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    How Pelosi is forcing Trump and the GOP over a cliff

    David Cay Johnston, DCReport @ RawStory
    February 17, 2020

    Thanks for your support!

    This article was paid for by reader donations to Raw Story Investigates.

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    David Cay Johnston, DCReport @ RawStory

    Who’s looking smart this President’s Day now that Senate Republicans held a show trial with no witnesses before acquitting Donald Trump on two impeachment charges?


    Nancy Pelosi.

    The Speaker held off those in her party who wanted to impeach Trump right after her party took control of the House of Representatives, annoying many of her fellow Democrats and a few Capitol Hill Republicans who privately asked Democrats to rid them of this turbulent president.

    Pelosi waited until she got an issue that should have alarmed the Republicans, a threat to our national security. Not only did witnesses and documents show that Trump helped Moscow’s push to occupy all of Ukraine, but she also showed the world that in 2020 the president and top Congressional Republicans were spreading Kremlin propaganda about our 2016 election.

    With each passing day, Pelosi's savvy political strategy grows clearer, even as she gets much too little credit.

    All the Democrats must do now is market that. The Republicans are masters of marketing, using slogans and deceptions to persuade people that awful policies are actually good policies. The Democrats tend to get lost in process, basically asking people to read the fine print of their proposals instead of appealing to their emotions. But that’s a slam on Democrats as a party, not their leader.

    The Speaker created a win-win in with the impeachment of Trump. With each passing day, her savvy political strategy grows clearer, even as she gets much too little credit.

    Making Things Happen

    Pelosi didn’t come to Washington to win the news of the day, send flurries of tweets or bask in praise. She came to get long-term results. She has a steely focus on what can be done and then making it happen.

    Even while knowing that Senate Republicans would acquit Trump, Pelosi set a trap for Trump and his obsequious Republican supporters on Capitol Hill. Lacking Pelosi’s inner confidence and skill at three-dimensional political chess, Trump and Congressional Republicans fell into Pelosi’s clever trap.

    The trap: By supporting Trump no matter what, Republicans are stuck to him with political superglue. As Trump behaves ever more like a dictator, even referring to himself as “The King” in a tweet, elected Republicans cannot break free of him without tearing themselves apart.

    The Democrats would have scored a huge victory had Trump been removed. That would have put Mike Pence in the White House. While Trump poses as a bigger than life character, Pence is a mere figment, a minor politician with no great political appeal, following, or track record.

    Trump Overplays His Hand

    But even without convicting Trump, Pelosi’s strategy wins because now he mistakenly believes he is free at last from political constraints.

    Now Trump fully embraces his instinctive—and utterly mistaken—belief that our Constitution gives him authority to “do whatever I want.”

    Actually our Constitution gives the executive the duty to do what Congress tells him to do and to “faithfully execute” those powers and duties.

    As Steve Bannon said of Trump last week: “Now he understands how to use the full powers of the presidency.”

    Bannon was speaking about how, among other things, Trump now openly uses our Justice Department as his personal bullying squad to harass perceived enemies, like the 19 million people of New York State, who will be denied easy re-entry into the country after they go overseas.

    Trump was unfazed when a federal grand jury would not go along with indicting Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director who Trump attacks because he did his job.

    Barr at His Side

    That means you should expect more ginned-up cases against those Trump perceives to be his enemies. Whomever the Democrats nominate in Milwaukee, their running mate and their families will all be targets so long as Bill Barr remains attorney general.

    Trump also uses Justice to shield friends like the felons Roger Stone and Mike Flynn.

    More than 1,100 former federal prosecutors have called on Barr to resign. The chances that Barr will step back are on a par with the Sun rising in the West tomorrow morning.

    Because of Pelosi’s strategy, the first few Republican senators have openly expressed unease that Trump thinks the Justice Department is his personal law firm and that Attorney General Barr is his consigliere, his Roy Cohn. The comments by Republican senators are not much, but they’re not nothing, either.

