Impeachment Circus Intermission: A Beautiful Live Tiny Desk Concert by Composer Max Richter

MusicJanuary 2020 • Views: 25,722

Watch Max Richter play at the Tiny Desk.

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Half way through this performance of Max Richter’s achingly beautiful On The Nature Of Daylight, I looked around our NPR Music office and saw trembling chins and tearful eyes. Rarely have I seen so many Tiny Desk audience members moved in this way. There’s something about Max Richter’s music that triggers deep emotions.

In Daylight, which has been effectively used in movies such as Arrival and Shutter Island, a simple theme rolls out slowly in the low strings until a violin enters with a complimentary melody in a higher register. Richter, at the keyboard, adds a subterranean bass line for added gravitas, while high above another violin soars sweetly, mournfully. With all elements interlocked – and sensitively played by members of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble – the piece gently sways, building in intensity. It all adds up to a six-minute emotional journey that, if you open yourself to the sounds, can leave you wrung out.

“I’m very interested in the idea of a piece of music being a place to think,” Richter explained, adding that he had written Daylight as a response to the 2003 Iraq War.

Richter, whose music can’t be easily pigeonholed, lightened the mood with a miniature called Vladimir’s Blues. Its delicately toggling chords are an homage to novelist Vladimir Nabokov who, in his spare time, was a respected lepidopterist, obsessed with a subfamily of gossamer-winged butterflies called the blues. Richter plays the piano with the practice pedal engaged for a warm, muted sound.

Again in the final piece, Richter counters violence with calming, thoughtful music. His ballet Infra is a meditation on the 2005 terrorist subway bombings in London. It’s music about travel, too, Richter explains, saying that he was inspired by Schubert’s melancholy song cycle Winterreise (Winter Journey).

In trying times, music by the soft-spoken Richter can feel like a safe haven, a place for personal reflection or a welcoming, utilitarian space to clear the mind.

SET LIST
“On The Nature Of Daylight”
“Vladimir’s Blues”
“Infra 5”

MUSICIANS
Max Richter: piano, keyboard

American Contemporary Music Ensemble: Clarice Jensen: cello & artistic director; Ben Russell, violin; Laura Lutzke, violin; Isabel Hagen, viola; Claire Bryant, cello

CREDITS
Producers: Tom Huizenga, Morgan Noelle Smith, Kara Frame; Creative director: Bob Boilen; Audio engineers: Josh Rogosin, Alex Drewenskus; Editor: Kara Frame; Videographers: Maia Stern, Kara Frame, Jack Corbett; Associate Producer: Bobby Carter; Executive producer: Lauren Onkey; VP, programming: Anya Grundmann; Photo: Mhari Shaw/NPR

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417 comments

Colère Tueur de Lapin Jan 29, 2020 • 4:14:29pm

Good time for a new thread.

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 4:15:40pm

Larry Klayman is suing Rebecca Schoenkopf of Wonkette for $75,000, claiming defamation of character.

No, Wonkette’s Not Giving Larry Klayman $75,000, LARRY.

goddamnedfrank Jan 29, 2020 • 4:16:40pm

Okay. Republicans have 53 seats, they can do whatever they want.

This has always felt like more of a bluff than a threat, if only because the optics of them sitting there attacking Biden’s son with provable lies spread by Russian intelligence services seem suboptimal at best

— Jason McGlothlen (@goddamnedfrank) January 30, 2020

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 4:17:15pm

re: #3 goddamnedfrank

[Embedded content]

It’s bizarre.

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 4:19:04pm

“But trying to buy off potential voters, Ms. Shropshire said, “just demonstrates the utter disrespect that Trump and his allies have for black voters. The cynical use of the Christmas holiday — when people really do want money to buy gifts for their children — is so offensive.””

— Aron Goldman (@ArgoJournal) January 29, 2020

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 4:23:49pm

re: #1 Colère Tueur de Lapin

Good time for a new thread.

I’d like to apologize. My temper got the better of me on the subject.

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 4:25:49pm

re: #5 Dread Pirate

[Embedded content]

Remember the free stuff Obama was supposedly giving?

i(m)p(each)sos Jan 29, 2020 • 4:27:03pm

continued from downstream…

re: #369 Blind Frog Belly White

The belief that we’re a nation of rural small towns perverts our politics. It is the most popular excuse for antidemocratic institutions like the Senate and the Electoral College - that “The Cities” shouldn’t dominate. Suggest that maybe people in small towns are no better than anyone else, and you trigger this kind of reaction. It gets real old, real fast, and doesn’t reflect well on the triggered.

The more you travel around the country, the more you realize what the numbers REALLY look like. Walk around a neighborhood in Queens or Miami or LA or Minneapolis and then realize there are more people in that one neighborhood than in all the small towns combined in a lot of smaller states. And yet that neighborhood shares its senators (and EC votes) with tens of millions more people, while each of those little states gets two Senate votes and at least three EC votes.

And it’s an impossible structure to change, because the amendments that would change it require a significant percentage of those small states to vote quite clearly against their self-interest.

Ace Rothstein Jan 29, 2020 • 4:28:38pm

re: #7 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

Like auto bailouts with interest that saved 1.5 million jobs.

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 4:31:02pm

re: #6 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

I’d like to apologize. My temper got the better of me on the subject.

Me too.

Sometimes I view a generalised statement as a personal attack, and my temper flares.

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 4:31:30pm

re: #9 Ace Rothstein

Like auto bailouts with interest that saved 1.5 million jobs.

Correct but somehow it’s normal for Trump’s campaign to literally go out handing cash.

Blind Frog Belly White Jan 29, 2020 • 4:32:11pm

re: #8 i(m)p(each)sos

continued from downstream…

The more you travel around the country, the more you realize what the numbers REALLY look like. Walk around a neighborhood in Queens or Miami or LA or Minneapolis and then realize there are more people in that one neighborhood than in all the small towns combined in a lot of smaller states. And yet that neighborhood shares its senators (and EC votes) with tens of millions more people, while each of those little states gets two Senate votes and at least three EC votes.

And it’s an impossible structure to change, because the amendments that would change it require a significant percentage of those small states to vote quite clearly against their self-interest.

That’s actually one of my big worries - if the prediction comes true that 70% of Americans will elect 30% of the Senate, and the EC similarly continues its GOP-ward, antidemocratic skew, the overly-empowered Right will not make any accommodation, but rather will feel emboldened to rule America as a minority. At that point, I’m concerned that the “just consent” of the governed will be lost, and I don’t foresee a peaceful resolution.

i(m)p(each)sos Jan 29, 2020 • 4:32:38pm

re: #10 Anymouse 🌹🎃

Me too.

Sometimes I view a generalised statement as a personal attack, and my temper flares.

You’ve also had a hard few weeks (months?) lately. It’s understandable!

(and glad you’re on the mend…)

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 4:34:15pm

re: #10 Anymouse 🌹🎃

Me too.

Sometimes I view a generalised statement as a personal attack, and my temper flares.

Accepted. I really meant no slight on rural America. As I said, I’m a small town guy myself but I see right wing politicians using their hometurf and in this case it was a Democratic one to crap on my home and it really bugged me. As I said, we can advocate for policies that benefit others even if we may not see it ourselves. I’m not going to benefit from loan programs that help minority business owners but I know it will help people just like I know that increasing veterans benefits helps vets even though I’m not a vet myself.

Barefoot Grin Jan 29, 2020 • 4:35:03pm

It has really been extraordinary to hear Dershowitz give the “l’etat c’est moi” argument in defense of Trump.

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 4:35:24pm

re: #13 i(m)p(each)sos

You’ve also had a hard few weeks (months?) lately. It’s understandable!

(and glad you’re on the mend…)

Thanks, though that’s not really an excuse for me. I know better.

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 4:37:54pm

re: #12 Blind Frog Belly White

That’s actually one of my big worries - if the prediction comes true that 70% of Americans will elect 30% of the Senate, and the EC similarly continues its GOP-ward, antidemocratic skew, the overly-empowered Right will not make any accommodation, but rather will feel emboldened to rule America as a minority. At that point, I’m concerned that the “just consent” of the governed will be lost, and I don’t foresee a peaceful resolution.

I just think yeah sometimes the Jeffersonian vision gets in the way of what we really have become as a nation. Dunno who it was that said it but the weird thing is the modern right wants Hamiltonian America (big business dominating) by Jeffersonian and the left more sympathetic to small business owners and workers wants the Jeffersonian by Hamiltonian ways. The thing is we’re a much different nation than we were 231 years ago when we began to ratify The Constituion. I would favor expanding Congress personally. I think it would make our Congressmen and women more accessible to the public and it would be something that would benefit people in urban and rural areas. I don’t know about the Senate. I still think the Senate is a great idea in principle but the problem is how partisan things have gotten.

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 4:39:04pm

Hunter Biden again. These people have no inkling of a concept of a scintilla of shame.

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 4:40:55pm

re: #18 jaunte

Hunter Biden again. These people have no inkling of a concept of a scintilla of shame.

Someone should ask them about that one blonde Trump adviser who happens to share his name and who he really likes.

goddamnedfrank Jan 29, 2020 • 4:41:08pm

Well played! https://t.co/pYdp0we2wx

— Jason McGlothlen (@goddamnedfrank) January 30, 2020

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 4:42:34pm

re: #20 goddamnedfrank

Noice!

Oh snap. Demmings from downtown with a swish. You know that one is going to get to Orange Rexus.

Blind Frog Belly White Jan 29, 2020 • 4:42:46pm

re: #17 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

I just think yeah sometimes the Jeffersonian vision gets in the way of what we really have become as a nation. Dunno who it was that said it but the weird thing is the modern right wants Hamiltonian America (big business dominating) by Jeffersonian and the left more sympathetic to small business owners and workers wants the Jeffersonian by Hamiltonian ways. The thing is we’re a much different nation than we were 231 years ago when we began to ratify The Constituion. I would favor expanding Congress personally. I think it would make our Congressmen and women more accessible to the public and it would be something that would benefit people in urban and rural areas. I don’t know about the Senate. I still think the Senate is a great idea in principle but the problem is how partisan things have gotten.

The way I put it is that we’re not an 18th Century agrarian republic comprised of semi-independent former colonies, and it’s time we stopped pretending. Whatever the origins of the Senate, it is wildly unrepresentative and will only become worse over time. People say “The Senate represents the States!”, to which I say, “Fuck the states.” I don’t think Wyoming, with fewer people than reside within San Francisco city limits, deserves equal representation with California’s > 36 Million people. It’s just lines on a goddam map that somebody drew. If Wyoming wants more representation, get more people to move there.

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 4:43:51pm

We should hear about the Trump kids but they’re not relevant to this impeachment so I have no problem with what Demmings did here by reminding the audience of what we already know.

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 4:45:47pm

re: #22 Blind Frog Belly White

The way I put it is that we’re not an 18th Century agrarian republic comprised of semi-independent former colonies, and it’s time we stopped pretending. Whatever the origins of the Senate, it is wildly unrepresentative and will only become worse over time. People say “The Senate represents the States!”, to which I say, “Fuck the states.” I don’t think Wyoming, with fewer people than reside within San Francisco city limits, deserves equal representation with California’s > 36 Million people. It’s just lines on a goddam map that somebody drew. If Wyoming wants more representation, get more people to move there.

Yeah I hear ya. I remember doing a big stink eye when Meg Whitman tried to claim that Sarah Palin being Governor of Alaska for a year and a half meant more than then Senator Biden having been in the Senate for 6 terms. She also said Palin was Governor of the nation”s biggest state. Yeah it is but size war. Alaska’s economy certainly isn’t one of the biggest.

Patricia Kayden Jan 29, 2020 • 4:45:55pm

Hecuba's daughter Jan 29, 2020 • 4:46:32pm

re: #12 Blind Frog Belly White

That’s actually one of my big worries - if the prediction comes true that 70% of Americans will elect 30% of the Senate, and the EC similarly continues its GOP-ward, antidemocratic skew, the overly-empowered Right will not make any accommodation, but rather will feel emboldened to rule America as a minority. At that point, I’m concerned that the “just consent” of the governed will be lost, and I don’t foresee a peaceful resolution.

We are about there now. About 68% of the population elect 32% of the Senators. Of course, not all small states are Republican and not all large states are Democratic. But we are definitely in a situation where the minority has an outsized presence in our politics. The EC exacerbates this problem. There is a traditional complaint about the dangers of tyranny of the majority; we are subject now to the tyranny of the minority — and that is on all issues: for example guns and women’s right to choose.

Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jan 29, 2020 • 4:48:35pm

Evening Lizardim.

Blind Frog Belly White Jan 29, 2020 • 4:48:39pm

re: #26 Hecuba’s daughter

We are about there now. About 68% of the population elect 32% of the Senators. Of course, not all small states are Republican and not all large states are Democratic. But we are definitely in a situation where the minority has an outsized presence in our politics. The EC exacerbates this problem. There is a traditional complaint about the dangers of tyranny of the majority; we are subject now to the tyranny of the minority — and that is on all issues: for example guns and women’s right to choose.

No, but the 30% that will be elect 70% of the Senate is much whiter and more rural than America is. We’re heading for white minority rule, and history doesn’t hold a lot of great examples of that working out well.

goddamnedfrank Jan 29, 2020 • 4:50:09pm

re: #23 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

We should hear about the Trump kids but they’re not relevant to this impeachment so I have no problem with what Demmings did here by reminding the audience of what we already know.

It also does no good now to legitimize disingenuous GOP talking points and distractions. Turning the trial into “what about Ivanka and Jared” is in it’s own way a win for Republicans, because Republicans don’t have any pretenses towards the kind of integrity they demand of Democrats.

Blind Frog Belly White Jan 29, 2020 • 4:50:54pm

For me, it boils down to I don’t care where the fuck you live. You get a vote. A VOTE. Your voice = my voice. I can’t justify any system where that’s NOT the case. I would oppose just as adamantly any system that made my voice > your voice.

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 4:51:12pm

Defense attorneys opening the door to investigate Trumpspawn.

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 4:51:40pm

re: #29 goddamnedfrank

It also does no good now to legitimize disingenuous GOP talking points and distractions. Turning the trial into “what about Ivanka and Jared” is in it’s own way a win for Republicans, because Republicans don’t have any pretenses towards the kind of integrity they demand of Democrats.

Yeah exactly. Save Javanka for the ads pointing out the hypocrisy of accusing Hunter of being corrupt from benefiting from the same good ole boy network that every prominent son and daughter has benefited from. But at least Hunter had experience on a corporate board. Jared’s whole bragging point for his role in the ME was he’s read 25 books.

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 4:52:01pm

re: #30 Blind Frog Belly White

For me, it boils down to I don’t care where the fuck you live. You get a vote. A VOTE. Your voice = my voice. I can’t justify any system where that’s NOT the case. I would oppose just as adamantly any system that made my voice > your voice.

I’m there with you and Justice Brennan on that.

Joe Bacon 🌹 Jan 29, 2020 • 4:53:35pm

re: #2 Anymouse 🌹🎃

Larry Klayman is suing Rebecca Schoenkopf of Wonkette for $75,000, claiming defamation of character.

No, Wonkette’s Not Giving Larry Klayman $75,000, LARRY.

Why hasn’t that asshole been disbarred?

aatharuv Jan 29, 2020 • 4:54:11pm

re: #26 Hecuba’s daughter

This might be mitigated as some of the large RED states start going purple and finally blue. Of course this doesn’t change the structural inbalance but it changes the political imbalance.

Of course, the real issue is that the Senate has the power of appointments unchecked by the House, and the House’s main differentiator, the power to introduce spending bills is counteracted by the usual Senate blockage.

The imbalance could be mitigated, by giving the House a block on appointments. That introduces more gridlock, but __might__* force the House and Senate to actually work, if the Senate can’t do anything while completely blocking the House’s agenda.

But of course, this would require a constitutional amendment, so we have the same problem again.

*I know, I’m optimistic, but even Mitch McConnell would be furious if he couldn’t get a single judicial appointment through…

Semper Fi Jan 29, 2020 • 4:54:29pm

re: #18 jaunte

Hunter Biden again. These people have no inkling of a concept of a scintilla of shame.

I get the idea, if they got Hunter Biden ‘life’ in prison through false witnesses, it would be okay as long as it won for dear leader.

Blind Frog Belly White Jan 29, 2020 • 4:54:37pm

re: #34 Joe Bacon 🌹

Why hasn’t that asshole been disbarred?

Some might argue that it’s because we’re insufficiently spiteful.

lawhawk Jan 29, 2020 • 4:56:35pm

So, Trump long touts his fucking boondoggle wall.

He touts all the new miles of wall built.

He has built all of 1 new mile of wall. He’s “upgraded” a few dozen miles.

And those upgrades include a wall that somehow managed to get topple in a strong breeze.

Is this the brand new wall - the single mile of new wall that was added to existing wall, or the upgraded wall that Trump said would keep people out despite video showing how easy it is to scale? Think this is the “upgrade”.

I can’t keep track of the boondoggle failures.

— lawhawk (@lawhawk) January 30, 2020

This boondoggle is looking worse by the day. It’s the very definition of a boondoggle - in concept and execution.

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 4:56:37pm

re: #35 aatharuv

This might be mitigated as some of the large RED states start going purple and finally blue. Of course this doesn’t change the structural inbalance but it changes the political imbalance.

Of course, the real issue is that the Senate has the power of appointments unchecked by the House, and the House’s main differentiator, the power to introduce spending bills is counteracted by the usual Senate blockage.

The imbalance could be mitigated, by giving the House a block on appointments. That introduces more gridlock, but __might__* force the House and Senate to actually work, if the Senate can’t do anything while completely blocking the House’s agenda.

*I know, I’m optimistic, but even Mitch McConnell would be furious if he couldn’t get a single judicial appointment through…

To me, the interesting wild card is if Texas starts going purple and even blue and based on what I saw in the midterms, I think it’s a possibility this time. If the Republicans lose Texas as a sure fire win in electoral politics, they’re going to lose it but that’s a lot of EVs lost. It’s already been tough for them seeing California go completely Democratic.

i(m)p(each)sos Jan 29, 2020 • 4:57:18pm

re: #16 Anymouse 🌹🎃

Thanks, though that’s not really an excuse for me. I know better.

Well, you still have my sympathy.

And you made a good point in the last thread that rural voters will complain no matter how things are sliced up.

I have good friends of the conservative/libertarian persuasion who moved from California to rural Nevada a decade or so ago. It’s a good fit for them - they can afford a big house, the taxes are low, they’re surrounded by like-minded people. They’re happy there, and I’m happy for them.

