"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
The first "I won" I know of:
https://www.politico.com/story/2009/...p-i-won-017862
Maybe Cocaine Mitch was just bitterly playing neener-neener.
I've been thinking a bit about our earlier discussion. My poli sci degree is pretty useless except for political discussions (and there's some doubt about its usefulness even there), but as I try to understand what's really going on I am pretty depressed. I think our political class -- across the ideological spectrum -- is really sub-par these days. I wish I could sit down with J.D. Williams, Jim Mayfield, and R.J. Snow and talk about it with them.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
To me, the real problem today is that nobody has any incentive to compromise, and has just the opposite incentive to avoid a primary from a more extreme idealogue. There are so few competitive districts or states, no one has any incentive to move to the middle. And because of Citizens United and the rise of superpacs, pols have as much allegiance to the Kochs or Adelson (for example) as to the party or to leadership. Sam Rayburn, Lyndon Johnson, Tip O'Neil, Bob Dole, etc. could twist arms. Much harder now. The tail (freedom caucus) now wags the dog (leadership).
Last edited by concerned; 04-17-2019 at 10:07 AM.
Very true. Not only that but if you DO for some reason compromise you are going to get nailed by the extremists in the electorate at the next primary. Let us not forget that Bob Bennett, despite overwhelming popularity among Utahns, didn't make it out of primaries as an incumbent because he was 'too liberal' based off of some of the compromises he had made.
https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf
The report we've all been waiting for. Looking forward to the DOJ OIG FISA report as well -- May or June.
“Children and dogs are as necessary to the welfare of the country as Wall Street and the railroads.” -- Harry S. Truman
"You never soar so high as when you stoop down to help a child or an animal." -- Jewish Proverb
"Three-time Pro Bowler Eric Weddle the most versatile, and maybe most intelligent, safety in the game." -- SI, 9/7/15, p. 107.
The legal question is going to be whether it's possible to commit obstruction of justice when there is no underlying crime. Barr doesn't think so. Maybe the legal fight over that issue will give CNN and MSNBC, along with countless lawyer talking heads, something to talk about up through the 2020 election and beyond.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
Analysis: True.
https://reason.com/2019/04/18/trump-...ant-stupidity/The obstruction case against Trump is not conclusive. In fact, his indiscretion and ineptness could be seen as evidence that he did not think he was breaking the law. But at the same time, he recklessly created the appearance that he was guilty of something, disregarding sound legal advice from people who knew better. If arrogant stupidity were a crime, Trump would be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
Going exactly how one might imagine. No minds were changed. Cherry picking and extreme tribalism at its finest. This won't stop -- not in 2 years, not in 6 years. We are a nation past healing.
I am, however, amused the Mueller Report called out CNN and Buzzfeed specifically. Zero credibility left for those two organizations.
“Children and dogs are as necessary to the welfare of the country as Wall Street and the railroads.” -- Harry S. Truman
"You never soar so high as when you stoop down to help a child or an animal." -- Jewish Proverb
"Three-time Pro Bowler Eric Weddle the most versatile, and maybe most intelligent, safety in the game." -- SI, 9/7/15, p. 107.
How broadly could this view be applied? To any of us regular citizens? "Unless you already have absolute proof of me committing a crime, I'm instructing all my employees to disregard your investigation, destroy all our backups, shred the financial records. Catch me if you can... but you won't be able to. Catch-22, in my favor!"
Maybe this could get DUI laws thrown out - the part about forcing people to complete a breathelyzer, or it's assumed they're intoxicated. (I'm likely mangling this law and interpretation, since I don't drink and don't really care about DUIs unless somebody gets hurt)
Or was Barr's point that it's impossible for the President to obstruct justice, because he's the President? Didn't he write a memo to that effect?
A person can be guilty of obstruction of justice without an underlying crime if the person has a "corrupt motive." That's discussed here:
https://www.axios.com/mueller-report...bd2031f35.html
Excerpt:
Any case for "obstruction of justice" has to demonstrate that said obstruction was driven by corrupt motives. Barr said on Thursday that Mueller's special counsel found 10 episodes of the president potentially obstructing justice, but that it's important to "bear in mind the context.""President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as President, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the President’s personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion. And as the Special Counsel’s report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the President was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks.
Nonetheless, the White House fully cooperated with the Special Counsel’s investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims. And at the same time, the President took no act that in fact deprived the Special Counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation. Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the President had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation."
The debate going forward will break down along party lines. Dems will say his intent was corrupt, Repubs will say the opposite. I think the Dems have the more uphill task, because that element (corrupt intent) must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
Last edited by LA Ute; 04-21-2019 at 07:04 PM.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
Matt Taibibi in Rolling Stone:
The Press Will Learn Nothing From the Russiagate Fiasco
https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...ia-826246/amp/
I was active in trying to stop Trump during the 2016 primaries. Maybe Taibibi’s right about why that effort failed.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
Romney was never Christian enough for some Republicans. Somehow, Trump is.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlo...=.c57b03f028cb
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
Nancy's husband has a really good column about Franklin Graham and evangelicalism in the Trump era
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/...lical-witness/
Last edited by U-Ute; 04-26-2019 at 11:30 AM.
We all knew Mitt & Mormonism were going to take a beating in 2012 from the Evangelicals, though it was fairly quiet. Several years later, the beating looks far worse, as maybe the most immoral man to take the office is praised by Evangelicals as being delivered by God himself.
Yet within the very broad tent of Protestantism, Mayor Pete can pre-emptively defend himself from Pence by telling him to take up any objection with Pete's nature with "my creator". There's always been a "we'll agree to disagree" respect inside the Protestant tent, even though Pete is certainly pushing this unspoken pact, manifested by Franklin Graham calling for him to repent.
