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Hah! Endlessly adaptable.
And there was this football parody lyric as well.....
'Twas the wreck of the Daunte Culpepper!
Ladies and Gentlemen, legendary singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot:
The Vikings and ho's, they did Lord only knows
On the lake that they call Gitche Gumee
"This party's a hoot," said a guest to Fred Smoot,
"And if this is illegal, then sue me!"
Now left high 'n dry, Tice's crew was not spry
As they fell to a 1-4 record.
The players were gassed as they sunk to dead last
'Twas the wreck of the Daunte Culpepper!
I think everyone around the Great Lakes was shocked. One just doesn't envision a ship that size sinking in a lake, Great or not.
I got used to watching WWII carrier planes raised off the bottom of Lake Michigan over the years, and learning about the aircraft carrier training that took place on that lake; safer from attack than such training would be in either ocean.
44 Years Ago Today; "When the gales of November came early..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald
SS Edmund Fitzgerald, c. 1971
SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, and she remains the largest to have sunk there.
For 17 years, Edmund Fitzgerald carried taconite iron ore from mines near Duluth, Minnesota, to iron works in Detroit, Toledo, and other Great Lakes ports. As a workhorse, she set seasonal haul records six times, often breaking her own previous record. Captain Peter Pulcer was known for piping music day or night over the ship's intercom while passing through the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers (between Lakes Huron and Erie), and entertaining spectators at the Soo Locks (between Lakes Superior and Huron) with a running commentary about the ship. Her size, record-breaking performance, and "DJ captain" endeared Edmund Fitzgerald to boat watchers.
Carrying a full cargo of ore pellets with Captain Ernest M. McSorley in command, she embarked on her ill-fated voyage from Superior, Wisconsin, near Duluth, on the afternoon of November 9, 1975. En route to a steel mill near Detroit, Edmund Fitzgerald joined a second freighter, SS Arthur M. Anderson. By the next day, the two ships were caught in a severe storm on Lake Superior, with near hurricane-force winds and waves up to 35 feet (11 m) high. Shortly after 7:10 p.m., Edmund Fitzgerald suddenly sank in Canadian (Ontario) waters 530 feet (88 fathoms; 160 m) deep, about 17 miles (15 nautical miles; 27 kilometers) from Whitefish Bay near the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario—a distance Edmund Fitzgerald could have covered in just over an hour at her top speed. Although Edmund Fitzgerald had reported being in difficulty earlier, no distress signals were sent before she sank; Captain McSorley's last message to Arthur M. Anderson said, "We are holding our own." Her crew of 29 perished, and no bodies were recovered. The exact cause of the sinking remains unknown, though many books, studies, and expeditions have examined it. Edmund Fitzgerald may have been swamped, suffered structural failure or topside damage, been shoaled, or suffered from a combination of these.
The disaster is one of the best-known in the history of Great Lakes shipping. Gordon Lightfoot made it the subject of his 1976 hit song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" after reading an article, "The Cruelest Month", in the November 24, 1975, issue of Newsweek. The sinking led to changes in Great Lakes shipping regulations and practices that included mandatory survival suits, depth finders, positioning systems, increased freeboard, and more frequent inspection of vessels.
<snip>
Final voyage and wreck
The National Transportation Safety Board map of probable course of Edmund Fitzgerald and Arthur M. Anderson
Edmund Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin, at 2:15 p.m. on the afternoon of November 9, 1975, under the command of Captain Ernest M. McSorley. She was en route to the steel mill on Zug Island, near Detroit, Michigan, with a cargo of 26,116 long tons (29,250 short tons; 26,535 t) of taconite ore pellets and soon reached her full speed of 16.3 miles per hour (14.2 kn; 26.2 km/h). Around 5 p.m., Edmund Fitzgerald joined a second freighter under the command of Captain Jesse B. "Bernie" Cooper, Arthur M. Anderson, destined for Gary, Indiana, out of Two Harbors, Minnesota. The weather forecast was not unusual for November and the National Weather Service (NWS) predicted that a storm would pass just south of Lake Superior by 7 a.m. on November 10.
SS Wilfred Sykes loaded opposite Edmund Fitzgerald at the Burlington Northern Dock #1 and departed at 4:15 p.m., about two hours after Edmund Fitzgerald. In contrast to the NWS forecast, Captain Dudley J. Paquette of Wilfred Sykes predicted that a major storm would directly cross Lake Superior. From the outset, he chose a route that took advantage of the protection offered by the lake's north shore in order to avoid the worst effects of the storm. The crew of Wilfred Sykes followed the radio conversations between Edmund Fitzgerald and Arthur M. Anderson during the first part of their trip and overheard their captains deciding to take the regular Lake Carriers' Association downbound route. The NWS altered its forecast at 7:00 p.m., issuing gale warnings for the whole of Lake Superior. Arthur M. Anderson and Edmund Fitzgerald altered course northward seeking shelter along the Ontario coast where they encountered a winter storm at 1:00 a.m. on November 10. Edmund Fitzgerald reported winds of 52 knots (96 km/h; 60 mph) and waves 10 feet (3.0 m) high. Captain Paquette of Wilfred Sykes reported that after 1 a.m., he overheard McSorley say that he had reduced the ship's speed because of the rough conditions. Paquette said he was stunned to later hear McSorley, who was not known for turning aside or slowing down, state that "we're going to try for some lee from Isle Royale. You're walking away from us anyway ... I can't stay with you."
