All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Tami]

Scoop: GOP outlines theory of impeachment defense in memo to members

Republicans on the three House committees conducting the Trump-Ukraine investigation have settled on "four key pieces of evidence" that they claim will undermine Democrats' arguments for why the president should be impeached, according to a staff memo circulated to committee members Monday night.

Why it matters: The first public hearings of the impeachment inquiry will take place this week. The Republican memo previews how committee members plan to defend Trump on the substance of the Ukraine allegations, in addition to the "process" attacks on the Democratic-led inquiry that have defined much of the GOP's defense strategy thus far.

Details: The Republicans claim these four pieces of evidence are "fatal" to the allegations that Trump used military aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political opponents.

Between the lines: The memo fails to consider counterarguments that Democratic members have been making in the media for weeks.

For example, it cites witnesses like Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, to bolster the argument that Ukraine was not aware of the hold on military aid. It does not, however, address the core claims at the heart of several explosive testimonies.

Chief among them is the fact that top officials involved in Ukraine policy, including Taylor and EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland, were under the impression that there was a quid pro quo involving aid, and that they communicated that understanding to their Ukrainian counterparts.

Memo Pdf Link

[PwrdOn]

We're not saying you're wrong, Rosa. We would just like to see some tangible evidence. Not circumstantial evidence, something concrete.

It will take some time for a paper trail to emerge, but I think there are reasons to be suspicious just by looking at the circumstances. Bolivia has been one of the very few success stories in Latin America over the last decade, largely as a result of Morales rejecting the neoliberal orthodoxy and embracing redistributive and racially inclusive policies. There is no doubt that he has let this go to his head and acquired some dictatorial tendencies, but in the wake of his regime's collapse there is virtually no chance that things will actually improve for the people of Bolivia. Most likely power will revert to a small white business elite backed by the military, who will proceed to sell their country to be strip mined by American corporations, with none of us any the wiser because really, how often do we think about Bolivia anyway? You just have to ask, who really benefits from booting Morales? It's certain not the Bolivian public, that's for sure.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

Trump also sides with me that bathing is a part of personal hygiene but I still take showers.

Taking showers is not political.

This is the same thing as Trump breathing air. You're attempting to dismiss how you and Trump are politically aligned on this issue.

You are defending anti democratic practices in favor of your side. That's some BS. Then you top it with unsubstantiated tinfoil crap. No serious minded person could thus take you seriously.

Let's be clear here.

You have defended Islamophobia
You have excused racism and misogyny
You have excused transphobia
You have excused giving hateful bigots a national platform

And now you are siding with Trump in defending a military coup (so democratic) that removed a leftist leader, placed a right-winger in power, and has violently forced others out of office, while parroting the right-wing of Bolivia, and claiming the left wants to play the victim.

You are no ally to the left. You are no ally to the oppressed.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

We're not saying you're wrong, Rosa. We would just like to see some tangible evidence. Not circumstantial evidence, something concrete.

For many coups, you don't see concrete evidence till years down the line.

The US normally downplays or denies all involvement, and we don't get proof of how much of a role they played until documents are unclassified.

If you're against US imperialism, in cases like this you have to assume the US is involved because that's what history tells us.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

To make clear what's happening in N. Syria: men who believe women belong in the kitchen are killing, torturing, & blowing apart women who are trying to create a women's revolution in the Middle East. The US, and now even the UN are actively helping them do so. #riseupforrojava 1/

this is important. People don't understand what Rojava is. It's a project largely created by & largely maintained by women. An attempt to begin to undo patriarchy in the very lands where it originated in its most pernicious forms. It is being attacked IN THE NAME OF PATRIARCHY 2/

all of this is explicit. Erdogan did not just declare in advance he intends to commit war crimes - to be greeted with the support, passive or active, of the world community - he declared he was acting to put women who rose up against patriarchy back in their place 3/

he claims Rojava are "terrorists" because they support the philosophy of Abdullah Ocalan, but in fact, that philosophy largely consists of a commitment to prioritise women's liberation since patriarchy is the foundation for all other forms of injustice 4/

in other words, Erdogan & by extension now all NATO powers want us to accept that the women's revolution in Rojava is a form of terrorism not despite but BECAUSE of its commitment to women's emancipation & empowerment. (Not because of any acts of terror, as these don't exist.) 5/

