Month: November 2019

115 days seems like a long long long time. WILMINGTON, DEL. — The death of beloved Academy Park High School teacher Susan Ledyard - whose body was discovered in the…

I'm no lawyer but this seems like a weak argument for keeping Trump's taxes secret:

“(Absent a ruling in his favor from the Supreme Court) That the Constitution would empower thousands of state and local prosecutors to embroil the president in criminal proceedings ...” Mr. Trump’s lawyers wrote.

That's dumb on its face. I mean, I suppose that could happen if the some future president committed crimes in thousands of jurisdictions. But who could conceive of a president up to his neck in financial crimes in thousands of jurisdictions? The appeals court that unanimously the President's taxes shouldn't be secret put it like this.

”We note that the past six presidents, dating back to President Carter, all voluntarily released their tax returns to the public," Judge Katzmann wrote for the panel. "While we do not place dispositive weight on this fact, it reinforces our conclusion that the disclosure of personal financial information, standing alone, is unlikely to impair the president in performing the duties of his office."

A mistake too many make is thinking Republicans - elected, voters, all of them - actually care about the things they claim to care about. (And yet) Republican concerns are treated in our discourse as genuine and serious while concerns of The Left, defined so broadly, are not. When Donald Trump decides Medicare For All has been the Republican policy all along, they will all get behind it. No I don't think that's going to happen, but hopefully you get the point. The MAGA base basically needs to feel like they're Owning The Libs with a healthy dose of racism. Medicare for Everyone But Black People would poll at 700% favorable. "Donald Trump supports Medicare for All, do you?" would get a strong majority. - Eschaton

This also applies to support for Trump himself. When he is gone Republicans will all cheer, "Never liked the guy!" Two months later it will be "Trump who?" Remember Sarah Palin? Nobody does. She was an important conservative once.

It is vital for the health of our democracy that this impeachment hearing take place in the House and the impeachment trial proceed in the Senate. But it is even more vital that we do not pin our desire for justice on any smoking-gun testimony or Senate outcome. The true impeachment happens next November, when all Republicans are defeated at every level of government. Get involved in a local or state race today for a candidate who shares your values, and work your ass off. The Delaware Trump Party must be left like Carthage after the Third Punic War. No stone laying atop another.

The Democratic Party is two parties. There is the party of the people, and there is the "Moderate" party which not moderate at all when it comes to supporting billionaires, banks, bigPharma, pay day loan operations, fossil fuel extractors and other industries interested in shoving money in Cayman Island bank accounts while they pay lip service to civil rights. That's the Party of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Chris Coons, and it is in utter disarray. Joe Biden's stumbling, bumbling run for the nomination has the financial backers of the "Moderate" Democratic Party in a panic. Texaco Oil Company lawyer, Deval Patrick, entering the race is just one data point.

I didn't watch but from what I've read the GOP defense of Turnip amounts to: There was no crime becuase the aid was released anyway. Or, in other words - The kidnapper released the hostage after 6 weeks before the ransom was paid. It’s fine. Plus the victim didn’t even press charges so, OK. #logic

Read the Kentucky election story below the fold and try to argue that it doesn't all go down just like this: It is nearing midnight on November 3rd, 2020. Trump has lost by lots in the popular vote and by a little in the electoral college. He does not concede. Having complained about Democratic cheating for months leading up to the election, he allows stories like the one below to bubble thought the internet. The press covers "both sides" of the controversy. Chris Coons reserves judgement in the interest of bipartisanship. Within a day or two people of every political flavor are edgy. One night, a shot rings out. Mayhem ensues. Windows and skulls are broken. Trump declares a national emergency. Under the National Emergencies Act Trump has virtually unlimited discretionary power if supported by the Senate and Supreme Court. He declares the election invalid. The constitutionality of that use of emergency powers is endorsed by a 5 to 4 majority in the Supreme Court.

Both Biden and Coons think that there is some special potency to their brand of bipartisanship, but there are differences in how both men explain away the ongoing ineffectiveness of bipartisanship. For both of them, bipartisanship is a magic key that will unlock every door and solve every problem, but when bipartisanship inevitably fails as it always does in the age of Rove/Bush/Trump/McConnell, Coons typically believes that the pursuit of bipartisanship by Democrats wasn't obsequious enough. Coons views the failure of bipartisanship as a failure of Democrats to compromise sufficiently. Biden, on the other hand, simply misremembers the past and lives in a fantasy world in which bipartisanship always works in spite of 30 years of evidence to the contrary.

Matt Viser ✔ @mviser Joe Biden remarks that he called about a dozen Senate Republicans to encourage them to vote on Merrick Garland. Then he says with Trump gone, Republicans will again find political courage. Left unsaid: Republicans stalled on Garland before Trump was nominated, or elected.