Sunday 5 May 2019

Will People Listen?

I know this year I have focused many of my posts on climate change or its effects.  Perhaps that's because it has become very apparent that it is not a far danger, but a near one.  It is not only a danger to those on the coasts but to every one of us.  Even on the surface for those a warming planet may have advantages for there are problems that will arise.

This video was from a couple of years ago but is a nice question and answer session from our friends in Canada.



Like the earlier video I posted about the flooding in the mid western section of my country, this video focuses on extremes in other areas of the world that point to a rapidly changing environment, which will lead to continuing migrations of people.  It is a full length documentary from Deutsche Welle, a German broadcaster.



As before, I feel the need to add a video on other aspects of our changing world.  This highlights our poor stewardship of this planet and its effects on other inhabitants, even down to the smallest.  They are not an afterthought and their "vanishing" will have far reaching consequences for all.



So I ask, will anyone listen?

78 comments:

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Off topic:

Classic dirty politics

This is a story about how political operatives tried to take down a presidential candidate, and ended up just humiliating themselves.

It's also a story about how a smear was spread by right-wing websites -- and was cleaned up by newsrooms that took some time to check the facts.
On April 29 someone shared a post titled "Pete Buttigieg Sexually Assaulted Me" on Medium, a site that lets anyone upload stories, essays and any other bit of text. It was attributed to a college student named Hunter Kelly.


These are Trump supporters. At least Kelly confessed in the end to the lie. We don't see the same shame in others.

      Lee C.   ―  U.S.A.      said...

 
      "It's also a story about how a smear was spread by right-wing websites…"

Yeah, there's a whole dedicated transmission system for that sort of thing; they keep in indirect touch with one another; feed off one another.  And it's not even organized; it's an organic, self-sustaining pathology.  (The story will reappear later if Buttigieg looks likely to get the nomination, in spite of it seemingly having been "debunked" already.)

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
NBC Nightly News said tonight that Mueller was still on the federal payroll.  That may influence his thinking when it comes time for him to appear (or not) before congressional committees.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
New report out of the United Nations about species extinctions.  NYT  Things ain't lookin' good for all God's critters.  PBSNewshour (film clip)

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
I notice that Republicans, from Mitch McConnell right down to the local dog-catcher, are all screaming 'bout how we need to "move on" and let the Russia thing be forgotten, and we must do that now, before Mueller testifies before House committees, on television (the testimony will be televised).

The independents are noticing this; it just makes the Mueller testimony an ever bigger deal.  This is not the result those screaming Republicans actually wanted.  But, it does keep the dedicated Trumpkins fired up too, and they do want that.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

NBC Nightly News said tonight that Mueller was still on the federal payroll.

I heard that mentioned somewhere also. I wonder what he is actually doing? Anyway, if Barr quashes him I have to wonder how long that "friendship" will last?

Perhaps Mueller should retire. It might be the opportune time.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Things ain't lookin' good for all God's critters.

No, it isn't.

It even makes me feel guilty about the bird's nest that keeps appearing in my front door landing, which I keep removing. I know it's a nice protected area under the eaves, but people come and go there every day. It's not the best place for a nest.

Just the other day they cut down a grove of pine trees a few blocks from my house in order to build a storage facility. A storage facility!! Maybe if people stopped buying so much crap there would be room enough for all living creatures.

I'm seriously starting to not feel too sorry for the human race. We have done a very poor job of maintaining the livability of this planet for all who inhabit it.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

I notice that Republicans, from Mitch McConnell right down to the local dog-catcher, are all screaming 'bout how we need to "move on" and let the Russia thing be forgotten, and we must do that now, before Mueller testifies before House committees, on television (the testimony will be televised).

It's finally gotten on Pelosi's nerves to the extent that she finally said "no it's not".

The independents are noticing this; it just makes the Mueller testimony an ever bigger deal.

We're also noticing how Trump is ordering people to ignore subpoenas issued by the House. I'm not liking that much either. Trump and his cohorts believe themselves to be above the law and I think it's time the American people showed them the door.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Something odd going on down in Minneapolis, in Dinkytown. Apparently a woman who lived in the area went to the hospital telling personnel there she had been exposed to ricin. They have evacuated the area. This is close to the U of M and frequented by college students.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Ricin in Minnesota.  That oughta make the morning news.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Looks like ricin in Minnesota is gonna havta share air time with a school shooting in Colorado.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Colorado school shooting is all over the air waves.  Ain't sharing time with ricin in Minnesota, so I'm guessing there wasn't any ricin in Minnesota--false alarm as it were.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
I notice that Trump has asserted an ‛executive privilege’ over the Mueller Report and all underlying documents.  This is not a surprise really.

