Plan B Forum

I've cleared my schedule for the next several hours to watch the hearing...

It was just announced on CNN that he will in fact testify about Russia...

Looks like this won't just be on cable news...

Apparently most of the broadcast networks, (except FOX) will be carrying it:

Michel Cohen will rearrange TV and radio schedules Wednesday (today). Broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC will take the testimony of Cohen, President Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer, to the House Oversight and Reform Committee. ...

It will be interesting to see what Il Boobce will try to pull in Hanoi to disrupt the coverage...

The more he figures he's being damaged, the more likely he is to make dramatic unilateral concessions to Kim...

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on..."

Leonard was not a citizen of the USA. Dead, he has more of the American spirit than the live Michael.

Loved Michael's response just before the break: Every day we came to work knowing our job was to lie to protect Donald J. Trump.

snailgate.

Just my luck that after months of being near the TV most of the time, today I had to be out early and I can’t get home until 3pm. Hopefully all the best bits will get rerun exhaustively on cable news.

Panem et circenses.

Let's see what comes out of all this.  So far, I can't help but think this is all just political theater to placate the masses.

-"BB"-

The pearl clutching of the Republican members makes me think they are about to collectively faint from the vapours.

I'm finding that the things he is willing to admit to flat out without trying to justify or rationalize (Q. Was the book deal worth $500,000? A. Actually more like $750,000) and the alleged misdeeds by Trump that he denies (eg. abusing Melania) makes his testimony seem all the more credible.

I hate it when the questioner gives a speech before asking questions. I don't care what your opinion is. I want to hear your questions and Cohen's answers.

What I've been finding absolutely hilarious is the way the Republicans keep talking like they're defending a normal President, who should be afforded a normal level of respect, deference and benefit of the doubt...

Rather than the most prolific proven liar and morally bankrupt bounder in American political history...

They must have dropped in from some other time-line in the multiverse...

And how most of them spent almost all of their remarks decrying what a waste of their time this is, and how they would much rather be elsewhere working on something else. The response to which I give the award for the best line of the day, from the delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands (I forget her name) - "the Democratic majority is able to walk and chew gum at the same time".

My nominee for Biggest Idiot In The Hearing, (and it's a stiff competition) has to go to Congressman Clay Higgins, (R-LA)...

He was ceded some time at the end of someone else's questioning, which he used to ask Cohen about a report that he had been going through some boxes of papers to prepare for the hearing. He wanted to know why those boxes hadn't been turned over to law enforcement...

Cohen explained very clearly that those were boxes that had been taken in the raid on his office and had since been returned to him...

But Congressman Numbnuts must have had his hearing aid off, because he barreled on ahead repeating the question as though he had not heard a word Cohen had said...

At that point the time expired, and Cohen was asked if he would like to answer the question. A bewildered Cohen said, "I don't understand the question"...(which is understandable, since he had already clearly answered the question.)

That would have been stupid enough, but it didn't end there...

Sometime later when Higgins' had some more time, he again started asking Cohen about the damn boxes...(apparently nobody on his staff in the intervening time had said to him, "Dude, he already answered your question")

Cohen started to repeat his answer, "Congressman, those boxes were in my office in New York when it was raided"...

The moron then cuts Cohen off and goes on some bizarre tangent addressing the chairman saying he wants the special Counsel's office notified that Cohen has withheld evidence...

The GOP congress critters on this tv photo op all stuck to the game plan: Why should anybody believe anything from this convicted felon, fraud, liar, con-man, crook. . . ?

Perhaps because this IS the person Donald J. Trump chose to be his personal lawyer for ten years. What does that tell you about POTUS?

snailgate.

Trump has adopted the classic mob boss defense...

"You can't believe my friends; they're all crooks"....

Ooh, Clay Higgins -- what a hunk...



... of shit.

https://newrepublic.com/article/143745/ ... umpism-gop

I'm finding that the things he is willing to admit to flat out without trying to justify or rationalize (Q. Was the book deal worth $500,000? A. Actually more like $750,000) and the alleged misdeeds by Trump that he denies (eg. abusing Melania) makes his testimony seem all the more credible.

