“WASHINGTON—I mentioned on Tuesday that the first people I met on this trip were a group of retired coal miners—or, as the president* endlessly puts it, Our Great, Great Coal Miners—who had come to town to plead with their elected representatives for more funding for the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund to fight the disease that had put at least a few of them in wheelchairs there outside the Dirksen Senate Office Building. From the Lexington Herald-Leader:
‘About 12,000 former miners nationwide rely on the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund to cover costs and make ends meet, but a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office showed that the fund is $4.3 billion in debt, and a tax on coal which funded the trust fund was cut in half in January. Many advocates for the fund worry it may soon become insolvent. There is no cure for black lung disease, which is caused by the inhalation of dust particles in mines leading to severe lung damage. Cases of the deadly disease have surged in recent years in Eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia.’
That tax cut, of course, was pushed through by Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, Majority Leader of the United States Senate. There are more than a few coal miners in Kentucky. So the folks I met on the street thought they’d drop by to see what he could do. What happened next was fairly vile.
‘The Kentucky Republican, who the miners and their advocates see as key to passing any sort of Congressional assistance, told the group of miners in a brief statement “that they were going to be taken care of,” said Kenny Fleming, a former Pike County miner who suffers from black lung. “We just have to take him at his word and then we also have to keep him at his word, which I think that’s what we’re after,” Fleming said. “Hopefully he will come through.” Fleming said McConnell was “kind of vague” and didn’t provide much detail on how the miners would be assisted. Jimmy Moore, the head of the Letcher County Black Lung Association, said he found McConnell’s conduct “rude.” After the meeting, he said McConnell wouldn’t do anything to reinstate the tax which funded the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund.’
What a withered, tiny man it is, shining on the sick and dying. The miners’ big mistake was in not coming to McConnell with fat checks in their pockets, instead of oxygen tanks by their sides. Don’t they know how democracy works? When you’re all done coughing, get with the program, people.
Of course, on Wednesday, before god, the world, and every cable network in the known universe, Robert Mueller testified before two committees of the House of Representatives. In his afternoon session with the House Intelligence Committee, Mueller sounded the alarm about foreign ratfcking of American elections—both the foreign ratfcking of the 2016 elections, and the ongoing ratfcking that is out there, ratfcking the 2020 election already. The Republican members of both committees demonstrated that they are perfectly fine with the situation. Not long after Mueller was finished, at the behest of Mitch McConnell, the Republicans in the Senate demonstrated that they’re perfectly content with foreign ratfcking, too. From The Hill:
‘Democrats tried to get consent to pass two bills that would require campaigns to alert the FBI and Federal Election Commission about foreign offers of assistance, as well as a bill to let the Senate Sergeant at Arms offer voluntary cyber assistance for personal devices and accounts of senators and staff. But Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) blocked each of the bills. She didn’t give reason for her objections, or say if she was objecting on behalf of herself or the Senate GOP caucus. A spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.’
Ms. Hyde-Smith, last seen doing a little Confederate cosplay, isn’t bright enough to order breakfast by herself, so there’s little question that she stepped in here to do McConnell’s bidding any more than there’s a question that McConnell was doing the White House’s bidding.
‘But election interference bills face an uphill climb in the Senate, where Republicans aren’t expected to move legislation through the Rules Committee, the panel with primary jurisdiction, and have warned about attempts to “federalize” elections. Democrats cited Mueller as they tried to get consent on Wednesday evening to pass their bills. “Mr. Mueller’s testimony should serve as a warning to every member of this body about what could happen in 2020, literally in our next elections,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He added that “unfortunately, in the nearly three years since we uncovered Russia’s attack on our democracy, this body has not held a single vote on stand-alone legislation to protect our elections.”‘
Quite simply, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, Majority Leader of the United States Senate, doesn’t give a damn about the future of America, and very little of a damn about the majority of Americans, even the Americans coughing up their lungs in his own state. On Thursday, in his opening remarks, McConnell talked about how the new budget deal is beefing up American military might. This is what he said:
‘So, Madam President, every member of this body knows the threats we face are serious and getting more serious. The resurgence of great power competition with nations like Russia and China, the destabilization influence of state-sponsored terror and regional aggression from bad actors such as Iran, and the testing of historic a lines—alliances. Amidst the growing international chaos, the pre-eminent addition of the U.S. government is to provide for the common defense.’