But it does raise the question of whether the assertion of such a blatantly inappropriate claim of privilege will color what the courts decide when they come to closer cases.  (Will they dispense with the usual presumption of "good faith" by the President, when it's so obvious he's not acting in good faith?  Or, will they grant him the presumption of good faith even when everybody knows it's a farce?  Will the Supreme Trumpkins really join the farce?  Only time will tell.)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Ain't sharing time with ricin in Minnesota, so I'm guessing there wasn't any ricin in Minnesota--false alarm as it were.

Last I heard they were analyzing the substance found. No information from the hospital where the woman went. One would think they would have some idea of the toxicity of whatever she came in contact with. All of the people evacuated were allowed to go back to their apartments.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

I notice that Trump has asserted an ‛executive privilege’ over the Mueller Report and all underlying documents.

So then this makes the hearing on whether or not to hold Barr in contempt without legs. Or does the timing matter? Can they hold Barr in contempt because he refused to testify before Trump came with the Executive privilege defense?

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

If the American people wake up and actually manage to get rid of His Orangeness in 2020 will Executive privilege no longer apply and Trump could then be indicted?

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Executive privilege is not what keeps Trump from being indicted.  What keeps him from being indicted is a Department of Justice policy (supported by a DOJ "memorandum opinion", written by the DOJ) that holds that they will not indict a sitting President.

And, given that the DOJ requested Trump issue a "protective" claim of "executive privilege" to try to cover Barr, after he'd already decided to not to comply with the subpoena, I don't think they'll have any trouble with holding Barr in contempt anyway.  (Apparently Barr had somebody else at the DOJ make the request to the White House rather than doing it personally, but that's not fooling anybody.)

Problem is, declaring Barr in contempt doesn't actually do anything.  The House used to send out the Sargent-at-Arms to seize the contemptuous party and hold them (in the basement of the House) until they complied with a House subpoena, but they haven't done that in modern times (not since 1935), and I don't recall that they ever had the guts to do it to an Attorney General.  And, they've not tried it since a Republican President first came up with the idea of an American Presidential "Executive Privilege".  (It is perhaps illuminating that the guy who first made the claim of an "executive privilege" in American law was Richard Nixon, and yes, we're talking about Watergate here, Nixon first made the claim in the middle of, and in response to the Watergate scandal.)

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Thomas Friedman Op-Ed in the NYT, begging for a patriotic Republican to mount a third party challenge to Donald Trump, from Trump's right-wing.  (He won't get one.)

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
For those who're concerned about the Democratic Party's recent "hard left", I'd point out that the surprise new Democratic phenomenon is Pete Buttigieg, mid-western mayor (South Bend, Indiana) and a remarkably moderate, old-fashioned, mainstream candidate (with the one notable eccentricity of being a married gay guy).

The extreme left-wing of the Democratic Party is getting a whole bunch of air time courtesy of the mainstream media, which always finds that talking about the edges gets more viewers, and, consequently, more advertising dollars, than does talking about the more mundane stuff.  (Witness all the free press given novelty candidate Donald Trump before he morphed into a genuine Republican front runner.)

Moreover, the more conservative "Blue Dog" caucus in the Democratic Party is actually stronger within the Democratically controlled House than are those three radical socialists who get so much free air time on FoxNews and Radio-Right-Wing (and who, let's face it, won their primaries in districts that were already solidly, even overwhelmingly, Democratic-leaning, and who, therefore, did not represent a strengthening of the Party).  The more conservative ‛Blue Dog’ Democrats make the Democratic Party stronger.  The three radical, socialists do not.

Nancy Pelosi knows this.  So does Joe Biden.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Executive privilege is not what keeps Trump from being indicted.

I took a short cut with my question. Executive privilege keeps the Mueller report under cover. Would it end at Trump's leaving office, allowing Congress, or whomever, to read the report and use any possible information to gather evidence to indict Trump?

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Nixon first made the claim in the middle of, and in response to the Watergate scandal.

Of course he did. Perhaps it might be time to rethink the concept.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Thomas Friedman Op-Ed in the NYT, begging for a patriotic Republican to mount a third party challenge to Donald Trump, from Trump's right-wing. (He won't get one.)

