Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Get rid of the radicals undermining from within and replace them with people who believe in your agenda, Mr. President!

-"Ilsa" Ingraham, FOX "News" 2/7/20

Now that's a quote that republicans will heil to. For them, it's all about the Nazi agenda. Laws are just nuisances that get in the way. That's a lesson Trump has learned from reading so much about Hitler and listening to his friends Kin Jong-un, Vladimir Putin, and the Saudi royals.

On Friday, Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman was fired and physically marched out of the White House and off the grounds. His crime? As tonight's meme says, he told the truth. Truth has no place, zero place in today's Republican world. Oddly, Lt. Colonel Vindman's twin brother received the same treatment. His crime? Looking just like his twin brother. Perhaps, the goons in the White House wanted to make extra sure they got the right brother. It would have been so wonderful if they had escorted the wrong brother off the property, our property. Imagine the embarrassment.

Also on Friday, Ambassador to Ukraine Gordon Sondland was recalled and fired for the same reason: He also swore an oath and told the truth. And, so, the Stalin-style purge has begun in earnest. It's Trump's petulant retribution and revenge as fully endorsed by the Republican majority in the $enate when they voted to OK Trump's crimes against the Constitution and every American (whether they realize it or not). What will happen next to those who get purged remains to be seen. But, what is easy to see is what Trump will want to have done. Perhaps, $enator Rand Paul or some other Republican goon will publicize their home addresses. It's easy to imagine that FOX "News" will do the same, complete with cameras. This isn't just revenge, it's future witness intimidation. It's designed to send a message to anyone who might have thoughts about testifying against Trump or any other Republican official. Who will be the next person to testify against the Trumps and their crime family? Will they need to go into a witness protection program to avoid the bone saw? What will Ingraham and her ilk say if the next FOX-watching pipe bomb-building fan doesn't get intercepted in time?

Defense Secretary Mark Esper publicly said things like these firings would not happen on his watch. He personally guaranteed it. "No retaliation. That's the law," he said. Ah, but Esper is a Trumper, a republican. For such lowlifes, as Rudy Giuliani has said, "truth isn't truth." For Republicans, there is only omerta.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

There he was, Thursday afternoon, surrounded by his sycophantic court jesters in the White House East Room. Trump, a man who has already out-Nixoned Nixon. The difference in the reaction is, at least the most important difference is, that enough Republicans back in Nixon's day had red American patriotic blood flowing through their veins and hearts. Yes. back in 1974, there existed Republicans who had hearts. There were Republicans who thought swearing an oath to the Constitution held meaning. It seems like so many eons ago now.

Trumpenstein, American Psycho, with those obsequious, bowing, scrapping court jesters pulled from the dung piles of Republican congressmen, White House staff, cabinet members, and media goons. Corrupt court jesters with names like Mnuchin, McConnell, Barr. Their assigned job was to verbally kiss his orange cellulite farm of an ass. They did it well, They whistled. The applauded, They cheered. They laughed. They laughed at America. They laughed as their Dear Leader whined and riffed away.

The Monster: The American Psycho President spoke before his court jesters and the whole country, ranting and cursing while his jesters cheered him on. The whining went on and on and on. Cops were dirty cops. Investigators were worse. There was no stopping him as he named names. He named the key names of his endless enemies list. Comey, Pelosi, Romney, Nadler, Schiff, Obama, anyone with a 'D' next to their name, anyone who doesn't suck up to him. Anyone who doesn't tell him how wonderful he is. Anyone who doesn't send him beautiful letters. Anyone who has ever accused him of anything. Anyone who doesn't wear the red hat symbol of hate.

A storm is brewing. What has come before is nothing. We are seeing the clouds grow, lower, thicken. There has never been an F6 tornado before, never a tornado of republican revenge and retribution like this that is stewing in Trump's damaged brain. Look at that face: The face of a petulant, insane, out of control child, a monster. A monster created in America.

