Here’s her full statement on why she won’t vote for witnesses, but the tl;dr is some nonsense about the trial being too politicized, she’s tearful about how John Roberts has been attacked, etc. Don’t waste your beautiful minds trying to make sense of it. Some words had to be formed into sentences, those sentences formed into paragraphs, all in the form of statement, to keep her sinecure intact.
The only thing left is to take this vote and hammer away at all the senators who were part of it. It’s Democrats’ turn to wrap ourselves in the flag, quote the Constitution, and amp up the traitor rhetoric that Republicans love to use at every convenient occasion.
Also, I realize I’m really leaning on this song but I’m not aware of any better expression of the absurdity of the feigned outrage that we’ve been seeing.
SFAW
Feigned outrage? GMAFB
Oh, you meant from the Partei of Traitors? In that case, never mind.
chopper
so congress did it all wrong. huh. i wonder how the senator would have wanted the whole process to happen instead.
JPL
hmmm what would EFG say after reading her statement.
SFAW
@chopper:
“No impeachment! No impeachment! YOU’RE the impeachment!!!”
trollhattan
@chopper:
If only she knew somebody who’s part of this “congress” thing. If only….
Kent
Murkowski is Senator for life in Alaska unless she switches parties. She might do the whole Susan Collins kabuki act but it isn’t really a meaningful electoral exercise for her. The only electoral threat she ever gets is from the tea party right. And besides, she isn’t up until 2022 anyway.
The only Senators that matter at this point are the 2020 class in blue or vaguely purple states.
chopper
@trollhattan:
it’s a fuckin’ quandary all right.
trollhattan
@Kent:
Ironic that she technically did change parties to “independent” to keep her seat, last go. It proved remarkably easy (I’d insert “So why is Wilmer finding it so difficult?” but it’s Friday and all).
Yutsano
@Kent:
Screw that. We should gun for all 22 of them. Sure we won’t get them all but let’s make them all own this acquittal.
jl
This has to make her vulnerable. As I typed in a previous thread today, as far as any one with sense can make out her nonsense statement, her position is that the process is bad, but she won’t lift a finger to try to salvage it.
I checked her wiki and my memory was correct. She’s currently in the most pompous nondeliberative legislative corpse in the world due to a write in vote after losing the Alaskan GOP primary to a wingnut. So her current political brand in Alaska is very definitely not as a GOP loyalist, she formally bucked the Party to get re-elected. Wiki also says she’s never won by a majority vote. And even though most of Alaska is deep read, a big chunk is purple to blue. And the deep red is not the kind that won’t elect a moderate Democrat.
Nonsense is probably the best she can do right now. We have to hope it won’t be enough in November.
Kent
@Yutsano: Oh, yes. I agree. 50 state strategy and all. You never know when you might find a pedophile on the GOP ballot and pull off a Doug Jones.
But in terms of where to put the money and effort, it should be the 10 most vulnerable.
Alaska Reader
I wonder who in her camp is so skilled in the production of grammatically muddled weasel words. It’s not Lisa, but she’s attracted to her side an adept partner in crime.
Behold Murkowski’s disingenuous word salad of a ‘statement’, it is perniciously crafted to create for her the ultimate assemblage of weasel words.
Carefully engineered so she can return to it and mine that word salad in order to rebut any criticism with future ‘statements’ she can release appearing to say anything or nothing at all.
She’s proud of her shamelessness.
joel hanes
The below is stolen from Hilary Bok, the much-missed “hilzoy” who graced the Obsidian Wings blog during the reign of Bush the Lesser:
31 Jan 2020
Jeff Sharlet @JeffSharlet
I think today is going to be it! The big day — the day future historians will call the last, weak death rattle of American democracy. (Only among themselves, of course, since in the country we are becoming, publishing such ideas will be ill-advised.)
—
Hilary Bok @hilzoy replies :
So: I like to read history. And if you read enough history, you realize that even systems of government that look permanent are not.
Oceans rise. Empires fall.
