;)
The Commentariat -- April 1, 2019
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A group advocating for journalists and First Amendment rights is asking a judge to clear away one of the key obstacles the Justice Department is citing as grounds for withholding portions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's final report: the presence of information gathered through the secret actions of a grand jury. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a petition Monday with Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court in Washington, asking her to rule that officials need not withhold from the Congress -- or the public -- any grand jury material in Mueller's report on his probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The move comes as Attorney General William Barr has pledged to prepare a version of the report for public release ... that the department would have to excise grand jury-related testimony and evidence."
Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "The Supreme Court's opinion in Bucklew v. Precythe, which it handed down Monday on a party-line vote, is at once the most significant Eighth Amendment decision of the last several decades and the cruelest in at least as much time. Neil Gorsuch's majority opinion tosses out a basic assumption that animated the Court's understanding of what constitutes a 'cruel and unusual' punishment for more than half a century. In the process, he writes that the state of Missouri may effectively torture a man to death -- so long as it does not gratuitously inflict pain for the sheer purpose of inflicting pain. And, on top of all of that, Gorsuch would conscript death penalty defense attorneys -- men and women who often gave up lucrative legal careers to protect the lives of their clients -- into the ghoulish task of laying out the method that will be used to kill those clients. It's a breathtaking sign of just how much the Supreme Court's new majority is willing to change -- and how quickly they are willing to impose that change on the rest of us." Read on for the part about Brett Kavanaugh: next: firing squads!
Stupid Presidunce* Tricks. Reuters: "... Donald Trump's threat to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border would hit American consumers -- in the gut. From avocado toast to margaritas, the United States is heavily reliant on Mexican imports of fruit, vegetables and alcohol to meet consumer demand. Nearly half of all imported U.S. vegetables and 40 percent of imported fruit are grown in Mexico, according to the latest data from the United States Department of Agriculture. Americans would run out of avocados in three weeks if imports from Mexico were stopped, said Steve Barnard, president and chief executive of Mission Produce, the largest distributor and grower of avocados in the world." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suppose this doesn't matter to a man whose favorite meals come from McDonalds. But I want my damned avocados.
Neil Vigdor of the Hartford Courant: "A Connecticut woman says Joe Biden touched her inappropriately and rubbed noses with her during a 2009 political fundraiser in Greenwich when he was vice president, drawing further scrutiny to the Democrat and his history of unwanted contact with women as he ponders a presidential run[.] 'It wasn't sexual, but he did grab me by the head,' Amy Lappos told The Courant Monday. 'He put his hand around my neck and pulled me in to rub noses with me. When he was pulling me in, I thought he was going to kiss me on the mouth.'Lappos posted about the alleged incident on the Facebook page of Connecticut Women in Politics Sunday in response to a similar account by former Nevada legislator Lucy Flores. Lappos, 43, who is now a freelance worker with nonprofit agencies, said she felt extremely uncomfortable when Biden approached her at the 2009 fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th, where she was volunteering. At the time, Lappos was a congressional aide to Himes, who she said was not in the room when the incident took place."
** Rachel Bade of the Washington Post: "A White House whistleblower told lawmakers that more than two-dozen denials for security clearances have been overturned during the Trump administration, calling Congress her 'last hope' for addressing what she considers improper conduct that has left the nation's secrets exposed. Tricia Newbold, a longtime White House security adviser, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee that she and her colleagues issued 'dozens' of denials for security clearance applications that were later approved despite their concerns about blackmail, foreign influence, or other red flags according to panel documents released Monday. Newbold, an 18-year veteran of the security clearance process who has served under both Republican and Democratic presidents, said she warned her superiors that clearances 'were not always adjudicated in the best interest of national security' -- and was retaliated against for doing so.... White House officials whose security clearances are being scrutinized by the House Oversight Committee include ... Ivanka Trump..., Jared Kushner and national security adviser John Bolton...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is another example of Trump tricks that are both legal & impeachable offenses. And yeah, all the best people. ...