At 2:00 a.m. on November 10, the NWS upgraded its warnings from gale to storm, forecasting winds of 35–50 knots (65–93 km/h; 40–58 mph).[42] Until then, Edmund Fitzgerald had followed Arthur M. Anderson, which was travelling at a constant 14.6 miles per hour (12.7 kn; 23.5 km/h), but the faster Edmund Fitzgerald pulled ahead at about 3:00 a.m. As the storm center passed over the ships, they experienced shifting winds, with wind speeds temporarily dropping as wind direction changed from northeast to south and then northwest. After 1:50 p.m., when Arthur M. Anderson logged winds of 50 knots (93 km/h; 58 mph), wind speeds again picked up rapidly, and it began to snow at 2:45 p.m., reducing visibility; Arthur M. Anderson lost sight of Edmund Fitzgerald, which was about 16 miles (26 km) ahead at the time.
Shortly after 3:30 p.m., Captain McSorley radioed Arthur M. Anderson to report that Edmund Fitzgerald was taking on water and had lost two vent covers and a fence railing. The vessel had also developed a list. Two of Edmund Fitzgerald's six bilge pumps ran continuously to discharge shipped water. McSorley said that he would slow his ship down so that Arthur M. Anderson could close the gap between them.[45] In a broadcast shortly afterward, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) warned all shipping that the Soo Locks had been closed and they should seek safe anchorage. Shortly after 4:10 p.m., McSorley called Arthur M. Anderson again to report a radar failure and asked Arthur M. Anderson to keep track of them. Edmund Fitzgerald, effectively blind, slowed to let Arthur M. Anderson come within a 10-mile (16 km) range so she could receive radar guidance from the other ship.
For a time, Arthur M. Anderson directed Edmund Fitzgerald toward the relative safety of Whitefish Bay; then, at 4:39 p.m., McSorley contacted the USCG station in Grand Marais, Michigan, to inquire whether the Whitefish Point light and navigation beacon were operational. The USCG replied that their monitoring equipment indicated that both instruments were inactive. McSorley then hailed any ships in the Whitefish Point area to report the state of the navigational aids, receiving an answer from Captain Cedric Woodard of Avafors between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. that the Whitefish Point light was on but not the radio beacon. Woodard testified to the Marine Board that he overheard McSorley say, "Don't allow nobody on deck," as well as something about a vent that Woodard could not understand.[51] Some time later, McSorley told Woodard, "I have a 'bad list', I have lost both radars, and am taking heavy seas over the deck in one of the worst seas I have ever been in."
By late in the afternoon of November 10, sustained winds of over 50 knots (93 km/h; 58 mph) were recorded by ships and observation points across eastern Lake Superior. Arthur M. Anderson logged sustained winds as high as 58 knots (107 km/h; 67 mph) at 4:52 p.m., while waves increased to as high as 25 feet (7.6 m) by 6:00 p.m. Arthur M. Anderson was also struck by 70-to-75-knot (130 to 139 km/h; 81 to 86 mph) gusts and rogue waves as high as 35 feet (11 m).
The last communication from the ship came at approximately 7:10 p.m., when Arthur M. Anderson notified Edmund Fitzgerald of an upbound ship and asked how she was doing. McSorley reported, "We are holding our own." She sank minutes later. No distress signal was received, and ten minutes later, Arthur M. Anderson lost the ability either to reach Edmund Fitzgerald by radio or to detect her on radar.
Search
Captain Cooper of Arthur M. Anderson first called the USCG in Sault Ste. Marie at 7:39 p.m. on channel 16, the radio distress frequency. The USCG responders instructed him to call back on channel 12 because they wanted to keep their emergency channel open and they were having difficulty with their communication systems, including antennas blown down by the storm.
Cooper then contacted the upbound saltwater vessel Nanfri and was told that she could not pick up Edmund Fitzgerald on her radar either. Despite repeated attempts to raise the USCG, Cooper was not successful until 7:54 p.m. when the officer on duty asked him to keep watch for a 16-foot (4.9 m) boat lost in the area. At about 8:25 p.m., Cooper again called the USCG to express his concern about Edmund Fitzgerald and at 9:03 p.m. reported her missing. Petty Officer Philip Branch later testified, "I considered it serious, but at the time it was not urgent."
