;)
The Commentariat -- March 27, 2019
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Rowena Mason & Heather Stewart of the Guardian: "Theresa May has promised Tory MPs she will step down as prime minister before the next phase of Brexit negotiations in a bid to get Eurosceptics to back her withdrawal deal. The prime minister said she would make way for another Conservative leader, after listening to the demands of MPs for a new leadership team. 'I have heard very clearly the mood of the parliamentary party. I know there is a desire for a new approach -- and new leadership -- in the second phase of the Brexit negotiations and I won't stand in the way of that,' May said, according to a transcript released afterwards."
Trump's Big Healthcare Lie, Ctd. Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "Asked about the Department of Justice's decision to call for all of ObamaCare to be struck down in an ongoing court case, Trump called the Affordable Care Act a 'disaster,' saying insurance premiums are 'too high' and the law is 'far too expensive for the people, not only for the country.' Trump also pledged the Republican Party would have a 'far better' health care proposal than ObamaCare if the law is eventually thrown out by the Supreme Court. 'If the Supreme Court rules that ObamaCare is out, we'll have a plan that is far better than ObamaCare,' the president said at the White House."
Jonathan Chait: "The likely Republican move from here on out will be to continue touting [William] Barr's summary of the [Mueller] report as the final word while quietly blocking a release of the full report. What questions would the report answer? There are four major categories. 1. How straight did Barr play it?... 2. What other obstruction of justice evidence is there?... 3. How much noncriminal collusion took place?... 4. How much corruption took place?"
CBS Chicago: "The prosecutor who decided to drop the charges against Jussie Smollett said he believes the move does not vindicate the 'Empire' actor of allegations that he orchestrated a racist and homophobic attack against himself. 'I do not believe he is innocent,' First Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Joseph Magats said Tuesday afternoon.... 'Based on all facts and circumstances of the case, and also keeping in mind resources and keeping in mind that the office's number one priority is to combat violent crime and the drivers of violence, I decided to offer this disposition in the case,' Magats said."
Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Tuesday delivered an impassioned defense of the Green New Deal, the ambitious Democratic proposal aimed at fighting climate change, after a Republican congressman attacked the resolution as an elitist plan he claimed had been created by out-of-touch 'rich liberals from New York of California.' 'I think we should not focus on the rich, wealthy elites who will look at this and go "I love it, cause I've got big money in the bank. Everyone should do this!"' Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wisc.) said." Thanks to unwashed for the heads-up. ...
Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "The question of whether the F.A.A. has gone too far in allowing Boeing to regulate itself has emerged as one of the key issues after the crash of a Boeing 737 Max in Ethiopia this month, the second deadly crash of the new plane in less than five months. The practice is already coming under scrutiny from Congress, and lawmakers are likely to press the F.A.A.'s acting administrator on Wednesday when he appears at a Senate hearing."
Here's an excerpt of Susan Page's biography of Barbara Bush. Bush had despised Trump for decades. In 1988 Trump volunteered himself to be her husband's veep, an idea that Poppy dismissed as "strange and unbelievable."
The Liberal Redneck looks on the bright side, but he does share Steve M.'s skepticism of the whole political show:
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The Meanest Racist. Seung Min Kim, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump complained in a private lunch Tuesday with Senate Republicans about the amount of disaster aid designated for Puerto Rico, as lawmakers prepare for a standoff over funds for the island still struggling to recover in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, according to officials familiar with the meeting. Aid for Puerto Rico has long been a fixation for Trump, who has asked advisers how to reduce money for the island and signaled that he won't support any more aid beyond food stamp funds.... The inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development will review whether the White House has interfered with hurricane relief funding approved for Puerto Rico as part of a broader examination of the agency's administration of disaster grants, a HUD inspector general attorney told a congressional committee Tuesday." ...
... The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
Burgess Everett & John Bresnahan of Politico: "In a private lunch with Senate Republicans on Tuesday, a rejuvenated Trump laid out an ambitious legislative agenda and put past intraparty conflicts behind him as he reveled in special counsel Robert Mueller's apparent vindication from allegations that the president colluded with Russia during the 2016 campaign.... The president urged his party to swiftly pass a new North American trade deal, said he would pursue an 'excellent' pact with China and even called on the GOP to formulate a brand new health care plan as he seeks to invalidate the Affordable Care Act. He endorsed a probe by [Sen. Lindsey] Graham into whether there was an anti-Trump effort in the Justice Department in 2016 and at one point handed Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pages listing unconfirmed nominees and directed the caucus: 'Please get these done.'" ...
