Primary/Caucus Race Update and Thoughts on Tomorrow (Super Tuesday)

So tomorrow's Super Tuesday.

Apologies for not being on the blog lately but I've been busy between the paying job, trying to get the new print issue done, and trying to keep healthy in this weird age.  As a result there's a bit about the election primary race that snuck under the radar that I want to comment on. So, let's get to it.

First, since Iowa Bernie Sanders has taken ground in a lot of ways.  After winning the popular vote in Iowa (but not the delegates for some reasons) the Senator from Vermont won the New Hampshire primary but still was criticized by mainstream pundits for being popular in small mostly white states.  Then came the Nevada caucus where Sanders managed to get an overwhelming and decisive win that gave him momentum.

Yes, former vice president Joe Biden had a big win in South Carolina last Saturday but he was expected to win to some degree.  Sanders' second place win was narrower than it was against Hillary Clinton in 2016 but the mainstream pundits seemed to revel in this and hope that it kills either Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren's chances of winning the election.  It doesn't take into account that SC has a heavy military presence and that Democrats there may be more centrist for that and other reasons.  Add name recognition and his win shouldn't be a big surprise.  Billionaire Ton Steyer suspended his campaign almost immediately thereafter

The dropping out of the race and support of Biden in the wake of Saturday may have some impact.  Both former South Bend, IN Mayor Pete Buttigieg and MN Sen. Amy Klobuchar suspended their campaigns and have gone on record to endorse Biden. Along with former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, this alliance is giving the mainstream media a chance to brag about Biden's rebirth and how he can clearly take the race from more progressive candidates. 

Which leads us to Super Tuesday.  With over 1,000 delegates at play and 14 states in play this is where anything can happen.  Could it be a game changer for Biden (after only winning one state)?  It's possible.  Could Bernie Sanders win large in California and have a decent win in Texas and be close to unstoppable?  That's possible too.  Sen. Elizabeth Warren could even mount a comeback out of left field and keep the race tighter than the coronation the corporate owned mainstream media would like it to be. 

The truth of the matter is I don't know what's going to happen once votes are counted on Tuesday March 3, 2020 - and neither does anyone else really.  People have some ideas of what might happen but media pundits treating it like a sporting event on the old Wide World of Sports show might not necessarily be a realistic look at how things are on the ground. 

So, what I suggest is to take a deep breath, relax, and realize that the election primary race still isn't over.  People still have to vote for the candidate they like best (remember, if any time is the time to vote their hearts it's here).  Maybe the person they like is electable, maybe not.  Regardless, the race is far from over.

The Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago's Impeachment Verdict" Acquittal/Coverup and Possible Aftermath

 On February 5, 2020 Repubs in the U.S. Senate voted to acquit the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago in the impeachment trial against him with some citing a lack of new evidence (all the while refusing to allow any new evidence, any new witnesses, and with some key people coordinating with the Mad Fuhrer and his minions).  While time will tell the true danger this causes (outside of allowing him to commit further crimes knowing that nobody will hold his ass accountable) it sadly was expected for several reasons.  

The first is that no President was ever removed from office by impeachment.  Nixon came close but resigned before the trial could commence in 1974.  Clinton survived and somehow become more popular after the ordeal. 

      

 The other reason this was expected is that the Repubs have loyally lined up to do the political equivalent of cleaning the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago’s prostate with their tongues.  Sure a few on occasion will voice some mild criticism (which appears to be enough to see electoral vote winner Donny on a rampage on twitter as well as get the mainstream media heralding them as “voices of reason” within the GOP) but when crucial votes to prove they stand apart are needed then 98% of the time the vote the party line and fully support the Mad Fuhrer.  It is this, even from people in either House of Congress that are retiring, that keeps things going on this hell ride.

So what now.  The Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago has, es expected, touted this as total exoneration even though anyone with sense can see it for the coverup it was.  The fact tha tanumber of Repu Senators even were on record saying what electoral vote winner Donny did was bad and wrong but they didn't think it was impeachable.  The most odious example was Sen\. Susan Collins (R, ME) who, while hiding as a moderate, has increasingly aligned her votes to some of the worst things accomplished by electoral vote winner Donny (including the vote to confirm Bretty Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court Justice), who replied that the Mad Fuhrewr "learned a lesson."  She quickly backpedalled the statement when he denied learning a lesson. 