... Update. The New York Times story, by Nicholas Fandos & Maggie Haberman, is here. ...
... ** Jerry Nadler in a New York Times op-ed: "The entire reason for appointing the special counsel was to protect the investigation from political influence. By offering us his version of events in lieu of the report, the attorney general, a recent political appointee, undermines the work and the integrity of his department. He also denies the public the transparency it deserves. We require the full report -- the special counsel's words, not the attorney general's summary or a redacted version. We require the report, first, because Congress, not the attorney general, has a duty under the Constitution to determine whether wrongdoing has occurred.... The attorney general's recent proposal to redact the special counsel's report before we receive it is unprecedented.... We have every reason to suspect that the unedited obstruction section of the Mueller report resembles the report that Congress received from the Watergate grand jury in 1974. That evidence showed that President Richard Nixon had attempted to obstruct justice. It did not recommend that the president should be prosecuted. It did not say the president should be impeached. It simply stated the evidence so that Congress could do its job.... If President Trump's behavior wasn't criminal, then perhaps it should have been." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Say, maybe the House should impeach Bill Barr for obstruction.
In Case You Wondered if Trump Is a Heartless Ghoul. Jonathan Swan & Sam Baker of Axios: "As he was deliberating last year over replacing Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, President Trump told confidants he had big plans for Judge Amy Coney Barrett. 'I'm saving her for Ginsburg,' Trump said of Barrett, according to three sources familiar with the president's private comments. Trump used that exact line with a number of people, including in a private conversation with an adviser two days before announcing Brett Kavanaugh's nomination. Barrett is a favorite among conservative activists, many of whom wanted her to take Kennedy's spot. She's young and proudly embraces her Catholic faith. Her past academic writings suggest an openness to overturning Roe v. Wade. Her nomination would throw gas on the culture-war fires, which Trump relishes."
Matt Stieb of New York: "According to a new book by sportswriter Rick Reilly, Trump's impulse to cheat also applies to the golf course. In Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump, Reilly claims that Trump 'cheats at the highest level. He cheats when people are watching and he cheats when they aren't. He cheats whether you like it or not. He cheats because that.s how he plays golf ... if you're playing golf with him, he.s going to cheat.'... Trump claims he has a 2.8 handicap.... As the [New York] Post notes, 'Jack Nicklaus, winner of a record 18 major golf titles and generally considered the greatest golfer in the history of the game, has a handicap of 3.4.'... LGPA pro Suzann Pettersen says that Trump must collude with his caddy ahead of time, for 'no matter how far into the woods he hits the ball, it's in the middle of the fairway when we get there.' The president also allegedly tampers with the game of others in his party: former ESPN football announcer Mike Tirico recalled that Trump's caddy told him that Trump took a ball Tirico hit onto the putting green and threw it 50 feet away into a bunker." Thanks to Jeanne for reminding me about this stupid story.
Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Pete Buttigieg announced Monday that his presidential campaign had raised more than $7 million in the first quarter of 2019, a significant sum for a mayor who was little known outside of South Bend, Ind., only a few months ago."
~~~~~~~~~~
David Lynch, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House doubled down Sunday on President Trump's threat to close the U.S. border with Mexico, despite warnings that the move would inflict immediate economic damage on American consumers and businesses while doing little to stem a tide of migrants clamoring to enter the United States. Sealing the border with Mexico, America's third-largest trading partner, would disrupt supply chains for major U.S. automakers, trigger swift price increases for grocery shoppers and invite lawsuits against the federal government, according to trade specialists and business executives.... Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on ABC News's 'This Week' that it would take 'something dramatic' to persuade the president to abandon his border-closing plans. And Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway insisted on 'Fox News Sunday' that the president's threat 'certainly isn't a bluff.'"
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's white supremacist policies are not only immoral & despicable, they're also incredibly stupid. ...
