Trump hosted the women’s national champion Baylor Bears at the White House. He served them burgers and talked about his hair. https://t.co/vvBQKmgmX0 pic.twitter.com/kFrrrD3RKw— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) April 29, 2019
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
They Don't Look Too Thrilled To Be There
Friday, April 26, 2019
Biden Is In, McAuliffe Is Out
Joe Biden made it official yesterday, becoming the 20th name on my list of candidates. I missed it last week but former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe has said he won't run. I've updated my lists.
Potential Democratic Candidates, in alphabetical order:
Days until Election Day: 556
Potential Democratic Candidates, in alphabetical order:
- Stacey Abrams (2018 candidate for Georgia governor)
- Michael Bennet (Colorado Senator) added 2/10/19
- Steve Bullock (Governor of Montana)
- Bill de Blasio (Mayor of New York City)
- Chris Murphy (Connecticut senator)
I'm Probably Not Running: Long-shot (or in some cases, fantasy) candidates who were once mentioned somewhere, anywhere, as possible potential presidents, but who aren't doing any of the things an actual candidate must do:
- Jerry Brown (former Governor of California)
- Mark Cuban (Businessman, owner of the Dallas Mavericks)
- Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (Actor) added Nov. 10
- Tim Kaine (Virginia senator, 2016 VP nominee)
- Joe Kennedy (Congressman from Massachusetts) added Nov. 10
- John Kerry (former Secretary of State, 2004 Democratic nominee) added Nov. 10
- Mark Warner (Virginia senator) added Nov. 10
- Mark Zuckerberg (Businessman, founder of Facebook)
- John Delaney (7/28/17)
- Andrew Yang (11/6/17)
- Elizabeth Warren (12/31/18)
- Tulsi Gabbard (1/11/19)
- Julián Castro (1/12/19)
- Kirsten Gillibrand (1/16/19)
- Kamala Harris (1/21/19)
- Pete Buttigieg (1/23/19)
- Howard Schultz (1/29/19) * Running as an Independent
- Marianne Williamson (1/30/19)
- Cory Booker (2/1/19)
- Amy Klobuchar (2/10/19)
- Bernie Sanders (2/19/19)
- Jay Inslee (3/1/19)
- John Hickenlooper (3/4/19)
- Beto O'Rourke (3/14/19)
- Eric Swalwell (4/5/19)
- Tim Ryan (4/5/19)
- Seth Moulton (4/22/19)
- Joe Biden (4/25/19)
I'm Not Running
Oprah Winfrey
Andrew Cuomo
Sheryl Sandberg, added Sept. 8
Jason Kander, added Oct. 17
Robert Iger, added Oct. 22
Michael Avenatti, December 4, 2018
Deval Patrick, December 5, 2018
Martin O'Malley, January 3, 2019
Luis Gutierrez, added January 7, 2019
Tom Steyer, January 9, 2019
Bob Casey, January 19, 2019
Eric Garcetti, January 29, 2019
Andrew Gillum, January 29, 2019
Mitch Landrieu, added February 11, 2019
Eric Holder, 3/4/19
Jeff Merkley, 3/5/19
Sherrod Brown, 3/7/10
Terry McAuliffe, 3/17/19
Sheryl Sandberg, added Sept. 8
Jason Kander, added Oct. 17
Robert Iger, added Oct. 22
Michael Avenatti, December 4, 2018
Deval Patrick, December 5, 2018
Martin O'Malley, January 3, 2019
Luis Gutierrez, added January 7, 2019
Tom Steyer, January 9, 2019
Bob Casey, January 19, 2019
Eric Garcetti, January 29, 2019
Andrew Gillum, January 29, 2019
Mitch Landrieu, added February 11, 2019
Eric Holder, 3/4/19
Jeff Merkley, 3/5/19
Sherrod Brown, 3/7/10
Terry McAuliffe, 3/17/19
I'm Not Running Anymore: Declared candidates who have dropped out
Richard Ojeda (1/25/19)
Days until Election Day: 556
Melania Turns 49 - Updated
Whoever runs the White House Twitter account picked an interesting picture to wish Melania Happy Birthday:
Husband Donald has been tweeting up a storm today, including this one, which was posted with its glaring typo at 6.32 this morning and hasn't been corrected:
... but as far as I can tell, he hasn't sent out birthday wishes for his wife.
Perhaps he's embarrassed to be married to a woman so old and past her prime. Remember, Donald believes that a woman reaches "check-out time" at 35. Read about it here.
