Adam Schiff’s perfect shutdown of Trump’s ‘executive privilege’ claims is mandatory viewing

REP. ADAM SCHIFF: I do want to address one issue that the president's team has been pushing out, not in the senate chamber but evidently everywhere else. And that is their last refuge. The last refuge of the Republican—not the Republican—of the president's team’s effort to conceal the evidence from the American people, and that is this claim of executive privilege. Now, we urged at the beginning of the trial that any witness issues be resolved at the beginning of the trial. The president's team wished to push that off, as did Senator McConnell, so that later in the process they could say, “well, if we were to entertain those questions now that would simply take too long.” That's nonsense. This is not a trial for a speeding ticket or shoplifting. 

This is an impeachment trial involving the president of the United States. These witnesses have important firsthand testimony to offer. The House wishes to call them in the name of the American people and the American people overwhelmingly want to hear what they have to say. Now unlike in the House where the president could play rope-a-dope in the courts for years—that is not an option for the president's team here—and it gives no refuge to people who want to hide behind executive privilege to avoid the truth coming out. We have a very capable justice sitting in that Senate chamber empowered by the Senate rules to decide issues of evidence and privilege. And so if any of these witnesses have a colorful claim that they wish to make, or the president on their behalf, we have a justice who is able to make those determinations, and we trust that the chief justice can do so. 

The Senate will always have the opportunity to overrule the justice, but what they fear, what the president’s team fears, is that the justice will, in fact, apply executive privilege to that very narrow category where it may apply. And here that category may be nowhere at all. Because you cannot use executive privilege to hide wrongdoing or criminality or impeachable misconduct. And that is exactly the purpose for which they seek to use it. 

And finally, they have withheld hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of documents for which there is no colorable claim of privilege. Several of the witnesses that we seek to call have no even colorable claim of privilege. This is merely the latest camouflage and merely the latest effort to obstruct the Congress in its investigation and now to obstruct the Senate in the trial.

That’s a fact. Rep. Schiff continues to just land devastating body blow after body blow.

New York Times: EPA to finalize rule that removes protections for streams and wetlands

The GOP administration is also dismantling protections of streams and wetlands.

As if their downsizing of the agency hadn't already put public safety at greater risk.

Profits over people is a short-sighted folly, followed by a fall. #GOP2020

Trump Removes Pollution Controls on Streams and Wetlands

The Trump administration has finished a new rule that rolls back environmental controls on many wetlands and intermittent streams, delivering a win to rural ...

The New York TimesYesterday

New York Times: EPA to finalize rule that removes protections for streams and wetlands

The Trump administration appears poised to finalize its replacement to stream and wetland regulations, and is expected to roll back a large body of federal ...

CNN3 hours ago

Trump Newspaper Headlines: December 20, 2019: Impeached

Well, there you go...

The 8-Counts of Impeachment President Trump SHOULD Have Had by December 2019 (New York Times)

Via NY Times Here by David Leonhardt

During Watergate, the House Judiciary Committee considered five articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon — and voted down two of them. During the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the House voted on four articles — and rejected two.

So last week I posed a question to legal experts: If the House were going to forget about political tactics and impeach Trump strictly on the merits, how many articles of impeachment would there be?

I think the answer is eight — eight thematic areas, most of which include more than one violation.

In making the list, I erred on the side of conservatism. I excluded gray areas from the Mueller report, like the Trump campaign’s flirtation with Russian operatives. I also excluded all areas of policy, even the forcible separation of children from their parents, and odious personal behavior, like Trump’s racism, that doesn’t violate the Constitution.

Yet the list is still extensive, which underscores Trump’s thorough unfitness for the presidency. He rejects the basic ideals of American government, and he is damaging the national interest, at home and abroad. Here’s the list:

1. Obstruction of justice.

Both the Nixon and Clinton articles included the phrase “prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice,” and Trump’s impeachment should start with his pattern of obstructing investigations.

He has admitted that he fired the F.B.I. director to influence the investigation of his own campaign. He has harassed Justice Department officials who are Russia experts, including Andrew McCabe and Bruce Ohr. Trump also directed his White House counsel to lie about their conversations over whether to fire Robert Mueller. Most recently, the White House tried to hide evidence about Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s president, by improperly classifying material about it.

2. Contempt of Congress.

Another article of impeachment against Nixon said that he had “failed without lawful cause” to cooperate with a congressional investigation. Trump has gone much further than Nixon, outright refusing to participate in the constitutionally prescribed impeachment process. As a result, the country still doesn’t know the full truth of the Ukraine scandal.

3. Abuse of power.

The House will almost certainly adopt a version of this article, impeaching Trump for turning American foreign policy into a grubby opposition-research division of his campaign.

