The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Sigh. And Monday?

    By Flavius on Mon, 01/27/2020 - 11:13pm |

    Trump & Biden both lost.

    No further comment re Biden . Apart from anything else Trump lost by having ensured that his opponent won't be Biden. I like Joe, he's dead, 

    But one about Dershowitz. He was right before he changed his mind..To  a formulation in effect a slow burning  execution stake for the USA.  

     

     

    To merit impeachment the Pressy has had to have stolen an apple from a fruit stand.Or freed a slave. Or done something  else that was CRIME in 1790.

    Anything else is  relegated to the "boys will be boys" department Whereas rationally it's not the absolute occurence per se of an impeachment-worthy occurrence  It's the extent  intensity  or . prevalence

    IT's A MATTER OF DEGREE.

    Like everything else in life.. 

    Comments

    In the post trial post mortem there was some yearning for  the good old days when Men were Men , a nickel was worth five cents and Legislators cooperated for the good of the country.

    Solution?  Legislators should cooperate for the good of the country. There. that solved. And Pigs can fly.

    When were those  good old days?  The 70s of course..

    What happened after  them ? 1980 ,dummy.

    What else happened in 1980? Reagan was elected.

    What was the marginal tax rate in 1980? 70%

    What was it when Ronnie retired? 35%

    What was life for the bottom 25% of the income distribution before 1980? Bad . Only thing worse was life for the years before 1980. And afterwards.

    How come? Well until 1980 every year was a little less bad than the one before. Since  then every year's

    been a little.worse.

    Can't the Democrats help you ? We  don't vote for them any more. Waited too long for life to get better so we voted  for  funny guy instead.If you can't feed your family at least you can have a laugh.

    Ever think it's funny that the marginal tax rate went  down and your living standard did too.? Nah.Probably just a coincidence. Maybe that's something the Republicans will fix.

    Don't hold your breath.

    .


    by Flavius on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 12:23am

    but Flav, it's like a baseball game, it's not over til it's over, you are judging innings, not the whole game

    Biden campaign fires back at Trump's legal team

    @ CNN.com, 3 hrs. ago

    Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his campaign fired back at President Donald Trump's legal team's attacks on Hunter Biden.


    by artappraiser on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 4:17am

    there's also this big top headline story @ Politico right now:

    Mitt makes his move

    The occasional Trump critic is in the middle of an internal GOP fight over the impeachment trial.

    and this is second right at the top right

    Trump team braces for deeper impeachment drama after Bolton surprise


    by artappraiser on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 4:21am

    Sure it's still the second inning . Except for any candidate who didn't get  $83,000 per month as director of  an Ukrainian utiity.Or his son.

    I saw the last game of the 42 regular season.And for Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. Until 45.

     

    Interesting contrast. JD stood at the plate,immobile looking like a wound up clock spring. Williams kept his body moving . Fluid.

     Both hit home runs.

    Game meant nothing. Probably the Yankees were in what Damon Runyon called the World Serious.

    Later after his home run Williams hit a  one base tripple. Off the wall and bounced around. .As Ted  did after walking to first.

    Not for long. Joe  Cronin burst out of the dug out , thumb pointing back to the stand and threw Ted out. If you're playing the game, play the game. As you say It ain't over till it's over.

    But it was for Williams. 

    And for Biden Sr.  


    by Flavius on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 7:20am

    They thought Clinton was out after Gennifer Flowers; they thought Trump was out after Access Hollywood.

    Fat Lady ain't sung fo Biden Sr.


    by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 7:35am

    Fair comment. 

    To repeat I've always liked Biden. A democrat who could communicate with the "deplorables".

    When Obama dug himself out of a hole in the early  " Henry Louis Gates and the  cop" dispute. by inviting both families to the  White House  Biden was a natural to share a beer in the Rose Garden.

    But Burisma is just too much of hostage to fortune.


    by Flavius on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 11:59am

    Then there's that in the two frontrunners being 77 and 78 years old, what people are voting for in choosing one of them is message only and their ability to pick a V.P.  who fits the same message.

