underpants
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Republicans discuss a longer Senate impeachment trial to scramble Democratic primaries
Some Republican senators and their advisers are privately discussing whether to pressure GOP leaders to stage a lengthy impeachment trial beginning in January to scramble the Democratic presidential race — potentially keeping six contenders in Washington until the eve of the Iowa caucuses or longer.
Those conversations about the timing and framework for a trial remain fluid and closely held, according to more than a dozen participants in the discussions. But the deliberations come as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) faces pressure from conservative activists to swat back at Democrats as public impeachment hearings began this week in the House.
The discussions raise a potential hazard for the six Democratic senators running for president, who had previously planned on a final sprint out of Washington before the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses and the Feb. 11 New Hampshire primary.
But McConnell will not be able to set the schedule in isolation. The rules for an impeachment trial, including a process for calling witnesses, must be passed by 51 or more senators, since Pence is not able to cast a deciding vote on the question. That gives McConnell, who oversees a 53-seat Republican majority, relatively little room to maneuver.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-discuss-a-longer-senate-impeachment-trial-to-scramble-democratic-primaries/2019/11/13/d7e46d24-064c-11ea-b17d-8b867891d39d_story.html
The good and bad of Republicans going second
This puts them right in the middle of east coast lunch time. It was on ABC as I walked into the break room. I left it on of course. Their side of the story.
Others started coming in and I said “I’m not watching this if you want to change it”.
Coworker picked the remote. Click to ...The Young and the Restless”...nope CBS has it on too. Audible groans were heard.
She inflated her resume and peddled a fake Time cover. Trump appointed her to the State Department.
Mina Chang sports a subtle smile on the cover of a Time magazine “Special Edition,” with a swaggering headline that reads, “We change the world: Modern humanitarian in the digital age.”
The fabricated Time cover is just one of Chang’s listed accomplishments and résumé line items that has come into question after an NBC News investigation found that the 35-year-old Trump appointee embellished her work history and made misleading claims about her professional background. It has been a persistent problem for President Trump’s administration: an apparent failure to recognize red flags when vetting potential hires and appointees.
Chang did complete a program at Harvard, but one very different from the prestigious institution’s master of business administration degree. Chang attended an eight-week course known as the “Advanced Management Program,” Brian Kenny, Harvard Business School’s chief marketing and communications officer, told The Post.
The program’s website says that graduates of the course “will become a lifetime member of the HBS alumni community,” but Kenny said it is “not on the same footing as an MBA.” Last year, the school’s acceptance rate for its MBA program was 11 percent, he said. But the Advanced Management Program has open enrollment. As long as an applicant’s employer sponsors them, and the firm can meet certain standards and foot the $82,000 fee, the person is admitted.
Chang also exaggerated the scope of her nonprofit’s work, NBC News reported. In public appearances, she claimed Linking the World operated in dozens of countries and impacted thousands of people. But her organization’s tax filings do not contain concrete information about overseas projects and show a budget of less than $300,000 with a handful of staff, according to NBC News.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2019/11/12/she-inflated-her-resume-peddled-fake-time-cover-trump-appointed-her-state-department/
Schiff called Republicans a "cult of the president " today
Good interview on NPR
We can't let one party that has allowed itself to become a cult of the president to dictate whether a constitutional remedy can be employed. I would hope, if not members of the House, then members of the Senate will put their party aside, will look to their constitutional duty and oath and ask themselves the question, if it comes to this — and again, we haven't prejudged whether it's going to come to this. But if it does come to a trial in the Senate, I hope they will be prepared to ask themselves the question: Are we prepared to accept that a president of the United States can withhold taxpayer funds, deprive an ally of the ability to defend itself, withhold official acts like a White House meeting with a foreign leader and do so in order to get help in a presidential election? Can a president of the United States obstruct Congress? Refuse to allow witnesses to appear, refuse to provide documents? Are we prepared to fundamentally alter our conception of the presidency itself? These are the tough questions that members on both sides of the aisle are going to have to ask.
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/12/778524552/transcript-nprs-full-interview-with-rep-adam-schiff-on-impeachment-inquiry
Power to the plastic!!!!
Me (who has the day off): "Anything that needs to get done today?"
Wife: "Well, you could organize the Tupperware"
I'm holding a rally at 2pm. ✊🏼
Uh oh "factional rift" amongst the ZOOMERS. This is too funny.
From a thread by Demovictory9 Donald Jr. gets heckled off stage BY THEIR OWN CULT MEMBERS.At first, Trump and Guilfoyle tried to ignore the discontent, which originated with a fringe group of America Firsters who believe the Trump administration has been taken captive by a cabal of internationalists, free-traders, and apologists for mass immigration.
The fiasco pointed to a factional rift on the Trump-supporting conservative right that has been growing rapidly in recent weeks, particularly among “zoomers” – student-age activists. On one side are one of the sponsors of Trump Jr’s book tour, Turning Point USA, a campus conservative group with a track record of bringing provocative rightwing speakers to liberal universities.
On the other side are far-right activists – often referred to as white supremacists and neo-Nazis, although many of them reject such labels – who believe in slamming the door on all immigrants, not just those who cross the border without documents, and who want an end to America’s military and diplomatic engagement with the wider world.
A number of the loudest voices at Sunday’s event were supporters of Nick Fuentes, a 21-year-old activist with a podcast called America First that has taken particular aim at Turning Point USA and its 25-year-old founder, Charlie Kirk. In a number of his own recent campus appearances, Kirk has faced questions accusing him of being more interested in supporting Israel than in putting America first. He has responded by calling his detractors conspiracists and racists.
On Sunday, Kirk appeared alongside Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle but said nothing.
Two Fuentes supporters, delighted with the outcome of Trump Jr’s appearance, later told the Guardian the pro-Trump movement was being infected with “fake conservatism” and that the president himself was at the mercy of a cabal of deep state operatives who wouldn’t let him do many of the things he campaigned on.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/11/donald-trump-jr-walks-out-of-triggered-book-launch-after-heckling-from-supporters
Berlin Wall. Funny story I heard from an Army guy who stayed in Germany.
This was from a guy in the Army who met a German woman and stayed. He got a job in public works. At the time he was on some sort of disability so he had to order food by 8 PM in order to stay in the bar (Country Western place). The Germans are exact about that sort of thing.
So the story goes that works were being done on the streets shadowed by the wall. Tools are left there because... Germany. The bars spill out and someone picks up a axe or something and someone says "F it" and starts hammering. Others join in. The police aren't sure what to do and time makes it hard to do anything. The hammering continues.
One person is an crime, 10 people are an incident, 20 people are a mob.
It continued on through the night. World leaders decided overnight.. let it go.
Anyway that's the way I heard it.
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