You also realize that things like the rule of law and peace are not the natural human condition. For most of human history, we lived under what were basically glorified gangs defending their turf. Some had pretenses to virtue, and sometimes they even tried to live up to them. But generally life under those governments was horrible.
I have always thought of the rule of law, in particular, as a kind of miracle.
What could be more natural, if you have power, than to use it to protect yourself and your friends, and to go after your enemies? It’s so obvious. And replacing that with a set of norms that are followed often enough that we can say that “the rule of law” obtains is incredibly difficult.
As with so many things, much harder to build up than to tear down. That we live in a country that has a tradition of the rule of law, and a Constitution that allows us to choose our own leaders, is a precious inheritance.
This is so even despite the huge ways in which we failed to live up to our ideals.
If you read history, you can sometimes see the chain of stupid mistakes that lead to the downfall of a country or a regime.
One of the things I found shattering about Trump’s election was that he was so clueless and incurious that he was bound to make many such mistakes. But his supporters didn’t care. I guess they assume that our government is eternal, that there are no mistakes that we cannot recover from, that unlike EVERY SOCIETY IN HISTORY, we get to make mistakes without paying the price. As though Making America Great just required hats, not, you know, an actual EFFORT to figure out what greatness was, and how we might make our country live up to its best ideals. But what was worse — MUCH worse — was that they did not seem bothered by his disregard for the law.
To me, the rule of law is the precondition for almost every good thing in a society. As I said earlier, it’s not natural to us, and it must be maintained. To maintain the rule of law, you need people who are willing to uphold the law even when it requires sacrifice. And you also require enough people who, when they see others behaving lawlessly, shame them.
Apparently, our Senators — even Senators who are old and rich and retiring, like Lamar Alexander — do not think our Constitution and the rule of law are worth even a small sacrifice.
Not getting put on some wingnut welfare board of directors, when you’re already very rich, is a very small sacrifice.
Apparently, to some of the GOP Senators, that’s a sacrifice they’re not willing to make. And it is small, compared to the sacrifice made by people who fought to gain liberty.
I don’t think that tomorrow we will be a full-fledged dictatorship, or any such thing.
I do think that the rule of law is almost infinitely precious, that we need to maintain and strengthen it, and that a majority of our political leaders are willing to throw it away.
And that’s a terrible, terrible thing.
Kent
@jl: I spent 10 years living in Alaska. Her support is really deep in rural Alaska, especially native villages with whom she has a decades long relationship as did her father. That is how she won her write-in campaign after losing in a really low turnout primary that was deliberately scheduled by the state tea-party crazies to generate low turnout. The only way Murkowski ever gets beat is if she loses another primary. She is not the typical Washington insider. She has deep Alaska roots and spents a lot of time there working on Alaska issues. She managed to pry open drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge which gives her much more Alaska cred than any impeachment nonsense will take away.
scav
Alaska Reader
@jl: I believe Alaska is the only state in the nation which during the 2018 election cycle became even redder than it was before the vote.
The only way Murkowski’s seat could be threatened is if or when Alaska decides they want someone who doesn’t even pretend to have any shame.
mrmoshpotato
Mmmmmmm feigned outrage at someone else being “attacked” is the best outrage.
It’s the turdfucken of outrage.
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW: SAD!
zhena gogolia
@mrmoshpotato:
So simply asking whether a sham trial THAT HE’S PRESIDING OVER might damage the Supreme Court is “attacking” him?
Martin
Honestly, if the Dems put all of their online ad money into this ad, we might stand a chance in 2020.
jl
@Kent: Thanks for disappointing news. I saw your comment in previous thread and responded. You know more about what is going on outside the blue Alaska than I do, so I defer to your judgment. I didn’t know about Murkowski’s role in expanding oil exploration in Alaska. Given the permanent fund scares in the past, that probably seals it, even in blue areas.
