The Commentariat -- October 25, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Tim Morrison, a National Security Council official who has been identified as a witness to one of the most explosive pieces of evidence unearthed by House impeachment investigators, plans to testify Thursday even if the White House attempts to block him.... Morrison ... would be the first currently serving White House official to testify. He's also the first official believed to be on a July 25 phone call between ... Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during which Trump pressed his counterpart to investigate former vice president Joe Biden."
Erica Orden & Evan Perez of CNN: "Federal prosecutors in New York have subpoenaed the brother of one of the recently indicted associates of Rudy Giuliani, according to two people familiar with the matter, as they escalate their investigation in the campaign-finance case. The subpoena to Steven Fruman is the latest indication of prosecutors' actions since the rushed arrest two weeks ago of his brother, Igor Fruman, and another defendant, Lev Parnas, at a Washington-area airport. Since then, investigators have doled out multiple subpoenas and conducted several property searches, in one case blowing the door off a safe to access the contents, sources tell CNN. Federal prosecutors told a judge this week that they are sifting through data from more than 50 bank accounts. In addition, they've put a filter team in place as they examine communications obtained via search warrant and subpoena, sensitive to material that could be subject to attorney-client privilege because Giuliani..., Donald Trump's personal attorney, counted Parnas as a client."
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Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "Tim Morrison, a top Russia and Europe adviser on ... Donald Trump's National Security Council, is expected to testify before House impeachment investigators next week and corroborate key elements of a top US diplomat's account that Trump was pressing for Ukraine to publicly announce investigations into the Bidens before he would greenlight US security assistance, according to sources. Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, said in extraordinary testimony on Tuesday that Trump pushed for Ukraine to publicly announce investigations, including one into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, using as leverage the military aid the country sought to fight back against Russian aggression. Morrison's testimony is expected to be significant because he is a current White House official whose name was cited 15 times in Taylor's opening statement, which Democrats view as damning for Trump. Morrison also listened to the July 25 call between Trump and the Ukrainian leader.... But two sources also tell CNN that Morrison will contend that he didn't see anything wrong with what the Trump administration did, while one of the sources said there will be 'nuance' over what Morrison intends to say." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: "Nuance?" Maybe not.
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: CNN is reporting that John Bolton is in negotiations with the House committees to appear for a deposition. No wonder Trump didn't trash Bolton when he fired him/Bolton quit; looks as if Trump can plan this far (a couple of weeks) ahead.
Charlie Savage of the New York Times publishes the warning letter, annotated, which Pentagon official Laura Cooper's attorney received from the DOD the day before she was scheduled to testify voluntarily. The letter told her not to cooperate. Cooper testified under subpoena. The AP reports on the letter but does not reproduce it.
David Lynch & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The White House's trade representative in late August withdrew a recommendation to restore some of Ukraine's trade privileges after John Bolton, then-national security adviser, warned him that President Trump probably would oppose any action that benefited the government in Kyiv, according to people briefed on the matter. The warning to Robert E. Lighthizer came as Trump was withholding $391 million in military aid and security assistance from Ukraine.... The August exchange between Bolton and Lighthizer over the trade matter represents the first indication that the administration's suspension of assistance to Ukraine extended beyond the congressionally authorized military aid and security assistance to other government programs.... Bolton did not share Trump's view that Ukraine might be a source of damaging political information, but he was privy to weeks of back-and-forth within the administration and in Kyiv about the military aid." Emphasis added. The Hill has a summary of the WashPo report.
