I have a dream: A van pulls up in front of the White House. Two men and two women get out and enter the front door. An hour later the door opens, they come out, they usher a man in a straight jacket into the back of the van, two men sit on either side of him, the two women climb into the front of the van and drive off.
Today's (Thursday) burst of Trumplogeria badgering Ukraine and China to come up with Biden-dirt boggles that part of the mind that tries for rational explanations. There ain't none. That makes the slow walk through impeachment look like an answer in search of an question. What is it?
Pelosi's measured walk up to impeachment proceedings suggests that she too might have been waiting for the folks with the straight jacket. Perhaps she was. But yesterday she had this to say on a call Wednesday
afternoon with House Democrats:
“I do think that this is a moment beyond
Donald Trump. He’s almost not worth it, to do an impeachment, because
he is so what he is, but the Constitution is worth it, and our democracy
is worth it, and our ‘Republic, if we can keep it’ is worth it.”
Update: Except for Mitt Romney and Rob Portman (on Trump's appeal to China), Republicans have been super-shy about impeachment. So it's interesting to watch the full frontal on Trump's free-lancing on Syrian policy, promising Erdogan of Turkey that U.S. troops will be pulling back from the North Eastern Turkey-Syria border. Lindsey Graham, bf, went ballistic on hearing the news. Even Mitch McConnell stepped up to the plate. I'll post some links way down in the comment section.
When the people in white coats come to take him away, they'd better bundle up Giuliani too, while they're at it. Giuliani apparently gave a packet of documents to State Department officials, which were handed over to Congress. "Democrats were reportedly prepared for some kind of a bombshell but instead were handed a 40-page packet of documents that included conspiracy theories and news clippings."
ReplyDeleteThe picture that comes to mind is this one. It's from the movie A Beautiful Mind; the "conspiracy board" made by the main character as he was sliding into paranoid schizophrenia.
What can the men in the white coats do with the state lawmakers who are cancelling their Republican primaries so nothing (like democracy?) can interfere with the coronation? They are so what he is, too, that they may follow up by cancelling the general election for the same reason.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you could cancel a primary.
DeleteThat's one I didn't know either. Does that power reside with the legislature or the party apparatus? If the former, does that mean the Democratic primary is cancelled, too? Curious people wanna know?
DeleteIn our state the Democrats do it by caucus. I don't think what the Republicans do could affect that.
DeleteIt's the party. South Carolina -- first n the South!, with a favorite son challenging Trump -- is doing it. Florida's Rs considered it, but they are confident no one can rattle their Candidate for the Ages.
DeleteIF the T gets impeached and Pence becomes president (as indicated a big if), there will be a scramble of candidates (after all, there are now three). Don't you think there would be an about-face? State Republican parties would have to say No to the RNC. Wouldn't they?
ReplyDeleteKN: Some states have laws permitting the cancellation of primaries if there is only one candidate. Elections are expensive! That may be some of the cancellations we're seeing now.
DeleteWilliam Weld, former governor of Mass., and Rep. Mark Sanford, former governor of South Carolina, have both announced their candidacies. There is also a retreated disc jockey or something in Illinois. The world holds its breath waiting for John Kasick. Or maybe not. And the Republican I could like to see run and would love to vote for -- Gov. Charlie Baker of Swampscott, Mass.-- knows better.
DeleteHere is another example of how Trump foreign policy can be tailored to the needs of the Trump Organization.
ReplyDeleteThe TO owns an old and failing golf/country club at Turnberry, Scotland. Son Eric (and Dad, no doubt) decided the club can be saved by luxury housing they will build around the golf course. The President has said he can do this. Scottish authorities say he can't, and the local board just rejected Eric's plans:
https://www.scotsman.com/news/donald-trump-s-plans-for-major-expansion-of-turnberry-resort-rejected-1-5016324
Turnberry was in the news recently when it was noticed that the Air Force often has stay-overs when they refuel at the nearest Scottish airport, which, like Turnberry, is failing. The flight crews stay at Turnberry for what we are told is a reduced rate. Questions were asked. But not answered because Biden.
Now: The World Trade Organization, taking a dim view of Airbus, has authorized the United States to slap tariffs on European exports. Guess what single malt whiskey the President has decided to tax at 25%.
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon-american-plans-for-tariffs-on-scotch-whisky-worrying-1-5017125
One can see a deal here: Let Eric build his mansions, and we'll lift the tariff. Will anyone (besides us) watch this? No. Because Biden.
Maybe if Nicola Sturgeon would agree to get some dirt on Joe and Hunter...?