@Alaska Reader: I defer to your judgment too.
mdblanche
Murkowski’s position is not a sinecure. Just because she treats it like one doesn’t make it one.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Am I the only one seeing a horrifying ad showing someone pulling something out of their ear? It looks like a bad moment in a Stephen King movie.
jl
Probably won’t change anything, since McConnell understands the stakes and will stand firm and close the cover-up between later today and right after SOTU. But apparently Trump lawyer sin closing arguments are asking for witnesses? Did Trump order them to do this? They really want one or more Bidens to harass? See joshtpm tweet and comments:
I’m unclear on this, is Sekulow under the impression that Managers are worried about presidents lawyers getting the chance to cross examine? Like no shit.
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1223350465980698624
It’s too bizarre for me to follow. I’ll check for a front post on the hideous nonsense later.
Barbara
May all their sinecures be insecure.
Kent
I worked for NOAA for several years out of Dutch Harbor and Kodiak. Then spent about a decade working out of the central office for NOAA Fisheries in Juneau but traveled frequently to Anchorage and the rest of the state for meetings. Only part of the state I never really visited was the arctic.
The only blue parts of Alaska are Juneau, Sitka, the native villages of SE Alaska, and the native rural bush areas along the Bering Sea coast and arctic Alaska. There are not NEARLY enough of them to balance out Anchorage and the railbelt suburbs (Sara Palin Country). Maybe some small pockets in central Anchorage but Anchorage is really more like one giant suburb without an urban core. The railbelt and Anchorage suburbs are basically full of (1) redneck oil rig workers who moved up from TX and Louisiana, and (2) ex-military who were stationed in Alaska and decided to stay for the gun and ATV culture. These are both as much of a Trump constituency as you can invent.
Murkowski has huge support in the native communities in Alaska dating back decades and also due to her father, former Governor and Senator who also cultivated those relationships. There are weird political dynamics in Alaska that don’t really translate anywhere else. As long as she can beat back any primary challengers from the MAGA tea party Anchorage suburbs she will be Senator for life. Prying open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling pretty much guarantees she won’t get a serious and well funded primary challenger. Every business in Alaska, especially Anchorage, is somehow connected to the oil industry. They know where their bread is buttered.
jl
Wonder if there is a song about glycerin tears that could be added to the front post? Or crocodile tears?
jl
@Kent: My Alaska family are diehard progressives. I probably get a biased view from them. They are ever hopeful a grass roots progressive can do something up there.
Edit: and anything that promises to strengthen and secure the permanent fund gets broad support from population, whether connected to oil industry or not.. Even if people are also getting freaked, or somewhat concernedly curious, out about climate change up there.
Probably Not an Asshole mistermix
@Kent:
Hence this statement, and this position. Nobody wants to get beat in a primary and then launch a write-in campaign. What a PITA. She’ll be fine in 2022 now that she’s shown her Trump loyalty.
Yutsano
@Barbara: A sinecure is a sinecure until it is not a sinecure.
@Alaska Reader: Doesn’t Murkowski owe her last victory to the massive tribal support she got? I know a lot of the Native lobbyists were huge on her decision to vote no on Kavanaugh. Any chance there’s some lingering resentment there?
Spc
@Kent: I knew she was locked in as soon as people started talking about Roberts as a potential tie breaker. No way Mitch would get to that point.
chris
LOL. It’s crabcake Friday.
Mai naem mobile
@Kent: I don’t know if this is wishful thinking on my part or not but I kind of think the GOP are in for a surprise this November. I think some of their supposed not so vulnerable will be going down(looking at you Cornyn,Perdue,Cassidy,Roberts.) I am not even sure the not up for election GOP senators are not going to be happy since it might give them a chance to bury Trumpov and his allies.
Kent
@jl: i have lots of progressive Alaska friends still on Facebook. But I don’t know any who are optimistic. They just elected Mike Dunleavy as governor, for Christ’s sake. He is trying to dismantle the universities and every trace of the public sector in that state. He is like Brownback of Kansas but with more guns. There is a recall effort but it is currently being blocked in the courts.
jl
@jl: RE Josh Marshall’s tweet, consensus of comments is that Sekulow is arguing against witness, but in such an opaque, ignorant, incoherent and insulting way, it’s hard to figure out he is saying.
