The 156th Weak of Da Panicked PeeResident.

[JackLuis]

Trump snarls at Nancy Pelosi for ‘impeachment hoax’ in Twitter meltdown

It's "Golden Throne" Twitter time!

Donald Trump kicked off Saturday morning by attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ( D-CA) and the Democrats in a furious fusillade of tweets over what he called the “impeachment hoax.”

After a fairly quiet morning, the president unleashed a series of tweets as House Democrats prepare to send articles of impeachment to the Senate for a trial.

“New polling shows that the totally partisan Impeachment Hoax is going nowhere. A vast majority want the Do Nothing Democrats to move on to other things now,” he wrote before adding, “Nancy Pelosi will go down as the absolute worst Speaker of the House in U.S. history!”

 

[JackLuis]

Republicans are using their old Iraq tricks to shutdown critics of Trump’s Iran adventure — but this time nobody’s buying

Earlier this week, before Donald Trump backed down from escalating the conflict with Iran, I wrote a piece arguing that the one improvement over the 2003 run-up to the war with Iraq was that this time around anti-war voices were being taken seriously. Now that the week is over and Trump seems disinclined to do more than thump his chest while (thankfully) sidestepping a real war, it’s worth taking a step back and looking at another shift from the George W. Bush era: The efforts by hawks to silence antiwar critics by calling them traitors, terrorist sympathizers, and other slurs aren’t working anymore.

This is in line with Washington Post reporting that the White House believed “the attack on Soleimani would be politically popular” and the fact that, shortly after the killing, the Trump campaign blanketed Facebook with nearly 800 separate ads bragging about the strike. It also comports with everything we know about Trump’s character, that is, as a man who never does anything for any reason outside of self-interest.

All of which means that if you yell “terrorist sympathizer” you’re actually attacking someone who is questioning the wisdom of nearly starting a war in hopes of getting a polling boost going into an election year. Not exactly the most morally compelling of arguments for behavior that was already pretty shady.

GOP grasping at straws to explain why Trumpski screwed the pooch!

 

[JackLuis]

Mike Pompeo says Trump administration will not even ‘discuss troop withdrawal’ after Iraqi parliament vote

The United States on Friday rejected a request by Iraq to start talks on pulling out its 5,200 troops, notching up the discord after Washington killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad.

Angry at an attack seen as violating Iraqi sovereignty and enmeshing the country again in war, Iraq’s caretaker prime minister asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo late Thursday to send a delegation to begin withdrawal arrangements.
Report Advertisement

The State Department said it was ready for “a conversation” — but not about removing troops.

“At this time, any delegation sent to Iraq would be dedicated to discussing how to best recommit to our strategic partnership — not to discuss troop withdrawal, but our right, appropriate force posture in the Middle East,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.

This will not end well.

 

[jomar]

Mike Pompeo says Trump administration will not even ‘discuss troop withdrawal’ after Iraqi parliament vote

This will not end well.

Yeah, how’s that supposed to work?

 

[phrodeau]

Yeah, how’s that supposed to work?

Same as last time. A little shock and awe to disband and decapitate the Iraqi military, then a surge of troops to keep order for a decade or so.

 

[JackLuis]

Trump Silent About The Puerto Rico Earthquakes, So They've Got That Going For Them

Puerto Rico was hit by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake Tuesday, followed by a series of aftershocks that have left many residents of the island sleeping outside or in shelters. The territory's still-fragile electrical grid was entirely offline for much of the day following the pre-dawn quake, but is being restored more quickly than following Hurricane Maria in 2017, which left much of Puerto Rico without electricity for months. Guess the grifters from Montana weren't involved this time out. The territory's power authority said today that power had been restored to 80 percent of customers, but NBC News reports it might take a year to fully fix one generating station that provides about a quarter of Puerto Rico's electricity.

Donald Trump has so far not made any public comment on the earthquake, although he may be vaguely aware it happened since he did at least sign an emergency declaration Tuesday evening, and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency to help get emergency aid to people who need it. But no tweets or statements to the press, or at his big slob picnic last night in Ohio, although he did find time to mention he beat Abraham Lincoln as Best President Ever. Today, he found time to retweet a Republican senator's praise for Colorado firefighters heading to Australia, but not a word about the latest American disaster that isn't him.

