Being saddled with a career criminal as a national leader is a heavy lift.
Having 40% of the voting population and one of the two major political parties act like this is normal and acceptable makes it worse.
Watching them thumb their noses at our countries ideals and traditions with acts of gratuitous cruelty, widespread open corruption, stunning incompetence, incessant whining, coordinated gaslighting, and enough lies to float an armada is downright depressing.
It’s enough to make a person want to pack it in and move to someplace where honesty still matters.
Be we didn’t do that. We care about our country. We Stayed. We fought back. We responded to each new outrage with renewed commitment. We will not be silenced. We will not be defeated.
We have the numbers and we have truth on our side. WE’VE GOT THIS.
Last nights late night hosts were cooking with gas. I couldn’t decide between Meyers and Colbert, so you get both.
And on to the news,
A Criminal Conspirator Confesses
By now you are all aware of Mick Mulvaney’s multiple own-goal performance over the last several days. A few more appearances and we can have the Senate vote sewed up with everyone voting for conviction by the end of the week. Wonkette pulled no punches. I would have been nice if they pulled the flush lever a few times, though.
Wonkette: Mulvaney, Lying In Bed Made Of Sh*t, Demands To Know Who Said He Said He Sleeps In A Sh*tbed
The (acting) chief of staff decided on Thursday to just outright admit to quid pro quoing the living shit out of Ukraine! After confidently announcing a new emolument charge (G7 in Trump Doral!) and telling everyone to "get over it" about abusing the power of the presidency, Mulvaney enjoyed 1.5 seconds after the press briefing before Trump surely yelled at him worse than when he coughs in his presence. Ever since then, Mulvaney has been trying to shove the impeachment genie back in the bottle with varying degrees of failure.
Not Exactly News, but Worth a Read
The New Yorker has an interesting article up about the history of impeachment and how it came to be included in the Constitution. To a totally unbiased person like me, it sure sounds like the founders had tRump specifically in mind when they added impeachment to the Constitution.
The New Yorker: The Invention—and Reinvention—of Impeachment
A President is not a king; his power would be checked by submitting himself to an election every four years, and by the separation of powers. But this did not provide “sufficient security,” James Madison said. “He might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression. He might betray his trust to foreign powers.” Also, voters might make a bad decision, and regret it, well in advance of the next election. “Some mode of displacing an unfit magistrate is rendered indispensable by the fallibility of those who choose, as well as by the corruptibility of the man chosen,” the Virginia delegate George Mason said.
How impeachment actually worked would be hammered out through cases like the impeachment of Samuel Chase, a Supreme Court Justice, but, at the Constitutional Convention, nearly all discussion of impeachment concerned the Presidency. (“Vice President and all civil Officers” was added only at the very last minute.) A nation that had cast off a king refused to anoint another. “No point is of more importance than that the right of impeachment should continue,” Mason said. “Shall any man be above Justice? Above all shall that man be above it, who can commit the most extensive injustice?”
Emoluments, Schmoluments
If self-dealing is your schtick, you should join the tRump administration. They already do so much of it and then they whine when they are prevented from doing more.
Politico: Trump botches a boast about giving away his presidential salary
Donald Trump boasted on Monday that he's the only other president besides George Washington to forgo his paycheck — but history is not on his side.
“I give away my presidential salary,” Trump told reporters at a gathering of his Cabinet. “They say no other president has done it. I'm surprised, to be honest with you. They say George Washington may have been the only other president to do that. See whether or not Obama gave up his salary. See whether or not all of the other of your favorites, your other favorites gave up their salary. The answer is no.”
Thirty-first president Herbert Hoover was the first American executive in chief to refuse a salary. Hoover was a multimillionaire before assuming office from a previous career as an engineer and businessman and donated his paycheck to charitable causes.
Kennedy refused both his congressional salary from the House and Senate and his presidential salary, though he kept his $50,000 expense account for “public entertaining he must do as President.”
Politico: Trump claims he's the victim of 'phony emoluments clause'
President Donald Trump on Monday claimed he's receiving unfair scrutiny because of the "phony emoluments clause," as he defended his prior decision to host next year's G-7 summit at his Doral resort in Miami.
And a Palate Cleanser to Get the Stench of tRump Out of Your Soul
Good News Network: In World First, Tiger Will Be Given Prosthetic Limb to Live Out His Life Pain-Free
Within the next few weeks, a rescued tiger that was severely injured in a poacher’s trap will be given new life as the first big cat ever to be fitted with a prosthetic limb.
Sahebrao, a 7-9 year-old male tiger in India, underwent a 40-minute operation earlier this month in preparation for the historic fitting.
