Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Chinese troops crush a pro-democracy movement in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square; World War II’s Battle of Midway begins; Henry Ford tests his quadricycle; Bruce Springsteen releases ‘Born in the U.S.A.’
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
We don’t have to sacrifice a strong economy for a healthy environment.
More than 35 people are believed to have died in the violence and hundreds more were injured at the sit-in, which has been at the centre of a campaign to bring democratic reform to Sudan. The death toll is expected to rise.
There has been no official reaction from the opposition to the announcement of elections but individual leaders told the Guardian they will escalate a campaign of civil disobedience in response.
US gears up for war with Iran
by Serge Halimi
Can a state that condemns, without real justification, an international disarmament treaty it spent years negotiating then threaten a co-signatory with military aggression? Can it order other countries to fall into line with its capricious, bellicose stance or face punitive sanctions? The US can.
It’s pointless trying to argue with the Trump administration’s claimed reasons for its escalation against Iran. One can even imagine National Security Advisor John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo telling their diplomats and intelligence staff, ‘You come up with the pretexts; we’ll take care of the war.’
‘Executed’ North Korean diplomat is alive, sources say
North Korea‘s special envoy to the United States, Kim Hyok Chol, is being investigated for his role in the failed Hanoi summit that took place between United States President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in February, the sources said.
That meeting, the second between the two leaders, ended abruptly without the two sides reaching a deal.
Unwelcome guests: moped riders protest as Amsterdam drives them from bike lanes
Convoys of mopeds speed down Amsterdam’s bike lanes, beeping their horns and flouting their bare heads. This isn’t some strange Dutch festival, though. These were protests from some of the thousands of furious moped riders ahead of a new city regulation which came into force this week to force them out of bike lanes, on to main roads and into helmets.
The cycling city of Amsterdam is stepping up a gear – with plans to ban petrol and diesel vehicles from the centre by 2030, the removal of 10,000 car-parking spaces, a hike in parking charges and a wide range of measures to take from the car and give to pedestrians, cyclists, green space and children.
Japan to ban free plastic bags at stores, but small and midsize firms may be exempt
KYODO
Japan plans to make it mandatory to charge for plastic shopping bags at supermarkets, convenience stores, drugstores and department stores as the country combats marine pollution from plastic waste.
Environment Minister Yoshiaki Harada said at a news conference Monday his ministry plans to introduce a new law banning the practice of providing single-use plastic bags for free, while leaving the price of a plastic bag up to retailers.
“The proportion of plastic bags among plastic waste is not big, but charging would be symbolic” of Japan’s efforts to reduce such waste, said Harada.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Ed White is the first American to walk in space; Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini and Pope John XXIII die; Britain’s Duke of Windsor weds Wallis Simpson; Poet Allen Ginsberg and entertainer Josephine Baker born.
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have arrived in the UK for a three-day state visit.
Air Force One landed at Stansted Airport at around 09:00 BST (04:00 ET).
Mr Trump will meet members of the Royal Family, and is expected to discuss climate change and Chinese technology firm Huawei during talks with outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May.
Minutes before touching down, Mr Trump criticised Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, with whom he has clashed in the past.
ICC submission calls for prosecution of EU over migrant deaths
Member states should face punitive action over deaths in Mediterranean, say lawyers
The EU and member states should be prosecuted for the deaths of thousands of migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean fleeing Libya, according to a detailed legal submission to the international criminal court (ICC).
The 245-page document calls for punitive action over the EU’s deterrence-based migration policy after 2014, which allegedly “intended to sacrifice the lives of migrants in distress at sea, with the sole objective of dissuading others in similar situation from seeking safe haven in Europe”.
The indictment is aimed at the EU and the member states that played a prominent role in the refugee crisis: Italy, Germany and France.
China says war with US would be a disaster amid escalating tensions in South China Sea
China has said that a war with the US would be a “disaster” as tensions grow over Beijing’s ambitions to assert control in the South China Sea and an escalating trade war between the two countries.
It comes after the US has stepped up naval patrols through the Taiwan Strait and past Chinese military outposts in recent months.
However, China’s defence minister, Wei Fenghe, has insisted that both sides “realise that conflict, or a war between them, would bring disaster to both countries and the world.”
Big Tobacco’s shadowy new play
With health authorities stubbing out much of Big Tobacco’s business, and vaping on the rise, one of the industry’s biggest players says it plans to stop selling cigarettes. Is that just hot air?
