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We still have time to mess this up!

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You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / The Black PSYOP Part VI: The President’s Defense in the Senate

The Black PSYOP Part VI: The President’s Defense in the Senate

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The ongoing Black PSYOP by the President, his Congressional defenders, his surrogates, and his supporters is set to enter its next phase: using the defense of the President in the Senate trial of his impeachment to launder the Russian misinformation and agitprop about Vice President Biden, Hunter Biden, and the conspiracy theory that the Clinton 2016 campaign and Ukraine to interfere in the 2016 presidential election not the Russians through the Senate into mainstream reporting and to the American people.

From The Washington Post:

White House lawyers are gearing up for a scorched-earth defense of President Trump in the impeachment trial, mounting a politically charged case aimed more at swaying American voters than GOP senators — and damaging Trump’s possible 2020 opponent, Joe Biden.

Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, and Jay Sekulow, Trump’s personal attorney, plan to use their time in the trial to target the former vice president and his son, Hunter, according to multiple GOP officials familiar with the strategy. Trump’s allies believe that if they can argue that the president had a plausible reason for requesting the Biden investigation in Ukraine, they can both defend him against the impeachment charges and gain the bonus of undercutting a political adversary.

This is why Senator Cruz floated his one for one deal on witnesses. Specifically that if the House Democratic impeachment managers are allowed to call John Bolton, then the President’s defense team gets to call Hunter Biden. It is why Senator Graham has been suggesting a special counsel be appointed to investigate the Bidens and if one isn’t appointed he’s going to do it himself through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

We know the President’s and his surrogates allegations about Vice President Biden and Hunter Biden are Russian agitprop. As Paula Chertok has reported and I’ve repeatedly referenced here in the previous Black PSYOP posts, it was created in the spring of 2014 in order to begin to dirty up Vice President Biden ahead of a potential 2016 presidential run.

The repeatedly debunked conspiracy theory the Clinton campaign conspired with Ukraine to steal the 2016 presidential election and frame the Russia and the President now appears to have been established by Russia as early as 2015.

Three weeks after Election Day 2016, the Kremlin officially floated a theory that would ultimately lead to only the third presidential impeachment in U.S. history.

“Ukraine seriously complicated the work of Trump’s election by planting information” aimed at damaging his campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry told reporters on Nov. 30, 2016, accusing the Ukrainian government of scheming to help elect Hillary Clinton.

Russian officials offered no evidence—on that day or on any other day—that it was really Kyiv and not Moscow that meddled in the 2016 election. Nor have U.S. intelligence agencies backed off on their collective finding that the Kremlin orchestrated a major effort to help Trump win office.

Zakharova’s claims seemed easy enough to shrug off at the time. It was not surprising that the Kremlin, highly skilled in the dark arts of dezinformatsiya, would try to shift blame to its adversaries in Kyiv.

But that effort to shift blame may have started months earlier. A review of Russian state media reports from the time and interviews with a dozen current and former officials and experts in Kyiv and Washington paint a more sinister picture: that Zakharova’s seemingly throwaway accusation was actually the culmination of a year-long effort to frame Ukraine for a Russian attack, ultimately leading to parallel efforts by Moscow and President Donald Trump to try to game the 2020 election by seeking dirt on former vice president Joe Biden.

Cindy Otis, a former political and military analyst at the CIA who now leads the disinformation analysis program at Nisos, a cyber security firm, says that Moscow may even have planted the seeds even earlier than Zakharova’s news conference.

“There’s been an evolution of the main narrative” tying Ukraine to the 2016 election, Otis said. She pointed to a March 2015 article in the Kremlin-funded outlet Russia Today that tried to connect former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the future Democratic presidential nominee, to the popular uprising against the pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2013.

“The Russian narrative in 2015-2016 was that Clinton interfered in Ukraine, and that her campaign was being directed or driven by Ukrainian oligarchs,” Otis said.

As is typical of Russia’s disinformation operations, it hinged on a kernel of truth—the reports cited donations her charity had received from Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk beginning in 2008, which were initially reported by the Wall Street Journal.

“They really seized on that Wall Street Journal article,” Otis said, pointing to a chart included in the article listing “Ukraine” as the Clinton Foundation’s top donor that was widely shared by suspected Russian trolls and the far-right on social media.

But it wasn’t just isolated accounts accusing Ukraine of manipulating the 2016 election; lawmakers say they’ve seen signs of an organized, top-down effort directed by the Kremlin to create a false narrative and exonerate Russia.

