David Cole is National Legal Director of the ACLU.
He wrote the best, most incisive analysis of the Mueller Report, describing precisely what it found. The report is an indictment in all but name, and he explains why.
The Report, he writes,
lays out in meticulous detail both a blatantly illegal effort by Russia to throw the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump and repeated efforts by President Trump to end, limit, or impede Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference. Trump’s efforts included firing or attempting to fire those overseeing the investigation, directing subordinates to lie on his behalf, cajoling witnesses not to cooperate, and doctoring a public statement about a Trump Tower meeting between his son and closest advisers and a Russian lawyer offering compromising information on Hillary Clinton.
Attorney General William Barr, who has shown himself to be exactly the kind of presidential protector Trump wanted Jeff Sessions to be, did his best to whitewash the report. Almost four weeks before it was released to the public, Barr wrote a four-page letter to Congress purporting to summarize its findings…Barr took Mueller’s words out of context and omitted all mention of the damning evidence that courses through the report….
The Mueller report did not address “collusion,” a term that has no legal definition, but the narrower question of criminal conspiracy. It found no evidence that Trump campaign officials conspired with the Russians’ disinformation campaigns or hacking of computers belonging to the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. But it describes extensive contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russians, many of which Trump campaign officials lied about. And it finds substantial evidence both “that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.” Russian intelligence agency hackers targeted Hillary Clinton’s home office within five hours of Trump’s public request in July 2016 that the Russians find her deleted e-mails. And WikiLeaks, which was in close touch with Trump advisers, began releasing its trove of e-mails stolen by the Russians from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta one hour after the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump bragged about assaulting women was made public in October 2016…
Mueller found “sweeping and systematic” intrusions by Russia in the presidential campaign, all aimed at supporting Trump’s election…
If this was a witch hunt, it found a lot of witches.
The report establishes beyond doubt that a foreign rival engaged in a systematic effort to subvert our democracy…Mueller’s report shows that Trump’s concern was not for American democracy, but for saving his own skin.
The results of Mueller’s meticulous investigation, Cole writes, “are devastating for Trump.”
What lies ahead?
Cole thinks that impeachment is impossible, given the servility of the Senate Republicans, whose fear of Trump outweighs their oath of office. What remains is an unending series of investigations leading up to the 2020 elections. The voters will decide what kind of government and what kind of leadership we want.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“…whose fear of Trump outweighs their oath of office.”
Rump has “dirt” on each of them.
Because they all knew what was happening. Or to say the least, the exposure of who did know would be devastating to the entire party.
I loved that SNL showed up Republican Susan Collins as the cowardly Trump acolyte she is. I wish there was a regular SNL feature every single episode where Susan Collins made her sniveling comment that she “was going to write a strongly worded e-mail and send it straight to my draft folder.”
I can only imagine Susan Collins as a German under Hitler as she personally witnesses Jews being rounded up and taken into gas chambers. I’m sure she’d “shake her head vigorously and wag her finger once..or perhaps twice.”
Collins is one of the worst. It is always good to see her shown up for exactly what she is in comedy bits.
Meet the Press Cold Open – SNL
Saturday Night Live
Published on May 11, 2019
Chuck Todd (Kyle Mooney) interviews Senators Lindsey Grahm (Kate Mckinnon), Susan Collins (Cecily Strong) and Mitch McConnell (Beck Bennett) about supporting President Trump.
Impeachment is not impossible, all it needs is a majority of the House. Conviction and removal from office is likely impossible with the current Senate. People think impeachment is the removal. It is a vote to hold a trial in the Senate. Hearings to evaluate evidence prior to an impeachment vote in the House will be essential in gaining public awareness of both high crimes and misdemeanors and obstruction by this president.
Thank you, Terry!!! Exactly!!! Someone was paying attention in Civics class!
I think the best time for the House to hold impeachment hearings will be closer to the election and timed exactly to vote for impeachment a few days before the election so the Senate Republicans will not have time to vote in Trump’s favor.
Once the GOP controlled Senate votes not to impeach Trump, he will go crazy on Twitter and hold daily rallies across the country to stir up his hate-filled, racist mob base claiming he is innocent and vindicated and everyone that voted against him is a traitor … LOCK THEM ALL UP! he will shout repeatedly.
“that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.”
Another talking head who misses the real story. I believe most of us are old enough to remember those famous words uttered by “Deep Throat”.
Exactly how did the Russian government perceive it would gain.. There is no longer an ideological battle between the Communist Soviet Union and the Capitalist United States.
Keep that in mind and ask (1)what was Putin to gain if Trump won? (2) How does he gain if Trump loses?
