…there’s a distinct possibility that I’m going to run out of time to get to “the end” of this before it’s due to go up…at least in part because there’s too many things I was going to include…but also because I went ahead & read these
…&…much as I know it seems like a foregone conclusion that the sonovabitch won’t get convicted because the craven assholes on the GOP side of the senate mostly already flagged that they’re willing to buy the entirely specious line that the question of his actual guilt is moot since they don’t believe the trial itself should proceed
The Senate impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump promises to be an event entirely lacking in suspense. The verdict seems clear before the first words have been uttered; Trump will be acquitted because not enough Republicans will vote to make up the two-thirds majority needed for conviction.
This disappointing reality does not mean the trial will be a waste of time or even counterproductive. To the contrary, as the House prosecutors’ brief filed Tuesday underscored, the magnitude of Trump’s misconduct requires that the Senate proceed regardless of the outcome.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-senate-impeachment-trial-wont-be-a-waste-of-time/2021/02/02/story.html
As a witness to the would-be insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez does not sound like the Democratic congresswoman, the political savant and the conservative lightning rod that she is. She simply sounded scared. And in that way, she spoke for most all of us.
In her recent Instagram Live confessional, the representative from New York explained that she’d gone about her daily business on Jan. 6, having been told by officials that she’d be safe from threats and violence even though she didn’t quite believe the reassurances. Ocasio-Cortez had the tone of someone who had been told more than once that her concerns were an overreaction and that her fears about her safety were unfounded — which is to say that her voice rang with the exasperation that’s familiar to so many women and people of color.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/02/02/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-shared-her-personal-story-revealed-our-collective-trauma
In an account remarkably candid for an American lawmaker, Ocasio-Cortez recounted going into hiding as rioters scaled the Capitol on 6 January, hiding in a bathroom in her office while hearing banging on the walls and a man yelling: “Where is she? Where is she?” She had feared for her life, she told an Instagram Live audience of more than 150,000 people.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/01/aoc-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-sexual-assault-survivor-capitol
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CKxlyx4g-Yb/
[the video is around 90mins or so &…well…”appears” to play if you open that link in an incognito tab in chrome…should you be inclined to try & watch it without logging into either instagram or facebook…say, because maybe you don’t have accounts on those platforms or something…it takes a few minutes to get going & it’s somewhat rambling…she even knocks her phone over a time or two so it’s not some polished performance piece…but if you can spare the time I’d argue it’s worth a watch whatever your opinion might be of the lady in question]
…& it’s something of an understatement to say that I’m still apparently capable of being incensed by the fact that his defense boils down to “it doesn’t matter what I did – you don’t get to call me on my shit”
The power to impeach specifically provides for two decisions: impeachment and conviction, resulting in removal, and then disqualification from holding office. As drawn from the English practice, and reflected in state constitutions at the time, both these actions were understood to serve the overall purpose of public accountability for egregious abuses of public office.
Indeed, several state constitutions at the time of the federal Constitution’s writing permitted impeachment only after public figures had left office. Public accountability and disqualification were the purposes of impeachment; the Constitution’s addition of removal from office was an expansion on these provisions.
The argument focused on Mr. Trump’s status as a former president is misguided and dangerous. When impeached, he was in office. Moreover, it is highly doubtful that the framers intended the impeachment clause to give the president free rein to commit impeachable offenses in the closing months of his term.
In any case, the Senate always decides on disqualification after the offender is a “private citizen,” since that is what he becomes upon conviction of an impeachable offense. The Constitution does not even specify that this second vote on disqualfication must be immediate. The Senate could vote weeks later, after deliberation and debate, well into the former president’s “private” life.
Still more fundamental: This “late impeachment” argument fails to grasp the constitutional framework within which the question must be considered. The Federalist Papers made plain the framers’ preoccupation with protections against the demagogue, the “unworthy candidate” of “perverted ambition” who practices “with success the vicious arts, by which elections are too often carried.” The provision for “disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit” was one of many instances of constitutional checks against popular passions that could lead to the election of officeholders who would threaten to subvert the Republic.
No basis exists for claiming that the drafters of the Constitution intended to leave presidents who have demonstrated danger to the Republic to seek the position again based on a mere happenstance of timing: that a Senate trial cannot take place after the president has been voted out of office.
Why the G.O.P. Argument Against Trying Trump Is So Dangerous [NYT]
…as if somehow it can be considered in some magical vacuum where the only things that are relevant are conveniently the ones that leave out the overwhelming contextual evidence that he pulled that shit as deliberately as he knew how & he’d like to get a chance to do it again
The House impeachment managers on Tuesday laid out their case against Donald J. Trump, asserting that he was “singularly responsible” for the deadly assault on the Capitol last month and must be convicted and barred from holding public office.