With two days out, the Mad Fuhrer seems hell-bent on payback, removed from anything that could hold him to account for his bullshit.  From his rant at the National Prayer Breakfast yesterday to a rambling speech that was more rally than anything else and showed no signs of growing from the experience, one thing is clear.  He most likely will commit crimes again  and the road to the next election is going to be a dirty, nasty hell-ish ride.

Live from Washington DC it's.......The Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago's Impeachment Special Part Four: The Partisan Ending

Okay, so last Friday the impeachment trial of the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago reached the conclusion that most people pretty much expected.  The Repub party voted en masse not to allow any new witnesses or any new testimony while the Democrats pointed out the coer up potential of having a trial where no witnesses were allowed and new evidence wasn't brought up at the very least. 

All of this led to a dwecision by Senate Majority Leader Addison the Turtle (a/k/a: Moscow Mitch) to have the vote Friday night and wait on the vote on whether to acquit or convict until Wednesday (tomorrow). 

Yes, it appears likely that the Repub Party, who have already shown more loyalty to party over country with its votes in the trial so far, will acquit electoral vote winner Donny and keep the asshole in office.  Pretty much nobody expected him to be removed from office.  Unfortuantely this leaves open a very extremely real worry that the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lag, now unfettered by anything to keep his ass in check or hold him accountable, will ratchet up the corruption and desire for revenge against his "enemies" both on the other side and those Repubs he considers not sufficiently loyal to him.  While any scenario he might take will be conjecture at this point, it's entirely within the realm of possibility that the rhetoric about locking up his political enemies or the media that the mainstream media treats as just hype (but are actually trial balloons)  will actually be tried since his toadies in the Senate will look the other way and let him get away with anything.

Add to this a recent Gallup show showing a 49% approval rating (though I wonder who took the survey and when it was done) and the racist asshole dipped in Cheese curl dust is  going to make this country a very fucking ugly place. 

There are a couple of  glimmers of hope of sorts.  By this strict party line vote we now can get rid of any notion that moderate Repubs exist (that was slowly phased out of the Repub Party (Should we now call them Coupublicans?) over the past 25 years and - thanks to extreme gerrymandering - is a hard hard right wing machine devoted to winning over anything else. 

The other glimmer is this: thanks to this party line vote the Repubs have to own their vote to acquit the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago.  If Democrats are smart they should force this issue and make the Repubs own this for the rest of their careers and use this to get people to vote against Repubs running for House or Senate seats in states that could potentially go either way. 

Regardless of what happens this is going to be an ugly fucking ride over the next nine months.

Live from Washington DC it's.......The Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago's Impeachment Special Part Three: Bolton and the Debate Stage

As I type this the second day of what's called the debate stage of the impeachment trial will happen later today.  However, within the past few days the John Bolton book revelations have seem to shock a lot of people, leading to a nearly week long battle over whether he should be called as a witness.  Repubs and the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago's legal team have claimed that since the House didn't call Bolton that he wouldn't provide anything new.  Of course, they overlook that the House tried to subpoena him and it was blocked by the Mad Fuhrer's claim of executive privilege (just like when they tried to call other witnesses with first hand knowledge).   But why is he wanted now?

According to news reports an excerpt form Bolton memoir leaked that claimed in his dealing with electoral vote winner Donny any talk of Ukraine has less to do with corruption and pretty much everything to do with Joe Biden and his son.  Basically, if rue, this is first hand evidence of quid pro quo and what some would consider a slam dunk.

So how are the Repubs handling it?  On their media outlets they're attacking Bolton, a hardcore neocon who almost has blood lust for war anywhere - but especially the middle East, and calling him a tool of the Democrats.  The Mad Fuhrer himself has tweeted that Bolton is a liar (especially rich given that electoral vote winner Donny has been caught lying while in office well over ten thousands times).  And his legal team are saying that Bolton would offer nothing new to the trial (even though his evidence would flesh things out).

