The Commentariat -- December 16, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Glenn Kessler, et al., of the Washington Post: "In 2017, President Trump made nearly 1,999 false or misleading claims. In 2018, he added another 5,689, for a total of 7,688. Now, with a few weeks still left in 2019, the president already has more than doubled the total number of false or misleading claims in just a single year. As of Dec. 10, his 1,055th day in office, Trump had made 15,413 false or misleading claims, according to the Fact Checker's database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement he has uttered. That's an average of more than 32 claims a day since our last update 62 days ago."

Rudy Speaks! Again. Guardian impeachment liveblog at 13:44 ET Monday: "Rudy Giuliani ... said in a New Yorker interview that he wanted Maria Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, 'out of the way' as he pushed for investigations into Joe Biden. 'I believed that I needed Yovanovitch out of the way,' Giuliani told the magazine last month, according to a newly published article. 'She was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody.' Democrats will likely point to Giuliani's comments as evidence that Trump abused his power by recalling Yovanovitch, a widely praised career diplomat whose reputation was smeared by some of the president's allies."

Brendan Pierson of Reuters: "An associate of ... Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Monday urged a judge to let him stay free on bail while he awaits trial, denying prosecutors' accusations that he lied about receiving a $1 million payment from Russia shortly before he was arrested. A lawyer for Lev Parnas, who is charged with campaign finance crimes, said the payment was a loan to Parnas' wife [Svetlana], and that it had been disclosed to authorities before his bail was set." Mrs. McC: Another thing dese guys think wives are for is to aid & abet them in nefarious schemes.

Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "... Donald Trump committed criminal bribery and wire fraud, the House Judiciary Committee alleges in a report that will accompany articles of impeachment this week. The report, a 169-page assessment of the case for Trump's removal from office, contends that Trump committed 'multiple federal crimes' -- ones that Democrats addressed under the broad umbrella of 'abuse of power,' the first article of impeachment against the president. 'Although President Trump's actions need not rise to the level of a criminal violation to justify impeachment, his conduct here was criminal,' the panel's Democrats argue, labeling Trump's behavior 'both constitutional and criminal in character' and contending that the president 'betrayed the people of this nation' and should be removed from office.... The panel's Democrats cite his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani's trip to Ukraine just last week as evidence that Trump intends to continue the alleged scheme. Trump's lack of remorse over the Ukraine allegations, Democrats claim, is evidence that he poses a 'continuing threat if left in office.'... The staff report, which was filed to the House Rules Committee just after midnight Monday, argues that Trump directed a months-long scheme to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election, the allegation that forms the core of the two articles of impeachment -- abuse of power and obstruction of Congress -- approved by the Judiciary Committee last week.... The Judiciary Committee's report presents the panel's most thorough analysis yet of why Democrats believe the accusations against Trump are worthy of immediate impeachment and a recommendation that the Senate remove Trump from office. It comes a day before the Rules Committee formally considers the articles of impeachment, ahead of a likely Wednesday vote on the House floor." ~~~

     ~~~ The full report, via NPR, is here. ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The House Judiciary Committee formally presented its case for impeaching President Trump in a 658-page report published online early Monday morning, arguing just days before a final vote in the House that he 'betrayed the nation by abusing his high office.' The report, which echoes similar documents produced after the committee's approval of impeachment articles for Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton, contains no new allegations or evidence against Mr. Trump. But it offers a detailed road map for the two articles of impeachment the committee approved.... The report includes a scathing 20-page dissent from Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, who accuses Democrats on the panel of conducting an unfair process in a partisan attempt to drive Mr. Trump from office because of their dislike of him and his policies."

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "About 400 of America's largest corporations paid an average federal tax rate of about 11 percent on their profits last year, roughly half the official rate established under President Trump's 2017 tax law, according to a report released Monday. The 2017 tax law lowered the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, but in practice large companies often pay far less than that due to deductions, tax breaks and other loopholes. In the first year of the law, the actual amount corporations paid in federal taxes on their incomes -- their so-called 'effective rate' -- was 11.3 percent on average, possibly its lowest level in more than three decades, according to a report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank.... The report also found that 91 corporations in the Fortune 500, many worth billions of dollars, paid no federal taxes last year." Greenwich Time has Stein's report here.