He didn’t immediately burst into flames. There is no god.”
actually, god is said to have said something like, “you’re on your own.”
which i think means what are WE going to do about it. besides talk about it.
i don’t think we can arrange for McConnel to burst into flames, though it might have helped people to believe that god would take care of that in his own good time.
in our own good times i have searched the web looking for even rudimentary signs of ability to actually think or propensity to DO something.
only on AB have i found anything that looks like thinking, but still nothing about DOing. And me, oh Lord, I’m one.
note: i have discovered that my computer has it’s own ideas about what words I am trying to spell and it substitutes it’s choices for mine without my consent or even informing me unless i look back in anger. So I am no longer responsible for my typos. No wonder no one even tries to think any more. The computer won’t let you.
“But Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) blocked each of the bills. She didn’t give reason for her objections, or say if…”
The democrats’ proposals to “secure” (minitruth word) the election process are Orwellian. Requiring campaigns to clear contacts of any kind with the FBI is deep state meddling written in to law.
The Obama mob already used a serious flawed FISA to put the FBI and CIA on to Trump in 2016.
There is no reason to legislate FBI and deep state meddling, in partisan activities!
I am going to tell you right out. There is nothing emanating from this administration that may be confused with the truth. From Trump to each Republican Senator, Representative, Governor, State Legislator there is nothing but innuendo, supposition, conjecture, and lies. Even Michigan Congressional Representative Justin Amash is not absolved from this even though he disavowed himself from Republicans. It is too late for him also, two years too late as he helped to damage the nation. You are spewing BS. Sooner or later you are going to go too far and I will ban you again. I am not going to read lies.
Some of your stuff is interesting; but, this is garbage. Figure out what you want to do and decide what path you wish to go dowm. Dan will agree with me.
I am not saying anything in the political sphere is factual. I am saying a law requiring the FBI to approve association with anyone from anywhere is not in the interest of fact, truth or informed free thought.
I think ilsm may be referring to this: [from EMichael above]
“Democrats tried to get consent to pass two bills that would require campaigns to alert the FBI and Federal Election Commission about foreign offers of assistance, as well as a bill to let the Senate Sergeant at Arms offer voluntary cyber assistance for personal devices and accounts of senators and staff.”
I have to say I didn’t understand that last bit myself. But I think I get the part about about alerting the FBI etc. Trouble is, as often, that trying to fight one crime we often write laws that are dangerous to legitimate freedoms.
Much of what people say is not understood by the people it is said to. Psychologists say it doesn’t matter much. Most of what people say is just soothing noises meant to reassure our friends that we think the same as they do. Of course what is a soothing noise from a friend may sound like a low growl from a stranger.
Just to b clear. If you are representing a foreign government in the US whether a US citizen or not, you have to register. Some of Trump’s associates got in trouble this way (I want to say Flynn but I am not sure). Also, the Logan Act comes into play.
Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.
everyone here is trying to be nice to you. stop muttering nasty remarks for the fun of it.
as for the substance of your remark, what is the point of telling someone who thinks a policy is dangerous to democracy that “you already supposed to…”?
“Your [sic] already supposed to alert the FBI in the event of contact with foreign assets.”
Uh, oh. I never notified the FBI when the Swiss government paid for my travel and lodging at a scientific meeting. Did I violate that law? Do you have a link to that law? I need to share it with my many scientific colleagues who routinely travel to other countries and fail to notify the FBI.
Again Joel, if that occurred during your bid for the President, you would be policy, be required to give that information. Its why we know what foreign assets have relationships with politicians. Run, if you want to stop whining and understand how it actual “runs”, give me a call.