Update on Friday night. Apparently Melania spent her birthday having dinner with the Prime Minister of Japan and his wife. Neither Melania nor Donald looks very happy to be there, and note the positioning and the body language. Presumably Mr. and Mrs. Abe would be considered honored guests, but Donald and Melania are front and center on the red carpet, with Mr. and Mrs. Abe standing wanly off to one side.
photo credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Everything about the Trumps is just so weird...
Happy Birthday, @FLOTUS! pic.twitter.com/qwUwcod5LC— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 26, 2019
Husband Donald has been tweeting up a storm today, including this one, which was posted with its glaring typo at 6.32 this morning and hasn't been corrected:
“President Donald J. Trump is the greatest hostage negotiator that I know of in the history of the United States. 20 hostages, many in impossible circumstances, have been released in last two years. No money was paid.” Cheif Hostage Negotiator, USA!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2019
... but as far as I can tell, he hasn't sent out birthday wishes for his wife.
Perhaps he's embarrassed to be married to a woman so old and past her prime. Remember, Donald believes that a woman reaches "check-out time" at 35. Read about it here.
Update on Friday night. Apparently Melania spent her birthday having dinner with the Prime Minister of Japan and his wife. Neither Melania nor Donald looks very happy to be there, and note the positioning and the body language. Presumably Mr. and Mrs. Abe would be considered honored guests, but Donald and Melania are front and center on the red carpet, with Mr. and Mrs. Abe standing wanly off to one side.
photo credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Everything about the Trumps is just so weird...
Monday, April 22, 2019
Rep. Moulton Joins The Race - Updated
Representative Seth Moulton, from Massachusetts, has announced that he is running for president. I've updated the lists below. Of the 15 names left on the Potential and I'm Probably Not Running lists, I'd say Joe Biden is still a strong possibility to join the race; the rest will probably sit this one out.
Note: I recently split the Potential list into two sections, those who are still doing some of the things potential candidates do, and those whose names were mentioned as potential candidates at some point, but aren't doing anything that looks like running.
Potential Democratic Candidates, in alphabetical order:
Days until Election Day: 560
Former vice president Joe Biden is planning to enter the 2020 presidential race, joining a crowded field with a candidacy that will test many of the questions facing the Democratic Party.
Biden is expected to make the announcement in a video Thursday morning, according to a source close to him, which will be followed by a trip Monday to a union hall in Pittsburgh.
He will enter the race in an unfamiliar position, as a front-runner, following campaigns in 1988 and 2008 that ended in extreme failures.
Was Biden's 2008 campaign an "extreme failure?" I would argue it wasn't. Joe didn't get elected president but his campaign put him in position to be selected to be Obama's VP, a post in which he served successfully for eight years. His service as VP is also the reason he comes in as a front-runner this time around. Talking Points Memo adds a couple of details:
Biden currently leads most national and early-state polls, buoyed by sky-high name recognition, his appeal to blue-collar workers and nostalgia amongst Democrats for the Obama era. But he’s a veteran of two failed presidential bids, and it remains to be seen whether his support grows or declines once he officially enters the race.
Biden is the last major candidate expected to announce his presidential run. The crowded Democratic field is closing in on 20 candidates, the largest in a generation, and Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) currently have the strongest poll numbers in the scattered field. (Read more here.)
The candidate Biden would like to emulate, I think, is Walter Mondale in 1984. Mondale, like Biden, had been a reasonably successful vice president and a well-regarded senator. Like Biden, he didn’t really inspire a lot of enthusiasm, and his liberal history seemed a bit old-fashioned, certainly compared to first-time candidate Jesse Jackson. Mondale took a large lead in endorsements and in the polls heading into Iowa, won big, and then was upset by the relatively obscure Gary Hart in New Hampshire. He almost lost the nomination to him, but was eventually saved as enough Democrats stuck with what they knew – after all, no one really disliked Mondale, and his policy positions were squarely within what most party actors wanted.
One danger is that Biden will wind up as Mondale lite, and that won’t be good enough. It’s easy to imagine him getting a weak plurality of endorsements (or worse) by Iowa, rather than the solid majority Mondale had. His polling lead isn’t especially impressive so far, and other candidates could easily surge and catch him. I don’t think he has many strong enemies, but Seth Masket’s data suggests quite a few party actors aren’t all that interested in him.
Another danger is that even if Biden winds up in the same place as Mondale – one of the finalists for the nomination – he might not get as lucky with his opponent. If Biden and Bernie Sanders are the only two remaining after the early events, most party actors will presumably swing strongly to Biden. But Kamala Harris? Elizabeth Warren? Cory Booker? Amy Klobuchar? I’m not sure Biden retains his support against any of them.