... Simon Romero of the New York Times: "Federal immigration officials appear to have cleared out an enclosure under a bridge in El Paso where they were detaining hundreds of families of asylum seekers, following an outcry over the conditions at the site. But authorities appeared to have shifted some processing of migrants to another site on the other side of the bridge, using a military-style tent near an existing processing facility operated by Customs and Border Protection. A smaller number of migrants could be seen at that site late Sunday afternoon. Separately, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection said on Sunday that the agency was 'in the process of transferring all of the illegal aliens being held temporarily' at the original enclosure under the bridge to a processing station in northeast El Paso." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Note that CBP produces no evidence that the detainees are "illegal aliens." Many are likely asylum seekers, and there's nothing "illegal" about their request for asylum.
... Casey Michel of ThinkProgress: "In an interview with the Spanish outlet La Sexta, Pope Francis called out the president's plans [to build a border wall], saying that the U.S. would end up as a 'prisoner' itself.... Pope Francis's new comments on Trump's proposed wall are the latest in a volley of criticism aimed at White House policies. From presenting Trump with a treatise on climate change to calling on the White House to extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, to even questioning Trump's professed Christianity, Pope Francis has made a habit of criticizing what he sees as the president's ignorance and nativism over the past two years." ...
... ** Will Bunch of Philly.com: "The cruelty of American policy on the southern border feels intentional -- the kind of thing that fires up Trump's angry base.... And it feeds a xenophobic synergy with his state-run media known as Fox News, which on Sunday showed its colors with a laughable-if-it-weren't-so-racist chyron saying Trump is cutting aid to 'three Mexican countries.'... Trump is rewriting our political playbook in the blood and misery of authoritarianism.... The crisis of Central American migration is a complicated issue, but you don't need a Ph.D in international relations to see that the American president is hellbent on making things worse."
Trump's Katrina. Sam Brodey & Asawin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast: "[A] year and a half after hurricanes Irma and María ravaged Puerto Rico, the island is grappling with a whole new round of crises, Trump has been telling his GOP allies that Puerto Rico is receiving too much assistance from the federal government, and lawmakers leading an investigation into what happened after the storms are being stalled.... Of course, none of that stopped the president from insisting to White House reporters on Thursday, 'I've taken better care of Puerto Rico than any man ever.'... Trump has shown he feels he 'has nothing to apologize' for and is far more likely to insult Democratic politicians for, in his view, trying to use the disaster and high death toll to make him look bad, than to to talk about ways to ameliorate suffering on the U.S. territory. 'He's still clearly very bitter and sensitive about it,' [a] senior official noted.... According to those close to him, the president has long feared that Puerto Rico's devastation, and his response and reactions to it, would become known as his Hurricane Katrina[.]" --s
Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm going to quit calling Trump a racist; that term seems too anodyne. There are run-of-the-mill, troglodyte racists, and then there's Trump: a cruel, vengeful racist . Instead, I'll call Trump what I think he is: a white supremacist. I wish Democratic politicians would do the same. The worst thing that can happen is that eventually Trump will be forced to deny he's a white supremacist, and that will bum out half his base.
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
Quint Forgey of Politico: "Acting White House chief of staffMick Mulvaney claimed Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller intended for Attorney General William Barr to determine whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice in the FBI's investigation into Russian election interference. 'What you saw here is simply Mueller saying, "You know what? I'm going to let Barr call this one,"' Mulvaney said, discussing the final report on Mueller's 22-month probe with host Jonathan Karl on ABC's 'This Week.'" ...
... Mrs. McC: Thanks for your input there, Mick. Never mind that it makes very little sense. Mueller's job was to impartially follow the facts. Why would Mueller leave it to a political appointee of the President*, only a month on the job, to race through a 400-page report and thousands of pages of appendices to make a snap determination that the President* was not guilty? Either Mueller is a fool or a stooge, or Mick is dead wrong.
