Monday, December 23, 2019

Rudy Giuliani Wins “Scoundrel Of The Year” Honor

The Republicans might still be bitter about Greta Thunberg winning Time Magazine’s Person of the Year award, but they still got one for themselves: Rudy Giuliani has officially been named as The New Republic’s “Scoundrel of the Year.” And that’s quite a good pick.

Giuliani has managed to be at the heart of all of Trump’s scandals, and has proven through his countless media appearances that he is grossly incompetent and more than a little unhinged. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses Giuliani’s new accolades.

America's Toady

How Nancy Pelosi Should Handle Impeachment

Nancy Pelosi is bungling Trump’s impeachment. Cenk Uygur, Jayar Jackson, and Francesca Fiorentini, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down.

"The House’s impeachment debate on Wednesday held surprises for few across party lines – including for viewers of Fox News.

For most of the day, the resident’s favorite channel covered the debate straight; the vast majority of the afternoon deferred to the live feed of the House floor. News anchors such as Chris Wallace and Bret Baier would occasionally jump in with commentary, largely to signpost the oft-used “historic” label and the debate’s deep partisan schism.

“No matter what you think of the resident, after today we will never talk about the 45th resident of the United States the same way again,” Baier said."

Hosts: Cenk Uygur, Jayar Jackson, Francesca Fiorentini

Cast: Cenk Uygur, Jayar Jackson, Francesca Fiorentini

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/dec/18/trump-impeachment-fox-news-response


Saturday, December 21, 2019

Joe Biden Democratic Debate Answer Was Amazingly Bad | Tim Black

Joe Biden's answer to this question was so bad it might grind his campaign to a halt.

Note To Democrats: Don’t Fuck Up The Post-Impeachment Process

Posted by Rude One

Every once in an increasingly regular while, I just feel like someone needs to sit Democratic leaders and members of Congress down and explain to them How the World Works Now. See, they are approaching the completed impeachment and the hopefully forthcoming trial of Donald Trump as a solemn and serious occasion for reflection on one’s Oath of Office and the Constitution, hoping that their solemnity and seriousness will be the gravity that brings Americans to earth with the understanding that, yes, obviously, Donald Trump has as much business being resident as he does doing anything other than handing out shopping carts at Home Depot and telling customers about great deals on paint. Even then, he’d probably be a dick about it.

So, while one might think that seriousness is the proper response to the political turmoil and the potential removal of a resident for the first time in our nation’s history, that’s not How the World Works Now.

Right now, Republicans are going full dickhole on opposing Trump's impeachment, trial, and removal. Since well before the vote yesterday, the GOP and allied groups have been running ads about how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is going to use a strap-on on Uncle Sam and the Do-Nothing Democrats are literally masturbating in the House chamber rather than passing everything that their Lord and Savior Trump wants. Democrats and their groups, meanwhile, are essentially buying into the Republican narrative by releasing ads touting all the shit they are doing on health care and other stuff, like little brothers insisting, "We're not do-nuttin'" to their noogying older siblings.

Messaging for Democrats has never been a strong suit. When we have swept into office in wave elections, like in 2006, 2008, and 2018, it's been because Republicans were finally so abjectly awful that most voters could no longer live with themselves voting for them. But the thing is that Republicans are masterful at disinformation, and they will lie and lie and lie some more in order to pound a lie into the brains of anyone paying even scant attention. "Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election" and "Joe Biden got the prosecutor fired to protect his son" will be crammed down the same throats who eagerly swallowed the load of whatever the fuck Hillary Clinton supposedly did in Benghazi, despite multiple hearings exonerating her, and, of course, now and forever, her emails.

Don't fuck this up, Democrats. That's the message here. We already fucked up on the Mueller Report, and now it's an article of faith among the faithless that Trump did nothing wrong in the "Russia hoax," despite the report very clearly and thoroughly explaining that he did a shit-ton wrong and that Congress needed to get off its ass and do something about it. Democrats let it go because it was too complicated and because the Mueller show wasn't entertaining enough.

I cannot begin to catalog all the ways Democrats have fucked up. The list of grievances here would be so long and so enraging that it'd make calm heads burst and spray viscera all over their nice Christmas trees or menorahs or cornucopias or whatever the fuck you have up. It would include the failure of the left to fund a liberal media message delivery system in the same way that the right has talk radio and Fox "news" and its devolved children, OAN and others. All that shit was and still is propped up by rich fucks like Sheldon Adelson and the Koch cocks. It would include the failure to force the country into an electoral reckoning over the 2000 election. It would include the failure to go to the barricades over Merrick fucking Garland.

