The House is going home again—this time to avoid a vote on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s impeachment.
House GOP leadership announced Wednesday morning that they will end their current slate of votes early and head home until the midterms, a nearly two-month break.
Wild Wednesday Reads
Posted: September 16, 2026 Filed under: just because | Tags: articles of impeachment, Donald Trump, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Kerry Kennedy, Mike Johnson, Pete Hegseth, Smithsonian Museum of American History, Thomas Massie, Times/Sienna poll, world economy 9 CommentsGood Afternoon!!
Trump is supposedly involved in a war with Iran that is spreading throughout the Middle East, but all he really seems to care about is tearing down the White House to build a giant, garish ballroom, putting his name on buildings, and imposing his ideological views on all of us.
Yesterday, it was the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a building dedicated to an assassinated president.
Julia Jacobs and Zach Montague at The New York Times (gift link): Kennedy Center Closes Its Doors Despite a Judge’s Order.
Simmering turmoil over the future of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts boiled over on Tuesday as the center abruptly closed to the public and President Trump threatened to cancel a planned $257 million renovation if his name was not returned to the front of the building.
Allies of Mr. Trump have been pushing for months to close the center for major renovations and to honor the president by affixing his name to its marble facade. A federal judge has blocked both efforts.
On Tuesday, the center aggressively tested the judge’s order not to close by shutting its doors in what officials called an emergency action designed to protect people from deteriorating conditions inside the building. Shortly after 4:30 p.m., employees heard a sudden notice on the P.A. system: “The center is now closed to the public. Please exit the center by way of the Hall of States.”
A security guard stands in front of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sept. 15, 2026 in Washington, D.C.
By the evening, security guards stationed outside entrances to the main lobby were turning people away. One officer said the building had just closed.
The Kennedy Center said in a statement that an immediate temporary closure of the building was necessary for safety reasons but that an extended closure would begin once the court gives its approval. Earlier on Tuesday, the center’s Trump-allied board voted — for a third time — to close the building, citing a recent incident in which a five-foot-long section of ceiling plaster fell amid a storm.
But lawyers for Representative Joyce Beatty, a Democratic ex officio board member whose lawsuit is at the center of the court battle, signaled that they would view any closure as in direct conflict with a court order.
“If true,” the lawyers, Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, said in a statement, “it would appear a direct violation of the court’s order and courting contempt.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Judge Christopher R. Cooper barred the center from honoring Mr. Trump with an inscription on the institution’s exterior. He ruled it would violate his previous order that blocked the board from renaming the center.
“Simply put, defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” Judge Cooper wrote. “The board resolution bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted.”
A bit more:
For weeks, Mr. Trump’s allies have suggested that the president’s continued commitment to the Kennedy Center was contingent on some conspicuous acknowledgment on the center’s exterior. A recent draft resolution submitted to board members said the center was at risk of bankruptcy but could be saved by fund-raising by Mr. Trump — if he were to receive “appropriate recognition.”
Mr. Trump’s made that quid pro quo even more clear in his social media post on Tuesday. It said that $17 million raised by the president had been put into the center’s account “to keep it afloat.”
The post followed a day of rage directed at those blocking his agenda for the Kennedy Center. Shortly before the judge’s ruling was publicly released, Mr. Trump declared on social media that the center was in a “virtual state of collapse.” He called Judge Cooper “very hostile and conflicted” and predicted that the building was “destined to doom” unless it was allowed to close.
Mr. Trump continued those arguments during a virtual board meeting on Tuesday afternoon, where he got into a bitter argument with Ms. Beatty, according to two people familiar with the meeting. They said that Mr. Trump and Ms. Beatty, who have been at odds in court for months, traded personal attacks: The president said the congresswoman had “never built anything” in her life, while Ms. Beatty called Trump “ignorant” and blamed him for the center’s financial problems.
Use the gift link to read more, if you wish.
Joey Garrison at USA Today, via Yahoo News: Trump threw ‘tantrum’ at Kennedy Center meeting, Congresswoman says.
President Donald Trump threw a “tantrum” during a Kennedy Center board meeting when he learned that a federal judge blocked his administration’s latest effort to put his name on the institution’s building, according to a Democratic congresswoman who serves on the board.
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio)
Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, the lead plaintiff who the judge sided with in his ruling, recounted the heated Sept. 15 meeting in an appearance on MS NOW. She said it opened with attorneys informing the board ‒ which Trump chairs after he appointed himself ‒ that in the case of Beaty v. Trump, “Beatty had been victorious.”
“And he went into a tantrum,” Beatty said. “I mean, let me just make it simple. It was the most unprofessional thing that I’ve ever witnessed or been a part of. He went into name-calling, everything from trying to say that I was an obstructionist, I was dumb. He said, ‘I think you’re incompetent.’ And I said, ‘I know you’re incompetent.'”
Shortly before the board met, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the Kennedy Center’s plan to add an inscription below the building’s sign to honor Trump’s financial contributions violates federal law and the judge’s previous ruling in May ordering the Kennedy Center to remove Trump’s name from the center’s title and signage.
As the president aired his frustrations to her, Beatty said she asked the president, “‘Are we really going to do this? This is really unprofessional.’ But I was not going to let him call me awful things. And he said he was going to hold me responsible if something fell out of the ceiling (of the Kennedy Center) and killed someone.”
Kennedy family members appealed to Trump to be reasonable (not likely!). Devin Garbit at ABC News: Kennedy niece says Trump holding Kennedy Center ‘hostage’ amid battle over name.
One of former President John F. Kennedy’s nieces accused President Donald Trump of taking the Kennedy Center “hostage” after Trump said he wouldn’t spend congressionally approved funding for the center’s renovation unless the building also bears his name.
The comments by Kerry Kennedy, whose father was Robert F. Kennedy, followed a ruling by a federal judge blocking the performing arts center’s board from adding a tribute to Trump on the building or site.