Russia’s disinformation and agitprop campaign was laundered through the usual sources starting with Russia’s state backed news media platforms designed to propagandize Americans, such as RT, and from their through a variety of far right and alt-right sources until it hit places like Brietbart, The Gateway Pundit, and then, ultimately, John Solomon at The Hill.

This phase of the Black PSYOP will be wrapped within faux righteous indignation that the Democrats are simply continuing the conspiracy against the President, by using the impeachment to finish the job delineated in Russia’s conspiracy theory about the election, to remove him from office, overturn the 2016 presidential election results, and fix the 2020 election by doing so, as well as a lack of burden sharing by the EU in support of Ukraine. None of this is true! Approximately 2/3rds of the aid that Ukraine receives is from European Union member states. The Ukrainians are forbidden from using the Javelin missiles we’ve sold them, and which his defenders constantly reference as something the President did for Ukraine when no one else – not Obama, nor the EU leaders – would, because the President doesn’t want to upset the Russians, so they’re stored across the country from where the Ukrainians are actually fighting a Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Russians are the ones who actually conspired with and interfered in the 2016 elections on behalf of the President, not the Ukrainians conspiring with the Clinton campaign. If the Senate were to vote to convict the President during the trial phase of his impeachment it does not overturn the 2016 election, it simply removes him from office and bars him from running again at the Federal level. VP Pence would become president if this were to happen, which is not overturning the 2016 election. Overturning the 2016 elections would make Secretary Clinton president, which isn’t even in the realm of the possible. Finally, the President has repeatedly indicated that he would welcome foreign assistance in his reelection campaign or solicited it – on camera, to reporters!

The Senate, the world’s greatest deliberative country club, is just another front in the Black PSYOP campaign to fix the 2020 presidential election and absolve Russia of responsibility for the unconventional war it has been waging on the US so that sanctions against Russia can be lifted.

We are off the looking glass and through the map!

Open thread.

 

Reader Interactions

121Comments

  1. 1.

    wvng

    And all we can do is sit back and watch as it happens. If the media made ANY attempt to understand what Adam wrote here, and used that knowledge to frame their stories, perhaps the harm could be avoided. But they won’t.

  2. 2.

    Leto

    @wvng:  They’re basically the same as Republican voters. They won’t admit they were duped, so they’ll ride that bomb all the way down.

  3. 3.

    Another Scott

    (Paraphrasing from downstairs.)

    I saw Big Onion’s opening where (in my hearing) he thanked everyone there except for the House managers.  And tried to gaslight everyone that Donnie was yeah-too concerned and working on “burden-sharing” and it was in the Perfect Transcript™ of his call with Zelenskyy. As if talking with Zelenskyy would make the EU or Germany or anyone else pay more of the burden (beyond what they’re already doing far in excess of what the US is doing).

    But, of course, we know what Donnie really means when he talks about “burden-sharing”. It’s about Ukraine paying Donnie protection money and favors. He thinks he’s a mob boss that can shake down people in need – it’s so obvious.

    And the GOP Senators are fine with it. “This is fine.” And besides, the House managers were uncivil.

    Grr…

    I couldn’t take any more and turned it off. I’ll keep an eye on the comments here and at Wonkette’s live blog.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  4. 4.

    MattF

    Rick Wilson has noted the ‘post-Soviet vibe’ of the Trump operation— it’s specifically a ‘KGB-vibe’ plus a ‘mobster-vibe’. We’re about to get it, full-force. Re-scale your seismographs.

    I’ll note, btw, that Clinton Derangement Syndrome has been quiescent lately. Likely that will change.

  5. 5.

    evap

    Currently standing in line to get into the Senate galleries to catch a glimpse.   Not sure I will get in, and I’m not sure I have the stomach to watch for more than a few minutes.

  6. 6.

    VOR

    I overheard a conversation between a couple elderly men at a cafe this morning. One guy seemed reasonably well informed. The other grudgingly conceded Trump might have done something wrong, but doesn’t like the way the democrats are going about things. Why aren’t the Dems investigating Biden and the Billions he got from Ukraine?  In sum, both sides do it so he’ll keep voting Republican.

  8. 8.

    Gin & Tonic

    Good piece, Adam, thanks. I had just posted an excerpt from that CSIS article downstairs in response to Another Scott, pointing out that that “burden-sharing” argument is complete bullshit.

  9. 9.

    Another Scott

    Interesting Bloomberg commercial slagging Donnie on Obamacare during the Australian Open tennis coverage on ESPN2.

    Hmmm…

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  10. 10.

    Gin & Tonic

    @VOR:

     in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.

  11. 11.

