In January, 2019, halfway through his term as president, the NY Times wrote about 5 meetings and 9 phone calls that Trump had had with Putin. Very few details of the contacts were made public. The House Intel Committee requested transcripts of all those meetings and calls and was stonewalled by the administration. Whatever you think about Trump, you should assume the worst.
Larry Tribe is absolutely right, the Supreme Court has lost its legitimacy. In no small part, one person is responsible for that calamity--Mitch McConnell.
What puzzles me is that the Biden administration now has possession of the interpreter's notes of those meetings. Why not make them public? if the meetings were innocent, good for Trump. If not, we deserve to know.
That's a great question. A number of this administration's decisions have mystified me. I'm not familiar with the relevant procedures, but I also wonder if it would have been possible for the White House to quietly order the National Archives to release the information that the Jan. 6 committee requested, get the material into the committee's hands, and then fight any objections in court. (That's surely what Trump would have done.) Instead, the request is now bogged down in the courts, along with so many other issues, with the GOP trying to run out the clock.
An excellent newsletter...again. Thank you for all the research and detailed legal assessment.
Sometimes I do this little mental exercise. I theoretically remove myself from the current time. I imagine being on another planet or having been in hibernation for 50 years.
Then I return to this time and location and observe that there was a President elected who had been accused by 19 women of sexual misbehavior - which he openly bragged about...essentially admitting to the public who and what he was. 8 out of 10 "Christians" voted for him.
I return again to witness this same predator have secret conversations with the person who seeks to destroy our nation - a murdering dictator. OUR President had secret conversations with our greatest enemy. The press reported it rather limply. Why wasn't this president hauled before Congress to explain himself? Why did a single American support him after this potential betrayal?
What has happened? What is wrong with America? Where is the sense of decency and where is our patriotism? Not too long ago a presidential contender - who had considerable momentum in the Democratic presidential primary - stepped away from the race due to public condemnation. There was one photograph of a young woman sitting on his lap during a boat party. One picture.
The American public has become numb. And dumb. There must be something in the water or in the air or the food we eat. The press is not doing it's job! It's as if we have collectively gone to sleep...
All true, but it is incumbent on people like you (and me) to remind others that things are not normal. The dereliction of the media on this story was manifest. When I went back to the historical record of reporting on Trump's private meetings with Putin, there was surprisingly little reporting. WaPo and NYTimes had stories, then the reporting fell off to the Daily Mirror, then to the Toledo Shopper/Real Estate Guide, and then it was gone.
Your observation about the difference between how Biden has handled discussions with Putin and how Trump did is spot on--the former has behaved like a statesman, the latter behaved like a hoodlum. It should be a democratic talking point. Trump has been a friend to one of our biggest adversaries--persuadable independents will respond to having this underscored.
We have challenges against which we can posit the power of reason, which the other side has abandoned. The sea change in our relationship with Putin & Co. is indicative. Thank you for placemarking they significant battles.
Hogwash. If the radical right's Supreme Leader had issued the mandates, these Trumpist and conservative courts be all thumbs up. The courts are now just a political weapon.
The Constitution requires the President to take an oath "to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." The underlying foundation of the Constitution provides provides "for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." The vaccine mandates do just that. Dying from a entirely preventable illness does not.
I agree with you 100%. I was trying to explain the rationale for the seemingly inconsistent decisions. When I wrote last week about two decisions by Trump appointees, I noted that they included junk science quotes from vaccine deniers and ridiculous statements of absolutist individual liberty that exists nowhere else in society. If you showed up to work with no clothes, you would be arrested. But show up without a vaccine and you are lionized by conservatives.
The question that I'd like to have asked of every Trump supporter (well, maybe not Jr. or Eric) is this: If Donald Trump were faced with a choice of acting for the good of the country, or acting for his own good, which do you think he would choose?
I belong to an organization called "Grandmothers for a Brighter Future." We a a postcard writing organization and targets key races and good candidates who will act for the public good and not
that of the reactionary minority. It's a very effective and well-organized group and a pleasure to work with. It is a relief to be doing something positive, even in small ways.
So help me with the court strategy here. If Biden's "timidity" changed to a strong expansion position, you are thinking the impact on court decisions would be .......? How? Biden would be spending huge political capital to take a position that would lose and become ammunition for the Right. How does he handle that?
