63 thoughts on “The hair of the dog?”

  1. NYTimes:

    As Democrats enter the second day of public impeachment hearings, Marie L. Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine, will testify publicly on Friday about the campaign by the president’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani that led to her ouster and her shock and anger about the effort to get her fired.

    Who: Marie L. Yovanovitch, the former United States ambassador to Ukraine, will appear as the sole witness.

    What: The House Intelligence Committee, led by its chairman, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, continues to examine the case for impeaching President Trump.

    When and Where: The proceedings start at 9 a.m. Eastern in the vaulted, columned chambers of the Ways and Means Committee. We expect the hearing to last several hours.

    […]

    The former ambassador will deliver what Democrats hope will be moving testimony as she recounts her abrupt ouster after a relentless smear campaign by Mr. Giuliani.

     

    Ms. Yovanovitch, who goes by the nickname Masha, has already described how Mr. Giuliani and Trump allies accused her of undermining the president during the 2016 election, something she calls a scurrilous lie. In Ms. Yovanovitch’s telling, Mr. Giuliani saw her as an impediment to his agenda, which included pushing Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden, the younger son of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

    An immigrant and a diplomat with more than 30 years of service, Ms. Yovanovitch was told to “get on the next plane,” a move she has said was based on “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.” Democrats expect her to describe the personal trauma she endured as the administration’s traditional diplomatic establishment in Ukraine collided with a rogue foreign policy operation run by Mr. Giuliani.

    [continues]

  2. adding another perspective on today’s drama:

    wapo:

    During the pivotal phone call that sparked the House impeachment inquiry, President Trump made a reference to gender as he smeared former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
    “The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news,” Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25.
    Trump then made an ominous prediction as he pressured Zelensky for investigations of his political rivals. “She’s going to go through some things,” he said of the ambassador.
    As a leading female diplomat, a political target of the president’s allies and a figure at the center of the Ukraine drama, Yovanovitch has crucial knowledge to impart when she testifies at Friday’s impeachment hearing. She also enters the spotlight as the latest woman who has refused to acquiesce to Trump in the face of personal and gender-specific attacks.
    The story of Yovanovitch’s removal as Ukraine ambassador reflects some of the most complicated gender and political dynamics of Trump’s presidency. Now the impeachment probe is magnifying those dynamics as the first woman to publicly testify prepares to confront Trump’s fiercest congressional defenders, nearly all men, about a campaign by other male allies of the president to force her from her post. The symbolism of that conflict underscores the significance of the historic probe, which was initiated by the female speaker of the House — Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — and made possible by female voters who helped deliver the House to Democrats in the last election.
    [continues]

     

  3. Seems that SFB and “his lawyer” Barr are having relationship issues, as reported by MSNBC (no link as they do not like ad blockers).  Barr may have had someone whisper in his ear that he is going down hard if he sells out the DOJ to keep the low intelligence narcissist in the WH.

  4. a little history from the village idiom on “the hair of the dog”:

    Hair of the Dog that Bit You Origin

    The phrase hair of the dog that bit you appears to have a quite literal origin. It comes from a time when a potential treatment to a rabid dog bite was to pack the wound with dog’s hair or ashes of the dog’s hair to prevent a rabies infection. If this cure was to be taken seriously as needing hair from the same rabid dog that bit you, I can only imagine needed more and more hair for more and more bites until you’re just being eaten alive by a really angry, really naked dog.

     

    Literal Origin

     

    “When a person has been bitten by a mad dog, he may be preserved from hydrophobia by applying the ashes of a dog’s head to the wound. … or insert in the wound ashes of hairs from the tail of the dog that inflicted the bite.”

    The Natural History, Pliny the Elder, AD 77-79[3]

     

    […]

    Spiritual Origin

     

    “I pray thee let me and my fellow have
    A hair of the dog that bit us last night
    And bitten were we both to the brain aright.
    We saw each other drunk in the good ale glass.”

    A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the Englishe tongue, John Heywood, 1546

     

    Our idiom patron John Heywood appears to have one of the earliest texts using the phrase ‘hair of the dog that bit __’ in an idiomatic way.

     

  5. NYTimes best of late night quote picks from above:

    “Here’s the thing, people: these hearings are investigating whether the president of the United States committed high crimes or misdemeanors. So they’re supposed to be serious, not about excitement. You know, impeachment is like a family reunion: If it’s sexy, something has gone horribly wrong.’” — TREVOR NOAH

    “And even though millions of people have been talking about these hearings, over on Fox News their analysis of this impeachment is ‘meh.’” — TREVOR NOAH

    “You know what’s funny is how when it was Hillary’s scandal, Fox News was like, ‘Now as we well know, Benghazi isn’t just home to Libya’s signature dish, bazin, it’s also a hotbed of support for Ansar al-Sharia, especially around Tahrir Square. This is a big thing in Libya.’ When it’s a Donald Trump scandal, all of a sudden they’re like, ‘What’s a Ukraine? Ukraine? Do you crane? Do I crane? Frasier Crane? The bird crane?’” — TREVOR NOAH

  6. bbronc & pogo, the week hints that the lovers’ spat between twit and his roy cohn clone was over the report wrap-up on the “oranges” of the fbi investigation of the Russian/trump campaign.