Filipinos have always been among the world’s most enthusiastic smokers. According to the World Bank, more than 40 per cent of Filipino adult men smoke. Cheap tobacco and lax regulation has made smoking a way of life, and death, with health experts estimating that about 10 Filipinos die every hour from smoking-related illnesses. Lighting up has even become part of national mythology, in the form of Kapre, a nocturnal ogre who spends most of his time sitting in the fork of a mango tree, sucking on cigars the size of a chair leg. If you find yourself lost in the forest, and suddenly smell tobacco smoke, chances are you’ve strayed into Kapre’s crib.
For the past 10 years, however, the city of Balanga, near Manila, has been trying to buck the trend, bringing in some of the most progressive anti-tobacco measures in the country. In 2010, the council passed the Comprehensive No Smoking Ordinance, banning the use, sale, distribution, advertisement and promotion of cigarettes in the commercial centre. In 2016, the ordinance was expanded to include almost the entire city. That same year, the city enacted the Tobacco-Free Generation Ordinance, which denies the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after January 1, 2000.
They faced down the tanks in Tiananmen Square. Now they want their children to forget it
Then a 29-year-old factory worker, Dong was given a suspended death sentence on arson charges and spent 17 years in prison. It changed his family forever — his father died and his wife divorced him while he was in jail. Dong’s son was just three years old when his father went away.
But despite the impact it had on their lives, Dong has never discussed what happened in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, with his son, now aged 33.
Japan struggling to ramp up accessibility efforts ahead of Paralympics
A shortage of wheelchair-accessible hotel rooms remains an issue for Tokyo 2020 organizers who say they are committed to using the Paralympic Games to make Japan a more inclusive place.
As the clock ticks down to the Aug 25, 2020, Paralympic opening ceremony, the Tokyo metropolitan government admits that by its own estimations it is still about 300 rooms short of the projected 850 accessible rooms needed each night during the two-week sporting festival.
“We’re nowhere near the number. There’s no denying that we’re behind schedule,” said a representative of a Japanese disability organization.
Due to unexpected travel blogging will be slow, that is, unless Trump unexpected leaves office for whatever reason. We will resume regular posts in a day or two, so keep checking back. Meanwhile, have some music.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
Timothy McVeigh convicted in the Oklahoma City bombing; Coronation day for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II; Pope John Paul II visits Poland; Baseball’s Lou Gehrig dies.
The corporate media is concealing a leaked UN agency report that shows Syrian government innocence in an alleged chemical attack.
…
The corporate media march in lock step with the United States and its allies around the world. They have a tacit agreement to exclude any information which might inconvenience pro-war, pro-interventionist narratives.
Claims of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government are but one example of this tactic. These improbable stories have been repeated with regularity ever since the United States and its allies began using jihadist proxies to overthrow the Syrian government in 2011. In 2013 we were told that president Assad waged a chemical weapons attack on the same day that United Nations weapons inspectors arrived in the country. It is an understatement to say that this scenario is unlikely to be true.
In 2018 the U.S. and its European allies repeated that they would take military action against Syria if there were any reports of chemical weapons use. Like clockwork, such an event was reported and a bombing campaign took place in April of that year.
Anyone with common sense should doubt these reports. Assad had no reason to do anything which guaranteed military attacks on his country. Furthermore, persons with credibility and expertise had already provided evidence that these claims are nothing but false flags meant to get public buy-in for aggression.
The claims and counter claims always merited serious scrutiny. But a leaked document from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) makes the case that even supposedly disinterested parties take the side of the U.S. and its allies if enough pressure is applied.
The leaked report makes clear that there were serious questions about the 2018 reports, even among OPCW staff. The New York Times and the rest of their partners in propaganda wanted to make the case for the once and future war and accused the Syrian government of dropping chlorine gas devices onto an apartment building. But the leaked document shows that there were serious doubts expressed by the some of the expert investigators. “…there is a higher probability that both cylinders were manually placed at both locations rather than being delivered by aircraft.”
There are many dots to connect here and they point away from the “Assad is gassing his own people” tale. The OPCW was pressured into taking on the role of judge and jury and assigning blame, rather than merely reporting on its technical findings. The politicization of its work dove tailed nicely with charges of Syrian gas and Russian poisonings against former KGB operatives. As the old saying goes, there is no such thing as coincidence.
The recently leaked documents ought to make for headlines around the world. Instead the story has been ignored by corporate media. Only those who are already interested in the topic or who are familiar with organizations such as the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media know anything about this news. It has been deliberately kept hidden so that the next call for an armed response will receive little or no opposition.
