This is a thing the president of the United States just said:
As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over…
….the captured ISIS fighters and families. The U.S. has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS Caliphate. It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to protect their own territory. THE USA IS GREAT!
Remember that time Trump totally destroyed and obliterated the economy of Turkey? Seems to have slipped my mind. Halp?
GregB
Trump is entering his Aerys Targarian phase.
Amir Khalid
The Shitgibbon’s not one to understate his case, is he? Eyeroll.
randy khan
@GregB:
If only he were a fictional character.
Brant Lamb
When has he “destroyed and obliterated” (redundant, at any rate…) ANYONE’s economy? He’s annoyed the crap out of the Chinese, the Iranians, the Iraqis, and a variety of other people, including OUR OWN people, but destroyed and obliterated? Not hardly.
Tokyokie
“My great and unmatched wisdom” sounds like something The Wizard of Oz would say.
[Individual 1] mistermix
Very Oz-like. He’s in the process of destroying and obilterating our own economy, so there’s that.
Kay
GOP Senators could check him if they want to. They’re too scared to do it, though.
It’s only authoritarian rule because they’re allowing it. Replace them with people who aren’t too frightened to do their jobs.
Mayur
There isn’t enough liquor and therapy in the world…
Kay
Nancy needs to draft an additional Article: “Because He’s Crazy as a Bedbug”
Betty Cracker
Seriously though, what is he even talking about? I have a vague recollection of Trump sanctioning or threatening to sanction a couple of Turkish nationals in a snit over an American preacher who was being held as a spy (I think) and threatening sanctions after Turkey bought Russian military hardware. There was a dust-up after Erdoğan’s thugs beat the shit out of protesters, but I thought Trump approved of that?
Another Scott
Pelosi and Nadler and Schiff and should call him a “short-fingered thousandaire” a few times today, just to have him double-down a few more times.
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Tony Jay
Truly, the Sudafed is strong in this one.
Like, two family sized boxes strong.
Kdaug
“in my great and unmatched wisdom…”
Isn’t that directly lifted from L. Frank Baum? Some book he wrote about a pathetic little man hiding behind a curtain?
Gin & Tonic
@Brant Lamb:
Um, Atlantic City’s? The XFL’s?
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: He’s probably talking about destroying Iran’s economy (which he certainly is helping to do). Mixing up his antecedents, etc., is par for the course, especially on Twitter.
Just a guess.
Cheers,
Scott.
ruemara
@Brant Lamb: He’s destroying our economy quite well.
robmassing
No, he has never destroyed and obliterated Turkey’s economy. Does the base now believe that he has? I think to ask the question is to answer it.
Leto
If it was anyone else who was off-the-rails like this, we would be enacting red flag laws and checking them into the local mental health facility for long term observation. Well, in semi-sane states we would. In the rest of the dipshit country, we’d ignore it until they went and shot up a church, or nightclub, and then say there was nothing we could do about it while offering up, “thots and praers”.
Adam L Silverman
The Turks aren’t holding any significant number of ISIS fighters and neither are US Forces. Our Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) partners, who are Syrian Kurds and Syrian Christian Arabs (Syriacs) are holding almost all of the ISIS detainees in the area that Turkey is set to invade. The Turks have no ability or capability built to hold them. And I would expect that if the SDF has to go to ground, then they’d just release all the ISIS fighters and other ISIS folks they’re holding for us. The one Turkish detainment camp for ISIS fighters is considered to be a reradicalization site, which is actually making the ISIS problem worse, not better.
matt
He;s totally destroyed and obliterated a bunch of American farmers – maybe that’s what he’s talking about.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Only if it directly benefited him financially or his boss/owner vlad wanted it.
Mike in NC
“Great and unmatched wisdom”? That’s some crazy shit for Monday morning. He’s pissed off Loyal Lindsey, and the North Koreans refuse to meet again, and another whistleblower is blowing. Not going to be a good week for Individual-1.
The only thing Fat Bastard ever obliterated was a bag filled with Big Macs.
Kay
We have to cart out the potted plants and replace them with functioning grown ups.
Kent
The GOP was never going to check him. What they have done for the past 3 years is basically ignore him and go about their agenda of tax cuts, deregulation, and judges.
I’m coming around to the conclusion that one of the biggest benefits of this whole impeachment process is that it is going to force all the prominent GOPers to either embrace Trump completely, or start to finally check him. “Do you support Trump’s CRIMES?” is a question they’ll not be able to ignore and brush off nearly as easily.
I’m still not optimistic that impeachement is actually going to lead to removal of Trump from office. But it may well have the effect of tarnishing a whole bunch of GOPers who have been standing on the sidelines until now and certainly hurt their “brand”
We live in interesting times and now more than ever before in any other time in my life really have no idea how this is all going to turn out.
emrys
OT. Betty – I sent you a cat rescue posting via contact a front pager yesterday afternoon. Please let me know if you didn’t get it. Thank you.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Did he really say that? “Great and unmatched wisdom”? Or is that somebody paraphrasing him? And I hope it wasn’t a paraphrase, because as we all now know, paraphrasing the president is treason.
Leto
Also an obligatory, “we’ve reached the bunker stage”, or it’s a SAD re-enactment of, “The Madness of King George”.
Noncarborundum
Decompensation: it’s not just what you get in depaycheck.
MattF
Welp. That explains that.
Kay
@Kent:
He’s reeling. Democrats just need to keep hitting him. Take the whole stinking mess down and start over.
We’ll always have the stain that we put these people in, but the lasting damage can be mitigated.
BC in Illinois
If Trump is going to go full Oz, he’s going to have to be able to spell not only “great” and “powerful,” but also “beneficent.”
PaulWartenberg
Emperor Norton was less egomaniacal than this.
Jinchi
I know the man is insane, but I still needed confirmation from three different news sites before I believed you were serious.
BC in Illinois
Walter Shaub suggested Ozymandias:
satby
He just fired off an order based on a phone convo with Ergodan and now is trying to pretend that he’s in control of the outcome and that Putin and Ergodan actually would respect him.
I’m starting to light daily candles for a massive stroke or coronary.
Bruce K
I’m sorry, but if anything, wisdom is his dump stat. He put ALL his points into charisma, which is how he’s managed to get as far as he has.
Jinchi
It’s nice to know that there still is a red-line for Lindsay Graham. Would’ve been nicer if the line had been at treason, but whatever.
geg6
I think he’s talking about how he’s tanking and destroying the US economy.
