#the thing Trump got impeached for (the first time)

[charlesoberonn]

It's called Accusation in a Mirror and it's very intentional as part of their propaganda, going back to Joseph Goebbels:

"Accuse the other of which you're guilty."

You can see a clear example of it in the Republicans' attempt to smear Biden for the kind of nepotism and corruption that Trump did openly during his presidency.

#like their main accusation against him #is that his threat to withhold aid from Ukraine while he was VP unless they fired a corrupt pro-putin prosecutor #(something which was in-line with American and International policy) #is the same as Trump threatening to withhold aid unless Zelenskyy gives him dirt on Biden #the thing Trump got impeached for (the first time)

[soberscientistlife]

Robert De Niro’s statement on Donald is perfect. Please read it:

When I look at him, I don’t see a bad man. Truly. I see an evil one.

Over the years, I’ve met gangsters here and there. This guy tries to be one, but he can’t quite pull it off. There’s such a thing as “honor among thieves.”

Yes, even criminals usually have a sense of right and wrong. Whether they do the right thing or not is a different story — but — they have a moral code, however warped.

Donald Trump does not. He’s a wannabe tough guy with no morals or ethics. No sense of right or wrong. No regard for anyone but himself — not the people he was supposed to lead and protect, not the people he does business with, not the people who follow him, blindly and loyally, not even the people who consider themselves his “friends.”

He has contempt for all of them.

We New Yorkers got to know him over the years that he poisoned the atmosphere and littered our city with monuments to his ego. We knew first hand that this was someone who should never be considered for leadership.

We tried to warn the world in 2016.

The repercussions of his turbulent presidency divided America and rattled New York City beyond imagination. Remember how we were jolted by crisis in early 2020, as a virus swept the world. We lived with Donald Trump’s bombastic behavior every day on the national stage, and we suffered as we saw our neighbors piling up in body bags.

The man who was supposed to protect this country put it in peril, because of his recklessness and impulsiveness. It was like an abusive father ruling the family by fear and violent behavior. That was the consequence of New York’s warning getting ignored. Next time, we know it will be worse.

Make no mistake: the twice-impeached, 4-time indicted Donald Trump is still a fool. But we can’t let our fellow Americans write him off like one. Evil thrives in the shadow of dismissive mockery, which is why we must take the danger of Donald Trump very seriously. So today we issue another warning. From this place where Abraham Lincoln spoke — right here in the beating heart of New York — to the rest of America:

This is our last chance.

Democracy won’t survive the return of a wannabe dictator. And it won’t overcome evil if we are divided.

So what do we do about it? I know I’m preaching to the choir here. What we’re doing today is valuable, but we have to take today into tomorrow – take it outside these walls.

We have to reach out to the half of our country who have ignored the hazards of Trump and, for whatever reason, support elevating him back into the White House. They’re not stupid, and we must not condemn them for making a stupid choice. Our future doesn’t just depend on us. It depends on them.

Let’s reach out to Trump’s followers with respect.

Let’s not talk about “democracy.” “Democracy” may be our holy grail, but to others it is just a word, a concept, and in their embrace of Trump, they’ve already turned their backs on it.

Let’s talk about right and wrong. Let’s talk about humanity.

Let’s talk about kindness. Security for our world. Safety for our families. Decency.

Let’s welcome them back.

We won’t get them all, but we can get enough to end the nightmare of Trump, and fulfill the mission of this “Stop Trump Summit.””

[geritsel]

Robert De Niro Talks trump

Robert de Niro turns 81 this year. He still is everything Donald Trump is not; talented, intelligent, compassionate and – as far as I know – a man of a man of impeccable integrity.

Here’s Robert De Niro’s full statement about how Donald Trump should NEVER be president again:

“I’ve spent a lot of time studying bad men. I’ve examined their characteristics, their mannerisms, the utter banality of their cruelty.

Yet there’s something different about Donald Trump. When I look at him, I don’t see a bad man. Truly.

I see an evil one.

Over the years, I’ve met gangsters here and there. This guy tries to be one, but he can’t quite pull it off. There’s such a thing as “honor among thieves.” Yes, even criminals usually have a sense of right and wrong.

Whether they do the right thing or not is a different story — but — they have a moral code, however warped.

Donald Trump does not. He’s a wannabe tough guy with no morals or ethics. No sense of right or wrong. No regard for anyone but himself — not the people he was supposed to lead and protect, not the people he does business with, not the people who follow him, blindly and loyally, not even the people who consider themselves his “friends.” He has contempt for all of them.

We New Yorkers got to know him over the years that he poisoned the atmosphere and littered our city with monuments to his ego. We knew first hand that this was someone who should never be considered for leadership. We tried to warn the world in 2016.

The repercussions of his turbulent presidency divided America and rattled New York City beyond imagination. Remember how we were jolted by crisis in early 2020, as a virus swept the world.

We lived with Donald Trump’s bombastic behavior every day on the national stage, and we suffered as we saw our neighbors piling up in body bags.

The man who was supposed to protect this country put it in peril, because of his recklessness and impulsiveness. It was like an abusive father ruling the family by fear and violent behavior. That was the consequence of New York’s warning getting ignored. Next time, we know it will be worse.

Make no mistake: the twice-impeached, 4-time indicted Donald Trump is still a fool. But we can’t let our fellow Americans write him off like one. Evil thrives in the shadow of dismissive mockery, which is why we must take the danger of Donald Trump very seriously.

So today we issue another warning. From this place where Abraham Lincoln spoke — right here in the beating heart of New York — to the rest of America: This is our last chance.

Democracy won’t survive the return of a wannabe dictator. And it won’t overcome evil if we are divided.

So what do we do about it? I know I’m preaching to the choir here. What we’re doing today is valuable, but we have to take today into tomorrow – take it outside these walls. We have to reach out to the half of our country who have ignored the hazards of Trump and, for whatever reason, support elevating him back into the White House.

They’re not stupid, and we must not condemn them for making a stupid choice. Our future doesn’t just depend on us. It depends on them.

Let’s reach out to Trump’s followers with respect. Let’s not talk about “democracy.” “Democracy” may be our holy grail, but to others it is just a word, a concept, and in their embrace of Trump, they’ve already turned their backs on it.

Let’s talk about right and wrong. Let’s talk about humanity.

