once the nodules have been collected by a harvester, they’ll be shunted up a kilometres-long tube to a large surface support vessel, which will sort out millions of nodules a day and return the waste sediment to the sea, creating yet another plume. Right now, there’s little clarity on where the waste will be released, in part because returning sediments to the sea bed is costly and technically challenging.

    One suggestion is to reinject the plume at a depth of 1,000 metres, still thousands of metres above the sea bed. Scientists worry that this practice could harm or kill life at mid-water depths, just as Thiel feared 30 years ago.

    Without more information about these deep-sea environments, researchers don’t even know how to define the risks. “What is serious harm? There are some clear red lines, but there’s no definitive answer to that question yet,” says Gordon Paterson, one of three ecologists who sit on the ISA’s Legal and Technical Commission (LTC), which is, in part, a scientific advisory body.

    “We understand that global extinction is serious harm and we know that interference in carbon sequestration is serious harm. Scientists know that mining will cause local extinction of species in the CCZ, but are we talking about the extinction of species across the CCZ or just in the mined area? It is complicated,” he says.

  142. 142.

    Aleta

    @Aleta:  A little bit of how  mining companies are presenting  the possible advantage of getting cobalt by deep sea mining as opposed to in the DR Congo (from above BBC article).  But destroying ocean floor is still a serious decision, even just considering the newer fishing practices currently destroying ocean bottom that produces scallops, lobster and food for some fish.

    Expanding production there [in the DRC] is not straightforward which is leading mining companies to weigh the potential advantages of cobalt on the seabed.

    Laurens de Jonge, who’s in charge of the EU project, known as Blue Nodules, said: “It’s not difficult to access – you don’t have to go deep into tropical forests or deep into mines.

    “It’s readily available on the seafloor, it’s almost like potato harvesting only 5km deep in the ocean.”

    And he says society faces a choice: there may in future be alternative ways of making batteries for electric cars – and some manufacturers are exploring them – but current technology requires cobalt.

    Laurens de Jonge likens the process to “potato harvesting” 5km down in the ocean.    “If you want to make a fast change, you need cobalt quick and you need a lot of it – if you want to make a lot of batteries you need the resources to do that.”

    His view is backed by a group of leading scientists at London’s Natural History Museum and other institutions.  They recently calculated that meeting the UK’s targets for electric cars by 2050 would require nearly twice the world’s current output of cobalt.

  143. 143.

    r€nato

    didn’t even run again for the Senate (which is great, because we got Sinema).

    Yeah, about that… rumor is that she’ll vote against convicting the POtuS. Given her ample track record as a DINO, that would not surprise me at all. Yeah she is better than the alternative we had at the time of the election (Martha “Participation Trophy” McSally). She’s generally good on reproductive rights. Beyond that, 100% DINO.

  144. 144.

    Ruckus

    @Amir Khalid:

    First you’d have to explain, using very small words, what those words mean. Good luck with that…..

    Then you’d have to explain that the world doesn’t revolve around the stick stuck in trumps ass, because of course he thinks it does. Good luck with that….

    Then you have to check your self into a mental health clinic, to wipe out the stench of trump all over you and figure out how to reset every value you now hold. Good luck with that….

  145. 145.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Something tells me there is more than one issue and there won’t be a cheap solution.

    Why would you ever think that….//

    Think we’ll see this in our lifetimes?

  149. 149.

    brantl

    @Omnes Omnibus: Didn’t show up to help fight a fire that he caused with hot-dogging. Crashed several planes (4 total, I think), and when he was shot down, it was because he was in a place he wouldn’t have been, had he been obeying orders. And threw Viet Nam MIAs under the bus, in congress.

  152. 152.

    Bill Arnold

    @Another Scott:
    That press release was annoyingly unclear, so poked at google scholar with the name given in that piece. Here’s her publications list including patent applications:
    https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=UIIV20kAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate
    If I had to quickly guess, it would be this or a follow-on, which has two rather different independent claims.
    Rechargeable metal halide battery
    There are a few different battery technologies in there. I’m not a chemist so will not try to evaluate/summarize.
    I think we’ll be hearing more about this, whatever it is.

  153. 153.

    Jinchi

    It’s not true that Flake was a rubber stamp for Trump.

    He took a brave stand against providing relief to the victims of Hurricane Harvey.

  154. 154.

    TriassicSands

    (which is great OK, because we got Sinema)

    Sinema is the only anti-Net Neutrality Democrat. Sure, she’s better than Flake, but like some other senators, e.g., Manchin, Sinema can’t always be counted on for important votes. If it is true, as suggested above, that she will vote against convicting Trump, then she is not the kind of senator anyone should want — clearly she will be putting her own perceived political interests above the welfare of the country and doing what is right. Other, more courageous Democratic representatives made the opposite choice when they came out publicly for Trump’s impeachment inquiry and then voted to impeach him. I hope r€nato’s rumor is wrong and Sinema will do the right thing. We can’t hammer Susan Collins for voting the way she does and simultaneously give Sinema a pass. Might she be one of those who, when the wind shifts a little, discovers she’s really a Republican? Her voting record in the Senate is the worst of any Democratic senator — including the significantly more precarious Doug Jones of Alabama —  and not much better than Collins herself.

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