Archive for 2019
October 3, 2019
THEY’RE WEDDED TO IT UNTIL DEATH DOTH PART THEM: Adam Schiff: ‘We’re Not Fooling Around’ With Impeachment.
DISPATCHES FROM THE SQUAD: “U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib told Detroit police Chief James Craig he should employ only black people on the department’s facial recognition team because ‘non-African Americans think African-Americans all look the same.’”
As Glenn has joked, getting Tlaib, AOC, and the rest of “the squad” elected was Roger Stone’s last and greatest political dirty trick.
CAN DIVERSITY AND EXCELLENCE COEXIST ON CAMPUS? Harvard computer science professor (and former Harvard College dean) Harry Lewis, who has been a real champion of freedom of association on that increasingly benighted campus, reviews former Yale Law dean Anthony Kronman’s book The Assault on American Excellence.
HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THE POSSIBILITY THAT THEY’RE BOTH LYING? According To Hunter Biden, Joe Biden Lied About Ukraine.
OVERCOMING INERTIA: Why It’s Time to End the War in Afghanistan. “The war in Afghanistan has gone on so long not because of necessity, but inertia. Despite what some military and political leaders have said, there is no reason for the United States to remain in Afghanistan, nor is there a clear path to victory over the Taliban. Withdrawal and negotiations are the best thing for U.S. interests.”
Negotiations are fine, but hardly mandatory for a withdrawal.
CHANGE: US Can Levy Tariffs On EU Exports Over Illegal Airbus Subsidies, WTO Says. “The U.S. plans to swiftly impose tariffs on $7.5 billion in aircraft, food products and other goods from the European Union after the World Trade Organization authorized the levies Wednesday, citing the EU’s subsidies to Airbus. . . . The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said it would impose the tariffs starting Oct. 18, with 10% levies on jetliners and 25% duties on other products including Irish and Scotch whiskies, cheeses and hand tools. The U.S. was authorized to impose tariffs of up to 100% on $7.5 billion of goods by the WTO in what has been a 15-year battle over support programs for Airbus and U.S. aerospace rival Boeing Co. BA -2.02% The latter had pushed for a 100% duty on Airbus jets.”
Further down:
Dems see every election as a step toward changing society. Their last president vowed to “fundamentally transform” America, and he did. The people who made a real effort to stop him didn’t find enough battle-ready allies in the GOP. They found lots of grifters and opportunists.
The only force in politics that took the Tea Party seriously was the Democrats that worked with brutal efficiency to marginalize and destroy it. Many Repubs blanched when they realized these guys were serious about derailing the gravy train. Others just saw pockets to be picked.
Click over for the whole thing.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Yep. “When politeness and orderliness are met with contempt and betrayal, do not be surprised if the response is something less polite, and less orderly.”
BUILDING THE PERFECT BEAST: Neo on Designing the perfect Donald Trump.
I can imagine a Republican candidate who might have done all of that and yet retained a smooth and relatively polite and erudite style, and yet would also have managed to defeat Hillary Clinton (that last bit is all-important, because without that it would be moot). And although such a combination of traits in one person isn’t literally impossible, it is so unlikely that I don’t think it’s realistic to have expected such a person to have come along at just the right juncture in 2016. It would be like waiting for Godot.
[ADDENDUM: That perfect candidate would have to have a keen intelligence, articulate speech, impeccable character, spotless record, winning and likeable and magnetic personality, the strength of character to stand up to terrible mud-slinging unperturbed, and also be able to fight dirty enough to win against the dirtiest of fighters. Only a few extremely unusual historical figures have that combination of traits, and no politician alive today has them.
A gentleman (or gentlewoman) on the right probably would not survive this particular political climate, and that fact way predated Trump. In fact, at this point, a gentleman or gentlewoman on the left doesn’t seem to have much chance of surviving either.]
Read the whole thing.