Lacking appropriate search-and-rescue vessels to respond to Edmund Fitzgerald's disaster, at approximately 9:00 p.m., the USCG asked Arthur M. Anderson to turn around and look for survivors. Around 10:30 p.m., the USCG asked all commercial vessels anchored in or near Whitefish Bay to assist in the search.
The initial search for survivors was carried out by Arthur M. Anderson, and a second freighter, SS William Clay Ford. The efforts of a third freighter, the Toronto-registered SS Hilda Marjanne, were foiled by the weather. The USCG sent a buoy tender, Woodrush, from Duluth, Minnesota, but it took two and a half hours to launch and a day to travel to the search area. The Traverse City, Michigan, USCG station launched an HU-16 fixed-wing search aircraft that arrived on the scene at 10:53 p.m. while an HH-52 USCG helicopter with a 3.8-million-candlepower searchlight arrived at 1:00 a.m. on November 11. Canadian Coast Guard aircraft joined the three-day search and the Ontario Provincial Police established and maintained a beach patrol all along the eastern shore of Lake Superior.
Although the search recovered debris, including lifeboats and rafts, none of the crew were found. On her final voyage, Edmund Fitzgerald's crew of 29 consisted of the captain, the first, second and third mates, five engineers, three oilers, a cook, a wiper, two maintenance men, three watchmen, three deckhands, three wheelsmen, two porters, a cadet and a steward. Most of the crew were from Ohio and Wisconsin; their ages ranged from 20-year-old watchman Karl A. Peckol to Captain McSorley, 63 years old and planning his retirement.
Edmund Fitzgerald is among the largest and best-known vessels lost on the Great Lakes but she is not alone on the Lake Superior seabed in that area. In the years between 1816, when Invincible was lost, and 1975, when Edmund Fitzgerald sank, the Whitefish Point area had claimed at least 240 ships.
Wreck discovery and surveys
A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft, piloted by Lt. George Conner and equipped to detect magnetic anomalies usually associated with submarines, found the wreck on November 14, 1975. Edmund Fitzgerald lay about 15 miles (13 nmi; 24 km) west of Deadman's Cove, Ontario, 17 miles (15 nmi; 27 km) from the entrance to Whitefish Bay to the southeast, in Canadian waters close to the international boundary at a depth of 530 feet (160 m).[50] A further November 14–16 survey by the USCG using a side scan sonar revealed two large objects lying close together on the lake floor. The U.S. Navy also contracted Seaward, Inc., to conduct a second survey between November 22 and 25.
44 Years Ago Today; "When the gales of November came early..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald
SS Edmund Fitzgerald, c. 1971
SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, and she remains the largest to have sunk there.
For 17 years, Edmund Fitzgerald carried taconite iron ore from mines near Duluth, Minnesota, to iron works in Detroit, Toledo, and other Great Lakes ports. As a workhorse, she set seasonal haul records six times, often breaking her own previous record. Captain Peter Pulcer was known for piping music day or night over the ship's intercom while passing through the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers (between Lakes Huron and Erie), and entertaining spectators at the Soo Locks (between Lakes Superior and Huron) with a running commentary about the ship. Her size, record-breaking performance, and "DJ captain" endeared Edmund Fitzgerald to boat watchers.
Carrying a full cargo of ore pellets with Captain Ernest M. McSorley in command, she embarked on her ill-fated voyage from Superior, Wisconsin, near Duluth, on the afternoon of November 9, 1975. En route to a steel mill near Detroit, Edmund Fitzgerald joined a second freighter, SS Arthur M. Anderson. By the next day, the two ships were caught in a severe storm on Lake Superior, with near hurricane-force winds and waves up to 35 feet (11 m) high. Shortly after 7:10 p.m., Edmund Fitzgerald suddenly sank in Canadian (Ontario) waters 530 feet (88 fathoms; 160 m) deep, about 17 miles (15 nautical miles; 27 kilometers) from Whitefish Bay near the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario—a distance Edmund Fitzgerald could have covered in just over an hour at her top speed. Although Edmund Fitzgerald had reported being in difficulty earlier, no distress signals were sent before she sank; Captain McSorley's last message to Arthur M. Anderson said, "We are holding our own." Her crew of 29 perished, and no bodies were recovered. The exact cause of the sinking remains unknown, though many books, studies, and expeditions have examined it. Edmund Fitzgerald may have been swamped, suffered structural failure or topside damage, been shoaled, or suffered from a combination of these.
The disaster is one of the best-known in the history of Great Lakes shipping. Gordon Lightfoot made it the subject of his 1976 hit song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" after reading an article, "The Cruelest Month", in the November 24, 1975, issue of Newsweek. The sinking led to changes in Great Lakes shipping regulations and practices that included mandatory survival suits, depth finders, positioning systems, increased freeboard, and more frequent inspection of vessels.