"I'm Trump's Lawyer." -- Rudy Giuliani, Incriminating Trump, Himself. Jerry Lambe of Law & Crime: "After months of insisting he was working at the behest of the State Department, Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday evening unequivocally stated that his work in Ukraine was performed in his capacity as ... Donald Trump's private attorney, an admission legal commentators say may have serious repercussions for both Giuliani and the White House. 'With all the Fake News let me make it clear that everything I did was to discover evidence to defend my client against false charges...,' Giuliani tweeted.... [Marty Lederman, a constitutional scholar, wrote, 'This merely confirms what was so outrageous: ... [Giuliani's] duty of loyalty was 100% to his (personal capacity) client. And yet Trump told Ukraine it had to dance to Rudy's tune -- a tune designed to advance Trump's personal interests -- in order to remain in the U.S.'s good graces (e.g., to secure access, aid, etc.).... This is the highest of high crimes -- using the leverage of his position as chief diplomat to advance his own interests -- and it's hard to imagine anything more inconsistent w/Trump's constitutional oath & duty and more revealing of his utter unfitness for office. And that'd be true *even if there were no quid pro quo* (but of course there was, which makes it all the worse).'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Erica Orden, et al., of CNN: "Rudy Giuliani has been approaching defense attorneys for possible representation, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The move by Giuliani, who is President Donald Trump's personal attorney, is notable because last week he said he would not be seeking a new lawyer unless he felt one was needed. His previous lawyer, John Sale, was helping him deal with congressional inquiries." Mrs. McC: It would have been a good idea if Rudy had found an attorney in time for said attorney to tell him to STFU. But, as far as the nation is concerned, it's nice of him to admit his job was helping Trump commit an impeachable offense. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ ** "No, I'm Trump's Lawyer." -- Bill Barr, Incriminating Himself, Trump. Katie Benner & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "For more than two years, President Trump has repeatedly attacked the Russia investigation, portraying it as a hoax and illegal even months after the special counsel closed it. Now, Mr. Trump's own Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into how it all began. Justice Department officials have shifted an administrative review of the Russia investigation closely overseen by Attorney General William P. Barr to a criminal inquiry, according to two people familiar with the matter. The move gives the prosecutor running it, John H. Durham, the power to subpoena for witness testimony and documents, to impanel a grand jury and to file criminal charges. The opening of a criminal investigation is likely to raise alarms that Mr. Trump is using the Justice Department to go after his perceived enemies.... Mr. Trump has made clear that he sees the typically independent Justice Department as a tool to be wielded against his political enemies." Update: An AP story is here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Rudy & Bill are pursuing related conspiracy theories. The theories center on the notion that President Obama or Hillary Clinton were the real ringleaders of a huge plot to interfere with the 2016 election and frame Russia. It would seem to be a vast left-wing conspiracy wherein hundreds of "deep state" villains are in on the plot: White House & Clinton campaign honchos, the top people at the FBI & their minions, directors of the intelligence agencies & their operatives, Bob Mueller & his investigators & prosecutors (not to mention Sessions & Rosenstein), the Senate Intelligence Committee & its staff, allied governments around the world, & who knows who else. What's pretty amazing is that none of these hundreds of people ever blabbed: nobody got drunk & blabbed at the bar, nobody told her boyfriend, nobody went to the National Enquirer looking for a payoff for dirt. ~~~
~~~ Anna Momigliano of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy said his country's intelligence services had informed the American attorney general, William P. Barr, that they played no role in the events leading to the Russia investigation, taking the air out of an unsubstantiated theory promoted by President Trump and his allies in recent weeks. 'Our intelligence is completely unrelated to the so-called Russiagate...,' Mr. Conte said in a news conference in Rome on Wednesday evening after spending hours describing Italy's discussions with Mr. Barr to the parliamentary committee on intelligence.... Mr. Trump and his associates have asserted, without evidence, that [Joseph] Mifsud [-- who told George Papadopoulos that Russia had thousands of e-mails that contained damaging info about Hillary Clinton --] is not a professor with links to Russia, as the special counsel's report states, but a Western intelligence asset working as part of an Obama administration plot to spy on the Trump campaign. That theory, once relegated to the far-right margins, has become a frequent talking point of Mr. Trump's as he seeks to undermine the special counsel's report. Mr. Barr at least twice visited Rome to investigate the allegations, on Aug. 15 and Sept. 27." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ TPM's story, by Josh Kovensky, is here. ~~~
~~~ Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "The New York City Bar Association has called on U.S. Attorney General William Barr to stand down and recuse himself from any further review by the Department of Justice (DOJ) of issues related to the Trump Administration's massive and snowballing Ukraine scandal.... In a statement, the organization blasted Barr's continued presence[:] 'To help remedy that failure [of undermining DOJ independence], the New York City Bar Association urges that Mr. Barr recuse himself from any ongoing or future review by DOJ of Ukraine-related issues in which Mr. Barr is allegedly involved. If he fails to do so, he should resign or, failing that, be subject to sanctions, including possible removal, by Congress.'" --s ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I've scanned several stories on this & none let on whether or not Barr was a member of the NYC bar. Elizabeth Dye of Above the Law urged the D.C. bar to follow the NYC bar's lead. Barr is a member of the D.C. bar.
