Lynna is your curator. How are you all holding up, America? Not well, I guess, since this is the hardest working thread ever.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Lynna is your curator. How are you all holding up, America? Not well, I guess, since this is the hardest working thread ever.
“United States added to list of most dangerous countries for journalists for first time”:
“Daily reminder: No right to counsel in immigration cases. Most asylum seekers go against gov’t lawyers alone. Only 1.6% of parents w/ children prevail. Imm lawyers, when rarely funded, literally save lives. Success jumps to 26%. Fund access to counsel:…”
Link to where people can donate at the link.
“Richest 3% Russians Hold 90% of Country’s Financial Assets – Study”:
(I have a pet peeve about people conflating income and wealth.)
Bill Browder: “(And this is just what’s based on declared wealth, the real numbers are far worse). Not sure if any other country in the world has this inequitable a concentration of wealth.”
LOL.
Ilhan Omar:
David Lammy says comparing ERG to Nazis ‘not strong enough’:
Danny Lammy has form, from earlier this year, David Lammy accuses government of ‘pandering to far-right’ (video). And a short interview with him last year after he was named the Politican of the Year, David Lammy: ‘I bounce out of bed to do the job’: “The politician of the year on his Guyanese roots, faith in millennials […]”.
“The White House has been briefed on the Mueller report and ‘there is significant concern on the president’s team about what will be in this report’, and ‘what worries them most is what Don McGahn told the special counsel’, @jonkarl reports.”
Video clip at the link.
I like this idea, from the NYT Opinion page.
EVERYONE’S INCOME TAXES SHOULD BE PUBLIC
Disclosure of tax payments would make it easier to hold politicians accountable. It also would help to reduce fraud and economic inequality.
By Binyamin Appelbaum
Mr. Appelbaum is a member of the editorial board.
April 13, 2019
“.@PressSec claims Trump was just ‘making a joke’ when he mentioned WikiLeaks five times a day during the closing weeks of 2016 campaign.
‘Look, clearly the president was making a joke during the 2016 campaign. Certainly we take this serious… the president was making a joke’.”
OMG these pompous twits.
BBC – “Police open fire after car ‘driven at officers’ in London”:
tomh@8, I’ve also been coming around to the idea of the Finnish model — tax “returns” / data (and the absence thereof) — are public, easily downloaded, and easily searched. The States is also one of the (relatively few?) countries in the world which taxes on world-wide income regardless of where it was “earned” — so publicly-available USAian federal returns should have an extensive knock-on effect. And all taxed entities are included, be they individuals, corporations, NGOs / similar, and so on…
There are a few caveats about the data which is to be released. For example, spies working undercover overseas should not be exposed. Minors are problematic — most should be shielded — but there is a well-known series of tax dodges involving one’s children. Arguably, since the children didn’t necessarily agree-to, or are even (legally-speaking) competent to agree-to, the “deal”, they should still be shielded, but that does not mean suppressing the information “forever” — perhaps until they are old enough to be eligible for the draft, or else 18 (old enough to vote), whichever occurs first…
And so on. However, the plausible benefits of even just summary data are well worth discussing, along with the handful of exceptions and the relevant safeguards. Plus the issue of returns / data for individual states…
“.@presssec Sarah Sanders tells Fox News’ Chris Wallace ‘frankly, Chris, I don’t think Congress — particularly not this group of congressmen and women — are smart enough to look through the thousands of pages that I would assume that President Trump’s taxes will be’.”
Dignified.
Trump fixed on sanctuary city idea amid opposition and doubts over legality (the Grauniad’s edits in {curly braces}):
Updated list of upcoming political events (nice not to have to include the Brexit deadline):
Re today’s Finnish elections:
Climate change was the major issue in the elections.
“Judge orders Ukip to reveal Brexit referendum data use”:
Followup to SC’s comment #2.
Links back to the previous chapter of this thread:
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2019/04/01/discuss-political-madness-all-the-time-10/comment-page-1/#comment-1993082
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2019/04/01/discuss-political-madness-all-the-time-10/comment-page-1/#comment-1993085
More at the links.
“History has shown that Saudi, the Gulf states and Egypt do not want to see the emergence of a truly democratic parliamentary system in the region, so they are always supportive of military dictatorships like their shameful stance now for what is going on in Sudan.”
SC @13, Sarah Huckabee Sanders considers herself smart enough to comment disparagingly about the intellectual capabilities of Democrats in the House of Congress? She’s joking, right?
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, and others, have set a new deadline of April 23 for the tax returns.
From readers comments on the story as presented by Talking Points Memo:
https://twitter.com/NPRHealth/status/979645665994158081
Time’s running out for many frail, older people in Puerto Rico … and for disabled people.
https://n.pr/2GAdUX9
Followup to comment 19.
Kamala Harris released 15 years of her tax returns. Meanwhile, Trump has his lackeys appearing on Sunday TV shows to claim that if his tax returns are given to a Congressional committee, (per a lawful request to the IRS), the privacy of all U.S. citizens will be threatened.
In a response to Trump’s threat to transport “Illegal Immigrants” (Trump’s capitalization) to sanctuary cities, Jenny Durkan, the Democratic mayor of Seattle, wrote this op-ed:
From Democratic presidential candidate Eric Swalwell:
The excerpts above are from an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Neera Tanden: “For someone like @aaronmate who championed the Barr letter to ignore its contents, which found that Russia was behind the hacks of the DNC and the Clinton Campaign. That makes Assange their agent. You may take kindly to Russia undermining democracy — you have for years- I do not.”
I’m still amazed that no one’s been able to pin down Greenwald and the others on their affirmative claims. Are they claiming:
The GRU didn’t do the hacking?
The hacking wasn’t part of a Kremlin effort to hurt Clinton and help Trump?
The effort didn’t involve support for Sanders as a means to divide Democrats and suppress the Clinton vote?
Assange didn’t get the data he released from the GRU?
Assange didn’t orchestrate the releases so as to do the most damage to Clinton?
Assange wasn’t communicating with the Trump campaign?
The extensive public evidence of Trumpworld doing the Kremlin’s bidding doesn’t exist?
Some of these? All of these? What specifically are they claiming constitutes the “hoax” or “conspiracy theory” to which they keep referring?
Finally something: “JUST IN: Speaker Pelosi says President Trump ‘must take down his disrespectful and dangerous video’ featuring Rep. Omar, and she has spoken with the Sergeant-at-Arms to ensure Capitol Police are conducting a security assessment to safeguard Rep. Omar, her family and her staff.”
“Cummings moves to subpoena Trump financial records”:
Pelosi’s full statement (from London):
“Following the President’s tweet, I spoke with the Sergeant-at-Arms to ensure that Capitol Police are conducting a security assessment to safeguard Congresswoman Omar, her family and her staff. They will continue to monitor and address the threats she faces.
“The President’s words weigh a ton, and his hateful and inflammatory rhetoric creates real danger. President Trump must take down his disrespectful and dangerous video.”
“I mean, seriously, if House Democrats don’t impeach this president then they might as well remove the impeachment clause from the Constitution. It’s this simple: if the openly corrupt & lawless President Trump isn’t worthy of impeachment then no president is – or ever will be.”
Watching part 3 of CNN’s Tricky Dick (part 4 is on shortly). It’s just incredible – the more you’re reminded of Nixon’s behind-the-scenes comments, the more awful he appears.
On his visit to China (it should be noted that Nixon and his fellow Republicans were responsible for the fact that China was so closed off to the US in the first place):
On bombing the Vietnamese: “You’re so goddamned concerned about the civilians, and I don’t give a damn. I don’t care.”
As to the impeachment thing, I’m of two minds. Certainly, the current occupant of 1600 Penn Ave. is too stupid and corrupt to do the job. However, impeachment is a political, not a legal remedy, and unfortunately, the ‘Merican people are not sufficiently upset for impeachment to have a reasonable chance of success. Republicans in the House and Senate will stop at nothing because Darth Cheeto’s incompetence means they can implement their own agenda as long as they buy into his New Cruelty. There is literally no cost to them. The only way to change that is to make it more costly. The Rethugs have to be bludgeoned with the corruption, incompetence and moral bankruptcy of DJT. They have to fear for their political lives.
Do we want them to release the Meuller report. Then we have to project on the blank space left by the report’s absence a picture that is uglier than anything the report could say. We want the report without redactions? Then remember that each redaction is a blank space where we can fill in the blanks with whatever makes grammatical sense.
Ultimately, Nixon wasn’t wrong. Americans are suckers. They were gullible enough to believe a reality TV version of Trumplethinskin over the reality. The only way to get them to accept the truth is to make the lies too costly.
Statement from Ilhan Omar.
It concludes: “We are all Americans. This is endangering lives. It has to stop.”
“Documents Link AfD Parliamentarian To Moscow”:
Much, much more at the link. Here’s the BBC Newsnight report from earlier this month (about 16 minutes long).
However, thanks to gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the general level of stupidity and bigotry of the garbage people who live in the Redneck States, they won’t. Congressional Republicans are snug as a bug in a rug.
“Rusal — Oleg Deripaska’s company that was recently granted sanctions relief by Treasury — plans to invest $200 million in a Kentucky rolling mill that would be the largest new aluminum plant built in the U.S. in nearly four decades.”
Link to report at the link.
Don’t. Just don’t. Referring to a specific individual as, e.g., “hair furor”, or a well-defined group as, e.g., the “tory ultras” is one thing, but referring to an indeterminate, probably large, population is not that thing. To see this, replace “garage people” with, e.g., “hijab wearers” or “people of colour” or “cis males” or “pharyngula’s horde”.
@SC:
As far as I know Greenwald’s main objection is to the following theories, or in general theories of similar nature:
A) Trump is a puppet government of Putin.
B) Trump is a Russian agent working for Russian interests.
C) Putin has highly incriminating evidence again Trump and thus Trump is actively working to appease Russian interests.
D) There is so much illegal involvement between Trump campaign and the Russian government that they would eventually escort Trump on handcuffs from Whitehouse.
His main point is that since Mueller did not charge anyone from immediate Trump family, Trump Jr, Ivanka, Jared, etc. most of these theories are bunk. As a side point, he also blamed Democracts as well as various mainstream Democratic venues of fear mongering and building conspiracy theories without any evidence.
“Barr’s Playbook: He Misled Congress When Omitting Parts of Justice Dep’t Memo in 1989”:
Much more at the link. The content of the opinion is also highly disturbing, in my opinion.
lotharloo:
But that’s not a response to what I asked. I asked not about any “theories” or “theories of a similar nature.” These are just words people are throwing around with no grounding in agreement or disagreement about the known empirical evidence. I asked which of those specific factual claims Greenwald, Taibbi, and others are disputing. There’s no point in having a discussion if people refuse to state clearly what they believe happened and didn’t happen. Otherwise, they could be acknowledging that everything I listed @ #24 above and #146 in the previous iteration is true but still talking about a “hoax” or “conspiracy” that’s based on other claims. I’ve seen a couple of indications lately that Greenwald and Taibbi might not believe the Russians hacked the Democrats. If that’s the case, I want them to be straightforward about it. Personally, I would consider that stubbornly irrational and really the end of serious debate. Like someone who claimed well into the Watergate investigation that the break-in hadn’t occurred. Imagine a trial in which the defendant’s lawyers simply assert that the whole case is a hoax and a conspiracy theory, but without disputing any of the evidence. It’s ridiculous.
“As the nation waits for Attorney General Bill Barr to release a redacted version of the Mueller report, the special counsel is back at his office in Washington this morning.”
Photo at the link.
Update to #26 – “Trump attorneys warn accounting firm not to hand over financial records”:
@SC:
As far as I can tell, and I need to refresh my memory on this, I don’t think Greenwald denies the Russian involvement in the hacks. However, their point is that:
A) US already meddles in elections all over the world, so for Democrats to suddenly be so surprised and riled up is highly hypocritical. Or in general, everyone meddles in everyone’s elections
B) Wikileaks are journalists and if Russians hacked some emails and gave it to them, they can share it with Trump campaign or publish them.
C) Since there were no charges against Don Jr or anyone involved in the Trump tower meeting, Mueller must have decided that those meetings did not raise to the level of criminality.
D) Many aspects of the story is overblown. There might be some connection between wikileaks and Trump campaign but it was not coordinated. His primary evidence is that the campaigned sniffed that wikileaks has info on Hillary and as response they sent Roger Stone to find out but Stone at some point claimed incorrect leaks (some bullshit John Pedesta claims) which shows there was not that level of connection between wikileaks and the campaign.
More re yesterday’s elections in Finland – “Finland’s SDP tries to build coalition after narrow election win”:
“BREAKING: Redacted Mueller report expected to be released Thursday morning, a Justice Department spokeswoman said. More TK”
Measles cases up 300% worldwide in 2019, says WHO:
And, As Ebola kills in Africa, in the west lies over vaccines beguile the complacent:
lotharloo:
Your first points are irrelevant and I’ve addressed them here at great length over several years, so I won’t engage with them, except to point out, again, that they’re totally fucking irrelevant to what I’m talking about. It’s like asking an AGW denier to state whether they dispute that global warming is happening, that it’s caused by humans, that it’s likely to have particular effects, etc., and having them respond that Al Gore is fat or liberals drive cars or scientists are paid or whatever. I want to know what they’re arguing happened and didn’t happen, what specific claims they’re accepting or disputing.
Greenwald tweeted this morning: “In an article that raises some interesting points, @AndrewCMcCarthy asks why DOJ didn’t also indict Assange for conspiring with Russia over its hacking, noting that had it done so, it would have been the only time they had to prove Russia hacking in court.” This contains the clear insinuation that he doesn’t believe Russia did the hacking [based on the transparently weak suggestion that this is the only reason Assange wouldn’t be charged with conspiracy, despite the fact that a) they would have to show that Assange knew when he was conspiring with Guccifer 2.0 that Guccifer 2.0 was the GRU (which he might not have; I suspect he did, maybe not in the summer but by October, but that’s beside the point), b) proving this in court could possibly require revealing sources and methods when the existing charges against Assange and possible ones to follow wouldn’t, and c) several other relevant considerations]. Assange’s not being charged with conspiracy with the Russian government, and indeed not being guilty of conspiring with the Russian government, is entirely consistent with the Russian government stealing the emails and giving them to WL using the Guccifer 2.0 persona. They used WL to distribute the stolen documents. Mueller’s team presented in their indictment extensive evidence, added to the evidence that was already public knowledge, that the GRU hacked the Democrats and that they passed the documents to WL. If Greenwald is disputing this, he needs to come out and say it, and to offer a reasonable alternative explanation for the existing evidence. To simply continue to make the same insinuations without putting his foot down anywhere is really shady and intellectually dishonest.
Regarding this and your point D), I’ll link again to Maddow’s segment in which she quotes from messages between WL and Guccifer 2.0 (the GRU) and between WL and Don Jr. And we know Trump talked about WL 160 times during the closing months of the campaign. But it’s not like the only connection that existed between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign was through WL. It was all of the stuff I listed @ #146 on the previous iteration. I imagine there’s more to the Stone, Credico, Farage part of the story, but whether we’ll know about it anytime soon or not I have no idea; again, no individual aspect is the necessary smoking gun here. There’s a mountain of evidence of willingness to collude, collusion, and covering up (including for Putin!).
And I’ll say one more thing. People like Neera Tanden and John Podesta were the victims of a plot by a rightwing foreign adversary to interfere in our election and to elect a racist, misogynistic, corrupt, unfit monster who would do Putin’s bidding as president. Their private emails were stolen and then spread throughout the world in the most vicious manner possible, accompanied by misrepresentations encouraged by an army of bots and trolls, which WL and the Trump campaign abetted and which Clinton’s primary opponent did little to condemn or stop. I’ve not only seen no evidence of compassion from Greenwald and crew, but they instead insist on portraying people like Tanden as the primary enemies of the Left. It’s both perplexing and extremely gross and it’s horrifying to see it continue into this election cycle.