52 Senate Republicans Are Both Political Cowards And Willing To Put Their Dying Party Over The Country And The People

-by Chip Proser

The 3 Senate Democrats-- Doug Jones (AL), Joe Manchin (WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ)-- who seemed up-in-the-air about the impeachment vote, all voted "guilty," as did Republican Mitt Romney (UT). Why didn't more Republicans do what they knew was right? Just going by what they've said publicly-- certainly Susan Collins (ME), Lamar Alexander (TN), Ben Sasse (NE), Rob Portman (OH) and Lisa (AK)-- we know they knew full well what Trump is. I assume way more than 20 of the Republicans know. Was it just cowardice?

Pramila Jayapal isn't a senator yet, but she's the well-respected congresswoman from Seattle, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a member of the House Judiciary Committee. "Instead of showing courage," she told her constituents yesterday, "all but one Republican senator today exemplified cowardice. In putting party and politics over country and Constitution, Republicans drove a stake in the heart of our democracy. The case for convicting and removing President Trump was overwhelming and irrefutable: President Trump endangered the sanctity of our elections by inviting foreign interference in our most sacred democratic institution. He betrayed our national security, violated the sacred trust of the American people, and threatened the very future of our democracy. At every turn, the President and his Administration obstructed the House-- refusing to turn over even a single document or provide even a single witness. In spite of this unprecedented obstruction, the House did its job and Donald Trump will forever be an impeached president. Since the House impeached President Trump, more and more damning information about the President’s abuse of power has come to light. Instead of pursuing the full truth, Senate Republicans eagerly enlisted themselves to be President Trump’s co-conspirators-- covering up the President’s misconduct without even caring to find out the extent of his misconduct. It is a disgrace that Mitch McConnell refused to give the American people what they deserve and what the Constitution demands: a fair trial with witnesses and impartial justice. President Trump will be held accountable one way or another-- whether through the courts or the ballot box-- and the American people and history will not forget the Republicans’ cowardice."

Sherrod Brown of Ohio, on the other hand, is a senator. He penned an OpEd for the NY Times yesterday, In Private, Republicans Admit They Acquitted Trump Out Of Fear. He said that in the Senate "fear does the business." He asked his readers to "Think back to the fall of 2002, just a few weeks before that year’s crucial midterm elections, when the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq was up for a vote. A year after the 9/11 attacks, hundreds of members of the House and the Senate were about to face the voters of a country still traumatized by terrorism. Senator Patty Murray, a thoughtful Democrat from Washington State, still remembers 'the fear that dominated the Senate leading up to the Iraq war. You could feel it then,' she told me, 'and you can feel that fear now'-- chiefly among Senate Republicans."

For those of us who, from the start, questioned the wisdom of the Iraq war, our sense of isolation surely wasn’t much different from the loneliness felt in the 1950s by Senator Herbert Lehman of New York, who confronted Joe McCarthy’s demagogy only to be abandoned by so many of his colleagues. Nor was it so different from what Senator George McGovern must have felt when he announced his early opposition to the Vietnam War and was then labeled a traitor by many inside and outside of Congress.

History has indeed taught us that when it comes to the instincts that drive us, fear has no rival. As the lead House impeachment manager, Representative Adam Schiff, has noted, Robert Kennedy spoke of how “moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle.”

Playing on that fear, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, sought a quick impeachment trial for President Trump with as little attention to it as possible. Reporters, who usually roam the Capitol freely, have been cordoned off like cattle in select areas. Mr. McConnell ordered limited camera views in the Senate chamber so only presenters-- not absent senators-- could be spotted.

And barely a peep from Republican lawmakers.

One journalist remarked to me, “How in the world can these senators walk around here upright when they have no backbone?”

Fear has a way of bending us.

