They Know it Isn't a Choice

Nikki Haley suspended her campaign following Super Tuesday, where she won Vermont and continued to demonstrate that the Trump campaign does have a 10-30% problem with Trump-averse Republicans. In her speech, in which she didn't exactly endorse Trump, she nevertheless said she hoped that Trump "earned" her voters. 

Anyone want to figure out what that means? If part of Haley's case was that Trump was the wrong man for the moment, or that his previous term in office displayed his unfitness, or that a racist, sexist, multiply-indicted adjudicated rapist was a threat to this country and a shameful person to have as her party's leader, it would be clear that he did not have the ability to earn their vote. But her case was merely a numerical one: maybe voters would prefer Haley because she was normal. She never fully addressed his freakishness.

As it was, as a member of Trump's administration she was a poor standard-bearer for that claim having already done spade-work to "normalize" him, and as a Republican who campaigned for Herschel Walker by suggesting that Sen. Warnock be deported, or who said she wanted to be Rev. John Hagee when she grew up, or who botched a simple question about the Civil War out of a sense of shameless pandering, she only magnified the degree to which, these days, to be a GOP candidate is, in some respects, to be a freak. 

No, I Never Did Hear of "Supply Change".

 

Trump: Things like supply change. You never heard that term pic.twitter.com/Cr0RU9z2F0

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 6, 2024

I've heard of the "supply chain" and so has everyone else. We heard about it especially when it was broken during COVID shutdown when you couldn't find toilet paper or rubbing alcohol or Lysol.  Does Trump really misremember the phrase as "supply change"? As in, we changed from when we could find things in the store to where we could not find things in the store? 

Trump's economy was stupid and not great. It really wasn't what we were promised. His only success was inherited.  The story of his life. 

Maybe he thinks this is a phrase he invented, like when he invented "priming the pump". Trump is the Edison of prevarication--he's always inventing things. Sometimes he Columbuses stuff people have known since forever and asks if they've heard about it, like he's a pioneer. This is because the guy who can't remember people's names, even now, always tries to cover up for his lapses. He's covering up for one of his major lapses right now--he forgot to secure the border during his first term. He could have made it a priority since he ran on it, but he forgot and only shut down the government when he lost the midterms. 

And couldn't get his wall money because Mr. Art of the Deal had no leverage. And shutting down the government didn't help anything. It was costly and dumb. His immigration policy was meh at best. And abusive of human rights at worst. 

Not One Republican

 

Yesterday, the Senate Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act. It's accurate to say Senate Democrats, because not one Republican helped pass it. Not one.  This bill brings significant benefits for health care costs and fighting climate change, and could have been even better, but Republicans spitefully blocked a provision that would have capped insulin costs to $35 a month. 

Why do I say they spitefully did that? Well, they could have just left in in the bill. But just as with their snit fit over the PACT Act, I really suspect they didn't want to be remotely helpful and were mad that this significant legislation would be passed at all. It's not like they seem to especially care about the environment, anyway, and they complain about prescription medicine costs--but doing something about them smacks too much of making government do stuff.

I could be disappointed, but not surprised. Remember, it was at this point in Barack Obama's presidency that Senator Mitch McConnell made clear that obstruction in order to hopefully deny Obama a second term was the actual goal of congressional Republicans. It didn't work for them, but here they are, looking for all the world like they have the same obstructionist strategy. 

The bill is expected to reduce the deficit and moderately curb inflation. To hear Republicans tell it, you would think inflation (a global phenomenon brought on by digging out of the COVID-19 recession and supply chain issues) was a purely local phenomenon and all Joe Biden's fault. You think if they wanted to demonstrate the genius of fiscal conservatism, they would offer suggestions?

Uh, no. They are just going to complain. This is why I am fed up with people who blow smoke about bipartisanship and unity and so on. Instead of being a part of the solution by passing meaningful legislation, they seem happy to gesture in the direction of progress and say "See, I tried to black that. You're welcome."

Not one Republican voted for this bill. As far as I'm concerned, not one Republican should stay in office.