It appears the Trump strategy now is just to brazen it out and normalize asking foreign governments to help him smear his opponents. "I see your Ukraine and raise you China. Xi Jinping, I'll make it worth your while." Now Pence has made it known that he's in on it too. Everybody knows that's just what you do, nothing unusual or illegal about it at all. Don't believe it? Just ask them.
ReplyDeleteOur esteemed governor is now on record as praising Trump's "transparency" in asking foreign governments to help him. He also said Democrats aren't playing fair because they didn't put it to a House vote before Pelosi opened the impeachment inquiry. If there anything that says they have to, I'm not aware of it. About Governor Ricketts, everybody knows he's a tool.
DeleteDream on.
ReplyDeleteTrump's plan is neither crazy nor irrational. He is a master at spin and strategy. He managed to turn a story about his own abuse of power with Ukraine on Joe Biden. Uncle Joe will be hamstrung by this. (I think Bernie is out, too, probably not the only liberal whose heart is collapsing under the daily strain of Trumpdom.) And then Trump normalizes his Ukraine dealings, as Katherine has mentioned, by asking China to dig dirt, too.
Trump learned from TV that if you can keep the drama going, you get higher ratings. Vehemence and and volume also have more impact than content. Attitude over message. Social media helps him. People jump when messages are short and nasty and require no thinking.
He's also created a narrative in which he is the tough-talking defender of the aggrieved white male, justifying them in their fears of feminists, gun law reformers, immigrants, the intelligensia, abortionists, public schools, smug New York journalists ... you know who's on the list.
For those who don't connect with Trump's persona, he's given them conservative judges, deregulation, a tax cut, and a low unemployment (if you don't look too hard at what those jobs are).
But I think we have been creating the environment for Trump to flourish for many years, even before the Birthers and Alex Jones. trump didn't show up out of the blue. Regional, racial, class, and religious fault lines have created chasms between Americans for someone like Trump to exploit.
Trump is merely the spawn of our own failings.
Mea culpa, collectively. And I don't disagree with anything you say. But Pelosi is right that our republic is worth keeping if we can get it back.
DeleteIt's telling that there isn't a major corporation in the world where the shareholders would put up with a CEO who exhibited Trump's incompetence, attention deficit, and ignorance. Should be noted that ignorance isn't the same as stupidity. Jim Pauwels nailed it a while back when he called him "rat-smart". I'm going to call Trump's ignorance "invincible" . It doesn't fit the strict definition. But because he doesn't care to inform it, and in fact revels in it, it is indeed invincible.
DeleteThe conservative pro-business types who support Trump need to be called out for supporting a guy to lead their country that they would fire in a New York minute if he worked for them. Guess we know where their priorities are.
"It's telling that there isn't a major corporation in the world where the shareholders would put up with a CEO who exhibited Trump's incompetence, attention deficit, and ignorance."
DeleteIt would depend on the stock price. Really.
And by analogy, consider Jean's list of goods that Trump has managed to deliver to more traditional conservatives. It's not inconsequential.
If Trump survives this impeachment effort (which I guess seems likely enough, although the news every day is worse for him than the previous day's), and voters next year have to choose between him and Elizabeth Warren, then a lot of conservative voters will push the button or punch the chad for Trump again.
What I blame Republicans for is not fielding a credible alternative to primary him this time around.
Jim, Jean included the tax cut, of which the Great Man & Mike boast. But there is now no doubt it has added to deficits, which will push the federal debt over $1 trillion this year or next, which the Great Man himself is trying to head off by demanding his (sic) Federal Reserve Board cut interest rates (which does cut the interest on the debt. Until it doesn't anymore.) What happened to "more traditional conservatives' " anti-debt hawkishness? Or does that only apply to Democrats deficits? Do they not know what he has done to the budget? Do they not care? Or do they count it as a good thing? Robert R. McCormick, a conservative's conservative, used to get purple in the face at the thought of the debt rolled up by FDR while fighting a Depression and a war. Bob Dole used to ask, "How you gonna pay for it?",six words that no longer come from Tea Party mouths.
DeleteIf "more traditional conservatives" have learned to stop worrying and love the debt, they are guilty of yet something else besides supporting the Dunning-Kruger syndrome.
Jean's account is horrifying! but plausible. What bubble do I live in when imagining T could be carted off in a straight jacket (which probably don't exist anymore [I suppose today a shot of something would do it.])?