Now ask (1) what does Trump get, and do if he wins? and (2) If he loses as he and Putin expected to; what does he get and do?
Now go back to “Deep Throat”. Here is the sad part of the whole story. Mueller never did follow that adage. In fact, you are not supposed to say this but it was all too predictable.
Mueller was chosen because Rosenstein was never who he pretended to be. He always intended on “Landing the Plane.” Which is why he chose Mueller.
It this article had been recently written one could easily say sour grapes. It read it shortly after Mueller was appointed. It stuck in the back of my mind; hoping it was incorrect. Sadly the author nailed it. And if Mueller was truly going to eventually come through we probably
would have heard him already.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/07/mueller-nfl-probe-rice-goodell-239216
Shame on the House Democrats!!!! If they will not stand up in defense of our democratic system, what will they stand for?!?!?!? They are making a cynical political calculation–let’s ride this out until the election, when we’ll clobber him. But even with impeachment having no future in the Senate party, where the Trump Limbo Party is still in full swing, it is really important for the House to take its stand and to go on record. This is not acceptable behavior for a President. To do otherwise is to normalize the crap that Trump has been doing. NOT OK!!!
Dems, if you don’t stand for this, you stand for nothing.
cx: no future in the Senate, where the Trump Limbo Party is still in full swing
The Repubs are screaming that the Dems are working to take an innocent president down. Why is Trump blocking everything if he is innocent?
………..
Trump and his allies are blocking more than 20 separate Democratic probes in an all-out war with Congress
May 11 at 7:44 PM
President Trump and his allies are working to block more than 20 separate investigations by Democrats into his actions as president, his personal finances and his administration’s policies, according to a Washington Post analysis, amounting to what many experts call the most expansive White House obstruction effort in decades.
Trump’s noncooperation strategy has shifted from partial resistance to all-out war as he faces mounting inquiries from the Democratic-controlled House — a strategy that many legal and congressional experts fear could undermine the institutional power of Congress for years to come. All told, House Democrats say the Trump administration has failed to respond to or comply with at least 79 requests for documents or other information.
The president is blocking aides from testifying, refusing entire document requests from some committees, filing lawsuits against corporations to bar them from responding to subpoenas and asserting executive privilege to keep information about the special counsel’s Russia investigation from public view. One such case will come to a head in court on Tuesday, when a federal judge is expected to rule on whether Trump can quash a House Oversight Committee subpoena demanding financial records from his personal accounting firm…
https://wapo.st/2vOx6cC?tid=ss_mail&utm_term=.a1ec192f17ee
The Mueller report is quite clear. It says that collusion is not a term of art in the law and that conspiracy wasn’t proven by the evidence that was gathered. Conspiracy is VERY hard to prove. Did Al Capone run liquor, gambling, and prostitution rackets? Yes. Could the government prove it? No. But then the report turns to obstruction, and there it applies three legal criteria to ten instances of obstruction and finds that in six of these, all three criteria were met. The report explicitly says that according to existing guidance from the Office of Legal Counsel of the DOJ, the DOJ cannot indict a sitting president, that the report DOES NOT EXONERATE THE PRESIDENT FOR HIS CRIMES, and THAT IT IS UP TO CONGRESS TO TAKE THE APPROPRIATE ACTION.
Congress is not doing that.
Bob Shepherd
It is even harder to prove if you do not “follow the money”. This was always about sanctions relief on Russian money and personal gain by Trump and associates. If Trump won the first order of business as demonstrably was the case; would be sanctions relief. With Eric Prince, Kushner and Flynn running around to establish back channels. I suspect Russia might have even let Assad hang in the wind in exchange for freeing up Russian assets. Including a 500 billion dollar Oil deal between Rosneft and Exxon.
If Trump lost he would run around the country and on Trump TV; telling his ignorant base that Clinton and illegals stole YOUR election. Telling them that Democrats were raping children. The Russian money would continue to flow into Trump enterprises as long as he kept the pressure on Clinton; who Putin despised for setting up sanctions.
Part of it, I think. But also, there’s this: The Russians know who they are dealing with in IQ45. I can just hear Vlad saying, “I know. Let’s really mess them up. Let’s give them Donald Trump.” And there is the little business of Trump doing everything he can to undermine US cybersecurity, going to war with his own intelligence services, and undermining US alliances (NATO) and agreements worldwide. Vlad must be having a good laugh over all this.
Two things: First, the next time you hear a politician (95% of the time, Republicans) say something like, “The American people are smart,” understand that it means large swaths of Americans are dumber than the a sack of rocks, racist, and irrationally resentful of the “others.”
