Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

It’s possible to be a liberal firebrand without crapping on the party.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

This fight is for everything.

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

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Is trump is trying to break black America over his knee? signs point to ‘yes’.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

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Get Out! (Or Not…)

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Earlier today, WaPo reported on a letter from a U.S. general to an Iraqi Ministry of Defense official that sounded for all the world like U.S. military forces were preparing to get out of Iraq in compliance with the recent (nonbinding) parliament vote:

BREAKING: In a letter to the Iraqi military, Marine Corps Brig. Gen. William H. Seely III says that U.S. forces will be relocated “to prepare for onward movement” and says that “we respect your sovereign decision to order our departure.” A U.S. military official confirmed the letter’s authenticity. This is an updating story.

That sure was weird, because here’s what Trump said about the Iraqi parliament’s vote to expel U.S. forces just yesterday:

Trump on Sunday night also sounded a note of defiance over the news that Iraq’s Parliament voted to expel U.S. troops from the country. He said military personnel would not leave unless Iraq pays the U.S. back for an air base there.

“We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build. Long before my time,” Trump said. “We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it.”

The president went on to say that if Iraq forces the U.S. military out, “we will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame.”

“If there’s any hostility, that they do anything we think is inappropriate, we are going to put sanctions on Iraq, very big sanctions on Iraq,” Trump said.

But then Lil’ Marco Rubio started tweeting that the letter could be Iranian disinformation, and boy would The Post look dumb for falling for that!

But THEN, U.S. military officials confirmed that it was their letter, only it was a DRAFT letter, and it shouldn’t have been delivered to the Iraqi PM, but it was:

WaPo Beirut bureau chief Liz Sly has a photo of the letter on her Twitter feed here. There are some odd references in it about helicopter traffic related to force movements, including the notation that activity will take place at night to “help alleviate any perception that we may be bringing more Coalition Forces into the IZ.” Come again? How would helicopter traffic at night alleviate those concerns?

In conclusion, what the actual FUCK?

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I’m Even More Cynical Than Mistermix- Bolton Edition

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Mistermix thinks he is cynical, the piker. My very first thought when I heard Bolton was willing to testify was “That motherfucker will perjure himself all day long if Trump promises to keep killing Iranians.”

McConnell could pretend that he allowed some witnesses, call Bolton and some other inconsequential folks, Bolton would lie his ass off, McConnell would deny witnesses to impeach Bolton’s testimony, Democrats would be forced to sit and fume or be put in the position to release classified information that shows Bolton is lying, Republicans will all vote to absolve Trump, and we go to war with Iran, setting up an election with Trump as a wartime President.

That’s how fucking cynical I am.

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He Will Be Happy to Ride a Centaur

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What a major concession:

Former national security adviser John Bolton, highly sought by Democrats as an impeachment witness, said Monday that he is prepared to testify in a Senate trial if a subpoena is issued — a move that could be damaging to President Trump.

My conclusion from this announcement is that McConnell has been signaling behind the scenes that no witnesses will be called. But perhaps I’m being too cynical. In any event, the candidates running in Colorado, Maine, Arizona, etc. should all be making big noise about this, so Gardner, Collins, McSally and the rest have to get on the record saying either that they want witnesses, or why they don’t.

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Julián Castro Endorses Warren

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The endorsement video begins with Castro talking about the strong women in his life, including his mom and grandma, and how they helped him and his twin brother succeed:

Big deal or nah? Cynics will say Castro didn’t have enough support to stay in the race, so his endorsement won’t matter. Maybe. I think it could. We shall see.

Open thread!

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The ACA may go back to SCOTUS

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Last week, the Blue State Attorney Generals asked the Supreme Court to grant cert (accept the case) and then expedite the process on ruling on the constitutionality of the ACA.

 

 

This is in the backdrop of the 5th Circuit mostly agreeing that 90% of the ACA needs to be thrown out as unconstitutional becuase the individual mandate penalty has been zeroed out and they think that the district court was a little too broad in the severability analysis (save calorie counts on fast food menus etc) but mostly right.

The Blue State AGs are betting that the five judge coalition that upheld the ACA in 2012 in NFIB v Sebelius will uphold the  ACA against a far weaker trolling argument in 2020.  This is a bet on both actuarial tables as two of the justices (Ginsburg and Breyer) are old and a bet on consistency for Roberts.  Four justices are needed to grant cert which  is the  court’s agreement to hear a case.  The four liberal justices are likely to supply those votes.  Five votes are needed to expedite a case.

If this case is grant expedited cert, we should expect a ruling in June.

If not, the case percolates for several more years.

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Panic on the Streets of Washington

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Lindsey Graham is a fool whose comments can’t be taken seriously, but since he’s embedded himself deep in the nether regions of Trump’s anus, we can use his blather to measure Trump’s mood, and it looks like both of them are rattled:

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham suggested Sunday that Republicans should try to change Senate rules governing impeachment if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to withhold the charges against President Trump — an unlikely 11th-hour bid to begin a trial within days without the actual documents.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was unequivocal in a Senate floor speech on Friday that “we can’t hold a trial without the articles; the Senate’s own rules don’t provide for that.” But Graham (R-S.C.), a close ally of Trump, floated the idea of a unilateral GOP move, saying he would work with McConnell to allow the Senate to proceed without the two charges against Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Graham, who was a House manager for Clinton’s trial, knows damn well that it’s pretty hard to have a trial without a prosecutor, but I’m sure Trump or Rudy or some other numbskull told this fool to go out and threaten this, so he dutifully did.

Sounds like withholding the documents – or even threatening to slow play them – has really gotten under Trump’s skin, so we should keep it up for a few more days. If the tables were turned and McConnell was the Speaker of the House impeaching a Democratic President the Senate wouldn’t convict, you know god damned well that he would pull out every little trick he could to get as much mileage out of impeachment. No harm, no foul if we do the same.

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On The Road – Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman) – Evansville’s West Franklin Street

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Good Morning Everybody,

I hope this finds you well. Bad shit’s about, take care.

On a more positive note, let’s go –

A few months ago, I shared a few pictures of West Franklin Street here in Evansville and since they seemed to go over well, here’s an album with comments about each picture. Feel free to choose the best ones to share or just link the entire album.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/G3gUrQzihQsrQr3G6

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