” At some point, you have to wonder if anybody else really cares. This is a week where the President* of the United States was credibly accused of welcoming foreign ratfcking to help his campaign, lying about it in his written answers to a special counsel, and then employing practically his entire administration in the effort to cover it up. Suddenly, in the afternoon session on Wednesday, before the House Intelligence Committee, Robert Mueller sharpened up his answers and we learned many details on the actual ratfcking that we didn’t know before. We also learned that the president*’s having been compromised by his dealings with Russia is not yet out of the question. Then, Mueller was finished, and the other, far heavier shoe dropped.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence dropped the first of the reports stemming from its nearly three-years long investigation into the Russian “active measures” as regards the 2016 presidential election. There will be others, but this one was quite enough. There were some astounding conclusions; for example, the report indicates that Russian ratfckers were prepared to raise holy hell all over social media if Hillary Rodham Clinton had won the election. They were brewing up the hashtag, #DemocracyRIP, which certainly would have trended heavily once the American conservative media got wind of it.
The Russians also tried to embed Russian officials in polling stations around the country. And there are several references to the now-famous Sergei Kislyak, for whom Paul Manafort was carrying a bag. In truth, between the redactions and the cautious language of those parts of the report you can read, there still was enough to conclude that the American electoral infrastructure is pretty much cheesecloth that any ambitious Albanian teenager can muck with almost at a whim. The only way that this was done by a “400-pound guy sitting on his bed,” to use the president*’s famous formulation from the campaign, would be if two 200-pound guys were sitting on the same bench in Yakutsk.
As I said, the language in the report is very cautious—to the point where it seems the committee is arguing that the Russian ratfckers probably had penetrated the voting data in hundreds of different places around the country, in all 50 states, but that, having done so, they decided not to capitalize on this windfall. As one witness told the committee:
While any one voting machine is fairly vulnerable, as has been demonstrated over and over again publicly, the ability to actually do an operation to change the outcome of an election on the scale you would need to, and do it surreptitiously, is incredibly difficult. A much more achievable goal would be to undermine confidence in the results of the electoral process, and that could be done much more effectively and easily….A logical thing would be, if your goal is to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system—which the Russians have a long goal of wanting to put themselves on the same moral plane as the United States…one way would be to cause chaos on election day. How could you start to do that? Mess with the voter registration databases.
But, it you can do that, then why not…
Nobody wants to finish that sentence…
And, as if someone decided that the week needed a proper denouement, it came out that the company contracted by the state of Maryland to manage its voter registration data is now owned by a Russian oligarch named Vladimir Potanin. Both of Maryland’s senators were prompted by this development to ask a Senate committee to look into foreign investment in American companies involved in the electoral infrastructure, which seems fairly prudent. All of this occurred while Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, blew off two bills to protect American elections in an empty Senate chamber in approximately 25 minutes.
As the world turns events and happenings evolve. Each time, we get a clearer image of the past and what took place. We all know what he did. So what do we do? Concentrate on winning 2020 and make this white supremist president a one termer or concentrate on it now with impeachment allowing it to distract us from the goal as Repubs and Trump for that matter wants us to do? We all know the country will be a majority Hispanic in 20 years whether the wall (another distraction) is up or not for white Amerika.
Trump’s entire strategy has been deflection and distraction to keep us looking elsewhere. I would concentrate on 2020 and cast both Trump and McConnell out,
Of course we agree on a lot, but on impeachment we do not.
I am no interested in impeachment with no hope of getting through the Senate, I am interested in impeachment to get as much of the truth in front of the public as possible. To so enrage Dem voters that they turn out in record numbers in 2020.
It is far too easy for trump to avoid House investigations, not so with impeachment.