  7. Short Story of the Day:  “Hair of the Dog”, by Wm Price Fox, from the collection SOUTHERN FRIED + 6.

  8. Prithee fill up my glass till it laugh in face, with ale that is potent and mellow.  He that whines for a lass is an ignorant ass, for a bumper of wine hath not its fellow.
    —Wm Congreve

  9. WTF is with Nunez?  Is he trying to remove any doubt about how stupid and sycophantic he is?  Don’t bother – we all know.

  10. Yovanovitch: “Shady interests the world over have learned how little it takes to remove an American ambassador who does not give them what they want.”

    That , ladies and gentlemen, is the basic definition of  “High crimes and misdemeanors”
    It is not criminal behavior. but behavior that damages our country, endangers it people and violates the  spirit of the constitution.
    Jack

  11. This has to be Trumps juvenile nightmare. 
    A woman is taking him down and there is nothing he can do about it. 
    Hey mista Trump, it ain’t a playboy world. 
    Jack

  12. The caretakers need to take the twitter machine away from Trump.  Nothing like committing an impeachable offense in the middle of a hearing.  

    Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors.

     

    18 USC § 1512(d)(1) (tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant) clearly states that “whoever intentionally harasses another person and thereby hinders, delays, prevents, or dissuades any person from—attending or testifying in an official proceeding.”

  13. Hey folks…  I’m having all kinds of issues with my Apple products.  Seems I did something stupid to infect them.  Rick finally got me into here…  but he says we may have to take everything to an Apple store and have things disinfected.  So if you don’t see me here for awhile…  that’s why.
     
    I’ll be baaaack….  said in my best Schwarztenegger (sp?) impression…

  14. Dumbass can’t remember who told who what in his June 25 call with Zelensky.  SFB told Z that the ambassador – the woman – was bad news.  Z then thanked SFB for being the first to tell him she was bad.  To give you an idea about how funcking garbled the “transcript” is, it has Z talking about the Ukraine Ambassador to the US – he thinks her name is Ivanovitch.  I think he needs to hire better expert stenographers.  Fricking liar.

  15. Last time we had a civil war that the combatants of which were not separated by geographical boundaries was during the revolution. 

  16. KGC
    There was some major stuff that came out at Stones’ trial, impeachable stuff imo,.
    But except for  few folks on my twitter feed it never made the news.
    Just too much crap in the daily feed and nobody seems to be organizing it into  coherent story.
    Jack

  17. Jack, Yep, that’s right….and I’ve seen quite a few movies lately bout all that, Bleeding Kansas, etc…..even in New Mexico was a great south/north battling.

  18. Pogo….    Safari…  I think.  If you ask me questions…  you’re gonna find out very fast just how technologically inept I really am.   Rick said there was some malware on my computer and he’s removed it.  But said there could be more…  he’s not sure.  Right now… I’m connecting here and anywhere on the internet very well.  I hope it continues.

  19. Has Adam Schiff stressed why there’s hearsay and 2nd hand hearsay,  3rd?  Has he said loud & often that the president has blocked, not permitted, prevented any of the principals/principles from testifying before congress?
     
    BTW, Marie Yovanovich did a nice job.  She certainly has a right to be concerned about her safety.  It’s CHILLING!  

  20.  
    trump Can’t Keep his Lies Straight
     
    Yesterday trump’s story was that Pres Zelensky complained that the Ambassador was no good. Today trump’s story is that he complained to Zelensky that she was no good. Zelensky replied to the effect that it was the first he’d heard of it.

    This could be an attempt to lay the groundwork for a diminished responsibility plea, the so-called insanity plea.
     

  21. TRIBUTE FOR PUTIN
    trump gave Syria and the US military base in tribute
     
    Lock him up. Lock them ALL up !

  22. go to General tab, see if there are any updates available, install them and then reboot phone.
     
    Otherwise, just reboot.

    Don’t use a windows PC on the internet, ever. lol.
     
    Devin Nunes complained today’s hearing was a “show-trial” (the point of these public hearings is to “show” the evidence to the people, Dummy Nunes), then complained that Reps would be conducting more “secret” meetings, implying those should be public.  What a treasonous snake Devin Nunes is.

  23. “Lock him up. Lock them ALL up !“
     
    Honestly, i think capital punishment applies in at least one case.  Anybody paying attention knows who.

  24. Gym Jordan? He’s just a garden variety high school wrasslin’ coach, who seems to have got above his raisin’.  
     

  25. Nah, Jim Jordan just needs a really hard, extended noogie.  

    Unless we are talking about cover-ups of sex-crimes at OSU, i don’t know enough about that to comment.

