riversedge
riversedge's JournalTrump tries scripting a made-for-TV drama out of his impeachment trial
I hope Trump has many sleepless nights.
Trump tries scripting a made-for-TV drama out of his impeachment trial
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/14/trump-scripting-tv-drama-impeachment-trial-098418?cid=impch_m
The trial of the president of the United States will mark the opening episodes of Season Four of Trump’s presidency. And the president has high expectations for how it’ll look to the masses on television.
By NANCY COOK and MERIDITH MCGRAW
01/14/2020 05:11 AM EST
He scrutinizes behind-the-scenes details of his television interviews, preferring to be shot in natural light and from the right side because he likes the way his hair looks from that angle.
He cares about how the back-and-forth parrying with the White House press corps looks on TV, sometimes directing camera crews to move to the right or the left for the best shot.
He notes how his aides perform on cable shows, closely watches TV ratings — compiled each week by a staffer — and manages how official speeches and announcements will look on screen.
It’s all part of President Donald Trump merging his position as head of the executive branch with his role as executive producer of his presidency. White House aides and Trump allies are bracing for the Senate impeachment trial to put the president’s television-focused mind on full display during a memorable moment for his presidency. ...................................
Pelosi accuses Trump of a 'cover-up' after president lashes out over impeachment
Source: nbc news
Democrats have called for key White House officials and the release of documents as Pelosi, under pressure, readies the House to transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate to begin the trial.
Jan. 13, 2020, 2:57 PM CST
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused President Donald Trump of a cover-up on Monday after he lashed out at Democrats in tweets calling his impending Senate impeachment trial a "witch-hunt."
"In the Clinton impeachment process, 66 witnesses were allowed to testify including 3 in the Senate trial, and 90,000 pages of documents were turned over," Pelosi, D-Calif., tweeted in a direct response to the president. "Trump was too afraid to let any of his top aides testify & covered up every single document. The Senate must #EndTheCoverUp."
Earlier Monday, Trump accused Pelosi...........................
Trump and his allies have called for testimony from former Vice President Joe Biden — the president's request that Ukraine investigate Biden and his son Hunter lies at the heart of the impeachment inquiry — and from House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who led the House inquiry. But Democrats have said those witnesses are irrelevant to the question of whether Trump abused his power, which is the charge in one article of impeachment. The other is obstructing Congress' investigation into his dealings with Ukraine.
Democrats have called for Senate testimony from top White House officials, including acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton, whom they say have firsthand knowledge of Trump's actions regarding Ukraine. Pelosi has withheld the impeachment articles from the Senate for weeks in what she says is a bid to ensure a fair process. But, under pressure from within her own party as well as from Republicans, she is preparing for the House to transmit the articles, which would allow the Senate trial to begin..................................
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/pelosi-accuses-trump-cover-after-president-lashes-out-over-impeachment-n1114741?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma
https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1216802753122656256?s=20
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1216876355591319553?s=20
Biden's and Trump's farewell tweets to Booker show you everything you need to know about them
Biden's and Trump's farewell tweets to Booker show you everything you need to know about them
Monday January 13, 2020 · 12:05 PM CST
First up ... Gallant:
https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1216758302421352451?s=20
And now … Goofus:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1216755243712643073?s=20
https://twitter.com/BridgetSterli19/status/1216769896475852801?s=20
Joe Biden isn’t my first choice — not by a long shot. But he might end up as our nominee. And wouldn’t you feel a lot better voting for the guy who wrote that first tweet than the dipshit troglodyte who wrote the second?
Cory Booker is everything Trump isn’t: brilliant, knowledgeable, moral, honest, and passionate about helping people and improving our country.
Trump mocks Booker over suspended presidential campaign
I am not into violence, but I really would love to slap Trumps face.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/477977-trump-mocks-booker-over-suspended-presidential-campaign
By Brett Samuels - 01/13/20 11:31 AM EST
President Trump on Monday mocked Sen. Cory Booker's (D-N.J.) withdrawal from the Democratic primary, tweeting sarcastically that he would be able to "rest easy tonight."
