Two real patriots sworn in for the a.m. session of hearings yesterday: Jennifer Williams and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman . They ate Dotard's lunch and his GOP attack dogs' too.
In his superb book, 'The Twilight Of American Sanity', psychiatrist Allan Frances argues that Trump has the "gut instincts" of a chimp and the sad aspect is too many of his followers and defenders do as well. (According to recent CNN and Quinnipiac polls, these are mostly white males.) By that he meant that rather than use critical thinking and reason (what he calls "System II" cognitive approaches) they too often fall to "chimp like reactive aggression and unreason".
Do the predominantly white male supporters of 'Captain Bonespurs' have brains that function mostly at chimp level? It appears so. At least in the political domain. (All day, Republican speeches were delivered by old white men, and glaringly alternated with Democratic speeches from women, people of color and young people. White men make up 90 percent of the Republican caucus.)
Well, we beheld that in spades in the morning impeachment hearings yesterday as Reep after Reep flailed in the face of two first hand witnesses: Lt Col Alexander Vindman, a Ukraine adviser on the National Security Council, and Jennifer Williams, a foreign policy adviser to vice-president, Michael Pence. Over some four -plus hours of riveting testimony the pair forced the GOP clowns to eat shit as they disparaged and destroyed the idiotic, Russian-fabricated conspiracy theories to which those like imp Devin Nunes clung.
Both described their concern over an “unusual” call between Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president on July 25th, in which Trump ignored official talking points about fighting corruption to instead ask Volodymyr Zelenskiy for a political “favor”: an investigation tied to Joe Biden. In other words, demanding (the term Lt. Col. Vindman used) a personal favor in return for delivering $400 m in military aid. Cutting away all the crap and euphemisms - it amounts to bribery. And as caustic comic John Oliver put it in his opening segment of 'Last Week Tonight': "If Trump can get away with this he can get away with anything."
Make no mistake that irrespective of the Reepo conspiracy clown show - on display in Klieg lights yesterday- this is deadly serious business. Because we are facing in Trump and his shameless defenders an existential threat from real domestic enemies. Enemies who would not only attack and try to besmirch a Purple heart warrior in Vindman, but also happily use a totally debunked Russian conspiracy yarn to try to give specious cover to Trump. In respect of the former, we beheld one GOPer clown after another accuse Vindman of leaks, violating his chain of command, poor judgment (talk about 'pot, kettle, black') , accessing colleagues' computers without permission, and having a "nonsense" view of Trump's thinking. (You mean to say the orange mutt actually thinks?) The Reepo counsel Stephen Castor even insinuated disloyalty because Vindman was thrice offered a defense ministry position by a Ukraine official.(Which he adamantly rejected each time)
As WaPo columnist Dana Milbank put it, these efforts disclosed a total lack of decency on the part of these assholes. But why be surprised at a party of craven apes, who'd rather kiss the ass of their orange alpha ape master than defend the country? Do they even love their country? In every phase of the Trump debacle so far that was difficult to discern. What they do love is basking in Trump's dubious praise, or perhaps better, not becoming fodder for a deranged tweet.
As one pundit observed, if you went fifty years into the future and related how one American political party tried to use the bunkum from a hostile state to support an autocrat criminal, they'd never believe it.
Well, we can barely believe it and we're watching it unfold in real time. Thus, when Trump "fired back" - again the useless term employed by the lazy media - that "the Republicans killed it", I had to laugh. Killed what? Killed themselves with stupid and transparent excuses and pitifully hollow and asinine efforts to knock down the witnesses? So one had to wonder what planet- in what alternate universe- Trump was watching from.
In a further blow to Trump and his cockeyed, clueless defenders, a witness requested by Republicans, the former envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, said the investigations Trump requested of Zelenskiy were based on “conspiracy theories” and that “the allegations against Vice-President Biden were self-serving and not credible”. So that backfired on the GOP chimps as well, despite hired clown Jim Jordan again screaming like a mad monkey on crack, trying to replace reasoned argument with decibels. NO one was buying.
