The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Friday
Jan242020
The Commentariat -- January 25, 2020
Afternoon Update:
The Democrats are relying on facts, but the Republicans are relying on Fox. -- Maureen Dowd, in today's NYT column
New York Times liveblog: "President Trump's lawyers wrapped up a brief opening argument against his impeachment on Saturday much as they had begun, seeking to turn accusations of wrongdoing back on Democrats and insisting that there were innocent explanations for Mr. Trump's actions toward Ukraine.... The president's legal team spent only two of the 24 hours allotted to them on Saturday opening his defense, in what Mr. Trump's lawyers said was a preview of a fuller set of arguments to come on Monday. Their focus was on dismissing the House impeachment inquiry as a partisan ploy that ignored the facts in order to cast Mr. Trump's actions in the worst possible light...." ~~~
~~~ Michael Shear: "Immediately after the White House lawyers finished their opening arguments on Saturday, Democrats sought to pick the presentation apart. Immediately after the White House lawyers finished their opening arguments on Saturday, Democrats sought to pick the presentation apart.... House managers held a news conference to rebut the White House case, point by point. Over 30 minutes, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the lead manager, and Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, another manager, accused the president's lawyers of having little substance. Mr. Schiff said their case amounted to a single argument: that the president has the power to do whatever he wants. 'That is so deeply destructive of our national security, the integrity of our elections. It'hard to overstate the matter,' Mr. Schiff said." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I would have posted this sooner, but I was busy. Unlike Akhilleus, who was watching other Saturday morning cartoons (see today's Comments), I opted for an old movie starring Richard Gere. ~~~
~~~ Trump's Lawyers Cut Impeachment Clause out of Constitution. Eric Tucker, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump's lawyers plunged into his impeachment trial defense Saturday by accusing Democrats of striving to overturn the 2016 election, arguing that investigations of Trump's dealings with Ukraine have not been a fact-finding mission but a politically motivated effort to drive him from the White House. 'They're here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history,' White House Counsel Pat Cipollone told senators.... From the White House, Trump tweeted his response: 'Any fair minded person watching the Senate trial today would be able to see how unfairly I have been treated and that this is indeed the totally partisan Impeachment Hoax that EVERYBODY, including the Democrats, truly knows it is.'"
Lauren Egan of NBC News: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday attacked an NPR correspondent who reported that he berated and cursed at her following questioning over Ukraine, claiming 'she lied to me' and describing her actions as 'shameful.' 'NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly lied to me, twice. First, last month, in setting up our interview and, then again yesterday, in agreeing to have our post-interview conversation off the record,' Pompeo said in a statement. 'It is shameful that this reporter chose to violate the basic rules of journalism and decency.' Pompeo did not challenge the details of Kelly's claims about his statements or demeanor during their conversation.... Kelly said she did not agree to be off the record at any point, and had communicated in advance to Pompeo's office that she intended to ask him about Iran and Ukraine." Mrs. McC: Gee, I can't decide whom to believe, a seasoned liar or a seasoned reporter. ~~~
~~~ Pompeo Confuses Ukraine with Bangladesh. Deirdre Shesgreen of USA Today: "Pompeo, in his Saturday statement, suggested Kelly, a long-time reporter, did not correctly identify the location of Ukraine on the map. 'It is worth noting that Bangladesh is NOT Ukraine,' Pompeo's statement said. Mrs. McC: It is plausible that Kelly could have confused the location of Ukraine with, say, Romania. It is not even barely plausible that she confused Ukraine with Bangladesh. The two countries are 3,600 miles apart and, obviously, in different regions of the world. But you, Mikey? I'm not so sure. ~~~
Do you think Americans care about Ukraine? -- Mike Pompeo to NPR reporter, Friday ~~~
~~~ Top U.S. Diplomat to Fly to Ukraine or Bangladesh or Someplace. Nahal Toosi of Politico: "Mike Pompeo was already expecting to navigate a political minefield when he landed in Kyiv next week. But after the secretary of State's explosion at a respected NPR journalist, his trip just got a little more complicated.... 'Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?' he asked her a question arguably insulting to Ukraine as well as Americans. 'He used the F-word in that sentence and many others,' said Kelly, who has a master's degree in European studies from Cambridge University and said she correctly identified Ukraine.... Pompeo, whose own role in the impeachment scandal remains something of a mystery, faces a series of politically perilous questions[.]..." Related stories linked below. ~~~
