| Ironically the GOP/RNC cum RAG (Ruse, Artifice, Gimmick) Party and citizenry have elected a wannabe authoritarian🏋 hoping he will make them "free"...the beauty of irony is boundless... ...this time our nation is lucky to have elected a wannabe authoritarian so conspicuously unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced and unlawful that he has self destructed...it is unwise to depend on luck in future elections...this media presentation from the "enemy of the people" (aka New York Times) may help envision living under authoritarian governance... |  |
NYT, A Secret Look Inside a Chinese Labor Program for Uighurs (added 12/31/2019)
...don't forget to laugh...NewYorkerSatire, Redaction of Mueller Report Halted as Barr Passes Out from Sharpie Fumes and TheOnion, Presidential Pardons In History and TheOnion, Shocked Vladimir Putin Slowly Realizing He Didn’t Conspire With Trump Campaign and TheOnion, Mueller Kinda Miffed That Barr Clearly Didn’t Read His Stuff Like He Said He Would
(notwithstanding RAG Party the grifters' fulminations)
LateShow, Jerry Nadler Wants To See It All (The Mueller Report)
FOX Shows Making Fun of FOX (from Apr 2017)
🏋...those seeking to understand and respond to the dynamics of authoritarianism will find Karen Stenner's The Authoritarian Dynamic helpful...she uses just two explanatory variables to elucidate the seemingly infinite variations of the authoritarian dynamic: the first is authoritarian predisposition and the second is conditions of threat... the conditions of threat can be natural (e.g. virus outbreak); perceived bias (e.g. prior trauma); and exaggerated, fabricated or manipulated (e.g. hyped border crisis, threats of attack, threats of war or constant environment of chaos, etc.)...
...Cass Sunstein's Can it Happen Here: Authoritarianism in America is a practical discussion applying the variables of "authoritarian predisposition" and "conditions of threat" to our current political environment...
...both short books will help that final handful of diverse candidates replace the wannabe authoritarian occupying the White House...each will gain insight into why single-party impeachments are not optimal...
...also, Larry Diamond, Saving American Democracy and Ill Winds, Diamond's latest book on preserving democracy...
UPDATED 09/10/2019 WSJ, ‘Social Credit’ May Come to America ...comparing "red light" traffic cameras with China's nascent ubiquitous surveillance of facial, content, and location data ("Social Credit" suggests a lack of understanding...
UPDATED 08/17/2019 NYT, China Said It Closed Muslim Detention Camps. There’s Reason to Doubt That and SCMP, The Village Testing China’s Social Credit System: Driven by Big Data, Its Citizens Earn A Star Rating (Chinese can expect emails from the Nigerian scammers collecting on jaywalking fines)
🏋...those seeking to understand and respond to the dynamics of authoritarianism will find Karen Stenner's The Authoritarian Dynamic helpful...she uses just two explanatory variables to elucidate the seemingly infinite variations of the authoritarian dynamic: the first is authoritarian predisposition and the second is conditions of threat... the conditions of threat can be natural (e.g. virus outbreak); perceived bias (e.g. prior trauma); and exaggerated, fabricated or manipulated (e.g. hyped border crisis, threats of attack, threats of war or constant environment of chaos, etc.)...
...Cass Sunstein's Can it Happen Here: Authoritarianism in America is a practical discussion applying the variables of "authoritarian predisposition" and "conditions of threat" to our current political environment...
...both short books will help that final handful of diverse candidates replace the wannabe authoritarian occupying the White House...each will gain insight into why single-party impeachments are not optimal...
...also, Larry Diamond, Saving American Democracy and Ill Winds, Diamond's latest book on preserving democracy...
UPDATED 09/10/2019 WSJ, ‘Social Credit’ May Come to America ...comparing "red light" traffic cameras with China's nascent ubiquitous surveillance of facial, content, and location data ("Social Credit" suggests a lack of understanding...
