1) How in Hell is Joe Biden the front runner?
2) Julián Castro is going to be hit with some nasty shit from Old Lardass and McConnell both after talking about the need to impeach and calling McConnell "Moscow Mitch".
3) Kamala Harris wasn't nearly as good as in her first show. Maybe Tulsi Gabbard laying out her bad record as prosecutor in California shook her. She's not ready for prime time.
4) The crowd sure liked Andrew Yang. I like him, too.
5) Jay Inslee is the only one who seems to see the big picture: that if we don't deal with climate change, we won't have the opportunity to deal with anything else.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
More on Ratcliffe
Was.THE PRESIDENT’S INTENT to nominate Robert Mueller’s chief Capitol Hill inquisitor to head the nation’s intelligence community might just be the Trump administration’s most alarming personnel decision yet.
[...]
“I don’t know John. I’ve met him a couple times, seen him on TV,” Senate Homeland Security Committee chair Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) told Politico, among other choice quotes it gathered.
[...]
Axios scooped the news of Ratcliffe’s impending nomination, saying Trump was “thrilled” by the congressman’s performance at the Mueller hearing.
[...]
Ratcliffe’s experience pales in comparison to any of his would-be predecessors. He served as the mayor of Heath, Texas—population 8,000—for a decade, and while he did a brief stint as a politically appointed US attorney in Texas in the final months of George W. Bush’s administration, his résumé on national security matters is practically nonexistent.
He had previously claimed to be involved in a single terrorism-related case, against the Holy Land Foundation, but appears to have far overstated his role. As ABC News’ James Gordon Meek reported Tuesday, “The fact is that @RepRatcliffe did not convict anyone in the Holy Land Foundation trial. His staff now admits he simply reviewed the first mistrial and issued no report to [attorney general Mike] Mukasey, which is why no one we contacted remembers him at all.”
Similarly confounding, he asserts on his House website that he once “arrested 300 illegal aliens in a single day,” which would have been quite a feat, since US attorneys don’t have arrest authority.
[...]
But while Ratcliffe will likely have trouble herding the cats that make up the nation’s 17 sprawling intelligence agencies, ranging from the Justice Department to the State Department to the Pentagon to even the Energy Department, that’s not what seems primed to make him a dangerous DNI.
[...]
[T]he core principle of the intelligence professional is to speak truth to power.
Wired
No longer needed. Trump's gut is better than anyone's brain. He said so himself.The US spends $60 billion a year on the nation’s intelligence apparatus, a workforce of tens of thousands ranging from CIA officers and FBI agents to NSA cryptologists and hackers, NGA analysts, interpretation experts at the NRO, financial wizards at the Treasury Department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, and much more.
All of that money and all of those workers share a simple uniting goal: To ensure that the president of the United States is, in every conversation and decision, the most informed, knowledgeable, best-prepared person in the room.
Number 1 is a big, fat, smelly Number 2.The rare instances where the CIA or other agencies have skewed their intelligence toward political ends, as with the run-up to the Iraq War, only underscore the devastating consequences of anything less than fair-eyed analysis.
[...]
[Dan] Coats did try to speak truth to power. He spoke up when it mattered, was honest about Russia’s attack on the 2016 election, and was willing to contradict Trump publicly on the future of North Korea’s nuclear program. One of Coats’ final acts as DNI actually was to appoint the nation’s first election security czar. That honesty appears to be a not insignificant part of why Coats was shoved aside, and ultimately out the door.
[...]
There’s little evidence that Ratcliffe is the man for the job. Beyond his antics cross-examining Mueller last week, he’s long been on the leading edge of criticizing the Russia investigation writ large. He was even the congressman who started the completely false rumor that the FBI—one of the intel agencies he is set to oversee—had an anti-Trump “secret society.”
Ratcliffe seems to appeal to Trump for the same reason most of the sycophants around him do: Loyalty first and foremost to No. 1.
He's not wrong about that, but he happens to be only talking about what he perceives as disloyalty to himself.But the DNI is not supposed to walk through the door of the Oval Office attempting to please the president—he is supposed to tell the president whatever he needs to hear, consequences be damned.