    More House Investigations

    Count on continuing House investigations designed not just to expose wrongdoing, but also to open the first real cracks in the wall of Republican submission to Trumpism. And don’t be surprised if some whistleblower or leaked document shows Barr or his loyalists breaking the law—the way Richard Nixon’s pals John Mitchell and Richard Kleindienst did and became the first U.S. attorneys general forced to take up residence in federal prisons.

    Pelosi’s strategy has also made Trump so toxic that qualified people with government experience shun this administration. He had a hard time from the start but now anyone with a thought to their future career wants to avoid the stain of Trump on their resumes.

    Obsequious Trump minions Hope Hicks and John McEntee are now back at the White House, a clear sign that Trump can only attract the worst people to the White House.

    McEntee was forced out in 2018 because he couldn’t get a security clearance over concerns about his gambling habits. His financial disclosure statement never won approval. So McEntee may again be forced out.

    And we’ve seen former aides turn on Trump. There was Rex Tillerson, the Exxon Mobil CEO who Trump chose as his first secretary of state. But it was not until after the impeachment proceedings that Trump’s former chief of staff, retired Marine General John Kelly, turned on Trump.

    What we are seeing in real life is Shelley’s imaginative 1820 tragedy “Prometheus Unbound,” with Trump in the role of the vengeful Jupiter, who loses all his godly powers as his exalted friends turn on him.

    Tied Republicans to Trump

    Republican leaders are highly unlikely to turn on Trump.  But Pelosi has insured that they will pay a price for defending what will be ever worse conduct by Trump in the months ahead. They are tied to Trump and cannot easily get a political divorce, thanks to Pelosi’s strategy, without openly saying they made a terrible mistake in failing to convict and remove Trump from office.

    Fellow Democrats who complain that Pelosi slow-walked impeachment and then agreed to proceed on just two articles instead of a kitchen sink of charges have missed her long-term strategy, which continues to play out to the Democrats' advantage.

    By forcing impeachment over national security, Pelosi maneuvered leading Republican senators into a choice between breaking with Trump or spreading Kremlin propaganda to help Trump. Pelosi’s strategy put the lie to 75 years of Republican claims to be worried about the Kremlin.

    By showing that concern about Moscow was a fraud, Pelosi also showed that putting protection of Trump ahead of love of our country is the policy of GOP leaders.

    The only question remaining: Are the Democrats savvy enough to get that plain and simple message across to voters and to give the Democrats control of the White House, the Senate and the House in 2020.

    Don’t count on the rest of the party to be as smart as Pelosi, but hope they absorb her wisdom.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

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    Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
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    Survey: Will Melania leave Trump now that he's out of office ?

    Noam Chomsky slams 'liberal American intellectuals' for refusing to admit US is a 'leading terrorist state'

    Alex Henderson, AlterNet
    January 26, 2021

    Although left-wing author Noam Chomsky was glad to see former President Donald Trump voted out of office in 2020, that doesn't mean that he doesn't have some vehement criticisms of the Democratic Party and American liberalism — including Democratic views on foreign policy. And during a recent interview with progressive journalist/author Chris Hedges, Chomsky stressed that American liberals have a hard time admitting how bad U.S. foreign policy can be.

    Chomsky, now 92, appeared on Hedges' show, "On Contact," which airs on RT America — the U.S. division of the Russian cable news outlet RT. Hedges, like Chomsky, has been extremely critical of the Democratic Party."

    Just as you can't get the Republican mobs to admit that the election was lost," Chomsky told Hedges, "you can't get liberal American intellectuals to recognize that the United States is a leading terrorist state."

    Chomsky told Hedges that throughout its history, the U.S. has had a belligerent and imperialistic foreign policy. And he notes some examples of U.S. foreign policy being condemned in other countries — for example, the International Court of Justice slamming the Reagan Administration's intervention in Nicaragua during the 1980s as a violation of international law.

    "What the Reagan Administration was doing was the peak of terrorism by our own definitions," Chomsky told Hedges. "But the New York Times ran an editorial saying we can dismiss the judgment of the Court because it's a hostile forum. Why is it a hostile forum? Because it condemned the U.S."