UPDATED 08/17/2019 NYT, China Said It Closed Muslim Detention Camps. There’s Reason to Doubt That and SCMP, The Village Testing China’s Social Credit System: Driven by Big Data, Its Citizens Earn A Star Rating (Chinese can expect emails from the Nigerian scammers collecting on jaywalking fines)
Guantanamo-Like Detention, Xinjiang
Redlight Camera for Jaywalkers, Shenyang
Web:
UPDATED 09/07/2019 Reuters, U.S. House Panel Poised To Spell Out Trump Impeachment Probe: Source
...members of Congress that permit this notoriously and conspicuously unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al to continue are unfit for office, too...
...don't forget to laugh...TheNewYorkerSatire, Americans Shocked by Spectacle of Legislative Body Taking Action
UPDATED 09/07/2019 Reuters, U.S. House Panel Poised To Spell Out Trump Impeachment Probe: Source
...members of Congress that permit this notoriously and conspicuously unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al to continue are unfit for office, too...
...don't forget to laugh...TheNewYorkerSatire, Americans Shocked by Spectacle of Legislative Body Taking Action
LateShow, Hey Former Trump Administration Officials: Your Future Is Bright
LateNight, Trump Keeps Lying About Hurricane Dorian and Alabama
RealTime, Monologue: Weather Vain
RealTime, Monologue: Weather Vain
UPDATED 08/16/2019 NYT, Citing Economy, Trump Says That ‘You Have No Choice but to Vote for Me’ and Independent, ‘We’re NOT for sale’: Greenland Shoots Down Trump Plan to Buy Island and Reuters, Greenland Tells Trump It Is Open for Business but Not for Sale
...we can choose to laugh...NewYorkerSatire, Denmark Offers to Buy U.S...before, during and after we vote...
UPDATED 07/13/2019 Atlantic, Robert Mueller Must Finish the Job
...the attorney general's job description must include extending and perpetuating the chaos of our unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al...
UPDATED 07/07/2019 Time, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Defends Border Facility Conditions and NYT, Trump and His Aides Dismiss Reports of Disease and Hunger in Border Facilities
...who could have foreseen that our unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al. could not foresee that detained immigrants would need humane and habitable detention facilities while detained...(our government has at least one apartment available: Paul Manafort’s Trump Tower Condo Lists for $3.6M ...“excellent condition” and “unobstructed views of Central Park”...more may become available soon...)
...the solution to the continuous chaos and catastrophe created by our unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al. is simple...just ask our unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al. or those "working for" our unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al...
...don't forget to laugh...NewYorkerSatire, Trump’s Fourth of July Parade to Include Flyover by Russian Air Force...
UPDATED 05/24/2019 AP, Trump Moves To Escalate Investigation of Intel Agencies
...it is highly likely that prayers and family interventions are insufficient to obviate our unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al...can we have early elections...
UPDATED 05/23/2019 WP, Pelosi Says Trump Wants to Be Impeached and Is Angry That House Democrats Are Not Moving in That Direction and UPI, Another Judge Refuses Trump Request to Block Subpoenas and Reuters, Trump Blasts Pelosi 'Cover-up' Accusation, Balks on Infrastructure and Trump v Deutsche Bank, Order on Motion for Preliminary Injunction — Document #59 and View Entire Docket for Donald J. Trump v. Deutsche Bank, AG (S.D.N.Y. 2019) Docket Number: 1:19-cv-03826 Date Filed: April 29th, 2019
...more rectum-ramblings from our unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al...it's reminiscent of Nixon's "I've never obstructed justice...I'm no crook"...
...our unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al. say's "I don't do cover-ups"...our unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al. forgot the word "well"...
...don't forget to laugh...as a FOX waits for the Republican Party cum RAG Party senators to grab their trump-tar-baby...TheOnion, Entire Southern Border Somehow On Fire 10 Minutes After Kushner Begins Tackling Immigration System...the beauty of irony is boundless...
UPDATED 05/21/2019 Reuters, White House Does Not Need A 'Strongman,' Hickenlooper Says in 2020 Policy Speech and CNBC, Judge Rules Against Trump in Lawsuit to Block Democrats’ Subpoena for Financial Records and Scribd, Mehta Opinion in Trump Subpoena Case
...the great diversity of ideas coming from the wonderfully diverse candidates running for President of the United States of America in 2020 is a breath of fresh air during the poisonous presidency of our unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al...
