Trump found not guilty

[Fionalein]

Btw. I doubt this will help in establishing the US as seat of justice in new international trade deals

 

[Sean Gorham]

The Dems had two crappy choices: impeach, knowing it wouldn't get a conviction; do nothing, and be complicit in the Republican Party's push to tear the country apart. The Dems made the less crappy choice. Don't blame them for doing what they had to do.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

I don't believe it actually even matters what the Dems try to do, or not do. This flaming narcissist would still be behaving in the manner that he always behaves, as a man of 70+ years who has never, ever felt a single consequence. He would still do exactly as he pleases. He would still crow that he's the greatest president ever, he would still commit violations of human rights, he would still rob as much money as he possibly can from the people, he would still think himself a mob boss when dealing with foreign nations, rather than a president and violate the constitution.

He surrounds himself with men of bad character who will do his bidding. If they don't or voluntarily leave, he replaces them with even seedier sorts. That is how he operates. The only way to rid ourselves of these bad actors is to remove him, which of course, is job one, but also the real problem is those, such as the Senate, who are supposed to be keeping a check upon him, who enable it. They have to go. Each and every one of them who voted no, must go.

 

[Eunoli]

The Dems had two crappy choices: impeach, knowing it wouldn't get a conviction; do nothing, and be complicit in the Republican Party's push to tear the country apart. The Dems made the less crappy choice. Don't blame them for doing what they had to do.

I think the Dem base would have gone berserk if they didn't impeach. However, I think that knowing it would end this way and that it ending this way would make it almost impossible to win in November should have led them to instead of impeaching - having a bunch of hearings and getting actually loud in their messaging about all the wrong doing.

One huge mistake they never made (I know this will sound petty, but I think it was giant), was that they never came up with a catchy phrase to pin on Trump with this. Even Ukrainegate would've been better than nothing. People never knew what had supposedly happened with Benghazi or "her emails", but they knew those two terms and they knew they were bad. The Dems need to get their messaging act together and be able to dumb it down so that even those on the right who don't follow the news will start getting a sense of 'bad things' instead of 'complicated plots to overturn the election'. Its very doable, but they have to start looking at things in a way that will start to interest greater swaths of people than their own base.

 

[Lady Darnk Juniorette]

Confirming that the Brits aren't the only ones who are fucked...

America and the UK = Beavis and Butt-head.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

America and the UK = Beavis and Butt-head.

One significant difference, though -- over here, as our Supreme Court made very clear in September and October, Boris Johnson is not above the law.

 

[Ariane]

"Hard Brexit" is likely going to trigger a global recession. Right now it's scheduled for January 2021. Any chance BoJo will move it up to help out the Democrats?

 

[Kara Spengler]

Now it's not the Democrats fault that the Senate is malfunctioning, is it?

What the country gained? The assurance that some parts of checks and balances still can be invoked, if necessary. And some day when you are awaking out of your peaceful slumber you might come to this conclusion, too.

As a few people have noted the senate is broken.

 

[Kara Spengler]

This charade is now over. The orange one is found not guilty. Was all of this worth it? Everyone knew this would be the conclusion. What did it gain the democrats or the country?

I could see the use of this whole process if it weren't about a somewhat limited issue in the Ukraine and rather put him in the limelight for all of his many crimes.

Now it all comes across as a big joke on the democrats for this scene.

Conviction requires two thirds of the votes.

4:21 pm. 48 voted guilty of abuse of power, 52 not.

4:34 pm 47 voted guilty of obstruction of justice, 53 not.

Top story tonight: Most Rs think donnie is innocent.

Coming up: New investigation shows water is wet.

 

[Kara Spengler]

Johnson did the right thing with civil rights, even though he knew they'd lose the South for generations.

Sometimes, you just have to do the right thing, and be counted.

Even as an atheist I had to admire Romney for what he did. True, that is easy to say because it agrees with my POV, but it takes a lot o be the first person in any presidential impeachment hearing to find your party's president guilty (and thus became a pariah amongst your peers) because you actually took your oath seriously and evaluated the evidence. As a coworker put it, he slept well last night.