About an hour after that ruling, the board, which is controlled by Trump appointees, voted to close the center immediately for renovations.
Trump, in a social media post following the board’s vote, then said those renovations will not take place unless his name is added onto the building.
Kerry Kennedy
Congress last year appropriated $257 million for the renovation. In a Tuesday interview with CNN, Kennedy described the board’s efforts as “a tragedy,” adding that the center is loved by many and the public “see the corruption of this.”
“President Trump has said they have $250 million ready to hand over tomorrow,” Kennedy said. “He’s just withholding it because he wants his name on the building. So, this is like so many other things that trump has touched. It’s a bankruptcy because he adds his name to it.” [….]
In a direct appeal to the president, Kennedy said, “President Trump, please focus on what’s important. Leave the Kennedy center alone. Allow us to move forward with this great art center, this monument to a slain president, and leave it alone. Focus on your job.”
Kennedy’s comments on CNN on Tuesday followed a similar statement released by another niece, Maria Shriver, who also described Trump’s threat to prevent renovations a “tragedy.” Shriver described Trump as “small minded” and “narcissistic.”
Appealing to Trump to be reasonable is useless. He has the maturity of a 3 year-old child, if that.
Trump is also trying to leave his mark on the Smithsonian.
Robin Pogrebin at The New York Times (gift link): Trump Administration Outlines Plan for Signs Outside Smithsonian Museum.
President Trump remains determined to install warning signs outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to alert the public that the institution, in his view, does not accurately present U.S. history.
In letters to two senators, the Interior Department outlined a plan for 12 temporary signs to be installed at a total cost of $84,000. The letters did not specify the dimensions or language of the signs, which were originally ordered in July, but it went into considerable detail about the kind of information they plan to convey.
In the letter to Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, dated Sept. 3, Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, said he was responding to questions about Mr. Trump’s March 2025 executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The order described a “revisionist movement” across the country that it said “seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.”
Smithsonian Museam of American History
Americans should enter the National Museum of American History “with relevant information about the curators’ interpretation of history and their stated goal of changing the viewpoints of visitors,” said the letter, which was earlier reported in The Atlantic on Tuesday. Instead, the letter argued, the museum and Smithsonian’s leaders “have altered the museum’s role from accurately and coherently telling America’s story to using the museum as a tool to advance personal, radical ideologies.”
“We believe the public should enter the museum fully equipped with the information needed,” the letter said, “to evaluate whether to invest their time viewing these exhibits and programming.”
The museum’s director, Anthea M. Hartig, has contested the thrust of a July 4 White House report that accused her of “radical activist ideology” and the museum of undermining “faith in American institutions.”
Though the letter said that the language of the signs had not been finalized and gave no installation timeline, it described some of the topics they were intended to address, all of which had been outlined in the White House report.
For example, the letter said the signs should “ensure parents bringing young children to the museum are equipped to protect the well-being of their children” regarding exhibits that “present ideological viewpoints inconsistent with biology, including ideologies that sex is not binary, that biological men can be women and that biological men should be permitted to compete in women’s sports.”
Mr. Burgum’s letter said a copy had also been sent to Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon.
You can read more using the gift link.
More on Trump Smithsonian demands from Kelsey Ables at The Atlantic (gift link).
A person familiar with the plans described some of the preparations to me. Although the Park Service has an idea of the physical structure of the signs, what the signs will actually say and who is writing the text remains a mystery to people in the agency working on them, said the person, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. The letter from Burgum says that the signs are not finalized, but it offers a preview of what they might look like, describing a number of things “visitors should know” before they enter the museum. Burgum, whose department includes the Park Service, extensively quotes the museum’s director, Anthea Hartig, and criticizes outgoing Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch, seeking to frame both as ideologues. The letter also calls out exhibitions and materials that have touched on groups the administration has gone after, such as undocumented immigrants and transgender Americans.
“The informational signage therefore will provide visitors with important context about the exhibits they are about to encounter and the personal viewpoints that the curators of the exhibits are seeking to advance,” the letter says. It goes on to justify the move, echoing a 162-page report on the museum released by the White House and asserting that the museum is pushing “ideologies that distract from a coherent and accurate presentation of America’s story.” Burgum adds, “This may be the first instance in which executive branch intervention of this nature has become Necessary.”
Trump also wants a giant statue of George Washington installed.
The Smithsonian, which is partially federally funded, has historically operated independently, has its own governing body, and is regarded in the wider museum world as measured in its approach. The institution has been heading off threats and criticism from the Trump administration since March 2025. Recently, the administration’s attention has turned to the American-history museum, which Trump made a number of curatorial demands of on social media this past Friday, including insisting that it remove an abstract sculpture and erect a 30-foot-tall George Washington statue in its place. Although the Trump administration has accused the Smithsonian, and specifically the American-history museum, of not being patriotic enough, the museum’s leadership has pointed to the abundance of patriotic material on display inside—368 objects and 340 labels on the founding era; 54 George Washington mentions, according to Hartig—and has maintained that telling the American story in its full complexity is a crucial part of its role.
Use the gift link to read more if you’re interested.
This is breaking news. Speaker Mike Johnson just sent House members home again in order to avoid a vote on impeaching Pete Hegseth. Yesterday Rep. Thomas Massie read articles of impeachment on the House floor. Today he tried to force a vote.
ABC News: Rep. Thomas Massie forcing vote on Pete Hegseth’s impeachment.
Outgoing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie seized the House floor for more than an hour Tuesday afternoon, launching a long-shot effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stemming from his controversial administration over the Pentagon, including the war in Iran.
Rep Thomas Massie introduces a resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, September 15, 2026.
After sending a news release announcing his intent to impeach Hegseth, Massie quickly appeared on the floor where he stood for more than 67 minutes reading the sweeping 34-page resolution with eight articles of impeachment aloud.
“Secretary Hegseth has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as Secretary of Defense and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States of America,” Massie read from the resolution, contending that Hegseth will “remain a threat to civilians and the laws of war, the integrity of United States diplomacy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with his duties and the rule of law.”
“Peter Brian Hegseth thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States,” the resolution states….
The articles of impeachment against Hegseth include ignoring laws that minimize civilian casualties, administering an “unlawful war” in Yemen, ordering extrajudicial killings, suppressing free speech and kidnapping a sovereign leader — alluding to the U.S. capture of Nicolas Maduro early this year.
“Frankly, I was concerned that Mike Johnson would end Congress again, like shorten even our already truncated work period if he found out I was doing.
And that’s exactly what Johnson did today. Malcolm Ferguson at The New Republic: House Cancels Votes to Avoid Embarrassment Over Hegseth Impeachment.
“Members are further advised that upon completion of today’s legislative business, votes are no longer expected in the House tomorrow, September 17th,” a message from the office of House Majority Whip Tom Emmer read. “The last votes for the week are expected at approximately 4:45 p.m. this afternoon. This is a change from the previously announced schedule.”
The House will now move up votes on cutting Environmental Protection Agency regulations to Wednesday.
The vote the House GOP is most notably avoiding regards outgoing Republican Representative Thomas Massie’s eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth for his handling of the Iran war and other “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Massie’s impeachment articles focused on Hegseth’s “waging the Iran war despite no declaration of war, statutory authorization, attack on the United States, or imminent threat,” and continuing to attack Iran after the War Powers Resolution expired. They also cited Hegseth’s suppression of Democratic Senator Mark Kelly’s right to free speech, initiating an unlawful war in Yemen, and “ignoring laws that minimize civilian casualties.” Massie said he hid his privileged resolution, which forces a vote within 48 hours, from House leadership.
I’ll end with some bad news and then good news.
The bad news: It’s no secret that Trump’s economy is struggling.
Alan Rappaport at The New York Times (gift link): The World Economy Is Becoming Wary of the U.S.
Global investors are balking at U.S. bonds. Talk of the dollar’s dwindling power is getting louder. Foreign governments are hauling their gold out of American vaults.
Almost two years into President Trump’s second term, the world economy is increasingly looking for ways to distance itself from America. Concerns about a $40 trillion debt burden, the excessive use of sanctions to solve foreign policy problems and Mr. Trump’s penchant for pushing the limits of the rule of law are raising questions about the appeal of the United States as a haven for global investment.
Despite pledges by foreign companies and nations to invest in the United States — in many cases to curry favor with the White House — capital is starting to seek alternative destinations.
“Geopolitical factors and U.S. weaponization of the dollar through financial sanctions are causing central banks and other official investors to attempt to diversify away from dollar assets,” said Eswar Prasad, the former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division.
The United States is not yet an investment pariah. Private investors are still pouring money into American financial markets and stocks, artificial intelligence infrastructure is booming and no rival currency is poised to topple the dollar imminently….
But cracks in America’s economic dominance are starting to show.
The most glaring example has been in the bond market. Yields have been soaring as investors nervous about the mounting national debt demand a higher rate of return for buying Treasury bonds. This week, the yield on the 10-year Treasury topped 5 percent, reaching its highest level since 2007.
A decision to raise rates on Wednesday could help to alleviate concerns about the Fed’s grip on elevated inflation, fears that have injected more jitters into bond markets.
Read more at the NYT link. (The Times is giving subscribers unlimited gift links now.)
How about some good news? There’s a new Times/Sienna poll out that looks good for Democrats.
Nate Cohn at The New York Times (gift link): A ‘Blue Wave’ May Be Building, but How High?
Today’s New York Times/Siena poll finds that the conditions for a so-called wave in November’s midterm elections might be coming into place. The only question is whether — and where — Democrats will be able to ride it.
Overall, Democrats lead Republicans, 51 percent to 43 percent, among likely voters on the generic ballot question, which asks voters which party they will support for Congress in their district.
That’s “blue wave” territory. At least in terms of the national vote, the Democratic margin in the poll — 8.5 points — would almost exactly match the party’s 8.6-point margin in 2018. And it would exceed the winning margins for the party out of power in other recent wave elections, like in 1994, 2006 and 2010.
If, in the end, this election does prove to be a blue wave, it will be easy to explain. Historically, the party out of power fares well in midterm elections, and especially when the president is unpopular. The poll finds that President Trump’s approval rating is just 38 percent among likely voters — lower than any president heading into a midterm election since George W. Bush in 2006.
As my colleague Carl Hulse recently pointed out, there are a lot of similarities between Mr. Trump’s predicament today and Mr. Bush’s back in 2006. Mr. Bush was in a quagmire in Iraq and dogged by high gas prices. Today, Mr. Trump has just a 31 percent approval rating on the war in Iran, and a 28 percent rating on the cost of living.
Whether Democrats can translate these enormous national advantages into control of the Senate and a large House majority is a more complicated question. To win the Senate, Democrats will need to win at least two seats where Mr. Trump won by at least 11 points in the last election. That’s really tough, even in a wave year.
Here again, 2006 offers a useful comparison: To flip the Senate, Democrats needed to win at least a few seats in states where Mr. Bush had won by at least eight points in the previous election. In the end, they pulled it off — but only barely, including two extremely narrow victories in Montana and Virginia. Without a few fortunate breaks in those states, those races could have gone the other way — along with the Senate.
The national environment may have been great for Democrats, but a Senate win was far from inevitable.
There’s still plenty of time for Trump to alienate voters.
That’s all for me today. What’s on your mind?
Friday Reads: A Return to ‘Radical Normalcy’*
Posted: January 22, 2021 Filed under: academia, Afternoon Reads | Tags: articles of impeachment, Radical Normalcy 20 Comments
Fellini – Satyricon (1969)
Good Day Sky Dancers!
For the first time in four years I had CNN or MSNBC news on during the day while I was working with students and grading. It’s been my background noise for years but I gave it up for at least the last two. Yesterday and today, it’s like being a kid on Christmas morning just about every hour. Presents! Presents! Presents!
We heard an unleashed Dr Fauci give a press conference filled with facts and science! There were presidential signatures with actual pens–not childlike sharpie markers–placed on executive orders giving us a Federal Response to Covid-19 and to future Pandemics. And freeing us from so much of the damage Trump has done to the environment, diplomacy, and collective bargaining.
We welcomed back the idea that women have a right to moral agency and to make decisions concerning their own bodies without politicians. Two wonderfully able people were put into cabinet posts for the nation’s defense and intelligence. *Katie Tur called it a return to ‘radical normalcy’. I felt years of stress fall from my shoulders and today, I slept in late again with no Felliniesque Dystopian nightmare.
Today, Jane Yellen was approved for Treasury Secretary. I’m thrilled.
La Strada (1954, dir. Fellini) – The Fool: “What a funny face! Are you a woman, really? Or an artichoke?”
The House will send its Articles of Impeachment to the Senate on Monday where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the new Democratic majority will work with what’s left of the Trump-Free Republican Party to deal with sedition charges. This is from Axios and Zachary Basu.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that the House will deliver the article of impeachment against former President Trump for “incitement of insurrection” on Monday.
Why it matters: The Senate is required to begin the impeachment trial at 1 p.m. the day after the article is transmitted.
- Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had been pushing for the trial to begin in mid-February to allow senators more time to gather evidence and to give Trump proper due process.
- Schumer had countered that it would force the Senate to delay other important business, such as passing COVID relief.
What they’re saying: “I’ve heard some of my Republican colleagues argue that this trial would be unconstitutional because Donald Trump is no longer in office. An argument that has been roundly repudiated, debunked by hundreds of constitutional scholars — left, right, and center — and defies basic common sense,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor.
- “It makes no sense whatsoever that a president or any official could commit a heinous crime against our country and then be permitted to resign so as to avoid accountability and a vote to disbar them from future office. It makes no sense,” he continued.
The bottom line: Trump is the first president to be impeached twice, and he will be the first to face a Senate trial after leaving office.
Talking Heads consider Trump’s choice of lawyers to be a signal he’s taking this impeachment with more gravitas. He’s no longer protected by the Presidency and he’s already facing financial problems. This should be a seriously good watch.
Some Trump allies believe the president plans to use his trial to further his baseless claims that the election was stolen from him, according to two former aides familiar with his strategy. One of the aides cautioned that no defense strategy had been definitively agreed upon, though.
Bowers’ history suggests that the ex-president is keen on focusing on how votes were cast and counted during the 2020 cycle.Bowers served under President George W. Bush as special counsel for voting matters in the Justice Department, and worked as counsel in Florida for John McCain’s 2008 presidential run.
“All I can say is based on the Butch Bowers I know and respect, I would hope that he wouldn’t be sucked in as a tool in advancing the president’s conspiracy theories,” Sanford said.
Trump’s push to bolster his defense team comes one week after House Democrats impeached him for a second time on charges of inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Hundreds of pro-Trump demonstrators stormed the building — injuring law enforcement officials and forcing the evacuation of members of Congress — after rallying with the ex-president outside the White House.
https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1352652099910307841
Clowns: ‘one of Fellini’s most complex, allusive and elusive pictures’.
There’s actually a lot of there there.
Meanwhile, back in the Trump clown car that still functions in and around Capitol Hill, one of the whack-a-do QAnon Congresswomen Margorie Taylor Greene is fundraising off of it as reported by Newsweek. Hunter Biden’s Laptop is the new What about her emails?
According to a press release posted to Twitter by Greene, the impeachment articles are for Biden’s “corrupt actions involving his quid pro quo in Ukraine and his abuse of power by allowing his son, Hunter Biden, to siphon off cash from America’s greatest enemies Russia and China.”
There’s already a twitter troll army out there that seem to be freshly minted like a few hours ago.
The lawyers on the Impeachment side are an impressive list of prosecutors. But so are the ones waiting to hit him with all kinds of suits now that he’s left office.
8 1/2, (1963)
So, if you like Law and Order Shows, we have what seems an endless stream of them coming for Unindicted Co-conspirator Number One. Radical Normalcy will indeed by Radical for the Trump Crime Family. The reckoning is coming.
Meanwhile, GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! Buck up White Christian Nationalists! You snowflakes you!
From WAPO: Biden calls for LGBTQ protections in Day 1 executive order, angering conservatives
On his first day in office, President Biden issued a sweeping executive order making it clear that gay and transgender people are protected against discrimination in schools, health care, the workplace and other realms of American life.
Via KLRT-TV: President Biden has button used to order Diet Coke removed from Oval Office’s Resolute Desk— (NEXSTAR)
The furniture and artwork may be largely the same, but one ornament has apparently quickly disappeared disappeared from the White House Oval Office following the inauguration of President Joe Biden.
Marcello Mastroianni in 8 1/2 (1963)
From Susannah George at the Washington Post: U.S. to resume processing thousands of stalled visas for Afghans who aided Americans
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul will soon resume processing thousands of stalled special visa applications for Afghans who aided U.S. forces after halting visa interviews in March because of the pandemic.
A State Department official said the U.S. Embassy in Kabul would begin “a phased resumption” of in-person interviews in February. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under rules imposed by the State Department, would not comment on how many visas the embassy expects to process.
More than 7,000 special visas allocated to Afghans by Congress in 2020 went unissued, compared with about 5,000 the year before, according to State Department data. Nearly 19,000 visa applications were stuck in processing as of September 2019, according to a State Department audit last year, a number that was all but guaranteed to grow with the coronavirus disruptions.
Doesn’t Radical Normalcy feel grand? I, for one, am looking forward to another boring Press Conference where we learn endless details and actually information about all kinds of things that just go along with basic competent governance. No more of any of this:
I’m beginning to feel human and alive again!
How are y’all doing? What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Frantic Friday Reads: Triggered Republican Snowflakes Scream Sweet Nothings to Trump All Day Long
Posted: December 13, 2019 Filed under: 2020 Elections, impeach trump, morning reads | Tags: articles of impeachment 26 Comments
Pablo Picasso, Acrobat and Young Harlequin, 1905
Good Morning Sky Dancers!
I’m going to borrow something from the Late Great John Lennon near the anniversary of his death by a crazed white guy looking for attention. History is replete with crazed white guys looking for attention and today is no different. So here it is!
“I got blisters on me fingers!”
And why you ask? It’s because I had to punch the mute button so many times yesterday during the Judiciary Committee’s Congressional Debate on Articles of Impeachment that I should also have carpal tunnel. Just as Brett Kavanaugh sneered, cried, and screamed his way into the Kremlin Potted Plant’s favor, so did the Angry White Men on the bottom shelf of the dais all day and evening and night long yesterday.
Yes, the transition of the body that represents the people to an out and out circus is complete. The debate yesterday featured a repetitive attack on “process” from the Republicans vs “what the president did is unconstitutional and against the rule of law” by the Democrats. It came complete with clowns and verbal dagger throwing fit for Fox news sound bites. The Republican part was designed for the Audience of One whose real claim to fame is the role of a fake successful businessman on reality TV.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Send in the Clowns!
Yes. Nearly half of Congress has transitioned to the new reality TV world spewing propaganda goals as parroted by Fox News cut out personalities. The gyrations of logic twisted into pretzel sentences was befitting of circus acrobats.
As a I write, Jerry Nadler is announcing that the House Judiciary passed the abuse of power and obstruction of Congress impeachment charges. He looks exhausted. We’re all exhausted. Trumpist Republicans and their cult leader live in the world of Abusers so, yes, we’re ALL exhausted.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec,At the Circus Fernando, the Rider, 1888
Historically and Constitutionally, this act is traditionally somber. Yelling like it’s a sportsball match is inappropriate. Frankly, an entire set of mothers should come get their sons and ground them to their basement bedrooms. Shirtless Gym, Mai tai Matt, and lil Dougie should be first back to the nursery.
Kurt Bardella, NBC News THINK contributor, writes this: ” If there’s one thing we’ve seen consistently from Republicans during the past few weeks of congressional impeachment hearings, it’s yelling.” Yes. This is the new role of Congressional Republican white men in this Reality TV show designed for Fox News Viewers.
Perhaps Democratic Coalition’s Jon Cooper put it best when he tweeted Monday, “Why is Doug Collins always yelling?” CNBC’s Christina Wilkie pointed out a similar phenomenon, noting that Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz was “yelling about whether the rules of the hearing are, in fact, the rules of the hearing.”
Indeed, in observing my former House GOP comrades over the many days of contentious House hearings, I am reminded of a scene from the classic Will Ferrell comedy “Anchorman,” where the famed (and fictional) Channel 4 News team angrily confronts its news director over the hiring of a female reporter. In the scene, several of the male journalists take turns yelling their opposition to the addition. Steve Carell’s character, Brick Tamland, isn’t really smart enough to have a critique but wishing to be included, he screams, “I don’t know what we’re yelling about!”
That pretty much sums up Republicans’ defense of their current leader. If they yell loud enough and long enough, what they say about the circumstances of this impeachment inquiry will become truth. Their calculation is that by yelling about anything and everything, the American people will either be convinced or at the very least so annoyed they’ll stop watching. To the GOP, yelling seems to be both a demonstration of strength and a deliberate effort to wear down Democrats and any other Americans who care enough to tune in.
Thus, the outrage that’s been on display these past few weeks hasn’t been spontaneous. This isn’t an indication of passion or righteous anger. It is the manifestation of a decadelong marketing strategy that has kept them in the driving seat of Congress for the better part of the Obama and the Trump administrations.
Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando, Edgar Degas,, 1879
So, this morning, the “Judiciary Panel Approves Impeachment Articles and Sends Charges for a House Vote”. This was written by Nicholas Fando at the NYT.
A fiercely divided House Judiciary Committee pushed President Trump to the brink of impeachment on Friday, voting along party lines to approve charges that he abused the power of his office and obstructed Congress.
After a fractious two-day debate steeped in the Constitution and shaped by the realities of a hyperpartisan era in American politics, the Democratic-controlled committee recommended that the House ratify two articles of impeachment against the 45th president. In back-to-back morning votes, they adopted each charge against Mr. Trump by a margin of 23 to 17 over howls of Republican protest.
The partisan result and the contentious debate that preceded it were harbingers of a historic proceeding and vote on the House floor, expected next week, to impeach Mr. Trump, whose nearly three-year tenure has exacerbated the nation’s political divisions. Mr. Trump, who insists he did nothing wrong, is now only the fourth American president in history to face impeachment by the House of Representatives for “high crimes and misdemeanors” and possible conviction and removal from office by the Senate.
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Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
Les trois acrobates
Check out those adjectives grammar fans!!
These Articles will go to a full floor vote and then into the hands of Mitch McConnell. From Politico: “Republicans try to avoid an impeachment trial civil war.”
The party is uniting around a strategy that could quickly acquit President Donald Trump of articles of impeachment while giving them the opportunity to call witnesses later in the trial if Republicans and the president are not satisfied with how things are going, according to interviews with nearly a dozen Republican senators on Thursday.
Heading into the trial, Republicans’ plan would be to call no witnesses and simply allow House Democrats and then the president’s attorneys to make their case before the public. After that, the Senate would consider calling people either for live testimony or closed-door depositions.
It’s a plan they believe will insulate the Senate GOP from pressure to call a host of controversial witnesses — which the caucus would struggle to do for political and procedural reasons alike — while putting Trump on track to be cleared before the end of January.
“The direction we appear to be headed is to let the House managers present their prima facie case which would mean no witnesses, to let the president’s counsel do the same thing,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of leadership. “And then to decide if there’s a reason to go forward from there.”
House Republicans and Trump have repeatedly urged the Senate GOP and its slim majority to summon the likes of Hunter and Joe Biden before the chamber in a spectacle they believe would bolster the president’s case. Senate Republicans have resisted the idea, warning they couldn’t cobble together the 51 votes needed to do so under Senate rules. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has also repeatedly cautioned his members against votes that divide the party ahead of a tough election year.
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Charles Demuth (1883-1935) Acrobats
Indeed, Repubicans think the show must go on when it comes to Joe Biden and the hapless Hunter. The Clintons had plenty of years to work up thick skins but how will it impact Joe? One of the key signals to this future came from Screaming Mimi MattGaetz. This is from Vanity Fair’s Bess Levin.
All this week the House Judiciary Committee has been holding its own hearings as part of the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump. As was the case with the the House Intelligence Committee proceedings, Republican lawmakers, lacking any credible defense of the president, have had to resort to floating insane conspiracy theories and taking sad, cheap shots that have immediately blown up in their faces. On Thursday, it was Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida’s turn.
Gaetz, a proud Trump supporter who started the rumor that George Soros was funding migrant caravans and who frequently speaks of the “deep state,” used his time this afternoon to go on a rant about Hunter Biden’s substance abuse problems. Moving to add an amendment to the articles of impeachment mentioning the former vice president’s son, Gaetz read a passage from a New Yorker article detailing an incident in which Hunter was in a crash while driving a rental car; according to the story, the Hertz rental officer on the scene said he found a crack pipe in the car and white powder residue. “I don’t want to make light of anybody’s substance abuse issues,” Gaetz said, convincing no one, “but it’s a little hard to believe that Burisma hired Hunter Biden to resolve their international disputes when he could not resolve his own dispute with Hertz rental car over leaving cocaine and a crack pipe in the car.”
Obviously, it would be slimy under any circumstances to make Hunter Biden’s substance abuse issues part of the conversation. But, incredibly, Gaetz chose to do so despite the fact that he has his own history of…being arrested for driving under the influence. Back in 2008, Gaetz was pulled over driving back from an Okalossa Island nightclub called Swamp after an officer clocked him going 48 in a 35 mile per hour zone. According to the officer, Gaetz, then 26, was driving a BMW SUV registered to his state senator father and fumbled for his license and registration, had bloodshot and watery eyes, and swayed and staggered while getting out of the car. Smelling alcohol, the officer asked Gaetz if he had been drinking, to which Gaetz said no, before admitting minutes later that he had, claiming it was only two beers. The officer reportedly twice conducted an eye test, which Gaetz failed. Gaetz refused field sobriety tests and a breath test and was arrested. Despite the fact that Florida law dictates his license should have been revoked for at least a year for refusing the breath test, Gaetz somehow got to keep his. Ultimately the charges were dismissed, and Gaetz later said that “I made bad decisions that resulted in an arrest, and that is sort of something that we all live with.”
Given his decision to air Biden’s dirty laundry, however, Democrats weren’t just going to let Gaetz shade someone else’s history of allegedly driving under the influence and move on.
Two Acrobats,Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1932-33
This, undoubtedly, will be a taste of our future under the Big Tent.
So, our blog has been around about 10 years now and we’ve been through a lot together. It’s hard to believe that we’d end up watching impeachment hearings together. This is my third time at this rodeo and probably for most of you also and this one just really really feels different.
Nixon was a seriously flawed man with a self esteem problem that caused him to do things he couldn’t do through force of personality or likability. Clinton with his aw shucks who me personality used it to get what he wanted even though it was personal and problematic. Trump is pure, raw, raging ID with more personality disorders than a circus has clowns. Nixon’s chipping away at the rule of law and Clinton’s personal abuses look quite tame by comparison.
Trump has a chorus of screaming, angry white mean and a few tag along women behind his epic meltdowns and complete lack of character and morality. His crimes are orchestrated by feckless enablers and ignored by Machivellian partisans who want to rewrite the Constitution without doing the work through the law making process. No Republican appears to have the probity to bring about an ending that’s best for the country.
As with all things surrounding Trump, I’m not sure any of this will end up well.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Tuesday Art and Reads
Posted: December 10, 2019 Filed under: morning reads, U.S. Politics | Tags: Adam Schiff, art, articles of impeachment, Christopher Steele, Christopher Wray, Cover-Up General Barr, Do Fornier, Donald Trump, Eric Swalwell, FBI, Gerry Nadler, IG Michael Horowitz, IG report, Ivanka Trump, John Durham, Nancy Pelosi 39 Comments
Good Morning!!
The paintings in today’s post are by Do Fournier, a contemporary French painter. Here’s a little information about her:
Do Fournier (French, b.1951) is a Contemporary painter, originally from Guerande, Brittany, France. She began her career as a successful illustrator, and, in 1984, changed her focus to the creation of her own paintings. Her works were well received, and numerous prestigious exhibitions of her artworks have been mounted in France. In addition, she has frequently been invited to exhibit at the Salon d’Automne in Paris.
Fournier creates fantastic, colorful, and intimate works inspired by her home in France, which overlooks the sea. Her family and pets, as well as her collection of objects d’art, rugs, and textiles, are her primary subjects.