As for the debate question and answer period so far?  Most of it has been trying to reiterate what had been said in the opening argument with the House manager trying to state the case for why witnesses are needed and the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago's legal team spouting the usual dog whistle talking points about how this is a hoax, the Dems are trying to invalidate the 2016 election, and that - even if electoral vote winner Donny did something wrong - what he did wasn't impeachable. 

Then there's the Alan Dershowitz argument that anything a President does isn't impeachable if he thinks his re-election is in the public interest.  Obviously this isn't true as accepting foreign help to try and win an election is illegal regardless of who does it but they're still trying to tell people this is true.

Still, the best question of the night went to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont  who asked this to House managers:

 "Given the media has documented President Trump’s thousands of lies while in office - more than 16,200 as of Jan. 20 - why should we be expected to believe that anything President Trump says has credibility?”

That is what all of us, both elected officials and us voters should remember time and time again between now and the elections in November. 

Live from Washington DC it's.......The Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago's Impeachment Special Part Two: THE REPUBS KIND OF SORT OF STRIKE BACK WITH THE SAME EXCUSES

So Saturday morning and the last two days saw the lawyers for the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago make their case that electoral vote winner Donny should remain in office and be acquitted of any charges related to the impeachment.  Now, we'll get to the John Bolton book kerfuffle in another post but, while that leak seems to show clear evidence of quid pro quo and that he wanted the Ukraine to have an investigation specifically into Joe Biden rather than corruption, the Mad Fuhrer's legal team seems content to rehash the usual claims of perfect phone call, no corruption, no quid pro quo that the other side pretty much completely debunked.

I admit I haven't seen much of this side of the argument mainly because I had things to do.  I ended up getting off the paying job extremely early and my nap afterwards pretty much covered that time.  While this meant I haven't seen much of their case being made, the fact they keep making the same talking points doesn't help their case for those who haven't already drank a large cup of the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago's non carbonated soft drink mix. 

We'll get to Bolton and the Debate stage next. 

Live from Washington DC it's.......The Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago's Impeachment Special Part One Clarifications/Corrections and Thoughts

Hey!  I know day two of the House Managers making their case for convicting the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago hasn't gotten up and running yet but I thought I'd offer a thought or two as well as start with a clarification.

In the last post I said yesterday was day three of the impeachment trial.  While it is technically true (Friday being the naming of the House Managers and the House walking it over to the Senate and Tuesday being the rules day and the Repubs voting against every offered amendment, yesterday was the first day of the Manager making the case.  I also want to clarify that the sitting in silence while the cas eis made was a Senate rule, not one of Addison the ZTurtle's rules (though, like much of the Repubs cases, it's hard to tell) along with some other rules such as Senators being only allowed to drin kwater or milk while in the Chamber.  I want to apologize if anyone was confused by that.

So far, the House Impeachment Managers seem to be doing a steady job, making the case point for point between their speeches and a combination of Powerpoint graphics and video footage from the House inquiry hearings as well as other visuals (including some with the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago speaking on the issue).  It has been both jaw dropping as well as educational for many (to be fair, there's so much out there that, even for news hounds, it's hard to keep track of it all in news reports).  Their linking it to rule of law and what the framers of the Constitution may have meant was also a good touch.

As for the Repubs....they'r acting like Repubs for the most part.  While a couple of Senators have found the case to be eye opening (including Repub Sen. John Kennedy of LA), many seem to be taking little breaks to either go to the can (though it seems a little excessive) or in a couple of cases z(Sen;. Blackburn of TN and MO"s new Junior Senator Josh Hawley (a/k/a:" Senator Joshy) do interviews with right wing media sources (apparently without consequences though doing so is supposed to lead to them getting arrested if done when they should be in the chamber).  While some have reported that a few Senators on teh Repub side might be moved by the Dems case, it'll be later on when we learn if that is really the case or more BS designed to make us think that moderate Repubs still exist in either House of Congress or not. 

So what to expect today?  The HOuse managers will continue to make their case and, since I have to be at the paying job tonight, I'll have to wait until sometime tomorrow to catch up on the highlights or lowlights of it.  So far the Dems are making a clear and solid case.  Unfortunately, given that the Repubs are so into winning at any cost that they think rules no longer apply to them, the question remains over whether turth, justice, and rule of law will matter or not? 

We still have more days of this so we'll have to see it unfold to see if anyone on the right wing puts country over party or not. 