But who the hell knows with this jackass?
low-tech cyclist
VP Pence and every Cabinet member and every GOP Congressperson should be asked if Trump isn’t well into 25th Amendment territory.
Leto
@Bruce K: “I cast Magic Missile at the darkness!”
donnah
@Adam L Silverman:
Brett McGurk is describing this right now on MSNBC and warning that Trump is making consequential decisions without information or knowledge of what should be done. And Adm Stavridis is saying that they acted without notifying the Pentagon, leaving them flat-footed.
This is not time for Republicans to dismiss or try to shrug off their fearless Leader. This is dangerous on multiple levels.
oatler.
High on the hill-top
The old King sits;
He is now so old and grey
He’s nigh lost his wits.
Cheryl Rofer
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): He really said it.
jl
Repeat comment from earlier thread.
You see that BS in North Korea. Trump is losing it, and little chance the GOP will do anything about it until their 2020 primaries are over. I’ve read news reports that they are all waiting for some other person to take the first plunge off the Trumpster crazy train. Maybe if they waiting to see if they have a credible fanatic Trumpster challenger in the primary before thinking about jumping, if they judge that a primary is pointless if their loyalty to Trump will doom them in the general election. Then… if they can jump all at once…. We’ll see but foolish to count on it.
Dean Baker in his Beat the Press blog has a rundown today on the failure of Trump’s whimsical trade and tariff wars, despite Trump’s great and unmatched wisdom. Prospects for future success are grim, since a large part of trade deficit is driven by US macroeconomic policy, and that should drive unchanged or increasing trade deficit in near term.
Donald Trump’s Trade War: Report from the Front
Written by Dean Baker
Published: 06 October 2019
http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/donald-trump-s-trade-war-report-from-the-front
Except I’ll add that with Trump, we can be more precise than Shakespeare: Trump can summon the spirits from the vasty deep, they don’t give a shit and won’t show.
Hoodie
I’ve been wondering why (other than he’s crazy) he is choosing this moment to sell out the Kurds because, after all, this is one thing that has a significant risk of getting him sideways with some of the Senate GOP. Could he possibly be contemplating resignation and fleeing to Turkey? I guess it would beat Russia or Saudi Arabia. Another possibility is that Erdogan may have suggested that his income stream from the Istanbul Trump Towers could be at risk if he doesn’t go along with the Turkish occupation. There again, Trump may be thinking more of his post-presidency income than any strategy to remain in office. It would be in keeping with his approach to the Moscow deal, which he wanted to keep open in case he lost the 2016 election.
Cheryl Rofer
In press briefings this morning, Departments of State and Defense are trying to walk back Trump’s statement from last night.
David Evans
Does that mean wearing a MAGA hat is now treasonable?
The Dangerman
Is this guy the President or the Wizard of Oz?
Where the fuck are my Ruby slippers? There’s no place like home (click, click), there’s no place like home (click, click)…
ETA: Come Toto!! No, not you, and quit singing about Roseanna, dammit!
ETA2: Shit, shoulda read comments. Done in 5. *sob*
TheOtherHank
@PaulWartenberg: Emperor Norton was the Protector of Mexico; he didn’t give anyone permission to invade it. And he said we should build the Bay Bridge. And he liked dogs.
gene108
@Gin & Tonic:
You mean the USFL. Had fun as a kid watching springtime football. Just another thing to resent him for.
XFL was a WWE venture
Mai naem mobile
@Kay: not defending bed bugs here but bag bugs are not crazy. They’re blood sucking assholes which is also an appropriate term to describe Trumpov. Also don’t use crazy as a loon because loons are quiet serene birds.
RandomMonster
What?
low-tech cyclist
@Jinchi:
Sure *sounded* like it could have been The Onion.
If only we were in an alternate Universe where it would have HAD to be from The Onion.
Leto
suffragettecity
Well he needed a birthday present for Putin.
JanieM
@Kay:
I cracked up at this. You gotta either laugh or cry, and sometimes it’s both at the same time.
Scuffletuffle
@Brant Lamb: in all fairness, he is working hard to destroy ours
jl
In 18th England, at least they could get a regent to run things when George III went mad.
hueyplong
“… I, in my great and unmatched wisdom…”
Question: Would it be better or worse if it turned out that was typed by an underling?
jl
@hueyplong: If typed by an underling, and this is some kind of sabotage, then I guess that is the best case scenario.
Otherwise, Trumpsters think MAGA is the new Caliphate, and Trump is its Caliph.
Frankensteinbeck
@Hoodie:
While bribery is always a possibility, Trump likes Erdogan, considers the Kurds brown people and has betrayed our alliance with them before, is generally isolationist despite his constant warlike language, has demonstrated that one of the only actions he’s willing to take in foreign policy is to stop doing something, has zero loyalty and will never stick up for anyone based on past favors, and is a fucking asshole who likes to shit on anyone he can. This might even have been his own idea. It can’t have been a hard sell.
Gin & Tonic
@gene108: Whatever, you got the gist. I’m clearly not a (US) football person.
Betty Cracker
@Hoodie:
Okay, maybe Trump is resigning the US presidency and accepting a minister of the economy position in Turkey, which would certainly set their economy up for total destruction and complete obliteration. But this still doesn’t explain the reference to having effected that destruction and obliteration in the past. I’m still confused! ;-)
ET
I call BS on him writing that tweet. First, he doesn’t know what reiterate means and then there is the unmatched wisdom. WTF? Also, it isn’t in all caps. Oh, and there is punctuation that doesn’t involve a series of exclamation points.
With that said, it doesn’t matter because it was on his twitter feed so it is his tweet.
Z. Mulls
@TheOtherHank: Nice to see a fellow support of our Beloved and Late Emperor. I’ve contributing a song to the upcoming fundraiser to support renaming the bridge.
oldgold
It is 25th Amendment time!
And, TODAY, Nancy Needs to call the House back into session to address this absolute craziness. And, yes, I know that the action authorized by Section 4 of the 25th Amendment is not initiated by the House. Nevertheless, this is an ALL HANDS ON DECK moment.
Martin
Hey parents – don’t call your kid a loser. You have no idea how much damage you might be causing to the world.
NotMax
“The hero of the epic is at once sciolist and simpleton, knowing many things, but knowing them all badly.”