Time and again, Democrats have played this game like there is honor in it instead of playing it to fucking destroy the opposition. Time and again, we have let Republicans set the terms of the contract and just signed along. Time and again, they dared Democrats to vary from a pre-ordained set of responses, going full force after any Democrat that dared to call "bullshit" on them.

The fact that Nancy Pelosi is holding back on sending the impeachment articles over to the Senate has enraged Republicans because it upset the script and showed that maybe, just maybe, this time Democrats weren't going to accept the Republican rules in this game. It's the smart play, and they have no idea how the hell to respond. Now, it's time to mobilize the public and market the shit out of the removal of Donald Trump from office.

Democrats need to be gearing up for the greatest battle of our recent lives. They need to go big, with everything from billboards on the highways to ads out the wazoo. I mean pounding the fucking message until it drowns out other shit. This is How the World Works Now. We are never out of campaign mode, and nothing is so serious or important that it can't be marketed to the hilt. To pretend otherwise is to cede the ground on convincing everyone to the Republicans. It would once again allow them to set the terms of the argument.

Fuck that. Create a new playing field, one where the dominant message is this: "You are only a good American if you support removing Donald Trump from office." It's that simple. We punish criminals, and Trump is a criminal; ergo, get him the fuck out of there. Hell, the column from Christianity Today that calls for Trump's removal from office is incredible support for that stance.

This will require a massive amount of spending, as well as Democrats sucking up their reticence to really get down in the shit pool with Republicans and slug it out. But if you don't get dirty, the GOP will take it as weakness and exploit that until there is nothing to impeachment and the whole thing will have been just to put an asterisk next to Trump's name.

Sure, it's something. But it's not enough. If you win this messaging war, you can shift the narrative, and that's the real game changer. It means that even if not a single GOP Senator changes their closed, Trump-owned minds, the voters will know what the deal is.

Barring a miracle, Trump won't be removed by the Senate. But if Democrats succeed only a bit at this war, they will finish the job in November.

Friday, December 20, 2019

Trump should be removed from office

It’s time to say what we said 20 years ago when a president’s character was revealed for what it was.

Tulsi Gabbard Mocked For Her 'Present' Votes On Impeachment

Twitter users had a field day, both with her votes and her self-serving "explanation".



Source

Why Can’t Democrats See That Joe Biden Is A Disaster Of A Candidate?

According to the latest round of polling, Joe Biden still holds a lead over all of the other Democratic candidates. This is disappointing, to say the least, as Biden has zero chance to beat Trump in 2020.

The Republicans have already painted him as a corrupt, senile old man, and that image is sticking with Republicans. It doesn’t matter that it is hypocritical, they got there first. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins lays out more reasons why Biden is a horrible candidate.



https://theweek.com/articles/884677/democrats-are-sleepwalking-into-biden-disaster

Pathetic! Trump Plays A LOSER After Ana Navarro EXPOSES White House Staff


Wednesday, December 18, 2019

DONALD TRUMP IMPEACHED

House of Representatives charges the resident with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress

  • The House of Representatives impeached resident Donald Trump on Wednesday. He is the third resident in history to be impeached.
  • The chamber is voting on two articles of impeachment against Trump. The first article, charging Trump with abuse of power, passed the House with a vote of 230-197.
  • House lawmakers also voted to pass the second article of impeachment, which charges Trump with obstruction of Congress, with a vote of 229-198.
  • Both articles relate to Trump's efforts to solicit Ukraine's interference in the 2020 election while withholding vital military aid and a White House meeting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky desperately sought.
  • Next, the impeachment proceedings will go to the Republican controlled Senate, which is widely expected to acquit the resident.

Monday, December 16, 2019

Laurence Tribe: Make Trump 'The O.J. Simpson Of Presidents'

Talking impeachment with Joy Reid, Laurence Tribe urges Democrats to turn Donald Trump into "the O.J. Simpson of presidents" if Sen. Mitch McConnell refuses to conduct a full and fair impeachment trial in the Senate.



https://crooksandliars.com/2019/12/laurence-tribe-make-trump-oj-simpson-presidents

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Terrified Trump Says He May Skip 2020 Presidential Debates

According to reports, Donald Trump has been talking with his advisers about the possibility of simply skipping the 2020 presidential debates. He claims that the media won’t be fair to him, but the truth is that he’s terrified of the thought of going up against anyone who is going to call out his lies and his pathetic record as resident. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.



https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/us/politics/trump-presidential-debate-democrat.html

Friday, December 13, 2019

A Few Questions For Enraged Republicans

Posted by Rude One

In the wake of Democrats finally loading the cannon on actual articles of impeachment, Republicans are somewhere between frantic denial and explosive apoplexy as they insist that Donald Trump did nothing wrong in his dealings with Ukraine and Congress. So I have a few questions for 'em.

