against foreign governments for political gain then common law may resolve to federal statutes.

Til then, the Senate can start with our one pResident and say that the pResident can’t misuse military aid to help his reelection prospects, and can further say his actions functionally arise to a form of attempted bribery (aka the abuses of power) only achievable at the presidential level. There is no referring to the statutes, because they don’t apply presidentially.

And no, dersh, I’m not going through the looking glass with you and I’m not smoking what you’re pushing. I disagree that the only way to save our democratic ways is to turn the country into a de facto dictatorship. So, iow, he can just EAT ME.

Thanks for bringing that in. Am sharing it around.

Journaling the House Intel’s realtime debunking of the WH ‘defense’.

Eta: Link to the House Managers press conference after the ‘defense’ team’s appearance. Is another great round of debunking: https://www.c-span.org/video/?468583-1/house-impeachment-managers-hold-news-conference&live

Live Thread 1: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212908351

Parnas’s attorney has been on discussing how they’ve turned the tape over to the House.

*If* mcconnell gets his way, the trial will be grueling and rushed:

At 1:00pm on Wednesday 1/22 the senate will commence hearing dispositions and votes to arrive at the voting on the resolution for the rules of the trial.

After which he thinks the following constitutes an impeachment trial:

1. The 24 hour sprint: each side to layout their case for a total of 24 hours over two session days. That’s two twelve hour days starting at 1:00 pm ET on Wednesday 1/22. This means each day will adjourn in the middle of the night.

2. The 16 hour essay writing: time to write up questions for the final round or to submit into the ether for historians to wring out muzzled statesmanship.

3. The 2x4 hours of jabbing: each side gets 4 hours to deliberate at the other

Once this brown acid test of a trial peaks in all its awfulness, mcconnell expects Senators to beg for it to end, and move to foreclose calling for witnesses. He wants tRump to be able to claim exoneration at the State of the Union on Feb. 4.

Is cruel and unusual punishment for Senators with the temerity to be in office during the tRump pResidency. Is unreasonable and a disgrace to this country. It will be a painful display to witness IF he gets his way.

Oh, and he’s not allowing the House’s record to be automatically submitted into the proceedings. Gonna have to have a vote on that, because mcconnell is a terrible person.

These are my rapid takeaways. Please comment if I got something wrong. Am gonna have to clear my schedule for the week.


(Edited to correct the date/timing and emphasize that this is Moscow Mitch’s conception of how this should go. See onenote’s very helpful corrections below.)

Just so I can go around flagging bots. Is a brilliant thread from Wittes, as I think I now have a better grasp of how to spot bot type responses just from the nature of the posts.

Is somewhat cathartic going over his thread defending Lisa Page.

Journaled.

He’ll pay for this, as will his supporters whose children will be harmed as much as any other group, but I just wish he’d leave the kids out of his maniacal vengeance splurges.

Michelle Obama did a good thing, and he can’t take that away from her. That’s not as easy as taking fresh fruit and vegetables away from the nation’s schoolchildren.

Is it possible that he could have had long-standing resistance to military action against Iraq, but reluctantly voted for action after 9/11 based on the bush administration push with claims of WMDs, etc? Yes. Seems he DID have a different idea in his initial work with Lugar, and before the unfortunate vote (see below).

I wonder if this is what he’s meant all along, but hasn’t been able to explain for reasons that can’t fit into a sound bite for these gotcha moments.

And if he seems defensive, perhaps that’s because holding up his vote for the Iraq War (2003) as evidence of being some kind of unilateralist warhawk is inconsistent with his record and reputation. No one insinuates this with Bernie, and really shouldn’t with Biden either.

___
References below pulled from citations 121 & 127 as seen on Joe Biden’s Wikipedia page on January 8, 2020: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/13/world/confrontation-gulf-congress-acts-authorize-war-gulf-margins-are-5-votes-senate.html



https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-aug-24-na-foreignpol24-story.html

For putting the various actors along the timeline leading up to the hit on suleimani, and set against the backdrop of Pompeo’s kooky rapture zealotry.

Am fortunate that I lucked into getting a liberal education. I chose a long time ago to be secular, as I saw/learned of the abuses and cruelties that some Christians, etc. have perpetrated over the course of history. I will never understand how so many people could think that breaking the Ten Commandments will somehow give them a shortcut to heaven.