William Barr has released his summary of the Mueller report to Congress. The two big takeaways from the letter are as follows: Concerning the question on whether “the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” the Barr letter states (quoting from the Mueller report—which we have not yet seen) that “[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” Concerning the issue of obstruction of justice, Barr writes that “[t]he Special…
Pejman Yousefzadeh
Pejman Yousefzadeh
Scribbling, scribbling, scribbling on the Internet.
Tagged Democrats
This Is What Dereliction of Duty Looks Like
I urge everyone to read this horrifying account of how the Obama administration learned of Russian active measures that were designed to disrupt the 2016 presidential election and to throw the election to Donald Trump, whom the Russians have long seen as far friendlier to their interests and designs. I won’t excerpt anything from the story; just read it all, and be prepared to be deeply angry. A combination of fear, excessive confidence in Hillary Clinton’s electoral appeal and an inability to confront Republicans at the state and national level who are equally complicit in having ensured that Russian interference in…
Democrats Should Hold the Gorsuch Nomination Hostage
Judge Neil Gorsuch is a genuinely outstanding jurist, who would be a superb addition to the United States Supreme Court. All Americans can and should be deeply proud that his intellect, his devotion to scholarship, and his fidelity to original public meaning jurisprudence has brought him to this extraordinary moment in his career and his life. I greatly respect his ability, his jurisprudential philosophy, and his character, which by all accounts is beyond reproach. I suppose this sounds as though I am putting aside my Never-Trumpism for a moment and supporting the Trump administration in its nomination of Judge Gorsuch.…
Iowa: A Recap
Some thoughts on last night’s results:
Prepare to Despair
So, we are a little over twenty four hours away from the Iowa caucuses, and it would appear that Donald Trump is set to win in my former home state; the Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Trump ahead, and shows that he has held a consistent lead. I suppose this means more cause for me to despair. It may well be that Trump will not be the Republican nominee, but for now, he is doing an excellent job of muddling any appealing Republican general election message, and helping set up the GOP to lose what should be a winnable contest…
Why Donald Trump Causes Me to Despair
Dan McLaughlin tells us that we should not despair over the continued potency of the Trump for Dictator President campaign, because there is no way that Donald Trump will actually become the presidential nominee of the Republican party. I agree that Trump will not be the Republican nominee, but there continues to be a case for despair.
In Non-Shocking News, Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Has Encountered Still More Trouble
I will freely admit that despite all that has happened to her, Hillary Clinton remains in an enviable position relative to many of her rivals. I will also freely admit that the Clintons are remarkably good at surviving scandals that would destroy lesser politicians, so no matter how bad the news gets for them, their doom cannot necessarily be presumed. All of the above having been written, it is increasingly looking like Her Inevitableness will not be so inevitable:
And Now, an Update from Hillary Clinton’s Disastrous Presidential Campaign
Donald Trump may be doing his best to make life miserable for Republicans, but that doesn’t mean that Hillary Clinton has had an easy time of it recently. Quite the contrary; her campaign has been busy blundering from one disaster to the next. And now, Democrats–who must be watching the Clinton campaign with a sense of horror, and must be wondering whether Clinton learned anything from her 2008 presidential run–are beginning to look towards alternatives to Her Inevitableness.
Donald Trump. Again.
I know, I know, I don’t like blogging about Donald Trump either, but he hasn’t gone away yet, so I suppose that we cannot ignore him, much as I would like to. So, let’s go through some recent stories concerning Trump and his impact on our day-to-day political life, and despair for our republic in the process.
“We Are the Democratic Party, Not the Undemocratic Party.”
Martin O’Malley decided to state the obvious by pointing out that the muckety-mucks in the Democratic party are rigging the primary and caucus process in order to help Hillary Clinton–a flawed presidential candidate if ever there was one–to get the Democratic presidential nomination. I am sure that O’Malley’s speech–delivered while Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was in attendance–didn’t win him many friends among Democratic party muckety-mucks. But someone had to make the points that O’Malley made–notwithstanding the fact that anyone even remotely familiar with politics already knew the truth of what O’Malley was saying:
