March 11, 2019

A Long Talk With Pete Buttigieg

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/a-long-talk-with-democratic-2020-candidate-pete-buttigieg.html

Excerpt:
This isn’t exactly sexy, but are you surprised national Democrats aren’t having more of a prominent infrastructure conversation?
I think we got tricked a little bit because we thought Trump was going to do infrastructure, right? A “trillion-dollar plan.” Even we fall for it.

Wait, did you believe it?
Not really. But I always thought he would do something, that something would provoke a bump in the economy, and they’d use that bump in the economy to get reelected. And it turned out, literally, the plan was like, “You do it.” The message to the cities was: “We can kick in a little bit on the top, but you have to run this.” It’s not so much a plan as a restatement of the status quo. So I think for that reason, we maybe cooled off on that, because it was supposed to be the big bipartisan priority and that turned out as all bullshit.

And now infrastructure has turned into a symbol for Trump’s inability to do anything …
Yeah, I think the pattern that’s so revealing is that he said he was going to do this thing. He didn’t — nobody’s that surprised, and by the time anybody goes back to check, it’s like, “Look over there! Caravan!” What’s most interesting about this is nobody’s talking about infrastructure. Look at his State of the Union address. This is where you unveil your big thing. And other than the wall he hasn’t done anything at all. I suppose that’s infrastructure.

I suppose? But it’s not actually being built …
Right. Nor did I hear any suggestion of a plan to do so, an actual plan. I mean, you could at least have talked about a pseudo-plan like what [Congressman Dan] Crenshaw and these guys are putting forward. I didn’t even see that.

But why do you think that is? Is he not actually interested in building it?
I think he doesn’t care.

What does he care about?
Things like the wall are interesting inasmuch as they feed the show, not the other way around. So for those of us who believe the show is kind of a necessary evil and comes with the territory and is kind of how you get policy done, we’re living in this upside-down world. Obviously, there’s always been this relationship between policy and politics, but it’s gone incredibly far in one direction this time.

March 9, 2019

Erin Burnett says rump may be down to only one possible replacement for Bill Shine:

John Barron

March 8, 2019

Tapper guest Gene Rossi, fmr Fed Prosecutor for EDVA, who knows Ellis and Jackson very well said

he wasn't surprised by Ellis' Manafort sentence but predicted that Jackson "is going to go postal on him".

March 8, 2019

What time is the sentencing on March 13th?

TIA

March 7, 2019

Manafort may spend the rest of his life in the courtroom waiting on his sentence!

March 7, 2019

He arrived in a wheelchair wearing a green jumpsuit.

March 7, 2019

Over/Under 10 yrs 1 day

I'll take the under but hope to lose.


What say you?

Under: 6

Over: 2

March 7, 2019

Juliette Kayyem made a very good point on Erin Burnett

Paraphrasing, she said we may not know if Ivanka or her attorney knew the truth when they proofread and edited Cohen's testimony but what we do know is that Putin knew the truth. That in itself gave Putin kompromat on trump.

She's one smart lady.

March 6, 2019

I'm not saying Jim Himes let any cats out of the bag but

he kind of let us peek inside. Wow. I got the distinct impression that Cohen surprised them with some documents the committee wasn't expecting. Himes said they had several people, as the result of today's hearing, that they needed to do some follow up with.

I was encouraged with what Schiff had to say but Himes almost had me fired up!

March 6, 2019

Impeachment Support Inches Up

The poll finds that 42% of Americans feel that Trump should be impeached and compelled to leave the presidency while 54% disagree. Support for impeachment of Trump has risen slightly since November, when 36% favored impeachment and 59% did not. Previous polls showed support for Trump’s impeachment ranging between 38% and 41%. The change since last fall has come largely from political independents. Currently, 40% of independents support impeachment and 57% are opposed. Four months ago, only 26% of independents supported impeachment and 67% were opposed. Partisan opinion on impeachment currently stands at 75% support to 19% oppose among Democrats and 8% to 91% among Republicans.

https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_us_030619/