~~~ Nik Steinberg in a Politico Magazine opinion piece: "Since the House hearings, I've spoken to more than a dozen career Foreign Service officers, and it has become clear that the impeachment process has had a major collateral effect that reaches well beyond Trump himself. They say it has sharply hurt morale within the department, and in particular has eroded their faith in Pompeo. Many of the interviewees had initially hoped the secretary would rebuild the department after Rex Tillerson's efforts to strip it down, but they have instead seen Pompeo stand by silently as his employees were sidestepped and smeared. And they worry the loss of bipartisan trust in career diplomats, whom the president and his allies in Congress have cast as 'radical unelected bureaucrats,' will inflict lasting damage on the institution's role in foreign policy-making. I've agreed to keep the interviewees anonymous because of the Trump administration's record of harassing or marginalizing public servants they see as questioning their policies. But the people I spoke with serve primarily in senior roles in the department, and almost all have served for over a decade." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Is it any wonder? After serving your country for years or decades in posts far and wide, you can be abruptly fired and your personal safety threatened because the POTUS* hears a rumor from some guy he says he doesn't know & has never spoken to. Even if your difficult work has been exemplary, if somebody says -- without evidence -- that he heard you said something that hurts Trump's feelings, he will "take you out." That audio tape reported yesterday is among the best evidence that Trump doesn't give a rat's ass about U.S. international policy. Related stories linked below.
~~~~~~~~~~
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Impeachment proceedings being at 10 am ET today. Since Trump's team will be defending him, no doubt with a Trumpian combo of lies and loud whining, I don't know how much I can stomach. In fact, it appears they may make their presentation as one extended campaign ad excoriating Joe Biden: ~~~
~~~ Rachel Bade, et al., of the Washington Post: "White House lawyers are gearing up for a scorched-earth defense of President Trump in the impeachment trial, mounting a politically charged case aimed more at swaying American voters than GOP senators -- and damaging Trump's possible 2020 opponent, Joe Biden. Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, and Jay Sekulow, Trump's personal attorney, plan to use their time in the trial to target the former vice president and his son, Hunter, according to multiple GOP officials familiar with the strategy. Trump's allies believe that if they can argue that the president had a plausible reason for requesting the Biden investigation in Ukraine, they can both defend him against the impeachment charges and gain the bonus of undercutting a political adversary." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I still don't understand why Cipollone -- who is supposed to represent the presidency, not the President* -- is showing up for the trial anyway. I guess if he limited himself to arguing that any president has a right to foster secret, corrupt foreign entanglements in conflict with official U.S. policy and withhold those corrupt, private dealings from Congress, Cipollone's involvement would be quasi-legit. But I don't expect Cipollone to be so circumspect. He already has proved that he is too dumb and/or too corrupt to faithfully carry out the mandate of his taxpayer-funded job, for instance in signing (and, we assume, at least partially writing with ghostwriter-dictator DJT) this October 2019 six-page screed to chairs of House committees in which he argues that an impeachment inquiry is illegal (NYT link).
Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "House Democrats concluded their arguments against President Trump on Friday by portraying his pressure campaign on Ukraine as part of a dangerous pattern of Russian appeasement that demanded his removal from office. Ending their three-day presentation in the Senate, the impeachment managers summoned the ghosts of the Cold War and the realities of geopolitical tensions with Russia to argue that Mr. Trump's abuse of power had slowly shredded delicate foreign alliances to suit his own interests." ~~~
~~~ Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "The Democratic House managers focused on ... Donald Trump's attempts to stymie their impeachment inquiry during his Senate trial Friday.... The managers wound down their final day of opening arguments by outlining the second article of impeachment against the president, obstruction of Congress. Trump, they noted, is the only president in history to completely refuse to cooperate with an impeachment investigation, blocking witnesses and documents.... The case managers focused on the White House's directive that no executive branch agency or personnel cooperate with the House's impeachment inquiry, which [Rep. Jerry] Nadler called an unprecedented 'categorical blockade.' He contrasted Trump to presidential cooperation in other investigations, including President Ronald Reagan turning over his personal diary to investigators during the Iran-Contra probe.... Democrats capped three days with lead House manager Rep. Adam Schiff, who attempted to knock down some of Trump's potential defenses ahead of ceding center stage to the president's lawyers Saturday."