The U.S. Congress came very close to calling for a Syrian war in a May 20, 2019 letter signed by 70% of its members. The AIPAC inspired massive calls for president Trump to “stabilize” Syria, protect Israel and stop Russian and Iranian influence. The call was bipartisan and bicameral with 79 senators and 303 members of the house signing on to the call for imperialism. Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Cory Booker are among those calling for the dangerous slippery slope. Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) chairwoman Karen Bass signed too as did Hakeem Jeffries, James Clyburn, and Elijah Cummings among others.
Americans have been fed a steady diet of “Assad the butcher” and any counter narrative is disappeared, just like the OPCW leak. It is a useful ploy to have around. Let us not forget that last year’s bombing resulted in praise from the so-called resistance crowd who think they are supporting a humanitarian action. When he next decides to protect the U.S. jihadist proxies the gas attack story will suddenly reappear. Revealing any doubts about its veracity will undermine the U.S. hegemonic project.
There is plenty of collusion in the United States and it isn’t between Trump and Russia. The love triangle involves the corporate media, both sides of the war party, and foreign ally puppet states. They all play nicely together in the sandbox when there is an evil deed to carry out. The public are mostly hapless dupes who give approval for destruction and carnage just like the state want them to.
We have been through this often enough to know when lies are being told. It wasn’t that long ago that Colin Powell went to the United Nations with a vial and a tall tale about WMD. The cast of characters changes but the story is the same. It is time to grow up and end useful idiocy.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com . Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.
Three years ago, President Donald Trump’s election and the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum confirmed what those of us who have long studied income statistics already knew: in most advanced countries, the market economy has been failing large swaths of society.
Nowhere is this truer than in the United States. Long regarded as a poster child for the promise of free-market individualism, America today has higher inequality and less upward social mobility than most other developed countries.
After rising for a century, average life expectancy in the U.S. is now declining. And for those in the bottom 90% of the income distribution, real (inflation-adjusted) wages have stagnated: the income of a typical male worker today is around where it was 40 years ago.
Meanwhile, many European countries have sought to emulate America, and those that succeeded, particularly the U.K., are now suffering similar political and social consequences.
The U.S. may have been the first country to create a middle-class society, but Europe was never far behind. After World War II, in many ways it outperformed the U.S. in creating opportunities for its citizens. Through a variety of policies, European countries created the modern welfare state to provide social protection and pursue important investments in areas where the market on its own would underspend.
The European social model, as it came to be known, served these countries well for decades. European governments were able to keep inequality in check and maintain economic stability in the face of globalization, technological change, and other disruptive forces. When the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent euro crisis erupted, the European countries with the strongest welfare states, particularly the Scandinavian countries, fared the best.
Contrary to what many in the financial sector would like to think, the problem was not too much state involvement in the economy, but too little. Both crises were the direct result of an under-regulated financial sector.
After the fall
Now, the middle class is being hollowed out on both sides of the Atlantic.
Reversing this malaise requires that we figure out what went wrong and chart a new course forward, by embracing progressive capitalism, which, while acknowledging the virtues of the market, also recognizes its limitations and ensures that the economy works for the benefit of everyone.
We cannot simply return to the golden age of Western capitalism in the decades after World War II, when a middle-class lifestyle seemed within reach of a majority of citizens. Nor would we necessarily want to. After all, the “American dream” during this period was mostly reserved for a privileged minority: white males.
We can thank former President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for our current state of affairs. The neoliberal reforms of the 1980s were based on the idea that unfettered markets would bring shared prosperity through a mystical trickle-down process.
We were told that lowering tax rates on the rich, financialization, and globalization would result in higher standards of living for everybody. Instead, the U.S. growth rate fell to around two-thirds of its level in the post-war era — a period of tight financial regulations and a top marginal tax rate consistently above 70% — and a greater share of the wealth and income from this limited growth was funneled to the top 1%.
Instead of the promised prosperity, we got deindustrialization, polarization, and a shrinking middle class. Unless we change the script, these patterns will continue — or worsen.
Fortunately, there is an alternative to market fundamentalism.
Through a pragmatic rebalancing of power between government, markets, and civil society, we can move toward a freer, fairer, and more productive system. Progressive capitalism means forging a new social contract between voters and elected officials, workers and corporations, rich and poor.
To make a middle-class standard of living a realistic goal once again for most Americans and Europeans, markets must serve society, rather than vice versa.