Kevin McCarthy Was *This* Close

There's the audio - from @jmartNYT and @alexburnsNYT's book--

Kevin McCarthy: "The only discussion I would have with him is that I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign."@maddow pic.twitter.com/ltDye7BTYG

— Lauren Peikoff (@laurenpeikoff) April 22, 2022

What a funny, revelatory day yesterday was! We progressed from "McCarthy and McConnell wanted Trump to resign/be impeached" to "McCarthy denies he ever said this" to "Lordy, there's tapes." It's almost as if House Minority Leader McCarthy was a gutless man with very little credibility. (I don't think this is really a surprise, is it?)

My question is--did he really think he'd follow through on asking Trump to resign, or what that just a thing he said to mollify GOP members who weren't....in on it? (I mean, Gaetz, Greene, Gosar, Gohmert...) Did he try to say this actually to Trump? (Trump seems to acknowledge in his recent speech to Heritage that he would have great ideas, only to have people suggest the 25th Amendment. That was something his constant Renfield, Lindsey Graham was in favor of, until he was against it.) 

I think this audio release is hilarious because McCarthy had to have known that Rep. Cheney was well aware of what he said and had likely shared it with the 1/6th Committee. This. Whole. Time. Other people also knew. It's also hilarious to me that he denied it, like, sure. If he denies it, everyone will believe him and love him and of course he'll be Speaker of the House when the majority flips. Of course. 

And if the latter thing doesn't happen, he'll wonder how he got "this close". I, however, wonder how he got "this close" to doing the right thing, and then--poof! His temporary spine melted right into his seat.  But I don't wonder about it a lot. 

Sorry, I Don't Pray That Way

President Biden urges Congress to come together at the annual National Prayer Breakfast: "How do we unite us again?" https://t.co/op1SRzM9L7

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 3, 2022

Maybe it's because I'm militantly agnostic, or maybe I'm just a firm believer in the separation of church and state, but the idea of the National Prayer Breakfast never has sat well with me. The idea that the nationa can unite in prayer doesn't seem as important to me as whether we are united in a sense of common citizenship apart from our religious inclinations, which are diverse.

It also strikes me as bizarre and hypocritical that one might want to unite with people who are part of openly anti-LGBT and Islamophobic hate groups. Even though Biden's message of unity is well-taken, I just don't know if there is value in it, and have a hard time seeing the value in saying nice things about Mitch McConnell that stretch the values of words like honesty and honor. I think it's a tradition that needs to go.

Speaking of A Hostile Work Environment....

 

Activists with Sunrise Movement confronted Joe Manchin this morning outside of his yacht on his way to the Capitol, in protest of his opposition to the Build Back Better social spending bill.

They followed him to his car, and then surrounded his car too. Some images: pic.twitter.com/IvDuEyXu0H

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) November 4, 2021

Just recently, Sen. Manchin referred to his relationship with his colleagues on the Hill as a "hostile work environment" due to all of the partisanship. I seem to recall back in January there was a situation where the work environment was really hostile, and extremely partisan, and well, Manchin's reaction to that was "Why can't we all just get along?" or similar. 

So while I think he's completely wrong, I guess I'd give him points for consistency? As in "consistently wrong about what to do about all this". He's been complaining about how he really wants to see his party come down and do more negotiating (they have come down--they have negotiated!) and wants to see the impact of legislation on the debt and inflation and all this.... 

But when I see him and Sen. Sinema huddled with Mitch McConnell, the partisan motherfucker who denied President Obama a SCOTUS appointment and for a whole year and started ramming through Trump's pick in weeks, well....I think back to times when things were so much more bipartisan. (If there were such times, they were not ever in my lifetime, and I was born in Nixon's first term.) 

Anyway, I have been at times critical of the tactics of the Sunrise Movement because I think they might not be especially persuasive in their tactics and I sometimes question who and how they confront--because generally Democrats are trying to do something about the environment, but it's the GOP that really obstructs meaningful structural change. And as you can see in the above confrontation.... 

Joe Manchin has a really, really nice car.