Notre Dame cathedral is on fire.
Video of the fire at Notre Dame.
Does Donald Trump believe his bizarre bluster on immigration?:
People need to get further away from Notre Dame. Parts of it could collapse.
It’s a bad fire.
The man Stephanie Ruhle is talking to cut out for a few minutes as he was saying that debris from the building was coming down like hail. When he called back, he said they had been told to move further away from the building, fortunately.
The spire just collapsed into the church.
“Fire at Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral was started by accident and is related to ongoing work, according to France 2, citing police. Either way it is terrible and a hideous blow to the symbolic heart of the city.”
Yes, it just did: France24 live coverage.
“#NotreDame: ‘The roof has entirely collapsed, there are flames coming out the back of the cathedral as if it was a torch’.”
France24 is reporting only that fire MAY be related to the works. They just had an interview with a historian, who pointed out Notre Dame is exceptionally important to France, not just Paris, and then rattled off a series of symbolically important events which have happened there over the last few centuries.
I’m sick.
WHY CAN’T HE EVER SHUT THE FUCK UP?
France24 reports the police(? fire(? sorry, forgot!)) are reporting there are no known deaths. No word on any injuries. They are also reporting that a official/stated priority is to save the heritage in the interior.
The works scaffolding is now starting to collapse. The on-the-spot reporter says that whilst the fire is clearly not yet under control, it does now seem to be confined to the central area, “the ends are no longer on fire”.
Marcon — who is now reported to be on the scence — twitteringed (in translation), “Our Lady of Paris in flames. Emotion of a whole nation. Thought for all Catholics and for all French. Like all our countrymen, I’m sad tonight to see this part of us burn.” (From the Grauniad’s live blog.)
The France24 reporter reports there are fireboats and helicopters on-scene.
SC @ 53
That’s not going to stop the usual suspects from claiming the fire was started by Muslim immigrants, or something like that. Expect the racist conspiracy kooks to be feverishly posting screeds on Twitter right now.
lotharloo @41:
“Everyone” meddles? When did the Canadian government try to hack the federal Republican party during 2016?
Assange was charged with cracking passwords, not sharing documents. Journalists are taught never to break the law in the pursuit of their stories, ergo by violating that guideline Assange isn’t a journalist.
Why did Mueller decide not to press charges? Was it because was able to assess what happened, and decided it wasn’t criminal conduct? Was it because he was able to get a good idea of what happened, but didn’t think he could prove it in a court of law? Was it because he wasn’t able to assess what happened, because of a flood of contradictory stories? Was it because he wasn’t able to assess what happened, because nobody would talk to him and/or documents were destroyed?
You don’t know. I don’t know. The guy who currently does know has a history of releasing misleading memos and burying evidence, as SC pointed out earlier.
On D), I defer to SC. What little info we got in the indictment against Stone was pretty damning, and there’s no reason to think it’s all of the evidence that exists.
France24 is now reporting the Interior Ministry is saying there are no injuries, either.
The fire apparently started in attic in the centre / rear, which also happens to be where some of the original 13th C woodwork was. (The spire was rebuilt in the 19th C.) They currently have an architectural historian speaking, who points out its very unusual for any cathedrals to still have such an extensive amount of the original woodwork.
The Grauniad reports the French civil defence and crisis management agency has just given hair furor’s idiotic suggestion to water bomb the building the reception in deserves (in translation), “The drop of water by air on this type of building could result in the collapse of the entire structure along with the fire fighers who are currently doing their best to save Notre Dame.”
France24 is quoting a Notre Dame official as saying “all” of the artwork has been saved. That’s known to be BS; at least one of the (smaller) stained glass windows was clearly broken with flames shooting through it… and the “artwork” he listed was mostly relics…
“Pulitzer to my NYT colleagues for proving that Trump probably committed criminal tax fraud and that he is daddy-made, not self-made, to the tune of many hundreds of millions of dollars. If you did’t read it then, please read it now.”
Zerlina Maxwell: “Oh right that HUGE story that took a year to report out that got basically NO MEDIA COVERAGE? oh.”
Two weeks ago, Trump said that Mueller has acted honorably, and he added that it “wouldn’t bother me at all” if the Mueller report was made public.
Trump also said, without having read the report:
He was referring to Barr’s 4-page letter, but who are we to quibble over the facts.
Over the weekend, Trump tweeted:
Today, Trump tweeted:
Yep. A 180 degree shift in tone. As was noted up-thread, the White House has been briefed on the Mueller Report, so Trump’s increasingly bonkers bloviation via Twitter is a result of him knowing that the report, even in a redacted form, will contain plenty of bad news for him.
Weirdly, Trump keeps upping the number of “angry democrats.”
blf @64, so glad to see that someone called Trump out for the ridiculous and dangerous advice he offered for putting out the fire in Paris.
In bad campaign news, we see that Trump’s re-election campaign took in $30 million in the first quarter. The campaign now has about $40 million on hand despite having paid out some fairly large sums for legal fees.
In good campaign news, Mayor Pete Buttigieg delivered an intelligent, compelling kick-off speech for his campaign. NBC News link
A few excerpts from Mayor Pete’s speech:
A few details from Buttigieg’s résumé:
Tweet o’ the day.
Akira in comment 33: “[…] the general level of stupidity and bigotry of the garbage people who live in the Redneck States, […]”
That “garbage people” comment is unacceptable. “Redneck States” is almost as bad. You have branded millions of people with derogatory labels. Less than half of those people voted for Trump, and some of those voted for a myth, or as a result of a con job that was nurtured not just by Trump and Republicans, but by Russian trolls and bots, (not to mention Fox News). You cannot look at the questionable judgement of some people and use that to brand entire populations as “garbage.” Your choice of words reminds me of Trump characterizing migrants as “an infestation.”
Also, a vote for Trump does not turn a human being into “garbage.” I ask you, I strongly advise you, to avoid such wholesale, demeaning language when posting comments to this thread.
Even when you are disagreeing with individuals, please try to be specific most of the time.
Thank you.
Followup to comment 68.
Cory Booker also formally kicked off his campaign over the weekend. Excerpt:
Eric Swalwell, also officially launched his campaign for president today. Excerpt:
Both the Grauniad and France24 are reporting the French deputy interior minister, and also the fire brigades, as saying they are uncertain if they can save it — it’s still burning — with perhaps the next two-ish hours being critical.
“Officials on scene say the next hour and a half will be crucial to efforts to save what remains of Notre Dame.
‘There’s a risk that the great bell falls. If the bell falls, it’s the tower that collapses. There are firefighters inside and outside’.”
Followup to comments 13 and 19.
From Representative Katie Porter:
She was responding to Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ claim that no one in Congress is “smart enough” to look at Trump’s taxes.
Climate scientists slam Breitbart article as ‘nonsensical’ and ‘woefully ignorant’
“This is quite possibly the worst ‘climate’-related article I’ve ever encountered.”
More at the link.
Lammy.
Pulitzer Prize details:
Link
More photos of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire.
More on British MP David Lammy calling nazis nazis (see @6), David Lammy was right to name and shame the ERG:
Followup to comment 68.
From Wonkette’s coverage of Pete Buttigieg’s speech:
Followup to blf @64 and SC @69.
From Victoria Brownworth:
The redacted version of the Mueller report is coming out on Thursday, as was noted up-thread. That’s the day before Easter weekend, which many people consider to be a holiday. The timing, I think, is not accidental.
“a journalist eyewitness being interviewed by NBC right now said that some Parisians in the streets have opened bottles of wine to share while watching the remaining moments of Notre Dame, which is incredibly French in a comforting way.”
From the G liveblog: “Notre-Dame’s main structure has been ‘saved and preserved’, a Paris fire official has told AFP.”
France24 is reporting one firefighter has been seriously injured.
And that the fire brigades now believe the structure of the building can be saved. Not the roof or spire, obviously, but they seem to be saying the stones and iconic bell towers might, just might, be salvageable. The Grauniad confirms, “Notre-Dame’s main structure has been ‘saved and preserved’, a Paris fire official has told AFP.”
Pulitzer Prize news, Washington Post update:
From John Judis, writing for TPM about Pete Buttigieg:
Rep. Ilham Omar said death threats against her have spiked as a result of an inflammatory video that was shared by President Donald Trump on Twitter about a remark she made regarding the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
USA Today link
From Talking Points Memo: “Jerome Corsi Accuses Roger Stone Of Violating Gag Order In Bizarre Filing”
Okay. I’m feeling sorry for U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is going to have to read all the mad libs and then rule on this.
Hm… Government says WaPo can’t have unredacted Manafort documents. Key papragraph (p. 8):
Game-of-Thrones-ish action inside the National Rifle Association:
“Bernie Sanders’ Last 10 Years Of Tax Returns Show He’s Now Among The Millionaires”:
Tweet o’ the day update.
NYT – “Congressional Investigators Subpoena Deutsche Bank and Other Lenders”:
David Enrich from the NYT is saying (consistent with what Maxine Waters has described) that Deutsche Bank has been working with congress to help them draft subpoenas narrowly enough that they would be able to respond. He thinks they’ll be turning over the information in fairly short order.
OK this is pretty good.
SC @96, that was a reality check for those Fox News hosts. Makes me smile.
Crossposted with the Notre Dame thread:
Incredible: “Inside #NotreDame. Only a small part of the vault collapsed. Interior seems relatively untouched. Alleluia!”
After watching the fire live, I’m astounded at these images. I’ve even seen a(n unsourced, unconfirmed) report that the organ survived. Great news.
@SC:
From minute 24 ish.
His position on the Russian involvement is that:
A) It is very plausible Russians were involved, and in fact this is what they do
B) He wanted to see solid evidence
C) He does not want to completely trust evidence or selected leaks from agencies that have a history of misleading the public
@SC:
First, so what? US meddles in elections all over the world, including when it’s being lead by fucking Democratic presidents. Hillary was a terrible candidate, she had a hawkish foreign policy and she called war criminals such as Kissinger her “friend”.
Second, you may say “irrelevant this” or “irrelevant that” but here you yourself are spreading the conspiracy that Trump is doing Putin’s bidding. Care to explain how it works?
“The 21-Year-Old Accused Of Setting Fire To Three Black Louisiana Churches Now Faces Hate Crime Charges”:
lotharloo:
Gah. I started a longform response to this, but I’m not going to bother right now. I’ve written about US global political and electoral interference for years. Look at my damn blog.
I find your reasoning politically insane and morally repugnant. Presumably you oppose US efforts to interfere in electoral politics in Honduras, Bolivia, Venezuela,…, and that you do so on political and moral grounds. It’s contrary to all democratic values and invariably leads to the entrenchment of authoritarian rightwing client states that aren’t beholden to their people; are corrupt; exacerbate inequality; destroy movements for social justice; roll back rights gains; wreck the environment; use propaganda and lies; imprison, torture, and murder with impunity;… If your response to this happening to the US is to say “Ha, serves those establishment Democratic assholes right – Good one, Putin,” you need to take a long hard look at your fucking commitments. Not only are you saying that you don’t really care about any of the people or countries victimized by this except as a cudgel to use against the US, but that you don’t care about anyone in the US or around the world (including but not limited to the direct victims of the hacking) who is suffering and will suffer as the result of a despicable interference. Your dismissing and condoning the Kremlin (I have to wonder how much you really know about that regime) is also helping enable them to push their fascist puppets in Europe and create chaos in those democracies, but hey, fuck those countries, too, and fuck all of Putin’s enemies in Europe who have their personal information stolen and used against them in a campaign of misrepresentations. That you apparently hate liberal Democrats so much that you would condone fascist electoral sabotage that resulted in a deranged clown as US president says nothing good about you.
This also points to why it’s so difficult to have a discussion or debate about this with Greenwald and that group. They present it as a rejection of factual claims (a “hoax,” a “conspiracy theory”), but won’t have the discussion at that level because it’s not really about whether any of it is true or not, is it? At root, they don’t care if it’s true because they don’t give a flying fuck what Putin or Trump or his campaign did. It’s all about attacking and laughing at the real enemy, the liberal Democratic establishment.
So after everything I said in #146 (to which much more could be added: the nomination of Tillerson, the constant attacks on allies, the suggestion that NATO commitments are optional, the suggestion that the people of Montenegro are “very aggressive” and could cause a third world war, the refusal to talk about or address ongoing or future election interference, the calls to investigate the investigators,…) this is all you have. You’re completely proving my point. Won’t respond to the pattern of evidence – just keep shouting the word “conspiracy” and asking the same intentionally vague questions to which you’ve been given the answers dozens of times. I’m done with this conversation.
lotharloo:
This is an epistemological shell game, again similar to what AGW deniers do. He’s always willing to be convinced, but the bar for convincing him somehow is never reached to the point where he absorbs that information into his view of the world. I don’t know when this was recorded, but on this question there’s no need to wait for the Mueller report. Mueller has put the evidence (that can be made public) into the GRU indictment. It includes knowledge at the level of the keystrokes of GRU agents, who are indicted by name. He said he trusts the independent investigation, and even if nothing more is put forward in the report that we see that should well be enough. That indictment was filed in July of last year. Greenwald tweeted (see #45 above) “In an article that raises some interesting points, @AndrewCMcCarthy asks why DOJ didn’t also indict Assange for conspiring with Russia over its hacking, noting that had it done so, it would have been the only time they had to prove Russia hacking in court” yesterday. This is not reasonable skepticism; it’s intellectually dishonest bullshit. But neither you nor Greenwald appear to give a fuck what the Kremlin did or who it continues to hurt in any case.
I had missed this:
Bloomberg – “Trump Immigration Agenda Suffers New Defeat With Ruling on Haitians’ Status”:
“WH Officials Having ‘Breakdown-Level Anxiety’ That Mueller Report Will Show They Ratted On Trump”:
I’m not celebrating that Putin hacked DNC. I personally don’t care.
No, I disagree with this assessment. If Hillary Clinton were a candidate who did not have hawkish foriegn policy, who did not have a history of voting for wars, and if she were not the secretary of State, or if she were always committed to a moral foreign policy, I would have cared. Then the Russians would be fucking over an innocent party, and what not. But that’s not what happened. Sure, we can nitpick and say that Hillary Clinton is obviously better than Putin, which is true, but nonetheless, she was always committed to the stupid US foreign policy even if it’s preferable to the more corrupt Russian foreign policy.
I hate the Russian government and the oligarchs associated with it. They are a blight in virtually every they get involved with, from politics, to fucking chess. I actually confess that I have a rather bigoted view towards Russians which is not nice.
First off, it is not clear how much the Russian meddling influenced the election. Second, I hate the Democratic establishment with their pathetic politics, their pandering, their meaningless opposition to the Republican, their incompetence, their non-stop submission to the Republican and rightwing agendas in forms of Obama making Bush’s tax cuts permanent, Dems voting for Republican wars, and so on. But I am not condoning Russian actions, I’m just saying this is a back and forth that has been going on for a long while and if both sides have their hands dirty, then it’s hard to feel sympathy for any of them.
I personally think there’s a financial connection between Trump and some Russian which makes him soft towards them. However, I don’t think it rises to the level that makes Trump a Russian puppet or makes him do Putin’s bidding. You mention a pattern of behaviour that is inline with your theory that Trump is doing Putin’s bidding, however, you are also ignoring other actions by Trump government that goes against Russian interests, e.g., US meddling in Venezuela, bombings of syrian bases, iran deal, Trump’s pressure on Germany to not buy gas from Russians https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-07/germany-wobbles-on-russian-gas-pipeline-as-trump-pressure-tells and so on.
On top of that, Trump is also unpredictable, incompetent, and loves dictators. He has been saying crazy stupid things about the North Korean regime and its leader but I suppose since that does not serve in the “Trump is a russian puppet” theory, we just ignore it.