– The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night
sciolism (noun): The practice, or an instance, of expressing opinions on something which one knows only superficially or of which has little real understanding.
Evil_Paul
@PaulWartenberg: Emperor Norton actually cared about his subjects. ESPECIALLY the immigrant communities. The man understood that the operative word in ‘public service’ is service.
Fleeting Expletive
He.Has.Lost.It,
I guess another never-before-contemplated questions might be whether “acting” Cabinet secretaries are counted in the quorum required for a 25th amendment solution?
Frankensteinbeck
@Martin:
One of the fine moral lessons the Finns teach in the Kalevala!
SiubhanDuinne
@Tokyokie:
@Cheryl Rofer:
The Wizard of Ozymandias.
Uncle Cosmo
@BC in Illinois: Orangecandyass.
Adam L Silverman
@donnah: McGurk knows what he’s talking about. As does Admiral Stavridis.
Fleeting Expletive
“Frank Baum”. I read that as Frank Burns.
Roger Moore
@Kent:
This is one of the major reasons I’ve been advocating it. I agree that the GOP is unlikely to actually vote to remove Trump, but too many of them have been following the strategy of hemming and hawing and making mild public criticism of Trump’s worst behavior while not doing the tiniest thing to stop it. Impeachment will force them off the fence, which is the best we can hope for.
rikyrah
@Kay:
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA H AH HA HA HAH A
Adam L Silverman
@JanieM: I’m all in favor of impeaching Brett Stephens. Can we also impeach Bari Weiss at the same time?
oldgold
ruemara
@oldgold: lol @ this. 25th amendment requires his cabinet to decide he’s unstable. Nancy should call the House (which has people actually at work right now) back to do what that they aren’t doing already, exactly? And once again, impeachment wouldn’t remove a flea, much less a president, without the actual Senate voting on his sentence.
LuciaMia
“What the fuck fuckity-fuck!!??!” no longer covers it.
piratedan
@Hoodie: I believe the methodology is based on bingo balls and that was the one that was floated out to be called next. Just glad that the nuclear Armageddon one hasn’t been pulled yet.
prostratedragon
Whew!
Stash this for when you need a break: Photo collection celebrating World Teachers’ Day
Leto
Haha, when the Nervous Nazi demands you blame the Ni-CLANG, Lindsey will be right there for you!
VOR
Thing is, Trump doesn’t own Trump Towers Istanbul. A local real estate developer owns it and only licensed the Trump name. So sure, the Trump Organization gets a cut of the revenue but they don’t own it.
Chyron HR
@oldgold:
You used to be more subtle.
Hungry Joe
If Steiner attacks everything will be all right.
Frankensteinbeck
@Hungry Joe:
Please tell me that’s a Battletech reference.
donnah
@Adam L Silverman:
yikes! If they’re worried, I’m more worried.
West of the Rockies
All joking aside, this is pathetic, ludicrous, and wildly dangerous. Going forward, Republicans NEVER, EVER get to complain about anything any Democratic politician does ever. (Democrats will police their own because that is actually something we do.)
trollhattan
USA!
USA!
USA!
USA!
USA!
Sheeeeeeeeyit.
But Jonah Goldberg maintains it’s wrong to impeach if you can simply wait for the election. All of these conversations present the election as an event happening next month, not next month plus one year, plus two more months until inauguration. Fvck that, we need something sooner. Much sooner.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: See, e.g. Juice, Balloon.
trollhattan
@West of the Rockies:
Sorry, but they’re already prepared with a Luntz-approved “We would never have elected Trump if that witch Hillary hadn’t made us do it!”
Betty Cracker
@Leto: Gotta grudgingly admire Graham’s psychological ploy there. Don’t think it’ll work, but if anything could get Trump to reverse course, it would be the (bogus!) suggestion that he’s doing something PBO did.
Jackie
@ET: My guess is Stephen Miller.
Frankensteinbeck
@trollhattan:
An argument I have heard, and I’m sure so have others here.
jimmiraybob
@Brant Lamb:
Do subcontracters and employees of failed businesses count?
patrick II
ISIS is Sunni, Hassad in Syria is Shiite and so is the Prime Minister of Iraq, al- Maliki. Leaving a crippled but viable Isis while at the same time double crossing the Kinds is not a recipe for success. There have been anti-government riots in Iraq just to add to the mess, Thanks GWB for starting and to Trump for not having the slightest idea of how to leave gracefully.
Adam L Silverman
@donnah: I’m worried. I reread the strategic assessment I gave in May 2016 as the keynote briefing for the commanding general, command group, senior staff, as much of the rest of the staff as they could stuff into the auditorium, and everyone at the outstations on the secure video teleconference for XVIII Airborne Corps strategic assessment week to prepare to deploy as the command element of Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve. Ambassador McGurk, as the special envoy, was on that secure video teleconference. He wouldn’t know me from Adam, and I am Adam, and I can’t say how much he was paying attention to my briefing as he wasn’t in the room, but I did “technically” brief him on this stuff back in 2016.
This isn’t just we’re once again betraying the Kurds bad. This is regionally strategically bad and has the ability to become geo-strategically bad. If the SDF sets the ISIS detainees free, because they can’t bring them with them when they go to ground and dig in for a fight to survive, those men and women will be in the wind. And they aren’t going to stay in Syria. They are going to move throughout the Levant, the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, and Europe. And while some of them will get picked up by security services in the states they’re transiting through or the states they get to at the end of their journey, a lot won’t. And that is going to be very, very, very, very, very, very bad!
Princess
@Hoodie: Trump isn’t forethoughtful enough to plan flight. I think Erdogan is blackmailing him with whatever is in those buried phone conversations Trump doesn’t even want his Nat Sec to know. Maybe something about Khashoggi’s murder, which happened in Turkey. Or Putin is calling in his chips. He knows Trump won’t be able to lift sanctions, so he wants America’s base in Turkey as a downpayment.
SFAW
You libtards, once again, have it all worng re: his reprisals against Turkey.
Non-libtards recall that he did that in response to Turkish terrorists killing all those innocents at the Bowling Green Massacre
NotMax
“Executive order renaming turkey as Freedom Fowl had been drafted. All it awaits is My Glorious Signature. That’ll show ’em! USA!!”