Trump wants nothing of the kind. Instead, as he told reporters Tuesday afternoon, “We need somebody strong that can really rein it in. Because as I think you've all learned, the intelligence agencies have run amok. They've run amok.”
That was his first and lasting message. It's all that matters to him.The fact that Trump, who has skirmished with the intelligence community ever since the campaign, still sees the truth-telling tradition of the intelligence world as making them his adversaries rather than his allies underscores how little Donald Trump has risen to the role of the commander-in-chief. As The New Yorker’s David Rohde wrote this week, the message Trump sends with Ratcliffe's appointment is clear: Be loyal or leave.
Muted support is still support.The idea that a person prone to wild conspiracy theories might soon occupy the role legally designated to be the final voice in the president’s ear on intelligence matters should terrify Americans—as well as both its allies and adversaries the world over. The fact that Senate GOP members have so far been relatively muted in their support for Ratcliffe encourages hope that maybe this disaster-in-waiting might be averted.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Welcome to politics, Montana
LOL. That's kinda mean.
But, Marianne did put on a good showing last night (including her after-debate interview with Anderson Cooper). Looks like people took notice.
You need a scorecard
Once upon a time, there were experts to offer advice.The Trump administration is poised to renew waivers that allow Iran to receive international assistance for civilian nuclear projects, after a heated internal debate over whether to dismantle a key element of the 2015 nuclear deal, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
[...]
The waivers for five nuclear sites in Iran are due to expire on Thursday.
[...]
In what would be a setback for Iran hawks, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other administration officials appeared to prevail in the policy argument against national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
[...]
Proponents of keeping the waivers warned that removing them could force the United States to impose sanctions on Russian, Chinese and European firms assisting with nuclear work in Iran permitted by the nuclear accord, according to a U.S. official and a source familiar with the discussions.
The Treasury Department appealed for more time to work out the possible consequences if that scenario played out, the sources said.
NBC
Trump already pulled us out of the agreement, no?The underlying argument that has played out at the White House over the past year hinges on whether the United States would have more leverage in any future talks with Iran by totally dismantling the 2015 deal, or whether it is better to preserve the accord as a starting point for negotiations, U.S. officials say.
Oh. There's a rump JCPOA. That's what they're calling the waivers, apparently. There's also a rump in the White House.Proponents of keeping the waivers believe “the best way to position for a new deal, is to keep the old deal around in the meantime,” one source said. “There is an active group within the State Department, Treasury Department and Energy Department that sees value in keeping the rump JCPOA alive.”
If they've humiliated the president, they'll be getting their walking papers.The [waivers] permit Iran to run its sole nuclear power reactor at Bushehr with Russian assistance and a research reactor in Tehran to produce medical isotopes.
The Trump administration in May renewed the civilian nuclear waivers for a 90-day period, after having issued waivers for 180 days previously. The State Department originally justified the waivers as a way of preventing Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons-related work.
[...]
Bolton and officials at the national security council disagree with the rationale for keeping the nuclear waivers, arguing Iran should not be allowed to preserve its nuclear infrastructure with help from the outside world.
They also play down the possibility that the U.S. would have to impose sanctions on Russian, Chinese or European companies engaged with Iran’s nuclear program, sources said. They cite an administration decision in May that barred two forms of international assistance for Iran’s nuclear activities involving Oman and Russia. In both of those cases, the two countries halted their cooperation and there was no need to for Washington to introduce U.S. sanctions.
Iran hawks in Congress, including 50 Republicans in the House and Republican senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marco Rubio of Florida, had pushed for removing the waivers.
[...]
But Trump appeared to come around to Mnuchin’s view in recent days, much to the frustration of advocates of a tough line on Iran inside and outside the administration.
“There were a hundred ways to cancel these nuclear waivers responsibly," said one U.S. official familiar with how the debate unfolded. “The State and Treasury teams rejected those options because their actual goal is to save the nuclear deal. So now we've got a situation where they've humiliated President Trump this round and set themselves up for a diplomatic crisis in the fall” when the new waivers expire, the official said.
Everything running smoothly, as always.
No golf for THIS guy
He'll be too busy.