(all the actual acts of terror, from the bombing of hospitals to the use of white phosphorus & napalm on children in an explicit attempt to terrorise the civilian population to flee & be ethnically cleansed, are being done by the Turkish/NATO side.) 6/

I want to emphasise this is explicit. It's not some conspiracy theory. Erdogan says "I want to ethnically cleanse this territory." Then he meets w the UN sec'y general who says "I'll help". Erdogan says "I want to put women back in their place." Merkel gives him weapons. 7/

sure the German gov't & US congress make superficial noises, they kind of have to, & the US army is furious because no one will want to ally w them, but they're still providing the air cover & weapons for the forces of patriarchy who're saying "let us kill these uppity women" 8/

https://threader.app/thread/1193485967010803714



This is who we have to count on to oppose the Republicans.

Jesus, we are doomed.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Former Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice Concerned By Shadow Diplomacy On Ukraine

“What I see right now troubles me,” Rice said regarding reports of an unofficial U.S. policy being carried out in Ukraine. What's going on there should trouble everyone.

**********

House Lawmakers Urge Trump To Cancel Turkish President’s White House Visit

A group of both Democrats and Republicans said it was an “inappropriate time” for Trump to meet Wednesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. But hey, being inappropriate is what Trump does best, so look for that meeting to happen.

**********

Judge Dismisses Trump Lawsuit Against NY Over Tax Returns

The president sought an injunction to block the application of a state law that could allow the Democratic-controlled House to obtain the returns. A bit of bad news for Caramel Caligula. I guess the Supremes will hear the case next.

**********

Fox News’ Andrew Napolitano Challenges Trump’s Fitness For Office

“If I were a Democrat in the House ... I would vote to impeach,” said the former judge. I remain amazed Napolitano hasn't been canned by Faux News for not toeing the network's Kiss Trump's Ass party line.

**********

Marsha Blackburn Says Jesus Warned Against Lawyers. It Was Shakespeare Warning About Kings.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn invoked Jesus in her fight against impeachment. Maybe she should have paid more attention in Bible study class. Oh, WBEEEEEEEE....!

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of of Michael Duvall, a former member of the California State Assembly who was a big supporter of Republican "family values" that compelled him to vote for Proposition 8 a few years back to "protect the sanctity of marriage". What he probably should have done to protect marriages, though, was to not get multiple mistresses to run around behind his wife's back with. This all came to light, and led to Duvall's resignation, after he was boasting about a new gal pal in the Assembly itself while a hot microphone picked up him boasting about the details to a colleague, including what panties his new paramour wore, and how she was into spanking. Adding to the seediness of the whole affair? This mystery woman turned out to be a lobbyist that he was literally in bed with. Anyway, Duvall resigned in disgrace back in 2010.

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Kathleen Tonn, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Alaska in the 2014 elections who appeared in a Youtube video where she blamed a perceived lack of growth of daisies in the natural flora in Alaska on the presidency of Barack Obama and his support of same sex marriage. For whatever reason, that insane correlation that flies in the face of the scientific method did not garner Ms. Tonn’s video a ton of views, go figure. She then also decided to prove her credentials as a candidate by posting a video where she went to a local sauna fully clothed, and “sang in tongues” to, as she later explained, “save” a woman therein, because thankfully Satan cannot decipher when Christians speak in tongues. Now, just because she didn’t get elected doesn’t mean that Kathleen Tonn has decided to fade away into obscurity just yet. She turned up at an Anchorage Assembly, where she pulled out a multitude of props to make a spectacle of herself, including a Bible, a trumpet, and a tampon. During her alotted time to speak, she angrily read a passage from the Second Epistle of Peter about the Judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, and was outraged that the city was considering an ordinance for LGBT protections so people could not be fired for their sexual orientation. Instead, she asked them to consider an ordinance to protect against the real afflicted minority, people who speak in tongues which as far as signature issues go, is not one likely to see her ever elected to office.

