Thursday, January 30, 2020

News Dump

A Justice Department lawyer says in federal court that the House can impeach a president over ignored subpoenas, a noted contrast to what Trump's lawyers are arguing in the impeachment trial
https://twitter.com/cnnbrk/status/1222965521131491328
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/30/politics/trump-impeachment-subpoena-hearing/index.html

Schiff stunned the room just now when he informed senators that JUST TODAY, as Trump’s lawyers argue in the Senate the House should’ve gone to court to enforce subpoenas, DOJ lawyers argued in COURT that judges have no place to enforce subpoenas because of the impeachment power.
https://twitter.com/brianbeutler/status/1222967711426338818

Schiff just referenced this: A Justice Department lawyer said in federal court that the House can impeach a president over ignored subpoenas, a noted contrast to what lawyers for Trump are arguing at his Senate impeachment trial.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1222968994166165505
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/30/politics/trump-impeachment-subpoena-hearing/index.html

Senate erupts in laughter when @RepAdamSchiff discloses Dept of Justice lawyer today stated that the remedy, if the President ignores a Congressional subpoena, is impeachment. "I didn't think they'd do this on the same day" we are here debating the removal of the President
https://twitter.com/JudyWoodruff/status/1222967704417640448

It's so weird to me that these Republican senators don't want to vote against a president who is trying to unlawfully influence an election because they're afraid of him strong-arming influence in their senate reelection.

Proportion of drivers in fatal crashes who tested positive for THC doubled in Washington after marijuana’s legalization, study finds | AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety says findings raise troubling concerns about safety impact when states legalize pot’s recreational use
https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2020/01/30/proportion-drivers-fatal-crashes-who-tested-positive-thc-doubled-after-marijuanas-legalization-study-finds/
https://newsroom.aaa.com/2020/01/fatal-crashes-involving-drivers-who-test-positive-for-marijuana-increase-after-state-legalizes-drug/

McConnell received campaign donations from Trump's impeachment defense team
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/mitch-mcconnell/2020/01/29/trump-impeachment-mcconnell-has-received-donations-defense-team/4608054002/

Trump Defense Can't Offer Evidence He Cared About Corruption Before Biden 2020 Run
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-impeachment-biden-corruption_n_5e32041cc5b6aa15c6df95db

Katie Hopkins, whose racist tweets Trump has shared/re-tweeted, has had her account suspended
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/katie-hopkins-twitter-suspended-deleted-review-a9309351.html

"I would build a great wall , and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me" Donald Trump
https://ktla.com/2020/01/29/new-section-of-border-wall-topples-amid-high-winds-in-calexico-area/

"The wind from the windmills is too strong, we must put an end to the cancer tornado machines "
https://ktla.com/2020/01/29/new-section-of-border-wall-topples-amid-high-winds-in-calexico-area/

On August 4th, the game with the most trash can bangs, the Astros scored 16 earned runs. Mike Bolsinger, a Blue Jays reliever, allowed 4 earned runs in 0.1 IP. He never pitched in the big leagues again.
https://twitter.com/davidspampinato/status/1222567741653233664?s=21

China accused of cremating bodies in secret as coronavirus patient numbers spike. The sources confirmed “many dead bodies” were sent directly from hospitals to the cremation centres “without properly identifying these patients”.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/china-cremates-bodies-in-secret-as-coronavirus-patients-spike-070222348.html

Environmental activist Homero Gomez, who fought to protect the famed monarch butterfly, has been found dead in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, a local authority said, two weeks after he disappeared
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-activist/mexican-activist-who-fought-to-protect-monarch-butterflies-found-dead-idUSKBN1ZT04R?il=0

Trump Administration Moves to Eliminate Rules Against Murdering Birds
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/30/climate/trump-bird-deaths.html

Trump Administration Moves To Allow States To Eliminate Medicaid Funding
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-administration-announces-medicaid-program-funding-overhaul-n1126501?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_np

In late 2017, CNBC filed a Freedom of Information Act request for details about Jared Kushner's secretive meeting in China during Trump's visit to the country. The department told CNBC it aims to complete it by July 2021, about 3½ years after the request.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/30/trump-administration-mum-on-secretive-kushner-meeting-in-china-in-2017.html