Live from Washington DC it's.......The Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago's Impeachment Special Part One

Hey!  So it's 2020 and we're a few days into the impeachment trial of the Senate for the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago (a/k/a: electoral vote winner Donny) on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.  For a while Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had held up sending the articles of impeachment over to the Senate in hopes that Senate Majority leader Addison the turtle (a/k/a: Moscow Mitch or Midnight Mitch) would send over the rules but the latter held off and Pelosi, for betgter or worse, decided to get the trial underway. 

With yesterday's release of the rules it was clear the Addison the Turtle wanted to get things through as quick as possible so he could acquit the Mad Fuhrer (which, let's face it, the Repubs most likely plan to do).  Among the rules included an attempt to get all the testimony done in two days (public outcry pushed that to three) and requiring all the Senate to sit in silence throughout this.  In addition, some key parts of the trial will be blocked from Press coverage and Addison the Turtle does have an option to dismiss outright.  While the Repubs claim this iin keeping of the rules of the CLinton impeachment in 1998-99, a brief study shows it's a world apart.  As the House Impeachment Managers tried to get amendments through to allow additional evidence (some of which came to light after the house impeachment inquiry and some proving that the Mad Fuhrer and his minions committed crimes), the amendments get defeated by strict partyline voted of 53 Repubs to 47 Democrats. 

There's also rumors of a witness trade which would make former Vice President Biden and maybe also his son Hunter to testify in hopes of getting Mick Mulvaney or John Bolton.  For now Sen. Chuck Schumer claims such a trade is off the table but the establishment Dems do have a habit of caving so, while we hope it's off the table since Biden or his son would know little of the Mad Fuhrer's corruption and his blocking aid to Ukraine, this could happen down the road. 

Meanwhile there's the case made by the House Impeachment Manager versus the cases made by the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago's legal team.  The former, from what I've been able to see [like many of you I've seen bits and pieces since I have things to do], has given a somber multimedia presentation on the laws Donny broke, how it fits the criteria for impeachable offenses, and the like.  As for the legal team for Donny, it;s gone from seemingly not knowing what they're talking about to outright lying.  While logic would predict that Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts should do something about the lies, he seems to be quiet over it all. 

As I said before, while it's too early to tell what will actually happen, it does appear likely that the Repubs will choose party over country, truth, or decency and not remove the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago from office (even though such as move would promote Mike Pence to electoral vote winner Mikey, who's a more sincere believer in the theocratic leaning bullshit the GOP has embraced for a long ass time than Donny, though Donny has shown open white supremacist views can help them as well).  Since no President has ever been removed from office due to impeachment this is quite likely for the Mad Fuhrer as well.  However, what is good about the impeachment is the lessons it seems to be showing us about politics in the U.S.

One- There is no such thing as a moderate Repub on the Federal level (and probably none in many of the states as well).
     The mainstream media has long tried to pitch the idea of those "mioderates" such as Sen. Susan Collins or Sen. Lisa Murkowski or Sen/ Mitt Romney switching sides and choosing country over party to vote with the Democrats.  Time and again this has been proven not to be the case (remember the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for justice Bretty Brett Kavanaugh).  This time around appears to be no different.

Two - Neither the Mad Fuhrer nor the Repubs in the Senate appear to care about the truth.
      Note that each amendment vote has found all the Repubs voting party over country almost oan extreme.  Part of this is due to partisan gerrymandering (many are in such safe districts that the only challenge is being primaried on the even further right), but another part of it is the Mad Fuhrer's takeover of the party os so complete that if he is innocent (as they claim) then one would think they'd want evidence and witnesses to prove it.  Nope, no evidence or testimony. 
     Add to this the orignal push for 12 hour days for each side to make their case, which would mean that good testimony could be made in the middle of the night and it's clear that the Repubs don't want people to know what happened.

Does that mean it's bleak and hopeless?  While it once again shows that there needs to be an overwhelming get out to vote effort to counter the Repubs voter suppression tactics to steal 2020 and get Donny out, the impeachment will be good for one thing - all the votes will be made public somehow and that will be on their records for the rest of their careers.  And that needs to be focused on as election time gets closer. 

That's all for now.  More on impeachment as things unfold.