"Really Big Breaking News (Kidding): Booker, who was in zero polling territory, just dropped out of the Democrat Presidential Primary Race," Trump tweeted. "Now I can rest easy tonight. I was sooo concerned that I would someday have to go head to head with him!"
Booker announced earlier Monday that he would suspend his presidential campaign. He failed to qualify for the last Democratic debate and did not meet the threshold to participate in Tuesday's debate, and the senator acknowledged he did not see a path to the nomination.
"I will carry this fight forward — I just won’t be doing it as a candidate for president this year," Booker said in an email to supporters.
The president has made a habit of sending sarcastic tweets after a Democrat suspends their campaign for president, firing off similar messages in recent months about Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), among others, as the 2020 field winnows.................................
https://twitter.com/eugenegu/status/1216756264731955200?s=20
https://twitter.com/eugenegu/status/1216758173278728193?s=20
https://twitter.com/JayValenz67/status/1216792641653874688?s=20
Mitch McConnell is cynically undermining any notion of an honest impeachment trial
Mitch McConnell is cynically undermining any notion of an honest impeachment trial
He’s not as noisy as Trump, but McConnell has always been just as recklessly partisan and shameless
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/13/mitch-mcconnell-trump-impeachment-trial
Mon 13 Jan 2020 05.30 EST
Last modified on Mon 13 Jan 2020 05.32 EST
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In the Soviet Union, show trials were a legal farce in which the guilt of the accused had been determined well before the hapless defendant was dragged before the court. But even in the most grotesque of Stalinist proceedings, the court went through the motions of hearing the testimony of witnesses and receiving evidence, even if those motions were entirely pro forma.
Pompeo has sealed his spot as 'Trump's whisperer' with his mission to beat Iran
Today in America, we are confronted with a sad inversion of the Stalinist show trial: the “McConnell show trial.” The McConnell show trial mocks judicial process by loudly trumpeting the innocence of the accused before the trial begins. In the McConnell show trial, no witnesses need be called, no documents reviewed; the jury marches to the orders of the accused.
The Constitution requires that senators trying impeachment cases “shall be on Oath.” Since 1798, that special oath – distinct from the oath of office that all members of Congress must take – requires senators to “do impartial justice.” In deciding to orchestrate a show trial, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has decided to reject this oath, openly declaring, “I’m not an impartial juror. This is a political process. I’m not impartial about this at all.”
McConnell’s position brazenly expands on the Republican charge that Nancy Pelosi and Jerry Nadler reneged on their commitment not to pursue impeachment unless the process enjoyed bipartisan support. Admittedly, congressional Republicans have exposed a flaw in Pelosi and Nadler’s logic: they assumed that at least some Republicans would be prepared to support impeachment after seeing indisputable evidence that the president engaged in transparently impeachable acts. That has been shown to be a false assumption.
Now we know that House Republicans would rather liken a corrupt and incorrigible chief executive to Jesus at Calvary or the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor than break with the president.
McConnell, in turn, is now using the Republican’s own hyper-partisanship – the reality that no facts concerning the Ukraine scandal, no matter how egregious, would cause Republicans to support Trump’s removal – to argue that that the present impeachment lacks the kind of bipartisanship that would conduce to Republican participation.
In other words: McConnell cynically exploits Republican obstructionism to justify yet more obstructionism.
None of this should surprise us. The sad reality is that Trump’s politics of constitutional defiance are less an idiosyncratic aspect of his demagogic leadership and more a feature of recent Republican politics. In this, McConnell has been the master strategist. Recall his stunning refusal to grant a hearing to Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee to the supreme court to fill the vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death. In a 150-year span – from 1866 to 2016 – the Senate never once prevented a president from ultimately filling a supreme court vacancy. McConnell’s refusal to consider Obama’s choice was more than a break with precedent. It was an act of constitutional nullification...............................................