Add it all up, and I’m going to repeat something I’ve been saying for a while: This nomination fight looks wide open to me, with a dozen or so candidates having a realistic shot and no one having much better than a 10 percent chance of winning. I’ll certainly be impressed if Biden rolls out an eye-popping slate of endorsements this week and surges in the polls. But even then, I find it hard to believe he’ll end up any stronger than Mondale did in 1984. And Mondale barely won.
Note: I recently split the Potential list into two sections, those who are still doing some of the things potential candidates do, and those whose names were mentioned as potential candidates at some point, but aren't doing anything that looks like running.
Potential Democratic Candidates, in alphabetical order:
- Stacey Abrams (2018 candidate for Georgia governor)
- Michael Bennet (Colorado Senator) added 2/10/19
- Joe Biden (Former VP)
- Steve Bullock (Governor of Montana)
- Bill de Blasio (Mayor of New York City)
- Terry McAuliffe (Former governor of Virginia)
- Chris Murphy (Connecticut senator)
I'm Probably Not Running: Long-shot (or in some cases, fantasy) candidates who were once mentioned somewhere, anywhere, as possible potential presidents, but who aren't doing any of the things an actual candidate must do:
- Jerry Brown (former Governor of California)
- Mark Cuban (Businessman, owner of the Dallas Mavericks)
- Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (Actor) added Nov. 10
- Tim Kaine (Virginia senator, 2016 VP nominee)
- Joe Kennedy (Congressman from Massachusetts) added Nov. 10
- John Kerry (former Secretary of State, 2004 Democratic nominee) added Nov. 10
- Mark Warner (Virginia senator) added Nov. 10
- Mark Zuckerberg (Businessman, founder of Facebook)
- John Delaney (7/28/17)
- Andrew Yang (11/6/17)
- Elizabeth Warren (12/31/18)
- Tulsi Gabbard (1/11/19)
- Julián Castro (1/12/19)
- Kirsten Gillibrand (1/16/19)
- Kamala Harris (1/21/19)
- Pete Buttigieg (1/23/19)
- Howard Schultz (1/29/19) * Running as an Independent
- Marianne Williamson (1/30/19)
- Cory Booker (2/1/19)
- Amy Klobuchar (2/10/19)
- Bernie Sanders (2/19/19)
- Jay Inslee (3/1/19)
- John Hickenlooper (3/4/19)
- Beto O'Rourke (3/14/19)
- Eric Swalwell (4/5/19)
- Tim Ryan (4/5/19)
- Seth Moulton (4/22/19)
I'm Not Running
Oprah Winfrey
Andrew Cuomo
Sheryl Sandberg, added Sept. 8
Jason Kander, added Oct. 17
Robert Iger, added Oct. 22
Michael Avenatti, December 4, 2018
Deval Patrick, December 5, 2018
Martin O'Malley, January 3, 2019
Luis Gutierrez, added January 7, 2019
Tom Steyer, January 9, 2019
Bob Casey, January 19, 2019
Eric Garcetti, January 29, 2019
Andrew Gillum, January 29, 2019
Mitch Landrieu, added February 11, 2019
Eric Holder, 3/4/19
Jeff Merkley, 3/5/19
Sherrod Brown, 3/7/10
Sheryl Sandberg, added Sept. 8
Jason Kander, added Oct. 17
Robert Iger, added Oct. 22
Michael Avenatti, December 4, 2018
Deval Patrick, December 5, 2018
Martin O'Malley, January 3, 2019
Luis Gutierrez, added January 7, 2019
Tom Steyer, January 9, 2019
Bob Casey, January 19, 2019
Eric Garcetti, January 29, 2019
Andrew Gillum, January 29, 2019
Mitch Landrieu, added February 11, 2019
Eric Holder, 3/4/19
Jeff Merkley, 3/5/19
Sherrod Brown, 3/7/10
I'm Not Running Anymore: Declared candidates who have dropped out
Richard Ojeda (1/25/19)
Days until Election Day: 560
Update on Tuesday afternoon. The Washington Post says Joe Biden will enter the race on Thursday:
Biden is expected to make the announcement in a video Thursday morning, according to a source close to him, which will be followed by a trip Monday to a union hall in Pittsburgh.
He will enter the race in an unfamiliar position, as a front-runner, following campaigns in 1988 and 2008 that ended in extreme failures.