    TaMara (HFG)

    Let’s face it, the writing has been on the wall since the beginning. All we can hope is the House Managers got through to enough people to squeak us by in November.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    @VOR:

    The other grudgingly conceded Trump might have done something wrong, but doesn’t like the way the democrats are going about things. Why aren’t the Dems investigating Biden and the Billions he got from Ukraine? In sum, both sides do it so he’ll keep voting Republican.

    We’re not going to win over the hateful faithful.  But hopefully enough people like that simply decide to stay home.

  16. 16.

    Raoul

    My very dear uncle died this past summer at the impressive age of 95. I always enjoyed spending time with him, he was a really great guy. Started out very conservative, but mellowed considerably over the +/- 40 years I was old enough to hold my own political views to parry with him.

    But he remained politically, mostly Republican. As a suburban Kansan, he hated Brownback, and expressly didn’t vote Trump, so he wasn’t an idiot. But his most favorite saying of all, about politics starting about the time of Newt, probably, was “a pox on both their houses!”

    This really is the pathway that Republicans have successfully followed for decades. Will the (fake) moderate GOPers in the Senate pay a price for such obvious toadying for a crime boss? I think the poxy answer is, not enough.

    It will come down to organizing. I know I owe a debt to all the angry women who undergirded and carried much of the energy of the 2018 blue wave. Is that going to rise enough (and I am joining in!)? I surely hope so.

  17. 17.

    Sab

    I must admit that I am being “lalala I can’t hear you” about their defense of Trump and his ilk.

  18. 18.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Nope.  I mean, this is what they’ll try, but this is Nunes level shit, the kind that comes back to bite them in the ass.  It’s too late.  They’ll give an excuse to vote Republican to people who would have found some other excuse to vote Republican.  The rest of the public will either go ‘Wow, this is some crazy shit’ or be constantly reminded of what Trump did wrong, depending on how politically alert they are.  The Hunter Biden gimmick has already gone out, and it dropped like a lead balloon.  Nobody buys it, so beat that dead horse.  The Hillary lie had to ride on decades of sliming her and misogynistic fury at a woman stepping out of her place.  Biden has decades of Fun Uncle reputation.

  19. 19.

    Another Scott

    @Adam L Silverman: From Wonkette –

    10:58 Fuckin’ kill me, it’s Jay Sekulow. And he wants to talk about the Mueller report.

    Thanks for being willing to cover this for us.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  20. 20.

    The Dangerman

    @evap:

    …for more than a few minutes.

    Can you scream Green Balloons at the end? Sure, you might spend a bit of time in the pokey, but think about the legendary status…

  22. 22.

    rachel

    @VOR: This is a major reason why I prefer to be surrounded by non-English speakers when I go to coffee shops: The conversations going on may be every bit as frustrating or dumb, but I’m not forced to bite my lip while I listen.

  23. 23.

    zhena gogolia

    It never occurs to them to ask where all this concern about Hunter Biden was in the years since he was on the board of Burisma.

    ETA: And Asha Rangappa asks, exactly what crime did either of the Bidens commit?

  25. 25.

    zhena gogolia

    GOP has been asking for a while, "What's the crime?" when it comes to Trump. Have they articulated the actual crime committed by Joe or Hunter Biden? I mean, can they point to any statute, under U.S. or Ukrainian law, which was broken by either one of them?— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) January 25, 2020

  26. 26.

    zhena gogolia

    Let us even posit that there was suspicion of a crime. Under what normal American regime would the investigation be led by the president? There are appropriate and legal channels for investigating allegations of wrongdoing. NONE of them involve a president and his private lawyer. https://t.co/W9rWQPK1cw— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) January 25, 2020

  27. 27.

    Raoul

    @TaMara (HFG): I think this trial will seal the fate of Cory Gardner. My sense of Maine politics is such that I’m just not sure about Collins. Beyond that, who knows.

    I think the electoral work needs to revolve around health care (and we may be about to get a massive lesson about our vulnerabilities, and the incompetence of Trump Inc via coronavirus), the soon to be sputtering economy, and the total lack of progress by the Senate on anything.

    I could imagine an ad that poses various questions:

    “What about fixing ACA?” followed by a short clip of a Republican saying “we got judges”
    “What about the economy?” different R saying “we got judges”
    “Coronavirus?” “Judges”
    “Infrastructure?” “Judges”

    Voiceover: Mitch McConnell killed _xx_ hundred bills in the last two years. In 2018, America voted for something different, and the House sent him hundreds of solutions to your concerns. Senator ____ and her/his best friend Mitch threw all that away for Trump’s crony judges.

  30. 30.

