DL Open Thread: Sunday, August 2, 2020
The Corruption Of Trump’s Impeachment Defense. From a guy who was there, and spotted the exact moment when it was clear that the Administration was being totally dishonest.
Trump To Bar Press From Convention. Fine. Don’t cover his speech, don’t cover it at all. The conventions are designed to engage the public, and build momentum. Let him and his mouth-breathers speak to each other, preferably without masks.
Paul Krugman On America’s Cult Of Selfishness. Krugman has been one of the most astute chroniclers of the American condition during the pandemic.
Nobody Has Accurately Tracked Health Care Workers Killed By Covid-19. Until Now. In case you haven’t guessed, it’s one more thing that the government has not done. Enter one dedicated volunteer.
Trump Vs. Fauci, Ctd. ‘We have so many cases because we do so many tests’, blahblahblah.
R’s Terrified Of Possible Kobach Primary Victory. Looks like it’s gonna be close in Kansas.
What do you want to talk about?
Wapo paywall. Any chance you can give a glimpse into the exact moment when it was clear that the Administration was being totally dishonest.
“As soon as Pat Philbin, the deputy White House counsel, uttered the lie, my head shot up from my note-taking. “In the Judiciary Committee,” he said to every member of the U.S. Senate assembled for his boss’s impeachment trial, “. . . there were no rights for the president.”
It was just past 10 p.m. on Jan. 21 — the first day of President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial. I was sitting near the head of the narrow, curved House managers table across from committee Chairmen Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). They, too, looked astonished.
Among those negotiations was a call on Dec. 5, when we reaffirmed all of the rights for Trump that Philbin was now claiming we had withheld: “The president had no opportunity to present his defense, no opportunity to present witnesses, no opportunity to be represented by counsel and no opportunity to present evidence whatsoever in three rounds of hearings,” he told the Senate. Which certainly wasn’t true of our committee.
That was the moment I realized how dangerously deep the Trump rot went: The president’s lawyers could have defended him capably without stooping to this. Lawyers are not in place to repeat the excesses of their clients. And yet Trump had managed to finagle his team into an alarming display of mimicry. Falsehood was his stock in trade, and they were enthusiastic franchisees. Worse, the GOP-controlled Senate was all too ready to accept it.
Every Republican is a co-conspirator. The entire party and anyone who identifies with it is guilty. They must be removed in disgrace. They are odious and should be treated as untouchables.
“The main operating principle of the Mob is known as “dirtying up”. The thing is to make certain that as many people are implicated as possible. Not only does this remove the incentive or the temptation to squeal, but it also ensures that a number of otherwise respectable people will have an interest in preventing any disclosure. A true corporate godfather will have spent time dirtying up journalists as well as lawyers, politicians and the forces of criminal justice. The corruption must be so widespread that any whistleblower will be accused of spoiling things for everybody.”
Nevermind I cleared my cookies
“I cleared my cookies”, as in took a healthy?
A couple of days ago my comment was removed/moderated on your site because (I suppose) I mentioned “brownshirts”, “Nazis” and Hitler references in the same thought pattern as this “president” I do not question your rights or prerogative to remove comments but please let me point out that today Rep. James Clyburn unhesitatingly stated on national TV that “Trump thinks he can dupe Americans like the people of Germany were duped by Adolph Hitler” My point is that as long as respected liberal sites, such as yours, are willing to adjust reflections on reality and the threats we face today by moderating or subduing exposure of those threats to Democracy that Trump has mounted then we are complicit by silence. The INS, DHS, Federal Marshalls and other dissent stifling tools employed by this freedom abusing hater occupying the Whitehouse that are being deployed in Portland, Albuquerque, and other cities are no different than the “brownshirts” deployed by Hitler in Germany. Trump’s hate-filled personality, dependent on sowing seeds of nationalism, racism, classism and other evils, is as close to dictatorial fascism as I will tolerate. The public must be made aware of the full extent of the threat America faces and a collective “whistling past the cemetery” will not help.
Representative John Kowalko
No, it disappeared because the comment it was in response to disappeared. It’s automatic.
Thanks Al good to know