... Trump to Scrub Mueller Report of Every Word Except "President," Trump," and "Exonerated." Sonan Sheth of Business Insider: "Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Tuesday that Attorney General William Barr told him he would send the special counsel Robert Mueller's final report on the Russia investigation to the White House before the public sees it, in case it wants to claim executive privilege over any parts. Graham, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, also said Barr told him it would most likely take 'weeks, not months,' to make a version of Mueller's final report public.... Trump's defense lawyers have previously said they want a chance to review and 'correct' the Mueller report before it's made public." ...
... BUT. Sarah Lynch of Reuters: "U.S. Attorney General William Barr plans to issue a public version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election within 'weeks, not months,' a Justice Department official said on Tuesday.... The official said there is no plan to share an advanced copy of the report with the White House." Emphasis added. ...
... Rudy Explains Away Bad News in Barr Report. Kate Sullivan of CNN: "Rudy Giuliani ... said the line special counsel Robert Mueller wrote in his report about not exonerating Trump on obstruction of justice is a 'cheap shot.' 'This is a cheap shot,' Giuliani told CNN's Chris Cuomo ... adding, 'This is unprofessional.... They don't have to exonerate him, you gotta prove he's guilty... Even for impeachment.'..." ...
George Conway in a Washington Post op-ed: "On the facts, obstruction turns on what's in a defendant's mind -- often a difficult thing to determine, and especially difficult with a mind as twisted as Trump's.... But Mueller isn't prone to cheap shots [as Giuliani complained]; he plays by the rules, every step of the way. If his report doesn't exonerate the president, there must be something pretty damning in it about him, even if it might not suffice to prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.... Americans should expect far more from a president than merely that he not be provably a criminal.... If the charge were unfitness for office, the verdict would already be in: guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."
Comey Criticizes Mueller and Barr. Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "Former FBI Director James Comey told an audience in Charlotte on Tuesday that he is confused by ... Robert Mueller's decision to neither charge nor exonerate ... Donald Trump on obstruction of justice.... '... I just can't tell from the letter why didn't he decide these questions when the entire rationale for a special counsel is to make sure the politicals aren't making the key charging decisions,' the former FBI chief said.... He also pushed back on Attorney General William Barr's logic in deciding not to pursue obstruction charges against the president.... 'The notion that obstruction cases are somehow undermined by the absence of proof of an underlying crime, that is not my experience in 40 years of doing this nor is it the Department of Justice's tradition. Obstruction crimes matter without regard to what you prove about the underlying crime.'..."
We Still Don't Know if Trump Is a Russian Agent. Natasha Bertrand of the Atlantic asks what Robert Mueller's report says about the FBI's counterintelligence probe which began in May 2017, a crucial element of Mueller's task which William Barr does not address at all: "... national-security and intelligence experts tell me that Mueller's decision not to charge Trump or his campaign team with a conspiracy is far from dispositive, and that the underlying evidence the special counsel amassed over two years could prove as useful as a conspiracy charge to understanding the full scope of Russia's election interference in 2016.... A counterintelligence probe..., said David Kris..., who served as the assistant attorney general ... under former President Barack Obama..., would ask more than whether the evidence collected is sufficient to obtain a criminal conviction.... 'The American people rightly should expect more from their public servants than merely avoiding criminal liability,' Kris said.... For example, was the fact that Trump pursued a multimillion-dollar real-estate deal in Moscow during the election -- and failed to disclose the deal to the public -- enough for the Russians to compromise him?... Trump's consistent praise of Putin, his pursuit of [the Moscow] real-estate deal..., and the secrecy that continues to surround his conversations with his Russian counterpart have given some in the national-security community, including many leading Democrats, pause." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I've heard several pundits -- including Bertrand -- point out that the Barr report doesn't cite a single full sentence of Mueller's report to Barr.