The Guardian's liveblog for Friday's impeachment proceedings is here. @13:14 ET: "Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell kicked off today's proceedings by confirming that the trial would resume [Saturday] at 10 a.m. ET, earlier than recent days, and run for 'several hours.'&" Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ The New York Times liveblog of Friday's developments in the Senate impeachment proceedings is here. "The House impeachment managers are now at work on the heart of their task for the afternoon: stringing together, bit by bit, a story of how President Trump and lawyers around him tried to conceal his Ukraine pressure campaign. Discussion of Mr. Trump's alleged cover-up had focused primarily on Mr. Trump's defiance of subpoenas for testimony and documents in the impeachment inquiry. But Representatives Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Jason Crow of Colorado suggested to senators that behavior is just one part of a longer cover-up, much of which took place behind the scenes before the House had even learned of the pressure campaign." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
Lordy, There Are Tapes!* Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "A recording reviewed by ABC News appears to capture ... Donald Trump telling associates he wanted the then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch fired while speaking at a small gathering that included Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman.... The recording appears to contradict statements by President Trump and support the narrative that has been offered by Parnas during broadcast interviews in recent days. Sources familiar with the recording said the recording was made during an intimate April 30, 2018, dinner at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. Trump has said repeatedly he does not know Parnas.... 'Get rid of her!' is what the voice that appears to be President Trump's is heard saying. 'Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it.'" Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Update: The story now includes portions of the audio tape. *Headline stolen from digby. ~~~
~~~ Colby Itkowitz & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "But the 2018 conversation about Yovanovitch also raises questions about the impetus behind the effort to push her out, indicating that it began before the Ukraine pressure campaign. The dinner took place before Parnas and Fruman began working with Giuliani and seven months before Giuliani has said he began his Ukraine investigation -- suggesting that the duo were agitating against the ambassador for another reason and may have biased Trump against her early on."
There could be video of trump throwing her out of a helicopter and the GOP would not care. -- Ray Doherty, in a tweet ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: According to a review of the tape by NBC News, in another part of the tape, Trump asks Lev how long Ukraine could hold off Russian forces without U.S. military aid, and Lev responds, "About 30 seconds." (Of course, Trump could have learned this from our vast intel sources, but hey, why rely on those deep-state shmucks when you've got Lev & Igor?) Here's the discussion, which Rachel Maddow begins in an interview with Parnas' attorney Joseph Bondy: ~~~
~~~ Betsy Swan of the Daily Beast: “Joseph Bondy, a lawyer for Florida businessman Lev Parnas, told The Daily Beast that the recording was made by former partner Igor Fruman. Both men were arrested in October and charged with campaign-finance violations. 'We have hoped that, to the extent this recording still existed, it would be released to Congress for use in the impeachment trial,' [Bondy said]." ~~~
~~~ Update. Ken Vogel & Ben Protess of the New York Times: Lev Parnas said through his attorney "on Friday that he had turned over to congressional Democrats a recording from 2018 of the president ordering the removal of Marie L. Yovanovitch as the United States ambassador to Ukraine.... Parnas ... located the recording on Friday after its existence was first reported by ABC News, said Joseph A. Bondy, Mr. Parnas's lawyer. Mr. Bondy said the recording was 'of high materiality to the impeachment inquiry' of Mr. Trump and that he had provided it to the House Intelligence Committee, whose chairman, Representative Adam B. Schiff, is leading the impeachment managers in their presentation of the case.... Mr. Parnas and his legal team did not provide the recording to ABC News, Mr. Bondy said." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So not only did Fruman make the tape, he passed it on to someone who shared it with ABC News. Josh Marshall of TPM notes that this suggests Fruman, who has been silent. now may be leaking stuff.
