General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"It's All Over"
I just got back home, and saw a film clip of Trump saying it's all over as a result of Sondland's testimony. Then I saw a couple friends here had posted photos of the curious notes that Trump was reading from. The combination of these reminded me of when Nixon began to melt under the pressure of the Watergate investigations. (Note: I have been thinking about comparisons since reading an important OP by PCIntern, which is linked below.)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212704911
In both cases, the televised hearings and the reporting about them were/are roller-coaster rides : it was/is delightful to see the cesspools of corruption exposed, frustrating to hear the republicans defending that corruption, and a bit unnerving to witness a president melting down and becoming a threat to national security.
Last week's testimony from Bill Taylor and George Kent was powerful. But, at least in my opinion, Marie Yovanovitch was even stronger in exposing just how underhanded this administration is. I find her to be high among the very good witnesses from the Watergate hearings. This week's witnesses continue to document how criminal Trump & Friends are. And this fellow Sondland is something else. He apparently is intelligent, yet he has an uncanny ability to come across a tad clownish.
Perhaps the witness I am most interested in hearing testifies tomorrow. Fiona Hill will add a lot of evidence about the Trump administration's ultimately failed operation in Ukraine.
I agreed with the OP linked above, because I was alive, awake, and aware when the Watergate crimes were being investigated. More, in recent times, I've watched the films of both the Senate Select Committee and the House hearings on Watergate. The republicans today are as similar to those of the Watergate era, as the dandelions of 2019 are to those of 1974.. However, as the Rolling Stones noted, dandelions don't tell no lies, dandelions will make you wise clearly proving dandelions are a higher life form than republicans.
What is different and essential for our understanding of why this may appear different is that Newton Leroy Gingrich's Contract on America purposely broke the House's ability to function. That was a large part of the republican agenda, as this would promote the imperial presidency that Newton, Bill Barr, and others haters-of-the-Constitution advocate. I'd also add that televised news 24/7 and the internet have increased the pace of our exposure to corrupt republican blathering.
The Democrats in the House were solid during Watergate, and they are today. I'd like to say that Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney was intense today. I believe that Sondland learned not to mess with him today. I, for one, will show my appreciation for him with a campaign contribution
Finally, about comparisons between Nixon and Trump ..an interesting but difficult topic. One of my favorite songs was Neil Young's Ohio. My generation saw it as Neil's indictment of Nixon. Yet weeks before the republican national convention of 1976, Neil first performed Campaigner, that took a different position on Nixon. He referenced Nixon's being hospitalized for a pulmonary embolism that nearly killed him shortly before he left office, Nixon's years of campaigning, and even claimed that Nixon had soul.
Trump recently made a strange trip to the hospital. But he does not have a soul. He has none of the few good qualities that Nixon had. But he has all of Nixon's creepy qualities. None.
I'll finish by saying that, after watching Gym Jordan and Devin Nunes, I am convinced that we have to work very hard on the 2020 elections. We need to bring the republican obstructionists' political careers to the same guillotine that Trump's presidency is heading towards.
PS: We Okay, Boomers had some mighty fine music.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,531 posts)and incredible energy and optimism and idealism. We can't let that be killed in us.
H2O Man
(75,595 posts)I love watching Woodstock. Wish I had been able to attend it. I've bought records and DVDs of parts of it that aren't included in either the movie or record set.
One of my favorite stories is one that a friend told me years ago. He was a violent red neck at the time, who would deploy to Vietnam within two weeks of Woodstock. He and a couple friends went to the concert to "find some hippies to beat up." But a funny thing happened there ....he was drinking, and someone offered him some acid. He took it, and tripped through watching Jimi Hendrix. (He was surely not alone!)
He told me that as he watched Jimi do the national anthem, he understood that the war was wrong, and that the hippies were right. He did go, and came back damaged from the experience.
My point is -- as you well understand -- our generation's music could both open and change people's minds.
Thomas Hurt
(13,925 posts)We all know he is an amoral corrupt tool but he isn't going anywhere until he is removed or resigns.
One step closer
H2O Man
(75,595 posts)Probably are. But we are witnessing the Congress that we elected in 2018 doing a great job of repairing the role the House is intended to play. And so, for right now, we can take pride.
"Tommorow never knows," as Ringo used to say, prompting John to write a song with that title. The only thing that we can be sure of is that the struggle for our constitutional democracy requires our best efforts. All of us. That includes not only this impeachment process, but the 2020 elections. If we all do our best, we have the best chance of restoring the rule of law.
Every day, we need to all take that step closer that you correctly note!
crickets
(26,148 posts)I was around for the Watergate era. I admit remembering the music much better than most of the testimony; I wish I'd paid more attention at the time but I was only 12 when the whole thing ended. As much as Republicans have been striving to break government, I do think that the Democrats of the House in this era have managed to put together a great case so far in spite of them.
The whole process is a tightrope walk now, just as it was then. Today the tightrope is thinner and strung at a greater height. Fingers crossed.
H2O Man
(75,595 posts)we'd see anything like Nixon again? I remember thinking it would never happen. Then Reagan, Bush 1 & 2, Cheney, and now this guy. Unreal.
The night Nixon resigned, my brother and I made a cassette tape of the news plus our comments, to send him at Rahway.
llmart
(16,331 posts)I think we had the best music of any generation. So there!
Harker
(15,027 posts)but yes, we did (and do) have the best.
Harker
(15,027 posts)What a talent.
Jrsygrl96
(187 posts)MF45 said, "It's all over" as an exoneration after he heard Hannity say that on his radio show. He is NOT throwing in the towel. He is saying that he won!!!!
H2O Man
(75,595 posts)BigmanPigman
(52,312 posts)on an endless loop in his pea brain. "Turn out the lights, Turn out the lights, This Is the eeeeeeennnnndddddd."
H2O Man
(75,595 posts)He'll experience the song on his journey up the river.
coeur_de_lion
(3,812 posts)is admitting it's all over and it gave me some hope briefly. Then I came to my senses and realized no of course not, he will never admit he did anything wrong.
Not for the good of the country, or for his kids, or his wife. Because no one really matters to him. Least of all himself.
I honestly believe despite his constant bragging and saying how great he is, that there is no one on the planet with a lower self esteem than trump. He fights mightily to make people think he's the greatest but even he has never believed that for a minute.
Everything he does is out of desperation and wanting to be liked. And I would be willing to bet that the trip to the hospital had to do with him learning that Sondland was not about to lie for him.
Sondland tried his best NOT to throw trump under the bus but he couldn't do it and stay out of jail.
BTW on your recommendation I watched the exchange between Sondland and Sean Patrick Maloney. Maloney was awesome. The best kind of Irishman. I like him and will contribute also.
malaise
(278,243 posts)My favorite song on Nixon remains Lennon's Gimme some Truth
Dagstead Bumwood
(5,106 posts)I had the same feelings about Nixon that many had, and I thought I'd carry those through life. But, I remember seeing news coverage of Pat's funeral when it was held. And, he was standing there, being consoled by former Presidents and the like, and he was just as grief-stricken as a person can be. And in that moment, yeah, I felt some compassion for the man. It wasn't much longer afterward that he himself died. So, some decades on, I see him as more of a curiosity than the devil incarnate. But, when the real anti-Christ is upon you, it can change your perception of Nixon a bit.