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"The US House of Representatives has passed a resolution to formally proceed with the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
The measure details how the inquiry will move into a more public phase. It was not a vote on whether the president should be removed from office.
This was the first test of support in the Democratic-controlled House for the impeachment process.
The White House condemned the vote, which passed along party lines.
Only two Democrats - representing districts that Mr Trump won handily in 2016 - voted against the resolution, along with all Republicans, for a total count of 232 in favour and 196 against."
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Trump Impeachment: House Votes to Formalise Inquiry
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For recreational use only.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Friday November 01 2019, @02:56PM (44 children)
Impeached?
Yes: Convicted?
Yes: Pence becomes President
No: Re-Elected?
Yes: America collapses
No: Refuses to leave office, claiming massive election fraud?
Yes: Civil War
No: Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders becomes President
No: goto Re-Elected
Lots of other possibilities. Like, could Pence also be impeached, in which case Nancy Pelosi becomes President? A massive blue wave in 2020 could hand the Senate and the Presidency to the Democrats. As for the grimmest possibility, Trump is not removed and wins re-election, there are several scary possibilities, ranging from Trump starts a nuclear war and wipes out civilization, to merely being impeached again perhaps even in the period after the election and before his 2nd term starts.
As for Pence becoming President, what's with Indiana anyway? First they give us Quayle, and now Pence. Makes me wonder if what Buttigieg really is, is Indiana's apology.
(Score: 5, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday November 01 2019, @03:06PM (21 children)
Damn. I knew I should have put a -1 Goto mod in last site update.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01 2019, @03:26PM
Should have used "-1 harmful" [acm.org] as it's synonymous.
/me ducks
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Friday November 01 2019, @04:12PM (19 children)
Buzzy, good conservatives have a lot to answer for. Believe it or not, I was once a Republican. I believed in balancing the budget. Still like the idea, actually. I am a fiscal conservative.
But the Republican Party today, good God, what the f*** happened? Where were all the fiscal conservatives when the War in Iraq over Weapons of Mass Destruction was being rammed through? While I would expect life to be the primary concern, especially of the party that claims to be Pro-Life, I hoped that at the least fiscal conservatives would raise concerns over the costs. But I have not heard of a single one who protested that that war would be very, budget bustingly costly. Closest I heard were murmurs that concerns over costs could not stand in the way of a clear and present danger. And then to learn that there never were any Weapons of Mass Destruction! And that the Bush administration knew that, before they made the call to go to war! George H. W. Bush was right, his son was badly served by those neocons, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz.
Now the Republicans routinely spit on facts and science, to please the stupidest of the voters. Over the years, they've become more open and brazen about it, and have moved even further, pandering to racists, misogynists, and religious fundamentalists and evangelists. What the Hell is the business wing of the party thinking? To think that the Party of Lincoln should have sunk to this.
I'm not wild about Democrats, particularly so called centrist, Blue Dog ones, fiscally conservative though they profess to be. But damn, what are the options? Give us a viable 3rd party, please!
Oh, I forgot to mention another gift from Indiana: Mourdock. So extreme, he lost to a Democrat.
(Score: 2, Informative) by fustakrakich on Friday November 01 2019, @05:04PM
Don't ask for a "third" party [independent], just vote for it. It's very easy for each individual to do so, if they don't let the grade school peer pressure fuck up their judgement.
As far as the war, it's costly for some, very profitable for others. Like everything else, cui bono. You will find it's not political. The dems only put up a facade of resistance, and not even that against the Afghanistan war.
It is these things and mass media propaganda that make people feel there is no choice. But the choice has always been there. They can vote for the same old shit, or against it. That is their choice, regardless of the chance of winning.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Friday November 01 2019, @05:22PM (1 child)
Then bring back Slick Willie (and the .com boom). Pretty shocking how easily the budget balances itself with a little loosening of the purse strings among the wealthy - no changes in the law or tax structure required.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01 2019, @07:14PM
dotcom boom was caused by government giving money to telecoms to build out infrastructure (see telecom act of 1996)
dotcom bust was caused by telecoms keeping the money and not living up to the agreements to build out the infrastructure
Just another (pick a political party) dirty trick on the public
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bussdriver on Friday November 01 2019, @05:54PM
WHAT HAPPENED to the republican party is that it is ONLY a brand name. To a lesser degree the democrats also became a brand name. They hire marketing companies to sell the brand like it was soap. Post WW2 probably was the biggest shift. The GOP was bought out long long ago but today you can see it's marketing company, FOX NEWS has bought out the brand completely. The propaganda dept has taken over the party - it's not a healthy typical political party anymore (lets just assume "healthy" means normal.... and not get into the oxymoron.) Propaganda was always an essential component but it has been too refined and too powerful; in this case, it became too centralized and completely hijacked the brand. They promote tribalism and brand loyalty. Actually, I know some Military propagandists who retired and got jobs as consultants for FOX. Their jobs were demonizing the enemy and getting our soldiers to kill people effectively. Sound familiar??