    Back to impeachment. Fat lady hasn't sung yet either. Enough GOP Senators have to cover their ass somehow. If there are witnesses, could end up with something like censure. Then Trump will be really bitter and divisive in his last year. Too many wild cards, no fat lady for quite some time if there are witnesses.


    by artappraiser on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 12:04pm


    by artappraiser on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 1:34pm

    Unfortunately, I sense that there are still only 3 GOP votes for witnesses. I've yet to hear hints from anyone other than Romney, Murkowski, and Collins, and the buzz seems to be that the GOP is no longer freaking out. Angus King has already retracted his prediction that 5 to 10 Republicans would vote witnesses. They seem to be seizing on Dershowitz's b.s. argument that the Bolton's allegations aren't impeachable, so you know, why bother heading from the dude.


    by Michael Wolraich on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 4:57pm

    And this:

    Senate Republicans emerged from a closed-door caucus meeting on Tuesday voicing renewed confidence that they will bypass a nasty witness fight in the impeachment trial.

    “The consensus is that we’ve heard enough and it’s time to go to a final judgement,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told reporters.

    Asked if the trial proceedings should go past Friday, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), another member of Senate GOP leadership, said that it “shouldn’t.”

    “We’re kind of confident,” Thune added.

    Sadly, it's hard for me to see this going any other way. Whatever political price they pay for whitewashing Trump, it's less than what they'd pay for letting the truth come out and then acquitting. It's a lose-lose situation for them, but they'll take the lesser loss. The only hope is for one of them to grow a conscience, but good luck with that.


    by Michael Wolraich on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 5:38pm

    But what the hell do I know? I'd be happy to be wrong.

    Breaking News:

    *McConnell Says GOP Leaders Don’t Currently Have Enough Votes to Block Impeachment Witnesses

    *McConnell Made Remarks in Private Senate GOP Meeting


    by Michael Wolraich on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 5:42pm

    Except he's a big liar so could easily be bluffing to give Dems false hope.


    by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 6:02pm

    He is a liar, but it's not in his interest to lie about this because it sets expectations that will make it harder to hit reverse. I figure that he's either trying to lower Republican expectations to avoid a backlash or else he hopes to increase the pressure on the dissidents by lighting up the base.


    by Michael Wolraich on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 6:12pm

    NYT picks option #2:

    In making the statement, Mr. McConnell — who had with him a “whip count” of yes, nos and maybe votes — was trying to show his colleagues, many of whom are eager to bring the trial to a quick close, that they did not yet have enough committed votes to forestall witnesses.

    But Mr. McConnell and his leadership team are optimistic they will to end up with the votes they need by the end of the week. They are trying to create pressure on wavering senators to join with a majority of their colleagues.

    Emphasis mine.


    by Michael Wolraich on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 6:34pm

    Great work figuring out what's going on, thanks. Me, I always think along lines like this: for us plebes, knowledge is power; while measly it's all the power we can git, that's actuallly why I'm a news junkie.


    by artappraiser on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 9:10pm

    It's all tea leaves and ouija boards. I wish that I could see into those folks heads. I try to divide them into buckets. You've got cynics like McConnell who only care about winning the game, survivors like Collins who focus on self-preservation, opportunists like Stefanik who calculate how to advance their own interests, egomaniacs like Giuliani and Dershowitz who lust for attention, zealots like Barr who align their beliefs with their chosen causes, and a few idealists like Amash who stand on principle.

    This is an oversimplication of course. Most people fall into multiple buckets. The question is which bucket has the highest priority.  Democrats fall into these buckets too, but they're not being tested in the same way. Schumer is a cynic like McConnell, but winning the game happens to coincide with his principles, so it's harder to say which bucket he prioritizes.

    When the media obsesses over possible swing votes, they're really focusing on just two buckets--idealists like Romney who have some principles and swing-state survivors like Collins who must appease independent voters. The main hope is that Lamar Alexander has enough gumption to vote his principles (since he's retiring) or that Gardner fears the wrath of voters in his blue-trending state.


    by Michael Wolraich on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 11:34pm

    Both of those plus owning the libs if he succeeds. Even if he has the votes, he wins more by claiming he *barely* doesn't. Now he and Trump will herd those deranged cats, hand out the envelopes with cash, give a few reacharounds, and Mitch saves the day again.


    by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 01/29/2020 - 2:34am

    Et tu, Feinstein?


    by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 01/29/2020 - 3:35am

    Is this Rudy revisiting daddy issues again in his dotage?


    by artappraiser on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 9:25pm

    And quite right too. Wouldn't want him to breath on them.Might be catching.


    by Flavius on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 10:54pm

    The message from someone usually doing Trump surrogate work:

     


    by artappraiser on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 9:49pm

    Republican gain. Yesterday in a Texas special election.A substantial win in a previously close sub urban district .


    by Flavius on Wed, 01/29/2020 - 6:54am