I doubt that an impeachment trial would motivate Democrats anymore than they are already motivated. The bigger risk is that low information marginal voters (who are always the ones who determine who wins) will get turned off. And it will motivate Always Trumpers every bit as much as it motivates Never Trumpers. Impeachment is a loser strategy. Not only will it fail in the Senate, but Trump’s acquittal will only reinforce the fact that the Founders got it wrong when they thought impeachment would be an effective check on presidential abuses. Impeachment is toothless and counter-productive. Much better to defeat Trump in Nov 2020 and then fit him for an orange jumpsuit after noon on 20 Jan 2021. I’ve read the entire Mueller report (including the thousands of footnotes). There’s no question that Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice in at least four of the potential counts listed in Volume 2. Sometimes justice has to be delayed. I can wait until after the election.
unfortunately the children in jails at the border cannot wait.
sometimes you have to act. and let the politics take care of itself.
it seems to me the R’s always scare us with imaginary economics and imaginary enemies… things that might happen in the future or might not.
and the Dems always scare themselves with imaginary politics.. things that might happen next election… but might not if we actually make a case that they should not happen, and deliver on our promises to uphold human rights and regulate the economy just enough so that fraud is not a winning business strategy, and the inevitable recession is not a sentence of grinding poverty on the people who have no possible way to protect themselves … it’s not “socialism” it’s just allowing people to exercise common prudence in the real world.
meanwhile the kids can’t wait for us to wait for the election, which we might win or we might not… especially if we never actually strand up for anything.
it doesn’t take impeachment but to not try to impeach him because we are too cowardly to “risk an election” (which we risk anyway) is simply to admit we don’t stand for anything… except empty slogans.
How is a failed impeachment effort going to help the kids at the border? As for impeachment being more effective than oversight investigation on bringing out facts, we await court rulings on that question. It may be true but we don’t know that yet. Don’t forget that the courts can manipulate discovery issues under the rubric of impeachment inquiry just as they can under the rubric of oversight inquiry.
I wasn’t expecting anyone to wait and see how the impeachment hearings turned out… certainly not how the Senate voted. I was calling for our Democratic leaders show up at the border and demand to be allowed into government paid for facilities about which there is a question of child abuse. And then to remove physically, immediately those children and return them to their families. Let t Trumps or the Border Patrol make tne next move. but at least force the confrontation and see whether the people side with us or with child abusers.
Meanwhile we don’t hold impeachment hearings depending on how we think they will affect the next election. We oppose evil when we see it. wWhen it has grown to evil and too dangerous to ignore. We don’t wait for the people to vote or not vote. We lead them. They might follow us if they thought we had a spine. Not to mention a soul.
Washington and Adams and Jefferson did not decide what to do based on what they Parliament might do next. They understood moral courage… as well as physical courage,
Dale, confrontations at the border have taken place although the congressional representatives and senators involved have not tried to physically overcome the border guards and save the children. As to your opinions about the effectiveness of impeachment without removal (sort of like indictment without conviction) we’ll have to agree to disagree.
i was thinking of a massive show of congressmen and other political and religious leaders and any of their followers who could afford the trip and the risks.
and “confrontation” is not the word i would give to a weak show of political “I care enough to be here.” i mean, “I’m sorry, officer, but this facility is paid for with taxpayer money and I am a United States Congressman. Step aside or face arrest for obstructing justice.” and then a mass of people move forward and the guards have to make a quick decision : stand aside or shoot. I think they will stand aside.
i have no idea what you mean about the effectiveness of impeachment without conviction. i would certainly intend to convict. But i don’t intentdto “wait” while the high crimes have destroyed the country before moving to stop them.
and at the risk of being offensive, it is the spinelessness of Democrats that lose them elections. The people will follow a leader, good or bad. Always do.
Worst person in the world.
“WASHINGTON—I mentioned on Tuesday that the first people I met on this trip were a group of retired coal miners—or, as the president* endlessly puts it, Our Great, Great Coal Miners—who had come to town to plead with their elected representatives for more funding for the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund to fight the disease that had put at least a few of them in wheelchairs there outside the Dirksen Senate Office Building. From the Lexington Herald-Leader:
‘About 12,000 former miners nationwide rely on the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund to cover costs and make ends meet, but a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office showed that the fund is $4.3 billion in debt, and a tax on coal which funded the trust fund was cut in half in January. Many advocates for the fund worry it may soon become insolvent. There is no cure for black lung disease, which is caused by the inhalation of dust particles in mines leading to severe lung damage. Cases of the deadly disease have surged in recent years in Eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia.’