 

[jaF0]

The UK is abandoning its alliance with Trump as the United States 'withdraws from its leadership around the world'
Business Insider|2 hours ago
Donald Trump's decision to assassinate Qassem Soleimani has triggered a major rupture between the US and its closest ally in the United Kingdom.

 

[JackLuis]

The UK is abandoning its alliance with Trump as the United States 'withdraws from its leadership around the world'
Business Insider|2 hours ago
Donald Trump's decision to assassinate Qassem Soleimani has triggered a major rupture between the US and its closest ally in the United Kingdom.

I'll bet the CIA is thrilled! It would mean they need more 'troops' to manage more Intel agents, Hooray everyone gets promoted!

 

[KeithD]

I'll bet the CIA is thrilled! It would mean they need more 'troops' to manage more Intel agents, Hooray everyone gets promoted!

Well, no. The CIA's close connection with the British will continue longer (and deeper) than the Trump administrations ties will be with the British (or the CIA connection to Trump's administration will be, for that matter).

 

[JackLuis]

Trump has never been anti-war — he’s just another Republican

As I plowed through my favorite works of historical literature to trace the evolution of Republican foreign policy through alternating periods of imperialism and isolationism, that fact was unavoidable. We are a capitalist society, and the dictates of our business community trump all other considerations in shaping public policy. It is foolish to pretend there was ever a time when those financial interests were not critical in determining our foreign policy.

Having said that, there is still a crucial difference between our isolationist and interventionist eras — as well as a way of understanding how Donald Trump, for all his efforts to depicting himself as something new on the foreign policy scene, is just a continuation of the status quo that has existed for the last century or so.

TO quote Andy Capp, "What's good for General Bullmoose, is good for the USA!"

 

[JackLuis]

Occam’s Election​

Two pieces of news you may have missed with all of the excitement in Iran:

After publicly flirting with a New Hampshire Senate run for months, and even having President Trump talk him up, Corey Lewandowski announced that he will not run.

Mike Pompeo, who has long had his eye on a Senate seat in Kansas signaled that he will not run, either.

Combine this with the fact that 25 Republicans are retiring from the House—that’s 13 percent of the entire caucus—and you start to see the needle jumping around on the seismometer that’s tracking the 2020 election.

In a politically-successful presidency, the reelect is the period of maximum leverage for ambitious politicians who are close to the president. Because very few presidents have good second terms, the reelection is when people close to a popular president will use his power to slingshot themselves forward to create their own electoral bases of support.

What this means is that if the election was held today, the most-likely outcome would be this:

(See graph in article)​

None of this is to say that Joe Biden will be the nominee and that he will win by 5 points and that he will capture 322 votes in the Electoral College. But of all the possible scenarios out there, that’s the most likely one. It’s the Occam’s Razor view of 2020.

 

[JackLuis]

Trump ghostwriter asked to explain president’s new habit of slurring: ‘We don’t know, it might be early dementia’

Donnie Demento?

After sharing clips of the president having trouble speaking when addressing the country on the killing of Iranian military head Qassem Suliemani, host Joy Reid asked author Tony Schwartz if he had ever seen Trump have that much trouble speaking.
Report Advertisement

“So, the slurring, I’ve noticed it,” host Reid began. “A lot of other reporters have noticed it as they posted about his speeches. He seems to be slurring more and more. did he speak that way when..”

“Oh, my gosh, no,” Schwartz interrupted. “That is a dramatic shift. He was reasonably articulate when I knew him. He was — first of all, he was not — his nervous system was not so intensely aroused and activated as it is right now. The more activated you become, the harder it is to speak clearly and simply.”

 

[JackLuis]

Trump may pull troops out of Afghanistan without a deal — as 2020 election approaches

President Donald Trump has been working with Taliban representatives to craft a deal so that the U.S. can pull out of Afghanistan. Of the hundreds of campaign promises Trump made in 2016 was to “keep” troops on the ground in Afghanistan because it is “a mess.” But as the ongoing wars grow more unpopular and deaths continue, Trump promised he would pull troops out by 2020.

That might be popular.

 

[JackLuis]

Big money Trump inaugural donors are fleeing the president and donating to Democrats: report

According to a report in the Daily Beast, major donors who contributed to Donald Trump’s inauguration not only want no part of the president now, but are also contributing to possible Democratic presidential contenders.

The report starts off by noting, “15 such donors who collectively gave more than $700,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee but who have since contributed to the presidential campaigns of Democratic candidates including Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Tulsi Gabbard, Amy Klobuchar, Michael Bennet, John Hickenlooper, Eric Swalwell, and John Delaney.”

