One way of fighting back is doing what you can to make sure the right wing disinformation stations are not able to broadcast into public venues ala car dealerships, the VA waiting rooms(some bastard in the upper offices decided OAN was to be broadcast there until I complained), the phone company waiting rooms etc. The crap is omnipresent and normalized by it’s very presence so just let your discomfort with being held hostage to the propaganda be known. It really works because so few people actually take the time to point out how offensive it is to be lied to in public.
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Excellent summary mr. tpr. Excellent!
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Smelling salts level disappointed? Or fainting couch level disappointed?
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In his defense (as much as it pains me), his role in the impeachment is quite limited. He serves as “Presiding Officer” in lieu of the VP, but can’t cast a tie-breaking vote.
Hawley said. “I can tell you, there was an open, open gasping on the Senate floor when Nadler was saying these things. I mean, It’s really, really extraordinary.”
I agree completely. It was really, really extraordinary. And incredibly important.
The truth is that part of our diagnosis of what’s going wrong with the Trump administration is that literally every Republican in Congress has been deliberately repeating misinformation from Fox (i.e. from Russia) to generate rhetorical cover to protect Trump. Isn’t it true that we all believe they’re all lying about everything, from 2016 onward?
For the sake of posterity, that needs to be part of the record. Whether we’re right or wrong (we’re right), whether or not it’s the kind of thing the Senate is used to hearing (they’re not, the coddled parasites), it’s an important part of our theory of the crime. It would be a travesty to keep silent about it.
Nadler’s comments were carefully calculated. It needed to be said on the record, and it needed to be said so that Republicans and Americans would know that the Democrats are wise to the GOP’s duplicity and abandonment of their oaths. It needs to be part of the deliberations.
And consider the timing: Dems said it early. That means it’s in the mix for the whole process. Whatever effects it might have on Republicans, on Democrats, on voters, it will have the longest-possible window of time to work its magic.
It’s also worth mentioning that doing it early is consistent with a freewheeling fire-and-brimstone plan of attack which many of us have been desperate to see for years. We’ve been apoplectic over Dems’ apparent willingness to play nice with GOP monkeywrenchers, and the non-strategic part of our brains has been eager to see the Dems finally use some of that powder they’ve been keeping dry. If the House were going to do that – if Dems decided to fight the good fight the right way, speak truth to power, take off the fucking gloves and bloody the soft, fleshy noses of the oligarchy’s fat shills – then this is exactly how it would start. Now, nobody can say Democrats weren’t prepared to get down in the mud and oppose Republicans over the central political secret of our age: every Republican leader is a liar who works against the people. And reasonable people can understand why the Democrats toned it down after the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who is widely seen as a willing participant in the GOP’s crimes, put them on notice. It will be hard for armchair House Managers in the future to second-guess Dems’ more-diplomatic turn, given that the umpire returns from lunch every day covered in the same BBQ sauce as the defendant’s white-shoe oligarch lawyers.
Finally, consider the fact that House Dems put these words in Jerry Nadler’s mouth. Nadler is not a man known for slander, for ad hominem attacks, for getting nasty whenever it’s expedient. He is nobody’s “attack dog.” He is usually the one who makes the argument from pure logic, from static analysis of the law. If you recall that the Democratic party is the only party that even tries to faithfully represent the American people, you must conclude that Jerry Nadler is the person the American system has selected to be Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary, i.e. The People’s Supervisor of the Courts. He’s the patron fucking saint of philosophy of law.
To paraphrase Jello Biafra: if even Jerry Nadler says you’re talking out of your ass, aren’t you talking out of your ass?!
Schiff gets a lot of love for his presentation (and rightly so), but Nadler is my hero, and it wasn’t foolish or reckless to have him call the Republicans liars right out of the gate.
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Dana Milbank has a great op ed in the Washington Post, aout Roberts being forced, day after day, to sit and observe the result of bad decisions his court has made in the last ten years.
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Dickensian. Wow.
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I’m pretty sure that a vote to call witnesses (and presumably any actions taken pursuant thereto) is NOT APPEALABLE TO THE SUPREME COURT. It’s specifically not reviewable. If I recall (from law school which was a long time ago) actions taken during impeachment by the Senate are just not subject to judicial review, SCOTUS or otherwise.
So Chuck’s right on the binary proposition, but he’s not making the best argument for why the GOP is wrong again.
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Have to disagree. They’re embracing him more ardently than ever before and today’s March For Life gathering in D.C. where anti abortion activists will pursue their quest for lots more pregnancies, and trumPP’s going to address the mob.
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LOL…Faux News is now literally just reporting shit Sekulow is saying instead of showing or reporting on what Schiff and the House managers are saying.
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Sometimes we talk past each other. Posted this 45 minutes ago. And because most people might not be able to access it or even care to, I elaborated because the details of his decisions matter.
The Roberts Court’s decisions led to this moment in indirect ways, as well. The court’s 2013 ruling in Shelby County gutted the Voting Rights Act and spurred a new wave of voter suppression. The decision in 2014′s McCutcheon further surrendered campaign finance to the wealthiest. The 2018 Janus decision hobbled the ability of labor unions to counter wealthy donors, while the 2019 Rucho ruling blessed partisan gerrymandering, expanding anti-democratic tendencies.
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I don’t understand this whole “it would take too long” bullcrap as a reason. They’re talking about one of the most momentous decisions in the history of the country, and they don’t want to do it right because that would be difficult? Is there anything republicans say that isn’t a tell they’re in the tank for putin?
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Shopping for an excuse. If they were serious or sincere, they’d find a way. Instead, they spend all of their effort trying on different justifications for doing nothing. Seems to me like they’d prefer to do nothing.
I wonder what the Constitution has to say about the sincerely-held preferences of Senators sitting on an impeachment trial.
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… after shooting Adam Schiff with it.
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Executive privilege … for when an NDA just isn’t sufficient.
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I wonder what chief justice Roberts feels about presiding over a sham impeachment trial where all the relevant documents and witnesses are excluded from being entered into the record, or are forbidden to testify. Is he ok with it? I thought he is supposed to be so concerned about propriety, about his reputation, about history. Does he have no role to break the log jam? Will he just mutely allow Moscow Mitch and crew to block all relevant testimony and documents. What kind of trial is that?
I know what kind of trial it isn’t. It isn’t a fair trial. It isn’t an honorable trial. It isn’t a trial befitting the United States of America!
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Please keep that hope and positive outlook.
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I am just having a hard time with the whole notion that if the Senate (acting as a trial court of impeachment, a role proscribed by the constitution) on a bipartisan basis issues a subpoena, which is signed by the presiding Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, that some district court is going to throw itself bodily in front of the train and enjoin the Senate’s subpoena.
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Bolton is an asshole, has always been an asshole. Expect him to continue being an asshole.
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