In January, 2019, halfway through his term as president, the NY Times wrote about 5 meetings and 9 phone calls that Trump had had with Putin. Very few details of the contacts were made public. The House Intel Committee requested transcripts of all those meetings and calls and was stonewalled by the administration. Whatever you think about Trump, you should assume the worst.
Larry Tribe is absolutely right, the Supreme Court has lost its legitimacy. In no small part, one person is responsible for that calamity--Mitch McConnell.
What puzzles me is that the Biden administration now has possession of the interpreter's notes of those meetings. Why not make them public? if the meetings were innocent, good for Trump. If not, we deserve to know.
That's a great question. A number of this administration's decisions have mystified me. I'm not familiar with the relevant procedures, but I also wonder if it would have been possible for the White House to quietly order the National Archives to release the information that the Jan. 6 committee requested, get the material into the committee's hands, and then fight any objections in court. (That's surely what Trump would have done.) Instead, the request is now bogged down in the courts, along with so many other issues, with the GOP trying to run out the clock.
Could be a national security issue - and holding our cards close to the chest until needed.
Or perhaps the interpreter's notes no longer exist--although, of course, we should know that, too.
An excellent newsletter...again. Thank you for all the research and detailed legal assessment.
Sometimes I do this little mental exercise. I theoretically remove myself from the current time. I imagine being on another planet or having been in hibernation for 50 years.
Then I return to this time and location and observe that there was a President elected who had been accused by 19 women of sexual misbehavior - which he openly bragged about...essentially admitting to the public who and what he was. 8 out of 10 "Christians" voted for him.
I return again to witness this same predator have secret conversations with the person who seeks to destroy our nation - a murdering dictator. OUR President had secret conversations with our greatest enemy. The press reported it rather limply. Why wasn't this president hauled before Congress to explain himself? Why did a single American support him after this potential betrayal?
What has happened? What is wrong with America? Where is the sense of decency and where is our patriotism? Not too long ago a presidential contender - who had considerable momentum in the Democratic presidential primary - stepped away from the race due to public condemnation. There was one photograph of a young woman sitting on his lap during a boat party. One picture.
The American public has become numb. And dumb. There must be something in the water or in the air or the food we eat. The press is not doing it's job! It's as if we have collectively gone to sleep...
All true, but it is incumbent on people like you (and me) to remind others that things are not normal. The dereliction of the media on this story was manifest. When I went back to the historical record of reporting on Trump's private meetings with Putin, there was surprisingly little reporting. WaPo and NYTimes had stories, then the reporting fell off to the Daily Mirror, then to the Toledo Shopper/Real Estate Guide, and then it was gone.
Your observation about the difference between how Biden has handled discussions with Putin and how Trump did is spot on--the former has behaved like a statesman, the latter behaved like a hoodlum. It should be a democratic talking point. Trump has been a friend to one of our biggest adversaries--persuadable independents will respond to having this underscored.
Agreed!
We have challenges against which we can posit the power of reason, which the other side has abandoned. The sea change in our relationship with Putin & Co. is indicative. Thank you for placemarking they significant battles.
Hogwash. If the radical right's Supreme Leader had issued the mandates, these Trumpist and conservative courts be all thumbs up. The courts are now just a political weapon.
The Constitution requires the President to take an oath "to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." The underlying foundation of the Constitution provides provides "for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." The vaccine mandates do just that. Dying from a entirely preventable illness does not.
I agree with you 100%. I was trying to explain the rationale for the seemingly inconsistent decisions. When I wrote last week about two decisions by Trump appointees, I noted that they included junk science quotes from vaccine deniers and ridiculous statements of absolutist individual liberty that exists nowhere else in society. If you showed up to work with no clothes, you would be arrested. But show up without a vaccine and you are lionized by conservatives.
Thank You!
Ahh, Robert, what would we do without you?
The question that I'd like to have asked of every Trump supporter (well, maybe not Jr. or Eric) is this: If Donald Trump were faced with a choice of acting for the good of the country, or acting for his own good, which do you think he would choose?
That's a good one. Thanks.
I belong to an organization called "Grandmothers for a Brighter Future." We a a postcard writing organization and targets key races and good candidates who will act for the public good and not
that of the reactionary minority. It's a very effective and well-organized group and a pleasure to work with. It is a relief to be doing something positive, even in small ways.
So help me with the court strategy here. If Biden's "timidity" changed to a strong expansion position, you are thinking the impact on court decisions would be .......? How? Biden would be spending huge political capital to take a position that would lose and become ammunition for the Right. How does he handle that?