<snip>
Final voyage and wreck
The National Transportation Safety Board map of probable course of Edmund Fitzgerald and Arthur M. Anderson
Edmund Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin, at 2:15 p.m. on the afternoon of November 9, 1975, under the command of Captain Ernest M. McSorley. She was en route to the steel mill on Zug Island, near Detroit, Michigan, with a cargo of 26,116 long tons (29,250 short tons; 26,535 t) of taconite ore pellets and soon reached her full speed of 16.3 miles per hour (14.2 kn; 26.2 km/h). Around 5 p.m., Edmund Fitzgerald joined a second freighter under the command of Captain Jesse B. "Bernie" Cooper, Arthur M. Anderson, destined for Gary, Indiana, out of Two Harbors, Minnesota. The weather forecast was not unusual for November and the National Weather Service (NWS) predicted that a storm would pass just south of Lake Superior by 7 a.m. on November 10.
SS Wilfred Sykes loaded opposite Edmund Fitzgerald at the Burlington Northern Dock #1 and departed at 4:15 p.m., about two hours after Edmund Fitzgerald. In contrast to the NWS forecast, Captain Dudley J. Paquette of Wilfred Sykes predicted that a major storm would directly cross Lake Superior. From the outset, he chose a route that took advantage of the protection offered by the lake's north shore in order to avoid the worst effects of the storm. The crew of Wilfred Sykes followed the radio conversations between Edmund Fitzgerald and Arthur M. Anderson during the first part of their trip and overheard their captains deciding to take the regular Lake Carriers' Association downbound route. The NWS altered its forecast at 7:00 p.m., issuing gale warnings for the whole of Lake Superior. Arthur M. Anderson and Edmund Fitzgerald altered course northward seeking shelter along the Ontario coast where they encountered a winter storm at 1:00 a.m. on November 10. Edmund Fitzgerald reported winds of 52 knots (96 km/h; 60 mph) and waves 10 feet (3.0 m) high. Captain Paquette of Wilfred Sykes reported that after 1 a.m., he overheard McSorley say that he had reduced the ship's speed because of the rough conditions. Paquette said he was stunned to later hear McSorley, who was not known for turning aside or slowing down, state that "we're going to try for some lee from Isle Royale. You're walking away from us anyway ... I can't stay with you."
At 2:00 a.m. on November 10, the NWS upgraded its warnings from gale to storm, forecasting winds of 35–50 knots (65–93 km/h; 40–58 mph).[42] Until then, Edmund Fitzgerald had followed Arthur M. Anderson, which was travelling at a constant 14.6 miles per hour (12.7 kn; 23.5 km/h), but the faster Edmund Fitzgerald pulled ahead at about 3:00 a.m. As the storm center passed over the ships, they experienced shifting winds, with wind speeds temporarily dropping as wind direction changed from northeast to south and then northwest. After 1:50 p.m., when Arthur M. Anderson logged winds of 50 knots (93 km/h; 58 mph), wind speeds again picked up rapidly, and it began to snow at 2:45 p.m., reducing visibility; Arthur M. Anderson lost sight of Edmund Fitzgerald, which was about 16 miles (26 km) ahead at the time.
Shortly after 3:30 p.m., Captain McSorley radioed Arthur M. Anderson to report that Edmund Fitzgerald was taking on water and had lost two vent covers and a fence railing. The vessel had also developed a list. Two of Edmund Fitzgerald's six bilge pumps ran continuously to discharge shipped water. McSorley said that he would slow his ship down so that Arthur M. Anderson could close the gap between them.[45] In a broadcast shortly afterward, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) warned all shipping that the Soo Locks had been closed and they should seek safe anchorage. Shortly after 4:10 p.m., McSorley called Arthur M. Anderson again to report a radar failure and asked Arthur M. Anderson to keep track of them. Edmund Fitzgerald, effectively blind, slowed to let Arthur M. Anderson come within a 10-mile (16 km) range so she could receive radar guidance from the other ship.
For a time, Arthur M. Anderson directed Edmund Fitzgerald toward the relative safety of Whitefish Bay; then, at 4:39 p.m., McSorley contacted the USCG station in Grand Marais, Michigan, to inquire whether the Whitefish Point light and navigation beacon were operational. The USCG replied that their monitoring equipment indicated that both instruments were inactive. McSorley then hailed any ships in the Whitefish Point area to report the state of the navigational aids, receiving an answer from Captain Cedric Woodard of Avafors between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. that the Whitefish Point light was on but not the radio beacon. Woodard testified to the Marine Board that he overheard McSorley say, "Don't allow nobody on deck," as well as something about a vent that Woodard could not understand.[51] Some time later, McSorley told Woodard, "I have a 'bad list', I have lost both radars, and am taking heavy seas over the deck in one of the worst seas I have ever been in."