I can understand his thinking. He wants to split the party. I can understand your reasoning. The Republicans won't want to split the party.

What it will take is moderate Republicans who are of a patriotic mind to swing and vote Democrat.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "Would it end at Trump's leaving office, allowing Congress,
      or whomever, to read the report and use any possible information
      to gather evidence to indict Trump?
"

The concept behind the assertion of executive privilege is that the President must have the best, unfiltered advice available from his advisors.  Supposedly this requires that they believe that what they might say to him will never be repeated outside of their little circle--that their private advice never be laid out in front of the public.  This means that the privilege does not expire just because Trump leaves office.

This also means the assertion of executive privilege here is a total farce.  Nobody is ever going to believe that Mueller was advising Trump or that Mueller expected his report would be thought of as a private communication between himself and Trump.  (Hence my earlier thought about whether the nonsensical assertion of that privilege in these circumstances would inform the federal courts of Trump's complete bad faith here.)  But, Trump's people are fairly certain that most folks won't know that, and they have at least some hope that the Supreme Trumpkins won't care.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "I can understand your reasoning."

People further to the right than Trump are not democrats (small ‛d); they are mostly fascists along with a healthy sprinkling of white supremacist/racist types.  They figure Trump is about as good as it's gonna get for them in the foreseeable future.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
James Risen argues that Trump managed to sabotage the Mueller investigation, successfully obstructed justice, as it were.

As for me, I think he mostly shows just how timid a ‛special counsel’ Mueller turned out to be.

(It's kinda long and detailed.)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

I'll have to check out the article later, but meanwhile, there is possibly more than one way to skin a cat. Just goes to show you shouldn't piss off people back home.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

People further to the right than Trump are not democrats (small ‛d’); they are mostly fascists along with a healthy sprinkling of white supremacist/racist types. They figure Trump is about as good as it's gonna get for them in the foreseeable future.

True.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Trump says it's time for Americans to buy $15 billion more in American soybeans/corn/etc. to make up for what China's not going to buy and shore up the American corporate farming industry.  Trumptweets
It's springtime, the time for all Americans to fatten up in preparation for the swimsuit season!

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
I notice that the media keeps reporting that the Chinese ‛reneged’ on commitments supposedly made to the Trump administration during preliminary trade talks.  (In fact, the story's getting embellished today with the new allegation that these were written commitments made to the Trump administration.)  However, nobody's bothering to identify specifically what these supposed commitments entailed.  What were they?  Nobody seems to know.

I would point out again that Trump is a compulsive and quite probably pathological liar, and his administration is nowadays made up almost wholly of persons who're willing to follow and support that lead.  Ain't no assurances that the Chinese actually reneged on anything just ‛cause the Trump administration says they did.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

It's actually kind of hard to know what really happened. Trump is not known to be truthful, but I wouldn't put it past the Chinese to try to pull a fast one on him either.

Whatever it was it will be the American & Chinese people who will get stuck with the bill, despite Trump's saying otherwise.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Apparently Giuliani is soliciting help from Ukraine to discredit Joe Biden.

It worked so well in 2016 against Hilary Clinton, why not do it again for the 2020 election?

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Well, they tried to work with the Russians last time (although Mueller says there wasn't enough clear evidence that they managed to make the connection they sought to make).  And Trump's ‛base’ just shrugged it off; don't care.  So, why not be open about it this time?

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "Apparently Giuliani is soliciting help from Ukraine to
      discredit Joe Biden.
"

They've apparently decided to maintain a little more deniability on these efforts than they'd originally figured would be necessary, gonna keep high profile Giuliani off the front lines of that one, at least for now.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Fairly clear and concise explanation of why Trump's assertion of ‛executive privilege’ is bullshit off the git.  Bloomberg

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Fairly clear and concise explanation of why Trump's assertion of ‛executive privilege’ is bullshit off the git. Bloomberg

I'll say!

Like all things Trump it doesn't quite come together.

Recently James Comey was interviewed on CNN. An interview I unfortunately didn't see in its entirety, but did manage to catch a part of. I found this observation by Comey of Trump to be very interesting and I must say rather apt.

Excerpt of Comey interview

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "Excerpt of Comey interview"

We heard much the same thing from Michael Cohen before he went to prison for serving Trump.  Trump would simply instruct his people on what the public story was, as if it were really true.  He didn't come out and ask them to lie for him; instead, he told them what their version of the truth was going to be.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Just for the record…

My opinion that the Democratic House should not bother to impeach Trump was formed and offered before Trump declared that his administration was going to refuse to comply with all congressional subpoenas and to resist all congressional oversight.