    These impeachment hearings really are like drinking- they’re kind of entertaining for a while, and then i just want to vomit.

    full Yovanovitch testimony:

  26. Gym’s the repugnicans’ Tom Delay of this Congress.  Not a whole lot of wrestling coach skills that are transferable to (a) being a member of congress and (b) questionning witnesses in impeachment inquiries.

  27. There are few so damned as those who, tasked with guiding young men or women towards adult feelings and points of view, take that sacred trust and betray it by turning out to be assholes of the first degree.

  28. Pogo
    Gotta disagree, Gym  woudn’t make a pimple on Tom Delay’s ass. Say what you want about Tom(and we all can) When it came to running the House, Tom was tough, LBJ tough, you crossed him at your own risk. Gym,  ehhhh not so much.
    Jack

  29. Castor? I can’t get past the shoulder pads
    He could play high school football with them things.

  30.  about Steve Castor
    Bink, It is worse than that, Listen to him, he has perfected Bruce Dern’s whine. If you need a sleazy character in your movie? Hire Bruce Dern. When it comes to sleaze  he is the best.
    Can’t stand to listen to him.
    Jack

  31. Many of the greedy old perverts need to be concerned about losing the Senate.  If the Dems have the Congress there is no reason not to dig into Russian activity to support the republican party.  A few gop in prison would be a lot of fun.  They could have all sorts of fun games to play, such as hide from the lifer because of super strict sentencing laws.

  32. Lol, Sturge, i only listen to the hearings so i had to watch for a minute to see Castor’s shoulder pads-  now, that’s what you call a “stuffed suit”.

    Ok, now that i’m watching: you can’t get past Castor’s shoulder-pads, but i can’t get past the expression on his face that says, “none of these questions are working out the way i had hoped”.

    Hence, why i listen.

  33. Listening v seeing  can be a big difference   People who listened to the Nixon Kennedy debates thought Nixon won.
    Bink do you think the hearings have shown Trump is guilty?

  34. Well, it’s only day 2 of public testimony, but methinks matters don’t bode well for Rudy, that’s for goddamned sure.

  35. KGC – one of the few benefits of working midnight’s was being able to watch the Nixon impeachment hearings during the day.  Along with news briefs and listening to all the three television channels (ABC, NBC and CBS) provide straight news because this was before the news section was not part of the entertainment section.  One thing I do miss are the parody and funny songs which were often produced overnight by various groups – think the Capitol Steps doing songs for the Top 40 radio.

  36. I saw the Nixon hearings because I was a goofy ne’er do well Moo-Jician who was able to spend the days floundering about in frivolous pursuits.

  37. Jack, Delay’s exterminator skills aren’t  what made him a strong speaker – he was just a more seasoned asshole than Jordan.  As far as Jordan not being a pimple on Delay’s ass, I have to agree with you on that one.  

  38. Quite the image, right, Sturge?  Gack.  
    IN the summer of 74 I was taking a couple of classes I needed to graduate before I entered grad school in the fall and worked part time as a mechanic in a bicycle shop – between the two of those pursuits I musta spent a good 3-4 hours a day not screwing around doing all those things I used to enjoy as a young man. Anywot, I did watch some of the televised coverage of the WG hearings – and I specifically remember doing so on June 25 when John Dean (and Mo) were on the tube as John started driving the stake into the heart of the Nixon presidency.  Gotta say she was right telegenic.

  39. Holy cow- Yovanovitch got a standing ovation at the conclusion of today’s hearing.  Never heard of such a thing, before.

  40. Pogo – you nailed what the media (simpler back then) was doing.  The cameras were showing a stoic woman, beautiful and standing/sitting for her husband.  He was delivering the president of the U.S. to the hearing.  To take down a man who thought he was above the law.  A man who was at that point starting to talk to ghosts. 
         What is important to understand is the hearings continued, this was not a singular Perry Mason moment.  There were many more moments to come, in particular the taping system.  Dean did not provide more than the hint that the take down tapes were there.
     

  41. Ms. Bronc, when an old fart like me has a distinct recollection of a beautiful woman sitting behind a witness on tv 45 years ago, all I can say is dayum. There are impressions and then there are impressions, and Mo made one on me. Not a grin, not a crack of a smile. Stoic is the word. You nailed it. 

    Yonanovitch got a standing O?  Bravo!!!

  42. nunes, jordan, & mccarthy had EIGHT YEARS to investigate the Bidens, but failed to do so. 2,862 DAYS

    They had SIX YEARS to impeach Joe, & failed to do so. 2,161 DAYS
     
    Obviously, Joe did nothing wrong

    LOSERS

  43. The answers to Republican counsel Steve Castor’s questions bolstered the Democrats’ argument for impeachment so much, i had to wonder if he is a “Never Trumper”.

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