Flashback:
Dems should get smart and use this as a campaign ad for 2020, interspersing clips of him playing golf, with the dates attached. It's already compiled for them:
Flashback:
Dems should get smart and use this as a campaign ad for 2020, interspersing clips of him playing golf, with the dates attached. It's already compiled for them:
John Delaney, please drop out
I'm not into having another billionaire businessman as president, and besides, I cannot look at John Delaney without thinking of character actor and voice of Piglet, John Fiedler.
I didn't know the actor's name. Thanks to Stephen Schwartz, I do now.
Also, please drop out Governor Bullock.
He's probably not going to get very good press for his debate appearance last night due to the fact that he didn't put his hand over his heart during the playing of the national anthem or the parading of the American flag, but I'm more concerned about his comment that he would not take a first nuclear strike option off the table. Now I know why:
Another person who's main concern is his own narrow interests. Screw the world.
I may have to check in on Mr. Schwartz fom time to time.
I didn't know the actor's name. Thanks to Stephen Schwartz, I do now.
Also, please drop out Governor Bullock.
He's probably not going to get very good press for his debate appearance last night due to the fact that he didn't put his hand over his heart during the playing of the national anthem or the parading of the American flag, but I'm more concerned about his comment that he would not take a first nuclear strike option off the table. Now I know why:
Another person who's main concern is his own narrow interests. Screw the world.
I may have to check in on Mr. Schwartz fom time to time.
Intel agencies are about to get shaken
And that's the precise reason he was nominated by Trump. That, and he gave Mueller a hard time at his hearing.
Ratcliffe will be confirmed after some Democratic squealing.
UPDATE:
UPDATE:
Cruelty is the crux of all Trump policy, foreign and domestic
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East
How long till Trump takes credit for it and demands his Nobel Prize?
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
There he is. He's alive. You can stop worrying now.
Take 1) Who says? Why is he supposed to be "neutral, unbiased & fair?"
Take 2) Neutral, unbiased & fair - like Sean Hannity and Fox & Friends?
Take 3) Don Lemon was the only black person on the panel.
Take 4) Why is he parenthetically defining "dumb"?
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Pete should have made this clear in last night's debate
Pete Buttigieg's presidential campaign on Thursday rolled out an extensive plan to fight systemic racism and expand economic freedom for African Americans. The South Bend, Ind., mayor has dubbed this set of proposals the "Douglass Plan," after pioneering abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The proposals come as Buttigieg continues to field questions about his lackluster polling numbers among African Americans and the state of race relations in South Bend.
[...]
The plan proposes investments in key areas that would benefit African Americans, Buttigieg argues. It proposes establishing an a National Health Equity Strategy in order to "train our existing health workforce to combat bias — especially racial bias — when treating patients."
The Douglass plan would also dramatically increase federal funding for black students in science-related fields and increase resources for students at Title I schools. On entrepreneurship, the proposal calls for tripling the number of black entrepreneurs over the next decade and awarding a quarter of government contracts to "minority business owners." On housing, the Douglass Plan aims to increase asset ownership by creating a public trust to buy vacant properties and make those properties available to residents. The plan also includes provisions to revitalize and invest in neighborhoods in pilot cities.
Among the criminal justice reform proposals are halving the incarceration rate at the state and federal level, abolishing private federal prisons and ending or reducing incarceration for drug crimes. The proposal also would double federal funding for states that looking to make criminal justice reforms.
The Douglass plan also calls for passing a new Voting Rights Act to make it easier to vote. Provisions include automatically registering voters and making same-day registration available.
Politico
Note to Dems: Stop fearing Republican disapproval
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
UPDATE:
Set 'em up
Either there'll be some covert sabotaging, or a whole lot of resignations.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
And what a particularly wonderful name for the Trump (the rat) DNI: Ratcliffe.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
And what a particularly wonderful name for the Trump (the rat) DNI: Ratcliffe.
Kim needs attention
What's His Lardship going to say? He's been bragging that Kim loves him so much he ended nuclear tests.*North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast Wednesday in Pyongyang's second weapons test in less than a week, the South Korean military said.
The Hill
Everybody, move inland!Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also told reporters that the incident was “no threat to Japanese national security” according to the AP, which added that Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya said that the missiles did not reach the country's exclusive economic zone.
