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September 27, 2019 07:17 AM UTC

Friday Open Thread

  • 33 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“To me, the real ‘state of the union’ is found in how Americans react to current events.”

–Henry Rollins

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33 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

  2. In the right wing loony tune department, far right commentator Mark Levin claimed yesterday on Breitbart that investigating the president is "un-American.”

    Learn more on rightwingwatch.org.

      1. I think the comment was about whoever told the wb about it.
        Like : 
        that call was beautiful … perfect …and you'll all know it as soon as you hear it … although I was never going to tell anyone about it and whoever did say anything about it should be treated like the Rosenbergs… 

         

  4. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times asks: Just How Corrupt Is Bill Barr?

    But Barr’s refusal to recuse creates a sort of legal cul-de-sac. It’s only the Justice Department, ultimately, that can prosecute potential federal crimes arising from this scandal. Barr’s ethical nihilism, his utter indifference to ordinary norms of professional behavior, means that he’s retaining the authority to stop investigations into crimes he may have participated in.

    That makes the impeachment proceedings in the House, where Barr will likely be called as a witness, the last defense against complete administration lawlessness. “Just as the president is not above the law, the attorney general is not above the law,” said Raskin. “The president’s betrayal of his oath of office and the Constitution is the primary offense here, and we need to stay focused on that, but the attorney general’s prostitution of the Department of Justice for the president’s political agenda has been necessary to the president’s schemes and he will face his own reckoning.”

  5. Barr knew what was going on and was party to it. My question is whether he was in on the whole scheme before he was appointed and if so, did Sessions know what was happening and was that part of why he left the White House when he did?

    It's just possible that ol' Jeff had a little more respect for the law than we've given him credit for. On the other hand, why didn't he go to Congress or the I.G. with the info? 

    Oh, wait… we don't know who the whistleblower was, do we?

     

  6. Paul Krugman has a few choice words that could become the administration's epitaph

    …this isn’t a normal administration; it has never seemed to care much about governing, and it is actively hostile to civil servants trying to do their jobs. So paralysis is good. The more time Trump appointees spend worrying about potential prosecution rather than planning loyalty purges, the better off all of us, from ordinary citizens to giant corporations, will be.

    Impeaching Donald Trump is good for the economy.

  7. Sent another donation to Elizabeth Warren today.  She now leads Biden in Iowa, New Hamshire and the National Quinnipiac poll.  her lead over Bernie is 2-1.  The very Old white guys need to stand down and the women lead.  Booker or Buttigieg   for veep.  Onward to victory — and back to sanity!

  8. The Hill has an update on the USDA economics staff move to Kansas City.

    https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/463414-usda-nixes-reports-as-nearly-all-research-staff-flees-agency-during ppl

    Looks like things aren't wonderful. I certainly am suprised…. doesn't everyone want to move to KC for an unauthorized shift that could wind up with 3 different locations in metro KC in the next 18-24 months? Easy to decide where to live when they can't be certain which state the office will ultimately be in.

    1. Yep, Krugman discussed that in his column today as well

      In Trump’s vision of government, career diplomats who do actual diplomacy, experienced regulators who actually try to enforce regulations, researchers who produce objective data — up to and including weather forecasters whose predictions he doesn’t like — are all part of a deep state that’s out to get him. So Trump officials have been engaged in a systematic campaign to degrade America’s Civil Service, driving out people who know what they’re doing and replacing them with political hacks.

      Consider the case of the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service, a respected, heretofore apolitical unit that produces highly useful reports — reports that farmers and businesses rely on — on various trends affecting rural America. After the agency produced reports documenting the obvious — that the 2017 tax cut disproportionately benefited well-off farmers — and refused to cook up studies justifying other administration policies, it was summarily told to relocate from Washington to Kansas City.

      The obvious and successful purpose of this move was to induce mass resignations by the unit’s experts, and it’s very unlikely that if and when the agency is reconstituted it will be nearly as good at doing its job.

  9. Lookin' out for #1 — Trump and LaPierre think they can prop up each other's wobbly administrations

    President Trump met on Friday with Wayne LaPierre, the chief executive of the National Rifle Association, to discuss how the N.R.A. could provide financial support for the president’s defense as he faces political headwinds, including impeachment, according to two people familiar with the meeting.

    It was not clear whether Mr. Trump asked Mr. LaPierre for his support, or if the idea was pitched by the N.R.A. But in return for the support, Mr. LaPierre asked that the White House “stop the games” over gun control legislation, people familiar with the meeting said.

    Just in case anyone ever thought otherwise:

    Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mr. LaPierre on Friday indicated that his priority may be his own political survival rather than making any strides on guns.