Gabe Sherman of Vanity Fair dishes on Trump's "mood" (bad) as the impeachment proceedings drag on. Here's one bit: "Meanwhile, Trump has been in a particularly foul mood as impeachment drags on. Trump recently told some Republicans that he decided to say 'fuck it' and kill General Qasem Soleimani, according to a source briefed on the conversation." Mrs. McC: Vanity Fair is subscriber-firewalled & can't be opened by nonsubscribers in a private window. I don't know from the monthly limit for freebies is. digby republishes much of Sherman's post here.
Matthew Choi of Politico: "An NPR reporter's interview with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo grew testy when the subject of Ukraine arose and a department aide cut off the interview, the radio network reported Friday. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly conducted a roughly 10-minute interview with Pompeo on Friday morning that ended after she brought up the topic at the center of ... Donald Trump's impeachment, according to the reporter.... When Kelly asked about former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, the secretary grew upset, the reporter said. Kelly said she was later led to the secretary's private living room, where Pompeo berated her and asked whether the American people care about Ukraine. He allegedly used the F-word multiple times and asked her to identify Ukraine on an unlabeled map of the world." Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: Gee, Mike, have you ever asked the Dear Leader "to identify Ukraine on an unlabeled map"? ~~~
~~~ Allison Quinn of the Daily Beast has more. After Pompeo cut short the interview, Kelly "was then reportedly asked to follow him without her recorder, but without any agreement that the following conversation would be off the record. At that point, Pompeo reportedly challenged Kelly to find Ukraine on an unmarked map and asked, 'Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?' He reportedly wrapped up the meeting by declaring that 'people will hear about this.'" Emphasis added. The remark in bold is a threat, a threat by a powerful man against a much less powerful woman. It's creepy-scary. ~~~
~~~ A transcript of the recorded interview is here. ~~~
~~~ Pompeo Unaware of Subject of Impeachment Trial. Marcy Wheeler: Pompeo "falsely claimed he had defended everyone of his reports, including Marie Yovanovitch. And he reportedly accused Kelly of not being able to find Ukraine on a map (which she promptly did).... But the craziest thing might be Pompeo's claim that President Obama did nothing to take down corruption in Ukraine." Mrs. McC: Wheeler doesn't say it, but a major component of the impeachment thing revolves around Trump's corrupt effort to impugn Joe Biden for the work he did, as part of the Obama administration, to curb corruption in Ukraine. Pompeo is now (and perhaps always has been) just as adept at saying black is white and white is black as is the Lyin' King he serves.
Robert Burns of the AP: "The Pentagon disclosed on Friday that 34 U.S. service members suffered traumatic brain injuries in Iran's missile strike this month on an Iraqi air base, and although half have returned to work, the casualty total belies ... Donald Trump's initial claim that no Americans were harmed. He later characterized the injuries as ['headaches' and] 'not very serious.' Eight of the injured arrived in the United States on Friday from Germany, where they and nine others had been flown days after the Jan. 8 missile strike on Iraq's Ain al-Asad air base. The nine still in Germany are receiving treatment and evaluation at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the largest U.S. military hospital outside the continental United States." ~~~
~~~ Paul Szoldra of Task & Purpose: "The Veterans of Foreign Wars has demanded an apology from President Trump over recent comments in which he downplayed the seriousness of traumatic brain injuries suffered by American troops in an Iranian missile attack. 'The Veterans of Foreign Wars cannot stand idle on this matter,' William 'Doc' Schmitz, VFW National Commander, said in a statement Friday, noting TBI is a serious injury known to cause depression, memory loss, severe headaches and other symptoms in the short and long-term." Szoldra provides a transcript of the exchange between Trump & reporter Weijia Jiang of CBS News. Jiang asks about the discrepancy between Trump's repeated claims there were no U.S. injuries resulting from the attack:
Trump: No, I heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things, but I would say, and I can report, it is not very serious.
Jiang: You don't consider a potential traumatic brain injury serious?
Trump: "They told me about it numerous days later, you'd have to ask Department of Defense. No, I don't consider them very serious injuries relative to other injuries that I've seen. I've seen what Iran has done with their roadside bombs to our troops. I've seen people with no legs and with no arms, I've seen people that were horribly horribly injured in that area, that war. In fact, many cases put those bombs put there by Soleimani, who is no longer with us. I consider them to be really bad injuries. No, I do not consider that to be bad injuries no. (Emphasis original to report.)