Let’s talk about kindness. Security for our world.

Safety for our families.

Decency.

Let’s welcome them back.

We won’t get them all, but we can get enough to end the nightmare of Trump, and fulfill the mission of this “Stop Trump Summit.”

For many Robert de Niro may be far too rich and far too Hollywood, but i consider this as straight from the heart. I love this man.

BTW... I have high regards for followers on Tumblr, some I consider as friends without ever having met them, but I completely understand those who get fed up with my political in betweens. I wish you all the best!

Regards,

Geritsel (Let Donald Trump never ever become president again.)

#donald trump #maga #clear and present danger #never again #drumpf

[tomorrowusa]

House Republicans have taken time out from doing nothing (except Speaker drama) all this year to launch an impeachment inquiry. Orders for this move probably came from Donald Trump who is planning his dictatorship of retribution while fighting criminal charges in four courts and civil charges in a fifth.

Considering that Republicans could have done this almost any time in 2023, it's not surprising that they picked a time of improving news on the economic front.

Don't be fooled by GOP dupe influencers claiming that things are worse now than during the Great Depression. Some losers who are economically illiterate seem to be spreading that disinformation. Yeah, when prices are artificially low due to deflation caused by economic catastrophe it doesn't mean people had it easy.

Before Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal got going during his first term, the unemployment rate in the US was 24.9%. That's even worse than it was during Trump's botched handling of the COVID-19 emergency in the US in 2020.

Republicans, if given full power, would drastically cut back or eliminate programs designed to reduce poverty. By coincidence, those programs were initiated under Democratic administrations.

Social Security (Franklin Roosevelt)

Unemployment Insurance (Franklin Roosevelt)

Food Stamps/SNAP (Lyndon Johnson)

Medicare (Lyndon Johnson)

Medicaid (Lyndon Johnson)

Obamacare (Barack Obama)

Republicans claim that those programs increase the debt. But as soon as GOP administrations take office they hypocritically stop worrying about the debt and give gigantic tax breaks to their filthy rich contributors while trying to strangle anti-poverty programs. BTW, Bill Clinton balanced the budget in his second term with revenue raised by increasing taxes on the filthy rich during his first term.

#us house of representatives #house republicans #impeachment #maga mike johnson #distractions #the economy #the great depression #no – things aren't worse now than during the great depression #fewer people live in poverty under democratic administrations #republicans are the main cause of recessions and depressions #election 2024

[qqueenofhades]

Can you explain what’s going on with Biden and the classified documents? Why would Biden or anyone on his staff have classified documents at home especially since the whole mar a lago trump documents investigation. Like why would they be so careless? Now Republicans are going to go after Biden for it, especially since they have the house now.

It is absolutely and undeniably careless, yes, and the timing is particularly bad. However, as even frigging KARL ROVE on FOX NEWS pointed out, it's not the same. The Biden lawyers found a small number of classified documents in a vice presidential library from the Obama administration, immediately reported them to the National Archives, and cooperated in finding out how they got there. As for the ones found at Biden's home, he IS, as of this moment, the sitting president of the United States and has a legitimate right to possess them, and not the disgraced twice-impeached coup-plotting ex president who stole literal boxes and boxes of them, obstructed and hid their return at every step, and is under multiple treason investigations as a result. So they are not really comparable.

I'm not defending Biden or his team here; this was an avoidable own goal, and shouldn't have happened when we are trying to prosecute Trump (eventually, maybe?) for the same thing. But I'm especially peeved with Merrick Garland; obviously, yes, the circumstances of all this should be duly investigated and since Biden didn't do anything wrong and his team cooperated fully at the first sign of any improperly handled material, they will almost surely be cleared without charges. But if these documents were found in November, it took him only a few months to appoint a special counsel, and he knew about the Trump docs as early as January 2021. So why the hell did it take him so long to appoint Jack Smith, and only after much kid-gloving and polite requests and whatnot all went ignored? Trump's case is obviously gravely more serious, and it took Garland MUCH longer to decisively act on that, while he clearly rushed to do this to avoid looking "biased" for Biden. Which again, fine, the AG isn't the president's personal servant and should not operate that way, but why so fast on Biden, who didn't do this on purpose, and slow... as... mud on Trump, who DID? Like, a lot? As his entire raison d'être?

Anyway, we can expect to hear about this for a while, and the GOP will doubtless weaponize the federal government, or at least a House panel, to drum up endless headlines, while also whining nonstop about the weaponization of the federal government. Because they suck.

#anonymous #ask #politics for ts

[dana-chan-the-control-brain]

I remember seeing things that were complaining about Fallout Boy's updated version of We didn't start the fire.

For some reason I thought it was disrespectful to the source material.

But....I just listened to it for the first time and.... No???

It's a pretty good version that encapsulates my generation of America through the past two decades to now. Listing all the big political events, and biggest franchises that came to be in those years and major sports events.

So I was wondering what the problem was.

From how my friend explained it to me, it was because Trump was mentioned and his supporters got mad and that was it.

.... really?

Cus that's so dumb. He got impeached twice, I don't know what to tell them. They're saying he didn't? It's a thing that happened.

They're getting mad about a song that lists off Pokemon, Twilight, SpongeBob Captain Planet, Isis and Micheal Jackson and Elon Musk more or less in the same breath.

Unless I'm missing something critical, yeah this is just a discourse I think I don't get.

Great bonus track

#personal #for people who are pro merica supporters of the trumpet man very easily want him to be a dictator. i dont get it #danachan's rants #it could be possible im misinformed #but its weird i knew the discourse before i heard the song #Spotify

[neikikardartv]

Watchmen (2019)

Alternate History Roundtable

 What is the koinos kosmos (common world) and mutually assumed knowledge the series shares with viewers? 

The show Watchmen (2019) is set in the universe of the comic with the same name but takes place 30 years later. The “koinos kosmos” is that due to having the superhero abilities of Dr. Manhattan the US was able to win the Vietnam War in one month and Nixon instead of being impeached became very popular and amends the constitution to allow presidents to run for more than two terms. He then remains president until the late 80s when Robert Redford was elected president. The show starts in 2019 and Robert Redford is still president. He is very liberal and has passed The Victims of Racial Violence Legislation which grants a lifetime of tax exemptions for victims and descendents of racial justice in America, known as “Redfordations”. This and his other liberal policies have led to more white supremacist backlash against these victims and a white supremacist group known as The Seventh Cavalry is at large in Tulsa, Oklahoma where the show takes place. The history of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 is central to the plot.   

