3007

He now remembers! It’s amazing what the threat of criminal prosecution will do for one’s memory.

3008

Today we learned that this does in fact exist.

3009

Also this.

3010

When his time comes, I hope the moments leading up his death are the most frightening in Graham’s life.

3011

<3

3012

You didn’t use Narrator voice. :(

3013

There really are no words

3014

Rand Paul is a Russian asset.

3015

Does anyone get Rand Paul’s motivations on this whistleblower thing? I know he’s been chummy with Trump on some occasions (my read has been it’s mostly on foreign policy where the two share some non-interventionist/isolationist tendencies), but I don’t think of him as a typical Trump brownnoser. Why is outing the whistleblower (which appears to be pretty unpopular with GOP senators) now a crusade for him?

3016

I tend to ascribe to the over-simplified axiom of “all politics are local.” Somebody, somewhere is telling him he’s better off running this gambit whether it’s a matter of votes or donations.

3017

Both he and Trump are owned by the same people, as Timex said. Just Google “Rand Paul Russia” and see what you get.

3018

Silly me, I thought @Timex was being sarcastic.

3019

Humor died in 2016. As did subtlety, so here’s the pedantic infodump:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-10-23/rand-paul-s-campaign-to-appease-russia-comes-to-congress

3020

Seems like a relevant data point for whether Republicans will be able to make impeachment work to their advantage in turning out the vote.

Trump and the GOP tried to use impeachment to push Bevin to victory in Kentucky’s gubernatorial election, but with 100% of districts reported, Beshear has a 5,100 vote / .4% lead over Bevin, who has refused to concede. So we also get another small test case for Republicans subverting the democratic process.

3021

Trump’s got his “I’m smiling because all these people love me, but they’re all looking at this other guy right now, so that makes me sad” expression on.

3022

3023

Based on the scheduling of Bill Taylor as the first witness, it sounds like Schiff is following a litigation plan along the lines outlined by Politico’s Legal Affairs Columnist Renato Mariotti which I consider a very solid litigation plan. Nothing in Mariotti’s article is suprising or even innovative from a litigation perspective, but it’s all very solid and effective in my view.

Mariotti’s game plan is:

  1. Stay Focused (on Ukraine/abuse of power/quid pro quo)
  2. Start and End Strong (with Vindman or Bill Taylor suggested as first witness)
  3. Work With the Evidence You Have (instead of waiting for the courts on various records and issues)
  4. Develop Your Themes (Abuse of Power, Quid Pro Quo)
  5. Stick to the Facts (this means you Adam Schiff - no stupid paraphrasing when the actual evidence is so strong)
  6. Explain Why It Matters (after establishing the abuse of power and quid pro quo, finish by hitting the actual harm to US national security by delaying the Ukraine aid)

I endorse this litigation plan.

3024

This is the most important part, because there are far too many party over country people who keep claiming that it’s fine, just fine.

Example:

3025

It seems dumb to call someone like that a “swing voter”.

3026

So that is straight up an Onion headline from 2016, no editing needed, right?