Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Your tax dollars at work




28 comments:

  1. Boris Johnson's suspension of Parliament unlawful, UK Supreme Court rules [Click] Judges rule unanimously that PM’s decision to prorogue parliament can be examined by judges. Bercow says Commons will reconvene tomorrow. Plaid Cymru’s Westminster Leader, Liz Saville Roberts, said opposition party leaders should be ready to impeach Boris Johnson if he failed to request an extension to article 50 to avoid a no-deal Brexit. Boris claims Supreme Court decision will make it harder to get a deal with the EU—EU leaders beg to differ.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah! I hope America is taking copious notes!

      Supreme Court: Suspending Parliament was unlawful, judges rule https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49810261

      Delete
    2. ^ BBC has a ton of info.

      There are calls for Johnson to step down.

      Delete
    3. Hurrah! Nice to have some good news. I hope Parliament can get their act together to impeach the bastard.

      Delete
  2. Lessons from Watergate [Click] Is Speaker Pelosi following the game plan used by Tip O’Neil in Watergate? It does look rather like it, although the time available is considerably less.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The article seems to suggest that by August 1974 the Senate would have voted to convict had Nixon not preemptively resigned. I can't see that happening this time around barring something that would be extreme even for Trump. But the suggestion that Pelosi is methodically building a case against Trump -- a case that will play out in the election if nowhere else -- seems perfectly sound.

      Delete
    2. I rather like the argument a columnist made a day or two ago that one reason to proceed toward impeachment is that it would be a horrendous distraction for Trump during the electoral campaign.

      Delete
    3. Distract the Great Distracter? Works for me.

      Delete

  3. Headlines from politicalwire.con: [Click]

    Warren Announces $10 Million Ad Campaign
    Warren Closes Gap with Biden Nationally
    House Chairmen Threaten ‘Escalated Measures’
    John Lewis Backs Impeachment Proceedings
    Biden to Back Trump’s Impeachment for Stonewalling
    Pelosi Plans Statement for Later Today

    Signing off for now—need to get moving.

    ReplyDelete
  4. One more link, from the New York Times: Teenager’s Diary Offers Window Into Life Under Soviets and Nazis [Click] “Described as a counterpart to Anne Frank’s diary, a journal written by Renia Spiegel, a Jewish girl who lived in Poland during World War II, is being published in English.” Beautiful handwriting, too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Flashback:
    “House Judiciary Committee transcripts of some of President Nixon’s Watergate tape recordings differ extensively, and in many cases significantly, from the edited transcripts made public by the White House.”
    — New York Times, June 20, 1974
    =====================
    “Even as the House is ramping up its investigation into the Trump administration’s dealings with Ukraine, the Senate Intelligence Committee has opened its own inquiry and is seeking a quick interview with the whistleblower who filed the initial complaint with the intelligence community’s inspector general,” Yahoo News reports.
    =====================
    House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) tweeted that the whistleblower who first raised alarm about President Trump’s conversations with the Ukrainian president wants to speak to his panel, and that they are expecting the testimony “as soon as this week.”
    =====================
    Trump’s Rationale for Withholding Ukraine Aid Changes Overnight [Click] One of the classic problems with telling a lie is remembering how one told it before.
    =====================
    “Do I think Trump a horrible person? Yes; but that’s so beyond the point. As a Republican, I hate him because he’s making us lose when we should be crushing it. It’s his stupid personality. If [he] were slightly less terrible, we’d be winning.”
    — A veteran Republican strategist, quoted by Vanity Fair.
    ====================
    Look at the brooch Speaker Pelosi is wearing; it depicts [Click] the Mace of the House of Representatives. [Click] Maybe that’s not something new, but I don’t recall seeing it before. A quick scan of Pelosi images on Google also does not reveal any other examples. I take that as a sign she is going to assert the full authority of the House.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For the actual announcement of the impeachment inquiry Pelosi changed to an American flag pin, albeit a rather large one.

      Delete
  6. Trump Ukraine row: Democrats launch formal Trump impeachment inquiry https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49814927

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've just had a new thought on impeachment: Build the case but don't actually impeach Trump in 2020. Rather, make it clear that he will be impeached if he somehow gets reelected.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oooooooooohhhh. And if the Senate gets flipped he would also be removed.

      Delete
    2. Of course, then the VP would become President. Hmmmm.

      Delete
    3. That's a great idear, Bill!

      Delete
  8. I think that timeline is much more realistic than going all the way to impeachment before the election, Bill--and perhaps as useful politically. Or even more so????

    ReplyDelete
  9. Replies
    1. Hmmmm..... it occurs to me to wonder if Trump will throw Rudy G. under the bus. That would fit his M.O.

      Delete
    2. According to Facebook trump has already called Pelosi to "see if we can make a deal on this Impeachment thing". Gah, he's so stupid. He might have been better served to learn how our government works before he tried to take it over.

      Delete
    3. Bizarre if true, but not beyond belief in the case of our Dear Leader. Certainly there are ways to make "the impeachment thing" go away, but I refrain from detailing the obvious.

      Delete
  10. Based on a book review in The Economist, I just bought the audiobook edition of Brooklyn: The Once and Future City. Before starting it, though, I need to finish last week's issue of The Economist and make a start on this week's. Got a bit distracgted over the weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I was rather distracted by the herds of gnus galloping by over the weekend...

    ReplyDelete
  12. White House Threatens to Shut Down Legislation [Click] President to take his ball and go home if the Dems aren’t nice to him!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I learn something new every day if I'm not careful. The UK Supreme Court is an autonomous institution these past ten years, not the Law Lords of the House of Lords. It also took over certain responsibilities of the Privy Council. Wikipedia is informative.

    ReplyDelete