1. If Ukraine is so corrupt, why was no funding held up in 2017 and 2018? And why was corruption in Ukraine not a significant part of any hearings in the House of Representatives in those years, when Republicans were in the majority? (And in hearings in the Senate, corruption in Ukraine was seen as directly being influenced by Russia.)

2. If Ukraine continues to be so corrupt, why were the funds even released in 2019 when they made no tangible additional effort to fight corruption between July and September?

3. If Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election in the United States, why did the Republican-run committees in the House ignore that in 2017 and 2018? Not a single hearing looked into that in those years, although hearings did focus on how Ukraine needed the support of the United States against Russia.

4. If Hunter Biden did something so awful, how come Republicans in the House didn't investigate it in 2017 or 2018? Devin Nunes was the chair of the Intelligence Committee, and Republicans chaired the Foreign Affairs and Judiciary committees. But the name "Biden" barely comes up in hearings, mostly in a historical context. And "Hunter Biden" is simply nowhere to be found. What made him more corrupt in 2019?

5. You ask rhetorically if the United States shouldn't pursue an investigation against Burisma and Hunter Biden just because he's the son of the president's political opponent. resident Trump was asked if he had asked for investigations of a single other person or entity in Ukraine, and he couldn't answer. Do you have an answer? Why didn't you pursue those in 2017 and 2018? Do you think it's okay to only investigate Hunter Biden?

6. When a Democratic president's staff is subpoenaed to come before Congress, do you agree that that president should be allowed to order them to defy the subpoena?

7. When a Democratic president refuses to allow any documents to be given to Congress during investigations, do you support that?

8. If a Democratic president asks for a favor from the leader of, perhaps, Israel to look into, say,  business deals of the Trump family because Israel is so corrupt, are you okay with that? Would you support that president withholding aid to Israel until they dealt with the issue?

These are all ridiculous questions because Republicans have decided that any sense of consistency, dignity, or honesty must be subsumed in their deeply depraved defense of Donald Trump. 
They are all his willing bitches and he's their enthusiastic pimp, sending them out to fuck the country, knock it out, and take its wallet.

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Michael Bloomberg Thinks He’s The Only Candidate Who Can Beat Trump

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg told an interviewer this week that the entire field of Democratic candidates was weak and that Trump would eat them alive during the campaign. Of course, he believes that he is the exception to this, which is laughable. 

There are plenty of Democratic candidates who would lose to Trump, both electorally and in a debate, but there are also several who would destroy him. 

Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.


Trump’s Kids Forced To Attend Classes On How NOT To Defraud A Charity

As part of a settlement agreement over the misuse of charitable funds, Trump’s kids Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric are being forced to take a course on how not to defraud a charity.

Imagine being so corrupt that a judge actually orders you to take classes on how to NOT be corrupt.

Sadly, that’s the world we’re living in with the current leader of the United States and his family.

Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.



https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/trumps-children-must-undergo-mandatory-training-to-learn-how-to-avoid-defrauding-charities/

Atty. General Barr Is Lying To America About Ukraine

Former FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi reacts to Atty. General Barr's answers on who hacked the 2016 election. Aired on 12/10/19.




Trump Campaign Compares Him To Genocidal Marvel Supervillain

The Trump War Room, an extension of the Trump for resident campaign, tweeted out a video depicting Donald Trump as Marvel supervillain Thanos, thinking that it would be the best way to own the liberals.

But the campaign must not have actually watched the movie, because Thanos loses in the end, and the clip they chose to superimpose Trump’s head onto is just moments before Thanos’s plan falls apart. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.



https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-campaign-tweet-thanos_n_5df0203ee4b06a50a2e63bb0

Trump campaign's weird Thanos video. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down.



Trump Team Mocked For Comparing Him To Supervillian


Tuesday, December 10, 2019

YIKES!!! House Republicans Just Had A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Impeachment Day!

Jesse Dollemore talks about the disastrous showing from the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee related to the ongoing Impeachment Inquiry into Donald Trump's corruption.

Minority counsel Steve Castor blew it in the face of a day filled with fact questions from Democrats.

Even the Republicans childish procedural pranks/tactics fell flat!

Monday, December 9, 2019

Get Behind Bernie Sanders Or All Is Lost

A Tim Black Show Freedom Friday Caller "Laura from Alaska" talks politics 60's, MLK, JFK, Nixon to today's Trump, Bernie and horrid Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy.