Happy Palindrome Day, everybody!
Feb 2, 2020
Feb 1, 2020
Boiling The Frog
We should remember right now that the vote probably won't happen until Wednesday, the 5th.
And we should remember that there's practically no fucking way it's going to turn out to be anything but the 51-49 bullshit on the question of witnesses.
Rolling Stone:
We may be witnessing the end of the United States presidency as we know it. It doesn’t come in large, destructive gestures, like the demolition of the White House. Instead, we most often see it arrive in the mild utterances of old men. Such was the case on the Senate floor on Wednesday, when Alan Dershowitz spoke up in favor of President Trump’s autocracy.
We should have seen this coming, as Trump hardly ever misses an opportunity to reach for more power, not even amidst a process ostensibly about stripping it from him. Ironically and most unfortunately for the Democrats who sought even a modicum of accountability for President Trump’s high crimes and misdemeanors, the impeachmentprocess is being perverted into a process to make Trump into a dictator.
Trump’s defense against impeachment has, to this point, been somewhat bifurcated. At once, Trump was supposedly utterly innocent of the charges being brought against him — it was a perfect call with the Ukrainian president, we keep being told; just look at the White House’s doctored transcript — and it was also perfectly fine if Trump did everything he was charged with, because he is allowed to do whatever he likes. It was hard to discern which argument was more disturbing or less befitting of a president.
- but the money quote:
This is how reckless Republicans are with America, willing to give untold amounts of power to a man whom they still don’t fully understand in a frantic attempt to maintain their own grip on advantage in a country that has already elected a black president once and whose demographics are quickly turning against them.
And we should remember that there's practically no fucking way it's going to turn out to be anything but the 51-49 bullshit on the question of witnesses.
Rolling Stone:
We may be witnessing the end of the United States presidency as we know it. It doesn’t come in large, destructive gestures, like the demolition of the White House. Instead, we most often see it arrive in the mild utterances of old men. Such was the case on the Senate floor on Wednesday, when Alan Dershowitz spoke up in favor of President Trump’s autocracy.
We should have seen this coming, as Trump hardly ever misses an opportunity to reach for more power, not even amidst a process ostensibly about stripping it from him. Ironically and most unfortunately for the Democrats who sought even a modicum of accountability for President Trump’s high crimes and misdemeanors, the impeachmentprocess is being perverted into a process to make Trump into a dictator.
Trump’s defense against impeachment has, to this point, been somewhat bifurcated. At once, Trump was supposedly utterly innocent of the charges being brought against him — it was a perfect call with the Ukrainian president, we keep being told; just look at the White House’s doctored transcript — and it was also perfectly fine if Trump did everything he was charged with, because he is allowed to do whatever he likes. It was hard to discern which argument was more disturbing or less befitting of a president.
This is how reckless Republicans are with America, willing to give untold amounts of power to a man whom they still don’t fully understand in a frantic attempt to maintain their own grip on advantage in a country that has already elected a black president once and whose demographics are quickly turning against them.
Today's Tweet
Don't ever forget what that felt like last night.
This is what the wrong side of history looks like. #ImpeachmentTrialSham pic.twitter.com/GAr9NFUeLD— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) January 31, 2020
Today's Prank
There are truly heroes among us.
Gizmodo:
YouTuber Josh Pieters has revealed that he pranked far-right British commentator Katie Hopkins by flying her to Prague and presenting her with a fake award. Hopkins, who is frequently retweeted by President Trump and was recently suspended on Twitter, was awarded with the Campaign to Unify the Nation Trophy, abbreviated as C.U.N.T. And if you think that’s mean, just wait until you hear her hate-filled acceptance speech for the award.
The 26-year-old Pieters explained the prank in a new video on his YouTubechannel, which has over 1.2 million subscribers. And it was a surprisingly large undertaking to convince Hopkins that she was getting a real award. Pieters organized flights, hotels, a dinner at the Four Seasons, and even hired actors to play members of his fake advocacy group, the Cape Town Collective For the Freedom of Speech.
Pieters, who’s originally from South Africa but lives in the UK, set up a fake website to make his organization appear more authentic, though there are some clear hints it might be fake. The photo of the founder that appears on his website is the current leader of the Ku Klux Klan, as just one example.
The video:
I'm guessing Katie Hopkins doesn't really care that she got punked. She cares that she got the exposure.
Because some people are so desperate for attention, they'll act out - to the extreme if necessary - just to get people to notice them.
YouTuber Josh Pieters has revealed that he pranked far-right British commentator Katie Hopkins by flying her to Prague and presenting her with a fake award. Hopkins, who is frequently retweeted by President Trump and was recently suspended on Twitter, was awarded with the Campaign to Unify the Nation Trophy, abbreviated as C.U.N.T. And if you think that’s mean, just wait until you hear her hate-filled acceptance speech for the award.
The 26-year-old Pieters explained the prank in a new video on his YouTubechannel, which has over 1.2 million subscribers. And it was a surprisingly large undertaking to convince Hopkins that she was getting a real award. Pieters organized flights, hotels, a dinner at the Four Seasons, and even hired actors to play members of his fake advocacy group, the Cape Town Collective For the Freedom of Speech.
Pieters, who’s originally from South Africa but lives in the UK, set up a fake website to make his organization appear more authentic, though there are some clear hints it might be fake. The photo of the founder that appears on his website is the current leader of the Ku Klux Klan, as just one example.
The video:
I'm guessing Katie Hopkins doesn't really care that she got punked. She cares that she got the exposure.
Because some people are so desperate for attention, they'll act out - to the extreme if necessary - just to get people to notice them.
Jan 31, 2020
Jan 30, 2020
Repurposing
In the classic style of rubes and the cynical assholes who manipulate them all day every day, that's Ivanka Trump trying to defend her daddy by quoting Mr Jefferson as he denied raping and impregnating Sally Hemings - a young girl he kept as a slave. Sally Hemings was Jefferson's property.
And it's been confirmed time and again that he did in fact father at least some of her children.
To be clear, when you have sex with a woman who can't refuse you - when she cannot withhold her consent - that's rape.
Anyway - Ivanka's a bonehead.
Today's Poe
- Poe's Law is germane
- There are people out there who'll believe he said it because they know 45*'s a complete asswipe who says that kinda shit.
- There are people out there who'll not only believe 45* said it, but will agree with it, and endorse it, and embrace it.
After Alan Dershowitz kinda lost his shit yesterday and doubled down on his theme of The President Can Do No Wrong, it's really easy to see that this Daddy State shit is working pretty good on some folks.
What A Revoltin' Development
-- Louis VIV
WaPo:
President Trump’s legal team offered a startling defense Wednesday as senators debated his fate in the impeachment trial, arguing that presidents could do nearly anything so long as they believe their reelection is in the public interest.
The assertion from Alan Dershowitz, one of the attorneys representing the president, seemed to take GOP senators by surprise, and few were willing to embrace his argument. At the same time, Republican lawmakers were sounding increasingly confident about defeating a vote expected Friday over calling new witnesses in the trial, an issue that has consumed the Senate for the past several days.
- and -
“If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment,” asserted Dershowitz.
Then Dershowitz tried to bolster their bullshit assertion that unless the guy openly states that he's committing a crime, he's not just immune from impeachment, but out of reach of investigation altogether.
The law professor went on to say that if a president were to tell a foreign leader he was going to withhold funds unless his foreign counterpart built a hotel with his name on it and gave him a million-dollar kickback, “That’s an easy case. That’s purely corrupt and in the purely private interest.”
The President can do no wrong.
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