George Will, Washington Post, January 19, 2019: George F. Will: Trump is an almost inexpressively sad specimen

George Will is a conservative columnist for the Washington Post. His scathing opinion article on Donald Trump calling him a sad specimen is republished in the Salt Lake City Tribune at the above link. One paragraph:

"Dislike of him should be tempered by this consideration: He is an almost inexpressibly sad specimen. It must be misery to awaken to another day of being Donald Trump. He seems to have as many friends as his pluperfect self-centeredness allows, and as he has earned in an entirely transactional life. His historical ignorance deprives him of the satisfaction of working in a house where much magnificent history has been made. His childlike ignorance — preserved by a lifetime of single-minded self-promotion — concerning governance and economics guarantees that whenever he must interact with experienced and accomplished people he is as bewildered as a kindergartener at a seminar on string theory."

If one is looking for grounds for impeachment, they should not only look at the Atlantic article, but also the arguments of a well known conservative columnist. George Will is now a contributor on MSNBC and his regular scathing rebukes of Trump are especially notable.

One more for MLK day:

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

TJ -- American businessman Bill Browder is indeed on Putin's hit list. I would not be surprised if Paul Manafort is also a possible target if he talks too much. Then there are all the other witnesses who Mueller would like to get to talk but perhaps are intimidated by the Russian mafia who carry out Putin's executions. Putin needs to be seen carrying out a few executions to put fear into others who might cross him.

And just maybe one of those targets is Michael Cohen's father-in-law who Trump has threatened if Cohen talks too much.

While I have called Republicans ruthless, the Russian executioners are considerably worse. I wonder why so many Republicans voted to lift sanctions on that Russian company. Have they been threatened?

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”-- Martin Luther King Jr.

That's one of my favorites. Any others?

I have often observed and thought about how some religions (e.g. Mormons, evangelicals) have large families to grow their religious sects from within. In the long run this is perhaps more effective than recruiting new members. I also believe that there are certain genetic traits that drive some people to be more religious than others.

One doesn't have to be a mathematician to understand that if this form of population growth is effective, then our society should be increasing in religiosity rather than declining. I believe, however, the overall trend is downwards -- but maybe not for the Mormons and evangelicals. Maybe there is not enough data to measure yet, but for most of the Mormons and evangelicals I have known, their beliefs are strong.

I have known Mormon and evangelical engineers and geologists, for example, who seem to not be bothered about the conflict between science and religion. It's like their brains have two hard drives of knowledge -- one full of their religious learnings and the other with scientific data. I don't know how they process that conflict mentally.

Okay, the subject is stupidity and sometimes I have to shake my head at some of the stupidity of the religious beliefs of some faiths. Sarah Palin is not an intellectual for sure, but she epitomizes the populism of many of the believers. Maybe 500 years from now her genes and those like her will be more prevalent as America truly becomes a theocracy like Iran. Ha.

Okay, I'm just thinking out loud again. No comment necessary.

The Atlantic, March 2019 Issue: Impeach Donald Trump

We have discussed Trump's possible impeachment in several different threads. However, Lawrence O'Donnell made the case for impeachment citing The Atlantic article above. The Atlantic had planned the article for release in their March issue of the magazine but brought it forward in the internet because of the important urgency they attach to it. For that reason I have given it its own thread. O'Donnell said it should be read by every Congressperson.

I'll lift one paragraph from the excellent article relating to just one aspect of the case for impeachment:

"The oath of office is a president’s promise to subordinate his private desires to the public interest, to serve the nation as a whole rather than any faction within it. Trump displays no evidence that he understands these obligations. To the contrary, he has routinely privileged his self-interest above the responsibilities of the presidency. He has failed to disclose or divest himself from his extensive financial interests, instead using the platform of the presidency to promote them. This has encouraged a wide array of actors, domestic and foreign, to seek to influence his decisions by funneling cash to properties such as Mar-a-Lago (the “Winter White House,” as Trump has branded it) and his hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue. Courts are now considering whether some of those payments violate the Constitution."

There is much more to contemplate in the article, but I would be violating copyright laws to copy them here. It is a very long article and needs to be read from beginning to end without any distractions. And then let it soak.

In my opinion, the Atlantic has made a convincing argument for impeaching Trump starting the process NOW. If we are to have intelligent discussions of the case to impeach Trump and the impeachment process that must follow, then I would use this article as a reference point and to stimulate thought.

Well Trump made his teleprompter speech today from the White House. The media expected it to be about ending the shutdown, but he never said a word about it or the grief it is causing so many people. Instead he made another pitch for his $5.7 billion wall in exchange for extending to three years the temporary protection to the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status immigrants. That and a whole bunch of the usual Trump propaganda on the reasons the wall was so urgently needed.

Speaker Pelosi has already said this is a non-starter. So I guess the shutdown continues because Trump has no empathy for the affected workers.

Business Insider, January 10, 2019: Wall Street should love the economic theory Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez backs — and that should worry the rest of us

Carlitos -- Yes Rep Ocasio-Cortez is indeed an advocate of MMT as per this Business Insider article. From the article:

"It seems the entire conservative universe is freaking out about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York). They've come up with a lot of reasons for it, but chief among them are her ideas about the economy.

"In an interview with Business Insider, Ocasio-Cortez said modern monetary theory (MMT) should "absolutely" be a part of our conversation about the economy. It's a theory that holds that deficit spending isn't nearly as toxic as we've come to believe over the last 40 years — and that it's, in fact, a useful tool. To manage it, you keep interest rates low, and when the economy runs too hot, you raise taxes.

"That sound you're hearing is 1,000 deficit hawks weeping."

The article goes on to discuss MMT. You can read it at the above link, but if Rep Ocasio-Cortez is an advocate of MMT, she could be a strong voice. She has 2.5 million followers on Twitter -- quite a lot for a 29 year old freshman representative who has only been on the job two weeks. She knows how to use social media to draw attention on important matters and the mainstream media seems to cover her closely.