...the Democrats' diverse campaigns are an effective antidote to the lethal governance of our unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al. during a period that lethal governance is "protected" by a complicit Republican cum RAG Party controlled senate...
...asleep, any of the Democrats' 2020 candidates is preferable to the Republican cum RAG Party's protected wannabe dictator ...democratic help is on the way...
...[begin words from the court's memorandum opinion, links added ; Donald J. Trump et al. v. Committee on Oversight and Reform of the U.S. House of Representatives et al.]
...INTRODUCTION
I do, therefore, . . .solemnly protest against these proceedings of the House of Representatives, because they are in violation of the rights of the coordinate executive branch of the Government, and subversive of its constitutional independence; because they are calculated to foster a band of interested parasites and informers, ever ready, for their own advantage, to swear before ex parte committees to pretended private conversations between the President and themselves, incapable, from their nature, of being disproved; thus furnishing material for harassing him, degrading him in the eyes of the country . . .- President James Buchanan
These words, written by President James Buchanan in March 1860, protested a resolution adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives to form a committee—known as the Covode Committee [aka United States House Select Committee to Investigate Alleged Corruptions in Government]—to investigate whether the President or any other officer of the Executive Branch had sought to influence the actions of Congress by improper means.
I do, therefore, . . .solemnly protest against these proceedings of the House of Representatives, because they are in violation of the rights of the coordinate executive branch of the Government, and subversive of its constitutional independence; because they are calculated to foster a band of interested parasites and informers, ever ready, for their own advantage, to swear before ex parte committees to pretended private conversations between the President and themselves, incapable, from their nature, of being disproved; thus furnishing material for harassing him, degrading him in the eyes of the country . . .- President James Buchanan
These words, written by President James Buchanan in March 1860, protested a resolution adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives to form a committee—known as the Covode Committee [aka United States House Select Committee to Investigate Alleged Corruptions in Government]—to investigate whether the President or any other officer of the Executive Branch had sought to influence the actions of Congress by improper means.
Buchanan “cheerfully admitted” that the House of Representatives had the authority to make inquiries “incident to their legislative duties,” as “necessary to enable them to discover and to provide the appropriate legislative remedies for any abuses which may be ascertained.”
But he objected to the Covode Committee’s investigation of his conduct. He maintained that the House of Representatives possessed no general powers to investigate him, except when sitting as an impeaching body.
Buchanan feared that, if the House were to exercise such authority, it “would establish a precedent dangerous and embarrassing to all my successors, to whatever political party they might be attached.”
Some 160 years later, President Donald J. Trump has taken up the fight of his predecessor.
"...Courts have grappled for more than a century with the question of the scope of Congress’s investigative power. The binding principle that emerges from these judicial decisions is that courts must presume Congress is acting in furtherance of its constitutional responsibility to legislate and must defer to congressional judgments about what Congress needs to carry out that purpose. To be sure, there are limits on Congress’s investigative authority. But those limits do not substantially constrain Congress. So long as Congress investigates on a subject matter on which “legislation could be had,” Congress acts as contemplated by Article I of the Constitution.[end words from the court's memorandum opinion]
Applying those principles here compels the conclusion that President Trump cannot block the subpoena to Mazars. According to the Oversight Committee, it believes that the requested records will aid its consideration of strengthening ethics and disclosure laws, as well as amending the penalties for violating such laws. The Committee also says that the records will assist in monitoring the President’s compliance with the Foreign Emoluments Clauses. These are facially valid legislative purposes, and it is not for the court to question whether the Committee’s actions are truly motivated by political considerations. Accordingly, the court will enter judgment in favor of the Oversight Committee..." --Case 1:19-cv-01136-APM Document 35 Filed 05/20/19--
...don't forget to laugh...TheOnion, Trump Demands Investigation Into Whether Clintons Gave Him Non-Registry Wedding Gift In 2005...
...if our unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al. and rogue AG Barr continue spewing drivel and six sigma legal theory, respectively, as justification for ignoring the rule of law, "Madame Speaker" will have more than handcuffs at her disposal to deal with a wannabe authoritarian government...
