If the behavior on the part of this president and his republican cronies and friends of friends, both foreign and domestic, is allowed to continue, we will no longer have a country that we recognize. The only way we can go forward is to rely on our Constitution and system of law and order that has held us together so far.

DJT has to be stopped and his swamp drained, which will mean the exposure of many more politicians and influencers of politicians, and hopefully, their ultimate removal from positions in government.

We can only hope and pray that Pelosi and her team win this fight for the sake of and the future of our country.

We're at a critical turning point.

politics is about power, the constitution is an old legal document open to interpretation. it is futile to appeal to an illusory civic spirit and expect this enemy to roll over in good faith!

so much lucy holding the ball for charlie brown, although there are plenty of folks making a tidy living acting out the role of charlie or writing weekly op-eds about lucy's lack of civility

What we have developing is a partisan impeachment w/ bipartisan opposition.

3 out of 4 of those witnesses the other day have been writing about Trump's imminent impeachment since he rode down the escalator. You guys want to take that further ?

You honestly have to be a stone cold moron to think he is getting removed from office. Either by congress or the voters. Y'all are going to lose the HOR over this nonsense if you waste more valuable political time on it.

Of course it's political, but that's not the same as saying it's unwarranted or "nothing to see here folks, move along". There's been a plethora of defenses from Trump and conservatives in general, ranging from "nothing happened", "it's all about Joe Biden and his son", "even if something did happen, it wasn't illegal", "witch hunt", and so forth. You can fill a small book with the list. The goal posts keep moving when something else comes up it would seem. And it may be that "folks have been writing about it for a long time" because it was, well, pretty obvious that Trump has some serious ethics issues and they weren't going away and he would continue them in his presidency. Maybe it would be appropriate for Trump and company to actually defend the details a bit more acutely? Just saying.

Anyway, what impeachment does do is make everyone -- including Trump to some degree, even if he's doing it by pretending it's not happening most of the time -- go on record about the situation. It's a legal tool wrapped up in a political environment, albeit a very partisan one in this era.

If the Senate falls back on "he's one of us", that doesn't mean it was an invalid process or a waste; it just means they chose tribe over country or the legal case. Not impeaching would be a sort of analogy to mob cases, civil rights cases, whatever, that basically boil down to saying "ah, he'll never be convicted, so why bother?" because the tribe rules the jury. That's not justice it seems to me and lots of other folks if you took a poll. While in general the shrug is the conservative view in this case, it's still sort of amazing, when you overlay that mindset on other legal situations....pick one and see if that same comment/view bugs you or not based on what you know about the conduct of the accused.

I mean Trump said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it. I'm beginning to think he really was right -- would that hypothetical situation warrant a "ah, he won't get convicted, so let's ignore it" response among the folks defending or ignoring this conduct?

The entire situation in Washington has taught me just how frail our democracy is. It depends on people of good will following their oaths of office and being willing to call out what's wrong.
Frankly, I'm in a bit of despair right now.

One thing is certain: if Trump isn't removed from office we are all going to die.

i had to drive up to gatlinburg today and was pleased to hear the host of one of my favorite podcasts featured on NPR’s On The Media: Matthew Sitman of Know Your Enemy, a podcast examining the american conservative movement.

i think this might be a helpful listen for those worried about what the changing nature of american conservatism means for the future. i don’t think this will make anyone feel less worried, but could be helpful in getting a handle on what is going on in the minds of our enemies & explain why i insist that it is futile to make good faith liberal-democratic appeals to those on the post-trump right.

Making Sense of the Illiberal Right (32min audio):
(link...)

no interest in wasting time trolling the petri dish of nazi race scientists who inhabit glenn’s comments section

when i say the right is the enemy. the political actors are the politicians, the media, thinktanks, pundits, academics, capital interests etc that animate the right and wield power, not ordinary folks.

See, here's my problem. Unless you believe that the people who inhabit Glenn's comment section are wholly made up of "politicians, the media, thinktanks, pundits, academics, capital interests etc", then it would appear that at least some of the folks who don't hold these positions in society and yet hold views of which you don't approve would fall into your definition of "christian fascist white nationalist enemies." So I continue to wonder what you would do with those people and how you will sort them from the "ordinary folks" with whom you claim to have no beef. Will there be a quiz?

No authoritarian government and no thoughtcrime purges. Check. So those who hold "culturally transmitted fascist tendencies" would be allowed to maintain them in a Falk regime?

You'll pardon me I hope for interrogating the interrogator. :-)

I finally had a chance to read the 2 articles of impeachment. Very brief.

Article 1- In 2016, We didn’t defeat Trump.

Article 2- In 2020, We won’t defeat Trump.

And best of all despite saying it 50,000 times over the last few months, the monumentally huge crine of quid pro quo isn't even in the articles.

Out of curiosity, does anyone happen to know who knoxoasis is? Curious if this person for some reason feels a need to hide their identity while sharing their strongly held convictions?