Second, I quit watching the Sunday morning chat shows after watching Bob Schieffer grin with glee when Palin gave her VP-nomination speech. I was pretty much done with them when Tim Russert pushed his both-sides schtick. Now I’m getting to the point where I’m turning all news off. The fact that they let Individual-1 apologists start off every interview with “no collusion/no obstruction” and don’t push back immediately by quoting the relevant passages in the Mueller Report and calling them liars demonstrates that they are just a different shade and composition of a sack of rocks.
Exactly. I have been appalled by the coverage of the report. Clearly, many of the people writing about it haven’t actually read it. Lord help me, I did.
Agreed, Trump’s IQ like that of his followers may be 45. But Putin also knows what motivates Trump. The disruption of our traditional alliances and the “Washinton Consensus” might even have some legitimate policy basis coming from the Left. Coming from Trump if someone thinks he has any f——g concern about policy; I am selling bridges in Downtown Manhattan. As Cohen said that was coded talk for let’s do business. Something Maxine Waters has maintained from the start. At least the Rosenbergs if guilty were motivated by conviction, not money.
As for the media, many are either dumb as a sack of rocks. Or we are dumb to be excusing them as stupid rather than complicit. It does not take state of the art technology to kill a mic. CNN and their endless pannels got Trump elected. The propensity to repeat memes rather than do actual reporting another. Especially as it pertains to the subject Diane usually comments on or any other economic area.
Washington and whatever else cannot be edited
Can the President Be Indicted? A Long-Hidden Legal Memo Says Yes
July 22, 2017
A document from Kenneth Starr’s investigation into President Bill Clinton rejected the view that sitting presidents are immune from being indicted.
WASHINGTON — A newfound memo from Kenneth W. Starr’s independent counsel investigation into President Bill Clinton sheds fresh light on a constitutional puzzle that is taking on mounting significance amid the Trump-Russia inquiry: Can a sitting president be indicted?
The 56-page memo, locked in the National Archives for nearly two decades and obtained by The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act, amounts to the most thorough government-commissioned analysis rejecting a generally held view that presidents are immune from prosecution while in office.
“It is proper, constitutional, and legal for a federal grand jury to indict a sitting president for serious criminal acts that are not part of, and are contrary to, the president’s official duties,” the Starr office memo concludes. “In this country, no one, even President Clinton, is above the law.”
Mr. Starr assigned Ronald Rotunda, a prominent conservative professor of constitutional law and ethics whom Mr. Starr hired as a consultant on his legal team, to write the memo in spring 1998 after deputies advised him that they had gathered enough evidence to ask a grand jury to indict Mr. Clinton, the memo shows…
Only Democratic Presidents can be indicted. It is part of the Republican Constitution.
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse and commented:
What kind of government and leadership do you want?
Feel the Bern!
………..
Bernie Sanders
One of the great crises facing the global community today is that democracy, the right of ordinary people to control their own lives, is on the defensive while authoritarianism is growing stronger.
And at its root is the fact that a handful of incredibly wealthy people are exerting enormous economic and political power over the planet. Unbelievably, in the global economy today, the top 1 percent owns more wealth than the bottom 99 percent, and a handful of billionaires own more than the bottom half of people around the world — that’s 3.7 billion people.
That is the reality.
People in our own country, and around the world, are angry and betrayed, and they feel that nobody is listening to their pain.
And one of the results of that reality is that in Europe, in Russia, in the Middle East, in Asia and elsewhere we are seeing movements led by demagogues who exploit people’s fears, prejudices and grievances to achieve and hold on to power.
Next week, Donald Trump is set to welcome one of those leaders into the White House: Hungary’s far-right authoritarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán.
Now, I have always found it very strange that Trump has such a hard time getting along with leaders of the world’s major democracies but feels very comfortable with authoritarians like Orbán, Putin, Xi Jinping, Bolsonaro and Mohammad bin Salman.
But the truth is, while they all differ in some respects, they share a number of key attributes: hostility toward democratic norms, antagonism toward a free press, intolerance toward ethnic and religious minorities, and a belief that government should benefit their own selfish financial interests.
This trend certainly did not begin with Trump, but there’s no question that authoritarian leaders around the world have drawn inspiration from the fact that the leader of the world’s oldest and most powerful democracy seems to delight in shattering democratic norms.
Other authoritarian states are much farther along this kleptocratic process. In Russia, it is impossible to tell where the decisions of government end and the interests of Vladimir Putin and his circle of oligarchs begin. They operate as one unit. Similarly, in Saudi Arabia, there is no debate about separation because the natural resources of the state, valued at trillions of dollars, belong to the Saudi royal family. In Hungary, far-right authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán is openly allied with Putin in Russia. In China, an inner circle led by Xi Jinping has steadily consolidated power, clamping down on domestic political freedom while it aggressively promotes a version of authoritarian capitalism abroad.
So the question is: Where do we go from here?
To effectively oppose right-wing authoritarianism, we cannot simply go back to the failed status quo of the last several decades. In order to fight this trend, we need to strengthen the global coalition of progressive democrats.
While authoritarians promote division and hatred, we promote unity, inclusion, and an agenda based on economic, social, racial, and environmental justice.
The people of the world must come together to end the absurdity of rich and multinational corporations stashing over $21 trillion in offshore bank accounts to avoid paying their fair share of taxes and then demanding that their respective governments impose an austerity agenda on their working families.
It is not acceptable that the fossil fuel industry continues to make huge profits while their carbon emissions destroy the planet for our children and grandchildren.
It is not acceptable that a handful of multinational media giants, owned by a small number of billionaires, largely control the flow of information on the planet.
It is not acceptable that trade policies that benefit large multinational corporations and encourage a race to the bottom hurt working people throughout the world as they are written out of public view.
It is not acceptable that, with the Cold War long behind us, countries around the world spend over $1 trillion a year on weapons of destruction, while millions of children die of easily treatable diseases.
In order to effectively combat the rise of the international authoritarian axis, we need a global progressive movement that mobilizes behind a vision of shared prosperity, security and dignity for all people and that addresses the massive inequality that exists, not only in wealth but in political power as well.
Such a movement must be willing to think creatively and boldly about the world that we would like to see.
We must take the opportunity to reconceptualize a genuinely progressive global community based on human solidarity, that recognizes that every person on this planet shares a common humanity, that we all want our children to grow up healthy, to have a good education, have decent jobs, drink clean water, breathe clean air, and live in peace.
Our job is to reach out to those in every corner of the world who share these values and who are fighting for a better world.
In a time of exploding wealth and technology, we have the potential to create a decent life for all people. Our job is to build on our common humanity and do everything that we can to oppose all of the forces, whether unaccountable government power or unaccountable corporate power, who try to divide us up and set us against each other.
We know that those forces work together across borders. We must do the same.
Thank you for reading.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
I’ll keep saying it – – the threat to our democracy is silent GOP SENATORS and representatives. In the entire string of responses, the word “senator” and “senate Republican” shows up less than 5 times. There is more outrage, protest, and attention to standardized testing and opt outs than there is to the fact that GOP SENATORS are not outraged.
RUSSIA TAMPERED WITH THE ELECTION. PERIOD.
The obstruction is that the president wants to obstruct the REPORT and any related testimony.
The collusion is that the president yuks it up with Putin about the report.
Why are we not BOMBARDING GOP with letters, in the media, and protest in the Capitol hallways?
Why isn’t this front page news in every paper around the country?
Russia tampered with the election.
North Korea played the president like a violin.
Russia’s fingerprints are on the North Korean missiles.
Iran is threatening the US.
Our military leaders are ignored.
And…
Consumers are getting and going to get squeezed with rising price of everything.
Middle class taxes skyrocketed.
Farmers got played by the president.
We have 2-point something TRILLION dollar deficit.
Every regulation protecting children, the elderly, homeowners and the planet have been dissolved.
The president cozies up to white supremacists.
Women, the disabled, and thinkers including longstanding government presidential advisers (and the FBI) are degraded and dismissed recklessly.
Go back to #1.
Why is it SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE is the only one asking the question: Dear Senators and Representatives – – what is it going to take?
Well, this site does focus on education issues in the United States. That might be one reason, but everything you mention has been out there and it is being discussed, a lot. The traditional media is covering all of the stuff you have mentioned.
Just try to Google those topics and find out that they are not being totally ignored.
Wait! What? I did say, above, “But even with impeachment having no future in the Senate party, where the Trump Limbo Party is still in full swing, it is really important for the House to take its stand and to go on record.”
GOP Senators: How low, how low, how low will you go in your continued support of this man?
Yikes, cx: no future in the Senate, where the Trump Limbo Party is still in full swing
I agree with you.
The silence of the GOP Senate is deafening.
The Republican Party now stands for nothing but “love Trump.” It used to be adamant about free trade and immigration. It no longer has any beliefs or principles. It is the Trump Party.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis described Trump as having “the understanding of a fifth- or sixth-grader.” White House Chief of Staff John Kelley, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus all called him “an idiot.” Economic Advisor Gary Cohn called him “dumb as shit.” National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster called him “a dope” with the intelligence of “a kindergartner.” Steve Bannon described him as being “like an 11-year-old child.” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called him “a moron.” In response to a question about whether she thought Trump had an understanding of economic policy, former Fed Chair Janet Yellen said, “No. I do not.”
High praise from those closest to him! Far be it from me to contradict such august personages! As if to prove all this, IQ45 just tweeted this:
“Talks with China continue in a very congenial manner – there is absolutely no need to rush – as Tariffs are NOW being paid to the United States by China of 25% on 250 Billion Dollars worth of goods & products.”
He seems to think that when he placed tariffs on good coming into the US from China, those tariffs are paid by China. They are not. They are paid by the importers and passed onto the U.S. citizens in the form of higher costs.
Oh, BTW, Donald, goods are products.
Imagine a debate between IQ45 and, say, Pete Buttigieg. It would be like watching Kanye West debate number theory with John von Neumann.
I really don’t want to imagine that debate. The two have too much in common. IQ may not be one of those things.
If Trump was at all sincere on trade, the concept of doing something about our trade imbalance might not be wrong. We put industrial workers in competition with the lowest paid workers in the world. Yet at the same time, we sought protections for intellectual property rights from technology to pharmaceuticals. So our trade agreements have little to do with free markets and everything to do with plutocrats picking winners and losers. Mostly assuring that those Plutocrats and Oligarchs were the winners.
As Elisabeth Warren pointed out when she questioned Obama’s trade Rep; trade agreements are not about what is good for Americans. Michael Froman former executive at Citi Corp who picked Obama’s entire first cabinet while the (free market)bank was being bailed out with upwards of 350 billion dollars stated: “the American people might not like TPP if they knew what was in it.”
It goes without saying that Trump could care less about American workers. That he would gladly declare a great victory if he managed to protect huge profits on prescription drugs(intellectual property). It is also not possible to put the toothpaste back in the tube. That if manufacturing were to come back; we actually would see those robots (automation) that we keep hearing about but do not show in the economic data(yet). Thus few jobs would return.
Tariffs may be the worst way to address the issue. That does not dismiss the fact that there is no free in free markets. Yes, it will be American consumers who pay the tariffs. As it was American consumers who benefited from the lower prices delivered by slave labor in other parts of the world. While American workers put in competition with that labor suffered the consequence.
The Democratic (and even Republican) answer to that was education. Of course, the type of education that would empower workers to gain a fair share of productivity gains was the last thing on their mind.
I’d rather watch a debate between Moscow’s Agent Governing American and AOC. When the Deplorable MAGA man starts to stalk her on stage like he did Hillary Clinton, maybe AOC would kick him where she thinks his balls are and we would discover he doesn’t have any.
Lloyd Lofthouse
I saw a very interesting internet meme this morning that referred to Linsay Graham’s role these days; along the line of your comment about AOC and Trump. Unfortunately, it is not appropriate for this site so use your imagination.
The decision to come out is extraordinarily personal, and we must respect everyone’s right to decide when and if to do that, but I’m with Harvey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvZIoZNYTN8
correction: He seems to think that the tariffs he placed on goods coming into the US from China are paid by China!!! They are not. They are paid by those in the US who import Chinese goods and passed onto U.S. citizens in the form of higher costs.
Despite what Trump claims, the tariffs will not be paid by China—their cost will be passed on to the American companies and consumers who buy Chinese goods. The Orange Moron has spoken.
……………………………….
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump
Follow Follow @realDonaldTrump
More
I say openly to President Xi & all of my many friends in China that China will be hurt very badly if you don’t make a deal because companies will be forced to leave China for other countries. Too expensive to buy in China. You had a great deal, almost completed, & you backed out!
3:49 AM – 13 May 2019
4,093 Retweets 15,352 Likes
Carol,
I think he never took Econ 101, and we know he went through four bankruptcies. He is ignorant of basic economic principles.
Remember when the GOP supported free trade and immigration? I do.
Even Trump’s teachers thought he was stupid. Trump reminds us regularly that he has superior intelligence. It’s only a small step further to ‘know everything’.
………
The late Professor William T. Kelley, who taught marketing at Wharton for 31 years and had Trump in his classroom, said, “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had,” in a conversation with his close friend Frank DiPrima.
Kelley made the comment while Trump was already a public figure, but had not yet ventured into politics.
The professor “often referred to Trump’s arrogance when he told of this—that Trump came to Wharton thinking he already knew everything.”
China is aware that the trade war will effect Trump’s base. Farmers must be stupid to continue to support Trump. Many are at risk of loosing their farms but Trump remains the ‘great one’ who will save this country.
…………………………………………………
From Inkstone: News from Hong Kong
China can deliver a ‘deadly punch’ to the US, ex-official says
May 13, 2019
China has many options for retaliating against the United States and is likely to implement sanctions that go beyond tariffs on trade in goods, a former top government official has said.
“China will not only act as a kung fu master in response to US tricks, but also as an experienced boxer and can deliver a deadly punch at the end,” Wei Jianguo, a former vice-minister at the Ministry of Commerce responsible for foreign trade, told the South China Morning Post.
Beijing is considering how it will strike back at the US after President Donald Trump on Friday raised tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods.
China’s response can be consequential to ending – or escalating – a trade war that has disrupted global commerce.
Wei is among advocates for tough Chinese countermeasures.
US agricultural products would be a natural primary target for retaliation, especially wheat, corn and pork, Wei said.
These would directly target a key part of Trump’s electoral base in the run-up to the 2020 election, in which US policy towards China is expected to play a key role.
China could also place sanctions on US planes and vehicles, he said, making it more difficult for these products to enter the Chinese market.
On the other hand, the doves among China’s Communist Party elite are growing increasingly vocal in their calls for Beijing to take a more cautious approach…
https://inks.tn/ler?utm_source=email&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=share_button
The trade war will create pain in both economies. My guess is that President for life Xi will be able to dismiss that pain easier than the Orange monster.
Domestic Demand in China is significantly higher than it was a decade ago and trade represents far less of their GDP than it did a decade ago.
The Tangerine Tyrant is above the law, or so he thinks. Reich says that Trump must be impeached so that this country still stands for separation of powers and checks and balances.
I’d sure hate for Trump to have power for four more years. He’d totally destroy this country if that were to happen. It’s hard to understand why this ignorant con man has pulled the wool over so many eyes. I blame Faux and the internet that freely spreads all sorts of lies.
……………………………………..
There are many reasons not to impeach Trump. The House should do it anyway | Robert Reich
Saturday, May 11, 2019
…Another question needs to be considered – not just the practical political effect on the 2020 election, but something more important over the long run.
It is whether an action designed to enforce our constitution is important for its own sake – even if it goes nowhere, even if it’s unpopular with many voters, even if it’s politically risky.
“Every child in America is supposed to learn about the constitution’s basic principles of separation of powers, and checks and balances.
But, these days, every child and every adult in America is learning from Donald Trump that these principles are bunk.
By issuing a blanket refusal to respond to any congressional subpoena, Trump is saying Congress has no constitutional authority to oversee the executive branch. He’s telling America that Congress is a subordinate branch of government rather than a co-equal branch. Forget separation of powers.”
By spending money on his “wall” that Congress explicitly refused to authorize, Trump is saying that Congress no longer has any constitutional authority over spending. Goodbye, checks and balances.
By unilaterally shuttering the government in order to get his way, Trump is saying he has the constitutional right not to execute the laws whenever it suits him. Farewell, Congress.
By directing the attorney general, the justice department, the FBI, and the secretary of the treasury to act in his own personal interest rather than in the interests of the American people, Trump is saying that a president can run the government on his own. Adios, constitution.
By unilaterally threatening to cut off trade with the second-largest economy in the world, Trump is saying he has sole authority to endanger the entire American economy. (Make no mistake: if he goes through with the threat, the US economy will go into a tailspin.)
By doing whatever he could to stop an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, including firing the head of the FBI, Trump has told America it’s OK for a president to obstruct justice. Goodbye, law…
https://gu.com/p/becv6/sbl
Senator Todd Young [R-IN] is a loyal sycophant to Trump. He just sent out this bit of information concerning the Iran nuclear deal. Obviously the GOP and Trump can’t stand anything that was done by Obama. It was signed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, China, France, Russia, the UK, US, Germany and the European Union. Iran is NOW threatening to enrich its stockpile of uranium. Trump is the reason this is happening. His actions are enabling the Iran hardliners.
………………………………………….
Iran Deal Withdrawal Anniversary
Last week, I introduced a resolution to mark the anniversary of the United States’ withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran. This resolution serves as a critical reminder of the deep flaws present in President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. From the beginning, this deal enabled the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism to have relief from sanctions without dismantling their nuclear program. On this one year anniversary of our decision to withdraw from the deal, Iran has once again reminded the world of their true intentions by threatening to enrich its stockpile of uranium. Additionally, and despite Iran’s collapsing economy, the Iranian regime has also decided it would rather pursue nuclear weapons instead of selling their excess uranium and heavy water to help its own economy. We must stand firm on our maximum pressure campaign and never permit the Iranian regime to develop a nuclear weapon.
Trump loves dictators. The Prime Minister of Hungary visited the WH. Why does he get along beautifully with dictators and can’t stand our allies? Trump envies dictators and wants to be worshiped in the manner in which dictators have no opposition.
…………………………..
Orban has taken near total control over Hungary’s news media. He has used financial pressure to silence independent outlets and has consolidated the rest to create a state media machine that is loyal to him.
Orban has also radically changed Hungary’s courts, relentlessly chipping away at judicial independence. In 2018, he created an alternative court system that gives his executive branch power over the judiciary, where Orban himself can pick and choose his own judges.
In another move that was bitterly criticized by proponents of free speech, Orban recently closed Central European University in Budapest because it received funding from its founder, the Hungarian-native billionaire philanthropist George Soros. Critics have pointed to Orban’s demonization campaign against Soros as being filled with anti-Semitic tropes and false accusations.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
From the WH:
President Trump hosts the Prime Minister of Hungary
As a member of NATO, Hungary is an important ally for the United States on both national security and economic matters. Today, President Trump hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the Oval Office, deepening cooperation on a range of crucial issues such as trade, energy, and cybersecurity.
The two leaders also honored the 20th anniversary of Hungary officially joining NATO.
“We are proud that so many Hungarians contributed to the tremendous progress of United States,” Prime Minister Orban said, adding that the two countries face many similar challenges at home and abroad. “We are proud to stand together with the United States on fighting against illegal migration, on terrorism, and to protect and help the Christian communities all around the world.”
One more effect caused by the Orange IDIOT.
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Chinese tourists are shunning the US for Europe…inkstone comes from Hong Kong
…“People like to travel to countries that welcome them,” Sun said.
“When Chinese consumers have the buying power, if they are not going to the US, then they are going to Britain, Europe, Australia or New Zealand – they’ll find an alternative. The US really needs to be very careful if it wants to attract affluent travelers.”
China is the world’s largest outbound travel market in terms of numbers and expenditure, according to a report by consultants McKinsey & Co in September.
Chinese tourists are expected to make 160 million overseas trips by 2020 and spend more than $315 billion next year…
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Is the Orange Moron going to start a war with Iran? It certainly would make him to be the ‘great leader’. Lots of macho. The US has money to spend on wars but never has money to help people. Where is Congress in stopping this maniac?
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U.S. Orders All Non-Essential Embassy Staff to Leave Iraq
The State Department has ordered all non-essential, non-emergency government staff to leave Iraq immediately as increasing tensions with Iran risk spiraling toward a potential military conflict. The alert was published on the website of the U.S. Embassy in Iraq on Wednesday, and comes after the U.S. beefed up its military presence in the region in response to what it claimed were new and urgent threats from Iran and its allies. The notice ordered staff at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the U.S. Consulate in Erbil to go leave the country “as soon as possible” using commercial transportation.
Read it at AP
Trump plans to send 100,000 so,diners to the Middle East to meet the threat from Iran. Our European allies won’t support it because they don’t see a threat.
This is John Bolton’s work.
More good news. I very much like hearing about his high unpopularity. Some people see him as the loser that he is.
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Trump Tower Is Now One of NYC’s Least-Desirable Luxury Buildings
by Shahien Nasiripour
Trump Tower, once the crown jewel in Donald Trump’s property empire, now ranks as one of the least desirable luxury properties in Manhattan.
Trump Tower, once the crown jewel in Donald Trump’s property empire, now ranks as one of the least desirable luxury properties in Manhattan.
The 36-year-old building has been turned into a fortress since Trump won the presidency, ringed with concrete barriers and the two main entrances partially blocked off. It hasn’t been substantially updated in years. And Trump’s name has been a huge turnoff in liberal New York City.
For anyone who owns a unit in the tower, the past two years have been brutal. Most condo sales have led to a loss after adjusting for inflation, property records show. Several sold at more than a 20% loss. By contrast, across Manhattan, just 0.23% of homes over the past two years sold at a loss, according to real-estate data provider PropertyShark, although the firm doesn’t adjust for inflation.
It’s all a far cry from the days when the New York landmark attracted the likes of Michael Jackson, Johnny Carson and Steven Spielberg. These days, it’s better known for a Trump campaign meeting with a Russian lawyer documented in Robert Mueller’s Russia report.
While some corners of Trump’s business empire have thrived, such as his Washington D.C. hotel, others have suffered from his high unpopularity. Rounds of golf are down at his public course in New York, a clutch of once Trump-branded buildings have torn his name off their fronts, and an ambitious plan to launch a new mid-tier hotel chain across the country fizzled…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-14/trump-tower-is-now-one-of-nyc-s-least-desirable-luxury-buildings
The Chinese have to save face. Trump’s bullying is NOT something they would ever bow to.
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In trade talks, US prefers to reveal what China would conceal..news from Hong Kong
May 16, 2019
…Thornton said similar things had happened before in negotiations with China, as Beijing was particularly sensitive about details being made public which could affect the perception of the agreement among its domestic audience.
“A lot of the time it has to do with sensitivity of having the document in the public domain. They do not want it to look like someone is dictating terms [to China],” she said.
But the US “certainly wants the public to see what they have got. That’s the whole point of it.”
According to Thornton, another sticking point between the two sides related to future tariffs, with the US wanting to reserve the right to impose future penalties as a “motivation” to ensure the deal was being implemented.
“The Chinese said they cannot agree to any kind of deal that will let us impose tariffs and use them as an enforcement mechanism,” she said.
Thornton said she was surprised when the trade negotiations fell apart immediately after both nations had raised expectations that an agreement would be reached, adding it was now unlikely that trade tensions between the two countries would be resolved in the foreseeable future….
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This issue is more complicated than just saving face.
Saving face is linked to what happened to China during and after the Opium Wars all the way to 1949, more than a century of suffering and death brought to China by the European and American colonial empires forcing China to accept the opium trade that China’s leaders did not want.
China’s current leadership is well educated about how China was abused for more than a century and they are determined not to let that happen again.
Even after 1949, when what’s known as Mao’s Great Famine hit in 1958 – 1961, Mao did ask the world to help and the U.S. said no because our leaders at the time wanted China’s people to suffer and rebel against the Chinese Communist Party so the Nationalists in Taiwan could return to lead China again.
But Canada and France did help and that saved many lives in China even though the US did all it could so more would die of starvation. France even bought wheat from the U.S. and then shipped it from France to China. I’ll bet that pissed off America’s leaders in the early 1960s.
Did you know that Mao (more of a nationalist than a Communist) asked the United States for help in 1949 after he defeated the Nationalists (backed by the U.S.) and when the U.S., said no, Mao turned to Russia?
And when the US fought in Korea and then Vietnam, Mao saw this as a threat to China. He said in a speech that Vietnam and Korea were the gums that protected China’s teeth and once the lips were gone, the teeth were next. That’s why Mao helped North Korea and North Vietnam against the U.S. and its European allies, the same countries that invaded China in the 19th century to force Opium on China’s people.
For $45, Lance Wallnau and Jim Bakker will sell you a Trump/Cyrus coin that you can use as a “point of contact” between you and God as you pray for Trump’s re-election in 2020.
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1:28 PM – May 14, 2019
3,157 people are talking about this
Since Donald Trump licenses the use of his name, he probably gets a cut of the profits.
In my opinion the ‘get the fetuses born’ crowd are hypocrites. They care nothing about what happens to a child after it is born.
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The Republican Party’s attack on women’s reproductive rights has put the nation on a terrifying path
byThom Hartmann
The GOP’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is on its way.
During Mike Pence’s first year as governor of Indiana, his state put a young woman in prison for having a miscarriage, alleging that she’d taken an abortion-causing drug. Purvi Patel didn’t have a trace of such a drug in her system, but Pence’s state sentenced her to 20 years in prison anyway. Just a few years earlier, Indiana had also held Bei Bei Shuai for 435 days in the brutal maximum security Marion County prison, facing 45 years to life for trying to kill herself and, in the process, causing the death of her 33-week fetus…
These cases have exploded in recent years, as the GOP and the nation’s law enforcement system have embraced the American “Christian” version of fundamentalist Islamic law which dictates that women are the property of men and their principal purpose for existence is reproduction.
According to Duke University’s Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, there were 413 documented—and probably thousands of lesser-known—cases of women being prosecuted for having miscarriages or attempting abortions between the time Roe v. Wade became the law of the land and 2005.
Between 2005 and 2014, the Guttmacher Institute documented another 380 cases.
Georgia just passed a law, signed by Republican Brian Kemp (the man who ran his own election against Stacey Abrams), which puts any woman in that state who has a miscarriage at risk of 30 years in prison or even the death penalty. Other states are in line, and in those states, like Georgia, with the death penalty, many are proposing legislation to put women who have abortions to death…
Link: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/05/17/gop-road-mass-lockups-women-who-have-miscarriages?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=email_this