US Politics, October 2019 — I guess statement you could say with thread. I made a thread. The thread was PERFECT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbC1Ygqzgnw
https://chriswatsonreleases.bandcamp.com/track/cracking-viscera

somewhat tangential but feels pertinent to this thread

also:
https://patch.com/new-york/parkslope/angry-trump-statue-found-floating-gowanus-canal
http://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/23145371/20191022/010719/styles/patch_image/public/img-0080___22122547494.jpg

GOP lawmakers are now storming the secure room (called a SCIF) trying to gain entry into impeachment hearings. https://t.co/3HTcUXdQ4e

— Sheryl Gay Stolberg (@SherylNYT) October 23, 2019

Good luck getting in, hope y'all fall and break hips

Their gold star insurance plans will heal'em!

Asshole Version of The Area 51 Raid.

rigor mortis of the soul will aid in the naruto arms running technique

Intel Dem @RepMikeQuigley said it would be up to leadership to consider whether to file ethics complaints against R’s who “pushed their way in” to scif — says they took photos/filmed in the House’s secure classified spaces

“They have no respect for” the process.

— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) October 23, 2019

This is great. McConnell is a) conceding that they cannot effectively defend the President's behavior, and is b) playing a weak hand that a) most of the American people don't understand (lol even Congressional members don't understand the process!) or care about. What's more, hard evidence - which the Dems are clearly gathering - is more eye-popping/attention and will trump complaints about process. And what's more, process complaints can be circumvented by simply holding public hearings, holding a floor vote, etc. which will likely happen within the next few months. They have nothing.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is urging Republicans to focus on Democrats and their tactics in seeking to mount an effective defense of President Trump on impeachment.

One GOP lawmaker, summing up McConnell’s message to Republicans at a private lunch meeting Tuesday, quoted the GOP leader as saying, “This is going to be about process.”

McConnell recognizes that some members of his conference are uncomfortable defending Trump on charges his administration linked aid to Ukraine to that country’s government running politically motivated investigations meant to help the White House.

As a result, he’s telling his members they have plenty of reason to offer a vigorous defense of Trump, as the president publicly urged them to do Monday, by focusing on Democratic tactics that McConnell and Trump view as unfair.

Senate Republicans also privately make the point that it’s difficult to defend Trump on the substance of the charges against him because so much remains unknown.

GOP lawmakers don’t know the identity of the whistleblower who filed a complaint against Trump or what exactly House Democrats have discovered in their investigation, which has been conducted largely behind closed doors.

There are also outstanding questions about the nature of interactions between Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Ukrainian officials over an investigation of Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden.

At the private lunch, McConnell and Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) drew a contrast between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and past Speaker Carl Albert (D-Okla.), who served during the impeachment of President Nixon.

Albert in 1973 and 1974 gave Republicans much more of an opportunity to participate in the process, they said.

McConnell also said Democrats in the minority were treated better by former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) during the impeachment of President Clinton than today’s Republicans.

“What is clear and not in dispute, as Sen. Blunt has pointed out, is the process in the House to which the president is being subjected is totally unprecedented and totally unfair,” McConnell told reporters after the lunch.

“Speaker Albert laid out procedural guidelines during the Nixon episode — Speaker Gingrich during the Clinton impeachment episode — all of which included the kind of basic procedural safeguards that one associates in our country with being treated fairly,” he said.

A Republican senator who spoke on condition of anonymity said McConnell gave his colleagues leeway to express opposition to various Trump actions, such as pulling U.S. troops out of northern Syria, but urged them to stick together on process.

“He feels everybody is free to talk about issues like Ukraine or maybe the Kurds, but to try to conduct an impeachment without any process is very contrary to what happened before,” the lawmaker said. “That pretty much sums it up.”

A second Republican senator said McConnell and Blunt thought it made sense to give the Senate GOP conference a primer on past impeachment proceedings.

“It was a logical second place to go after the informational hearing on how impeachment will work in the Senate so members will know when they are talking about this process why it’s different than the way this has been done before,” the lawmaker said. “It’s one thing to say it’s unfair. It’s another thing to say here are all the boxes that were checked for Clinton and Nixon, and none of these boxes have been checked for this president.”

McConnell’s effort came a day after Trump, at a Cabinet meeting, complained that Democrats are much more unified than Republicans on impeachment.

I feel that Trump’s ‘shoot someone on 5th Ave.’ comment is Chekhov’s gun in this insane drama that will include, or conclude with, that very event. He’s a bit of a Marlo Stanfield type and I could see a similar end (alone on the corner in a bloodied suit, gun in hand).

Or not.

yeah but then what do they do next season?

He's gonna shoot Biden.

we can but hope

in other fantasy-violence news:

Rick Wiles warns that if Trump is removed from office, veterans, cowboys, mountain men, and "guys that know how to fight" will hunt down Democrats and kill them. https://t.co/jhIWqIiLIP pic.twitter.com/oQDCJVZ6Jg

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) October 23, 2019

GOP lawmakers ought to be arrested like every other protestor who tries to storm a hearing

yeah but then what do they do next season?

re-runs of Red Dawn iirc

Every republican complaint about unfairness should be met with at least one solid slap across the face.

office, veterans, cowboys, mountain men, and "guys that know how to fight" will hunt down Democrats and kill them

The Village People were def known for their fisticuffs

Maybe fight is a misprint.

veterans, cowboys, mountain men, and "guys that know how to fight" will hunt down Democrats and kill them.

On their rascal scooters?

fisticuffs, good sir, are not how we solve the problems of our great Republic

― Pierre Delecto

That was quick.

Trump taking victory lap for Turkey-Syria on TV rn.

it's too late to complain about process anyway:

Support for the impeachment inquiry into President Trump has reached a new high, a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday found.

Pollsters discovered that 55 percent of respondents approved of the inquiry, while 43 percent opposed it. Last week, 51 percent supported it while 45 percent did not.

Meantime

Giuliani’s associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman just pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutor said there are subpoenas for **50** bank accounts.

Parnas attorney said there may be concerns about executive privilege due to relationship with Giuliani.

More soon, @CourthouseNews.

— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) October 23, 2019

😳 pic.twitter.com/0EVP5adhUJ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 23, 2019

executive privilege is a hell of a drug

Re: the McConnell strategy, sure, but I don't think "They're being mean to Donald Trump" has a lot of resonance beyond the base.

Can all evidence of one's criminal activities be protected by "executive privilege", if one, say, bakes a cake for Giuliani? Asking for a friend.

This is the new party line I guess?

"I'll take Quid Pro Quos for $1,000 Alex"
"U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of Mississippi river for $15 million."
"What is Seward's Folly?"
"Sorry @Steelers fans, it is 'What is the Louisiana Purchase, the Louisiana Purchase.'" #QuidProQuoJeopardy

— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) October 23, 2019

Homie is most likely to leave office by accidentally snorting his whole adderall-crusted septum back through the centre of his brain, like a bullet, during an on-camera speech

the wise man bowed his head and said..."there is no difference between purchasing land and purchasing election influence from a foreign country"

purchasing land... using funds duly appropriated for that purpose by Congress, under treaties also approved by Congress

it's called grasping at straws

Bit of a folly to tweet while autoerotic asphyxiating but different strokes

Re: the McConnell strategy, sure, but I don't think "They're being mean to Donald Trump" has a lot of resonance beyond the base.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, October 23, 2019

iirc if you have the law, hammer the law; if you have the facts, hammer the facts; if you have neither the law nor the facts, hammer the table.

And if ya got beef then bring the ruckus

you know what they say: if you don't have a hammer, then have your friends at daily caller just make one up for you, nailed it

Thread:

A few words on why Gaetz stunt to storm the SCIF to disrupt Laura Cooper's deposition is a VERY serious national security problem.

Note, I worked in that SCIF for HPSCI and handled cybersecurity issues while there.

— Mieke Eoyang (@MiekeEoyang) October 23, 2019

I really hope this is only ongoing cos they're trying to figure out how to arrest the six that are still there.

Dems might be afraid of playing into their hand but doesn't it play more into their hand to do nothing?

Meantime

Wow, AP reports a May 7 meeting in which Zelenskiy discussed "how to navigate Trump’s insistence for a probe and to avoid becoming entangled in American elections” https://t.co/3kos5ACwYv

— Miriam Elder (@MiriamElder) October 23, 2019

twistin the knife there

Trump lifting sanctions on Turkey. His idea, or Vlad's?

In an astounding capitualtion, Trump announces that he has lifted sanctions on Turkey despite their invasion of Syria, essentially rewarding Turkish President Erdogan for killing the Kurds.pic.twitter.com/DQzMk1SkGQ

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) October 23, 2019

Wish he'd die already.

don't we all

um, i know this is a silly question, but have ANY of the republicans chanting "LET US IN! LET US IN!" at the closed committee hearings talked to any of their republican colleagues who are actually on the committee? Have any reporters asked any of the the legit republican committee-members whether they think something is wrong with the process?

this is so fucking dumb, designed to fool anyone who doesn't want to bother looking up how shit works

i truly believe this will end with Trump and a handful of his inner circle disappearing in a helicopter into Russian air space

xp "this" being the Republican party

the whole Turkey/Syria/Kurds/Russia thing makes no sense to anyone. the only thing that makes sense is Putin demanding that he do it as his last act before he loses all power to do anything in the white house.