(Then again Franklin Graham calls on everyone to repent and come unto Jesus... including Mormons. Overt Evangelism was the underlying problem at Santa Fe Springs HS in Texas where the ACLU had to protect the Mormon and Catholic kids from Evangelism run amok, with student leaders praying to Jesus over the loudspeaker to soften the hearts of their "non-Christian" classmates.)
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I'm still struggling with this conclusion:
The question I have is this: if this is true, and why was everyone lying about their connections?You know what was fake news? Most of the Russiagate story. There was no Trump-Russia conspiracy, that thing we just spent three years chasing. The Mueller Report is crystal clear on this.
He didn’t just “fail to establish” evidence of crime. His report is full of incredibly damning passages, like one about Russian officialdom’s efforts to reach the Trump campaign after the election: “They appeared not to have preexisting contacts and struggled to connect with senior officials around the President-Elect.”
Not only was there no “collusion,” the two camps didn’t even have each others’ phone numbers!
I suspect I would like them too. I follow David on twitter, and read most of the stuff he links too. He is very thoughtful and principled. They are both right about evangelicals and Trump. I am constantly surprised that they appear to be in the minority among evangelicals on that score.
Here's a fascinating article about a PR strategy used by Trump/Barr to deal with the Mueller Report called "Reflexive Control", which is a way to frame the narrative so that your audience naturally comes to the conclusion you sought them to. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/19/o...gtype=Homepage
It worked like this:
1. We heard early claims that "collusion is not illegal" from people like Giuliani and even Trump. Not heavy repetition, but enough to plant the seed. (Collusion is not even a legal term, outside of narrow definitions in anti-trust law.)
2. The actual term, "conspiracy", is a legal term, and it's very hard to prove.
3. Barr then conflated the two, used the terms interchangeably, and the public is led to either consider "collusion" which isn't illegal, or "conspiracy", which is an extremely high bar to clear.
It's actually a pretty impressive strategy.
An example: Let's say we Ute fans have a serious axe to grind with Kalani Sitake, and want him out.
1. Plant the seed - "BYU is a private university, they have flexibility public schools don't". Repeat it enough that it's in people's minds. Countervailing factors like the HC aren't even that important.
2. Bring in the idea that as a private school sponsored by a financially strong church, BYU has nearly unlimited resources. (Again, that BYU doesn't use tithing money or general church funds for BYU football isn't important, as much as laying the subliminal thought, "we have plenty of money")
3. When Utah wins again, or even if BYU does not dominate (as a private school with deep pockets should), Ute fans can sit back and watch pressure mount within the BYU ecosystem that Sitake is underperforming.
The reflexive control exerted from outside that eco-system lays the groundwork, with the simplistic rationale being private schools have flexibility that should result in more success, and/or the deep pockets of the LDS church should be brought to bear to make BYU truly great again. This clearly hasn't happened, and somebody needs to go, and it might as well be Sitake - who was hired on the cheap - (and maybe Tom Holmoe).
At the very least it makes BYU fans angry and dissatisfied with results, even narrow wins.
(Sitake's a great guy whom I admire, so this scenario isn't serious, but hopefully this describes the Reflexive Control technique)
Last edited by Ma'ake; 04-28-2019 at 10:06 AM.
If the Democratic leadership council still existed, Joel Kotkin would be a leading member of it.
http://www.newgeography.com/content/...a-s-mega-mediaIt’s far too early to predict which party will win next year’s election, but not too early to announce the national media as a clear loser in terms of national influence and prestige.
Pew reports that millennials have become as negative about major media as older generations, with their rate of approval dropping from 40% in 2010 to 27% today. Gallup tracks a similar pattern, finding 70% losing trust in the media, including nearly half of Democrats.
As Trump backers never cease to point out, the Mueller report undermined the supposedly rock solid case for “collusion.” Whatever the truth, a solid majority of Americans believe the Russiagate brouhaha was politically motivated. Some progressives, like Rolling Stone’s contributing editor Matt Taibbi, believe Mueller represents “a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media.”
Ironically, Trump, the man the media wanted to bring down, was largely their creation. At a party in 2016, my wife and I were regaled by a CNN account executive crowing about the company’s strategy of using Trump rallies, at the exclusion of others, to boost ratings. Once having created President Frankenstein, CNN then tried to keep up the ratings by chronicling his disposal — this worked for MSNBC which, unlike CNN, never much pretended to be an objective network. Today, CNN’s audience share has fallen below not only leader Fox, but MSNBC, Home and Garden, Discovery and Food networks.
Last edited by LA Ute; 05-08-2019 at 04:15 AM.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I'm guessing someone could come up with a bunch of former federal prosecutors who would disagree with these guys, but interesting none the less.
https://medium.com/@dojalumni/statem...s-8ab7691c2aa1
I'm certainly no expert on Executive Privilege, but Trump claiming it as to the entirety of the Mueller Report and the underlying evidence troubles me. Add that to his tweeting that his term should be extended, I'm starting to seriously wonder what will happen if he loses in 2020. The US can survive Trump the liar, Trump the clown, Trump the thief, Trump's tax plan, Trump's tariffs, and his legitimate exercise of Presidential authority (even though I disagree with most of what he does in that regard). Can it survive Trump the man who wants to be king?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...2Xv?li=BBnb7Kz
This has less to do with Trump than with prosecutorial overreach, which I have seen in the lives of my own clients. I am not a white-collar lawyer, but I am surrounded by partners who are, and I work with them on these cases. The power of federal prosecutors is truly awesome, and needs to be watched carefully.
https://thefederalist.com/2017/06/12...ruction-cases/
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I’m trolling you all with this:
Trump Will Be the First President to Support Gay Marriage from the Beginning
https://web.archive.org/web/20170322...age-beginning/
But is it really trolling if it’s true?
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell