It looks like they won’t be in session again after today until after Columbus Day. My sense is that it’s routine and largely because of the upcoming Jewish holidays.
In what way would the president launching a nuclear strike be an unlawful decision?
An evil one of course. One that if assessed as for no actual national security cause one that should be refused to be implemented. But how unlawful? The law gives the president that power of decision as a sole decision maker. By law he has that power.
Okay. I guess the process (investigations, subpoenas, and such) can move forward regardless, right? And, Congress can always reconvene sooner than currently scheduled, if necessary.
Maybe this is a good thing — if nothing else, to let the public’s awareness of what’s going on catch up with the facts. That “only 30% of Americans have heard about anything unusual lately involving Ukraine” poll was astounding.
It’s routine but not Jewish holiday caused. They just have lots of built in time off often used to press the flesh back home. Throughout the year.
I think it may be a good thing that they’re all going to be in their home districts for the next few weeks.
And if there are any moderate Republicans still, this is the time for them to step up and let their representatives know that they think Trump’s behavior is outrageous and should be condemned. If public opinion starts to turn, the representatives will start to defect.
I think Nancy Pelosi SHOULD make a deal with Republicans. The deal should be “you get Trump to step down before the end of the year and we’ll leave Pence alone. If you can’t we’ll impeach them all.” Then Nancy really WON’T be Speaker of the House anymore. 
It’s really disappointing. I’m not familiar with Jewish holidays, or with how long this break is, or what it’s for, or why it HAS to be taken, but it’s a terrible time for it. Anyone who felt let down or worse after the Mueller report was allowed to fizzle, had better prepare themselves for the upcoming crash and burn. Dropping the ball and watching Trump pick it up is really getting old.
I saw an interesting example on Twitter of what looks like the bargaining stage of grief from a rank and file Republican. It was a reply to a tweet from David French. French, for those not aware, is a prominent conservative and evangelical Christian writer. He was formerly an attorney who pushed an extremely conservative agenda in arguing before federal courts. But he is honest and clear-eyed about Trump’s moral failings.
French concluded a thread with the following tweet:
So @repub9989 mounts the following stirring defense of the president:
[sic]
So the best this Republican voter can offer in reply is that Trump may be acting unacceptably but it’s not quite so unacceptable as to be impeachable. What a rallying cry!
I do actually hope this is a transitional stage to acceptance. Something like “Trump had the right message but he was a very flawed messenger.” (I don’t believe his message is or was good, of course, but if people like this can find their way to that place, we might actually rid ourselves of this presidential menace.)
Not if it’s a war crime. Which it certainly would be if he told them to target Denmark or wherever.
Right? We keep hearing that Americans are paying extra close attention to politics this year, but that poll finding certainly doesn’t support this idea, unless they just meant some sort of horse race aspect (or healthcare etc.).
Anecdotally, my 19-year-old son is (I thought) a super politics junkie and he was waxing effusive about that 16-year-old Scandinavian girl who is a climate activist, but he did not know what I was talking about last night when I referenced the Ukraine transcript. I just don’t get it. 
Also semi-anecdotally, David Brooks wrote a column yesterday saying that he went and talked to about 30 voters somewhere in the heartland (Iowa, maybe?). He said only one mentioned Ukraine or impeachment, and that was another journalist. :smack:
I know American voters are notoriously bad about paying attention to foreign affairs unless our troops are being killed in a war somewhere. But if this actually holds up, we are well and truly fucked as a country. This is arguably the biggest American news story of the past 15 years, and one of the biggest events in American political history. If people are just shrugging about it or somehow not even learning about it? I have no words.
And the last time you communicated with your Senators and Reps was when, Slacker?
Also, David Brooks is a conservative, and conservatives lie.
Gosh, let me see if I can remember so far back… :rolleyes:
Oh yeah, now it’s coming to me. That would be six days ago, Saturday the 21st, when I emailed Colin Peterson to urge him to support impeachment and noted that as of a couple days earlier I had felt it would be premature to do so.
What point were you trying to make there, anyway? Do you think I say my piece here and on Twitter etc. but I’m somehow reticent to express it to my elected representatives? Where would you get that idea? :dubious:
I sure hope the Republicans can find the time to read this document. Seems strange that they haven’t yet.
I stopped having words November 2016.
It doesn’t surprise me at all that obliviousness is prevalent on Ukraine. A huge chunk of the population is low-information and doesn’t even realize it. They learn about things passively, as it diffuses from others. Our best hope for clueing them in is that enough people in their environment are following what’s happening and expressing anger towards Trump.
Seems strange they would rather look willfully ignorant than express an opinion.
In case you’re wondering if Foxnews is running out of excuses, here is Fox and Friends explaining that the whole Ukraine thing is just a misunderstanding because the president is in real estate.
As long as they don’t take their foot off the gas. Talking to Americans (who probably don’t even know about this yet) is important, and that better be how they spend this time. Also, two weeks is much more acceptable than a month. I’ll breathe now.
What about the Ukrainian President, reformed comedian Volodymyr Zelensky? Is he complicit in this, or just treading water to keep foreigh aid coming?
It gives them time to get a lawyer who can run the investigation right, and the lawyer time to do their research. The session with Maguire was a little scattered, and they’ll need to do better if they want this to go somewhere.
Absolutely. They need to hire someone who excels in grilling witnesses and yield all their time to him or her. Too much of what you see is grandstanding and trying to get a sound bite on the evening news. At the very least, get together beforehand and figure out which questions need to be asked and who is going to ask what questions.
The longer they don’t read it, the longer they don’t have to lie and say it’s OK when they are asked about it. Simple as that.
Yeah, but two weeks is like 20 months in Trump Years. There’s gonna be what? 15 more scandals and outrageous acts by then?
I sure hope they do keep the gas on and keep going down this path without letting up.