Of course, their new state has changed in ways they don’t like. And sure enough, they now complain loudly that their vote is drowned out by Las Vegas. (Never mind that the people in Vegas they’re complaining about probably also moved there from California for many of the same reasons they relocated.)

But then - there are 2.2 million people in metro Las Vegas, out of just over 3 million in the entire state. And another half million are in metro Reno at the other end of Nevada. If only 10% of the state’s population is rural… well, what do you expect?

(And I’d posit that Nevada is a good model for what’s happened to the rest of the country, at least in terms of urban concentration of population.)

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 4:57:21pm

re: #38 lawhawk

So, Trump long touts his fucking boondoggle wall.

He touts all the new miles of wall built.

He has built all of 1 new mile of wall. He’s “upgraded” a few dozen miles.

And those upgrades include a wall that somehow managed to get topple in a strong breeze.

This boondoggle is looking worse by the day. It’s the very definition of a boondoggle - in concept and execution.

Really objectively speaking, if I were a Trump supporter and I voted for him because of all the promises he made, I’d be pissed but I actually have some self respect.

mmmirele Jan 29, 2020 • 5:00:00pm

re: #2 Anymouse 🌹🎃

Larry Klayman is suing Rebecca Schoenkopf of Wonkette for $75,000, claiming defamation of character.

No, Wonkette’s Not Giving Larry Klayman $75,000, LARRY.

I used to frequent a board in the early and mid ’10s where Klayman was known as “Grossly Inappropriate Larry” for his actions towards his minor children, as revealed in court documents. NORMALLY, those documents would have been sealed, but GIL attached them to his appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court and they saw the light of day. I’m not going into detail because GIL’s now adult kids deserve privacy from their father’s idiocy, but suffice it to say, Larry Klayman really does deserve the appelation “Grossly Inappropriate Larry.”

aatharuv Jan 29, 2020 • 5:01:16pm

re: #39 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

Yup, Texas, and even Georgia were what I was thinking of — Georgia certainly seems farther along on that route, and might even be there if not for Republican voter fraud.

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 5:01:34pm

Let’s see.
re: #42 mmmirele

I used to frequent a board in the early and mid ’10s where Klayman was known as “Grossly Inappropriate Larry” for his actions towards his minor children, as revealed in court documents. NORMALLY, those documents would have been sealed, but GIL attached them to his appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court and they saw the light of day. I’m not going into detail because GIL’s now adult kids deserve privacy from their father’s idiocy, but suffice it to say, Larry Klayman really does deserve the appelation “Grossly Inappropriate Larry.”

Why does that not surprise me? Always seems like thoes who love calling other people pedophiles often have some skeletons themselves.

lawhawk Jan 29, 2020 • 5:02:21pm

re: #40 i(m)p(each)sos

Populations are increasingly concentrating in the urban areas around the nation - exurbs and cities proper.

Rural populations are on the decline all around the nation and it’s a trend that doesn’t just affect the US. All around the world, urban areas are growing faster than rural areas, which are seeing a decline.

Why?

Opportunities. There’s less need for farming and more need for tech and other kinds of jobs that aren’t being created in rural areas.

You’d think that work from home and gig economy positions would slow that trend, but people want to live in urban areas for more than just jobs - but the kinds of services and opportunities they provide.

Blind Frog Belly White Jan 29, 2020 • 5:02:50pm

re: #40 i(m)p(each)sos

Well, you still have my sympathy.

And you made a good point in the last thread that rural voters will complain no matter how things are sliced up.

I have good friends of the conservative/libertarian persuasion who moved from California to rural Nevada a decade or so ago. It’s a good fit for them - they can afford a big house, the taxes are low, they’re surrounded by like-minded people. They’re happy there, and I’m happy for them.

Of course, their new state has changed in ways they don’t like. And sure enough, they now complain loudly that their vote is drowned out by Las Vegas. (Never mind that the people in Vegas they’re complaining about probably also moved there from California for many of the same reasons they relocated.)

But then - there are 2.2 million people in metro Las Vegas, out of just over 3 million in the entire state. And another half million are in metro Reno at the other end of Nevada. If only 10% of the state’s population is rural… well, what do you expect?

(And I’d posit that Nevada is a good model for what’s happened to the rest of the country, at least in terms of urban concentration of population.)

Ay, there’s the rub.

People want power their numbers don’t merit. And the numbers have been moving away from rural areas for at least a century. Indeed, it can reasonably be argued this was a causative factor in the Civil War - the North was becoming a powerhouse of population and industry, and the South remained largely rural and agricultural, but STILL insisted on power their numbers didn’t merit.

lawhawk Jan 29, 2020 • 5:04:09pm

re: #34 Joe Bacon 🌹

He’s appealing the 34 month suspension.

Frankly, I agree - he should have been disbarred. But even if that had been the judgment, he’d still have the right to appeal in the interim.

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 5:04:58pm

re: #43 aatharuv

Yup, Texas, and even Georgia were what I was thinking of — Georgia certainly seems farther along on that route, and might even be there if not for Republican voter fraud.

Yeah Newt’s old district got flipped in Georgia. I definitely think it could happen.Makes me happy that John Lewis is witnessing parts of the old South Republican wall crumble. My State went from being Republican from only going Democratic once from 1952-2004 to now going thrice since then. Republicans are definitely scared of this. It’s why they fear diversity.

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 5:05:54pm

re: #46 Blind Frog Belly White

Ay, there’s the rub.

People want power their numbers don’t merit. And the numbers have been moving away from rural areas for at least a century. Indeed, it can reasonably be argued this was a causative factor in the Civil War - the North was becoming a powerhouse of population and industry, and the South remained largely rural and agricultural, but STILL insisted on power their numbers didn’t merit.

I’d argue it was a factor with the rebirth of the Klan as a force that hated African-Americans of course above all else but also Catholics, Jews, and others.

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 5:07:12pm

re: #38 lawhawk

Looks like they put a big sail on top of a series of tall poles. Oops.

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 5:07:39pm

re: #39 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

To me, the interesting wild card is if Texas starts going purple and even blue and based on what I saw in the midterms, I think it’s a possibility this time. If the Republicans lose Texas as a sure fire win in electoral politics, they’re going to lose it but that’s a lot of EVs lost. It’s already been tough for them seeing California go completely Democratic.

That would give the Democratic candidate all thirty-six of their electoral votes, but wouldn’t affect the US Senate unless John Cornyn was also voted out.

It would have no effect on the Senate regarding other states, so the Senate would still be a distorted representation of the nation’s populace.

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 5:09:04pm

President’s counsel: Stopping a bank robbery in progress would be disruptive to the business and customers of the bank.

i(m)p(each)sos Jan 29, 2020 • 5:09:21pm

re: #45 lawhawk

Why, it’s almost like there are more people who want to live in relatively close proximity to lots of different kinds of people (even ones who don’t look or think or pray or have sexytime the same way they do), as compared to people who want to live only around people just like them.

In 1990, Austin had about twice as many people as Lubbock. In 2020, Austin has almost four times the population of Lubbock.

(I have never been to Lubbock, but I’ve had a hell of a good time in Austin every time I’ve been there, and I have a pretty good idea about Lubbock from Shiplord Kirel’s posts, so I think I’m on solid-ish ground with that comparison.)

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 5:09:39pm

re: #51 Anymouse 🌹🎃

That would give the Democratic candidate all thirty-six of their electoral votes, but wouldn’t affect the US Senate unless John Cornyn was also voted out.

It would have no effect on the Senate regarding other states, so the Senate would still be a distorted representation of the nation’s populace.

I was talking presidential and if Texas starts turning purple, that makes Cornyn more vulnerable too. That also means more Democratic representatives which we saw this past fall.

Charles Johnson Jan 29, 2020 • 5:10:10pm

They’re not so much lawyers as content generators for Fox News.

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) January 30, 2020

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 5:11:29pm

re: #54 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

I was talking presidential and if Texas starts turning purple, that makes Cornyn more vulnerable too. That also means more Democratic representatives which we saw this past fall.

I wasn’t thinking that all the way through; you’re correct. A presidential candidate affects people downballot as well.

A strong Democratic presidential candidate in Texas would affect Cornyn, state senators and representatives, even county commissions and city councils.

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 5:11:29pm

re: #53 i(m)p(each)sos

Why, it’s almost like there are more people who want to live in relatively close proximity to lots of different kinds of people (even ones who don’t look or think or pray or have sexytime the same way they do), as compared to people who want to live only around people just like them.

In 1990, Austin had about twice as many people as Lubbock. In 2020, Austin has almost four times the population of Lubbock.

(I have never been to Lubbock, but I’ve had a hell of a good time in Austin every time I’ve been there, and I have a pretty good idea about Lubbock from Shiplord Kirel’s posts, so I think I’m on solid-ish ground with that comparison.)

Hell I’ve seen it in the small town I live. When I moved here, we just had your usual fast food optiions. My favorite places to eat in town are pretty much all owned by immigrant families.

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 29, 2020 • 5:11:40pm

re: #38 lawhawk

So, Trump long touts his fucking boondoggle wall.

He touts all the new miles of wall built.

He has built all of 1 new mile of wall. He’s “upgraded” a few dozen miles.

And those upgrades include a wall that somehow managed to get topple in a strong breeze.

This boondoggle is looking worse by the day. It’s the very definition of a boondoggle - in concept and execution.

I almost started laughing at this. Then I remembered I helped pay for it.

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 5:12:11pm

re: #56 Anymouse 🌹🎃

I wasn’t thinking that all the way through; you’re correct. A presidential candidate affects people downballot as well.

A strong Democratic presidential candidate in Texas would affect Cornyn, state senators and representatives, even county commissions and city councils.

Yeah it would. I really think the Southwest is going to be a big part of the Democratic Party’s future.

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 5:15:24pm

What does this bullshyte talking point have to do with being on the floor of the US Senate?

The best way to sum up this whole debacle is to understand that Senator Schumer’s desire for Lev Parnas to attend the Senate trial apparently cannot be accommodated because Mr. Parnas has an electronic ankle bracelet imposed upon him by the court. You can’t make this up.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 29, 2020

Do ankle bracelets not work there for some reason?

gocart mozart Jan 29, 2020 • 5:15:35pm

https://t.co/TiA7U189AN

— Edwin Mix (@TheEdMix) January 30, 2020

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 5:17:18pm

re: #60 Anymouse 🌹🎃

What does this bullshyte talking point have to do with being on the floor of the US Senate?

[Embedded content]

Do ankle bracelets not work there for some reason?

Oh but it was fine for Trump to bring those women to the debate. Screw off Butters.

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 5:18:05pm

Long-time Trump associate Lev Parnas has an electronic ankle bracelet imposed upon him by the court, preventing him from attending Mr Trump’s impeachment trial in person. You can’t make this up.

Teddy's Person Jan 29, 2020 • 5:18:37pm

Question for WH counsel: Do you have any evidence that Donald Trump has ever cared about corruption? And by that we mean being AGAINST it? #ImpeachmentTrial

— Al Franken (@alfranken) January 30, 2020

Charles Johnson Jan 29, 2020 • 5:18:55pm

tfw you know the Gross Old Perverts are going to let Trump continue criming, you see it coming, it won’t be any surprise, but it’s still going to fill you with an icy cold rage

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) January 30, 2020

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 5:19:08pm

re: #64 Teddy’s Person

[Embedded content]

We in fact have a lot of evidence that shows he’s for it.

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 5:19:49pm

re: #60 Anymouse 🌹🎃

What does this bullshyte talking point have to do with being on the floor of the US Senate?

[Embedded content]

Do ankle bracelets not work there for some reason?

“Electronic devices are not allowed in.”

Ace Rothstein Jan 29, 2020 • 5:19:55pm

Bernie, LOL.

Blind Frog Belly White Jan 29, 2020 • 5:20:02pm

re: #53 i(m)p(each)sos

Why, it’s almost like there are more people who want to live in relatively close proximity to lots of different kinds of people (even ones who don’t look or think or pray or have sexytime the same way they do), as compared to people who want to live only around people just like them.

In 1990, Austin had about twice as many people as Lubbock. In 2020, Austin has almost four times the population of Lubbock.

(I have never been to Lubbock, but I’ve had a hell of a good time in Austin every time I’ve been there, and I have a pretty good idea about Lubbock from Shiplord Kirel’s posts, so I think I’m on solid-ish ground with that comparison.)

The area where I grew up is so insular and xenophobic that, despite having lived in the area since 1945, in the 1970s we were still outsiders, because we weren’t related to everyone else and our names didn’t end in “-baugh”.

I’m not sure what we as a nation should do about the urban concentration of the population, beyond building a metric fuck ton more housing where people want to live (but not till I retire and sell my monstrously overvalued 1600sq.ft. postwar tract house!). Nobody’s going to build a small factory in a town in the middle of nowhere with a population of 5000. Nobody’s going to bring back coal. Farming will only become MORE efficient, meaning even fewer will be doing it.

I remember driving through Iowa in 1988. We stopped in a small town along I-80. There was a diner, no more than 1/2 full at dinner time. One store, and several boarded up storefronts. One store had burned down, leaving only the doorway and the frames of the big display windows. Where the interior of the store had been was overgrown with weeds - artistically framed by the remaining window frames. Everyone in the diner was old.

That was 32 years ago. I was reading even then about America’s dying small towns. And it’s only gotten worse since then.

I don’t see any way of reviving them, and I’m not sure there’s a point to it. People will have to go where jobs are, and maybe we can help with that. But they’ll have to LEAVE to find a life, because one is not going to come and find them.

Hecuba's daughter Jan 29, 2020 • 5:20:26pm

Coronavirus update: 170 deaths and 7,736 confirmed cases in China. The WHO emergency committee is meeting Thursday to determine whether the coronavirus outbreak amounts to a public health emergency of international concern. Definitely not under control yet — but all those infected who are outside of China are still alive, which is hopeful.

Blind Frog Belly White Jan 29, 2020 • 5:25:05pm

re: #70 Hecuba’s daughter

Coronavirus update: 170 deaths and 7,736 confirmed cases in China. The WHO emergency committee is meeting Thursday to determine whether the coronavirus outbreak amounts to a public health emergency of international concern. Definitely not under control yet — but all those infected who are outside of China are still alive, which is hopeful.

I’m curious about stuff like incubation time, overall mortality, and the effect of age on mortality. One reason the 1918 flu was so bad because it killed more people in their prime than it did young and old.

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 5:26:19pm

re: #69 Blind Frog Belly White

I’m not sure how to think about all that.

There’s no way I could simply pack up and move to somewhere like LA or New York or even Omaha. I simply do not have enough money, don’t have the right education, and am too old to get hired by anyone except maybe a convenience store (if they don’t discriminate against the epilepsy).

There are millions like us.

And while conservatives like bashing cities, the fact remains that un- or semi-skilled jobs (or even professional jobs) in places like San Francisco means people sleep in their cars or commute one hundred miles each way to work.

aatharuv Jan 29, 2020 • 5:26:26pm

re: #51 Anymouse 🌹🎃

That would give the Democratic candidate all thirty-six of their electoral votes, but wouldn’t affect the US Senate unless John Cornyn was also voted out.

The Senate has the advantage that gerrymandering within a state won’t affect elections for it*. So if Texas goes blue, so do it’s Senators, assuming _roughly_ partyline support.

*Which is why every Republican with a brain wants to eliminate the 17th amendment, and go back to using gerrymanderable state legislatures to select the Senate.

Ace Rothstein Jan 29, 2020 • 5:26:59pm

LOL

BAW GAWD THAT’S COCAINE MITCH’S MUSIC pic.twitter.com/MK9XJjMuow

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 30, 2020

gocart mozart Jan 29, 2020 • 5:28:00pm

I mean.. pic.twitter.com/bQ2djvVKDD

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) January 30, 2020

Hecuba's daughter Jan 29, 2020 • 5:28:14pm

re: #71 Blind Frog Belly White

I’m curious about stuff like incubation time, overall mortality, and the effect of age on mortality. One reason the 1918 flu was so bad because it killed more people in their prime than it did young and old.

I recall reading a theory years ago that older people had protective antibodies from some 19th century flu epidemic which was not as lethal or widespread as the 1918 epidemic.

Charles Johnson Jan 29, 2020 • 5:30:51pm

HA HA HA!

The metaphor is strong in this one. https://t.co/YGCfLNWhuD

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) January 30, 2020

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 5:31:51pm

re: #76 Hecuba’s daughter

I recall reading a theory years ago that older people had protective antibodies from some 19th century flu epidemic which was not as lethal or widespread as the 1918 epidemic.

From Wikipedia, that source of all human ken (citation needed):

Scientists offer several possible explanations for the high mortality rate of the 1918 influenza pandemic. Some analyses have shown the virus to be particularly deadly because it triggers a cytokine storm, which ravages the stronger immune system of young adults. In contrast, a 2007 analysis of medical journals from the period of the pandemic found that the viral infection was no more aggressive than previous influenza strains. Instead, malnourishment, overcrowded medical camps and hospitals, and poor hygiene promoted bacterial superinfection. This superinfection killed most of the victims, typically after a somewhat prolonged death bed.

en.wikipedia.org

gocart mozart Jan 29, 2020 • 5:34:26pm

“If every defendant could be exonerated just by denying the crime, there would be no trial. It doesn’t work that way.” - @RepAdamSchiff on President Trump’s denial of a quid pro quo. pic.twitter.com/PAFqC09Z9H

— House Intelligence Committee (@HouseIntel) January 30, 2020

Blind Frog Belly White Jan 29, 2020 • 5:36:00pm

re: #72 Anymouse 🌹🎃

I’m not sure how to think about all that.

There’s no way I could simply pack up and move to somewhere like LA or New York or even Omaha. I simply do not have enough money, don’t have the right education, and am too old to get hired by anyone except maybe a convenience store (if they don’t discriminate against the epilepsy).

There are millions like us.

And while conservatives like bashing cities, the fact remains that un- or semi-skilled jobs (or even professional jobs) in places like San Francisco means people sleep in their cars or commute one hundred miles each way to work.

See, this is how many residents of rural areas slit their own throat, by voting for ‘Free Market’ types, because urban concentration is largely a Free Market effect. Small town factories used to make sense, so towns grew up around a factory or two. The factory paid the wages of many, which supported the stores and the diners and the picture show. The taxes paid for the fire department and the roads, and the cop, and the librarian. It made the houses worth something because there were jobs.

Now take away the factory, and the wages and taxes that support the town disappear. Anyone who can afford to leave and has the ‘gumption’ to start over somewhere else does, and that will often be the ones who were better paid, maybe more highly educated, and younger. Older folks and the less well paid (and thus less marketable) can’t move as easily or at all. You get a town with no young people.

At the other end of the road, you have a city like SF, where there are lots of jobs, but pretty much every part that’s buildable has already been built out. And homeowners don’t want a 5-story apartment block on their street of 1 and 2 story homes, so they pass zoning rules limiting it, and then wonder why there are so many homeless….

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 5:37:01pm

Sen Manchin’s phone just rang on the Senate floor, a tune from the Nutcracker, and he rushed off into the cloak room.

— Megan Mineiro (@MMineiro_CNS) January 30, 2020

That’s against the rules. WTF!

Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jan 29, 2020 • 5:37:50pm

re: #81 Dread Pirate

That’s against the rules. WTF!

His mistress is pregnant.

lawhawk Jan 29, 2020 • 5:40:11pm

Making round on facebook:

How is it not a conflict of interest for four people running for the WH deciding on impeaching the current occupant.

Because that’s how the rules work. The same rules that apparently allow those who have already violated their oath taken for the trial to work closely with Trump to assure him that witnesses and evidence will be suppressed at all costs.

Trump has already tried the bribery and extortion route - alternatively threatening them with heads on a pike and offering to throw all kinds of money at their states/districts to get them on board with Trump’s crime spree.

EPR-radar Jan 29, 2020 • 5:40:50pm

re: #80 Blind Frog Belly White

One of the hot topics in CA state politics is SB50, a bill intended to generate more housing.

The main paradox there is that urban and suburban housing in high-price markets (e.g., SF bay area) ensures those high prices via scarcity. Having the state come in and make housing in these areas fundamentally less scarce is going to be a very heavy lift.

b.d. (Is Rush Dead Yet?) Jan 29, 2020 • 5:41:47pm

re: #82 Quoth the raven, Covfefe.

His mistress is pregnant.

The ringtone was from the Nutcracker, probably his wife.

Hecuba's daughter Jan 29, 2020 • 5:42:26pm

re: #78 Anymouse 🌹🎃

From Wikipedia, that source of all human ken (citation needed):

en.wikipedia.org

I always heard that for many the death was rapid: people woke up apparently healthy and died by nightfall.

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 5:42:45pm

re: #80 Blind Frog Belly White

It turns out macroeconomics is hard. Who knew? /s

Nebraska has some of the highest property taxes in the nation. Those taxes are used here to support local government and services, and school inequality is addressed by distributions from the state government to the rural schools.

My douchecanoe state senator (who I personally know) introduced a bill to eliminate the state income tax and property taxes, and replace them with a sales tax he says really isn’t a sales tax.

He claims this would attract business to the state. (See also Kansas and Utah for more information on how that doesn’t work.) He wants to put it on the ballot as a state constitutional amendment, so it can be put before the very voters who do not understand macroeconomics or even local government finance.

The reason my tiny little town has an accredited public library is because of those rural tax distributions from property taxes. (Our fire brigade is a not-for-profit and receives no government assistance, other than free water from the city water supply.)

Such a restructuring of the state tax code would devastate small towns here (including his, which only has eight hundred people).

aatharuv Jan 29, 2020 • 5:43:52pm

re: #80 Blind Frog Belly White

I can testify that one-way 40 mile commutes are extremely common in the San Francisco Bay Area, and one-way 60 mile commutes are common enough for everyone.

The SF Bay Area though, is an extreme corner case, because:
1) The actual land configuration (a huge long peninsula, mountains, and potential earthquakes) makes a relatively small percentage of the entire bay area buildable.
2) The central cities of the Bay Area each have barely 15% of the population. There needs to be region wide planning that might make sure that housing permits are accompanied by necessary infrastructure upgrades (especially for transportation). But this requires many jurisdictions to get involved (but we do have some regional agencies including BART here.)
3)The cities which have the companies which generate the jobs, are the ones which also constantly vote against building more housing. Of course more NIMBY’ism.

#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman) Jan 29, 2020 • 5:46:20pm

The senior national security official in Trump’s own White House signals he has direct evidence corroborating the central charge vs Trump in impeachment and R Senators are about to say they don’t want to hear from him. What lesson will Trump take from that & what will he do next? https://t.co/6gXJPl3whO

— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) January 29, 2020

gocart mozart Jan 29, 2020 • 5:46:54pm

Hahahahahaha

— John Legend (@johnlegend) January 30, 2020

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 5:47:21pm

re: #89 Dangerman (slowly converting a pool into a pond)

[Embedded content]

Show trials.

lawhawk Jan 29, 2020 • 5:47:35pm

re: #84 EPR-radar

Impediments to building housing in urban areas:

1) zoning - limiting size of buildings and units that can be built limits density, and therefore creates a scarcity of housing that can meet future demands. This pushes prices upwards unless you upzone to increase the density to allow for in-fill housing.

2) builders look to maximize their profits, so will target those areas where they can get the most money in return. Affordable housing rules can require set-asides for affordable housing units, but that’s a fraction of the overall need, and it still falls short, which means that prices continue to rise.

3) government housing projects are costly and looked down upon because of the historical context, but it can add to the housing stock without increasing housing prices.

Blind Frog Belly White Jan 29, 2020 • 5:49:02pm

re: #84 EPR-radar

One of the hot topics in CA state politics is SB50, a bill intended to generate more housing.

The main paradox there is that urban and suburban housing in high-price markets (e.g., SF bay area) ensures those high prices via scarcity. Having the state come in and make housing fundamentally in these areas fundamentally less scarce is going to be a very heavy lift.

Nobody wants their neighborhood to change, and nobody wants their property values to fall, and everybody wants more housing built….somewhere over there.

I have noted that there are a number of 3-5 story apartment blocks going up along El Camino, which will significantly change the ‘feel’, but, you know, they’re replacing strip malls and such.

retired cynic Jan 29, 2020 • 5:49:21pm

re: #76 Hecuba’s daughter

I recall reading a theory years ago that older people had protective antibodies from some 19th century flu epidemic which was not as lethal or widespread as the 1918 epidemic.

My grandfather’s family was devastated by a flu in the 1880s which killed his father’s wife and half their children, and his mother’s husband and half their children. When the widow and widower married, they had a family together. Perhaps that flue was related to the one thirty years later that did not take many of the older folks.

Jay C Jan 29, 2020 • 5:53:22pm

re: #77 Charles Johnson

HA HA HA!The metaphor is strong in this one. https://t.co/YGCfLNWhuD

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) January 30, 2020

SEE! MEXICO IS PAYING FOR IT!!!1!!11!!

Charles Johnson Jan 29, 2020 • 5:54:15pm

The duck lips pose is what really makes this photo. Commander Bone Spurs, hangin’ with the bad boys. pic.twitter.com/dCjMWBrhUO

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) January 30, 2020

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 5:55:53pm

re: #96 Charles Johnson

[Embedded content]

Wild Hogs 2.

Charles Johnson Jan 29, 2020 • 5:57:31pm

ujLAoJont309HGot3YA316WzxJ4oJCdxtb8KN2elH+0rlydutp733o9SsknIJJ066yV+SC+WI3h07TSFk54z7HYA2yQnCWQI7dKvmxYrqjeEfDL0zW6Dyq1xOPrVjG0U

cat-tikvah Jan 29, 2020 • 5:58:43pm

re: #97 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

Feral hogs.

100

gocart mozart Jan 29, 2020 • 6:00:56pm

I’ll put this herehttps://t.co/1RKqkTgpiJ

— Edwin Mix (@TheEdMix) January 30, 2020

101

makeitstop Jan 29, 2020 • 6:00:57pm

re: #99 cat-tikvah

30 to 50 Feral hogs.

102

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 6:01:24pm

re: #94 retired cynic

My grandfather’s family was devastated by a flu in the 1880s which killed his father’s wife and half their children, and his mother’s husband and half their children. When the widow and widower married, they had a family together. Perhaps that flue was related to the one thirty years later that did not take many of the older folks.

Possibly this epidemic?

The 1889-1890 flu pandemic (October 1889 - December 1890, with recurrences March - June 1891, November 1891 - June 1892, winter 1893-1894 and early 1895) was a deadly influenza pandemic that killed about 1 million people worldwide. The outbreak was dubbed “Asiatic flu” or “Russian flu” (not to be confused with the 1977-1978 epidemic caused by Influenza A/USSR/90/77 H1N1, which was also called Russian flu). For some time the virus strain responsible was conjectured (but not proven) to be Influenza A virus subtype H2N2. More recently, the strain was asserted to be Influenza A virus subtype H3N8.

The conjectured subtypes are not the same as Spanish Flu (H1N1), but I’m not an epidemiologist so I don’t know how much protection you would get from having the 1889 flu.

en.wikipedia.org

103

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 6:02:12pm

re: #99 cat-tikvah

Feral hogs.

Haha yes.

104

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 6:06:52pm

Are Trump and AG Barr giving Flynn a sweetheart deal? Looks that way, per @matthewamiller and @adamgoldmanNYT https://t.co/lDYWX76f3V

— Jeff Stein (@SpyTalker) January 30, 2020

105

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 29, 2020 • 6:11:13pm

EXCLUSIVE: Wells Fargo joined Fifth Third Bank in saying it will stop donating millions to Florida’s school voucher program after a news investigation found many of the schools have anti-LGBTQ policies.https://t.co/ewDf2fyYUU

via @brookesopelsa & @RyanRuggiero

— NBC Out (@NBCOUT) January 30, 2020

106

PhillyPretzel Jan 29, 2020 • 6:12:35pm

re: #104 Dread Pirate

You expected something different? I didn’t. DT has said in the past that anyone who was being loyal to him would get a pardon.

107

Charles Johnson Jan 29, 2020 • 6:15:23pm

pic.twitter.com/3EgFsLI82i

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) January 30, 2020

108

Charles Johnson Jan 29, 2020 • 6:19:34pm

I’ve long suspected those are actually Mitt’s testicles on that plate.

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) January 30, 2020

109

Citizen K Jan 29, 2020 • 6:21:03pm

EDIT: Bouie deleted his tweet, alas, so…

110

Barefoot Grin Jan 29, 2020 • 6:21:08pm

re: #101 makeitstop

“30-50 feral pigs.”

Better than one Perry Farrell at Lalapalooza?

111

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 6:22:50pm

re: #88 aatharuv

Entirely anecdotal, on my sister who lives in Burbank and my mother who lives in Chicago.

Both complain of the very high cost of rent and food. I made the same arguments about moving made above for rural people to cities, and noted that the house across the street from me is up for sale, nicer than my house, and we could write a cheque for it today.

Neither of course wants to move here. My mother doesn’t want to leave her friends, and my sister likes Burbank even though she could get a job here which pays the same (just not the job she has).

My sister rents one single room and has a roommate in that room.

I think sooner or later economics is going to force my mother out of Chicago. My sister will continue to complain how expensive Burbank is while at the same time rejecting all suggestions to move somewhere cheaper and do something different.

112

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 6:25:22pm

Most of the people you hired. https://t.co/wEuElbaser

— Devin Nunes’ cow 🐮 (@DevinCow) January 30, 2020

113

Barefoot Grin Jan 29, 2020 • 6:26:17pm

MSNBC taking a quick 2-minute break during Dersh. Heh.

114

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 29, 2020 • 6:27:24pm

IT WAS A PURRFECT CALL, LORENZO https://t.co/4Xl6iNEjYZ

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) January 30, 2020

115

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 6:28:24pm

re: #113 Barefoot Grin

MSNBC taking a quick 2-minute break during Dersh. Heh.

Just trying to follow his logic will make you stupider. (see, I tried)

116

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 6:30:15pm

re: #115 Dread Pirate

Listening to him present you can see how he might easily convince himself that fooling around with a teenager is fine if he keeps his underwear on.

117

sagehen Jan 29, 2020 • 6:30:50pm

re: #71 Blind Frog Belly White

I’m curious about stuff like incubation time, overall mortality, and the effect of age on mortality. One reason the 1918 flu was so bad because it killed more people in their prime than it did young and old.

Something that’s going to make this epidemic more lethal than otherwise needed (and this part is Trump’s fault) — a majority of US pharmaceutical manufacture is in Puerto Rico. And the factories are WAYYYY behind production because no electricity.

118

Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel Jan 29, 2020 • 6:34:02pm

Various wags have mentioned that at least Dershowitz left his underwear on for his presentation today.
Well, it wouldn’t have been any more disgusting or ridiculous if he hadn’t.

119

BogeyMon Jan 29, 2020 • 6:35:06pm

Sorry to interrupt the discussion, but me and Mrs. Bogey got to go to a meet and greet with Col. Moe Davis, running for congress in the 11th district of NC, I have to say I am impressed with the man.
For all the gloom and doom with our current government, I am hopeful that things will turn as they should.
Keep the faith, spend coin where you can, get out the vote and convince young folks that it is their world to run…
and thanks Charles for this place of sanity!

120

Rightwingconspirator Jan 29, 2020 • 6:35:18pm

re: #95 Jay C

[Embedded content]

SEE! MEXICO IS PAYING FOR IT!!!1!!11!!

Irony blows. Santa Ana winds?

121

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 6:36:27pm

re: #109 Citizen K

Chris Cillizza is the Chris Cillizza of Chris Cillizzas.

— Rob Tannenbaum (@tannenbaumr) January 30, 2020

122

Joe Bacon 🌹 Jan 29, 2020 • 6:36:54pm

re: #119 BogeyMon

Sorry to interrupt the discussion, but me and Mrs. Bogey got to go to a meet and greet with Col. Moe Davis, running for congress in the 11th district of NC, I have to say I am impressed with the man.
For all the gloom and doom with our current government, I am hopeful that things will turn as they should.
Keep the faith, spend coin where you can, get out the vote and convince young folks that it is their world to run…
and thanks Charles for this place of sanity!

❤️ That Moe!

123

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 6:39:21pm

.@JerryNadler makes a good point. There’s no way for Trump and his defenders to reconcile their argument that he cared only about corruption with his personal lawyer @RudyGiuliani’s self-acknowledged search for dirt in Biden for Trump’s personal benefit.

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) January 30, 2020

124

The Pie Overlord! Jan 29, 2020 • 6:42:34pm

Jesus fuck, everything Dershowitz says is utter bullshit. There’s a Vice President that takes the place of an impeached and removed President. The President is not irreplaceable for 4 years.

— The Rude Pundit (@rudepundit) January 30, 2020

125

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 6:43:14pm

I wonder why Adam Schiff was interested in Devin Nunes texts messages? Why it’s a mystery! https://t.co/BmAiAdIQdP

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) January 30, 2020

126

The Pie Overlord! Jan 29, 2020 • 6:43:17pm

Dershowitz out there saying because Biden was running for President, Trump had to make sure his son wasn’t corrupt - ignoring the fact that Trump and his own kids were running a corrupt fake charity and a fraudulent university. pic.twitter.com/gK81ZfVUMh

— Heather Whaley (@HeatherWhaley) January 30, 2020

127

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 6:45:40pm

Open the floodgates for foreign intelligence services to provide “credible information” to U.S. political campaigns.

128

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 6:46:18pm

Holy fuck, the President’s lawyer is straight up declaring in the Senate that the President can and will accept information to assist his campaign from foreign states, and it’s good for him to do that.

— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 30, 2020

129

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 6:47:13pm

So the President’s collusion lawyer now appears to be claiming that VP Biden attempted to assassinate the corrupt prosecutor Shokin. https://t.co/ZkswV5yWA7

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) January 29, 2020

130

aatharuv Jan 29, 2020 • 6:47:46pm

re: #111 Anymouse 🌹🎃

Can’t disagree with you that any urban area is going to be expensive than a rural area for the biggest budget items (especially rent). San Francisco and New York, are just more expensive than any other city.

131

The Pie Overlord! Jan 29, 2020 • 6:50:40pm

re: #130 aatharuv

Can’t disagree with you that any urban area is going to be expensive than a rural area for the biggest budget items (especially rent). San Francisco and New York, are just more expensive than any other city.

Back in 2010 Williston, North Dakota was the most expensive place to live in America, but now that the fracking boom is gone bust, nobody wants to live there any more. They even built a bunch of houses that are standing empty now.

132

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 6:52:41pm

Does anyone know how Chinese trademarks for Ivanka Trump brand massage parlors help him get reelected “in the public interest?”

— David Waldman-1, of Yorktown LLC™ (@KagroX) January 30, 2020

133

Florida Panhandler Jan 29, 2020 • 6:57:04pm

re: #108 Charles Johnson

[Embedded content]

You would have to assume he had a pair to begin with for that to be true.

134

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 6:57:54pm

re: #130 aatharuv

Can’t disagree with you that any urban area is going to be expensive than a rural area for the biggest budget items (especially rent). San Francisco and New York, are just more expensive than any other city.

As someone noted above, cities have the problems of lots of people wanting to move to them for opportunity, while at the same time having little land to expand housing and other infrastructure like schools, parks, or libraries.

I don’t really know the answer to this.

Back in the XIX Century, when the government killed off millions of people and stole millions of square miles of land then gave it away to anyone who wanted to move there, people could up stakes and try their luck somewhere else. They ain’t making any more land to paraphrase Mark Twain.

Moving now, whether from the country to the city, or the other way round, is not the same as it was then. That is not to say it wasn’t hard in the XIX Century either, but it did help you had a guaranteed place to live when you got there. Even then, a bunch of people who “tried their luck” at farming or ranching failed.

135

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 7:01:45pm

re: #111 Anymouse 🌹🎃

On that house across the street from us we can afford and is nicer than our house, we don’t want to buy it for ourselves. Even moving across the street is too much work for us.

136

Charles Johnson Jan 29, 2020 • 7:03:34pm

#MarkZuckerberg: “My goal for the next decade isn’t to be liked but to be understood.”

Bravo, Mark, mission accomplished. Those who value democracy don’t like you, and neo-Nazis understand you perfectly: you’ll spread their propaganda for profit. https://t.co/lpuEthimEn

— Sacha Baron Cohen (@SachaBaronCohen) January 30, 2020

137

Belafon Jan 29, 2020 • 7:09:19pm

re: #131 The Pie Overlord!

Back in 2010 Williston, North Dakota was the most expensive place to live in America, but now that the fracking boom is gone bust, nobody wants to live there any more. They even built a bunch of houses that are standing empty now.

I went to go look them up on google street view. About a 1/3rd of the place isn’t even reachable on street view, including the high school.

138

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 7:10:25pm

Our very own Joe Bacon gets a shoutout from Utah Outcasts for providing them with this clip.

Caution for coarse language from the hosts, and extremely offensive and coarse language from the Christian trying to evangelise to someone just trying to go through the checkout line of a Wal*Mart.

[13:37]

Abrasive Lady Shows How NOT to Evangelize

139

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 7:11:30pm

Mob lawyers still trying to find and punish the whistleblower.

