GOP congressional thugs yelling “Soviet-style star chamber” disrupting a House impeachment deposition where nine Republicans plus their counsel are legitimately present asking questions reveals the Trump gang’s consciousness of guilt.
Auditioning to be FOX News contributors.
This stunt recalls the Brooks Brothers riot to stop 2000 recount in Miami.
For the record, 12 of the Republicans among the demonstrators serve on the investigating committees, could have attended the hearing anyway.
NYTimes best of late night on the GOPer mob-sters:
“For five hours today, Republicans blocked someone from saying damaging things about President Trump. Yeah. Yeah, they left after they realized they could be there the rest of their lives.” — CONAN O’BRIEN
“It’s like when you’re on the debate team and the other side is really strong in the cross-examination, so for your counterpoint, you set fire to their coach.” — STEPHEN COLBERT
“Yeah, Republicans stormed a closed-door meeting to protest the impeachment inquiry. Even crazier, they used Mike Pence as a battering ram.” — JIMMY FALLON
“Because nothing says ‘completely innocent’ like storming the room of someone about to testify.” — JIMMY FALLON
“The Democrats did everything they could to get them out of the room. But here’s the thing — they were trying to get them out of the room, they didn’t know what to do. If they wanted the Republicans to leave so badly, they should have just held a gay wedding in there. They would have been out of there in a shot.” — JAMES CORDEN
[…]
“I haven’t seen a group of white guys that angry since they found out their Don Henley tickets were ‘obstructed view.’” — SETH MEYERS
“That’s either a bunch of Republican lawmakers or a Black Friday sale on pleated khakis.” — STEPHEN COLBERT
“It really turned into an ugly scene among Republicans. I haven’t seen that many angry white guys since NBC canceled ‘Frasier.’” — JIMMY FALLON
“I haven’t seen that many old white guys storm a room since Applebee’s offered half off the surf-and-turf combo.” — JAMES CORDEN
“Looks like a protest outside a pharmacy that ran out of Viagra.” — SETH MEYERS
“They shouldn’t be at the Capitol — they should be standing at the counter at a McDonald’s demanding to see a manager.” — SETH MEYERS
also in the news
In a self-congratulatory speech this morning at the White House, the President declared ‘permanent’ peace in Syria.
“This was an outcome created by us, the United States and nobody else.”
cutting and running, betraying allies and leaving them to die?
what do you mean “us,” orangeish white man?
business insider:
Colorado’s governor mocked President Donald Trump for saying he is building the US-Mexico wall in the state, suggesting that he needs “basic geography” lessons like a kindergartner.
Trump said in a speech in Pittsburgh on Wednesday that “We’re building a wall in Colorado.”
“And we’re building a wall on the border of New Mexico. And we’re building a wall in Colorado. We’re building a beautiful wall. A big one that really works — that you can’t get over, you can’t get under,” he said.
Jared Polis, Colorado’s Democratic governor, pointed out on Facebook that Colorado is not on the US border with Mexico.
“Well this is awkward…Colorado doesn’t border Mexico,” he wrote.
“Good thing Colorado now offers free full day kindergarten so our kids can learn basic geography.”
Other politicians, including former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, also mocked Trump’s statement.
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dis-Barr-ed
from lawcom:
NYC Bar Calls for US AG William Barr’s Recusal in Ukraine Matter
If Barr does not recuse himself, the bar association’s statement said, “he should resign or, failing that, be subject to sanctions, including possible removal, by Congress.”
The New York City Bar Association in a statement Wednesday called on U.S. Attorney General William Barr to stand aside in any ongoing or future review by the Department of Justice of issues stemming from the Trump administration’s dealings with Ukraine, in which Barr has allegedly involved.
wapo:
A federal judge said Wednesday that he will order the State Department to begin releasing Ukraine-related documents in 30 days, potentially making public sensitive records and communications at the heart of an ongoing House impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
The decision, by U.S. District Judge Christopher R. “Casey” Cooper of Washington, D.C., came in a public records lawsuit filed Oct. 1 by a government watchdog group, American Oversight.
The group in May asked the State Department for records related to alleged efforts by Trump and his administration to pressure Ukraine to investigate a political opponent, former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
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Under 40 USC §§5109(b) & 5104(e)(2)(C), entering a SCIF without authorization, is a federal crime and the penalty is imprisonment of up to 6 months and/or a fine. They should all be arrested or at the least face an ethics hearing and possible eviction from Congress.