    Jager

    I had to take the Cakes (Mrs. J) to the Hollywood/Burbank (No more Bob Hope Airport) Airport this morning for a 6:45 flight. On the way home I started listening to the “defense” and the strangest thing happened, the screen on my car’s infotainment system started to flash in big red letters, BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT!

    I switched it over to Stevie Ray Vaughn for the rest of the drive home

  31. 31.

    Sab

    Trump did his “Saturday is Death Valley for ratings” as protection, because the ratings will collapse today. Anyone who wants their point of view would already be watching Faux.

  32. 32.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @zhena gogolia:

    GOP has been asking for a while, “What’s the crime?”

    And every time they ask it, they remind the public that Trump asked a foreign country to interfere in an American election.  The fuss around the Mueller investigation was too complicated for the public at large, especially because it was too complicated for the proudly stupid national press.  As a result, the message that got hammered home over and over was ‘Asking a foreign country to  interfere in an American election is a crime, but who knows if Trump did it?’  Then the stupid fucker confessed in an official written statement and it hit the public like a hammer.  Quid pro quo, whether Hunter Biden did anything, nobody who can be swayed cares.  They know asking a foreign country to interfere in an American election is a crime, and Trump’s people keep saying “Yes, we did it.”  The moment you do that, the ‘but’ is useless.

  33. 33.

    Sam

    I don’t know why the Dems don’t point out, at every opportunity, that the Mueller investigation was begun by Trump’s AG.  It wasn’t the haters, they didn’t have the power.  It was the Administration itself that put the investigation in place.

  35. 35.

    brantl

    These assholes sound like the debate club that was given the “Creationism” side of the argument; oh, I’m sorry that’s “Intelligent Design”, isn’t it? And they will support that horseshit, too. And they have a dumbass speaking right now about a javeline missile “killing” a tank. I was unaware anybody had developed organic tanks, what a breakthrough!

  37. 37.

    Searcher

    So my assumption is that Hunter Biden is a classic failson/schmuck, but he’s also probably no Don Jr/Eric.

    So given that he didn’t actually do anything legally wrong, couldn’t a decent lawyer prep him well enough to make the Republicans look like the crazy conspiracy mongers they are if he was called as a witness?  It’s not like he’s going to get up on the stand and pull a Rudy.

  38. 38.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Raoul: “Both sides are dirty” is always the fallback position. If both sides are equally dirty then you can keep following your prejudices no matter how much dirt comes out.

  39. 39.

    Brachiator

    White House lawyers are gearing up for a scorched-earth defense of President Trump in the impeachment trial, mounting a politically charged case aimed more at swaying American voters than GOP senators — and damaging Trump’s possible 2020 opponent, Joe Biden.

    I can understand, I guess, the GOP seeking an electoral advantage.

    But why would the Republicans want deliberate misinformation about Russian interference in elections entered into the public record? Are they really so stupid as to believe that this is good in the long run? Do they think that Russian interference can be thwarted even if Trump is supported? Or, has the entire GOP decided to sell out the country?

  41. 41.

    Adam L Silverman

    @zhena gogolia: And as she’s hammered repeatedly, if there was actually a predicate for a criminal investigation here, the FBI has full authority under US law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, to investigate Hunter Biden and Burisma and we have law enforcement treaty agreements in place with Ukraine allowing for the FBI to do so working through the DOJ/FBI liaison officer at US Embassy Kyiv. That this has not happened is further proof that their is so little there there that not even AG Barr, who, during his first run as attorney general transformed the closed preliminary investigation into Whitewater, where the Clintons were actually the victims, into a proper Federal investigation prior to the 1992 election to dirty Bill Clinton up on behalf of his boss, President George HW Bush, has anything to really work with.

  43. 43.

    tam1MI

    Putting this out here again: Money bomb Dem Seanatorial candidates during this. It will force the MSM to cover something besides the Repuke lies. Also, just imagine the look on Susan Collins face when she hears her Dem opponent got ANOTHER $5 mil in the bank!

  44. 44.

    MJS

    Anecdata, so take it for what it’s worth, but 4 friends of mine, probably all of whom voted for Trump (I didn’t say they were smart friends), all white males. As of last night, 2 of them are done with Trump and want him out. I believe both would carry that forward to November if Biden is the nominee. Not sure what they would do if it’s anyone else (again, didn’t say they were smart friends). So, maybe some good news in an important state (PA)?

  46. 46.

    zhena gogolia

    My prayer is that Dems and independents this time still remember what happened to Hillary Clinton in 2016, and will be immune to the slurs on Biden. (Harris’s experience doesn’t give me a huge amount of hope, though.)

  47. 47.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I am personally predicting that most of the Trump defense won’t make much sense to anyone not well versed in Conservative thinking and it won’t matter to the GOP Senate since they will be asleep threw most of it.