The Trump administration to illegally eliminate restrictions on the US military's ability to use landmines in the coming days, weapons that have been banned by more than 160 countries due to their history of killing and wounding civilians, multiple Defense Department officials tell CNN.
http://www.cnn.com/2020/01/30/politics/trump-landmines/index.html

Many people have felt that it’s “disrespectful” or “too soon” to talk about anything negative in the aftermath of Kobe’s death.  Disrespectful? Too soon? Are you kidding me? We’re talking about Kobe Bryant. You don’t respect someone by ducking the hard work of understanding their lives. You face it. You reckon with human character properly or you don’t reckon with it at all. Not everyone has been circumspect. In his book The Last Season, Kobe’s longtime coach Phil Jackson talked about learning of the arrest. “Was I surprised?” he wrote. “Yes, but not entirely. Kobe can be consumed with surprising anger, which he’s displayed toward me and toward his teammates.” Watching basketball highlights might not be a sensible response to tragedy, but I’ve been watching his since Sunday. I love watching him play basketball—I think we can still use the present tense; when you’re as good as Kobe was, your jump shot outlives you because he was a going for the kill with each and every move he made. His game was spectacularly inefficient by today’s standards, and he notoriously loathed the statistical revolution that transformed basketball in the mid-2010s, but he still conveys the sense that he’s solving the game, playing against a mathematical ideal. It’s abstract, fiercely unsentimental, strikingly angry and cold. He dribbles into a crowd of defenders, and the court separates into planes and angles. He pulls up for a shot and the arc of gravity reveals itself. Somewhere in the middle of all this highlight viewing, I found a supercut, obviously made by someone with more time and a larger hard drive than I have, of every play on which he suffered an injury. He played for two decades; the video lasts more than 10 minutes. I don’t know why, because it showcases very little of his brilliance, but I found it intensely comforting. It’s honest, I guess. Kobe was an unbelievably high-bullshit human being in many ways - this was the player who once filed a lawsuit to prevent his own mother from selling some memorabilia of his - but there was something about the nakedness of his ambition and the excruciating psychological stakes it imposed that seemed to cut through a great deal of feel-good sports bullshit. Even at what turned out to be the end of his life, when he’d mellowed a little, when he was having so much fun going to games and sitting courtside with his daughters, he seems like he’d have hated false comfort. And whatever watching him twist his ankle and then hobble to the foul line for 10 straight minutes is, it’s not that. (Kobe is also, of course, the player who ruptured his Achilles and then sank two free throws.)S o he’ll be playing who even knows - the Clippers or the Spurs or the Rockets, doesn’t matter; in most of the clips you can only tell what year it is through context clues. (Shaq or no Shaq, Pau or no Pau, hair or no hair.) He’ll attack the basket and right away everything starts to snap into place; he’s got one man beat, only one more to go; you can see what he sees, you can see what’s about to happen. But then, before it does, there’s a lurch. Something cracks in the middle of the thought. Draymond sticks a thumb in his eye, or his knee buckles, and he goes down holding the injured part. You see the play turning into what it was supposed to be, and then he falls. I mean the future is right there. He just falls.

Republicans Senators know Trump's claims about Biden in Ukraine are lies} Republican senators in 2016 meeting discussed need to remove Ukraine's Shokin. They also understood that "loan guarantees were being used (by Biden) as leverage to bring it about."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/30/gop-senators-know-trumps-defense-is-based-lies-heres-proof/

The House approved Barbara Lee's measure to repeal the 2002 AUMF, with a vote of 236-166. 11 Republicans split with the rest of their party to support it: -Biggs -Cloud -Davidson -Gaetz -Gallagher -Herrera Beutler -Massie -Mooney -Roy -Schweikert -Upton
https://twitter.com/byrdinator/status/1222949261740052480
https://twitter.com/RepBarbaraLee/status/1222942043338629120

Chief Justice John G. Roberts again declined to read a question from Sen. Rand Paul.
https://www.axios.com/john-roberts-rand-paul-whistleblower-impeachment-035291ab-e3a2-422d-b9c5-977412a57ff4.html
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/480712-roberts-refuses-to-read-question-from-paul-on-whistleblower

This is certainly the first time in this presidential impeachment trial that a senator has left the trial mid-session to hold a formal press conference. Rand Paul had a temper-tantrum in front of the media because John G. Roberts refused to ask a question that included the whistleblower's name. Rand Paul should be arrested for violating the rules of the trial.