Pondering the Pundits: Sunday Preview Edition“Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
On Sunday mornings we present a preview of the guests on the morning talk shows so you can choose which ones to watch or some do something more worth your time on a Sunday morning.
This Week with George Stephanopolis: The guests on Sunday’s “This Week” are: Virginia Beach Police Chief Jim Cervera; 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO); House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA); House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jim Jordan; and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.
The roundtable guests are: ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd; Washington Post congressional reporter Rachael Bade; Stanford University’s Hoover Institution fellow Lanhee Chen; and former Obama communications director Jen Psaki.
Face the Nation: Host Margaret Brennan’s guests are: Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA); Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA); Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV); and British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Her panel guests are: CBS News’ Chief Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford; Jamal Simmons , Hill.TV; Susan Page, USA TODAY; and Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review.
Meet the Press with Chuck Todd: The guests on this week’s “MTP” are: Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney; and 2020 presidential candidate former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX).
State of the Union with Jake Tapper: Mr. Tapper’s guests are: Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan; House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC); and 2020 presidential candidate Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA).
His panel guests are: Former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D); former Rep. Mia Love (R-UT0; Republican candidate for governor of Tennessee Diane Black; and former Clinton White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Pakistan’s long battle with militants as part of the post-9/11 “war on terror”. Evidence of murder and torture by soldiers and insurgents is emerging only now. The BBC has gained rare access to some of the victims.
It was early in 2014 when TV news networks trumpeted a major victory in the war against the Pakistani Taliban – the killing of one of the group’s most senior commanders in a night-time air raid.
Adnan Rasheed and up to five members of his family were reported to have died in the strikes in the North Waziristan tribal area, near the Afghan border.
China says Tiananmen crackdown was ‘correct’ policy
Defence minister Wei Fenghe dismisses criticism that the incident was not handled properly
Agence France-Presse
China has defended the bloody Tiananmen crackdown on student protesters in a rare public acknowledgement of the event, days before its 30th anniversary, saying it was the “correct” policy.
After seven weeks of protests by students and workers demanding democratic change and the end of corruption, soldiers and tanks chased and killed demonstrators and onlookers in the streets leading to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on 4 June, 1989.
Hundreds, possibly more than 1,000, were killed, although the precise number of deaths remains unknown.
Trump UK visit: Things to watch out for, from barely coherent rants to breaches of royal protocol
It’s your cut-out-and-keep guide to the unscheduled incidents which may just make the headlines…
An Inside JobThe Right-Wing Populist Plan to Destroy Europe
Europe’s right-wing populists haven’t been stopped by the scandal in Austria. They are working hard to destroy the European Union from within its own institutions and the European elections may show how close they are to success. By DER SPIEGEL Staff
After the Ibiza videos had made their way around the world, after Austria’s vice chancellor had resigned and the government appeared to be on the verge of collapse, as people found themselves wondering just how deep the abyss could be, the operatic aria “Nessun dorma” — “none shall sleep” — could be heard on the square in front of Milan’s Duomo cathedral. It’s Matteo Salvini’s entrance music.
It was last Saturday, one week before elections to the European Parliament. And Salvini, Italy’s interior minister, had assembled a pan-European festival of right-wing populists and radicals. Marine Le Pen had come in high spirits from France, Geert Wilders was there from the Netherlands, Jörg Meuthen from the Alternative for Germany party, along with Bulgarian, Slovak, Austrian, Flemish, Danish, Finnish and Estonian nationalists, 11 parties from Europe’s right-wing periphery who want to form a “super group” in the next European Parliament.
Israel attacks Syrian targets near occupied Golan Heights
Syrian media says three soldiers were killed and seven injured in attacks Israel says were a response to rocket fire.
Israel attacked Syrian military positions in the country’s south early on Sunday, killing three soldiers and wounding seven others, Syria’s state-run media reported.
The Israeli military confirmed the attack in a series of tweets saying it was in response to two rockets fired from Syria at Mount Hermon late on Saturday. One of the rockets landed in Israel, no damage or injuries were reported.
Tokyo Olympics to ban fans from posting photos, video of events on their social media accounts
By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24
The application period for the first round of 2020 Tokyo Olympics tickets just finished, and we’re sitting around anxiously waiting for the results to see which, if any, events we’ll get to go to in-person. As we were killing time, though, we took another look through the extensive fine print on the application form, and we came across something that’ll probably put a damper on a lot of fans’ enjoyment.