As the noted French critic Gerard Xuriguera has observed: “Her approach in an uneasy society is not to describe it’s pain but the potential it still has for joy, it’s fragile moments of charm and peacefulness stolen from a routine existence. To do this she expresses reality in its most intimate, sensual, peaceful and carnal form. Not as imitation but as a vision filtered through her observations and cast in the exuberance of her blazing colours. What she is trying to capture is fleeting emotion, to immobilize it and express it as simply as possible.
Breaking News
Right now I’m watching a press conference by House Leader Nancy Pelosi and the chairs of the five House committees involved in the impeachment investigation.
In yesterday’s impeachment hearing, Rep Eric Swalwell spelled out the case against Trump in no uncertain terms.
https://twitter.com/QasimRashid/status/1204164336681463808
Today’s Reads
The New York Times: Another Inquiry Doesn’t Back Up Trump’s Charges. So, on to the Next.
President Trump and his allies spent months promising that a report on the origins of the F.B.I.’s Russia investigation would be a kind of Rosetta Stone for Trump-era conspiracy enthusiasts — the key to unlocking the secrets of a government plot to keep Mr. Trump from being elected in 2016.
On that point, the report by the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, did not deliver, even as it found serious problems with how F.B.I. officials justified the surveillance of a Trump campaign aide to a federal court.
But by the time it was released, the president, his attorney general, his supporters in Congress and the conservative news media had already declared victory and decamped for the next battle in the wider war to convince Americans of the enemies at home and abroad arrayed against the Trump presidency.
They followed a script they have used for nearly three years: Engage in a choreographed campaign of presidential tweets, Fox News appearances and fiery congressional testimony to create expectations about finding proof of a “deep state” campaign against Mr. Trump. And then, when the proof does not emerge, skew the results and prepare for the next opportunity to execute the playbook.
That opportunity has arrived in the form of an investigation by aRea Connecticut prosecutor ordered this year by Attorney General William P. Barr — and the president and his allies are now predicting it will be the one to deliver damning evidence that the F.B.I., C.I.A. and even close American allies conspired against Mr. Trump in the 2016 election.
Read the rest at the NYT.
One startling revelation from the IG report was that Ivanka Trump has been friends with Christopher Steele for years.
ABC News: ‘Dossier’ author Chris Steele met Ivanka Trump years before Russia scandal, source says.
Nearly a decade before the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka met a British intelligence officer who ran the Russia desk — and when the agent left his covert service and moved into private practice in 2010, she stayed in touch, ABC News has learned.
Artist Do Fournier
The two exchanged emails but never worked together, and the man, Christopher Steele, would one day re-emerge in a most unexpected way, taking a central role in the Russia scandal that consumed the early years of her father’s presidency, according to a source familiar with their past contacts.
The prior relationship came to light as investigators with the Department of Justice Inspector General’s office was looking into allegations of political bias at the origins of the Russia investigation since May 2018….
In 2007, Ivanka Trump met Steele at a dinner and they began corresponding about the possibility of future work together, the source said. The following year, the two exchanged emails about meeting up near Trump Tower, according to several emails seen by ABC News. And the two did meet at Trump Tower according to the source. The inspector general’s report mentions a meeting with a “Trump family member” there. They suggest Ivanka Trump and Steele stayed in touch via emails over the next several years. In one 2008 exchange they discussed dining together in New York at a restaurant just blocks from Trump Tower.
Ivanka Trump worked as an executive vice president at the Trump Organization, managing a range of foreign real estate projects, including in parts of the world where Steele’s firm, Orbis Business Intelligence touted expertise. She and Steele discussed services Orbis could offer to the Trump Organization regarding its planned expansion into foreign markets, according to two sources familiar with the meetings.
Read more at ABC News.
Also from ABC News: FBI Director Chris Wray reacts to DOJ watchdog report on Russia investigation: Exclusive.
FBI Director Christopher Wray offered mixed reactions to a Justice Department watchdog report that uncovered “serious performance failures” on the part of agents involved in the Russia investigation but ultimately determined the bureau was justified in launching its probe.
Artist Do Fournier
In an exclusive broadcast interview with ABC News, Wray lamented “actions described in this report that [he] considered unacceptable and unrepresentative of who we are as an institution.” But, he said it was “important that the inspector general found that, in this particular instance, the investigation was opened with appropriate predication and authorization.” [….]
But the president and his allies have called it “a major SPY scandal” and accused those involved of working on behalf of the “Deep State.”
Wray did not respond directly to the president, but pushed back on the “Deep State” characterization of the bureau’s work.
“I think that’s the kind of label that’s a disservice to the men and women who work at the FBI who I think tackle their jobs with professionalism, with rigor, with objectivity, with courage,” Wray said. “So that’s not a term I would ever use to describe our work force and I think it’s an affront to them.”
Naturally, Trump is enraged at Wray’s remarks. Will he fire another FBI Director?
The Washington Post: Trump lashes out at FBI director in wake of Justice Department inspector general’s report.
President Trump lashed out Tuesday morning at FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, suggesting that “he will never be able to fix the FBI” based on his reaction to a Justice Department inspector general’s report examining the bureau’s investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“I don’t know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn’t the one given to me,” Trump tweeted. “With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!”
Artist Do Fournier
The 434-page report rebutted conservatives’ accusations that top FBI officials were driven by political bias to illegally spy on Trump advisers as part of the probe into Russian election interference, but it also found broad and “serious performance failures” requiring major changes.
In a statement Monday, Wray, a Trump appointee, said he had ordered more than 40 corrective steps to address the report’s recommendations,” adding that he would not hesitate to take “appropriate disciplinary action if warranted.”
Cover-up General Bill Barr is also attacking the report by his own independent Inspector General.
Talking Points Memo: How The DOJ Watchdog Forced Barr To Scramble To Undermine Trump-Russia Probe.
Attorney General Bill Barr scrambled on Monday to keep a main anti-DOJ conspiracy theory going, after Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a 476-page report finding that the FBI was justified in opening its Trump-Russia investigation.
