Round-up of News and Open Thread
[guest post of JVW]
Sorry gang: I should have put up a post over the past couple of days while my compatriots are vacationing. My bad. Since I don’t have anything to cover in significant detail, let me toss a few topics out and let you guys take it from here.
House Democrats demand President Trump’s tax returns for the past six years. The Trump Team tells them to go pound sand.
Senate Republicans move to (based upon your ideology, take your pick) end the Democrats’ delay tactics used on the administration’s nominees (or) prevent the minority party from debating the merits of the President’s nominees before the final vote. Tom Cotton calls this new rule the Revenge of Miguel Estrada.
Former Representative Robert O’Rourke (D-TX) goes to Al Sharpton’s grand convocation and gingerly begins to walk back his earlier opposition to slavery reparations.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN) goes to Al Sharpton’s grand convocation and grovels for forgiveness for having once posited that all lives matter. Remember that Buttigieg is supposed to be one of the independent-thinking moderates in the race.
Chicago has a new mayor who will apparently either be a breath of fresh air or will quickly be co-opted by the ugly machine that has run the City of Big Shoulders for the better part of a century, but all progressives really seem to care about is that she is female, black, and gay. Intersectionality über alles.
There, that should be enough to spark some discussion. Feel free to take off on flights of fancy.
– JVW
Hello and ding and sorry.
JVW (54fd0b) — 4/4/2019 @ 6:51 pmThanks JVW for the fresh post.
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/4/2019 @ 7:04 pmSharpton is a race-baiter, a shakedown artist and much worse. None of the Democrat assclowns have enough about them to tell him to go take a flying fug at a rolling donut.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/4/2019 @ 7:15 pmThat tax returns horseschiff®* is illegal, and serves no other purpose than harassment, and Trump should file a formal criminal complaint with the DC U.S. Attorney.
*®Colonel Haiku
nk (dbc370) — 4/4/2019 @ 7:23 pmTHe NYT editorializes that this rule change makes the Senate less deliberative, never noticing why the rules changed. As it was explained to me once “Nobody changes rules until the assh0le shows up.”
Kevin M (21ca15) — 4/4/2019 @ 8:12 pmThe Senate should file a similar request for all the House Democrat’s tax returns. It would shut Maxine Waters up for once.
Kevin M (21ca15) — 4/4/2019 @ 8:13 pm“All lives matter” should be the very first GOP plank in 2020. Alternatively, “Everyone matters, or no one does.”
Kevin M (21ca15) — 4/4/2019 @ 8:15 pmIf you renamed “slavery reparations” to “amends from the Democrat Party” I’d be down with it.
Kevin M (21ca15) — 4/4/2019 @ 8:17 pmA day late and a dollar short. On the list of “magnificent might have beens” list of fantasies:
President-elect Trump — acknowledged Master of the Art of the Deal — joined by Speaker McConnell, personally lobbies every GOP senator of the upcoming Congress. “You watch,” Trump says quietly but with firm assurance to each GOP senator, “For the open Scalia seat, I’m going to pick someone incredibly qualified, incredibly mainstream — whom the Dems will nevertheless filibuster.”
“That’s right,” adds Majority Leader McConnell, “and when they threaten it, we call them on it. And then, on national TV, we tell them: ‘Basta. No more. If you persist in this ridiculous, unprincipled, unsupportable filibuster of Judge Gorsuch, we’re going to nuke the entire filibuster on national TV.’ But they won’t back down, and when they call, they’ll learn we weren’t bluffing. We’ll invite the TV cameras into our conference. In sorrow rather than in anger, we’ll give the filibuster a proper burial, for with it died the last vestiges of Senate comity and self-restraint. We’ll take our conference vote to change the cloture rule, confirm Judge Gorsuch — and then take up the next forty or fifty substantive legislative votes on which our party can reliably get fifty votes, even if we can’t get sixty.”
Trump could have made FDR’s “Hundred Days” look like a three-toed sloth being ridden by a tug-boat.
And Sen. Cotton, with genuine and due respect, is wrong: The Revenge of Miguel Estrada would come through a SCOTUS appointment, notwithstanding the fact that he hasn’t had the last dozen years on the DC Circuit. Alas, that’s very unlikely, since (if I recall correctly) Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. (1907-1998) — a senior partner at the old line Richmond firm of Hunton & Williams, a recent ABA president, and longtime chairman of the Richmond school board — was the last SCOTUS confirmee to come directly from the private practice of law.