That tax cut, of course, was pushed through by Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, Majority Leader of the United States Senate. There are more than a few coal miners in Kentucky. So the folks I met on the street thought they’d drop by to see what he could do. What happened next was fairly vile.
‘The Kentucky Republican, who the miners and their advocates see as key to passing any sort of Congressional assistance, told the group of miners in a brief statement “that they were going to be taken care of,” said Kenny Fleming, a former Pike County miner who suffers from black lung. “We just have to take him at his word and then we also have to keep him at his word, which I think that’s what we’re after,” Fleming said. “Hopefully he will come through.” Fleming said McConnell was “kind of vague” and didn’t provide much detail on how the miners would be assisted. Jimmy Moore, the head of the Letcher County Black Lung Association, said he found McConnell’s conduct “rude.” After the meeting, he said McConnell wouldn’t do anything to reinstate the tax which funded the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund.’
What a withered, tiny man it is, shining on the sick and dying. The miners’ big mistake was in not coming to McConnell with fat checks in their pockets, instead of oxygen tanks by their sides. Don’t they know how democracy works? When you’re all done coughing, get with the program, people.
Of course, on Wednesday, before god, the world, and every cable network in the known universe, Robert Mueller testified before two committees of the House of Representatives. In his afternoon session with the House Intelligence Committee, Mueller sounded the alarm about foreign ratfcking of American elections—both the foreign ratfcking of the 2016 elections, and the ongoing ratfcking that is out there, ratfcking the 2020 election already. The Republican members of both committees demonstrated that they are perfectly fine with the situation. Not long after Mueller was finished, at the behest of Mitch McConnell, the Republicans in the Senate demonstrated that they’re perfectly content with foreign ratfcking, too. From The Hill:
‘Democrats tried to get consent to pass two bills that would require campaigns to alert the FBI and Federal Election Commission about foreign offers of assistance, as well as a bill to let the Senate Sergeant at Arms offer voluntary cyber assistance for personal devices and accounts of senators and staff. But Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) blocked each of the bills. She didn’t give reason for her objections, or say if she was objecting on behalf of herself or the Senate GOP caucus. A spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.’
Ms. Hyde-Smith, last seen doing a little Confederate cosplay, isn’t bright enough to order breakfast by herself, so there’s little question that she stepped in here to do McConnell’s bidding any more than there’s a question that McConnell was doing the White House’s bidding.
‘But election interference bills face an uphill climb in the Senate, where Republicans aren’t expected to move legislation through the Rules Committee, the panel with primary jurisdiction, and have warned about attempts to “federalize” elections. Democrats cited Mueller as they tried to get consent on Wednesday evening to pass their bills. “Mr. Mueller’s testimony should serve as a warning to every member of this body about what could happen in 2020, literally in our next elections,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He added that “unfortunately, in the nearly three years since we uncovered Russia’s attack on our democracy, this body has not held a single vote on stand-alone legislation to protect our elections.”‘
Quite simply, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, Majority Leader of the United States Senate, doesn’t give a damn about the future of America, and very little of a damn about the majority of Americans, even the Americans coughing up their lungs in his own state. On Thursday, in his opening remarks, McConnell talked about how the new budget deal is beefing up American military might. This is what he said:
‘So, Madam President, every member of this body knows the threats we face are serious and getting more serious. The resurgence of great power competition with nations like Russia and China, the destabilization influence of state-sponsored terror and regional aggression from bad actors such as Iran, and the testing of historic a lines—alliances. Amidst the growing international chaos, the pre-eminent addition of the U.S. government is to provide for the common defense.’
He didn’t immediately burst into flames. There is no god.”