Remarkable that in the special election where Elijah Cummings's widow is running to succeed him, the divide in the Cummings family is over which of two alternative candidates to her they should endorse | The three sisters of the late U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings have made endorsements in the crowded race to succeed him ― with two sisters supporting his friend, Kweisi Mfume, and one endorsing his longtime aide, Harry Spikes.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-cummings-sisters-20200130-jvawlejdsnaifnjsetrnsk5a2i-story.html

Schiff responds to Dershowitz: "It's astonishing that on the floor of this body someone would make this argument. Now, it didn't begin that way ... but what we have seen over the last couple days is a descent into constitutional madness, because that way madness lies."
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1222950154652745728

Schiff: "That argument may succeed here, now. That means we're not back to where we were, we are worse off than where we were. That is the normalization of lawlessness. I would hope that every American would recognize that it's wrong to seek foreign help in an American election."
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1222951404924473344

The Pentagon now says it's working with Iraqi government on securing permission to bring air defenses into the country after the Iranian missile attack.
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/01/30/us/politics/ap-us-united-states-iraq.html

Unexpected Ukraine headline: as Trump reduces refugee intake and steers away from Muslims, the US is taking in more refugees from Ukraine than any other country of origin
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/ukrainians-are-now-one-of-the-top-groups-resettled-as-refugees-in-the-us-under-trump-administration/2020/01/30/03926dd6-2e43-11ea-bcb3-ac6482c4a92f_story.html

What did Hunter Biden do that was illegal? It seems that their arguments are “he was overpaid and under qualified.” Like Trump? And Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, and Jared?

Lawyers for a woman who accuses President Donald Trump of raping her in the 1990s are asking for a DNA sample, seeking to determine whether his genetic material is on a dress she says she wore during the encounter.
https://apnews.com/0475983f6c1e40628d2a3058e270a747

My question to the Senate: In his impeachment, President Clinton was forced to testify. Why doesn't the same rule apply to the current Prez? He's a tough guy on Twitter- let's see how he does under oath...
https://twitter.com/HamillHimself/status/1222954405382639616

Bloomberg’s Super Bowl ad focuses on the ‘national crisis’ of gun violence, not Trump
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/bloombergs-super-bowl-ad-focuses-on-the-national-crisis-of-gun-violence-not-trump/2020/01/30/baa1beac-42d7-11ea-aa6a-083d01b3ed18_story.html

What if Don Jr did it?
Donald Trump Jr collecting foreign payments in Dubai
Donald Trump Jr seeking foreign payments in Indonesia
Donald Trump Jr collecting foreign payments in Scotland
Donald Trump Jr collecting foreign payments in the Philippines (picture taken in 2012, but the business relationship continues post 2017)
Donald Trump Jr seeking foreign payments in India
Donald Trump Jr collecting foreign payments in Canada (NB - the money comes from Malaysia)
Donald Trump Jr return visit to seek foreign payments in India
Donald Trump Jr collecting foreign payments in Panama (pre-presidential photo; collections continued post-2017)
Donald Trump Jr discovering that it's more convenient if the foreign payments come to you right at home
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1222958724249198597

New recording shows access Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman had to Trump at 2018 Mar-a-Lago donor event | “When Trump would see us, he would call us, ‘my boys,’” Parnas said. “Me and Igor together? It's not something you'd forget. Particularly in that scene.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-recording-shows-access-lev-parnas-and-igor-fruman-had-to-trump-at-mar-a-lago-donor-event/2020/01/30/a11cb354-437e-11ea-abff-5ab1ba98b405_story.html

Newly released video shows indicted Giuliani associate Igor Fruman with RNC chief Ronna McDaniel. She hugs him during a Trump event at Mar a Lago and says she's "so glad" he's there.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/30/lev-parnas-ronna-mcdaniel-video-109567

Contrary to what Philbin just said, there *is* an established quid pro quo that his team hasn't even tried to rebut. And the meeting did *not* take place.