Moron of the Day award is shared by him and the Trump pet monkey Devin Nunes, still pathetically trying to portray the whole proceeding as a sham and "hoax". Second place award goes to Utah's Reeptard Chris Stewart, who questioned why Lt. Col. Vindman found it necessary to wear his military uniform as opposed to a suit. Clearly both he and Trump were distressed by the optics of a real patriot's presence at the hearing. (Especially as Capt. Bonespurs Trump evaded service five times using "bone spurs".)
As for Volker, he was given a lot of latitude to change his story before he had his 'come to Jesus' moment. In the words of NY times columnist Michelle Goldberg last night, on 'All In':
"Volker got off very easy. Volker, if not outright committing perjury, clearly dissembled and they sort of let him get away with suddenly remembering a bunch of things that he had previously forgotten. And also they let him get away with this thing that a sophisticated foreign policy professional had no idea what these investigations are about. Has no idea why Donald Trump is incredibly interested into this one particular Ukrainian energy company. I mean I don't think anybody can possibly believe that, though Devin Nunes could pretend to.
So I think they went easy on him because despite being basically a witness for the defense he did end up confirming substantial parts of the Democrats' case."
Indeed, Volker admitted under questioning he thought he and others were pursuing an investigation of Burisma that did not involve a Biden angle. He 'fessed up:
“In retrospect, I should have seen that connection differently,and had I done so, I would have raised my own objections. I don’t think that raising 2016 elections or Vice-President Biden, these things that I consider to be conspiracy theories … they’re not things that we should be pursuing as part of national security strategy with Ukraine.”.
Good thinking there, mate! Now tell that to the dopes - the Repuke conspiracy clowns- who chose you as one of their star witnesses.
As for those clowns, they were stuck mentally in first gear and were unable to move out- which why I so often call them Reeptards. For example, the yappy terrier (Janice's favorite term for her) Elise Stefanik - who clung to her narrative that "nothing was really delivered", no investigation of the Bidens ever carried out. So no harm no foul. I suppose if she was the victim of an attempted burglary or god forbid, attempted homicide, she'd also say "Nothing really happened! Nothing to see there! GO home!"
But the 'queen' of Reeptards may well be the one that wasn't there: White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, who released a statement saying the Democrats were “blinded by hatred” and adding: “We have learned nothing new in today’s illegitimate ‘impeachment’ proceedings," Well, if you really believe that there truly is no hope for you, not even in a remedial nursery school.
All of this sets the stage for tomorrow's blockbuster hearing featuring Gordon Sondland. The Reeptards have argued that the Trump administration "never directly tied military aid or the prospect of a White House visit to the announcement of investigations". But both Vindman and Volker yesterday provided the first public testimony about a scene in which Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, did just that.
Some are predicting he will "go down with Ship Trump" and others that he will take the Fifth. Or try to. Still others predict he will see the writing on the wall and come clean especially after the Holmes' testimony, deposition on Friday.
We will see. One thing we do know: The Reeps will dig an ever deeper hole of fatuous bullshit defense for themselves - again speeding the day their party finally expires like the Whigs.
In the meantime, as often as the Repukes try to impugn Mueller and his report, we ought to remember the words of former acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger (last night, 'All In'):
"We start out in 2016 it was not a Russian hoax. From every intel agency we know it was a massive and systematic Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. The president then excuses Russia and therefore invites their further participation. What 2016 is about - this reference to investigating 2016 - is trying to hold the Russians harmless by blaming the Ukrainians for what happened. And that is telling Vladiir Putiin, 'we've really got y0ur back. We're not going to try to sanction you we're even going to point the finger at somebody else.'
So we have impeachable offenses that are so much worse than the federal criminal code: An attempt to misuse the power of the presidency to corrupt a forthcoming democratic election."
So let's bear in mind each time Nunes or one of his associated clowns gaslights witnesses about fueling the "Democrat's impeachment inquisition" they are in fact part of this criminal process to corrupt the next election - accessories after the fact to Trump's traitorous crime.
See also:
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by Mira Oklobdzija | November 20, 2019 - 7:03am |