Mueller's Legacy: Despotism. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "After Watergate, it was unthinkable that a president would fire an F.B.I. director who was investigating him or his associates. Or force out an attorney general for failing to protect him from an investigation. Or dangle pardons before potential witnesses against him. But the end of the inquiry by ... Robert S. Mueller III, made clear that President Trump had successfully thrown out the unwritten rules that had bound other chief executives in the 45 years since President Richard M. Nixon resigned under fire, effectively expanding presidential power in a dramatic way. Mr. Mueller's decision to not take a position on whether Mr. Trump's many norm-shattering interventions in the law enforcement system constituted obstruction of justice means that future occupants of the White House will feel entitled to take similar actions. More than perhaps any other outcome of the Mueller investigation, this may become its most enduring legacy.... To Mr. Trump and his allies, this is the correct result, a restoration of the rightful authority of a president over the executive branch as stipulated in the Constitution.... To Mr. Trump's critics, however, the development represents a dangerous degradation of the rule of law, handing a president almost complete leeway to thwart any effort by federal law enforcement authorities to scrutinize his actions almost as if he were a king." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In fact, this is how the general public views the presidency. Even those who strongly disagree with whoever holds the office, people view him (always him) as omnipotent. They blame or credit him for the economy (even though the POTUS has fairly minimal control over the economy), for all public policy (even though the Congress writes the laws & the courts rule on the laws' constitutionality), even for the weather.
Kyle Cheney of Politico: “The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved legislation demanding more details from the Justice Department on the obstruction of justice investigation into ... Donald Trump.... Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, introduced the measure last week -- before it was known that ... Robert Mueller would be finalizing his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.... Collins' measure calls for details about the origins of the obstruction probe, which was opened by former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe. The proposal also seeks information about conversations between McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about 'wearing a recording device or preparing in any way to record the President.'... Democrats have argued the GOP inquiries were really efforts to undermine the investigations into Trump. But following Mueller's report they sensed a moment to embrace the GOP call for information as part of their broader call for more details from the Justice Department."
That Weird Guy Is Back. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Carter Page was all smiles Tuesday as he patrolled Capitol Hill for meetings, including an unsolicited drop-in at the House Judiciary Committee's offices. The former Trump campaign adviser, famous for being the subject of an FBI surveillance warrant beginning in October 2016, popped into the committee's room late Tuesday morning as part of what he told Politico was an extended dialogue with staffers about providing documents in the panel's wide-ranging, Democrat-led investigation of alleged obstruction of justice and other actions by ... Donald Trump."
Maegan Vazquez of CNN: "... Donald Trump declared Tuesday that the GOP will become the party of health care, without providing any specifics for what that means and coming a day after the Trump administration told a federal court that the entire Affordable Care Act should be struck down -- a dramatic reversal of its previous position." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's be clear. Trump is NOT actually proposing to replace ObamaCare with a wonderful TrumpCare plan. As the Daily Beast reports (linked below), "Asked if the president had outlined a plan on health care, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) simply said 'no.'" Trump is proposing to tell voters the Big Lie that Republicans are replacing ObamaCare with a wonderful TrumpCare plan. "The party of health care" is a fake slogan, not a policy. TrumpCare is Trump University, writ large. And we know by now there are millions of suckers who will choose to believe the Big Lie. Again. ...
... Paul Waldman of the Washington Post notes that the Trump DOJ's move has "handed Democrats their best 2020 issue.... Never in our history has the health-care system undergone an upheaval such as what the Trump administration and other Republicans are seeking. It would be an absolute catastrophe for tens of millions of Americans. The expansion of Medicaid would be rolled back, snatching coverage away from millions of Americans. So would the subsidies that millions more receive to afford coverage. Protections for preexisting conditions? Gone. Insurers would once again be able to deny you coverage if you've ever been sick or had an accident. Young people allowed to stay on their parents' plans until age 26? Not anymore. Women could once again be charged more for insurance than men. Yearly and lifetime caps on coverage would come back, as would the Medicare prescription drug 'donut hole.' Rural hospitals would be starved of funding and would close. That covers just a portion of what the ACA does." ...
... Eliana Johnson & Burgess Everett of Politico: "The Trump administration's surprising move to invalidate Obamacare on Monday came despite the opposition of two key cabinet secretaries: Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Attorney General Bill Barr. Driving the dramatic action were the administration's domestic policy chief, Joe Grogan, and the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the decision. Both are close allies of White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who helped to engineer the move." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The Politico report supports Paul Waldman's theory (post linked above) about why the Trump administration decided to try to invalidate ObamaCare: "... since [Trump] is so corrupt and personally despicable, many of the more sensible Republican policy wonks who would have staffed a different Republican administration chose to stay away, leaving the administration to be filled either by people who shared Trump's penchant for self-dealing or by extremist ideologues who correctly surmised that a president who didn't care about policy would give them free rein to indulge their wildest fantasies." ...