The GOP's nightmare scenario is playing out in its Obamacare lawsuit
Opinion
The GOP’s nightmare scenario is playing out in its Obamacare lawsuit9*rewsqca
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/enterthefray/la-ol-obamacare-lawsuit-preexisting-conditions-20190710-story.html
By Jon HealeyDeputy Editorial Page Editor
July 10, 2019 3:31 PM
The 2020 election is shaping up to be yet another referendum on healthcare, thanks to a long-shot lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act that has somehow stayed alive in the courts.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans took up the case of Texas vs. Azar on Tuesday, with two of the three jurists suggesting strongly that a now-neutered provision of the law — the mandate that adult Americans obtain insurance coverage — was unconstitutional. So much for the hope that a more senior appeals panel would summarily reject the bizarre lower-court ruling that threw out the entire ACA.
The possible outcomes here tend to be bad for consumers — and worse for Republicans, given that the lawsuit was brought by a group of top Republican officials from 20 states. The panel could declare every section of the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, immediately jeopardizing the health coverage of the roughly 20 million Americans who obtained it through the ACA (most thanks to the expansion of Medicaid). Or it could just kill the insurance reforms that are intertwined with the individual mandate, threatening the ability of some 50 million Americans with preexisting conditions to obtain coverage down the road.
Either one of those outcomes would force GOP candidates to defend the attack on a law that grew more popular the closer congressional Republicans came to repealing it. A partial repeal that killed the protections for preexisting conditions would be the worst of all for Republicans, given the public’s overwhelming support for those provisions. And when supporters of the law appealed to the Supreme Court, this particularly noxious aspect of Republican health policy would stay in front of voters well into 2020.
But keep your fingers crossed, Mitch McConnell! The appeals court could rule that the states have no standing to sue because they suffered no injury from Congress’ decision to repeal the tax penalty for those who do not obtain insurance. It’s quite a stretch to suggest that it’s injurious just to be ordered to do something even if there’s no consequence for not complying.
Of course, that’s just what one of the 5th Circuit jurists did suggest. So that’s not a likely outcome.........................................................
🔥 @SpeakerPelosi: Dismissing the #Impeachment case (#moscowMitch) is a #coverup...senators
Dr. Dena Grayson
@DrDenaGrayson
🔥
@SpeakerPelosi
on McConnell signing a resolution to dismiss the #impeachment case: “Dismissing is a #coverup...senators who are thinking now about voting for witnesses or not, they will have to be accountable for not having a fair trial."
#CorruptGOP
https://twitter.com/DrDenaGrayson/status/1216373968510373889?s=20
https://twitter.com/Yznhymer/status/1216376581343653890?s=20
@GOP is the Party of REGULATION OF WOMEN'S BODIES--**NOT deREGULATION..........DAMN.............
South Florida Sun Sentinel
@SunSentinel
Although Florida law already requires a parent or guardian to be notified before a minor has an abortion, the Legislature is fast-tracking bills that call for written, notarized consent as well. These bills threaten the rights of all women. | Editorial: https://trib.al/tMpJFMl
https://twitter.com/SunSentinel/status/1216355519658713088?s=20
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-op-edit-parental-consent-abortion-legislature-20200112-ynscu7oa7bcpvgtw6jnb2b7lua-story.html
Although Florida law already requires a parent or guardian to be notified before a minor has an abortion, the Legislature is fast-tracking bills that call for written, notarized consent as well. Legislators ultimately want to leave Florida women with no protection if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
Although Florida law already requires a parent or guardian to be notified before a minor has an abortion, the Legislature is fast-tracking bills that call for written, notarized consent as well. Legislators ultimately want to leave Florida women with no protection if Roe v. Wade is overturned. (J.Miarka/Dreamstime/TNS)
Although Florida law already requires a parent or guardian to be notified before a minor has an abortion, the Legislature is fast-tracking bills that call for written, notarized consent as well.
Why?
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Superficially, the intended targets are only teenage girls, and the legislation comes with the usual platitudes about the importance of parental involvement at difficult moments in their lives.
That’s bad enough.
But make no mistake: these bills also jeopardize abortion rights for all Florida women.
The transparent purpose is to undo a 1989 Florida Supreme Court decision that held that the state Constitution’s privacy clause guarantees freedom of reproductive choice. The decision in the case In Re TW, invalidated a parental consent law.
The Florida Constitution says this: “Every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life.”