How does the series depict cultural hybridity through the altered history’s role in reflecting and reshaping cultural assumptions? 

In the beginning of the first episode cultural hybridity occurs when the main character is showing her son’s class how to create a Vietnamese dish she learned how to make while living there. What starts out seeming just like any normal presentation in our world changes when the teacher asks her if she was born before or after Vietnam was made a state? In the background of this shot there is also a poster that states “Four Important Presidents” with Robert Redford and Nixon being the top two.

The setting of an elementary school classroom is a great place to demonstrate the cultural hybridity as the cultural changes from the altered historical timeline are subtly showcased through the educational set design and questions asked. 

How does the series depict the power of understanding world-creation? 

A sacred “text” that is seminal to world creation in Watchmen similar to “Grasshopper'' in The Man in the High Castle, is the lore of the superhuman “Minuteman group” that was the originator of the events that led to Dr. Manhattan and the altered history of the Vietnam War. The influence of them is implemented in the show as a recurring motif via a made for TV special that dramatizes the story of the Minuteman through propaganda. Segments of the special are shown in the series via the TV or the audio serving as a narration for scenes of the present day masked vigilantes. Similar to TMITHC the world-creation being shown through the visual media demonstrates that “[w]what we understand to be ‘real’ or what ‘truly’ happened is determined by what and how we see, read, and hear”(212).

In what ways do formulations of the past, present, and future engage with prospective realities of what might have been and what might be in the series’ alerted history? ​​

The series focus on how the altered history impacts race relations in America is interesting because there are many different ways the show could have explored the previous Watchmen universe events on the future of that reality. By focusing on the Tulsa Race Riots, an event that occurred before Watchmen’s timeline got altered, the show is anchored with something canon in both of our realities. This makes the fictional white supremacy plotline of the show all the more real as it has roots in actual events. While the show is not meant to take place in the future, the altered world is still very “rooted in the present of its time of creation”. The show aired in 2019 fresh off of Republic president Trump where open displays of white supremacy took place often with things like “The Unite the Right” Rally. By focusing still on white supremacy in a universe where an extremely liberal president has been in place since the 70s the show demonstrates that racism is still a systemic part of the present and history of the US no matter the historical changes and liberal policies that have been enacted since the timeline changed.  

How do multiple realities or contemplations of multiple realities merge with questions of authenticity? 

Similar to TMITHC Watchmen also deals with, ‘“a litany of duplicities” within the reality that merge with questions of authenticity. In the first episode we meet the chief of police that is in charge of the task force against the white supremacist group​ The Seventh Cavalry.  The episode ends with him being found violently hung from a tree. While he and the main character who also works for the police (named Angela played by Regina King) were very close, someone at the murder scene calls into question the chief of police’s nature. Angela then investigates him and finds a Seventh Cavalry Klan hoodie in his closet.  This uncertainty and lack of authenticity within people who seemed on the right side initially flips the new reality of the world even more. Making it hard to know who is really who they say they are, and who the bad guys and villains really are. If even the chief of police who openly is against racism is secretly a white supremacist in this world that has a more liberal facade, then the authenticity of the cause and what people claim to champion is all called into question. @theuncannyprofessoro

#oxyspeculativetv

[klbmsw]

JoJo From Jerz

I have a question for MAGA —

You say you want trump back in office.

You say you liked his “policies”.

That things were “better”.

That he “fought for you”.

And I want to know why you think that.

Because he told you he would lower the cost of your prescription drugs, and didn’t.

But Biden did.

He said he’d bring back manufacturing, but he didn’t.

Joe Biden passed the CHIPS Act - allocating tens of billions in incentives for companies to construct & expand manufacturing facilities in the US.

For four years straight, he said every week would be “infrastructure week”, only that week never came.

President Biden signed a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law during his first year in office.

He said he would boost economic growth by 4 percent a year. Nope. The economy stalled, and unemployment soared to the highest levels since the Great Depression.

Joe Biden has created 13.2 million jobs and unemployment has been under 4% for 17 months in a row—the longest stretch in over 50 years.

He promised to eliminate the federal deficit. He increased it by more than 60 percent.

Joe Biden cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion in his first two years – the largest deficit reduction in American history.

He said he would hire “only the best people.” He’s since called his AG a “gutless pig”, his National Security Adviser “one of the dumbest people in Washington, his Sec. Of Defense “the world’s most overrated general” and he’s said that people were right to want to hang his VP.

Joe Biden has seen very little turnover in his cabinet and hasn’t so much as criticized anyone in his administration, let alone wanted to see them hanged.

He promised he’d build a wall and that Mexico would pay for it. He then took $15 billion from our Defense Department’s budget to pay for less than 500 miles of construction.

Joe Biden got Mexico to pay us $1.5 billion for border security.

He promised to lock up Hillary Clinton for using a private email server. He’s now been federally indicted with 37 charges related to his intentional mishandling of national security documents.

Joe Biden… hasn’t.

He said he would “unify America”, and then told his supporters to attack our Capitol.

He was impeached twice, lost re-election and has to date been indicted 71 times, with more charges likely to come.

Oh, and that money you’re sending him for the 2024 election… that’s being used to pay his personal legal bills.

So, given all of this… my question remains the same — what was “better” under trump? What “policies”? If it wasn’t healthcare, infrastructure, border security, American manufacturing or the economy, what was it?

And if he’s “fighting for you”, why is he using your campaign donations on his personal legal woes?

I would really love to know.

[settsplitt]

Hey did you guys know Logan Sargeant's billionaire war profiteer uncle was like directly involved in that whole Ukraine thing that got Trump impeached the first time

#USA! USA! USA! #i know a lot of f1 fans are not from america and idk y'alls awareness lvl of our politics #but this is like genuinely hilarious to me as an american #almost as funny as gene haas going to jail for tax evasion

[saltandpepperbox]

Talk Hockey To Me

(tag game)

tagged by @starscelly thank you love you

Tell me about:

1. The thing that got you hooked on hockey

okay. so. i was in the hospital in 2020 and the only options on TV were the All Star Game, HGTV, and the Trump Impeachment. I had been watching HGTV for days, so I turned the All Star Game on. Tyler Seguin existed. I went on AO3. By the time I left the hospital I was very invested.

