Daily Check-In 01/07/2019

Daily Check-In

Monday, January 7, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

One of the things that’s getting lost in the conversation here is that Executive Privilege has limits. It can’t be claimed simply because it makes the President look bad, and certainly not at the end of a trial.

In all previous examples where Executive Privilege was cited and upheld, it has been claimed either at the beginning of an investigation or at the discovery phase, only applies to information which is sensitive and cannot risk being entered into the public record, only applies to events that occurred during the current administration, and also only applies if it is not talked about by the Executive branch.

None of those three cases apply here. The report itself is near the culmination of an investigation, not the inception. Evidence has already been gathered from witnesses who spoke on the record to investigators, so trying to claim Executive Privilege now is like talking to the police about a crime, giving a confession, laying out all of the details, then claiming that their attorney was stuck in traffic so it doesn’t count. The report will also likely cover events that happened before Trump became President, so there’s no chance of Executive Privilege when he wasn’t the Executive yet. Finally, because Trump can’t keep his mouth shut, he keeps talking about EVERYTHING that happened during this time, including details and accounts that were not known publicly before. Him talking about these events alone has waived Executive Privilege. Combined with everything else, he doesn’t have a pot to piss in.

 

 

SHUTDOWN

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A. INDIVIDUAL-1

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

Someone on Reddit asked “How can a constitutional right be subject to that same interpretation?”

From the Federal level, this is due to the 9th and 10th amendments, where it states that only those powers that are authorized by the Constitution are to within the jurisdiction of the Federal government, and all other powers reside to the states to decide how to execute them.  The Pennsylvania Constitution has a similar clause.

For example, let’s take obscenity and decency laws.  There are municipalities in Pennsylvania that have restrictions on when, where, who, and how individuals can buy porn or visit a strip club.  While those are both protected forms of free speech guaranteed under the first amendment, localities are still allowed to have reasonable restrictions on them, like they have to be at least 500 feet from the nearest school, can’t be completely nude and offer alcohol, or can’t operate on certain days of the week.

Note the term “reasonable”.  Unreasonable restrictions are just that: unreasonable.  Completely outlawing guns inside city limits or requiring strippers to only perform to a funeral dirge are unreasonable restrictions.

There’s also nothing to stop Robinson, Scott, or any other town from enacting their own restrictions, aside from the likelihood of lawsuits from the Commonwealth and the NRA, which could easily cripple a smaller town.  If Pittsburgh is successful, then other towns might follow.  Or do the opposite and allow unfettered gun ownership.  It’s up to the individual town at that point.

That’s where the reasonable conversation ended.  Things went downhill after that.

I don’t like the gun enthusiasts or open carry movement at all.

First, it’s the ultimate expression of White Privilege.  It’s almost always white people carrying their security blanket AR-15’s, pretending that they’re one loud noise away from going all Dirty Harry or Rambo on the scene because they’ve seen one too many action movies.  If they were black, the cops would get called in a heartbeat and the black person gets shot because they were “armed and dangerous.”

Unfortunately, these people are likely to get trigger happy,  looking for a reason to “be the hero” in their own little story.  Next thing, someone gets murdered for cutting in line or driving like a jerk.  It’s easier to shoot someone when constantly armed.

Also, the people that organized this are not even from Pittsburgh.  Protesters driving in from Erie or Cleveland to combat a proposed law in Pittsburgh is a dick thing to do.  Sounds like the projected claims of busing in out of state protesters.

 

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

This is, quite literally, the exact same faulty reasoning that tech companies keep citing to justify not taking action to combat disinformation and manipulation on their platforms. They knew there was a problem, but failed to act because they wanted to avoid right-wing backlash.

Brian StelterVerified account @brianstelter

TV exec texts: “He calls us fake news all the time, but needs access to airwaves… If we give him the time, he’ll deliver a fact-free screed without rebuttal. And if we don’t give him the time, he’ll call every network partisan. So we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t.”

This is what I’m talking about –> Facebook was aware of their “fake news” problem and had the tools to fix it. But they chose not to act b/c they were “paralyzed” by “fear about upsetting conservatives.” Now major networks are falling into the same trap.

Memo to media/news execs: Trump is going to go to war with you regardless of what you do or how much coverage you give him. He’s still going to call you “fake news,” even if you let him hijack your airwaves with his speech.

By giving Trump free reign to spew propaganda on the airwaves, news organizations are not just broadcasting Trump’s toxic lies — they’re helping him achieve his goal of eroding public trust in the press. They’re destroying themselves to placate someone who wants to destroy them.

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT ISSUES

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

BREAKING:#cyntoniabrownhas been granted full clemency by the governor of Tennessee.

And while having her sentence commuted is worth celebrating, remember that Cyntoia Brown has been in prison for 14 years and will be on parole for 10 years. We must question the justice system that allowed this, and fight for others in similar situations who haven’t been freed.

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

 

ELECTIONS

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

Yeah, so that happened.

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Monday.  I feel like I’m coming down with something, so I might not be on the ball as much the next couple days.  Hopefully it’s not too much to put out of the fight.

One spoiler for Tuesday’s post, Natalia Veselnitskaya is back in the news.  She was indicted on an unrelated money laundering case.  I’ll try to have more on that later on.

I don’t know what’s going to come of Tangerine Tojo’s Televised Tantrum, but I’ll cover that as much as I can.  At least, I’ll cover others covering it.  I might be several shots of NyQuil deep into the night by then.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Published by noneofthisisnormal

Published

One thought on “Daily Check-In 01/07/2019”

  1. Pingback: Daily Check-In 01/10/2019 – None of this is Normal

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