Late in the evening on day four of the trial I saw it, just 10 feet across the aisle from my seat at Desk 88, when Mr. Schiff told the Senate: “CBS News reported last night that a Trump confidant said that Republican senators were warned, ‘Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike.’” The response from Republicans was immediate and furious. Several groaned and protested and muttered, “Not true.” But pike or no pike, Mr. Schiff had clearly struck a nerve. (In the words of Lizzo: truth hurts.)

Of course, the Republican senators who have covered for Mr. Trump love what he delivers for them. But Vice President Mike Pence would give them the same judges, the same tax cuts, the same attacks on workers’ rights and the environment. So that’s not really the reason for their united chorus of “not guilty.”

For the stay-in-office-at-all-cost representatives and senators, fear is the motivator. They are afraid that Mr. Trump might give them a nickname like “Low Energy Jeb” and “Lyin’ Ted,” or that he might tweet about their disloyalty. Or — worst of all-- that he might come to their state to campaign against them in the Republican primary. They worry:

“Will the hosts on Fox attack me?”

“Will the mouthpieces on talk radio go after me?”

“Will the Twitter trolls turn their followers against me?”

My colleagues know they all just might. There’s an old Russian proverb: The tallest blade of grass is the first cut by the scythe. In private, many of my colleagues agree that the president is reckless and unfit. They admit his lies. And they acknowledge what he did was wrong. They know this president has done things Richard Nixon never did. And they know that more damning evidence is likely to come out.

So watching the mental contortions they perform to justify their votes is painful to behold: They claim that calling witnesses would have meant a never-ending trial. They tell us they’ve made up their minds, so why would we need new evidence? They say to convict this president now would lead to the impeachment of every future president-- as if every president will try to sell our national security to the highest bidder.

I have asked some of them, “If the Senate votes to acquit, what will you do to keep this president from getting worse?” Their responses have been shrugs and sheepish looks.

They stop short of explicitly saying that they are afraid. We all want to think that we always stand up for right and fight against wrong. But history does not look kindly on politicians who cannot fathom a fate worse than losing an upcoming election. They might claim fealty to their cause-- those tax cuts-- but often it’s a simple attachment to power that keeps them captured.

As Senator Murray said on the Senate floor in 2002, “We can act out of fear” or “we can stick to our principles.” Unfortunately, in this Senate, fear has had its way. In November, the American people will have theirs.

I've been talking with former Columbus mayor Teresa Tomlinson for about a year and a few weeks ago we sat down for a relaxing dinner. She's running for a Georgia U.S. Senate seat that's currently held by a total 100% Trump enabler, David Perdue. Her campaign motto is all about gumption but as we were getting to know each other she wrote a guest post for this blog, Crippling Political Fear. Back in July, she wrote that "It’s fear that cripples the Democratic Party. Fear of our policies, fear of who we are, and fear of the Republicans. Yes, fear is what has politically cost us in the last many election cycles. One cannot lead if one is afraid. The thing about leadership is that people want their leaders to be brave. They care less about what you think on the issues than whether you have the moxie to fight for them and the strength of conviction to tell them what you really think."

She was admiring The Squad because they are "fearless about their beliefs. They refuse to be bullied, and that is dangerous to the Republican playbook of shaming scared Democrats into milk toast, mealy-mouthed, baby-splitting positions that are equivocal and stand for nothing. American voters revile those who won’t tell the people what they think. Even if you don’t support the policies-- or certainly some of the statements-- of The Squad, you can’t deny that you appreciate that they unabashedly tell the world what they think."

A classic example of this crippling Democratic political plague of fear is 2014 Democratic Senate candidate Alison Grimes, who refused to say whether she voted for the leader of her party, the two-term first black president, Barack Obama. And, the legion of Democratic candidates that year who refused to say they supported the Affordable Care Act (ACA), because the polling showed it was unpopular. Did we think any voter believed that a Democrat running for federal office didn’t fundamentally support the notion of providing healthcare coverage for millions of previously uninsured constituents? Our citizens could have used a little leadership from Democratic candidates during that cycle. Our president would have benefitted from the leadership of those Democratic candidates because fear begets disrespect and that disrespect spilled throughout the party and weakened Obama as its leader. Maybe if we had all spoken out and pushed back against the Republican political propaganda machine, we would not have allowed the bell-curve to slide so far right.