  48. 48.

    MomSense

    WTF is it with Republicans and playmobil hair? I’m now imagining taking it off and swapping in deep sea diving helmets, hockey goalie masks, tiaras, women’s chignons and flips.

    They just lie and distort.

  49. 49.

    artem1s

    I always knew there would be a political price to pay for proceeding with the impeachment.  I just hope we don’t have to endure too much second guessing from inside the party.  Look for a return to “Pelosi is doing it wrong because 45 wasn’t immediately frog marched out of the WH”.  Mostly, I think we need to encourage more investigations by the House, not less and demonstrate that we can pay attention to two things at once- the election and the corruption.  More investigations will help the down state races in the election, not hurt them.

  50. 50.

    Just Chuck

    @MattF:

    I’ll note, btw, that Clinton Derangement Syndrome has been quiescent lately. Likely that will change.

    It’s Biden Derangement Syndrome now.  Same Whitewater tactics they used on the Clintons.

  52. 52.

    Gin & Tonic

    Here is Pompeo’s lies statement about his ranting at the NPR reporter. Pretty remarkable from the USA’s top diplomat, under official seal.

    I don’t get the Bangladesh reference – is he alleging that he showed her that blank map and she pointed to Bangladesh when he asked her to point out Ukraine? Why in the world would anyone believe that, even for a second? She has an MA in European Studies from Cambridge, does he think she doesn’t know Asia from Europe?

  57. 57.

    trollhattan

    @MattF:

    I’ll note, btw, that Clinton Derangement Syndrome has been quiescent lately. Likely that will change.

    CDS is sadly evergreen, always there on the shelf, dusted and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

    Poor Chelsea.

  58. 58.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Gin & Tonic: is he alleging that he showed her that blank map and she pointed to Bangladesh when he asked her to point out Ukraine?

    Pompero is dumb enough to think the Bangladesh is were the Ukraine is. Remember Gross said the map didn’t have labels and Pompero has flunkies to read maps.

  60. 60.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: He’s got a hair trigger temper. And the more stressed he gets, the less ability he has to control it. He’s going to completely snap at some point and then things will get sporty. If I was an enterprising reporter, I’d be looking into mandated reports regarding his wife and kids going to the emergency room or urgent care or the family physician for treatment of “accidents”.

  61. 61.

    Starfish

    @MattF: Clinton derangement syndrome has been on the rise lately with people making a mess of that story where Clinton said it was too soon to endorse and Tulsi suing her for $50 million.

  64. 64.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Well apparently Trump’s defense team is already done and nothing new.  Just the same old lame stuff.

    I have a theory Trump’s lawyers are putting so little effort into this because they don’t expect to get paid.

  66. 66.

    MomSense

    So they stretched out their bullshit for two whole hours.  This is a farce.  Honestly their presentation made the case for introducing evidence and witnesses.

  67. 67.

    MomSense

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I think a male reporter he deemed “hostile” would be.  It seems to me that he views himself as so superior intellectually that he can’t imagine anyone else has expertise.  There’s also the fact that he has been spending a lot of time with trumps and Kushner.

  68. 68.

    Nelle

    If they are done early, then the senators can come back to Iowa and campaign.  I thought one of the goals was to tie up Bernies, Warren, Klobuchar (and don’t forget, Bennet) in DC just before the Feb 3 caucuses.

  69. 69.

    Brachiator

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Here is Pompeo’s lies statement about his ranting at the NPR reporter. Pretty remarkable from the USA’s top diplomat, under official seal.

    This is some deranged bullshit that could easily have come from Trump himself. It doesn’t address anything and is all empty attack.

    The Bangladesh reference is just bizarre.  And why on Earth would Pompeo double down on the noxious sexism implied here? “Kelly’s just a dumb girl who doesn’t understand anything because she can’t find Ukraine on a globe.” It’s a lie, of course, but it is also stunningly BESIDE THE FUCKING POINT!

    And these dopes expect journalists to still play by all the traditional rules while they themselves lie, run away, attack and do whatever under handed shit they want to peddle their bullshit.

    I hope that Kelly and good reporters continue to push back.  Because playing nice isn’t getting anything done.

  70. 70.

    Ella in New Mexico

    Hubby and I caught many hours of the House Managers presentations, and to be honest, were blown away by just how incredible a job they did. It’s a shame so many young people in the county don’t watch “regular” tv because it was the history and civics lesson of a lifetime that they never had.