A message to Herr Trump, more like.North Korea fired two additional missiles last week that South Korean officials said went traveled 370 miles and went 30 miles high. Pyongyang reportedly said that those tests were a warning to South Korea.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
*UPDATE:
Ditch Mitch
Sometimes, you HAVE to talk around it
Matthews is trying to get her to say what she is acknowledging without saying: Medicare for All means your taxes go up. She won't say it because she knows that's the soundbyte the Republicans would be using for all their ads against her. Matthews knows this, too.
To pretend that the only thing that matters is whether your taxes go up or down may be the laziest, most dishonest talking point politicians use. And they use it in every election, even though after each election, they raise taxes.
Watch Warren refuse the trap. And make the point.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
UPDATE: Charlie Pierce has a good summary of the night.
Anaother rally talking point
"But not because Trump demanded it." That's not what he'll say.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
There'll be some fireworks on this one
Still, it's the message.California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Tuesday signed a bill requiring President Trump to release his tax returns before he can appear on the state's 2020 primary ballot.
Under S.B. 27, called the "Presidential Tax Transparency and Accountability Act," any candidate running for president or governor of California will be required to file copies of the last five years of their tax returns to the California secretary of State.
"As one of the largest economies in the world and home to one in nine Americans eligible to vote, California has a special responsibility to require this information of presidential and gubernatorial candidates," Newsom said in a statement.
"These are extraordinary times and states have a legal and moral duty to do everything in their power to ensure leaders seeking the highest offices meet minimal standards, and to restore public confidence. The disclosure required by this bill will shed light on conflicts of interest, self-dealing, or influence from domestic and foreign business interest."
[...]
The bill was overwhelmingly approved by the State Assembly and Senate earlier this month.
It includes an “urgency clause,” meaning it would take effect immediately and force the candidates running for president in 2020 to disclose their financial statements.
[...]
In a statement, Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh called the move "unconstitutional."
[...]
"The Constitution is clear on the qualifications for someone to serve as president and states cannot add additional requirements on their own," he said. "The bill also violates the 1st Amendment right of association since California can't tell political parties which candidates their members can or cannot vote for in a primary election."
[...]
The president isn't likely to have a problem securing the GOP presidential nomination regardless of California's move.
Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld is the only Republican candidate to formally announce a primary challenge to Trump so far in the 2020 presidential race.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) has already voted to express its “undivided support” for Trump as its 2020 nominee, and Trump's reelection campaign has staffed up with party insiders to line up its delegate strategy well ahead of the party's nominating convention.
The Hill
UPDATE 9/20:
Big "stuff"
Just to piss them off? What a great idea!
Did that piss you off? One thing's certain, Twitter didn't delete that from anybody's feed.
But who cares about getting info and assistance from foreign governments, am I right?
Tell Mitch about the paper ballots ... or Paper Ballots. He's the one holding up any efforts to "insure the safety and sanctity of our voting system."
BTW, is he awake? The last tweet on his account was from 13 hours ago. What's going on?
Democrat staffer busted
There's Trump's next rally "Lock her up" story. Then, he'll say, "Hassan...what kind of name is that?"A former aide to Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) pleaded guilty to helping a former staffer enter a Senate office after hours while the staffer erased evidence indicating the staffer's involvement in the doxxing of GOP senators supporting the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
Samantha Davis pleaded guilty Tuesday to aiding computer fraud and evidence tampering, Politico reported, and could face up to 18 months in prison under the law.
[...]
There was reportedly no evidence that Davis knew about her co-conspirator's efforts to reveal personal information about Republican senators supporting Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Court, but Davis admitted she knew he was planning to tamper with computers after-hours.
[...]
Prosecutors indicated in court documents that they will likely not seek prison time, according to Politico, but she could face time at a halfway house or home confinement at an upcoming sentencing hearing, details about which were not immediately available.
The Hill
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
America first
He's looking out for you, Trump voters.
You think?The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed lifting some regulations on coal ash, the residue left after burning coal, which is filled with hazardous substances that can leach into the water supply and cause health problems.
[...]
Coal ash is used in a variety of ways, largely as a replacement for soil. It can be used to create level ground for construction projects or sprinkled over landfills as a protective cover.
But coal ash has been deemed responsible for contaminating water with arsenic, which is linked with some types of cancer.