...the misogyny is more than a little clear in rogue AG Barr's taunt...our unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al.'s long-standing misogyny is widely known...
UPDATED 05/15/2019 Atlantic, Impeach Donald Trump; Yoni Appelbaum; March 2019 and C-SPAN, Attorney General William Barr Contempt Resolution and NYT, Trump Asserts Executive Privilege Over Full Mueller Report
...the only problem with our unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al.'s assertion is that there is nothing for it to decide before complying with the House Judiciary Committee's subpoena...
...don't forget to laugh...TheOnion, Barr Releases Catatonic Mueller After Removing All Sensitive Material From Special Counsel’s Brain...
◯ ...Congress must start contempt and impeachment proceedings against any Executive asserting a theory or right of conditional compliance with oversight...preferably "with lightening speed"...(WP, Trump Asserts Executive Privilege Over Mueller Report; House Panel Holds Barr in Contempt)
...at the very least the many contempt and impeachment proceedings will have the beneficial therapeutic effect of enabling our unstable, unfit, unwell, unbalanced, and unlawful "new" alt-white-house et al. and its supporters to again spew their "stream of consciousness" theories into our social networks and the public domain...
WP, Trump Delivers Remarks on Medical Billing (i.e. "stream of consciousness')
UPDATED 05/07/2019 WP, McConnell Calls for End to Investigations of Trump, says ‘Case Closed’ and WP, It’s Time to Start Impeachment Hearings. Today. and NYT, White House Signals Fight Over McGahn’s Records With Congress
...wow!, a resolute United States Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer rebuffs the United States Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell efforts to whitewash a lawless Executive...
UPDATED 05/07/2019 C-SPAN, Speaker Pelosi on Attorney General Barr
...wow!, a resolute United States Speaker of the House emphatically rebuffs the AG Barr's, Special Interests', and GOP cum RAG (Ruse, Artifice, and Gimmick) Party's protracted crusade to establish an unimpeachable Executive...
C-SPAN, Speaker Pelosi on Attorney General Barr
...don't forget to laugh...NewYorkerSatire, Barr Unable to Give Honest Answer to Drive-Thru Window at Arby’s
(...Senator McConnell Using Partisanship to Impede Executive Oversight...)
[...The Beauty of Irony Is Boundless...]
....the frivolous complaint filed by our unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced "new" alt-white-house et al. in its private and corporate capacity will not survive summary judgement...the complainants are vicariously complaining that Congress is using subpoenas to harass our unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced "new" alt-white-house...pass me the box of Kleenex...
...compliance with the congressional subpoenas need not await summary judgement...our unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced "new" alt-white-house et al. can sue for damage, if any, which may arise from complying with the law (i.e. subpoena)...
UPDATED 05/01/2019 NYT, Mueller Pushed in Letter for Barr to Release Report’s Summaries and UPI, Barr Threatens To No-Show at House Judiciary Hearing Over Format
...it's useful to use the "opportunity" presented by our unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced "new" alt-white-house et al.'s government and other illiberal belligerents! to show how congressional oversight works...the AG can no-show, but not dictate the terms of congressional oversight...if the AG chooses not to respond to informal requests for sworn testimony subpoenas must immediately follow...
...the ignominious behavior of the AG is that of an obsequious stooge and propagandist, which has culpably compromised his ability to credibly do the duties of the United States Attorney General...the AG must resign or face impeachment regardless of Senator Graham et al.'s perpetual crusades to "investigate the investigators"...
GlobalNews, William Barr to Testify before Senate Amid Report of Mueller Frustration
(Also, CBSN, A Defiant Barr Grilled About Mueller Letter by Senate Judiciary Committee -- Live Updates)
(Also, CBSN, A Defiant Barr Grilled About Mueller Letter by Senate Judiciary Committee -- Live Updates)
...don't forget to laugh...NewYorkerSatire, Americans Beg Trump for Secret to Staying So Young and Vibrant...
"...the people are taking their comedians seriously and their politicians as a joke.."