Philbin literally just made the argument that exempts Joe Biden from any suspicion of a conflict of interest regarding his actions in Ukraine. VP Biden acted out the explicitly stated position of the United States, its State Department, its Presidential Administration, and an international agreement in getting Ukraine's corrupt prosecutor general removed. Why are Republicans still railing against Biden if Republicans just completely established the argument that actually excuses people asking for a quid pro quo in the interest of their country, and not themselves? If it's okay for Trump to blackmail a foreign country to win an election that benefits America, then it's okay for Biden to have meddled in a foreign country to clean up that country's corruption to benefit America.

A Justice Department lawyer said Thursday in federal court that the House can impeach a president over ignored subpoenas, a noted contrast to what lawyers for President Donald Trump are arguing at his Senate impeachment trial this week. Asked by a federal judge what the House can do to enforce its subpoenas, Justice Department lawyer James Burnham said without hesitation that the House can use its impeachment powers, among other options, like withholding appropriations.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/30/politics/trump-impeachment-subpoena-hearing/index.html

Shame on John Bolton and shame on DukeU for inviting him
https://twitter.com/DukeSanford/status/1222966261732143105

"In total, there are now 7834 confirmed #2019nCoV cases, including 7736 in #China, representing almost 99% of all reported cases worldwide. 170 people have lost their lives to this outbreak, all of them in China"-@DrTedros
https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1222969511801950210

This is a bad take. He should have publicly disclosed what we found. The FBI was in effect running interference for Trump with the Hillary emails.
https://twitter.com/RelentlessYapp/status/1222932085838475264

Attorney General Barr now moves to install one of his top aides as the new US Attorney in the office prosecuting Flynn:
https://wtop.com/local/2020/01/ap-exclusive-barr-names-new-u-s-attorney-in-dc/

"Disbanding the opposing party is in the national interest because it will help me get reelected"

"2020 elections are cancelled. This decision was in the best interests of my re-election"

"Yes Senators, he shot Sanders in the head in the middle of 5th Avenue, but he believed it would help his re-election and therefore in the public interest so you can't convict. Also no need for witnesses."

It's been almost 24 hours since Dershowitz took a dump on the very idea of America and I'm still just filled with rage. I can't believe that here in America the President's attorney took to the Senate floor and argued that "if the president feels he's the best president ever, and re-election is in the national interest, then anything he does in favor of re-election is not impeachable as it's for the national interest". Even just typing those words out makes me want to scream and cry at the same time. We joke about the Right's obsession with "Dear Leader" and "Supreme Leader Trump" all the time. It's something else when you see that mantra being written into American History on the Senate floor. On the heels of Dershowitz, were now just over 24 hours away from an acquittal. A "trial" that does not include any witnesses or documents. A "trial" that was carefully crafted by the President's ally to ensure his acquittal. All while Republican Senators advance and swallow Trump's legal arguments that they know are equal parts dangerous, laughable, and objectively wrong. Schiff touches on this a lot. These Senators KNOW Trump is lying, they know he's guilty, and they know his defenses are dangerous bullshit. However, they are terrified to do anything because their voting base has determined that Donald Trump IS Jesus/G-d/Salvation. I just feel sick. American Democracy was always fragile and the version of it we learn in school is always far more rosy and clean than reality. However, it was always still a functioning Democracy. We're now on the precipice of American Democracy's utter destruction. If the President can argue "I alone determine what's in the national interest, ergo anything I do is automatically in the national interest" we are living in a mediaval monarchy. And what's worse, it's not as if some diabolical conniving leader stole our Democracy from us. No. It's Donald fucking shitstain Trump. Our Democracy wasn't destroyed by some super villian. It was willingly given to the a person everybody knew was a racist piece of corrupt shit terrorist criminal. Given to him because a bunch of cranky thin skinned white people wanted to be able to say the N word out loud again. We have one last chance to save this country in November. Forget about Biden vs Bernie, Big donors vs. small donors, public option vs. medicare for all. If trump wins again all of that goes out the window. All of it. tl:dr: Fucking vote people. This is our last chance.

US farm bankruptcies jumped 20 percent in 2019 despite federal aid
https://thehill.com/policy/international/trade/480713-us-farm-bankruptcies-jumped-20-percent-in-2019-despite-federal-aid

Senator Baldwin to House Managers: "Given that Romney's question yesterday asked when the president first withheld aid and the WH counsel could not directly answer that .... What witness or witnesses could answer Romney's question?"

Record Warm Water Measured Beneath Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday’ Thwaites Glacier | Researchers drilled a bore hole through the ice, then measured the waters beneath for the first time on Jan. 10 and 11. They recorded temperatures more than two degrees Celsius above freezing
https://www.ecowatch.com/antarctica-doomsday-glacier-water-2644974237.html

It's disgusting that the Senators running for President are tied up in Washington because of an impeachment trial and the man on trial is swooping into Des Moines tonight, unfettered.

Sen. Brown called out lawmakers complaining about long hours on Senate floor. He said a lot of Americans stand on their feet waiting tables for eight hours, which he says is tougher than sitting and listening to Dershowitz for a couple hours.

Mattis, Bolton and Kelly are not liberal deep state plants. And yet in their own way they are trying to tell us something about the man they served. This is not an argument for removal at the impeachment trial. But it speaks to Trump’s fitness for office, no?
https://twitter.com/EliLake/status/1222990241226686469

PHILBIN: "The first is I just want to make clear that there was no conduct of foreign policy being carried on here by a private person. "
THE PRESIDENT to Zelensky on July 25:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EPjxFQwXsAAl1vp.png

Bipartisan question — I believe the first one — from Sens. Sinema/Manchin/Collins/Murkowski, to Trump’s lawyers. Will Trump assure us that private citizens will not be directed to conduct foreign policy unless formally designated by the president and the State Dept to do so?
https://twitter.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1222990896851046406

Philbin says there was no foreign policy being carried out by a private citizen.
https://twitter.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1222991294492028933

And now Philbin is not answering the question in a truthful manner - saying that what Rudy Giuliani did never happened.
https://twitter.com/joe_rose_/status/1222991302586843136

Schiff proposes limiting witness depositions to one week, in order to alleviate fears of never-ending trial.
https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1222994343910428673

Roberts is on fire today. After Kennedy addresses Q to Nadler, Roberts: "I think it would be best if senators directed their questions to one of the parties or both, and leave it to them to decide who they want to go up to bat rather than direct it to particular counsels"
https://twitter.com/TeeMcSee/status/1222993668224823314

"You can't know what's in a President's head, therefore you can't impeach him. What's in the President's head makes it legal." - WH Counsel

It's unlawful because it violates both the Impoundment Control Act and 52 USC 30121. Those are the actual laws broken here, Philbin. And you know it.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/52/30121
https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title2/chapter17B&edition=prelim

Incredible how easily Schiff dismantles everything they say and it’s all off the cuff

Zoe Lofgreen answering the question about supoenas.
- subpoenas were fully authorized
- the subpoenas were for Mulvaney and Bolton
- president Trump obstructs before and after the House votes by telling his people not to comply.
- only logical explaination : Trump wants to obstruct, fight the subpoenas. Trump said that he would fight the subpoenas. This would later also apply to the Senate, the Senate would curtail its own subpoena power.

Adam Schiff is brilliant. To perform on this level, day after day when you know he's probably running on fumes to prepare this heavily... I'm so impressed with him.

Fast and Furious, for those who are curious, started by the Bush Administration, was a terribly planned operation started and managed by Special Agent Bill Newell. No charges were recommended, and Obama was never involved at any level. Holder produced a fair portion of the associated evidence immediately. Holder did attempt to withhold some evidence because of irrelevance, but a judge ruled that that evidence, while irrelevant, was something Congress had a right to see. At the end of six years, Congress got everything they asked for. And, as Holder said, it was irrelevant. In other words, there's no analogy to be drawn here.

My favorite evidence that President Trump cared strongly about corruption in Ukraine is the fact that when it came time to hire a Chairman for his own campaign, he picked a guy whose last job was running the political shop for this Ukrainian president:
https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-07-26/ukrainians-vowed-turn-their-ex-president-s-estate-museum-corruption-it-s

Chinese Scientist Working on Coronavirus Claims Pets Can Catch Infection, Says Owners Should Monitor for Symptoms
https://www.newsweek.com/chinese-scientist-working-coronavirus-claims-pets-can-catch-infection-says-owners-should-monitor-1484841

Pets could also contract Wuhan coronavirus: Chinese medical expert; Domesticated mammals potential carriers of 2019-nCoV, need to be placed under home quarantine
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3867130

Number of slavery victims in London up tenfold in five years
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/30/number-of-slavery-victims-in-london-up-tenfold-in-five-years

Scientists share the highest-resolution images of the sun's surface yet to be captured. Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope captured the images. The broke appearance of roiling plasma on the surface of the sun resemble a collection of cell-like panels. Each of the panels is roughly the size of Texas.
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2020/01/29/Scientists-share-highest-resolution-image-of-the-suns-surface/8051580328731/?ts_=19

NASA astronaut Christina Koch shatters female spaceflight record — She surpassed 289 days in space, and is still going strong. When she returns to Earth next week, she will have achieved historic first: longest single spaceflight for a woman — with more than 300 days on International Space Station.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/nasa-astronaut-christina-koch-shatters-female-spaceflight-record/story?id=68586821
https://cdnph.upi.com/svc/sv/i/8051580328731/2020/1/15803319088753/Scientists-share-highest-resolution-image-of-the-suns-surface.jpg

American died in Egyptian prison this month after Egypt ignored paperwork to secure release
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/american-died-egyptian-prison-month-after-egypt-ignored-paperwork-secure-n1126316?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_nw

Pete Buttigieg synthesizes his argument against Bernie Sanders in Marshalltown, Iowa: "We have a majority now to do things. ... We have got to galvanize, not polarize, that majority in our divided time in order to win."

Trump has retweeted someone who tweeted out an article with the name of the person some think is the whistleblower.

The Stabenow question about a campaign finance violation has the same problem as talking about Impoundment Control Act. The House needs to include these charges in the articles of impeachment if they wanted to prosecute these matters.

Everything else aside (which I admit is a whole heap to put aside), the WH counsel are just plain assholes. Compare the manners, disposition, and behavior of each side and you'll see that the WH lawyers are just angry, whining, vindictive pieces of shit.

Dusty Baker is tasked with changing the perception of the Houston Astros. I for one am willing to root for Zack Greinke (Astros pitcher), whom I a lifetime fan of, simply because Dusty Baker was hired. Not any of the other players, though. Not yet and perhaps not ever again.

 –Trump’s border wall is vulnerable to flash flooding, and will likely require the installation of hundreds of large storm gates that will remain open for months every summer to prevent the structure from being damaged or toppled - with @vanhoutenphoto
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trumps-border-wall-vulnerable-to-flash-floods-needs-large-storm-gates-left-open-for-months/2020/01/30/be709346-3710-11ea-bb7b-265f4554af6d_story.html

Warren's question: At a time when majorities of Americans have lost faith in government, does the fact that the Chief Justice is presiding over an impeachment without witnesses or evidence contribute to loss of legitimacy of Supreme Court and constitution?"

Overheard in the senate chamber after day 2 of questioning. “She got me,” Roberts said of Warren’s question over him. "That f***ing Warren boomed me." Roberts added, “She’s so good,” repeating it four times. Roberts then said he wanted to add Warren to the list of senators he reads constitutional amendments with this summer

Chief Justice John G. Roberts had to read this outloud:    The majority of Americans has lost faith in government - does the fact that the Chief Justice is presiding over an impeachment with no witnesses or evidence contribute to a loss of legitimacy of Supreme Court and Constitution?