I was never a republican. I rarely even say I'm democrat. I never identified with either tribe. I am personally so frugal people sometimes call me cheap. I'm for many government programs/services because it's a democracy and government is non-profit so if we can collectively provide something of better value for the most people I'm all for it. To use Smith's argument for capitalism, it benefits the most people so therefore it's the best choice. Well, if something else does better, then I'm all for it using the same reasoning... and that means that capitalism is the best solution but not absolutely all the time. The best solutions are often not ones you feel completely happy with. Also, aiming for perfection is inherently evil; thats another topic...
The government corruption overhead CAN be lower than the private profit margins and the quality can also beat the market's greed; NOT all the time. There are limits to how much a democracy can handle competently. The debate should be (but never is) about can we make X work better or is it beyond our collective competence to self govern and just leave it to the market chaos... and then it's about how to reign in the anarchy effectively (except for the libertards who are anarchists in disguise.) We end up talking about government as a alien entity and promoting it as NOT being a collective representation... it doesn't feel good to hate your own country so people instead hate their own messenger and instrument. That should be directed at dysfunction and improving representation but it is not (well, the democrats tend to encourage this but it is partially disingenuous because higher turn out helps them.)
check out politicalcompass.org and educate others.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01 2019, @06:56PM
So you don't like fighting in Iraq. OK, but that was bipartisan. Hillary Clinton voted for it. You may remember that she was controlling the democrat party, even forcing them to choose herself to be the 2016 candidate.
Meanwhile, we have Trump withdrawing troops from Syria and tearing down unfriendly structures on the Korean border. You should like the guy.
Racist: Joe Biden, who rudely noted that Obama was the first well-spoken articulate black candidate.
Misogynist: Nobody hates women. The closest is probably a woman herself, the one in congress who had her clitoris removed in childhood.
Religious fundamentalist: Don't ignore Islam. Democrats have been enabling it, and it will make you wish you were dominated by mere Christianity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01 2019, @09:33PM
The Clinton impeachment happened.
In the 80s and mid-90s the Republican party was a party of principles and ideas. Remember the "Contract with America?" Today's Republicans could never come up with something like that. The Democrats have the "Green New Deal," which is kind of similar, except it's full of bad ideas instead of good ones.
Once the Clinton impeachment happened, Republicans decided to be the party of obstructionism. The only thing they care about now is stopping the Democrats from accomplishing anything, and getting anti-abortion judges into the courts. 9/11 and the Iraq war gave them a temporary reprieve, in the form of at least looking like they're doing something important, but what we're seeing today is pretty much what a party dedicated to power and nothing else looks like.
Trump himself, of course, could not have existed prior to the 2010s. I mean, the man existed, but his particular brand of politics wouldn't have worked before then.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday November 01 2019, @10:10PM (1 child)
The Republican Party has never been the party of fiscal responsibility in my lifetime. Seriously, just look at the budget deficits, and you'll see every Republican since 1980 ramming through massive deficits with both unwarranted tax cuts and spending boosts on stuff we don't need. The last truly fiscally responsible Republican was Dwight Eisenhower, and even he thought the US was spending too much.
They're doing that on purpose. The strategy that's been in place since 1980 was developed by Grover Norquist (a man who has never been elected to anything, I might point out) is to cut taxes until the budget has scary-looking deficits, then use the scary-looking deficits to convince a Democratic president that the Only Possible Solution (tm) is to gut Social Security. Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama came close to falling for it too.
One reason I know they're doing it on purpose is that I walked up to one of my senators (the now-deceased George Voinovich), who always billed himself a moderate fiscal conservative Republican type, and asked him how he reconciled his fiscal conservatism with voting for the Bush tax cuts. He didn't give me a straight answer.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday November 01 2019, @11:19PM
Don't forget, that all along the cries for cutting the budget were really dog whistles, coded messages. They were never sincere about fiscal responsibility. What they really wanted was to discriminate, and all the talk about fiscal responsibility was just cover for that goal. Cutting some program for the poor always hurts disadvantaged minorities more. That was the part I didn't figure out until after the Clinton years.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday November 02 2019, @02:10AM (7 children)
Ike was the last good Republican. Anyone voting R after that was deficient in conscience, morals, intelligence, or some combination of the three. And not surprisingly, not long after that the Southern Strategy happened...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 03 2019, @11:46AM (6 children)
Eh, it's easier to say what folks voting D after JFK were deficient in, the only possibility is between their ears.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday November 03 2019, @03:29PM (5 children)
Not after Kennedy. After Clinton's first term, certainly.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 03 2019, @08:13PM (4 children)
No, after Kennedy. Carter was a great guy but a lousy President.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday November 04 2019, @08:44PM (3 children)
Even a decent Governor from what I've gathered. But, like all Presidents, gets hampered by the past and has limits as to what can be done in the future.
Maybe the President we deserved but not the one we needed then.... I just hope that we don't know have the one we deserve and didn't need now.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday November 04 2019, @08:55PM (2 children)
Don't sweat it too hard. There's not much seriously crazy shit he could get through a Republican Congress and he doesn't even have that anymore. Besides, we could very well end up with another Only Nixon Could Go To China situation. Nobody's shitty at everything and we have means in place to mitigate the bits they are shitty at.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday November 05 2019, @11:31PM (1 child)
Nice point, thanks.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday November 07 2019, @10:21PM
The way things are right now - one party controlling the House, the other controlling the Senate, and a President whose own party doesn't like him much - is honestly about my ideal governmental split. It's the least likely formation to pass insano bullshit because of the moderating effect of all the hurdles that have to be jumped.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 03 2019, @11:41AM (2 children)
Don't mess up a perfectly good coding joke by taking it seriously.
As for the rest, the last Republican President I dig on at this point in my life is Reagan. The Bushes may be distant family but they weren't especially good Republicans by my standards. Trump makes me laugh but the best I can label him is "mostly harmless" on account of not being able to get much of anything through Congress and do much lasting harm.
Mind you, the last Democrat President I dig on is JFK, so they're not faring any better. Carter was probably the best human being we've had in office in ages but he wasn't very good at it and had some fundamentally bad notions in his head.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:25PM (1 child)
Then you're an evil mother fucker. Reagan was the worst thing to happen to the US. Git edumacated son!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 03 2019, @08:16PM
Bitch, please. Ronnie was the best President in the last hundred years. Yes, very specifically including FDR in that comparison.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01 2019, @03:31PM (10 children)
Oh come on. How do people buy into this sensationalism? Don't you recall, America was supposed to collapse when Trump was elected? Conveniently, the NYTimes jammed lots of their doomsday nonsense into single page. [nytimes.com] The markets were going to crash, we were going to enter a great depression literally "never" to recover. And America was generally going to die. Oh also, Trump was Hitler or something.
Lo and behold, he was elected, lots of people spazzed out, the markets did awesome, Hitler is still dead as ever, and life went on pretty much the same as it always does. I expect Trump will probably comfortably win in 2020 and end up with a mostly uneventful presidency, aside from the hyper-partisanship which I expect is probably a new normal rather than anything unique to him. The reason I say this is because impeachment seems to have been good for his numbers. He's now pulling ahead in the polls and, to my knowledge, pollsters have not radically changed how they poll so there is good reason to believe they are likely still under-polling his support. Go figure, there's probably a response bias when somebody calls you on the phone and wants to start asking about your political views. Can't imagine why that might be...
As for the democratic election, the establishment favorite has been Harris all along. Biden is never going to get the nomination because he is as corrupt as he is creepy - viral videos of him groping and sniffing little kids beats Howard Dean's "YAAAAAAAAAEEEAAWWW" by a landslide. He's only alive because the DNC and their media are using him as a strategic whipping boy. And so, because of that, poll numbers right now mean nothing. If most of Biden's support can be directed to Harris then she will indeed become the democratic nominee. And that should be pretty easy. I mean after all she has a vagina and high genetic melanin levels - and those are like the two most important traits for a president. I think DNC pollsters expected Harris' support to be higher from the onset but in a way this makes things even easier. Since she's a distant outsider, there's less media focus on her. And my god with the way the DNC debates are going, the less focus on anybody the better. The NYTimes is rubbish, but they were pretty much completely correct in that the winner of the DNC debates has been Trump. So we will probably see Trump vs Harris. And then everybody will be called sexist and racist once Trump wins because don't you understand!?!? She has a vagina AND high melanin content! How could you not vote for that!?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01 2019, @03:52PM (9 children)
The US has been collapsing, have you really paid no attention?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01 2019, @04:13PM (6 children)
How the fuck is this informative?
