Good Wednesday Morning Good Newsies. Here we go. Today is the beginning of the public hearings. Our smart and thorough Dem’s will lead this with competence and fortitude. The rearsewholeicans will whine, cry, screech and play dirty. You can watch it just about everywhere and if you cannot bear that I am sure this site right here will be breaking it all down for us. The tangerine toddler is having super tantrums as are his criminal counterparts. You know what, they should be. I am taking this step by step and offering no outcome opinions, tRump is going to jail 😉, but I will say this, it will be damning.
I want to thank nifty for filling in for me last week on such short notice. Here in the Mohawk Valley, NY we had terrible flooding on Halloween. Many of my friends, neighbors and local businesses were affected. We are such a small community so an event like this really gets to you. I know there is so many disaster events going on around us I feel bad having anxiety about it. But there it is. Thank you nifty!
Okay back to the task at hand or should I say Onward!
These entries say tomorrow, which was yesterday, but now it is today, you get it.
It's Impeachment-Eve-Thirty, Motherf*ckers! Let's Remember What Trump's Ukraine Scandal Is Really All About.
Welcome to Impeachment Eve! Or, you know, the first of many Impeachment Eves.
Tomorrow is the first public impeachment hearing in the House, and the guests of honor will be (acting) ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor and State Department official George Kent, two people whose testimonies behind closed doors were devastating to Donald Trump. The hearings start at 10 a.m. Eastern, which is "time" where you live, it will be aired on all the channels and all the internets, and yes, we will be FUCK IT, WE'LL DO IT LIVE-ing here at Wonkette, which is another word for "liveblogging."
Last night, Rachel Maddow started off her show with an "A" block that we think really captured what this impeachment is all about. As complicated as certain details have gotten, remember that the central crime has remained simple: Donald Trump abused the power of his office for personal gain by extorting a country to manufacture fake dirt to help him win the 2020 election, and also to legitimize his 2016 "win," while threatening to withhold military aid they desperately need to survive their war with Russia, Trump's BFF who invaded them.
That's it. Memorize that sentence if you want to. Set it to music! CHOREOGRAPH A JIG!
The other day, we got REALLY pissed off about Trump and Republicans swearing up and down that there was no extortion or quid pro quo put on Ukraine, just because one time Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he felt "no pressure" on his infamous phone call with Trump. It struck us just how gross this whole situation is, after we read Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's testimony about the vast power disparity between the American president and the young new president of this small country Ukraine, who ran on an anti-corruption platform, whose country is partially occupied by its hostile neighbor Russia.
Many Ukrainians have died in this war they did not ask for. Ukrainians died while Trump was holding up the military aid, in an effort to extort that country to give him fake dirt on Joe Biden, because Trump can't win a presidential election in the honest way, owing to how much literally everyone hates him.
That is what this is all about. It came through in Vindman's testimony, in Bill Taylor's testimony, in George Kent's testimony, and in the testimonies of all three of the folks we just excerpted above.
That's what we're going to watch on TV, starting tomorrow.
10 a.m. sharp, you ding dongs!
Awww, you are not ding dongs, it is just Wonkette.
Trump fumes as Democrats get ready for 'sober and rigorous' public hearings
Only three times in the history of the American republic has Congress initiated public testimony that could result in the removal of the president by impeachment. The tally will rise to four on Wednesday.
On the eve of public hearings, television crews moved into the halls of the Capitol in Washington, the parties distributed strategy memos and the House intelligence committee prepared to cross-examine its first two witnesses.
Democrats allege that Donald Trump engaged the power of his office in an attempt to extort from Ukraine an announcement about investigations of Joe Biden, a domestic political rival, and 2016 election tampering.
Trump’s defenders argue that Trump is the victim of an attack by “unelected and anonymous bureaucrats” who disagreed with unorthodox foreign policy decisions.
At the center, of course, is Trump, who has demanded Republicans defend his conduct as unimpeachable not only in the constitutional sense but as unimpeachable, period. As the first public testimony approached, Trump grew increasingly tetchy on Twitter: “A total Impeachment Scam by the Do Nothing Democrats!”
Hope you sleep well tonight Donnie, not.
Judge Andrew Napolitano is on it too, although that amazing news station he works for did not actually air this. You know the amazing part was snark, right?