Switching horses on the first turn?

 

[JackLuis]

Fascism scholar: If Trump wins again, America will be ‘ready for full-on authoritarian rule’

The Republican Party is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Trump’s regime and an expression of his personal will and power. To that end, Trump has promised financial support to the Republican senators who will soon be voting at his trial. It has also been reported that Trump ordered the execution of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in order to ensure that Republican senators would support his acquittal.

In essence, Donald Trump pays political blood money to his supporters. This is more evidence of Trump’s political thuggery and mobster-style behavior that is unbefitting an American president.

The shoe drops slowly, and it is hard for many people to discern what is really happening. This is especially true when there are multiple things happening at one time. For example, William Barr and his attacks on the rule of law and how he is part of this right-wing Christian counterrevolution in America. Yes, Trump is impeached, and that is a type of pushback against him and his forces. What judges are doing to slow down Trump’s agenda is very important too. It is very important to not give up because that is what authoritarians want the public to do.

Resist, Impeach, and Convict!​

 

[KeithD]

Occam’s Election​

Mike Pompeo has been saying all along that he's not running for Senate in Kansas--while floating feelers to do so. So, a disclaimer doesn't mean much until after the election and he didn't run.

It's a more sure thing that scummy Corey isn't running. He couldn't find enough real support to do so.

 

[JackLuis]

Pelosi nails Trump after he demands ‘fairness’ and lies about witnesses in impeachment

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) rarely responds to President Donald Trump’s tweets, but she did so Monday.

Trump tweeted that Democrats wouldn’t allow Republicans to have witnesses or lawyers in the House hearings. It’s a talking point that has been disproven time and again.

“‘We demand fairness’ shouts Pelosi and the Do Nothing Democrats, yet the Dems in the House wouldn’t let us have 1 witness, no lawyers or even ask questions. It was the most unfair witch-hunt in the history of Congress!” Trump tweeted.

Pelosi responded: “In the Clinton impeachment process, 66 witnesses were allowed to testify including 3 in the Senate trial, and 90,000 pages of documents were turned over. Trump was too afraid to let any of his top aides testify & covered up every single document. The Senate must #EndTheCoverUp”

The Republicans were allowed both witnesses and lawyers at their trial. According to a letter sent by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), Republicans wanted David Hale, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Tim Morrison, former Senior Director for European and Russian affairs on the NSC and Ambassador Kurt Volker. The other witnesses the GOP called had to do with the conspiracy theory about Burisma and former Vice President Joe Biden and his family.

Other witnesses were blocked by Trump.

During the Judiciary Committee Hearing, Democrats called two lawyers, Noah Feldman and Pamela Karlan. Republicans called Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, who has written extensively about impeachment.

Dumpy's dementia keeps showing itself!

 

[JackLuis]

UK defense secretary says his country can no longer rely on the US amid Trump-induced chaos

No Special Relationship for our "Special PeeResident"!

Ben Wallace, who serves as the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Defense, is worried that the United States in the age of President Donald Trump cannot be counted on as a reliable ally.

“I worry if the United States withdraws from its leadership around the world,” Wallace said this week in an interview with The Times. “That would be bad for the world and bad for us.

 

[jaF0]

Video surfaces of Putin, Assad laughing about Trump at Damascus summit
Fox News|5 hours ago
A video has surfaced of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad laughing about President Trump during Putin's visit to Damascus last week. The video, originally posted by a journalist for the Komsomolskaya Pravda, comes just over a month after multiple NATO nation leaders,

 

[JackLuis]

If you want a preview of what four more years of Trump could bring, visit Hungary

Now that we’ve entered an election year, there is a lot of speculation about what America could look like if Donald Trump gets another term, by hook or by crook. As Trump uses a crisis he created in the Middle East to distract us from impeachment, increases his chances of reelection, and boosts the fortunes of his buddies in the Military-Industrial Complex, it’s important to understand how other demagogic leaders consolidate their power.

Steve Bannon has said that Hungary’s strongman prime minister Viktor Orbán was “Trump before Trump.”

In August of 1989, my best friend Jerry Schneiderman and I spent the better part of a week sitting in outdoor cafes on the Buda side of the Danube River, eating extraordinary (and cheap!) food, staying in a grand old hotel, and generally exploring Budapest.