The latest proposal from the EPA would eliminate restrictions from 2015 that limited coal ash use to 12,400 tons per site.
[...]
“Today the Agency is proposing sensible changes that will improve the coal ash regulations and continue to encourage appropriate beneficial use,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement. “These proposed changes will further responsible management of coal ash while protecting human health and the environment.”
The proposal includes some features that would make reporting requirements more accessible to the public, but environmentalists ultimately see the move as a bow to industry.
The Hill
Saint Ronnie was a racist, too
"Privacy concerns." Right.Former President Ronald Reagan in a newly unearthed tape disparaged [UN delegates] from African countries during a phone call with then-President Richard Nixon while Reagan was governor of California.
Reagan called Nixon in October 1971 — the day after a landmark United Nations vote to recognize the People’s Republic of China — and referenced how the Tanzanian delegation was dancing in the General Assembly after the vote, according to an audio clip of the exchange posted by The Atlantic.
"Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did,” Reagan says.
“Yeah,” Nixon cuts in.
Reagan replies, laughing: "To see those, those monkeys from those African countries — damn them, they're still uncomfortable wearing shoes!"
[...]
The clip was unearthed by Tim Naftali, the former director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, who wrote in The Atlantic that the racist exchange was removed from the original tape when it was released in 2000 due to privacy concerns.
The Hill
And what was Nixon's reply to Reagan?In another audio clip, Nixon spoke with then-Secretary of State William Rogers and told him about his exchange with Reagan.
"As you can imagine," Nixon said to Rogers, "there's strong feeling that we just shouldn't, as [Reagan] said, he saw these ... cannibals on television last night, and he says, 'Christ, they weren't even wearing shoes, and here the United States is going to submit its fate to that,' and so forth and so on."
If you didn't already understand that every Republican president in modern history has been a white supremacist, you've not been paying attention. George W Bush, of all people, was probably the least racist, and that, it seems had more to do with his fascination with black women. Don't quote me.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
An example of why Trump really hates Elijah Cummings
(Other than Elijah being black.)
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.“The Trump Administration has virtually obliterated the lines normally separating government policy making from corporate and foreign interests,” according to a report overseen by House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, who commissioned the investigation into back channel business dealings between certain Trump aides and Middle Eastern countries.
Two weeks before Trump was scheduled to deliver [a major energy speech during the 2016 campaign], Thomas Barrack, a California investment tycoon with extensive contacts in the Middle East and who later helped oversee Trump’s inauguration, provided a former business associate inside the United Arab Emirates with an advance copy of the candidate’s planned remarks. The associate then told Barrack he shared them with UAE and Saudi government officials, after which Barrack arranged for language requested by the UAE officials to be added to the speech with the help of Trump’s campaign manager at the time, Paul Manafort.
[...]
Barrack sent a draft of the candidate’s energy remarks to al-Malik and a message that said, “What do you think of his energy message given to American executives with a pro Middle East point of view -- for you and Saeed to rebiew [sic] for me quickly. I need a few pro Middle East aspects.” The report does not identify “Saeed.”
[...]
Trump traveled to North Dakota in May of 2016, having just clinched the Republican nomination for president. He intended to give a policy speech that would solidify his position on oil, gas and coal – an energy speech that would make clear he would prioritize American energy jobs over grand multi-national environmental pacts like the Paris climate agreement.
Trump called his approach an “America First” energy plan that would “make America wealthy again.”
“Under my presidency, we will accomplish complete American energy independence,” he told the crowd. “Imagine a world in which our foes, and the oil cartels, can no longer use energy as a weapon.”
In the midst of the muscular, America-first approach that became a hallmark of his campaign, he added a phrase intended to placate an audience far away in the United Arab Emirates, telling the crowd “we will work with our Gulf allies to develop a positive energy relationship as part of our anti-terrorism strategy.” The language was modest when compared to what was requested by officials in the oil-rich emirates, according to the text messages exchanged between Barrack and Rashid al-Malik, a former business associate in UAE.
[...]
House investigators note in their report that none of the documents they gathered indicate “whether Trump was aware that drafts of his speech were circulated to foreign officials in the Middle East or that feedback had been provided through Mr. Barrack and Mr. Manafort.”
