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Author | Topic: The Trump Presidency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Percy Member Posts: 22502 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
In today's New York Times opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg writes at the end of her piece The Presidency or Prison:
quote: That last part is key. Do the Republicans care enough about the republic to make a sincere effort to investigate whether high crimes and misdemeanors have been committed, and if so whether they merit removal from office? --Percy
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Percy Member Posts: 22502 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
Trump wants a wall with steel slats, something like this prototype:
How, precisely, does such a wall prevent drugs from entering the country? For example, here are some cocaine bricks. How hard will it be to pass such bricks through a slat wall:
True border security requires increased personnel, improved technology, and in some places maybe a wall or fence of some kind. Especially at border crossings, where most drugs enter the country, it means more technology so we can check all vehicles crossing the border instead of just one in five. Security for ancient nations meant walls. History is littered with them, like Hadrian's Wall and the Great Wall of China. Modern border security, where appropriate, is infrared and regular cameras atop towers spaced apart as geography demands and monitored automatically, alerting border personnel's screens when human activity is detected. Miles of unattended walls are just an invitation for human ingenuity. --Percy
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Percy Member Posts: 22502 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
It was often said during and after the 2016 presidential campaign that the major mistake Democrats made was to take Trump literally but not seriously, because Trump supporters only took him seriously but not literally. The pundits kept telling us that while Trump supporters enjoyed chanting "Build the wall" and "Lock her up," they didn't actually believe Trump meant an actual 20-foot concrete wall 2000-miles long on our southern border with Mexico, or that political rivals like Hillary Clinton should be imprisoned.
But both Democrats and Republicans were wrong. Trump's words should have been taken both literally and seriously, both then and now. Trump tweeted as recently as yesterday that the wall could be concrete: "An all concrete Wall was NEVER ABANDONED, as has been reported by the media." So much for steel slats (also a stupid idea, but at least not concrete). Trump says whatever he feels will excite his base at the time without regard to truth, or even with regard to consistency with past tweets, even those from earlier in the day. At some intuitive level (I would never accuse Trump of rational thinking) Trump understands that retaining his base is crucial to his reelection. He shows no interest in and certainly no ability at expanding his base, and so his reelection will hinge on the same strategy that originally elected him, persuading enough people in the middle to give him a chance at making Washington work for them. So to be literal and serious myself, Trump is a narcissistic, cruel, amoral lying, cheating, misogynistic, racist xenophobe. If I've forgotten anything I apologize. By the way, one of Trump's recent lies is that there is a 10-foot wall around the Obama house in Washington DC. Here's a couple images, one of the front door, the other of the parking area to the side. The shed in the parking lot wasn't originally there and was added for the Secret Service detail:
I was able to find Obama's house using Google Streets and know the exact address, but no newspaper article has ever published it, so I won't either. There is supposedly a security checkpoint at each end of the road. --Percy
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Percy Member Posts: 22502 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9
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One thing that isn't mentioned often enough in op-ed pieces is that Trump's wall has nothing to do with funding the government. Trump wants his wall, and so he is holding the government hostage until he gets it. He's even threatened to invoke a national emergency to build his wall.
Funding the government has nothing to do with any wall. Technically all it involves is raising the debt limit so that the government can continue spending money. We reached the debt limit faster because of Trump's tax cuts for corporations and the rich. Look up debt limit. You won't find anything about a wall. By the way, about Trump's threat to invoke a national emergency, although this would likely invite many legal challenges, never forget that Hitler invoked a national emergency to grant himself dictatorial powers that he never relinquished. Our democracy is flirting with disaster. --Percy
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Percy Member Posts: 22502 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9
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From Trump: 'I don’t care' that most federal employees working without pay 'are Democrats':
quote: When did the Senate become a department of the executive branch? Surely McConnell knows there is such a thing as the override. The House passes the bill, then the Senate passes the bill, then Trump vetoes the bill, then House and Senate override the veto with a 2/3 vote in each chamber, which they should easily be able to achieve if the Republicans truly want to open the government and actually understand that funding the government has nothing to do with funding a wall. --Percy
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Percy Member Posts: 22502 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
I personally think the House should wait for the Mueller report before deciding whether Trump has committed any high crimes or misdemeanors that rise to the level of impeachability, but in an op-ed piece in today's New York Times David Leonhardt makes the case for impeachment before we even find out what Mueller knows. Here are some key excerpts from The People vs. Donald J. Trump: He is demonstrably unfit for office. What are we waiting for?. I encourage people to read the full piece instead of these excerpts, even though it is lengthy - it actually appears in the Times Sunday Review rather than in The New York Times itself. The links in these excerpts work:
quote: --Percy
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Percy Member Posts: 22502 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
On today's Meet the Press, former Democratic Maryland representative Donna Edwards in response to the question, "Are impeachment hearings inevitable in this new House?"