REALCLEARINVESTIGATIONS: Whistlegate Reveals Some Very Chatty Minders of State Secrets. “Unlike most whistleblowers, the CIA analyst was not a witness to events. Instead, he functioned as a kind of investigative reporter who worked sources to develop the information detailed in the complaint. While some have praised the informer for unearthing questionable behavior by the president, some experts in national security law say that the whistleblower and his sources may have violated regulations aimed at preserving state secrets. . . . How have officials with clearances become so casual in sharing classified information? Widespread disdain for President Trump within the federal bureaucracy, particularly within the intelligence agencies, may be a factor. But apparently something else was happening as well, namely a long-standing failure to rein in the rumor mill. It seems that security clearances are rarely revoked for over-sharing with colleagues.”
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIALIZES: The Whistleblower Executive.
The impeachment process is barely underway and already some constitutional norms are being trampled without a note of media notice or political concern. To wit, can a whistleblower inside the intelligence bureaucracy override a President’s right to executive privilege merely with an accusation?
That seems to be the default view among Democrats and the press as they luxuriate in news about Donald Trump’s conversations with foreign leaders. First it was the call with Ukraine’s President. Then on Monday the leak was what Mr. Trump told Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Now Democrats want to see the transcripts of other phone calls with other leaders.
“This is a coverup,” declared Nancy Pelosi last week, but if that’s true it is the most incompetent coverup in presidential history. Mr. Trump can’t seem to have any conversation that doesn’t leak, in part or whole, or that can’t be demanded by Congress as if everyone in the executive branch works for the House Speaker. Mr. Trump has released the Ukraine transcript and the whistleblower complaint, and he’s still accused of a coverup.
Last week’s inquisition of acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire by House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff captures the prevailing disdain for the separation of powers when Mr. Trump is the political target. Mr. Maguire, who has an impeccable reputation, had received the whistleblower complaint as part of his duties. He then acted responsibly by seeking legal advice about whether the document was subject to executive privilege. . . .
According to the Justice Department’s analysis of the whistleblower’s complaint, there was no “crime or fraud.” But Mr. Schiff treats the whistleblower’s complaint as enough to override any claim of a President’s right to have confidential communications with foreign leaders.
The implication is that any time anyone in the bureaucracy issues a complaint against a President, Congress has the power to demand it be delivered and made public. That is already happening with the stories about Mr. Morrison. This means that no foreign leader can have the expectation that anything he tells Mr. Trump, or the next President, will be confidential. . . .
Once again we see the irony that in the rush to impeach Mr. Trump for his real or imagined violations of political norms, his opponents have no problem violating norms themselves.
Norms are for the little people.
SURE HE DOES, HE’S A REPUBLICAN: Bill Barr doesn’t deserve hate from Democrats.
WAS MICHAEL BELLESILES INVOLVED? What ‘The Times’ 1619 Project Got Wrong About Slavery in America.
Related: Reclaiming 1619.
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Harvard’s Asian student quota a lesson in liberal bias.
How can you tell if you’re a good Boston-Globe liberal?
If you think keeping over-achieving Asian kids out of Harvard because they’re the wrong color isn’t problematic, but a photo of Chinese food is — you get an A+!
Read the whole thing.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Media Horrified That President Who Always Punches Back Keeps Punching Back. “Au contraire, tiny media brains, the strategy seems quite clear. If the MSM is going to ratchet its noise level up to 11, Trump’s going to take his to 12. We are over three years into them trying to wear him out only to have him continually prove that he has more stamina.”
ACTUALLY, THAT HAPPENED QUITE SOME TIME AGO: Democrats Have Given Up on the Common Good. “To an increasing degree, the Democratic party represents a detached elite. Their party line has shifted so far to the left that it no longer touches the common good, and as such, they must gaslight the public about their actual policies.”
HEY, NANCY CHANGED THE RULES, SO WHY CAN’T MITCH? John Yoo: The Senate Should Change Its Rules on Impeachment.
Now that the House has launched an impeachment probe of President Donald Trump, the Senate should reform its antiquated rules for the looming trial. Under current procedures, a trial produces the worst of both worlds. If the House has a flimsy case, the Senate must still put the country through the wrenching, divisive political spectacle without any opportunity to dismiss the case. But if the House has a strong case, senators must sit silently by without any chance to participate directly in the trial. Allowing a real trial will improve the decision-making over whether to fire Trump and will make the Congress more responsive and accountable to the American people.
