Trump's Card

[San Bernardhinault]

The Pompeo interview was a shocker, but his reaction to it is utterly astonishing. The most nuts thing about it is that he doesn't seem to have denied that he spent 10 minutes hurling abuse at his interviewer, but instead has decided to complain about her treating this as "on the record", and that this is the violation of ethics that's at work here.

[ursus arctos]

This is good on Bolton (and no, it isn't going to make any difference)

https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1221821225837703170

This is instructive on Pompeo.

https://twitter.com/PostOpinions/status/1221761578934132736

Having originally come to prominence as a tool for the Koch Brothers, he has transferred his allegiance (and world class sycophancy skills) to the president.

[San Bernardhinault]

Some more stuff seems to have leaked out about John Bolton's book.

This time that both Bolton and Bill Barr were of the opinion that Trump was doing personal favours for Xi and Erdogan against the advice of the national security establishment and against the wishes of his Republican colleague.

This seems like a pretty big deal to me, because this is not related to Ukraine stuff so - it's probably no surprise to anyone, but it should allow the House to open some wider investigations after the Senate acquits, and for them to keep the hammer down on the Trump administration

[Incandenza]

[URL]https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1222278899121508355[/URL]

Just a completely useless Senator, but she'll be in there as long as she decides to keep running.

[Lang Spoon]

What the fuck

[Lang Spoon]

Fuckin gerontocrats.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Trump has apparently brokered the bigly Middle East Peace deal for the ages.

I mean, if you discount the fact that Palestinians are quite rightly opposed to the terms of it.

Details, eh?

[San Bernardhinault]

Feinstein is terrible, but she's surely not that fucking stupid is she?

[Incandenza]

I hope she does vote to acquit, that might be the one thing that actually turns some Democrats against her and gets them to actually study other candidates rather than just voting on her name recognition. Though she won't be up for election until 2024.

[ursus arctos]

Multiple reports that McConnell no longer has the votes to block the Senate from calling witnesses

[San Bernardhinault]

Lamar Alexander has turned?

Watch Susan Collins find some way to change her vote now that it matters.

[ursus arctos]

It's unclear who the fourth vote is, and this could well be a Hail Mary pass by Mitch to try to change his/her/their mind(s)

[Bruno]

this is id-tastic

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1222496715422433281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1222496715422433281&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fnymag.com%2Fintelligencer%2F2020%2F01%2Ftrump-bolton-impeachment-testify-senate-ukraine-book.html

[Bruno]

Also the White House is reportedly trying to stop the publication of Bolton's book.

[ursus arctos]

Of course they are.

Though there is a very good argument that Trump has waived any Executive Privilege claim he may have had by repeatedly insisting it is full of lies.

[San Bernardhinault]

The more times I read "McConnell doesn't have the votes to prevent witnesses" the more I think it sounds like bollocks. He claims to not have 51 - he doesn't need 51, he needs 50 (unless John Roberts suddenly and miraculously takes a more activist role). And just because he doesn't have 51 definites, that doesn't mean he has 4 definitely voting for witnesses. I think he's putting this up the flagpole to make it look like the Senators are "genuinely considering" things rather than pre-emptively rushing to judgement.

[ursus arctos]

It also allows the wingnuts back home to put pressure on Senators who may be "wavering" from the True Path

[Nefertiti2]

[URL]https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/1222521722739548160?s=21[/URL]

[ursus arctos]

Klein has a new book out and was on a very good episode of Hayes' podcast last week

Dershowitz has lost what little of his mind remained before his latest turn in the spotlight.

[URL="https://twitter.com/cbseveningnews/status/1222604337706405895?s=21"]https://twitter.com/cbseveningnews/status/1222604337706405895[/URL]

[Nefertiti2]

[URL]https://twitter.com/rgoodlaw/status/1222596135749128192?s=21[/URL]

[Satchmo Distel]

The ones I find interesting in that Nixon list are the Republicans who switched from opposing impeachment to supporting it after the transcripts came out. The takeaway seems to be that those switches would not happen now because the wingnut base is too rabid and the Senators themselves see a gravy train that was not as lucrative in 1974 to be worth the hassle of debasing yourself for a criminal POTUS.

[ursus arctos]

The parties were much more ideologically diverse in 1974, and the Senate delegations possibly even more so.

The Democrats in the Senate, for example, included both Dixiecrats like Sparkman and Eastland and lefties like McGovern. The GOP featured reactionaries like Storm Thurmond, anti war guys like Mark Hatfield and a black man (Ed Brooke).

It was a very different world (which happens to be described at length in Ezra Klein's new book).

[ursus arctos]

[URL="https://twitter.com/acosta/status/1222705240933388290?s=21"]https://twitter.com/acosta/status/1222705240933388290[/URL]

[Sporting]

Will the Mexicans have to pay for repairs?

[Satchmo Distel]

If wind can blow it over, it presumably wouldn't take much effort to push it over? It's also surely a fence, not a wall? Either way, it's becoming more obvious that the wall is symbolic not practical.