The Commentariat -- May 5, 2019

** Maureen Dowd: "At many of the most consequential moments in American history, I have watched officials bend over backward to be equitable..., ceding the ground to malevolent actors who use any means to achieve their ends, including flattening and sliming the proponents of 'fairness.' Now that Joe Biden is running for president in a post-#MeToo era, he says he always believed Anita Hill. But as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he acted more like a Republican collaborator.... Priding himself on his comity with his Republican colleagues, Biden set up the rules to favor [Clarence] Thomas.... Jim Comey also got tangled up on the issue of fairness, with disastrous results. Afraid that he would be blamed if it was discovered that the F.B.I. had been secretly investigating the woman expected to be the next president, the then-F. B.I. chief violated his own agency's norms to announce that he was reopening the inquiry into Hillary Clinton's emails on the cusp of the election. But he did not tell the public that the F.B.I. was also looking into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia.... President Obama got similarly wrapped around the axle.... Obama choked after the diabolical Mitch McConnell warned the White House that, if it went through with a plan to publicly shame Moscow, he would regard that as a partisan act. And finally, we have the unfortunate Robert Mueller.... [Bill] Barr ... spoke of Mueller dismissively, like an errant errand boy who threw a silly snit after failing to complete the task he was given."

Elections 2020

Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "There is no disagreement among Democrats about the urgency of defeating Mr. Trump. But Mr. Biden's singular focus on the president as the source of the nation's ills, while extending an olive branch to Republicans, has exposed a significant fault line in the Democratic primary.... Many on the left believe that Mr. Biden's nostalgia for a bygone era of comity, compromise and civility -- while appealing -- is misplaced, or even naïve.... And it has thrown into stark relief one of the fundamental questions facing the Democratic electorate: Do Democrats want a bipartisan deal-maker promising a return to normalcy, or a partisan warrior offering more transformative change?" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Goldmacher, & some whom he interviewed, have grasped what is wrong with Biden's presidential aspirations. It isn't that he is too old in years; it's that he is too married to the way things were when he was in his prime. We've already had one disastrous presidential election (2016) in which two old geezers ran against each other on their singular time-warped ideas; it would be terrible to go thru another. Countries prosper on innovation, expansion -- and luck. Luck is not enough.

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not believe President Trump can be removed through impeachment -- the only way to do it, she said this week, is to defeat him in 2020 by a margin so 'big' he cannot challenge the legitimacy of a Democratic victory.... 'We have to inoculate against that, we have to be prepared for that,' Ms. Pelosi said during an interview at the Capitol on Wednesday.... Ms. Pelosi ... offered Democrats her 'coldblooded' plan for decisively ridding themselves of Mr. Trump:... 'Own the center left, own the mainstream,' Ms. Pelosi, 79, said.... Ms. Pelosi remains committed to avoiding impeachment, but it is clear that she is losing patience.... Ms. Pelosi laced Wednesday's conversation with scathing descriptions of Mr. Trump's fitness to serve as president, taking issue with his 'attention span' and his 'lack of knowledge of the subjects at hand' during their negotiating sessions -- and saying his behavior 'degrades' the country and 'dishonors' the Constitution." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Pelosi is right in one particular: it will probably take armed guards to get Trump out of the White House (wearing restraints, one hopes). But as to policy, people want security, which the American people have not enjoyed in the 21st century. The promise of security comes only through hope -- "Yes, We Can" -- not Trumpian fear & security-stripping policies. That hope for security does not necessarily come from middle-of-the-road, tried-and-failed policies. As for impeachment, I still think the process itself, not the Senate trial, is what will matter. Congressional oversight will only further expose Trump's bad acts; remember that it was the last of the seven or eight House Benghaaazi! investigation that produced the E-Mails!

... AND don't kid yourself. If Democrats aren't investigating the hell out of Trump, here's a preview of the kind of stories that often will be at the top of the fold:

Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "For President Trump's reelection effort, 'Investigate the investigators!' is becoming the new 'Lock her up!' Trump and his allies, seeking to amplify claims that the FBI spied on his 2016 campaign, are seizing on news reports and statements by Attorney General William P. Barr to launch a political rallying cry they view as an antidote to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's findings. Dismissed by critics as an outlandish conspiracy theory, so-called 'spygate' is fast becoming a central feature of the Trump campaign as it seeks to go on offense in the wake of a report that identified 10 instances of potential obstruction of justice by Trump. The campaign is publicly calling for criminal investigations into former FBI officials, making 'spygate' fundraising pitches and selling spy-themed merchandise. The goal, officials said, is to turn the Russia probe into a political winner that could help him secure another term."