[...]
ABC News has obtained copies of more detailed emails and texts from House investigators, who gathered more than 60,000 documents showing what they say are the intermingling of private interests and public policy decision by Trump aides both before and after he took office.
ABC
Oh, Jesus
You don't get it. He likes to have his name on things, and he thinks other people like to have things with his name on it. (Too many do.) He's not looking for a way to "like" a tweet. He's looking to be a celebrity. Everybody wants a Trump autograph, don't they?
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Is the GOP Un-American?
So what they're saying is they can't win without foreign assistance. That's a sad admission.Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the bill's sponsor, announced earlier Tuesday that [Maine Republican Senator Susan] Collins had signed onto the bill, saying that Congress needed "to make it clear for presidential campaigns going forward: if a foreign power contacts you attempting to interfere in our elections, you call the FBI."
But her support comes as election security legislation has emerged as an increasingly partisan fight in the Senate. Republicans have blocked attempts by Democrats to pass House bills, arguing that they are meant to politically benefit Democrats.
The Hill
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blasted his critics on Tuesday accusing them of “lying” and “modern-day McCarthyism.” Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) fired back that the GOP leader should bring a bill up for a vote if he didn’t like the criticism.
Jesus.Mitch McConnell’s foot-stomping screed on the Senate floor over the nickname “Moscow Mitch” caused the tag to trend Tuesday on Twitter.
The Senate Majority Leader slammed attacks against him as “modern-day McCarthyism” after MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, gave McConnell the pet name for blocking two election security measures late last week.
[...]
“I was called unpatriotic, un-American and essentially treasonous by a couple of left-wing pundits on the basis of bold-faced lies," he said in the Senate floor. "I was accused of aiding and abetting the very man I’ve singled out as an adversary and opposed for nearly 20 years, Vladimir Putin.
[...]
His denunciation of the moniker only re-fueled the online fire and set #MoscowMitch trending once again on Tuesday.
A pair of similar hashtags, #MoscowMitchMcTreason and #MoscowMitchUnAmericanTraitor, also shot to the top of the trending chart on Twitter along with memes and pictures of McConnell dressed as a Russian soldier.
[...]
The majority leader reacted quite differently the last time he was bestowed with a not-so-endearing nickname.
Don Blankenship, a failed Senate candidate from West Virginia, released a campaign advertisement last year labeling McConnell “Cocaine Mitch” insinuating that a shipping company owned by relatives of his wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, was involved in shady business.
McConnell’s campaign embraced the label, selling bright red T-shirts featuring a faceless figure over the name “MITCH” with a sprinkling of cocaine blowing around for $35-a-pop.
NY Daily News
So ignorant he has no idea that sounds like an admission of ignorance.
Why does he always give these mini press conferences under the screaming of a helicopter engine so that everybody - including him - has to shout to be heard?
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
UPDATE:
Interesting note: Rule of Law is a Republican organization.
Because they can't win if they don't cheat.
Getting closer
Hopefully when they're out of the bubble that is DC, they'll hear enough constituents asking for impeachment to give them courage.Just days into the long summer recess, a number of House Democrats have endorsed the drive to impeach President Trump, inching the number of supporters closer to a majority of the House Democratic Caucus in what could pose new challengers for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her bid to defuse the effort.
Supporters of the impeachment strategy had predicted support would only grow as lawmakers traveled home for the six-week break to gauge the temperature of voters. And they haven’t been disappointed.
On Monday, Reps. Emanuel Cleaver (Mo.) and Dina Titus (Nev.) endorsed the push, joining at least a dozen other Democrats who have signed on since last Wednesday, when former special counsel Robert Mueller testified before Congress.
The Hill
Yes.That list includes a pair of freshmen — Reps. Mike Levin (Calif.) and Kim Schrier (Wash.) — who flipped Republican-held seats in last year’s midterms; Rep. Derek Kilmer (Wash.), who heads the centrist group of New Democrats; and a member of leadership, Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.), the vice chairwoman of the caucus.
Other lawmakers signing on in recent days are Democratic Reps. Lori Trahan (Mass.), John Garamendi (Calif.), Peter DeFazio (Ore.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (R.I.), Ann Kuster (N.H.), Chris Pappas (N.H.), Suzan DelBene (Wash.) and Denny Heck (Wash.).
