I was going through my routine at Planet Fitness this morning, as is our habit – three times weekly, usually around 8 of the clock; half-past at latest, for an hour on the elliptical and the stair-step with a cool-down on the recumbent. There is a bank of television screens across the middle of the gym, offering all the alphabet networks, plus CNN, Univision, the Planet Fitness channel, and something that has Friends and Seinfeld on rotation during the time that I am not watching any of them. (I have perfected the art of reading my Kindle while stepping and pedaling; after all, being able to read makes the whole exercise thing bearable.)
All the news feeds – four or five of the screens had the same damn unending Schiff show; which is to say that interminable search for solid grounds upon which to impeach a sitting and duly elected president of the USA.
And so far, for all the sturm und drang; the answer to any honest observer would be … no, not so far. The goalposts have been moved so often in the frantic search to take down Orange Man Bad, that they might as well be put on wheels and skidded randomly across the playing field. Today, the main testifying witness, a gentleman who was chyron IDed as the US Ambassador to the European Union, said that there were never any conditions on aid to the Ukraine, which seems not to have been what Rep. Schiff wanted to hear. Honestly, I don’t know for how many more days the main news outlets can run this fishing expedition live, and not produce a single minnow. As Gertrude Stein remarked in another context, “There’s no there there.”
How far will the establishment mainstream media – especially the alphabet news programs go in chasing after the impeachment minnow? As far as they can, I can only assume, having hitched themselves to the Orange Man Bad bandwagon, they must have resigned themselves to go down, down, down. The disappointing thing about this whole Schiff show and the hours of broadcast time, and commentary devoted to it is that there’s a whole lot of news happening elsewhere: Hong Kong may be going up in flames, China may be poised to brutally crack down on dissidents there and in other places on the mainland, the Swedish city of Malmo has been wracked for months by Muslim gang violence – shootings and bombings mostly – the Yellow Vests in France are still protesting, and Dutch farmers are starting to follow suit, , Britain is still wrangling over exiting the European Union, and who knows what the hell is happening in the Ukraine, aside from the spawn of current US political figures treating the place like an ATM machine?
If it weren’t for specialty blogs, foreign newspapers and conservative-leaning websites actually getting in there, asking questions and posting pictures, hardly anyone would have heard about these events, since our own establishment media seems more inclined to just re-write Democrat party news releases.
I don’t watch TV and spent a good part of the morning trying to communicate with Sprint,com, so I would almost have rather watched Schifty. The TV show seems to be drawing to a close since it is intended to convince those watching that Trump should be impeached but the ratings are killing the ad revenue of the networks, I suspect. I don’t know if Nancy and Schiff can convince enough Democrats to walk the plank for this farce. They are focus grouping the accusations and “quid pro quo” lost out to “bribery.” That is dangerously close to the Biden family and its income stream.
If it should get as far as the Senate, the first two witnesses will be Schiff and Hunter Biden.
Take heart, Sgt. Mom. Visit any airport, where CNN pays to have its propaganda broadcast. People ignore the screens. Hardly anyone is paying any attention to the so-called news media, and it has been that way for a long time. If those channels were not subsidized by big corporations, they would have had to shut down years ago. (Why are big corporations subsidizing those “news” channels — Fascism! The way to get rich & stay rich is to cosy up to the politicians).
You are right that there are many real news stories out there which the “news media” are ignoring. When was the last time you saw an item about Venezuela, for instance? And there is the biggest uncovered news story of all — Why are a bunch of Democrats sitting around listening to hearsay about hearsay about perfectly legal actions instead of dealing with the existential debt crisis they have created. Every day, the government those politicians control spends money it does not have and will never be able to repay. A cold wind is going to blow.
Schiff was/is apparently quite close with Ed Buck.
Heard a few minutes of his intro this morning. Lost count of the number of brazen lies. Not sure if it’s worse to think that the media is too ignorant/stupid to know that he’s a liar, or too partisan to call him out.
I think it’s clear that this current Ukraine farce is an attempt to beat the Durham report. It seems to me to be a mistake for the GOP to go along at all with this nonsense, but I guess they think that playing along and voting 100% no is their best/only play at the moment.
The Dem behavior the last three years is all so inexplicably bizarre. Trump was Democrat for most of his life, for goodness sakes! The Dems could have gotten so much out of him. Instead, what are they going to get, and how much irreparable harm are they causing to the country?
Indeed … it seems that for most of DJT’s time in the public eye … he was a rather moderate Dem, as far as that socially Dem stuff goes. But when he took the presidency away from her Highness, the Dowager Duchess of Chappaqua … that was unforgivable.
There are no more moderate Democrats. The neo-Maoists have taken over and are driving the agenda towards full-on Cultural Revolution. This isn’t so much directed at Trump as it is about punishing America for voting him into office.
Every path the Leftists have tried to take has failed them. To them that failure is not an indicator that there is not there there. It is an indication that legal means are not sufficient. Expect non-legal means soon.
Everyone’s dance card is going to be full, so being ready might be a good idea. What is interesting is that the Left believes that it will be totally one way forever.
The ghost of Calvo-Sotelo waits.
Subotai Bahadur
I too have seen this kabuki theater on the screens at my gym, sadly. Fortunately I have been watching “A French Village” (thanks again David Foster for the reco) on my phone while cycling.
Besides the whole hearing thing being a joke, I have a sense that the Republicans/Trump are playing rope-a-dope with the Dems (again). I agree with Brian above in that the Donks are trying to beat/distract from the many indictments of their own to come.
See Susan Quinn’s post at Ricochet: Why Progressives are Insatiable–and Unstoppable
I certainly hope the second part of that title is not true.
There are no more moderate Democrats. The neo-Maoists have taken over and are driving the agenda towards full-on Cultural Revolution.
Quite a few moderate Democratic Party voters left but the Democratic Party leadership has caved to their rabid-left contingent.
Poor Nancy. She and Newt Gingrich ought to sit down for a drink soon, talk things over.
Nancy really screwed up.
I foresee the following sequence:
Impeachment is voted by House.
IG report drops.
Senate trial for 2 months as the efforts of the resistance under Brennan as documented in the IG report are brought to living rooms across America in daily examination of resistors by the President’s trial team.
Bull Durham drops indictments regularly through the trial.
Democrats nominate any goofball they want.
Trump wins in electoral landslide and trunks take over the House.
A wonderful dessert would be if the House refused to seat Schiff.
“by the President’s trial team.”
It’s not clear to me how the “trial” actually works–my vague impression is that it’s basically up to the Senate to do whatever it wants. My question/fear is what will happen, given that the GOP majority isn’t that large, and the caucus is by no means all on Trump’s side. Especially we know that Burr, for instance, is far more loyal to the IC Deep State, than he is interested in revealing malfeasance. Now, I think there’s no chance he will get removed, and not much chance he gets a majority against him, but will they let him put forth a truly vigorous defense, call Biden, etc.? I doubt it.
the caucus is by no means all on Trump’s side.
The Trump approval numbers, in spite of the show trial, are 90% plus for GOP. Do you think even Romney will go against that ? I have doubts the House will take the suicide pill. I could see a censure resolution as a way out for the Dims.
Mike: Did you even read what I said? I said he’s not getting removed, and probably will not get 50 votes against him. BUT my concern is that if his defense team wants to call the Bidens, for instance, that the Senate will say, nah, you can’t do that.
Brian,
The senators are the jury, The Chief Justice the judge. The jurors sit and listen. The JC makes whatever legal determinations need to be made. The House will appoint the prosecutors and the President’s legal team will defend.
Interesting judo here
https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8544377/donald-trumps-handwritten-impeachment-hearing-ramones-song
Everything that is thrown out there to hurt Trump ends up endearing him more to people. Trump should forget the lawyers and just defend himself. Live tweet from the Senate floor. It will be a sensation.
Mike: Did you even read what I said?</i
Maybe we are talking past each other. I said I doubt the impeachment resolution will even get a vote. NO Senate trial, no matter what about the Bidens. I don’t think Nancy will get her 31 red state House members to walk the plank like Bart Stupak did in 2010.
I could see her going for a Censure Resolution as an escape ramp.
I don’t think Nancy will get her 31 red state House members to walk the plank like Bart Stupak did in 2010.
Nancy is stuck. She’s got to proceed to impeachment. She’ll get her votes. She knows how to count noses and little else. Those 31 will be told that if they don’t vote yes on impeachment they’ll be primaried, where possible, and thrown to the wind financially. She’ll replay Schiff’s closing statement. Enough will cave.
And meantime … Iran burns, while the unforgiving MSM eye is focused on the interminable impeachment process.
Yes, interesting times. Interesting times, indeed. And meanwhile, I am scribbling away at another interesting time … the lead-up to our Civil War. The 1860-65 one.