That's something I wasn't expecting, even from Trump.

I'm rethinking my stand on the impeachment question in light of that new and unexpected development.

(Pelosi said Trump was daring them impeach him.  She may be right.  They maybe ought to do it anyway.)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

I have always thought Trump deserved to be impeached, but had hoped the American people would get rid of him themselves. Given his recent flouting of the Legislative branch's equal power I am starting to be more concerned about his behavior having a serious impact on the American form of government.

The latest is his taking over the organization of the 4th of July celebration in Washington and inserting himself as a primary focus. Sorry, but that celebration is supposed to be about America not one man.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "I have always thought Trump deserved to be impeached…"

Whether he "deserved to be impeached" is a rather different question from whether it's a good idea for the democrats to go down that path.

Marcus said...

Lynnette: "Apparently Giuliani is soliciting help from Ukraine to discredit Joe Biden."

Well, Bidens kid WAS in the thick of it over in Ukraine after all. It'd be like Trump Junior was over there shillin' and I don't really believe you'd give HIM a pass and by relations his father, right?

So, why the double standards?

Marcus said...

"But the credibility of the vice president’s anticorruption message may have been undermined by the association of his son, Hunter Biden, with one of Ukraine’s largest natural gas companies, Burisma Holdings, and with its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, who was Ukraine’s ecology minister under former President Viktor F. Yanukovych before he was forced into exile.

Hunter Biden, 45, a former Washington lobbyist, joined the Burisma board in April 2014."

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/world/europe/corruption-ukraine-joe-biden-son-hunter-biden-ties.html

Marcus said...

"Vice President Joe Biden “threatened to withhold $1 billion in United States loan guarantees if Ukraine’s leaders did not dismiss the country’s top prosecutor”—Viktor Shokin—“who had been accused of turning a blind eye to corruption in his own office and among the political elite.” The pressure campaign also just so happened to benefit Biden’s younger son, Hunter, who was then getting paid as much as $50,000 to sit on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company that was in Shokin’s sights. The question the Times raises, but does not answer, is: were Joe’s and Hunter’s overlapping interests in Ukraine coincidental, or corrupt?Vice President Joe Biden “threatened to withhold $1 billion in United States loan guarantees if Ukraine’s leaders did not dismiss the country’s top prosecutor”—Viktor Shokin—“who had been accused of turning a blind eye to corruption in his own office and among the political elite.” The pressure campaign also just so happened to benefit Biden’s younger son, Hunter, who was then getting paid as much as $50,000 to sit on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company that was in Shokin’s sights. The question the Times raises, but does not answer, is: were Joe’s and Hunter’s overlapping interests in Ukraine coincidental, or corrupt"

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/05/biden-ukrainian-gas-company

Marcus said...

If Trump and Trumps kid had been involved in any shenanigans such at that Trump would've been impeached on the grounds of that already. And you two (lee & lynnette) both know it, although neither of you will admit it. That's cool. I know, you know and you know that I know. That's all I can ever get outta this here blog anyway.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "The question the Times raises, but does not answer, is:
      were Joe’s and Hunter’s overlapping interests in Ukraine
      coincidental, or corrupt
"

The question not raised in the Vanity Fair article, and apparently not considered at all by our right wingers is this:  ‛Did Joe and Hunter's interests in the Ukraine ever overlap at all?’
There's been no evidence or even credible allegations that Burisma Holdings or Hunter Biden were under investigation by Viktor Shokin when Joe Biden was in contact with the Ukrainian government.  The people making these allegations, asking these loaded questions, are very careful to never ask that question.
They don't want it discovered that Victor Shorkin began investigating Hunter after Joe Biden pissed him off by asking for his dismissal.  And, of course, nobody wants to point out that Viktor Shokin was indeed, corrupt as hell, nor that subsequent (not pressured so far was we know) investigations cleared Bursima Holdings and Hunter Biden.

However, I'm not at all upset about maybe having the Republicans who control the Senate hold hearings on this, or even Trump's Justice Department.  Sounds like a good idea to me; I'm fairly certain they'll clear Joe Biden in short order.  (I am therefore also fairly certain there will never be an official investigation launched by either the Trump administration nor by the Republicans who control the Senate.  Clearing Joe Biden of the innuendo (and that's all ya got so far) is most definitely not something they want to do--therefore--no official investigations, just magazine articles and speeches on Radio-Right-Wing and FoxNews and unsupported blog posts, and they'll leave it at that.)