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a28506575
/mitch-mcconnell-black-lung-miners-election-security-bills/
actually, god is said to have said something like, “you’re on your own.”
which i think means what are WE going to do about it. besides talk about it.
i don’t think we can arrange for McConnel to burst into flames, though it might have helped people to believe that god would take care of that in his own good time.
in our own good times i have searched the web looking for even rudimentary signs of ability to actually think or propensity to DO something.
only on AB have i found anything that looks like thinking, but still nothing about DOing. And me, oh Lord, I’m one.
note: i have discovered that my computer has it’s own ideas about what words I am trying to spell and it substitutes it’s choices for mine without my consent or even informing me unless i look back in anger. So I am no longer responsible for my typos. No wonder no one even tries to think any more. The computer won’t let you.
“But Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) blocked each of the bills. She didn’t give reason for her objections, or say if…”
The democrats’ proposals to “secure” (minitruth word) the election process are Orwellian. Requiring campaigns to clear contacts of any kind with the FBI is deep state meddling written in to law.
The Obama mob already used a serious flawed FISA to put the FBI and CIA on to Trump in 2016.
There is no reason to legislate FBI and deep state meddling, in partisan activities!
Ilsm, are you a bot? You seem programmed.
Ilism cut the shit. You support foreign meddling in U.S. Elections is Orwellian newspeak mumbling
Bert:
Think carefully about what you wish to write. You may be wrong and we will tell you so. I have been wrong at times. Build your integrity.
BS/JackD
what about free association and the access to truth do you find frightening?
What exactly d you expect from the FBI getting in to the partisan process?
ilsm:
I am going to tell you right out. There is nothing emanating from this administration that may be confused with the truth. From Trump to each Republican Senator, Representative, Governor, State Legislator there is nothing but innuendo, supposition, conjecture, and lies. Even Michigan Congressional Representative Justin Amash is not absolved from this even though he disavowed himself from Republicans. It is too late for him also, two years too late as he helped to damage the nation. You are spewing BS. Sooner or later you are going to go too far and I will ban you again. I am not going to read lies.
Some of your stuff is interesting; but, this is garbage. Figure out what you want to do and decide what path you wish to go dowm. Dan will agree with me.
Run,
I am not saying anything in the political sphere is factual. I am saying a law requiring the FBI to approve association with anyone from anywhere is not in the interest of fact, truth or informed free thought.
@Ilsm,
” a law requiring the FBI to approve association with anyone from anywhere ”
I missed this. What law requires the FBI to approve association with anyone from anywhere? Link, please.
@ Joel
I think ilsm may be referring to this: [from EMichael above]
“Democrats tried to get consent to pass two bills that would require campaigns to alert the FBI and Federal Election Commission about foreign offers of assistance, as well as a bill to let the Senate Sergeant at Arms offer voluntary cyber assistance for personal devices and accounts of senators and staff.”
I have to say I didn’t understand that last bit myself. But I think I get the part about about alerting the FBI etc. Trouble is, as often, that trying to fight one crime we often write laws that are dangerous to legitimate freedoms.
Much of what people say is not understood by the people it is said to. Psychologists say it doesn’t matter much. Most of what people say is just soothing noises meant to reassure our friends that we think the same as they do. Of course what is a soothing noise from a friend may sound like a low growl from a stranger.
Dale:
Just to b clear. If you are representing a foreign government in the US whether a US citizen or not, you have to register. Some of Trump’s associates got in trouble this way (I want to say Flynn but I am not sure). Also, the Logan Act comes into play.
Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.
For now, I will ignore rude remarks.
Your already supposed to alert the FBI in the event of contact with foreign assets. Ilsm mutters nonsense for the sake of it.
Bert
everyone here is trying to be nice to you. stop muttering nasty remarks for the fun of it.
as for the substance of your remark, what is the point of telling someone who thinks a policy is dangerous to democracy that “you already supposed to…”?
@Coberly,
Thanks, I guess.
@Bert,
“Your [sic] already supposed to alert the FBI in the event of contact with foreign assets.”