2. Your first ever fandom friend

uhhhhhhhhh ,,,,, hockey fandom friend is probably @ariavederci who I also dragged into f1 with me ,,,,, whoops?

3. The jersey you would most like to own

i own miro, roope, otter, and nico hischier, but i'd love a delly jersey tbh and also harls.

4. YOUR player (you only get ONE so choose wisely)

MIRO MIRO MIRO MIRO

5. A pairing that deserves more fic

oh god so many 424 and 1053 are the major ones please my kingdom for more of these

6. Your favourite on-ice moment

oh god oh god every goalie hug ever, miro running into roope, the end of the last regular season game (i think) last season when delly and wyatt skated over to each other and wrapped their arms around each other WAIL

THEN

link someone else's art/fic/etc that you love & think everyone should check out

HYACINTHED MY BELOVED

everyone on hockeyblr is so talented though with the gifs and edits ;; @teex @starscelly @kitnita are who i can think of off the top of my head but there's soooooo many

AND

link something you made & are proud of & want people to see

my hockey tag on ao3!!!!

tagging a few people but it's definitely nbd if you don't want to do it and also anyone else who wants to do it definitely should this is fun <;3 @titobeauvi @gabelandeskog @mountainblueducks

#tag meme #about me

[mariacallous]

The Senate Majority Leader navigated one of the most sweeping legislative sessions in memory—why haven’t voters seemed to notice?

Chuck Schumer did not expect to become the Senate Majority Leader after the 2020 election. The Democrats held forty-eight seats, with two upcoming races in Georgia that he didn’t think the Party would win. Without a Senate majority, he told Joe Biden in the months before the Inauguration, “you’re not going to have a happy time as President.” On the night of January 5, 2021, Schumer watched the Georgia returns in the book-lined living room of his Brooklyn apartment. “Finally, at four in the morning, it becomes clear we won both seats in Georgia,” he told me. “I felt amazing. I can’t sleep, get in the car at 7:30 A.M., drive down to D.C.”

Later that afternoon, as the incoming Majority Leader, he was counting electoral votes on the Senate floor when a policeman rushed over. “He grabs me by the collar. I’ll never forget that, and he says, ‘Senator, we’re in danger, we got to get out of here.’ ” Trump supporters, most of whom had just attended the outgoing President’s speech on the Ellipse, had stormed the Capitol. Schumer exited the chamber and rushed down the hallway. “I was within twenty feet of these bastards,” he told me. “January 5th and January 6th: I call them the best of times, the worst of times.”

Since then, Schumer has presided over an evenly divided Senate, just the fourth such split in U.S. history. “This is the hardest job I’ve ever had,” he told me. A month after the Capitol riot, as Democrats were trying to confirm Biden’s Cabinet secretaries, the Senate held an impeachment trial for Donald Trump. Schumer had wanted it to start in January, as soon as the House sent over the articles, but the outgoing Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, stalled. In the end, all but seven of the Republicans in the chamber voted to acquit Trump, including McConnell, who, according to an account in “This Will Not Pass,” by Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, had told his aides, “The Democrats are going to take care of the son of a bitch for us.”

Then the Democrats had to legislate, with zero margin for error. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema became the faces of a party that always seemed just a few votes shy of delivering on its biggest campaign promises. Nevertheless, Congress passed two major pieces of legislation in its first year in session. One was the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9-trillion relief measure that infused money into local and state governments, financed vaccination programs, aided businesses, and fought child poverty. The other was the $1.2-trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which funded roads and bridges, public transit, improvements to the electrical grid, broadband Internet, and clean-energy initiatives. “The American Rescue Plan, in and of itself, was the most impactful thing a member could do in thirty years,” a senior Senate aide told me. The infrastructure bill, he said, “was the largest infrastructure bill in forty to fifty years.” The successes registered, but only briefly. “We didn’t let each victory breathe,” the aide said. “We went immediately into Build Back Better,” which was the President’s sweeping domestic-policy plan.

That became the crucible for a bitter fight within the Party. In its original form, the Build Back Better Act promised some $3.5 trillion to tackle climate change and invest in an ambitious range of social services, from universal pre-K to child tax credits and paid family leave. Administration officials knew it would have to be pared down. But, in multiple rounds of negotiations, spanning more than a year, Manchin played the role of principled holdout, then spoiler. By the summer of 2022, when the effort to salvage the President’s agenda appeared doomed, Schumer started to achieve a series of legislative breakthroughs on other issues. Between June and August, Congress passed a bipartisan gun-control bill, a major extension of health-care benefits for veterans, and the CHIPS Act, which provides more than fifty billion dollars in subsidies to spur domestic semiconductor production. On August 4th, Michael Bennet, of Colorado, told me, “This might be the most productive ten days that I’ve seen in thirteen years being here.”

Three days later, after an all-night session, the Senate passed an unprecedented reconciliation bill, with the Vice-President casting the tie-breaking vote. The Inflation Reduction Act, as it was called, cut the cost of prescription drugs, expanded health-care subsidies, raised taxes on large corporations, and financed an unprecedented set of tax incentives for green energy. “Did Democrats Just Save Civilization?” Paul Krugman asked in the Times, adding, “This is a very big deal.” Schumer told me, “The whole mood turned around in that second week in August. You felt it everywhere.” Still, even some of the bill’s strongest supporters didn’t expect it to swing the upcoming midterms in their favor. In the hours before the chamber passed the reconciliation bill, Chris Murphy, the Democratic senator from Connecticut, told me, “I’m a believer that this election is going to be much more about choice and personal freedom and Republican radicalism than it is going to be about the reconciliation bill, which is weird because this is the most popular, most comprehensive piece of legislation we passed in a long time.”