Jamie, thanks for pointing out goper mob-sters criminal jeopardy. here’s will collier at national review with another take on it:
Bringing your phone into a secure facility is a violation, but not necessarily a major one.
Today’s Republican excursion into protest theater in the Capitol, wherein a large number of GOP members rushed the Intelligence Committee’s Secure Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) without first putting away their cell phones, has generated an . . . interesting response among left-wing Twitter.
Among the more histrionic responses came from self-described “Multimedia Journalist” David Leavitt, who issued this demanded: “Every @GOP member who invaded the SCIF should be taken into custody by the Capitol Police & questioned by the FBI to determine if they’re serving a foreign intelligence service. They should also be removed from the House until the investigation is completed & votes out of office.”
Well. Having spent the better part of 20 years working in SCIFs every day myself, I have some experience with these matters. Let’s take a moment to unpack this a bit before calling in the marshal of the Supreme Court.
I’ll leave weighing the wisdom and/or stupidity of the SCIF-storming stunt itself to others and limit myself to the issue of taking “electronic devices” (almost certainly meaning regular smartphones) into a secured area.
The short version: You’re not supposed to do that. Here’s why.
A SCIF is a specially built area designed to keep secrets from getting out. Depending on the level of classification the SCIF is certified for, there are multiple layers of physical and information security built into the room itself.
Those can include noise attenuation to prevent conversations from being overheard, electronic protection to keep signals from being transmitted beyond the interior of the SCIF, heavy-duty safes and vault doors to prevent unauthorized eyes from seeing classified documents, and heavily controlled and monitored computers, secure phones, and their associated encryption devices to protect the data on information systems.
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Per the latest IA State University poll
Looks a little out of line, but the top six contenders are now:
Warren
Buttiegieg
Sanders
Biden
Klobuchar
Harris
Jamie, the full poll results as reported in your link are really interesting in their totality. I gained a much greater understanding of where things stand. And, am now mulling over the proposition that those in farm country live with uncertainty; therefore, they don’t hammer Liz for her lack of nickle-dime specifics on funding amounts/sourcing for her social goals.
Jamie,
They made themselves look like fools – that will play well I think. 6 months means it’s th federal equivalent of a misdemeanor. No need to make a federal case out of it (nyuck, nyuck).
In the counter-intuitive bullshit category consider this. While certainly one cannot infer causation from correlation, patterns are patterns nonetheless. Consider for instance the respective patterns of the DJIA and SFB’s approval rating since he was sworn in. It is interesting to look at the Dow’s 5 year curve and compare it to SFB’s disapproval curve. Ignore the flat part of the Dow curve before February 2017 and everything you’ve heard about “it’s the economy, stupid” falls apart under SFB. In fact, it appears to be just the opposite for the clown in the WH. You get a similar comparison if you look at the unemployment rate and his favor-ability. Curious stuff, that. My take is simple – even measures that generally track with the approval rate of the president don’t operate in the alternative universe that is the tRump presidency.
Pogo, their violation of a/the SCIF should be pursued diligently. They are the places where information, if compromised, could cause incredible harm to our Republic. They are the places where properly cleared people with a validated need-to-know can gather behind locked doors and shielded walls, ceilings and floors, to discuss such information and coordinate efforts in making it work for our country.
watched a bunch of FOX last night, these “AssHats” were heralded as heroes
that poll shows Pete accomplished his mission for now, taking a chunk out of Biden by attacking Warren. he is playing chess, the rest stuck on checkers
Flatus, I was just being a joker. But still, if the Congress deemed that violation to carry only a 6 month penalty then it still is the equivalent of a misdemeanor. That said, yes, enforce it against each of them that violated it.
Poobah, you wouldn’t expect less on trump tv would you?
Biden is definitely losing traction in Iowa – if the ISU poll ends up being something like a real indicator of the eventual caucus results. I do not expect that Biden will do well in Iowa, but the ISU poll is out of whack with the 4 or 5 polls that were taken and reported before it. I’m skeptical of any poll that shows such a large shift in sentiment in a 4 day period.
I am skeptical of any poll that pretends to show how caucus attendees will sort themselves out. Candidate A may be very broadly popular, winning the polls by a respectable margin, but unable to spark enthusiasm. Candidate B might be so-so popular, but backed by fanatics (s)he will come out with the most delegates. And, those delegates will stick together at the conventions to follow, taking over the rules committees and ultimately the state party machinery, and deciding who will be the national convention delegates.
Amy makes the next debate
The firein Sonoma County is on the NE side of the county, we live on the far west side of the county in the costal hills near the ocean
It’s smoky here but atleast not on fire.