The various terms and clauses for the application include a section that states that ticket holders are allowed to take photos, as well as record video and audio, inside event venues, as long as it’s for personal use. That’s pretty standard, though the terms also state that intellectual property right ownership of said photos or recordings is to be held by the Olympic Organizing Committee. Again, though, many would say that’s not so terribly strict.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
The Beatles release their ‘Sgt. Pepper’ album; Actress Marilyn Monroe born; CNN hits the airwaves; Mormon leader Brigham Young born; Blind and deaf author and activist Helen Keller dies
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen – that stillness becomes a radiance.
Three decades of missing and murdered Indigenous women amounts to a “Canadian genocide”, a leaked landmark government report has concluded.
The document, titled Reclaiming Power and Place, was compiled over more than two and a half years. Canada’s CBC News was given a copy of the report, which is due to be released on Monday, on Friday. Its contents were confirmed to the Guardian by an individual working within the inquiry.
Iran complies with nuclear deal limits, UN watchdog says
Iran remains within the limits set by the 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, the IAEA has said. The accord has unraveled after the US withdrew from the deal, sanctioned Iran and sent more troops to the Middle East.
Iran’s enriched uranium and heavy water stocks grew but did not exceed the ceilings set in the 2015 agreement, the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), wrote in a quarterly report published Friday.
As of May 26, Iran had 125.2 metric tons of heavy water, an increase of 0.4 tons on February but still under the 130-ton limit, said the Vienna-based IAEA.
Inflatable tanks and ‘fake news’: the little-known side of D-Day
On June 6, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied troops invaded the northern French coast, marking the start of France’s liberation from Nazi occupiers.
It is remembered as a defining moment of World War II. Here are some little-known facts about ‘the longest day’.
– ‘Erotic adventure’ –
“When the Germans came, we told the men to hide. But when the Americans came, we had to hide the women!”
The French joke refers to the “erotic adventure” which the US military promised American soldiers fighting in France, historian Mary Louise Roberts writes in “What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France.”
The story behind the iconic ‘Tank Man’ photo
Photographs by Jeff Widener/AP
Story by Kyle Almond, CNN
Widener, a photographer with the Associated Press, was focusing his camera on a line of tanks in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square when out of the blue came this man in a white shirt and dark trousers, carrying what appeared to be shopping bags.
Little did he know that he was about to make one of the most iconic photos in history.
Protesters set fire to U.S. Embassy in Honduras in second day of demonstrations
Reuters
Protesters torched the access gate to the U.S. Embassy in the Honduran capital on Friday during a second day of major protests against President Juan Orlando Hernandez.
The protesters set fire to the entrance of the building in downtown Tegucigalpa with about a dozen tires after dousing them with fuel, Reuters witnesses and fire services officials said. A fire department official said there were no damage to the embassy apart from the access gate.
The attack came on the second day of protests over decrees by Hernandez that his critics argue will lead to the privatization of public services.
What would a president have to do, hypothetically, to get this Congress to impeach him?
Obstruct a Justice Department investigation, perhaps? No, apparently that’s not enough. What about playing footsie with a hostile foreign power? Abusing his office to settle personal grievances? Using instruments of the state, including the justice system, to attack his perceived political opponents? Aligning the nation with murderous foreign dictators while forsaking democracy and human rights? Violating campaign-finance laws with disguised hush-money payments to alleged paramours? Giving aid and comfort to neo-Nazis and white supremacists? Defying requests and subpoenas from congressional committees charged with oversight? Refusing to protect our electoral system from malign foreign interference? Cruelly ripping young children away from their asylum-seeking parents? Lying constantly and shamelessly to the American people, to the point where not a single word he says or writes can be believed?
President Trump has done all of this and more. If he doesn’t warrant the opening of an impeachment inquiry, what president ever would?
The message that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III delivered Wednesday was clear. Keeping scrupulously within the bounds of his 448-page report, he took pains to highlight three points: If the evidence had shown that Trump was innocent of obstruction of justice, the report would have said so. Mueller believed, however, that he had no authority to charge Trump with a crime. And “the Constitution requires a process other than the criminal-justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing.”
That process, like it or not, is impeachment. I’ve been back and forth on the wisdom of taking that step, but there’s one question that nags me: If the impeachment clause of the Constitution wasn’t written for a president like Trump, then why is it there?
Let me acknowledge that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s policy of disciplined restraint has been, so far, a political success. With an eye toward the 2020 election, some Democrats can fire up the base with impeachment calls while others — especially House members in districts Trump won — can talk about bread-and-butter issues as if the nation were engaged in a normal policy debate.