... "WTF Is Wrong with Them?" Sam Stein, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Over the past 24 hours, Republican officials have watched in horror as the Trump administration once again fully embraced the repeal of Obamacare, just over a year after the issue proved toxic for the party at the ballot box. The embrace came in two steps: with the Department of Justice siding with a lower court ruling that declared the health care law invalid in toto, and with the president tweeting that the Republican Party would become the party of health-care reform.... Those close to the president say that part of what motivates him on continuing his pursuit in scrapping the Affordable Care Act ... is his inability to move beyond setbacks. When other party stalwarts or members of the Republican elite see a liability and political third rails, Trump simply sees the visceral satisfaction of erasing a cornerstone of the Obama legacy."
No Way to Run a Country. Saleha Mohsin & others at Bloomberg News write a fairly confusing story about Trump's tweet last week reversing sanctions against North Korea. Mrs. McC: As nearly as I can tell, Trump tweeted that he was reversing sanctions Treasury had imposed the previous day, after which shocked administration officials talked him out of ordering the reversal, then devised a lame cover story to "explain" Trump's stupid tweet.
Courtney Kube of NBC News: "A close adviser to ex-Defense Secretary James Mattis has written a 'sometimes shocking' book detailing the "complicated relationship" between Mattis and ... Donald Trump, and describing how Mattis worked to block some of Trump's proposals, according to a press release obtained by NBC News ahead of the book's official distribution. Written by the secretary's former communications director, retired Navy Cmdr. Guy 'Bus' Snodgrass..., [the book] is scheduled for publication by Sentinel in October."
Trump Interior Nominee Bernhardt Pushes Pesticides that Endanger Hundreds of Species. Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "After years of effort, scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service ... wrapped up a comprehensive analysis of the threat that three widely used pesticides present to hundreds of endangered species.... Their analysis found that two of the pesticides, malathion and chlorpyrifos, were so toxic that they 'jeopardize the continued existence' of more than 1,200 endangered birds, fish and other animals and plants, a conclusion that could lead to tighter restrictions on use of the chemicals. But just before the team planned to make its findings public..., top political appointees of the Interior Department ... blocked the release and set in motion a new process intended to apply a much narrower standard to determine the risks from the pesticides. Leading that intervention was David Bernhardt, then the deputy secretary of the interior and a former lobbyist and oil-industry lawyer. In October 2017, he ... [directed] Fish and Wildlife Service ... to take the new approach ... that pesticide makers and users had lobbied intensively to promote. Mr. Bernhardt is now President Trump's nominee to become interior secretary. The Senate is scheduled to hold a hearing on his confirmation Thursday."
The Meanest Ideologue. Todd Spangler of the Detroit Free Press: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday defended deep cuts to programs meant to help students and others, including eliminating $18 million to support Special Olympics, while urging Congress to spend millions more on charter schools." Mrs. McC Note to Betsy: Special Olympics? You're cutting Special Olympics funding? Hey, Betsy, even rich kids -- the children of your nice country-club friends -- participate in Special Olympics. It's as nonpartisan, non-classist & non-race-based as any program can be. WTF is your problem? ...
... Doha Madani of NBC News: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos struggled before a congressional subcommittee on Tuesday to defend at least $7 billion in proposed cuts to education programs, including eliminating all $18 million in federal funding for the Special Olympics.... When [Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark] Pocan asked whether she knew how many children would be affected by the elimination of federal funding to the Special Olympics, DeVos said she did not know.... The Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for people with intellectual and physical disabilities. Founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, it works with more than 5 million athletes across 174 countries.... 'I still can't understand why you would go after disabled children in your budget,' [Rep. Barbara] Lee [D-Calif.] said Tuesday. 'You zero that out. It's appalling.'"
The "National Emergency" Is Definitely Back on. Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "House Democrats on Tuesday failed to override ... Donald Trump's veto of a measure to repeal his emergency declaration on the southern border. The 248-181 vote fell short of the two-thirds majority required to overturn a presidential veto. The GOP-controlled Senate would also be unlikely to reach that threshold, with Republican leaders there showing no inclination to bring it up for a vote in any case."
