Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

The lights are all blinking red.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Not all heroes wear capes.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

We still have time to mess this up!

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

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

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

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

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

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Repub Venality Open Thread: Lt. Colonel Vindman Is A Loyal American

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Some of the Republicans chewing on his ankles, well, I’m not so sure.

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Questions for Gordon Sondland

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Left: Kurt Volker. Right: Gordon Sondland

I expect that Jennifer Williams’s and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s testimony this morning will confirm other witnesses’ testimony, with few if any surprises.

The most interesting testimony this week is likely to come from Kurt Volker (this afternoon) and Gordon Sondland (Wednesday). It is hard to predict what they will say. A report last night said that Sondland is changing his deposition again.

Volker has been the Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, the negotiations on getting Russia out of eastern Ukraine. He has been a foreign service officer, like Chargé d’Affaires William Taylor and others who have testified. And yet he was one of the “Three Amigos,” Sondland and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry being the other two. He seems to have known about the Giuliani channel into Ukraine and worked with it. Seemingly working for the United States of America, but with some special stuff on the side for Donald Trump personally. Perhaps we will learn how he reconciled those two things.

Sondland’s career has been building a hotel chain. As a big donor to the Trump Inauguration Committee, he got in line for an ambassadorship and is now Ambassador to the European Union. There is nothing in his history that suggests he is in any way qualified for that job. He stretched (or was told to stretch) his responsibilities to Ukraine, which is not part of the EU. In fact, having the American Ambassador to the EU messing around with Ukraine would be likely to irritate Russia and raise questions in other places about US intentions.

Adam Schiff and the House Intelligence Committee are doing a great job in the hearings, but I have some questions of my own for Gordon Sondland.

1) Did Donald Trump suggest the job of Ambassador to the EU, or did you?

2) How did he describe what he wanted you to do in the job? Do you have a written job description?

3) Did you contact current or former ambassadors to learn how to ambassador? If you did, was that before or after the job offer?

4) Do you know that Ukraine is not a member of the EU? That Russia feels strongly about that? Did you know when you told Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch that you were in charge of Ukraine?

5) Did you at any time meet with or take instruction from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo?

6) Did you have any training in security issues? Did Trump tell you to disregard security precautions?

7) Are you aware that the Federal Records Act applies to your communications with the President?

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Open Thread: Today’s Impeachment Inquiry (Partial) Update

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Renato Mariotti, former federal prosecutor, whose opinion on such matters is not to be taken lightly:

… I’ve tried many federal criminal cases, and Wednesday’s hearing looked a lot like trials in which the prosecution has the defendant on tape admitting to a crime. When defense attorneys can’t mount a defense on the merits, they raise a lot of peripheral issues in the hope of convincing at least one juror that there is reasonable doubt.

So every time you heard the Republican’s designated counsel ask about Hunter Biden’s language skills or one of the Republican members of the Intelligence Committee ask whether the Obama administration sold Javelin missiles to Ukraine, what you were actually hearing was a defense attorney doing his level best to avoid talking about what his client said on tape. It was chaotic and often unfocused, though not always. In fact, there were moments when members actually executed their playbook with some skill.

But they simply can’t overcome the abundant evidence Democrats possess to prove their central point—that President Donald Trump conditioned military aid to Ukraine on a public announcement that his political rival, Joe Biden, was under investigation.

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