Sharay Angulo of Reuters (Dec. 14): "Mexico's deputy foreign minister, Jesus Seade, said on Saturday he sent a letter to the top U.S. trade official expressing surprise and concern over a labor enforcement provision proposed by a U.S. congressional committee in the new North American trade deal.... An annex for the implementation of the treaty that was presented on Friday in the U.S. House of Representatives proposes the designation of up to five U.S. experts who would monitor compliance with local labor reform in Mexico. 'This provision, the result of political decisions by Congress and the Administration in the United States, was not, for obvious reasons, consulted with Mexico,' Seade wrote in the letter. 'And, of course, we disagree.'"

Joe Biden, Can You Hear Me? Saira Asher of BBC News Singapore: "If women ran every country in the world there would be a general improvement in living standards and outcomes, former US President Barack Obama has said. Speaking in Singapore, he said women aren't perfect, but are 'indisputably better' than men. He said most of the problems in the world came from old people, mostly men, holding onto positions of power."

Senate Race 2020. Benjamin Fearnow of Newsweek: "Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is statistically tied with Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison, with the staunch pro-Trump incumbent seeing his favorability ratings plummet among independent voters. Graham, who was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002, is clinging to a 2-percentage point lead over Harrison, 47 to 45 percent, with nearly 10 percent of voters surveyed still remaining undecided about their 2020 vote."

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Burgess Everett of Politico: "In a letter sent on Sunday evening to [Mitch] McConnell, the majority leader, [Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer says Senate Democrats want to hear testimony from four administration witnesses, including acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton. There is almost no chance Senate Republicans would vote to subpoena those witnesses without assent from the White House and calling their own preferred witnesses. Schumer also proposes that the trial process begin on Jan. 6, with the trial itself starting on Jan. 9, and asks for a structure similar to the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999." Schumer's letter is here. The New York Times story is here.

Chandelis Duster & Kevin Bohn of CNN: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff on Sunday said he would like for some witnesses to be called during the expected Senate impeachment trial against ... Donald Trump and for withheld administration documents to be introduced as evidence. 'I think there are any number of witnesses that should be called in the Senate trial, and many witnesses the American people would like to hear from that the administration has refused to make available,' Schiff told ABC's 'This Week.' 'And perhaps of equal and if not greater importance are the thousands and thousands of documents that the administration refuses to turn over. I would hope that every senator of both parties would like to see the documentary evidence.'"

Aubree Weaver of Politico: "'It isn't just the president who's on trial in an impeachment proceeding,' Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois told CBS' Margaret Brennan on Sunday. 'The Senate is on trial, and we have a constitutional responsibility.'... 'I hear people like Sen. [Mitch] McConnell talking about the fact that he sat down with the folks at the White House,' Durbin added, referring to the Senate majority leader. 'He's already made his decision even before he's taken his oath to promise impartial justice. He sees no need for us to spend a lot of time. My friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, refers to the whole thing as a crock.['] Durbin said he believes McConnell needs to sit down Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to start the proceedings in a bipartisan fashion -- just as former Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott sat down with Democratic Minority Leader Tom Daschle during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in the late '90s."

Karoun Demirjian & Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler accused Senate Republicans of violating their oath to be impartial jurors in an impeachment trial, as GOP senators defended their right to work for President Trump's acquittal.... Senators take an oath to 'do impartial justice' at the start of any impeachment trial -- but several Republican senators argued that impartiality doesn't cover politics.... 'Senators are not required, like jurors in a criminal trial, to be sequestered, not to talk to anyone, not to coordinate. There's no prohibition,' Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said on 'This Week,' calling impeachment 'inherently a political exercise' and Trump's impeachment a 'partisan show trial.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Riley Beggin of Vox covers much of the same subject matter. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: These yahoos are too dumb to realize that the more they make a travesty of the Senate "trial," and the more they boast about deciding for Trump before they hear evidence, the more obvious it will be to Americans who pay only scant attention to the news that the Senate proceedings are a sham. I think this tactic could blow up in their faces. For better or for worse, Americans will equate the Senate trial with a criminal trial, and they've all watched enough teevee to know jurors are excused if deemed for some reason to be partial & can be prosecuted if they are found to have lied about some specific bias or foreknowledge they might have.