The nation has had its share of politically lukewarm Democratic candidates-- structured by the national party for perceived winnability not leadership. Even if they had a tagline of-- “Fighting for you”-- no one believed it.  How could they if they didn’t fight for the ACA or weren’t willing to admit America has a gun violence problem?

...When Democratic leaders believe that beginning impeachment proceedings is about polls or election results, they, too, are giving in to fear: they are afraid that following the Constitutional checks and balances and leading will cost them their job, so they mitigate and delay. Unfortunately, their job is to lead by upholding the Constitution, not to get re-elected.

Impeachment is not about undoing the last election or impacting the next. It certainly is not about the polls as the Founding Framers made perfectly clear in Federalist Paper, No. 66. It is about stopping a president who would abuse and misuse the power of the presidency so that not another day passes-- not another circumstance presents itself-- where a president, unfit for duty because of the commission of High Crimes or Misdemeanors (defined as misdeeds) can inflict his/her poor judgment on the office, the country, or the people. Oh, if only impeachment proceedings had been instituted sooner, the damage that might have been averted.

Instead, Democrats are afraid of what the Republicans will say about it-- what the bullies will do to us on the way home. So, we cut through the alley to avoid the fight and controversy. We detour our duty of leadership and good government. Commencing impeachment proceedings is about employing the constitutional duty that our elected leaders were sworn to do-- not about mitigating to the finish line and hoping no one notices that we wouldn’t use the tools entrusted to us to keep the American system on the rails. All Democrats, and many Independents and Republicans, understand that Donald Trump has committed High Crimes or Misdemeanors, so if this conduct doesn’t warrant the commencement of impeachment proceedings, then what would? We must seriously consider the example of tolerance for harmful conduct at the highest levels of our government we are creating.

The key to winning is that you don’t aim to win, you aim to lead. If you lead, the winning takes care of itself-- or at least you move the needle so profoundly you set up the next winner, as did Stacey Abrams in Georgia with her heroic non-loss in Georgia. She was who she was and voters responded to that.

That’s not fear, that’s winning.

Retired Admiral Mike Franken, one of the candidates running for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Trump enabler Joni Ernst (R-IA) told us today that "In my previous line of work, if you make a mistake in judgment, the shortcoming is documented. I'm joining my friend Senator Joe Manchin in calling for a vote on censuring Donald Trump for conduct unbefitting the office of the President of the United States. Let's see if Joni Ernst remembers telling Jake Tapper about the president's mistake in using his office's influence to investigate Joe Biden in Ukraine and whether she remembers her military training to document and censure poor or misguided performance. This is an opportunity to separate those who understand the importance of leadership in crisis from those who fall for political expediency."

OK, so now let's close out the night and, in some respects, the week, with some commentary from the inimitable Samantha Bee. She was really rockin' this week:

Moscow Mitch Completes A Cover-Up That Doesn't Really Cover Up Much At All

Though the House impeachment managers proved beyond any reasonable doubt that Trump was guilty on both counts he was charged, the Senate voted 52-48 to cover up those crimes, let alone the others he wasn't even charged with. Mitt Romney was the only Republican with the guts to vote his conscience and for the best interests of the country. The Washington Post noted that he said his decision to vote to convict Trumpy-the-Clown was "the hardest decision" he has ever faced. Listening to his speech the Senate floor, above, doesn't sound like it was really that hard of a decision. The decision was only hard for faithless politicians worried about Trump's penchant for revenge. I want to add that very real courage was demonstrated yesterday by Doug Jones, who is up for reelection in November... in Alabama. He has told friends that he had no choice but to follow his conscience without taking partisan politics into account. David Perdue (R-GA) did exactly the opposite, as former Columbus mayor Teresa Tomlinson explained right after the vote: "The evidence was clear-- overwhelming, in fact, as Lamar Alexander admitted. When David Perdue voted today to acquit the president he made an impermissible political decision in a constitutional matter."