The Scalise Proposition

 

The House’s second-ranking Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise, repeatedly refused to say on Sunday that the 2020 election wasn’t stolen.https://t.co/7xiOcg941S

— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) October 11, 2021

Rep. Steve Scalise once styled himself "David Duke without the baggage" because of course, in politics as in many walks of life, a reputation is your calling card. David Duke, of course, was an early backer of the virulently racist Trump that came down an escalator to discuss his 2016 candidacy in terms of stopping Mexicans and assorted Central Americans from coming to the US who were in all probability (as far as Trump knew) gangsters and rapists. Steve Scalise is a congressman who by now is basically David Duke with a taxpayer-funded job.

We should understand his baggage by now. He isn't different. He's just in office. That's all. 

Some people might point to his not so long ago traumatic shooting incident and I will note there is something that came out of that: many people face tragedy and decide that the outcome will be that they are better people. And Scalise resolved to just be himself, Which was so unnecessary on his part, but I digress. 

Anyhow, he isn't worse than Kevin McCarthy or Mitch McConnell, and definitely no worse than Chuck Grassley, here. He's just so basically weak and inutile to any need of  his constituents that all he can do is perform for their biases. He doesn't serve the people. He serves power, and in his brain, Trump, the twice-impeached one-term wonder with lawsuits and debts clinging to his every waking moment, is still who Scalise thinks is in power, so he cedes him that for fear of what the Twitter-less social media sensation will say about him. 
 

Even if all Trump is chewing up now is the Mar-a-Lago wallpaper. 

Yes, that is amazingly servile and grotesque, a cowardice so mutated from basic human dignity that children should shudder and cling to their parents and plead with unseen angels that they would never be so gutless and miscalculating at once to think pretending Trump won is the winning thing. Rather than, I don't know, actually being a party leader who wants the government scheme outlined by a little old thing called the Constitution to be somehow popular with people for governance-related reasons, not vague culture war bullshit. 

His district should find another congressperson, because this one is clearly broken. And it wasn't Trump who broke him, he came here that way, and only wanted a reason to go full Renfield for the right authoritarian white supremacist shitlord. 

 

Take the Uzi from the Babies

 

"I write to inform you that I will not provide such assistance again if your all-Democrat government drifts into another avoidable crisis," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said in a letter to President Biden. https://t.co/gqHCTeHiGq

— CNN (@CNN) October 9, 2021

While I don't think Democrats should need to be reminded that this is what the Republican Party is now, a shameless band of terrorists who definitely would throw the country into economic turmoil for petty political reasons, McConnell is doing just that. The entire tone is ridiculous. Of course we're going to hit the debt ceiling again and it will need to be raised again. It isn't something the Democrats did, it's the nature of paying for government to continue. McConnell is taking a page from the Trump book and acting as if the mildest criticism of his tactics is a deep and terrible breach of some imaginary comity that--

Holy fricking Jiminy Crickets, he has done as much as anyone else to erode. I don't know know what Manchin and Sinema need or what sweet nothings are being drizzled into their shell-like aural protuberances, but enough is enough. This is a threat: give up on your whole Democratic agenda or we sink the country. 

You can't negotiate with these folks. You shouldn't. There's no political upside. It leaves you nothing to run on. Take the UZI from the babies. McConnell as good as said "Don't trust us."  So don't. 

Kill the filibuster. Deliver the goods. And let McConnell know it was his own fault that it had to be this way. 

Republicans Hate Governing and Nice Things

 

If, as an entire dumb stunt to pretend government is the problem and privileged, elected assholes doing nothing is the obvious solution, I guess, whatever, Okay, GOP, you've had your fun. You're blocking the debt ceiling rise and other valuable things for reasons, and you can't help the kind of useless, signifying creatures you've become since oh, Christ, the 1990's I guess, when Newt Gingrich made government shutdowns exactly your kind of thing. But these two assholes, Louisiana Senators Cassidy and Kennedy, are blocking the measure to avoid defaulting on the debt--imperiling the good faith and credit of this nation they might even allege to love, and are also blocking funding for storm relief for their very own state. 

