Donald Trump hit a new record for tweets yesterday – something like 130. Let’s help him beat that record!
Impeachment Trial Live – January 23, 2020 – Open ThreadPost + Comments (136)
This post is in: Impeachment, Live Blogging, Open Threads, Trump Crime Cartel
Donald Trump hit a new record for tweets yesterday – something like 130. Let’s help him beat that record!
Impeachment Trial Live – January 23, 2020 – Open ThreadPost + Comments (136)
This post is in: Impeachment, Live Blogging, Trump Crime Cartel
Another long day. Let’s see if the President’s defense can come up with anything beyond lies and talking points.
Impeachment Trial Live – January 22, 2020Post + Comments (169)
This post is in: Impeachment, Live Blogging, Trump Crime Cartel
We’re less than a year to inaugurating a Democratic President. But for now, the impeachment trial.
Impeachment Trial Live – January 21, 2020Post + Comments (116)
This post is in: Politics, Trump Crime Cartel, Our Failed Media Experiment, Our Failed Political Establishment
Apparently, and regrettably, David Lee Roth has started a residency at Las Vegas, and for some absurd amount of money, you too can witness the spectacle of an elderly man in ill fitting clothes and obvious frontal lobe damage stiffly strutting around stage. I suppose that yes, it is still David Lee Roth, but it’s not the David Lee Roth you remember or want to remember. It’s an obscene caricature of David Lee Roth- long in the tooth, without voice or authority, cheapened by wear and tear and misuse, and ready to collapse at any moment. It’s enough to make you wonder if it was always this bad as you unfortunately glimpse his sagging ass betrayed by skin tight attire that should, at the very least, provide the bare minimum of architectural support.
It does not.
***
That’s basically how I feel about the state of our democracy heading into the impeachment. I spent a little bit of time watching the news shows this weekend- only a little, as I, too, am aging, and life is too short for this shit. I watched people on my tv put on their serious voices as they explain what a big and momentous deal this is- “JUST THE THIRD TIME IN HISTORY,” you know! The gravity of the situation never takes hold, though, because I remember the same serious voices talking about Hillary’s emails, or how Obama really screwed up by saying it was wrong for Henry Louis Gates to get fucked with by cops on his own god damned couch, or how the tea party really cared about the deficit or Iraq really did have WMD. It’s all a fucking show that no one wants to go to, we all know the ending, and we’re not going to get our money’s worth.
Donald Trump has been impeached. He did everything and more for which he was impeached. Everyone knows he is guilty, even his most ardent supporters in the jury pool, there will be a show trial, and he will be acquitted. And then Republicans will get back to the very serious business of rigging elections, pitting Americans against each other, wiping up what remains of our institutions and packing the courts, and the always popular looting of the treasury.
This is not to say Democrats will not try. I am sure they will. They will fight, they will make a clear case, they will plead for sanity from clearly insane and evil people like Susan Collins, and then they will lose. We can applaud them for their attempt to do the right thing, but it is important to remember the one thing that no one seems to care about when shouting “Remember the Alamo!” The good guys lost and all got killed.
***
When it is all over with, the serious voices on your tv will tell you what to think, and we’ll head into another election where we can focus on important issues like “Does Elizabeth Warren have native American blood” and “what they are really saying over corned beef hash in a former Kentucky mining town.” We’ll soon get distracted by something shiny, and meanwhile our hobbled democracy will pick up the microphone and start half singing:
“Oh, baby baby
Won’t-cha turn your head my way?”
by $8 blue check mistermix| 105 Comments
This post is in: Trump Crime Cartel
Chris Collins, former Congressman from NY-27, first Member of Congress to endorse Trump, and former resident of Buffalo, NY, will soon be a residing in a prison in Pensacola, FL for 26 months. Collins was sentenced this afternoon for insider trading.
I followed Collins’ sentencing via a reporter in the courtroom on Twitter. The excuse making by his lawyer was pathetic. For example, he complained that the government revealed the address of Collins’ wife, but a few minutes later, a weeping Collins revealed all the names of his grandchildren. The judge later ruled that their names be struck from the record.