If Trump is doing Putin’s bidding, I personally find it very difficult to believe that Robert Mueller missed it and that after so many months of investigation, he turned up with no inditements on this specific charge. It just doesn’t make sense.
I don’t agree with Greenwald on this, I think it’s pretty safe to assume that Russians hacked DNC but I think his views are fair, given that intelligence agencies have fooled the public in the past.
JFC.
Something that I forgot to add, while it’s true that Trump has been critical NATO and he has done actions that seem to hurt NATO (and obviously these support the theory of “Trump does Putin’s bidding”), he has been pressuring the NATO allies to spend more on their defense budget. How does this fit in the theory? Well, I don’t think it does. The only consistent pattern here is that Trump is a fucking idiot who has no clue what he’s doing.
“This is crazy. Ilhan Omar wrote a sympathetic tweet about Notre Dame and, in response, got compared to ISIS. 1,800 retweets….”
Resident right-winger in my office was wondering, quite loudly and persistently, wondered how many Muslims were on the construction crew, why they were allowed to work on a church, and will we ever know which one of them set the fire.
What the fuck is wrong with the world?
Mossadegh, Árbenz, Lumumba, Allende, Chávez, Correa, Maduro, Morales, Zelaya,…
Are/were all of these pure? “Innocent”? What’s the standard for political innocence such that we’re supposed to brush off a person or party’s sabotage by hostile foreign governments? “She had a hawkish foreign policy so I don’t care if the election is sabotaged by Russia in favor of a rightwing would-be autocrat, regardless of who’s hurt in the process” is quite a take.
Sure, centrist Democrat vs. fascistic kleptocrat – nitpick. Are you out of your fucking mind?
It’s worse than not nice.
Yes, I grasp that now. It’s clearly interfering with your ability to evaluate the evidence in the Russia-Trump matter, and to respond to what’s happened, but beyond that I still find it perplexing. Your recent intervention on the subject began with: “I personally think while the Democrats should try to get the full version of the report, they should give up on the ‘collusion’ story as it turning out to be a bullshit conspiracy theory.” That almost sounds like friendly (if ill-founded) advice, but it plainly wasn’t. Your inexplicably intense hostility is coloring your approach.
“I supported Bernie and so won’t be voting for Clinton” in 2016 was crazy enough. “I hate the Democrats so much that I don’t care about the Russian attack to subvert her campaign and help Trump win the election” is batshit.
Tweet o’ the day.
US deports husband of soldier killed in Afghanistan – then lets him back in:
The article says Mr Carranza was brought back to the States in handcuffs! At which point my incredulity detector is beeping… I need some independent confirmation on that one.
IOW: “I am not condoning Russian actions, I’m just condoning Russian actions”.
Channel 4 – “Revealed: How Leave.EU faked migrant footage”:
Over $300,000 has been raised for the rebuilding of the three churches destroyed by arson in Louisiana.
Link to the donation page at the link.
Zoe Tillman:
US measles cases surge nearly 20% in a week, CDC says:
Oh for feck’s sake.
Yet more on hair furor’s utterly absurd unsolicited ignorant advice, Experts deride Trump’s Notre Dame firefighting advice as ‘risible’:
Indeed. Reports are “A greater disaster was averted by members of the Paris fire brigade who risked their lives to remain inside the burning monument to create a wall of water between the raging fire and two towers on the west facade” — Notre Dame was ‘15 to 30 minutes’ away from complete destruction.
Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, praised Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act):
Trump still calls the Affordable Care Act a “disaster.” Trump still says that he thinks Republican Senators should repeal the Affordable Care Act. Trump still talks about a non-existent replacement healthcare plan.
Senator Grassley in 2009 raised funds based on “defeating Obama-care,” and he spread the ignorant conspiracy theory of “death panels,” etc.
From the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake:
However, even though Republicans like Senator Grassley are now admitting that, overall, Obamacare is a good thing, (or they are at least admitting that they are not going to fight over it), and even Mitch McConnell has made it clear that he is not going to come up with a replacement plan … even with all that going on, we still have Trump’s White House and Trump’s Justice Department backing the efforts of a judge in Texas to destroy Obamacare.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-admins-insane-health-care-gambit-was-the-white-houses-idea
Excerpt:
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the case in July.
As the New York Times reported, Elizabeth Warren unveiled her proposal for the management of public lands yesterday.
Excerpt:
Cory Booker unveils plan to cut taxes for half the country
The Rise Credit would boost existing tax credits for workers by an estimated $2.5 trillion, according to the 2020 candidate’s campaign.
Interesting interview with Matthew Miller about the Mueller investigation and report.
Oh, FFS.
This is from Michele Bachmann:
She was referring to the so-called “deep state” during an interview on an Olive Tree Ministries radio show. The show focuses on end-times religion.
More from Bachmann:
Nope, that’s not satire from The Onion. No, that is not an SNL skit. That’s the real far-right evangelical voice of America.
Do we really care? Probably not that much. But this latest plan from Trump does prove that he has thin skin, and that he can’t take a joke.
Link
Pete Buttigieg suggested a national service program that sounds sort of similar to Elizabeth Warrens’ plan for a “21st century Civilian Conservation Corps.” Maybe the two candidates can work on that together.
From Buttigieg:
@SC:
Then tell me what do you think is the plausible scenario. Tell me how does it work that Trump does Putin’s bidding. Do they have a code language? How does Putin send his messages? Encryption? Secret emails? Secret meetings? How did Mueller not figure this out?
Katy Tur gave birth a son, Teddy. Congratulations!
From The New Yorker, “The Dangerous Dregs of ISIS.”
Much more at the link. I think the Trump administration is ignoring this problem.
One of the points that Mayor Pete Buttigieg made on Rachel Maddow’s show last night was that Republicans can’t win a fair fight, so they are always trying to restrict voting rights. Yesterday, the Republican-controlled state House in Tennessee proved his point.
Great Republican plan: make registering new voters more onerous. This reminds me of the kind of tactics that Stacey Abrams is fighting against.
Oh, yes, throw in a little revenge against black voters as well. Very Republican.
Right. So, even if citizens work hard to register voters, Republicans will find some excuse to invalidate those registrations. Automatic registration to vote should be a nationwide standard.
The new legislation now heads for a vote in the Senate, where it has already been approved by a committee. Talking Points Memo link
lotharloo:
WTF? I described what I think is the actual scenario @ #146 on the previous iteration, and added to the list @ #102 above. That’s just some of the evidence already in the public sphere.
Yes, they have fucking had secret meetings! After which Trump has parroted Putin’s talking points. Do you even follow the news? Of course, all Trump would have to do is follow the Kremlin’s propaganda (and the bizarre Montenegro comments suggest he does) to gather the line of the moment, but that’s not even necessary since it’s all just variations on well-known themes.
Here’s an article I happened upon just a few hours ago that speaks to some of these questions: “Is Trump a Russian Agent?: Explaining Terms of Art and Examining the Facts.”
I have no idea what you’re talking about. We haven’t seen a full sentence from Mueller’s 400-page report. The fact that he didn’t charge conspiracy with the hacking and dissemination doesn’t make all of the evidence disappear. We know there’s been collusion and Trump doing Putin’s bidding because there’s extensive public evidence of it. Mueller’s report can’t reduce the amount of information we have – it can only add to it, which I’m sure it does. NBC reported that “some [Mueller] team members say his findings paint a picture of a campaign whose members were manipulated by a sophisticated Russian intelligence operation.” Virginia Heffernan has a source who said the Mueller report “really damaging to the president” and bears no resemblance to Barr’s non-summary summary.
Anyway, it’s clear to me that you’re determined to maintain your chosen posture regardless of what I say, so I suggest we put this off until the Barr-redacted version of the Mueller report is released and go from there.
Photo of Katy Tur’s baby boy:
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1118229816447328257
Adam Schiff re the report @ #37 above:
Lynna @ #132 – very sweet.
Followup to comment 130.
Texas Republicans are also working hard to restrict voting rights.
Wonkette link
“I am totally vindicated by a 400p document that I have not read and also my attorneys are preparing a point-by-point rebuttal, my staffers who might be quoted in it are freaking the F out, and I’m going to send 50 tweets dripping with flop sweat before it comes out.”
Brexit news from Nancy Pelosi:
Washington Post link
SC @134, Yes! That brightened up my whole day.
Some more good news:
Think Progress link
Bolding is mine.
Trump-Putin
It’s not rocket science. Each knows what the other wants, and understands well enough the political realities of their respective situations.
Putin can be relatively satisfied so long as, one way or another, Trump continues to erode American society.
Trump wants to expand his empire of gilded turds into Russia.
Putin has the upper hand. He also sees that Trump sometimes has to bend to congress on Russian affairs.
They needed very little contact early on through intermediaries to make sure they understood each other, so we don’t have much of a paper trail. On the other hand, you don’t need one when actions speak. This is how we know mobsters, and it’s how they get away with things anyway.
It’s amazing how naive people can be, but that’s why, at the beginning of the Trump administration, we have those sickening images of Russians smirking at the American press as they walked into a closed meeting with Trump.
lothalloo:
Secret meetings. Haven’t you kept up with the news?
Trump also closely follows the alt-Right, and the alt-Right has a thing for the Kremlin. This creates a pathway for Kremlin propaganda to land on the presidents’ ears, hence why he keep repeating their talking points.
WaPo – “Trump moves to resist House inquiries, setting up fight over congressional subpoena powers”:
ACLU last night:
“AP Exclusive: Undercover spy targeted Kaspersky critics”:
Michael McFaul: “A @nytimes reporter, @kenvogel, has blocked me on @twitter. 1st time ever. I have interacted with Mr. Vogel in the past, trying to help his reporting. Can someone from @nytimes please justify this behavior? I find it unethical.”
Signs of climate change affect White House scenic spot (video):
NY Post boycotted by Yemeni-Americans over Ilhan Omar, 9/11 cover (video).
In other cheating news… “Intel: Turkey’s future hinges on electoral commission’s decision on Istanbul rerun”:
what makes you think he didn’t.
the better question is, since the evidence of such is multiple and ALREADY entered into the public record…
why haven’t YOU figured it out?
you’re not stupid, so it must be that you don’t WANT to see the obvious.
how does that make anybody with the ability to actually reason based on evidence wish to discuss this issue with you? I mean, why would they?
Simon Rosenberg:
“CAIRO (AP) — #Egypt schedules vote on constitutional changes aimed at keeping President el-Sissi in power until 2030 for April 20-22.”
LOL.
The secret meeting alone means there was/is collusion (or whatever the fuck word is being used for it now).
Tweet o’ the day.
Jed Shugerman:
William Barr’s record of deception has been well-documented. Last night, Rachel Maddow presented the clearest picture so far of Barr’s habits of obfuscation and deception.
In 1989 as assistant attorney general, Barr declared documents sought by Congress to be confidential and offered his personal summary of the supposedly confidential documents. The documents were not confidential, and Congress had a right to see them. Barr’s summary of the main points was not just deceptive, it was so far off as to be a pack of lies.
Barr’s document said that President Bush had the right to arrest General Noriega in Panama, and to then bring Noriega to the U.S. for trial. Barr’s “summary” was that he was just clarifying U.S. laws, and blah blah blah. Barr’s sneaky deception was exposed later when the real document was released. However, exposure years later didn’t really get him in trouble, nor did it get Bush in trouble, since George H.W. Bush was no longer in office then.
Excerpts from news coverage in 1989:
Excerpts from Barr’s 1989 testimony before Congress:
That last statement from Barr is a lie. There was no such policy.
Barr went on to say, “We have no objection to explaining our conclusions and our reasoning to the committee. My testimony summarizes the principal conclusions of the opinion.” Barr never gave Congress the document. Congress subpoenaed the document about two years later.
The video is about 27 minutes long. It is worth watching more than once.
I will repeat a point I made earlier: Barr is not only a partisan player, he is also not as smart as has been claimed. I don’t think Barr’s brain works well, and that as he gets older, this is even more of a problem. His focus often seems narrowed. He can’t see the big picture and the details at the same time. He lacks integrity. Like Trump, Barr seems interested in being an all-powerful autocrat that makes decisions the little people in Congress are not allowed to question.
In 1989, Barr misled the Congress. Barr is doing the same thing now. In 1989, Barr’s summary “bore no relation at all to what was actually in the underlying document,” as Rachel Maddow pointed out.
From Ryan Goodman:
Keep that in mind when you read Barr’s redacted version of the Mueller report, which is supposed to be made public tomorrow morning.
In Italy, Salvini ‘crossed red line’ with refugee boat policy, says military (the Grauniad’s edits in {curly braces}):
Oh. FFS. Ken Starr is participating in Fox News propaganda:
Link
blf @157, Salvini is closing a “border” to migrants Trump-style. He is claiming “public security” as his excuse, just like Trump does. And, Salvini is working hard to involve military personnel in his bad policies.
On the on-going probable travesty of justice in Italy, Sudan secret police ‘worked with UK’ to arrest suspected human trafficker:
“Alan García: Peru’s former president kills himself ahead of arrest”:
Boxer Sadaf Khadem halts return to Iran after arrest warrant issued:
“APNewsBreak: Ivanka Trump says she passed on World Bank job”:
Good job, Republicans.
Carole Cadwalladr’s TED talk – “Facebook’s role in Brexit – and the threat to democracy”:
About 15 minutes long.
From the Grauniad’s live blog, Trump administration imposes new restrictions on travel to Cuba:
Some excerpts from the cited NBC article Trump will allow lawsuits over U.S. properties seized in Cuba (link embedded above):
That last phrase, “deny entry visas to […] citizens of other countries involved in trafficking in the confiscated property” can be parsed in so many ways I don’t know what it means. The most “sensible” reading is perhaps denying visa to people directly involved with the properties in question (which, I’m guessing, is roughly what the act allows), but it can also be read as (e.g.) denying visas to everyone from somehow-involved countries (i.e., much of Europe). Hair furor and teh dalekocrazy is so batshite I cannot rule out the latter (and similar) readings, whatever the arguably-batshite-itself act says.
“How Farage’s Campaign COLLUDED WITH PUTIN to Weaponise HATE AND ISLAMOPHOBIA”:
Followup to blf’s comments 64 and 119.
More comments from professionals in France who know that Trump’s suggestions for putting out the fire at Notre Dame were tres stupide:
Yahoo News link
In front of the entire world, Trump embarrasses Americans again.
Half of England is owned by less than 1% of the population:
Barr will be doing a press conference at 9:30 tomorrow morning with Rosenstein, because of course he will.
Josh Marshall:
Trump made the announcement about the Barr press conference during an interview.
Matthew Miller:
“It’s so depressing to realize how badly the media will screw up the Mueller Report release tomorrow. Advice for everyone talking about it: Go slow, be careful, use precise language, don’t rush to speak. It’s a big document and Mueller’s team surely chose their words carefully.”
Followup to SC’s comments 169, 170, 171, and 172.
Here’s what Trump said:
None of this augurs well. From Trump’s phrasing, it sounds like team Trump has already discussed the contents of Barr’s press conference.
Trump will, maybe, also preside over a press conference. That sounds like a threat.
Both press conferences are bound to be spin and propaganda.
The fairly early morning Barr presentation will not leave reporters or the public time to look at the redacted Mueller report before Barr starts spinning the narrative into LaLa Land.
There is some speculation that Barr will also announce a reopened investigation into the
originsoranges of the FBI investigation into Russian meddling, as well as possibly announcing more investigations into Hillary Clinton.It looks like Trump has turned Barr not only into his Roy Cohn, but also into a member of the Sarah Huckabee Sanders communications team.
One more example of the never-ending flood of Republican anti-abortion legislation:
Link
From Wonkette’s coverage of the William Barr fiasco:
Video available at the link.
William Barr Has Trashed His Own Justice Department to Try to Save Trump
Link
John Dowd has not read the Mueller report: “John Dowd, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, is calling the Mueller report ‘pure mischief’ and ‘not fair,’ believing that it will cause undue problems for the president.”
