This is coming back now as people decide that it's an angle for criticizing Joe Biden, who voted to authorize the war. He has to take responsibility for his vote, but it is also true that an incredible amount of disinformation ("weapons of mass destruction," etc) was being circulated to drive the public debate. People with a lot of credibility, like Colin Powell, were sent out to make the case with information that THEY were being lied to about. Some of this is clearer in hindsight now
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/buttigieg-biden-iraq-war-vote_n_5e099307c5b6b5a713b09cac
Buttigieg Slams Biden For Iraq War Vote: ‘Worst Foreign Policy Decision In My Lifetime’
More: https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-biden-kept-screwing-up-iraq-over-and-over-and-over-again
Dirty Don is not having a great holiday season
https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/trump-finally-got-to-military.html
Judging by his Twitter feed and a few appearances before the cameras, President Trump doesn't seem to be enjoying his holiday break down at Mar-a-Lago. In fact, his tweeting is so obsessive and downright strange it even has some of his staunchest allies telling him he should put the phone down for a while. It's obvious that the standoff between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is driving him to distraction. If that was part of Pelosi's plan, it's working. . . . [read on]
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/30/donald-trump-iq-intelligence-1347149
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/10/10/times-trump-bragged-about-intelligence-orig-alee.cnn
More: https://www.salon.com/2019/12/30/president-trumps-supporters-promote-bizarre-website-claiming-that-his-iq-is-156-at-the-minimum_partner/
President Trump's supporters promote bizarre website claiming that his IQ is 156 "at the minimum" . . . “Mr. Trump was a student at Wharton when it was possible to derive and accurate IQ test scores from known SAT scores,” the website claims. “Given the usual requirements for admission to a top school like Wharton. I estimate that Mr. Trump has a 156 IQ at the minimum.”
[NB: By the way, Google "Trump pointing to head" and look at how many instances there are!]
The man is not normal. He not only is retweeting claims that he is the greatest president ever -- he is now retweeting claims that he is the greatest president there ever will be. Ego aside, disrespect for much greater presidents aside, it is just bizarre to suggest that there NEVER COULD BE a greater president
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1211051649009115136
In other investigation news . . .
https://www.salon.com/2019/12/30/trump-missed-call-on-ukraine-aid-to-play-golf-on-day-whistleblower-complaint-was-filed-report/
More: https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/more-ukrainian-shoes-dropping-they-are.html
Greg Sargent points out that it's getting harder and harder for Mitch McConnell to justify not calling witnesses in light of what we have learned. He writes: "McConnell badly needs the media’s both-sidesing instincts to hold firm against the brute facts of the situation. If Republicans bear the brunt of media pressure to explain why they don’t want to hear from witnesses, that risks highlighting their true rationale: They adamantly fear new revelations precisely because they know Trump is guilty — and that this corrupt scheme is almost certainly much worse than we can currently surmise." [read ON]
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/30/schumer-new-reporting-witnesses-impeachment-trial-091353
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer renewed his call Monday for White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton to testify in the Senate impeachment trial after The New York Times published new details about the effort to withhold aid to Ukraine. “Simply put: In our fight to have key documents and witnesses in a Senate impeachment trial, these new revelations are a game-changer,” Schumer said . . .
There's only one reason he can be going there now
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/30/1908570/-Pompeo-to-head-to-Ukraine-but-we-don-t-know-why-he-s-really-going
While Donald Trump nullifies the nation's foreign policy in efforts to wring a bit of gain for himself, and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani continues a partnership with Ukrainian ex-officials and indicted criminals seemingly intended to destabilize the existing Ukraine government for the benefit of those new allies, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be traveling to Ukraine later this week to ... well, we really don't know. If we're being honest about it, we can't say we really know why he's going. The official reason for Pompeo's brief visit, which will include a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, is to "reaffirm U.S. support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity." But Pompeo will also be meeting with other officials to, The Washington Post reports, "discuss the [Ukrainian] government's reform agenda." That last part, an alleged concern that the Ukrainian government show its commitment to anticorruption "reforms," is the exact phrasing the Trump White House used throughout its effort to extort the Ukrainian government into opening "investigations" of Democrats, and notably of Joe Biden. . . . One of Pompeo’s actions earlier this month was to order Ambassador William Taylor, who testified in the congressional impeachment inquiry, to leave Ukraine before Pompeo’s arrival. . . . [read on]
[NB: He doesn't want Taylor around. . . . hmmm?]
Trump is helping Russia by hurting Ukraine
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/30/1908576/-Trump-s-extortion-of-Ukraine-inflicted-permanent-damage-and-boosted-Russian-influence
Shhhhh!
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7jved/trump-and-putin-had-a-nice-christmas-chat-but-the-white-house-isnt-talking-about-it
Trump and Putin Had a Nice Christmas Chat, But the White House Isn't Talking About It
More: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/30/1908540/-Trump-and-Putin-talk-about-mutual-interests-as-U-S-learns-about-the-call-from-the-Kremlin
What does Giuliani pal Lev Parnas have to share with congressional investigators?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-rudy-giuliani-associate-pushes-to-share-his-information-with-the-house-intelligence-committee
Nancy Pelosi, The Art of War
https://crooksandliars.com/2019/12/congressman-nancy-pelosi-has-mastered-art
REP EMMANUEL CLEAVER (D-MO): I think it is important or the people to understand, that Sun Tzu, in the "The Art of War," he said that political battles are usually based on deception. I think that Donald Trump falls for the deception that Nancy Pelosi is laying out there. For example, he thought, okay, we are going to get articles of impeachment, and they are going to send them over to the Senate, and Pelosi had deceived him. And at every turn, he is going to be facing the principles of the "The Art of War." So I think that if I were Donald Trump I would try to figure out what she is going to do next because she is in complete control of Donald Trump's mind.