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
(And, if they don't clear Joe Biden, that would be good to know too.)

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "So, why the double standards?"

Why have the Republican Senate and the Trump's Justice Department not bothered to investigate this matter for the two years since Biden's been out of office?  Is that the question?

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Whether he "deserved to be impeached" is a rather different question from whether it's a good idea for the democrats to go down that path.

Yes, I understand.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Marcus,

Lee raised a good point with this question:

Why have the Republican Senate and the Trump's Justice Department not bothered to investigate this matter for the two years since Biden's been out of office?

If we are looking at anyone behaving in a purely partisan/politically biased way, it seems it is the Trump administration who is doing so by dragging in Ukraine, who btw isn't interested in getting involved in our political cat fighting.

And, it seems that once again Trump is calling for help from a foreign government to get elected.

If Trump and Trumps kid had been involved in any shenanigans such at that Trump would've been impeached on the grounds of that already.

Nope, sorry, I don't know that. As far as I can tell Trump is being protected by Republicans in the Senate. And he has attempted to stack the Supreme Court in his favor.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "…today 18 percent of the country in smaller, redder states
      elects 52 senators.
"
      TheDaileyBeast

And that majority of Senators protects Trump and the Trump childrens.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "Attorney General William P. Barr has assigned the top federal
      prosecutor in Connecticut to examine the origins of the Russia
      investigation, according to two people familiar with the
      matter, a move that President Trump has long called for…
"

A special assignment of a federal prosecutor.  (For Marcus and any others who don't exactly know what this means, this a Special Prosecutor that the President does approve of--different name, same game--this is the President's very own Special Prosecutor.)

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Sorry, forgot the link to the New York Times.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "House Democrats’ triumph in the midterms may have pushed
      their center of gravity to the right: The 40 seats Democrats
      gained were overwhelmingly located in moderate or
      Republican-leaning districts.
"
      Andrew Sullivan, explaining the initial popularity of Joe Biden

I would suggest that ‛may have’ is an unduly cautious opining on current state of affairs in the Democratic Party.  Seems to me that the power in the Party is still with the moderates; the headlines are all about a couple o' three socialists, but the power in the Party is still with the moderates.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

"Attorney General William P. Barr has assigned the top federal
prosecutor in Connecticut to examine the origins of the Russia
investigation,...


I saw that. Trump has finally gotten what he wanted. Another lackey.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "Another lackey."

I wouldn't put Barr down as a Trump lackey.  Rather, Barr has his own agenda; it just happens to accommodate Trump's agenda.  Barr has long time been a fairly overt fascist who voted Republican on account of there is no national fascist party; Republicans are the closest he can get and still be accepted in the halls of the Justice Department.  Trump's inclinations happen to mesh with Barr's inclinations is all that's happening here.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
(And, "Yes", Barr is a ranking member of the Federalist Society; as is Rod Rosenstein a member of the Federalist Society, just for the record, although I don't know that Rosenstein has any rank in that organization.)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Trump Tower is not as popular as it used to be.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Barr has long time been a fairly overt fascist who voted Republican on account of there is no national fascist party; Republicans are the closest he can get and still be accepted in the halls of the Justice Department.

I don't know much about Barr, but there does seem to be a lot of that going around.

There is also this. Something Derrick Black, and Marcus, was trying to warn us about.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "…there does seem to be a lot of that going around."

A lot of factions on the right have made their own deals with Trump, and generally they see no reason to regret it (yet).

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Well, now, just because Barr is a fascist doesn't necessarily make him also a racist or a white supremacist.  Granted, fascist ideology is more amenable to racism than many other ideologies, but it's not necessarily a requirement.  (In fact, I have no clue about Barr's racial opinions or theories, but his notion of government of, by, and for an elite (rich) clique has been made fairly clear over the years.)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

There is a Frontline broadcast about the Mueller investigation on TPT Channel 2 tonight at 9:00.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Unfortunately, I still don't have reliable PBS.  Supposedly they're gonna be back up to full power by this fall sometime, but for now they're running at a lower power on the tower of a gracious local for profit TV station.  Only occasionally can I get it over the air.  (They're back up on cable, but that don't do me any good.)