Anthony Adragna of Politico:"Senate Democrats largely held together in boycotting what they decried as a 'sham' vote forced by Republicans on the ambitious Green New Deal. The vote on the procedural motion failed on a 0-57 margin, with 43Democrats voting 'present' to protest the GOP tactics. Just three Democrats -- Sens. Doug Jones (Ala.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) -- broke with their party to vote against the proposal for massive clean energy and infrastructure investments to rapidly slash greenhouse gas emissions and attempt to break economic inequality.... Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats, also joined Republicans in voting no on Tuesday."
** Andrew Chung & Lawrence Hurley of Reuters: "The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared divided along ideological lines again on whether the contentious practice of manipulating electoral district boundaries to entrench one party in power may violate the constitutional rights of voters, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh emerging as the potential deciding vote. More than two hours of arguments in major cases from North Carolina and Maryland on the practice known as partisan gerrymandering focused on whether courts should be empowered to block electoral maps when they are drawn by state legislators expressly to give one political party a lopsided advantage.... The ruling, due by the end of June, could impact U.S. elections for decades...."
Beyond the Beltway
Odd News. Sopan Deb of the New York Times: "In a stunning move on Tuesday morning, Cook County prosecutors dropped all charges against the 'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett, who had been accused of staging an attack in downtown Chicago earlier this year.... In a statement, Anne Kavanagh, a spokeswoman for Mr. Smollett's lawyers, said: 'Today, all criminal charges against Jussie Smollett were dropped and his record has been wiped clean of the filing of this tragic complaint against him. Jussie was attacked by two people he was unable to identify on Jan. 29. He was a victim who was vilified and made to appear as a perpetrator as a result of false and inappropriate remarks made to the public causing an inappropriate rush to judgment.'" Not mentioned in the Times story: Smollett's attorney was Mark Geragos, who is reportedly the unindicted co-conspirator in the case against Michael Avenatti re: Nike. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update. Andy Grimm & Mitchell Armentrout of the Chicago Sun-Times: "In a highly unusual decision, prosecutors on Tuesday dropped charges against 'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett that accused him of staging a hate-crime attack against himself -- a move that Mayor Rahm Emanuel later called a 'whitewash of justice.'... The $10,000 posted for Smollett's bond will be turned over to the City of Chicago Law Department. Cook County Circuit Judge Steven G. Watkins sealed the case file during a hearing that lasted less than 5 minutes. Chicago police officials said Supt. Eddie Johnson was not briefed on the decision to drop charges and learned about it in the middle of a police academy graduation ceremony scheduled at the same time State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office announced it. A police source said Johnson was 'furious' and maintained the evidence against Smollett was 'rock solid.'"
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Reader Comments (12)
I have no opinion on whether Jussie Smollett’s allegations are true but my guess is that the police did something seriously fucked up somewhere in this and it’s all (yet another) cover up.
Rockygirl,
Thanks for that suggestion, an eminently reasonable one. I too was wondering what could have possessed these guys to let Smollett off scot-free when they seemed to have him dead to rights, including video and the confessions of the "attackers". But police incompetence somewhere along the line (it would have to be pretty egregious, too) would explain it.
Another downside to this tawdry affair is that it gives the homophobes and racists plenty of ammunition to tar anyone reporting hate crimes as not just liars but as liars who will get off if they're caught.
If there's any justice, Mr. Smollett will be lucky to get work in late night paid programs for strange cleaning products.
It seems that Mueller is a by the book guy. If he couldn't find exactly what he needed to, in his estimation, nail Trump or any of the Trump crime family, in an airtight case, he wasn't going to go for it.
But here's the problem. He's going up against people who don't play by the rules (the entire Republican Party and their many media outlets, including, and especially, the Trump White House), who are happy to let old fuddy duddy Mueller stick to the rule book while they make up their own.
The thing to remember is that "legal" is not the same as "just". The law does not in any way guarantee justice. It gives it a shot. In order for the legal mechanism to result in justice, responsible, decent human actors are required to shepherd the process in a way that avoids sleazy, backdoor sliminess and self-serving obfuscation. That is not the case here. We have a "justice" department that is now run by an errand boy for the president and his cronies who has delivered the result he promised. Mueller did his job, by his own lights, and so did Barr, by the light of "our side never loses, no matter what".
