[James Brancheau]

That is a nice memory, Jim. Catch the name of that mustard? I'm also pretty fond of wasabi. With sashimi, of course, but it's also good with steak, imo. (Mixed into some soy sauce.) But I've loved spicy dishes for as long as I can remember (maybe it clears up my sinuses, ha-- I've also suffered from allergies for as long as I can remember).

[Julie Steiner]

Ah, Eratosphere's General Talk Board. Come for the talk of impeaching the most inept and corrupt president in US history, stay for the sinus-clearing condiments from around the world.

[James Brancheau]

I had more than my say about that. But you gotta eat at some point.

Ok, ok, since I derailed the thread, I'll make an attempt to get this back into the ballpark of being on topic. Plus I had some Tabasco with my breakfast (great with eggs) and my head is clear. I heard a report yesterday that the only presidential candidate who's leading Trump in the so-called battleground states is Biden. And just barely. The best argument against Trump should be, in any rational society, Trump himself. He's so ostensibly awful, and now we're getting increasingly clear, irrefutable evidence of how awful he is behind the scenes, how dangerous he is to our country's institutions (and this is just Ukraine). I never had any doubt about what a dirtbag he is (and in so many areas- it's really kind of remarkable that a person can be that polymorphously terrible). And yet... he's beating Warren, for example, in every state in the part of the country I'm from. The culture is sick and I can only hope that the public hearings will be medicine for that. I'm not holding my breath. But will be the first to celebrate when he gets kicked out or voted out of office. Then I get my condiments thread.

[Kevin Rainbow]

I think it really is a witch-hunt and Trump is going to keep winning because of it. They went on and on about Russian collusion and found nothing of substance, now they are going on and on about this and are finding nothing of substance. Trump is rightly playing it all to his advantage. The only hope for someone better to be elected in 2020 would be someone better coming along, but that isn't happening. A bunch of losers twisting things and coming up with hoaxes and witchhunts, and the mainstream media going along with it, giving Trump more of a reason to point at "fake news", is only going to result in them continuing to be losers and pointed out as fake news for treating it as "true" and "factual" because it fits into their anti-trump bias.

Trump clearly is doing very well with the economy, is getting out of wars, cutting taxes, bringing jobs back to the country, making the borders safer and more secure - he has a superb track record so far. People don't care about his character flaws if his actions for the country are in the right direction.

[Simon Hunt]

Hi Kevin--I think you're so wrong about so many things that it's hard to know where to begin. But it's interesting that there's a blind-men-and-the-elephant quality to our current political moment (perhaps there always is): you, an apparent Trump supporter (a Canadian one?), seem to buy his line hook, line, and sinker. I, like many of the folks in this thread, find your claims self-evidently ridiculous. So how to talk to each other?

1. witch-hunt--I think this idiom is predicated on there being no witches to hunt. Not true here. A lot of Trump's henchmen are in prison already, having pled guilty or otherwise admitted their wrongdoing. More will end up there, I suspect. Witches all over the place.

2. nothing of substance--Alas, no. Lots and lots of obstruction of justice.

3. Someone better--I'd take any of them. I'll vote for Joe Biden and a yellow dog if that's how the nomination process goes, without even holding my nose. I don't know that I've ever met anyone who isn't "someone better."

4. fake news--Some news sources may be biased against Trump. Some certainly are biased for him. Anybody who trusts a single source is a fool. I fear the president is such a fool.

5. clearly doing very well--I was told once in a Rhetoric class that people tend to use "clearly" exactly where their argument is weakest. Yes, these are the claims Trump makes but are any of them true? The withdrawal from Syria is a total disaster. My taxes aren't lower, although rich people's may be. The much-ballyhooed wall hasn't been built, and, anyway, Mexican and other immigrants are perfectly aware of the ladder, shovel, and saw technologies that will make that wall an expensive failure if it ever is built. The economic recovery clearly (ha) began under Obama, although the dog gets all the credit... Superb track record? Not from here. Does it really look that way where you are?

Well, that's a start... Maybe you were just taking the piss...

[James Brancheau]

Numeralizing isn't going to help him focus, Simon.

[James Brancheau]

Every time a scandal, or made up scandal, hits Democrats, nothing else matters. (Kind of like the national debt.) Suddenly, when the biggest bag of shit is lit on fire on our porches, "real" issues become front and center. No one's interested in this politcal stuff.

[Max Goodman]

In another thread, in which al-Baghdadi's death had been brought up

Originally Posted by someone

Many here felt that the death of bin Laden was good news, too:
https://www.ablemuse.com/erato/showthread.php?t=14078
I have nothing to add to that thread, other than a reminder that bin Laden's removal created a power vacuum that led to the formation of ISIS.

Originally Posted by someone else

that resembles the argument many people make that we shouldn't impeach and remove Trump because Pence may be worse. To which I say, let's deal with one problem at a time.

A better analogy is our removal of Saddam Hussein. To violently remove a leader without planning for the result is foolish.

The impeachment analogy holds only if we assume the main reason for impeachment is that we don't like job the president isn't doing (which is how the GOP frames it). To my mind, it's more important to establish that a president can't act lawlessly without consequences.

[James Brancheau]

Amen.

I think I've mentioned this before, but Republicans are revealing where their priorities lie. Pretty naked they are. And a good portion of the electorate. I don't know how long it will take, and I think looking at fairness and accuracy in reporting should be a priority for lawmakers, but this isn't going to bode well for any of them, at least in the long run. In the meantime, support journalists.

[Max Goodman]

Originally Posted by James Brancheau

Republicans are revealing where their priorities lie. ... [T]his isn't going to bode well for any of them, at least in the long run.

I've been assuming that at least since GOPers started supporting Trump's campaign. So far, I've been wrong. The GOP has thrived by understanding that nothing is ordained. Anything can happen if you make it happen.

Originally Posted by James Brancheau

In the meantime, support journalists.

That's as good a prescription as I can come up with for making happen what we want to happen. That and supporting good candidates. I wish I felt surer that these things would be enough. I wish I could think of other things to do as well.