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dowd-mueller-report-pure-mischief-not-fair
Turkish opposition candidate declared winner of disputed Istanbul vote:
Follow-up to @165, EU, Canada reject Trump’s Cuba sanctions policy:
From Rachel Maddow:
From Representative Nadler:
From Peter Carr, the Special Counsel spokesman:
From The New York Times:
Does any of this make Barr look better? No. Everything we are seeing reveals that Barr is Trump’s man.
From Trish Turner:
The White House is coordinating with the Justice Department, (or at least with William Barr), to further obstruct justice, and to obscure the truth.
From Sam Stein:
From Hakeem Jeffries, Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. Member of the Judiciary and Budget Committees:
From Glenn Kessler:
From Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff:
From Representative Val Demings:
Oh right, Trump’s polling data! It came up a while ago, and I swatted down that down as being premature. Now that we’re several weeks from Barr’s original announcement, we can assess how much impact it’s had.
That’s just from one pollster, though. On one of FiveThirtyEight’s podcasts, Nate Silver said the report had given Trump a 0.2% bump. I don’t have a link to that, alas, but their live aggregator shows a minor blip about a month ago that’s barely perceptible.
Tomorrow may bring a bigger change, but we won’t know for at least a week after.
If any readers were thinking Barr’s deliberately drew out the reveal of the report to coincide with a holiday, give yourself a cookie.
Also, everybody’s overreacting!
See? Trump and his advisors have all seen the report on whether or not Trump and his advisors obstructed justice, and concluded there’s no major wrongdoing on display. Congress has nothing to worry about!
Just spotted this press release from key Democratic Party members in the House:
There’s more behind the link, but you get the gist.
Pelosi and Schumer are calling for Mueller to testify publicly before congress “as soon as possible.”
southpaw: “If they let me write this episode, Mueller would call his own press conference on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at 9:45a.”
With his whole team, ideally.
“At 7:18am, Robert Mueller was seen arriving at the special counsel’s office, per @erica_yueh who spotted him.”
Brian Schatz: “HEY DON’T WRITE HEADLINES AND CHYRONS BASED ON WHAT BARR SAYS SORRY FOR YELLING BUT THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT THANK YOU.”
“Australia Says It’s ‘Ready To Confirm’ A Key Meeting That Led To The Investigation Into Trump’s Russia Links”:
I wonder if there’s anything in the report about Papadopoulos telling Russia-friendly high officials in the Greek government as well.
Natasha Bertrand – “Post-Mueller report likely to target Russia dossier author Steele”:
Great.
Ted Boutrous: “This absence tomorrow by Mueller and his team is emblematic of a—maybe the—major failing of the Mueller investigation. Silence, a blind refusal to explain to the public what has been happening and why.”
Maggie Haberman: “Sorry but this is not a press conference – it’s an opportunity for Barr to put a spin on the ball or defend himself. No one can ask real questions here.”
Barr all along has been claiming he’s settled issues and informed congress/the public about them (executive privilege claims, the timing and process of the release of the redacted report, the nature of the redactions, whether or not he’ll speak about the redacted report before it’s released) and then just completely ignoring his earlier dishonest statements.
“Recall key exchange on whether will claim executive privilege:
Barr 1: Asks for restating question
Barr 2: would have to be asserted by President (Trump said he wouldn’t)
Barr 3: notes loophole: President has left decision to me
Barr 4: I have ‘no plan’ to do that”
Now they’re saying Barr’s press conference will cover whether exec privilege was invoked. Outrageous corruption.
During Watergate, were there people on the Left doing Nixon’s propaganda work?
Josh Marshall: “Best part of today is Barr heatshielding Rod Rosenstein around town like the wronged wife at his I’m so sorry presser.”
This is pure spin.
“BREAKING: Mueller report examines 10 episodes of potential obstruction by Trump. Barr says he and Rosenstein ‘disagreed with some of the special counsel’s legal theories.'”
The spinning of “illegally participated” is noticeable.
“So basically Barr Letter, extended dance mix.”
He’s spinning like he’s at a club in Ibiza.
Barr now just arguing with the report he’s supposed to be presenting.
“Barr says White House counsel was also given access to the report in past few weeks, despite AG saying last month he had no plan to submit the report to WH.”
Barr’s full prepared remarks.
“This is astonishing. He’s Trump’s defense attorney.”
“Alternate Barr: Trump & campaign encouraged and embraced Russian interference in election without rising to level of criminal conspiracy and then covered it up and obstructed justice but without sufficient provable criminal intent to make it a crime in eyes of pro-Trump lawyer.”
“Never thought I would hear an AG stand up and make excuses for a president’s repeated attacks on DOJ and it’s lawful investigations. Such a shameful performance.”
Shameful and also weak.
“NEW: Nadler has formally invited Mueller to testify before the House Judiciary Committee — ‘no later than May 23’.”
Barr said in response to a question that he wouldn’t object to Mueller testifying.
He had no answer to the question about why Mueller wasn’t there.
“If that was Barr’s best shot, it was pretty off-target. And the narrative now leaves his control. He’s done. It is all in the hands of the Congress now.”
I’m worried about the spinoff investigations, though.
“Chris Wallace on Fox: ‘The Attorney General seemed almost to be acting as the counselor for the defense, the counselor for the president, rather than the Attorney General, talking about his motives, his emotions… Really, as I say, making a case for the president’.”
On Fox.
“Barr’s description of Trump campaign involvement in Russia-WikiLeaks operation to distribute (includes timing, coordination of messaging) stolen emails was VERY NARROWLY worded compared to Barr’s description of IRA and GRU hacking. And let’s not just focus here on criminality.”
Yes, this was where he used “illegally participated.”
“I simply don’t understand how you can actually claim that Trump ‘took no act that in fact deprived the Special Counsel’ of witnesses when Trump REFUSED TO SIT DOWN FOR AN INTERVIEW WITH THE SPECIAL COUNSEL!!”
He also intimidated witnesses, celebrated non-participation, and dangled pardons.
“From Barr’s comments, you would never know that the Mueller probe had led to the indictment of Trump’s campaign chair & deputy, his longtime political aide, his national security adviser, his longtime personal attorney, and several lower-level campaign volunteers.”
Well, as defense opening statements go, that was pretty tepid–hardly a full-throated defense of an “honest man” wronged by “the system”. The Rethugs have signaled very clearly that the game being played here is politics. It will be interesting to see whether the Dems are sufficiently adroit to get the message. This should make for an interesting if unproductive afternoon.
THE REPORT.
“Beginning in June 2016, [redacted – Harm to Ongoing Matter] forecast to senior Campaign officials that WikiLeaks would release information damaging to candidate Clinton.”
There’s too much!
“Mueller’s team referred 14 investigations to other US attorney’s offices.”
“From Mueller report: “when Sessions told the President that a Special Counsel had been appointed, the President slumped back in his chair and said, ‘Oh my god. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m f—d.’””
Sounds pretty fuckin’ bad!
Julia Ainsley is reading parts from pp. 381-2 about how congress can decide on several criminal matters related to obstruction. Barr is such a liar.
I fucking hope at least one of those 14 investigations is about the financial ties. They really need to find something incriminating on Trump, the obstruction itself is not going to do it.
SC @221, Barr substantially mischaracterized the Muller report. He did that in public. He did that in an official press conference. He has done that five times so far … and all before he released the report to Congress and to the public.
The Mueller report also provides the details of when Trump asked McGahn to see that Mueller was fired.
From Steve Benen, “In bizarre press conference, Barr said what Trump wanted to hear”:
As SC noted up-thread, the White House did not fully cooperate!
Reading between the lines on the Introduction to Volume II, the implication is that, without this OLC opinion https://www.justice.gov/olc/opinion/sitting-president%E2%80%99s-amenability-indictment-and-criminal-prosecution
he would have recommended filing criminal charges against Trump.
From Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/key-part-of-the-report-on-obstruction
Here’s what Watergate experts thought of Barr’s ‘political defense’ of Trump
“He was a shill for the president,” one Watergate expert said.
Mainstream news outlets fall for the White House’s spin of the Mueller report. Again.
Attorney General William Barr sought to spin the Mueller report before its release. Several news outlets were happy to oblige.
Matt Miller was just reading from a section that makes clear that Senate Intel Committee Chair Richard Burr fed Trump (via McGahn, I believe) the names of the investigation’s targets. I wonder if Mark Warner is just learning this.
From David Corn:
Link
Katyal is saying the document is “entirely a handoff to congress.”
From Representative Eric Swalwell:
And there’s this, as Zack Budryk wrote, which sounds like more witness tampering by Trump:
Link
lotharloo @222:
In the past, obstruction alone was enough.
What’s changed is twofold. The Republican Party has become more authoritarian, in that it follows the whim of the President far more than it did decades ago, and that it is far more concerned with retaining power than being ethical. Also, the media landscape has become far more deferential to the President and the Republican Party; historian Michael Beschloss has argued that Nixon would have fared a lot better if Fox News existed back then.
WL section heavily redacted for HOM, but more re Stone (presumably), Gates, Trump, Manafort, Corsi (I think I mistakenly said Credico above), Farage, Assange.
“Page 52 of volume 2, Footnote 309. Richard Burr has a lot of questions to answer.”
From CNN: “Minimal reference to Trump’s finances in Mueller report.
There are no references in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report to President Trump’s taxes or loans to his business beyond the discussions around Trump Tower projects in Moscow that was evaluated under the “collusion” umbrella.”
I would say that’s great news. I find it unlikely he did not investigate them so hopefully one of those 14 investigations …
And I have to add that Russian skeptics were generally right. As it turns out, the “Trump a Russian asset/puppet, or Trump doing Putin’s bidding” conspiracy theories have been bullshit, at least as far as I can see.
It’s time to go beyond this “Russian derangement syndrome” and focus on things that can actually hurt or bring down Trump: his finances.
@Hj Hornbeck:
I’m sure you know but Democrats don’t have the votes to do shit.
“New: @PressSec Sarah Sanders admitted to Mueller her public comments about FBI weren’t based in fact. Specifically, Sanders said her assertion in response to question about FBI agents supporting Comey wasn’t ‘founded on anything’, according to Mueller.”
Lying asshole.
lotharloo @ #237, LOL. Run along.
SC @239, I could tell Sarah Huckabee Sanders was lying when she said that, not just because it was unlikely that she had spoken to a bunch of FBI agents who purportedly hated Comey (or thought he was a terrible boss), but because she looked like she was desperate and making shit up.
So glad to see her caught for blatantly lying.
Tweet (thread) o’ the day: “All right. I just finished the Mueller Report. I’m going to combine the most shocking and important revelations in one thread. Long and short: there was collusion, there was obstruction, Donald Trump needs to be removed from office. Immediately….”
Kellyanne Conway’s alternative facts for today:
“We concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a President’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice,” Mueller wrote.
Mueller also explained why this is constitutionally proper. “Congress can permissibly criminalize certain obstructive conduct by the President, such as suborning perjury, intimidating witnesses, or fabricating evidence, because those prohibitions raise no separation-of-powers questions.”
Exactly.
Followup to comment 244.
More text, more context:
Lotharloo,
I think that you may have some confusion as to what constitutes an “asset”. To be an asset, all one has to do is perform some desirable service that furthers your goals. It can be willingly or unwillingly, knowingly or unknowingly. One does not even have to meet or know the asset.
DJT has demonstrated a willingness to curry favor with Putin since well before he decided to run for office. He’s shown he can be manipulated easily and predictably through flattery, cajolery or disinformation. Moreover, it is clear that the man has a lot that he wants to keep hidden. Keeping secrets is a great way to advertise your services as an asset. It is inconceivable to me that someone like Putin, coming from an intelligence background, would look at DJT and not think “Asset”.
Agent is another story.
From the Mueller report:
From the Mueller report, text from a footnote:
A Russian businessman involved in the Trump Tower Moscow project seems to have said that the “pee tapes” were fake. How do you stop the flow of fake tapes? Other than that, we don’t have any news here. There’s no confirmation that the tapes were fake, no confirmation that the tapes were/are real, and no confirmation if the tapes exist, ever existed, etc.
lotharloo @237:
So wait, I show that Trump had several secret meetings with Putin and that he was repeating Kremlin talking points, and your response is that anyone thinking there was collusion/coordination between Trump and Putin is engaging in “bullshit” “conspiracy theories”?
Riiiiight. I see where your head is at.
Mike Levine:
Or, in other words, Trump dangled pardons to encourage a witness to lie and thus obstruct an ongoing investigation.
nycsouthpaw:
That’s effectively coordination of messaging between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, during the election, in order to benefit Trump. The only thing missing is the smoking gun.
Steve Reilly:
That’s a LOT of shoes that have yet to drop.
@a_ray_in_dilbert_space:
He does the same thing with Netanyahu, yet nobody accuses him of being Netanyahu’s puppet. He also sucks up to Kim Jong Um, any no conspiracy theories there.
This strikes me as interesting. From the report, emphasis mine:
Combine that to Lynna’s quote from Josh Marshall @226, emphasis by me:
In essence, the SCO is saying they had enough information to determine intent, but due to existing policy they couldn’t even accuse him of a crime. It sounds like Mueller and team were trying to say “Trump obstructed justice” in the report, but without explicitly saying those words.
Adam Schiff: “The House Intelligence Committee has formally invited Special Counsel Mueller to testify on the counterintelligence investigation.
After a two year investigation, the public deserves the facts, not Attorney General Barr’s political spin.”
They’re asking to arrange a date in May.
lotharloo @253:
Israeli agents weren’t contacting his election team offering dirt on his opponent. His campaign manager wasn’t giving internal polling data to someone connected to the Mossad. He hasn’t tried to hold secret meetings with Netanyahu, or tried to destroy any paper trail of what was said during said meetings. He hasn’t repeatedly denied he was building something in Israel, in the middle of his election campaign.
I mean, I know by now that you’ve got a loose grip on reality, but c’mon. You should have been able to answer this one yourself.
Schiff will be doing a press conference shortly.
And anyway Kushner is Netanyahu’s puppet. :)
@Hj Hornbeck:
So what? The important point is whether or not there was coordination, or else as I have noted above, Trump also parrots right-wing Israeli propaganda and takes direct measures to empower them, he even tried to help Netanyahu win with his latest stupid policy.
@Hj Hornbeck:
Again, my understanding of the Mueller’s report is that there was no coordination. Without coordination, it’s Russia trying to pursue Russian interests. And since we are on the topic of Israel, I’m pretty sure Netanyahu’s government will try to get Trump re-elected. But so what? That’s the game that’s been played.
lotharloo @260;
Your understanding is wrong. Read the damn report, via this searchable version, then come back here.
“This is they key take-away: Mueller has assembled the facts, many of which are prima facie very damning, but its not his job to hold Trump accountable. It’s the job of congress & the American public. Release of the redacted report is the beginning of that reckoning, not the end”
Jon Favreau: “I don’t know how you can read this report and not conclude that an impeachment inquiry is warranted.”
Hee.
Daniel Dale: “Starting to think William Barr is not a great summarizer.”
Jim Sciutto:
It seems like the report, even redacted, is painting a horrible picture of Trump.
I’m surprised Barr didn’t redact more tho.
What game are they playing?
HJHornbeck@#254
That was certainly my interpretation of the Introduction to Volume II (@#225)
Reading further, it’s clear Mueller considered there was sufficient evidence o indict on more than one count of obstruction
F.O.:
<
blockquote>What game are they playing?<?blockquote>
They are playing the game of “Let’s muddy the water enough so that the GOP voters can still vote for us, the rich asswipes will still donate to us, and Fox News will still be able to present it as a political attack”. Remember, many of the things that I, and others, think are horrible about Trump are exactly the things that his followers like. And his followers will be voting in the primaries.