Uh, oh. I never notified the FBI when the Swiss government paid for my travel and lodging at a scientific meeting. Did I violate that law? Do you have a link to that law? I need to share it with my many scientific colleagues who routinely travel to other countries and fail to notify the FBI.
Again Joel, if that occurred during your bid for the President, you would be policy, be required to give that information. Its why we know what foreign assets have relationships with politicians. Run, if you want to stop whining and understand how it actual “runs”, give me a call.
Wake up and smell the roses.
” At some point, you have to wonder if anybody else really cares. This is a week where the President* of the United States was credibly accused of welcoming foreign ratfcking to help his campaign, lying about it in his written answers to a special counsel, and then employing practically his entire administration in the effort to cover it up. Suddenly, in the afternoon session on Wednesday, before the House Intelligence Committee, Robert Mueller sharpened up his answers and we learned many details on the actual ratfcking that we didn’t know before. We also learned that the president*’s having been compromised by his dealings with Russia is not yet out of the question. Then, Mueller was finished, and the other, far heavier shoe dropped.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence dropped the first of the reports stemming from its nearly three-years long investigation into the Russian “active measures” as regards the 2016 presidential election. There will be others, but this one was quite enough. There were some astounding conclusions; for example, the report indicates that Russian ratfckers were prepared to raise holy hell all over social media if Hillary Rodham Clinton had won the election. They were brewing up the hashtag, #DemocracyRIP, which certainly would have trended heavily once the American conservative media got wind of it.
The Russians also tried to embed Russian officials in polling stations around the country. And there are several references to the now-famous Sergei Kislyak, for whom Paul Manafort was carrying a bag. In truth, between the redactions and the cautious language of those parts of the report you can read, there still was enough to conclude that the American electoral infrastructure is pretty much cheesecloth that any ambitious Albanian teenager can muck with almost at a whim. The only way that this was done by a “400-pound guy sitting on his bed,” to use the president*’s famous formulation from the campaign, would be if two 200-pound guys were sitting on the same bench in Yakutsk.
As I said, the language in the report is very cautious—to the point where it seems the committee is arguing that the Russian ratfckers probably had penetrated the voting data in hundreds of different places around the country, in all 50 states, but that, having done so, they decided not to capitalize on this windfall. As one witness told the committee:
While any one voting machine is fairly vulnerable, as has been demonstrated over and over again publicly, the ability to actually do an operation to change the outcome of an election on the scale you would need to, and do it surreptitiously, is incredibly difficult. A much more achievable goal would be to undermine confidence in the results of the electoral process, and that could be done much more effectively and easily….A logical thing would be, if your goal is to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system—which the Russians have a long goal of wanting to put themselves on the same moral plane as the United States…one way would be to cause chaos on election day. How could you start to do that? Mess with the voter registration databases.
But, it you can do that, then why not…
Nobody wants to finish that sentence…
And, as if someone decided that the week needed a proper denouement, it came out that the company contracted by the state of Maryland to manage its voter registration data is now owned by a Russian oligarch named Vladimir Potanin. Both of Maryland’s senators were prompted by this development to ask a Senate committee to look into foreign investment in American companies involved in the electoral infrastructure, which seems fairly prudent. All of this occurred while Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, blew off two bills to protect American elections in an empty Senate chamber in approximately 25 minutes.
And life here went on.”
Charles Pierce
EM:
As the world turns events and happenings evolve. Each time, we get a clearer image of the past and what took place. We all know what he did. So what do we do? Concentrate on winning 2020 and make this white supremist president a one termer or concentrate on it now with impeachment allowing it to distract us from the goal as Repubs and Trump for that matter wants us to do? We all know the country will be a majority Hispanic in 20 years whether the wall (another distraction) is up or not for white Amerika.
Trump’s entire strategy has been deflection and distraction to keep us looking elsewhere. I would concentrate on 2020 and cast both Trump and McConnell out,
Run,
Of course we agree on a lot, but on impeachment we do not.
I am no interested in impeachment with no hope of getting through the Senate, I am interested in impeachment to get as much of the truth in front of the public as possible. To so enrage Dem voters that they turn out in record numbers in 2020.
