Senator Rand Paul

@RandPaul

Despite climate alarmist predictions, humans will likely survive for hundreds of millions of years into the future. In the meantime, we should begin creating atmospheres on suitable moons or planets.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/iheartmedia-mass-layoffs-937513/

The largest radio conglomerate in the country, iHeartMedia, initiated a round of mass layoffs this week, cutting enough people that one former on-air host described Tuesday as “one of the worst days in on-air radio history.” The layoffs were concentrated in small and medium markets, where staffs had already been reduced, striking another major blow to local radio.

Some employees began to suspect that cuts were coming last week. “There was a very urgent, emergency meeting called in New York City for market presidents and higher-level local management,” says one former iHeartMedia employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize a severance package. (Many declined to comment, citing the same reason.) “We heard a lot of different rumors, including talk about automating certain markets depending on the revenue [they generated].”

For other iHeartMedia employees, the first sign of trouble came early Tuesday morning, when the company sent employees an email announcing a “new organizational structure.” The memo, obtained by Rolling Stone, seemed plucked partly from a corporate-culture parody like Office Space. It opened with chest-puffing (“we are the #1 audio company in America”) and then slathered on numbing layers of business jargon (new institutions include “the Integrated Revenue Strategies Group” and “Excellence Centers”).

“Our people are our company’s most important asset,” iHeartMedia continued, before announcing that a number of those crucial assets were about to be cut, and inventing a new euphemism for layoffs in the process: “There will be some employee dislocation — some by geography and some by function — which is the unfortunate price we pay to modernize the company.”

Senate GOP leaders are weighing accelerating the pace of the trial, eyeing a schedule that would maintain the same overall number of hours for opening arguments and senatorial questions as employed in Clinton’s case, but spreading it out over fewer days, according to six people familiar with internal deliberations.

If each side used all its debate time, that could mean fewer calendar days for the trial and a faster verdict. Clinton’s trial ran for five weeks, with opening arguments starting a week after it formally began. Trump's could be far shorter.

In their partisan opening resolution, Republicans are considering providing 24 hours of opening arguments to both the House impeachment managers and the White House counsel. If each team wants to use the full amount of hours, they may have to do so over as few as two days, potentially leading to long trial days.

The current "posture is two, 12-hour periods. Quite honestly, I don't believe that the White House would consume the 24 hours nor do I think based on the evidence if we read the evidence word for word from the House it would take 24 hours," said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Friday.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/17/senate-impeachment-trial-schedule-100536

Aaron Rupar
@atrupar
Trump ends LSU event by turning it into a rally: "You got a good [POTUS] now - even though they're trying to impeach the son of a bitch! Can you believe that?... we took out those terrorists like your football team would've taken out those terrorists!"

Players look uncomfortable

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1218209902889525253

On Thursday, members of the U.S. Senate were sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts for the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, pledging under oath to act as impartial jurors and to consider all the evidence fairly.

But barely hours after taking that oath, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went on Fox News to trash the whole process, and once again make clear that he had already picked a side.

“[Democrats] turned the trial into a complete circus. You’re allowed to do that but not with my vote,” said Graham. “I’m going to judge the case on the evidence assembled by the House. I’m not going to expand the record. This Parnas thing, I smell a rat. It is a complete, neverending desire to destroy everything Donald Trump. I took Mueller seriously. I don’t take Schiff, Nadler seriously. And I don’t take Chuck Schumer seriously when he says he’s looking for the truth. He’s looking to get back, to be the Majority Leader, nothing more.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/lindsey-graham-rages-at-democrats-and-the-impeachment-process-on-fox-news-hours-after-taking-an-oath-to-be-impartial/

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

See you tomorrow! #CHAMPS

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1217965436119191553

In the immediate aftermath of the Iranian ballistic missile strike against two Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops, President Donald Trump took to Twitter assuring the American public that “all is well.”

But as it turns out, all was not well. According to Defense One, eleven U.S. troops were in fact injured in the strikes — and had to be airlifted for treatment for traumatic brain injury.

“As previously stated, while no U.S. service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attack on Al Asad Air base, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed,” said a spokesman for the U.S. military command in Baghdad on Thursday.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/eleven-us-troops-had-to-be-medevaced-for-brain-injury-after-the-iran-strike-as-trump-was-tweeting-all-is-well/