We’re the Hessians now. GWB sent thousands of our young people to war for no very compelling reason. Trump sends them to fight for money. That’s progress of a sort, I guess. At least we’re getting something out of it. The important thing, though, is that Republican presidents support our troops, not like those mean old Democrats.
Anyway, this is slightly tangential, but I rarely pass up an opportunity to quote “Another Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries”:
Aye; I noticed all the downward looks on one side of the table in that photo, as Nancy Pelosi stood up to the President of the United States and told him off.
Who are the guys to the right of the Chairman?
Back up clones.
WaPo reporting that Elijah Cummings has died.
“…He was 68.After undergoing an unspecified medical procedure, the Democratic leader did not return to his office this week, theBaltimore Sunreported. A statement from his office said that he had passed away due to “complications concerning longstanding health challenges.”
Born to a family of Southern sharecroppers and Baptist preachers, Mr. Cummings grew up in the racially fractured Baltimore of the 1950s and 1960s. At 11, he helped integrate a local swimming pool while being attacked with bottles and rocks. “Perry Mason,” the popular TV series about a fictional defense lawyer, inspired him to enter the legal profession."
…Let’s not continue to pretend the president was, ‘pursuing a policy objective’.
Author and historian Heather Cox Richardson made a rather remarkable Facebook post yesterday - remarkable mostly because it summarizes only one day of his presidency - from which I will excerpt the following:
This is relevant to this thread because as soon as Republican Senators abandon the sinking ship like the rats they are, it’ll be over. And yesterday’s events showed that’s not a pipe-dream anymore.
So when will the revelations from all this closed-door testimony that can be made public actually be made public? Would Pelosi call for a formal inquiry at some point and recall these witnesses for a public hearing?
I think Pelosi isn’t in a huge hurry here because she sees Trump unraveling, and his congressional support slowly eroding.
I read yesterday that Schiff has promised to release transcripts when doing so won’t interfere with the inquiry process. My understanding is that he means the process will shift from investigation into formal impeachment, and the transcripts will be edited for security reasons and made public at that point.
I just hope they don’t receive a hero’s welcome by the voters and the Dems. Too late for that. They ought not receive absolution and a soft place to land for their moral cowardice to date.
Thank you for this post.
I’m going to share Dr Richardson’s post on FaceBook. Believe it or not, I’m actually seeing signs of discontent against unindicted co-conspirator Donald John Trump among my right-wing friends and family. They don’t seem able (yet) to give up their support, but the stench is really making their eyes water.
While Congressional representatives in gerrymandered districts don’t have to worry about weakening support for the president, Senators don’t have that luxury. If the president is not impeached, his coattails will trip them badly.
ETA: I thought I had quoted post 2850.
Yep. That’s where the goalpost is now. The quid pro quo stuff is BS, anyway. I suspect someone once told Trump he could ask foreign leaders for stuff as long as there wasn’t a quid pro quo. Not knowing what that phrase means, Trump attempts to make shady deals, then hollers “No Quid Pro Quo”, like it’s some sort of magical incantation that makes crime go away.
Now, I actually think that Trump having his minions running around the world pursuing conspiracy theories and trying to undo the Mueller investigation is worse than the attempted takedown of Biden and his kid. It reminds me of the time he had Joe Arpaio running around d the world in search of Obama’s birth certificate.
By taking the absolutely ridiculous stance that there was nothing wrong with that phone call, the Republican lawmakers emboldened Trump. Now he thinks he can go to war with his own State Department with Republican backing. And this is just Act 1. Trump has almost 3 years of pent up frustrations with his own people and their “rules” and “laws” bubbling under the surface. There will be a series of increasingly outlandish and disturbing foreign policy moves that the Republican leadership will feel pressured to defend.
I think Trump will close the Mexican border for at least a day sometime before Halloween.
Lindsay Graham learned a hard lesson this week. He thought if he snuggled up to Trump under the covers and gave him blowjobs every night he could be an effective voice of reason. He thought he could whisper “Honey, leave those troops in Syria and come back to bed for some loving” and Trump would see that he was a friend acting in good faith and heed his counsel.
Well, that didn’t work and he’s going down ::snicker:: in history as the TrumpSucker and he didn’t even push Trump into one reasonable decision.
Now there’s a mental image that I really, really want to unsee.
And to think that some thought he never swallowed any of what Trump spewed.
I feel like I’ve seen this “things are different this time” article 10 different times. Even if there was a tape of Trump saying “Make sure the Ukranians know I’m holding back military aid in return for dirt on Biden. I want a straight quid pro quo” the Republicans still wouldn’t convict. They’ll just say it isn’t appropriate, but it’s not worthy of impeachment. Trump will claim total and complete exoneration, and swing voters will believe it (if you’re still a swing voter at this point you’re not the sharpest knife). Warren will win the primary and Trump will go apeshit on her policy of abolishing private insurance. If you think Trump drummed up support for his wall by falsely claiming an immigrant invasion, just wait until you see what he does with a hot button issue that swing voters are actually concerned about.
From the commercial I saw and various GOP talking points, it seems like the party line is that all this impeachment noise is just the latest partisan effort to block Trump from doing the job all you patriots sent him to Washington to do. “The Swamp hates him!”
I’d love to ask these folks, just what is it you think Dems are stopping Trump from doing?
In other words … if the House dropped all its inquiries, and all the other investigations by various entities vanished, and Trump didn’t have to face any questions at all about any of his activities, just what the hell do you think he’d be accomplishing?
[del]Whining[/del]
Winning
But this time he’ll only get support from the 40 percent, so Trump’s opponent will win, whoever she/he is. But the polarization will continue, even more pronounced, after January 2021.
The bigger danger lies in the fact that the 40 percent control a disproportionate number of Senate votes.
I don’t understand why a group of Dems in the House don’t conspicuously work on an infrastructure (or anything whatever) bill to show the people that they are still moving forward on important issues. Hold a press conference to unveil it and make a big deal about still getting work done. it doesn’t matter if it’s a damn resolution that’s half a page long - it’s just propaganda.