Borowitz and Trudeau are national treasures in this age of cynicism and depressing political maneuvering.
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The House needs to continue investigation and work on the next round of articles. Send out subpoenas right now. It would have been much better to have kept the investigation in the House where Dems control the process and microphones, but too late. They thought they could pressure Mitch into acting almost right. LMAO. What a stupid fucking strategy.
Remember when this board was all about centristsplaining to us crazy liberals that leadership knew exactly what they were doing and it would be much easier to secure testimony from Bolton, Mulvaney, Pompeo in the senate trial because Justice Roberts would force them to do the right thing? HAHAHAHAHAHA!. Lol nothing matters. They’re not even going to get to present the evidence they did get in the House and if they do, that will be treated as an enormous concession from Republicans and proof that they are acting in good faith from CNN, WaPo, NYT, and MSNBC (other than a couple shows) and most of the useless national media.
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It seems pretty dispiriting that the Democrats got caught into arguing for a trial that is just like the one Bill Clinton got. In Clinton’s case they had sworn depositions from most of the people involved. (Hence the perjury charge, duh.) If Trump had gotten the Clinton treatment he would have testified, so that ship has sailed. When the Dems are yelling foul because the Senate GOP is tweaking the already insufficient Clinton rules they’ve pretty much lost.
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I think Beutler is pretty sharply putting his finger on a good point, while necessarily generalizing, which is that there is a tendency to cast McConnell as the moustache-waxed melodrama villain in the overall narrative, the Snidely Whiplash, if you wish. So rather than see him as a shocking danger to our way of life, he fits a known pattern and is in effect normalized. A number of mobsters have gotten similar treatments over the years. How many were ever treated as the thuggish parasites they almost universally are? We have a bad habit of treating things we don’t perceive as affecting us directly, like a school-tax referendum, as a form of entertainment.
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Leadership wanted it over with quickly until it started polling well, sadly after they had decided to move it to the Senate. Now they realize they squandered an amazing political opportunity. Not that most on this board will admit they fucked up, but I’m glad some can see it. Going to the Senate without even fighting for the testimony (and then trying to gaslight us into believing the Senate trial would guarantee that testimony, lol) was a boneheaded and scared decision that many of us recognized at the time (but we’re shrill and unrealistic, unlike the geniuses that got us to this point where leadership has to throw a tantrum because they don’t like the rules they knew they’d have no say in creating).
Let’s hope this holds up.
Ryan Goodman (rgoodlaw)
New CNN poll consistent with Quinnipiac Poll, WaPo-ABC poll on #ImpeachmentTrial 1. Large majority of Americans want to see witnesses testify CNN: 69% QP: 66% WaPo-ABC: 71% 2. Plurality of GOP want to see witnesses testify CNN: 48% to 44% QP: 39% to 35% https://t.co/UE6UvqTdas
4:59 PM - 20 Jan 2020 1.3K 758
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a model that McConnell previously claimed he would follow.
McConnell lies.
If he’ll lie to America, he’ll lie to Kentucky and to his voters.
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I assume there’s some obscure Senate rule that makes it a non-starter, but what if the Dems refuse en masse to participate? Surely there is something that can be done other than protesting while the steamroller proceeds over them.
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It’s kind of like me inviting you to dinner at my house with two stipulations…
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You must halt at one hundred yards so I can take a shot at you with my .308
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If I miss you must come to within twenty five yards so I can try again.
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If I miss again then you may enter my house but it’s not likely dinner will be served.
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So that’s where “the impaler” comes from?
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This thread by Rick Wilson is unvarnished truth. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1219660314267897856.html
1/ I’ll summarize this for the slow learners in the Senate one last time.
Your protestations of independence, integrity, and honor will mean nothing to the voters this Fall. Nothing.
You’re going to moo and walk into the chute like cattle, terrified of Trump and Mitch.
2/ So when you’re underwater in the polls, drowning in public anger at becoming accessories to Trump’s coverup, here’s a handy list of what went wrong. Clip-and-save, because you’ll need it later.
3/ WHAT WENT WRONG, A PARTIAL LIST:
A. The facts of Ukraine will never, ever get better for Trump. You know this.
B. Truth outs. Bolton’s book hits. Documents leak. More people come forth.
C. TRUMP admits it. You know he will.
D. The polls are not going your way.
4/ D (cont). Two-thirds of the American people want to see evidence and witnesses. Support for impeachment is steady.
E. The McConnell strategy looks great in the short term as a DC-clever-process story in a few months looks like a massive coverup.
5/ F. The locked-room, one-camera, dead-of-night game YOU voted for looks more and more like the work of co-conspirators, not judges.
G. Trump won’t help you later. His loyalty is to himself. If you’re in trouble even for helping him you’re dead meat.
6/ H. Even if he does help you, does it help you? Trump rally fever plays only to the reddest red audiences. You know, like Maine and AZ…oh. Wait.
I. Mitch only has so much money to spread around. Sure, in January he’s saying, “I got you” but does he have enough?
7/ J. Even Mitch will flip if the majority is in danger, and how are you gonna walk that back? You won’t get a second chance to be strong and do the right thing. You won’t get another moment to show you give a damn about something bigger than Trump’s rage.
8/ K. Voters hate corruption (cf, 1974, 1980, 1994, 2006) as just a few examples in recent memory) and they hate its enablers more. It reinforces their existing feelings about politics and politicians.
L. Trump gets passes you never, ever will.
9/ M. “I voted against witnesses and evidence and covered up Trump’s crimes of obstruction, lying, and abuse of power so he wouldn’t tweet mean things about me.” is a shit political obituary. So is, “I didn’t want a primary.”
10/ N. Everything Trump Touches Dies.
Proceed accordingly.
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No.
Vlad became known as “the impaler” for putting the heads of lawbreakers in his kingdom on pikes.
He was very strict 
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I think so too.
And I want Congress. Not just the House.
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When the bell rings for Round 1, fall on the mat and wait for the ten count to prove your opinion that you should have stayed in the locker room until your opponent gave up.
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Vlad the Impaler stuck whole bodies on poles while the victim was alive. Pole where the Sun don’t shine. Then every wiggle sent it a little deeper.
Vlad hated the Turks in a massive sorta way.
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No, that’s from taking prisoners and other unfortunates and impaling them on stakes. You do that enough and you’ll get a reputation. 
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Evidence Adam, Evidence! Don’t give in!
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Nancy the Impaler?
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