By late in the afternoon of November 10, sustained winds of over 50 knots (93 km/h; 58 mph) were recorded by ships and observation points across eastern Lake Superior. Arthur M. Anderson logged sustained winds as high as 58 knots (107 km/h; 67 mph) at 4:52 p.m., while waves increased to as high as 25 feet (7.6 m) by 6:00 p.m. Arthur M. Anderson was also struck by 70-to-75-knot (130 to 139 km/h; 81 to 86 mph) gusts and rogue waves as high as 35 feet (11 m).
The last communication from the ship came at approximately 7:10 p.m., when Arthur M. Anderson notified Edmund Fitzgerald of an upbound ship and asked how she was doing. McSorley reported, "We are holding our own." She sank minutes later. No distress signal was received, and ten minutes later, Arthur M. Anderson lost the ability either to reach Edmund Fitzgerald by radio or to detect her on radar.
Search
Captain Cooper of Arthur M. Anderson first called the USCG in Sault Ste. Marie at 7:39 p.m. on channel 16, the radio distress frequency. The USCG responders instructed him to call back on channel 12 because they wanted to keep their emergency channel open and they were having difficulty with their communication systems, including antennas blown down by the storm.
Cooper then contacted the upbound saltwater vessel Nanfri and was told that she could not pick up Edmund Fitzgerald on her radar either. Despite repeated attempts to raise the USCG, Cooper was not successful until 7:54 p.m. when the officer on duty asked him to keep watch for a 16-foot (4.9 m) boat lost in the area. At about 8:25 p.m., Cooper again called the USCG to express his concern about Edmund Fitzgerald and at 9:03 p.m. reported her missing. Petty Officer Philip Branch later testified, "I considered it serious, but at the time it was not urgent."
Lacking appropriate search-and-rescue vessels to respond to Edmund Fitzgerald's disaster, at approximately 9:00 p.m., the USCG asked Arthur M. Anderson to turn around and look for survivors. Around 10:30 p.m., the USCG asked all commercial vessels anchored in or near Whitefish Bay to assist in the search.
The initial search for survivors was carried out by Arthur M. Anderson, and a second freighter, SS William Clay Ford. The efforts of a third freighter, the Toronto-registered SS Hilda Marjanne, were foiled by the weather. The USCG sent a buoy tender, Woodrush, from Duluth, Minnesota, but it took two and a half hours to launch and a day to travel to the search area. The Traverse City, Michigan, USCG station launched an HU-16 fixed-wing search aircraft that arrived on the scene at 10:53 p.m. while an HH-52 USCG helicopter with a 3.8-million-candlepower searchlight arrived at 1:00 a.m. on November 11. Canadian Coast Guard aircraft joined the three-day search and the Ontario Provincial Police established and maintained a beach patrol all along the eastern shore of Lake Superior.
Although the search recovered debris, including lifeboats and rafts, none of the crew were found. On her final voyage, Edmund Fitzgerald's crew of 29 consisted of the captain, the first, second and third mates, five engineers, three oilers, a cook, a wiper, two maintenance men, three watchmen, three deckhands, three wheelsmen, two porters, a cadet and a steward. Most of the crew were from Ohio and Wisconsin; their ages ranged from 20-year-old watchman Karl A. Peckol to Captain McSorley, 63 years old and planning his retirement.
Edmund Fitzgerald is among the largest and best-known vessels lost on the Great Lakes but she is not alone on the Lake Superior seabed in that area. In the years between 1816, when Invincible was lost, and 1975, when Edmund Fitzgerald sank, the Whitefish Point area had claimed at least 240 ships.
Wreck discovery and surveys
A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft, piloted by Lt. George Conner and equipped to detect magnetic anomalies usually associated with submarines, found the wreck on November 14, 1975. Edmund Fitzgerald lay about 15 miles (13 nmi; 24 km) west of Deadman's Cove, Ontario, 17 miles (15 nmi; 27 km) from the entrance to Whitefish Bay to the southeast, in Canadian waters close to the international boundary at a depth of 530 feet (160 m).[50] A further November 14–16 survey by the USCG using a side scan sonar revealed two large objects lying close together on the lake floor. The U.S. Navy also contracted Seaward, Inc., to conduct a second survey between November 22 and 25.
Andrew Sullivan: This Is No Ordinary Impeachment
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/andrew-sullivan-this-is-no-ordinary-impeachment.html?fbclid=IwAR31kc870ZBhTMAwzegY7JUFpWOwRcILR2porhDerkETXtjzzOPhqKnjusE
Nov. 8, 2019
This is not just an impeachment. It’s the endgame for Trump’s relentless assault on the institutions, norms, and practices of America’s liberal democracy for the past three years. It’s also a deeper reckoning. It’s about whether the legitimacy of our entire system can last much longer without this man being removed from office.
snip//
Trump has fast-forwarded “regime cleavage.” He is appealing to the people to render him immune from constitutional constraints imposed by the representatives of the people. He has opened up not a divide between right and left so much as a divide over whether the American system of government is legitimate or illegitimate.