//
Jamie
@Noncarborundum:
I laughed out loud. :)
trollhattan
@Frankensteinbeck:
Right? It’s the inbred cousin to, “I would have voted for a woman, just not her.” [best accompanied by spitting tobacco juice into a tin can]
burnspbesq
Meanwhile, the district court dismissed trump’s action seeking to enjoin Cy Vance’s grand jury subpoena to Mazars. Brace yourself, kids, this day is far from over.
J R in WV
@Fleeting Expletive:
I asked that question a couple of weeks ago… no one answered, as it has never been asked formally before.!.
At least it’s raining here, after a record setting drought in southern WV. Farmers were running out of water to carry to their cattle in the fields, where the springs and creeks were dry. That’s tight.
We have had between 2 and 3 inches in the last 36 hours. The new puppies were confused, they hadn’t seen rain in so long they had forgotten all about it.
Frankensteinbeck
@burnspbesq:
The next court up already issued a stay.
taumaturgo
@Kay: This is an insult to bedbugs.
rikyrah
@Cheryl Rofer:
EITHER we have abandoned the Kurds…
Or, we have not.
There is no middle ground here.
Look at what they DO.
Have our troops been removed?
sukabi
@Frankensteinbeck: before this is over we’re likely to hear variants of “This was ALL a plot by Hillary to destroy America. The Russian / Ukrainian election interference, stacking the courts, slashing taxes on the wealthy and corporations, ect. ALL HILLARY’S AND OBAMA’S FAULT!!!1!
Adam L Silverman
@burnspbesq: And the 2nd Circuit has said it is prepared with the facts from the District Court to expedite the appeal. This is going to move fast and be ugly.
oldgold
@Chyron HR: :
That is not what I said or meant.
Let me try again. I believe it is important that our first branch of government be present and accounted for this week.
Frankensteinbeck
@Adam L Silverman:
Ooh. So while there’s a stay, there’s not likely to be a stay for long?
prostratedragon
@BC in Illinois: Several years ago I viewed an exhibition of artefacts from Akhetaten, the new city built by the pharaoh Akhnaten. Included was a larger than life bust of the pharaoh. As I contemplated his serene, enigmatically smiling visage, the thought occurred to me: This motherfucker was out of his mind!
Leto
@Betty Cracker: That’s chess level strategy when I doubt he can play jacks. :P BUT as you said, if there’s anyway to try to get the Orange Fatburg to change course, it might be that.
@Adam L Silverman: Ok, but what will be the bad stuff that happens? /s
artem1s
so the second whistleblower overheard a conversation between Erdogan and Dump maybe? Erdogan could be sitting on any number of things that Dump doesn’t want the world to hear about. At this point, I would assume anyone who had ever had a phone call with the Idiot in Chief probably has some pretty good dirt on him.
Adam L Silverman
@Frankensteinbeck: The stay was issued because of the President’s attorneys’ appeal. The 2nd Circuit is going to run an expedited appeal here to prevent it from dragging out. The question becomes, when they lose that appeal, do they go to the Supreme Court and how long that takes. I do expect that they’ll lose and then appeal to the Supreme Court. I’m not sure what happens then. I don’t know if Roberts wants no part of this. Though I’m pretty sure he doesn’t.
Bobby Thomson
I think we need to consider that the real Trump died when artificial intelligence became self aware and was replaced by a cyborg. That’s why he doesn’t like dogs.
John Connor, you’re our only hope.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
What transpires with Dolt 45 when an aide places a bucket of KFC on the table in the Oval Office, Alex?.
Frankensteinbeck
@sukabi:
While I have not heard that specific language blaming Hillary and Obama, this is a standard More-Left-Than-Thou argument. That Democrats haven’t stopped Republicans from doing all this stuff means that Democrats support it, and their strategy is to pretend to oppose, then give up.
Kay
@artem1s:
They have to remove him for this alone. No one believes he works for the United States, nor should they. I mean we can kid ourselves all we want but these dialogues and negotiations are occurring and the other parties are WELL aware he’s corrupt. They already know.
We were the LAST people to find out about Ukraine, the US public. Everyone else knew, and had known for months. All of Congress knew.
scav
I have this urge to auto-intone (basso-profundo of course) “in your great and unmatched wisdom” after any preening statement by my conservative neighbors.
Could also envision an pie-filte app that adds it to every statement by a conservative piller.
Kay
It’s always been weird how Trump and the low quality always loudly insist they’re working for the United States.
No other President or his team felt the need to say that, but these people screech about it daily. From Day One it was a defense to an accusation no one had made yet.
Matt McIrvin
@sukabi: There was already a theory in 2016 that Trump’s entire candidacy was a plot initiated by the Clintons to bring down the Republican Party. When he became President the flaw in any such plan became clear. But I suppose someone could just insist that everything that’s happened since then is all part of the quadruple bankshot contradiction-heightening Clinton plan.
RSA
@NotMax:
Excellent. Thanks.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: Oh, the accusation had been made.
rikyrah
@Kay:
TRUTH
Adam L Silverman
@Leto: Not in any particular order of badness:
1) Erdogan gets himself bogged down in Syria trying to set up his 30 mile buffer zone. Putin then decides he’s going to tighten the screws and both actual Russia military personnel and Wagner mercenaries come into conflict with Turkish forces and, as a result, Erdogan needs help and decides to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter. This places the US and the rest of NATO in the position of either responding to the Article 5 invocation or fracturing NATO because no one wants to support an increasingly erratic and authoritarian Erdogan. Also, no one really knows how competent the Turkish military is right now given that Erdogan has purged the military of his perceived opponents.
2) The ISIS detainees currently held by the SDF are cut loose by the SDF because they can’t detain them and fight for survival at the same time. They go into the wind, which exponentially increases the ISIS threat through the Middle East, Central Asia, Europe, and Africa.
3) It sets off a new wave of refugees. This has the ability to destabilize Lebanon and Jordan. And it will further increase the neo-nationalist and neo-fascist pressures in Europe that are built around an anti-immigrant and anti-refugee attitudes.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Don’t forget the hogshead of gravy!
jl
@artem1s: I heard on the news that the second WB has first hand knowledge of the Ukrainian phone call where Trump made the ask to Zelensky.
Interesting tweet from Josh Marshall, US military says it will still control airspace and will deny Turkish air access.
Not sure if this is open defiance of Trump, or this is another Trump stunt he did all on his own without consulting anyone (at least no one in US government), so exactly what his orders are as commander in chief are somewhat vague and open to interpretation (aka wild guesses as to how to keep some control over a possible complete mess). Or, Trump’s order is another Trump fraud. So many possibilities with Trump, none of them good.