Andrew Kirell of the Daily Beast: "White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham on Thursday doubled down on her boss' 'human scum' attack on so-called 'Never Trump' Republicans and seemingly expanded it to include anyone who has worked against the president's agenda.... 'The people who are against him, and who have been against him, and have been working against him since the day they took office are just that.'" Mrs. McC: As New York's "Intelligencer" pointed out, at least Trump (and now Grisham) are conceding the Never-Trumpers are human. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "Today, the Wall Street Journal editorial board has chimed in with a bizarre, new argument for why Trump should not be impeached: he's simply too inept. No, seriously. 'Intriguingly, Mr. Taylor says in his statement that many people in the Administration opposed the Giuliani effort, including some in senior positions at the White House. This matters because it may turn out that while Mr. Trump wanted a quid-pro-quo policy ultimatum toward Ukraine, he was too inept to execute it. Impeachment for incompetence would disqualify most of the government, and most Presidents at some point or another in office. The editorial is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Lindsey to Introduce Suck-up Resolution. Sarah Kolinovsky of ABC News: "Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., introduced a resolution on Thursday calling for the House of Representatives to hold a vote to initiate a formal impeachment inquiry, to allow ... Donald Trump to call witnesses on his behalf and to confront his accusers and to give subpoena power to House Republicans." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: safari found a Twitter feed (Frank Thorp V) that listed the senators who had not yet signed onto Lindsey's suck-up resolution. They are: Alexander, Collins, Enzi, Gardner, Isakson, Murkowski, & Romney. Alexander, Enzi & Isakson have said they will retire. Gardner is in a tight 2020 race in a purple state, leaning blue. Murkowski isn't afraid to stand up to Trump. Romney is enjoying his status as the Senate's Never Trump. And Collins, well, ~~~
Once again, it’s time to play... pic.twitter.com/oBOKYIGG6a
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) October 5, 2018
IOKIYAR. Ken Meyer of Mediaite: In 2016, when Secretary of State & Sycophancy Mike Pompeo was a member of Congress, he "defended the House Select Committee on Benghazi for the closed-door interviews they conducted while investigating the attack.... 'We felt like these closed door interviews were a much more effective way to get the facts for the American people.'... [Trey] Gowdy [R], the former South Carolina representative and chairman of the Benghazi committee, similarly defended private hearings in 2015 by saying they 'always produce better results.' 'I can just tell you that of the 50-some odd interviews we have done thus far, the vast majority of them have been private,' the former congressman said in an interview with Chuck Todd. 'And you don't see the bickering among the members of Congress in private interviews.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Brad Reed of the Raw Story: Wherein CNN's Poppy Harlow busts Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) "for blatantly misstating the facts about the whistleblower who filed a complaint against ... Donald Trump." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Matt Wilstein of the Daily Beast: "After Republican members of the House literally stormed the gates of the impeachment hearings on Wednesday, Judge Andrew Napolitano stopped by Fox & Friends Thursday morning to deliver a harsh wake-up call: Democrats are just 'following the rules' -- rules written by Republicans":
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As the Fox & Friends Couch Lady understands it, the depositions "will go on and on and on until they find something on the President*." Looks as if Fox "News" is way ahead of Donald Trump & already has a rule prohibiting its on-air personalities from reading the New York Times & Washington Post (see related story linked below).