    So, since we already know the truth here, and know that all Trump’s team is going to do is indignantly rehash Faux-noise falsehoods and irrelevant conspiracy theories as opposed to addressing his guilt or innocence, I’m not sure why anyone who likes facts would want to watch the next 24 hours of these hearings.

    It’d be like fine tuning your Twitter feed to the MAGA trollbots and forcing yourself to read their hateful lies and taunts all day. Not gonna do it.

  73. 73.

    Sandia Blanca

    @MomSense: Hilarious!  Thanks for the image suggestions; now every time I look at Sekulow I’ll picture him in the deep sea diving helmet.

  76. 76.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Starfish: Also, people are confused now that the president of the Human Rights Campaign, which is abbreviated as HRC, denounced the Sanders’ campaign accepting Joe Rogan’s endorsement.

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Today was the teaser. The real show will be Monday. It’ll be all about the Bidens. There’s no Tucker or Hannity or Ingraham tonight, so they’re saving almost all of that except the bit that Sekulow pushed out, for Monday when Fox can weaponize it for them.

  80. 80.

    germy

    “Trump was installed by a Constitutional mechanism called Electoral College, and he can be removed by a Constitutional mechanism called Impeachment. You can’t say it subverts the will of the people though, because most voters voted for his opponent.”

    – Tom the Dancing Bug

  81. 81.

    trollhattan

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Did you see that Hannity will interview Trump as part of Fox’s Superbowl pregame “entertainment?”

    I’m legit surprised the very lucrative Sports Division is putting up with this, but the order may have come from Rupert himself.

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    @trollhattan: They do it every year. They did it every year for Obama and every year for Bush 43. Though usually it was Chris Wallace doing the interviewing for previous presidents.

  84. 84.

    Adam L Silverman

    Hmmm….

  85. 85.

    Nelle

    @Adam L Silverman: Yes, if I’m better tomorrow (I’ve had this came cough + other stuff since Dec 14 and I’m trying to stay away from others), I might go see Amy.  But then they have to run back to DC.  Some of them are doing electric townhalls and other interviews so they carry on, one way or another.

  87. 87.

    Nelle

    Oh, Ernst.  You just earned another donation for your opponent.  We’re leaning toward Michael Franken, who resigned from the Navy rather than serve under Trump.  Yet the national party endorsed someone else months ago.

  89. 89.

    trollhattan

    @Adam L Silverman:

    When did Joni change her hair from Iowa farm practical to Texas helmet? Not a good look.

    Also, too, if Iowa has thee of four House Democrats, why do they still have two Republican senators? Do not understand.

  90. 90.

    Brachiator

    @Just Chuck:

    No offense, but is this just now starting to dawn on you?

    Selling the country out doesn’t really gain them anything. Not even the plutocrats. I have watched their folly.  Just looking for some insight into what they think they are doing.

  92. 92.

    MomSense

    @trollhattan:

    Holy crap, she has the playmobil women’s hair flip exactly!  I’m switching her hair to the glitter flip.

    ETA And I’m putting a bread bag on it!

  93. 93.

    trnc

    The Bidens should hold a press conference to discuss the points others made here – what laws broken by Hunter’s employment, why no US investigation through standard law enforcement channels into wrongdoing, etc. A lawsuit against Cippilone, Sekulow and Half Ass Nosferatu would be a nice touch, too.

  94. 94.

    MomSense

    @trnc:

    I think he should ignore it.  Hillary always responded and all it did was give them an excuse for more outraged reactions.

  95. 95.

    Duane

    @Adam L Silverman: The blank map thing does seem strange. Unless you’re taking tests what use is a blank map? Hard to believe Pompeo and his staff are so studious they spend time filling them out to stay sharp.

  96. 96.

    trollhattan

    @Duane: 
    It’s an easy task if you fill in all of Eastern Europe as “Russia.” You don’t even need to remember how to spell Belarus.

  97. 97.

    Another Scott

    @Brachiator:

    Selling the country out doesn’t really gain them anything.

    Eh?

    Cui bono?

    They benefit because it helps them retain unearned power. They’d rather be princes in a shell of America that turned into an apartheid state than see America live up to its creed.

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  98. 98.

    Adam L Silverman

    @trollhattan: I’m pretty sure she’s completely retired from the Iowa National Guard now, so she can let her hair grow out without having to worry about putting it up or braiding it or doing the tactical bun while doing her Guard duties each year.

  101. 101.

    Nelle

    @trollhattan: No senators were up for a vote in 2018.  Ernst this year, Grassley in 2022.  I’m new here but Grassley’s grandson just became Speaker of the House in the Iowa Legislature.  More generations to come, unfortunately.

  102. 102.

    Brachiator

    @Another Scott:

    Cui bono?