Rachel Bade of the Washington Post: "A private campaign is underway to draft Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) as an impeachment manager in the Senate trial of President Trump, a bid to diversify House Democrats' appeal to voters with a rare conservative voice. A group of 30 freshman Democrats, led by Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), has asked House leaders to consider the libertarian, who left the Republican Party earlier this year, for the small group tasked with arguing its case for removing Trump in the upper chamber, according to several Democratic officials. The thinking, according to these people, is that Amash would reach conservative voters in a way Democrats can't, potentially bolstering their case to the public. He also would provide Democrats cover from GOP accusations that they're pursuing a partisan impeachment; Amash is one of the most conservative members of the House and a vocal Trump critic.

"A Republic if You Can Keep It." Elizabeth Drew in a New York Times op-ed: "The current proceedings have demonstrated how fragile the Constitution's impeachment clause is.... Today's partisanship is more intense than ever.... In our highly polarized world, a strong-willed president like Mr. Trump can limit impeachment -- and possibly wreck it.... Unless our political system undergoes a radical change, we could be on the brink of having no check on the president, no matter how radically he defies the Constitution."

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Support for impeaching ... Donald Trump hit a record high of 54% in a Fox News poll that was released on Sunday. Half of those surveyed told Fox News that the president should be impeached and removed. An additional 4% believe that the president should only be impeached. In all, 13 percent more respondents thought that the president should be impeached than those who thought he shouldn't.... In October, Trump lashed out at Fox News after the network published a poll that found a majority of registered voters backed impeachment. Since that time, Trump has tried to create the false narrative that support for impeachment is waning."