Steve Coll of the New Yorker: "Last year, the Times and the Washington Post shared a Pulitzer Prize for 'deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage' of Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. None of the stories established that Donald Trump or members of his campaign had conspired illegally with Russians, though some of the reporting raised that possibility.... President Trump ... tweeted that the media had 'pushed the Russian Collusion Delusion' while knowing that it was false, and reprised his incitements against journalists, saying, 'They truly are the Enemy of the People.'... It does not follow that American journalism failed because the best-resourced newsrooms in the nation chose to report assiduously on the Mueller investigation and its subjects, only to learn that Mueller did not prove that Trump had conspired with Russia.... Voters will benefit most from legions of reporters working without fear or favor."
Daniel Politi of Slate: "... only 29 percent of Americans say they believe the president has been cleared of wrongdoing, while 40 percent say they don't think he was cleared, and 31 percent just aren't sure, according to a Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll. Along the same lines, a Washington Post-Schar School poll found that only 32 percent believe Trump was exonerated on obstruction. The NBC-WSJ poll seems to demonstrate that more than anything, the conclusion of Mueller's report hasn't really moved public opinion one way or the other."
Jason Wilson of the Guardian: "An intelligence report [financed by the federal government] produced for law enforcement agencies in the months before the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, in which a neo-Nazi killed one protester by driving a car into a crowd, appeared to endorse a view that leftist demonstrators were 'terrorists' and at least equally as responsible for street violence as white nationalists, the Guardian can reveal.... The report blames the two sides equally for the violence.... The report also extensively sources information from conservative media and rightwing advocacy groups. It quotes a report from Glenn Beck's the Blaze, which cites the Washington Times, and Laura Ingraham's conservative lifestyle website LifeZette alongside more reputable sources, including the Guardian." --s
Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "He changed the rules to make it easier to confirm ... Donald Trump's Supreme Court picks. He tossed out Senate traditions to make it easier to confirm Trump's circuit judges. So, naturally, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wants to adjust the rules again to make it easier to confirm the rest of Trump's nominees to lifetime seats on federal courts. The Senate will vote this week to reduce its debate time for most nominees ― district court judges and lower-level executive nominees ― from 30 hours to two hours. This will not apply to Cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court nominees or circuit court nominees. Without a whiff of irony, McConnell, whose greatest legacy is denying a Supreme Court seat and dozens of other federal court seats to President Barack Obama, said Thursday that the rule change is necessary because of Democrats" 'unprecedented obstruction' of Trump's nominees." ...
... Here's Mitch's Manifesto, published in Politico.
Presidential Race 2020
AP: "Former Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday he doesn't believe he ever acted inappropriately toward women but will 'listen respectfully' to suggestions he did. Biden, who is deciding whether to join the 2020 presidential race, released a new statement in response to allegations from a Nevada politician that he kissed her on the back of the head in 2014 and made her uncomfortable. 'In my many years on the campaign trail and in public life, I have offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort. And not once -- never -- did I believe I acted inappropriately,' he said. 'If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Sydney Ember & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. scrambled on Sunday to contain a quickly growing crisis for his likely presidential bid, putting forward several former female aides and allies to praise his treatment of women after Lucy Flores, a former Nevada legislator, accused Mr. Biden of kissing and touching her. Mr. Biden also issued a sweeping statement acknowledging that he had shown 'expressions of affection' to people during his years on the campaign trail, but said, 'not once -- never -- did I believe I acted inappropriately.' It was the second damage-control statement to come from his team since Ms. Flores made her allegation on Friday, and it was released minutes before she appeared on CNN and argued that Mr. Biden's behavior with her at a 2014 campaign event was 'disqualifying' for a presidential candidate." ...
... Biden Rivals Pile on. Marc Caputo & Martin Matishak of Politico: "Several Democrats vying to be their party's presidential nominee are expressing concern about former Vice President Joe Biden after a female politician accused him of inappropriate contact during a 2014 campaign event." ...