Presidential Race
Jonathan Martin & Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders has opened up a lead in Iowa just over a week before the Democratic caucuses, consolidating support from liberals and benefiting from divisions among more moderate presidential candidates who are clustered behind him, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll of likely caucusgoers.... The rise of Mr. Sanders has come at the expense of his fellow progressive, Senator Elizabeth Warren: she dropped from 22 percent in the October poll, enough to lead the field, to 15 percent in this survey." Poll results: Sanders 25%; Buttigieg 18; Biden 17%; Warren 15%; Klobuchar 8%.
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times on how a bleak future is influencing the presidential race: "The candidate who polls show has the most support among young people is Bernie Sanders, the oldest person in the race. Clearly, Sanders fills his followers with hope and makes them feel that a transformed world is possible, but he also speaks to their terrors." ~~~
Beyond the Beltway
California. Yousef Baig & Chantelle Lee of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat: "The Russian River flowed with a cherry red tint Wednesday after tens of thousands of gallons of fresh cabernet sauvignon wine poured into the largest tributary in Sonoma County. The wine -- enough to fill more than 500,000 bottles -- spilled from a Rodney Strong Vineyards' tank at the Healdsburg winery, made its way into Reiman Creek running through the property and drained into the river.... A roughly two-foot oval door near the bottom of a 100,000-gallon Rodney Strong blending tank somehow popped open about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday and spilled from 46,000 to 96,000 gallons of wine, officials with the Governor's Office of Emergency Services said Thursday. Local and state water quality and fish and wildlife officials are investigating to determine any negative effects to the river ecosystem and whether the winery violated water quality rules." Mrs. McC: Finally a real-world approximation of The Odyssey's "wine-dark sea."
Way Beyond
China. New York Times liveblog: "As China marked a somber Lunar New Year on Saturday, 15 more deaths from the new coronavirus were reported in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. Other countries, including Australia, said the virus had reached their shores.The latest deaths, announced early Saturday by the health authorities in Hubei Province, whose capital is Wuhan, brought the toll in China to 41. All but three of those deaths were in Wuhan.... Nationwide, more than 400 new cases of the virus were diagnosed, officials said early Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in China to nearly 1,300. Travel restrictions in Wuhan and 12 other cities have essentially penned in 35 million people on the country's biggest holiday, normally a time for traveling to visit family."
News Lede
NBC News: "Major search and rescue efforts are underway in eastern Turkey after it was rocked by a 6.8 magnitude earthquake late Friday evening. At least 22 people have died, the country's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said Saturday, adding that 1,103 were injured."
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Reader Comments (11)
So Secretary Poodle Teabagger cussed out an NPR reporter for having the temerity to ask his elevated person questions he didn’t like?
That reporter, Mary Louise Kelly, has always struck me as very smart, and tough. She is no Fox bimbo. She worked across Europe and had the Pentagon and national security beats. I will bet serious money that she could find Ukraine on a map quicker than Pompouseo. And she’s known where it is for a lot longer than he has. She was reporting on events in Europe and the Middle East when he was a boot licking teabagger.
But now he’s been shoved up the ladder by an incompetent traitor because he needed a slime ball to do his bidding, so now he thinks he’s fucking confederate royalty, never to be questioned by a commoner?
Someone with competency and the smallest hint of class could have handled that situation gracefully. A Trump toady resorts to threats and foul language. Just like the boss. They’re all bleeding assholes.
I can't wait for campaign season when Drumpf gets flustered when asked about the soldiers injured after the Iran missile attack and he pulls a McCain: "I prefer soldiers who don't have brain injuries. Who complains about headaches anyway? I prefer strong soldiers."
Then he'll snap Rubio's leash who'll scamper out of his shed, claiming we need stronger soldiers in the military, and only the searing pain of bone spurs could've stopped Dear Leader from annihilating 100,000 Vietnamese and earning every medal in the books.
Now that Senate Republicans have proven they're completely neutered, I wholly expect the demands for complete obsequiousness to multiply, with ever more fantastic stories of unparalleled greatness and cunning.