On this date in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile about Richard Cash, a man who decided to challenge Senator Lindsay Graham in the 2014 GOP Primary for his seat in the Senate representing South Carolina, based on his qualifications of owning a fleet of ice cream trucks. Cash, as it stood, is a climate change denier, who felt there wasn't enough evidence to do anything about the phenomenon, and seemed more convinced that climate change scientists were running a "scam". We're going to go out on a limb and assume he only doesn't want to do anything about increasing temperatures because it would help him increase his ice cream sales. But what was far more concerning was that Richard Cash was quite the social conservative, to terrifying extremes. He was opposed to same sex marriage because "God designed men and women for a unique type of companionship", and he was a supporter of Personhood, which because he believes life begins at conception, he thus would prevent such "murders" by not just outlawing abortion, but most forms of birth control. How far to the lunatic fringe did his views on abortion get? While speaking before a Tea Party group on Martin Luther King Day, he referenced MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, and then segued to his own "I Have a Dream" speech about preventing all abortions, and granting unborn babies Constitutional rights. Richard Cash finished third in that primary with only 8% of the vote, and seems to have gone back to slinging ice cream.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2017, as well as 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had its first profile of Bryan Zollinger, who was first elected to the Idaho House of Representatives in 2016 with 66% of the vote to represent District 33B, after his predecessor Lindon Bateman was forced to retire due to term limits. And he has very quickly appeared on our radar after over the summer of 2016, telling several extreme lies, and sharing one of the most disgusting conspiracy theories that the Alt-Right/Neo-Nazi wing of the Republican Party could manage at the height of tensions in our country.

Charlottesville, Virginia saw a group of Neo-Nazis and White Nationalists in effect, plan a riot, showing up wielding torches, and several people appearing with homemade shields and clubs in early August. A few discussed online were documented as having discussed their desire to crash their cars or trucks into counter protesters who would show up to shout down their intolerant and disgusting views. And then, after a weekend where they terrorized the town, assaulted minorities, and law enforcement sat on their hands and let it all happen, one of the Neo-Nazis drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing lawyer and activist Heather Heyer in an act of domestic terrorism.

That’s the actual story. But in an alternate reality created by the villains of the actual story, the events in Charlottesville were a false flag operation orchestrated by Jewish billionaire George Soros, former President Barack Obama, Virginia Governor Terry MacAuliffe, Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer, or some combination of them to make it seem like President Trump is racist. Bryan Zollinger shared that story on Facebook, with a post where he said it was “plausible”:

"I'm not saying it is true but I am suggesting that it is completely plausible. We know that many protestors were Soros funded and we also know that Donald Trump is not a racist. The man was in the public spotlight for twenty plus years with zero allegations of racism. He has clearly and unequivocally denounced by name these hate groups as he well should have. The media has chosen to push this narrative until even some of the president's own party are sucking up to the media, mind you only those that know they are part of the swamp that Trump avowed to drain. So while I'm not saying I believe the article, I'm glad to see someone out there asking people to think for themselves and use some logic and reason rather than spout what the media, otherwise known as the communications branch of the Democratic Party is selling."

Now, we’ll also challenge the lie in Zollinger’s post that nobody has ever said Donald Trump is racist in “decades”. The first time his name is in a newspaper, he was being sued with his father for racial discrimination at his properties in the 1970s by the Nixon Administration. And you have to be racist for the Nixon administration to throw a flag, you know? But besides that… Zollinger even lending any credence to the conspiracy theory is nuts.

A few days after posting this insane conspiracy theory, on August 19th, 2017, Zollinger posted again, whining about the removal of Confederate statues, which is a great wedge issue to dig in on when you’re in f***ing Idaho, one of the states that most definitely wasn’t a part of the Confederacy, and is the furthest away from the Mason Dixon line in the continental United States. But hey, at least Zollinger deleted his post and backed down, right? Ha! No. This tool actually has bragged, without proof, that he has donors that specifically would donate money to his re-election in 2018 based on the number of negative Facebook comments and Twitter responses he got for his post.