Was Biden's 2008 campaign an "extreme failure?" I would argue it wasn't. Joe didn't get elected president but his campaign put him in position to be selected to be Obama's VP, a post in which he served successfully for eight years. His service as VP is also the reason he comes in as a front-runner this time around. Talking Points Memo adds a couple of details:
Biden currently leads most national and early-state polls, buoyed by sky-high name recognition, his appeal to blue-collar workers and nostalgia amongst Democrats for the Obama era. But he’s a veteran of two failed presidential bids, and it remains to be seen whether his support grows or declines once he officially enters the race.
Biden is the last major candidate expected to announce his presidential run. The crowded Democratic field is closing in on 20 candidates, the largest in a generation, and Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) currently have the strongest poll numbers in the scattered field. (Read more here.)
I'm going to wait until it's official to move him to the I'm Running list.
Update #2 on Wednesday morning. Jonathan Bernstein ponders Joe Biden's chances:
Former Vice President Joe Biden plans to finally make his candidacy official this week, and so it’s time for some assessments and analogies. Philip Klein asks whether Biden is similar to Rudy Giuliani in 2008. Ed Kilgore is reminded more of Jeb (!) Bush in 2016.
I’d say it’s awfully hard to see Biden as Giuliani. Sure, Biden’s (very, very) long political history includes some votes that don’t fit well with the Democratic Party in 2019, but there’s nothing comparable to Giuliani’s violation of party orthodoxy on abortion. The former vice president at this point basically promises Obama-Biden policies, not whatever Senator Biden favored in the 1970s. That doesn’t mean he’ll automatically inherit Barack Obama’s supporters. But there’s a big difference between what Biden is up against and the absolute veto that Giuliani faced from core Republican groups in 2008.
I don’t think the Bush analogy is quite right either. Bush’s problem in 2016 wasn’t that the party had turned against the “establishment,” whatever that means. It was that many party actors wanted nothing to do with a third Bush presidency. It’s true that Jeb took an early endorsement lead, but he stalled badly afterward and a careful look at his supporters revealed that he was basically the head of a Bush faction, not a coalition-style candidate. I I don’t see anything similar with Biden. He may or may not appeal to a wide range of party actors, but he’s not relying solely on his own long-time supporters.
Update #2 on Wednesday morning. Jonathan Bernstein ponders Joe Biden's chances:
Former Vice President Joe Biden plans to finally make his candidacy official this week, and so it’s time for some assessments and analogies. Philip Klein asks whether Biden is similar to Rudy Giuliani in 2008. Ed Kilgore is reminded more of Jeb (!) Bush in 2016.
I’d say it’s awfully hard to see Biden as Giuliani. Sure, Biden’s (very, very) long political history includes some votes that don’t fit well with the Democratic Party in 2019, but there’s nothing comparable to Giuliani’s violation of party orthodoxy on abortion. The former vice president at this point basically promises Obama-Biden policies, not whatever Senator Biden favored in the 1970s. That doesn’t mean he’ll automatically inherit Barack Obama’s supporters. But there’s a big difference between what Biden is up against and the absolute veto that Giuliani faced from core Republican groups in 2008.
I don’t think the Bush analogy is quite right either. Bush’s problem in 2016 wasn’t that the party had turned against the “establishment,” whatever that means. It was that many party actors wanted nothing to do with a third Bush presidency. It’s true that Jeb took an early endorsement lead, but he stalled badly afterward and a careful look at his supporters revealed that he was basically the head of a Bush faction, not a coalition-style candidate. I I don’t see anything similar with Biden. He may or may not appeal to a wide range of party actors, but he’s not relying solely on his own long-time supporters.
The candidate Biden would like to emulate, I think, is Walter Mondale in 1984. Mondale, like Biden, had been a reasonably successful vice president and a well-regarded senator. Like Biden, he didn’t really inspire a lot of enthusiasm, and his liberal history seemed a bit old-fashioned, certainly compared to first-time candidate Jesse Jackson. Mondale took a large lead in endorsements and in the polls heading into Iowa, won big, and then was upset by the relatively obscure Gary Hart in New Hampshire. He almost lost the nomination to him, but was eventually saved as enough Democrats stuck with what they knew – after all, no one really disliked Mondale, and his policy positions were squarely within what most party actors wanted.
One danger is that Biden will wind up as Mondale lite, and that won’t be good enough. It’s easy to imagine him getting a weak plurality of endorsements (or worse) by Iowa, rather than the solid majority Mondale had. His polling lead isn’t especially impressive so far, and other candidates could easily surge and catch him. I don’t think he has many strong enemies, but Seth Masket’s data suggests quite a few party actors aren’t all that interested in him.