! ...some (e.g. Zakaria) suppose that impeachment will frustrate and thus exacerbate the conspiratorial claims and retrenchment of the illiberal belligerents and cultural nationalists that supposedly voted for our unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced "new" alt-white-house et al. to send a message to the arrogant and condescending elite...there is so much incorrect with this supposition one barely need respond with...so what?...
...it is always preferable for our electorate to choose a stable, fit, well and balanced leader to guide our nation but, when they do not an evidence based impeachment is the correct remedy...especially if the only evidence is that the unstable, unfit, unwell, and unbalanced leader blockades or otherwise frustrates access to evidence...
UPDATED 04/26/2019 WPOpEd, As New Questions on Trump’s Corruption Emerge, His Lawless Threats Escalate and NYTOpEd, The Danger in Not Impeaching Trump and WP, Trump says he is opposed to White House aides testifying to Congress, deepening power struggle with Hill and NYT, Democrats Ask and Trump Says No, Signaling a Bitter Fight Ahead and AP, Graham: Dems Will Stampede to Impeach Trump and WP, House Panel Moves to Hold Former White House Official in Contempt After He Obeys Trump Administration’s Instruction Not to Testify and WP, White House Plans to Fight House Subpoena of Former Counsel Donald McGahn for Testimony on Mueller Report and FactCheckOrg, Giuliani’s Obstruction Distortions
AP, Pelosi: Impeachment The 'Most Divisive' Path
Word for Word: Mayor Pete Buttigieg Discusses 2020 Democratic Message ..."a horror show is a hard thing to look away from, our responsibility is to change the channel to something better"...(e.g. state infrastructure upgrades CNBC, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer Will Meet with Trump to Discuss Infrastructure Plan Next Week)⌽
...don't forget to laugh...TheOnion, Report: You’re Far Too Dumb To Be Reading The Mueller Report Yourself and TheOnion, Trump Sues House Democrat To Block Release Of Tax Returns
⌽...new members that have not mastered the art of working with a mortally flawed foe without losing your message, mission, and mind will benefit from lunching with the very capable House Speaker or Senate Minority Leader....
UPDATED 04/15/2019 NYT, Trump’s Message to Homeland Security Official: Close the Border Despite an Earlier Promise of a Delay
...sometimes you just have to stop asking "how we got in this mess" or "how we get out of it" and prepare to cleanup the debris field...the good news is that America will never be the same post cleanup...
...don't forget to laugh...NewYorkerSatire, Americans Fear That Former Trump Staffers Will Be Released Into Their Cities and TheOnion, William Barr Agrees To Release Nonverbal, Abstract Visual Representation Of Mueller Report
UPDATED 04/11/2019 NYT, Attorney General William Barr Thinks ‘Spying Did Occur’ on Trump Campaign and Newsweek, William Barr Is Redefining What "Spying" Means
...wow, AG Barr is on a mission to destroy the Department of Justice he's hired to run, without a scintilla of evidence...he hasn't gone off the rails, he's plowing them up...it's not too late to start a prologue impeachment to the impeachment...
...don't forget to laugh...NewYorkerSatire, Trump Names Lori Loughlin Education Secretary
UPDATED 05/10/2019 France24, Surviving China’s Uighur Camps
UPDATED 05/07/2019 Vox, China's Secret Internment Camps
UPDATED 04/15/2019 FP, U.S. Firms Are Helping Build China’s Orwellian State and Bloomberg, This Company Is Helping Build China’s Panopticon. It Won’t Stop There (Nov 2018) and MIT, MIT and SenseTime Announce Effort to Advance Artificial Intelligence Research (Feb 2018) [MIT has recently announced stricter oversight of its cooperation-corroboration with some authoritarian entities (e.g. China, House of Saud etc.)]
UPDATED 04/07/2019 Guardian, Bulldozing Mosques: The Latest Tactic in China’s War Against Uighur Culture
NYT, Guantánamo Trials Grapple With How Much Evidence to Allow About Torture
NTY, China Uses DNA to Track Its People, With the Help of American Expertise
Originally Published April 05, 2019; Last Updated December 31, 2019; Last Republished December 31, 2019:
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