The most haunting part is that if a courageous whistle-blower hadn’t come forward, Trump most likely would have gotten away with it. He would have pressured the Ukrainian government to announce an investigation of the Bidens, and we in the media would have played along, producing the headlines that Trump wanted to see.

4. Impairing the administration of justice.

That phrase appears in the second impeachment article against Nixon, which detailed his efforts to use the I.R.S., F.B.I. and others to hound his opponents. It’s a version of abuse of power — but distinct from the previous item because it involves using the direct investigatory powers of the federal government.

Trump has repeatedly called for investigations against his political opponents, both in public and in private with aides. For example, as the Mueller report documented, he pressured Jeff Sessions, then the attorney general, to investigate Hillary Clinton: “You’d be a hero,” Trump said. This behavior has violated the constitutional rights of American citizens and undermined the credibility of the judicial system.

5. Acceptance of emoluments.

The Constitution forbids the president from profiting off the office by accepting “emoluments.” Yet Trump continues to own his hotels, allowing politicians, lobbyists and foreigners to enrich him and curry favor with him by staying there. On Sunday, William Barr, the attorney general, personally paid for a 200-person holiday party at Trump’s hotel in downtown Washington.

The Democratic-controlled House has done an especially poor job of calling attention to this corruption. It hasn’t even conducted good oversight hearings — a failure that, as Bob Bauer, an N.Y.U. law professor and former White House counsel, told me, “is just astonishing.”

6. Corruption of elections.

Very few campaign-finance violations are impeachable. But $280,000 in undisclosed hush-money payments during a campaign’s final weeks isn’t a normal campaign-finance violation. The 2016 election was close enough — decided by fewer than 80,000 votes across three swing states — that the silence those payments bought may well have flipped the outcome.

7. Abuse of pardons.

The president has wide latitude to issue pardons. But Trump has done something different: He has encouraged people to break the law (or impede investigations) with a promise of future pardons.

And he didn’t do it only during the Russia investigation. He also reportedly told federal officials to ignore the law and seize private land for his border wall, waving away their worries with pardon promises.

8. Conduct grossly incompatible with the presidency.

This is the broadest item on the list, and I understand if some people are more comfortable with the narrower ones. But the “grossly incompatible” phrase comes from a 1974 House Judiciary Committee report justifying impeachment. It also captures Trump’s subversion of the presidency.

He lies constantly, eroding the credibility of the office. He tries to undermine any independent information that he does not like, which weakens our system of checks and balances. He once went so far as to say that federal law-enforcement agents and prosecutors regularly fabricated evidence — a claim that damages the credibility of every criminal investigation.

You may have forgotten about that particular violation of his oath of office, because Trump commits so many of them. Which is all the more reason to make an effort to hold him accountable.

Gun Violence and Mortality in the US: It's on the GOP

When cops start losing their patience... the #GOP is toasted.... Here and below from The Guardian.

This is just a most straight-forward rip on Mitch McConnell... he's just got to go....

“We’ve got to get the Violence Against Women Act acted upon,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said. “We’ve got to get in a room. I don’t want to hear about how much they support law enforcement, how much they care about lives and the sanctity of lives.

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“And yet we all know in law enforcement that this is one of the biggest reasons that the Senate and Mitch McConnell, and John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and others are not getting into a room and having a conference committee with the House, and getting the Violence Against Women Act, is because the NRA doesn’t like the fact that we want to take firearms out of the hands of boyfriends that abuse their girlfriends.”

The NRA says the act’s definition of domestic abuse is too broad. Experts disagree.
“And who killed our sergeant?” Acevedo asked. “A boyfriend abusing his girlfriend. So you’re either here for women and children and our daughters and our sisters and our aunts, or you’re here for the NRA.”

Growing more emotional, he continued: “So I don’t want to see their little smug faces about how much they care about law enforcement when I’m burying a sergeant because they don’t want to piss off the NRA.

“Make up your minds. Whose side are you on? Gun manufactures? The gun lobby? Or the children who are getting gunned down in this country every single day? In our schools, in our theatres, in our colleges, on our streets, in our homes, in our businesses. Who are you coming to work for?

The Violence Against Women Act, passed in 1994, lapsed during last year’s government shutdown. The Democratic-controlled House reauthorised it in April, adding protections for transgender victims and banning those convicted of domestic abuse from buying guns.
Responding to Acevedo’s comments last week, Cornyn referred to Donald Trump’s current predicament when he said: “Unfortunately, legislation like this has fallen casualty to impeachment mania.”
The Senate has not yet had to act on impeachment, as House committees continue to stage hearings before staging a formal vote.
On Monday Acevedo rejected Cornyn’s argument. “And don’t tell me, senator, with all due respect, it’s about the impeachment. Because you brag every day, you and Mitch McConnell, about getting judges confirmed. You brag about every piece of legislation you care about.