"The US is collapsing..."
That's information?
That's OPINION, completely unfounded in any actual EVIDENCE.
In the mean time, the economy's growing, to the point that the fed is actually starting to raise a little interest away from 0. Employment is massive (including especially for the terribly oppressed people with darker skin), and the systems of the democracy are so strong that partisans are sharpening knives for an unprovable sub-percentage point of hypothetical vote finagling (whether by suppression or cheating).
The closest thing to collapse that we have is angry partisans huffing and puffing like Marvin the Martian and talking about obliterating the earth.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01 2019, @04:25PM
They were at that point in 2016 but now they've done multiple cuts this year, repo bailouts [newyorkfed.org] and don't call it QE4 while investments and exports are falling. None of this is Trumps fault but at least pay attention.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday November 01 2019, @04:34PM (3 children)
Actually - I think the US may well be on the road to collapse. Consider all the money we borrow from China. Then, consider all the money we give away in various forms of bribes - errrr, I meant "aid". So, we dig ourselves ever deeper into debt, for the purpose of bribing other foreign nations to do what we want them to do. Call it empire, or oligarchy, or whatever, this is a surefire method of bankruptcy. To quote a boss I once worked for, "We do a lot of stupid shit around here."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01 2019, @05:32PM (2 children)
So what if China is buying our debt. They only get paper that says we'll try to pay them interest. They can't repossess the Capitol.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday November 02 2019, @03:22AM (1 child)
Until they get to the point they see US trade skirmishes are more damaging than a true economic war. At that moment, they trash the US credit rating by selling the debt for cents on the dollar and nobody buys US debt for some good years. You reckon US-as-you-know-it survives such a scenario?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 02 2019, @03:51AM
The US can comfortably ignore the secondary market. If our general state remains strong, why would the Chinese hurt themselves by trying to fire-sale our bonds? If we are weak, we'll have a harder time selling new debt anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01 2019, @05:18PM
Heh, sensitive snowflakes gotta mod bomb to make themselves feel important.
Sorry pal, even RUNAWAY is agreeing. Pay more attention to reality, turn of Fox "news". Facts matter.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01 2019, @04:33PM (1 child)
You used to buy a newspaper or turn on the news for a general overview of what's going on in the world. And news agencies made a killing delivering this and little more than this - maybe some funnies on Sunday. Today? That's a worthless product. I can not only see what's going on, for free, but can even get live first-person footage or even chat with folks in the areas where it's happening. Some guy with a journalism degree isn't exactly bringing a whole lot to the table anymore. News agencies started collapsing. That's when they started saying society was collapsing, and are still struggling but are at least for now managing to tread water.
News has become entertainment. Not funny entertainment, but drama entertainment. People in the past would tune into 'soaps' to find out what was going to happen next week. And the stories were always awful, people dying and killing one another, people coming down with awful illnesses, cheating, and all sorts of nastiness. Now the media has tried to turn real life into this. And it's not hard. Especially in politics dirt is pretty much the name of the game. See how the media now present the actors in their stories. Mueller wasn't just some old prosecutor with a good record, he was a hard hitting and hard ass old school prosecutor who wouldn't take shit from anybody and would get to the bottom of any case no matter how big or small.
Something I always say, and continues to ring true, is that this week there's a name you've never heard of in your entire life. By the end of next week it'll be a new hero or villain that you'll be a complete expert on everything about. Of course in reality you won't know anything about him at all. All you'll have is a Hollywood style caricature made with about as much depth as your typical Hollywood film. But nonetheless it'll be enough to draw an attachment to him, be it either because he's your new beloved hero or your new despised villain. The news has chosen to compete with social media by turning themselves into story tellers where drama and relevance is secondary to saying whatever is necessary to get you to click today, and then again tomorrow.
And so no. When I actually judge day to day life as I see it - I see literally 0 evidence of any sort of collapse. It's only when you get drawn into our digital new-age soap operas that everything seems to be collapsing. And I'll admit there's some damn good entertainment there, but I do make an effort to keep it all at arm's length if not only because of seeing what happens to people who get too drawn into the game.
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Friday November 01 2019, @05:10PM
News has become entertainment, and this was predicted as far back as 1976 in the Chayefsky/Lumet film "Network". You know the one-- "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01 2019, @04:16PM (1 child)
It's going to be funny when everyone votes democrat and refucklicans have to get a job at McDonalds.
Enough of this shit... ReElect that Motherfucker.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01 2019, @06:52PM
They'll never keep jobs a McDonald's when they put what they want on the burger not what you want.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 01 2019, @06:06PM (5 children)
My favorite scenario. Trump does what Trump does best. Outrageous Things. But a firehose of so much outrageousness that nobody has a clue how to deal with it in an "orderly" fashion.
Trump pardons himself. Everyone else around him. Incites (or hires) violence against his opponents. Pardons himself and or those who did the deed. Declares a national emergency due to election tampering and stays in office indefinitely. Orders military to shut down congress and blockade the capitol building. (who's going to stop him?) (imagine the split among the "chain of command" crowd and the "unconstitutional orders" crowd) Pardons himself some more.
Executive order that we are not going to pay any more on the national debt. We're going to blockade North Korea. Because. We're going to strike Iran. Because. To prevent further election tampering, voting must be all electronic and controlled by the highest levels of government -- to preserve integrity. Voting equipment contracted to Russian firms declaring loyalty to Trump.
Hand out pardons like Halloween candy to anyone who does anything that benefits Trump. New federal form to apply for such a pardon.
Shut down the courts because they are becoming a nuisance due to their disagreeable nature regarding the actions I've described so far.
Nationalize FoxNews. Shut down all other reporting until their journalists can be registered with a new federal ministry of truth. Publications must be reviewed prior to publication to ensure correctfulness.
Taxes should be zero for anyone making 2 million per year. Tax rates increase proportionately for income levels decreasing below 2 million. Tax rates become increasingly negative for incomes above 2 million.
Everyone should be entitled on Tuesdays to free: 2 Big Macs, 2 Filet-o-fish, 20 chicken mcnuggets and a large shake.
There should be a new national holiday to celebrate and recognize the achievements and greatness of Trump.
Tax returns are a nuisance for government officials and should therefore be abolished for federal officials.
The rules of evidence are made, um . . . more flexible, to, um . . . improve law enforcement efficiency.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01 2019, @07:03PM (2 children)
The 82nd stops him. You really believe the military will go along with that BS?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday November 04 2019, @03:04PM (1 child)
What if there is an internal divide between the "chain of command" crowd and the "unconstitutional orders" crowd?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday November 04 2019, @09:00PM
Every last service member is told multiple times in boot camp that following an illegal order will most certainly land their ass in hot water as well as the person who gave it. That completely aside, the type of folks who enlist aren't there because they looooove following orders. They mostly enlist because they love their country, so ordering them to seriously fuck it up will never, ever fly.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 02 2019, @01:41AM (1 child)
Dude. You are the poster boy for unhinged.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday November 04 2019, @03:03PM
I can only do my best. Thank you.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 02 2019, @01:30AM (2 children)
You unhinged hystericals have been pushing that bullshit since election night 2016:
Trump will start a nuclear war. Trump will never leave office if he loses. Trump will declare martial law. America will collapse.
Goddamn. When the hell are you guys going to grow up and quit believing your own feverish, pot induced hallucinations?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @08:51PM (1 child)
When the hell will you guys wake up and see we have elected a pathological narcissist as President?
Go read up what happens when a pathological narcissist's reality bubble no longer becomes sustainable. "Narcissitic mortification" is the technical term you need. Then tell me what actions prevent Trump from declaring a 90 day martial law and what methods prevent him from telling his military aid, "Give me the codes, I'm picking up the C-in-C nuclear hotline now and making Country ________ turn to glass.") Then understand that we have betrayed our allies who destroyed ISIS for us because Trump can't face the families picking up their loved ones who died in defense of destroying ISIS and ask yourself just how far along Trump might be along that mortification pathway.
Now pray that the shadow resistance inside the Trump administration is a very real thing, and I'll pray that you're trolling.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday November 04 2019, @09:01PM
When the hell will you wake up and realize that we almost always do?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.