In my opinion, Mueller doesn't deserve all the accolades being handed to him. He left the scene of the crime. "Well-respected," my a**. He worked for two years and the toadie persuades him to give it to him to "review" and parse-- Why would he care, retired and all, what his so-called boss thought, and why wouldn't he hand it to Congress?? Yes, we have no idea what they REALLY wrote, and possibly we never will. And shouldn't the POTUS in general be held to a higher standard than they just could not "prove" his culpability in so many crimes it is hard to remember them all?? The whiffs of crime surrounding this idiot in the WH are a stench. He's a moron, a crime boss and possibly a super sickie, and all the investigation could say is that he is not entirely exonerated? The stink is all over, and covers the rest of the cult members. I am so appalled. And now, in revenge, 21 million people and everyone on Medicare gets to suffer? There are no words adequately summoned to describe the nongreatness of the USA.
Thanks, Mr. Liberal Redneck: I needed that.
AOC nails it!
Jeanne,
It's my understanding that Mueller had no choice in what he did with the report as a Special Counsel for the Department of Justice. He had to hand it over to the Trump Justice Department, meaning his boss, the Attorney General, William Barr, the guy who said from the start that the whole thing was bullshit, meaning further, that there was never any real chance that the report wouldn't be screwed with. And now we see that Barr is handing over a report investigating the president's possible ties to Russia directly TO the president who will get to decide what, if anything, the general public gets to see. How any of this coheres with the concept of justice is far beyond me. It's like investigating a Mafia don then letting him decide what happens next.
But Mueller's directive was to look at the Russia connection. Anyone paying attention who does not mainline the Kool-Aid knows, without a doubt, that the Trump campaign was dirty with vodka and borscht. But criminally dirty? Apparently Mueller couldn't (or wouldn't) connect those dots.
Nonetheless, the tsunami of Trump malfeasance and criminality extends far beyond the Russian interference that put him in the White House, and Democrats will get to all that. The problem now is that there will be no cooperation in any of these subsequent (and potentially much more fruitful) investigations and time is running out. Not only that, the public (those who really don't give a shit) are probably dead tired of hearing about the Trump Scandals. The appetite for more investigations (unless it's handled well) could be small indeed. Criminality and evil win again. At least in the short term.
It's looking like the only real solution to the Trump problem is the 2020 election. But R's are working hard to make sure that those elections will be as unfair as possible. The solution to that, then, is for a tidal wave of decent Americans to show up and throw the fucking bums out. Wait in line for hours if they have to (and they will, if R's have anything to say about it). But vote.
https://www.thisisinsider.com/betsy-devos-plans-pull-special-olympics-funding-says-charity-can-pay-2019-3
Too bad the Pretender's foundation is no longer in a position to contribute.
Let us hope that the Mueller Report is like the powder charge in "Force 10 From Navarone", a 1978 matinee WW2 war movie in which Edward Fox' bomb-tech character jury rigs a bomb to blow up a massive Nazi-held dam. The bomb explodes with a disappointing thud, and all of the protagonists despair that the dam did not disintegrate. Fox' character observes that you can't do much with a small amount of powder, but to give it time and let nature take its course. Minutes later rivulets appear, then cracks, then holes, then gushers, then the dam collapses, the valley floods, the strategic bridge falls, and the allied field force is free to move in and rout the German army. The day is won.
Wishful thinking, but maybe Mueller's small bomb can work like that. You know that the text will be in the public domain sooner rather than later, no matter what Barr or Miz Lindsay want. That text will make good reading. But who reads anymore?
@Ken Winkes: Well, that's true. But he could auction off on eBay one of those portraits of himself that he bought with funds from his defunct charity & donate the proceeds to the kids. Of course, just as he did with the donations he collected "for veterans" (till the WashPo repeatedly grilled his campaign on where the money went), he might accidentally forget to send the check to the Special Olympics.
There are already hundreds and hundreds of trump memorabilia on
e-Bay and Amazon. Some of the most ludicrous articles imaginable.
And disgusting, just what his fans yearn for. Don't check it out
before a meal though. It'll spoil your appetite.
@Patrick
Excuse my "negative Nancy" attitude (and apologies again to all positive Nancys out there), but the "Barr bomb" has provided the comfort insulation that any GOP pol will ever need. Any additional evidence can be directed straight to Barr's "exoneration" memo & the case will remain closed for any incurious individual, aka the vast majority in our blessed country.