John Bowden of the Hill: "President Trump on Sunday tweeted that Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) teeth were 'falling out of her mouth' during a press conference days earlier in which she was discussing the impeachment inquiry. The comment came as part of a retweet of Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), who had quote-tweeted a clip of Pelosi explaining why bribery was not one of the articles of impeachment filed by House Democrats against the president last week. 'Because Nancy's teeth were falling out of her mouth, and she didn't have time to think!' Trump tweeted, apparently responding to the reporter's question in the clip.... The president's remark is just the latest in a series of increasingly personal attacks he has aimed at the Speaker in recent weeks...." ~~~

~~~ Wait, Wait, There's More. Aubree Weaver of Politico: "Former FBI Director James Comey on Sunday said he was 'wrong' about the bureau's use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in the Russia investigation, prompting ... Donald Trump to question whether jail time was warranted for the director he fired in 2017.... 'I was overconfident in the procedures that the FBI and Justice had built over 20 years. I thought they were robust enough. It's incredibly hard to get a FISA.... [IG Michael Horowitz is] right: There was real sloppiness,' Comey added. A few hours later, Trump seized on those comments.... 'So now Comey's admitting he was wrong,' the president wrote on Twitter. 'Wow, but he's only doing so because he got caught red handed. He was actually caught a long time ago. So what are the consequences for his unlawful conduct. Could it be years in jail? Where are the apologies to me and others, Jim?' Trump also went after Horowitz, who has served as inspector general since 2012. 'As bad as the I.G. Report is for the FBI and others, and it is really bad, remember that I.G. Horowitz was appointed by Obama,' Trump tweeted. 'There was tremendous bias and guilt exposed, so obvious, but Horowitz couldn't get himself to say it. Big credibility loss. Obama knew everything!'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Another example of how nuts Trump is. Comey admits "mistakes were made" while he was on the job. It's rare for Comey (and many of us) to admit error, but it's admirable. For that, Trump suggests he should be criminally prosecuted & jailed, then jumps to the assumption that Comey & President Obama were diabolically plotting "everything." Donald Trump is stark staring mad. Wouldn't it be ironic if, just as the Senate declined to remove him from office, Trump went so off his rocker that the Cabinet had no choice but to invoke the 25th Amendment?

International Cloak & Dagger Section

Edward Wong & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The American government secretly expelled two Chinese Embassy officials this fall after they drove on to a sensitive military base in Virginia, according to people with knowledge of the episode. The expulsions appear to be the first of Chinese diplomats suspected of espionage in more than 30 years. American officials believe at least one of the Chinese officials was an intelligence officer operating under diplomatic cover, said six people with knowledge of the expulsions. The group, which included the officials' wives, evaded military personnel pursuing them and stopped only after fire trucks blocked their path. The episode in September, which neither Washington nor Beijing made public, has intensified concerns in the Trump administration that China is expanding its spying efforts in the United States as the two nations are increasingly locked in a geopolitical and economic rivalry. American intelligence officials say China poses a greater espionage threat than any other country." ~~~

     ~~~ James West of Mother Jones has a summary report. "Some of the early details reported by the Times ... could have been lifted from a pulpy television spy drama like The Americans: Some of the early details reported by the Times, quoting 'six people with knowledge of the expulsions,' could have been lifted from a pulpy television spy drama like The Americans...."

Guardian: "Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm Blackwater and prominent supporter of Donald Trump, made a secret visit to Venezuela last month and met Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez -- one of Nicolás Maduro's closest allies. The visit ... came just eight months after Prince floated a plan to deploy a private army to help topple the Venezuelan leader. It was unclear what Prince, the brother of Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos, discussed with Rodríguez. The meeting was first reported by Bloomberg. A meeting with Rodríguez, who is under US sanctions, could raise questions about whether Prince might have run afoul of US law, which prohibits Americans from virtually any business dealings with sanctioned individuals and specifically with the Venezuelan government. The Venezuelan vice-president's office also oversees the country's national intelligence service." --s

Presidential Race 2020

Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: Joe "Biden[, senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for most of the Iraq war,] got the Iraq war wrong before and throughout invasion, occupation, and withdrawal. Convenient as it is to blame Bush -- who, to be clear, bears primary and eternal responsibility for the disaster -- Biden embraced the Iraq war for what he portrayed as the result of his foreign policy principles and persisted, most often in error, for the same reasons.... Biden is the last of the pre-Obama generation of Democratic foreign policy grandees who enabled the Iraq war. John Kerry and Hillary Clinton both lost their presidential bids, saddled in both cases with the legacy of the war they supported. Now Biden confronts rivals like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who are both sketching out foreign policies that begin with ending a generation of war." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As Mark Landler recalled in a 2017 NYT story, "Mr. Obama was a state senator from Illinois in October 2002 when he famously condemned Iraq as a 'dumb war.'" Those of you who remember the 2008 Democratic presidential primary will likely remember that what distinguished Barack Obama from candidates like Clinton & Biden was that, unlike them, he opposed the Iraq War in real time. I think that, ultimately, that 2002 speech of a young state senator is why he won the Democratic primary and ultimately the presidency (over "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" McCain). Whether Iraq will be a factor so many years later, I don't know, but I do know that Trump -- who falsely claims to have contemporaneously opposed the Iraq War -- will hammer Biden for his support of it. Biden's long record has plenty of pickings for Trump to exploit & exaggerate, and this is but one of them.

