Obsidian Wings

On the view from under the bus

by liberal japonicus

First of all, a couple of people have said hi to me in the comments, so hey back and apologies for not being in the flow to answer.

The title refers to the following
Johnson throwing the DUP under the bus
Bolton throwing Rudy under the bus
followed by Sondland doing the same

It seems so bizarre that I find myself smiling for things that Boris Johnson and John Bolton did. But I guess that's where we are. Brexit and impeachment observations welcome.

Professor (!) John effing Yoo

by Ugh

My former law Professor (!) John Yoo* appeared on Fox News to espouse certain views on what the "framers" (or "founders") would want w/r/t impeachment within one year of an election (shocking conclusion: they wouldn't approve!!!).  I'd say this is blatant nonsense, even for an "originalist." (though judges/justices/lawyers say certain subjects are beyond their expertise (national security comes to mind), and yet they all believe themselves expert historians...).

Prof. (!) Yoo is, of course, infamous for legally approving torture as a member of the DOJ's OLC using the tried and true method of "start with the conclusion my boss wants and reason backwards."  I imagine he thought this would curry him favor with the GOP to obtain an eventual Supreme Court nomination, where he wouldn't have to justify his legal reasoning (he once said in class that he would never want to be a judge, but he'd be happy to be a Supreme Court Justice - balls and strikes y'all).  

Not sure where I'm going with this other than to say that Yoo's legal and political approach as a "lawyer" or "legal scholar" seems to be akin to what someone on unfogged noted w/r/t Yoo after I'd described my experience as a law student with him - as the banality of evil.

In sum: someone needs to end up in prison for abuse of power in the U.S. of A., not that I'm hopeful.

*And of course the paper of record gave him recent op-ed space... (trigger warning: reason link).

Heard something about a debate

By liberal japonicus

 

Posting from my iphone, let’s see if that makes a difference. Knock yerselves out. 

A Profile in Courage. Not.

by wj

“He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” – Donald Trump on John McCain

It appears that our Leader has found a way to avoid having people captured: run away. In keeping with his own approach to military service, I suppose. (Well, at least he didn't require them to, officially, come down with bone spurs before leaving.)

First, after a call with Turkish President Erdogan, Trump decides to pull back from the Syrian/Turkish border. Thus abandoning our Kurdish allies to the invasion/ethnic cleansing that Erdogan has long desired. (That, after all, is why those few dozen US troops were where they were – to provide a trip wire which would keep the Turks from attacking the Syrian Kurds.)

Of course, the Turks went whole hog once they got the chance. Indeed some US troops were attacked with artillery . . . to the point where they considered shooting back in self defense. Perhaps even enthusiastically, given that they were pretty unhappy at being ordered to abandon allies already.

And then, the remaining US troops’ supply lines were being cut, which would have resulted in them being, essentially, captured. Can’t have that (see the quote on McCain above.) So now Trump has decided to withdraw all US troops – otherwise known as running away. This after the Defense Department had been assuring everyone Friday that our pull back from the border didn’t mean that.

Trump's initial move had everybody thinking that America's word was perhaps worthless (like his own) when it came to alliances. Now, anyone with two brain cells to rub together (whether the Israelis or the South Koreans or the Europeans -- not to mention the Russians) has to be thinking: Suspicions confirmed. It's going to take a lot of years, and multiple administrations from both parties, to repair this damage. If it can be done at all before everyone alive to watch has died.

Constitutional Calvinball

by Ugh

So Congress, you didn't put the croquet basketball malleting to the uprights and now the Trump Administration can neener neener your impeachment kangaroo court thingy.

This is not the Constitutional Crisis you're looking for.  

Nearly 63 million effing people voted for this sh1tshow.  

I give up.

all of the BS aside, there actually is a problem here

by russell

Don't usually read CNBC but this  popped up on my news feed.  The headline is "Here's why Trump's poll numbers are defying the impeachment mess".  AKA, "WTF is going on with Trump supporters?".

A topic of perennial interest.

It doesn't discuss racism, homophobia, misogyny, toxic nationalism, economic insecurity, gun mania, concerns about the SCOTUS, flyover man's identity crisis, or any of the usual.  It talks about a couple of things, but the fundamental point was this:

A very large number of Americans don’t have high levels of trust and respect for the government, and they’re generally OK with Trump being the junkyard dog who digs it all out.

Sooner or later Trump is gonna go away.  This year, next year, five years from now, whenever.  He is a time-limited phenomenon, not least because he's old and apparently lives on fast food and diet Cokes.

When Trump goes away, we are still going to have the reality of a government that does not inspire trust.  Yes, a lot of that is due to decades of right-wing anti-government knotheads yammering away at high volume 24/7.  And yes, there is a huge and very well funded industry devoted to convincing you that everything in your life will be a million times better if we can just get those unelected bureaucrats out of our hair.

But even if we factor that out, we still have the reality of a government that is characterized by systematic self-dealing and corruption, petty and otherwise.  The multi-multi-billion dollar lobbying industry.  The revolving door of people responsible for oversight and regulation stepping into six- seven- and eight-figure positions in the industries and institutions they were responsible for regulating.  A general culture of self-dealing, where a position of public responsibility is a springboard to enormous wealth.

In the most obvious case du jour - what the hell was Hunter Biden doing on the board of Burisma?  No laws were broken, there is no evidence of self-dealing or interference on the part of Joe Biden - the contrary, if anything - Burisma is certainly free to hire whoever they want, and Hunter Biden is certainly free to work for whoever he wants.  But what the hell did Hunter Biden know about directing a natural gas company?  What were his qualifications, other than being named "Biden"?

I pick on that example simply because it's in everybody's face today.  It's one of thousands and thousands and thousands of such examples.  As these things go, it is if anything among the most anodyne.  Nonetheless, WTF?

Novak (author of the CNBC piece) says people aren't bothered by Trump pissing on the shoes of our national institutions every day, because they see those institutions as already corrupted. 

When Trump goes away, all of that will still be so.

How do we fix that?