Small and Sinking

"It is a sign that your reputation is small and sinking if your own tongue must be your flatterer." – Sir Matthew Hale (1609-1676)

Last week we heard from the "very stable genius" that he possesses "great and unmatched wisdom."

Dude, really? Look around you. It's not just your reputation. The whole freakin' ship is sinking. 


Pence's ship looks like it is sinking too.

First, as you recall, his boss threw him under the bus shortly after the story broke, by asking the press (and the Dems) to "look at Mike Pence's phone calls." This week, NBC's Vaughn Hillyard had Pence against the wall.

              (sorry for the laughtrack)

Rachel Maddow has an interesting look at the bus-throwing. She hypothesizes that SCROTUS may be banking on an all-or-nothing situation, that he won't be impeached because the Senate does not want a President Pelosi. Once again, he's a few stones short of a bucketful. The House can choose to bring articles against Pence or not, and if they do, the Senate will vote separately on his impeachment vs. 45's. There is no "package deal." (Ahhhh, but I'm still warm all over thinking about President Pelosi).

Anyway, you can see in Maddow's segment below how TЯUMP pointedly asks the court to rule that the president, and specifically not the vice-president, be immune from prosecution.

Impeachment proceedings are rolling right along!

The former Ambassador to the Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, who we first learned about in the whistleblower complaint, defied the Whitewash House order not to testify. She appeared to Congress behind closed doors on Friday for almost nine hours. By her testimony, simply put, she was ousted because she was interfering with Rudy Giuliani's plans to secure the Ukraine government's cooperation in aiding 45. Ambassador Yovanovitch's mission was helping to stop corruption in Ukraine, only to be undermined by corrupt actions by those within her own government. Actually, not even! Rudy Giuliani is NOT a government employee. He is 45's personal attorney. He play-acted State Department Official in all this dirty dealing.

Her testimony came with good timing, as the day before two of Giuliani's associates, who helped Giuliani in Ukraine, had been arrested and charged for campaign finance crimes. The two are Soviet-born (Ukraine and Belarus) U.S. citizens and their arrest adds a verrrry interesting dimension to the Ukraine scandal. Though he has tried to distance himself from the two, it appears that Bumbledore had a relationship with at least one of them as early as 2014. After their arrest, the two were promptly subpoenaed to appear before Congress as part of the impeachment inquiry.

Gordon Sondland, Ambassador to the E.U., will also defy the State Department order and will comply with the subpoena to testify next week. He is a central figure in the whole Ukraine deal, and may give more insight into the quid pro quo. He is set to appear on Wednesday.

Rick Perry, who is most likely resigning as Energy Secretary by year's end, was subpoenaed. SCROTUS tried to throw him under the bus, too, with regard to the phone call, saying Perry made him do it. Perry says, yes, he urged 45 to call the Ukrainian president, but not for finding dirt on the Bidens. He urged a call to discuss energy and economy. Perhaps we'll get to the truth when he testifies.

Next Tuesday, October 15, is a big day for the inquiry. Congress returns to work that day, and the day marks the deadline for all sorts of documents to be provided to Congressional committees, including documents from Giuliani and Vice President Pence.


Support for impeachment is growing.

A group of 17 Watergate prosecutors wrote an op/ed in the Washington Post in which they assert that he should be impeached now based on the evidence already at hand. SCROTUS himself submitted the evidence regarding telephone call; no more is needed for an article of impeachment for abuse of power. We can charge contempt of Congress based on his letter refusing to cooperate, and obstruction of justice..... well, there's a mountain of evidence for that. (Thank you, Bob Mueller!)

Conservative writer and one-time Republican George Will agrees. He writes a scathing piece in the Washington Post, saying that his refusal to cooperate alone is impeachable, and he entreats Congress at large and Republicans specifically to simply do their job. He says it much better, of course. Read his piece.

The American public is also reaching the same conclusion. This week's polls show an increasing public support for impeachment. This poll from Fox News indicates that 51% of registered voters support impeachment AND removal from office. Their jefe was not at all pleased with this poll.

But if we get our way, he can complain to the steel bars.

On a more serious note, the world is keenly feeling the effects of 45's capricious decision to withdraw troops from Northern Syria and leave the Kurds high and dry. Dozens of Kurdish fighters and several civilians have already been killed. Tens of thousands of refugees are trying to leave the area. Military rounds came very near to American troops the other day. Accident? Intentional? Hmmm....Turkey had known the troops' location for months.

SCROTUS, in his great and unmatched wisdom, justified his betrayal of the Kurds by saying that they deserved it. You know, because they didn't even help storm Normandy. No words.

John Cole

In the clip above, you'll hear him say that there is "tremendous support outside of the Washington area" for his decision to withdraw from Northern Syria. Yeah, there is. You know who supports this action?  The world's other brutal dictators: His love, Putie the Cutie, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Syria's Bashar al-Assad, who is licking his lips at driving out the Kurds and reclaiming the northern part of Syria. This weekend, it was reported that relatives of ISIS fighters, many of them women and children, were allowed to be released, and it is feared that in the chaos 11,000 ISIS fighters themselves may be able to escape. It's completely chaotic there, and thousands of people are at risk of dying.

The situation is tragic on many levels. And all because of one madman's stupidity.


Other news:

Remember a couple weeks ago when the Whitewash House accidentally sent their impeachment talking points to the Democrats? This week they did it again. What a bunch o' maroons!

Regarding his taxes: Darth taxeVader lost his appeal and a federal court gave the go-ahead for his tax returns to be released to Congress. This may go all the way to the Supreme Court. Deutsche Bank has indicated that they do not hold copies of his tax returns, and there is speculation that they were destroyed.

A couple notable ship-jumpers: A senior advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo resigned this week. And Kevin McAleenan, acting Secretary of Homeland Security, on the job for just a few months, resigned as well. #GetOutWhileYouCan

By the way, as an aside, after nearly three years in office, the Senate still has not received nominations for 143 key executive branch positions, and 83 more are awaiting nominations, out of 743 positions. That's 21% of top positions that haven't been filled. How can our government work this way?

Tonight, this disturbing headline from the New York Times: Macabre Video of Fake Trump Shooting Media and Critics Is Shown at His Resort.  I'll let you read the article for yourself. It's deeply disturbing. The time for him to go is yesterday.



Lastly, for your edutainment, I offer this clever animation explaining impeachment.

Remember: find more about the impeachment inquiry schedule at the Washington Post.