Putin should never be underestimated. He is an incredibly skillful player and he clearly has very strong influences deep in the American Republican party. Someone pointed out that he's using very similar language now as he did to describe the annexation of Crimea--"some very patriotic people" must have done it.

I talked to someone who reads Russian newspapers yesterday and they're very focused on Moldova now. That's just on the other side of The Ukraine. I guess they're next.

I must say, I do think people are underestimating the likelihood of Republicans voting to impeach in the Senate if/when it gets to that point. Take Ted Cruz, for example. He's not some stalwart Trump supporter; he's no true believer in Trump. By phone banking, he was doing what was politically expedient for him and his future ambitions.

There comes a point in time where the politically expedient thing for the Republicans in the Senate is to impeach and say, "I'm a Republican with an independent streak, I'm not afraid to buck leadership if it's the right thing to do because I love my country more than my party."

It'll be a complete load of crap, but their voters will forget about the 3+ years they kissed the ring. Let's also not forget that independent-streak Republicans are almost always popular. That's what Trump was posing as in the primary, that's what McCain tried to represent himself as.

Finally, I believe there comes a point where the political calculus on holding Congress for the GOP starts to point toward impeachment and running on independence and country over party as the best route as opposed to letting this investigation dominate the news cycle and the debates through 2018 and 2020.

So if you ask me, if it gets to the point of an impeachment trial in the Senate, those with future presidential ambitions like Cruz and Rubio are more likely to vote to impeach than not to - as long as they all add up to 67 (obviously it'd be catastrophic for them to vote against him and have it lose). He'd either be convicted in the Senate by a wide margin, like 75-25 or worse, or it'll be nearly a party line vote.

There are something like 11 that I think would start to form the Republican coalition against Trump in the Senate, and another 9 to 11 (Ossoff winning is really critical for this number when you get into PVI and project that to various states) that are in states that aren't a lock to stay red in the midst of all of this chaos that might be easier to convince.

We also don't know for sure yet, but it's likely that the Democrats will make impeachment part of their Congressional campaign and flip some previously solidly red districts, which will scare a lot of Republicans.

So, the tldr is that the reason Republicans in Congress are supporting Trump is to save their own skin... They'll turn on him to do the same.

Mattis: North Korea is a "clear and present danger" and the situation can't continue.

Secretary of Defense Mattis got new intel indicating we need to act against NK just now? So if we launch Nuclear War 1 right before Comey testifies, all is cool right?

republicans have chosen the "gaslight everyone" strategy. i don't know why they would accept reality when it is most harmful to their party. if video and audio evidence is presented to republicans showing trump actively committing high crimes, they will not impeach

LOL, Ben Sasse wanted to avoid any possibility of becoming the next Billy Bush so immediately apologized and made a "i should've said..." statement:

If voting were anonymous, Trump might be impeached already. Not because he's a criminal or a conman or compromised or costing us the whole world or even an incompetent ****ing buffoon, but because he can't pass their equally criminal GOP agenda quick enough, if at all.

Yeah you're right, that was a bad call by me.

I'm strongly awaiting Ben Sasse's condemnation of Voter ID laws used to successfully suppress minority votes in states all around the country. See it's easy to come out against the n-word, but much harder to admit that your own party is literally stealing elections from black Americans.

The history and current status of Transnistria is pretty interesting. I assume Russian interests have less to do with Moldova itself and more with being able to squeeze Ukraine from both sides.

Don't say anything bad about the Russian army in Transnistria.

Hmmm...are the jail conditions any good there?

rofl so now they're saying that trump does believe in climate change and that pollution affects it

the ****ing moron called it a hoax for the past year

Also too easy that Mahr just gave everyone on the right a Get Out of Racism Free card. Now they can say "See how racist the left is?" pointing to one case of someone using a word that they use all day and night off camera. False equivalency has become the lifeblood of this Trump administration. Knowledge is power is morphing into power is knowledge.

"Ignorance is strength" is definitely one of the Trumpkin mottos.

"Work sets you free" is something of a Paul Ryanish motto.

I'm halfway through a very interesting book called Everyone Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are.

So far the takeaway is we can stop pretending Trump was elected for anything other than pure racism.

Does the US allow politicians to walk across the floor like they can in Canada?
eg. An elected Republican says I'm going to be a Democrat now. Alternatively, can they become Independent? Do they have to undergo a special election if they choose to attempt that?

Parties in the US are separate (in theory) from the government. We don't elect a party the way they do in a lot of places. People can and sometimes do switch with no election.

Trump was warned about Flynn by the President of the United States, who was later blamed for granting Flynn clearance.

lol these people would be so hilarious if they weren't literally in charge of our country

https://twitter.com/CassandraRules/s...90264122101760

And Obama also fired Flynn.

I read this in passing so may be wrong but there was a Hawaiian senator or congresswomen who filed paperwork to switch sides a while ago.

You can change party registration, but it's separate from holding office. Arlen Specter is one of the more notable cases of switching parties recently (R to D). It was related to electoral politics as he was going to get primaried, but it didn't bring about an election or anything like that. He just decided to switch and did.

https://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/...ocrat-in-2010/

In addition to being as dumb as the eating books infowars dude and Cernovich, Fairbanks has a Guy Faux mask tattoo on her hand because she felt that much of a connection to 4chan. Just the best people.