Now, a week before the midterms, which tend to punish the President’s party in any year, high inflation and fears of a recession have darkened the picture for Democrats. The Party is almost certain to lose the House majority. The Senate may still be within reach—owing, in part, to a slate of weak Republican candidates. The Times recently reported that many Democratic candidates were not mentioning the Party’s $1.9-trillion economic rescue plan because it “has become fodder for Republicans to attack Democrats over rapidly rising prices, accusing them of overstimulating the economy.” In a number of critical races, candidates have largely avoided touting the Party’s other legislative successes, instead boiling down their components into a series of “kitchen-table” issues, such as the cost of prescription drugs and energy prices. “What we have going for us is what we’ve accomplished, and I think what our views are is much closer to what people believe,” Schumer told me. “What’s going against us is the natural, you know—the sourness in the land.”

When I met Schumer last week, at his apartment in Brooklyn, he was sitting in his socks in his living room, home for a short spell between campaign stops. “Lots of legislation was cooked up right here,” he told me, nodding at our surroundings. He referred to the room as his “little command center.” On one wall was a framed poster from an old F.D.R. campaign. On another, beside a doorway leading into the kitchen, was a poster from the 1928 Presidential campaign of Alfred E. Smith, the New York governor, with the slogan “Honest, Able, Fearless.”

Earlier that afternoon, Schumer had been on the phone with two senators in tight races: Mark Kelly, who is holding onto a narrow lead in Arizona, and Catherine Cortez Masto, who is running about even with her opponent, Adam Laxalt, in Nevada. The Democrats’ hopes to retain control of the Senate hinge on these races, and also two others. In Georgia, Raphael Warnock has struggled to fend off Herschel Walker, whose campaign has been dogged by a series of significant scandals. In Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, the state’s Democratic lieutenant governor, had been leading Mehmet Oz, the television doctor turned Republican challenger, for much of the race. But Fetterman’s weak performance in a recent debate—the result of a stroke he suffered in the spring—has made him vulnerable. If Democrats lose in just two of these states, and the results everywhere else conform to the expectations of the polls, Republicans will retake the majority in the Senate.

Schumer dismisses any suggestion that Democrats’ current troubles stem from ignoring the precarities of the economy. “People say now, ‘Well, maybe you spent too much money,’ ” he said. “We would have had the Great Depression had we not spent it. Obviously, we have to deal with some of the aftereffects, but it was a necessity. And I remember at the moment how vital it was. I had mayors and governors and sheriffs—everyone—calling me and saying, ‘You can’t let us go dry.’ ”

The primary cause of inflation, he went on, was the pandemic and a cascade of problems with the global supply chain. “We’re the people in the various bills that have done stuff about it,” he said. He mentioned a bipartisan bill, the Ocean Shipping Act, designed to reduce supply backlogs, which “got no attention.” A number of other bills—to reform the U.S. Postal Service, to lease weapons to Ukraine—barely made it into the public eye. “When we pass things that have no partisan fighting,” Schumer said, “no one covers it.”

I asked Schumer if it was perhaps wrong to assume that the electorate still responded to policy. “Look, the whole Senate caucus, and much of the country, feels very proud of what we did,” he said. “Now you get into the Sturm und Drang of campaigns, and, obviously, the Republicans tried to attack it. But I gotta tell you this: when everyone predicted that we would have no chance to keep the Senate, the fact that we got these things done means we’re in the ballgame now. And it’s neck and neck. That never would have happened without this. So it did have a very positive effect.”

With midterm voting under way , it’s easy to forget the sense of abject failure that dominated the first half of the summer. On July 14th, Schumer was stuck at home, with COVID, when Manchin informed him that he was abandoning months of conversations on the reconciliation bill. New inflation figures had just been released, showing a nine-per-cent increase over the previous year, giving Manchin a pretext to scrap the talks. “The only thing Manchin would support was a prescription-drug reform and a two-year extension of subsidies for the Affordable Care Act,” another Senate staffer told me. “Chuck was demoralized.”

Four days later, Manchin’s staff got back in touch. “There was a feeling of ‘Oh, God, not again,’ ” according to the staffer. But Schumer was open—“persistent” is the word he uses. “We had many bad turns,” he told me. “Everyone gave up three or four times. Joe Biden gave up!” Schumer and Manchin met secretly in the basement of the U.S. Capitol building and eventually agreed to a round of private talks that became the basis of the Inflation Reduction Act. Schumer takes a historic view of what he managed to do against the odds; he considers this Senate session the “most successful in decades.” “Lyndon Johnson had sixty-some senators,” he told me. “Roosevelt had some seventy-odd senators. Even Obama had fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine.”

Chris Murphy was part of the Democrats’ Senate majority in 2013, when Harry Reid led the caucus. “Reid was running a Senate where regular order still ruled the place,” he told me, in September. “Reid had a more decentralized process. Chuck had a more centralized process.” Several senators and top aides told me that what distinguished Schumer’s leadership style was his adaptability, taking a more active role on big-ticket policies, while letting his members take the lead on other initiatives. This summer, Murphy and Sinema, neither of whom chair a committee nor occupy a leadership post within the caucus, convinced a group of Republicans to back a measure to tighten background checks on gun buyers. During the negotiations, Murphy said, Schumer took his cues from them—at least to a point. “I probably got ninety calls from Schumer in those thirty days,” Murphy told me. “Reid was a brilliant leader. But I wouldn’t have gotten ninety calls.”

In his Brooklyn living room, Schumer offered to show me his “secret weapon.” As he reached for the flip phone in his pocket—“every one of my colleagues has my direct number”—it rang, as though on command. “Off the record,” he told me, but he didn’t get up from his seat to take the call. When he hung up, he looked to one of his aides. “The President will call at six-forty-five,” he said.

Three days later, Biden would be in New York to deliver a speech in a gymnasium at Onondaga Community College, in Syracuse. Schumer, who himself is up for reëlection, would be there, along with Kirsten Gillibrand and Kathy Hochul, whose unexpectedly competitive gubernatorial race has given Democrats further cause for alarm. Earlier in the month, as a result of the passage of the CHIPS Act, the semiconductor company Micron had announced that it would invest as much as a hundred billion dollars throughout the next two decades to build a complex of factories in upstate New York. Construction is set to begin during the following two years, and the plan is expected to generate some fifty thousand jobs and a five-hundred-million-dollar fund to train the local workforce.