Summer Concepcion of TPM: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he isn't sweating the House's impeachment inquiry. In an interview with The Wichita Eagle Thursday, Pompeo said that he doesn't think that the impeachment inquiry has damaged his image or leadership at the State Department.... Pompeo then seemed to take aim at the media for its coverage of testimonies from State Department officials, including top Ukraine diplomat Bill Taylor, related to the House's impeachment probe.... When asked about Taylor's damning testimony this week, which mentioned how Taylor sent Pompeo a cable in August expressing his issues regarding the delay of military aid to Ukraine, the secretary of state refused to comment. 'Yeah, I'm not going to talk about [the] inquiry this morning,' Pompeo said." ~~~
~~~ Rachel Frazin of the Hill: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a reporter for a Kansas newspaper that his question was 'insane' after the journalist asked if President Trump's recent decision to move troops out of northern Syria undermined U.S. credibility. Pompeo, a former GOP congressman from Kansas's 4th District, was asked by a Wichita Eagle reporter, 'What good really is the word of the U.S. in light of the president's treatment of the Kurds? Has that undercut U.S. credibility?' 'The whole predicate of your question is insane,' Pompeo responded. 'The word of the United States is much more respected today than it was just two and a half years ago,' the top U.S. diplomat added."
Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post makes fun of fact-checks Trump's Syria speech. Related stories linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Dareh Gregorian & Hallie Jackson of NBC News: "... Donald Trump plans to direct federal agencies to cancel subscriptions to The New York Times and The Washington Post, outlets he regularly derides as 'fake news' for writing critical stories about him, the White House confirmed Thursday.... 'Not renewing subscriptions across all federal agencies will be a significant cost saving for taxpayers - hundreds of thousands of dollars,' White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.... Washington Post reporters noted on Twitter that their paper offers free digital subscriptions to anyone with a valid .gov or .mil email address." Mrs. McC: Certainly there are federal employees who are required to read these papers, and many, many others who need to read the major papers to do their jobs well.
Eriq Gardner of the Hollywood Reporter: "For the first time, season-five Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos has laid out some of her evidence supporting claims that Donald Trump attacked her in a hotel room in 2007.... Trump couldn't prevent the lawsuit from moving forward. In response to the argument that the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution barred a sitting president from being sued in state court, the judge responded that 'no one is above the law.'... The evidence that Zervos says she has collected to 'corroborate' her account ... include emails to Trump's secretary Rhona Graff to set up a meeting with him and responses from her. There are also calendar entries for Trump and his bodyguard showing how they flew from Las Vegas to Los Angeles in December 2007 and stayed at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Many of these documents are from Trump Organization files. Zervos' attorney Mariann Wang writes calendar entries and itineraries 'line up with Ms. Zervos's detailed public account with striking accuracy.' Further documents are said to also corroborate Zervos' account 'with even more granularity.'... 'I never met her at a hotel,' responded Trump, who added that allegations from his accusers were '100 percent fabricated and made-up charges, pushed strongly by the media and the Clinton campaign.'" ~~~
~~~ Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "Excerpts of President Trump's private calendar from a dozen years ago made public on Thursday appear to show Trump was at a Beverly Hills hotel around the same time a former 'Apprentice' contestant alleges he assaulted her there. Email exchanges from 2007 also released Thursday show that the woman, Summer Zervos, had sought a lunch meeting with Trump in New York around the time she claims he kissed her inappropriately in that city.... Trump called Zervos and other women who have made accusations against him 'liars,' prompting Zervos to sue him for defamation."