It really doesn't matter to them that the federal government is all that keeps Louisiana alive. So far as they are concerned, this mass of broken tourist destinations, fishers and oil workers are all some kind of doomed, so fuck you, you elected them, The whole state is sinking into the gulf anyways--and these guys are fine with it. They could do better for their constituents or even pretend the folks back home are watching and what they do isn't great.  They should know that. They are party animals and are okay with the continued suffering of their own constituents because of partisan stuff. You never saw anyone so up Trump's ass before John (no not that one) Kennedy, did you?

Republicans are assholes who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. We could replace lead pipes and make sure older folks have hearing aids and teeth and we could make sure our bridges don't even fall down around our necessary workaday commutes, but Republicans don't fucking care. 

See Who The GOP is Siding With

 

Sgt. Gonell, who is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic and a naturalized U.S. citizen, says that one of the Capitol rioters "saw my skin color and said you’re not even an American." pic.twitter.com/NpI2L8N1fP

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) July 27, 2021

Sgt. Gonell was a professional law enforcement officer doing his job against a criminal, domestic terrorist mob that day, and Trump's little violent fan club did not see him as a fellow American. They also called him a "traitor" and a disgrace" for doing his job that day, because they apparently had no idea that they, that day, were the barbarians at the gate. They called his fellow officer Harry Dunn racial slurs, looking past his uniform and only seeing him as a man of color and a Biden supporter. Michael Fanone was also called a "traitor", and had to plead that he had a family for fear that these people might kill him with his own firearm. Officer Daniel Hodges recounts being asked if he was their "brother" by the domestic terrorists, because they didn't understand why a white police officer wasn't on their side.

The picture these officers relate is certainly not one of a patriotic love-in that seems to exist only in the delusional mind of the loser of the 2020 presidential election. It was a largely white/Christian supremacist violent insurrection, which certainly did include people who were armed that day, or who made weapons of whatever object fell to hand. 

Republicans (other than Cheney and Kinzinger) wanted to distract from all of this. They wanted to blame Nancy Pelosi for things that had nothing to do with her, like Rep. Elise Stefanik claiming that somehow she was responsible for the security situation that day. For one thing, the Speaker of the House doesn't control the DC National Guard, the President does. (From the website: "This authority to activate the D.C. National Guard has been delegated, by the President, to the Secretary of Defense and further delegated to the Secretary of the Army.  The D.C. National Guard is the only National Guard unit, out of all of the 54 states and territories, which reports only to the President. " )

What Stefanik is doing is basically the Benghazi "stand down" ruse--claiming something must have happened that almost certainly under the circumstances makes no sense within the timing or for any plausible motivation, but might sound plausible to people who really fucking hate liberal politicians. Why in the world would Nancy Pelosi, certainly a target of the mob, not want her workplace and her very own ass defended? That's just stupid, and while Stefanik is probably not an actual idiot, she should be very definitely upbraided for promoting such a stupid easily debunked lie for no other reason than cynical politics. 

But she is not alone in being a signifying distraction. 

Take the Hint, Dems

 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that "the era of bipartisanship is over" in remarks earlier today. pic.twitter.com/hC0zBRnLEL

— POLITICO (@politico) June 8, 2021

Mitch McConnell is the guy who said earlier this year his job was to 100% block the Biden agenda. This was the guy who did the same thing to Obama, and denied him a SCOTUS pick. This guy right here, who says in the clip above, that the era of bipartisanship is over, and if you want the time of death--shit, that thing has been buried. He doesn't want to pass any kind of voting rights bill, any more than he wanted to even bring up voting security legisalation before the 2020 election. He doesn't want any kind of infrastructure or jobs bill that will, in his mind, hand President Biden a win.

He doesn't want it. And if the filibuster is at 60 votes, you get less than 10 Republicans for anything. And if the filibuster was set down to 55 votes, you'd be lucky to get 2 or three. That's how he wants it, and he gets it.

That's not to say you won't sometimes pass bills with Republican support or get certain cabinet or judicial appointments filled. It isn't to say some of the more moderate Senate Republicans will always toe McConnell's line--but I don't see how sticking to the ghost of bipartisanship helps.

And here's the thing--McConnell killed it, so you don't even have to feel guilty. Someone gets in your face about whatever happened to bipartisanship--you know who to point to. 

