Mega-Thread: Impeachment Proceedings & Inquiry of Trump

[Breccia]

Methinks the lady doth protest too much...

I mean, at some point, Nunes is going to have to recuse himself. That point should be "when the House hears testimony Nunes was involved".

[StarDog]

Wouldn't it just be apropos for this cursed timeline where one of the ranking Republicans in the impeachment hearing committee is nailed as being complicit in the issue being investigated.

Oh my gosh. There's a zillion reasons why this wouldn't happen, but imagine having a public hearing with this guy Impeachment Inquiry style.

Adam Schiff and Daniel Goldman spend 45 minutes making this guy completely rat Nunes out. And then at the end:

Schiff: "This concludes majority questioning. I now recognize the Ranking Member... Have fun!"

[swiftowner]

*coughs delicately*


Methinks the lady doth protest too much...

Wouldn't it just be apropos for this cursed timeline where one of the ranking Republicans in the impeachment hearing committee is nailed as being complicit in the issue being investigated.

I know there was mention of Nunes’ possible involvement a couple days ago, but this would explain his behavior, and why he seemed to change in attitude to become a little more tame and actually ask questions after it was first mentioned.

Pretty sure what this guy has to say is probably legit. I wouldn’t take him at his word, but it should certainly be followed up on.

[Mormolyce]

So I see that the Russian strategy is just to bring up old conspiracy theories about Syria and Ukraine to try to distract from the actual topic at hand, ie the impeachment.

Telling that even the most well-paid propagandists can't come up with a better excuse than "hey look over there!". The evidence in this impeachment is just absolutely undeniable, even moreso than the Mueller investigation.

- - - Updated - - -

I know there was mention of Nunes’ possible involvement a couple days ago, but this would explain his behavior, and why he seemed to change in attitude to become a little more tame and actually ask questions after it was first mentioned.

To be honest I don't think we need any further evidence to explain Nunes - he is just a 100% committed boot-licking cultist eager to spread his cheeks for Trump at the drop of a hat.

But if he ends up going down for this shit, well that would be just perfect.

- - - Updated - - -

At this point you could consider the mods complicit in spreading lies and propaganda for refusing to deal with this.

All I'll say is - we have a policy against conspiracy theories, but it's rarely enforced against certain kinds of conspiracy theories.

[Shadowmelded]

I know Nunes has a history of amateur bad-faith stuff like this but I don't know how great an idea it'd be to give Parnas a platform to regurgitate whatever potential disinfo Shokin supplied them with. Even with an initial closed-doors hearing with no intent of a follow up, convenient leaks could drum up enough attention to then necessitate subpoenaing Hunter Biden and breathe life into the conspiracy theory.

[Belize]

*coughs delicately*



Methinks the lady doth protest too much...

Wouldn't it just be apropos for this cursed timeline where one of the ranking Republicans in the impeachment hearing committee is nailed as being complicit in the issue being investigated.

Nunes? And the GOP? Corrupt?

Well, I for one, don't believe it. They all just look so honest.

[Blur4stuff]

With the news breaking on Nunes I think we're seeing more evidence of what's really going on with some of these psycho republicans in congress. Some (like Graham) doing complete turnarounds on the kind of person they were.

We now have several republicans in congress that are either in bed with criminal organizations/dictators (Nunes) or are being extorted with extremely damaging information (Graham). With what Graham is supposedly being controlled with I wouldn't be surprised if he just offs himself if it were to come out.

[Orbitus]

With the news breaking on Nunes I think we're seeing more evidence of what's really going on with some of these psycho republicans in congress. Some (like Graham) doing complete turnarounds on the kind of person they were.

We now have several republicans in congress that are either in bed with criminal organizations/dictators (Nunes) or are being extorted with extremely damaging information (Graham). With what Graham is supposedly being controlled with I wouldn't be surprised if he just offs himself if it were to come out.

Did you see the real breaking news? American Oversight watchdog group, did a FOIA request, and it shows a clear line from Rudy Guiliani to the White House with a paper trail. It was just released, there is no report on it yet.

It is being reported on MSNBC right now.

[kaelleria]

Did you see the real breaking news? American Oversight watchdog group, did a FOIA request, and it shows a clear line from Rudy Guiliani to the White House with a paper trail. It was just released, there is no report on it yet.