Mrs Davis, did you notice several Democrats on TV today saying “If they impeach Trump?”
I don’t think it’s a done deal. We’ll see but I could see Nancy trying to divert the disaster. Trump’s approval numbers re UP since these hearing began.
The Dem base wants Trump impeached more than they wanted Obamacare, and they made the party commit suicide over that. Nancy can’t back out now. And the desperate spinning of the Durham report has already started. Someday someone will hopefully explain why the Dems went kamikaze on Trump, instead of telling Team Hillary that the party would absolutely not go along with her post election insanity.
Nan is between a rock and a hard place. After signing up the day before Trump released the transcript she found out she had crossed the Rubicon and Shiffhead had burnt the boats.
“But when he took the presidency away from her Highness, the Dowager Duchess of Chappaqua … that was unforgivable.”
Worse than that. Trump is the Tea Party president. Look at a group’s attitude toward the Tea Party, raise it to Presidential levels, and that will be their attitude toward President Trump.
The Deep State Democrats in particular: They didn’t just loath the Tea Party, they considered it an act of heroic patriotism when IRS bureaucrats sandbagged them. Because from the DSD point of view, the Tea Party activists were the “domestic” part of “all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
So when Trump won the election, they hated him with the frothing rage of a thousand Pacific tsunamis and loathed him with the radioactive bile of a hundred Fukushima nuclear reactors. And the longer Trump keeps on being the Tea Party president, the more they hate him.
Now Trump is insisting on a full trial, not that he gets a vote. The trial will be right in the prime primary season. As the defense, Trump’s side will have more latitude than the prosecution. There will still be several Senators running against him who will have to explain several times a day why, exactly, they shouldn’t recuse themselves. I don’t know who the Democrats will chose for their prosecutor, but if they have anyone capable thinking on his feet, they seem to have him well hidden.
Whoever Trump chooses, I doubt it will be someone that will be handicapped by too much decorum and deference.
It’s dangerous to underestimate the stupidity and pettiness of the Romney wing of the Republicans, but I notice an uncharacteristic quiet from their champion.
A trial will be an unpaid add for Trump for as long as it lasts. A conviction gives us a few months of Pense followed by a possible re-election. There is nothing in the Constitution that debars Trump from holding office, it’s not a criminal conviction.
Sorry that I am late to this party. There were long lines at the cheese and wine shoppe.
I am becoming more attached to the possibility that the impeachment theater may be related to the worry that one of the threads in the Ukrainian hair ball may lead to kick-backs from the sale of U.S. weapons to ISIS/ISIL by way of Qatar and to the unaudited palets of cash that went to Iran. The Biden/Biden/Kerry scam in the Uraine may be small potatoes.
There are lots of teams on the field or lurking amid the band and cheer leaders.
The “neo-Maoists” may be content that any Syrian scams will mostly impact the traditional urban Democratic pols but still need the Democratic “brand” to get President Trump, and his supporters, out of the way. The “Uni-party” ain’t. The GoP appears to have a good number of players who can’t decide if Trump or the “Neo-Maoists” are the bigger threat.
Then there are “wild cards”.
President Trump seems to be the only one “officially” reacting to the removal of one of the swords from the flag of the Kingdon of Saudi Arabia. The entire roster of semi-Royals who worked with Qatar, Turkey, ISIS?, and the Obama-Administration have de-camped to pursue careers in independent investing and non-Shariah-compliant obsessions. Lots of people may have maps to where the bodies are buried. President Trump may already have a copy of one or more of those maps.
Impeachment may be a long shot but may be the only card left up the dealer’s sleeve. Putin may also have some cards to play but for now, may be just enjoying the show, lest any Bear paw prints unify fragments of the opposition.
After all, the “air show” at Dier az Zor made it clear that the President is very dangerous when he is quiet. As Amb. Haley put it, “You wont see us coming…….”.
I suspect that none of these “games” can be viewed in isolation. These teams aren’t playing weekend sports-ball.
But, thank you all for the play-by-play observations.
That last comment was a demonstration of my fantastic “fat finger” technique.
And, again, Thank you.
that’s a fascinating angle, there is some Bulgarian reporting on Serbian weapons being transshipped to Ukraine, we know some islamist militants, like the chechens fought against the Russians in the Donbass, that’s what the militant leader caught in kyev two weeks ago, may have been about, of course the Ukrainian corruption scandal also runs parallel to the shipment of certain boosters from uralmash to north korea, in addition to providing a logistics train to Syria,