    1. NPR is reporting

      "The National Rifle Association acted as a "foreign asset" for Russia in the period leading up to the 2016 election, …"

      Does this mean anyone who accepted NRA money was accepting something money from … Russia?
       

    2. The NRA is transactional just as Trump is. I'm thinking I need to look up the definition of transactional again – it's taken on a very amoral, corrupt flavor.

  10. Oh, by the way kids, remember that Democrats are sleeping on another whistleblower…

    A whistleblower says someone tried to interfere with the president's IRS audit.

    Instead of shouting to reporters, a month ago Dems brought it to a judge, offering a private briefing.

    So far the judge has shown no interest. https://t.co/ZEca4nvUhs

    — Arthur Delaney (@ArthurDelaneyHP) September 27, 2019

    Of course, Richard Neal has been dragging his feet through all of this, so…

    1. Maybe, maybe not:

      In her Tuesday announcement that the House was officially investigating whether to impeach the president, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the oversight committees, which include Ways and Means, would submit evidence to the Judiciary Committee as it drafts articles of impeachment. 

      1. Maybe maybe, maybe maybe not.

        Nancy Pelosi orders impeachment inquiry to focus on Trump-Ukraine

        In narrowing the investigation, from a wide-ranging examination of the lengthy Trump-Russia investigation, Pelosi is said to be hoping for a quicker resolution to the impeachment inquiry. The Washington Post, citing Democrats and congressional aides, said Pelosi has instructed House committees to file the results of their individual investigations within weeks.

        That could build towards a vote around Thanksgiving, reports suggested. The celebration, always on the last Thursday in November, falls on 28 November this year.

        1. Here's a fun, interesting read on the topic:

          Should upcoming hearings, and the eventual articles of impeachment the hearings produce, cover other subjects (tax returns, federal spending at Trump properties, etc.) besides Donald Trump’s Rudy Giuliani–abetted efforts to browbeat/extort Ukraine’s president into investigating Joe Biden? How much more time should be taken investigating the Ukraine case itself given that Trump essentially already handed over a confession when he released the White House’s notes on his call with Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday?

          The finger-pointing is spreading, presumably because others in the administration are watching Trump and Giuliani blaming everyone in sight and figuring they ought to start passing the buck before they get blamed too. A “White House official” told CNN that National Security Council attorneys were responsible for filing the Zelensky call summary in a secret system in which the whistleblower complaint says it didn’t belong; a State Department official told Politico that it was “impossible to believe that the secretary [Mike Pompeo] wasn’t aware of what was happening” regarding Ukraine.

          Typically, in an investigation of an organized crime scheme, you “flip” low-ranking participants in order to get them to “rat” on their bosses. In this case, though, the rats appear to be the ones at the top.

          2. My favorite in that genre was Trump immediately throwing Pence onto the fire.

            “I think you should ask for Vice President Pence’s conversation, because he had a couple of conversations also,” Trump said at a news conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “I could save you a lot of time. They were all perfect. Nothing was mentioned of any import other than congratulations.”

            Trump also said he could be persuaded to release more information about an earlier conversation he had with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, while repeating that he did nothing inappropriate in his contacts with the foreign leader.

            “The word is they’re going to ask for the first phone conversation,” Trump said at the news conference. “You can have it anytime you need it. And also Mike Pence’s conversations, which were, I think, one or two of them. They were perfect. They were all perfect.”

  12. Trump told Russian officials in 2017 he wasn’t concerned about Moscow’s interference in U.S. election

    President Trump told two senior Russian officials in a 2017 Oval Office meeting that he was unconcerned about Moscow’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election because the United States did the same in other countries, an assertion that prompted alarmed White House officials to limit access to the remarks to an unusually small number of people, according to three former officials with knowledge of the matter.

    The comments, which have not been previously reported, were part of a now-infamous meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, in which Trump revealed highly classified information that exposed a source of intelligence on the Islamic State. He also said during the meeting that firing FBI Director James B. Comey the previous day had relieved “great pressure” on him.

      1. If it gets that far, Pence (or Pelosi* if you can get crazy) or whomever is sworn in January 2021, will pardon for everything.

        Personally, I'm not going to be the guy that gets shot on 5th Ave – I'm not going to walk down 5th Ave.

        *sure, Speaker is third, so if Trump/Pence are both impeached…. and so fast there is no time to replace… maybe.
        But more likely is some rich, old, white guy who really, really wants to be President (before he is king) will find a way to get himself on the ballot in enough states to tip the electoral scale. (Utah, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Dakotas, Utah, Nebraska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Carolinas)

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