Then made this face waiting for Schiff to respond.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EPkGztjWAAAX2zZ.jpg
https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1223016266136530944

Schiff: "I do believe in right and wrong. And I think right matters. I think a fair trial matters. And I think that the country deserves a fair trial. And yes, senator, if they don't get that fair trial, it will just further a cynicism that is corrosive to this institution."
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1223015682541047809

Dusty Baker on his next 10 days: "I gotta pack. Have you ever packed for seven months? That's a long time ... I gotta prune my grapes. I got work to do. I gotta see my grandchild, gotta go see my son, gotta make sure my dogs don't have ticks or worms. I got a lot to do."
https://twitter.com/chandler_rome/status/1222997253847044096?s=21

"Alright, finally ready to go. I've packed the grapes, visited my dogs, and de-wormed the kids." - Dusty in a few hours, probably

Schiff: "I will make an offer to opposing counsel...Let's take a week to have a fair trial...Is that too much to ask in the name of fairness, that we follow the Clinton model?... Can't we take ONE WEEK to hear from these witnesses? I think we can. I think we should. I think we must."
https://twitter.com/CAPAction/status/1223003545299013632

Each card has a name: The Magician; The Empress; The Fool; The Wheel of Fortune; Strength. They represent challenges and tests, twists of fate. No card is all good or all bad. Cards can be positive or negative depending on where they fall. When you read someone's future, they must think of a question. They must hold it in their mind. The cards are read in sequence, each card leads to the next. We move from terror and loss to unexpected good fortune and out of darkness hope is born.

Here's the full Sanders article on George Wallace that Nate McDermott dug up last year. He compares Wallace to Hitler.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/07/politics/kfile-bernie-sanders-vermont-1970s/index.html

Sec. Pompeo will talk with President Zelenskiy to "highlight U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty," meet with business leaders, and lay a wreath to commemorate Ukrainian soldiers who died fighting Russian-backed separatists, according to the State Dept.
https://twitter.com/NBCPolitics/status/1223020596583378945

They just got Hakeemed

Absolute Utter Shitstain REPUBLICAN CHRISTIAN TERRORIST Texas attorney general is declining to defend the state agency charged with disciplining judges in a lawsuit filed by a justice of the peace who was warned over her refusal to marry same-sex couples. The justice, Dianne Hensley, sued the Commission on Judicial Misconduct last month after it issued a nonbinding warning over her yearslong refusal to marry gay couples while continuing to marry heterosexual couples. The attorney general, Ken Paxton, a Republican, said he will not defend the commission in the lawsuit because its actions conflict with his views of the Constitution. "We believe judges retain their right to religious liberty when they take the bench," his spokesperson, Marc Rylander, said in a statement.
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/texas-ag-won-t-defend-state-agency-gay-marriage-suit-n1126731?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_np

64 US military personnel have now been diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury in wake of Jan 8 Iranian missile attack on US base in Iraq. Earlier this week the Pentagon reported 50 diagnosed cases.
https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1223018045800689675

Senator Liz Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat running for president, asks whether having Chief Justice Roberts preside over an impeachment trial without witnesses or witnesses threatens his legitimacy.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4851016/user-clip-chief-justice-roberts-reads-senator-warrens-fastball-question

Or instead of weighing Weigel vs. the Examiner, you could just read what Sanders actually wrote about Wallace in 1972, which in the historian profession we call "going to the primary source: Bernie Sanders article analyzing the rise of George Wallace and the threat to democracy:
https://www.scribd.com/document/408878677/1972-Movement-Magazine-Issue-2?secret_password=AlaEye6M1QQZ1FbbeVxF

People can agree or disagree over the merits of his analysis, but it's absurd to call what he thought of Wallace "praise," when Sanders explicitly links him to the political movement that murdered his extended family.

Schiff suggests a one-week period for depositions and a “limited” time for witnesses, pushing back on concerns of “endless” delays. He said the Chief Justice can deal with any disputes. “This can be done very quickly.” He calls it a “reasonable accommodation”.
https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1223027175303065602

Schiff: The state department still has documents which we can have a look at. If we agreed, we could have an additional week. We could have witnesses this week and hear depositions. It doesn't mean that we have unlimited number of witnesses. We would have a limited time, just as we had this week, just as we had now. And we would go on with the business of the Senate as usual. If we had any dispute over whether a witness or a is really valuable the chief justice could decide. If there is any conflict, we have the Chief Justice to quickly solve them. This could be done effectively and quickly. We have specified 4 witnesses which we think are particularly relevant here. We are open to more witnesses. And in the meantime, business in the Senate can resume as normal. We would be respectful of your time. There would be reasonable accommodation, such as the constitution demands. And a week is a reasonable accommodation. We will have one week for hearing witnesses. And we will do the business as usual.