quote: --Percy
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Percy Member Posts: 22502 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
As most people know by now, in a court filing a few days ago Manafort's lawyers failed to properly redact one of the documents revealing that Mueller had accused their client of lying about providing Trump campaign polling data to the Russians during the 2016 election. The filing didn't deny that Manafort did it, arguing only that his failure to inform Mueller was because he simply didn't recall it at the time, that he wasn't hiding anything and therefore didn't violate his plea agreement.
So we now know that Manafort was providing information to Russian intelligence. We don't know why he was doing this, but if there was a quid pro quo and if the candidate knew about it then Trump is in a lot of trouble, the "impeachable offense" kind of trouble. Also recall that while Manafort was operating under the plea agreement and telling Mueller what he knew that he was also crossing the street into the White House and telling them everything Mueller was asking him about, another violation of his plea agreement. Manafort's lawyers did manage to redact the rest of the filing documents, so we don't know the rest of what the filing says. Maybe it constitutes an effective defense, maybe not. but if it turns out that Manafort provided the polling data in exchange for something (email hacking, for example) then he's got a lot more to worry about than just plea bargain violations. Charges of treason could be in his future. For those of you who think all liberal news outlets are fake news, this information comes from the conservative Washington Examiner (Andrew Napolitano: Mueller can show Trump campaign 'had a connection to Russian intelligence'), and it cites the conclusions of Fox News legal commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano from his Wednesday segment. Poor Trump. He can't even watch Fox News anymore. --Percy
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Percy Member Posts: 22502 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9
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I think leadership in both the House and Senate (Ryan and McConnell) were enabling and complicit in encouraging and amplifying Trump's autocratic penchants. Fortunately Ryan is gone, but McConnell remains. His laissez-faire attitude toward Trump misdeeds and abandonment of all oversight responsibilities has contributed greatly to the erosion of American institutions and global leadership. He (and Ryan) seems to think it his responsibility to implement the president's program.
There's a strange and perverted attitude on the Republican side of the aisle that believes there should be one party rule, that it is the duty of Republicans, by hook or by crook, to keep Democrats, once elected, from exercising any power. We saw this very recently in Wisconsin where a Democrat finally won the governorship and attorney general spot. Republican leadership declared under the full glare of TV lights that they would do all in their power to limit the influence of Democrats in state government. --Percy Edited by Percy, : Punctuation - a missing period.
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Percy Member Posts: 22502 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
Whether Trump is actually impeached or not, there is now evidence that Trump committed obstruction of justice, an impeachable offense. In a blockbuster report BuzzFeed last night reported that President Trump Directed His Attorney Michael Cohen To Lie To Congress About The Moscow Tower Project.