Trump’s approval numbers have been falling. I’m not sure about Pelosi’s theory of Trump’s mind-set — that he is trying to bait Democrats into impeachment, knowing he would be acquitted by the GOP-controlled Senate and would then have more credible claims of exoneration and victimization. But I admit that Pelosi (D-Calif.) could be right.
She could be wrong, though. Trump’s going to claim “no collusion, no obstruction” anyway, and he’ll say if Democrats really thought he had committed a crime, they would have the guts to impeach him.
And if there’s one thing everyone should know about Trump by now, it’s that he will remain on the offensive. Mueller seemed to throw him temporarily off his stride — the president responded Wednesday with a limp tweet about how there was “insufficient evidence and therefore, in our Country, a person is innocent.” But by Thursday morning, Trump was portraying himself as the victim of the “Greatest Presidential Harassment in history” and blasting Mueller, a rock-ribbed Republican, for an alleged — and imaginary — conflict of interest.
With the help of Attorney General William P. Barr, Trump is going to keep pushing the bogus narrative that the entire investigation of his campaign’s ties to Russia was some kind of “witch hunt” or even an “attempted coup.” Senate committees will give this ridiculous conspiracy theory a measure of official sanction, and the right-wing media machine will trumpet it far and wide.
House committees, meanwhile, are being stonewalled. Trump may ultimately lose court battles over the documents and witnesses he is withholding, but that will take time — and Democrats’ focus, meanwhile, will be on process rather than on the substance of Trump’s misdeeds.
So I don’t think the political calculus is at all clear. The moral calculus is a different story.
In myriad ways — beyond those illuminated by Mueller — Trump has disgraced the office of president and sullied the nation’s honor. He’s not a disrupter; he’s a destroyer who tears institutions down and obliterates hallowed ideals with no interest in replacing them — no interest at all, really, except self-interest.
The Trump era will end someday, and we’ll all have to account for what we did, or failed to do, to fight for our nation’s soul. Mueller gave our elected representatives in Congress a clear road map for holding Trump accountable. Ten years from now, even one year from now, I wonder what we’ll think of those who decided not to take even the first step.
I remember every detail, the Germans wore gray, you wore blue.
Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from> around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.
What would a president have to do, hypothetically, to get this Congress to impeach him?
Obstruct a Justice Department investigation, perhaps? No, apparently that’s not enough. What about playing footsie with a hostile foreign power? Abusing his office to settle personal grievances? Using instruments of the state, including the justice system, to attack his perceived political opponents? Aligning the nation with murderous foreign dictators while forsaking democracy and human rights? Violating campaign-finance laws with disguised hush-money payments to alleged paramours? Giving aid and comfort to neo-Nazis and white supremacists? Defying requests and subpoenas from congressional committees charged with oversight? Refusing to protect our electoral system from malign foreign interference? Cruelly ripping young children away from their asylum-seeking parents? Lying constantly and shamelessly to the American people, to the point where not a single word he says or writes can be believed?
President Trump has done all of this and more. If he doesn’t warrant the opening of an impeachment inquiry, what president ever would?
With few exceptions, I prefer reading the book to seeing the movie, but most people remember images, voices and dialogue — “You can’t handle the truth” (“A Few Good Men”), “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” (“Jaws”) — better than the written word. Which is a reminder that the Mueller report is made for the screen. And at the moment, Democrats seem to be forgetting the power of live television. More people will grasp the import of the special counsel’s work if they see sworn witnesses answering questions on their screens than if they try to digest 448 pages of fairly dense legal analysis.
Even Robert S. Mueller III’s nine-minute statement Wednesday underscored this. If his office “had had the confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime,” he said, “we would have said so.” With his Marine bearing, prosecutorial voice and measured words, Mueller ended his chapter as special counsel but highlighted the systematic Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the challenges of proving a criminal conspiracy and his inability to charge the president with obstruction because of a Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president. This was Mueller’s silver platter, and he handed it to Congress.
It’s time for Democratic leaders to repackage Mueller’s findings in a form that will be more readily digested by the American people. Unfortunately, the current approach of investigations in no fewer than six committees, multiple subpoenas, innumerable court proceedings and White House delay tactics just creates more confusion. How can the United States focus on the findings if a Democratic House will not singularly focus its investigations? From the cheap seats, it appears that there may be too many balls in the air.