At least 2 clear-cut cases of witness-tampering:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2019/apr/18/mueller-report-release-donald-trump-latest-news-live-updates-analysis-key-points?page=with:block-5cb8dc488f085bb0e0de463b#block-5cb8dc488f085bb0e0de463b
This is [REDACTED]
@Oggie #269: fair enough, thanks.
SC @264, So good. That one had me laughing out loud. Same for 265.
F.O. @267, they are counting on the fact that most people will not read the report. They are counting on the fact that many people will accept, and form their opinions based on, what William Barr said on TV today. They are, unfortunately, probably right.
From Garrett M. Graff, writing for WIRED:
Much more at the link.
I was wondering whatever happened to this. Emphasis mine.
The Kremlin thought that Trump was asking for their help with the election, according to Sessions himself.
From the Mueller report:
Also, we should note that after he knew that he was indeed under investigation, Trump continued to tell the public that he was not under investigation.
From Steve Benen:
I want what Glenn Greenwald is smoking.
@HJ Hornbeck:
Okay, I looked into and I found this on the 10t page:
Text describing how Sarah Huckabee Sanders lied repeatedly:
Other statements Sarah Sanders made while she lied in the same vein:
“Most importantly, the rank and file of the FBI had lost confidence in their director.”
“Most of America had decided on their own that Director Comey was not the person that should be leading the FBI, as evidenced by the numerous comments that we’ve seen from Democrat members in the House and Senate, Republican members, members of the FBI, and people across the board.”
She also claimed that Trump himself “had countless conversations with members from within the FBI.”
That’s a lot slips of the tongue.
Oh, FFS. Trump used the Game of Thrones font and style to depict himself with a “Game Over” graphic that also proclaimed “No Collusion. No Obstruction. For the Haters and the Radical Left Democrats—Game over.” Trump posted this using all caps for the text. (I’m not going to link to this garbage.)
From HBO:
“If this is what a complete and total exoneration looks like, I’d hate to see a damning report.”
Link
More at the link.
A mention of Putin:
lotharloo, you cut out the surrounding context. Bolding is my emphasis, italics is what you quoted.
“Establish” is a term of art with a very narrow meaning, don’t project your lay understanding onto it. In this case, it means something more like “justified beyond a reasonable doubt,” a pretty high standard to hit.
“This report makes clear that the vast amount of reporting by mainstream outlets about Trump and Russia was on the mark.”
AOC:
@HJ Hornbeck:
Okay, I get your point. So it’s not an exoneration. It does not even say that Trump did not collude with Russia on other issues. But nonetheless, it’s a much worse outcome than what I was hoping to get let’s say a year ago.
lotharloo @285:
Can’t help you there. Still, if one way you judge this report’s effectiveness is by how Trump reacts, he refused to take questions this afternoon after previously promising to take questions. It sounds like the White House didn’t expect this level of blow-back.
Interesting, it seems Glenn Greenwald is already trying to memory-hole some of the errors he made about the SCO report.
I’m still trying to figure out how much of the conspiracy findings amount to “we know they tried on multiple occasions, but they (1) may have been too stupid to understand that’s illegal, or (2) were too incompetent to succeed, or (3) were prevented from doing so by third parties.” It seems to be “(4) all of the above,” but then there’s also “(5) redacted.” It’s totally unacceptable no matter what, of course.
Another option is that this was also meant to be passed off to Congress to start impeachment proceedings, along with the obstruction stuff. If the reasoning is that they could only investigate the latter (not make a “traditional prosecutorial judgment” ) — hence the way that’s somewhat obscured in the language, and was mangled into a contradicting interpretation by Barr, Trump, etc. — then that would apply just as well to any conspiracy findings. That isn’t specific to something like obstruction; it’s a completely general issue related to presidential powers. So of course they’re going to avoid a clear, explicit “determination,” in so many words, because that’s not what they set out to do in their report.
Anyway, I’m sure the sophistry from Trump supporters (and other ignorant/confused people) will continue, and only become more ridiculous if that’s possible. They should just be ignored/mocked/etc., so the grown-ups can take care of things. But I’m really not sure that establishment Democrats will do their jobs, as opposed to obsessing over their polling numbers….
consciousness razor @288:
I was feeling that way, until I listened to the second segment of the latest Pod Save America. Long story short: impeachment may be the right thing to do, but with Republicans and the right-wing noise machine pushing back it could easily backfire. Rather than begin all-or-nothing impeachment hearings that would climax just before the elections, start up a lot of smaller investigations and begin a steady trickle of damning judicial and legislative findings. Weather away at Trump’s diehard base, and let the voters do the impeachment for you. That is both safer and more likely to succeed.
Having said that, Maxine Waters offers up a strong counter-point. I’ll just quote the conclusion:
No, it is part of their job, according to our Constitution. This isn’t a game of chess, and it isn’t about political strategizing. Article I does not tell the House to “ask yourself whether or not you think this will be politically advantageous right now.” You do what the Constitution requires, as an elected official, or you may resign. Both Democrats and Republicans need to accept that responsibility, or they should have never run for office in the first place. They can go work in an International House of Pancakes instead, where they will do less damage.
But let’s think about this. Suppose the Republicans do want to play games. They should be happy to see Democrats harm their chances politically, if that’s what they genuinely believe will come of this. I’m not going to be scared off by that, however. If they know what they’re doing with their games, they should jump at the chance to allow it, because they believe it will be good for them — do you see them acting that way? I don’t. Let them figure that out among themselves, if they think they understand the minds of millions of people so well. They don’t seem to understand much of anything very well, and I don’t buy it.
But I just don’t care about that anyway. I didn’t vote for Democrats so they can do what is most convenient for them (or me) at any particular moment. They have to follow the Constitution, uphold the rule of law, and have a meaningful separation of powers, or else we are all fucked, not just Trump. And …. when Dems don’t do that, what exactly is my vote supposed to reflect in next election? Definitely not that I approve of them being afraid of responsibility, not that I like when they once again fail to use their control of the House, and definitely not that they are more interested in manipulating voters like me than simply doing their fucking jobs. My vote will reflect desperation, at best. As a strategy, if that’s how you insist on thinking about it, that leaves something to be desired.
Well that shouldn’t have stopped Mueller – after all, what he was dealing with is a lying President ;-)
consciousness razor @ 291
But… that’s been the Democrat’s strategy since 1992.
Hj Hornbeck @ 289
Ummm… Trump’s diehard base are fascist, racist, inbred, Bible-humping, gun-fondling garbage people. They have no problem with anything Trump does, legal or illegal, as long as it “triggers the lib-tards.”
You can’t expect help from that redneck trash.
FWIW, the Constitution does not specify any circumstances under which the House MUST impeach the President. All it says is that only the House can impeach, only the Senate can convict, and upon impeachment AND conviction, the President SHALL BE removed from office.
What is more, impeachment is quite rare. Only 2 Presidents have been impeached–both subsequently acquitted. (Nixon wasn’t one of them, and while it is likely he would have been impeached, it is possible the Senate might not have convicted him.) Fewer than 10 Federal officials (mostly judges) have been removed from office by impeachment–although several others have resigned, some to actually be acquitted afterwards!
To my mind, impeachment is probably a bridge too far. I think it could be more valuable to investigate the hell out of DJT and friends, forcing the Rethugs to defend the indefensible. What really matters is 2020. Whoever controls state houses after 2020 will control redistricting and so control the House for the next decade, as well as determining whether the electorate is broadened or narrowed.
If you support a liberal agenda, this should be the prize you keep in mind. Legislators are a lot more likely to cater to the left if the only challenges they face come from that direction.
The game being played here is politics–and I guarantee that the sausage being made by either party isn’t vegan.
“BREAKING: Trump revises ACA to reduce subsidies for families buying ACA coverage by $1 Billion, cutting 70,000 more from the exchanges.”
This is fine.
The problem is, if impeachment doesn’t happen now when it has happened to Clinton for lying under oath, the message this sends is, at best, that we no longer care how illegally, immorally, or terribly a president acts; they can use the government as their tool however they like and still be considered a useful leader of the country.
At worst, it sends the message that it doesn’t matter how illegally, immorally, or terribly a president of one party acts, as long as the rest of the party puts power over everything else and breaks governmental systems to achieve their goals.
Yes, it helps if the president can be charged with and prosecuted for crimes they commit once they leave office, in that something is better than nothing, but there’s all sorts of nonsense around what you can and can’t do to a sitting president and who a president can and can’t pardon. Plus, the president (according to sections of the Mueller report) has a lot of power to bury or destroy evidence that could be used for prosecution because they are the highest singular leader in this country. Without impeachment, we could have a system where a president can rule absolutely and blatantly criminally, then just destroy evidence and interfere with investigation so they are safe once they leave office.
It’s a terrible mess to be in, all because you think that impeachment might not be the politically best move to make.
Chris J.,
What it says if the current occupant of 1600 Penn Ave. is not impeached is:
1) Democrats are better at doing math than Republicans–the math says this isn’t an action that wins them votes.
2) The American people realize that impeachment is political, not legal.
3) It expresses confidence in American institutions that they can survive 4 years under an utter imbecile.
4) It says that Democrats are willing to play the long game and set up the shot before they take it.
Above all, it shows there’s an appreciation that if DJT were impeached in the House and acquitted in the Senate, that he could ride a wave of sympathy back into office for another 4 years.
I just can’t agree with your points. It definitely is a gamble about whether the presence of impeachment would affect the election one way or another, but let’s add to that gamble by pointing out that if the current occupant of 1600 Penn Ave. is not impeached, then he has free reign to paint the whole investigation as partisan (as he’s been doing) that found no collusion (as he’s been doing) and that boost in political morale could fuel his re-election.
Making impeachment political is one thing, but making it partisan is another, and the lack of any consequences as a result of everything that has been found cements the investigation as partisan, not merely political or not-legal.
Meanwhile, checks and balances become meaningless.
TPM: “Read All About It: Newspaper Front Pages Deliver Bad News For Trump.”
Chris J.,
I share your frustration–the man is utterly vile. However, what would be the point of impeaching DJT if you can’t even muster 50 votes in the Senate to bring the issue to the floor, let alone 67 votes needed to convict? And even if you did convict, the replacement would be Mike Pence!
The risk-reward calculus just isn’t there. Meanwhile, if they take a page a day from the Meuller report for hearings, they can keep a steady drip of corruption, incompetence and downright fuckery until after election day. The goal is not just to defeat DJT, but to defeat the Republicans. Defeating Trump but still having to deal with McConnell is not a win.
The electoral map is tight. The former blue-wall states are now swing states, and DJT has a formidable war chest of campaign funds he can use to drip poison into the ears of the citizens there. DJT is starting with a solid base of 40% who will vote for him no matter what. We cannot afford to alienate that many voters before the DJT’s re-election comes within stealing distance.
a_ray_in_dilbert_space:
I can also share a need for practicality. I’m usually an extremely practical person. But in this case, I think we need to take a more righteous stance to preserve the few bits of institution we have left.
Mike Pence as president faces re-election in 2020 if Trump is impeached, with the usual problems of ramping up and new leadership. Trump has already hobbled the government, so I don’t see Pence as being able to cause much more trouble than Trump already is. Additionally, a successful impeachment would mean that even Republicans have judged Trump and the whole debacle of an administration he set up as too far. I see that as a plus for the 2020 elections, and one that would allow Democrats to campaign on something other than Anti-Trump more successfully.
So what happens if impeachment passes the house and not the senate? Given all the information in the Mueller report, I see this still as positive for Democrats in 2020. It means that Democrats are willing to act on the report’s findings and grant it legitimacy, and they can hammer Republicans for not doing the same. Meanwhile, Republicans put themselves even more at Trump’s disposal, who may be popular with a rabid fan base but still only has a 40-ish% approval rating.
The problem I see with avoiding impeachment is that voters will see that the people who are in charge of impeachment don’t see the Mueller findings as a big deal. No matter what they personally think, they’ll wonder why the investigation happened at all if the findings weren’t going to matter, and the more center-ish voters will start to see the investigation and the Democrats who pushed it so hard as a big flop. Disillusionment is strong in this age, and it works in service of Trump and the Republicans.
In other words, I see it more likely that doing nothing will alienate voters on the fence, because the investigation will look exactly like Benghazi; a bunch of sound and fury signifying nothing in the end, with Democrats who can’t follow through. Impeachment would involve laying out exactly what grounds the impeachment is based on, and there are enough facts in the Mueller report, I believe, to convince a normal voter that there is grounds for doing so.
It’s pretty cool that we’ve come to the point where a serious case is being made that there shouldn’t be any consequences for
the presidentthis president for attempting to obstruct justice.A nice long article from The Atlantic: Impeach Donald Trump
a_ray, you said you want a bunch of hearings that show “a steady drip of corruption, incompetence and downright fuckery.” What’s supposed to be the fucking difference? It’ll show all of that … but somehow, they’re also not supposed to charge Trump (or his cronies) with anything. Presumably, that’s the difference, even though makes no sense. It would be an extended whining session, about things you consider unimportant (since you may call them corruption, incompetence and downright fucking, but you don’t really mean it). It would just be a bit of political theater and nothing more. Pretending as if you’re running the government and making a case, but only ever pretending.
Isn’t that what you’re asking for? If so, what would be the point of that?
correction: “fuckery” not “fucking”
It sounds like what you want the House to do, by the way. Just fuckery, not governing.
a_ray @302:
You’re right. And Donald J Trump is not the only one wielding a formidable war chest in his re-election campaign. He also still has the backing of Russia. As I write this, Russian trolls and bots are flooding the internet to push Trump’s view of the Mueller report, and to weaken the impact of any bad news about Trump. They are also obviously pushing previously-debunked conspiracy theories about the FBI “spying” on Trump … and on and on.
It’s a formidable re-election machine and it will continue to bury the facts and to nurture Trump’s lies right through 2020.
What went on in the past, and a harbinger of what is to come:
CNN link
Here’s Trump’s nonsense from today, (this is basically what Russia is repeating in various ways):
Note that Trump is scapegoating the note-taker, Don McGahn, the lawyer who gave the Mueller team some of the most damaging information on Trump when it came to obstruction of justice, or attempts to obstruct justice. McGahn is credible. Trump is not.
Most Americans (yes, even Republicans) know Trump and Co. are corrupt shits, it’s just that they don’t care. Until his policies hurt them personally (especially in the pocket books) they won’t care.
Akira @294:
Akira! Wake up. Please read comment 35 (from blf), and especially comment 70 (from me). Read those two comments several times. Make sure you understand.
From Susan B. Glasser, writing for The New Yorker:
Trump is joking about staying in office as president for more than two terms. This “joke” makes my stomach turn:
Washington Post link
We’d better keep an eye on this.
The Mueller report debunks Barr’s ‘No Collusion=No Obstruction’ lie:
TPM link
Much more at the link.
Armed white nationalist militias are now coordinating with U.S. Border Patrol to “detain” migrants.
Text excerpts below are from the New York Times and the Guardian.
Link
A Florida man was arrested over violent threats against Democratic members of Congress.
Link
Republican Representative Matt Gaetz just hired a white nationalist.
Link
Followup to comment 279.
From Wonkette’s coverage of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ lies that were discussed in the Mueller report:
Link
Several video snippets are available at the link, including a video of April Ryan responding.
Yes, one guy on Fox News still tells the truth:
Link
Oh, FFS. Trump has reverted to blaming President Obama for allowing Russian interference in U.S. elections:
Link
Trump does not look good when compared to Obama. Trump does not look good when he reveals his ongoing obsession with President Obama.
From Elizabeth Warren:
From Mitt Romney:
Hahaha
CR and CJ, Actually, impeachment would be more political theater than would hearings, since the Senate would fail to convict and might not even bring it to the floor. Once the House pulls that trigger, they have shot their bolt. They relinquish control and attention. The ball is squarely in McConnell’s court.
Hearings can be timed to make lives miserable not just for DJT, but also for his enablers well into the election year.