Beldar (fa637a) — 4/4/2019 @ 8:41 pm(That list is compiled by the Department of Redundancies Department.)
Beldar (fa637a) — 4/4/2019 @ 8:42 pmShe seems as reasonable as your going to get in Chicago, which isn’t very, the son of the gramsci translator went very Bartlett in his recent outing
Narciso (366412) — 4/4/2019 @ 8:49 pmIf I remember correctly miguel Estrada wife died subsequently to the end of Schumer’s charade now judge Amy will leave alot of vacant craniums.
Narciso (366412) — 4/4/2019 @ 8:51 pmI’ve speculated, based on this set of DoJ policies and the underlying statutes cited therein, that Mueller almost certainly got access, directly from the IRS, to all of Trump’s tax returns, plus such underlying data (called “return information,” if I’m following this lingo) that Trump may have given the IRS to defend or justify his returns. Mueller didn’t need Trump’s permission — no more than Mueller needed Manafort’s permission before indicting Manafort on, among other things, tax fraud charges.
Likewise, my guess is that one of the many reasons the Dems are desperate to see not only Mueller’s unredacted report, but all of its underlying evidence and data, is that they expect that universe of documents to include Trump’s tax returns.
And I also predicted that eventually, during the 2020 campaign, when the Dems fuss and fume about his still-unreleased tax returns, Trump will claim that Mueller’s failure to indict Trump for tax fraud (the way he indicted Manafort) means that Mueller “totally exonerated Trump on everything relating to this taxes, ever, period, shut up.”
Beldar (fa637a) — 4/4/2019 @ 8:58 pmAnd I predict that Munroe will agree!
Beldar (fa637a) — 4/4/2019 @ 8:59 pmWomp Womp.
Munroe (141125) — 4/4/2019 @ 9:14 pmThe perpetual auditee, Cotton, pounding sand, O’Rourke, Sharpton, Peetie-Bee, Caponeville…
Hear tell the Mueller team wants to belly-up-to-the-Barr for a shot or two, too. 😉
“B-b-b-b-ut you’re ignoring the importance of the Dahlberg repercussions!” – Harry Rosenfeld [Jack Warden] ‘All The President’s Men’ 1976
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/4/2019 @ 9:18 pmYou’re still on that eight track, disco, speaking of that earwig era Todd Phillips joker for those that think Zak snyder is just too upbeat seems to dwell a fair bit on king of comedy.
Narciso (366412) — 4/4/2019 @ 9:23 pm0bama’s IRS had full access to at least 8 years of Trump’s tax returns.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/4/2019 @ 9:27 pmThe splc and media matters should be indicted for fraud money laundering and every other offense we can conjure but they won’t, because we know how the law works
Narciso (366412) — 4/4/2019 @ 9:29 pmIt would be nice to know the list of all the reps who had tax payer paid hush settlements say if one of then recycles innuendo against German cain.
Narciso (366412) — 4/4/2019 @ 9:32 pmIn Suffolk county Massachusetts the da seem insisting on why James q Wilson focuses on ‘broken windows
Narciso (366412) — 4/4/2019 @ 9:46 pmThis would really have fit better on the previous thread, but that thread (like the subject) is old and yucky, so:
Consider this op-ed-cum-personal testimonial, from The Atlantic: Joe Biden’s Deviant Decency: The former vice president isn’t like other Washington power brokers. That’s what makes him great:
The author, one Eve Gerber, is listed in her byline as “a mother of three and U.S. editor of Five Books,” which appears to be some sort of book recommendations website. Does it strike anyone else as likely that Ms. Gerber had something to do with the formulation and expression of her “7-year-old’s concerns about Syrian kids” to the Vice President of the United States? I’m thinking Ms. Gerber plans to re-tell this particular nugget someday in her kid’s application to Yale (if she hasn’t already).
Her essay casually mentions, however, that her family has been invited by Biden to an event — only a “single” — at the Vice President’s residency, the Naval Observatory, so clearly she’s an entirely objective witness. And here’s how she finishes up (boldface mine):
Well that’s a jaw-dropper: Moms For Molestation — from a charter member, founding chapter! Sign up at any Biden campaign office nationwide!
My day job — cross-examining people — makes me admittedly oversensitive in spotting unequivocal assertions which may one day come back to haunt their makers. I’d put this full-throated endorsement of anyone’s “deviant decency” — or anyone’s “septuagenarian sexual harassment” — squarely in that category.
Beldar (fa637a) — 4/4/2019 @ 9:56 pm“Tuned in emotionally” with the kids. Where have I heard that recently?
…. Wait, wasn’t it in Leaving Neverland?
Beldar (fa637a) — 4/4/2019 @ 9:57 pmIn the below photo, while a long line of influentials wait for his attention, Biden is listening to my 7-year-old’s concerns about Syrian kids.
At least we now know where Slow Joe was getting his daily intelligence briefings.
JVW (54fd0b) — 4/4/2019 @ 10:06 pmI think the CBS morning news vs morning jokes cry for bathos re slow jo is a study in something ‘what I have no idea’
Narciso (366412) — 4/4/2019 @ 10:08 pmSo the Sultan summons the Hodja and says: “Hodja, I’ve heard that you have been saying unkind things about me. What is your defense?” The Hodja says: “Magnificent One, I have none. Sometimes the defense is worse than the offense.” The Sultan is perplexed. He says: “I am perplexed. Prove it to me and I’ll forget the whole thing.” The Hodja says: “Let us walk to your garden, and I shall.” As the Sultan goes to precede the Hodja according to royal protocol, the Hodja reaches over and pinches the Sultan’s behind. The Sultan wheels in outrage, draws his scimitar, and roars: “Dog! How dare you?” And the Hodja says: “Forgive me, Magnificent One. I mistook it for the Sultana’s.”
nk (dbc370) — 4/4/2019 @ 10:37 pm@ nk (#26), you are a wise, wise man.
Beldar (fa637a) — 4/4/2019 @ 10:44 pmInspired by your comments @22 & 23, Beldar.
nk (dbc370) — 4/4/2019 @ 10:49 pmPrompted, perhaps — the inspiration is yours, sir.
Beldar (fa637a) — 4/4/2019 @ 11:08 pmI suppose they can change the debate rules if they want, but I’ve never seen a party change one of those types of rules that didn’t come to regret it when it was their turn in the minority.
As far as the all lives vs black lives thing, all cancers are bad, but sometimes there’s a fundraiser specifically for, say, fighting pancreatic cancer and running up on stage to say “HEY ALL CANCERS ARE BAD!! WHY AREN’T WE TALKING ABOUT ALL CANCERS HERE AT THIS ANTI-PANCREATIC CANCER FUND RAISER?!” is just rude and inappropriate and I think we can all figure that out.
The slavery reparations thing. So, here’s the thing. The original slavery reparations idea was intended to give people a way to support themselves. The slaves mostly knew agricultural work, so “40 acres and a mule” was a relatively minimal level needed to earn a living for them and their families across their lifetimes. It wasn’t “Hey lets give you stuff.” Today an equivalent would be more like a scholarship fund or grant fund or subsidized education loans or something because what you need to earn a good living isn’t agricultural land, it’s some kind of post high-school education (trade school, university, whatever).
Nic (896fdf) — 4/4/2019 @ 11:13 pmBranding is everything:
Good to the last drop.
Mmm! Mmm! Good!
Over 99 Billion Served.
Under Audit Since 1981.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/5/2019 @ 12:11 amthe correct answer is all lives matter but black lives are in danger where non black lives are not. california created 75% of all new jobs created in februray, not the minimum wage paradise of texass.
lany (0f23ff) — 4/5/2019 @ 12:33 am30. All kinds of those opportunities exist. The number of “Historically Black Universities” is at an all-time high, and there exists something called “The United Negro College Fund.” And that’s not even the tip of the iceberg.
And if you want to talk about subsidized loans? All loans are subsidized these days. And it’s not a beneficial thing.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/5/2019 @ 5:40 amThe other moderates are supposed to be Amy Klobuchar and Joe Biden, with two others, Michael Bloomberg and Sherrod Brown, having decided not to run, and only Amy Klobuchar so far officially in the race.
Amy Klobuchar is the one who asked Christine Blasey Ford the softball questions about psychiatrist records being good testimony – all the while whilethe therapist’s records did not back CBF up! but it wasn’t quite clear to many. The committee didn’t have them. But they did have what the Washington Post had reported about them: That it was four boys (which CBF claimed was a misunderstanding [by the therapist] and there were 4 boys at the home, but not in the room) and that the incident took place while she was in her “late teens.” (whixh her team tried to ignore and successfully succeeded in getting most of the committee to ignore that discrepancy.
Amy Klobuchar, however is being attacked by stories planted in the press that she is an abusive boss, presumably because some people don’t want her, so that makes her a moderate who doesn’t go along with certain things. In the Senate she apparently trie to at least appear to want to work with members of the other party, but it’s not independent thinking – it’s endorsing already existing ideas.
Sammy Finkelman (385c0e) — 4/5/2019 @ 7:41 amWhen do Ford and swetnick get charged for peejury.
Narciso (4f990b) — 4/5/2019 @ 7:50 amOne day Trump says he will close the Mexican border next week…unless Mexico…
He reiterates that. He says he is not kidding or words to that effect.
Then he backs down and makes it conditional upon Mexico stopping the importation of drugs, and says nothing about people. And that the consequence if it doesn’t stop or something will (merely) be the imposition ofa 25% tarff on cars. And only if that doesn’t work will he consider border closings.
Then the next day he withdraws his nominee to head ICE, saying he needs someone tougher.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 4/5/2019 @ 1:08 pm13. Beldar (fa637a) — 4/4/2019 @ 8:58 pm
If he did that, he not only didn’t need Trump’s permission, he didn’t need Trump’s knowledge either!
But he would only have used it to check out what is in the Steele dossier, i.e. was Trump being subsidized by Russia? If no money was coming from, or because of, Russia, there’s no nexus. Mueller wouldn’t have conducted a full tax review. Manafort was being paid by the Russian aligned Ukraine’s party of Regions.” Manafort was concealing income, and later clzaiming higher income.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 4/5/2019 @ 1:19 pmTrump reversed himself on coming up this Congress with a health care plan because Mitch McConnell and others objected, and they also told him he should run on that in 2020.
So now he says there’ll be a health care plan if, hopefully, the Republicans retake the House of Representatives and retain control the Senate (and he wins the presidetntial election, but he didn’t say that. He didn’t say anything about putting one out before teh election, either.)
The Senate is not a good sign for the Republican Party. The Republicans did not do well in Senate elections in 2018. the Republicans actually did worse in Senate elections in 2018 than they did in the House.
But there were so many Democratic Senators elected in 2012 that they actually increased their number.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 4/5/2019 @ 1:25 pmThe New York Times front page story that said Mueller’s fdings were understated by Barr didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know, except, possibly, that some people who had been on Mueller’s staff were unhappy about that, but we could have guessed that too.
We knew that Barr understated Mueller’s findings because he said so.
In his letter to Congress, Barr wrote:
PDF: https://www.chron.com/file/409/3/4093-4092-Attorney%20General%20Letter.pdf
Non-PDF: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/24/us/politics/barr-letter-mueller-report.html
Now, since Barr does not tell you what any of the arguments in favor of viewing Trump’s actions as obstruction were, it is obvious, therefore, that Barr’s letter “failed to adequately portray the findings of the inquiry,” and that that what he left out would be troubling for President Trump.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 4/5/2019 @ 2:17 pmSome politicians have used blackface
mg (8cbc69) — 4/5/2019 @ 2:37 pmaoc uses black tongue
…from unmentionable acts!
urbanleftbehind (9ef896) — 4/5/2019 @ 3:04 pmIt’s teh salad dressing!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/5/2019 @ 3:05 pmshe sounds like clinton speaking in the south
mg (8cbc69) — 4/5/2019 @ 4:58 pmChelsea Handler wants a free lobotomy for all TDS inflicted no Trumpers.
mg (8cbc69) — 4/6/2019 @ 3:35 amOf course Trump didn’t read the Mueller report. He can barely work through a one-page synopsis. And speaking of synopses, Ms. Wheeler provides a good one as it relates to what is in the public record.
Paul Montagu (d49d0a) — 4/6/2019 @ 11:33 amheat olive oil in a hot skillet add snap peas and salt saute 4-5 minutes – still crispy and sweet- take off heat mix in lemon zest, mint leaves and red pepper flakes, re salt.
mg (8cbc69) — 4/6/2019 @ 4:14 pmstate side louis mensch, ah you’re a droll one montagu,
narciso (d1f714) — 4/6/2019 @ 4:20 pmAuburn and Virginia players need to follow their shots.
mg (8cbc69) — 4/6/2019 @ 4:20 pmwow.
indeed, mg,
https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-america-needs-new-alliances-11554503421?mod=hp_opin_pos3
narciso (d1f714) — 4/6/2019 @ 4:32 pmHate to see the game end that way. The refs blew it when the Virginia player double dribbled.
mg (8cbc69) — 4/6/2019 @ 5:16 pmWilt never would have made 3 in a row!
mg (8cbc69) — 4/6/2019 @ 5:18 pm