Trump's enemies are learning how to really get him -- not with aggressive attacks but with dismissive scorn
https://politicalwire.com/2019/12/30/quote-of-the-day-2438/
“It no longer feels as though the most powerful human on the planet is after you. It feels as though a strange and slightly sad old guy is yelling at you to get off his lawn, echoed by younger but no less sad people in red hats shouting, ‘Yeah, get off his lawn!'”
— Former FBI Director James Comey
In other news . . .
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2019/12/30/worst-political-predictions-of-2019-089874
Perverse lessons being drawn from the NY Hanukkah attack
https://crooksandliars.com/2019/12/after-anti-semitic-attack-fox-friends
In the wake of a horrific anti-Semitic knife attack in New York, Fox and Friends (reaching the end of the booker list for possible holiday relief hosts) pays Rachel Campos-Duffy to cross her legs and whine about the poor persecuted Christians. "We've seen over some Christmas some horrific attacks on Christians -- by the way, the most persecuted religion on the planet right now." . . .
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-ucis-boss-ken-cuccinelli-twists-hanukkah-attack-to-push-anti-immigrant-agenda
Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, claimed in a tweet that 38-year-old Grafton Thomas, a U.S. citizen who allegedly stabbed five people at a Hanukkah party over the weekend, was the “son of an illegal alien who got amnesty under the 1986 amnesty law for illegal immigrants.” . . . “Apparently, American values did not take hold among this entire family, at least this one violent, and apparently bigoted, son,” Cuccinelli wrote.
More: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ken-cuccinelli-tweet-hate-crime-immigrant-father_n_5e0a4a16c5b6b5a713b275e2
DHS did not respond to a request for comment about why Cuccinelli felt the suspect’s father’s immigration status from decades ago was relevant or appropriate to share with the public. DHS also did not respond to a question about why Cuccinelli deleted his tweet. . . .
STFU Rudy
https://www.salon.com/2019/12/30/rudy-giuliani-says-mayor-bill-de-blasio-could-have-stopped-rise-in-anti-semitic-violence-in-new-york/
Rudy Giuliani says Mayor Bill de Blasio could have stopped rise in anti-Semitic violence in New York
A gunman entered a Christian church, but some parishioners were packing -- Trump thinks that's just awesome
https://www.axios.com/trump-texas-parishioners-shot-gunman-gun-laws-75889395-526c-4da7-9d95-3557aeff3805.html
"It was over in 6 seconds thanks to the brave parishioners who acted to protect 242 fellow worshippers. Lives were saved by these heroes, and Texas laws allowing them to carry arms!"
The Cesspool
https://politicalwire.com/2019/12/30/trump-has-spent-third-of-presidency-at-his-properties/
Trump Has Spent Third of Presidency at His Properties
Nixon had his enemies list, and every president is angry with leakers, but with Trump it's an obsession
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumpworlds-wild-hunt-who-liked-a-chelsea-clinton-tweet
On the evening of July 10, 2017 staffers at the U.S. embassy in Brussels—the official office for the ambassador to the European Union—received an unusual call from the seventh floor of the State Department back in Washington. The office of then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was irate. Someone in Brussels with access to the mission’s Twitter account had liked the wrong tweet. It had set off alarm bells in Foggy Bottom. The tweet wasn’t just any tweet. It was one written by Chelsea Clinton and directed at President Donald Trump. . .
Urbanization is a huge factor in our future global world
https://www.axios.com/world-cities-populations-urban-areas-1a04ad41-bc8c-490f-b98b-bca13c2db291.html
The world's biggest urban areas (UN, 2018).
- Tokyo, Japan (37.5 million)
- Delhi, India (28.5 million)
- Shanghai, China (25.6 million)
- São Paolo, Brazil (21.7 million)
- Mexico City, Mexico (21.6 million)
- Cairo, Egypt (20.1 million)
- Mumbai, India (20.0 million)
- Beijing, China (19.6 million)
- Dhaka, Bangladesh (19.6 million)
- Osaka, Japan (19.3 million)
- China now has 130 cities of at least 1 million people, more than the U.S. (45), European Union (36) and South America (46) combined.
- India, which won't become majority-urban until the 2040s, has 61 such cities. There are 63 in Africa.
- Nigeria's 10 largest cities are were home to 32 million people as of 2018, with 13 million of those in Lagos.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/30/1906041/-New-census-data-projects-which-states-could-gain-or-lose-House-seats-after-2020
More: https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/30/redistricting-house-2020-091451
Epic redistricting battles loom in states poised to gain, lose House seats
The disinformation campaign against Joe Biden is going to get worse
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/12/30/anatomy-of-a-disinformation-campaign/
Warren's fundraising is down, Biden's is up. Can Warren bounce back?
https://politicalwire.com/2019/12/30/biden-fundraising-bounces-back/
More: https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/12/30/surprises-and-non-surprises-in-the-2019-democratic-campaign/
Surprises and Non-Surprises in the 2019 Democratic Campaign
Well, John McCain's dead
https://politicalwire.com/2019/12/30/biden-would-consider-republican-as-running-mate/
Joe Biden told voters in New Hampshire that he would consider choosing a Republican as a running mate, but added, “I can’t think of one right now,” CNN reports. He added: “Let me explain that. You know there’s some really decent Republicans that are out there still, but here’s the problem right now … they’ve got to step up.”
Bonus item: Trump's year, by the numbers (thanks to AG for the link)
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