Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

I was promised a recession.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Let there be snark.

You are here: Home / Archives for Politics / Impeachment Inquiry / Impeachment Hearings

In November, the House of Representatives Impeachment Inquiry entered a new phase: public hearings. The House Intelligence Committee, led by committee chair Rep. Adam Schiff, has called several witnesses to testify in the inquiry, including Dr. Fiona Hill, David Holmes, Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, George Kent, Bill Taylor, Kurt Volker, and Gordon Sondland.

Procedural Open Thread: The Work Continues

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I didn’t jump in on the WITNESSES NOW debate earlier, because I remember all too vividly the Repubs lying and showboating during the Iran-Contra hearings, which made it possible for that era’s monsters to finish destroying the evidence, sometimes by killing (even more) nameless not-American people. Those hearings not only gave VP Bush (and, later, his even more vile spawn) a free pass to the Oval Office, they made Oliver North a celebrity, and wealthy — and those were the days before GoFundMe.

What I said or didn’t say here wasn’t gonna change anybody’s calculations, most specifically those of the Democrats running Impeachment Two, and I’m willing to accept their political acumen in this area is more to the point than mine. YMMV…

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Continuing Impeachment Trial Open Thread

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The previous thread was getting long. I’m not sure how much more there is to go – I am not watching, just getting snips from Twitter as I get some other stuff done.

I found this interesting – the nuclear football that follows the Vice President around was also at risk. You can see the military aide carrying it at 0:13 in the video.

Stephen Schwartz follows the nuclear footballs and collects photos of them. I asked him to verify. Here’s his answer –

Sorry for the duplication. That seems to be the way this works.

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Impeachment Hearings Open Thread

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Here we go again, citizens!

The Democrats serving as impeachment managers are Representatives Raskin, DeGette, Cicilline, Castro (Joaquin), Swalwell, Lieu, Plaskett, Neguse, and Dean. (Thanks, Baud!) The Trump defense strategy on the Republican side is rather less clear to me, but I assume we’ll hear from the kooks in the Sedition Caucus, which comprises most House Republicans.

Open thread!

PS: Sorry for squashing not one but TWO posts, but I’m gonna leave this one up for impeachment hearings discussions.

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What Kind of Fuckery Is This?

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Last night the news broke that McConnell doesn’t have the votes to block a vote on having witnesses. What this means isn’t clear, but if there’s anything clear about this whole ordeal, it’s that Comrade McConnell is going to engage in the maximum fuckery possible. In last night’s comments on a post with a different topic, Martin made this point:

As part of the process, they have a vote of whether to consider witness. That’s the vote in question here. Then there’s a process of submitting witness requests to leadership, I think it is, and they introduce individual motions for votes. They don’t need to introduce every rando request, but things they think are relevant. It could be none will pass. There will probably be some negotiating in how the motions are structured, whether individual witnesses, open or closed session, all that garbage.

That sounds possible to me, but as the ever-shifting needs of the weaker links in his caucus to have fig leafs of “I did too vote for witnesses” bump up against the desires of safe seat Senators to just get it over with, how this thing ends up will probably be at least a little unpredictable.

That first story linked brings up a Republican talking point that witnesses will cause the impeachment to be delayed by a side trip into the courts as witnesses resist their subpoenas. My understanding is that this is bullshit: Roberts will rule from the bench and his ruling is final. Congress has the sole power to impeach and remove, and there is no appeal for a ruling from the presiding officer, the Chief Justice.

I’m sure Trump, who has skirted the law by dilatory legal actions for his whole life, disagrees, but unless anyone can cite a non-wingnut legal authority, I’m thinking that any witnesses called will show up.

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Senate Impeachment Open Thread: Big Contrast

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The “loyal” opposition:

Representing Indiana:

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Lobbest thou thy human hand grenade in the direction of thine foe…

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Here’s the stuff I’ve looked forward to the most: House Manager Schiff rubbing the assembled Republican senators’ noses in Trump and Giuliani’s Ukraine/DNC/Soros crackpottery:

I think Trump sincerely believes this bullshit since he’s dumb and aggrieved and he admires Putin. The Ukraine conspiracy theory is therefore irresistible since it suggests that Trump did TOO win fair and square without a boost from Putin and conveniently exculpates the latter so maybe they can hang out and swap tales of crushing underlings and bond over their shared impulse to aggressively bend scowling women to their iron will or whatever.

Giuliani may be a believer too, or perhaps he merely sensed the massive opportunities for graft in the Ukraine shakedown scheme. Regardless, most Senate Republicans know it’s all a load of bullshit. So the least they can do is sit there and squirm through every agonizing and embarrassing account of how Russia-driven propaganda informs U.S. foreign policy thanks to their party’s idiot president.

Open thread.

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