The House managers cited the Constitution’s framers in urging that Donald J. Trump be convicted and disqualified from holding office. Mr. Trump’s lawyers said the Senate had no jurisdiction. [NYT]
…along with his little helpers
…but I’m not the only one who’s out of time…or failing to see relief
The nation’s unemployment rate will not return to its pre-pandemic levels through the rest of this decade, meaning millions of workers could be out of work even after the vaccine is widely distributed, according to a projection released Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The nonpartisan budget office also projected a faster-than-expected rebound in economic growth as the nation’s economy recovers more quickly than analysts had initially feared.
[…]
“CBO currently projects a stronger economy than it did in July 2020, in large part because the downturn was not as severe as expected and because the first stage of the recovery took place sooner and was stronger than expected,” the CBO’s report said.But America’s job market is expected to bear the scars of the pandemic recession for years, creating a challenge for policymakers and the new Democratic administration. Under the CBO’s projections, the unemployment rate would average 5.7 percent in 2021; 5 percent in 2022; and 4.7 percent in 2023. The CBO forecasts the unemployment rate will average 4.1 percent from 2026 to 2031, well above the 3.7 percent it averaged in 2019.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/02/01/cbo-economy-biden
Why Are Republican Presidents So Bad for the Economy? [NYT]
…so it’d be nice to think that this is true
…but I don’t think I buy it
10 Republicans Who Have Compromise Exactly Backward [NYT]
…that’s a long time for a lot of people to be out of work & if “the economy” bounces back faster I fail to see how that does anything but increase the chances that they will swiftly fail to be any kind of priority for people who currently show little to no inclination to do anything that might meaningfully provide for them…while it goes just fine for some
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/jeff-bezos-steps-down-as-amazon-ceo
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/02/jeff-bezos-amazon-ceo-resigns-steps-down
…frankly it’s a shame those senate stumbling blocks can’t go the way of these
…because as much as this stuff is aimed in the right direction
…it’s not clear that they’re enough to get past the obstacles that were seeded for just that reason
…& for all that this kind of sideshow makes it seem like they’re a bunch of incompetent fuckwits
After MyPillow CEO starts spouting election misinformation on Newsmax, anchor walks off show [WaPo]
Eric Trump attacks Scottish politicians for debate on family’s golf courses [Guardian]
…being on the right side of things is no protection from the lethal intent of the knowingly guilty
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/shooting-florida-home-fbi-agents-serve-warrant
…& it isn’t like being on the enforcement side of the line is any guarantee of being on the right side
…& for all that it seems like there are places where things might reasonably be said to be worse
Myanmar’s Army Is Back in Charge. It Never Truly Left. [NYT]
What I Saw During Myanmar’s Coup [NYT]
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmar civilian leader deposed by the military in a coup, was charged on Wednesday with an obscure infraction of having illegally imported at least 10 walkie-talkies, according to an information officer from her National League for Democracy party. The violation can be punishable by up to three years in prison.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/world/asia/myanmar-aung-san-suu-kyi.html
…one thing being worse than another hardly precludes the possibility of both being entirely fucked up
Vladimir Putin Has Become America’s Ex-Boyfriend From Hell
…speaking of things that do look to be done growing, though
Plunging GameStop Shares Test the Will of Investors to Stick With the Ride [NYT]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/02/gamestop-investing-lesson
As GameStop’s stock plunged 60 percent Tuesday, the online horde that had raced to invest in the “meme stock” scrambled to reckon with the financial bloodshed, wavering between a desire to sell and settle for heavy losses or stick with their online peers who had admonished them to “hold the line.”
As GameStop stock crumbles, newbie traders reckon with heavy losses [WAPo]
[…]
But with the stock having plunged about 80 percent since last week’s peak, the whiplash also highlights how so many investors, lured by the promise of a gold rush, have been quickly dismantled, with help from stock-trading discussion boards and apps that make it easier than ever to invest — and lose — a fortune.
…oh…& if anyone happens to be counting…brexit is still going pretty much exactly as predicted?
I read the link about Northern Irish ports suspending Brexit inspections but didn’t really understand it. NI is part of the UK so what does Brexit have to do with any of this? I know that NI voted solidly to stay within the EU but you would think they’d be more eager than ever to have stuff brought in from Great Britain (that is, England, Wales, and Scotland; with Northern Ireland that makes up the United Kingdom).
I have a particular fondness for the Scots and their loathing of Donald Trump is admirable. I read “The Daily Mail” occasionally, because there’s no paywall and their comments section is robust; it’s not rare for an article to generate hundreds, if not thousands, of comments. Some people make up place names in their commenting IDs but some do not. There are quite a few “Little Englanders” who seem to love Donald Trump and wish Britain had their own, which they do, in the form of Boris Johnson, although the syphilitic dementia hasn’t taken hold of him yet, but whenever someone comments from Aberdeenshire or Perthshire or wherever the comments are usually scathing and the euphemisms and varied spellings of forbidden terms abound. I will observe that the United Kingdom, royalist and republican alike, are united in their hatred for Meghan Markle, who is referred to in many creative ways.
My English friends, who, like me, are getting up in years, are progressive, globalist types, that’s how I know them, and have probably never read “The Daily Mail.” I was once roped into a group chat pre-pandemic, around No Deal Brexit time, and I said, provocatively, “But wouldn’t you rather be governed from London rather than from Brussels [where the EU is headquartered] or Berlin [the Germans are financing the whole thing]?” Luckily they have a very good sense of humor and knew I was only joking but that provided a good half-hour’s worth of Brexit chit-chat.
…honestly a full explanation of any of the above would require multiple walls of text (& still probably fall short of the mark) but…in approximately reverse order
…it would be unfair to say that distaste for meghan markle is universal in the UK…but it’s easy enough to see how one might get that impression…particularly from the likes of the daily mail
…the mail is not unique in being more of a vehicle for pandering to a set of prejudices & preconceptions than a source of actual journalism…& its comment section is a morass of those who are all-in on those & a smattering of folks who probably think of themselves as bearding the lion in his den…so it might be a disappointingly acute window into a certain slice of the british psyche but I’d be loathe to call it a representative one
…as for the NI issue(s)…to grossly oversimplify it goes approximately thus
…the border was a more or less literal powder keg during the years referred to as the troubles…& the strength of feeling on both sides of the divide between those who think the island should be one country (republicans) & those who refuse to countenance it northern annexe breaking from its status as part of the united kingdom (unionists) has in recent years been in a precarious state of detente thanks in large part to the accords of the Good Friday Agreement …which among other things removed the border checkpoints that were the bane of many who had need to cross them regularly in a place where which side you were on could be a matter of whether you were headed east or west on a particular road
…but since the bulk of ireland remains part of the EU & the unionists insist that NI be subject to no infringement in terms of passage between it & the rest of the UK the fiction that there would be no border between it and “the mainland” formed part of the package of ill-considered empty promises the government made in order to be able to proclaim brexit “done”
…as anyone who thought that through with an ounce of objectivity could have pointed out (& in many cases did) necessarily the only way to achieve a semblance of said fiction was to introduce a border-by-another-name between britain & northern ireland…one that has been as awkward to negotiate as the one between britain & europe to the detriment of any seeking to ship goods back & forth…while (to add insult to injury) goods originating in the EU being trucked to the southern portion of ireland on a route that takes them via that northern portion don’t suffer those problems…so to call it a mess would be an understatement of truly british proportions
…in the last week or so threats have been levied against the people whose job it is to carry out the checks involved for the stuff bound from britain to NI that included what seemed to be efforts to identify those individuals in a manner consistent with the kind of targeted reprisals that were all too common during the troubles & they have as a result been told to stop going to work for their own safety
…so…on the one hand the border that isn’t a border isn’t working out as invisibly as promised…on the other the EU just recently fucked up by threatening to invoke something called Article 16 as part of a row about vaccine supplies…they kind of walked that back but it’s raised the tensions somewhat & underscored the extent to which it’s pretty clear there isn’t a way to make the set up work without crossing what at least one side of the argument (if not several) view as a red line…in the sense of “fuck-that-or-all-bets-are-off”
…so…at the very least it’s a sign that the distance between here & a return to a not-so-peaceful northern ireland is less than a stone’s throw on ground littered with stones & occupied by people who don’t look to be shy of availing themselves of a few?
I don’t know how far along it is, but there is also a lot of talk of NI quitting the UK to stick with the EU. I think there are competing ideas of NI going independent like Scotland, or else joining Ireland in some kind of partial autonomy agreement like Spain has with some of its regions. I think there has even been a Scotland-NI union floated, but probably not too seriously.
