DL Open Thread: Tues., Dec. 3, 2019
Senate Lawmakers Fall All Over Themselves To Deep-Six Ethics Investigation Into Trey Paradee. Nobody wants to touch this b/c virtually all of them have dubious ethics. BTW, Cathy Cloutier is unavailable for comment once again. Must be an election year. BTWBTW, I’d like to know what impact, if any, that Jacqueline Paradee Mette, who is Paradee’s sister and Carney’s deputy legal counsel, had on Carney’s signing of the bill. But, as usual, Carney ain’t talking. The secrecy of his, pardon the expression, Administration is one of the most under-reported Delaware stories of the past few years. This stinks of Delaware Way casual corruption.
Barr Looks Ready To Override IG’s Report. This is what happens when the AG of the United States is a criminal:
Attorney General William P. Barr has told Justice Department officials that he is skeptical of a conclusion by the department’s inspector general that the F.B.I. had sufficient information to open the investigation into whether any Trump associates conspired with Russia during the 2016 presidential race, according to two people familiar with the conversations.
Should Mr. Barr rebut the inspector general’s assessment, due out next week in a highly anticipated report, Mr. Trump’s allies will most likely use that pushback to dismiss the work itself. The review is expected to contradict some of the unfounded theories about the 2016 election that the president and his allies have promoted.
Mr. Barr’s doubts are significant because they could be perceived as the nation’s top law enforcement officer siding with Mr. Trump, who has long cast doubt on the legitimacy of the Russia investigation, over law enforcement officials.
Why is Speaker Pelosi Holding Up Passage Of Pro-Union Bill? If The House D leader sides with the Chamber over unions, then what’s the point? Meanwhile, she wants to get new trade treaty passed despite a lack of worker protections in the bill. You know, it needs to pass in order to protect the ‘moderate’ members of her Caucus.
ALEC, Rethug ‘Bill Mill’, Accused Of Pushing White Supremacist Policies. Heads-up to Delaware political reporters: the annual ALEC get-together starts tomorrow. It’s worth knowing what Delaware legislators and lobbyists are attending. Gee, wonder if Sara Gamard will use the term ‘far right’ to describe them. Actually, I don’t.
How The FDA Conspired With Johnson & Johnson To Cover Up Risks In Talc. Over thirty years of hiding the presence of asbestos in baby powder.
What do you want to talk about?
BTW, Colin Bonini is Delaware’s ALEC Chair. Were you expecting someone else?
Actually, given Colin the Clown’s well-documented laziness, I’m glad to hear it.
My take: Nobody else wants it, he STILL doesn’t have to do anything, but he gets to go on a nice trip at least once a year.
Scottsdale, Arizona. Wonder if there’s an over/under on the number of ALEC-related golf outings this week. I’ll take the over.
Appeals Court: Deutsche Bank must turn over Trump financial records to Congress:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/business/trump-deutsche-bank-subpoena.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
It all now comes down to whether the Supreme Court, in this and other cases, will overthrow the Constitution to protect Trump.
Roberts will be the swing vote.
Where are those “suck it libs” comments? They ruled.
Where they belong.
They were magnificent, bright, but burnt too hot too fast. For that one moment though we may have witnessed confusion and stupidity in their purest forms.
Not nearly. You should see the spam trap.
Can I just note the insanity of the NYT reporting on IF ” the F.B.I. had sufficient information to open the investigation into whether any Trump associates conspired with Russia during the 2016 presidential race.”
All of the evidence, and everything discovered since 2016 plainly and unequivocally states that Trump associates conspired with Russia during the 2016 presidential race. Isn’t that worth mentioning? Does this really require a “balanced” take?
I mean, but does the media really need to pretend that this has merit?
They want to try the “fruit of the poison tree” argument, which applies to domestic law. So they think if they can smear the FIFA court the whole case gets thrown out.
As the guilty are wont to do, they are looking for a way off on a technicality.
The easy solution: Make the next sentence, “The Mueller report found [however many, I lost count] contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian nationals.” The policy should be that Trump lies, of whatever name, should be countered with the truth in the next sentence. There is no legitimate reason not to do so.
From a practical angle, the GOP’s problem is that everyone knows he’s guilty, even those who are pretending it’s not a crime. The more they flout the law, the more disgusted voters will get. The circumstances look similar to ’06-’08, when they signaled their disgust with Bush in the midterms and then flushed even more out in Obama’s win.
They are going to have to employ even more cheating techniques than previously if they’re going to prevent a second consecutive electoral beat-down.
Your daily reminder that Mayo Pete is not to be trusted:
https://twitter.com/MaxKennerly/status/1201324778847637505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1201324778847637505&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eschatonblog.com%2F
BREAKING: Kamala Harris ends presidential campaign:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/kamala-harris-2020-race-drops-out