Horowitz found that there was unanimous support within the Justice Department and FBI in July 2016 for opening an investigation into potential contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and found no evidence that anti-Trump bias played a role in the investigation’s start.
Horowitz opened his probe amid allegations from right-wing talking heads and politicos that partisan bias had propelled FBI officials into investigating the Trump campaign….
The result of the whirlpool of allegations arrived in the form of the Horowitz report, which substantively rebutted the accusations and affirmatively found that FBI officials were justified in opening an investigation into Russia and the Trump campaign.
Artist Do Fournier
So, upon the report’s release, both Barr and Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham issued statements disagreeing with Horowitz’s finding.
“Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened,” Durham said in his statement, adding that he was relying on evidence beyond the “component parts of the Justice Department.”
More details at the TPM link.
Vanity Fair: “It Is Not What The Department of Justice Does”: Barr and Durham Go Rogue On The Inspector General’s Report.
…what was truly surprising to some veterans of the Robert F. Kennedy building and the DC bar was the reaction from Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham, who Barr tapped to run a parallel investigation of Crossfire Hurricane and related investigations. Both issued statements throwing significant shade at Horowitz’s report, though, technically, Barr is Horowitz’s boss. “I’ve never seen such an internal DOJ effort to challenge and undermine the IG’s findings,” Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney, told me Monday. “It is not what the Department of Justice does.” [….]
“The Inspector General’s report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken,” Barr wrote in a statement. “It is also clear that, from its inception, the evidence produced by the investigation was consistently exculpatory. Nevertheless, the investigation and surveillance was pushed forward for the duration of the campaign and deep into President Trump’s administration.”
Barr’s decision to publicly distance himself from Horowitz’s findings was met with some astonishment. “No law enforcement purpose is served by the Attorney General announcing that he disagrees with the inspector general’s conclusion that the FBI had an adequate predicate for its investigation of Russia’s contacts with the Trump campaign,” William Jeffress, a white-collar defense attorney who worked on the Valerie Plame leak case, told me. Barr’s missive was reminiscent of the now infamous four-page summary of Robert Mueller’s report, respinning the results of an exhaustive investigation in ways favorable to the president. “The statement by Barr will only deepen the sense that he is a Trump partisan who lacks the independence to lead the Department of Justice,” Jeffress added.
What else is happening? What stories have you been following?
Who’s Afraid of Grover Norquist?
Posted: January 28, 2012 Filed under: Republican politics | Tags: articles of impeachment, Bush tax cuts, Grover Norquist 21 CommentsI’ve often found myself wondering why so many elected officials of the Republican persuasion live in perpetual fear of their base. However, most of them are crazy and will primary a relatively calm Republican candidate to 
replace them with a bat shit crazy one. No where is the crazy more apparent than with Grover Norquist whose reign of Terror and Greed has basically held Republican Congress Critterz hostage to really bad economic policy. Grover Norquist is a lobbyist for Trust Fund Babies although no one really knows where his money actually comes from. He makes elder Republican Senators wet themselves. He simply opposes any and all forms of paying for government. He’s been involved with the Abramoff scandal and yet avoids prosecution because he doesn’t have to report the sources of his funds.. Abramoff named him as one of his first and primary contacts with in the Republican part, yet Norquist continues his quest to ensure his inherited wealth and others cannot be used for any purpose other than gratuitous self-interest funding.
He’s got a new crazy idea. He wants to impeach Obama if there’s not an extension of the Bush Tax Cuts. The right to impeach an official is spelled out in our Constitution. The grounds for impeachment are ” conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” So under which one of these things does not giving the uberrich their supposedly short term tax cuts fall? The link comes from the National Journal (NJ).
NJ At the end of 2012, a number of major tax provisions, including the Bush-era cuts, are set to expire. Do you have any predictions?
NORQUIST We’re focused on the fact that there is this Damocles sword hanging over people’s head. What you don’t know is who will be in charge when all of this will happen. I think when we get through this election cycle, we’ll have a Republican majority, [though] not necessarily a strong majority in the Senate, and a majority in the House. The majority in the House will continue to be a Reagan majority, a conservative majority. Boehner never has to talk his delegation going further to the right.
If the Republicans have the House, Senate, and the presidency, I’m told that they could do an early budget vote—a reconciliation vote where you extend the Bush tax cuts out for a decade or five years. You take all of those issues off the table, and then say, “What do you want to do for tax reform?”
Then, the question is: “OK, what do we do about repatriation and all of the interesting stuff?” And, if you have a Republican president to go with a Republican House and Senate, then they pass the [Paul] Ryan plan [on Medicare].
NJ What if the Democrats still have control? What’s your scenario then?
NORQUIST Obama can sit there and let all the tax [cuts] lapse, and then the Republicans will have enough votes in the Senate in 2014 to impeach. The last year, he’s gone into this huddle where he does everything by executive order. He’s made no effort to work with Congress.
NJ The Republicans seem more divided over tax policy than in the past. The House Republicans didn’t want to pass the payroll-tax holiday bill, even though that was a tax cut. Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania proposed revenue increases as a super-committee member. Do you think the party is in disarray over its take on taxes?
NORQUIST Those are different things. Toomey is deciding on which unicorn he’d like if unicorns existed, and you’re asking me if I’m unhappy about his choice of a pet? There aren’t any unicorns. The Democrats are not going to make permanent what they said was their nonnegotiable plan for a 25 percent corporate and individual tax rate. The Democratic Party cannot physiologically do that.
NJ So you don’t get mad when Republicans propose tax increases if you feel they won’t come to fruition?
NORQUIST There’s no point in spending any time getting too worked up on imaginary conversations about imaginary things. The disarray you had was the House and the Senate being on different rhythms, and the House not understanding that anyone would lie so completely about what they’d just done.
There are crack pots and then there is Grover Norquist. The man’s a menace to society.
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