And what is more, the public support for impeachment is not there. I am old enough to remember the Clinton impeachment. All it accomplished was neuter Newt and give Clinton a boost in popularity that he did not deserve. Politics is the art of the possible. I say we should focus on the ones we can actually win.
@321. Saad:
CNN is a fucking joke, worst clickbait website ever.
@a_ray_in_dilbert_space:
Initially, I thought impeachment was pointless but after thinking about it for a while, I think it’s the right thing to do.
Cons:
1) Impeachment will result in a political theater, with little actual gain.
2) It will hurt Democrats in the short term. Fox news will play the “impeach the motherfucker” clip over and over and over again, and tell its ignorant viewers that the Dems wanted to do the impeachment regardless of the outcome of the Mueller report, which by the way is great and totally and completely exonerates Trump and says that it was all Obama’s fault!
3) It will distract from other issues, e.g., Trump taxes, actual policy positions, etc.
Pros:
1) It’s the right thing to do. It’s very clear Trump tried to obstruct justice, multiple times and through multiple ways.
2) In a few years, after the Foxnews propaganda is forgotten, impeachment will still stay as the right decision that Democrats made. For a moment, think about the legacy of the Clinton impeachment for the Republicans. It’s that “Republicans tried to impeach Bill Clinton because of a blowjob”. That’s what the public remembers, even though at the time Republicans used a lot of fake holy rage about the office of the president, testimony under oath and many other talking points that are completely forgotten. What would be the legacy of the Democrats if they don’t impeach? It would be that Donald J. Trump tried everything he could to obstruct justice and Democrats were fine with it.
3) It will help fire up the Democratic base. It will show the base that their representatives are willing to fight instead of doing political calculations.
I don’t think it’s an easy decision but I think there are stronger arguments for the impeachment position.
Lotharloo,
OK, so let me get this straight. The right thing to do is for Democrats to fall on their sword, throw their legislative agenda into chaos, trash whatever good will they have built up in opposition to Darth Cheeto and all with zero probability of succeeding and the likelihood that their actions will deliver a second term to the imbecile?
Yeah. OK. I don’t think that’s gonna happen. Impeachment died when Democrats didn’t take back the Senate–which means that it really died in 2012 (the math was always against winning the Senate), before Trump even declared.
Has Donald Trump committed impeachable offenses. Without doubt. Is he a disaster as President? Again, no doubt. But since impeachment will never happen in the current incarnation of the Congress–hell, it’s not even clear it would make it through the House–what matters, all that matters is winning BIG in 2020. We cannot do that with the base only. We can’t do that when over 50% of the public opposes impeachment.
Again, politics is the art of the possible–not the beau geste.
a_ray_in_dilbert_space @325
And what about the law? What other crimes should we ignore because it’s politically inconvenient to enforce. What else is the president above?
Impeaching Trump is not about gestures, it’s about THE FUCKING LAW.
@a_ray_in_dilbert_space:
I’ll take your points in reverse order.
Yes, we can. You don’t need to convince the republican voters to vote for a Democrat. You don’t need to convince the right-leaning independents. If you can motivate your own base, you can win. Therefore, any political maneuver should be judged not only on its potential to pull in people who are not in your camp to vote for you, but also on its potential to bring more of your base to the voting booths.
While it’s true that we all thought he had committed impeachable offenses, the difference now is that we had a special council investigation that concluded that. Not impeaching means that the special council investigation was in fact meaningless to a large degree, and that Democrats were planning to not do anything unless Mueller could catch Donald Trump swearing fealty to Putin.
I confess this is one of the two main reasons to not do impeachment, that it will prevent the Democrats from pursuing their agenda. But on the other hand, the Democratic agenda is fucked anyways. Republicans will never let Democrats implement anything meaningful anyways, however, shifting the focus to the impeachment rather than the issues and policies is going to hurt the Democrats.
I would say this is the main reason not to do the impeachment. However, the blowback is only going to be short term.
Let me bring up an example to see where you stand on these types of political strategies: When Dianne Feinstein received the allegations by Christine Blasey Ford, her ultimate choice was to bury the story because she thought that it would motivate the conservatives in the upcoming elections. The story was leaked eventually but it is likely that she was right. So just for the sake of the argument let’s assume that she was right. Do you think she made the right decision?
I don’t think so. She did the short-sighted political calculation and went for a strategy to maximize short-term gains. However, the eventual hearings and Ford’s testimony was extremely credible and moving and it motivated a lot of people on the left to get involved with politics.
I think it could be the same with the impeachment. The Republicans could become more energetic for a few months but it could help motivate the Democratic base in the long run.
Lynna OM @ 309
I’ve been trying to compose as polite a response to your request as humanly possible. The following is the best I can come up with:
Oh… boo hoo. My heart bleeds for the hurt feeling of the inbred, Bible-beating, gun-fondling, uneducated, rural scum who are a millstone around this civilization’s neck. Cry me a fucking river.
As fir BLF @ 35
We aren’t talking about some historically marginalized group or discriminated race or ethnicity. If that were the case, I’d agree We’re talking about a particular group of WHITE PEOPLE. You know, the morons who believe in JEEZ-us, creationism, and carry AR-15s into Walmart! The ones who voted for Trump The ones who stand in the way of everything you claim to value.
Call them what you will, but according to my moral calculas, “Garbage People” is a appropriate epithet to hurl at these hicks.
Forgive the lapses in punctuation in the last comment. My attention to detail tends to suffer when I’m furious.
Akira in comment 328, you began this discussion by talking about “the general level of stupidity and bigotry of the garbage people who live in the Redneck States.” That’s too general.
See bf’s comment 35 … again: “Referring to a specific individual as, e.g., “hair furor”, or a well-defined group as, e.g., the “tory ultras” is one thing, but referring to an indeterminate, probably large, population is not that thing.”
You are missing the point.
Akira MacKenzie @328:
Take it down a notch. A lot of their support comes from being fed a continual dose of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. Take those away, and their support for Trump may soften enough that you think of them as human again.
Anyway, I hope this angle gets more traction.
The SCO report makes it crystal clear that Trump is a spinless coward. Much of the White House chaos can be attributed to that weakness: Trump doesn’t lead, so much as let others do whatever they want so long as they keep him rich and happy. And even when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain, it takes him a long time to do anything about it.
https://twitter.com/maddow/status/1119452258591215616
Tweet from Rachel Maddow regarding the Maria Butina sentencing filing, which includes this:
From Rachel:
Hj @331, regarding your comments about the Mueller report: one man is still hopping mad about the Mueller report. Trump. This gives me hope in one way. It indicates that Trump knows how damaging the information in the Mueller report actually is.
These tweets are all from Trump, and all from today:
Followup to comment 333.
From the readers comments:
From Tom Nichols:
From CNN:
As someone who lives in a conservative, rural area, I’m not too happy at being categorized as a “garbage person” on the basis of geography.
Ah, but poopyhead@335, since you are someone who can also be reasonably called one of the , you clearly are one of
Anyone else notice the rather extreme racism is the apparent-troll’s reply, or (somewhat disguised) in their comment about the Notre Dame fire?
From Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer:
William Barr has offered to let just a few lawmakers see a less redacted version of the Mueller report, but Barr also placed severe restrictions on that viewing.
Link
I think Barr is just playing a game of stall-them-until-they-give-up. He is buying time for Trump and his lackeys to cement the “no collusion, no obstruction” false narrative in the minds of the public.
Barr won’t let lawmakers take copies of the report to their offices. He doesn’t want the few lawmakers that he does allow to see a less redacted report to discuss that report with their colleagues. Lawmakers, even the special few, will still be blocked from seeing grand jury testimony. Barr is preventing Congress from performing its oversight functions.
Barr is also acting like an all-powerful autocrat.
blf @336:
Yes, I noticed that. It sounds like hate speech to me.
Akira is also coming close to fostering divisiveness, just like a Russian troll. It’s weird. I can’t quite figure it out.
I live in a rural area with “rural scum” (as Akira calls them) that I do not find to be a “millstone” around my neck, nor do I find them to be “garbage people.” Yes, there are many flaws in this population, but I would not indulge in wholesale condemnation of them.
From Josh Marshall:
About Erik Prince’s appearance in the Mueller Report:
Rudi Giuliani is now calling don McGahn a liar. That’s rich.
Some background information:
Link
From the Washington Post:
Chris Riddell in the Grauniad, Brexit fiddles while the planet burns (cartoon).
The courts dealt two major blows to Trump’s environmental agenda during the past week:
Link
Interesting opinion in the Washington Post.
Trump tried to obstruct justice. But he was too inept to do it.
The Mueller report shows that ineffectiveness kept the president from more legal jeopardy.
By Jennifer Daskal
Jennifer Daskal is an associate professor of law at American University Washington College of Law and a former counsel to the assistant attorney general for national security at the Department of Justice.
April 19
Much more at the link.
@blf #336, Lynna #339:
Once, Akira also referred to Middle Eastern people* as “goat-fuckers,” so I think he’s definitely a racist. To be honest I was surprised when he wasn’t banned then and there, or at least given a warning by PZ.
(*) being generous you could say that he meant just terrorists, but that’s not much better. Isn’t being a terrorist bad enough?
Kreator@346, They then apologised (see later in that thread). However, judging by both the recently-cited comments, and also the multiple cases of majorly missing the points flying very low and loudly over their head, they don’t seem to have taken on aboard what the problems are… nor how to present an opinion without resorting to crude bigotry or inaccurate overgeneralism. Plus (perhaps understandably on the subject of hair furor supporters?), what seems to be a whiff of USAian exceptionalism.
Follow-up to @313, FBI arrests member of rightwing militia accused of detaining migrants:
This is great, Slovenian MEP plays EU anthem on harmonica in parliament (short video): “The Slovenian MEP Alojz Peterle played the EU anthem, based on Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, on his harmonica in the European parliament on Thursday, eliciting applause and cheers from colleagues. ‘It is our responsibility to keep Europe together,’ said the politician”.
Oh, irony-of-ironies, I’m being called out by supposedly LEFT-WING ATHEISTS for denigrating the Bible-fucking, NRA-life-member, redneck who threaten our very existence.
Are you people aware that you defense of sibling-fucking, Southern-fried, shitkickers is EXACTLY the same rhetoric the Right Wing uses to defend the poor, besieged, white, heterosexual, Christian, conservative?
What fucking side are you people on!?
At this point your ability to criticize the Right, Trump, Creationists, Capitalists, et al, is severely hobbled.
‘Whimsical, uninformed’: French ambassador’s parting verdict on Trump (the Grauiad’s edits in {curly braces}):
I see teh troll is back (@350)…
● Goalpost shifting: No-ones defended hair furor or his dalekocrazy. Disingenuous to asset so, especially without any citations.
● Invention out of whole cloth: A long stream of abuse, to-date said only by teh obvious troll and by few, if any, of the people they are addressing — and again, note the lack of citations — is extremely reminiscent of hair furor’s insults. Who is not blamed; instead, it’s people who have been noting / documenting what he and his daleks have been doing, saying, lying…
● Lack of logic: Somehow — notably not explained — the troll’s racism, goalpost shifting, point-missing, and lying means the people the troll is addressing
Based on past recent performance, the above points will also zoom over teh troll’s head, who, if they respond, will engage in more insults, no citations, and an apparent complete lack of self-awareness. Probably with added overgeneralisation; season with incoherence and please dispose of safely.
Furthermore, let me point out that I was on the Right-Wing side of politics and economics for a large portion of my life. I know what they think and what they want, and it isn’t pretty. I live in the sticks, so I get to see land hear Right-Wing, capitalist,and Christian bullshit day-in day out! My right-Wing, Republican, Catholic father spews the bullshit he gathers daily from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Breitbart as hype wishes. Meanwhile, I, who lives paycheck to paycheck and has to sit and put up with my father’s right-wing-Catholic rants without the ability to contradict them lest I end up on the street , has to keep my mouth shut.
Also, DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE ACCUSE ME OF BEING GODDAMN RUSSIAN TROLL!!! i voted for that hypocrite HRC, even though she was a capitalist, Christian, shit, if only to keep that fascist, CHRISTIAN, scum Trump out of the Olive Office.
But hey, PZ, if my hatred of theists, capitalists, and Stone-to Iron-Age cultures and their latter-day adherents who still control the body politic isn’t enough to for you to listen to, then ban-hammer me. It’s your blog, it’s your decision. I won’t hold it against you,
Hmm. Akira’s ability to form grammatically correct sentences in English has diminished markedly. See comments 350 and 353.
My comment 354 was petty. I apologize.
Followup to comment 342.
From former White House Counsel Don McGahn:
Link
I conclude those incidents were obstruction, and that attorney general (Barr) and deputy A.G.(Rosenstein) are wrong, (and they are in disagreement with Mueller).
But I agree with McGahn that Giuliani’s many comments are strange. Giuliani said, in part: “It could be the product of an inaccurate recollection or could be the product of something else.”
It also seems that McGahn’s description of the incidents were accurate, as reported by Mueller.
From the readers comments:
Akira MacKenzie@353, An unfortunate set of circumstances does not make insulting an entire population with a superficial resemblance to one’s perceived oppressors valid. Or even helpful to whatever the point one’s trying to make is.
Both Lynna and poopyhead have self-identified as rural, but there’s no reason to suspect either are or ; nor is there any reason to suspect their Indeed, they’ve both objected to those characterisations.
Yet all of those things have been said (the first repeatedly), and said without qualification (or any citations or other evidence). Insults, insinuations, lack of citations, divisiveness, and lack of evidence, are characteristic of disinformation — trolling — which is why that word as been used. A (presumably paid) “Russian” troll? Doubtful, the known ones seem a bit more competent in spreading divisiveness, and / or less hysterical.
As others have said, dial it down. Please!
Lynna@355, Thanks for the rapid apology — I, or maybe the mildly deranged penguin, was going to “take you to task” (or at least withhold some cheese) over the self-acknowledged petty comment. (I obviously cannot, and do not claim to, speak for the individual concerned.)
blf @358, yep. I made a mistake. I’ll withhold cheese from myself for one day.
Regarding other matters, I was sorry to hear about Akira MacKenzie’s oppressors and/or unfortunate circumstances.
I did not call Akira a Russian troll. I made the point that posting many deliberately divisive comments on social media is what Russian trolls do. Something to be avoided. Some of Akira’s comments seemed more divisive than informative. That does not make Akira a Russian troll, it makes the divisive posts look similar to those of Russian trolls.
Lynna @ 354-355
Yeah, admittedly I was under the influence of cheap whiskey when I wrote that last one.
Since I don’t seem to be doing anything but making a colossal ass of myself I’ll hoist the white flag. You guys win. I’ll tone it down.
Akira, I sympathize with your disillusionment with the Trumpetariat. It has been very difficult for me not to write off anyone who was sufficiently stupid or greedy or vile to vote for that imbecile. It is difficult for me to envision how I could trust such a person ever again–whether they be a relative a co-worker or a friend.
However, it is important to understand how we got to the point where rural America was desperate enough to embrace a “burn it all down” strategy. There was a time when Democrats could be relied upon to support initiatives that improved rural areas–rural electrification, aid to small farmers, subsidies to rural school districts… That went by the wayside during the false austerity of the 80s and 90s, when Democrats became mostly indistinguishable from Republicans in their embracing of “magic of the market place, rising tide lifts all boats” capitalism. Since then, rural areas in America have become dismal places, perhaps as dismal as the unreclaimed and ungentrified urban areas, and it is no wonder that voters there are angry. This does not justify their having embraced a grifter like Darth Cheeto. However, anger has never been a basis for good decisions.
The thing we have to keep sight of is that these people are first and foremost people and second are just as much victims of DJT as the rest of us. Divisions and acrimony only help the patriarchy. True subversion consists in making common cause with all of the oppressed, not in favoring one group and rejecting another. That is why ideas like the Green New Deal have power. They empower the oppressed, wherever they live, whatever they believe, and in so doing, they weaken the patriarchy. I have to keep reminding myself of this.