    Chomsky also slammed U.S. intervention in Cuba, noting its actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. "It was a serious terrorist war that almost led to the destruction of the world," Chomsky told Hedges.

    Trump rioter who smoked a joint in the Capitol arrested by FBI after his co-workers turn him in

    Sky Palma
    January 26, 2021

    A New York man who was caught on video smoking a joint inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has been arrested after his co-workers gave his information to authorities, the Daily Beast reports.

    James Bonet has been charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authorities and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

    "Capitol building smoking with all my people!" Bonet says in one video, which shows him smoking a joint with other rioters.

    A criminal complaint states that Bonet's co-workers were aware of his penchant for anti-government conspiracy theories, including his belief that the 2020 election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden. According to the Daily Beast, one of his co-workers contacted the FBI and said they were afraid Bonet would get COVID-19 at that protest and "spread it to them because they saw photographs of Bonet...not wearing a facemask."

    The co-worker also informed the FBI about videos showing Bonet inside the Capitol.

    As the Daily Beast points out, Bonet is among several Capitol rioters who smoked pot inside the Capitol.

    Trump trolled by famous scam artist with tips for how to get by in prison

    Tom Boggioni
    January 26, 2021

    Convicted scam artist Anna Delvey, who is currently residing in prison after a stint in New York City's prison complex on Rikers Island, took time out during her incarceration to troll Donald Trump with advice on how to get along with fellow inmates and guards should he meet her fate if convicted on criminal charges. "

    According to Dazed, Delvey, whose real name is Anna Vadimovna Sorokina, is currently serving a four to 12-year sentence after being charged and convicted in multiple counts of attempted grand larceny, and theft of services while defrauding wealthy associates and New York c City luxury hotels. In 2017, Delvey was arrested in New York, with prosecutors claiming she scammed her victims out of approximately $275,000.

    Delvey still maintains a website and this past week posted prison do's and dont's for the former president who is facing legal problems of his own.

    Under the tongue-in-cheek title "Rikers Island 1010 for Donald Trump, " she wrote, "Depending on Cyrus Vance's mood, there is approximately an 87% chance you will get closely acquainted with NYS criminal justice in the nearest future. Judging from my own experience and considering your vast resources and high incentive to flee, it's inevitable you will end up remanded and sent to Rikers Island, which for a while was my terrain. I feel that it's my duty to share my newfound wisdom with someone who will have a plentiful of time and opportunity to put it to a good use—you," before impishly adding, "So many memories!"

    Delvey shared nuggets of wisdom with the former leader of the free world, including, "First and foremost: get out of suicide watch/mental observation as soon as you possibly can—it's neither a good look, nor something you want to be remembered by. That's where the real crazies end up, unless they manage to fool the staff into thinking otherwise, and if you aren't dying to learn everything about pros and cons of S1, you don't want to be around that kind of energy. First impressions matter, and rolling into this jail while smelling of desperation and wallowing in self-pity is definitely not a way to commence your journey."

    She also shared tips for improving his diet and making friends.

    "So being in jail is a good time to detox from ubiquitous things like sugar, alcohol, dairy, fried and processed foods. Cleanse, lose some weight, become a vegetarian. The few safe-to-consume items include salads, beans, fruits and vegetables (they aren't organic, so peel off the skins), and single servings of gluten-free Cheerios. Everything else—just no," she advised.

    "The only acceptable use for most of the junk that's for sale on commissary is to pay others to acquire more of the items from the eatable category, their phone time, silence, and other miscellaneous service and favors you will need, like cleaning and doing laundry," she continued. "You will have no shortage of friends willing to take over mundane tasks for you. However, never underestimate the power of incentive—if you find someone who's good at doing both, be a keeper and ensure they stay happy and well-paid. By the way of trial and error you will encounter many that will overpromise and underdeliver, and oftentimes it will be just easier to move to another cell and throw away the dirty things and have new ones sent in—there are no limits on how many panties, socks and t-shirts one can get."

    You can read more handy tips here.

     
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