All Purpose News and Politics Thread Part IV: The Center Cannot Hold

[BeastieRunner]

Let the impeachment hearing commence.

[Celgress]

A positive drug test does not make him an addict, and you also added the part about him being unqualified. You are no better than the worst of twitter trolls who amplify whatever the russian bot army feeds them.

I'm with you on this. I don't understand what his drug use has to do with alleged Obama Era abuse of power over a Ukrainian gas deal. Seems like character assassination to me pure and simple, but whatever.

[SquirrelMan]

Yes, her early approval rating as president won't be the best, I am afraid.

Waiting until a crime clearly involved Pence, too, was quite Machiavellian by her.

I kind of love it?

[Celgress]

Waiting until a crime clearly involved Pence, too, was quite Machiavellian by her.

I kind of love it?

It'll never work. There is no way the Republican dominated Senate will hand the Executive Branch to a Democrat.

Edit - It could help with the election in 2020 though.

[Lord Falcon]

Let the impeachment hearing commence.

This is Watergate but with intimidating a foreign country to interfere with the election added on top.

Boris Johnson's suspension of parliament unlawful, supreme court rules

The fact that the ruling is unanimous is huge. No ifs, and or buts about it. The Supreme Court's ruling will stand the test of time, and be looked at closely by any future Prime Minister considering pulling anything close to what Boris Johnson tried to pull.

[Tami]

I worry that Trump will release his phone transcripts, then Barr and others will say 'See? Nothing happened'. It's the Whistle-blower complaint that is important, not as much the phone call transcript. They could turn this into Mueller Report 2.0.

I am also becoming convinced that if Trump does release the phone Transcript...it will be either <snipped> and/or it won't be the right phone call.

Richard Nixon tried something similar. Obviously it didn't work.

The DNI really needs to get his priorities straight and release the Complaint.

[PaulBullion]

It'll never work. There is no way the Republican dominated Senate will hand the Executive Branch to a Democrat.

Edit - It could help with the election in 2020 though.

Interestingly enough:

McConnell isn’t stonewalling inquiry. He’s actually giving it some sort of green light. Which is, of course, surprising.

https://twitter.com/markos/status/11...831525376?s=20

[Lord Falcon]

I worry that Trump will release his phone transcripts, then Barr and others will say 'See? Nothing happened'. It's the Whistle-blower complaint that is important, not as much the phone call transcript. They could turn this into Mueller Report 2.0.

I am also becoming convinced that if Trump does release the phone Transcript...it will be either <snipped> and/or it won't be the right phone call.

Richard Nixon tried something similar. Obviously it didn't work.

The DNI really needs to get his priorities straight and release the Complaint.

The good thing here is that it is black letter law that the executive branch "shall" divulge the information being demanded here, i.e. the tapes themselves. Refusing to release the tapes is easily an impeachable offense in itself, and now I think Pelosi senses the political pressure for impeachment has reached critical mass.

[Celgress]

Interestingly enough:



https://twitter.com/markos/status/11...831525376?s=20

It won't last especially if Pence is empeached alongside Trump. They might be willing to give up one but not both because of who is next in line. Their base would eat them alive if they did so.

[Jackalope89]

Moscow Mitch I guess got the greenlight to let the Orange Menace go from his overlord, Putin.

[Tami]

It's official, Pelosi announced Impeachment Hearings/Inquiries.

[GindyPosts]

Since when are the Nazi's representatiave of the Left? Ah.....I see now how that happened from Snopes, and D'Souza is used as a prime proponent of misinformation

I've mentioned this on Twitter; Dinesh's favorite strategy is using the power of driving his opponents insane with using nonsense as fact, and using their refusal to fight bullshit with bullshit as victory. When that fails, alternate strategies include "anecdotal evidence from a bygone era", "lugging around a dozen books he claims to have read to create the impression he studied", and when all else fails, "claim he's being attacked since he's an Indian even though Dinesh distanced himself from Indian culture for practically all his American life" (also known as "the OJ Defense").

In truth, Nazism and Fascism are built around conservative policies, with the only real argument people can use for Nazism as a leftism rhetoric is that Nazism stands for "National Socialism", what with that second word being thrown around as a dirty association to them liberals nowadays. The philosophy of socialism (all tangible assets operated by the government than by corporations) can be applied to right-wing theology as opposed to left-wing theology as well depending on execution. And, the rise of both Herr Fuhrer and Il Duce themselves were spurned upon resentment towards maligned groups in countries devastated by the previous World War, with both those countries (Germany in particular) only reestablishing themselves in large part due to a focus on exclusively the industrial sector and "Our National First, Destroy the Opposition" propaganda.

[kidfresh512]

I think the general public will constantly need to be educated on this process now. And I think all the Democratic candidates going forward should speak on why this is important and how likely it is that the GOP controlled Senate will not hold up to their end of the constitution and will likely never follow through with the findings.

Or they will downplay and excuse any findings as they have with the Mueller Report and every other scandal including this Ukraine issue.

It will be used as a rallying cry of poor me Dems attacking me by Trump in all his rallies.

This can be good getting more information on the scope and breadth of corruption. But, if not handled properly and if expectations get overblown without educating people it could blow up Dem chances. Which is exactly why Nancy was hesitant in the first place.

[Iron Maiden]

Interesting read. Some historical information I didn't know about til now.

Re: the Nazis being "leftist" stuff. I think these far right nutjobs that spout this nonsense rely on people being ignorant of history, which in many cases is more accurate than we like to think. I mean, Nazis put millions of Jews, Roma, and people with disabilities to death in concentration camps. They were trying to create a pure race by brute force and they were also eliminating any opposing parties by murder. Among those that were purged were union leaders, and socialists or communists who disagreed with Hitler and his party.

[Iron Maiden]

I've mentioned this on Twitter; Dinesh's favorite strategy is using the power of driving his opponents insane with using nonsense as fact, and using their refusal to fight bullshit with bullshit as victory. When that fails, alternate strategies include "anecdotal evidence from a bygone era", "lugging around a dozen books he claims to have read to create the impression he studied", and when all else fails, "claim he's being attacked since he's an Indian even though Dinesh distanced himself from Indian culture for practically all his American life" (also known as "the OJ Defense").

And the scary part are those "documentary" films he was making have found their way into people's consciousness. It's something that they know they heard somewhere, don't know it's source but "I just know it's true"