Because of Biden’s low approval ratings, the President has been mostly avoiding the campaign trail, so his appearance in Syracuse served as a kind of closing argument. He spoke about union jobs and a renaissance of manufacturing. Micron, Biden said, “was making the largest American investment of its kind ever, ever, ever, in our history.” The U.S. “invented” chips, he continued, but “today we’re down to producing only ten per cent of the world’s chips. . . . We’re turning things way around.” In a thirty-minute speech, he frequently used the phrase “not hyperbole” to underline the figures he rattled off—on job creation, infrastructure investment, and low unemployment. It was impossible not to feel a sense of strain. He could lambaste MAGA Republicans and decry the profiteering of oil companies, but was there any way to get the positive message to register?

The district in which the event was held is represented by John Katko, a retiring moderate Republican, who voted to impeach Trump last year. In 2020, Biden won the district by nine points, Katko by ten. The Republican on the ticket this year is calling for Biden’s impeachment. Earlier that day, when Biden arrived at the Syracuse airport, Schumer met him on the tarmac to share an update on the Senate races. A hot microphone picked up what he’d said. “It looks like the debate didn’t hurt us too much in Pennsylvania, as of today,” Schumer told Biden. “So that’s good.” He continued, “I think we’re picking up steam in Nevada,” adding, “The state where we’re going downhill is Georgia. It’s hard to believe that they will go for Herschel Walker.”

When we spoke in Schumer’s apartment, a consensus seemed to be solidifying among the pollsters and prognosticators that November 8th would be a grim day for the Democrats. The Majority Leader didn’t bother to argue the point. Last year, in an obscure deal, a Chicago businessman made one of the largest donations ever to a political nonprofit—$1.6 billion to a group called the Marble Freedom Trust, run by the conservative activist Leonard Leo. The sum, which isn’t taxable, was more than all of the money spent in 2020 by the fifteen most politically active Democratic-leaning nonprofits, according to a Times analysis. “That has set us back, because in the last month they’ve just poured money into this,” Schumer told me. “We’re in a difficult situation.” At another point in our conversation, he said, “I think we’ve done the very best we can. I don’t have any regrets about that.” He added, “I live with the stress.” ♦

[aestheticvoyage2023]

Day 236: Thursday August 24, 2023 - "History Books"

History is still being written about this disastrous Presidency, that we once marched on and protested for this exact reason so many years ago. Sickening to think that this man has sucked up so much of our collective headspace and airspace for almost 10 years. And we still haven't reached bottom. The night before, I tuned into the GOP primary debate, and cringed at the theatre and the lies and the propaganda for smaller minds and populist worlds to soak up and be entertained by - I couldn't even joke with Audrie about enjoying it without feeling gross for having tuned into Fox News. The only good thing that can possibly come from this is Audrie and I being able to tell our Grandkids, that we hated everything to do with this horrible man, and this horrible chapter in our country's history. Far worse than any Gulf War or WMD. This nightmare just keeps rolling on worse and worse. And so as work ground down today, I closed myself off in the front "green" room to watch history unfold yet one more rank-smelling chapter, this time involving a Presidential Mugshot as the Grand Ole Party continues to circle the drain, in their unbelievable race to the bottom. The Trump plane landed in Atlanta, and got a full motorcade and press pool in a way that felt eerily like OJ's chase - yes, a historic moment in time, that lasted about one hour tonight, but will echo in history books around the world, one way or another on how this unfolds, sad as it is, nowhere near being done.

I've been resisting 45 since the beginning. And I don't take any joy in seeing him be arrested and have a mug shot to fundraise off of (7 million + in the first weekend, though if you want to bankroll a twice impeached, four times indicted man to help run our country further into the ground - here's your sign.). Today's history isn't good for anyone. And I feel like my history/poli sci degree is complete trash now - because its all gotta be re-written, as I sat there watching this bold history culminate in the red-tied-mancheeto tell the cameras that he's the victim and has done nothing wrong. And people believe that?! The fact that trying to scheme to overturn a legit election is somehow polarizing in America? And doesn't disqualify a man from representing the party? This is complete non-sense. Every day - the news is non-sense. Its a daily race to the bottom, distracting with pre-planned and strategized garbage. And while climate change burns our beautiful places and melts our ice caps, we're left with the dissatisfying consolation prize of seeing an obviously practiced mugshot of a man so fallen from grace to mark another terrible moment in time where we were to focused on this national narcissist to care about the things that really matter. And for that hour plus, so was I. But having paid my witness, and not needing any editorial blunder, I switched it off, screenshotted the newly released mugshot to show Audrie, and then shut it off and had dinner with my family, not mentioning his name or his sick game. After all these years and all the things he's done, he's not welcome here, and I can only hope that somewhere behind the derangement, he knows it, and this his legacy was trash long before this legal mess was tied to it. Now I can only hope that he is found guilty on all 91 felony charges and somehow sometime can go away completely broke and burdened by his own self-created big lies. The rest of us, just need to get on with it already and let this legacy on us all, rot away.

Song: Oliver Anthony - Rich Men North of Richmond

Quote: "Only during hard times do people come to understand how difficult it is to be masters of their feelings and thoughts." ~Anton Checkhov

[tomorrowusa]

Fox News retainer Brian Kilmeade got his balls handed to him by the former president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. Kilmeade had tried to push a MAGA Hunter Biden conspiracy theory on live TV involving Ukraine.

At the heart of every single Republican conspiracy about both President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine is a single claim. The claim is that Joe Biden got Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin sacked in order to protect energy company Burisma, where Hunter Biden was on the board. That was the claim former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani brought back from Ukraine, and the basis on which Donald Trump tried to blackmail Ukraine and earned his first impeachment. [ ... ] The idea that Shokin was fired to protect Burisma has been debunked so many times that de bunk is exhausted, but it has seldom gone down with as much grim satisfaction as it did on Sunday when Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade interviewed former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. [ ... ] Kilmeade: Is that why he got fired? Because of the billion dollars and the former vice president, now president? Poroshenko: First of all, this is a completely crazy person. This is something wrong with him. Second, there is not one single word of truth. And third, I hate the idea to make any comments and to make any intervention in the American election. We have very much enjoyed bipartisan support. Please do not use such person like Shokin to undermine the trust between bipartisan support and Ukraine.

The Viktor Shokin thing has been debunked to death. Shokin is the "completely crazy person" Poroshenko refers to. But Republicans and far right US media have adopted the Goebbelsian strategy of endlessly repeating it in the hope that such repetition will cause it to get traction. It's the current version of "but her emails!".