Another danger is that even if Biden winds up in the same place as Mondale – one of the finalists for the nomination – he might not get as lucky with his opponent. If Biden and Bernie Sanders are the only two remaining after the early events, most party actors will presumably swing strongly to Biden. But Kamala Harris? Elizabeth Warren? Cory Booker? Amy Klobuchar? I’m not sure Biden retains his support against any of them.
Add it all up, and I’m going to repeat something I’ve been saying for a while: This nomination fight looks wide open to me, with a dozen or so candidates having a realistic shot and no one having much better than a 10 percent chance of winning. I’ll certainly be impressed if Biden rolls out an eye-popping slate of endorsements this week and surges in the polls. But even then, I find it hard to believe he’ll end up any stronger than Mondale did in 1984. And Mondale barely won.
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Hard Thoughts - Updated
Two of the observers/commentators/pundits I follow on Twitter issued tweet-storms today, both talking about systems being destroyed: one environmental, the other political. Strong words in both cases. Read and ponder:
First, Kurt Eichenwald talking about climate change:
Update. In an essay published at The Guardian and titled "Trump's moral squalor, not impeachment, will remove him from power," former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich says that Donald is "morally loathsome." This is the column, in its entirety:
Democrats in Congress and talking heads on television will be consumed in the coming weeks by whether the evidence in the Mueller report, especially of obstruction of justice, merits impeachment.
Meanwhile, the question of “wink-wink” cooperation with Russia still looms. Mueller’s quote of Trump, when first learning a special counsel had been appointed – “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked” – has already become a national tagline. Why, Americans wonder, would Trump be “fucked” if he hadn’t done something so awful as to cause its revelation to “fuck” him?
Added to this will be Mueller’s own testimony before Congress, and Congress’s own investigations of Trump.
But let’s be real. Trump will not be removed by impeachment. No president has been. With a Republican Senate controlled by the most irresponsible political hack ever to be majority leader, the chances are nil.
Which means Trump will have to be removed the old-fashioned way – by voters in an election 19 months away.
The practical question is whether the Mueller report and all that surrounds it will affect that election.
Most Americans hold a low opinion of Trump. He’s the only president in Gallup polling history never to have earned the support of majority for single day of his term.
Yet Mueller’s report probably won’t move any of the 40% who have held tight to Trump regardless.
So how to reach the 11% or 12% who may decide the outcome?
Reveal his moral loathsomeness.
Democrats and progressives tend to shy away from morality, given how rightwing evangelicals have used it against abortion, contraceptives and equal marriage rights.
But that’s to ignore Americans’ deep sense of right and wrong. Character counts, and presidential character counts most of all.
Even though Mueller apparently doesn’t believe a sitting president can be indicted, he provides a devastating indictment of Trump’s character.
Trump is revealed as a chronic liar. He claimed he never asked for loyalty from FBI director James Comey. Mueller finds he did. Trump claimed he never asked Comey to let the “Michael Flynn matter go”. Mueller finds he did. Trump claimed he never pushed the White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller. Mueller finds he did. Trump even lied about inviting Comey to dinner, claiming falsely, in public, that Comey requested it. Trump enlists others to lie. He lies to his staff.
Trump treats his subordinates horribly. He hides things from them. He yells at them. He orders them to carry out illegal acts.
He acts like a thug. He regrets his lawyers are not as good at protecting him as was his early mentor Roy Cohn – a mob lawyer. When reports surface about the now infamous Trump Tower meeting of June 2016, Trump directs the cover-up.
Trump is unprincipled. The few people in the White House and the cabinet who stand up to him, according to Mueller – threatening to resign rather than carry out his illegal orders – are now gone. They resigned or were fired.
This is a portrait of a morally bankrupt man.
We still don’t have the full story of Trump’s tax evasion and his business dealings with Russian financiers. But we know he has lied to business associates, stiffed contractors, cheated on his wife by having sex with a porn star, paid the porn star hush money, and boosted his wealth while in office with foreign cash.
It continues. In recent weeks he wilfully endangered the life of a member of Congress by disseminating a propaganda video, similar to those historically used by extremist political groups, tying her to the 9/11 tragedy because she is a Muslim American speaking up for Muslim Americans. She has received death threats, including one by a supporter of Trump who was arrested.