... Quint Forgey: "Stephanie Carter, the wife of former Defense Secretary Ash Carter, sought Sunday to 'reclaim' a 'misleadingly extracted' yet oft-mocked picture of her and Joe Biden that has resurfaced amid accusations that the former vice president acted inappropriately toward a female Nevada state assemblywoman in 2014.... In a blog post published Sunday on Medium<, Carter wrote that Biden's display of affection toward her in 2015 was appreciated, as she was 'uncharacteristically nervous' after slipping on some ice ... earlier in the day.... '... The Joe Biden in my picture is a close friend helping someone get through a big day, for which I will always be grateful,' Carter wrote."
Scott Bixby of The Daily Beast: "Mayor Pete Buttigieg's message for fellow Democratic hopefuls is a straightforward one: It's not enough to just attack the president.... The vice president, on the other hand? It's a little more complicated.... [T]he frequency and intensity of Buttigieg's critiques of the vice president speaks to a long shared history, both political and personal -- as well as the young mayor's deep personal disdain for perceived hypocrisy. Pence's outspoken religiosity, the mayor said, is in direct and irreconcilable conflict with his position in the Trump administration, and with Buttigieg's belief in the importance of 'good faith.'... From a purely political perspective, Buttigieg's broadsides against Pence have been a tactical victory.... [His] polling (and fundraising) numbers skyrocketed after a ;breakout performance in a CNN town hall in early March, in which he blasted Pence as 'the cheerleader of the porn-star presidency.'" --s
Sam Fulwood of ThinkProgress: "In a decision that strikes a progressive blow toward gender equality in public education, a federal judge ruled last week a North Carolina charter school's requirement that female students wear skirts is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard in the Eastern District of North Carolina said Thursday that Charter Day School, a high-performing public charter in Leland, North Carolina, violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution."
Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "Climate change garners most of the headlines, but the Trump administration is pushing a much larger and broader pro-pollution agenda whose latest manifestation is a push at the EPA to overturn a long-established scientific consensus that fine particulate pollution (colloquially 'soot') kills people. This is critically important for two main reasons." --s
White Supremacists Turn to Fox "News" for Tips on Talking Points. Tamar Auber of Mediaite: "The son of Stormfront founder Don Black revealed on CNN on Saturday that his family watches Fox News' Tucker Carlson for tips on white supremacist talking points.... '... they feel that he is making the white nationalist talking points better than they have and they're trying to get some tips on how to advance it,' [Derek Black told CNN's Van Jones." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Virginia. Victoria Albert of the Daily Beast: "Days before the two women accusing Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault will appear on CBS This Morning, he announced he's taken a polygraph test that he claims proves him innocent."
Way Beyond
Juan Cole: "As an unprecedented 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza marched for the right to return, marking the one-year anniversary of the beginning of weekly such marches, Israeli snipers shot into the Gaza Strip, killing 4 youth and wounding at least 207.... Shooting civilian protesters who pose no realistic danger to troops is a war crime. Systematically doing so, as Israeli snipers have been ordered to do in the past year by the fascist Likud government of Binyamin Netanyahu, amounts to 'crimes against humanity.'... The US Congress condemned Rep. Ilhan Omar for alleged racism because she criticized the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. Congress has had nothing to say about the sniping at civilian populations on the part of the Israeli army[.]" --s
Share Article
Reader Comments (13)
The April Fool in the White House has decided to throw off his racist, bigoted, bloated, ignorant, narcissistic. bombastic coat of many colors and become a compassionate and intelligent ruler and has vowed to stop tweeting and listening to Fox News and tell Bibi (war crimes anyone?) and all the rest of his cronies he's had a change of heart.
You do know what day this is today–-yes?
I was reading a piece by Jessica Mathews yesterday about the bad moves with Little Kim. Here's how she starts out:
"Shortly after the success of The Art of the Deal (1987) made Donald Trump a supposed expert on negotiation, he lobbied the George H.W. Bush administration to put him in charge of arms reduction talks with the Soviet Union. The position went instead to Richard Burt, an experienced diplomat and arms control expert. When the two men met at a New York social event, Trump pulled Burt aside to tell him what he would have done—and what Burt should do—to start off the negotiations. Greet the Soviets warmly, he said. Let the delegation get seated and open their papers. Then stand up, put your knuckles on the table, lean over, say “Fuck you,” and walk out of the room."