Trump-Generated Disinformation May Dwarf Any Russian Interference on His Behalf. Hunter Walker of Yahoo! News: "Trump's [re-election campaign] team is vowing to put together a more-than-$1 billion machine that will dwarf the guerilla operation he had early in the 2016 cycle. The president is also coming into the race with key structural advantages and experience running a powerfully influential Facebook advertising blitz.... This more formalized, professionalized, and, frankly, massive iteration of the Trump campaign will still include some of the hallmarks of the president's last run, including a hyper-focused Facebook advertising offensive and raucous rallies. Microtargeted Facebook ads were widely seen as one of the key factors behind the president's surprising 2016 victory. Trump's presence on the social network dwarfed that of ... Hillary Clinton. Data from Facebook revealed Trump had about 5.9 million ads on the platform compared to approximately 66,000 for Clinton." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Many radio & TV stations have standards, & they won't run blatantly false campaign ads. As we know, the same cannot be said for social media. But I think the Trump campaign could do worse than just generating the expected lies. While it's true that in 2020 Russia (or hackers working for some other country) could compromise American voting machines -- especially because the Trump administration is doing little or nothing to prevent it -- I think the larger danger might be homegrown: that is, from Trump campaign shenanigans. I would not put it past Trump to indirectly hire hackers (through cutouts) to change machine-generated voting machine results. The Trump campaign could do what Russia did in 2016, but even more effectively. Back in the day, Democrats were famous for stuffing ballot boxes & inspiring the saying, "Vote early and often." The rumor persists that Nixon really won Illinois & Texas in 1960, but for ballot-box stuffing by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley & friends of Lyndon Johnson.

Best Reason to Nominate Elizabeth Warren: Kate McKinnon:

Senate Race 2020. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senator Michael B. Enzi, Republican of Wyoming, said on Saturday that he would not seek re-election at the end of his term, the third Republican senator to do so ahead of the 2020 campaign. Mr. Enzi, 75, who leads the Senate Budget Committee, has held his seat since 1997, making him the longest-serving Wyoming senator in modern times.... It is unclear if Representative Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican who once challenged Mr. Enzi in a primary race, will take another shot at the seat -- a decision that would reshape Republican leadership in the House. Mr. Enzi, in his remarks, said he could see Ms. Cheney becoming speaker one day." (Also linked late yesterday afternoon.)

Lorin Reisner in Bloomberg Law: "According to what can be termed the 'Mueller Doctrine...,' a special counsel is prohibited from concluding that a sitting president committed a crime... even if the evidence supported that conclusion.... A corollary of the Mueller Doctrine, which reserves exclusively to Congress the authority to conclude that a sitting president committed a crime, reveals serious falsehoods in the letter sent by Attorney General William Barr to Congress on March 24.... In [his] letter [to Congress], Barr asserted that the special counsel's decision not to reach any legal conclusions on obstruction, 'leaves it to the Attorney General to determine whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime.' That is a false description of the conclusions of the Mueller Report. The report could not be clearer that it is the responsibility of Congress -- and not the attorney general or any other representative of the DOJ -- to determine whether a crime was committed by the president. Second, Barr concealed that his determination was inconsistent with the report while publicly portraying his 'summary' as consistent." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I would enjoy seeing Bill Barr running around with his pants on fire. I mean, I don't want him to be injured any more seriously than the equivalent of a bad sunburn, but still....

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha

Lois Beckett of the Guardian & agencies: "Donald Trump criticized social media companies after Facebook banned a number of far-right figures, declaring that he was 'monitoring and watching, closely!!' The president, who tweeted and retweeted complaints, including complaints from rightwing figures themselves, on Friday and Saturday, said he would 'monitor the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms'. On Saturday, Trump tweeted harsh criticism of mainstream news organizations such as the Washington Post and New York Times, while lashing out against social media platforms for banning the editors of ... Infowars. Trump retweeted multiple tweets denouncing the social media bans from an Infowars editor, as well as a one from far-right activist Lauren Southern, who has been banned from entering the UK for being deemed 'not conducive to the public good'. Southern was part of a 2017 far-right expedition that hired a ship to attempt to interfere with operations to rescue refugees in the Mediterranean."

Kevin Poulsen of the Daily Beast: "When it comes to putting disinformation in front of American eyeballs, Vladimir Putin has long been able to count alt-right social media stars like Alex Jones and Mike Cernovich as reliable allies. Now the One America News Network, a pro-Trump cable news and commentary channel, is joining them in embracing some of Moscow's most vile fake news.... The network has a history with fake news. Last year it reported that California lawmakers were considering a bill to outlaw the sale of Bibles in the state, and ... earlier work includes a segment pushing the noxious Seth Rich conspiracy. The networks recent hires include notorious Pizzagate pusher Jack Posobiec, who joined as a political correspondent.... One of the channel's most ardent and credulous viewers happens to be President of the United States. 'It's a great network,' Donald Trump said during a 2017 news conference.... Last month he tweeted an old conspiracy claim, discredited in 2017, that the U.K.'s signals intelligence agency helped President Obama spy on his campaign, after seeing a segment about it on OANN."

