Brief news takes

1.  Now that Michael Flynn is out of favor with Trump, the president is whining that no one warned him about Flynn, and they should have.    Fact check:    They did, and he made him National Security Director anyway.   Among those who warned Trump about Flynn were:   President Barack Obama (Trump specifically complains that Obama didn't warn him, when in fact on May 17, 2017 CNN reported that in a meeting with Obama in the Oval Office, just a few days after his election, Obama had specifically warned Trump not to appoint Flynn as his NSA, saying he "isn't up to the job."   In addition, Gov. Chris Christie -- a confidante of Trump -- wrote in his book:   “If I were president-elect of the United States, I wouldn’t let General Flynn into the White House, let alone give him a job.”    And then we all saw Acting Attorney General Sally Yates testifying before Congress, during which she told of making a trip to the White House to talk with the WH Counsel Don McGahn to warn him that Flynn might be compromised by the Russians.

So come on, Little Donald.   Do something daring.   Take responsibility and say you were wrong.   Admit that you just didn't take the advice, and stop saying that nobody warned you.

My guess is that it's not so simple as Trump just not listening and taking advice.   My guess is that he knew full well that Flynn was a direct pipeline to the Kremlin -- and he wanted that.   Until now, when it has backfired on him, Flynn has been a cooperating witness for Mueller, and he makes Trump look bad.

So now Trump reverts to his habit of always blaming someone else.   It's never his responsibility --- always anyone else, with a special delight when he can somehow invoke Barack Obama as the one.    Won't work this time.   It's memorialized in CNN's investigative reporting.


2.  Congressman Justin Amash (R-MI) has put out a statement that, after having read Mueller's full report, Amash concludes that "President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct."   He further states that Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented Mueller's report."

This is a first -- a sitting Republican politician saying that Mueller's report reveals impeachable conduct on the part of the president.   Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) disagreed with him, Romney being the only other senator (still in the Senate) who had been critical of the president;   That's less important than the fact that one Republican politician is now breaking ranks and saying the Emperor Has No Clothes.


3.   There's been a spate of passage of the most restrictive state anti-abortion bills in recent history -- which include laws that ascribe "personhood' to a one-day-old fetus in the womb.   The significance of this is that this grants the status of human being, with all basic rights, to the fetus -- including prosecuting for murder anyone who destroys such an embryo or fetus.    For reference, see my previous posting on Friday in which I voice my disagreement with this and discuss the conflicting rights of a woman to determine what happens to her body vs the rights of the "human" fetus that, by these laws, is granted the right to life.

In thinking more about the implications of "personhood" for an embryo/fetus this young, some questions (some silly) came to mind.   Such as:
    a.  Can the parents of a week old fetus take an extra dependent deduction on their income tax?
    b.  If a wealthy young man rapes a woman and, in the act, is shot and killed by an angry husband;   and if that rape results in a pregnancy, will the resulting child inherit the rapist-father's fortune?
    c.   If the mother, 6 weeks pregnant, is entitled to food stamps by her low income, is she also entitled to an extra ration of stamps to cover this extra "person" in her uterus?
    We could think of more, but you get the drift . . .


4.   CNN has reported on "Four Ways Trump Is Trying to Be King."    Senate Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler made the accusation in one of his public statements over his frustration that the White House is stone-walling any and all of his committee subpoenas.    Here are the four ways, according to the CNN article:

    a.  Delegitimizing Oversight.    The U.S. Constitution gives to Congress the right and duty to provide oversight of the Executive Branch of government.    The current White House is refusing to turn over documents or to respond to subpoenas for interviews.  In other words, the White House is not cooperating with the House in fulfilling its constitutionally mandated responsibility to oversee the Executive branch.

    b.  Using the bully pulpit to spread disinformation.    President Trump alone has been tabulated to have told some 10,000 lies or misleading statements since being sworn into office.    He lies, even when contradictory evidence is in plain sight, has been documented, and is available.   (See #1 above as an example.)

    c.  Insisting on the Legitimacy of Conflict of Interest.    Trump has tried to legitimate massive, unprecedented levels of conflicts of interest involving his businesses and his taxes.   His refusal to disclose his tax returns, he resistance to creating a real firewall between his presidency and his business, going no further than putting his sons in charge.   It is further troubling because some of his holdings (international hotels' incomes)  "are directly related to major policy decisions he makes on a regular basis, including foreign policy."

    d.  Invoking national emergency power to get what Congress refuses to give him:   money for his wall.  A prime example is his recent declaring a national emergency so that he could transfer funds to build his border wall that Congress explicitly refused to allocate for that purpose.    Congress has the power of the purse, granted in the Constitution.   This is a blatant example of subverting the Constitution to get something Congress had denied him.   It was not a legitimate use of emergency powers in this context.   First, it was not an emergency -- which Trump himself admitted when he said that he just wanted to speed up the process.     This is but one example of his misuse of any powers he legitimately has by using them for inappropriate purposes.    In addition, he claims powers he does not have.    His operating mode is to just do something and see if they let him get away with it.


Ralph