And that is why I don’t want to defeat Trump in an election, because that would suggest that his assault on the truth, on the Constitution, and on the rule of law is just a set of policy decisions that we can, in time, reject.
It creates a precedent for future presidents to assault the legitimacy of the American government, constrained only by their ability to win the next election. In fact, the only proper constitutional response to this abuse of executive power is impeachment. I know I’ve said this before. But on the eve of public hearings, it is vital to remember it.
None of this presidential behavior is tolerable. If the Senate exonerates Trump, it will not just enable the most lawless president in our history to even greater abuses. It will deepen the regime cleavage even further. It will cast into doubt the fairness of the upcoming election. It will foment the conspiracy theory that our current laws and institutions are manifestations of a “deep state” engineering a “coup.”
It will prove that a president can indeed abuse his power for his personal advantage without consequence; and it will set a precedent that fundamentally changes the American system from a liberal democracy to a form of elected monarchy, above the other two branches of government.
I wish there were another way forward. But there isn’t. And this, though a moment of great danger, also contains the glimmers of renewal. Removing this petty, shabby tyrant from office goes a long way to restoring and resetting the Constitution as a limit on power and a guarantee against its wanton future abuse. It must be done. With speed, with vigor, and with determination.
Andrew Sullivan: This Is No Ordinary Impeachment
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/andrew-sullivan-this-is-no-ordinary-impeachment.html?fbclid=IwAR31kc870ZBhTMAwzegY7JUFpWOwRcILR2porhDerkETXtjzzOPhqKnjusE
Nov. 8, 2019
This is not just an impeachment. It’s the endgame for Trump’s relentless assault on the institutions, norms, and practices of America’s liberal democracy for the past three years. It’s also a deeper reckoning. It’s about whether the legitimacy of our entire system can last much longer without this man being removed from office.
snip//
Trump has fast-forwarded “regime cleavage.” He is appealing to the people to render him immune from constitutional constraints imposed by the representatives of the people. He has opened up not a divide between right and left so much as a divide over whether the American system of government is legitimate or illegitimate.
And that is why I don’t want to defeat Trump in an election, because that would suggest that his assault on the truth, on the Constitution, and on the rule of law is just a set of policy decisions that we can, in time, reject.
It creates a precedent for future presidents to assault the legitimacy of the American government, constrained only by their ability to win the next election. In fact, the only proper constitutional response to this abuse of executive power is impeachment. I know I’ve said this before. But on the eve of public hearings, it is vital to remember it.
None of this presidential behavior is tolerable. If the Senate exonerates Trump, it will not just enable the most lawless president in our history to even greater abuses. It will deepen the regime cleavage even further. It will cast into doubt the fairness of the upcoming election. It will foment the conspiracy theory that our current laws and institutions are manifestations of a “deep state” engineering a “coup.”
It will prove that a president can indeed abuse his power for his personal advantage without consequence; and it will set a precedent that fundamentally changes the American system from a liberal democracy to a form of elected monarchy, above the other two branches of government.
I wish there were another way forward. But there isn’t. And this, though a moment of great danger, also contains the glimmers of renewal. Removing this petty, shabby tyrant from office goes a long way to restoring and resetting the Constitution as a limit on power and a guarantee against its wanton future abuse. It must be done. With speed, with vigor, and with determination.
I hope to live long enough to look back on the present as The Age Of The Morons.
Just Between Us, We Know The Truth. The Purpose Of The Impeachment Isn't To Get Rid Of Trump.
Unless the Russians completely steal the election for him, Trump is going down HARD in the 2020 election. Nevermind what the polls say right now about swing States. The day before election day, even die-hard Republicans will be thinking about staying home on election day, simply because they can't stand the idea of having that bloated banana slug shouting over the helicopter rotors every day for the next four solid years.
No, the purpose of the impeachment is to put all of the dirt, slime, and criminal activity of the Trump Administration on full display in the Senate, and then have every Republican Senator GO ON RECORD as saying that behaviour is perfectly okay. And then have to defend their vote during the election.
Hence, the fact that the impeachment won't actually remove Trump is irrelevant. That's not the purpose.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212670297
Just Between Us, We Know The Truth. The Purpose Of The Impeachment Isn't To Get Rid Of Trump.
Unless the Russians completely steal the election for him, Trump is going down HARD in the 2020 election. Nevermind what the polls say right now about swing States. The day before election day, even die-hard Republicans will be thinking about staying home on election day, simply because they can't stand the idea of having that bloated banana slug shouting over the helicopter rotors every day for the next four solid years.
No, the purpose of the impeachment is to put all of the dirt, slime, and criminal activity of the Trump Administration on full display in the Senate, and then have every Republican Senator GO ON RECORD as saying that behaviour is perfectly okay. And then have to defend their vote during the election.
Hence, the fact that the impeachment won't actually remove Trump is irrelevant. That's not the purpose.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212670297
Same outfit for Gym Jordan, only wearing headgear simulating hair on fire.