    They benefit because it helps them retain unearned power. They’d rather be princes in a shell of America that turned into an apartheid state than see America live up to its creed.

    This only brings more instability and makes the country more vulnerable.

    Conservatives used to brag about being hard headed realists.  But they have totally lost their minds. This shit cannot possibly work out.  Even a child can see that. But the Republicans keep inviting chaos anyway.

  104. 104.

    Another Scott

    @Brachiator:

    This shit cannot possibly work out.

    “This” is different for the rich and powerful than for the rest of us. You must realize that.

    E.g. A friend of a friend’s family was from China. He had a trust fund from his mother. She was the matriarch and apparently owned property in Beijing that didn’t seem to be impacted – at all – by the Revolution and all the rest. She was still alive, and living in the US, not that long ago.

    The GOP Teabaggers think that they and their cohorts will be just fine as long as they retain power. Just about anything goes in the quest for them to do so.

    It really is that simple for far too many of them.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  106. 106.

    mad citizen

    Still really appreciating this multi-part series of posts!  It really does seem like the main issue (other than if our planet survives and can host all of our species) is the fight between reality and something else.

    I’m waiting for some prominent Democrat to really lose their shit and go on a furious expletive-filled rant about this information war issue.  It could damage them, but who knows?  I’d be fine if Hillary, Bill or Obama did it too.  They’re not running for anything.  I’m thinking of something like Senator Bennett’s (Colorado) rant last year, only more.  That one got a lot of attention.

  107. 107.

    Brachiator

    @Another Scott:

    “This” is different for the rich and powerful than for the rest of us. You must realize that.

    I also have a high school friend whose grandparents were very prosperous in China.  They were murdered by the new regime.

    I have friends from Cuba and Costa Rica who were well off, and in one case a prominent politician.  They escaped by the skin of their teeth. Left their wealth behind.

    And a college roommate’s family had to flee Uganda because they were the wrong ethnicity.

    Sometimes the wealthy can only delay the doom that they unwittingly instigate or are simply observers to.

    You must realize that.

  108. 108.

    Another Scott

    @Brachiator: I’m glad you’ve got some anecdotes, too.  I would have expected nothing less.  ;-)

    Why do you think they (the GOP Senators) are willing to ignore Trump’s crimes if it’s not in their self-interest (over whatever time scale they think is important) to do so?

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  109. 109.

    Martin

    Given that there’s 53 GOP votes in the Senate, calling Hunter Biden without  John Bolton should be a trivial task, so why argue for the deal? Because the Senators don’t want to hear from Biden, because most of them don’t actually buy this bullshit conspiracy theory and don’t want to see it blow up in the Senate. So they need Democratic votes to call Biden, and they’re offering up Bolton to get them.

    That’s a sign of GOP weakness, not Dem weakness. Dems have the advantage of pushing the story into the public sphere and knowing that the evidence will steadily leak out prior to November, including Bolton’s book.

    Trumps team can make whatever case they want here, and Trump can say whatever he wants in the SOTU, but no evidence for their claims will surface the rest of the year, and a lot of evidence to refute it will.

  110. 110.

    Martin

    @Brachiator: Yep. The GOP keep giving lip service to populism, but populism gets really fucking scary, really quickly.  And it won’t be in their favor.

    That’s Puerto Rican’s hauling a guillotine to the Governors mansion. That’s in the United States. If law and order stops working, if elections stop working, other measures will be employed. And they will be horrible, regrettable, and also avoidable.

  112. 112.

    Brachiator

    @Another Scott:

    Why do you think they (the GOP Senators) are willing to ignore Trump’s crimes if it’s not in their self-interest (over whatever time scale they think is important) to do so?

    I think that the GOP believes, with some evidence to back it, that Trump will pave their way to glory. After all, Trump has a good chunk of his base fooled.

    But I am curious that the GOP would undermine the foreign policy and intelligence community and, if recent revelations are to be believed, even the military.  They are inviting further interference in elections by the Russians.  Do they think that if they further neuter Democrats, every potential adversary will leave them alone?

    Some Republicans know history and know this is foolish.  And yet, they persist. This is where we are.  I don’t think that this level of stupidity is fully explained by the false assertion that the rich always skate, or that these dopes only think short term.

    But then again, I am somewhat surprised that evangelicals really believe that Trump gives a shit about abortion or school prayer. And yet these fools buy in without reservation.

  113. 113.

    J R in WV

    @Brachiator:

    I am somewhat surprised that evangelicals really believe that Trump gives a shit about abortion or school prayer. And yet these fools buy in without reservation.