Fox News Legal Analyst Makes The Case For Trump's Impeachment
Judge Andrew Napolitano wound up and let fly on Monday on Fox News' companion site, Fox Nation. It's a pity they didn't broadcast it on Fox News, because Napolitano made the case for why Donald Trump has betrayed his oath of office and should be impeached as a consequence.
Ticking off some of Trump's greatest hits, Napolitano said, “In nearly three years in office, President Donald Trump has spent federal dollars not authorized by Congress; separated families and incarcerated children at the Texas-Mexico border in defiance of a federal court order; pulled 1,000 American troops out of Syria ignoring a commitment to allies and facilitated war against civilians there; and sent 2,000 American troops to Saudi Arabia without a congressional authorization or declaration of war.”
“He has also criminally obstructed a Department of Justice investigation of himself, but escaped prosecution because of the intercession of an attorney general more loyal to him than to the Constitution. The Constitution!” he emphasized.
All I have to say about that is...Yup.
William Taylor’s Testimony Tomorrow Should Terrify Republicans
Today. tomorrow, whatever. I cannot stay up all night. Either way...bahahaha.
The first public hearing by the House Intelligence Committee into the shamelessly underhanded Ukraine dealings of the Trump administration begins at 10:00 a.m. EST Wednesday morning. The hearing represents what will almost certainly be a series of long, bad days for Donald Trump and his congressional minions. “The American people will hear firsthand about the president’s misconduct,” said Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of the forthcoming events.
Notwithstanding any deliberate mayhem unleashed by the committee’s Republican members — Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan will be in the room, so anything is possible — it should be a fairly sedate affair if Chairman Schiff takes a leaf from the Sam Ervin playbook on impeachment. There was absolutely nothing gaudy about the opening day of the Watergate hearings in May of 1973, and deliberately so.
The first witness is Bill Taylor and his testimony in private was damning as we know by the transcripts.
Reading it is one thing. On Wednesday, all across the network television spectrum, people will be able to hear Taylor himself lay it all out in plain, unvarnished language. Also testifying on Wednesday is George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, whose own closed-door testimony in combination with Taylor’s puts Trump attorney and professional loose cannon Rudy Giuliani smack dab in the middle of this fiasco.
The prospect of all this is, of course, abjectly terrifying to House Republicans
I wonder how they are all sleeping tonight. Oh, that’s right they are sucking their right wing pacifiers and dreaming of an oligarchy Christmas.
The mango manchild’s cohorts, really he does not have friends, should be shaking in their boots as well.
Sean Hannity Should Worry About Public Impeachment Hearings
As we get ready for the impeachment hearings set to begin Wednesday morning, a subset issue I'll be keeping in mind is the role of Sean Hannity in Trump’s bribery/extortion scheme with Ukraine. As CNN host Brian Stelter put it yesterday, the testimony we have seen so far has highlighted Hannity’s role as one of Trump’s “shadow foreign policy advisers.”
Everyone smiling a little wider now? I am.
Yup, it is impeachment, impeachment, impeachment…
Democrats’ impeachment lawyer cut his teeth prosecuting mobsters, Wall Street cheats
Daniel S. Goldman spent a decade as an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan, a jurisdiction known for its tough, high-profile cases. He left that job in 2017 to become a television legal analyst but now holds a weightier role questioning witnesses called to testify about President Trump’s effort to convince Ukraine to investigate a political rival.
Friends and colleagues said Goldman has had tremendous training for the bright lights of the national stage.
In 2017, when then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Brooke Cucinella was preparing for the trial of Billy Walters, a professional gambler who made millions on insider stock trades, she knew it would make big headlines, in part because the case involved champion golfer Phil Mickelson.
“He was one of the go-to trial guys, and there’s no case that’s too complex for him. He’s a great prosecutor and he’s got a very powerful presence,” said Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who was Goldman’s boss for years. “To the extent the public will be watching and looking for a credible questioner, I think they will be very impressed with Dan Goldman.”
They made a really good choice. This feels like a mobster government right now.
And this going to be an interesting time, keep popping the popcorn, you are going to need it. I do not have any, can you send some to me?
House Intel announces additional witnesses for public impeachment hearings
The House Intelligence Committee next week will bring in eight additional witnesses in its ongoing public impeachment inquiry.