By October of 2017, local reporters decided that maybe they should research Bryan Zollinger as much as possible, to find out how “out there” the little-known freshman lawmaker actually was. Lo and behold, an extensive criminal record was unearthed that included felony grand theft, misdemeanor driving under the influence, two misdemeanor malicious injury to property charges, and several other alcohol-related offenses. Zollinger’s conservative allies, though, attribute his criminal background to “youthful indiscretions”, because of course they do.

As a freshman lawmaker, we wish we had an extensive voting record on Zollinger to detail to further underline how twisted this guy is, but instead, all we can find on him politically outside of his sympathies towards conspiracy theorists and Neo-Nazis is he also spreads lies about the Affordable Care Act, and that reflected his sponsorship of a bill to target the Medicaid of Idaho resident. He also voted for “Stand Your Ground” laws to be applied in Idaho, as well as a vote to prevent courts from making “rulings based on foreign law”, because wouldn’t you know it, he’s a Islamophobic idiot who is paranoid about Sharia Law being a thing in the United States.

Zollinger also spent most of his first term in office campaigning to elect Congressman Raul Labrador to be Governor of Idaho when he isn’t running south and leaving his state to go to college football games at the University of Utah, because… priorities? Alas, rubbing elbows with White Supremacists is no longer a dealbreaker for Republican voters, and Zollinger was re-elected with 59% of the vote.

He’s currently one of the big players in the Idaho state legisalture on whether or not the state will finally approve the Medicaid expansion, and critics have noted that maybe he should recuse himself from the debate and the vote, considering he’s a lawyer who represents a medical debt collection agency.

Because why don’t we just add “corrupt” to the list of adjectives like “bigoted”, “dishonest” and “criminal” that we can use to describe Bryan Zollinger, while we’re at it.

[Tami]

For discussion purposes

Evo Morales Finally Went Too Far for Bolivia

Evo Morales has been attacking Bolivia’s democracy for many years. Since coming to office in 2006, the socialist president has concentrated ever more authority in his own hands, denounced the opposition in aggressive terms, and placed loyalists in key institutions, from the country’s public broadcaster to its highest court.

Like many populists on both the left and the right, Morales claimed to wield power in the name of the people. But after weeks of mass protests in La Paz and other Bolivian cities, and the rapid crumbling of his support both within law enforcement and his own political party, it was his loss of legitimacy among the majority of his own countrymen that forced Morales to resign yesterday.

[Tami]

The world’s largest trade deal could be signed in 2020 — and the US isn’t in it

After more than six years of negotiations, more than a dozen countries in Asia Pacific are now aiming to sign what would be the world’s largest trade agreement in 2020.

The deal, called Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or RCEP, involves all 10 countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc and five of its major trading partners: Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

Together, the 15 countries make up close to one-third of the world population and global gross domestic product, according to a Reuters report. That’s larger than other regional trading blocs such as the European Union and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.

The mega-deal started with 16 countries but India decided not to join the trade pact over concerns that it would hurt the South Asian country’s domestic producers.

[Mister Mets]

The editorial board of a college newspaper is apologizing for mistakes made when covering a visit by Jeff Sessions. They contacted students to ask if they'd be willing to be interviewed, and retraumatized students by photographing the event. They hope they can rebuild trust that was lost through their mistakes.

I wish I was kidding.

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2019/1...ions-protests/

[Rosa Luxemburg]

For discussion purposes

Evo Morales Finally Went Too Far for Bolivia

Yascha Mounk thinks the Democrats are moving too far to the left, complains about PC culture, and he supports regime change any chance he gets.

Of course he supports the coup. During the Brazil elections, he was comparing AMLO to Bolsonaro.

This is the guy that wrote an article on how him getting ratioed on twitter was actually a sign of his bravery.

Dude's a joke.

For a take down on the guy, read this.

https://theoutline.com/post/7123/yas...=1&zi=xuvqyq7s

Despite a penchant for soaring rhetoric about the need to be “vigilant” and “fight for our immersed, fervently held values,” Mounk’s benchmark for victory is uninspiring and startlingly naïve. As he said in a February 2017 monologue on his podcast, “True victory would be that the Republican Party would transform itself, reform itself and that when we run elections in 2024 and 2028 they are between a center-left with a real vision about how to improve people’s lives and a center-right that accepts all Americans as equal citizens and that abstains from racial dog-whistles.”