In the pre-sentencing letters, one attorney from Buffalo pointed out that when Collins was Erie County Executive, he decreed that worker’s compensation recipients would have to pick up their checks in person at the county courthouse, instead of having them mailed or deposited electronically. At the courthouse, these recipients would be interrogated to see why they couldn’t do light work. The lawyer represented a man from Batavia – 30 miles from Buffalo – who had seven surgeries and obviously couldn’t come to Buffalo to get his check. The state worker’s comp board reversed Collins’ policy in a 12-0 vote, but the whole incident gives you an inkling of the quality of mercy that Collins was willing to provide to others: none and fuck them.
So, in a little bit of justice, Collins had to stand in front of a judge today, sobbing, begging for sympathy, and regretting that he ruined his son’s life by giving him insider information the son used. (His son is going to be sentenced for that next week). Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for the rest of us, in this case, the judge wasn’t sympathetic.
by David Anderson| 158 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Trump Crime Cartel
This paragraph by Amy Walters is not crazy and therefore it is extremely problematic in what it says about our society’s political feedback mechanisms:
The other important reality of this era is the degree to which national polls have become less helpful in assessing Trump’s electoral college strength. A president sitting at 42 percent approval, with “strong disapproval” outweighing “strong approval” by 10-12 points is not going to win the national popular vote. But, that doesn’t mean he can’t win the Electoral College.
Open thread for depressing thoughts this afternoon….
Consent of the governed or a Political GIGO loopPost + Comments (158)
This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Grifters Gonna Grift, Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Trump Crime Cartel
Here’s the “I don’t know him at all, don’t know what he’s about, don’t know where he comes from, know nothing about him” guy, w Lev Parnas & Roman Nasirov, former head of Ukrainian Fiscal Service, at Mar-a-Lago 12/16. @POTUS .@realDonaldTrump @Acosta #LevRemembers #LetLevSpeak pic.twitter.com/5B5QY2DJEg
— Joseph A. Bondy (@josephabondy) January 16, 2020
Per an unreliable narrator:
It is absolutely bonkers that this ex-Soviet dealer of stolen Oldsmobiles who knows a guy who can make your gas meter run backwards, hundred bucks, no problem, is MORE CREDIBLE THAN THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
Which he totally is!— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) January 17, 2020
Parnas is from Odessa, the city with a very particular reputation. Basically, it's Ukraine's North Jersey, where every single resident is Tony Soprano dialed up to 11.
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) January 17, 2020
I am kidding. My grandpa was a war hero and he eventually died of his wounds. He was a good citizen, as far as I know. But Odessa is totally the most notorious city in Europe.
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) January 17, 2020
As to whether Lev is telling the truth, let me tell you something: Odessa men are much more believable and pleasant when they are lying. After 2 minutes with an Odessa swindler, you'll want to tell him your innermost secrets and ask to wash his mother's feet.
Lev looks miserable.— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) January 17, 2020
Never stop marveling at the incredible power of American racism. There is no other force on Earth that could make this schlub, whose God-given talents are salt fish speculation and conning Jewish grandmas out of their pension, a confidant of the US president.
Thanks, Michigan!— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) January 17, 2020
But look how happy he was, at Mar-A-Lago!:
— julie (@juliesCamp) January 16, 2020
#Immoralago is DONALD's spy central.
— OleHippieChick ? BetteWolf ?? (@BetteWo67187229) January 16, 2020
But how can we be sure Lev Parnas isn't lying? pic.twitter.com/EDiQwbAFAX
— Schooley (@Rschooley) January 17, 2020
How come no one asks Trump if he remembers when Parnas worked for her Fred? https://t.co/n0m4Ptbbs5
— Richter Scale (@Richter_Scale40) January 17, 2020
Open Thread: Late Night Notes on Lev ParnasPost + Comments (26)