News Lede

New York Times: "Forty-one people were killed on Sunday when a Russian passenger jet made an emergency landing at a Moscow airport, trailing a gigantic plume of flame and black smoke and skidding to a stop on fire. A Russian law enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, reported that 40 passengers and one crew member lost their lives. There were 78 people on the plane. Videos showed passengers who had escaped the aircraft on exit slides running away from the burning plane on the tarmac as travelers inside the Sheremetyevo airport looked on aghast."

Comments

[safari]

The fact itself that Republicans are gearing up to beat the old dead horse of "Hillary's Emails!" for the umpteenth time should automatically dispel the notion that voters will get "tired" and "turned off" by Democrats digging into new and revelatory Mueller investigations. The Republicans' innate zeal to "investigate Obama and Hillary" strikes a fatal blow to their argument that voters are tired of endless investigations.

Any voter making that argument is too stupid to get back. Point out the hypocrisy and KEEP DIGGING!

[Akhilleus]

So now there's about 18 or so hours left for William (IOKIYAR) Barr to meet the deadline set by Democrats for turning over the unredacted Mueller report. My guess? He's sitting in some Republican cigar bar with his cronies laughing it up, sipping ridiculously expensive scotch while they crack other up doing their funniest Jerry Nadler impressions when he gets the note from Barr saying "Up yer ass, Jerry".

Republicans fear Democrats almost as much as they fear losing questionable wingnut cases brought to the Trump Supreme Court. They.Don't.Give.A.Shit.

Democrats will keep playing by the rules until election day, whereupon they'll find out that Trump and the Republicans have closed all the polling stations in blue states and have hired those Ohio crooks who flipped that state from Kerry to Bush in 2004 with all those "funny ballots", to run the elections in all the other states. Trump will win with a true authoritarian percentage of 90%. Democrats running for office will discover that anyone voting for them is having their taxes audited and all those votes have been impounded upon further inspection by Alex Jones.

Does this sound far-fetched? No more so than a ridiculously unqualified, racist, sexist pig being shoved into office by the triad of Putin, Assange, and Comey, with a special assist from the "failing" New York Times and the rest of the MSM that spent most of the election season wondering which way was up until Trump slithered into the White House and tied empty caviar cans to their tails.

Democrats will continue to be the nice guys and play Scrabble by the rules, while Republicans will demand that QZKJWX be counted as a real word and given a quintuple letter score, then pick 12 letters out of the bag while demanding that Democrats play fair. They will then insist that Democrats only use words beginning in Z and ending in Q , otherwise, they'll have them investigated and locked up.

It really is that bad. Meanwhile, Democrats are trying to decide what to do while the clock runs out.

[Akhilleus]

Nancy Pelosi's idea of beating Trump by a huge margin sounds like a reasonable plan until you consider that at minimum, 30-40% of voters will vote for him regardless. And those people will SHOW UP, unlike too many pantywaist Democrats and weezy Independents who may or may not make the effort.

Then there'll be the Russian and Trumpian interference and ratfucking. Add to that a somnambulant MSM and a viciously mendacious, hyper-active right-wing press, AND the efforts already underway by Republicans in charge of voting (that's in most states, by the way) who will do whatever they can to ensure that Democrats wait in line for 13 hours while local fire departments hose them down with ice water, while Republicans enjoy drive-through voting.

I truly believe that it is Trump's election to lose. I don't see any Democratic candidate on the horizon (including, and probably especially, Joe Biden) who would come close to winning if the election were held tomorrow. And Trump has already sicced the dogs on the Democratic candidates, with more to come, and plenty of lies to go along with his wall to wall attacks from now until November 2020.

I think we're fucked unless the Democrats come up with a plan that's better than "Wait and see" and "I'll give you a couple'a days to think about it".

If the shoe were on the other foot, impeachment proceedings brought by Confederates would have convened before the ink on the special prosecutor's report was dry.

If Nadler and the Democrats draw ANOTHER line in the sand tomorrow without dispatching Congress' Sergeant at Arms to lock Barr's fat ass up, we're toast. No. Correction. The United States is toast.

"Pass the jelly" giggles Fat Willy. "Here ya go" snickers Fat Trumpy.

[unwashed]

I wouldn't be surprised that Drumpf's call with BFF Pootie Poot and Maria Bartiromo were similar in that neither could get him to STFU.

[Aunt Hattie]

Akhilleus -

“I think we're fucked unless the Democrats come up with a plan . . . “

“If the shoe were on the other foot, impeachment proceedings . . . “

“If Nadler and the Democrats draw ANOTHER line in the sand tomorrow . . . The United States is toast.”
yes, yes & yes!
(grrrrrrrrrrrrr)

[Aunt Hattie]

Just glimpsed this headline:

“Donald & Melania Trump Wish a ‘Feliz Cinco de Mayo!’ After Threatening More Troops to Mexico Border”

And oh-so (shamefully=understatement) de rigueur.

[Jeanne]

I wish I could say that AK is wrong. He is not. Disheartening. Depressing. So tired of pansy-assed Democrats. And no, "Uncle Joe" simply doesn't get it. Meanwhile, the Crapmobile rolls on...