However, the show you mentioned is available as a podcast.  So, as there's nothing else of any interest on TV tonight--I'm getting an early look at it right now.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
It might as well have been titled "Stuff We Already Knew".

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

It might as well have been titled "Stuff We Already Knew".

Yup, I ended up not watching all of it.

It would have been better if they had waited a few years and then aired it.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
TheDailyBeast points out that William Barr's most recently announced investigation of the FBI for having the temerity to investigate the Russian outreach to the Trump campaign makes for the third Republican investigation of the FBI on that account.

(Not quite matching the eight (8) Republican congressional investigations into Hillary Clinton and Benghazi!’, but it's early still; they've still got time to rack up more repeat investigations.)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

So what's up with the 120,000 service people Trump wants to send to the ME? They have also evacuated personnel from the embassy in Iraq due to some kind of perceived threat from Iran. Is Trump trying to stir up a war with Iran as a distraction?

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
I don't think he needs a real war.  He just needs the distraction.  Too many of the current headlines are about his administration stonewalling all congressional oversight.  Fear of a war might be enough to drive that subject off the headlines.  (An actual war, an additional war in the Middle East, will probably be really, really unpopular.)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Yes, indeed. I sense even some Republicans are confused as to what Trump is trying to accomplish. He has no allies abroad for any military confrontation with Iran. Of course, that should come as no surprise, considering not too many people actually like him.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Well, he's got Marcus; maybe Marcus will support an attack on Iran.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
The Trump administration is making plans to fly immigrants applying for asylum to various cities around the United States, and then release them there.  Just let 'em loose (give them a court date for their asylum claim, but otherwise, just let 'em loose).  NBCNews

Strikes me it'd be more efficient to just ask 'em where they wanted to go, buy 'em economy class tickets to wherever it is they want to be, and then let 'em loose at the local airport, ticket in hand (along with their court date).

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...


It looks like any Mueller testimony before Congress is going to be put off until sometime in June at the earliest.  Politico  (The article hints that the hold-up is Mueller, waiting for his federal employment to officially end, but, like most things Mueller, nobody seems to know for sure what Mueller's up to here.)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Well, he's got Marcus; maybe Marcus will support an attack on Iran.

I was reading that it is actually Trump who is stepping on the brake. It is people like Bolton who are pushing a more aggressive stance toward Iran.

Rather an odd thought that Trump is the moderate voice. Maybe people like Mattis had more of an effect on him then we realized.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

The Trump administration is making plans to fly immigrants applying for asylum to various cities around the United States, and then release them there.

I see Florida is one such state. Didn't Trump win Florida in 2016? It seems kind of an odd choice. Why would he want to risk angering the people who supported him? Especially those who may have an anti-immigrant bias?

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "I was reading that it is actually Trump who is
      stepping on the brake.
"

Rumor is that Bolton's war mongering in the halls of the mighty--rants to allies and enemies alike, were beginning to be taken seriously by the Iranians, given that Bolton is Trump's National Security Advisor.  The Iranians had begun to think that Bolton was leading the charge for Trump, and they were preparing for an American attack, for real.  Some of Iran's more militant Republican Guard weren't wanting to wait on the sneak attack they thought was coming, and they were seriously thinking about getting in the first punch.  Apparently some of our folks managed to get that word to Trump and convince him that he'd given Bolton too long a leash.

                           ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
      "[Florida] seems kind of an odd choice."

It was an odd choice.  Went for Trump last time and now has a Republican governor and two Republican Senators.  They got word to Trump.  All of a sudden that plan is being reëvaluated in Trumpland.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

...nobody seems to know for sure what Mueller's up to here.

A man of mystery, is Mueller.

So I've finally gotten back to reading "Fear" by Bob Woodward. I'm trying something a little different. I am reading"The Plot to Destroy Democracy" in conjunction with "Fear'. That is, switching back and forth so that I can read each book's view of the same time period. It gives a more faceted view of what was occurring.

That investigation into what started the Russia probe that Barr is wasting time on appears to have a very simple answer. In short, it is Trump's mouth. The various intelligence agencies were looking at him as a possible Russian asset even before he was elected. Due basically to his words and actions.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Cold and rainy here. I managed to get the lawn cut and the strawberry patch culled yesterday. I knew this weekend would be a washout. *sigh* Oh well, good day to read a book or watch a movie.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

A lonely voice, yes, but a voice nonetheless.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Maybe Trump can send the immigrants to Michigan now.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

lol! Yes, I could see him doing that.