[...]
That means pro-impeachment Democrats are just a dozen votes shy of 118 — a “majority of the majority,” or more than half of the 235 Democrats in the lower chamber.
It’s likely impeachment backers will reach that symbolic mark in the coming days or weeks. Heck, for instance, said there are “at least” 20 to 30 on-the-fence Democrats seriously considering their endorsement heading into the long break.
[...]
[S]ome supporters of an impeachment inquiry cautioned against reading too much into the 118-vote milestone; 218, the number of votes needed to formally launch the inquiry, is the only number that matters, they said.
[...]
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) is going a long step further. On Friday, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee announced an effort to secure grand jury information underlying Mueller’s investigation by specifically referencing impeachment as the basis for the court request.
Nadler has reportedly been at odds with Pelosi over whether to launch an impeachment inquiry in his committee. His latest strategy keeps impeachment near at hand without launching the formal process — or forcing uncomfortable votes on vulnerable colleagues before there’s more public support for ousting the president.
“My personal view is that he richly deserves impeachment. He has done many impeachable offenses. He's violated the law six ways from Sundays,” Nadler said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program Sunday.
“But that's not the question,” he added. “The question is, can we develop enough evidence to put before the American people?”
UPDATE:
Getting out before the tent collapses
You forogt: They don't want the ignominy of losing in 2020.Six Republicans have now said they will not seek reelection next year. Two more, Reps. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.) and Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.), are running for a different office.
[...]
Three House Republicans said last week they would not seek another term next year, catching party strategists off guard. Those announcements came earlier than in a typical election cycle, when members who are ready to hang up their voting cards usually wait until after the August recess or after the Christmas break.
Republicans in Congress strategizing to win back the House say the rush to the exits reflects the depressing reality of life in the minority and a pessimistic view of the GOP’s chances of regaining the majority.
[...]
Members of Congress now routinely skip town hall meetings to avoid being confronted by angry constituents, they are frequently asked to defend President Trump’s Twitter habits and the House Republican Conference is increasingly influenced by a small group of hard-right conservatives.
[...]
Transitioning from the all-powerful majority to the back-bench minority can refocus one’s outlook on public service, said Tom Davis, a former Virginia congressman who ran the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).
“Moving from the majority to the minority changes your mindset about why am I here, am I getting things done,” Davis said. “It’s a very frustrating life for some of these members right now. There’s been no pay raise for 11 years. You’ve got to maintain two households.”
The Hill
Sad!“Serving in the era of Trump has few rewards. He has made an already hostile political environment worse. Every day there is some indefensible tweet or comment to defend or explain. It is exhausting and often embarrassing,” the member of Congress said.
[...]
Republican strategists say they are bracing for a new wave of exits after members check in with their families over the August recess.
[...]
“There are going to be a lot more [retirements] to come,” said one consultant who works for House Republicans. “Between people finding themselves having to actually work hard for the first time in their long, lazy careers and members who came in in the majority and now hate life in the minority, it's just getting started.”
Bingo.Davis said the political climate would weigh on members’ minds as they contemplate their futures.
“Nobody,” he said, “wants to go out the hard way.”
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
UPDATE:
Maybe there was more to Rand Paul's beating by his neighbor
Because if you're an American citizen, you can't make any complaints about America.Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) offered to help purchase plane tickets for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to visit Somalia, saying it might make her “appreciate America more.”
Paul, in an interview with the right-wing website Breitbart last week, called the freshman congresswoman “about as ungrateful as you can get.”
“And so — I’m willing to contribute to buy her a ticket to go visit Somalia, and I think she can look and maybe learn a little bit about the disaster that is Somalia — that has no capitalism, has no God-given rights guaranteed in a constitution, and has about seven different tribes that have been fighting each other for the last 40 years,” the senator said.
“And then maybe after she’s visited Somalia for a while, she might come back and appreciate America more.”
I'm pretty sure, being a refugee from Somalia, Omar appreciates being in America, you racist goat.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Jesus wept
Soooo much wrong with that.
He has to keep attacking to stay alive, like a shark has to keep swimming.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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