With House Democrats suggesting a swift march to impeachment by the end of the year, senators can attend to the defects revealed by President Bill Clinton’s 1998 trial. Those rules give senators a passive role: They cannot reject the House’s decision to send an impeachment over, they must sit and listen to House prosecutors and White House defense lawyers without making a peep, they never see witnesses or documents, and they never make arguments over the facts or the law of conviction, particularly the meaning of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell announced this week that the Senate will automatically hold the trial if the House impeaches. Some conservative commentators argue that Senate Republicans should instead slow-walk the process. Perhaps they could repeat their success in holding open the seat of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia by refusing to schedule a vote. If Republicans could delay indefinitely, or at least until after the 2020 elections, Trump might never face removal from office at all.
But all parties seem to assume that the Constitution requires the Senate to hold a trial, even if — as we saw in the 1998 Clinton impeachment — it essentially consumes all of the nation’s political attention to the detriment of other pressing national problems. This ignores the Constitution’s assignment of roles to the House and Senate. Impeachment requires two steps. The House starts the process by “impeaching” the president on a charge of treason, bribery, or some other “high Crime” or “misdemeanor.” This is akin to a bringing a criminal charge. The Senate has “the sole power to try” the case. The constitutional text underscores that the Senate plays a judicial role by including the word “try,” requiring the chief justice to preside at the president’s trial, and referring to “the Party convicted” if the Senate decides to remove the president from office. Removal requires an affirmative vote by two-thirds of the senators present.
Nothing in the text of the Constitution says that the Senate must consider a House impeachment promptly, or even at all. The Senate could postpone consideration of a House impeachment indefinitely — say, until after the 2020 presidential election. Just as a court need not schedule a trial upon a prosecutor’s wishes, so the Senate can suit its own convenience, not that of the House. Or the Senate could simply vote to reject the case, much as a court can find that a plaintiff cannot win its case, even if all the facts are accepted as true, because it cannot meet the requirements of the law. The Senate has delayed consideration of actions by other branches of the government, such as refusing to consider treaties submitted by the president for advice and consent, sometimes for years.
But the Senate under its own rules has chosen to give up its constitutional flexibility.
Easy enough to change the rules, thanks to Harry Reid’s precedent.
They should also provide that if a president facing impeachment nominates someone for the Supreme Court, it goes directly to the floor for a vote, with no hearings. Just to watch Dem heads explode. . .
October 2, 2019
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TELL THE TRUTH AND THEY’LL CALL IT HELL: Boris Johnson’s weapons-grade speech. “This was not just the best speech that Boris Johnson has given since becoming Prime Minister, it’s the first proper weapons-grade speech that he has given since running for the job. It showcased his gift of communication, his ability to mobilise language to uplift, enthuse and motivate. To convey a sense of cheerful mission – even when it comes to Brexit and correct the tone: seek to replace the acrimony with optimism. To say that we love Europe but after 45 years of constitutional change we need a new relationship with it. It showed use of comic metaphor.”
AGITPROP IS ALL THEY’VE GOT: Rashida Tlaib Has Promoted Four Viral Racial Hoaxes in 2019.
JUST THINK OF “WOKE” AS A SYNONYM FOR “IDIOTIC” AND YOU WON’T GO FAR WRONG: Woke Math in Seattle. “The young people who are going to learn real math are those whose parents can afford to put them in private schools. The public school kids of all races are going to get dumber and dumber … and this is going to compel the wokesters in charge of Human Resources at institutions along life’s way to demand changing standards to fit political goals. Eventually, bridges are going to start falling down. That too will be the fault of Whiteness.”
Or we could quit letting them get away with this crap.
OPEN THREAD: Thread openly.
THEY MADE JEFF SESSIONS RECUSE HIMSELF FOR LESS REASON:
Also, I like the GOP’s new in-their-face spirit.
THE PARASITE IS CONSUMING THE HOST: Americans Spent More on Taxes in 2018 Than on Food, Clothing and Health Care Combined.