Two things are true
There’s only been ONE man EVER who was always right & deserves blind loyalty & his name was Jesus;
And
No matter what a Republican does the left will never be fair to them. What they want is Republicans who will douse themselves in kerosene & light a match.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 24, 2019
How on earth did a cartoon character like Marco Rubio convince so many people he deserves to be a Senator?
The New York Times is reporting that a gaggle of Republican Congressmen stormed a closed-door House Intelligence Committee session shouting “Let us in! Let us in!”
About two dozen House Republicans, chanting “Let us in! Let us in!” tried to storm the secure room where a Defense Department official arrived Wednesday morning to testify in the impeachment inquiry, refusing to leave even after they were turned back by Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee that was leading the deposition.
This is no more than corrupt theater, and every single one of the Congressmen who participated is unfit for office and deserves defeat next November.
This was for the cameras, so that the ignoramuses back home would know that Congressman Bubba is trying to defend poor beleaguered Donald Trump from a lynching, an illegal process without the nicety of an opportunity to cross-examine witnesses, et cetera, et cetera.
Ohhh … bullshit.
There are Republicans on the Committee, and they have and are exercising the right to ask questions. And let’s not forget that the very same carnival barker orchestrating complaints about an unfair process is the same person who has ordered workers in his administration not to honor lawful subpoenas — who, in other words, is denying Congress and the public the opportunity to hear ‘his’ blameless side of the story.
I am amazed, day after day, at what Americans don’t know about their own country and how it governs itself. The hearings now underway are not the same as, but analogous to, grand jury proceedings. They are conducted to determine the facts, and whether or not a crime — in this case an impeachable offense — has been committed. Unlike a grand jury proceeding, the subject of the investigation has friends on the committee. If the Committee finds that High Crimes and Misdemeanors warranting removal have been committed, it votes out articles of impeachment.
The entire House votes on those articles, and if it affirms them the matter goes to the Senate for a trial presided over by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Trump will be represented at trial by lawyers and will have the opportunity to cross-examine and challenge witnesses; it will be a real trial.
The Congressmen undoubtedly know all of this, so what happened this morning was no more than, again, corrupt theater meant to impress the ignoramuses back home — whom they obviously hold in contempt.
So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching. But we will WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2019
The notion that Trump is being lynched is deranged, and inevitably invites a question: Have Donald Trump’s lawyers not explained to him what is going on — Yet? — or is he merely trying to rile-up his ignorant base? It’s a variation, I suppose, of a question I frequently ask myself about preachers like Albert the Pious: Is he stupid, or is he a whore who specializes in servicing the stupid?
Probably not a coincidence that it’s the same audience in both cases.
What do you know? Mayor Pete is a top-tier candidate in Iowa.
The latest Iowa poll shows a three-way race between former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
The telephone poll, taken last Wednesday through Friday following the October Democratic presidential debate by Suffolk University and USA Today, found Biden in the lead with 18 percent support, Warren second with 17 percent, and Buttigieg third with 13 percent. The polling has a 4.4 percentage point margin of error, with 500 likely Democratic caucus-goers surveyed.
Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum doesn’t get it.
Buttigieg is not a flavor-of-the-month candidate who enjoys a brief surge in the polls and then crashes. We see a few of those every election cycle. Rather, he’s been plodding along, waiting for his chance, while people shovel enormous sums of money his way.
I don’t get it. I have nothing against him, but it makes no sense that someone with his background could remain a serious contender for so long, even if he does talk a good schtick.
I don’t understand Drum’s perplexity. Buttigieg all but glows with brains and character, is center-left rather than fringe-left, and captures the novelty of being a married gay man.
W-a-a-a-y back in 2004, I watched Barack Obama’s “Star is Born” keynote speech at the Democratic Convention — a great address. It’s an inspiring, uplifting, American speech that just leaves you wanting to cheer. I told a friend that, if Obama weren’t black, it was a speech that would put him on the Presidential track. I recall that because I misjudged then badly — but I have the same sort of reservations about Warren and Buttigieg. There are a lot of Americans who are never going to vote for Elizabeth Warren because she is a woman and a former Harvard professor. Similarly, there are a lot of people who will never vote for Buttigieg because he is a married gay man; I live in the Southern Baptist south and know people who will never vote for either candidate.
But Buttigieg, like Warren, has much to commend him, and his strong showing in Iowa ought to be counted good news; even if he is unable to claim the prize, it means a lot of the old barriers are going down and America is growing closer to its professed ideals.