Every progressive Democrat running for Senate should do a similar meme

So why did Romney vote to convict, while Moscow Mitch lead the rest of the traitorous Republicans to pretend Trump wasn't guilty or that his crimes weren't serious enough? "My faith," said Romney, "is at the heart of whom I am. I am profoundly religious," subtly contrasting himself with the irreligious and satanic Trump. It looks like he had to prevent himself from crying at that point. He reminded his colleagues that "the verdictis ours to render under our Constitution. The people will judge us for how well and faithfully we do our duty." Imagine Trump enablers up for reelection in November-- Cory Gardner, Joni Ernst, Susan Collins, Martha McSally, Thom Tillis, David Perdue, John Cornyn, Dan Sullivan for example-- squirming in their seats, figuratively if not literally. I asked Andrew Romanoff, the progressive Democrat taking on Cory Gardner-- and having to fight off the status quo instincts of Schumer at the same time-- and he told me that "6 years ago, Cory Gardner promised to be a 'new kind' of politicians. Today, he proved again: that line was as old-- and as hollow-- as they come. Gardner ignored his constitutional duty, blocked evidence and acquitted a President who boasted about breaking the law. It’s time for both to go." Susan Collins' progressive opponent, Betsy Sweet was just as critical of Collins: "Senator Collins 'disappointed' but voting to acquit. She said on national tv that she thought he had learned some lessons from this. But Trump, when asked, said he didn’t learn anything because he had done nothing wrong. The real question is, have we learned our lesson-- which is that Collins will always vote with McConnell when he wants her to. She will always put party above democracy. Something I will never do as Maine’s next Senator."

Romney made it clear it was anything but a "perfect call"-- for anyone but Trump and Putin-- and immediately after he was done speaking, the White House announced that reporters were no longer invited into the Oval Office for a scheduled 2:15 pm opportunity to hear Trump boasting. Reporters were already lined up on the South Lawn ready to go in when Trump demanded the whole thing be cancelled. Romney said Trump "is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust. What he did was not perfect; no, it was a flagrant assault on our electoral rights, our national security and our fundamental values. Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one's oath of office that I can imagine."

Coverup by Nancy Ohanian

How many of the 60,933,504 votes that Romney got were from Republicans who don't give a damn about anything he said yesterday? Romney won 24 states and, with the possible exception of Arizona and Utah, I'd bet that at least 80% of Republicans in them are wishing Romney ill. Why does Trump give a damn? He had planned to say the impeachment was a partisan hoax with no Republican support. Couldn't do that. He also feels betrayed by Romney, who he endorsed when he ran for the Senate, not that Romney sought or needed his endorsement. And now the news was as much about Romney's courageous vote as about Trump's "exoneration."

Kentucky state Rep, Charles Booker, one of the Democrats competing to take on Moscow Mitch in November, said that he had been clear from the beginning of this impeachment trial, "that Donald Trump should be convicted and removed. In contrast, Mitch McConnell began this process by touting his partiality. All of the aspects of this trial that brought shame upon our country, including blocking witnesses and evidence, can all be traced back to one person: Mitch McConnell. He sold out Kentuckians on a false hope that it will help him stay in power. Whether you believe Donald Trump should be removed or acquitted, we can all agree that Mitch McConnell did a disservice to all Americans by making a mockery of our democracy for the whole world to watch."

Pelosi's official statement:

Today, the President and Senate Republicans have normalized lawlessness and rejected the system of checks and balances of our Constitution. Our Founders put safeguards in the Constitution to protect against a rogue president. They never imagined that they would at the same time have a rogue leader in the Senate who would cowardly abandon his duty to uphold the Constitution.