“We can conceive of few more personal or private decisions concerning one’s body that one can make in the course of a lifetime, except perhaps the decision of the terminally ill in their choice of whether to discontinue necessary medical treatment,” then-Chief Justice Leander Shaw wrote for the majority.
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goat herd is helping Trump pay tens of thousands of $$ less in property taxes on NJ golf properties
It is an older article but good review.
https://twitter.com/a_dbruce/status/1215711645202370561?s=20
A goat herd is helping Trump pay tens of thousands of dollars less in property taxes on his New Jersey properties
https://www.businessinsider.com/goats-helping-trump-pay-less-taxes-new-jersey-2018-8
Pat Ralph
Aug 11, 2018, 1:51 PM
Trump Goats bedminister Trump Goats bedminister
President Donald Trump's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, keeps goats on the property as a way to qualify for a tax break for farms. Getty; iStock; Skye Gould/Business Insider
A goat herd is helping President Donald Trump pay thousands of dollars less in property taxes on his New Jersey properties, thanks to a state law designed to benefit farmers.
The Wall Street Journal estimated in 2016 that Trump paid less than $1,000 a year in property taxes on land that would typically require roughly $80,000.
President Donald Trump is able to pay tens of thousands of dollars less in property taxes on his New Jersey golf courses because of a goat herd, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Citing public records, The Journal reported in 2016 that Trump had been able to save thousands of dollars in property taxes on his two properties in Bedminster — where he is this week for a "working vacation" — and Colts Neck. Because the properties have a goat herd, as well as hay farming and woodcutting, New Jersey law permits them to receive a farmland tax break.
Therefore, Trump pays reduced property taxes on the parts of his golf courses dedicated to farming, the report says.
Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster maintains 113 acres of hay farming and eight goats, and the property in Colts Neck has 40 acres of hay production and trees, The Journal reported, citing tax-break applications reviewed in 2016 during the presidential campaign............................................
Red alert from World Health Organization: 6,000 dead in Congo measles outbreak
Red alert from World Health Organization: 6,000 dead in Congo measles outbreak
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/8/1910216/-Red-alert-from-World-Health-Organization-6-000-dead-in-Congo-measles-outbreak
Walter Einenkel
GOMA, DR CONGO - NOVEMBER 13: (ISRAEL OUT) A Congolese boy gets vaccinated for rubella at the Kibati displaced camp, November 13, 2008 on the outskirts of the town of Goma, Congo. The head of UN peacekeeping has asked the UN Security Council for more than 3000 extra troops to be deployed to the eastern region of the DRC. The request is an attempt to protect civillians from the violence of rebel forces and the Congolese Army. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
This past year saw the largest measles outbreak across the planet. Over the past couple of months, an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has taken hold, with a “suspected” 310,000 cases of measles and over 6,000 deaths from the disease reported in 2019 alone. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) sent out a press release calling for aid to help combat this terrible turn.
Lack of funding remains a huge impediment to successfully curbing the outbreak. So far, US$ 27.6 million have been mobilized. However, a further US$ 40 million are required for a six-month plan to extend the vaccination to children between six and 14 years and to reinforce elements of the outbreak response beyond vaccination, including improving treatment, health education, community engagement, health system strengthening, epidemiological surveillance and response coordination.
While very privileged American anti-vaxxer advocates spent much of 2019 yelling their brand of unscientific misinformation concerning the efficacy and safety of vaccines, places like Somalia, Ukraine, Brazil, and Bangladesh reported thousands of cases of the disease. And while scientifically deficient parents throw moronic “chicken pox parties,” places like Madagascar saw over 1,200 people die from a disease that one could be inoculated against. The United States continues to have much higher vaccination rates than the countries affected, but anti-vaxxer propaganda has led to the largest outbreaks our country has seen in decades.
Anti-vaxxers in the United States will tell you that this level of outbreak can only occur in poorer, less-developed countries, and not in the United States with our medicine. Of course, their theories are based on the idea that while they pretend vaccinations give everybody autism, the majority of us will continue to get our children vaccinated and our broken healthcare system will be able to provide the medicines needed to Americans suffering from areas of low vaccination rates..........
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