Going to have to click the link, too short to post here. Click it!
I will ad this and then folks I am done with this. We will talk I am sure. So much impeachment news so little time and other things to discuss.
Stone Trial Reveals Trump Likely Lied to Mueller
President Donald Trump likely lied to special counsel Robert Mueller about conversations he had in 2016 regarding WikiLeaks’ plans to release information stolen from Democrats by Russian hackers. That’s the big takeaway from dramatic courtroom testimony that occurred Tuesday in the trial of Roger Stone.
The revelations came from Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide who took the stand as federal prosecutors wrapped up their case against Stone, the longtime Trump adviser who was charged with lying to Congress about his efforts to interact with WikiLeaks in 2016. In court, Gates described a July 31, 2016, phone call he witnessed while in the car with Trump headed to LaGuardia Airport—nine days after WikiLeaks had dumped tens of thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee. Gates said he could not hear what Stone was saying, but saw Stone’s number on Trump’s caller ID and recognized Stone’s voice. After the call, Trump “indicated that more information would be coming” out, Gates testified.
Read it all, dummy donnie pants is a liar and so are all these Russian wanna be’s. I proposed in a comment to anneili last night, not last night the night before crap, that I wondered why the rethugclicans were sticking to this sh*t like glue, then I had a revelation (sure you all probably already had it, it takes me thoughtful time) they want Russia to take over because then the rich are the all powerful and us underlings are just dirt to be dusted under the rug. But, they are caught red handed and they cannot whine their way out of this. It still may be a fight, in the hearings or the ballot box but I believe the people will not let this happen!!
I lied about being done, thank you hpg. Although Rep. Brindisi is in the district next to me, he represents where I work, shop, etc. I am loving this announcement:
Let’s take a break.
This is actually local news for me as Remmington has a factory in Ilion, NY,
Supreme Court says families of Sandy Hook massacre victims can sue gunmaker
The US Supreme Court has refused to protect a major firearms manufacturer from potential liability in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, paving the way for grieving parents to try to hold the company accountable over its alleged part in the massacre that left 26 students and staff dead.
The decision by America's highest court will allow families of victims of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, seven years ago to move forward with their allegations that Remington Arms Co had marketed the military-style rifle used in the attack "for use in assaults against human beings".
The lawsuit, which will move forward at the state level, will test a 2005 US law favoured by the National Rifle Association (NRA) that aims to protect gunmakers from being held liable for crimes committed by the people who buy their weapons.
Good!
The government can no longer search international travelers’ cell phones and other personal devices at whim, a federal court ruled Tuesday.
The ruling followed a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a technology civil liberties group, on behalf 11 travelers (10 US citizens and one permanent resident) whose phones and laptops were searched as they were coming into the United States. The searches were conducted without warrants and without suspicion of the travelers.
Customs and Border Protection and US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement had previously been operating, in at least some cases, as though they did not have to obtain warrants or have reasonable cause for suspicion of travelers coming back into the country before searching their devices. Advocacy groups called that a violation of the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures.
“The government can no longer search international travelers’ cell phones and other personal devices at whim, a federal court ruled Tuesday.“This ruling significantly advances Fourth Amendment protections for the millions of international travelers who enter the United States every year,” Esha Bhandari, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said in a press release.
The wife of the late U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, who played a key role in House Democrats' impeachment inquiry until his death last month, formally launched a bid on Tuesday for his congressional seat in Baltimore.
Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, 48, announced her candidacy to serve out the remainder of her husband's term in Maryland's 7th Congressional District a day after resigning her post as chair of the state's Democratic Party.
Rockeymoore Cummings said on MSNBC on Monday that she and her spouse, who were married in 2008, had discussed the possibility of her succeeding him months ago as his health declined, and he encouraged her to run should he die.
"I believe Baltimore and the Baltimore region's greatest days are ahead of it, and for that reason, I am here today proudly announcing my candidacy for the U.S. Congress," she told supporters.
As Greta Thunberg departs the US to sail across the Atlantic for the second time in a few months, she is leaving behind a simple message for those who care about the climate crisis: you must vote.
“My message to the Americans is the same as to everyone – that is to unite behind the science and to act on the science,” Thunberg told the Guardian on Tuesday.