It is far too easy for trump to avoid House investigations, not so with impeachment.
EMichael,
I doubt that an impeachment trial would motivate Democrats anymore than they are already motivated. The bigger risk is that low information marginal voters (who are always the ones who determine who wins) will get turned off. And it will motivate Always Trumpers every bit as much as it motivates Never Trumpers. Impeachment is a loser strategy. Not only will it fail in the Senate, but Trump’s acquittal will only reinforce the fact that the Founders got it wrong when they thought impeachment would be an effective check on presidential abuses. Impeachment is toothless and counter-productive. Much better to defeat Trump in Nov 2020 and then fit him for an orange jumpsuit after noon on 20 Jan 2021. I’ve read the entire Mueller report (including the thousands of footnotes). There’s no question that Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice in at least four of the potential counts listed in Volume 2. Sometimes justice has to be delayed. I can wait until after the election.
2slug
unfortunately the children in jails at the border cannot wait.
sometimes you have to act. and let the politics take care of itself.
it seems to me the R’s always scare us with imaginary economics and imaginary enemies… things that might happen in the future or might not.
and the Dems always scare themselves with imaginary politics.. things that might happen next election… but might not if we actually make a case that they should not happen, and deliver on our promises to uphold human rights and regulate the economy just enough so that fraud is not a winning business strategy, and the inevitable recession is not a sentence of grinding poverty on the people who have no possible way to protect themselves … it’s not “socialism” it’s just allowing people to exercise common prudence in the real world.
meanwhile the kids can’t wait for us to wait for the election, which we might win or we might not… especially if we never actually strand up for anything.
it doesn’t take impeachment but to not try to impeach him because we are too cowardly to “risk an election” (which we risk anyway) is simply to admit we don’t stand for anything… except empty slogans.
How is a failed impeachment effort going to help the kids at the border? As for impeachment being more effective than oversight investigation on bringing out facts, we await court rulings on that question. It may be true but we don’t know that yet. Don’t forget that the courts can manipulate discovery issues under the rubric of impeachment inquiry just as they can under the rubric of oversight inquiry.
JackD
I wasn’t expecting anyone to wait and see how the impeachment hearings turned out… certainly not how the Senate voted. I was calling for our Democratic leaders show up at the border and demand to be allowed into government paid for facilities about which there is a question of child abuse. And then to remove physically, immediately those children and return them to their families. Let t Trumps or the Border Patrol make tne next move. but at least force the confrontation and see whether the people side with us or with child abusers.
Meanwhile we don’t hold impeachment hearings depending on how we think they will affect the next election. We oppose evil when we see it. wWhen it has grown to evil and too dangerous to ignore. We don’t wait for the people to vote or not vote. We lead them. They might follow us if they thought we had a spine. Not to mention a soul.
Washington and Adams and Jefferson did not decide what to do based on what they Parliament might do next. They understood moral courage… as well as physical courage,
Something we have not got.
Dale, confrontations at the border have taken place although the congressional representatives and senators involved have not tried to physically overcome the border guards and save the children. As to your opinions about the effectiveness of impeachment without removal (sort of like indictment without conviction) we’ll have to agree to disagree.
JackD
no, i don’t have to agree even with that.
i was thinking of a massive show of congressmen and other political and religious leaders and any of their followers who could afford the trip and the risks.
and “confrontation” is not the word i would give to a weak show of political “I care enough to be here.” i mean, “I’m sorry, officer, but this facility is paid for with taxpayer money and I am a United States Congressman. Step aside or face arrest for obstructing justice.” and then a mass of people move forward and the guards have to make a quick decision : stand aside or shoot. I think they will stand aside.
i have no idea what you mean about the effectiveness of impeachment without conviction. i would certainly intend to convict. But i don’t intentdto “wait” while the high crimes have destroyed the country before moving to stop them.
and at the risk of being offensive, it is the spinelessness of Democrats that lose them elections. The people will follow a leader, good or bad. Always do.