 

[Kara Spengler]

And by this I mean we’re in a coup and on the path to civil war.

I would be all for the US just admitting it was trying to be several different major cultures in the same geographic location and lettin

"Hard Brexit" is likely going to trigger a global recession. Right now it's scheduled for January 2021. Any chance BoJo will move it up to help out the Democrats?

January 1 2021 is not the date to look at. If you want to know before that the latest date he can request an extension is 30 June. If nothing is requested before then and the UK is not already on basically a wartime footing to prepare then the rest of the year is just counting down the clock.

Side comment: I hate BOTH the US and UK date formats. I prefer mostly ISO: yyyymmdd (all numbers, non-optional zeros, slashes and dashes negotiable but I prefer just the number). It also sorts easier.

 

[Lady Darnk Juniorette]

One significant difference, though -- over here, as our Supreme Court made very clear in September and October, Boris Johnson is not above the law.

Yes, Butt-head is smarter than Beavis but that's still not saying much.

 

[Free]

Opinion | In Private, Republicans Admit They Acquitted Trump Out of Fear (Published 2020)

One journalist remarked to me, “How in the world can these senators walk around here upright when they have no backbone?”

www.nytimes.com

I call jury intimidation and tampering.

 

[Brenda Archer]

This article from October gives a sense of where Romney is coming from culturally:

Opinion: Will Mitt Romney fulfill a Mormon 'prophecy' and save the Constitution?

It’s pretty certain Romney consulted with Church leadership before making his decision. That’s not to detract in any way from his courage, but I’m hoping this means that the LDS Church, which is now far more ethnically and racially diverse in its membership than the White Nationalist Evangelicals, is trying to distance itself from their extremism. I interpreted their public reining in of Bundy the same way.

It’s too soon to suggest this could indicate a power struggle or a fracture in the Republicans, but we can hope. The LDS have influence over enough Senate seats in the West that they can at least give the Republican leadership a sharp prod.

 

[Essence Lumin]

Side comment: I hate BOTH the US and UK date formats. I prefer mostly ISO: yyyymmdd (all numbers, non-optional zeros, slashes and dashes negotiable but I prefer just the number). It also sorts easier.

Yup. 2020-02-06 or 20200206 depending if a human will need to look at it.

 

[Ariane]

 

[Ishina]

The right thing would have been putting him on trial for all of his crimes, not just his ones in the Ukraine.

The Republicans announced they would find Trump not guilty before the trial even started, while laughing in your face. The right thing to do would be to drag them out of their beds and throw them in prison to rot.

 

[Fionalein]

Yup. 2020-02-06 or 20200206 depending if a human will need to look at it.

It is helpful for chronological ordering ... day month year is much more convenient in all to day use as it orders the important info into first place.


On the matter I to some kind blame Hollywood and comic books. Fiction has idolized the dirty hero who breaks the rules to do the "greater good". If you know you do "the right thing", who cares if some rules are broken ... Those are the dangers of utilitarian ethics.

 

[Fionalein]

The Republicans announced they would find Trump not guilty before the trial even started, while laughing in your face. The right thing to do would be to drag them out of their beds and throw them in prison to rot.

If retribution comes I doubt it will be as civilised... remember how his personal hero Mussolini ended.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

I would be all for the US just admitting it was trying to be several different major cultures in the same geographic location and lettin

January 1 2021 is not the date to look at. If you want to know before that the latest date he can request an extension is 30 June. If nothing is requested before then and the UK is not already on basically a wartime footing to prepare then the rest of the year is just counting down the clock.

Actually recently a law has passed the HoC which forbids the ruling government to request an extension. Then again this is just for show, because the government which brings in such a law quite obviously can take it back also quite easily if they wanted to.

The thing is that for the EU/UK trade deal in order to be approved it needs to be finished in October in order that all of the EU's governments can pass in time. This means roughly 8 months from now on. The UK has no experienced negotiators for such stuff because they are big believers in outsourcing and outsourced it to the EU, but the EU has. Basically it is going to be either the UK having to abide by the EU's demands, or get lost.