DeleteWhen Pelosi says "our ‘Republic, if we can keep it’ is worth it,” quoting Benjamin Franklin, two things come to mind. 1. Having a Constitution, a Republic, etc. has always been a precarious, back and forth, up and down project. We may live over decades when we think things got settled and re-settled and we've ended up more or less with an intact political system. But Franklin and others saw how unusual the idea was and what an effort would be required to keep all the pieces together. * 2. Pelosi using that phrase did alert me to the possibility that she really sees this as a moment when we could irretrievably go off the rails.
*P.S. reading Jill Lepore (thank you, Tom) has brought to mind how precarious the idea [Constitution/ Republic] was in the first place and how often it required strenuous efforts to keep it on track.
No Cats! So I'm not taking a break from politics today.
"What I blame Republicans for is not fielding a credible alternative to primary him this time around."
DeleteJim, I'm with you there. There are better Republicans out there who would still pursue a conservative path, but who aren't awful human beings.
Hoping Jean won't take this amiss, but it looks like David Brooks is in her camp (without her analytic powers) on the "aggrieved white male." His column today does a brief dialogue between "urban guy" and "flyover man." Flyover gets the best line reinforcing my impression that Brooks himself may be a bit of an aggrieved white male himself. The column "Why Trump Voters Stick with Him" only edges toward being convincing because the urban guy isn't that bright...
DeleteNeedn't waste one of the ten freebies but here's the link, just in case:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/03/opinion/trump-voters.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Thanks for the link, Anne.
DeleteBrooks is way kinder to flyover man than I would be. So this is Flyover Grandma speaking to FM. Listen up, cupcake. Trump doesn't "get you". He's a narcissist, he doesn't get anyone but himself. He throws you under the bus along with everybody else. Notice your sucky farm prices lately? They're a result of his reality show trade wars. Don't like your health insurance through the ACA, because you only have one carrier still operating in the state, and you can't use it across state lines? Blame Trump's assaults on so-called Obama Care. And how anyone can believe serial adulterer and sex offender Trump is going to restore traditional morality is beyond me. But you keep on drinking your Fox News koolaid. You don't like it when the "elites" treat you like a moron? Don't act like one.
I'm not letting Urban Guy off the hook. Next week or sometime I've got some words for him.
Sorry Margaret, it was you who posted the NYT link, rather than Anne.
DeleteBrooks is lumping all Midwestern men in the kind of monolithic bloc that, ironically, his Flyover Man complains about.
DeleteThree areas where Trump is potentially vulnerable with voters out here in the Cornfield: a) failure to address the problems of military vets, b) opioid/meth addiction, and c) diddling with foreign markets for cash crops.
Trump may also be vulnerable on climate change if we get more wet springs like this one that delayed or stopped planting. I have never seen so many unplanted fields.
In other rural Michigan areas, water quality due to PFAS contamination is a concern. And resort areas are concerned about algae blooms.
The Brooks column needs to be read in conjunction with Monica Potts's piece about the small town in Arkansas that built itself a new library when natural gas was good and now that natural gas isn't good resents having to pay for the building and a librarian. It is a picture of Flyover Man and Woman sitting at their kitchen table and holding it up with their arms because they are too damn cheap to buy a tube of glue and fix the leg. If Urban Man has to appreciate the program of Trump voters, "Screw the Librarian!," it's all over for both F.M. and U.M.
Deletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/opinion/sunday/trump-arkansas.html
Tom, I read the article. I'm glad Nebraska isn't Arkansas, not quite yet anyway. My hometown is building a new library (after a prolonged wrangle with town government and lots of fund raisers.) But my words above about not acting like a moron could be directed to some of my relatives.
DeleteOY! There are three NY public libraries within walking distance of our neighborhood...In my book group (non-fiction)75 percent of the members use them for our book choices...some because they're clearing out their book clutter; others because they don't want to own (say Jill Lepore, These Truths). You can order books on-line and pick them up when they arrive.
DeleteTom, Does Ms Pott's think her neighbors don't read?
Michigan is not Arkansas. Minnesota is not Missouri, or even Wisconsin. Illinois is not Indiana, except in the southern parts. Ohio is not North Dakota. And Iowa is not Nebraska or South Dakota. Kansas is not Oklahoma, though they may get the same tornaders.
DeleteExcellent point there, Jean. Nobody I know in the upper midwest would vote for a president and two senators who want to take away something upon which the economy is as dependent as black lung benefits are for eastern Kentucky. But you can see the Trump stickers on the pickups that appear in town only on the day when the lung checks come out, when the driver can afford to shop.