The majestic animal was rescued in India from a poacher’s trap in 2012 and was living at the Gorewada Rescue Centre in Nagpur. Soon after, Sahebrao developed gangrene and a part of his injured front leg had to be amputated. For the last six years, Sahebrao has been limping in increasing pain, until this year when it began crying out with every step.
News from Niftywriter
I didn’t have time to get this into the roundup, so niftywriter kindly consented to do a summary of the election results in Canada. So here it some good news courtesy of our friend nifty (I added the flag to break up the wall of text).
Good news from Canada. Justin Trudeau and the Liberals pulled out a victory last night and will form a minority government. It appears that Canadians (especially in Ontario) voted strategically which was very smart. The Cons gained seats but not nearly enough to threaten the Liberals. The NDP (which is to the left of the center left Liberals) lost the most seats last night which really was sad, but I am confident they will regain them after the threat of the orange menace and the resurgent Con movement in Canada subsides a little. Most of NDP losses were Bloc Quebecois gains, which is a complex regional situation too much to go into here. Suffice to say that with a few big exceptions, BQ is mostly aligned with progressive L and NDP values (this is how Quebec NDP voters could shift over to BQ so easily), so they are unlikely to hassle the Ls too much in Parliament, may join the Ls in some legislation and in any event cannot outvote the majority which would be formed by the Ls and the NDP voting together as a bloc in Parliament. Trudeau represents a riding in Quebec, so I think he will be respectful to (most of) the Bloc agenda too, which won’t hurt at all.
This is truly the best possible outcome in my view. Canada has a history of quite strong and stable minority governance. With so much diversity both in people and geography, the coalitions of power that minority governments force can sometimes prove to be more stable and satisfactory than one party in majority power. Many Canadian progressives were angry at Trudeau for not following through enough on progressive goals and of course conservatives always hate Liberals and think they are hippy communists no matter what anyway (sound familiar?). The biggest con gains were out in Alberta — the Canadian equivalent of deep red state USA (and if possible, even angrier). They are livid as they (perhaps correctly) foresee their long 50 year dominance in Canadian politics on the wane as their wealth and power is derived from the dirtiest kind of fossil fuel extraction on the planet (oil sands) and the writing is on the wall about where that industry is going (thankfully, for the sake of the planet). I’ve got some sympathy for their losses, but not too much. They had a super boom for decades and now need to figure out new ways to build the economy — like every other place in the country which has grappled with changing fundamentals.
I think minority government will actually free the Liberals to do MORE progressive things. It sounds counter intuitive, but in the Parliamentary system it does make some sense. When they had the majority, they had to please everyone (impossible) and in particular the 1% who could make things the worst for everybody if they were displeased. (This was likely the rationale behind Trudeau’s govt approving that oil pipeline*). With a healthy 2015 majority, the PM and cabinet had nowhere to hide — they had the votes so were expected to deliver all things to all sides, especially the powerful.
NOW< they can argue that in a minority government they must cooperate more with opposition parties and the opposition parties’ agendas have a better chance of being brought forward too, in order to secure more legislation. In Canada’s case right now, that would be the NDP agenda because, in spite of their losses last night, they managed to hang on to more seats than expected (their leader, Jagmeet Singh was so good that I think he saved the party from far greater losses in a strategic voting year) and the NDP agenda is really great! Universal dental and pharmacy plans for starters. Better plans for students to enable more university and higher education, workers rights protections and much more. It won’t all happen, obviously, but it is good that the balance of power will be in the hands of the party who ran on this platform.
*One last thing: although the L govt approved that pipeline and allocated the funds, it has not been built! Maybe I’m naive but I think it is possible that T and the Ls dragged their feet on that so that with a change of govt they now have an excuse to revisit that, with the climate crisis front and center in many peoples’ minds. Win-win!
OK I could go on so I had better stop myself.
TLDR: Great news in Canada! A strong and potentially very stable progressive minority government elected last night.
Musical Interlude
This song reminds me of conversing with friends and family lost to the insanity of the right wing.
The Schitzenpantzen Files
One of the most iconic idiots in the village idiot’s convention that is the tRump administration has graduated from peripheral I-can’t-believe-he-said-that comic relief to full on frog-in-the-pot under investigation and maybe-gong-to-jail conspirator.
Rudy, Rudy, Rudy (spoken in Cary Grant’s voice — although Cary never actually said “Judy, Judy, Judy” in a movie — The faux quote originated in a Larry Storch comedy routine)
Rudy made yet another bad call. It looks like he’s mixed up his ongoing Ukrainian graft project with his hatred for Joe Biden. Remember Biden said:
Rudy Giuliani — there's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb, and 9/11 — Joe Biden
That quip has been chapping Rudy’s ass ever since. Rather than blame his unsuccessful run for president on his own big stupid mouth, I think he blames Biden. So Rudy figured: “What the hell, I can corruptly enrich myself while simultaneously manufacturing problems for Biden. What could go wrong?*” When you shine the light on Rudy’s activities in Ukraine with his buddies Lev and Igor you end up neck deep in a corrupt scheme to suck money out of Ukraine’s national gas company complete with its very own Russian oligarch, currently fighting extradition to the United States.