Thanks to Ken W. & Son for the photo, snapped in Palo Alto, Calif.

Emma Newburger of CNBC: "Wedding website Zola will no longer run advertisements on the Hallmark Channel after the network removed four commercials that featured two brides kissing each other." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Aimee Ortiz of the New York Times: "Hallmark apologized on Sunday after facing days of backlash for pulling four television ads that featured brides kissing each other.... Hallmark said in [a] statement that it would work with GLAAD, a national L.G.B.T.Q. media advocacy organization, 'to better represent the L.G.B.T.Q. community across our portfolio of brands,' and that it planned on contacting Zola to 're-establish our partnership and reinstate the commercials.'" Mrs. McC: I'd suggest, as a means of atonement, Hallmark create a line of greeting cards for bigots who can't find their own appropriate words of apology. You know, "I wouldn't have called you a [gay slur] if I'd known how sensitive you are," and "I'll never show up in blackface again, Bro," and "Really, I love the Jews. Jesus, my daughter married one of you people." But maybe classier, and in a fancy script font. When you care enough to send the very best.

Beyond the Beltway

Arkansas. AP: "Federal prosecutors have recommended a reduced sentence for a New Jersey political consultant [Donald 'D.A.' Jones] caught in an Arkansas political corruption case.... Prosecutors on Thursday filed a memorandum that was first reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette saying Jones should receive prison time, but deserves an unspecified reduced sentence because of his cooperation in the wide-ranging case that led to the convictions of several former Arkansas lawmakers.... Jones pleaded guilty in 2017 to conspiracy and admitted paying $219,000 in kickbacks to lobbyist Milton 'Rusty' Cranford of Rogers and $45,000 to former state Rep. Eddie Cooper of Melbourne. Cranford and Cooper both pleaded guilty. Cranford admitted bribing former Sen. Jon Woods, Rep. Hank Wilkins and Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson in an effort to increase revenue for the Missouri-based nonprofit Preferred Family HealthCare. Woods was convicted and is appealing while Wilkins and Hutchinson, the nephew of Gov. Asa Hutchinson and son of former U.S. Sen. Tim Hutchinson, each pleaded guilty." --s

Iowa. Nothing Is Racist if You Say It's Not Racist. Fox 32 Chicago: "A homeowner living next to an elementary school in Iowa is facing backlash for painting Confederate battle flags and swastikas on pallets around his property. The symbols are clearly visible from the school. School officials say the students, who are about 60% nonwhite, see the symbols when arriving and leaving the school and even from the playground.... 'It's a free country,' [homeowner] William Stark said. 'I'll put it out there if I want to.'... [He said] "people shouldn't construe the painted pallets as racist. 'They don't know their history, evidently,' Stark said. 'That's the only reason I can think of that they can think anything bad about it -- they don't know their history.'" Mrs. McC: Also too, this report gets my vote for the Best Both-Sides Report of the Year. Not once does the report make a value judgment. The reporter just records what Stark says & what unnamed "school officials" say.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Denmark/China. Editors of Berlingske: "Huawei likes to present itself as an independent, privately owned company which does not take orders from the Chinese state.... [According a leaked audio clip], a Faroese [Faroe Islands] government official states that the Chinese ambassador to Denmark, Mr. Feng Tie, threatened leading members of the Faroese government in order to secure a contract for Huawei to develop a 5G network. If the company was not awarded this contract, the Chinese government would drop a proposed free trade agreement with the Faroe Islands. This information exposes the extent to which the Chinese state is willing to use its economic power to blackmail a tiny nation into securing contracts for Huawei. It is thus a mere illusion to think that Huawei is a private company like any other. Huawei is a pawn in China's quest for global technological dominance." --s

India/Kashmir. Niha Masih, et al., of the Washington Post: India's shutdown of Kashmir's Internet access has "entered its 134th day Monday, [and] is now the longest ever imposed in a democracy, according to Access Now.... Only authoritarian regimes such as China and Myanmar have cut off the Internet for longer. India imposed the shutdown on Aug. 5, when authorities revoked Kashmir'autonomy and statehood, snapped all communications and detained the region's mainstream politicians. Landlines and calls on some mobile phones were subsequently restored, but the Internet remains blocked...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Now ask yourself, "Could this happen in the U.S.?" Maybe in certain neighborhoods, say, where some of "those people" weren't sufficiently "respectful" of law enforcement? Or maybe in parts of Nancy Pelosi's "dangerous and disgusting Slum"/district?

