Saw this in Political Wire this morning:
Asked about Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s presidential run, President Trump was dismissive in an interview with Politico.
Said Trump: “Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States.”
I can’t believe he said this. After all, Donald Trump is the living embodiment of Alfred E. Neuman. He’s stupid and he doesn’t care. And while he might not have won the popular vote (by a sizable margin), he did become the president of the United States.
You don’t even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic if the Senate determines that your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds in your role… because impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office.
— Lindsey Graham (R-SC), quoted by the Washington Post in 1999, on President Bill Clinton.
He encouraged people to lie for him. He lied. I think he obstructed justice. I think there’s a compelling case that he has, in fact, engaged in conduct that would be better for him to leave office than to stay in office.
— Rep. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), on C-SPAN in 1999, on President Bill Clinton.
This is the title of an opinion piece in the NY Times. It is a good, thoughtful rant, and I don’t disagree with much in it.
Note that it doesn’t say that we should impeach Donald Trump, just that if our country weren’t so screwed up and dysfunctional, we would be impeaching him.
Our country has lost its way. I’m not sure what we can do to bring it back. To Make American Sane Again.
If you are looking for a straightforward article that sums up Robert Mueller’s report and William Barr’s somewhat disingenuous interpretations of it, you can hardly do better than this article in Politico.
I find it very sad that the office of Attorney General of the US has become completely politicized. The Attorney General is supposed to enforce the law, not be a cheerleader for the president. As the article points out, Barr only talks about things in the report that are favorable to Trump. And he either ignores or mischaracterizes things that are less than favorable.
Luckily, the majority of Americans are not buying what Barr is selling.
UPDATE: Electoral-vote has an excellent summary of the report, and the reaction to it. This is a must-read report.
A fairly short but fascinating article in New York Magazine, “What I’ve Learned From Collecting Stories of People Whose Loved Ones Were Transformed by Fox News“.
Unlike Fox News, the article is actually somewhat “Fair and Balanced”, not just blaming Fox News, but also MSNBC and how some people have a similar transformation from that.
I will just quote one paragraph, but it is short enough (and definitely worth it) to read the whole thing:
No matter where the stories came from they all featured a few familiar beats: A loved one seemed to have changed over time. Maybe that person was already somewhat conservative to start. Maybe they were apolitical. But at one point or another, they sat down in front of Fox News, found some kind of deep, addictive comfort in the anger and paranoia, and became a different person — someone difficult, if not impossible, to spend time with. The fallout led to failed marriages and estranged parental relationships. For at least one person, it marks the final memory he’ll ever have of his father: “When I found my dad dead in his armchair, fucking Fox News was on the TV,” this reader told me. “It’s likely the last thing he saw. I hate what that channel and conservative talk radio did to my funny, compassionate dad. He spent the last years of his life increasingly angry, bigoted, and paranoid.”
I have a similar story, of a family member who has become a Fox News junkie, and it has definitely affected their relationship with their family and friends. Do any of you have similar experiences?
You know that when Weekend Update on SNL mentions the word “irony”, I’ll have to post it!
And then proves it.
Alex Jones of Infowars is being sued by several parents of the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre for spreading conspiracy theories claiming that the massacre was staged using actors. He also claimed that the children who died “never existed”.
In a deposition posted to YouTube, Jones defends himself by claiming that “a form of psychosis” brought on by the stressful nature of his job caused him to spread lies and unsubstantiated conspiracy theories. Jones promised that he would no longer spread conspiracy theories without confirming them.
However, in his broadcast on Monday, he spread another unconfirmed conspiracy theory about Sandy Hook. Jones argued that a Sandy Hook father who died from an apparent suicide was actually murdered in order to build the legal case against himself.
I wonder why people keep falling for the old repetition trick. You know, where someone repeats a falsehood often enough that people think it is true.
Are people really surprised that rich people have managed to tilt the playing field?
And yes, Trump really did grope a flag during his speech at CPAC. Or as Stephen Colbert joked, “First time a flag’s ever volunteered to be burned.”
One of the ultimate ironies of our current politics is that Republicans — who claim to want to “make America great again” — have decided to paint the Democrats as evil “socialists” who will ruin our country. And yet, the proposed policies from even the most far left candidates for president were actual real things during the era that Republicans seem to be holding up as the shining example of when America was great before.
Well, except for the racism and antisemitism part.
I’m starting a new project at work, which is keeping me busy, and it is about to get worse. So I’m just warning you that my posts might be a bit erratic for a few months. But I will still post from time to time.
Nancy Pelosi was asked by the Washington Post how she felt about impeaching Donald Trump:
I’m not for impeachment. This is news. I’m going to give you some news right now because I haven’t said this to any press person before. But since you asked, and I’ve been thinking about this: Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.
Ouch!
Republicans are attempting to discredit Michael Cohen as a liar, even though he lied to Congress because Donald Trump told him to. Trump himself called Cohen a “bad lawyer and fraudster”, even though Cohen worked for Trump as his personal lawyer (and fixer) for more than a decade.
For Trump, the buck never stops anywhere near himself.
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