Oh, FFS. Really?
Giuliani’s spin, performed in his role at Trump’s TV lawyer, is really off in LaLa Land today.
Link
Okay, stop right there for a moment. First, who is that stupid? Second, tell that to the woman who had the temerity to vote while she was out on probation. She didn’t know it was illegal. She was sentenced to five years in jail. Washington Post link to “Texas woman sentenced to 5 years in prison for voting while on probation.” Yes, she is a black woman.
More from the Talking Points Memo article:
Link
So now we’re going to have more presidential and congressional candidates taking help from adversarial countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia? Giuliani is bonkers.
From the readers comments:
From House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff:
My prediction is that Schiff will be ready to move on impeachment proceedings after Mueller testifies before Congress. (Sometime in May.)
I’m not sure that Schiff will ever get the completely unredacted Mueller Report that he wants so that he will have all of that particular set of facts. William Barr is good at stalling and at playing political games to keep that report out of the hands of Democrats. Schiff may have to act based on testimony from Mueller and others; and on what he has been allowed to see, so far, of the Mueller Report.
Akira @360, thank you.
In other news, a city in Michigan plans to make it a a criminal misdemeanor to racially profile people of color for “participating in their lives.” This is a reaction to people calling 911 to report that, for instance, black people are having a picnic in the park: barbecuing while black, or #LivingWhileBlack, etc.
Link to “Grand Rapids could make it illegal to call police on people of color for ‘participating in their lives”
An incomplete list of other instances of the police being called to investigate black people living their lives:
Operating a lemonade stand
Golfing too slowly
Waiting for a friend at Starbucks
Campaigning door to door
Moving into an apartment
Napping in a university common room
Eating lunch on a college campus
Riding in a car with a white grandmother
Babysitting two white children
Wearing a backpack that brushed against a woman
Delivering newspapers
Swimming in a pool
The list is summarized from a CNN report.
From the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler:
Another freshman Congressperson to watch: Tom Malinowski.
Link
Much more at the link.
Followup to comment 362.
More eyebrow-raising comments from Rudy Giuliani:
Yeah, Rudy, way too much.
From Mueller’s team:
Link
More than 200 people were killed in terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka. Several churches and hotels were attacked.
Washington Post link
Isaac Chotiner interviewed Neal Katyal. Neal Katyal, is a lawyer and a professor at Georgetown Law. In 1999, in the wake of the Starr report, Katyal was enlisted to help draft the special-counsel regulations. Under President Barack Obama, Katyal served as the acting Solicitor General.
New Yorker link
Much, much more at the link.
Followup to comment 369.
More from the Chotiner-Katyal discussion:
Another salient quote from Neal Katyal:
Update on the elections in Ukraine:
Akira MacKenzie@360, Thank you.
Not unrelared to your, and mine, and presumably most readers here, concerns about the people who voted for, and those who support, hair furor, is Trump’s moral squalor, not impeachment, will remove him from power:
Follow-up to @313 and @348, Member of armed militia who detained migrants faced similar charges in 2006:
Interesting discussion between Glen Greenwald and David Cay Johnston: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yLx_wDq1Wo
a_ray_in_dilbert_space @ 361
I assure you, where I live, the GND has absolutely no power, AOC is another name of Satan, and it will be ill advised to go around singing the praises of social democracy. Your argument about government depriving rural America resources would sound more convincing if they were demanding MORE government programs and assistance rather than screaming to gut what’s left of the welfare state.
So now Trump is suing the Democrats in the House of Congress. I doubt that this lawsuit will work, (I think the courts will rule against Trump), but it will succeed in one way: it will slow down this investigation.
NBC News link
There is, in my opinion, a solid basis for the subpoena since the House Oversight Committee heard testimony from Michael Cohen about a series of financial shenanigans committed by Trump, including deflating and inflating his assets depending on the circumstances. In other words, Trump had his accountants submit a pack of lies to banks, insurance companies, etc. (allegedly).
The committee that Elijah Cummings heads has evidence of possible wrongdoing. Cohen submitted documents to back up his testimony.
From the Washington Post’s Michael Gerson:
And a followup to comment 320, in which Mitt Romney bemoaned “the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President.” Now Mitt Romney says, “The business of government can move on.”
Oh, dear. Sean Hannity is upset.
Link
From the readers comments:
Elizabeth Warren has the biggest free college plan yet
Warren doesn’t just want tuition-free college. She also wants to cancel millions of Americans’ student debt.
Link
More at the link, including a comparison to Bernie Sanders’ “College for All Act.”
From Wonkette’s coverage of the Mueller Report:
From the statement Trump dictated to Corey Lewandowski:
<
blockquote>The President directed that Sessions would give a speech publicly announcing:
More from Wonkette’s commentary:
Link
More at the link.
Oh, FFS.
From Jennifer Hassan:
Yes, Trump really did that. There are screen grabs of Hair Furor’s crazy tweet:
https://twitter.com/GuinnessKebab/status/1119922410944389120
John Oliver presented a segment that recapped some of the most horrifying/hilarious parts of the Mueller Report.
https://slate.com/culture/2019/04/john-oliver-mueller-report-last-week-tonight.html
Well, at last, some sort of good news: Herman Cain has withdrawn from consideration as Trump’s nominee for the Federal Reserve. This will be good news until Trump nominates someone even more unqualified for the job.
Even Republicans did not support Cain’s nomination:
Washington Post link
Trump wants to be seen as a strong man, a man whom everyone obeys. Okay, that’s not factual. Read the Mueller report.
Despite the facts, Trump is insisting that “Nobody disobeys my orders.” [laughter]
Boston.com link
Followup to comment 385.
From Steve Benen:
Link
Oh, man. Another Democratic presidential candidate? I have completely lost track of some of them.
Representative Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts, announced his candidacy today. I think this makes 17 Democrats who are now running, (if you count Bernie Sanders as a Democrat and not as an independent). Moulton is also a military veteran.
What other stupid and counterproductive thing could Trump do to screw up legal immigration to the U.S.? This:
Link
Big donors, the Trump campaign, and corruption … how does it work, or more accurately, how will work for the 2020 Trump reelection campaign?
Link</a<
Follow-up to @313, @348, and @374, Leader of militia at US border boasted of training to kill Obama — FBI:
America’s new voting machines bring new fears of election tampering:
Redacted from the above except are several other problems. One of them, apparently, is security researchers / experts are not trusted by most(?) companies making the equipment. Hence the expert’s expertise, suggestions, vulnerability testing, et al is downplayed if not simply ignored.
Nineteen, apparently, Seth Moulton: meet the 19th Democratic contender for US 2020 race (video).
Here’s a useful guide, Who is running for president? The full list of 2020 Democratic candidates: “Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have confirmed, and Joe Biden look likely — but they’ll have to see off a historically large field of candidates first”.
Vice President Biden is apparently thought to be announcing this week (Seth Moulton: Democratic congressman enters crowded 2020 presidential race), so this circular beanball contest may grow some more.
blf @390, OMG, all the best people for sure.
Very glad to see that PayPal and GoFundMe barred those fascist groups.
“Training to assassinate George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama” … WTF!? Scary. And of course they use the word “patriot” in their group’s name.
blf @392, “Nineteen, apparently.” Ah, thanks. I knew I had lost track of the number of Democratic presidential candidates.
In other news, the Trump administration has taken another step in sanctions against Iran … and I don’t think this is going to go well. Trump is also threatening friends and allies at the same time.
NBC News link
In a move to hobble any Democrats who win a position as governor in their red state, Republican legislators in Kansas have proposed legislation that would curtail Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s power to fill vacancies in some top state posts.
Instead, that power would be given to Republican party leadership.
Republicans were sneaky about introducing the legislation:
Kansas City Star link
`
Republicans say that Democrats can do the same thing to a Republican governor in the future, but that’s a situation that is unlikely to come about. What is more likely is that, if a Republican is elected as governor in the future, the dominant party in the legislature (still the GOP in red-state Kansas) would just change the law again to allow the Republican governor to appoint conservatives to fill state-level vacancies.
From Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/prime-beta/theres-a-lot-in-there
From Representative Jerry Nadler:
Documents are supposed to be submitted to the House Judiciary Committee by May 7, according to the subpoena, and McGahn is scheduled to testify in a public hearing on May 21.
Trump and Rudy Giuliani are going to love that.
A high school student took on Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Link
Humor … from the CIA:
https://twitter.com/CIA/status/1120123885771476992
Image available at the link.
From Vikram J. Singh:
“Way to blow my cover,” he later quipped.
Japanese city gets its first ever female politician:
From memory, the post-WW ][ Japanese constitution explicitly calls for equal rights for women and men (somewhat remarkable given when it was written). I don’t (now) recall if it was the first such constitution to do so, but it was among the earliest.
This could be interesting, How the Green New Deal was hatched in a London bar (podcast)†:
† I don’t like podcasts too much and haven’t yet actually listened to it.
At the Supreme Court today, oral arguments on the census citizenship question, which could have implications on Congressional districts. California, for instance, fears losing up to three House seats. A detailed argument preview is on Scotusblog.
.
Thoughtful commentary from Steve Benen:
Yes, a “stampede” that is careful and lawful.
More from Steve Benen:
Link
Even though Steve Benen provided some of the details of Trump’s threats against Democrats, if you look at the actual repetition of those threats, you will see a lot more. Those threats did not work.
Another “oh, FFS” moment courtesy of Trump. He thinks he should be immune from criticism:
Dear history-challenged Hair Furor, the economy of the USA was stronger in 2015. Yes, you can brag about the good economy, but it is not “the greatest economy in history.”
No past presidents have been immune from criticism, no matter their success (or lack thereof) in sustaining a good economy. The “old days,” as festering in Trump’s mind, never existed.
As you will have no doubt noticed, Trump does not usually address or rebut the criticisms against him. He does claim that no one should be allowed to criticize him.
Yesterday, he told reporters: “No one disobeys my orders.” His tone was one of disdain for the reporter asking the question, dismissal of the question as petty, and anger. That’s his rebuttal to all the facts in the Mueller Report.
From the Washington Post, some details concerning how the Trump administration actually works when it comes to “transparency”:
What Trump said in May 2018:
What Trump said in September 2018:
And now, Carl Kline has been told not to comply with a subpoena.
Followup to comment 384.
So Herman Cain withdrew as a nominee for the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. Cain was too poor a candidate even for Republicans.
We still have an “all the best people” candidate, Stephen Moore, coming up for a confirmation vote. Trump’s choice of Moore, like most of Trump’s choices, is really bad.
From CNN:
Moore was an advocate for adopting the gold standard. Then he lied and said he never did that. Moore actually admitted that, if confirmed, he would be on a steep learning curve because he doesn’t know how the Fed works, nor does he know anything about monetary policy.
Republicans may still confirm Moore.
Followup to tomh @402.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/supreme-court-oral-arguments-census-citizenship
Followup to comment 405.
From House Oversight Committee chair Elijah Cummings:
Kline’s attorney told the committee that Kline would follow the White House’s order to ignore the subpoena.
More details:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/cummings-contempt-carl-kline
Another Republican has left the party. Some Republicans, when they leave the party, announce that they are now independents, but Iowa state Representative Andy McKean is joining the Democratic party.
McKean’s name has already been removed from the House Republican caucus’ website.
From the Iowa state Democratic party:
Link
Earlier, three female Republicans in Kansas joined the Democratic party after the midterm elections.
A group of judges in Texas switched parties after the midterm elections.
Mueller report exposes ‘Miners for Trump’ as a Russian troll effort
Photo of a coal miner on one poster was actually a lifelong Democrat who died of black lung disease.
Senate GOP campaign committee smears Democratic 2020 candidates with false billboards
The National Republican Senatorial Committee is accusing Medicare for All opponents of wanting Medicare for all.
Think Progress link
Trump’s demands for apologies from the media go unanswered:
Link
@ #407
The transcript for the oral argument is available here.
There’s a new immigration scandal brewing in the UK. Last year was the Windrush scandal where people legally resident in the UK for decades were being deported because of missing bits of paperwork or other trivialities. Now it’s something called the “English test results scandal”. Unlike the Windrush scandal, this one has been known about, albeit not much reported on. The story started back in 2014 when indisputable evidence emerged about quite blatant cheating in two centres where English-language testing was being done (as a condition for student visas).
Teh dear lino, laughably called the PM, Theresa May, was, as with the start of the Windrush scandal, the Home Office minister at the time. In the case of the test cheating, her “hostile environment” Home Office basically decided c.90% of all people who took the test — nationwide — were cheats and denied their visas.
The on which they made this decision is unclear, and the 90% figure implausible. According to Sajid Javid urged to act in immigration scandal ‘bigger than Windrush’, its based on a private company’s “voice analysis of recordings of all 58,458 tests taken in 96 test centres in the UK between 2011 and 2014 and concluded that 33,725 people cheated, and a further 22,694 people had ‘questionable results’. Only about 2,000 were found not to have cheated.”
There are at least two problems with that . First, it sounds suspiciously similar to so-called , which aren’t and don’t. They are pseudoscience, a total nonsense. Courts generally don’t allow lie detector , with Good Reason.
The second problem is the private company is “Educational Testing Service (ETS)” from the States, which has a rather notorious reputation; for example (also in the UK):
From the Grauniad’s article, by Amelia Gentleman (who reported on the Windrush scandal):
(The Windrush scandal is not over yet, with the being extremely slow to act, proposing derisory compensation, and still actually doing highly suspect deportations.)
Not exactly political, “It’s very concerning”: Americans sitting more than ever, study finds:
The mildly deranged penguin is quite puzzled by this. Catching, subduing, and eventually eating cheese is hard work — difficult to do sitting down — requiring lots of vin (and moar cheese!) to recuperate and recover. I then point out USAlienstan has aerosol cans of … She shrieks in horror, and after running around the room (in all three spacial and at least two other dimensions) wailing, sits — ahem! — down and agrees perhaps the best way to recover from spray-on is to sit very very quietly until whatever is left of ones brain stops melting-down.
‘Skirting ethical rules’: Trump’s key staff under investigation at interior agency (the Grauniad’s edits in {curly braces})::
Details — some of which I vaguely recall being noted in previous iterations of this thread — are at the link. All teh bestingerest peoples!
France to invest €6 million in free breakfasts at public schools:
Memo to Betsy DeVos: This is one example of how you do it.
(I’m a bit surprised France apparently hasn’t had such a program.)
Teh le penazis latest wheeze, Le Pen’s National Rally goes green [sic] in bid for European election votes (France24 edits in {curly braces}):
My emboldening: There’s the fault & fraud in this latest wheeze. This so-called le penazism is the same old, same usual, bigotry and hate:
Sustainable localised production is sensible — indeed, I make an effort to source locally-produced products (especially foodstuffs) — but that’s got precisely nothing to do with borders, people crossing borders, or indeed most of the gibberish, lies, and hate the le penazis continue to yell. (As I mentioned a few weeks ago, a local le penazi managed to push one of their leaflets into my hands; it was the usual immigrants = pure evil who take all “our” jobs & money &tc &tc spittle-flecked dribble.)
Advocates decry proposed change to Canada’s asylum system:
That official is either an escaped dalek from, or applying for a position in, hair furor’s dalekocrazy. E.g., it appears to presume there was a fair process and valid determination in the other Five Eyes countries. Perhaps possible in New Zealand (I don’t know), but not so much in the other three. Not to mention Ozland’s concentration camps (conventionally located in other countries), the UK’s efforts to deport legal residents (Windrush &tc scandals), or hair furor’s Muslim ban.
Many more details of this shocking proposal — which is buried in an unrelated budget bill — at the link.