Erica Green & Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday fined Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for contempt of court, ruling that she had violated an order to stop collecting on loans owed by students from a now-defunct for-profit chain of colleges. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim of the Federal District Court in San Francisco ordered the Education Department to pay a $100,000 fine. The money will go toward various remedies for students who are owed debt relief after President Barack Obama's Education Department found they were defrauded by the chain, Corinthian Colleges, which collapsed in 2014. The ruling is a victory for the more than 60,000 students who have been on a financial roller coaster since Corinthian imploded, after state and federal officials found that it lured students through deceptive recruitment practices and falsified job placement rates." Mrs. McC: Kim should have fined DeVos personally. Not that Betsy would have blinked at a little $100K fine. But you & I have to pay directly for her misdeeds. ~~~
~~~ Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "o;... a top Education Department official who oversaw federal student loans suddenly resigned on Thursday and proposed a sweeping plan to tackle student debt. The Wall Street Journal reported that A. Wayne Johnson, appointed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to serve as the the chief strategy and transformation officer of the department's Office of Federal Student Aid, has stepped down and will run for Sen. Johnny Isakson's (R-GA) seat. Slamming the student loan system as 'fundamentally broken,' Johnson proposed cancelling up to $50,000 in federal student loans for any borrower. Johnson's plan is particularly surprising given his former workplace's repeated efforts to gut student forgiveness programs under DeVos' leadership. He also served as CEO for several private student loan companies before he began working for the Trump administration. The former official told the Wall Street Journal that his proposal aims to eliminate the government's role in providing student loans and provide borrowers with a $50,000 voucher for tuition instead." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Susan Davis of NPR: "The first lawmaker to trigger ... new [House] rules ... [that] prohibit lawmakers from having sexual relations with anyone who works in their congressional office or on any committees on which they serve ... is a woman, freshman Rep.Katie Hill, D-Calif., and a member of House Democratic leadership." The House Ethics Committee is investigating. Davis reports the background. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential/Congressional Races 2020
Phil Helsel & Amanda Golden of NBC News: "Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard said Thursday that she will not run for re-election for her U.S. representative seat, saying she wants to focus on trying to secure her party's nomination to challenge ... Donald Trump. Gabbard, who represents Hawaii, made the announcement in a video and email to supporters."
Dan Merica of CNN: "Rep. Tim Ryan dropped out of the 2020 presidential race on Thursday, ending a campaign that failed to gain any traction in a large field of better-financed and better-known Democrats. In a video sent to his supporters, Ryan also announced that he will instead run for reelection to the House of Representatives."
** Michael Wines of the New York Times: "After decades of treating elections as an afterthought, college students have begun voting in force. Their turnout in the 2018 midterms -- 40.3 percent of 10 million students tracked by Tufts University's Institute for Democracy & Higher Education -- was more than double the rate in the 2014 midterms, easily exceeding an already robust increase in national turnout. Energized by issues like climate change and the Trump presidency, students have suddenly emerged as a potentially crucial voting bloc in the 2020 general election. And almost as suddenly, Republican politicians around the country are throwing up roadblocks between students and voting booths. Not coincidentally, the barriers are rising fastest in political battlegrounds and places like Texas where one-party control is eroding. Students overwhelmingly lean Democratic, with three in four supportive of impeaching President Trump, according to an Axios/College Reaction poll released this month." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Forgot this earlier. Theodore Schleifer of Vox: "Wednesday was open season on Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook -- this time in the halls of the US Congress. While the hearing was supposed to be about Facebook's push to create a new digital currency called Libra, about half of the back and forth centered on other topics, from its controversial political ads policy to Facebook's record on diversity to particular congresspeople's pet issues. Facebook is balancing multiple overlapping crises simultaneously, and each individual congressperson chose their own line of attack, giving the whole hearing a scattershot feeling that lacked a clear partisan or even thematic bent.... Sixty different politicians had five minutes each to grill Zuckerberg about whatever they wanted, and they jumped at the opportunity to try and test him at yet another politically delicate moment in his company' history. With some notable exceptions, Congress came across as prepared, serious, and thoughtful -- especially compared to prior outings, when technological illiteracy reigned supreme.... Almost all of the questions -- no matter the issue area -- centered on the overwhelming question of trust. One member suggested that Facebook had lied. Another said Facebook was often found at the 'scene of the crime.' The big idea: Why should anyone trust Facebook to responsibly do something new, particularly something related to its users' money, when it can't even execute on its existing projects?" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Lede
CNN is updating developments in California wildfires. "As of early Friday morning, there are nine active major fires burning across California, CalFire told CNN."
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Reader Comments (10)
My three week absence came to an abrupt halt today and my head is still reeling.
Just read RC for the fourth time in that interval and watched MSNBC for the first time since Oct. 4.
