April 14, 2019

A reminder: laws don't enforce themselves.

There's black letter law that says that Treasury must turn over anyone's federal tax returns when requested by a congressional comittee but if no one exacts an actual penalty for not doing it...

April 6, 2019

If Barr ordered Mueller to end his investigation, wouldn't that have to be in Mueller's report?

I suppose it's possible the report went all mealy-mouthed and passive voiced: "a decision was made to end the investigation", but I don't think it did.

April 3, 2019

Could somebody explain something re: Trump's "oranges" appearance?

In this Vox article:

During an Oval Office event with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday afternoon, President Donald Trump either lied or got confused about where his father was born, admitted that closing the border with Mexico will be economically harmful to the US (but threatened to do it anyway), pushed a baseless conspiracy theory, and repeatedly struggled to say the word “origins.”

https://www.vox.com/2019/4/2/18292571/trump-nato-secretary-white-house-oranges

It ends with the sentence:

Reporters were then ushered out of the room.

Is this the normal protocol when the POTUS makes a press appearance with a guest? Or, am I just being weird when I picture staff shoving the press out before they can see any more of Donnie having one of his "spells"?