All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[AnakinFlair]

I just can't believe we're far enough into The Twilight Zone to see Mitch turn. And given the last 6 days, that's saying something.

What could possibly motivate these signals?

• Mitch's corporate masters saying Trump and his acolytes have outlived their utilty now they've got the taxes, and the judges fixed?
• Trump's real power in the party (his raving mob) being diluted into impotence by the shutdown of their communications?
• A threat to keep Trump tame on which Mitch hopes never to act?
• A lesson to would-be Trump-successors about their place relative to The Truly Powerful?
• A basic **** You to Trump in his last days?

All of it sounds very dangerous unless there's a guy with an enormous syringe of ...say... nicotine standing right behind The Don 24/7.

I think it is Mitch trying to deflect the question. He knows damn well how he is going to vote. And I am pretty sure it will be to let Trump off the hook.

he is too much of a piece of **** for him to show that he cares about America now.

Or... he could vote to be impeached and bar him from holding future office. Thereby freeing his party of a Trump candidacy in 2024.

I would like to congratulate Gym Jordan for finally finding his suit jacket.

[Zelena]

Well that's what fascists like to do...they see the power to destroy and break stuff as power in total. They believe that vulnerability is weakness and the power to destroy is divine.

Not quite. Trump & co. have some common points with the fascists like a sense of theatre. But fascists built quite big ugly things they consider as modern and futurist. They made roads and others stuff… Not my cup of tea but their projects were “grandiose”.
They also want to expand physically, conquer new territories…

Trump and like are more in the destruction of the institutions and protectionism… It is turned to the past… As a project, it’s tight.

[Amadeus Arkham]

I think it is Mitch trying to deflect the question. He knows damn well how he is going to vote. And I am pretty sure it will be to let Trump off the hook.

he is too much of a piece of **** for him to show that he cares about America now.

I’m inclined to agree with you, but he’s broken away from his fellow congressman before when he (belatedly) acknowledged Biden as the winner of the election, and was practically the only republican willingly to vote to certify Trump’s election before the attack on Wednesday forced other members to change their minds.

Granted, that doesn’t guarantee he’ll vote for conviction but he’s shown he’s willing to be an outlier if the need arises. He already knows of the damage Trump is inflicting upon the party, and frankly he more than a little angry at him for the attack(if reports are to be believed). Not to mention, Trump’s election fraud conspiracy theories cost the party the senate. So it’s possible Mitch can vote Trump out as simply a means to prevent him from becoming a force in the party in the future. Cleansing the party from Trump’s influence would be ideal for Mitch, who I’m sure would greatly prefer a much more stable person as the GOP president. Getting rid of Trump would be healthier for the party long-term even if it results in alienating his cultish base. Trump is a cancer that needs to needs be removed from the body of the party, and Mitch could see this as his best chance to get rid of it before it spreads further to the point it kills the party.

[BeastieRunner]

Donald John Trump.

2 Impeachments, 1 Term.

Film at 11.

[Tami]

I think it is Mitch trying to deflect the question. He knows damn well how he is going to vote. And I am pretty sure it will be to let Trump off the hook.

he is too much of a piece of **** for him to show that he cares about America now.

Mitch is thinking of 2022 and how he can regain control over the Senate. He's ready to throw Trump under the bus if he thinks that is the best way to do it.

[Powerboy]

These extreme right wing folks REALLY are ticking me off with their meltdowns and dumb comparisons to the BLM events over the summer to "justify" the capitol event last week.

Also this DUMB tweet REALLY pissed me off.

https://twitter.com/AmandaPresto/sta...56437144551425

For sure. If they can take one line out of all that and construe it to mean white and male owned businesses will not receive help, their bias is hopeless.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

No matter what happens in the Senate. Trump is now impeached twice in his term of 4 years bracketed by losing the popular vote both times, the electoral vote the second time, and losing all three branches for his party in the second. That's a mark of shame that will follow him forever. Likewise, 10 House Republicans voted to impeach him making it the most bipartisan impeachment yet.

The insurrection of last week, the Putsch of January 6 has a legislative monument and I am happy for that.

What happens now in the senate well that's on McConnell.

Not quite. Trump & co. have some common points with the fascists like a sense of theatre. But fascists built quite big ugly things they consider as modern and futurist. They made roads and others stuff… Not my cup of tea but their projects were “grandiose”.
They also want to expand physically, conquer new territories…

Trump's "big beautiful wall" is an example of his ambition to build stuff, as is making Space Force a thing. So I'd chalk that up there.