SiubhanDuinne
@Barbara: Nicely anagrammed.
jl
@Kent: My AK relatives have been announcing the straw that will break the camels back for a long time. Thanks for a dose of realism on politics up there.
Kent
@Mai naem mobile: I’m tying to be optimistic about 2020. The two late-70s geriatric egos soaking up all the energy in the Dem primary is making that hard sometimes. For fuck’s sake. Is a smart energetic candidate in the prime of their life too much to ask? Maybe so. I hate this fucking timeline.
I think I’m maybe more optimistic about the Senate, but maybe because I don’t really know enough about the various states like AZ and NC where it will be decided.
Yutsano
@Mai naem mobile: Georgia has two open seats. We should be able to get at least one of them. But I’m greedy: I want both.
Barbara
@SiubhanDuinne: I love anagrams.
Roger Moore
@chopper:
Obvious, the House should have jumped through all the hoops to subpoena every possible witness, fought the subpoenas all the way through the Supreme Court, and wasted so much time Trump’s term would be over before they got anywhere. Anything else would be completely unfair.
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia: I was quoting the word ‘attacked’, not using sarcastic quotes.
I’m also mocking the shit out of the feigned outrage.
Does that clarify things?
zhena gogolia
@mrmoshpotato:
I was responding to Murkowski, not you. Sorry it was unclear.
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Ewwwww!!! Car ads at the top for me. (I’ve jinxed myself.)
jl
@Roger Moore: So the House could impeach Trump sometime in his second term, if we got lucky and things started to move much more quickly?
The GOP is on record that it is in favor of impeaching people who are out of office, either before they take their oath or after they leave. At least they are consistent on that point.
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia: Oh, well, my reply still stands. :)
Roger Moore
@jl:
No. If their term ran out without the Impeachment being complete, the next Congress would have to start over from scratch. Also, all the lawsuits over subpoenas would thus become moot, so they’d all have to start over from scratch, too.
jl
@Roger Moore: I was snarking.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I noticed that the big theme from the Right now is “the Left hurts our feelings”
That’s not a good look for people claiming to be the masters of the universe.
Second thing, remember the Miller report that everyone said it was over when Barr redacted most of the report. This time they had to come outright admit Trump broke the law, but the Democrats were uncivil about it and wore loud ties. And this Trump, who learns nothing and just double down, so their will be a next time and that might be enough. Battle of inches.
Kent
40% of the state lives within Anchorage proper, and perhaps 70% lives within the railbelt stretching between Anchorage and Fairbanks. The economy of this region is almost entirely dependent on oil. All the oil companies are based in Anchorage and all the pipeline and oil rig workers live there within driving distance of the airport so they can fly up and back for week-on week-off or 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off schedules working on the north slope. All the hotels, restaurants, strip clubs, Costcos, etc. depend on oil money. And they hate paying taxes even if they aren’t connected to the oil industry. So Murkowski prying open the North Slope for more drilling was huge. More jobs, more money, bigger permanent fund dividends, and less taxes for everyone.
The only parts of Alaska that aren’t connected to oil are the coastal communities of the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea and Southeast Alaska. And they are all commercial fishing and, in SE Alaska, logging. So again, resource extraction. But a lot of the fishermen are actually from OR and WA and just fly up for fishing jobs so they don’t vote, and are mostly right wingers anyway. The number of Dems scattered about doing things like teaching school, working as nurses, running coffee shops, bookstores, and breweries, and in the native communities, is just way too small to balance out the railbelt and Anchorage area.
Alaska is basically Wyoming with bigger mountains and lots of commercial fishermen.
RedDirtGirl
It’s fucking rich how all the republicans act in a completely partisan fashion, and then use the fact that things are so partisan as their excuse for not acting. Head-on-pike time!