There is no doubt that this constitutes obstruction of justice, but just to remove all doubt Donald Trump's nominee for Attorney General, William Barr, recently testified to such in testimony before the Senate. This is from the Washington Post article Trump reportedly told Michael Cohen to lie. His own attorney general pick testified that’s a crime., but the exchange was widely reported and is also in the Congressional Record. First an exchange with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC):
quote: And now an exchange with Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN):
quote: There is nothing novel about this opinion. Any responsible and competent lawyer would have responded the same way. Persuading or influencing or ordering someone to lie before Congress is obstruction of justice, even if you're the president of the United States. But back to the blockbuster news. BuzzFeed reports that President Trump while in office in October of 2017 has committed obstruction of justice by directing Michael Cohen to lie before Congress about his Trump Tower Moscow deal. Cohen was directed to tell Congress that the Trump Tower Moscow deal was abandoned in January of 2016 before the election campaign season was fully underway. That Cohen lied we already knew - he was sentenced to 3 years in prison for that offense and a smorgasbord of others. What we've just learned is that President Trump instructed Cohen to lie to Congress, an impeachable offense. The reality and the apparent truth is that Cohen briefed Trump, Ivanka and Trump Jr. about status on Trump Tower Moscow numerous times during 2016. How do we know this? BuzzFeed's sources were "two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter," and BuzzFeed reports that:
quote: In other words, Mueller already knows about all this and obviously it will be in his report. I expect that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Will Ivanka and Donald Jr. flip? Would they testify against their dad if it meant he could end up in prison after he leaves office? I think impeachment unlikely - the Republicans control the Senate, and Trump erects such a gauntlet of obfuscation and changing stories that impeachment preparations could only run very slowly. There might not be enough time or evidence. We shouldn't forget that we haven't seen the Mueller report yet. Under current law the special counsel's report is not normally made public, but my guess is that the Democrats in the House will find a way. Inconsequentially but still amazing, despite Trump being all chummy with Putin and despite all his dealings with Russians over the years, Trump the dealmaker couldn't make Trump Tower Moscow happen. What a charlatan. --Percy
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Percy Member Posts: 22502 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9
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One question often raised is why Democrats don't negotiate with Trump about the wall so that the government can reopen. I've never seen the press or the Democrats clearly explain this. Maybe I've just missed it, but the answer is simple. Trump is committing blackmail and extortion. There is no discernable connection between the wall and funding the government. If the Democrats give in this time and begin negotiating about the wall in order to open the government, then the next time the debt limit is reached Trump could again close the government until the Democrats agree to negotiate on healthcare, or on taxes, or on climate change, or on environmental regulations, or on a treaty, or any of a number of different things.
Congress has been irresponsible in allowing the growth of an imperial presidency. We're now seeing the downside of just what that means. Congress has to begin taking power back. They are three co-equal branches of government - the chief executive is not the boss of the other two, as Mitch McConnell seems to think. --Percy
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Percy Member Posts: 22502 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
I'm going to have to walk this back. Late yesterday the special counsel's office issued a statement denying the BuzzFeed report:
quote: BuzzFeed says they stand by their report and has expressed uncertainty about which portions this denial refers to, but it seems pretty clear to me that the special counsel's office is saying that they do not have conclusive evidence that President Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. The article was written by two respected journalists, one a Pulitzer Prize winner. Hopefully we'll hear more about this, but for now it looks like there's still no smoking gun. --Percy Edited by Percy, : Grammar.
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Percy Member Posts: 22502 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
If memory serves I've been reading George Will since the 1970's. I don't recall his opinion pieces from the Nixon era, so today's in the Washington Post (The shabbiest U.S. president ever is an inexpressibly sad specimen) is the most harsh I ever recall him writing. It's worth reading the whole thing, but here are some excerpts:
quote: George may also have provided the so-far-unfound appropriate Trump sobriquet: Dotty Donald --Percy
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Percy Member Posts: 22502 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9
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After taking office Trump took away DACA protections. Much more recently Trump shut down a third of the government and took away their salaries. Now he's offering to give them back in return for his wall (see, for example, the Fox News report Trump offers immigration compromise to end partial shutdown; Dems cool to offer).
This is the way kidnappers work. Take away a loved one, then offer to give them back in return for something of value. Giving in to kidnappers' demands is the wrong approach. It only encourages them to do it again. Trump doesn't yet understand that it's not his wall causing the stalemate but his approach. It is highly inadvisable to capitulate to blackmailers, extortionists and hostage takers, which is what Trump is. It only invites more of the same. If he wants to negotiate about a wall then he should reopen the government, which is one thing, and only then begin negotiations about the wall, which is another completely separate thing. He shouldn't hold the government hostage for his wall. Once the government is reopened and open and honest negotiations have begun, it's important to note that it's unlikely that Democrats will agree to just a wall. They will agree to a variety of border security measures that could include some wall and that must include permanent DACA status. Great negotiator - hah! No wonder 20 years of trying never resulted in a Trump Tower in Moscow. He can't even carry out successful negotiations with people trying to make him president. --Percy Edited by Percy, : Added a detail in last para.
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Percy Member Posts: 22502 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
The Washington Post today reports that President Trump made 8158 false or misleading claims in his first two years. More than 6000 came in just his second year, more than tripling the production of his first year. Obviously he's perfecting the techniques of lying and dissembling.
--Percy
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