Now that's what I call classy. Wow! You stupid, stupid son of a bitch!
I'm in a @Jeanne state of mind this morning and it ain't purty.
Of the myriad right wing pundits and voters and cheerleaders on state run television now calling for the defenestration of that horrible Joe Biden, how many do you think will happily lime up again to vote for President I Grab ‘em by the Pussy-I Do Whatever I Want to Women?
Answer: the same number who voted for him first time around after they heard him brag about his many sexual assaults on women.
All of them. But that Joe Biden! What a terrible person!
@AK: Thems that are determined to bring down Uncle Joe are going to go after others thinking that if they besmirch reputations they will once again have their MAGA man back in the saddle. There's a ruthlessness that we see displayed in the way they operate. I'm remembering how Ken Starr and staff including Bret Kavanaugh harbored a singular, unsurpassed contempt for Hillary although it was Susan McDougal that suffered in ways that Clinton did not. In his new book, Starr admits that he wanted to lock up Hillary or at least have her indicted for perjury but he lacked any credible evidence. So they went after Susan who went to jail for civil contempt. The point I'm making here is that Ken, Bart and their colleagues deliberately trampled as much as they could. whomever they cared to in the pursuit of Bill Clinton. Unlike the delay in seeing the Mueller report Starr couldn't wait for the world to read the salacious goodies in his and he delivered it in a speedy manner.
The fact that now this same Kavanaugh sits on the S.C. while Starr has become the CNN sage (always with the dimples), earns praise from Trump on tweeter "encapsulates the impeachment struggle's lasting destructive legacy" says Sean Wilentz who has written a scathing piece re: Starr and Co,
PD,
The Republican Party would have greater credibility in going after Biden if a single one of them stood up and declared Trump grossly unqualified to be president, for many reasons, but particularly, in this case, his sexual assaults on women--assaults he bragged about--on tape. As the Party of the Family, they have decided that only Democrats can be targets for their morality police.
Today I am enjoying the Yahoo report that Prez Crudpuss cheats BIG-TIME, all the time, at golf-- threw an opponent's ball into the rough, among other things-- and am not at all surprised. Was feeling rather bland today, having avoided almost everything on the teevee yesterday. Of course, this morning listening to some guy on NPR who's written a book say that we should be damning actions/policies, not character, in order to have the right conversations, but I don't see how this is even applicable in the Age of Drumplethinskin, since he has NO sense of ethics, compassion, empathy, sympathy, morals, etc. He can't even play the game he loves so much ethically. Holy toadspit, PD, now I am foaming at the mouth yet again...! It just never ends... BUT the daffodils are smiling!
Trump's golf shenanigans have been well known for years. Cheating at games, most especially a game like golf that relies heavily on the honor system, is a direct index of a personality for which rules have no meaning, rather, rules which hinder personal glorification are deemed detrimental and therefore have no value and can be subverted at will. Rules are useful only as a handicap for those who don't cheat. In fact, Trump's cheating, as described in this new book, goes beyond attempts to improve his own standing. Cheating other players of their hard won, honest achievements goes far beyond simply dropping your ball in a favorable spot. This is active manipulation of the outcome on several fronts and bespeaks a decidedly warped and pernicious character.
One may recall the scene in Kipling's "Captains Courageous" in which the rich boy, stuck now on a Gloucester fishing schooner, attempts to help his new dory mate, Manuel, win a contest by fouling the line of a rival fisherman. When the manipulation goes wrong, the boy admits his scheme, and his admission is portrayed as a giant step on the road from rich, privileged and self-absorbed childhood to a decent and honorable manhood, a step Trump has never taken but, if asked, would no doubt declare himself the most decent and honorable human being in recorded history, and if necessary, would foul the lines of any other contenders for the top spot.
