Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Pikers, One And All

I gotta admit right up front: this impeachment trial is as partisan as they come.

Not because Democrats were gunning for Trump as soon as he took office.  That's just silly. These are Democrats. They've been infighting the whole time. Some of them have been calling for impeachment on grounds of obstruction as outlined in the Mueller report, some have preferred to challenge him with the emoluments clause, some of them have been too busy with the organic kale growers' lobby to pay attention; Nancy Pelosi herself was reluctant as hell to impeach; and it was only late in the game, when someone finally discovered the horse's head from Marie Yovanovitch's bed in a Kyiv dumpster, that the Dems finally said Okay, maybe we've got to go for it now.

Partisan? That would apply more to the obstinacy of the locked-in Republicans, every last craven one of them, who have looked on as Adam Schiff put the color glossies of the concrete shoes on the screen, and said, Okay, but those were illegally fished out of foreign territorial waters in defiance of treaty and none of us, Sir, is above the law. Stand down, Sir.

Some are saying Republicans are afraid to go against their party leaders, but it is unclear what they are afraid of. Is it simply a matter of a working policy of putting party over principle and power over truth? Or is something more sinister at work?

The answer might lie in the Republican reaction to one of Schiff's last statements, in which he quoted a White House source saying any Republican voting against the President would find his or her head on a pike.

Here we've had three solid days in which the House impeachment managers have built a brick shithouse of a case against the President and shattered any conceivable defense, and the whole time Republicans have either listened, fidgeted, or absorbed it all by cutaneous gas exchange through the mucus membranes of their skin; and all of a sudden, right at the end there, they are shocked at the very suggestion that they might feel threatened by the nice man in the Oval Office. Offended! Appalled! How dare you quote that news report, Sir!

And there is your clue. Whenever a Republican goes full Brett Kavanaugh on anything, you can bet that whatever they are accused of is one hundred percent true. The madder they get, the higher are the pikes.

So. They really are afraid. It seems odd to imagine that any grown man or woman would forgo a principled stand just because of a tweet threat from the Alliterator in Chief. Loopy Lamar? Lyin' Lisa? Munchkin Mitt? Sebaceous Susan? Naah. Can't be.

It's got to be serious Kompromat. There must be a dossier on every last one of them. Don't know where someone as upright as the President would find such material, surrounded as he is by only the finest American public servants and not even acquainted with the Russian oligarchy, but it's there. And it's got to be not only stuff that would threaten the Senators' precious power, but stuff they could never recover from. We're talking abortions obtained or paid for; we're talking not merely sexual affairs but affairs in which the good Senators are submissively involved with people who trace their lineage to the shithole countries. We're talking audiotape of them asking for plant-based burgers.

They're terrified.

25 comments:

  1. That explains the politicians holding fast to Trump. What about his fan base of "regular people"? I see fresh Trump 2020 posters going up on people's lawns. The ones who already had one on their lawn have put up bigger ones. I admit that I am a very judgmental person, and I can only conclude that they are stupid and hateful people. I may have disagreed strenuously with Nixon fans and Reaganites, but I never actually hated them. I must admit that I come pretty close to hatred with the Trumpets. He has succeeded in dividing us as a country. I don't know if we can ever come back from this, even if the Dems win in 2020.

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    1. A lot of damage has been done. A lot of that damage started with the Koch brothers. It's been a process of deliberate division, and Trump only adds to it because it's in his nature to do so.

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  2. I wonder if McConnell has power over a huge pot of money that these senators would lose access to, if they didn't fall in line. It is truly staggering that so many of our elected officials see themselves as serving McConnell, not the people, and certainly not the truth.

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  3. It's all so embarrassing. The glow from my red face obstructs my vision in seeing whatever might be construed as good about our federal government these days. How can the Republican party put up with such mendacity on the part of their fearless (that's why he volunteered for military service) leader?!
    Cop Car

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    1. I wouldn't throw the whole government into that basket. At least not yet. Once we've achieved a dictatorship, then maybe.