Not proud of my extended ignorance but in a small way would recommend the comfort it brought.
Now as I catch up on accumulated newspapers and read today's news I see the Pretender and his circle hold ignorance in similarly high repute, I imagine finding like comfort in all I did and do not know.
No NYTimes or WaPo for you, I see. You might learn something. Can't have that in government employees.
And no college students allowed to vote. Can't trust the educated. They might cotton to what's going on, might have gained the capacity to separate the facts presented in the Mueller report from all the smoke Barr manages in the next few months to blow about its supposedly dodgy inception.
College students might even know Colorado doesn't border Mexico. Certainly can't have those with such advanced geographic knowledge voting.
And if they've been afforded six or eight minutes of literature or psychology instruction, those students might not accept the "it was a joke" explanation for the genius' thousandth dumb mistake.
They might even have already concluded the Pretender himself is the very unfunny "joke" that I see three weeks down the road is still being played on us all.
Welcome back, my friend, those three weeks must have been a little bit of heaven for you.
And yes, you are hit now with the multitude of spectaculars that this phony piece of "human scum" and his assistants on parade have wrought. A criminal inquiry into the criminal inquiry that proved Russia had its fingers in our pies because, gee, they need to prove it was really Obama and Hillary and maybe some Italian grocer who rigged the system to fix––something something. One word describes these matters: DESPERATION or as Fatty might say, Desperanto.
It's like watching fat fingers trying like hell to stop the flood from washing over the dike and drowning the townspeople who didn't have the sense to get out before the onslaught.
All Federal agencies have to cancel subscriptions to Wash Po and the Times? Holy cow!!! Truly remarkable and those that don't smell those bananas in this republic have their heads deeply in the sand.
And Billy Barr ain't looking good these days––digging for dirt in foreign countries takes a toll on one's shiny new shovel. Can't speak for John Durham but I bet he will come up empty handed.
mike pompeo saying "The word of the United States is much more respected today than it was just two and a half years ago" just makes my head want to explode. Completely divorced from reality. Completely in line with the Right Wing trope during the Obama years that the world was laughing at us. Completely divorced from reality. And yet, the people in the fox news bubble who don't travel to other countries accept it as fact. Insane.
@NiskyGuy
Trouble is, I'm more and more convinced that Pompeo and the whole GOP goon squad have actually internalized their own propaganda. You know the old adage, don't get high on your own supply?
Yeah, well, that's really the only explication of the actions of Pompeo, Barr, Trump, and nearly every single member of the House GOP.
Most Republican senators can still see the trees through the fog, but a HUGE group of conservatives (elected and electorate) have bought into their own bullshit, shined that turd and now carry it in their front pocket as a sort of demented feel-good charm to be taken out and waved about whenever confronted by reality.
Franco not dead after all?
Boot licker extraordinaire, Lindsey Graham, is demanding that barking mad loonies like Devin Nunes, Louie Gohmert, Matt Gaetz, and Gym Jordan all get subpoena powers to haul in anyone they believe might not be bowing before their household altar set up for worship of the Orange Menace or who might not be in line with the goals and interests of the new confederacy (racism, misogyny, theocracy, vote suppression, pro-GOP gerrymandering, more tax breaks for the ultra wealthy, deregulation of all industries favored by wingers, science denial, etc.)
So....subpoena powers for people who spit on subpoenas they receive or who advise any of the trumpen proletariat to ignore any sent to them in an effort to uncover things like the truth. Funny how that works, in'it? Subpoena powers for me but not for thee. Especially if they're being used to whip up the psychos and by Democrats to investigate the criminality of the Dear Leader.
Meanwhile Trump consigliere Bill Barr is drumming up his own list of traitors (read: real Americans) to subpoena in order to engage in what is an actual witch hunt, looking for who was responsible for Trump's problems (could it be....TRUMP?).
A sure sign of an authoritarian mindset is the proclivity to use legal mechanisms against those considered suspect, but to abolish the use of those mechanisms if directed against any in the leadership or their screaming supporters.