Shokin’s own deputy testified that there was no active investigation into Burisma at the time of Biden’s actions. And not only was all this looked into as part of Trump’s impeachment, a Republican investigation launched in 2020 specifically to find any wrongdoing by Biden ended in an 87-page report that “contained no evidence that the elder Mr. Biden improperly manipulated American policy toward Ukraine or committed any other misdeed.” The claim that Biden did something wrong in Ukraine wasn’t true, isn’t true, and can’t be made true through repetition. Shokin was fired because he was corrupt, bad at his job, and everyone complained.

When the leader of their party is a four-times indicted, twice impeached, orange blob of mendacity, the only hope of the MAGA mob is to invest in a very dubious false equivalency.

Hunter Biden isn't Joe Biden. But if you really wish to compare presidential relatives, look to Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner who (unlike Hunter Biden) were in a position in the White House actually to influence policy. The Trump offspring and offspring-in law could conduct a clinic on corruption through capitalizing on their names.

Facts never change the minds of brainwashed cult members. But if you shout louder and longer than the Trump cult it will reduce the impact they have on others.

#fox news #brian kilmeade #far right media #ukraine #petro poroshenko #hunter biden conspiracy theory #burisma #viktor shokin #trump corruption #donald trump #ivanka trump #jared kushner #the trump crime family #петро порошенко #віктор шокін #бурісма

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

This is some Appollo gift of prophecy shit in the vein of this sort of thing, but I’d say it’s more impressive because this was some people talking at the end of 2019 about what they think the near future has in store. They’d just had the general election in which Boris Johnson won his majority, and they discussed the fact that the Tory agenda for their recently affirmed reign includes having everyone contract the plague. And they discussed feeling like they’re in the early stages of a disaster movie about an apocalypse-causing disease, and Nish mentioned that there might be a virus rights lobby fighting against anyone who tries to stop a virus. It’s a hell of a prediction to make in December 2019.

Incidentally, I’ve just finished the 2019 episodes of The Bugle, and I am amazed by what that election did to Andy Zaltzman. I think it’s the first thing I’ve seen actually break Andy, since this podcast started in 2007. Nothing breaks Andy. In its early years, its dynamic was defined by John being broken down by the bleakness of American politics until he was a shell of a man, and Andy coming in with cheerful mocking of all that. I mean, I’m sure he was upset. I’m sure he was very upset all the time, as any half decent person would be when looking at the news. But his comedy style was to be pretty even no matter what was happening, not really phased by it, comfortably looking up cricket statistics in his shed while John interviewed Palin supporters in the street and despaired at the state of the human race. Even when they were talking about the most terrible of stories, Andy could come in with a sports reference or a pun about it, after John was long past the point of being able to dress up his anger in fancy language.

And it’s not just that the worst of the news was in America, where John was actually living so it would hit him harder. After David Cameron won his majority in 2015, Andy dealt with the situation with his usual sarcasm delivered in his usual tone, while John basically had a breakdown. John Oliver talked a lot about being an emotionally repressed British man who was allergic to sincerity, but when things got genuinely upsetting, it was John being too upset to stay detached and Andy gently laughing about that.

After John left, Andy Zaltzman stayed basically the same, because staying basically the same is sort of Andy Zaltzman’s thing. He brought in other co-hosts who were more emotional than him, and kept his own comedy to tightly written sarcasm where you have to listen carefully to catch every bit of meaning. He’d break character a little once in a while, especially when shit got real with Trump and/or Brexit, but mostly he stayed basically even.

It was weird to listen to that unravel in late 2019, as the Brexit negotiations reached their most ludicrous levels yet and Boris Johnson had been crowned PM and they had to go through another election that cumulated in a Johnson majority and Labour was useless. Across the ocean, Trump’s (first) impeachment trial was underway and Republicans had reached new levels of straight-up denying reality in trying to defend him. It was a perfect storm that took apart even Andy Zaltzman’s carefully crafted persona.

He also kept bringing on Mark Steel as a co-host, and I feel like some of Steel’s personality rubs off on Andy when they’re in proximity to each other. I’ve really enjoyed hearing Mark Steel on The Bugle; I always like him on The News Quiz, but the independent podcast lets him get to an even deeper level of visceral anger than he does on the BBC. He and Andy have clearly known each other a long time, and it feels like Andy Zaltzman can shed a little of his character around someone like Mark Steel more easily than he does around the younger co-hosts. There were times in late 2019 when Andy dropped the careful writing pretty much altogether, declaring it’s all too fucked up to satirize, and the only response he could manage was to openly and plainly talk shit with Mark Steel for a while.

There was one week in the middle of the election campaign when they didn’t do a regular episode, explaining that Andy needed a mental and emotional break from following the news as closely as he had to to write a whole new episode. That’s the sort of thing he’d have sardonically joked about in previous years, saying he couldn’t even bring himself to write about this terrible story, before reading several minutes straight of brilliant material. But in late 2019, that stopped being a joke and they did actually cancel the episode.

I haven’t started the 2020 episodes yet, but I have to say, if Andy’s this broken at the end of 2019, he’s in for a rough time when the next wave of news hits. On the bright side, I have the John Oliver reunion to look forward to at the end of the 2020 episodes, and I am pleased to say I’ve resisted the temptation to watch any of it on YouTube so far (because apparently in 2020 they start putting videos of Bugle recordings on YouTube, which seems weird and I think I’ll mainly just keep listening to it because the audio newspaper for a visual world isn’t meant to be on YouTube, but I will watch the video of the John Oliver reunion once I get to that one) because I think I’ll appreciate it more if I wait until I’ve heard all the previous episodes first. Whatever horrors The Bugle goes through in 2020, there will at least be that at the end.

[justahumblememefarmer]

I will resume hope that Trump faces consequences when he is behind bars on a 10+ years charge.