North Korea. The Art of No Deals. AP in Politico: "North Korea said Saturday that it successfully performed another 'crucial test' at its long-range rocket launch site that will further strengthen its nuclear deterrent. The test possibly involved technologies to improve intercontinental ballistic missiles that could potentially reach the continental United States.... The announcement suggests that the country is preparing to do something to provoke the United States if Washington doesn't back down and make concessions to ease sanctions and pressure on Pyongyang in deadlocked nuclear negotiations." --s

Comments

[Ken Winkes]

Checked this AM and see the response I wrote to the Drew piece yesterday afternoon never made the cross-continental trip to the Times, but no matter, having had more time to stew may have only added more flavor to the dish.

I didn't exactly shake my finger at Ms. Drew, far from it, for I consider her one of the few truly astute observers of our politics, always worth reading, but thought it interesting that in her latest thoughts about impeachment, she said nothing about the only institution that can do anything to protect our democracy from the Pretender: The SCOTUS.

We know the Senate will do nothing, but on at least two fronts SCOTUS can countermand the Pretender's refusal to comply with lawful subpoenas issued by Congress and by New York law enforcement and thus reveal to the nation the depth and height of more of those crimes we are all certain the Pretender has good reason to hide.

I hesitate to predict how this will break, for this is a corporate-friendly, mysogonist, Republican court after all, but it seems if those old bromides about a government of laws, not of men are to retain any force, and if those old boys have any intention of making future public appearances, the kind where for a hefty fee they talk about freedom, justice and even-handedness, they have only one way to jump. Since, as Drew says the Senate will do nothing to protect the nation, it is the SCOTUS that will decide if we are to have our first king.

Have also been thinking a little about the upcoming Senate trial.

Like others, I see two results. A Pretender acquittal, of course, but an acquittal that while it keeps their leader in office creates even more political problems for the Republicans who, in the face of all the evidence that brought the Pretender to this pass and that the R's never disputed, are obviously conspiring to keep him there.

If McConnell allows the show trial the Pretender wants, it will only display his lunacies, now largely confined to twitterdom and fact checkers, to a larger and less forgiving audience than his "followers," making it harder for even more to ignore his unfitness for office.

And as for the Senate itself, the likes of Graham and McConnell, who have both already dropped any pretense of fairness or objectivity, are already painting the entire body as an enemy, rather than as a protector, of democracy.

Of course, they have been just that for some years now, but a sham impeachment trial will expose even more of the Republican con to daylight as the 2020 election looms.

[PD Pepe]

Received this from ACLU:

Since Trump took office, his administration has pushed forward rules that hack away at critical civil rights protections. Now it's taking aim at a broad range of government-funded healthcare and social services programs millions of people depend on.

This past month, the Trump administration proposed a rule to allow taxpayer-funded Department of Health and Human Services programs to discriminate based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion.

If this rule takes effect, here's what we could expect:

Meals on Wheels and other HHS-funded community meal programs could refuse to deliver food to older Americans who are LGBTQ.
Federally-funded foster care agencies could refuse to place children with families because of the prospective families' religion or sexual orientation, regardless of the children's needs.
Head Start grant recipients and other federally-funded childcare facilities could refuse to serve children with same-sex parents and provide services to transgender youth.

I signed the petition which you can find on their website. This is just another vile example of what this administration is trying to accomplish. What a goddam shame so many in this country are not privy to–––oh, wait! Would they even care??? And thanks Ken for your senate comments–-and to think we start another week off with more hornswoggling by our brethren on the other side.

[unwashed]

"Did she sit on the floor or comfortably in first class?

Climate activist Greta Thunberg's tweet from a crowded German train is the main news in Germany. Her exchange of views with the country's state-owned train companies has sparked a debate about the state of German train traffic, and about who actually speaks the truth."

A reporter from the Swedish paper Dagens Nyheter [The Days News] (DN) was traveling with her has video of how crowded the train was. They weren't the only ones affected.

I wonder whether German trains allow "emotional support" animals aboard like we do on planes.

*If using Chrome, right-click and select 'Translate to English'.

[Hattie]

PD Pepe, re: -

“Proposal from Health and Human Services would allow discrimination based on faith — including people who are Jewish, Muslim, Catholic — as well as LGBTQ people.”

Thank you for your post! I support Meals-On-Wheels and live in a NYC community (and building) where the aforementioned folk live - openly, who they are - and receive (often daily) the generosity of “Meals”.

Here’s the ACLU site, from which one can hit “Take Action” on their menu, re: organizing / advocating within one’s own community.

https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbt-rights/trump-wants-to-allow-discrimination-with-billions-of-dollars-of-federal-funding/

[RAS]

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/12/12/21010975/india-muslim-citizenship-bill-national-register

Now I understand how Trump has gotten on so well with India and Modi. Modi treats Muslim refugees like Trump treats Central Americans, including the detention camps.