Aim carelessly, pound keys enthusiastically, and make an total arse of oneself (from the Grauniad’s live blog):
All teh besteringest daleks, : Trump Fed pick Stephen Moore’s list of misogynistic remarks:
† Coincidentally, Why gender pay-gap truthers are on the rise:
‡ The terminology here is perhaps confusing: The “pay-gap myth” is referring to the preposterous idea there isn’t a gender pay gap. Not, as one might read it, that the gender pay-gap doesn’t exist (is a myth).
‘It’s not a little child’: gynecologists join the fight against six-week abortion bans (the Grauniad’s edits in {curly braces}):
Go Dr Gunter! She’s also the doctor who took on goop’s goofy vaginal eggs & other scams, and other nonsenses.
The kings of capitalism are finally worried about the growing gap between rich and poor:
And in reference to @423, not everyone gets it, Phones4u founder vows to leave UK if Corbyn brings in higher taxes:
Paying taxes is nothing like being raped.
And as someone who does live in the south of France, I wonder if this eejit has any idea what French ta rates are (among the highest in the OECD), or is aware France may reintroduce its “wealth” tax (Impôt de solidarité sur la fortune): French government opens door to wealth tax concession. There is quite a long list of so-called French tax exiles.
@404:
Ah, yes, “the economy, stupid,” also known as one of the three main campaign focuses of Bill Clinton, who was surely one of the least criticized presidents ever.
Trump orders staff and administration to boycott correspondents’ dinner:
I rather doubt hair furor has any legal basis / authority to enforce the so-called “order” (much less to bellow it in the first place). For one thing — I’m guessing here — the staff & daleks attending would be doing so on their own time. And it is, broadly speaking, a public event.
More on @423 and @424, Ballooning executive pay is at last coming under scrutiny:
Trump continues to believe that appointing Supreme Court justices is the same as appointing company executives that are bound to do his bidding.
WaPo: Trump says he would ask Supreme Court to intervene if Democrats move to impeach him
Gun owners pleased as Italy relaxes law on right to self-defence (video): “The Italian parliament has just passed a law on the right to self-defence, submitted by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. The bill broadens the definition of legitimate defence, allowing a homeowner to protect his or her property with the use of a firearm without fear of being prosecuted. […]”
They worked in torrid heat for Exxon, Shell and Walmart, for free (Al Jazeera edits in {curly braces}):
tomh @428, Trump seems to think that he not only has a get-out-of-jail-free card since he installed Kavanaugh and Gorscuch on the Supreme Court, he also thinks that he has a free hand to do whatever else he wants to do:
Link
One of many reasons why the U.S. does not have a sustained and effective focus on preventing future election interference: Trump doesn’t want to hear about it.
Link
Good grief, hair furor is even more deranged than usual (from the Grauniad’s live blog):
Spotted on the Grauniad’s live blog, Aaron Rupar:
This is a conspiracy theory that Trump and Sean Spicer touted in March 2017, but it now has new life since Trump tweeted about it this morning:
Trump was watching One America News Network (OANN), which is just Fox News on steroids. OANN is extremism made manifest. They traffic in debunked conspiracy theories all the time, 24/7.
From Steve Benen:
Link
About Trump’s meeting with Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s CEO:
Link
Oh, FFS.
Link
Hilary Clinton has weighed in after the SCO’s report, and I think it’s an excellent take. Some key bits:
Joy Reid is subbing on All In, and they have coverage of She the People, where 8 of dems prez contenders appeared. I’ll post videos in the morning if they appear.
Hj @438, that entire oped by Hillary Clinton is great. Everyone should read it.
Hillary Clinton reminds us that that is how a president should write, and that is how a president should think.
“Mueller documented a serious crime against all Americans. Here’s how to respond.”
Another excerpt:
You’ve got to be kidding. All Clinton’s doing is stalling, like Pelosi, Hoyer, et al. There is already more than enough in the redacted report to start the impeachment process.
The House definitely should get Mueller and others to testify, and they definitely should get the full report and accompanying documentation (even if that can’t be made public yet). This is all entirely normal, when you are charging a person with criminal behavior, which is exactly what needs to happen.
None of that is a reason to say we’re not sure yet whether it should happen, that maybe instead we should just hem and haw about it endlessly. There is not a single fucking thing about this whole investigation which resembles a “rush to judgment.” That is such bullshit. Maybe it’s presidential bullshit, but that doesn’t change much for me.
What would actually be unfair to Trump, what can become a rush to judgement, comes from the media, when he is never given a chance to formally defend himself, like anyone else when they have to go to court. It’s like the House expects the press to somehow do their jobs for them. That’s not how it works, and if they’re not going to play a role in turning the whole fucking system into even more of a joke, they do not have another option.
A follow-up to @351, excerpted from (unrelated) Trump repeats unproven claims of GCHQ spying:
Absolutely typical. Instead of engaging with the Ambassador’s claim (about military-level discussions), teh eejits use an old predominately displayed gift to assert everything is fine and you can’t claim the same (I wonder if he forgot about the Statue of Liberty?), so there! Ni!!
Nearly 170m under-10s unvaccinated against measles worldwide:
Snippets of the She The People Forum from All In. My MSNBC foo isn’t strong enough to get separate links. The link below for for Elizabeth Warren, and Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Julian Castro, and Kamala Harris are available from the sidebar.
Elizabeth Warren
In the UK, Tories resisting efforts to allow scrutiny of secretive trusts, says Labour:
Not unrelated, “The Tory party’s 2017 accounts showed it received twice as much in donations from the dead, in the form of legacy payments, as from the living” (from Memo to Tory MPs: denigrating the membership is a really bad idea by Gary Younge).
British officials called Trump’s conspiracy theory “utterly ridiculous” … again.
Reuters link
From Jon Chait:,
From George Conway, regarding Hillary Clinton’s op-ed:
https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1121158375654535178
Excerpt from the op-ed:
That part bears repeating.
From the readers comments:
Bad news for transgender people:
Link
From the readers comments:
From Jeff Sessions, concerning the Mueller report:
Sessions refused to be specific. While he praised the Mueller report in general terms, he did not say what he thought “the results” are. We can’t tell if Sessions agrees with William Barr’s misleading summary/non-summary, or if Sessions has actually read the Mueller report and agrees with the findings, particularly on obstruction of justice.
From Mark Sumner:
Link
More refusals from team Trump:
Link
That’s not going to fly.
I really think Miller should be questioned by members of the House Oversight Committee.
Here in France, Macron is currently giving his (delayed by the Notre Dame fire) address in response to the gilets jaunes semi-fraudulent movement: France24 link (simultaneous English translation).
Some shenanigans in which the billionaire former candidate for governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, and his wife M.K. Pritzker, evaded taxes, etc. They are now under investigation for “perjury, mail fraud, and tax fraud. They are Democrats.
Chicago Tribune link
The Pritzker scheme resulted in non-payment of about $330,000 in property taxes.
From Wonkette:
From Rudy Giuliani, pontificating on Fox News:
The anti-gay extremist behind America’s fiercely strict abortion bans:
All the bestestering peoples!
Oh, FFS. Lara Trump said a bunch of stuff:
Link
Is Trump too far out on a limb? Even some Fox News talking heads think so:
Link
Summarized from a Talking Points Memo article, here is a list of all the people and entities that Trump and his administration have told to resist Congress:
DOJ official John Gore, who was involved in the decision-making process to add a citizenship question to the census, was ordered by the Trump administration not to comply with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena […]
Former White House official Carl Kline, who ran the office that issued security clearances and who allegedly retaliated against a whistleblower, was ordered by the Trump administration not to comply with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena […]
The Trump administration plans to fight the House Judiciary Committee’s subpoena of former White House counsel Don McGahn, as well as any other oversight requests related to the issues covered in the Mueller report.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has stalled on the House Ways and Means Committee’s request for Trump’s tax returns and hinted that the administration is not inclined to turn them over […]
Trump’s personal attorneys have also urged Mazars USA, Trump’s accounting firm, not to comply with a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee and filed a lawsuit aimed at blocking the subpoena.
The White House rejected the House Oversight Committee’s request that White House adviser Stephen Miller come before the committee to testify about immigration policy.
Macron’s has just finished his speech. He covered quite a lot of territory, which I will leave to the professionals to summarise. Three things stood out for me (in the order in which he presented them): No mandatory / compulsory voting; Referendums / petitions at both the local & national levels; and The most important thing is dealing with Climate Change. That last point is indisputable, but it also what started the protests: There was a fuel tax increase to combat Climate Change (in various ways), the truckers (probably egged on vested interests) complained and started the gilets jaunes protests, which attracted other protestors (on a wide variety of points), and then was hijacked by extremists from both the loony left and nazi right.
Another point, which is (currently) being focused in the press confidence, is decentralising the government. (I must admit I missed / blanked-out that part of the speech, so am uncertain what he is proposing.) Broadly, from what I recall, moving more powers and responsibility to local structures, without review / approval back in Paris. Sorry, I wasn’t paying too much attention… cheese interrupted… and MUSHROOMS!
A recent question in the on-going Macron press confidence suggests part of my summary @459 is wrong — perhaps completely backwards — on “Referendums / petitions at both the local & national levels”. The questions and answers suggests that should be “No referendums / petitions…”, albeit it is possible the Q&A is talking about some specific subject rather than in general. (Currently, as I understand it, only national referendums are possible, and only if the President’s office approves.)
Marcon is concluding now. (So am I, I’m off to the pub…) I presume there will be a lot of analysis, criticism, and so on, in both reliable and unreliable sources.
Near the end he echoed my criticism — albeit more nuanced and diplomatic — of the gilets jaunes fraudulent nature. France24 is now analysing live (in English)…
(Apparently, this was the first open Macron press confidence since being elected; previous ones have been closed / restricted, and generally restricted to visits from International diplomats…)
Re @460: My initial @459 was correct (so I have no idea just what the @460 Q&A was about); that is, according to the discussion now on France24, albeit there is some disagreement on both its significant and its actual details / implementation.
If anyone is curious, this is Napolitano video that says Trump obstructed justice. Youtu.be/KrFaSrkJrZU
blf@442,
I have it on good authority (that of my imagination) that that report is most unfair to our esteemed foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, because it omits the fact that Araud also taunted Hunt, saying his mother was a hamster and his father smelled of elderberries!
From WaPo:
Federal judges rule Michigan gerrymandering unconstitutional, order maps redrawn by 2020
Weirder and weirder. Ever further down the rabbit hole. Trump is using his Obama conspiracy theories and obsessions to raise funds for his reelection campaign, and to increase his email list of potential donors.
Ah, a “survey” that also contains bullshit and lies.
Link
The “survey” is ugly, and I mean physically ugly, not just ideologically bonkers. You can see it in all of its offensive, hurt-your-eyes, insult-to-good-design horror at the link.
Trump doubles down on “very fine people” comment.
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1121772374582599680
Maria Butina was sentence tod 18 months in prison for conspiracy to act as a foreign agent. She has already served 9 months.
Link
Trump obstructed justice according to comments made privately by two prosecutors on Mueller’s team:
Talking Points Memo link
New York Review of Books link
Much more at The New York Review of Books link.
A group of Republican judges is making a concerted effort to restrict the rights of protestors.
The threat of legal expenses alone could be seen to restrict the rights of leaders of protest movements. Frivolous lawsuits come with real financial burdens for the defendants.
Think Progress link
Oh, FFS.
Trump said this today:
One of Trump’s first acts as president was to fire acting Attorney General Sally Yates. He also fired Jim Comey. He fired several Cabinet secretaries, sometimes via tweet. He fired Omarosa Manigault Newman. He fired Agent Strzok. He claimed that Steve Bannon cried when he was fired.
Trump loses in court … again.
Link
The long legal road ahead:
PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Inside the shrinking newsroom of the paper that shapes the primaries, the Des Moines Register:
Link
In my opinion, the decline of daily newspapers contributes to Trump’s ability to get away with lying to a significant portion of the American public. Ditto for other Republican candidates.
Trump spoke at the National Rifle Association convention in Indianapolis today. Here is an excerpt from the coverage:
Followup to comment 475.
Let’s look at Trump’s refusal of the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty from a perspective that opposes Trump’s action:
Link
In the first 24 hours since he officially launched his campaign, Joe Biden raised $6.3 million. That pace and amount of donations beats both Bernie Sanders and Beto O’Rourke, the candidates who previously held the record for raising campaign funds.
In the first poll published since Biden announced, he leads Trump by six points.
Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly insulted Biden by questioning his intelligence and by labeling him as “Sleepy Joe.” That, no doubt, raises Biden’s profile.
In my opinion, it is too early to judge candidates by early poll results and/or early fundraising totals. We haven’t even seen the Democratic candidates on the debate stage yet. Still, it’s interesting that so many people are willing to send money to Joe Biden.
Trump escalates his authoritarian rhetoric:
Link
Followup to comment 467.
Commentary from Steve Benen:
Link
More infighting in the National Rifle Association:
Ah, good. This is our schadenfreude moment for today.
A succinct look at the renewed interest around Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and the sometimes questionable role he has played:
Talking Points Memo link
From the Washington Post:
From Matthew Miller:
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/fmr-doj-spox-goes-off-on-weak-rod-rosenstein-hes-always-been-weak/
Video, and more comments from Miller, are available at the mediaite link.
Followup to comment 481.
From the readers comments:
Hard-line views made Lou Dobbs a Fox powerhouse. Now he’s shaping Trump’s border policy.
Link
More at the link.
From former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates:
So now William Barr is one of the many people refusing to testify before Congress. Barr is more stalling than refusing at this point. Still, we can see what is going on here. He is looking for any excuse he can find to refuse to testify.
Link
From the readers comments:
From southpaw:
From Brian Fallon:
Excerpt from Trump’s speech at a rally in Wisconsin last night:
From commentary by Matt Shuham:
Link
From Julia Pulver, a registered newborn intensive care unit nurse:
https://twitter.com/VotePulver/status/1122325499051761669
Followup to comment 486.
From the readers comments:
Rabble in Wisconsin cheered as Trump called Obama disloyal, called women murderers, and characterized the FBI as “scum.”
Link
A series of video snippets is available at the link. You can watch the highlights (abominable lowlights) of the speech without having to endure the whole thing.
Trump’s anti-abortion rhetoric is getting out of control.
His latest lie is that the mother and the doctor decide whether or not to “execute the baby” after it’s born and wrapped up in a blanket.
See comment 486 for Trump’s bombastic comments.
Followup to comments 457 and 463.
From Think Progress:
You will not be surprised to learn that, in the past, Trump heaped lavish praise on Napolitano. Now he is attacking Napolitano in the way he usually attacks perceived enemies:
More nonsense and deplorable rhetoric from Hair Furor:
Link
From Steve Benen:
In other campaign news, Beto O’Rourke released his plan to address the climate change crisis.
NBC News link
Republicans are not worried about the Russians:
Link
From The New York Times:
From Senator Ron Johnson, the Republican who is the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee:
Lynna, OM, #493
It would be against their best interest to do so. At this point, they’re basically conspiring with them.
Trump told a lie. He pretended that some vindictive thing he wants to do is actually being done. Here’s what he said to his rally audience:
According to reporting from the Associated Press, Trump lied:
Bluster. Lies.
From Steve Benen:
At this point, Trump doesn’t need to remind us that he thinks the worst of migrants. Nevertheless, he usually provides a near-daily reminder.
Facts:
From the readers comments:
Tracking Trump’s lies, which are increasing in frequency and number:
Link
Strike-through corrections above are mine.
Fox News hosts do not understand how unions work. And Fox News hosts are hopping mad about unions endorsing Joe Biden.
Link
Followup to comments 457, 463, and 490.
Andrew “Judge” Napolitano responded to some of the insults trump hurled at him via Twitter:
Trump dangled a pardon! Or at least he tried to dangle a pardon using Napolitano as the messenger.
To refresh our memories, here’s what Trump tweeted:
This all began when Napolitano wrote an op-ed for the Fox News website, and when he repeated pretty much the same condemnation of Trump in a video that was widely disseminated:
From the op-ed: