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PTWB

PTWB's Journal
PTWB's Journal
March 1, 2020

Hillary was a more formidable candidate than Joe Biden.

Hillary was (and is) smarter, far more politically savvy, less prone to making gaffes, more in touch, was full of good policy ideas and had a wider appeal than Joe Biden.

Hillary couldn’t beat Trump. What makes any of you think that Joe Biden will do better than Hillary Clinton?

February 19, 2020

Who needs to drop out to keep the contest fair?

At this point we have a lot of people splitting vote of our main voting blocks. Who should drop out next?

February 14, 2020

How do people think a Bernie/Biden ticket would do?

Would Biden take VP for a second time? Would they compliment each other?

Edit:

I’m not sure why so many people think this is a joke. Bernie would anchor the left and Biden would anchor the center.

Neither is my first choice but my first choice dropped out and my second choice needs a miracle.

March 26, 2019

The Barr memo is the low point for us but it is the high point for Trump. And that isn't a bad thing

Like everyone else, I would have loved it if the Barr memo inculpated Trump in serious wrongdoing. I would have loved it if he had the stones to recommend prosecution or, at a minimum, impeachment and conviction. But that wasn't very likely and all of us (at least the ones paying attention) knew that.

It was almost a forgone conclusion that DOJ wasn't going to indict a sitting President.

It was also almost a forgone conclusion that the Republican Senate wasn't going to convict Trump, regardless of whether or not the House impeached him.


So, all that bad aside, here is what I think makes this actually not too bad:

The Barr memo, and the conclusion of the Mueller investigation, is the high point for Trump. It is only downhill from here for him. That memo was his get-out-of-jail-free card and he played it too early. If that memo was released in the days leading up to the 2020 election, it would have deflated our sails and could have helped him coast to a second term. But that isn't what happened and by 2020 the sting from the memo will have long faded.

What wont have faded is Trump's callous response to recent events, as he is sure to do, between now and then. There will be right wing terrorist attacks and he will blame "both sides." There will be major foreign policy blunders. There will be major domestic policy blunders, an economic slowdown, tax issues, unpopular trade wars, and many other major issues that will cast stink on Trump and his administration.

Not only that, but the longer the Republicans fight to withhold the actual report, the closer we will be to election day, and the fresher the true findings in that report will be in voters' minds. We know there are damaging details in the report - if there were not, Mueller would have cleared Trump. Barr's memo says as much - that Mueller couldn't exonerate Trump. There MUST be things in the report that are, at a minimum, severely concerning.

Let the Republicans delay. Let them bury the report completely. I can't think of a bigger motivating factor to get out the vote in a year and a half than if Republicans are STILL blocking the Mueller report, or substantial portions of it.

And lets not forget about all the other current investigations in SDNY, in NYS, etc. A lot more bad is going to come out about Trump before 2020.

TLDR; Trump peaked too early. It's only downhill from here for him.

March 25, 2019

Why isn't Trump gloating more?

I would expect him to have been tweeting a storm. Instead all we got was one bare bones “NO COLLUSION” tweet.

Something is going on behind the scenes.

March 23, 2019

Are Presidential pardons automatically public record / knowledge?

Could Trump have pardoned Jr behind closed doors? Or pardoned him preemptively, without that information being made public?

I’m just curious about the process.

March 22, 2019

I understand the public Special Counsel report cannot disparage Trump...

It is, apparently, against DOJ policy to indict a President and publicly disparage unindicted individuals. That will make it impossible for the report that Barr releases publicly to list any of Trump’s wrongdoing.

That said, is the private report that Mueller gives to Barr bound by any such policies? Do we expect THAT report to have all the details about Trump’s complicity? And if that report does contain such information, is it likely to be made public by officials not bound by DOJ policies?

February 28, 2019

Trump ordered security officials to give Kushner his clearance

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/us/politics/jared-kushner-security-clearance.html

WASHINGTON — President Trump ordered his chief of staff to grant his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, a top-secret security clearance last year, overruling concerns flagged by intelligence officials and the White House’s top lawyer, four people briefed on the matter said.

Mr. Trump’s decision in May so troubled senior administration officials that at least one, the White House chief of staff at the time, John F. Kelly, wrote a contemporaneous internal memo about how he had been “ordered” to give Mr. Kushner the top-secret clearance.

The White House counsel at the time, Donald F. McGahn II, also wrote an internal memo outlining the concerns that had been raised about Mr. Kushner — including by the C.I.A. — and how Mr. McGahn had recommended that he not be given a top-secret clearance.

The disclosure of the memos contradicts statements made by the president, who told The New York Times in January in an Oval Office interview that he had no role in his son-in-law receiving his clearance.



I’m pretty sure we all suspected this was the case.
February 23, 2019

Hypothetical presidential eligibility question

I’m just curious how this would work. Let’s say in our hypothetical scenario that a 33 year old was elected President. Shortly after assuming office, the 33 year old’s age was discovered. Now let’s say that the congress is controlled by that person’s party and impeachment isn’t considered.

How would the person be removed from office? Is there a mechanism?

February 21, 2019

I don't want to hear badmouthing about Kamala Harris' record as a prosecutor

Kamala is a VERY progressive Senator. Progressive punch ranks her as the MOST progressive Senator.

https://progressivepunch.org/scores.htm?house=senate

Her record as a prosecutor - being tough on crime - will be an ASSET in the general election especially against someone as blustery as Trump. While her previous career isn’t going to win her points with some members of our Democratic coalition, it absolutely is going to win her points with the crucial independents and centrist republicans who want someone other than Trump.

We need to think not just about the primary but about the general. Kamala will make one hell of a progressive President. And I’d bet money she will push DOJ to explore Trump corruption that he’s sweeping under the rug.

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