If someone cheats at a game, where the stakes are usually little more than temporary (on a non-professional level) bragging rights, why would they not cheat at contests in which the stakes are much higher?
In for a penny, in for a pound.
Trump cheats at everything. One more in the long litany of reasons he is unfit to chair a local zoning board, never mind serve as president.
Ted Cruz was the runner-up in the 2016 GOP primary. I'm not certain he would have beat Hillary as he is as loathsome as Trump, but assuming he did win the presidency, would he have been a better president than Trump? (Marco Rubio, who was third, almost certainly would have topped Hillary, and he would have been a better president than Trump. Also too, he almost certainly would have won a second term.)
I just don't think there was a single 2016 Republican candidate who would have been a halfway decent president. And there won't be one any time in the near future, either, because Republicans are getting worse, thanks to a base that elevates right-wing fanatics to jobs that put them in a position to run for president.
Apologies for fouling up a too-long sentence-- doubly worse as I am a proofreader-- but I got distracted mid-remarks by a friend announcing they had had to put their beloved dog to sleep, and that is not an excuse but an explanation; how even Barr, who probably prides himself on his writing, misread, mistyped, misconstrued etc. his letter last week, leading to this past week's letter in which he summarized how he wasn't really summarizing. We all need to admire AK, who doesn't mix his metaphors or dangle his modifiers... Sorry!
Jeanne,
I didn't hear that interview on NPR this morning, but eschewing discussions of character in favor of policy exchanges brings up another point of contention. We all recall the battles over Bill Clinton's, um, dress spoiling business in which character was asserted to be of prime concern. In fact, the standard line among R's was that questions of character played directly into one's fitness for the presidency.
Ah, those halcyon days of yesteryear. Today, character apparently only counts when not talking about a Republican, notably, Mr. Sterling Character himself, the (con) artist formerly known as The Donald.
As for the question of character vs. policy, one could argue both ways. Someone of less than high character could certainly have decent policy ideas; high moral standing is not necessarily the vade mecum for effective and workable public policy. One could be constructed of indelible moral fiber and yet possess not a molecule of policy muscle.
And yet, since all politics requires both sides to (at some point) agree on SOMEthing, the presence of an actor of extremely low character (Trump, eg), adds six or seven hurdles that would not be there when dealing with a more estimable, reliable, and trustworthy partner in the sausage factory of policy making. One wants to trust that broken glass or toxic materials, or the occasional stray loogies are not surreptitiously injected into the mixing bowl, an outcome impossible to imagine with pretty much anyone in the Trump administration.
Oh man, this one is just too good to pass up.
International Man of Mystery, Don Junior, tried to Twitter-jump on daddy's bandwagon of attacks on the NY Times and the Washington Post. Instead, he slipped and fell under the wheels. Again. Oops.
Trying to bolster dad's bluster that both papers should lose their Pulitzers, Junior snarked "Yeah, unless they give Pulitzers for fiction."
Ay-yah.
He really did say that. The most recent Pulitzer for fiction? "The Idiot" by Elif Batuman. No connection, I'm sure.
Oops, fell under my own bandwagon...
"Less" by Andrew Sean Greer, was the 2018 Pulitzer winner. "The Idiot" was a finalist.
I knew it was too good to be true.
@Ak: An amazing coincidence that you should mention "Less"
by Andrew Sean Greer. I just finished it over the weekend and
am still smiling. It's one that's worth another read sometime.
I would definitely recommend it to Jr.
There goes the Eighth Amendment...
Trump SCOTUS guy #1 (Gorsuch) has decided that it's perfectly okay to torture someone to death. This, you may recall, from the same guy who once declared that a worker should have willingly frozen to death rather than piss off his corporate bosses.
As we watch Mitch McConnell tear up Senate rules, the Constitution is under attack by more Trump stalwarts.
It's gonna get ugly.