Thank you. Every time I see a Hill link, I just move on to the next thread.

Or I go search for another source with the same news. It can be tempting to link the Hill when they seem to scoop so quickly sometimes, but people need to stop doing it. That news source is a poison pill.

Are we all pretending Trump is coherent?

These are sentence fragments strung together loosely, making very little sense. It's appalling that this is supposed to be a political speech. The level of communication displayed here could barely hold up one side of a conversation, much less pass for persuasive rhetoric regarding important issues facing the nation... especially given the fact that he can't seem to stop talking about bathroom fixtures.

Frightening.

Photo context: stolen from a 2015 NYT article

The photo and the words don't match. The photo reveals the projection.

He's not worried about his constituents; he knows no one is after them. His photo says, "I'm after you."

His photo says "I'm gonna get you."

That tweet is not a warning. It's a threat.

The letter wasn't really aimed at Nancy Pelosi alone.

As with just about everything Trump does, it was red meat for the base. Timing it for the the day before the impeachment vote was intentional. Loud distraction and disturbance, vulgar performance theatre for the masses - it's his gimmick.

I think this might be from last week.

"a 250 percent discount"

That phrase alone points out the problem in stark terms. Politically disposing of people in the name of corporate greed while simultaneously breaking a campaign promise is not good optics, never mind ethics and conscience. :sad trombone:

His handlers won't let him, because his disjointed babble would be obvious in a quiet room.

In tweet format, Trump can fake his way through stuttering and jumping from topic to topic mid-thought, but otherwise he is incoherent. His language skills have deteriorated too much for him to pretend to string a complete sentence together any more. It's the same reason he won't be participating in any debates during the election campaign.

Based on that alone, I think it would be remarkable to get him to testify in person. But it won't happen.

All they had to do was stand there for sixty seconds or so,

and look presentable and respectable. That's all they had to do, and they couldn't do it.

"Oh, it was just the circle game!" Not helping anyone's case here. Last time I checked that game (college in the '80s) it was on the lewd side. If other people have innocent versions, okay fine. Regardless, that was not the time to play.

"Oh, it's just the okay sign!" Sorry, nope. Okay sign is usually held up near to your own face - and unfortunately this symbol has been appropriated. Whether we like it or not, it's no longer as innocent as it used to be.

"But it's just a 4chan prank!" It used to be a 4chan prank. Not anymore.

"I didn't know, so they didn't know!" Really? Come on.

Given today's political climate, I don't think anyone from West Point or the Naval Academy should be giving any of us reason to doubt them on the issue. Do you?

His buddy Firtash is the man with the money.

He was likely bankrolling Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, and also Rudy through his lawyers diGenova and Toensing.

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/19/771518776/what-oligarch-dmytro-firtash-has-to-do-with-the-ukraine-scandal

https://www.thedailybeast.com/rudy-giuliani-admits-he-did-sort-of-look-at-ukrainian-oligarch-dmitry-firtash-for-info

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/01/politics/parnas-firtash-giuliani-ties/index.html

What I don't understand is how Rudy Guliani is still a free man, walking (and globehopping) around as though he is not thick as thieves with the Russian mob while trying to tamper with an election. Again.