@joshtpm
Various parts of USG are now saying we remain in control of northern syria. which could in theory be true except for the part where the President explicitly stated that a Turkish military incursion wld start soon and wldn’t be blocked by the US.
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1181258167440855042
trollhattan
@RSA:
Why was the first person I thought of Meghan (or however she spells it) McCain? Her opinion generator seems installed in the BIOS and cannot be updated.
Leto
@Kay: One of the things I like to dream about is that the next administration will help expose all the utter horrible shit that is currently going on. But I perused the Presidential Records Act of ‘78 yesterday and saw this:
And honestly I don’t know if we’ll ever get the full public record because if those records aren’t, simply, destroyed, Trumpov will try to keep all of this shit tied up in litigation forever. I just don’t have a lot of confidence that we’re going to find out the full picture. I still hope I’m wrong.
Elizabelle
Look at this shitty headline from the FTF NY Times. It’s on a story by Republican whisperer Peter Baker. You can be forgiven if you come away thinking only Republicans will save us on this issue.
Republicans Object as Trump Says ‘It’s Time for Us to Get Out’ of Syria
At the end of the seventh paragraph:
And that is the only place you will see “Democrat” referring to an American. The word “Republican” appears 8 times.
They lip service about “swift and bipartisan backlash” but not a single Democrat is quoted. Not a one. Unless the Pentagon spokesman happens to be, and that is his business.
Bipartisan only appends to Republicans.
I mean, yeah, the thrust of the story is that it’s a break with Trump, but these headlines give the impression that only Republicans matter. They always hit me the wrong way. As with “Congress is historically unpopular” when it’s primarily the GOP holding that number down.
This is not an accident.
Mandalay
Maybe I’m overthinking this, but perhaps Trump is crazy like a fox.
Trump’s words are nothing to do with Turkey or ISIS, and everything to do him getting impeached for calling on other nations to do his dirty work.
The cunning plan of his minders may be that they can point to tweets like this and argue that they are part of a larger pattern where Trump is obviously not being serious; it’s just “Trump being Trump”, and it’s not his fault that the Prime Minister of Ukraine and whistle blowers were dumb enough to treat his comments seriously.
That’s already the approach being used by Lil’ Marco, Gym Jordan et al: “Aww c’mon! Trump obviously wasn’t being serious when he said {something clearly impeachable}“.
I don’t think it’s going to work, but it’s probably all they’ve got at this stage.
Kay
I just fundamentally don’t believe this. People don’t go from “good to bad” at his age. Not that it matters but if I were her I would look at what I missed in him rather than believing he changed into a completely different person.
There’s just never any real self examination. They’re never just wrong. It’s always some miraculous conversion has occurred.
Maybe she’s a poor judge of character. That seems possible.
Soprano2
@trollhattan: I heard that interview this morning, and I wanted to reach through the radio and strangle Jonah. “We should impeach presidents more, but not this president at this particular time”. Good God man, have you noticed that he’s batshit insane? I was on the not-impeaching-Trump train for a long time because I was afraid it would turn him into a martyr, but once the Ukraine stuff was revealed they had no choice. Seeing that he’s getting more unstable by the hour, I worry more and more that he might do something irreversible because he’s lashing out in anger. I can’t think the ruling on his taxes that came out today will help that situation any at all. He’s always been dangerous, just now more so since he’s a wounded animal being backed into a corner.
catclub
@patrick II:
and I heard that about 40 people have been killed in those riots.
Meanwhile, one critically wounded demonstrator in Hong Kong is big news.
ETA: I had old news. “Iraq protests: Death toll nears 100 as unrest enters fifth day …” is two days old.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Frankensteinbeck:
Why?
donnah
@Adam L Silverman:
Thanks for the confirmation, Adam. I’m also hearing that our allies, France most recently today, have expressed concerns about Trump’s decision in Syria. And apparently Trump not only left the Pentagon out of the process, he also neglected to notify others in the region, like Israel and the UK.
He is poisoning the country for the rest of the world and other countries are forced to evaluate their relationships with us. And what he’s doing is scary. And is it another way to switch attention to something else other than the impeachment process? It seems impulsive and drastic, more of a reaction than a plan.
Jeffro
@Martin: I know, right?
THANKS SO MUCH, FRED TRUMP!
Martin
@NotMax: I thought that was mansplaining.
hueyplong
@Mandalay: Cunning and Crazy Like a Fox vacated the premises a long time ago.
Bugfuck Crazy and Lickspittals are the only remaining residents.
Leto
@Adam L Silverman: *brow furrowed and hand on chin* Hmmm, hmmm… ok, thanks for that Dr. Silverman. Roger, can you put together a few notes and have that ready for my briefing with Gen Higherup? (Notes- ISIS bad! Containment good!) /s
(I haven’t delivered any briefings higher than a 2-star, but that’s how they always sort of felt. Also thanks for keeping us appraised of the global picture)
BC in Illinois
You know, the Oz angle has something going for it.
Adam L Silverman
@Leto: Been there, done that, have the challenge coin.
Elizabelle
@NotMax:
See also “Pundits, television version.” And “highly paid media mouths.”
catclub
@Kay:
Actually there are lots of stories of Fox News syndrome in parents which is exactly that. Combined with various levels of dementia that shows up as personality changes.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Watched Rev. Al on Joy Reid this weekend. He was like…
THIS Rudy is EXACTLY the Rudy we —
The Non-White People of New York City
Saw when he was Mayor.
Not anything new whatsoever.
mrmoshpotato
Is that an actual quote or someone just having fun with Dump’s idiocy?
I don’t know anymore.
catclub
@Mandalay:
That is #1 (Just Kidding) on the excuse list Jennifer Rubin described — WAPO
trollhattan
@Soprano2:
Well said. Don’t think I’m overly dramatic saying we cannot afford him to be in power until January 2021. Just ponder the damage done in the last month alone, then envision fifteen more of the same.
The Moar You Know
@VOR: From what I was told by the locals, same for Trump Vegas. How you’d verify such a thing, I do not know.
Frankensteinbeck
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Because it’s inappropriate to let someone do something while you decide whether or not they’re allowed to do it.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan:
trollhattan
@donnah:
How does the next president assure allies and other nations that Trump was an anomaly and we will never, ever do anything crazy like electing somebody like that again, pinkie swear. Why should they trust us?