Roger Moore
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Just remember, when Republicans say “Fuck Your Feelings”, they really mean “Fuck Your Feelings*”.
*My feelings are very important, though.
mrmoshpotato
@chris: That’s not alliterative. Now – Submarine Sammich Saturday…
mrmoshpotato
@Yutsano: Obligatory
chris
@mrmoshpotato: I’m in! Thanks for tomorrow’s meal plan, it’s ages since I had a sub.
mrmoshpotato
@jl: Don’t forget the GrOPers also want to impeach private citizens who ran for President.
Alaska Reader
@jl:
@Kent: commercial fishermen in Alaska are to a large extent far more progressive than you paint them to be.
And though some come up from out of state, you paint all the resident commercial fishermen with your inartfulbly wielded wide brush.
I say that after spending several decades in the industry.
(also decades spent battling both false narratives and false stereotypes)
LongHairedWeirdo
I saw over on Digby’s blog a mention of Tim Alberta saying that GOPers are all scared of Trump – not just reelection, but wingnut welfare, their standing in their local communities, and possibly even threats or attacks on them or their families.
There’s a word that’s been present in American politics ever since 9/11, but no one says it. That word is “cowardice”, and it refers to the character trait in which a person does something they know damn well is wrong, out of fear.
It was cowardice that led to Guantanemo Bay, and the mass kidnapping and unlawful detention of far too many people (yes, there *were* some guilty people swept up too, of course).
It was cowardice that led to torture.
It was cowardice that led to the “1% doctrine”.
It was cowardice that prevented people from speaking out against the invasion of Iraq.
It was cowardice that prevented people from pointing out the obvious lies leading up to Iraq, including the aluminum tubes, “attempted purchases” of uranium from Niger, “we know what he has, and where he has it,” etc..
It was cowardice, and damfoolishness (like “damyankee”, damfool is often one word) that prevented any investigation into those horrors. (And face it, Obama, wouldn’t you rather have lost the 2010 midterms because you were being “divisive” in the pursuit of justice, rather than being beaten by an astroturf “tea party”?)
And it’s cowardice that leads to the GOP still refusing to hold the President to account.
Remember, this President has taken actions that have killed people – including our Kurdish allies. Remember, there *are* people talking about a shooting civil war if this President was removed. Remember, this is the President who promised to jail a political opponent for no reason, and who has continued to seek baseless investigations against others. Remember, this is the President who will cheerfully downplay facts, and tell bald-faced lies, to excuse foreign attacks on our nation. And remember, this is the President constantly giving aid and comfort to dictators, and who we should fear is also giving away lots of classified knowledge.
(Remember: this President wanted Putin to know all of our Russian-based intelligence sources. Seriously! As part of a joint cyber-“protection” racket.)
Okay, but: there’s two types of cowardice, right? One is the kind that knuckles under to the mob, and allows one’s self to pay protection money. Sure, “the right thing” might be to stand up, but damn it, a bar or restaurant owner, a shopkeeper, etc., they don’t have the same duty to stand up for justice as, say, a police officer, or a judge, or, well, I dunno, a member of the US Senate, maybe?
A soldier (in the generic sense – army/air force/navy/Marine – can you tell I know and respect some Marines based on capitalization?) can be expected to stay in position, even if it’s clear that doing so will be fatal; or, to refuse to obey an unlawful order, even with a gun literally to their head; in at least certain cases.
And here, well… what do we expect the duty of a public servant to be? Do we expect a Senator to stand up to lawlessness, even if it will get them ostracized by some friends who would rather have lawlessness and a loss of power? Do we expect them to stand up to ugly tweets, and handle threats (many of which will be empty trolling, others of which might be serious)?
Well… I dunno. I mean, soldiers, they’re not, you know, *Senators*. Soldiers are supposed to take risks, right? I suppose one could only be completely disgusted with a political party if they worshiped the military, and would gladly send soldiers to their deaths, but wouldn’t stand up to being called nasty names and unpopularity, and being *threatened*, by golly.
Oh, right, that happened. And it’s spun as a Republican victory. Go figure.
Mai naem mobile
@Kent: I can tell you a little about AZ. It’s still reddish purple but more purple. We have more people moving in from CA(120K/year mostly to the metro Phoenix area) and other non red states. We have more high tech industry which dilutes the oldies some. We are also browner with more Hispanics but not just Hispanics. Top that off with McSally not being that attractive a candidate and Mark Kelly being an attractive candidate I think we have an excellent chance of flipping a seat. We have a good bench of young brown up and comer Dem candidates . Did I mention young. And Brown. I do wish we could get a Dem governor. I don’t like Ducey but I do think he tries some not to come across as a total RW nutjob because he knows his national ambitions would be dead if he did.
mrmoshpotato
@RedDirtGirl: IOKWYHNDS! (It’s OK when you have no damn shame!)
mrmoshpotato
@Roger Moore: “Waahhh stop impeaching our god emperor! He’s tremendous bigly! So much better than that loser Obummer!”
mrmoshpotato
@chris: Just remember to put the periscope down first. It hurts the roof of the mouth.
Ksmiami
@SFAW: blow up the fucking Senate it’s a useless institution
Panurge
Call me Pollyanna, but ISTM that putting the worst possible spin on things actually helps things become the worst they can be.
zhena gogolia
@Panurge:
I’m trying to remember that.
Kay (not the front-pager)
Apparently Marco Rubio has issued a statement in which he says, “Just because actions meet a standard of impeachment does not mean it is in the best interest of the country to remove a President from office.”(Link to statement)
I have no words.
Kay
Klobuchar brought this up:
26 witnesses in the senate trial, 19 of the 26 new, as to the senate trial.
Another Scott
Reading the Wonkette live blog, I saw this:
Hmmm…
Cheers,
Scott.
jl
@Kay (not the front-pager): Attack ads need to emphasize that the GOP Senators are essentially admitting that the president DID violate the law to enlist foreign countries’ aid to corrupt and fix a general election, and that it is not in the national interest to interrupt that process. And follow that with a snarky and sarcastic ‘And then they say “let the people decide in the next election.”… a fixed election, fixed by Donald J Trump with help from other countries!’ Or whatever, I’ll leave the exact wording to the pros.
I’m guessing these flunkies won’t burp without checking on the polls for focus groups. If so, might be good news that trying to deny Trump’s crimes is worse for their PR than admitting them and then trying to weasel through saying they don’t make any difference.
WaterGirl
@Yutsano: Yes!
[insert Meg Ryan restaurant scene here, from When Harry Met Sally]
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I use an ad blocker, but someone else commented on the horrifying ear ad last week, I believe.
jl
@Another Scott: The GOP adult serious filthy rich Great White Daddies who we should all trust to gittirdone, slopped up something yet again? What a surprise.
lgerard
@Kay (not the front-pager):
Rubio is saying trump is to big to fail
common republican trope
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Maybe the fat lady isn’t quite done singing yet.
Kent
I know lots of progressive fishermen, especially trollers and longliners out of SE. The Alaska Marine Conservation Council is definitely progressive and forward-looking. And has lots of fishermen on it. The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association out of Sitka is also pretty progressive. But in terms of economics and employment, the industry is really dominated by the groundfish and crab fisheries of the Bering Sea and Western Gulf fisheries out of Kodiak. And those guys (yes, almost all guys) are a pretty hard-headed bunch. Especially the trawlers and crabbers.
I have no statistics other than a wild guess. But I would be shocked if the Alaska fishing industry hadn’t voted at least 60/40 for Trump over Clinton. Maybe even wider than that.
Another Scott
@jl: Heh. :-)
Caution: TheHill:
Good, good.
It’s not over until it’s over.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
Evan Hurst at Wonkette:
(sigh) But not unexpected. We knew that Moscow Mitch was going to fight tooth and nail to end this thing ASAP, and that meant no witnesses or documents.
We’ll see what happens next week.