If he wins a second term (god forbid), we should expect some new rounds of infrastructure week that will be dedicating to building the biggest and bestest Trump Shrine, Franco-style, where his followers can come and bask in his teevee glory.
“But Mr. President*, brain damage can be a serious problem affecting one’s quality of life and ability to function properly.”
“Whadaya talkin’? Look at me. I’m brain damaged and I’m still like a very sable genus. Plus, all those billions of Americans and Russians voted for me. Don’t be such a fucking weenie. Now, I got a meeting with the guy wjo invented the wheel. He’s a genus too. “
What delicious irony: The guys Trump claims he doesn't know have given us a tape of an "intimate" din-din where they were all together devising that nifty foreign policy which implicates Fatty's firing of Yovanovitch. The goons goona git you if you don't watch out! You would think Trump, being such a stable genius, would know this since he's one of them.
Ah, and then there's Pompeo. His "the people don't care about Ukraine " shows us how dumb he thinks the American people are. This is a great message to bandy about–-another link to "Trump thinks you'all are stupid." His performance also shows he knows the jig is up––and his Jesus ain't helping him none.
I'm getting––just a tad, mind you–- optimistic about the Fall of Mr. Toad along with his other toadies. That old "truth will out" appears to be showing its face without the ink black veils––-of course it is because I so want to believe in what Adam Schiff so eloquently and passionately delivered to us in his arguments about truth and honor and courage and...
Mrs. McC: So finally a real-world approximation of The Odyssey's "wine-dark sea."
Perfect!
Ahhh...well boys and girls, it’s Saturday morning. And you know what that means! Get your Fruit Loops and settle down in front of the boob tube for Saturday morning cartoons. Yay!
We’ll be watching Ricochet Rabbit, Dudley Dooright, Mister Magoo, and then the Stooges: Jay-Jay, Patsy, and the Dersh. And after that maybe we can watch Rocky and Bullwinkle beat those dastardly Russian villains, Boris and Natasha, Igor, Lev, Rudy, Vlad, and Trumpskyev. Oh, the laughs we’ll have!
Look, there’s Mr. Turtle pretending to be a senator! Hahaha. Silly Turtle, impeachment trials are run by serious adults not cartoon characters. Ho-ho. Oh look, Dersh just hit Jay-Jay with a hammer because he keeps saying “consatooshun”! Haha. What fun.
Here's an insightful piece by Ezra Klein in the NYT.
Read on.
So, Bernie is leading in the polls in Iowa. Re past presidential primaries how often has the winner who lead there gone on to be the candidate? Ditto, the hysteria which then follows on with who New Hampshire voters will pick. Still too early in the game.
MAG,
And once again, (to pick up on Unwashed’s reference to the vast imbalance in influence between a small minority of rural, overwhelmingly white, red states and the vast majority of the rest of the country), we have two small (population-wise) nearly all white, right wing states set the ground rules for the entire presidential election. When we get rid of the electoral college, we have to transform the primary state order. That will be the day after pigs take to the sky. Until then we’ll have crackpots calling the shots in the early election season.
Trump should ask his friends Robert Kraft or Vince McMahon about head injuries. Football players and wrestlers have a penchant for dying early, especially from suicide. CTE has been found in the brains of most of these people who take repeated blows to the head. But that would require Trump to care about someone other than himself. And it would require him to be the least bit curious. I'm sure that Don Junior doesn't complain of headaches when he plays Call of Duty so that's all the research that Donald needs on battlefield trauma.
RAS,
And the endangered species that Junior and Little Dracula shoot in the head don’t complain of headaches, so it’s all cool. Besides those whiny soldiers have never suffered the heartbreak of bone spurs! That shit REALLY hurts.
To me the most disturbing thing of the criticisms of the impeachment proceedings is that they are "BORING".
Why of course they are. There are no dancing girls, no fireworks, no videos of puppies or kittens.
Just a measured account of the ways Trump has violated his oath as president to further enrich himself and his business empire. Trump, not America, is first in his priorities.
American culture has and is enabling this approach with a shallow media culture and its timidity to call out wrongs and name those who have harmed society and government.
It's going to take more than one administration to recover from the Trump era, just how many will depend on how long that era lasts.