When he made fun of a disable reporter, I thought his campaign was over, but he got the Republican nomination

When he said he grabbed women by the pussy, I thought his campaign was over, but he still won the presidency

When he was one of the worst presidents we've ever had, I thought that it would tear the Republican party apart, instead they just moved further towards fascism, created a right wing majority on the supreme court, and gained voters for the 2020 election

When he was impeached (twice), I thought there was a shot that he could be exposed for what he is, but the Senate majority ensured he faced no consequences

When he lost the election, I was ecstatic, but it was disturbing watching a president refuse to acknowledge his loss, and try dozens of failed lawsuits to overturn the results

When the results were confirmed, and his supporters stormed the Capitol I thought surely now the right will turn on him, but they still stopped his second impeachment, and downplayed the fact that their voters were prepared to kill politicians in a huge temper tantrum

When Democrats took the Presidency, the House, and the Senate, I thought they'd surely be able to do something but nothing concrete happened over those two years.

When the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, I thought that they were about to get him with something big, but he was able to continually delay things, and still has not faced any real charges.

I know, I KNOW that they need to have something rock solid. No room for interpretation. No room for delays. No room for the right wing politicians to hold things up. If it went quickly, it wouldn't be done properly and he'd get off scot free.

But them taking absolutely every second of time available to them before the deadline is absolutely nerve wracking. They knew that they had 2 years before a possible shift in control of the House and they waited right up until that change to finish their investigations. Now they've got until the 2024 elections as a deadline. If Trump is the nominee for the Republican party, or god forbid the president-elect, he gets so much more insulated.

It has been almost 8 years since he announced his first run for the presidency, and I can't count how many articles I've seen stating "This is the final nail in the coffin for Trump" and by the next week it's a non-issue.

I know they're working with the balance of needing to build a solid case and having the timelines of elections as deadlines, but I just have given up on believing anything is going to happen to him. Charges were filed, yes. But can he hold up in Florida while DeSantis refuses to cooperate with extradition? Can he get this delayed? Can he get the charges to a fine instead of actually serving time in prison? Can he throw somebody else under the bus? Will he face anything meaningful that could prevent him from running for president again? How much damage can he cause with his supporters and allies if there is a whiff of him facing consequences?

If he faces any consequences at all, it might just be a fine that he gets his supporters to pay for him. The indictment is exciting but I just can't get my hopes up again. Unless he gets actual jail time for the rest of his life, I just don't have faith that he can be given any real consequences

#donald trump #trump #trump indictment #politics #my post

[the-firebird69]

There's a few things that we're going to go over these people are venomous snakes to each other in their pukes weekly and still stand for much but this guy is going down the river and it's for what he was doing and he's doing now:

-he has five outstanding warrants on him as John remillard in Charlotte county three outstanding warrants as John dreamillard in punta Gorda and known aliases and unknown aliases they want him in any format

-this these cases coming up are criminal it's a huge deal for president to go to criminal trial it's like an impeachment and it has almost as much weight and impeachment will follow it's a few convictions and he's out and he's going to be sued if not health in contempt and arrested for not paying in New York City and I said it today I'm not going to accept that and it's already ticking that you have to pay out by a certain amount of time still and it's one month which is coming up pretty quick and it is and we think middle of the month then he's going to go to jail. As it is the prosecutor once July 8th for the big case in Florida tampering is the election. And he also is going to jail on Monday for not paying his taxes in town he harassed her son Non-Stop about that. And those are send money he owes our son money for taxi withheld in too much about $45,000 from HMC construction and $10,000 from James Corp he had them do it $5,000 from Bob borghetti when he was doing the account that's $8,000 and it looked and saw him and he did elsewhere he couldn't touch back till so he started screwing with George and George said what is he is a mental patient running the mental patient house and he heard George say it and the fat slab Aaron threatened our son Aaron at HMC and he said I'll have you killed and he was saying it back and all sudden he's dead I said there good day don't come back either you come back we're going to ruin you inside your head with a egg beater and he started saying I got to get back at him isn't here comes again you got killed and he started getting hit in the head and people tell you what we're going to do to you yeah whatever I mean whatever whatever you're dead stay there for a week or you're dead. So you hear this crowd yelling at him hey pinata and he started having him yell and yell and at Aaron Mike he knows I'm supposed to go to the mental hospital or they're going to kill me you have only minutes to decide and it's just saying I can't stand this so maybe we should wait to you get your house and pull you out of there to make you feel better can you start going I can't stand this at all and he says he's going there so and he didn't and they're going I think it took a wrong turn there buddy and also sudden they started hitting him he's going this seems very serious and they cracked his head and Dave came by with a brick and that's what we saw. Is it going on for quite a while now he says how about that John Gallagher and his bicycle and nothing like hitting you in the head cuz you're f****** around with everybody with medicine. It kind of translates to his idiot wife sister but hey you know she doesn't care.

-so there's this court case it's starting up and the prosecutor has named a date and the article is done by the trumps and so he told the prosecutor can you pick out anything that's illegal here not even just wrong so he goes up to the newspaper people and he says you're supposed to get wrong on purpose and that's a crime and this is you're not giving us a chance to change the date and I said you better take it they're going to laugh and laugh then you going to hate the s*** out of them but mostly laugh at first so they're sitting there smiling and they start talking to him so you can't just change the date in the news and then tell the prosecutor you're trying to manipulate the public to change the date and threaten the public too and they did read it right and they said this who the hell are you to say that stuff to us and the public and he says I'll just move him down like the home Depot truck check the springs his Prince and they arrested him because he should be in jail and it's not a laughing matter because he's dressed up as Trump now they didn't do that part but they have it as evidence and other cases are starting to bleed into other ones is going to come out of this huge bum and humiliating embarrass the country and nobody really cares because other countries still have to do a whole bunch of stuff and it's really the max and right now he's sitting there pissing in the wind saying it's max they're having to do it so husband he's trying to get something I might look like a Mac and he's laughing he's laughing and said I wonder if it's his program and it says going no he said you're a rebel right you like imitating them and he's saying this is irritating I should be irritating you're supposed to say stupid s***. Well here Terry cheese and saying they here and he's saying why don't you shut the f****** you f****** loser and you can hear it on tape in a couple minutes and it's going to go around.

We Trace that incident in the parking lot to Trump and he's threading our son with violence and he had a lot of people and we started killing them off there's a huge number of people who are going after him now and we will take care of them they're trying to bother him and harass and we're going to take him apart few things you should know the guy is a huge a****** and he's bothering him for real and we need him out

Thor Freya

Olympus

I want the stuff posted he's going to show you and he's going to get arrested for it

Hera