*This is a paraphrase of Rudy’s thoughts. The words or, more likely, emojis Rudy uses to actually express what’s going on in the shattered remnant of his mind are impossible to express exactly. Protohuman mental grunting is very ambiguous. And there is always a clear subtext of “Did I forget to wipe again?” running through everything Rudy thinks.
With lawyers like this, who needs prosecutors?
Rudy has said some exceptionally stupid man-the-lifeboats level things. I’m kinda surprised he can feed himself.
We’re not meddling in an election; we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do. — Rudy Giuliani
Truth isn’t truth — Rudy Giuliani
Shut up moron, shut up. You don’t know what you’re talking about idiot. You’re just lying…just keep your lying mouth shut. — Rudy Giuliani to Chris Hahn after Hahn accused him of being tasked “to dig up political dirt on Trump’s opponent.” Earlier in the interview Giuliani admitted to inserting himself into the White House’s relationship with Ukraine and that digging into Biden’s relationship with the Ukraine was one of his jobs.
"Let's say [the transcript] was read to me." and "Maybe [Trump] didn't bring [up Joe Biden]. It could be possible the president of the Ukraine brought it up!" — Rudy Giuliani several hours before tRump’s not-a-transcript transcript was released confirming that tRump brought it up.
Donald, I thought you were a gentleman." — Rudy Giuliani (while dressed in drag, after having his "breasts" fondled by Donald tRump).
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project was on this story back in July. There’s some grifting at the Ukrainian National Gas company going on too.
OCCRP.org: Meet the Florida Duo Helping Giuliani Investigate for Trump in Ukraine
Rudy’s buddies Lev and Igor got busted for campaign finance violations.
Rolling Stone: Two of Rudy Giuliani’s Cronies Just Got Nailed for Illegally Buying Political Access — and Lying About It
And then there’s the guy in Vienna Lev and Igor were going to meet when they got arrested. Rudy was going there the next day. Hmmm.
NPR: What Oligarch Dmytro Firtash Has To Do With The Ukraine Scandal
And more on Firtash
Daily Beast: Ukrainian Oligarch Wanted by U.S. Authorities Paid $1 Million to Giuliani-Linked Lawyers to Dig Up Biden Dirt
And don’t forget Rudy had his fingers in a Turkey scandal too.
Huffington Post: Giuliani Urged Trump To Expel Turkish Cleric Erdogan Wants Back In Turkey: Report
Among other things
CNN: Federal investigation of Rudy Giuliani includes counterintelligence probe
Needless to say, Rudy is soon to be someone that tRump barely knew, rarely talked to and then only when he needed cofefve.
Short Takes
Perverts of a feather break laws together
#MoscowMitch has positioned himself as a speedbump trying to slow down the future. He’s either going to get washed away by the coming blue wave, melted down into slag by being caught up in the ever-growing Drumpfster fire or steamrolled by an investigation of his own corruption.
Republicans are desperate to find something to stop the crap spewing out of tRump’s mouth. Word is, they are going to call it Immodium-Donald.
While many of his republican supporters are busy having conniption fits, tRump is busy having corruption fits.
Rudy Giuliani never met a cluster he couldn’t fuck.
Things are looking so bad for poor Rudy, his shriveled testicles have retracted up into his pelvic cavity, detached themselves and run away to look for new meaning in a Staten Island sewage treatment plant.
The pool table is full or eight balls and Rudy is cowering behind all of them.
Rudy wants to curl up in the corner and cry. But Pastor Jeffries has forbidden it. He’s afraid that the forced-birth crowd will desert the cause en masse if they catch a glimpse of Rudy in a fetal position.
Today’s Quote
The stupid are cocksure, and the intelligent are full of doubt. — Bertrand Russell
Required Pet Photo
Stuff I Wish I’d Thought of
An Art Lesson from a Comment by Kos User dmhlt 66
Closing Notes
Continuing good wishes to {{{{oldhippiedude}}}} and {{{{Msdude}}}}
Continued speedy recovery to {{{{niftywriter}}}} my every other Tuesday partner.
From a show at RFK stadium in 1991
Disclaimer: Unlike a certain pumpkin colored grifting machine, no attempt has been made to monetize this roundup even though doing so would not violate the Constitution.