…not that it couldn’t end up going that way…after all it would make a lot of sense in some ways since presently NI is in a sort of limbo that has it sticking to somewhat more of the EU’s regulations than the rest of the UK
…but that’s also the exact scenario (minus the EU component) that the republicans have always advocated so to suggest it represents a way of resolving the situation rather than exacerbating it might be misleading
…safe to say the case for it has got a lot stronger, though…just like the scottish independence thing
I’m not that deeply informed, but Northern Ireland presents a very weird challenge for Brexit negotiations. This is because the Good Friday Accords and a bunch of other peace negotiations involving the IRA and Unionists have a significant component to that requires free movement with Ireland, a separate nation that is part of the EU.
A hard intra-Irish border will stir up the old Troubles-era conflicts so the London and Brussels came up with a temporary hodge-podge solution and Boris Johnson is happy to let the next PM deal with it. This means there’s now a quasi-international component when goods are moved from Britain (England + Scotland + Wales) to Ireland (Republic of Ireland + Northern Ireland).
TL;DR: This clusterfuck can potentially roil up enough resentments to blow up NI again.
Schumer is pushing legal weed, dude!
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/cannabis-stocks-rally-after-chuck-schumer-leads-drive-for-reforms-that-will-end-federal-prohibition-11612292635
Dems are finally accepting that most voters just don’t care, and if the GOP follows its usual reactionary path, Dems may even get a wedge issue.
The bill looks like it would end the federal ban and free up states to regulate it like booze.
The stock slide is the worst part of playing the market (obviously.) Watching it flame out while taking your money down is a horrible feeling.
Even worse when you wake up realizing that you had the “potential” to make a massive amount of money, but didn’t cash out due the hubris, greed, stupidity, pride or naivety.
But this is how it was going to happen no matter what. Reality wins as someone was going to take it in the shorts (not option shorts, actual shorts.)
It was rich hearing the TV analysts yammer on about the little guy (yet don’t give a single fuck about them), the desperate fools who jumped in the mania thinking they could get rich quick… to a point I feel bad, but all those late comers desperate to grab a piece were basically chum and were going to be eaten alive (I was/am/will be again one of those suckers too).
A lot of my coworkers were muttering shit about Blackberry the past two days. I knew that the price wasn’t real as the financials weren’t there and insiders were selling from reading various information sources.
Now I lie in wait as the price over corrects and prepare to buy more.
As a stock tip, this is actually a decent stock to buy for the long haul. Unlike most of the stocks in the Great Squeeze.
Good news, new Randy Rainbow!
DOT is generally Western centric but has anyone else been following the going ons in China? I might be watching a bit too much Star Trek Discovery… but the ongoing genocide of the Uighurs seems like something the
Federation“free world” should be rallying against.Trigger warning systemic rape and torture.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55794071
…my first couple of attempts to respond to this seem to have got eaten by a glitch of some sort…but I’d agree with the western-centric thing & plead mitigating circumstances on the grounds of probably cramming in too many links as it is
…plenty of room down here for any you think should have made the cut, though…so that kind of thing is definitely to be encouraged
…as opposed to the stuff described in that link…which I’d likewise agree seems like the sort of thing “we” ought to be applying any & all pressure we can to stopping &/or preventing…though I don’t know as the “free tibet” stuff worked out that great so I’m not sure I know how we encourage something that might have a meaningful impact on it?
I love your lengthy daily news roundups and didn’t mean western-centric as a slight. As most (if not all) of the DeadSplinterati live in the West, it is understandable that we follow/consume news that directly affect us.
I was just naively shocked that modern day concentration camps exist in China. I have no idea what we ordinary civilians can do that would be impactful and actually help the Uighurs. I would argue that an ongoing genocide is a topic that is relevant to us all and by posting about it (in the main body or in the comment section) is a form us doing our very very small part to help.
…I’m generally pretty hard to slight but I appreciate that bit all the same…as to the other stuff…I was aware that the “re-education” camps existed…& that although they said they’d been winding down the “program” reports were that the numbers of them were going up last year not down…& that sadly the uighurs have been being persecuted for a considerable amount of time despite at least a degree of international opprobrium…hence being depressed by that article but not entirely surprised…would that there were in fact something we could do to put a stop to that kind of thing from this quiet little internet backwater
…either way, the bit about encouraging the dropping of extra links down here was very much in earnest on my part…so thanks for that
Kyle Rittenhouse (the Wisconsin shooter) is in the wind.
I can’t seem to post any link. Every time I try to paste the link, it shortens the direct URL to http://www.website.com instead of http://www.website.com/storyaboutasshole/02022021 or whatever. I tried four separate sites and it kept doing it so if you are interested in that you’ll just have to Google him.
Those are not real links, btw.
https://mobile.twitter.com/atrupar/status/1356992962010447873