    Well, you must remember that conservative evangelical churches teach their members to only listen to the Pastor and his adjuncts, not to think for themselves, and not to read the Holy Book upon which their religion is theoretically based, but to listen to what the Pastors have to say about that book.

    So the “evangelical herd” is primed to believe only their chosen leadership, which is now, apparently, Trump. WASF ~!!~

  114. 114.

    Dan B

    @Brachiator:  My feeling is that today’s GOP feels the world, and the USA is in chaos because it’s not their white club members in every position of power.  To them more chaos is their hope of stopping the intolerable chaos that increasing diversity does to their ids.

  115. 115.

    Brachiator

    @J R in WV:

    Well, you must remember that conservative evangelical churches teach their members to only listen to the Pastor and his adjuncts, not to think for themselves, and not to read the Holy Book upon which their religion is theoretically based, but to listen to what the Pastors have to say about that book.

    Most evangelicals I’ve known and grew up around were big on individual and group reading of Scripture.  Some even tried to learn Hebrew (which doesn’t quite work, for all kinds of reasons). But there are a lot of super conservative evangelicals that I don’t know about and avoid like, like that new virus that’s going around.

    So the “evangelical herd” is primed to believe only their chosen leadership, which is now, apparently, Trump. WASF ~!!~

    I hear more crap about Trump being the imperfect vessel chosen by the Big Guy in the Sky to help America, not that he is the new Pastor in Chief.

  116. 116.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Adam, what do you think is the best way for us, laypeople to counter this disinformation?  I don’t mean trying to convince Trump supporters, obviously as there is zero chance of that, but is there a simple, easily understood response we should be using to help make sure other reasonable people we know don’t get sucked into this sort of Well, BothSides, ThereISNoTruth so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ mentality that Russia and the GOP are hoping to spread?  Something for people who probably don’t have large attention spans.

  117. 117.

    dimmsdale

    @Brachiator: I think your last 2 lines in particular NAIL it. As we’ve seen over the last 3 years, singing the praises of a venal, vicious, amoral tub of puke doesn’t conflict with those righteously held “beliefs in their own righteousness” they use to club everyone else with. It’s just a fact (I think) that we all hold beliefs that don’t at bottom have a rational basis. And for evangelicals and self-styled “people of faith” Trump may indeed be flawed, but if he’s their best bet (politically) to reach the Kingdom of Heaven, and the authoritarian, racist, Christian-ruled land of milk and honey they envision, so be it.

  118. 118.

    Mnemosyne

    @Another Scott:

    If she and her property survived the revolution, it’s because she had friends among the revolutionaries who protected her, possibly in exchange for a cut.

    More often, rich people caught up in revolutions end up like Phillippe Egalité — subject to execution when it becomes convenient regardless of how much support you gave the revolutionaries.

  119. 119.

    jl

    Thanks for informative post. I have to wonder how well the bogus Biden scandal will work if Democrats and good reporters can decisively debunk it repeatedly over next year. It will never be debunked for 30 to 40 percent of the population, even if God Himself, in the Christian guise of an old white guy with a white beard and robe on gold throne, yelled that is was BS through a sun drenched opening in the clouds.

    But, we don’t need them if we have 60 to 70 percent of the population.

    As for Trump teams defense, from what I heard on the news this morning, most of it has been that the House impeachment process was ‘very unfair to Trump’, which sounds familiar. I’ve heard that somewhere, it’s on the tip of my tongue…..

  120. 120.

    jl

    An electoral argument for a Sanders or Warren run up close to Biden in the polls will be a good thing, is that Trump will suddenly start insanely rambling about international corruption scandals on national TV. He’s already called on the Chinese to investigate a completely unknown and completely undetected Warren corruption scandal there. If she makes another run, Trump will yell about half a dozen Warren scandals.

    If Sanders makes a run, Trump will yell about a Belarus Bernie scandal, as soon as someone tells him what Belarus is.

  121. 121.

    Barb 2

    Critical thinking skills seem to be lacking in most GOP and/or evangelicals.

    “Walk aways” from GOP or evangelical upbringing seem to have an innate critical thinking ability and have been relentlessly punished for questioning “authorities” or the scriptures. Others have developed critical thinking through life experiences. That BS makes no sense – moment will knock them on their butts and they see the con job that the “end of time” belief really is. 

    I grew up in an evangelical cult and was always questioning. Now I talk to walk away from evangelical cults. We share a common background and language.

    politics related – the Bernie Sanders cult members. These people scare me.

    The Trump cult – reminds me of a math teacher I had who escaped the Hitler cult. She wrote a book about her time in the  Youth for Hitler cult. Ironically she switched to an evangelical cult.

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