That was how he wanted it. That's how he should get it.

This TrumpWorld Grab-Bag Hates Disco

 

It's always amazing to me that when I try to do an omnibus post of TrumpWorld news, there's still some crumbs left behind. For example, when I posted my latest regarding the Barr memo and the McGahn testimony stuff (of which, I guess there will be more to come) I didn't include the funny old news that former Ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, is suing former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the US Government for his legal fees. I guess it's because I wanted to focus on the Russian 2016 matter (the impeachment that wasn't, since Barr snaffled the Mueller Report) and this was so very late 2019 and early 2020. But of course, it's meaningful--why is Sondland important?

It's because he threw Giuliani under the bus and copped to how Trump directed Ukraine policy to be run through Rudy Giuliani of course. That is very significant, what with the current legal cloud Trump's former (I guess?) pro bono lawyer is under (which has been growing!). 

So here's the deal--were Sondland's legal fees supposed to be covered by the State Department by law, or was there an agreement? And what kind of agreement was it, and did it get reneged because Sondland said the wrong thing? 

I think that's a hell of a multipart question, right? So, I think some answers might be suggested if this shit gets settled RIGHT AWAY. And that's because there are reasons some folks might not want this one to drag out, because Mr. Sondland said everything that would keep him from being caught perjuring himself during the impeachment hearing, but he didn't say everything he possibly knew. (That's my completely unprofessional opinion, so, FWIW). Also Mike Pompeo wants very badly to be running for president and used his office to help him set up, so he isn't about to to let that get fucked up. And you know, covering up how much fuckery was involved in Trump's 2020 campaign (where he still lost the election, by the way) is practically a "personal favor" to so many people. So really, what's $1.8 million? It's petty cash for this banana stand and how Trump would do it, TBH. 

I guess some questions might get answered if this drags out, too (and in the Giuliani matter, the discovery is really like, in the iClouds and whatnot), so. Happy findings!

Here's the funny old thing--back when Giuliani seemed to be a patsy for laundering Russian disinfo for the 2020 election which is still is ongoing wherever election fraud narratives are sold? There's reason to believe TrumpWorld knew exactly what they were doing and didn't give a shit, because there was money involved.  Sort of like how they don't give a shit about the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt--they would not like to offend the sources of their patronage. No wonder McConnell thinks putting the kibosh on investigations is a really personal favor. 

But this is TrumpWorld doings that basically still benefit...Trump. The guy whose business practices are under investigation because...like, duh? Who might not even be a viable candidate come 2024 but is still being treated like the leader of a party that simply has no vision. 

Because if they bothered to look, who knows what they would discover? 

Just Ten Good Men and Women

 

Senate Republicans are ready to use the filibuster to block a bill creating a commission on the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection. It’d be this year’s first successful use of a filibuster, which blocks legislation unless 60 of the 100 members vote to advance it. https://t.co/iIYvWOyLLi

— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) May 27, 2021

I'm not staying up all night for this one, because I feel like I can hum the score to this drama in my sleep. Maybe I'll be proven wrong in the morning. But when Mitch McConnell asks his people to fall in line as a "personal favor"--my hopes are pretty low that Republicans will do the right thing. He put it that very way for a reason. It's about loyalty to the party, not the Constitution or any interest in justice. It isn't a mystery to me. McConnell and others know very well that an investigation into January 6 makes Republicans look bad. It makes political actio groups who brought busloads of donors to Washington look bad. It makes donors who funded same look bad. It makes GOP elected who spoke at "Stop the Steal" rallies, including that last one, look bad.

And what am I always saying about things Trump-adjacent? If it looks bad, it is bad. McConnell can tell us he doesn't think we'll find out anything we don't already know from a Jan. 6 commission. Well fine then--but why does that make him so unwilling to put that theory of his to the test? Does it take a lot of imagination to think it might have something to do with his lack of interest in getting more evidence in both impeachments, or more investigation into the Kavanaugh confirmation, or any of the other things he's shut down?