It is being reported on MSNBC right now.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps...-pompeo-emails

[Canpinter]

What truly frightens me more then anything is what these people could have done if they had iqs higher then a bowl of pea soup.

[Orbitus]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps...-pompeo-emails

That's the one.

[Kaleredar]

What truly frightens me more then anything is what these people could have done if they had iqs higher then a bowl of pea soup.

As I've said before, I hope that when this fiasco is over that legislators take a long, cold, hard look at what allowed Trump to do what he did and put forward comprehensive legislation to prevent it from happening again. Because these proceedings serve not only to show how corruption happened, but would also serve to demonstrate, for the suitably malignant, a "what not to do if you want to get away with it" guide.

Say what you will about America's two party system, but at least it ensures that the other is willing to go for the jugular when they sense malfeasance on the part of the other party.

Or, more accurately, the democrats are willing and able to go after republican corruption, while the republicans are willing to make up stories about satanic pizza parlors.

Maybe once this is over and Trump has been cast down the Republicans will have a major-soul searching moment and try and purge the corruption from within their party.

But of course, that's all predicated upon the American People showing these stooges that they are sick and tired of the Republicans. Because, idiotic as the Republicans may be, if they're allowed to get away with it, then it doesn't matter how sloppy or stupid they went about it. And that's what a lot of the "usual suspects" are fellating themselves about; they don't think Trump is innocent, they like that he's able to do illegal things to "own the libs" and get away with it. That their guy is "powerful enough to be above the law." Because after a solid decade of being told they're unwanted, that their ideas are backwards, and that they're racist and anti-intellectual, they want to be able to lord their "poster boy" of Trump as having transcended those sorts of admonitions to hold the highest office in the land, not subject to the petty morality that binds the people that called them bad things. They want to be the school bully that can pick on other kids with impunity because the school's Principle is their Uncle or some such.

[Somewhatconcerned]

What truly frightens me more then anything is what these people could have done if they had iqs higher then a bowl of pea soup.

Well Trump likely gets another chance to do so in 2020. Imagine a guy like Stephen Miller as President, yikes. Probably what we have to look forward to in 2024 or beyond.

[StarDog]

What truly frightens me more then anything is what these people could have done if they had iqs higher then a bowl of pea soup.

Ezra Klein had a tweet thread a few weeks ago that I find very... Grim.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...543064064.html

Some choice bits:

Donald Trump is brazen and crude. His abuses are blatant. His henchmen are largely clowns. His underlings are turning on him. He is the easiest possible test case for can our system hold a president accountable. And we are failing, because Republicans are failing.

Imagine a president with Trump’s will to abuse power but a moderate level of strategic sense and savvy. A president who picked capable staff and rewarded loyalists. A president who knew what not to say, and when not to say it, to get his way. What defense do we have against them?

This is why Impeachment, even though it was doomed to failure, is so vital. It's not about stopping Trump, who is an incompetent buffon. It's about stopping the smart guys watching Trump right now and licking their lips for their turn.

[Canpinter]

Maybe once this is over and Trump has been cast down the Republicans will have a major-soul searching moment and try and purge the corruption from within their party.

then we can all ride the marshmallow train to magic candy mountain and have lunch with darth vader and batman?

[ringpriest]

Stated the same in the other thread.

Intelligence Agencies state this while doing the wink, wink, nudge, nudge that our POTUS was one of these people.

I can't believe where we actually are today. We have a Russian puppet in the White House and the Republicans don't care.

Why don't republicans care?

The Republican Party is compromised.

Sen. Lindsey Graham was biting critic of Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. Presidential election - then, in late 2016, a site connected with the Russian intelligence front Guccifer 2.0 posted a small sampling of Senator Graham's emails, redacted to show they clearly had far more than what they were sharing; amazingly, he shortly became the devout defender of Donald Trump's every betrayal, crime, and blunder Americans know him as today.

Then, of course, there's the belated revelation by former FBI director James Comey that the Republican Party was hacked at least as extensively as the Democrats were, but aside from a 'small shot across the bow' the Russians decided to sit on those emails.

FBI director James Comey has revealed that the Republican Party was also hacked by Russia, but that the information was not leaked.

He said there was “penetration on the Republican side of the aisle and old Republican National Committee domains”.

“There was evidence of hacking directed at state-level organisations, state-level campaigns, and the RNC, but old domains of the RNC, meaning old emails they weren’t using. None of that was released,” said Comey.