There are other examples like that...

Like when he refused to say that Trump directly told him to lie to Congress, or that he had first hand knowledge that Trump was aware of the Trump Tower Russia meeting...

Those are two things he could easily have claimed that would have made Trump look even worse, but he declined to do so...

One of my hopes about what may come from this (and it may very well be a false hope) ...

Is that seeing someone who was so deeply enmeshed in the cult of Trump coming back to reality might help at least a few Trumpanzees to get woke...

I got home in time to see the last session. There wasn't much questioning left at that point, but there was a moment of tension between the newly elected congresswoman (of 'motherfucker!' fame) and the old white southern guy who is apparently John Lewis's good friend and has grandchildren of color and I was really, really impressed with how John Lewis handled and defused that situation. Then I was even more impressed by his closing words.

I felt sorry for Michael Cohen when he almost cried over Congressman Lewis's mentioning his kids and impending prison sentence. I decided a long while ago that I believed Michael Cohen was credible in his 'coming to Jesus' and cooperating with the government and wanting to tell the truth to the American people, and that opinion was confirmed by what I've seen so far of his questioning by Congress and his closing statement. I like to think I'm a better bullshit detector than most after my time as a defense attorney and prosecutor - not saying I can't be hoodwinked, but my gut feels strongly that Michael Cohen is truly contrite and on the road to reformation.

I'm glad to hear that I didn't miss any Republicans passionately defending Trump. Impugning Cohen's reputation is to be expected considering the context - but I think as in most things, most Americans will see the truth in Cohen's testimony given how it falls in line with so much documentary and other corroborative evidence.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, without speechifying and with quick, precise questions, lays the predicates for future witnesses to subpoena and for getting access to Trump's tax returns:

Scooter wrote:.......The response to which I give the award for the best line of the day, from the delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands (I forget her name) - "the Democratic majority is able to walk and chew gum at the same time".

I saw that! It was a classic that I hope will be replayed several times for the next few days.....or years.

I was even more impressed by his closing words.

I also thought that was excellent...(BTW, it's Elijah Cummings, not John Lewis) His opening statement where he declared that the days of the House Oversight Committee being used to provide cover rather than oversight for the Administration are over was also spot on...

Elsewhere in this forum I have had a fair bit of criticism for many of the Democratic Presidential candidates and some of their policy positions, but I have to say I have seen nothing whatsoever to make me regret my decision to support a Democratic takeover of the House...

A few of the junior Demo members have gotten out over their skis on occasion, but in terms of the leadership and strategic choices made by those calling the shots on the three principle committees most responsible for holding Trump and his Administration to account for their misdeeds (which was my whole reason for supporting the Dems taking back the House in the first place) The Oversight Committee, The Intelligence Committee, and the Judiciary Committee....

I think the chairmen of those committees...Elijah Cummings, Adam Schiff, and Jerry Nadler respectively...

Have thus far at least been pretty much pitch perfect in terms of their approach and level of professionalism. They're not dilly dallying, and they're not allowing the opposition to derail the investigations, but they're not rushing ahead with an irresponsible attitude of triumphalism either...

They are proceeding steadily forward in a thoughtful, methodical, and careful way...

That's exactly the balance I had hoped for, and the approach that will ultimately have the best chance of building evidence-based public support for Trump's Impeachment and Removal, should we (hopefully) get to that point...

On the other hand, the Republican members on these committees have made quite clear by their statements where we would be if the GOP had retained control...

Yet more diversionary rabbit hole "hearings" chasing Rod Rosenstein, the Steel Dossier, Uranium One and other assorted squirrels...

Faux hearings designed to assist Trump in obstructing justice and protect him from genuine investigations; nothing remotely resembling an honest search for the truth...

Shameful and disgraceful; since the new Congress convened they appear to have redoubled their efforts to show why they richly deserved to lose control of the House, and to demonstrate their complete unfitness to be entrusted with oversight of the Executive branch...

As a life long Republican it pains me deeply to have to say that, but facts are facts...

The good news is that now that they are in the minority all they can do is carp and whine ineffectually; they no longer set or control the agenda...