PBS Newshour is keeping a spreadsheet of all questions
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WJdJlc1nGQ1fjapX9H6bsXUgsKBSk-qchjMVKnBG08U/htmlview?sle=true#gid=0

It was Rep. Schiff who answered, saying he thinks no witnesses reflects adversely on the entire institution, not on Chief Justice John Roberts.
https://twitter.com/HeatherMonahan_/status/1223019535332147202

It’s clear @senatemajldr and #Cipollone/#Philbin knew they had to try to clean up the mess vomited out by #Dershowitz. So Dersh today “clarified” his anti-constitutional screed, and Mitch gave #Philbin a “question” he could use to diminish scary Dersh. Mitch should do it himself.
https://twitter.com/howardfineman/status/1223029766988668928

Despite denials, a memo shows a US Customs and Border Protection office ordered agents to question Iranian Americans after Gen. Soleimani was killed in a US airstrike.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/memo-shows-cbp-ordered-agents-question-iranian-americans-border-n1126776

Reports of sexual assault rose 27% at military service academies in 2018-19 school year
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/30/politics/military-service-academies-sexual-assault-report/index.html

YEP: I make a lot of allowances for you as a target of political persecution in your adopted country, but your native country would appreciate it if you quit promoting in the US the repressive reactionaries you so laudably resist in your new home.
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1223037320045133824

"It's not that they don't trust the Chief Justice to be fair. It's that they FEAR the Chief Justice being fair!"

I don’t know how Roberts can sit there having the Republicans shit all over him while the Democrats give him respect.

Schiff: "As counsel just conceded... Rudy Giuliani was not pursuing the policy of the United States. OK, if it wasn't the policy of the U.S., then what was it? If it wasn't the policy to pursue an investigation of the Bidens, then what was it? It was a domestic political errand."
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1223047242824790018

Susan Collins asks why House withdrew its subpoena of Bolton deputy Kupperman after he sued. Schiff notes that they asked Kupperman to abide by the McGahn decision, which he declined to do. “We were not going to go through that exercise,” he said, referring to another court fight

Senators (jurors) listed at 2016 hearing in which testimony was given that ousting Shokin (frmr Kremlin-aligned prosecutor) was official U.S. policy:
GOP: Risch, Rubio, Johnson, Gardner, Perdue, Paul, Barrasso
DEM: Cardin, Menendez, Shaheen, Coons, Murphy, Kaine, Markey
https://twitter.com/HeidiNBC/status/1222936243702464512

V Nuland, then assis sec of state:
Before Shokin’s removal “reform legislation” .. “had been blocked for months.”
“By late fall of 2015, the EU and the United States joined the chorus of those seeking Mr. Shokin’s removal ....
https://twitter.com/HeidiNBC/status/1222936597194256391

REPUBLICAN SENATORS WERE BRIEFED ON THE BIDEN EFFORT TO OUST VIKTOR SHOKIN IN 2016. THEY WERE TOLD THAT IT WAS U.S. POLICY TO USE LOAN GUARANTEES TO UKRAINE AS LEVERAGE. THERE WAS ZERO CONTROVERSY ABOUT THIS.
https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1222927714824400897

Republicans: They should hurry this up! It's taking too long! We're ready to vote NOW.
Also Republicans: They rushed it too quickly! They should have taken more time!
Also Republicans: They spent 33 days! Why'd they wait? They waited post-Christmas!
Also Republicans: They can't hang this over us for months in litigation!

YEP: One thing that I do think is not often reported but which is very apparent when attending Trump rallies: His crowds think he’s hilarious — like, comedy gold — for some of the same comments that appall everyone else.
https://twitter.com/NiallStanage/status/1223061717762150402 

The arrested Harvard prof is tip of the iceberg. When the Texas A&M system investigated how much Chinese money its faculty was getting, officials were astounded—over 100 were involved in Chinese talent recruitment plans. Only 5 disclosed.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-funding-of-u-s-researchers-raises-red-flags-11580428915

No comments:

Post a Comment