Like the out-of-touch elites whom he passingly criticizes, Mounk envisions a return to the status quo ante: warmed-over neoliberalism combined with high-school civics. In his zeal to win over cultural conservatives to nationalism-lite, Mounk even indulges in some YouTube-pundit-style left-punching: condemning “political correctness” and “identity politics” as losing propositions and lamenting that American undergraduates are taught “disdain for our inherited political institutions.”

[Theleviathan]

It will take some time for a paper trail to emerge, but I think there are reasons to be suspicious just by looking at the circumstances. Bolivia has been one of the very few success stories in Latin America over the last decade, largely as a result of Morales rejecting the neoliberal orthodoxy and embracing redistributive and racially inclusive policies. There is no doubt that he has let this go to his head and acquired some dictatorial tendencies, but in the wake of his regime's collapse there is virtually no chance that things will actually improve for the people of Bolivia. Most likely power will revert to a small white business elite backed by the military, who will proceed to sell their country to be strip mined by American corporations, with none of us any the wiser because really, how often do we think about Bolivia anyway? You just have to ask, who really benefits from booting Morales? It's certain not the Bolivian public, that's for sure.

This is more fair minded for sure.

It'd be a lot easier for me to be sympathetic had he not started down the dictator track.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Republicans shrug off growing evidence, stand with Trump against impeachment

Congressional Republicans are sticking with their party leader in the face of thousands of pages of evidence showing President Trump leveraged foreign policy for political favors, raising the possibility that not a single House Republican will vote for his impeachment.

As they prepare to hold the first open impeachment hearings this week, Democrats had hoped to peel off Republican support from a key bloc — retiring lawmakers who need not worry about internal blowback or primary challenges.

Yet many are refusing to break with Trump. Rep. Peter T. King of New York made a point of stating his intention to vote against impeaching Trump in his retirement announcement Monday, a troubling sign for Democrats.

Another moderate Republican, Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, sounded like a Trump ally on a Sunday morning talk show as he called for Hunter Biden, son of former vice president Joe Biden, to testify in the impeachment inquiry — an idea being pushed by the White House that concerns some conservative Senate Republicans. Hunter Biden worked on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

In more than five weeks of testimony, current and former Trump administration officials allege that the president tied foreign aid and a White House meeting to Ukraine’s willingness to announce investigations into the Bidens and a conspiracy theory surrounding the 2016 election. More than a dozen longtime State Department diplomats and National Security Council aides have painted a largely consistent picture of a president adamant on strong-arming a U.S. ally to do his political bidding.

Republicans are standing with Trump more out of fear than loyalty, knowing full well he can end their careers with one vindictive tweet, and everyone knows it too. The simple truth is that if Trump goes down, the GOP goes down with him, and saving their necks is more important to the party than the country or the Constitution. I find it laughingly ironic that the GOP continues supporting a man who is loyal only to himself, and would shove the whole of the party under the nearest Greyhound in a New York minute if it would save his own skin, yet, there they are, dutifully circling the wagons for Trump. Pathetic!

[Tami]

Thousands of Twitter 'bots' targeted Kentucky with fake news on election night

LOUISVILLE — As the final votes trickled in during last week's Kentucky gubernatorial election, a network of automated Twitter accounts suddenly sprang into action.

They spread misinformation about the election being rigged, according to the CEO of a company that tracks political misinformation on social media.

Gideon Blocq, the founder and CEO of VineSight, told The Courier Journal his company witnessed thousands of accounts with "bot-like" automated behavior spreading misinformation about the race, including a screenshot of a tweet by one account claiming to have destroyed ballots with votes for incumbent Republican Gov. Matt Bevin.

"Immediately at the end of the counting of the votes, these stories started popping up in parallel, all about the election being rigged," Block said.

One of the tweets spreading the furthest came from user @Overlordkraken1, which tweeted at 8:39 p.m. he had "just shredded a box of Republican mail in ballots," adding "Bye bye Bevin." The tweet listed the user's location as Louisville, though it misspelled the word.