Not to mention how exactly do you get less government from authoritarian wannabe theocrats who want big gubmint looking over the shoulder of the doctor and parents discussing abortion or to enforce prayer in public schools, for starters?
If their lame-ass agenda is furthered by big gubmint, it's hunky dory.
No, neither out of thin air nor motivated by Reagan polices.
Either or is for simpletons because it's so much more comfortable than complexity, not to mention facts that contradict beliefs.
http://www.ushistory.org/us/59e.asp
Republicans were quick to claim credit for winning the Cold War. They believed the military spending policies of the Reagan-Bush years forced the Soviets to the brink of economic collapse. Democrats argued that containment of communism was a bipartisan policy for 45 years begun by the Democrat Harry Truman.
Others pointed out that no one really won the Cold War. The United States spent trillions of dollars arming themselves for a direct confrontation with the Soviet Union that fortunately never came. Regardless, thousands of American lives were lost waging proxy wars in Korea and Vietnam.
Most Americans found it difficult to get used to the idea of no Cold War. Since 1945, Americans were born into a Cold War culture that featured McCarthyist witchhunts, backyard bomb shelters, a space race, a missile crisis, détente, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the Star Wars defense proposal. Now the enemy was beaten, but the world remained unsafe. In many ways, facing one superpower was simpler than challenging dozens of rogue states and renegade groups sponsoring global terrorism.
Yeah, that's how I remember it being presented at Trump's Nuremburg rallies....'Mexico will indirectly pay for the wall!'
And Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika. But GOPER simpleton's always need to believe in a messiah.
Sorry that your comprehension of my point was not up what was required to attain understanding. I hope that my points in my post prior to this one will be easier for you to grasp.
Conix, you post a shit load of assertions on this board that are never linked to supportive facts and evidence. That unfortunate habit marks you as a belief-centric person largely impervious to whatever contradicts your mostly benighted beliefs.
This latest example is particularly egregious because all you had to do was get your key to the Google Machine, insert into machine, turn it on and type 'IS the VA an example of socialism?' or 'why the VA is not socialism'.
You didn't. Why not? Because you fucking knew that you would NOT find what you wanted to find. Instead you've now just read the burn I've inflicted and then, soon after, the even worse burn coped an pasted below.
Any response short of 'opps, my bad, I screwed up again' will be found to be inadequate by everyone who reads it. Good luck.
The VA as an Example of Socialized Medicine in the U.S.
https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-socialized-medicine-2615267
The truth is, the United States already employs several forms of socialized medicine. The Veteran's Administration healthcare system is one example, and in many ways, it is an example of fully socialized medicine.
Veterans can take advantage of the health care offered by the system. The veteran is likely to incur little or no cost for getting care at VA facilities, although this depends on eligibility and income (subject to change).
The VA employs the providers. Physicians work for the VA as either federal employees or on fee basis or contract. The VA runs the facilities, including hospitals, clinics, and long-term care facilities.
The VA health care system is run by the government under the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, a cabinet position appointed by the President and approved by Congress. The budget for the VA is part of the federal budget.
Priorities for how it is spent and what services are provided by the VA are set nationally and subject to political influence. While scandals arise from how the VA provides care, it is a measure of how the VA is accountable to the public, while private health care organizations do not have to be transparent.
Sorry to hear. A lot more good years than bad, I hope.
Audio command: Alabama LSU game = CBS 2:30 CST......Remind.
I love it!
However, trump baby balloon brings up Baby Looney Tunes. TF?!
When you were a little kid did you have feelings of guilt over the housing, food and clothing provided by your parents for you and the schooling and protection provided by government, despite you're not having 'earned' any of it?
Actually they don't. Google it. An even more salient difference? Only one Party is the sanctimonious, finger wagging, do as we say not as we do Party.
There is nothing in the governor's record as a public official that indicates that the 'blackface' influenced him to support policies inimical to black constituents, quite the contrary.
Additionally a majority of all VA voters, a larger majority of black voters in VA, did not want, do not want, Northam to resign.
What do those black voters know that you don't know? I mean other than the GOP has been the party of bigots since the Southern Strategy, and even after it was repudiated by GOP National Chairman.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/20/ralph-northam-virginia-poll-1176071
In a Quinnipiac University poll, 42 percent of voters say Northam should resign — but more, 48 percent, say he shouldn’t. White voters are split evenly — 46 percent say he should resign, and the same percentage say he shouldn’t — but a majority of black voters, 56 percent, say Northam should not quit.
Compare and contrast with GOP support for the equivocating asshole who claimed there were many good people among the Tiki torch marching ass hats chanting 'the Jews will not replace us'.
It's hilarious and pathetic that supporters of a Party that is the home for racial, religious and gender bigots are losing their shit over blackface but not over the Party whose policies work to disenfranchise blacks.
Safe offer.