DeleteMargaret, one of Ms. Potts's neighbors doesn't even like paying for the school either. She doesn't use them. I was told I'd see that attitude among retirees when I moved to Florida. But I am now wall-to-wall with retired New York school teachers -- union members and Democrats, of course -- who will vote for taxes for anything. One of the things Ms. Potts didn't go into is Wal-Mart, which is a factor in her county and which has a business plan of wiping out local entrepreneurs and depressing wages. That's probably where Mr. and Mrs. F.U. bought the table with the shaky leg.
Monica Potts offers some general demographical info about rural America, which she enlivens with sketches of the loudest dumb asses who live in her former home town. It leaves sophisticates such as ourselves with the impression that what we suspected all along is true: the large middle swath of the nation outside its Rust Belt urban areas is just one step away from Tobacco Road.
DeleteI sense that Ms. Potts didn't care much for the folks in Clinton when she was growing up, and that living out East and earning a degree has not increased her fondness.
I do understand her frustrations, having served on our local library board, and lived in a town of 1,700 people for 30 years. I see dumb asses on a daily basis. But there is likely more to this story than just plain mulish ignorance. Real life more complicated than caricatures.
I hope her book about low-income women in Arkansas will be more well-defined and insightful.
I'm taking a break from politics today. Happy St. Francis Day from our brothers and sisters in Utah. And from me and my cats in Michigan.
ReplyDeletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nAXv8mGM4cQ
Thanks Jean, love the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! We sang that one this morning at the school Mass.
DeleteHappy feast day to you and your cats too. Mine are taking it easy on the couch.
I have resigned myself to the reality that the cats view me as their emotional support pet.
DeleteJean at 11:4 Oct 3 - as usual, Jean has nailed it. I think she is dead on right, while hoping she is wrong.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, Jim is also right:
"It's telling that there isn't a major corporation in the world where the shareholders would put up with a CEO who exhibited Trump's incompetence, attention deficit, and ignorance."
It would depend on the stock price. Really.
Happy St. Francis Day to all.
And I will add "Happy Birthday to my beloved eldest son". (no, he isn't named Francis!)
In related news, as much as I love Bernie and what he stands for, I think he should quit after this heart attack. I'd rather have a live progressive senator than a dead progressive candidate. Although there are ideological differences between Warren and Sanders, I think Warren is close enough and a league ahead of the others. Even if a Repub Senate blocks her legislation, her executive office could put a lot of heat on these out-of-control monopolistic megacorporations which is fine with me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about Bernie. I think Warren is at least in better health, and could do well. I still like Buttigieg but I don't think he has a chance of getting the nomination. I'm afraid Biden has been hurt by Trump's shenanigans, which is sad, because that's exactly what he set out to do.
DeleteI hope Bernie stays in. He has contributed to the conversation about systemic problems in the nation, and he explains them better than Warren. I don't want to make a martyr out of him, but the fact that the man might rise from his sick bed to soldier in for what he has been preaching since the 1970s gives his ideas credibility and sincerity.
DeletePractically speaking, however, he's likely done with most voters.
Biden's the one I wish would bow out. Uncle Joe will be plagued by stories about Hunter, he will defend himself and his kid, and that will leave no room for talking about important issues.
(Apropos of Jean @10:37)
DeleteSunday's Times has an analysis of Biden's indecisive response to Trump's attacks. The story puts Biden's concern for his family at the center of what the reporter describes as a feeble response (offered late night on TV and lost in other news).
The well-worn theory: Biden wants to protect his family and has long had this instinct going back to the car accident that killed his wife and daughter and injured his two sons....The story takes up again the death from cancer of Beau Biden and the the tales of Hunter Biden's addiction, and bad job choices.
The story calls forth sympathy for Biden, while raising doubts: should we ask ourselves if Biden is protecting his family, or if he's using his family story to protect himself?
Why does he or anyone think he is best placed to beat Trump? I can see why many voters would prefer him over Trump and over other Dems. But can anyone imagine him besting Trump in the campaign? in debates? in campaigning?
Has Trump succeeded in expelling from the race?
The story: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/05/us/politics/biden-trump-ukraine.html
Correction: Has Trump succeeded in expelling Biden from the race?
DeleteN.B. story quotes the expert consultants to support the thesis.
Biden isn't responding to Trump like someone who wants to be prez. He is old and sad. I feel sympathy for him, but Uncle Joe of yore would have been able to come out swinging. I don't think Trump has expelled him. He just can't do it.
DeleteI do think there is a way for the party to defend Biden without seeking to favor him, a la "In the coming months Trump will not restrict his lies to those now levelled against Joe Biden and his family. This is the strategy of a man bereft of decency and statesmanship blah blah."
