Cut
to the current election. We had heard allegations that Trump kept
Hitler’s speeches by his bedside, but somehow we normalized that. We
didn’t take him seriously because of all the outrageous, clownish acts
and gaffes we thought would cause him to drop out of the race. Except
these gaffes were designed to distract. This was his secret strategy,
the essence of his success — you can’t take a stand against Trump
because you don’t know where Trump is standing. You can’t find him
guilty of evil, you can’t find him at all.
Speaking
to the U.S. Central Command on Monday, President Trump went off his
prepared remarks to make a truly stunning claim: The media was
intentionally covering up reports of terrorist attacks.
“You’ve
seen what happened in Paris, and Nice. All over Europe, it’s happening,”
he said to the assembled military leaders. “It’s gotten to a point
where it’s not even being reported. And in many cases the very, very
dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons, and
you understand that.”
As
an official in the Justice Department, I followed in Hamilton’s
footsteps, advising that President George W. Bush could take vigorous,
perhaps extreme, measures to protect the nation after the Sept. 11
attacks, including invading Afghanistan, opening the Guantánamo
detention center and conducting military trials and enhanced
interrogation of terrorist leaders. Likewise, I supported President
Barack Obama when he drew on this source of constitutional power for
drone attacks and foreign electronic surveillance.
But even I have grave concerns about Mr. Trump’s uses of presidential power.
“However,
as far as this place is concerned I feel very strongly that our
opposition to racism and to sexism and our support for equality before
the law and an independent judiciary are hugely important considerations
in the House of Commons.”
Mike Huckabee to Fox Business: I don’t understand the role of the judiciary, and I’ll frame my ignorance in toxic masculinity!
I
think in the past we have had an executive branch that has emasculated
itself by surrendering constantly to the idea that once the court says
something, that’s it. It’s the law of the land, and when I hear that
phrase, it’s the law of the land cause the court said it, I think did
you guys pass ninth grade civics for gosh sake? The court can’t make
law. They cannot legislate.
But
by Republican standards, this should be a major, impeachment-worthy
scandal. Unless there’s some arbitrary minimum number of U.S. casualties
(greater than one but less than four) above which administrative heads
should roll, there’s no standard by which Benghazi should have become
the subject of a vast, conspiratorial inquest, but the botched raid in
Yemen should not.
Congressman
Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-NC.), a vice-chairman on the House Financial
Services Committee, has sent a blistering letter to Federal Reserve
Chair Yellen telling her in no uncertain terms to stop cooperating with
other central banks and insurance supervisors over global rules of
conduct, at least until the new administration has given her a clear
political line to follow.
As
former ethics counsels to Presidents Obama and George W. Bush, we’ve
reviewed more than our share of ethics filings for cabinet nominees.
Seldom have we seen a worse cabinet-level ethics mess than that
presented by Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s choice for education
secretary.
Her extensive financial holdings present
significant—and unresolved—conflict of interest issues. She also failed
to provide the Senate with accurate information about her involvement
with outside organizations. We have regretfully come to the conclusion
that these concerns disqualify DeVos for that cabinet position.
30, She/her. Used to be DreamingPagan a long time back. Multi-fandom, mostly Black Sails these days but with a lot of Tolkien and funny things interspersed. Complete language and history nerd - be warned. I write fic and occasionally I talk about ships.
View all posts by flintsredhair
Meg's Mumbles 