Their home countries don’t want them back. The Kurds now under attack do not have the means to care for them. Now the ISIS children are at the mercy of Turks and Russians as there is little to no way to evacuate them with the Kurds.
What Is Going To Happen To Us? Inside ISIS Prison, Children Ask Their Fate
KGC… good to know… I was thinking about you last night.
Trump sucks… Pence sucks… Barr sucks… Trudy sucks… Republicans suck… etc., etc. Sorry… I feel like there isn’t anything original to say. Looking forward to public hearings though.
i hope Nancy at least reports them to the ethics committee. however, she should call law enforcement on Gaetz and anyone else who took in a cell phone which is a real nono. see this analysis in wapo:
[…]
The protest, which Republicans argued was intended to bring transparency into the probe into President Trump’s Ukraine policy, violated the most basic cybersecurity protections technologists try to impose on the rooms where lawmakers receive and discuss classified information – basically giving insider access to any spy agency that had compromised a single lawmaker’s cellphone and could snoop through the camera or microphone.
“They may have brought in the Russians and the Chinese with their electronics … They violated our oath to protect national security by bringing electronics into that room,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who was inside Sensitive Comparted Information Facility, or SCIF, at the time.
Mieke Eoyang, a former House Intelligence Committee staffer who managed meetings inside the same SCIF during the Obama administration, told me: “This is the kind of thing that, for people who work in national security, makes our hair stand on end.”
The protest demonstrated how rank-and-file lawmakers can be one of government’s biggest cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
Members of Congress are high-value targets for Russian and Chinese hackers who routinely go after their personal devices and email accounts, but lawmakers don’t get any special protection for those devices and often don’t have enough training or savvy to protect them themselves.
[…]
The Republicans mostly surrendered their devices once they were inside the SCIF, but some refused, Swalwell told reporters. That was contradicted, however, by Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), who was also in the room. The House Sergeant-at-Arms, who is responsible for the chamber’s cybersecurity and whose office collected the devices, declined to comment.
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shades of Watergate!
AP: Warren campaign office in New Hampshire broken into
Monmouth October Poll
Little change in the lineup but some interesting second choice and undecided information.
Biden
Warren
Sanders
Harris
meanwhile in jolly ol’ England according to the guardian:
Boris Johnson has abandoned his “do or die” pledge to leave the EU by 31 October and will ask MPs next week to back a pre-Christmas general election.
The prime minister has written to Jeremy Corbyn saying he will give parliament one last opportunity to scrutinise his withdrawal agreement bill and “get Brexit done” by 6 November.
But he will also table a motion under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act next Monday asking for an early general election. MPs would then vote on the motion the same day.
In his letter, Johnson said: “An election on 12 December will allow a new parliament and government to be in place by Christmas. If I win a majority in this election, we will then ratify the great new deal that I have negotiated, get Brexit done in January and the country will move on.”
[…]
The election motion will need the support of two-thirds of the Commons, equating to 434 MPs.
Labour has said it will support a general election once the extension is in place – a decision the EU27 are expected to confirm on Friday.
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🙂
“See ya later boys. Have fun stormin’ the castle.” Princess Bride
Mayor Pete just ran into a buzz saw that represents a major part of the Democratic base.
Buttigieg’s Blunder; SC Black Publishers Say
“Douglas Plan Highlights the Audacity of White Privilege”
There is a reason the greedy old perverts are the russian party now. The stunt those fools did was inexcusable, but it does follow the methods of the Nazis in the 1930’s. Also, if any of them are russian assets their phones could have been prepped to invade and test the SCIF.
Craig, I took a look at the current Manual for Courts Martial (promulgated by Congress). IMO the organizers of the march through the SCIF would get a Dishonorable Discharge, 2-yrs confinement, and forfeiture of all pay and allowances. The fools who followed behind would get Bad Conduct Discharges, 6-mos in the pokey, and forfeiture of all pay and allowances. Their offenses fall under failure to obey lawful regulations, seldom resulting from Capitol offenses.
Now qualified for the November debate:
Joe Biden
Cory Booker
Pete Buttigieg
Kamala Harris
Amy Klobuchar
Bernie Sanders
Tom Steyer
Elizabeth Warren
Andrew Yang
The repubes breached the SCIF. They let Putin in! Putin was in the Oval Office! And Putin’s marching into……… Putin’s very pleased with SFB!!! SFB’s definitely a Russian asset. Hope the deplorable are veddy happy, comrade.
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