President Trump was impeached with the support of a majority of the American people-- a first in our nation’s history. And now he is the first President in history to face a bipartisan vote to convict him in the Senate. A full 75 percent of Americans and many members of the GOP Senate believe the President’s behavior is wrong. But the Senate chose instead to ignore the facts, the will of the American people and their duty to the Constitution.

The President will boast that he has been acquitted. There can be no acquittal without a trial, and there is no trial without witnesses, documents and evidence. By suppressing the evidence and rejecting the most basic elements of a fair judicial process, the Republican Senate made themselves willing accomplices to the President’s cover-up.

Even without additional witnesses and documents in the Senate trial, our House Managers laid out an overwhelming, compelling and incriminating case about President Trump’s scheme to corrupt the 2020 elections and proved his guilt. The President’s legal team could not and did not refute the facts of the case. Instead, they argued that the American people have no right to stop the President from using the power of his office to cheat in our elections. They argued that if the President thinks that his re-election is good for the country, he can use any means necessary to win, with no accountability or consequences.

In December, the House defended democracy by passing two articles of impeachment to hold the President accountable for abusing his office for his own personal, political gain at the expense of our national security and the integrity of our elections. The President has been impeached forever.

Sadly, because of the Republican Senate’s betrayal of the Constitution, the President remains an ongoing threat to American democracy, with his insistence that he is above the law and that he can corrupt the elections if he wants to.  The House will continue to protect and defend the checks and balances in the Constitution that safeguard our Republic, both in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion. Democrats will continue to defend our democracy For The People.

State of the Union-- Nancy Pelosi by Nancy Ohanian

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Yes. Careful Monica. Good thing you hung up. Now that Alan "I kept my underwear on" Dershowitz and Trump's $enate pals say nothing is impeachable, we can expect America's number one misogynist to forgo making payoffs to his lady friends by just using them for Russian language snuff films. He'll even show them at his rallies to his cheering MAGA hat-wearing brainwashed cult who will knock each other over to buy copies at the Trump 2020 merch booth. You think that couldn't or wouldn't happen? Think again. Think about what you didn't think was possible 3 years ago, two years ago, one year ago, hell, even six months ago. This is 2020 America. It's Trump's Republican World Reality Show, and we're living in it.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Well, today's the big day. The $enate Trumpers will make it official. It was a perfect treason. If fake Democrats like Joe Manchin want to be Vichy-style collaborators, they will. The Trump Republicans have decided "We don't need a stinkin' Reichstag Fire! We'll just give our cheetomatic boy the ol' nod and wink and let him know that he's free to do whatever he wants. All is permissible! You got da power, Herr Donnie! You got carte blanche, just keep the crackpot judges and the rubles coming! Why scare the populace into giving you total power when they already voted for you and couldn't care less. We know! That's why we're here too!"

In the end, that's what the Untied States $enate, aka The League Of Extraordinary Assholes, has done. After all, as another great Russo-Republican says, "Truth isn't Truth." As if Rudy wasn't enough, another old, senile wack-job named Dershowitz took time off from getting massages at the late Jeffrey Epstein's middle school sorority house to come in and tell the nation that crime isn't crime. Whoopee! Presumably, he had his underwear on but, since he was behind a podium, maybe he wasn't even wearing pants. Now, that would be one-upping Gym Jordan! Trump couldn't find one witness who would come forward to defend his lard butt so he banned the witnesses who could have testified against him faster than if they had been Muslims or Latinos. Yep, no John "Johnny Swiffer" Bolton or Mick "Get Over It" Mulvulva).

You didn't really expect honor and courage from the United State $enate, did you? Like I've said over and over, Washington takes care of its own. That goes for both hoses and both parties but you could have 100 articles of impeachment and the result would be the same. Film of Donnie killing someone? To republicans, that's just great porn! The current $enate is nothing short of Politburo West. This is what happens when you don't pay attention, don't care and/or don't vote. Cover up accomplished. But this will be, by comparison, the good old days.