Jay C
@Betty Cracker:
Not sure how true it is (sorry, no link), but I saw a piece on the ‘Net today mentioning a possible interpretation of Trump’s lunatic “threat” to the Turkish economy relates to a massive fine the US is “entitled” to assess on some Turkish bank or money company (?) over a HUGE money-laundering scheme contrived to evade financial sanctions on dealings with Iran. Which fine hasn’t been levied yet – obviously out of the goodness of our hearts…
So IOW, typical Trump “Foreign Policy” move – one insane crackpot policy enacted in support of another, worse, one. It would be laughable except for the impending bloodshed likely to be involved.
mrmoshpotato
@mrmoshpotato: Oh fucking hell. It’s a damn tweet. (h/t LGF’s Charles Johnson)
NotMax
After a good swift kick and being fed a fresh pot of very strong tea, the patented Trump Razor Detector spit out this readout:
“We need something to take the spotlight off impeachment.”
“How about a dramatic announcement about the military? That always grabs attention.”
“Make it so.”
PROBABILITY: HIGH
Brachiator
@Tokyokie:
Coming a little late to the thread, but it’s hard to keep up with the Great Orange Dope.
But Wizard of Oz was exactly what I thought about this. But damn, I am so tired of this third rate megalomania.
NotMax
OT.
Just in case, it’s not you. Prime video experiencing widespread outages as of 1:24 p.m. Eastern time today.
Kay
Every single Trump hire is horribly corrupt, and they were completely unsupervised for 3 years. She’s turned the US transportation budget into a slush fund for her husband’s re-elect.
The lack of progress on the infrastructure projects make more sense when you realize they’re all looting the funding.
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
We’re way past this. You’ve got newly installed leaders like Boris Johnson doing their best to emulate Trump. Or India, and the Modi Operandi.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@trollhattan:
Some of those other nations should take a hard look in the mirror and ask themselves if they’re really so immune to foreign disinformation and cyberattacks.
I get what you’re saying, but it’s not as clear cut as that
What @Brachiator: said. We’re all in this together
FelonyGovt
@Another Scott: He’s helping to destroy Cuba’s economy, too. What a sad excuse for a person he is.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
Your points are excellent and on point, as usual, Kay, but just FTR the author of that op-ed is a guy.
But I agree. Never much liked Rudy anyhow, but I was at an event less than a year after 9/11 where he was the keynote speaker, and he was already showing major signs of having lost it.
Jamie
@Soprano2:
Yeah, it’s an argument that is either stupid or made in bad faith.
Pundit: We should let the voters decide.
Trump (loudly): I’m going to ratfuck the living hell out of the next election!
Pundit (with furrowed brow): That sounds bad! We should let the voters decide if it’s really bad, though, not do anything drastic like, um, resorting to the Constitutional remedy for this sort of thing.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Frankensteinbeck: I suppose. I guess the court has to do this, whether they side with NY or not. I was expecting (hoping) the court would affirm the lower court’s decision
catclub
@FelonyGovt:
Well that is pretty much in line with 50 years of US policy towards Cuba. Obama was the aberration there.
Likewise for immigration policy. Trump is following various horrible US traditions that we like to forget.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: “The wicked flee where none pursueth”. Altho’ in this case, I’d say they’re starting to attract some pursuit. Finally.
catclub
@Jamie:
Is there is any bar to someone who was impeached from running for office again?
zhena gogolia
@Jamie:
EXACTLY
catclub
This is just wrong. As long as it is still on hold, he has not lost.
Jamie
@catclub:
Not that I know of, but I’m not very smart on the subject.
Brachiator
@catclub:
Gotta be convicted.
ET
Lindsey can squawk all the day long it won’t matter. The Kurds have nothing to off tRump in any way and loyalty – or keeping a promise to someone not giving him something – is not something he feels. All Lindsey’s a** kissing hasn’t and won’t ever do him any good.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay:
Not going to rob a bank, not going to rob a bank, you’re the puppet! Sad and unbigly untremendous!
Yutsano
@Adam L Silverman:
We’re gonna need a lot more cheese curds…
Mandalay
@NotMax:
This.
And it will probably work for a few minutes, but getting Trump impeached is a drawn out process, not a specific event, so Trump’s larger problem isn’t going away just because of a couple of mad tweets.
mrmoshpotato
@Jamie: Or if you’re Chuckles Todd last Friday, you act really concerned and then let a guest lie like a rug 19 minutes later.
Aleta
@Kay: I don’t know who wrote that, but she’s lying, I suppose to help soften Giuliani? If she was working for him in 1993 she was there in 1992 during Giuliani’s campaign to be mayor when he led a racist riot of police officers against Mayor Dinkins and other Black elected officials and bystanders. News reports in 1992 aren’t hard to find; this one written later by Nat Hentoff describes some of the racist abuse.
gvg
@Kay: It’s also possible that the situation and opportunities changed. He may have known he would lose every New York election if he let his freak flag fly then and kept it under raps. He also seems to me to be even further into senility than Trump, currently.
I actually have a fear of senility decreasing my mental controls to where whatever nasty side of myself comes out but I don’t know it. We all to some degree choose our values as adults, and with all our mental abilities intact, it seems easy to choose not to be racist or anti gay for instance, but what about when we are really old…
Jamie
@mrmoshpotato:
Of course.
J R in WV
@catclub:
Yes, if they’re convicted in the Senate, they lose the right to all Federal posts, and maybe their pension, IIRC.
mrmoshpotato
@Yutsano: Mmmm….poutine.
RedDirtGirl
Holy mother forking shirt balls!!!!
patrick II
As much as I like to blame this all on Trump, and I do, let’s not leave Erdogan blameless. Turkey has been walking the line, but staying on the Euro/NATO side of things for years. We have bases there and a tradition of cooperation. But Erdogan has become a dictator, has leverage, both because we want NATO to have that military advantage, plus whatever he has against Trump. He is playing the U.S. and Putin (not necessarily Trump and Putin — Trump’s interests are different) against each other. It’s a tough problem even if Trump wasn’t president — and an impossible one since he is.
Aleta
@Aleta: The NYT opinion piece today was wriiten by Ken Frydman.
Mr. Frydman was press secretary for Rudolph W. Giuliani during the 1993 mayoral campaign. So he was there in 1992.
Matt McIrvin
@Jamie: Kind of like the Supreme Court’s “if gerrymandering nullifies your vote, you should express your displeasure at the ballot box”.
burnspbesq
@Adam L Silverman:
The district court opinion is really solid. I wouldn’t be shocked to see a summary affirmance.
PJ
@catclub: @SiubhanDuinne: Rudy’s judgment was always impaired. He’s the guy who, over objections by security experts, insisted on putting New York’s emergency response center in the World Trade Center, well after the 1993 bombing there.
Hungry Joe
@Frankensteinbeck: Nope. It was (yet another) reference to “Downfall” — the Hitler-in-the-bunker movie).
Jeffro
FWIW, ol’ Moscow Mitch just told trumpov to ‘exercise American leadership’ w/ Turkey and the Kurds.
You’re feeling it, aren’t you GOP? The SS Trumpublican is starting to list (to starboard, natch!) and you just can’t ‘spin’ your way out of that.
Best wishes!
...now I try to be amused
I wouldn’t get my hopes up for the 25th Amendment. The President can contest his removal in writing. If he does, it requires a 2/3 majority of both houses of Congress to uphold his removal. That is to say, if the President is conscious then the 25th Amendment is harder to implement than impeachment.
patrick II
@Leto:
Linsay is ruthless, but not dumb.
dww44
@Roger Moore: And, early on, indeed in so far as I remember, Warren was the first prominent, certainly elected, Democrat to call for impeachment and force the Republicans to take a vote that they will have to account for for the rest of their lives.
LesGS
@Elizabelle: So another word for “pundit” would be “sciolist”…
Elizabelle
WaPost: McConnell joins the Democrats and renegade Republicans on Syria:
Nice to see an issue that brings out the stops. Foreign, of course. We would not be in this position with Trump if any of the GOP retrogrades felt as strongly about United States voting rights.
Actions have consequences.
mrmoshpotato
@RedDirtGirl: Surprised by the giant flying shrimp?
Elizabelle
Re the Rudy story in the NY Times: Blame the wimmens and the dead:
Adam L Silverman
@burnspbesq: I’m just a criminologist, not an attorney, but no arguments from me.
mrmoshpotato
@…now I try to be amused:
“I’m tremendous bigly and a horse should be in the Senate!”
“Ok, I guess the 25th amendment is off.”
Roger Moore
@catclub:
There can be. From Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution:
So the punishment for impeachment may include being forbidden from running for federal office again, but this is not clearly a mandatory punishment.
Elizabelle
Thank you, WaPost: top story on website at the moment:
Flailing? Says who? Peter Baker?
It’s not flailing by Democrats. It’s the Republicans acting as accessories to Trump.
germy
@Elizabelle: And WaPo is supposed to be the good one.
Carol
@Cheryl Rofer: It seems the evangelicals consider him to be King Cyrus of Persia. There’s no doubt today after this tweet that he believes it, too. Here’s the article by Katherine Stewart in the NYT that explains why the evangelicals support him so strongly.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/opinion/trump-evangelicals-cyrus-king.html?searchResultPosition=11
mrmoshpotato
@Elizabelle: @germy: Has Nancy SMASH ever smacked a member of the press? Is it too late to start?
Gin & Tonic
@burnspbesq:
Is that a fancy lawyer word? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in writing, and would choose affirmation, myself.
frosty
@Matt McIrvin: That’s some plan, that quadruple bankshot contradiction-heightening Clinton plan.
Elizabelle
@germy: I know.
A jackal supposed a few months back that our political opponents are ensconced at the major media properties, writing headlines, and I feel like I see that regularly, more so at the FTF NY Times.
4,000 reader comments on that story, and most popular one takes on the “flailing” in the headline. Someone else brings up the fondness for Democrats in Disarrary.
This is beneath the WaPost. It really is.
Bobby Thomson
@…now I try to be amused: correct, but you’re screaming into the void. People don’t want to hear the facts, don’t pay attention, and don’t remember.
ruemara
@rikyrah: THANK. YOU.
The man goaded cops into a riot where they BURNED the first black mayor in effigy and used that to get elected!
Gravenstone
I’d say he’s well and truly lost it. But he never really had it. Just used daddy’s money to buy people to cover up his past fuck ups.
Elizabelle
@germy: Just read the article and there is nothing about flailing. There is some false equivalence in a quote by a former Republican congressman, Tom Davis of Northern Virginia. But nothing to support “flailing.”
There’s a flat out statement:
This headline is a case for Margaret Sullivan, their marvelous ombudsman. The headline does not represent the story.
JDM
I think he’s confusing it with the times he crushed and destroyed a football league, an airline, and several casinos.
mrmoshpotato
@Gravenstone:
Don’t forget all the bankrupt Trump Trash brands that he ran off with the money from.
Helen Lovejoy: Oh won’t somebody pleeeease think of all the bankrupt Trump Trash brands that he ran off with the money from!
Seanly
@Tokyokie:
I’m pretty sure that wisdom is like intelligence & many other traits – if you have to tell people how smart/wise/funny/sexy you are then you probably aren’t.
jonas
@Cheryl Rofer:
Um, is it fair to ask at this point who is actually running the executive branch? The president — or whoever has access to WH stationery — appears to have issued an order, followed by a couple of insane tweets from Trump threatening Turkey, and the DOD and DOS are saying they’re not going to do it? What the holy hell is going on here?
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Evil_Paul: Yeah, but Emperor Norton was also Jewish and an immigrant, so clearly part of the global elite conspiracy, which automatically discredits all his views. Take that, Mexico! and bridges! and public service! and dogs!
Elie
As I have said and think, this is gonna get cra-cra crazy bad … Dude is effed up and getting more so. We are gonna have all we can do to keep ourselves on the rails since it aint just him that is a mess. His whole administration is tying itself and us into knots that will take a lot of work and a lot of pain to untangle. There is no emergency brake that we can pull to keep them from ACTING. They are able to and will continue to do so until we are ground to a halt. Why? They will continue to try to cover up their deeds while adding new actions to implement their nuts agenda. Between covering up their actions and aggressively doing new initiatives, they are accomplishing what Putin wants: the destruction of the United States as a functioning, stable political state. THIS is what is the goal. I am very very scared for us.
oldgold
@Roger Moore:
Not necessarily.
The Senate can remove an individual from office in accordance with Section 3 of Article I of the Constitution without disqualifying the removed individual from holding a federal office in the future.
This happened with Alcee Hastings. He was removed by the Senate from the federal bench. Four years later he ran and won a House seat.
sdhays
@Kay: I just want to add this to the record here, lest anyone forget: the NYC emergency command center was placed in the WTC, AFTER it had already been the target of a serious terrorist attack in ’93 (?), by Rudy Giuliani so that he could hook up with his mistress more conveniently. That’s what we’re talking about when we’re talking about Rudy Giuliani’s competence in the 90’s. He was corrupt then, and anyone working for him knew it, whether they want to admit it or not.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Z. Mulls: Hey! Long time no see! Nice to have you back.
Roger Moore
@mrmoshpotato:
She can just delegate it to Maxine Waters. Michael Tracey still hasn’t recovered from Waters smacking him down.
mrmoshpotato
@Roger Moore: I’m good with that.
NotMax
@Roger Moore
Correct. The Senate must also direct that a bar to holding office post-removal is in effect, otherwise there is no impediment to the convicted doing so. It is not automatically applied upon conviction.
joel hanes
@Frankensteinbeck:
why … he is choosing this moment
To counter a threat, he creates chaos on some other stage, which distracts and deflects the press narrative.
This is a President* who thinks that one of the chief ends of government is to magnify his image in the press.
“Public Relations” and grift are pretty much the whole of what he does.
DR. TAM : What *do* you pay him for? [wrt Jayne]
MAL: Public relations.
Llelldorin
@rikyrah:
So very much this. The evidence is as follows:
(1) Rudy Giuliani is behaving exactly as described by his critics back in the day.
(2) I didn’t notice him behaving in that way back in the day.
Obvious conclusion: I missed it back in the day because we was perfectly pleasant to me, a conservative who agreed with him. I should really listen more to people being critical, since they were obviously right all along.
Conceited opinion: Back in the day I was completely correct, and his critics were making up false charges. Now he’s under some evil spell, and is behaving in a totally new fashion. The fact that New Evil Giuliani precisely matches the earlier claims is a massive coincidence that I can’t find any plausible explanation for.
Naturally, the quoted person went with 2. Self-reflection is for liberals and little people.
rikyrah
@Carol:
Why Trump Reigns as King Cyrus
The Christian right doesn’t like the president only for his judges. They like his style.
By Katherine Stewart
Ms. Stewart writes regularly about the political activities of evangelicals and other religious groups.
RedDirtGirl
@David Evans: I like the cut of your jib!
Jay
Yutsano
@Jay: I have read this three times. I have no idea what she’s saying.
Jay
Jay
@Yutsano:
Flynn was still an undeclared lobbiest for Russians and Turkey when Dolt 45 made him Nat. Sec.
Uncle Cosmo
@Elizabelle:
I recall posting to that effect a few months back, but I may have been one voice among others. The Far Wrong slant of headlines & chyrons relative to the full story has been a characteristic of MSM for years if not decades. It might be no more than a method of getting more eyeballs on the page – but I rather believe it’s a deliberate attempt to leave a biased impression in the casual viewer’s mind (kind of like how during the Congressional page scandal Fox repeatedly identified prime villain Mark Foley as a Democrat).
We might want to contact WaPo to decry the bias of the headline, demand they investigate to determine who wrote it & who approved it, & insist that the parties responsible be shitcanned.
Jay
J R in WV
Trump is obviously clinically insane, some people are aware and trying to resist his more obviously insane policies. Other people, including senior editors at many media institutions, are aware, and are attempting to foment more crazy for clicks and money.
Uncle Cosmo
@low-tech cyclist: I’ve been pretty much a broken record re how the 25th Amendment won’t work, since it requires more votes (2/3 in the Senate & House of Representatives) to continue VPOTUS as Acting President for longer than (roughly) 4 weeks, & prevent the disqualified POTUS who chooses to contest the issue from resuming “the powers and duties of the office” after that, than would permanent removal (2/3 in the Senate) after impeachment.(simple majority in the House).
But now that I think about it, it might be an easier lift for the GOP than an impeachment trial. Here’s the reasoning:
1) There seems to be nothing in the Amendment that requires all members to be present & counted (whether voting or not) for purposes of determining the 2/3 threshold.[1] It appears that the only requirement is for a quorum of either chamber, which consists of a majority of members (217 in the House[2], 51 in the Senate).
2) Democrats can muster a quorum in the House from their own members (235, plus 1 “independent”); at least 6 non-Democrats would be needed in the Senate to form a quorum.
3) To invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment could in theory require as few as 145 votes (2/3 of 217) in the House and 34 votes in the Senate (2/3 of 51), depending on the number of members present.
3a) If all Democrats and Independents in the House were present and voting to reaffirm the disability of POTUS, it would carry without a single GOP vote in favor. In fact, as many as 118 GOP Representatives could be present and voting against, and it would still pass ((235+1)/(235+1+118) = 236/354 = 2/3 ).
3b) If all Democratic and Independent Senators were present and voting to reaffirm the disability of POTUS, it would carry without a single GOP vote in favor (although at least 4 GOP Senators would need to be present and voting). In fact as many as 23 GOP senators could be present and voting against, and it would still carry ( (45+2)/(47+23) = 47/70 > 2/3 ).
4) So if the GOP concludes that Twitler is sufficiently unstable (or electorally kryptonitic) to warrant transferring “the powers and duties of the office” to VPOTUS, it could be managed in all sorts of interesting ways, among them providing cover for incumbents to vote against who otherwise might face primary challenges from Trumpistas & for incumbents threatened in the general to vote in favor (Susan Collins, you listening?)
5) Of course the Democrats could play their own games with the quorum count & vote totals…
6) Amendment 25/4 does not specify how long POTUS has to file his written statement contesting VPOTUS/Cabinet’s claim of his inability (presumably to allow for long convalescences etc.) – only that Congress has to vote to continue VPOTUS as Acting POTUS within 21-23 days subsequent to the delivery of such a statement. So this could become a rotating monthly circus – a Trumpstrual cycle, if you will. (Maybe even if you won’t.)
(Edited to fix numbers)
Notes:
[1] Nor, for that matter, in the Senate Rules for Impeachment Trials; I could find no equivalent set of rules for the House.
[2]Two House vacancies to be filled in early 2020.
Uncle Cosmo
@hueyplong: It occurs to me that “my great and unmatched wisdom” may turn out the Trump Maladministration equivalent of THE WORLD WONDERS at the Battle of Leyte Gulf.