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
“Democracy dies in
darknesscongress.”sigh
Alaska Reader
@Kent: I perceive you provisionally attempted to employ a set of smaller brushes, …but quickly reverted back to painting over with the wide one again despite lacking data or proof for your assertion.
Unfortunately, unfounded stereotypes and false declaratory narratives now rule too much of the public discourse. Neither of which contributes to solving problems.
jl
@Another Scott: Thanks, I guess. I am left confused. After the first couple of lines, I thought you mistakenly linked to an article from a couple of weeks ago.
I thought they already set the rules, or there have to be separate rules for the final vote?
I’ll keep an eye out for front page post on it or a TPM explainer. This is just too many for me. Either I don’t understand Senate rules or how Senate rule setting works, or the Congressional GOP managed to mess up their own fiendish well-laid plans again, because they really can’t do anything at all anymore, except block votes on legislation and ram through judges. They can’t even competently fix the rules to fix trials and cover up crimes? That is an honest question.
Ruckus
@joel hanes:
What’s the old saying?
That this is one of those sayings handed down time and time again tells us the history of our system since WWII. We came out on top because we were the most industrialized nation not to get that industrialization attacked and because of our size. And some of us let it go to our heads.
We became complacent.
Not everyone, not every moment. But enough that we lost sight of who we were supposed to be and many reverted to the concept of greatness of the successors and fuck those we didn’t give a shit about. We got fat, dumb and unhappy.
As hilzoy writes, we, as a nation lost sight of right and wrong. And then followed the age old maxim that money rules all, that everything and everyone can be bought for shinny pennies.
This is still a country founded upon principles of rule not by a monarch or a dictator but of a band of representatives of all of the people. Although that concept has been stretched way out of shape by the growth and maturity of our economy that rewards those things that can easily destroy it.
Another Scott
@jl: Moscow Mitch has things set up this way:
Step 4 completed today.
As I understand it, Step 5 wasn’t supposed to be there, but they somehow messed up the language so Schumer has some power to offer some/many/thousands of amendments, each with 2 hours to debate.
The outcome of the trial isn’t really in doubt. The timing, and what votes are taken along the way, is still to be determined.
We’ll see what happens next week.
Cheers,
Scott.
janesays
@Another Scott: Final vote on conviction or acquittal not happening until Wednesday, per MSNBC. Weird that McConnell is scheduling it after the SOTU.
Kent
@Alaska Reader: We were talking in broad brushes about why Alaska is not turning blue anytime soon. And why none of Murkowski’s votes on impeachment are going to hurt her in any meaningful way. That is broad brushes by definition. Yes of course you can find pockets of progressives and liberals living thoughtful examined lives all over the state. I know a lot of them. Especially around Juneau where have family and lived for a decade. But they are nowhere near a voting majority and won’t be anytime soon. You can find millions of progressives living interesting lives in every single red state. Doesn’t make them any less red though
I miss the state that voted twice for Tony Knowles. Juneau was a fun place to live back then, when you could be proud of your governor. I don’t see those days coming back any time soon. And even Knowles was greatly aided by the total self-immolation of the GOP candidate John Lindauer in his first election. But even he could beat Lisa Murkowski or even Sara Palin.
jl
@Another Scott: OK, thanks.
Yes, that Step 5 seems like, from GOP perspective, a bad, and redundant, step. I wonder whether there is any good explanation for why it is there. Edit: besides that GOP is incompetent to actually do anything except block legislative votes and ram through judges anymore. Edit2: there were some important and consequential howlers in the GOP filthy rich person’s tax cut too.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: Good ad.
Miss Bianca
@joel hanes: Wow. That’s a hell of a statement.
Miss Bianca
@chris: Y’know, I hate these muthafuckin’ neoconservative Never-Trumpers, don’t trust them as far as I can throw them, and yet, some of them are just articulate and intelligent *enough* to be enjoyable when they start casting shade on one another.
Alaska Reader
@Kent: See how easy that was, you managed, at last, to avoid demonizing a particular entire class of people.