My dad once told me if ignorance is bliss than stupid people are the happiest, and Mitch McConnell has opted for a very specific kind of joy. But I'd like to think it is very stupid.  Mitt Romney gets it--it looks like Republicans are ducking the truth.  If McConnell doesn't think negative messaging for literally siding with the idea that insurrection is no big deal is possible, he must be a merry old soul, because that kind of ignorance is rare and special indeed.

Lisa Murkowski has a point too--there's more at stake than the next election cycle. What about our democracy?

Susan Collins, always one to disappoint, lets us know that if the Republicans in the Senate don't approve the January 6 Committee then there won't be any reason to accept the finding of any select committee Speaker Pelosi authorizes, because it's partisan. Well, uh. Thanks for your concern. That's almost as dumb as Tommy Taterhead claiming that the bipartisan committee needs to be bipartisan enough for him, except with more practice at uselessness. It's too soon, it's too late, it's too specific, it's not broad enough, but overriding all of it--

It make Republicans look bad, because it was wholly a Republican enterprise. There wasn't antifa agitators in the mix--all the goofballs they have arrested are exactly who they seemed to be. And Republican messaging encouraged them, and encouraged them, and encouraged them. There has been more than one major lie served up here, and Republicans will allow maybe something less than ten defectors, but surely, not enough to clear the air. 

Maybe I'll be proven wrong and McConnell will be eating his heart out--but I doubt it. But if they do shut it down, first thing--if we didn't believe McConnell's decree that his purpose in life is shutting down any Democratic agenda, let this be the first shovelful on the grave of any thoughts of bipartisanship--that should have ended when they went and acquitted Trump. And we tie this albatross around their necks, because an attack on democracy, on our institutions, like this, going unanswered for the very obvious and only reason--

It hangs around them. It's a dagger in the middle of their table. It's a ghost that haunts everything they do and say from now on. We shouldn't ever let it drop. The hypocrisy. The fake patriotism. The sham. 

And all the open questions of who among them knew what, and why so  many challenged the certification of the votes. And who Trump and his campaign contacted and when. Killing the commission should not make this die. It should make this worse. 

Shut up and Send Money, He Said

McConnell says companies should stay out of politics — unless they’re donating money https://t.co/E98oER4ltq

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 7, 2021

Or else, he added. Because he was not bothered. Not bothered at all. Why are you all saying that?

UPDATE: The other senator from Kentucky would like to cancel Coca-Cola, because he, too, is unbothered. Cancel Coke, and see how they like it!

UPDATE: More Americans are identifying as Democrats, and I'm sure that's nothing Republicans are bothered about.

UPDATE: It's possible that people like Biden's proposals because government should be about governing. Just a thought!

Is That a Promise or a Threat?

Mitch McConnell tantrum vows 'scorched-earth' if Dems bypass filibuster to expand voting rights https://t.co/CYvtU4V1OF

— Raw Story (@RawStory) March 16, 2021

Mitch McConnell says that if Dems don't do what he wants them to do, he's going to do what he was going to do anyway (like always!), and also if they expand voting rights, Republicans will force their most unpopular ideas down people s throats, which will definitely make Republicans more popular with voters.

I just don't think this is the way he's going to convince anyone that ending the filibuster doesn't at least deserve some very serious consideration, and soon. It also sounds like a pretty good reminder that there just isn't a good reason to vote for Republicans--ever.

Democrats: "We want to do stuff for the people back home." Republicans "We are going to throw such a big tantrum up in this MF...."

GOP Crime Incorporated

GOP Corruption Update (Just Tonight)

FL Governor Ron DeSantishttps://t.co/q6PsCkjp5c

GOP Secretary Chao (& McConnell)https://t.co/ivCkUqU3NV

Top GOP Member on Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordanhttps://t.co/Zn1gJK2nSl

Frmer GOP President Donald J. Trumphttps://t.co/WoMJthDKWk

— Jesse Ferguson (@JesseFFerguson) March 4, 2021

If they act like a mob, it's because they are the mob.

The Technicality

 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said some scorching things about how extraordinarily guilty Trump was of the charge of incitement except that McConnell did vote to acquit and welp! It was all about a technicality, really. Trump's a private citizen now, so nope! McConnell didn't see fit to convict him in the Senate for what he obviously, flagrantly did while an officeholder and for which he was impeached by the House while still in office. It's a technicality about constitutionality that had been decided by majority vote at the outset of the proceedings. 