The actual Nazis pitched grand projects but never actually got to building around stuff like Albert Speer's big projects and so on. The Autobahn was a project that originated under the Weimar Republic for instance and was never actually completed under Nazi Germany and only ever existed in propaganda.

So it's quite apt.

Trump and like are more in the destruction of the institutions and protectionism… It is turned to the past… As a project, it’s tight.

That's what Fascism is too. It's a mistake to think of fascism and Nazism as some modern futurizing thing. it was basicallyn a hodgepodge mixing elements of both and a kind of heightened, narrow, nationalism and personality cult. MAGA is just like that.

Anyway, the point of identifying fascism after the Holocaust is surely to recognize, halt, and prevent fascism from reaching the stage of genocide, no? Do we wait for the arrival of extermination camps to call Trump a fascist or do we stop at the failed Putsch?

[Wildling]

I’m inclined to agree with you, but he’s broken away from his fellow congressman before when he (belatedly) acknowledged Biden as the winner of the election, and was practically the only republican willingly to vote to certify Trump’s election before the attack on Wednesday forced other members to change their minds.

Granted, that doesn’t guarantee he’ll vote for conviction but he’s shown he’s willing to be an outlier if the need arises. He already knows of the damage Trump is inflicting upon the party, and frankly he more than a little angry at him for the attack(if reports are to be believed). Not to mention, Trump’s election fraud conspiracy theories cost the party the senate. So it’s possible Mitch can vote Trump out as simply a means to prevent him from becoming a force in the party in the future. Cleansing the party from Trump’s influence would be ideal for Mitch, who I’m sure would greatly prefer a much more stable person as the GOP president. Getting rid of Trump would be healthier for the party long-term even if it results in alienating his cultish base. Trump is a cancer that needs to needs be removed from the body of the party, and Mitch could see this as his best chance to get rid of it before it spreads further to the point it kills the party.

Besides, Mitch is by now aware of how Trump and his base are rewarding Pence's loyalty, who did the bare minimum of acknowledging democracy and institutions continue to exist and Trump lost.

[Sacred Knight]

As a Colorado native I apologize for that Super Saiyan Sarah Palin, Lauren Boebert.

[Amadeus Arkham]

As a Colorado native I apologize for that Super Saiyan Sarah Palin, Lauren Boebert.

That’s brilliant. I love that. Thanks for that.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

As a Colorado native I apologize for that Super Saiyan Sarah Palin, Lauren Boebert.

You have nothing to apologize for.

Boebert does look a bit like Sarah Palin's younger (and possibly dumber and more violent) clone.

I am more than a little disappointed that New York State despite being so blue, has GOP reps in Congress and these aren't the moderate GOP that NYS supposedly has on the state level but extreme Trump-voting assholes like Rep. Zeldin. So does California.

Censuring anyone in the house is going to be hard to impossible unless actual evidence of criminal and seditious collusion unearths about Boebert or Greene or others. You can't boot out 197 people out of the House. Hopefully you can go after scapegoats and intimidate the rest.

[Sacred Knight]

That’s brilliant. I love that. Thanks for that.

You're quite welcome!
You have nothing to apologize for.

Boebert does look a bit like Sarah Palin's younger (and possibly dumber and more violent) clone.

Thank ya, its embarrassing though, she's an absolute trainwreck. Long rap sheet, her husband was accused of freaking exposing himself to children, its just...trashy. Its just so amazing that all you have to do is say "I gots guns, 'Murica!" and get elected to office. And she definitely likes to give the appearance of being more violent. I don't know how much of it is just stupid posturing but its not a good look either way. Honestly I'm most disturbed with her tweeting during the insurrection. People in the building were specifically told not to, but she did anyway like pointing out when Pelosi was being moved.

[BeastieRunner]

Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington
Rep. John Katko of New York
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington
Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois
Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan
Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming
Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan
Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio
Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina
Rep. David Valadao of California

There's your 10 Rs that the GOP will be vilifying over the next few months.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington
Rep. John Katko of New York
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington
Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois
Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan
Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming
Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan
Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio
Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina
Rep. David Valadao of California

There's your 10 Rs that the GOP will be vilifying over the next few months.

The Republican 10, just like "The Hollywood 10" (i.e. ten communist motion picture personnel who refused a subpoena to come to congress during the HUAC hearings, got blacklisted and celebrated for refusing to "name names").

[Amadeus Arkham]