He has also attacked the deceased senator John McCain, whom he falsely accused of leaking the Steele dossier and finishing last in his class at Annapolis. Then Trump retweeted a note from a supporter saying “millions of Americans truly LOVE President Trump, not McCain”. Americans know McCain was tortured in a prison camp for five years, in service to this country.
How many of Trump’s followers or those who might otherwise be tempted to vote for him in 2020 will recoil from this moral squalor?
Donald Trump is the living embodiment of the seven deadly sins – pride, greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, envy and sloth – and he is the precise obverse of the seven virtues as enunciated by Pope Gregory in 590 AD: chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility.
Legal debates about obstruction of justice are fine. But no voter in 2020 should be allowed to overlook this basic reality: Donald Trump is a morally despicable human being.
First, Kurt Eichenwald talking about climate change:
1. A message of fear for Easter.— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2019
The one trend I've seen growing rapidly is terrifying: Those who understand science, while also understanding the inexorable power of propaganda from the comfortable, beginning to rationally and calmly discuss the end of the human species...
2...as those who gain their knowledge from science - not from talk radio or television commentators or politicians - watch the data come in, it has increasingly unavoidable to acknowledge that the damage of climate change has begun and it will grow exponentially over time...— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2019
3...the biggest problem is the calculations of timing of fixing to resolution. We could stop the use of all fossil fuels today, and it would only slow the train as it requires decades to come to a stop. We very well may be in the horrifying feedback loop, where....— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2019
4...melting releases methane trapped under ice, which raises the temperature, melting more ice, releasing more methane and on an on. The methane is already being released. We have had decades to address this reality, but that is the problem. We had decades. It always seems so...— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2019
5..far off. We spend endless amounts of time listening to those who profit from the status quo first say "the climate isn't warming," then "it's a hoax," then "it's warming, but man is not responsible," then a glorious mix of "the hoax is not happening but its not man's fault"...— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2019
6...& vast numbers believe this calumny of contradictions, seeing it as an opportunity to slam "the elite" who have science training, or "own the libs." Their hope for team victory overruns reason, to understand that experts know more about areas of expertise than the untrained..— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2019
7...they literally say climatologists are in it "for the money," with no understanding that "the money" is just money for research, that these people get paid no matter what, that the most valuable scientists are those who can disprove other science....— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2019
8...that there are millions available to be paid by fossil fuel companies to anyone that says "the climate is fine." They seem to believe that multi-millionaire, selfish climatologists are driving their BMWs to their mansions, while poor, public minded energy execs and....— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2019
9....the politicians they pay for are driving 1985 chevy impalas to their ramshackle apartments, having taken the sacrifice of being CEOs and politicians to protect our nation against greedy, rich climatologists. The irrationality is beyond belief. But it is there.....— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2019
10...what does all this mean? Will we destroy the world?— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2019
No. The world will be fine. Eventually, as the wars for fresh water begin, as islands are washed away, as crops are consumed in storms, as cities are flooded, as reefs are destroyed, as much of this is happening now....
11....the world will be different. We will not. We will be gone, shucked off by the earth like an old coat, as a new evolutionary moment begins, which may or may not end before our sun explodes. Whenever climate change is discussed with statistics, the date 2100 is often used....— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2019
12...that is not "these events begin in 2100." That is, "we will gradually get worse and worse, and by 2100 the world will be like this." That is not far off. My grandparents were alive in 1919. I was alive in 2000. Thats the same number of years as from today to 2100. We will...— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2019
13...live long enough to see the wreckage caused by the baby boom generation that have consumed this planet with a greed unmatched in human history. And then our grandchildren will look at us, screaming in hatred, as we lie "We didn't know! There was nothing to be done!...— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2019
14 "...Rush said climate change was for wimps! Sean said it was a lie! I believed college dropouts instead of PhDs in science! You cant blame me!"— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2019
We know. But the majority of those in power don't care. They will be dead before the waves of torment begin lapping at their feet...
15....all they will have is evidence that we knew, the ability to pull up the records showing we discussed it, we had the science, but enough of us were so greedy or ignorant or sociopathic that we just didn't care.— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2019
Hopefully they will find this thread and use it in evidence.
... then David Rothkopf talking about politics:
In today's America, the president and those who work for him are above the law. The president can't be indicted for crimes he commits. A majority in the Congress believe holding him accountable for his crimes is too politically divisive for justice to be done.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
Trump has already be cited for violating campaign finance laws with no effect. Mueller has showed conclusively he has obstructed justice and no consequences are likely. The Treasury Sec and head of the IRS have broken the law--likely with the WH advice--without consequences.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
The Commerce Sec has lied to the Congress and nothing is done. The president's son and other chief advisors have done so as well, and nothing is done. Subpoenas are ignored without consequence. Rules are broken--from the Constitution's emoluments clause to the guidelines...— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
that protect our national security information--and it does not seem to matter. Those who seek to guide the White House to follow the law--like senior employees at the Department of Homeland Security--are fired for upholding their oaths.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
Not only does the president lie serially to his employers, us, but those who are on the government payroll to provide transparency in the government--like the WH press secretary--lie as well with complete impunity.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
The attorney general, supposedly the nation's top law enforcement official, acts instead as the president's private attorney, lying and twisting the law to suit his personal ends. His predecessor, the acting attorney general, did likewise, also misleading Congress repeatedly.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
Illegal laws are promulgated. Funds are allocated contrary to the wishes of the Congress--and thus in violation of Constitutionally mandated processes and roles. Treaties are attacked and their abrogation is threatened. A foreign enemy attacked us during the last presidential...— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
election and helped elected an unfit and illegitimate candidate and while there is no doubt this is precisely what the founders meant when they spoke of high crimes, it seems the treasonous will not only go unpunished but they will be rewarded with more power...— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
...including perversely, the power to obstruct justice without consequence and thus make it impossible for prosecutors to prove crimes of conspiracy were committed. (As Mueller implied was happening in the report thanks to Trump team lies, destroyed evidence, etc.)— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
The president is a serial sex abuser. So what? The president paid off his mistresses to help win an election. So what? The president gave the Russians classified information, met in secret with Russian leaders, changed US policies to aid his Russian sponsors. So what?— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
The president has committed tax fraud for years. So what? His sister, a federal judge, had to step down to quash an investigation into her implication in those crimes. So what? Money laundering? So what? Rampant corruption? So what?— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
This is where we are America. We have found a loophole in our Constitution that lets presidents and their families and their cabinet secretaries and their cronies in business or in Congress trample our laws, disregard ethical guidelines, make a mockery of our system.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
All it takes is a majority in the Senate and a corrupt Senate Majority leader. For two years it was helped by partisan and corrupt GOP leadership in the House. They are immoral and disgusting, but don't fault them alone. They are after all, living the American Dream.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
They are playing hardball. They are getting everything they can get away with. They are hard-boiled realists who are assessing the weaknesses of the system and of their opponents and perhaps rightly concluding, "It's open season for criminal government in the US, boys and girls."— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
And they have great allies. They have Americans who do not read or understand. They have party loyalists who do not care. And they have opponents who are afraid to act, to step up, to challenge their power. They have opponents who fear defeat...— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
...more than they are committed to doing what is right. They have opponents who value caution above their constitutional obligations, the sanctity of our system, the long term consequences of their enabling behavior.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
Those consequences should not be downplayed. If Trump goes this far, how far will his heirs in criminality, venality, lack of morality go? How bad can it get?— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
We must wonder now if we have passed a tipping point. Is this system too far gone to be saved?
Or will a courageous few step up to use the courts to successfully challenge these miscreants? Will members of the Democratic leadership start to actively and aggressively seek enforcement of subpoenas and punishment for those who violate the law?— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
Most importantly, will enough of the leadership come around to realize that impeachment hearings are vital to the health and future of the country, they are critical to the preservation of our rule of law, they are what the founders require...— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
...in the wake of the stomach turning wrong-doing revealed by Mueller and that is compounded daily before our eyes. They must start to realize that regardless of what might or might not happen in the Senate, successful impeachment hearings will at the very least reveal the truth.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
Successful impeachment hearings will make the case to the American public that crimes have been committed. Perhaps that case, well made, can turn the Senate however unlikely that may seem. But if it does not, but it is solid and true, it will reveal the Senate for what it is.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
And then, it may serve two more purposes. It will send the message to the American electorate that Trump's criminal enterprise and those like McConnell who support must be brought down. And it will send a message to the leaders of tomorrow.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
That message is that we are a nation of laws founded on the principle that no man or woman among is, can or should be above the law...and that there will always be those who, regardless of the odds, will respect and honor that principle and dare to do what is right.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
Right now, our system is dying before our eyes. Failure to act will lead to further, perhaps irreversible decay. This is not a situation that offers the luxury of further musing, of waiting until tomorrow. American democracy has entered the intensive care ward.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
It is up to us to act now to save it or to reconcile ourselves to begin the process of mourning for what was lost, of mourning for a tragic end to the great American experiment in giving power to the people and denying it to those who would exploit us like tyrants past.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 21, 2019
Rothkopf's thoughts reminded me of comments Donny Deutsch made back in December, referring, of course, to Donald. A key point, in light of this week's events, is that "Russia and Stormy Daniels are the least of his problems":
If your fondest wish is that Trump dies in jail, a ruined man - as he so fiercely deserves - watch this video. pic.twitter.com/3NFCsN0w0V— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) December 13, 2018
Update. In an essay published at The Guardian and titled "Trump's moral squalor, not impeachment, will remove him from power," former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich says that Donald is "morally loathsome." This is the column, in its entirety:
Democrats in Congress and talking heads on television will be consumed in the coming weeks by whether the evidence in the Mueller report, especially of obstruction of justice, merits impeachment.