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  4. Pretty sure you are right about Kompromat. Putin has a "little black book" with Moscow Mitch and Leningrad Lindsey's names in the front, followed by most of the Republicans and a lot of Democrats. He has probably leaked a little out to those he determines are malleable to his ideas. The next presidential election has to be won by a huge margin to get past the electoral kindergarten. The Republicans are already welcoming more Russian interference and influencing on social media and putting aside any legislation to help stop it. Zuckerberg is all in favor of that as he doesn't have enough money yet. If it doesn't change in the next election I am pretty sure democracy will be gasping for its last breaths in the U.S.

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    1. When people talk about who can beat Trump, I'm always perplexed: I think any of our candidates can beat Trump. But that's only if the election isn't rigged. And that, as they say, is a big but.

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  5. From this side of the world I watch in horror. not least because it encourages some of our own politicians (who need to be discouraged). I am however seeing a glimmer of hope that witnesses 'might' be called. I hope so, and don't believe it should ever have been in doubt.

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    1. The Republicans' defense has been extraordinarily weak.

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  6. You were funny. Honest. But it seems we can’t laugh anymore. I wonder if the senators’ coverups have to be because there’s a bigger booger out there. Maybe it’s the snowball effect of earlier lies, compromises, and denials. At some point, conceding even the smallest thing causes a deadly avalanche to roll down on one’s head. No pikes required.

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    1. Doesn't it seem like there's a big ball of something perched on the edge of the cliff? We're inches away.

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  7. I think the sad fact is that many folks in your beautiful country agree with Trump's approach, identify with him, and will continue to support him - and that means Republicans staying in power. And Republicans are of two kinds - the ones who want power at any cost, and the ones who worry about losing what influence they personally have to effect positive change within the party. Democracy really is under attack in the U.S., and it must be hard for principled politicians to leave the battlefield without a fight - even if that fight by necessity is defined as hanging onto their seats by whatever means available. Going against higher-ups will likely cost some of those senators their seats - and then there will be even more Trumpian senators replace them. They may be desperately trying to avoid that.

    I think Nance's observation about the snowball effect is probably true also.

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    1. Many people in our beautiful country are getting all their news through a highly partisan filter. Doesn't mean they're not idiots.

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  8. I are a fedrul imployee and I can guarantee we are not all drinking the kool aid. Everything we are supposed to adhere to in ethical behavior is trashed by Dump and the Republicans. Many of us are the good guys working for America, not cult leaders. Good people make a good government.

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    1. Yes. The government is us, or should be. Generalized anti-government rhetoric is a tool for right-wing consolidation of power.

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  9. The difficulty with removing Trump from office is that it leaves Mike Pence as the Republican Presidential candidate in November. And while Trump is repulsive and entirely self-serving and his entire presidency has been the equivalent of a 13-year-old boy finding his 1st copy of Hustler magazine and fiddling with himself, in full view of the neighbours, on the balcony of his parent's bedroom while they are at Wednesday night prayer meeting, Mike Pence is MAD. Certifiably and far-right religiously *insane*. He belongs to a evangelical group whose goal is to force Levitical law and right-wing Christianity on everyone, no other religions allowed.[1] I'd rather Trump than Pence face a Democrat in November. There are a lot of people who voted for Trump who won't vote for him again, but who just *might* vote for Pence. Someone sacrifice a stuffed chicken and say a prayer that the Dems fail to take Trump out. [1] The Public Eye Magazine; Summer Edition 2016

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    1. Can a candidate be on the ballot if they didn't file by a certain date? What date might be the cutoff to prevent Pence from being on the ballot?

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    2. I don't see Pence as a strong candidate.

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    3. Yeah, and everyone thought Trump was a joke and couldn't possibly win. And yet he did.

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  10. It does seem as if they are right to be afraid, they're about to lose any control they have. Unless I read this wrong. I do hope it is all over soon and somebody else gets a turn in charge. Somebody better.

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    1. After today, it looks like there will be an acquittal by the Super Bowl.

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  11. A million years ago some of us pointed out that warrantless wiretaps were a bad idea what a warrantless wiretapping means is there spying on you and there's absolutely no paper trail so yeah I think they've had compromat files all the way back to W

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    1. And it should be pointed out that things don't have to be true to be effective kompromat. Ask Hillary.

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