Thursday, May 30, 2019

Two videos on Wednesday that give us an idea why Trump could very well be re-elected in 2020

Robert Mueller made his public statement yesterday, Robert Mueller makes 1st public statement on Russia probe PBS Newshour 05/29/2019:


Nancy Pelosi had a scheduled appearance at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco after Mueller's statement. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi Commonwealth Club 05/29/2019


The only indication Pelosi gave that she is reconsidering her staunch opposition to impeaching Trump was that she said vaguely that "all options are on the table," then proceeded to repeat her anti-impeachment talking points. She used the rhetoric of crisis on Trump's conduct and abortion rights. Though on the latter she stuck to the poll-tested "safe" framing of the last 50 years or so of "choice." In the latter case, the pro-women's-right side is suffering some severe setbacks on abortion. So maybe it's time for the Democratic leadership to start jamming the antiabortionists on their radical rhetoric about abortion as mass murder with something more than the standard rhetoric of the last half-century.

Pelosi has never been a "tribune of the people" kind of politician, and that's okay. Not many politicians are. But her public interview shortly after Mueller's dramatic and highly significant speech concentrated on reciting lists of Democratic positions on issues on which a significant majority of the country supports them. The same thing the Dems have been doing for the last 25 years, i.e., since the 1994 "Gingrich Revolution" takeover of the House. If simply stating positions on major issues that are more popular than those of the Republicans, they would have controlled not only the House but also the Senate and the White House, during all of those last 25 years.

As a bonus, Pelosi explained that she was responding to the demands for a Green New Deal by ... referring it to a committee to make it go away.

Cenk Uygur said on The Young Turks later in the day of Pelosi's stance, "the Resistance has totally turned into the Assistance."

Dahlia Lithwich evaluates the situation this way (Mueller Spoke. Part of America Heard Laurel, and Part of America Heard Yanny. Slate 05/29/2019; internal links omitted):
Robert Mueller is a man who wants nothing to do with the incipient decline of norms, civility, and the rule of law. That’s why we never should have been surprised when he originally tried to put out his meticulous report and then, essentially, ghost us. That is also why we shouldn’t be surprised that he spent this morning essentially repeating exactly what he put in his report two months ago, a report he would really like us to read. Mueller wrote his special counsel report for a world in which it is assumed that facts and truth will inform actions. As his speech this morning made clear, he still believes that we live in this world. We do not. ...

Mueller also made clear that he was tasked with nothing more or less than doing a sweeping investigation. He said, in so many words, that obstruction of that investigation impaired the knowing of truth and that the president could not be cleared of such obstruction. If Congress opts to do nothing about those who obstructed or lied, they aid and abet that which “strikes at the core of the government’s effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable,” the special counsel said today. He is, in a way, linking his own ability to finish the job to Congress’ unwillingness to do its own. [my emphasis]

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