Meanwhile, the question of “wink-wink” cooperation with Russia still looms. Mueller’s quote of Trump, when first learning a special counsel had been appointed – “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked” – has already become a national tagline. Why, Americans wonder, would Trump be “fucked” if he hadn’t done something so awful as to cause its revelation to “fuck” him?
Added to this will be Mueller’s own testimony before Congress, and Congress’s own investigations of Trump.
But let’s be real. Trump will not be removed by impeachment. No president has been. With a Republican Senate controlled by the most irresponsible political hack ever to be majority leader, the chances are nil.
Which means Trump will have to be removed the old-fashioned way – by voters in an election 19 months away.
The practical question is whether the Mueller report and all that surrounds it will affect that election.
Most Americans hold a low opinion of Trump. He’s the only president in Gallup polling history never to have earned the support of majority for single day of his term.
Yet Mueller’s report probably won’t move any of the 40% who have held tight to Trump regardless.
So how to reach the 11% or 12% who may decide the outcome?
Reveal his moral loathsomeness.
Democrats and progressives tend to shy away from morality, given how rightwing evangelicals have used it against abortion, contraceptives and equal marriage rights.
But that’s to ignore Americans’ deep sense of right and wrong. Character counts, and presidential character counts most of all.
Even though Mueller apparently doesn’t believe a sitting president can be indicted, he provides a devastating indictment of Trump’s character.
Trump is revealed as a chronic liar. He claimed he never asked for loyalty from FBI director James Comey. Mueller finds he did. Trump claimed he never asked Comey to let the “Michael Flynn matter go”. Mueller finds he did. Trump claimed he never pushed the White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller. Mueller finds he did. Trump even lied about inviting Comey to dinner, claiming falsely, in public, that Comey requested it. Trump enlists others to lie. He lies to his staff.
Trump treats his subordinates horribly. He hides things from them. He yells at them. He orders them to carry out illegal acts.
He acts like a thug. He regrets his lawyers are not as good at protecting him as was his early mentor Roy Cohn – a mob lawyer. When reports surface about the now infamous Trump Tower meeting of June 2016, Trump directs the cover-up.
Trump is unprincipled. The few people in the White House and the cabinet who stand up to him, according to Mueller – threatening to resign rather than carry out his illegal orders – are now gone. They resigned or were fired.
This is a portrait of a morally bankrupt man.
We still don’t have the full story of Trump’s tax evasion and his business dealings with Russian financiers. But we know he has lied to business associates, stiffed contractors, cheated on his wife by having sex with a porn star, paid the porn star hush money, and boosted his wealth while in office with foreign cash.
It continues. In recent weeks he wilfully endangered the life of a member of Congress by disseminating a propaganda video, similar to those historically used by extremist political groups, tying her to the 9/11 tragedy because she is a Muslim American speaking up for Muslim Americans. She has received death threats, including one by a supporter of Trump who was arrested.
He has also attacked the deceased senator John McCain, whom he falsely accused of leaking the Steele dossier and finishing last in his class at Annapolis. Then Trump retweeted a note from a supporter saying “millions of Americans truly LOVE President Trump, not McCain”. Americans know McCain was tortured in a prison camp for five years, in service to this country.
How many of Trump’s followers or those who might otherwise be tempted to vote for him in 2020 will recoil from this moral squalor?
Donald Trump is the living embodiment of the seven deadly sins – pride, greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, envy and sloth – and he is the precise obverse of the seven virtues as enunciated by Pope Gregory in 590 AD: chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility.
Legal debates about obstruction of justice are fine. But no voter in 2020 should be allowed to overlook this basic reality: Donald Trump is a morally despicable human being.
Happy Easter!
It's become a tradition around here to post cute pictures of dogs dressed for holidays. Here's the Easter version:
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