Several of the alleged offenders have been arrested. Their attorney, reportedly a silly goose, has said he will introduce the Chantix Defense which will posit that nicotine withdrawal made the turkeys behave as they did.
The offenders have declined bail, arguing that they will feel safer behind bars for at least the next 3 weeks.
Donald Trump, Prince of Losers, Loses Like a Loser, Because he is a Loser Who Loses.
http://showercapblog.com/donald-trump-prince-of-losers-loses-like-a-loser-because-he-is-a-loser-who-loses/
Friday, November 8th, 2019
by Shower Cap | American Madness Journal
Donald Trump, Prince of Losers, Loses Like a Loser, Because he is a Loser Who Loses.
http://showercapblog.com/donald-trump-prince-of-losers-loses-like-a-loser-because-he-is-a-loser-who-loses/
Friday, November 8th, 2019
by Shower Cap | American Madness Journal
Pic Of The Moment: In First Campaign Video, Sessions Targets Voters Who Like Pathetic Brown-Nosers
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jeff-sessions-hostage-video_n_5dc50530e4b02bf5793d76a5
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017558481
2. Jeezus
Jeff Sessions is a reincarnation of a beagle hound that would take a severe beating then fetch slippers.
This begs the question if Sessions thinks Trump will actually endorse Roy Moore, and whether that matters. The Republican party needs to change It's mascot from an elephant to a Dodo bird. Ancient, stupid, and destined to certain extinction.
Sajak underwent “successful emergency surgery to correct a blocked intestine.”
OK, I’m calling this one of my all-time best. And it’s all mine. If you hear it henceforth note the time stamp on the email.
What did Sajak say while being wheeled in for surgery?
Wait for it………..
Give me a bowel. :)
WWLP) – Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak is home recovering after undergoing successful emergency surgery on Thursday, according to the television game show.
As a result, taping for Thursday’s show was canceled but resumed Friday as scheduled, with Vanna White as the host.
The game show, which airs on ABC, made the announcement on Facebook and said Sajak underwent “successful emergency surgery to correct a blocked intestine.”
https://www.tmz.com/2019/11/08/pat-sajak-emergency-surgery-vanna-white-hosting-wheel-of-fortune/
Sajak underwent “successful emergency surgery to correct a blocked intestine.”
OK, I’m calling this one of my all-time best. And it’s all mine. If you hear it henceforth note the time stamp on the email.
What did Sajak say while being wheeled in for surgery?
Wait for it………..
Give me a bowel. :)
WWLP) – Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak is home recovering after undergoing successful emergency surgery on Thursday, according to the television game show.
As a result, taping for Thursday’s show was canceled but resumed Friday as scheduled, with Vanna White as the host.
The game show, which airs on ABC, made the announcement on Facebook and said Sajak underwent “successful emergency surgery to correct a blocked intestine.”
https://www.tmz.com/2019/11/08/pat-sajak-emergency-surgery-vanna-white-hosting-wheel-of-fortune/
Is our children learning?
On the contrary that was what drove Dem turnout and what will drive it again, IF Trump is still in office.
The Dems have passed Bills out of the House that do not even get a vote in the GOP Senate.
Now, where is the GOP healthcare plan that you alleged?
There's no evidence to support that. Senators above all know how difficult it is to get legislation passed.
Why anyone takes their Medicare for All proposals as anything but opening markers in what is certain to be contentious debate on the way to a compromise is beyond me.
Wow, just fucking wow. The House was red for the first two year of Trump's Maladministration.
Do you remember what the proposed GOP Healthcare Bill of '17, '18 was called?
Me neither.
Just a rudimentary understanding of Medicare as it is should inform you that Medicare is a 'buy-in', as is SS.
Contributions throughout a working life are the common threads.
And for Medicare, yes, a premium is deducted from monthly gross SS. So, Medicare for all would need to duplicate a similar buy-in.
A combination of employee payroll withholding and corp. taxes for example.
It would be no more socialistic that money for roads, schools, police and fire depts., DOD, NASA, CDC and so on.
And oh yeah, my favorite hypocrisy bubble prick, no different than the redistribution of tax revenues, collected from higher GDP States, to less prosperous States. You know who they are.
You want to get worked up over makers and takers, you need to face those facts.
And give us our damned TVA and rural electrification back. Also all of those WPA constructed post offices with the nice murals inside.
The cable networks should roll at the bottom of the screen:
WH Lawn Helicopter Talk Word Salad Jamboree in Progress.
Working with Giuliani, the White House and the State Department was no idle boast.
The “Ukrainians” are two South Florida businessmen named Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman who on Monday were sent letters by three House committees requesting information as part of an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
Parnas and Fruman have recently become major Republican donors — and couriers of what they say is explosive information sourced from Ukraine about widespread corruption involving Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, American diplomats and Ukrainian officials. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer and a former New York City mayor, has been their conduit to the Trump administration.
Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article235626327.html#storylink=cpy