Two months earlier, there had been massive pro-democracy demonstrations involving hundreds of thousands of people, demanding that the Soviet Union let Hungary go. The summer we were there, over a quarter-million showed up in Heroes’ Square for the reinterment of the body of Imre Nagy, a hero of the ill-fated 1956 rebellion against the USSR. The final speaker was 26-year-old Viktor Orbán, a rising politician who would soon be a member of Parliament. To an explosion of enthusiastic cheers, Orbán defied the Soviets (the only speaker to overtly do so) and openly called for “the swift withdrawal of Russian troops.”

Nine months later, in March of 1990, Hungary held its first real elections since 1945; in 1999, it joined NATO; and in 2004, it became a member of the European Union.

For 20 years, Hungary was a functioning democracy; today, it’s a corrupt oligarchy.

In nine short years since he was elected in 2010, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, now fabulously wealthy by Hungarian standards and an oligarch himself, succeeded in transforming his nation’s government from a functioning European democracy into an autocratic and oligarchic regime of single-party rule.

Orbán took over the Fidesz Party, once a conventional “conservative” political party, with the theme of restoring “Christian” purity and making “Hungary great again.” His rallies regularly draw tens of thousands.

 

[JackLuis]

Legal experts perplexed why Trump-appointed judge refuses to rule on Trump tax case until other Trump cases are decided

Legal experts are scratching their heads after a federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday he is delaying handing down his decision in a Trump tax returns case until other federal judges hand down their decisions in other Trump cases. That judge is a former Trump transition team volunteer and has donated to the Trump campaign.

District Judge Trevor McFadden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia announced he will hold up his ruling in a case brought by the House Ways and Means Committee against the U.S. Treasury Dept. The case involves gaining access to six years of Trump’s tax returns. The law clearly says the IRS “shall” hand them over to Congress. The Trump administration says Congress has no right to investigate.

Moscow Mitch strikes again!

Back in August Judge McFadden pushed back against House Democrats, denying “their request to both expedite consideration of the case and to decide on its merits without holding a trial,” Politico had reported.

Last year over a separate case former Democratic governor and presidential candidate Howard Dean issued a strong rebuke of Judge McFadden:

Impeachment looms, for Judge Mcfatass!

 

[JackLuis]

‘Damning’ Parnas docs are ‘what Trump has been afraid of’ — and now he has no impeachment defense: legal experts

In a column for the Washington Post, ex-acting solicitor general Neal Katyal and former Justice Department official Joshua A. Geltzer, stated that the Tuesday afternoon document dump of notes and texts by Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas is exactly what President Donald Trump worried might happen if he didn’t get his Senate impeachment trial wrapped up as soon as possible.

Donnie Demento's defence crumbles and the clown car crashes!

 

[JackLuis]

Capitol Hill is ‘furious’ after Trump’s State Department abruptly cancelled briefing ‘required by law’

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is receiving heat after the State Department stood-up Congress one day after damning text messages showed associates of Rudy Giuliani targeted an American ambassador, according to a new report.

“The State Department abruptly canceled a classified congressional briefing Wednesday that was supposed to focus on embassy security, a House aide said, infuriating Capitol Hill staffers seeking answers on alleged Iranian threats to U.S. missions overseas,” Politico reported Wednesday.

"We don't need no stinkin' oversight!"

 

[JackLuis]

This is how Rachel Maddow will grill Giuliani henchman Lev Parnas during tonight’s exclusive interview

MSNBC gave breaking news treatment on Wednesday to a bombshell development in President Donald Trump’s impeachment.

“I’m Ari Melber with Stephanie Ruhle and we are back with a major programming announcement,” MSNBC’s chief legal correspondent said. “Moments after the House voted to send these articles of impeachment to the Senate, we have news that affects all of it because tonight on MSNBC, the [Rudy] Giuliani associate at the center of the scandal — who has been cooperating — Lev Parnas and his lawyer will sit down with Rachel Maddow. It will air tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern, Mr. Parnas essentially breaking his silence. He, of course, stands still under indictment in the Southern District of New York.”

I'll bet Rachel's viewers will be epic!

 

[KeithD]

This is how Rachel Maddow will grill Giuliani henchman Lev Parnas during tonight’s exclusive interview







I'll bet Rachel's viewers will be epic!

There will be a repeat at midnight for anyone who misses the 9:00 show.