“We must realize this is a crisis, and we must do what we can now to spread awareness about this and to put pressure on the people in power. And especially, the US has an election coming up soon, and it’s very important that for everyone who can vote, vote.”
As she reflected on her visit to the US, Thunberg urged people to spread awareness of the climate crisis.
“Even if the politics needed doesn’t exist today, we still need to use our voices to make sure that the people in power are focused on the right things. Because this is a democracy, and in a democracy, people are the ones who run the country. I know it doesn’t seem that way, but if enough people were to decide they have had enough, then that could change everything. So don’t underestimate that power.”
GOTDV!!
How about this:
Mouse deer species not seen for nearly 30 years is found alive in Vietnam
A distinctly two-tone mouse deer that was feared lost to science has been captured on film foraging for food by camera traps set up in a Vietnamese forest.
The pictures of the rabbit-sized animal, also known as the silver-backed chevrotain, are the first to be taken in the wild and come nearly 30 years after the last confirmed sighting.
“We had no idea what to expect, so I was surprised and overjoyed when we checked the camera traps and saw photographs of a chevrotain with silver flanks,” said An Nguyen, a scientist and expedition team leader at Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC).
“Discovering that it is, indeed, still out there is the first step in ensuring we don’t lose it again, and we’re moving quickly now to figure out how best to protect it,” he said.
I never even knew about this species. Cool.
WYgalinCali never ceases to crack me up. You should all check out The Village:
Well Gnusies, I have to admit I am just beat and tired. I am thankful mine and my son’s furnace made it through the floods and this is what is happening next:
Arctic blast brings snow, ice and bone-chilling temps across U.S.
Stay safe and warm everyone.
As always:
Your 5 weekly to-dos
- Tell Congress to #DefundHate in the November funding bill. There’s only a little more than a week left for Congress to fund the government before it could shut down, and the situation is still up in the air. Make sure to call your Representative and Senators during Wednesday’s National Call-In Day to tell them not to give ICE or CBP any special increases in funding -- the call-in day number is 1-844-778-3056, or you can text DEFUND HATE to 977-79.
- Continue to demand your member of Congress #impeachnow. Since recess is over, the House is just getting underway with the public phase of the inquiry. It’s critical that we keep the pressure on our Members to ensure they hold Trump accountable and get to the truth. For Democrats, show up to tell them that you’ve got their backs. For Republicans, ask them #OneSimpleQuestion: do you think it’s OK for a president to ask a foreign power to interfere in our elections? Get their responses on video. Find or register your event now and coalition partners will help you recruit.
- Register or find a Trump is Not Above the Law Impeachment Eve event now. The night before the House of Representatives takes a historic vote to impeach Trump, we'll head to every congressional office and public square to declare that Nobody Is Above the Law as representatives finalize their positions and senators look on. There are more than 246 events on the map as of now with more being added every day. Take a look to find (or host) one near you.
- Sign up to make some calls connecting voters to senators to demand a complete and fair impeachment trial. We've identified 13 senators who really need to hear from their constituents (folks who are vulnerable because they’re up for reelection next year and folks who are retiring and worrying a lot about their legacies). Now we're asking you to call voters in those states and ask them to turn up the pressure on their elected officials. It’s a simple four-part process:
- You call a progressive voter in a key state with one of these 13 Republicans. These folks are your friends -- they attended the Women’s March and/or fight for progressive causes.
- You explain how they have power now. You’ll remind them why the continued fight for impeachment is so important -- and why they have particular power in this moment.
- You ask them to use their power. Then, you’ll ask them to call their senator and make their voices heard on why we’re demanding courage in this moment.
- You push a button and connect them to their senator’s office. The call tool will allow you to automatically patch them through to their senator’s DC office.
- Order your Indivisible book today. As a reminder, 100% of the proceeds from We Are Indivisible: A Blueprint for Democracy After Trump are going to Indivisible’s Save Democracy Fund, which supports projects related to democracy reform and our vision for what happens after we take back the Senate and the White House in 2021.
Check out reasons to be cheerful,
Discuss the day here. I will try and participate as much as possible but I cannot use an ad blocker at work and our connection is S.L.O.W. Dang you Kos tech for being down for subscriptions, oh and love you too.
Take us out:
Peace!