That's hardly the limit of Republican-Russian involvement - there's also multiple documented avenues of illegal campaign contributions to Republican coffers (and who knows how many that weren't caught); I personally suspect there are bribery and/or blackmail connections going back to the tail end of the Bush administration, but that's speculation and harder to document - but the actions of the 2016 and later Republican Party speak for themselves.

[Kaleredar]

then we can all ride the marshmallow train to magic candy mountain and have lunch with darth vader and batman?

It's wishful thinking, for sure.

But I don't actually believe that (most) of the republicans believe the nonsense they're spewing. I'd wager that most of them are actually pretty sure Trump is guilty. They went along with Trump because he was a useful idiot. But now that useful idiot has turned into a toxic asset; one they can't control or bend to their will as well as they hoped and who is actively turning people away from their party. Look at the defeats they've been handed by Democrats who have beaten Trump-backed republicans running for governor or congress. But they've towed the Trump line and lied through their teeth because they desperately want to be seen as a legitimate political party.

Which, make no mistake, is just as awful, perhaps even more awful, than if they actually believed the bullshit they were spewing. But once Trump is gone... what good does staying beholden to his awful rhetoric serve them? It's not attracting new voters. And the defeats they've faced while Trump is in office, crowned by the (hopeful) defeat of having an incumbent President (who had initially lost the popular vote anyway) toppled after one almost wholly ineffective term whilst they've been painted as political clowns and Russian shills? That would be all the writing on the wall they should need.

To clarify, I guess, I'm not saying they'll do soul-searching because it's the right thing to do, they'll do it to keep their political party from utter extinction.

But again, that's all predicated upon Trump losing. Being removed via impeachment is very likely not going to happen, because, as I've said, the Republicans have plugged their ears and sold their soul to the devil. But Trump being defeated in the presidential election? Well, we can all hope to live in such a bright and prosperous world.

[nonameelf]

It's wishful thinking, for sure.

But I don't actually believe that (most) of the republicans believe the nonsense they're spewing. I'd wager that most of them are actually pretty sure Trump is guilty. They went along with Trump because he was a useful idiot. But now that useful idiot has turned into a toxic asset; one they can't control or bend to their will as well as they hoped and who is actively turning people away from their party. Look at the defeats they've been handed by Democrats who have beaten Trump-backed republicans running for governor or congress. But they've towed the Trump line and lied through their teeth because they desperately want to be seen as a legitimate political party.

Which, make no mistake, is just as awful, perhaps even more awful, than if they actually believed the bullshit they were spewing. But once Trump is gone... what good does staying beholden to his awful rhetoric serve them? It's not attracting new voters. And the defeats they've faced while Trump is in office, crowned by the (hopeful) defeat of having an incumbent President (who had initially lost the popular vote anyway) toppled after one almost wholly ineffective term whilst they've been painted as political clowns and Russian shills? That would be all the writing on the wall they should need.

To clarify, I guess, I'm not saying they'll do soul-searching because it's the right thing to do, they'll do it to keep their political party from utter extinction.

But again, that's all predicated upon Trump losing. Being removed via impeachment is very likely not going to happen, because, as I've said, the Republicans have plugged their ears and sold their soul to the devil. But Trump being defeated in the presidential election? Well, we can all hope to live in such a bright and prosperous world.

Last time Republicans did "soul searching" was after Obama won and they decided they needed to appeal more to minorities. Then the Tea Party rebelled and we see how that ended up.

The party is broken to it's core, not because of the people running it, but because of the voters.

[Kaleredar]

Last time Republicans did "soul searching" was after Obama won and they decided they needed to appeal more to minorities. Then the Tea Party rebelled and we see how that ended up.

And like I said, if trump loses, along with all the other losses they’ve been handed, what will courting those loonies have gained them?

The party is broken to it's core, not because of the people running it, but because of the voters.

And those voters are a losing prospect for the republicans, number wise.

[nonameelf]

And like I said, if trump loses, along with all the other losses they’ve been handed, what will courting those loonies have gained them?



And those voters are a losing prospect for the republicans, number wise.

Republicans can not win without them, but catering to them is a losing strategy as well. There's not really a winning option for them. They got really lucky in 2016 because there was so much dirt on Clinton(both real and imagined) for them to harp on relentlessly.