But here we are, trudging along day after day, all the pieces seemingly moving in some kind of order as if we are not in the frightening existential crisis that threatens the very soul of our country.
When you see administration officials and those deeply involved in bad acts, cover ups, cover ups of the cover ups, and counter attacks against any who want to call them on those bad acts, spit on subpoenas, but then demand that those they consider enemies abide by the legal machinations that they put in place, you know you're well along the road to authoritarianism and fascism.
And don't worry. If any Democrat refuses to go along with Barr's kangaroo court subpoenas, he will call out the paddy wagons and have them carted away in cuffs for contempt of his witch hunt.
Maybe Generalissimo Franco is NOT still dead after all. He might, in fact, be hiding in Bill Barr's bathroom, passing tips for the best in fascism under the door.
Although, now that I think of it, Barr doesn't need any. He could probably give Franco a few tips.
Here's a sideshow that shows Kellyanne at her finest–-talk about being desperate:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kellyanne-conway-washington-examiner-call_n_5db21914e4b0bc7f96fe608f
Akhilleus, Safari, All
Yes, it's all coming together in a neat package that looks a lot like the Soviet Union more than a half century past that I was taught by the Republican Party I knew in my youth, call it my father, to fear and hate.
Now that party, like last century's Soviet Union, is composed of cynical manipulators of True Believers who act to suppress everything and everyone that do not eagerly climb aboard their hellbound train, journalism, science (great list Akhilleus), as you all say, facts of any kind.
Lysenkoism comes to mind today as do the stock in trade Soviet Show Trials, just as they did during the interminable Whitewater "investigation" of the nineties that came to nothing ,and even more so during Benghazi hearings a score of years down the road that went on and on. Now those Show Investigations have been taken another step to possible criminal charges against enemies of the state like James Clapper, putting the investigations and "lock her up" lunacies into practice.
Like Safari, I'm never sure how much these critters (for some reason I think first of whacked out Devin Nunes) have chugged their own Kool-aid. On one level it's an important question because it tells us a great deal about the always-present and very human penchant for self delusion, and as history makes clear such credulousness has always provided fertile soil for the growth of bizarre political movements.
On the other, though, in any given present it doesn't matter how much the leaders of such movements believe their own bushwah (were Stalin or Hitler sincere?) because ultimately when people engage in a losing battle--should we call them crusades?-- (because in the long term reality always wins), whether they believe in their cause or not, when they're dead (unlike Franco?) they're dead.
Paul Waldman (WaPo) had best line re recent Dem drop out:
"Rep. Tim Ryan (Ohio) just announced that he is pulling out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, shocking political observers who asked, “Wait, was he still running?”
(See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/24/another-democrat-just-dropped-out-heres-what-we-can-learn-that/ )
Say what? Have no idea what Tulsi Gabbard is thinking? Dropping out of Senate race to focus on a no-chance Presidential run! the egos of some of these people is amazing.
I think I need a three week (or more) vacation like Ken W.'s from all the stupidity in the news.
Two more things.
Failed to note White House's labeling of the House impeachment inquiry as "soviet-style," as they themselves gear up for real show trials of their own. More narcissistic projection writ large. It never stops.
And this WaPo header:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-defense-secretary-mark-esper-says-us-will-leave-forces-in-syria-to-defend-oil-fields-from-islamic-state/2019/10/25/fd131f1a-f723-11e9-829d-87b12c2f85dd_story.html
Says it all, doesn’t it? Oil counts bigly. People, not a lick.
Guiliani butt dialing, in error, Rich Shapiro, a reporter, while talking to another person. Later he left a 3 minute message on the reporter's phone during 2nd butt dial. He trashed the Bidens and John Kerry's stepson, was looking for "Robert" as "The problem is we need some money....a few hundred thousand." Shapiro thinks he was referring to Robert Mangus who provided an affidavit for Reza Zarrab (money laundering for Iran). The details of the call from the reporter Rich Shapiro:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/rudy-giuliani-butt-dials-nbc-reporter-heard-discussing-need-cash-n1071901?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma
My shower doesn't get hot enough to wash off the foul stench from these people's corruption.