140

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 7:11:59pm

By the way, this has held up very well https://t.co/alnlqhyMBf

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) January 29, 2020

141

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 7:13:05pm

Why shouldn’t Simon & Schuster send 100 copies of Bolton’s book to the Senate now?

— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) January 30, 2020

PR move of the century.

142

Rightwingconspirator Jan 29, 2020 • 7:16:35pm

re: #139 jaunte

Mob lawyers still trying to find and punish the whistleblower.

I did a Page on what happens to whistleblowers these days.
littlegreenfootballs.com

143

The Pie Overlord! Jan 29, 2020 • 7:17:17pm

Ugh.

What is this spider hiding behind the light switch? #Florida pic.twitter.com/1Wb8i5U8dE

— Apple Pie Overlord (@Pie_Overlord) January 30, 2020

144

Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jan 29, 2020 • 7:17:59pm

re: #143 The Pie Overlord!

Ugh.

‘Scuse me. Is dark back here. Pls to leave alone kthxbai.

145

Barefoot Grin Jan 29, 2020 • 7:20:10pm

Probably lost a husband and has an hourglass on her thorax to remind her of the the time until she gets a new one.

146

BlueSpotinAL Jan 29, 2020 • 7:23:53pm

re: #76 Hecuba’s daughter

I recall reading a theory years ago that older people had protective antibodies from some 19th century flu epidemic which was not as lethal or widespread as the 1918 epidemic.

What kills normally healthy young adults with a new form of a virus is the the immune response, called a cytokine storm. Children exposed to a new virus have a weaker response (this is why you can’t give all vaccines at birth), but in following years already have some antibodies that kind of work. As I am learning, immune response in old people sucks - it takes me fucking forever to get over a damn cold.

147

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 7:24:09pm

Slippery slope gonna bring us a Parliament.

148

Barefoot Grin Jan 29, 2020 • 7:26:33pm

re: #147 jaunte

Slippery slope gonna bring us a Parliament.

President George Clinton!

149

A Cranky One Jan 29, 2020 • 7:33:35pm

re: #148 Barefoot Grin

President George Clinton!

What the funk?

150

Quoth the raven, Covfefe. Jan 29, 2020 • 7:35:42pm

re: #148 Barefoot Grin

President George Clinton!

King George IV! Because, you know, Kings George I-III weren’t bad enough!

151

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 7:41:13pm

“We’ve lowered the bar to the point where everything’s okay, so long as the President believes it’s in his re-election interest.” — @RepAdamSchiff expertly describing the legal and moral bankruptcy of the GOP’s position.

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) January 30, 2020

152

gocart mozart Jan 29, 2020 • 7:44:06pm

Today in stupid lawsuits
Klayman v. Wonkette

Scribd Document

153

plansbandc Jan 29, 2020 • 7:44:13pm

I never thought the world as we know it would end in such willful stupidity.

I started hating pretend stupidity when the powers that be added moronic characters to cartoons. I thought it was insulting, even then.

But to live in a country that was once the vanguard of invention and watch it devolve into the utter shitshow we have now is just frankly depressing as hell. No one cares about anything except for grift and fucking people over.

Did I die and go to hell? Pretty sure I did. Fuck.

154

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 7:45:01pm

If presidents and vice presidents were required to recuse from matters affecting interests of their adult children, the restrictions would apply to President Trump. But public discourse has focused on Trump’s activities affecting his own interests, not his son’s interests.

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 30, 2020

155

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 29, 2020 • 7:46:22pm

re: #148 Barefoot Grin

President George Clinton!

re: #149 A Cranky One

What the funk?

156

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 29, 2020 • 7:47:33pm

Warren’s dog campaigns in Iowa while senator sits in Trump impeachment trial https://t.co/0w1q0L5oWy pic.twitter.com/Ebpc4iGUo7

— The Hill (@thehill) January 30, 2020

157

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 29, 2020 • 7:49:41pm

re: #154 Dread Pirate

If presidents and vice presidents were required to recuse from matters affecting interests of their adult children, the restrictions would apply to President Trump. But public discourse has focused on Trump’s activities affecting his own interests, not his son’s interests.

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 30, 2020

Damn, Eric gets forgotten again

lol

158

A Three Hour Tour Jan 29, 2020 • 7:49:42pm

re: #148 Barefoot Grin

President George Clinton!

“Free your mind … and your ass will follow. “

159

The Pie Overlord! Jan 29, 2020 • 7:52:03pm

#BuildTheWall Oh wait, what? 😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/5b6CV8Wj0E

— Apple Pie Overlord (@Pie_Overlord) January 30, 2020

160

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 29, 2020 • 7:52:48pm

I’m going to lie down. Catch y’all later. Thanks for the thoughtful discussion.

161

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 29, 2020 • 7:53:23pm

“Aww, c’mon! I’m a Trump too!
Why does everyone keep forgetting about me?” pic.twitter.com/k5rssfz5u0

— 𝘞𝘉 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 🍕🐀😷(beware of Captain Trips) (@FormerDirtDart) January 30, 2020

162

garzooma Jan 29, 2020 • 7:54:38pm

So I saw the question Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham posed: “If Pres. Obama had evidence that Mitt Romney’s son was being paid $1 million/yr by a corrupt Russian company & Romney had acted to benefit that company, would Obama have authority to ask that that potential corruption be investigated?”

If Pres. Obama had evidence of criminal activity, he should have turned it over the FBI. Especially if it involved a political rival. How do they not know this?

163

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 7:58:19pm

Liar once again claiming the Ukrainians didn’t know the aid was being withheld.

164

retired cynic Jan 29, 2020 • 8:00:23pm

re: #163 jaunte

Liar once again claiming the Ukrainians didn’t know the aid was being withheld.

I finally gave up an hour ago. Couldn’t take any more (listened from the beginning on).

165

gocart mozart Jan 29, 2020 • 8:00:38pm

Alan Dershowitz unimpeached Richard Nixon today. All Nixon was doing was obstructing justice and abusing power because he thought he was the best person for the USA to be POTUS. When POTUS does it… etc. Seriously, that was his motive! Agree with Alan and impeachment is gone!

— John Dean (@JohnWDean) January 30, 2020

166

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 8:01:34pm

re: #164 retired cynic

I used to imagine that people called to speak to the Senate wouldn’t lie about easily checked facts.

167

goddamnedfrank Jan 29, 2020 • 8:02:01pm

“Oh but there were formalistic deficiencies with the process the House used to issue its subpoenas. Also, Trump is basically a God King who can do whatever he wants.”

Wow guys, that’s some real compelling shit!

— Jason McGlothlen (@goddamnedfrank) January 30, 2020

168

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 8:02:13pm

Philbin: Trump wanted to “understand” burden sharing & corruption issues. Is there any evidence Trump requested information on either? The only evidence is that Trump asked whether Zelensky was opening the political investigations he was demanding. Misleading.#ImpeachmentTrial

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) January 30, 2020

Lying.

169

retired cynic Jan 29, 2020 • 8:02:20pm

re: #166 jaunte

I used to imagine that people called to speak to the Senate wouldn’t lie about easily checked facts.

Hah! Right in front of god and everybody.

170

#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman) Jan 29, 2020 • 8:02:31pm

re: #8 i(m)p(each)sos

continued from downstream…

The more you travel around the country, the more you realize what the numbers REALLY look like. Walk around a neighborhood in Queens or Miami or LA or Minneapolis and then realize there are more people in that one neighborhood than in all the small towns combined in a lot of smaller states. And yet that neighborhood shares its senators (and EC votes) with tens of millions more people, while each of those little states gets two Senate votes and at least three EC votes.

And it’s an impossible structure to change, because the amendments that would change it require a significant percentage of those small states to vote quite clearly against their self-interest.

how did women ever get the vote in the US?
men had it
only men
men ran the governments
and yet here we are

171

plansbandc Jan 29, 2020 • 8:02:46pm

re: #160 Anymouse 🌹🎃

((((Anymouse))))

172

jaunte Jan 29, 2020 • 8:03:13pm

They have the votes to acquit him, witnesses or no witnesses. They can move past this just by running out the clock. Going out there and pushing the concept of a dictatorial presidency wasn’t necessary and only served to illuminate what they actually want.

It’s a message.

— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) January 30, 2020

173

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 8:22:53pm

#Iraq’s parliament swiftly voted in favor of ousting all foreign troops — including the 5,200 US soldiers — and the coalition’s anti-#Daesh operations were indefinitely suspended. https://t.co/fDMaMuHaVa

— Arab News (@arabnews) January 29, 2020

174

goddamnedfrank Jan 29, 2020 • 8:23:58pm

Republicans are going to end up chewing their own goddamned legs off trying to get out of this trap and all I can say is never fuck with Nancy Pelosi

— Jason McGlothlen (@goddamnedfrank) January 30, 2020

175

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 8:31:49pm

re: #172 jaunte

[Embedded content]

The Czar Presidency.

176

Belafon Jan 29, 2020 • 8:44:10pm

re: #172 jaunte

Which clock?
I get that they can vote to end this, at any time. The interesting things is that they haven’t. But there isn’t a clock. There is no “this has to be completed in three weeks or the Democrats lose.”

— (((IntheNumbers))) (@ItsNumbersMan) January 30, 2020

177

goddamnedfrank Jan 29, 2020 • 8:51:51pm

The one bit of unalloyed praise that I can offer for Alan Dershowitz’s defense of Donald Trump is that as far as we know he kept his underwear on the whole time

— Jason McGlothlen (@goddamnedfrank) January 30, 2020

178

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 8:55:02pm

The Trump plan will swap land in the Negev for areas in the West Bank and build 12 bridges and tunnels to connect enclaveshttps://t.co/qy0j3V6WNv

— haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) January 30, 2020

We’ll give you desert with no water around for this fine olive growing region of yours that we’re taking for our own.

179

Joe Bacon 🌹 Jan 29, 2020 • 9:00:34pm

re: #155 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀

[Embedded content]

Interesting Trivia—James Madison was the only President who had two Vice-Presidents die in office—George Clinton and Elbridge Gerry (Of Gerrymander fame)!

180

Joe Bacon 🌹 Jan 29, 2020 • 9:01:21pm

re: #178 Dread Pirate

[Embedded content]

We’ll give you desert with no water around for this fine olive growing region of yours that we’re taking for our own.

That looks like your typical GOP gerrymander.

181

Joe Bacon 🌹 Jan 29, 2020 • 9:02:54pm

re: #160 Anymouse 🌹🎃

Please take care, fella!

182

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 9:07:06pm

re: #179 Joe Bacon 🌹

Interesting Trivia—James Madison was the only President who had two Vice-Presidents die in office—George Clinton and Elbridge Gerry (Of Gerrymander fame)!

Makes me want to learn more about Clinton knowing that he was VP for both Jefferson and Madison. I think there’s only been one other person who was VP for two different presidents. It obviously hasn’t happened in a long time.

183

Joe Bacon 🌹 Jan 29, 2020 • 9:08:49pm

re: #182 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

Makes me want to learn more about Clinton knowing that he was VP for both Jefferson and Madison. I think there’s only been one other person who was VP for two different presidents. It obviously hasn’t happened in a long time.

John C Calhoun was Vice-President under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. He was the last Vice-President to serve two consecutive terms until Thomas Marshall under Wilson.

184

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 9:10:34pm

re: #178 Dread Pirate

[Embedded content]

We’ll give you desert with no water around for this fine olive growing region of yours that we’re taking for our own.

Isn’t it terrible that Trump made Hunter Biden his envoy on this issue?// Seriously it’s like they know they’re going to cause a shit storm.

185

DodgerFan1988 Jan 29, 2020 • 9:10:44pm

The GOP is now the pro-totalitarian party. It is a clear and present danger

— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) January 30, 2020

Republicans: American Stalinists.

186

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 9:13:57pm

re: #183 Joe Bacon 🌹

John C Calhoun was Vice-President under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. He was the last Vice-President to serve two consecutive terms until Thomas Marshall under Wilson.

That’s right, thanks Joe. I knew it was antebellum. Calhoun is probably one of the most loathesome characters of his era.

187

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 9:14:42pm

The increased number of new #coronavirus in 🇨🇳 & internationally is concerning. @DrTedros decided to reconvene the Emergency Committee to advise him whether the outbreak represents Public Health Emergency of International Concern & to seek their advice on how to keep the 🌍 safe. pic.twitter.com/m3nxsJdqgw

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 29, 2020

188

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 9:14:57pm

re: #185 DodgerFan1988

[Embedded content]

Republicans: American Stalinists.

Czarists.

189

goddamnedfrank Jan 29, 2020 • 9:17:09pm

Listen, I understand that this time of year is probably pretty rough on all the pedestrian cookie brands, competing with mechanized Girl Scouts rappeling down from hover saucers on an annual commando raid to flood the market with the best shit … but this? This is a cry for help https://t.co/tPM7CopBhy

— Jason McGlothlen (@goddamnedfrank) January 30, 2020

190

Targetpractice Jan 29, 2020 • 9:53:47pm

Basically the WH lawyers argued today with totally straight faces that Trump could shoot Joe Biden on Fifth Ave and nobody could do anything about it so long as he said it was to ensure his reelection.

191

Joe Bacon 🌹 Jan 29, 2020 • 9:59:22pm

re: #189 goddamnedfrank

[Embedded content]

Just looking at that and I need a pint of insulin to recover. That’s even worse than a Lutherburger—A bacon cheeseburger served with a Krispy Kreme donut for a bun!

192

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 10:01:12pm

re: #190 Targetpractice

Basically the WH lawyers argued today with totally straight faces that Trump could shoot Joe Biden on Fifth Ave and nobody could do anything about it so long as he said it was to ensure his reelection.

It’s disturbing as hell. It’s basically a “Yeah we’re autocrats, we never cared about a limited government.”

193

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 10:02:25pm

re: #191 Joe Bacon 🌹

Just looking at that and I need a pint of insulin to recover. That’s even worse than a Lutherburger—A bacon cheeseburger served with a Krispy Kreme donut for a bun!

[Embedded content]

I like sweet. I like savory. But I like a burger one day and the donuts another.

194

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 10:13:06pm

Just received a briefing on the Coronavirus in China from all of our GREAT agencies, who are also working closely with China. We will continue to monitor the ongoing developments. We have the best experts anywhere in the world, and they are on top of it 24/7! pic.twitter.com/rrtF1Stk78

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2020

Uh, no. You cut funding and laid off the experts.

195

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 29, 2020 • 10:16:06pm

re: #194 Dread Pirate

[Embedded content]

Uh, no. You cut funding and laid off the experts.

This is such a dystopian surreal madness.

196

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 10:49:00pm

#USSPACECOM keeps astronauts & all nations’ satellites safe by providing #SpaceDomainAwareness & collision notices to the world! @18SPCS w @NASA are tracking <3% probability of a conjunction w 2 inactive satellites. 18th tracks 26K+ objects on orbit to protect 2,400+ active sats!

— U.S. Space Command (@US_SpaceCom) January 29, 2020

What has SpaceCom got to do with these agencies (@18SPCS w @NASA) that have existed for years? Trying to steal their glory?

197

Dr Lizardo Jan 29, 2020 • 10:53:45pm

re: #130 aatharuv

Can’t disagree with you that any urban area is going to be expensive than a rural area for the biggest budget items (especially rent). San Francisco and New York, are just more expensive than any other city.

There is one exception to that rule I can think of - and it’s where I live, in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Property prices within the city limits of Ostrava have been falling for the last four years while prices in the rural areas have been trending upwards. This is caused by people moving out of Ostrava and moving to the rural areas surrounding Ostrava. It is a unique situation here - generally speaking, small villages throughout the Czech Republic are experiencing a significant level of depopulation as these village denizens move to larger, urban areas. But here in the environs of Ostrava, the situation is reversed.

198

goddamnedfrank Jan 29, 2020 • 11:10:04pm

Just to recap this bit of abject lunacy, what Dershowitz is quite overtly arguing here is that a President’s power approaches infinity whenever it becomes exposed to pathological narcissism and the genuinely believed delusions of grandeur and paranoia that come with it https://t.co/XsbmrTitpD

— Jason McGlothlen (@goddamnedfrank) January 30, 2020

199

goddamnedfrank Jan 29, 2020 • 11:13:03pm

Basically, Dersh’s argument is that the Presidency of the United States is a gremlin and Trump fed it after midnight just like the Framers intended so fuck you

— Jason McGlothlen (@goddamnedfrank) January 30, 2020

200

Targetpractice Jan 29, 2020 • 11:15:38pm

Every dictator thinks what he’s doing is in his nation’s best interest, no matter how self-serving such actions/policies may be. And that includes abolishing elections and jailing opposition party members.

201

Dr Lizardo Jan 29, 2020 • 11:20:33pm

re: #198 goddamnedfrank

Dershowitz is arguing in favor of a dictatorship. In his opinion, the President is above the law and as long as he or she acts out of what they perceive to be “national interests”, they can do anything they want, without any form of oversight whatsoever.

Dershowitz - and by extension, the GOP - wants a Führer.

202

ericblair Jan 29, 2020 • 11:33:13pm

re: #196 Dread Pirate

[Embedded content]

What has SpaceCom got to do with these agencies (@18SPCS w @NASA) that have existed for years? Trying to steal their glory?

Integrating military-related space functions into one domain. This is one of the goals of the whole Space as a Domain/SPACECOM standup; a lot of activities were kind of done in isolation from each other. There is no change to the US legal posture regarding the military use of space as far as I know.

This whole effort predates Trump, and has gotten the Trump stink on it because of his little-boy interest. I’m sure the yam doesn’t understand any of this and thinks this is all about space marines or some shit.

203

Ace-o-aces Jan 29, 2020 • 11:54:37pm

Remember, @jaredkushner is also in charge of the wall…so I wouldn’t get your hopes up about Mideast peace. https://t.co/44SvJhUwdL

— ace-o-aces (@aceoaces) January 30, 2020

204

Dread Pirate Jan 29, 2020 • 11:57:22pm

re: #203 Ace-o-aces

[Embedded content]

Reminder, Jared is also in charge of the wall.

Probably by Trump Erections, Llc.

205

goddamnedfrank Jan 30, 2020 • 12:06:47am

I have a background in medical records and in I.T. and I can truthfully say that this is the absolute worst thing I have ever seen. https://t.co/QGZFQ6JoWF

— The American Caliban (@substitute) January 30, 2020

206

Deep State SuperElite Satinist Jan 30, 2020 • 12:09:15am

re: #194 Dread Pirate
As far as i can tell, there is only one person in that room, out of 20 or so, that is not a white male. She doesn’t have a place at the table.

207

Dread Pirate Jan 30, 2020 • 12:09:40am

re: #205 goddamnedfrank

Jesus, and I can’t get anything but fucking Motrin from Kaiser Permanente.

208

Targetpractice Jan 30, 2020 • 12:37:15am

You wanna see Trump’s head pop like a cork? Have a Senate Dem ask Derpowitz directly how the WH squares his belief that there is no criminal intent in seeking foreign interference in an election (“in the national interest”) and their assertion that Hillary Clinton’s involvement in the Steele Dossier constitutes criminal acts?

Or asking him if, by asserting that solicitation of foreign assistance/interference is not an impeachable act if the candidate believes their election is “in the national interest,” then is the inference that the WH believes any Russian assistance to the Trump campaign was/would have been perfectly legal?

209

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 1:02:27am

[video, 2:16]

Singing of Auld Lang Syne starts in the European Parliament as the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement is approved by MEPshttps://t.co/tzNNPSGZXc pic.twitter.com/pTiLrW0Qlf

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) January 29, 2020

210

Dr Lizardo Jan 30, 2020 • 1:11:06am

re: #208 Targetpractice

Dershowitz would answer with the GOP’s mantra - “It’s OK when you’re a Republican”.

211

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 1:30:34am

In the face of unprecedented challenges, we need a president whose vision was shaped by the American Heartland rather than the ineffective Washington politics we’ve come to know and expect.

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) January 29, 2020

Oh are you more American than the rest of us? Fuck you.

— Rebecca Schoenkopf, Wonkette Editrix, King Of You (@commiegirl1) January 29, 2020

212

Targetpractice Jan 30, 2020 • 1:37:12am

re: #210 Dr Lizardo

Dershowitz would answer with the GOP’s mantra - “It’s OK when you’re a Republican”.

Yeah, pretty much. You have one party that is asserting the time-honored view that no one is above the law, while the other party is asserting that Donald Trump is the exception to that view.

Really, the man’s legal “theory” flies in the faces of centuries of established law and legal precedence. Defendants are rarely taken at their word as to why they did something, you have to look at the evidence and listen to witnesses to infer what the intent was at the time the crime(s) happened. And going to great pains to hide evidence and silence witnesses, particularly during the commission of the crime(s), generally does not indicate a benevolent intent.

Or, in layman’s terms, if Trump truly believes that what he did was legit and being reelected is “in the national interest,” then he should be doing everything he can to cooperate with Congress.

213

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 1:37:36am

Buttigieg is polling at -3% within the margin of error. /s

You can’t keep equating proximity to the Heartland with good morals then wonder why you’re polling at literally 0% with Black people. https://t.co/fuAesxZe2f

— Tuxedo Mask (@TheLoveBel0w) January 29, 2020

214

Dr Lizardo Jan 30, 2020 • 1:53:02am

re: #212 Targetpractice

Or, in layman’s terms, if Trump truly believes that what he did was legit and being reelected is “in the national interest,” then he should be doing everything he can to cooperate with Congress.

Exactly. Trump probably believes that what he did is no big deal and the rest of the GOP will go along with it because they’re so morally (not to mention intellectually) bankrupt, they’ve convinced themselves that it’s all perfectly fine and normal. Their desperation to cling to power, no matter what, is obvious for all the world to see.

215

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 1:59:54am

re: #211 Anymouse 🌹🎃

Folks seem to have some idea that “Washington” and its politicians somehow just sprung up like weeds there.

Those politicians came from every state, including the Heartland. (The Heartland Expressway, a north-south route from North Dakota through Oklahoma is about forty miles from my house.) We are represented by a guy who says he doesn’t represent Democrats in his district.

216

Dr Lizardo Jan 30, 2020 • 2:03:13am

And what’s truly galling is that the core of Dershowitz’s argument - that the President is some kind of elected absolute monarch, unbound and unrestrained, with no oversight whatsoever - is perhaps the most profoundly un-American notion I’ve ever heard in my 50 years on the planet. It goes against every single idea that the Founding Fathers literally went to war over. It negates the very idea of democratic republicanism.

I’ve heard it said that conservatives are basically monarchists at heart. And Dershowitz just proved that pretty much beyond any doubt.

217

Dr Lizardo Jan 30, 2020 • 3:05:49am

Regarding the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak, just saw this (translated from Italian via Microsoft Edge):

The terror of the spread of Coronavirus from China has arrived in Rome. And in two distinct situations. On Thursday morning, a Costa Crociere ship was stopped in the port of Civitavecchia (after stopping in Marseille, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca) for two suspected cases of Coronavirus on board. The two people who showed symptoms were put in isolation in the hospital on board and have already been joined by the doctors of Spallanzani to be subjected to specific tests: they are husband and wife, Chinese from Hong Kong, who boarded the “Emerald Coast” in Savona a few days ago and arrived in Italy in Malpensa on 25 January. They have fever and breathing problems. All the other passengers on the ship, about 6,000, cannot disembark.

roma.corriere.it

218

Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) Jan 30, 2020 • 3:25:57am

re: #12 Blind Frog Belly White

That’s actually one of my big worries - if the prediction comes true that 70% of Americans will elect 30% of the Senate, and the EC similarly continues its GOP-ward, antidemocratic skew, the overly-empowered Right will not make any accommodation, but rather will feel emboldened to rule America as a minority. At that point, I’m concerned that the “just consent” of the governed will be lost, and I don’t foresee a peaceful resolution.

We are already seeing how certain people react when they feel their power and sense of majority threatened. It can only get uglier as demographics overpower all attempts to stem the tide.

219

Dr Lizardo Jan 30, 2020 • 3:31:39am

re: #217 Dr Lizardo

Here’s an English-language source regarding that cruise ship story.

reuters.com

Damn….the people on that ship have gotta be sweating bullets right now, waiting to find out the results.

220

Ming5000 Jan 30, 2020 • 3:45:22am

re: #70 Hecuba’s daughter

I do not know how many get ‘severe’ Wuhan corona virus, but if you do you will be a huge burden on medical equipment and personnel. A hospital could handle a handful of cases.

The city of Wuhan is in a terrible situation. I am sure there are victims who cannot get the best treatment needed and I have not heard that they are being parcelled out to other hospitals outside Wuhan.

Here is one case in Suzhou and what she went through:

This case is about an Indian ex-pat in China who teaches at an international school. She was admitted to hospital Jan 11 and the update is Jan 28:

Preeti is currently undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit at Shekou Hospital in Shenzhen.

suffering from coronavirus Pneumonia, Type 1 respiratory failure, Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome (MODS) and septic shock.

per doctors, Preeti’s lungs have started showing signs of recovery, though she still continues to be on life support and critical care treatments. However, she is off ECMO machine (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) and she is conscious.

The doctors have started wheelchair therapy on Monday for 60 minutes in the morning and evening. Doctors are hopeful that based on the early signs of recovery in the lungs they may be able to remove the ventilator in a week

221

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 4:02:42am

re: #220 Ming5000

WHO is now going to hold a meeting to determine whether they should declare a world health emergency.

International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on novel coronavirus in China (goes to the World Health Organisation)

Such a declaration does a number of things, including activating certain types of emergency services and coördinating governments and charities, and warning other governments of the potential danger.

Such a labour-intensive course of treatment would be a disaster for even an industrialised state if an epidemic broke out in that country.

China, meanwhile, has sequenced the genome of the virus and released it to other countries, to help speed up study of the virus for a potential vaccine.

Scientists are unraveling the Chinese coronavirus with unprecedented speed and openness (Washington Post)

222

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 4:07:51am

re: #220 Ming5000

I do not know how many get ‘severe’ Wuhan corona virus, but if you do you will be a huge burden on medical equipment and personnel. A hospital could handle a handful of cases. (rest cut)

Per WHO:

While the current understanding of the disease remains limited, most cases reported to date have been milder, with around 20% of those infected experiencing severe illness

who.int

One out of five would be an unmitigated disaster if those numbers hold.

223

Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus Jan 30, 2020 • 4:10:18am

Your mathemagic for the morning:

This equation will change how you see the world

224

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 4:12:50am

re: #223 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Your mathemagic for the morning:

[Embedded content]

I was told there would be no math. /s

225

Ming5000 Jan 30, 2020 • 4:13:15am

re: #222 Anymouse 🌹🎃

Per WHO:

who.int

One out of five would be an unmitigated disaster if those numbers hold.

Yep, in Hubei there are 4,586 reported cases reported. That means about 900 severe cases. Ouch. Along with those miracle hospitals being built, I hope China has ramped up production of respirators and other equipmenty thingies.

226

Ming5000 Jan 30, 2020 • 4:14:38am

re: #223 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Ugh, I am ruined. I got 19 seconds in and could only think of the bustard republicans and corona virus……..

227

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 4:29:48am

re: #223 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Your mathemagic for the morning:

[Embedded content]

Video

Interesting. He speaks of tests of human vision where a flickering light causes the bifurcated response of the eye ignoring every other flash, &c.

I wonder if that correlates to people with photosensitive epilepsy: Our brains don’t conform to the mathematical model in some way, so they go haywire.

228

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 4:46:30am

End Times Plague Sent by God to Purge the World of Sin (Goes to Right Wing Watch)

Remember, Rick Wiles has a White House Press Pass.

End Times broadcaster Rick Wiles closed out his TruNews program last night by warning that the outbreak of the coronavirus is a plague sent by God to purge the world of sin as the Last Days approach.

Wiles, who made similar wild predictions during the Ebola outbreak in 2014, said that his “spirit bears witness that this is a genuine plague that is coming upon the Earth, and God is about to purge a lot of sin off this planet.”

“Plagues are one of the last steps of judgment,” he warned, saying that China is a “godless communist government” and the United States is not much better.

(more)

The subtext of this article is if you for some reason came down with the novel coronavirus strain, you deserve it because of God’s wrath on “sin” (whatever that is).

While Rick Wiles by himself doesn’t have a particularly large following, when you count up all these religious nutbars and their followings, it’s a frightening number of people who can vote.

There’s a reason the GOP courted them into their camp.

229

FFL (GOP Delenda Est) Jan 30, 2020 • 4:53:00am

re: #203 Ace-o-aces

[Embedded content]

Wonder what percentage of that wall contract kicked back into Trump Family pockets.

230

#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman) Jan 30, 2020 • 4:54:08am

re: #216 Dr Lizardo

And what’s truly galling is that the core of Dershowitz’s argument - that the President is some kind of elected absolute monarch, unbound and unrestrained, with no oversight whatsoever - is perhaps the most profoundly un-American notion I’ve ever heard in my 50 years on the planet. It goes against every single idea that the Founding Fathers literally went to war over. It negates the very idea of democratic republicanism.

I’ve heard it said that conservatives are basically monarchists at heart. And Dershowitz just proved that pretty much beyond any doubt.

Dershowitz basically argued Nixon: “if the president does it, it’s not illegal’

apparently he also read the wrong books his entire life and found ‘just the right stuff’ after clinton

231

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 5:18:13am

Cult of Dusty (an atheist counter-apologist) goes after Dennis Prager.

Prager claimed that you can’t judge the character of someone by their statements in private. (Prager is defending Trump.)

Obviously, you should only judge a person’s character by their prepared remarks or speeches, and not what they say when someone isn’t listening.

[3:01, caution for coarse language from Cult of Dusty and racist apologetics from Dennis Prager]

Dennis Prager Claims What You Say In Private Doesn’t Count

232

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 5:20:46am

re: #230 Dangerman (slowly converting a pool into a pond)

Dangerman (slowly converting a pool into a pond)

Following your articles here, it seems like a lot of work and is taking a long time.

Perhaps you should enroll in some grifter’s “pond apologetics” course to learn how to proselytise to pools better. /s

233

Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) Jan 30, 2020 • 5:25:13am

re: #229 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

Wonder what percentage of that wall contract kicked back into Trump Family pockets.

Again: if DT had been at all serious about this project, he would have long since (Day One) convened a planning commission to draft and present planning, engineering, environmental and legal impact studies.

Along with a proposed budget and timetable.

That would be the least that could be expected from someone who claims to have a lot of experience in large-scale construction projects.

234

#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman) Jan 30, 2020 • 5:34:51am

Trump can assemble the 34 Senate votes he needs to get off the hook from Republican senators who represent 14 percent of the U.S. population, combined.

— Adam Jentleson 🎈💧🐉 (@AJentleson) January 30, 2020

235

makeitstop Jan 30, 2020 • 5:38:03am

Ok, Sleepy…

Secretary Wilbur Ross says coronavirus will be good for [checks notes] American jobs: “I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America.” pic.twitter.com/Y4SbDIcTi4

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 30, 2020

WTF?

236

FFL (GOP Delenda Est) Jan 30, 2020 • 5:45:44am

re: #235 makeitstop

Ok, Sleepy…

[Embedded content]

WTF?

I think the “logic” is as follows:
1. Virus causes chaos in China, including severe curtailment of work and transport.
2. Chinese-produced goods have issues getting to the USA.
3. Due to economic need for good, manufacturers opt to open plant in USA to produce said goods.
4. JOBS!
5. Profit!

That this completely ignores the planning, time, capital, and opportunity cost of #3 above compared to how long #1 and #2 last shows a lot of ignorance, or more likely that he’s just blowing smoke since that’s what a lot of talking heads specialize at. A quick simple sound bite solution that is pretty damn distant from the reality.

237

jeffreyw Jan 30, 2020 • 5:51:45am

Good morning!

238

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 5:57:26am

re: #235 makeitstop

Ok, Sleepy…

[Embedded content]

WTF?

WTF

239

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 5:58:26am

re: #236 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

I think the “logic” is as follows:
1. Virus causes chaos in China, including severe curtailment of work and transport.
2. Chinese-produced goods have issues getting to the USA.
3. Due to economic need for good, manufacturers opt to open plant in USA to produce said goods.
4. JOBS!
5. Profit!

That this completely ignores the planning, time, capital, and opportunity cost of #3 above compared to how long #1 and #2 last shows a lot of ignorance, or more likely that he’s just blowing smoke since that’s what a lot of talking heads specialize at. A quick simple sound bite solution that is pretty damn distant from the reality.

This is such a dangerously stupid and ignorant mentality.

240

#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman) Jan 30, 2020 • 6:01:16am

re: #41 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

Really *objectively speaking,* if I were a Trump supporter and I voted for him because of all the promises he made, I’d be pissed but I actually have some self respect.

First problem

241

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 6:01:57am

re: #234 Dangerman (slowly converting a pool into a pond)

[Embedded content]

Sounds like an argument for a Parliamentary system after Dershowitz’s President as Czar speech.

242

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 6:02:19am

re: #240 Dangerman (slowly converting a pool into a pond)

First problem

True.

243

lawhawk Jan 30, 2020 • 6:02:46am

re: #235 makeitstop

It will do no such thing.

Factories aren’t built overnight. Supply chains aren’t made overnight. no one is moving factories from China back to the US.

They’re going to the lower cost countries elsewhere in Asia.

Coronavirus won’t have any impact on long term repatriation.

— lawhawk (@lawhawk) January 30, 2020

Trump isn’t moving his clothing lines back to the States. Now or ever.

His profits come first. He’d move them to Vietnam or Bangladesh or Mexico before repatriating them back to the States. Why? Because it’s cheaper to make them overseas and he doesn’t care about anyone or anything beyond his own enrichment.

Anyone who buys his bulkshit deserves what they get when they get screwed by his “deals”. This isn’t going to change global supply chain or result in new factories opening in the US.

Trump claimed thousands of new factories opened in the US during his word salad in Wildwood, but there’s no evidence that actually happened. It’s just nonstop lies from Trumpworld, and this is more of the same. Baffle with bulkshit.

244

FFL (GOP Delenda Est) Jan 30, 2020 • 6:02:51am

re: #239 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

This is such a dangerously stupid and ignorant mentality.

It’s effectively gaslighting since any capitalist or entrepreneur that attempted it would probably be bankrupted pretty quick once things settle down and Chinese-produced goods start flowing.

245

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 6:08:18am

re: #236 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

I think the “logic” is as follows:
1. Virus causes chaos in China, including severe curtailment of work and transport.
2. Chinese-produced goods have issues getting to the USA.
3. Due to economic need for good, manufacturers opt to open plant in USA to produce said goods.
4. JOBS!
5. Profit!

That this completely ignores the planning, time, capital, and opportunity cost of #3 above compared to how long #1 and #2 last shows a lot of ignorance, or more likely that he’s just blowing smoke since that’s what a lot of talking heads specialize at. A quick simple sound bite solution that is pretty damn distant from the reality.

Plus if it kills off a bunch of Chinese, so much the better. Not racist at all.

246

Belafon Jan 30, 2020 • 6:14:21am

I’m worried that Trump may try to leverage debt ceiling negotiations to stop impeachment and any further investigations. Oh wait, no I’m not, because Pelosi made a two-year deal in 2019 so that’s not in his arsenal now. What luck.

— Reject Ophidiophobia (@agraybee) January 29, 2020

247

Patricia Kayden Jan 30, 2020 • 6:16:00am

re: #235 makeitstop

Wow. What an absolutely evil thing to say. It doesn’t even make any sense. These people are so heartless. What will he say when the virus spreads to White Americans? The focus is on stopping the virus and not celebrating deaths of Chinese victims.

248

Belafon Jan 30, 2020 • 6:16:43am

The cartoon here is great. I would copy it over if I weren’t at work: dailykos.com

249

Belafon Jan 30, 2020 • 6:17:56am

re: #247 Patricia Kayden

Wow. What an absolutely evil thing to say. It doesn’t even make any sense. These people are so heartless. What will he say when the virus spreads to White Americans? The focus is on stopping the virus and not celebrating deaths of Chinese victims.

White Americans who die from it are just being called to heaven by God. Everyone else is being punished.

250

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 6:18:08am

re: #235 makeitstop

Ok, Sleepy…

WTF?

He’s arguing for the deaths of Chinese people in such numbers it would be a disaster there.

He’s also arguing that so many cases of the novel coronavirus would not infect our own country.

How do idiots become wealthy conservative douchecanoes?

251

CarolJ Jan 30, 2020 • 6:18:46am

Let’s not forget that outsourcing like this is about 20 years old. A lot of people with the relevant skills have died or retired or work on something more lucrative. An empty factory would remain empty because they couldn’t find people to do the work fast enough or train them fast enough.

I hate this gaslighting for a host of reasons. Being lied to like this leaves a lot of people stranded with no options, voting for people who won’t help them even look for better jobs. It’s the coal miner who keeps hoping the mines will come back, and resent anyone telling them otherwise. It feeds the hopelessness that fuels the opiod epidemic.

252

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 6:21:46am

re: #250 Anymouse 🌹🎃

He’s arguing for the deaths of Chinese people in such numbers it would be a disaster there.

He’s also arguing that so many cases of the novel coronavirus would not infect our own country.

How do idiots become wealthy conservative douchecanoes?

Public health and the businesses that made Ross a wealthy man are two totally different fields. Look at it this way, I can tell you tons about baseball but I’m a moron if I try to talk hockey.

253

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 6:23:42am

re: #244 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

It’s effectively gaslighting since any capitalist or entrepreneur that attempted it would probably be bankrupted pretty quick once things settle down and Chinese-produced goods start flowing.

Right but diseases don’t choose victims based off of ethnicity. It’s yeah ugly and stupid. God wake me from the timeline where in 2014 the Dems don’t lose the Senate.

254

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 6:24:14am

re: #251 CarolJ

Let’s not forget that outsourcing like this is about 20 years old. A lot of people with the relevant skills have died or retired or work on something more lucrative. An empty factory would remain empty because they couldn’t find people to do the work fast enough or train them fast enough.

I hate this gaslighting for a host of reasons. Being lied to like this leaves a lot of people stranded with no options, voting for people who won’t help them even look for better jobs. It’s the coal miner who keeps hoping the mines will come back, and resent anyone telling them otherwise. It feeds the hopelessness that fuels the opiod epidemic.

This sort of argument from Wilbur Ross (aside from the abject cruelty of conservatism hoping for the deaths of Chinese people) assumes that those jobs in high tech industries like pharmaceuticals or skilled industries such as manufacturing could be immediately filled by uneducated white folk like me.

Even if you could magically move China’s industrial output to the USA today, there aren’t the skilled or educated workforce here to do anything with it.

The conservative religion’s solution to all this is to prohibit skilled workers (or even unskilled workers) from non-white countries, and somehow magically create a skilled or professional workforce here whilst simultaneously cutting funding for education and vocational training.

255

Belafon Jan 30, 2020 • 6:25:35am

re: #253 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

Right but diseases don’t choose victims based off of ethnicity. It’s yeah ugly and stupid. God wake me from the timeline where in 2014 the Dems don’t lose the Senate.

In that timeline, Thanos snapped half of us out of existence.

256

lawhawk Jan 30, 2020 • 6:26:49am

GDP figures released, and it’s bad news for Trump, who will spin this as the best economy ever.

Trump again missed 3% growth target, even as his tax scam required 4% or 6% to break even. Slowest growth in 3 years - 2.3%.

U.S. gdp growth rate for 2018 was 2.86%, a 0.64% increase from 2017.
U.S. gdp growth rate for 2017 was 2.22%, a 0.65% increase from 2016.
U.S. gdp growth rate for 2016 was 1.57%, a 1.31% decline from 2015.
U.S. gdp growth rate for 2015 was 2.88%, a 0.43% increase from 2014.

Trump and GOP needed to get to at least 3% to pay for their TCJA, and it’s clear the TCJA didn’t grow the economy and the Trump trade war has done considerable damage to economic growth.

Trump will again claim that he’s got to get interest rates cut, but that’s nonsense. The economy is growing, but a lot slower than Trump wants. Trump wants the rate cuts since he personally benefits as his debt load gets reduced.

257

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 6:27:22am

re: #252 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

Public health and the businesses that made Ross a wealthy man are two totally different fields. Look at it this way, I can tell you tons about baseball but I’m a moron if I try to talk hockey.

Wilbur Ross comes from (checks notes) a very wealthy family which paid his way into Yale.

I should have picked myself up by my bootstraps like he did inheriting a fortune rather than choosing to be born into poverty.

258

Patricia Kayden Jan 30, 2020 • 6:29:59am

re: #235 makeitstop

Jokes aside the dude is basically just saying Chinese people dying is good for the whites.

— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) January 30, 2020

259

Dave In Austin Jan 30, 2020 • 6:30:39am

re: #257 Anymouse 🌹🎃

Wilbur Ross comes from (checks notes) a very wealthy family which paid his way into Yale.

I should have picked myself up by my bootstraps like he did inheriting a fortune rather than choosing to be born into poverty.

I keep thinking of Ross and his Red Slippers……. Snoooooore….

260

Jay C Jan 30, 2020 • 6:31:53am

re: #235 makeitstop

Ok, Sleepy…

[Embedded content]

WTF?

JFC on a three-wheeled bike! And this moron is in the Cabinet: actually the head of a US Department??

261

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 6:32:15am

re: #257 Anymouse 🌹🎃

Wilbur Ross comes from (checks notes) a very wealthy family which paid his way into Yale.

I should have picked myself up by my bootstraps like he did inheriting a fortune rather than choosing to be born into poverty.

Certainly. Just saying that he never was interested in public health since it wasn’t about his $$$

262

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 6:33:06am

re: #259 Dave In Austin

I keep thinking of Ross and his Red Slippers……. Snoooooore….

But you know the Dems and their front runners are the elites.//

263

FFL (GOP Delenda Est) Jan 30, 2020 • 6:39:20am

re: #247 Patricia Kayden

Wow. What an absolutely evil thing to say. It doesn’t even make any sense. These people are so heartless. What will he say when the virus spreads to White Americans? The focus is on stopping the virus and not celebrating deaths of Chinese victims.

Oh just wait for the outpouring of vileness if that virus gets into the concentration camps for immigrants on the border.

264

Dave In Austin Jan 30, 2020 • 6:43:27am

re: #262 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

How many yachts do the Devose’s one? 12+?

265

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 6:44:13am

re: #263 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

Oh just wait for the outpouring of vileness if that virus gets into the concentration camps for immigrants on the border.

Since it seems to have arisen in China, and the cases here so far have been people traveling by air from there or to there, I suspect any outbreak will be amongst the general populace.

In this particular case, the folks being held by CPB might be safer.

266

The Pie Overlord! Jan 30, 2020 • 6:44:54am

One year ago this month, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said he didn’t understand why federal workers who hadn’t been paid for weeks because of the Trump government shutdown would go to a food bank for help.

Now he’s got a new brilliant idea… https://t.co/MzqKDJj0Dv

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) January 30, 2020

267

Hecuba's daughter Jan 30, 2020 • 6:51:58am

re: #222 Anymouse 🌹🎃

Per WHO:

who.int

One out of five would be an unmitigated disaster if those numbers hold.

That was the mortality rate under the 1918 pandemic. So it looks like my comment from a few threads down actually applies here: Certainly possible that under 1918 medical technology, this would prove as deadly as the 1918 pandemic but with modern technology, the fatalities will be far lower. One reason this flu won’t prove as lethal, at least in first world countries or nations like China, is due to modern technology. It’s also possible that it isn’t as contagious.

268

Joe Bacon 🌹 Jan 30, 2020 • 6:52:14am

re: #231 Anymouse 🌹🎃

Cult of Dusty (an atheist counter-apologist) goes after Dennis Prager.

Prager claimed that you can’t judge the character of someone by their statements in private. (Prager is defending Trump.)

Obviously, you should only judge a person’s character by their prepared remarks or speeches, and not what they say when someone isn’t listening.

[3:01, caution for coarse language from Cult of Dusty and racist apologetics from Dennis Prager]

[Embedded content]

Interesting to see a Jew defend an Anti-Semite but on the other hand, Dennis Prager has always been a virulent racist who prides himself on mentoring Steven Miller.

269

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 6:52:30am

re: #266 The Pie Overlord!

During the shutdown, my wife and I scraped together money for the Coast Guard Mutual Assistance organisation, because Coasties were going to food banks whilst they weren’t being paid. CGMA helps with that.

There is no reason I can ever imagine that those who live below the poverty line like us should have to support the Coast Guard’s enlisted personnel so they can eat.

270

Hecuba's daughter Jan 30, 2020 • 6:54:09am

re: #268 Joe Bacon 🌹

Interesting to see a Jew defend an Anti-Semite but on the other hand, Dennis Prager has always been a virulent racist who prides himself on mentoring Steven Miller.

And Stephen Miller is Jewish —- and a racist to his core.

271

Joe Bacon 🌹 Jan 30, 2020 • 6:54:50am

re: #269 Anymouse 🌹🎃

During the shutdown, my wife and I scraped together money for the Coast Guard Mutual Assistance organisation, because Coasties were going to food banks whilst they weren’t being paid. CGMA helps with that.

There is no reason I can ever imagine that those who live below the poverty line like us should have to support the Coast Guard’s enlisted personnel so they can eat.

Ah, but PHONY JONI ERNST says that the churches will always help the truly needy…

272

Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light)) Jan 30, 2020 • 6:56:50am

re: #271 Joe Bacon 🌹

Ah, but PHONY JONI ERNST says that the churches will always help the truly needy…

of course, they get to define “true need”…

273

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 6:58:54am

YOU THINK WE ARE FOOLS? That’s precisely what you said. History will retell your slavish devotion to the Mad King you coronated. Your “reputation” is sealed. You shredded the Constitution. You will be forever branded the consiglieri of the traitor, thief and fool #BenedictDonald https://t.co/3fkD1dsKY3

— Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) January 30, 2020

274

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 6:59:30am

Here is the video, @AlanDersh. What part of your answer are you now denying? https://t.co/yXII7YmFqb

— Barb McQuade (@BarbMcQuade) January 30, 2020

275

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 6:59:36am

re: #268 Joe Bacon 🌹

Interesting to see a Jew defend an Anti-Semite but on the other hand, Dennis Prager has always been a virulent racist who prides himself on mentoring Steven Miller.

I love it when Utah Outcasts go after bigots like him.

276

Joe Bacon 🌹 Jan 30, 2020 • 6:59:45am

re: #272 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

of course, they get to define “true need”…

Yes and the King of the Pulpit Pimps, J0el 0$teen defines “True Need” as his $10 million Pulpit Pimping Palace!

277

sagehen Jan 30, 2020 • 7:00:28am

re: #254 Anymouse 🌹🎃

This sort of argument from Wilbur Ross (aside from the abject cruelty of conservatism hoping for the deaths of Chinese people) assumes that those jobs in high tech industries like pharmaceuticals or skilled industries such as manufacturing could be immediately filled by uneducated white folk like me.

Even if you could magically move China’s industrial output to the USA today, there aren’t the skilled or educated workforce here to do anything with it.

The conservative religion’s solution to all this is to prohibit skilled workers (or even unskilled workers) from non-white countries, and somehow magically create a skilled or professional workforce here whilst simultaneously cutting funding for education and vocational training.

Maybe what he really means is millions of sick Americans would translate into ten million jobs for unskilled home health care workers.

278

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 7:01:11am

re: #276 Joe Bacon 🌹

Don’t forget his daily tooth whitening.

279

Joe Bacon 🌹 Jan 30, 2020 • 7:01:36am

re: #274 jaunte

280

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 7:02:27am

re: #273 jaunte

The winners write the history.

Conservatives have been painting liberals as traitors since Goldwater.

If they seize the government through fair means or foul for a long enough time, it’s us who will be reviled by history.

The 2018 election was damned important. So will 2020 be.

281

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 7:04:35am

At this point a Dem should bribe an IRS official for Trumps tax records and say they did it in the public interest. #Dershowitzlogic

— Jason (@Thesolution55) January 30, 2020

282

#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman) Jan 30, 2020 • 7:12:53am

you know why you call witnesses now?

because there are demonstrable (ok purported) disagreements as to fact

and

there are specific, identifiable, people, with knowledge, who are at hand and who can testify under oath

taking the position that ‘the house shoudla done it’ and even though we in th senate can, we simply won’t is just going lalalalalalala with fingers in ears. It will be seen as the feckless and feeble argument that it is: a craven calculus of “which will damage us less politically”

After all, look how this has been been reported already:
“republicans have the votes to *block* witnesses”

not something like ‘republicans think no additional witnesses or testimony is necessary”

283

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 7:17:24am

This is a test of American democracy. (Please read.)https://t.co/F4si2orrD2

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) January 30, 2020

“…So much of Trump’s presidency has served up causes for impeachment. Yet still the national debate, due to Trump’s incessant shouting of falsehoods and the loud and robotic amen-ing of Republicans and the conservative media, often becomes fixated on debating reality—was an obvious quid pro quo a quid pro quo or not?—rather than what to do about that reality. The founders envisioned the possibility of a scoundrel gaining control of the White House. But could they envision an entire political party putting on blinders and becoming the loyal and unyielding foot-soldiers of that scoundrel? “

284

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 7:19:40am

re: #282 Dangerman (slowly converting a pool into a pond)

Republicans don’t want to take those votes; especially those who are standing for election like Ben Sasse (who has a primary opponent to his right).

Therefore they have to make arguments about process or an unfounded impeachment by the US House so they can get soundbites for campaign adverts. It’s why they make arguments that impeachment is an attempt to overturn the results of an election, despite impeachment being in the country’s constitution (and they would get that flaming liberal who Democrats support, Mike Pence—who was also elected).

They’ve moored themselves to the Trumptanic and they’ll float or go down with that ship.

285

Colère Tueur de Lapin Jan 30, 2020 • 7:21:38am

re: #241 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

Sounds like an argument for a Parliamentary system after Dershowitz’s President as Czar speech.

I used to think this was an insane idea for the US. Now I think it is insane, but the only solution. Insane because ‘merikan’s (sub-species, politician) are now incapable of the discourse and concession that is required for a parliamentary system.

286

Colère Tueur de Lapin Jan 30, 2020 • 7:22:45am

re: #250 Anymouse 🌹🎃

He’s arguing for the deaths of Chinese people in such numbers it would be a disaster there.

He’s also arguing that so many cases of the novel coronavirus would not infect our own country.

How do idiots become wealthy conservative douchecanoes?

go back to the question posed by who asked if wealth breeds stupidity.

287

Belafon Jan 30, 2020 • 7:23:24am

re: #283 jaunte

No, because if they had, they wouldn’t have included the EC.

But, the only any government system can be protected from a group like the modern GOP is for voters to reject them.

288

#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman) Jan 30, 2020 • 7:23:38am

re: #283 jaunte

“…So much of Trump’s presidency has served up causes for impeachment. Yet still the national debate, due to Trump’s incessant shouting of falsehoods and the loud and robotic amen-ing of Republicans and the conservative media, often becomes fixated on debating reality—was an obvious quid pro quo a quid pro quo or not?—rather than what to do about that reality. The founders envisioned the possibility of a scoundrel gaining control of the White House. But could they envision an entire political party putting on blinders and becoming the loyal and unyielding foot-soldiers of that scoundrel? “

its now clear, if it never was before, that the impeachment process is totally effed.

the jury coordinating and actually advocating with/for the defense (or prosecution if ever).
the jury setting the rules that clearly favor one side or the other.

of course the framers knew that some aspects of impeachment would be politically motivated. they also assumed the senate would be a willing and cooperative player, an honest broker, with the house in the singular focus of determining enough truth to render a removal verdict or not.

they did not take the view that the senate should be the house’s active oppostion.

289

Joe Bacon 🌹 Jan 30, 2020 • 7:23:44am

Each day of Trump brings me back to the days as a teenager when I read the whole set of Great Books Of The Western World, especially the volumes covering the fall of Rome.

Every day we’re coming closer to the same result.

Tomorrow, the sun finally sets on the British Empire and we will soon see a United Ireland and a Free Scotland pounding the last nails in the coffin.

If Trump and the GOP win in 2020 the same will happen here when the California Secession Initiative goes on the ballot in 2021.

290

lawhawk Jan 30, 2020 • 7:25:12am

That’s exactly what you said. You’re lying just as badly & transparently as Trump.

The lawyer has no pants. We’ve got goddamned video of you saying precisely what everyone heard you say. You argued for an imperial presidency who can do anything in national interest.

— lawhawk (@lawhawk) January 30, 2020

291

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 7:26:23am

re: #287 Belafon

They may have included the EC as a forced compromise with the very sort of corrupted men they feared, but reasoned that competition between states would prevent their combination.

292

Sherlock Hound Jan 30, 2020 • 7:26:38am

re: #211 Anymouse 🌹🎃

Marshal Pétain: “Are You More French Than Me?”

When someone asserts that they’re “more American” than me, this is my first thought.
I wonder how that worked out for Le Marechal?

293

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 7:26:56am

I’m just mentally exhausted by this whole criminal gang.

294

lawhawk Jan 30, 2020 • 7:27:00am

re: #283 jaunte

We’ve failed.

And by we, I mean the GOP, which puts party over nation, the rule of law and the Constitution to remain in power at any cost.

They don’t care about anything except their power and ability to stay in power no matter the crimes committed.

Dershowitz is lying his ass off trying to claim what he openly and plainly stated yesterday was anything other than giving a green light to Trump committing any crime he wants to stay in power because he deems it to be in the public interest.

Fuck these guys with rusty pitchforks sideways.

295

#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman) Jan 30, 2020 • 7:27:54am

re: #290 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

you spoke out loud
in the senate chamber
on tv
for everyone to see
and we did

now youre trying to ‘correct’ what everyone saw
and youre doing it on twitter

this is you
a sad sack working for a sad man

They characterized my argument as if I had said that if a president believes that his re-election was in the national interest, he can do anything. I said nothing like that, as anyone who actually heard what I said can attest.

— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) January 30, 2020

296

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 7:27:56am

It was never about economic anxiety.

It was never about making America great again.

It was always about payback.

After eight years of Obama and the prospect of Hillary Clinton, a lot of Trump voters wanted a president to make white men feel great again. https://t.co/Fp7CLZPp8q

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) January 30, 2020

297

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 7:28:32am

re: #292 Sherlock Hound

[Embedded content]

When someone asserts that they’re “more American” than me, this is my first thought.
I wonder how that worked out for Le Marechal?

Oui. We’re witnessing the birth of something dark here.

298

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 7:30:15am

“If a president did something that he believes will help him get elected, in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”
—Alan Dershowitz, January 29, 2020. https://t.co/fttkureFsV

— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) January 30, 2020

299

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 7:31:11am

re: #298 jaunte

[Embedded content]

The 5th Avenue Justification.

300

Joe Bacon 🌹 Jan 30, 2020 • 7:31:25am

You’re lying.

You said Republicans are above the law.

— The 3-D Zanti Regent (@josephebacon) January 30, 2020

301

Belafon Jan 30, 2020 • 7:31:44am

re: #297 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

Oui. We’re witnessing the birth of something dark here.

We’re watching those with more power than they should have attempt to hold onto it at all costs. We’re just going to have to wrest it from their grip.

302

Belafon Jan 30, 2020 • 7:33:15am

re: #298 jaunte

This morning I’m sure he thinks “in the public interest” has meaning in his sentence.

303

lawhawk Jan 30, 2020 • 7:33:28am

re: #299 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

The 5th Avenue Justification.

The Nixon defense - I’m president and anything I do can’t be illegal.

304

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 7:33:56am

re: #289 Joe Bacon 🌹

(rest cut_

If Trump and the GOP win in 2020 the same will happen here when the California Secession Initiative goes on the ballot in 2021.

That initiative would immediately ruled unconstitutional. We had a civil war over that.

No doubt there would be all sorts of rodent copulation from Russia, just as there was from the California and Texas succession movements recently.

305

Dave In Austin Jan 30, 2020 • 7:34:01am

Silly owls in the news. Here’s our silly owl last nite. Turn the sound up. BTW. the light you see inside the box is IR. The owls can’t see it. Hope to have family shots in the near future.
Using Arlo Pro2 Security cams.
Turn the sound up

Lovesick Eastern Screech Owl #LakeTravisTx pic.twitter.com/3WgyDAEzrd

— And the Wind Cries “We Have All the Documents!!” (@DaveoutofAustin) January 30, 2020

306

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 7:34:15am

re: #302 Belafon

The DoJ, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Trump Organization, will make a determination on the legal definitions and get back to you.

307

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 7:34:22am

re: #301 Belafon

We’re watching those with more power than they should have attempt to hold onto it at all costs. We’re just going to have to wrest it from their grip.

Blue Tsunami. Long live democracy.

308

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 7:35:10am

re: #303 lawhawk

The Nixon defense - I’m president and anything I do can’t be illegal.

Yep except now that’s gonna be precedent rather than Nixon justifying his actions to David Frost.

309

Anymouse 🌹🎃 Jan 30, 2020 • 7:37:47am

The sun is up, so it’s time for me to go to bed. I’ll catch y’all later.

310

Hecuba's daughter Jan 30, 2020 • 7:39:00am

re: #290 lawhawk

They characterized my argument as if I had said that if a president believes that his re-election was in the national interest, he can do anything. I said nothing like that, as anyone who actually heard what I said can attest.

— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) January 30, 2020

This reminds me of the way Trumpsters deny that Trump was mocking a disabled reporter. Dersh knows that the Trump cult believes anything said in support of their dictator. Dersh is only arguing the Barr position that Republican presidents are above the law as long as there is a GOP majority in the Senate, or maybe even just 34 GOP senators who are thereby capable of upholding any veto and stopping any conviction.

311

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 7:39:57am

Republican leaders in Congress believe—and privately say—that they fear the country is quickly changing in ways that may soon deprive them of power, and that they must use the power they have now to delay it as long as possible, even by harming the Republic if necessary.

— Evan McMullin (@EvanMcMullin) January 30, 2020

312

#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman) Jan 30, 2020 • 7:39:57am

re: #302 Belafon

This morning I’m sure he thinks “in the public interest” has meaning in his sentence.

if one were being charitable, he got it exactly backwards

he said

“If a president did something that he believes will help him get elected, in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”

- something he believes will help get him elected
- and also happens to be in the public interest

he should have said

“If a president did something that is in the public interest, that he also believes will help him get elected, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”

because clearly some things, actually lots of things in the national interest can also have election consequences

he didnt say that
because he didnt mean that

313

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 7:40:51am

re: #311 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀

[Embedded content]

It’s a federal version of what they’ve done in state legislatures for years.

314

The Pie Overlord! Jan 30, 2020 • 7:41:32am

PROJECTING. LIKE. AN. IMAX. IN. OUTER. SPACE… SPACE… SPAAAAACE!!!!

“Schiff blasted for not focusing on California homeless.” @foxandfriends His District is in terrible shape. He is a corrupt pol who only dreams of the Impeachment Hoax. In my opinion he is mentally deranged!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2020

315

Belafon Jan 30, 2020 • 7:41:42am

re: #311 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀

You know, they could change. If they weren’t racist, sexist, and homophobic, they’d be a competitive party.

316

#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman) Jan 30, 2020 • 7:42:03am

re: #311 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀

[Embedded content]

so…
me first
fuck my oath
and that pesky constitution

Republican leaders in Congress believe—and privately say—that they fear the country is quickly changing in ways that may soon deprive them of power, and that they must use the power they have now to delay it as long as possible, even by harming the Republic if necessary.

— Evan McMullin (@EvanMcMullin) January 30, 2020

317

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 7:43:05am

re: #314 The Pie Overlord!

PROJECTING. LIKE. AN. IMAX. IN. OUTER. SPACE… SPACE… SPAAAAACE!!!!

[Embedded content]

OFFS. So predictable. Crap on his district. Tell me FNC, how is Jim Jordan’s district doing?

318

Belafon Jan 30, 2020 • 7:43:18am

re: #311 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀

The counter to that is a Blue Wall will wipe them out for years.

319

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 7:43:50am

The headline fails to note this is about anti-personnel mines

The Trump administration is expected to loosen restrictions on use of landmines, weapons that have been banned by more than 160 countries due to their history of killing and wounding civilians https://t.co/5WWbcXbYLT pic.twitter.com/AKOPbsBQAm

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) January 30, 2020

320

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 7:43:51am

re: #315 Belafon

You know, they could change. If they weren’t racist, sexist, and homophobic, they’d be a competitive party.

But that would mean actually confronting the culture of bigotry in American conservatism.

321

LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior) Jan 30, 2020 • 7:47:27am

Isn’t it funny how all prosperity a district or state may have is thanks to Trump but any trouble is the Dem’s fault. This is exactly why Buttigieg’d heartland shit angered me.

322

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 7:51:22am

Yes, except I think this is only true for Republicans. Democrats would not behave this way given a lawless president of their own party. The incentives only flow this way for the GOP. https://t.co/avLNFVUJfo

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) January 30, 2020

323

Jay C Jan 30, 2020 • 7:55:09am

re: #320 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

But that would mean actually confronting the culture of bigotry in America~~n conservatism~~.

Fixt.

324

Belafon Jan 30, 2020 • 7:55:12am

re: #322 jaunte

Nearly 2/3 of Democrats were opposed to Obama threatening Syria with attacks over the use of chemical weapons. Right now, they’re far more willing to stand up to their party leadership.

325

Hecuba's daughter Jan 30, 2020 • 7:58:16am

re: #312 Dangerman (slowly converting a pool into a pond)

if one were being charitable, he got it exactly backwards

he said
“If a president did something that he believes will help him get elected, in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”

- something he believes will help get him elected
- and also happens to be in the public interest

he should have said
“If a president did something that is in the public interest, that he also believes will help him get elected, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”

because clearly some things, actually lots of things in the national interest can also have election consequences

he didnt say that
because he didnt mean that

Interesting. Whatever he may believe, Dersh may have meant to say that but when speaking extemporaneously, people make mistakes all the time.

Wait. Hmmm. The only thing Dersh believes is that anything said in pursuit of an acquittal for a guilty client is completely valid - as Vince Lombardi said, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”.

326

Florida Panhandler Jan 30, 2020 • 7:58:18am

re: #270 Hecuba’s daughter

And Stephen Miller is Jewish —- and a racist to his core.

Let’s not forget that in Hitler’s Jewish ghettoes there were fellow Jews ( Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst) that would police the area and at times were considered worse than the Germans that imprisoned them.

They too eventually were gassed. Miller does not read history or chooses to ignore it.

327

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 7:58:35am

Well, it does appear to be killing people a whole lot faster
But, I get the feeling some pharmaceutical lobbyist may have recently sat him down to watch ‘Contagion’ pic.twitter.com/AuTgLrUPeo

— 𝘞𝘉 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 🍕🐀😷(beware of Captain Trips) (@FormerDirtDart) January 30, 2020

328

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 7:59:22am

Well, it does appear to be killing people a whole lot faster
But, I get the feeling some pharmaceutical lobbyist may have recently sat him down to watch ‘Contagion’ pic.twitter.com/AuTgLrUPeo

— 𝘞𝘉 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 🍕🐀😷(beware of Captain Trips) (@FormerDirtDart) January 30, 2020

329

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 8:05:51am

Good lord. Late breakfast of two bagel/egg sandwiches & a large glass of orange juice.
I think I need a nap now

330

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 8:06:14am

re: #328 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀

Small government Republican calls for sweeping, unquestioned (R) governmental action.

331

Dr Lizardo Jan 30, 2020 • 8:11:03am

re: #311 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀

And there you have it.

332

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 8:12:49am

In this moment Chuck Schumer should maybe restrain his impulse to make jokes.

333

#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman) Jan 30, 2020 • 8:13:32am

re: #331 Dr Lizardo

And there you have it.

YouTube

334

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 8:17:57am

NEW: Trump just removed sanctions on 3 companies tied to Oleg Deripaska, the Russian mob-tied Putin oligarch Manafort owed millions to when he ran Trump’s campaign *for free* and offered Oleg private briefings.

But sure, nothing to see here!https://t.co/FMALFpP5iL

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) January 30, 2020

The criming will continue.

335

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 8:18:55am

And Manafort is an ally of Deripaska, and owed him $10M when he went to work for Trump for free. Ukraine officials helped the FBI in their case on Manafort, and part of Guiliani’s purpose in Ukraine was to help smear the Ukrainian officials who worked with U.S. #FullCircle https://t.co/vyzDcyFBjz

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) January 30, 2020

336

lawhawk Jan 30, 2020 • 8:20:45am

Median incomes and demographics for some districts of note:
Representative Adam Schiff D-Burbank
Median income $65,849
Ethnicity 55.3% white 2.3% black 13.5% Asian 25.7% Hispanic 3.2% other

Jim Jordan:
63.02[1]% urban
36.98% rural
Population (2018) 707,219[2]
Median income $55,425[3]
Ethnicity
89.78% white
5.47% black
1% Asian
3.44% Hispanic
0.14% Native American

Mark Meadows:
Distribution
46.6[1]% urban
53.4% rural
Population (2016) 749,597[2]
Median income $46,337[3]
Ethnicity
90.52% white
3.47% black
1.12% Asian
5.9% Hispanic
1.57% Native American

So Schiff’s district is more multicultural and wealthier than Jordan or Meadows’ districts. In fact, Jordan and Meadows represent districts that are 90% white.

Fancy that.

But Trump attacks Schiff because he’s a Democrat who is impeaching the corrupt Trump so he is throwing everything and the kitchen sink out there claiming that Schiff is ignoring his district (he isn’t). Schiff’s district is doing better than Trump allies’ districts in so many ways, but that’s also representative of the nation at large. Democrats represent the key economic engines around the nation - the urban corridors where majority of Americans live, and where a majority want Trump removed from office.

337

Khal Wimpo (the extinguisher of tiki torches) Jan 30, 2020 • 8:21:01am

“I wanted to follow up” - you forgot didn’t you? Didn’t you? Am I a joke to you?!

— Jamie Keller (@Jamie7Keller) January 29, 2020

338

Dr Lizardo Jan 30, 2020 • 8:21:46am

re: #334 jaunte

If I were on the House Judiciary Committee, I’d be prepping another impeachment investigation against Trump. After all, the Constitution doesn’t say the President can be impeached only once.

339

Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel Jan 30, 2020 • 8:27:38am

re: #235 makeitstop

Ok, Sleepy…

Secretary Wilbur Ross says coronavirus will be good for [checks notes] American jobs: “I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America.” pic.twitter.com/Y4SbDIcTi4

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 30, 2020

WTF?

Yikes! Imagine how that will play in China, or anywhere else overseas. “American ogre praises pandemic.”

340

Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel Jan 30, 2020 • 8:29:01am

Yep. Apparently she’s brilliant enough to pull them off without being caught, but dumb enough that every right wing part time shift leader at Taco Bell can tell us all the details of her “crimes”. Yet somehow trained LEOs across multiple states can’t seem to put her away.

— The_Lensman (@The_Lensman) January 30, 2020

341

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 8:29:09am

This is the highest resolution image of the Sun’s surface ever taken. The National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope took the images from the summit of Haleakala, Maui, in Hawai‘i.

Learn more: https://t.co/WCFoNg0HCV

Credit: NSO/AURA/ @NSF pic.twitter.com/pqILW2XMNv

— WIRED (@WIRED) January 29, 2020

The larger cells are bigger than Texas.

342

jeffreyw Jan 30, 2020 • 8:31:21am

re: #337 Khal Wimpo (the extinguisher of tiki torches)

h

[Embedded content]

“You think I’m funny?”

343

lawhawk Jan 30, 2020 • 8:31:41am

re: #341 jaunte

But do I go blind if I stare too long at it the video? /

344

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 8:33:03am

Watergate break in was in “national interest”….. https://t.co/fTetQZnd3n

— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) January 30, 2020

Barasso defending the president as king theory while Dershowitz claims we heard him wrong.

345

jeffreyw Jan 30, 2020 • 8:33:16am

re: #343 lawhawk

But do I go blind if I stare too long at it the video? /

Are you keeping your underwear on? If so, then you’re probably Ok.

346

#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman) Jan 30, 2020 • 8:33:55am

re: #340 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel

[Embedded content]

no one ever thought to ask Ukraine for help?

How is it Hillary can murder hundreds of people in dozens of different jurisdictions and no devoted Republican public servant has ever managed to have her even charged, let alone convicted? If they are that dumb, they should never hold office again.

— Lord Piltdown (@jimreynolds54) January 29, 2020

347

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 8:34:06am

re: #343 lawhawk

I survived the Griffith Park Solar Telescope!

348

Hecuba's daughter Jan 30, 2020 • 8:34:34am

re: #336 lawhawk

Median incomes and demographics for some districts of note:
Representative Adam Schiff D-Burbank
Median income $65,849
Ethnicity 55.3% white 2.3% black 13.5% Asian 25.7% Hispanic 3.2% other

Jim Jordan:
63.02[1]% urban
36.98% rural
Population (2018) 707,219[2]
Median income $55,425[3]
Ethnicity
89.78% white
5.47% black
1% Asian
3.44% Hispanic
0.14% Native American

Mark Meadows:
Distribution
46.6[1]% urban
53.4% rural
Population (2016) 749,597[2]
Median income $46,337[3]
Ethnicity
90.52% white
3.47% black
1.12% Asian
5.9% Hispanic
1.57% Native American

So Schiff’s district is more multicultural and wealthier than Jordan or Meadows’ districts. In fact, Jordan and Meadows represent districts that are 90% white.

Fancy that.

But Trump attacks Schiff because he’s a Democrat who is impeaching the corrupt Trump so he is throwing everything and the kitchen sink out there claiming that Schiff is ignoring his district (he isn’t). Schiff’s district is doing better than Trump allies’ districts in so many ways, but that’s also representative of the nation at large. Democrats represent the key economic engines around the nation - the urban corridors where majority of Americans live, and where a majority want Trump removed from office.

To be fair, the cost of living is much lower in Jordan’s and Meadows’ districts so their median income may buy you a higher standard of living.

349

FFL (GOP Delenda Est) Jan 30, 2020 • 8:35:09am

re: #316 Dangerman (slowly converting a pool into a pond)

so…
me first
fuck my oath
and that pesky constitution

[Embedded content]

In 1860 Southern state leaders in Congress saw their iron grip on power (which they deemed necessary to defend slavery) in peril and most of them opted to support a rebellion and civil war.

Parallels are not quite the same, but it’s politicians deciding that their oaths and the Constitution are to be sacrificed.

350

lizardofid Jan 30, 2020 • 8:37:40am

re: #343 lawhawk

But do I go blind if I stare too long at it the video? /

I think that’s why it’s just a 5 second clip.

351

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 8:38:51am

Amazing that it’s so hot that light emission is a cooling mechanism.

352

lawhawk Jan 30, 2020 • 8:39:03am

re: #350 lizardofid

So, like with certain other human actions, if I do it until I need glasses, it’s okay? /

353

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 8:39:54am

The argument here is that bad people don’t seek public office — politicians want to be elected because they want to help the country, and it’s unfair to impute ulterior motives. As ludicrous as it sounds, this idea has also shaped much of our political discourse & journalism. https://t.co/DMQmpW8d4e

— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) January 30, 2020

354

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 8:40:50am

Also see: the unearned reverence accorded many SCOTUS justices.

355

lizardofid Jan 30, 2020 • 8:42:32am

re: #349 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

In 1860 Southern state leaders in Congress saw their iron grip on power (which they deemed necessary to defend slavery) in peril and most of them opted to support a rebellion and civil war.

Parallels are not quite the same, but it’s politicians deciding that their oaths and the Constitution are to be sacrificed.

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” (Sam Clemens)

356

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 8:44:29am

re: #346 Dangerman (slowly converting a pool into a pond)

If she can accomplish all that, shouldn’t she naturally be favored for President by Trump voter?
I mean, he can’t get away with getting an international conference held at one of his resorts.

//

— 𝙒𝘽 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙜 🍕🐀😷 (@FormerDirtDart) January 30, 2020

357

Citizen K Jan 30, 2020 • 8:44:52am

The “President as King” school of thought, I have to say, is especially galling when one remembers how Obama was considered a tyrant simply by appointing ‘czars’. But Trump can do anything he wants, interfere with elections, damage national sovereignty, etc. because if it’s in the president’s best interest, it’s necessarily the country’s best interest.

It’s so fucking transparent and yet…

358

Jay C Jan 30, 2020 • 8:45:32am

re: #336 lawhawk

Median incomes and demographics for some districts of note:
Representative Adam Schiff D-Burbank
Median income $65,849
Ethnicity 55.3% white 2.3% black 13.5% Asian 25.7% Hispanic 3.2% other

Jim Jordan:
63.02[1]% urban
36.98% rural
Population (2018) 707,219[2]
Median income $55,425[3]
Ethnicity
89.78% white
5.47% black
1% Asian
3.44% Hispanic
0.14% Native American

Mark Meadows:
Distribution
46.6[1]% urban
53.4% rural
Population (2016) 749,597[2]
Median income $46,337[3]
Ethnicity
90.52% white
3.47% black
1.12% Asian
5.9% Hispanic
1.57% Native American

So Schiff’s district is more multicultural and wealthier than Jordan or Meadows’ districts. In fact, Jordan and Meadows represent districts that are 90% white.

Fancy that.

But Trump attacks Schiff because he’s a Democrat who is impeaching the corrupt Trump so he is throwing everything and the kitchen sink out there claiming that Schiff is ignoring his district (he isn’t). Schiff’s district is doing better than Trump allies’ districts in so many ways, but that’s also representative of the nation at large. Democrats represent the key economic engines around the nation - the urban corridors where majority of Americans live, and where a majority want Trump removed from office.

Yeah, but what do numbers mean? There are some homeless guys living out of shopping carts on Ventura Boulevard, so Schiff is obviously a failure as a Congressman. Which of course, will be news to the 78.37% of his voting constituents who voted for him, but there we are…

PS: Interesting factoid: Schiff’s district (CA-28) also has (reportedly) 70,000 Armenian-Americans living in it (part actually officially designated “Little Armenia” by the LA City Council): the most in the country.

359

#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman) Jan 30, 2020 • 8:45:46am

re: #353 jaunte

[Embedded content]

we really need to cut through this ~~nonsense~~ bullshit.

its not that he did something that was both in the public/national and his personal interest

it’s that he did something illegal
the ask alone was illegal in multiple ways
whether Ukraine agreed or not
holding back the funds was illegal too.

public/national/personal interest is beside the point
ever heard of iran-contra?

get it through your goddamn heads: the acts themselves were illegal

The argument here is that bad people don’t seek public office — politicians want to be elected because they want to help the country, and it’s unfair to impute ulterior motives. As ludicrous as it sounds, this idea has also shaped much of our political discourse & journalism. https://t.co/DMQmpW8d4e

— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) January 30, 2020

360

Eclectic Cyborg Jan 30, 2020 • 8:48:26am

re: #359 Dangerman (slowly converting a pool into a pond)

“Yes, your honor I put a gun to the guys head and told him to hand over the money, but he never gave me anything…and I never pulled the trigger!”

361

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 8:53:44am

That weasel Rand Paul is trying to out the whistle blower again.

362

Patricia Kayden Jan 30, 2020 • 8:54:57am

This editorial is desperate, ridiculous, and just plain dishonest. https://t.co/O2yRp8eRl1

— Will Wilkinson 🌐 (@willwilkinson) January 30, 2020

363

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 8:56:05am

The reason this is a disingenuous argument is that category 3 would involve *public* policy decisions — the very reasons they would help reelection is that voters know about it. A secret attempt to subvert Congress’ intent to sabotage a political opponent isn’t a policy. 1/ https://t.co/XF7HBs6v3M

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) January 30, 2020

364

lawhawk Jan 30, 2020 • 8:56:24am

re: #362 Patricia Kayden

Bulkshit on a stick.

Self-interest doesn’t mean you can break the law to enter or remain in office.

Everyone is subject to the rule of law, and what you’re promoting is an kleptocracy and kakistocracy. Trump’s already more than halfway there.

— lawhawk (@lawhawk) January 30, 2020

365

Eclectic Cyborg Jan 30, 2020 • 8:57:28am

So will the acquittal vote happen today?

366

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 8:58:18am

In fact, Trump was trying to DECEIVE voters by making them believe 1) he was following U.S. policy (by giving Ukraine aid when he was actually withholding it and 2) that Ukraine had independent reasons to investigate Bidens, when in fact it was based on Trump’s pressure 2/

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) January 30, 2020

367

gocart mozart Jan 30, 2020 • 8:59:48am

Try to fart https://t.co/DcLKK9sgiB

— Edwin Mix (@TheEdMix) January 30, 2020

368

#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman) Jan 30, 2020 • 9:00:22am

re: #363 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀

[Embedded content]

also he specifically do not say #3 “mixed motive (help the national interest in a way that helps your reelection efforts ) “

he said the opposite - something that helps the reelection efforts that might also happen to later be arguable in the national interest

369

William Lewis Jan 30, 2020 • 9:01:44am

The Theme Song of the GOP Impeachment Team:

One Toke Over The Line - Lawrence Welk - WTF! (1971)

370

jaunte Jan 30, 2020 • 9:03:15am

GOP Senators know Trump’s claims about Biden in Ukraine are lies.

Here’s proof.

In a 2016 hearing, numerous GOP Senators were briefed on the *Obama administration policy* of pursuing Shokin’s ouster. There was zero controversy.

I have new details here:https://t.co/iQMCRZHS8C

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) January 30, 2020

371

Acemarilllion Jan 30, 2020 • 9:04:20am

re: #96 Charles Johnson

Are deez da guys that provide the Cheeto Benito with his Adderall?

372

Hecuba's daughter Jan 30, 2020 • 9:04:59am

re: #362 Patricia Kayden

[Embedded content]

The WSJ editorial page has always been trash and dishonest. This predates Murdoch. Everyone working on the editorial staff has always been a disgrace to the nation.

If a Democrat is not elected in 2020, our country will never recover. Like many other powerful republics in history, it will join the sad sisterhood of nations that abandoned principles and decency to become a tyranny.

373

BeachDem Jan 30, 2020 • 9:09:17am

re: #358 Jay C

Yeah, but what do numbers mean? There are some homeless guys living out of shopping carts on Ventura Boulevard, so Schiff is obviously a failure as a Congressman. Which of course, will be news to the 78.37% of his voting constituents who voted for him, but there we are…

PS: Interesting factoid: Schiff’s district (CA-28) also has (reportedly) 70,000 Armenian-Americans living in it (part actually officially designated “Little Armenia” by the LA City Council): the most in the country.

And his winning percentage has increased with each election.

I can vouch for the Armenian factor—just worked on a project in Glendale and everything had to be in three languages—English, Spanish and Armenian.

374

sagehen Jan 30, 2020 • 9:17:00am

re: #373 BeachDem

And his winning percentage has increased with each election.

I can vouch for the Armenian factor—just worked on a project in Glendale and everything had to be in three languages—English, Spanish and Armenian.

PBS’ No Passport Required cooking/culture show… last week’s episode was about Glendale Armenians and their food.
thirteen.org

Apparently after the Armenian genocide, there was a diaspora that put Armenians all over the world, and a generation later lots of them ended up in the States. So their food isn’t just traditional stuff from their ancestral homeland, it includes a lot of fusion with lots of other cultures.

ETA: the Kardashians are Armenian. Also, former George Deukmejian, California’s Republican governor from ‘83-‘91.

375

Hecuba's daughter Jan 30, 2020 • 9:25:00am

re: #325 Hecuba’s daughter

Interesting. Whatever he may believe, Dersh may have meant to say that but when speaking extemporaneously, people make mistakes all the time.

Wait. Hmmm. The only thing Dersh believes is that anything said in pursuit of an acquittal for a guilty client is completely valid - as Vince Lombardi said, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”.

After further thought: however it’s interpreted, doesn’t his statement assert that if a president thinks his re-election is in the public interest, he can commit any crime and it’s not impeachable? Dersh is absolutely asserting that the President (R only) is above the law.

376

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 9:25:44am

When he says he has reconsidered his view and changed his mind, do you think he really has?

— Orin Kerr (@OrinKerr) January 30, 2020

When you hear him present his advocacy as if it were an academic argument, that might be worth keeping in mind. /end

— Orin Kerr (@OrinKerr) January 30, 2020

377

plansbandc Jan 30, 2020 • 9:25:46am

I have zero doubt this is the plan.

I suggest to you that this is a distinct possibility. https://t.co/PnLngLV1rV

— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) January 30, 2020

378

Dr Lizardo Jan 30, 2020 • 9:29:24am

re: #374 sagehen

I remember during the O.J. kerfuffle, my dad - on hearing Robert Kardashian’s name - said, “Huh, whattaya know, he’s Armenian”. He then went on to tell me there was an initial wave of Armenian immigrants into L.A. in the 1920s, then another wave not long after WWII, then a third wave in the mid-1960s.

379

Mike Lamb Jan 30, 2020 • 9:29:42am

I’m still fairly gobsmacked by Dershowitz’s argument. The ramifications are pretty breathtaking:

1. Direct payments to voters for their vote (which they basically did with AA voters per recent news) is ok.

2. Offering the head of Diebold (or similar) a cabinet position in exchange for rigging voting machines.

3. Specifically instructing Kobach (or similar) to unlawfully purge voters from rolls to enhance re-election chances.

4. Offering to pardon LEO for unlawfully detaining large numbers of voters likely to vote against your opponent.

5. Directly paying foreign agents to hack elections.

All would be unimpeachable provided the candidate believed his/her reelection was in the national interest.

380

Dr Lizardo Jan 30, 2020 • 9:33:18am

re: #373 BeachDem

And his winning percentage has increased with each election.

I can vouch for the Armenian factor—just worked on a project in Glendale and everything had to be in three languages—English, Spanish and Armenian.

BTW, if you reside in or around Glendale, you’re sort of a neighbor of mine. I’m originally from South Pasadena.

381

Eclectic Cyborg Jan 30, 2020 • 9:34:03am

re: #377 plansbandc

I have zero doubt this is the plan.

[Embedded content]

Because why keep kids in cages when you can just blow them up and be done with it?

382

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 9:37:04am

This is what Trump’s Middle East plan is actually about - sucking up to right-wing evangelicals. The Palestinians are forced to negotiate at gun point while Bibi and Trump hope to benefit politically. Nothing about this promotes peace. https://t.co/VChrVNyzM6

— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) January 30, 2020

383

Dr Lizardo Jan 30, 2020 • 9:39:58am

re: #382 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀

You have no idea how thrilled I’d be to hear an American President publicly say, “The Bible is not the basis of American foreign policy in regards to the Middle East.”

Of course, I’d expect the fundies to promptly lose their shit after such a statement.

384

lawhawk Jan 30, 2020 • 9:42:01am

re: #382 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀

Except that it does retreat from biblical territory.

The far right Israelis don’t approve of allowing Palestinians control over even part of Judea and Samaria. And yet this plan does that. So it’s not biblical.

There’s nothing consistent here, except that the plan is DOA and everyone knows it but Trump and Bibi will play the charade because they both need it to deflect/distract from their impeachment and indictment, respectively.

385

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 9:43:57am

Under our Constitution, the Senate has “the sole Power to try all Impeachments.” Senate Republicans’ repeated assertion that the House itself should have conducted the essential functions of a trial is an effort to undo the results of the 1787 constitutional convention.

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) January 30, 2020

386

Dr Lizardo Jan 30, 2020 • 9:44:32am

LOL this is a great car review.

The $100,000 Dodge Demon Is the Craziest Muscle Car Ever

I had no idea it was as fast and powerful as it is. Damn.

387

BeachDem Jan 30, 2020 • 9:49:13am

re: #380 Dr Lizardo

BTW, if you reside in or around Glendale, you’re sort of a neighbor of mine. I’m originally from South Pasadena.

Nope—I live in south by dog carolina—just have a lot of California clients.

388

Dr Lizardo Jan 30, 2020 • 9:50:32am

re: #387 BeachDem

Nope—I live in south by dog carolina—just have a lot of California clients.

Ah, OK.

389

Targetpractice Jan 30, 2020 • 9:55:10am

re: #385 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀

[Embedded content]

That’s because it’s not a good faith argument, Justin. And it was never intended to be because the GOP know for a fact that there was never going to be a genuine trial in the Senate. No, when they moan about “procedure” and about how the House “rushed” instead of taking time to force the WH to produce witnesses and documents, what they’re really voicing is frustration that they failed to keep impeachment bottled up in the House. That the WH’s strategy of dragging out production of evidence until after the election failed, so now they’re forced to take a vote they really didn’t want to that is going to leave them vulnerable for the next nine months.

390

Charles Johnson Jan 30, 2020 • 10:01:05am

All those stories you’re seeing about Republicans possibly voting in favor of allowing witnesses to testify?

Give me a break. It isn’t going to happen. They’re going to go right ahead and shut this trial down as soon as they think they can get away with it.

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) January 30, 2020

391

#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman) Jan 30, 2020 • 10:02:52am

re: #379 Mike Lamb

I’m still fairly gobsmacked by Dershowitz’s argument. The ramifications are pretty breathtaking:

1. Direct payments to voters for their vote (which they basically did with AA voters per recent news) is ok.

2. Offering the head of Diebold (or similar) a cabinet position in exchange for rigging voting machines.

3. Specifically instructing Kobach (or similar) to unlawfully purge voters from rolls to enhance re-election chances.

4. Offering to pardon LEO for unlawfully detaining large numbers of voters likely to vote against your opponent.

5. Directly paying foreign agents to hack elections.

All would be unimpeachable provided the candidate believed his/her reelection was in the national interest.

yes he conveniently left out the ‘of course i only mean what would otherwise be legal actions’ part

392

Joe Bacon 🌹 Jan 30, 2020 • 10:04:01am

re: #390 Charles Johnson

[Embedded content]

I said all along that McConnell had the votes to block witnesses. He will give a pass to SHREWsan and Romney.

But it is now on record that Republicans are making it clear that they are above the law.

393

Charles Johnson Jan 30, 2020 • 10:04:13am

JFC

Religious fanatics are running the US government and setting foreign policy.

The founders are spinning in their graves. So much for the Establishment Clause. https://t.co/VvOb78rYjS

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) January 30, 2020

394

Sherlock Hound Jan 30, 2020 • 10:06:31am

re: #393 Charles Johnson

So…Obama was put here for..?

395

Dr. Matt Jan 30, 2020 • 10:06:46am

The dress has been tested. We have the results. My attorney @kaplanrobbie has served notice to @realDonaldTrump’s attorney to submit a sample of Trump’s DNA.https://t.co/iIM6kQZxuX

— E. Jean Carroll (@ejeancarroll) January 30, 2020

396

Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel Jan 30, 2020 • 10:09:12am

More relevantly, a Democratic president could easily decide that it is in the public interest for liars, grifters, sociopaths, and superstitious quacks to be prevented from voting. She could therefore order Republicans rounded up and sent to FEMA camp.

— Lord Piltdown (@jimreynolds54) January 30, 2020

397

A hollow voice says, Guilty, guilty, guilty! Jan 30, 2020 • 10:09:31am

Just for a break, here’s another Rapa Nui photo:

398

Belafon Jan 30, 2020 • 10:12:45am

re: #396 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel

I’m imagining how well Republicans will just accept a Democratic president doing all the things that they’ve declared presidents can do.

399

lizardofid Jan 30, 2020 • 10:12:46am

re: #395 Dr. Matt

[Embedded content]

Idle CSI thought: Is every POTUS in CODIS?

400

FFL (GOP Delenda Est) Jan 30, 2020 • 10:13:13am

re: #381 Eclectic Cyborg

Because why keep kids in cages when you can just blow them up and be done with it?

I’m sure all the landowners along the border will *love* having their property taken by eminent domain in order for mine fields to be planted. (Though I’m sure Trump will claim that the mines will be laid on the Mexican side of the border.)

Then you get the ongoing expense (and casualties) of supervising, marking, and maintaining the fields. I’m sure CBP will appreciate needing the additional training in handling the things as well.

* - And then some immigrants will just drive a herd of cattle across the field before crossing themselves.

401

plansbandc Jan 30, 2020 • 10:14:44am

re: #398 Belafon

We”re done with Presidents now. Now we have dictators.

402

Charles Johnson Jan 30, 2020 • 10:15:37am

I watched and listened to every word, and you said EXACTLY that. Everybody associated with this sham defense is a shameless liar. https://t.co/AbE9dNc2Ok

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) January 30, 2020

403

plansbandc Jan 30, 2020 • 10:15:46am

re: #400 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

Trump doesn’t let logic get in the way, and neither do any of the garbage people who work for him. This is going to happen.

404

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 10:18:53am

Wow. CJ Roberts refuses for read RAND PAUL question

Stunt time by Paul at the trial

— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) January 30, 2020

405

goddamnedfrank Jan 30, 2020 • 10:19:06am

What a rotten little shit.

Chief Justice John Roberts declines to read aloud a question submitted by @RandPaul that presumably gave the name of someone whom has been IDed as the Intel Community whistleblower.

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 30, 2020

406

mmmirele Jan 30, 2020 • 10:19:32am

re: #272 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

of course, they get to define “true need”…

People should not have to rely on religious organizations for food. I have seen churches require people to sit through a sermon before they could get a bag of (not very good) food. That’s spiritual coercion.

407

Targetpractice Jan 30, 2020 • 10:20:03am

re: #404 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀

[Embedded content]

I might have been impressed…if he hadn’t read Cruz’s question yesterday about how Schiff “didn’t answer the question” about the whistleblower’s alleged bias.

408

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 10:20:06am

Lift-off is currently targeted for no earlier than:
13:01 NZDT
00:01 UTC
16:01 PST
19:01 EST

A live webcast will begin from approx. T-20 minutes at https://t.co/RyD0mD6yVf

— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) January 30, 2020

409

Charles Johnson Jan 30, 2020 • 10:22:12am

Wow, Rand Paul actually got too crazy for the Empty Suit to let it go. https://t.co/lpsPN0wRBf

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) January 30, 2020

410

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 10:22:15am

Sen Paul has the first GOP question.

Chief Justice Roberts: “The Presiding Officer declines to read the question as submitted.”

— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) January 30, 2020

Sen Paul reads reporters his question. It names the whistleblower and a staffer on the House Intelligence Committee, accusing them of plotting together to impeach the President.

— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) January 30, 2020

411

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 10:23:36am

One question for Paul pic.twitter.com/8JLsJ2om2u

— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) January 30, 2020

412

FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips Jan 30, 2020 • 10:24:46am

Leaving the Senate chamber, despite the mandate that all 100 senators be present during the impeachment trial, @RandPaul is holding a press conference right now in the Senate TV gallery - after his question was rejected by Chief Justice John Roberts

— Sara Just (@sarajust) January 30, 2020

413

Belafon Jan 30, 2020 • 10:25:18am

re: #410 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀

Remind the libertarians that he claims to be one of them.

414

lizardofid Jan 30, 2020 • 10:29:38am

re: #402 Charles Johnson

[Embedded content]

He was clearly arguing innocence by reason of narcissistic personality disorder.

415

TedStriker Jan 30, 2020 • 10:39:31am

re: #386 Dr Lizardo

LOL this is a great car review.

[Embedded content]

I had no idea it was as fast and powerful as it is. Damn.

Oh, yeah…

I sub to Doug DeMuro, to Hoovie’s Garage (and to his mechanic’s channel, the Car Wizard), to Tavarish, and to WatchJRGo (who’s, right now, doing a LS swap on a ‘79 RR Silver Wraith II nicknamed “Rolls Smoke” to run at Cleetus and Cars in Houston next month); I got over majorly wrenching on my own vehicles long ago when I stopped buying well-used hoopties, but I love watching the reviewers (Hoovie, Doug) and the wrenchers (Car Wizard, Tavarish, JR).

416

mmmirele Jan 30, 2020 • 10:52:31am

re: #382 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀

I am tired, very tired, of US foreign policy towards Israel being “Israel must exist so Jesus can return.” This is not just unhelpful, it’s outrageously crazy, given that many Americans do not share ths essentially religious belief. You’re not helping, Brody.

— Dee “I don’t suffer fools gladly” Holmes (@mmmirele) January 30, 2020

417

Eventual Carrion Jan 30, 2020 • 12:36:08pm

re: #364 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

Just setting things up to be able to kill political opponents. Third world dictators here we come!

Spy Auto

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