It's almost as if McConnell gets off on setting up fake rules to justify going ahead and doing whatever he was going to do. I mean, that's been his bag the past....oh, since forever.  But he wasn't going to let that hamstring his side, no sir! He advised them they could go ahead and vote their conscience--

And since many of them didn't even know what that was, they could feel pretty good acquitting the disgraced former president. After all, they have to go home to their state party folks, and those mutants could arrange to primary their asses. As it is, Sen. Cassidy has been censured by the LA GOP, Toomey is getting an earful from the troglodytes running the party in PA, and the Chair of NC GOP is really "sad and disappointed" in Senator Burr. 

Now, McConnell has gotten on the record in his own words now, just as TRUMP's OWN DEFENSE LAWYERS have, explaining that the proper place to see to Trump's business is in a court of law. Which is great--impartial jurors who are not also probable co-conspirators would be a better fit for the ends of justice, no doubt. Those words will be needed to be kicked back in their teeth if (when) any such trial ever materializes. 

Because technically, they said it themselves. And the man is, as McConnell said himself, technically guilty.

Merry Xmas Mitch McConnell

Trump said he wants Congress to amend the coronavirus relief bill to raise the amount of stimulus checks to $2,000 and eliminate certain items, throwing into turmoil a bipartisan effort to provide help for Americans who have been upended by the pandemic https://t.co/svrQnmNRrA pic.twitter.com/tmC66djeGU

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 23, 2020

The White House did not signal any objections to the legislation before it passed and gave every expectation that Trump would sign it. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was involved in the negotiations over the bill.  

White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s intentions.  

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a tweet that Republicans would not say during negotiations what amount Trump wanted the stimulus checks to be. She said Democrats are ready to bring his proposal for $2,000 checks to the House floor for a vote this week. She did not address Trump’s other concerns.

Trump wants to play Santa Claus at just this particular inconvenient moment so that Democrats can remind everyone they were always all for giving folks more money, while direct stimulus makes Senate Republicans dyspeptic? (And. They. Thought. They. Were. Done. Already.)

Merry Christmas, Mitch, it's what you should have--a pain in the ass. 

UPDATE: And Merry Christmas to us all, because Trump is having a tantrum over Confederate-named military bases and vetoed the Defense bill.  He really, really is a pain in the ass. And he still doesn't understand what section 230 does. And the veto will probably be overrode but still. PITA.

Optics

 

I probably have a lot more to say about recent events than I want to or should right now, but I will say this: knowing that her selection and rapid confirmation process right before the election is a big political issue, and realizing that this White House event is yet another way Trump using his office as a staging place for campaign photo ops, is this the image she wants associated with her time as a Supreme Court Justice?

Because regardless of claiming she will decide without fear or favor and based on the law and not her own preferences, this image is one that will taint things. 

I want Democrats and liberals and even just folks who don't think the court should be partisan to let the image of the newest justice standing with this particular President on a White House balcony, not so many weeks from the super-spreader event that was her nomination, at this particular point in American history, really sink in.

If this image was her choice, it is not great. If it was chosen for her, to be lashed to the president who put her here in such an indelible way that her independence is questionable, it is still less great. I do not like it, but Mitch McConnell was very clear today on how much people's feelings count when compared to the consequences of elections.

So be it.

Abandonment Issues

It's one thing that GOP Senators have gotten miffed that they have been accused of a cover up for having rejected requests for additional information during the Senate impeachment trial, but it's quite another thing for them to fairly openly show contempt for the process by not even sitting for the process.  Per the rules drafted between Sens. McConnell and Schumer, the Senators were expected to remain in their seats.  It would help if Senators showed some interest in the presentation they are receiving.

But you know what really steams me?  When the Republican Senators say they aren't hearing anything new, when they voted down getting....anything new. 

I get it, I get it. The Republicans aren't big democracy fans anymore and the system is broken. But do they have to be so damn obvious about it?