Month: November 2019

 

From Tommy Christopher:

Former Trump Official Rips Republicans for Believing ‘Fictional’ Russian Propaganda on Ukraine Interference

Former National Security Council official Fiona Hill tore into congressional Republicans —and by extension, President Donald Trump — at an impeachment hearing, excoriating them for believing the “fictional” narrative that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

Hill, who was the top Russia adviser on Trump’s NSC until her departure in July, appeared as a witness at a House Intelligence Committee hearing in the Trump impeachment inquiry, and had some sharp words for Republican members of the committee.

But before Hill began her testimony, Ranking Republican Member Devin Nunes tried a prebuttal of sorts by handing out a copy of the House GOP report on Russian interference, and defended his Ukraine conspiracy by saying that “it is entirely possible for two separate nations to engage in election meddling at the same time.”

After introducing herself and providing compelling biographical information, Hill said: “Based on questions and statements I have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country — and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did.”

“This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves,” Hill said

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From The Onion:
 
Click to see brief video

Highlights Of The Fifth Democratic Debate

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From jobsanger:

There are some of my brothers and sisters in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party that still like to say there is no difference between the two parties, and that’s why the Democratic Party must move much farther to the left. While I would like to see more progressive ideas passed in Congress, it’s just not true that there is no difference between the parties.

As the chart above shows, there is a huge difference.

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From PZ Myers:

She called out to him, where he was working on Christmas dinner, a very Dad thing for him to do, and all I heard in the distance was a strangled yell and “GOD. DAMNED. CAT!” and Mom laughed and said he can’t come to the phone right now.

So those were my father’s last words to me. I have tried to live by them ever since.

The next morning my mother called to say he had died in his sleep. I missed my chance to talk back and tell him all the things Chabon said to his father. Oh well. We were never estranged, there was never any conflict between us, so I guess we just lived those things instead.

I’d still like to have that conversation, though. God damned cat.

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From News Corpse:

Trump’s ego won’t allow him to face the reality that his presidency is coming apart at the seams. In what appears to be an effort to persuade himself, as well as his glassy-eyed cult followers, that he is uncommonly popular, Trump repeatedly posts that he has an approval rating of 95% among Republicans. While he has tweeted this at least 29 times this year, he has never once provided a source for that wildly implausible number. Recent polling from the real world shows that his Republican support is at a career low of 74 percent. Nevertheless, Trump tweeted this bizarre commentary Monday morning:

Let’s set aside the awkwardly comical phrasing in this tweet wherein he appears to say that his own claim of party unity “is a great fraud.” Trump is clinging desperately to a delusion of wide scale GOP adoration. Even if it were true, it would represent a tiny sliver of the electorate which is only about 29% Republican, compared to 31% Democratic and 38% independent. There is no rational argument that he is well-liked by any constituency beyond his worshipful Deplorables. So he resorts to some tiresome sloganeering about the “fake” this and the “do nothing” that.

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From The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser:

Children Should be Taught Facts, not Religious Beliefs, in Ohio Public School Classrooms

Suppose a teacher asks on a test this question: how old is the universe? The correct answer is: approximately 13.7 billion years old. An Evangelical student taking this test would be able to, at the very least, give the correct answer AND a wrong answer at the same time: 6,023 years old. What remains unknown is whether, due to his sincerely-held religious beliefs, the student could skip giving the correct answer, answering instead, 6,023 years old, and have it not be counted wrong. Imagine the dilemma faced by high school science teachers, especially in small, rural communities. Taking a stand against interjecting religious ignorance into their classes would surely lead to outrage from offended Evangelicals, and likely lead to their teaching contracts not being renewed. Such teachers, knowing the lay of the land, so to speak, would likely cave to pressure from creationists. Rare is the teacher willing to stand for truth when tied to a pyre and surrounded by outraged Evangelicals with lit torches in their hands.

Ohio state government is currently controlled by right-wing Christian Republicans. One need only watch what this cabal has done on the abortion issue over the past decade to see what Ohio Republicans want to do concerning “religious freedom.” They will not rest until Christian prayers are uttered by teachers at the start of each day or sent school-wide over school intercoms, teachers begin the day with readings from the Christian Bible, abstinence-only sex education is taught in health classes, and young-earth creationism and/or its gussied up sister intelligent design, is taught science classrooms. In other words, Republicans will not rest until they drag Ohio children back good old days of the 1950s.

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From driftglass:

It is no longer a matter of repairing the country. The country cannot be repaired. We can no longer pretend that we can once again become a United States if we just find a Mighty Uniter who will say and do just the right things i just the right way. Modern history has shown that when Democrats elect uniters, Republicans become exponentially more deranged.

No, the question before us is who will get to rebuild a New America in the ruins of the Old America — which, when you think about it, is the story American.

Will the New America be shaped those of us who want our nation to look a lot like the old America, but with a greater explicit commitment to fairness, justice, shared prosperity and responsible stewardship of out planet? Or will it be some grotesque parody of America? Fascism, wrapped in a flag and carrying a Bible?

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From The Borowitz Report:

Trump Warns Republicans That If They Vote to Impeach He Will Campaign for Them Like He Did in Louisiana

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Delivering an ominous threat to members of his own party, Donald J. Trump warned congressional Republicans on Monday that if they vote for impeachment he would come to their states and campaign for their reëlection.

In a series of intimidating, early-morning tweets, Trump made it clear that if Republicans wobble on impeachment, “I will hold rallies in your state and support you with everything I’ve got.”

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From Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged:

The thing that House Republicans have yet to observe is that, while much power has been invested in President Trump, and even though he enforces that power on Twitter and in his extraordinary public rallies through what might be termed the “bullying pulpit”, there is an extent to which he has no influence–his word does not, actually, change facts. In this way, he is like an unwitting King Canute, demonstrating to his courtiers that he does not, in fact, have power over the tides. The GOP House members have not actually altogether realized this yet, anymore than they have discovered that the emperor is not clothed. One of the things thus far demonstrated is that Trump’s “tide” hasn’t risen the boats of Bevin (an incumbent governor in Kentucky) nor Rispone (a challenger for governor in Louisiana). His efforts have not elevated Republicans–he is only, at best, able to promote himself.

He appears to be a reflection of a kind of personality cult, but not a political movement. His coattails are those of a bolero jacket.

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From Cato’s Julian Sanchez:

Julian Sanchez addresses some common objections raised during the first week of presidential impeachment proceedings.

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