Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Ghengis Jon]

US Reps Sherman (Calif) and Green (Texas) have filed Articles of Impeachment against Not My President Chump. Good luck on that, even if you ignore the fact the GOP controls the House. But this should generate a shitstorm of tweets from the Cheeto-In-Chief.

Too bad being an unqualified, incompetent buffoon is not an impeachable offense. Filing articles now is little more than Trump-esque grandstanding, much like the flurry of Executive Orders early in this administration.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/house-democrat-introduces-article-of-impeachment-against-trump/article/2628428

[hack]

29 Palms is where Gram Parsons overdosed. One can go see the hotel room at the Joshua Tree Inn. A very sad rock-and-roll death.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Trump's lawyers want to wall off Kushner from discussing the Russia investigation with Trump.

Reading between the lines they may view him as Trump's biggest liability.

https://www.axios.com/trump-lawyers-demand-wall-between-kushner-president-2458146483.html

[The Oracle]

29 Palms is where Gram Parsons overdosed. One can go see the hotel room at the Joshua Tree Inn. A very sad rock-and-roll death.

Didn't know that. After living across the freeway from that shit hole for a year, that's by far the most significant fact on the place. Other than a great trailer park.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Good recap of today's "press conference". Also this:

These are questions that are also being asked inside the West Wing. A clearly exasperated White House staffer told Yahoo News they believe the continued attacks on the Clintons are an effort to satisfy Trump, who has infamously remained fixated on his election victory. The staffer suggested this focus on the Clintons is leading to statements that don?t address the issues at hand and therefore prevent the discussion from moving on.

The staffer?s take: ?The Clinton stuff is purely done to appease Trump. It?s the equivalent of giving a sick, screaming baby whiskey instead of taking them to the doctor and actually solving the problem.?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/even-white-house-frustrated-stonewalling-donald-jr-s-meeting-232113089.html

[Dr. Strangelove]

42% of Republicans now say we have too much Freedom of the Press. 41% of Republicans say the right to criticize the government has gone too far. 25% think the expansion of the vote has gone too far.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/americans-are-burning-down-the-house/2017/07/10/7b522ea6-65af-11e7-a1d7-9a32c91c6f40_story.html

[Ghengis Jon]

41% of Republicans are clinically brain dead. That is an appalling number.

[froot loops]

Did they ask about segregation and Jim Crow?

[Wild Hoss]

Props for Foreign Aid, and kudos to Dubya.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/26/h...d-malaria.html

[Mainevent]

42% of Republicans now say we have too much Freedom of the Press. 41% of Republicans say the right to criticize the government has gone too far. 25% think the expansion of the vote has gone too far.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...f40_story.html

Damn snowflakes.

[iam416]

No one here is even making this argument...that Russia 'won' the election for Trump

Yeah, but, I mean...c'mon...if we had a Wash Times poll on how many Ds think Trump won b/c of Russia, it'd be roughly 95% -- that's an article of faith amongst the Ds I know (saving, of course, the illuminati here). You can acknowledge that much, I think.

That said, you were/are correct (1) in the significance of the emails as being evidence of wrong intent and (2) in pointing to the NRO and their take. No one is defending this over there. No one.

Additionally, the argument as to legality misses the point. I don't know the law on using hacked emails -- if it's anything like trade secrets law (which, I think would be even stricter since it's something of real and commercial value), then the hacking is the wrongdoing. Third party use and distribution is not the wrongdoing unless that person knew that the information was wrongfully obtained. In the "non trade secrets" context, I think it's probably even more lax as we see newspapers printing documents and stories obtained from leaks that we know are breaking some law. So, unless DJT was in on the hacking or assisted in distributing emails they knew were hacked, then I don't think you'll find an illegality. Period.

I think Ds fight on the low ground when they make this the issue. I think they are being fucking absurd when they use "treason." It's an easy push back from the Rs. And, IMO, the argument is tangential -- it's missing the forest. The question isn't a criminal one; the question is a political one. Impeachment is a fundamentally political act. It's nicer to justify it with an underlying criminal act, but that is not a prerequisite. It's a matter of whether the case for removal, whether based on a criminal act or not, is sufficient to justify impeachment in the public's mind. End of story.

There's still a long way to go on it (IMO), but that's the target. And to conclude -- I still, personally, think impeachment ought to be based on criminal wrongdoing. I think, as a standard, that is an effective constraint. But, I'm also not particularly in favor of skirting on a technicality especially when you need 67 senators to vote to convict. So if there's a trail that leads to knowing cooperation/conspiracy (as opposed to Russia saying, hey, good news, we hacked the DNC and are going to dump this shit on WikiLeaks), then one can fairly justify whatever comes.

[iam416]

Didn't know that. After living across the freeway from that shit hole for a year, that's by far the most significant fact on the place. Other than a great trailer park.

This made my morning. Hopefully "The" Oracle also had to spend considerable time living in a tent on the Salton Sea. Regardless, a year in or around Twentynine Palms is a good start.

[iam416]

Very short take on the Rs idea to eliminate the state and local tax deduction:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanellis/2017/07/11/tax-reform-and-the-state-and-local-tax-deduction-quandry/#76298fda6223

Eliminating a deduction/increasing taxes that only itemizers use ought to be right in the Ds wheelhouse. However, the states with the highest state and local taxes are, well, D states. Removing the deduction means that their citizens will feel the full brunt of the local taxload instead of just 60-70% of it -- which presumably will make it harder to raise taxes.

In any event, it's apparently paired with eliminating the AMT which would benefit blue state citizens if not blue state governments.

Personally, I'd hate to see it go.

[Wild Hoss]

I think its agreed among most in here that there is no impeachment coming out of this...maybe the resignation of an expendable insider or two that gets charged by Justice if it gets that far, but that's it. The Ds do not have the political clout to really do anything, and are dependent on the cooperation of a handful of Rs to get as far as they have to date. That won't hold up under real political pressure....right now some Rs are playing it up for the cameras to get patriotism points.

So its politics, and I have no issues with that. The Ds have a chance to pry a crowbar into the Republican stranglehold on national security, and they are going to try to leverage it. (And IMO, its a legit cause, so bonus points) Additionally, they get to shit-up the Trump Administration's ops with these distractions and try to hold on until 2018, which is fair politics by current standards as well.

Let the games continue.

[iam416]

Cogent political analysis. I couldn't be more shocked if a two-headed ostrich took my order at Starbucks this morning. Or if Wizard sired a male.