But they never call to ask me what I think.
Biden has an op-ed in the WashPost. Don't think it carries the day...
DeleteAs Jean says, he isn't responding like someone who want to be prez.....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/joe-biden-trump-wont-destroy-me-and-he-wont-destroy-my-family/2019/10/05/9544b9a4-e7cc-11e9-a6e8-8759c5c7f608_story.html
I thought the op-ed was pretty good. Biden talked bluntly about Trump, left him to the impeachment inquiry, and then redirected to issues Americans care about. Perhaps the reason it seems thin is because we are used to Trump's volume and vehemence. A reasoned argument is never as exciting as mud wrestling.
DeleteWhere did you think it was lacking? did it seem predictable or rote? Should he have made different points? Would the editorial have been more effective had it appeared a week ago?
Hunter is a horrible liability. How do you ask a father who has buried two children to distance himself from another one? More pragmatically, how can Biden reassure voters that his addict son who has seriously impaired judgment and frequent relapses will be prevented from embarrassing the country--or even doing damage to it--due to his proximity to the presidency?
Biden is in an incredibly difficult situation, and he is not at the height of his powers. I feel bad for him.
Every time the media mentions "whistleblower," it shows us pictures of Trump, with his pudge-hiding blue suit, his Chinese-made necktie that doubles as a jock strap and his barber shop vocabulary, talking about the Bidens (pictures of the perps provided). Someone in the Reagan administration chuckled to a famous reporter (I believe it was Leslie Stahl) that every time they showed his picture, it was more votes for Reagan, even if the spoken or written words with the picture were saying he messed up big time.
DeleteHaving learned their lesson in 1984, the media are making the same mistake in 2019. Urban Man pays attention to the word, but Flyover Man just looks at the pictures. When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?
Not all Flyover People live in Flyover Land. Some live in California, but the logic (or lack of it) is the same. This little gem popped up on Facebook, linked by one of my near and dear. I thought the best answer to it was in the comments, by one Philip L. Thompson: '"The Left has been engaged in a war against America . . ." This is the underlying "problem," if you ask Trump supporters. But as expressed here, "the left" is nothing more than a nebulous concept that doesn't define a fixed group of people, or a concrete collection of people and phenomena. It's glib shorthand for everything---every event, every change, every person, every facet of the changing world that represents something different than the political values of the person repeating the term "the left." The world is a progressing whirl of change and growth that Trump and his supporters cannot tolerate. Bush didn't stop it, Romney and McCain either. But it wasn't their "dignity" or "collegiality" at fault for that. It was the fact they weren't as talented at riling up the far right fringes as Trump is. And THAT is a direct result of two things: his lying, and his supporters' failure to deal with reality."
Delete"He fights." Yah, but for what?
DeleteKatherine: "Saul Alinsky and the Chicago mob"??!? Alinsky died in 1972 (Nixon was president). I was getting the Threat of Alinsky from my MAGA hat wearer and got him to admit that Obamacare was dreamed up by Alinsky. When I told him Alinsky had been dead more than 40 years, he accused me of lying. It must be someone on Fox, but they think Alinsky is alive and well and living in San Francisco -- when actually he is sleeping under Mount Rushmore and will reappear when his country needs him most.
DeleteTom, I know. Living or dead, Alinsky is a stick they will always use to beat the left (however they define it) with. And don't forget George Soros. And Benghazi. Don't confuse them with facts.
DeleteJean, he fights...everything. For himself. His silly followers think he fights to make America grreat again.
I thought this quote was a good one: "The president complaining about corruption in government is like “hearing Al Capone complain about mob activity in Chicago.” It was said by Elizabeth Spiers, former editor of the New York Observer, which Jared Kushner once owned.
ReplyDeleteKatherine, I think this is typical of a narcissist in action. I've experienced one in the last few years. If they accuse someone of something, you can believe they've been doing it themselves vigorously. They project themselves into others.
DeleteUpdates: Guardian
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2019/oct/07/trump-news-today-live-syria-kurds-whistleblower-impeachment-inquiry-latest-updates
Politico
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/07/syria-congress-challenge-trump-038149
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/07/rob-portman-trump-china-joe-biden-038222
"If Turkey does anything that I, in my unmatched wisdom consider off-limits I will totally destroy and obliterate the economy of Turkey (I have done before)"
ReplyDelete--POTUS
I have read biographies of Hitler by Bullock, Toland, Fest, Kershaw and several others, and am deeply read in modern Germany, and I can tell you this: Hitler never said anything remotely as crazy as that.