“Start caring about cops, children and women and everyday gun violence. And that will be the last thing I say this week, because the rest of this week is going to be about Christopher Brewster and his sacrifice.”

Cornyn did not immediately comment. Nor did the NRA.
“You are an American, and American blood is being shed every day in this community throughout this nation,” Acevedo said. “Do something about it or retire.”

Trump Impeachment Progress: Nov. 21, 2019 National Headlines

So the headlines pretty much say it. Trump is betraying US interests. And extorting allied countries for personal gain. And delaying their aid and thus strengthening Russia's invasion of an innocent country. All in one corrupt quid pro quo bundle.

If this is not impeachable conduct for an American President, NOTHING IS.

"We followed the President's Orders."

Trump Impeachment Progress October 29, 2019

Here House Democratic caucus chair Hakeem Jeffries: “This is about the United States constitution," he said. "This is about the rule of law. This is about national security. This is about abuse of power. This is about the fact that the president betrayed his oath of office and the American people and also undermined the integrity of our elections by soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 election."

Here   "In his testimony in the House impeachment inquiry Tuesday, Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, is expected to describe his concerns with how the Trump administration handled Ukraine policy and with a July call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. 

In the Spring of 2019, I became aware of outside influencers promoting a false narrative of Ukraine inconsistent with the consensus views of the interagency," he says in his prepared opening remarks, which were obtained by NPR. "This narrative was harmful to U.S. government policy. While my interagency colleagues and I were becoming increasingly optimistic on Ukraine's prospects, this alternative narrative undermined U.S. government efforts to expand cooperation with Ukraine."

Trump Impeachment Progress, the Ukraine, Giuliani, Pence

Well, it's been some time since posting. Trumpy put his foot in it pretty bad since then.

He and his administration have been soliciting the Ukraine for political dirt and investigations against Joe Biden and the 2016 US elections. This is a crime.

So Trump is the subject of impeachment investigations in the House of Representatives now. Some #GOP are supporting the inquiry. It's bad. It is clear he is guilty.

Below is the status of and some of the collateral damage to the accomplices to this scheme:

Impeachment inquiry: Vice President Mike Pence refuses to turn over requested documents 

Impeachment inquiry latest: Rudy Giuliani defies subpoena request for documents on Ukraine in impeachment inquiry - live updates

Our Ocean's Treasures and Web of Life Are Losing the Battle to Survive - While the #GOP Denies Global Warming Altogether. While Greta Thunberg Comes to Address Us About the Near Future

So Hawaii's coral reefs are in danger because of an oceanic heat wave. That is to say, from global warming. Marine heat waves and climate change are less covered topics, compared to land-borne problems. Our seas - and the life within them - are not only at risk. We are losing them.

The Caribbean's corals are dying from a disease...

About half the coral species that make up Florida’s reef tracts and about a third of those throughout the Caribbean are vulnerable to the disease, at a time when the delicate ecosystems are already threatened by climate change....

But the federal budget to protect coral reefs has been largely unchanged for years, and that's left coral science in the "Middle Ages," said coral scientist William Precht.

The disease is likely the deadliest for coral since so-called white-band disease emerged in the 1970s, almost wiping out two kinds of coral, he said.

“Now, we’re looking at a similar type of disease, but instead of affecting two species, it hits 22,” said Precht.

“The end result could be catastrophic.”

This while the Republican Party and even Donald Trump himself denigrate climate science, caps on greenhouse gas emissions, and even young emissaries like Greta Thunberg.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, addressed the U.N.'s Climate Action Summit in New York City on Monday. Here's the full transcript of Thunberg's speech, beginning with her response to a question about the message she has for world leaders.
"My message is that we'll be watching you.

"This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!

"You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!

National

'This Is All Wrong,' Greta Thunberg Tells World Leaders At U.N. Climate Session

"For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you're doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.

"You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.

"The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees [Celsius], and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control.

"Fifty percent may be acceptable to you. But those numbers do not include tipping points, most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of equity and climate justice. They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist.

"So a 50% risk is simply not acceptable to us — we who have to live with the consequences.
"To have a 67% chance of staying below a 1.5 degrees global temperature rise – the best odds given by the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] – the world had 420 gigatons of CO2 left to emit back on Jan. 1st, 2018. Today that figure is already down to less than 350 gigatons.

"How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just 'business as usual' and some technical solutions? With today's emissions levels, that remaining CO2 budget will be entirely gone within less than 8 1/2 years.

"There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today, because these numbers are too uncomfortable. And you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.

"You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you. 

"We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.

"Thank you.".