Tom Toles for March 21, 2019

The refusal of the Trump administration to provide ANY documents from ANY request of the 116th Congress is, itself, an unconstitutional breach of the separation of powers and clearly constitutes an overt OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE.

Similarly, each instance — and there are many — in which Trump has sought to interfere or meddle in the Mueller investigation (and the Comey investigation before that, which ended with Comey’s firing), is also a separate act of OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE.

I remember, once upon a time, how OUTRAGED RepubliCONs were when a sitting Attorney General (Loretta Lynch) briefly exchanged pleasantries with a FORMER president (Bill Clinton) on a tarmac when their planes happened to be in the same place at the same time.

Amazing how silent those same RepubliCONs are when their UNELECTED (Putin appointed) fake “president” repeatedly dictates his marching orders to Attorneys General and other Justice Department officials (who are supposed to be completely independent), for the explicit purpose of obstructing investigations in which he is a lawful subject.

Since nothing matters anymore, least of all the rule of law.

I do believe Mr. Trump’s legal “team” has given up all hope and is now gonna go “big” with the things that their client is good at and can stick to — denial, distraction, obstruction, and division.

Impeachment.

Irony of ironies, it is probably the one and only way that he can possibly be re-elected. There is easily enough evidence in plain sight to justify a trial in the Senate, and when the special council’s report is finished…

The Republican Senate will never convict a Republican president.

Trump declares himself innocent of all charges and completes the divide of the American people. Us vs. them. The fringe left absolutely freaks out and scares the bejeebus out of the moderates. Republicans unite behind the only candidate they have and the distracted Democratic party is subsumed with bitter strife.

Let’s just vote the rascal out and let New York state indict him in 2021.

Many of Tя☭mp’s voters knowingly voted to send a bull into the china shoppe. Well, they did indeed get what they voted for, and many of them still seem happy with the result and will continue to defend him. What they didn’t realize then, and often still don’t now, is that they are the china.

It seems the Republican majority in the Senate says the suspect gets to put up the tape. “Separation of powers” isn’t going to save our Republic.

All of that having been said, you have to admit—that’s a capitol hat that fellow is wearing!

I love the little comment down in the corner!

Having taken the low road and not selecting a qualified person at the convention, it should be completely obvious that the Republican party agenda conflicts with both We the People and the Constitution of the United States and appeals only to those who feel threatened by the thought of having to compete based on their merits instead of the imagined superiority of their race/religion.

Since.. a Republican is under investigation. They.. like a nation not to be named.. are a special case and shenanigans must.. not.. ever, be investigated.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” -FDR

“The only thing we have is fear.” -current republican party.

And how often will Agent Orange claim that the Congress NEVER SENT ANY REQUESTS AT ALL?? Oh, and by the way… HE’S ALREADY DONE THIS AT LEAST ONCE!!!

Noam Chomsky the Republican Party is “the most dangerous organization in world history”

Take its leader, who recently applied to the government of Ireland for a permit to build a huge wall to protect his golf course, appealing to the threat of global warming, while at the same time he withdrew from international efforts to address the grim threat and is using every means at his disposal to accelerate it. Or take his colleagues, the participants in the 2016 Republican primaries. Without exception, they either denied that what is happening is happening – though any ignorance is self-induced – or said maybe it is but we shouldn’t do anything about it. The moral depths were reached by the respected “adult in the room,” Ohio governor John Kasich, who agreed that it is happening but added that “we are going to burn [coal] in Ohio and we are not going to apologize for it.” Or take a recent publication of Trump’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a detailed study recommending an end to regulations on emissions. It presented a rational argument: extrapolating current trends, by the end of the century we’ll be over the cliff and automotive emissions don’t contribute very much to the catastrophe – the assumption being that everyone is as criminally insane as we are and won’t try to avoid the crisis. In brief, let’s rob while the planet burns, putting poor Nero in the shadows.This surely qualifies as a contender for the most evil document in history.There have been many monsters in the past, but it would be hard to find one who was dedicated to undermining the prospects for organized human society, not in the distant future — in order to put a few more dollars in overstuffed pockets.And it doesn’t end there. The same can be said about the major banks that are increasing investments in fossil fuels, knowing very well what they are doing.

Part 2

Or, for that matter, the regular articles in the major media and business press reporting US success in rapidly increasing oil and gas production, with commentary on energy independence, sometimes local environmental effects, but regularly without a phrase on the impact on global warming – a truly existential threat. Same in the election campaign. Not a word about the issue that is merely the most crucial one in human history.

Hardly a day passes without new information about the severity of the threat. As I’m writing, a new study appeared in Nature showing that retention of heat in the oceans has been greatly underestimated, meaning that the total carbon budget is much less than had been assumed in the recent, and sufficiently ominous, IPCC report. The study calculates that maximum emissions would have to be reduced by 25% to avoid warming of 2 degrees ©, well above the danger point. At the same time polls show that — doubtless influenced by their leaders who they trust more than the evil media — half of Republicans deny that global warming is even taking place, and of the rest, almost half reject any human responsibility. Words fail.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/noam-chomsky-calls-trump-and-republican-allies-criminally-insane/?fbclid=IwAR1HvDmrBfXG4vQ_k_7K4q78syYyL8T5gCvBrihfjTkFjK-roilQ3zLiR5E

Like the legendary Pat Oliphant, Toles frequently puts his most biting comments down in the corner. Today’s was one of the all-time best. Like all people who are intelligent, honest, decent, worthwhile, and patriotic, I have ALWAYS had complete and utter contempt for Donald Trump, who is none of these things, has never been any of these things, and never will be any of these things. The inauguration was TRULY a crime scene!

The right, in the past, used the army to take over the government … now they use Republicans, as the Republicans policies alone cannot get themselves fairly elected to office with an actual fully representative republican popular vote. The Republicans under the heavy influence of the extreme right have shown in the 115th Congress — when they owned all three branches of government — that they are unwilling/unable to work for We the People. Fear of an imagined future and anger (e.g.) at not having their old high paying union jobs is directed not at the actual source but at immigrants. Odd that those who hire illegal immigrants are the very same people who cite them as the problem. The fiscally conservative, socially progressive Republican party of Lincoln/TR/Ike has been quashed by the extremist right who promised to keep them in control as long as they don’t mind an authoritarian leadership in place of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, which they don’t seem to mind at all.

It’s OK: Daddy Fred gave him a lifetime supply of crime tape for his third birthday. I understand he’s about 3/4 of the way through it.

Couldn’t we just go and get them when the giant slug is off golfing? Giant Slug…..Mobile Dung-Heap….Sewer Clog….I’m working on a fresh code name for fearless leader. Any suggestions? Anyone? What does Secret Service call the grease stain? I’ll bet they call melonyia; “Natasha”. That would be cool.

Are those the folders containing Trump’s holdings that he was divesting before he became President or the hard copies of his tweets to date?