Senate Republicans move to quietly confirm lying Trump toady Rep. Ratcliffe during pandemic chaos

Posted on by Hunter

The rise to power, for ambitious conservatives, has been greatly simplified in the last few years. Attach yourself to crackpot far-right and conspiracy theories; use the fame to propel yourself to a House seat in a noncompetitive, always-Republican district; do your best to attract the attention of Donald Trump, who carefully sifts through the candidates and selects only the most toadying, dishonest, and conspiracy-riddled for new administration positions. If it worked for Mike Pompeo, it'll work for anyone.

While the rest of the nation is distracted by a true national emergency, Senate Republicans are taking the opportunity to quietly schedule hearings for fervent Trump acolyte Rep. John Ratcliffe's confirmation as Trump's new director of national intelligence. Ratcliffe had to bow out of the nomination in scandal the last time Trump attempted it; after the Senate nullification of impeachment charges, however, Senate Republicans seem to be signaling that there's no "scandal" left that they won't pave over to do Trump's bidding.

CNN reports the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Sen. Richard Burr, intends to hold a confirmation hearing for Ratcliffe next week. Burr has been mired in his own, far worse scandal of late after it was disclosed that he responded to secret government briefings on the likely severity of the upcoming pandemic by dumping his own stock market holdings before the resulting market crash. Burr had opposed Ratcliffe's prior nomination last year, but has now evidently changed his mind.

CNN implies Burr's change of heart might be because he has been under heavy attack from Trump, who views him as disloyal for his unambiguous recognition that yes, the Russian government did indeed act to manipulate the 2016 elections. But it may be that Burr, at least in theory being investigated by the Justice Department for his stock dumping, has come to the same post-impeachment conclusion as every other non-Romney Senate Republican: In for a penny, in for a pound. If we're going to erase Trump's proven extortion attempt against a foreign nation, using the tools of government to brazenly abuse the office in a manner long recognized, unambiguously, as corrupt, it's impossible to argue that merely installing a Trump-loyal sycophant of sketchy record as top intelligence official is an authoritarian-minded bridge too far.

But CNN also implies that the move forward to install Ratcliffe is because the current part-time acting Trump pick, odious hyperpartisan Twitter troll Richard Grenell, is deemed so universally unacceptable that both parties would rather install a rotting tuna in the post than leave him in it. There may be more truth to that one.

Ratcliffe is, in typical Trump adviser fashion, about the last person you would want in the role of director of national intelligence. He has little relevant experience. As a House Republican, he has proven a pathetic and dishonest partisan, aggressively promoting Trump-favoring conspiracy theories like the notion that the intelligence community's probe of 2016 Russian election hacking was actually a Democratic-led plot against Trump. These conspiracies were enough for Senate Republicans to signal Ratcliffe's nomination would be a heavy lift even for them last time around, but it was the discovery that Ratcliffe had "embellished" his resume by a considerable amount that led to his eventual withdrawal from the nomination.

Ratcliffe had claimed terrorism experience, claiming that as U.S. attorney he had "convicted" terrorism-linked individuals—but the federal officials who actually prosecuted the case disputed that, saying they couldn't identify Ratcliffe as having "any" role in that prosecution. Ratcliffe similarly claimed he "arrested over 300 illegal immigrants on a single day" as U.S. attorney—the case he was apparently referring to actually swept up only 39 workers, was widely considered an embarrassment and a failure, and had no apparent involvement by Ratcliffe whatsoever.

That was enough, back in August, to send the seemingly perpetually dishonest Ratcliffe packing. After Trump's renomination, however, it seems that everyone involved, from Ratcliffe to Burr to Trump, have decided that "shame" is no longer something Republicans can have.

The confirmation hearing will be eventful, however, with at least Democratic senators eager to probe Ratcliffe's claims that the investigation into Russian hacking was a Democratic plot against the glorious ascendant Trump. And Republican estimations that Ratcliffe's confirmation can be sneaked through a busy news cycle might instead find that news-starved, entertainment-starved Americans stuck at home might not have anything more pressing to do than watching Richard Burr and other Republicans again humiliate themselves for Donald's benefit.

COVID-19 news: Trump gaslights America, police close down reopened Hobby Lobby stores

Posted on by Hunter

Donald Trump's delays in responding to the building wave of a COVID-19 pandemic have now created a "best case" scenario of between 100,000—240,000 American deaths, according to government experts. The result: A new push by Donald Trump to insist that he had never downplayed the virus, despite many weeks and videotaped speeches in which Trump did exactly that. Already supported by Mike Pence and other fawning officials, it will be the greatest test yet of the administration's gaslighting strategies—a new claim that the virus killing family members, neighbors and friends was being taken seriously all along, despite weeks of Fox News coverage directly showing, and arguing for, the opposite.

In today's other pandemic news:

• Disparities in federal supplies being granted to different states, with some Republican-held states receiving all or more than all of their requested orders while other states receive only a fraction of their orders, continue amid strong suggestions that Trump's obsessive need for praise and hostility towards criticism is playing an undue role in those decisions.

• New Trump administration guidelines tie the recently-passed $1200 pandemic relief checks to Americans to an IRS filing: If you don't file, you won't get it. This sets up a barrier to Social Security beneficiaries, disabled Americans with Supplemental Security Income, and veterans with pensions, who do not normally file returns because they have no taxable income.

• Despite the still-surging pandemic and the advice of health officials, the White House is still refusing to open up a new Obamacare enrollment period to allow uninsured Americans to shop for health insurance plans.

• California's early, encompassing pandemic response measures have proven so far to have had dramatic success in slowing virus spread.

• Wisconsin's April 7 presidential primary and elections are still slated to take place on that date, despite demands that they be rescheduled—and the increasing likelihood of fiasco.

• Police are closing down Hobby Lobby stores in shelter-in-place states and cities after the chain, owned by now-notorious malevolent God-botherers, reopened the locations in defiance of local orders.

• In yet another disclosure of prior pandemic preparedness efforts ignored, a National Security Council study predicted the scope of economic damage from a pandemic similar to the one that would soon afterwards appear.

• Three weeks ago Trump stood with the CEOs of Walmart, Target, Walgreens and other companies to announce nationwide testing centers hosted by the huge retailers. The total number of testing centers opened three weeks later: 5. Of 30,000 locations. And of the five, most offer testing "only to first responders and health care workers," not the general public.

• Trump continues to lie about testing efforts and testing delays.

• House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has indicated he is drafting plans for a new 9/11-styled independent commission to investigate government preparedness failures leading up to the pandemic.

• Recent Republican claims that Trump's incompetent pandemic response was caused by the distraction of impeachment were leveled flat by Trump himself, who says "I don't think I would have done any better had I not been impeached."

• New disclosures show Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler continued her previously known stock trading into late February and early March, selling off shares of retail stores and purchasing shares of a company that makes medical protective gear of the sort now being rationed in hospitals nationwide. (Loeffler was publicly dismissive at the onset of the pandemic, but as senator was receiving pandemic briefings not available to the general public.)

• House and Senate lawmakers are demanding Immigration and Customs Officials release detainees to reduce crowded conditions, and the possibility of a "severe health crisis", in immigration detention centers. "A decision to do nothing is a decision to do harm." Another federal judge on Tuesday ordered the release of ten detainees for whom the virus posed heightened risks.

• Journalists continue to reward Trump for his falsehoods and incompetent, exploitative behaviors.

• Google is now banning political ads on the COVID-19 pandemic. But it's still allowing Trump's own political messages to go through.

• Medical workers are being fired for speaking up about inadequate protective gear as hospital systems warn workers they are "not allowed to speak to the press."

• 28 University of Texas at Austin students who recently returned from spring break in Mexico have now tested positive for the virus. The students had returned to the United States on March 19.

• A Michigan man who purchased a gun to "protect himself" during the pandemic ended up in a Battle Creek hospital after shooting himself in the leg with his new weapon.

• Although New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the coronavirus "the great equalizer," unequal access to healthcare means that is likely not the case.

• Has China lied about their COVID-19 numbers? It's possible. But the "real" numbers are unlikely to be dramatically different from those reported.

• In new polling, 94% of American adults say they're practicing social distancing measures.

• Should we all be wearing masks in public, even if homemade versions? It still might be a good idea.

• Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden released a new video honoring the heroism of doctors, nurses and first responders during the pandemic.

• Coronavirus myths: No, you didn't "already have it in January."

Schiff drafting plans for 9/11-styled commission to investigate failed pandemic preparations

Posted on by Hunter

In an interview with Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Adam Schiff says that his staff is now working on a "discussion draft" for creating an independent commission to investigate the failures of the United States in preparing for the COVID-19 pandemic. The commission would be modeled after the 9/11 Commission, created to investigate the events leading up to the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon.

Schiff told Ignatius that that would be delayed "until the crisis has abated to ensure it does not interfere with" agencies' ongoing response efforts.

The most obvious concern, of course, is whether Trump and surrounding loyalists ignored warnings about the rapidly spreading virus due to Trump's obsession over his own self-interests. Ignatius reports that intelligence officials are already concerned that new acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, a partisan Trump loyalist, is "trying to shape intelligence that might challenge or embarrass Trump."

If this is the case, and there is absolutely no reason to believe Grenell would not act in such a fashion, an investigation of administration actions cannot be delayed for long. The Trump administration has already been caught once engaging in criminal conduct intended solely to benefit Trump's own reelection, resulting in impeachment; there is no question that Trump's team, having been immunized from consequences for those acts by a similarly corrupt Republican-held Senate, may engage in more.

COVID-19 news: U.S. deaths top 3,000; nuclear aircraft carrier captain begs for aid

Posted on by Hunter

Three weeks after Donald Trump said it would "go away" and two months after he claimed it was "very well under control," U.S. deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic topped 3,000 yesterday evening, outnumbering deaths in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The month of April is going to see mass deaths in the United States.

In recent days, government experts have been floating a new estimated eventual death toll of 100,000—200,000 Americans. Trump has seized upon that number, if it creeps no higher, as representing a possible "very good job" by him.

In today's pandemic updates:

• It is now evident that the Trump administration and its congressional allies had overwhelming evidence of the pandemic's dangers during the same period of time they were publicly downplaying the threat of the virus—and, in the case of several Republican senators, cashing out of the stock market before those markets collapsed.

• In a hint of what may be to come, a New York City hospital today reminded its doctors that they are allowed to withhold care for "futile" intubation efforts.

• The nation's critical shortage of protective masks continues.

• The captain of the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt wrote a four-page letter begging the Navy for quarantine rooms in Guam after between 150 and 200 sailors tested positive for the virus. The ship has over 4,000 on board, and little to no ability to contain further spread.

• Republicans coordinated to again push the notion that January’s impeachment trial of Donald Trump "diverted" the Trump administration's attention away from the pandemic. Attempting to address Trump's known criminality, in other words, only exacerbated his known incompetence.

• Talks of the next stimulus measures to salvage the pandemic-ravaged economy are beginning. Those measures need to be much bolder than the first few attempts.

• As U.S. testing continues to lag behind that of other nations, rural counties may soon face the same consequences of sparse testing that allowed the pandemic to explode in more urban areas.

• Democratic mayors in Republican-held states are battling against the more lax pandemic policies of their Republican governors.

• The New York Times and other outlets continue to privilege Trump's false statements, framing them as political disagreements rather than provable lies.

• Trump's attacks on black female journalist Yamiche Alcindor for asking him to explain his past pandemic statements did not go unnoticed.

• After three federal judges temporarily blocked legislation ending abortion services in Texas, Ohio, and Alabama by declaring them "unnecessary" medical services, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals swiftly issued an order staying that decision, allowing the Texas legislation to be enforced.

• A second federal judge is now urging immigration officials to work more urgently to release detained children, warning officials that he will "revisit" demands for emergency releases if "there are [COVID-19] cases in these centers" or "there are other problems that are not compliant." Detained immigrants and immigration attorney's groups are now suing for the immediate closure of U.S. immigration courts due to severe pandemic risks.

• A ventilator manufacturer took $13.8 million of federal money to design and produce 10,000 ventilators for the emergency stockpile. They delivered none, but are instead selling more expensive variants of the designed machine overseas.

• Ohio voting rights groups have filed a lawsuit asking the state's pandemic-delayed, now vote-by-mail primary be further delayed, arguing the April 28 date set does not allow enough preparation time for either boards of election or voters.

• Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden's campaign released another video highlighting Trump's own words downplaying the pandemic as it unfolded.

• The Trump administration is using the pandemic crisis to nullify environmental regulations, allowing widespread air, water, and soil pollution without consequence.

• After Trump publicly invented an alleged new website he claimed was in the works, a Jared Kushner-tied company quickly scrambled to try to create one.

• While much of the rest of the economy shutters, construction of Trump's demanded wall along the U.S.-Mexico border is not just continuing, but "ramping up."

• The conservative legal scholar who impressed the Trump team with his ... unusual ... theories about the virus gave an interview to defend his claims. It did not go well.

• Large corporations continue to furlough workers by the tens of thousands as pandemic-related shutdowns wreak havoc on newspapers, retail stores, and other industries. The CEO of Columbia Sportswear, however, slashed his own salary to help avoid layoffs during the crisis.

• A majority of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of the pandemic, and 69% support a "national quarantine." Republicans, however, remain "remarkably insular" in their support for Trump and his (non)responses.

• DACA recipients are playing vital roles in the nation's pandemic response.

• For decades, the U.S. militia movement has prepared for disaster to strike America. Now that a disaster is taking place the same idiot brigades are resisting social distancing measures, believing them an illegitimate use of government power.

• Farm work was already one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States. Now it's even more dangerous.

• Fox News has promoted reckless and false conspiracy theories, medical advice, and dismissals of the emerging pandemic throughout its early days. If you have cable television, you are probably helping to subsidize those lies.

• While Trump congratulates himself (now, for potentially allowing "only" 200,000 deaths), Rep. Maxine Waters isn't having it.

Fascism: Personnel director quits in ongoing Trump purge of non-loyalists from government

Posted on by Hunter

Every single paragraph of this Politico report on the resignation of Office of Personnel Management (OPM) director Dale Cabaniss somehow manages to be its own special brand of terrifying.

The short version is that ex-Trump "body man" John McEntee, who Trump appointed to head the Presidential Personnel Office despite zero qualifications other than the requisite suck-up-ness, seems to have so infuriated Cabaniss that he bailed out with zero notice on Tuesday. The longer version is that McEntee and allies seem to be a rolling catastrophe, combining demands for absolute loyalty with what appears to be a fairly solid attempt to reactivate the Hitler Youth.

There are, bizarrely, now three college undergraduates moved by McEntee and crew into positions of new appointee vetting, with no good (or any) explanations from McEntee as to just why some of the most sensitive hiring decisions in government are going through Trump-loyal college seniors taking a break from doing their coursework. John Troup Hemenway, James Bacon, and Anthony Labruna are all college seniors with no apparent qualifications for their positions other than, again, Trump loyalty.

But there's also the arrival of a new "White House liaison" to the OPM, Paul Dans, who appears to be assisting McEntee in his fascist-premised purge of disloyal-to-Trump government officials but, again, has seemingly little relevant experience for his new position or duties. Reading between the lines, it appears Dans' performance so far is not impressing the people in government with actual work to do.

All of this, in other words, is becoming a complete sh-tshow in the post-impeachment days of Trump attempting to remove anyone and everyone in government who is not loyal to him while, simultaneously, a pandemic sweeps through American cities on a six-week head start due to the astonishing incompetence of Dear Leader and his boot-licking loyalists.

It doesn't seem possible to imagine how the Trump team's response to the current crisis could get worse than it currently is, but Trump's ex-soda-bringer is assembling a team to make sure it absolutely does get worse, and that anyone with subject-matter expertise who might have slipped through initial appointment cracks is quickly replaced with new, invariably compliant toadies who know better than to contradict Trump's various imaginary pronouncements about how Actually he is doing the best job of anyone who ever lived, so shut up.

Again, with no pushback from Republican lawmakers or anyone else in the party. With no worry, on the part of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican Senate, that Trump's purge of non-loyalists will further wreck an already incompetent government response to a pandemic that could kill untold numbers of Americans. Not a peep.

Reuters: White House classified COVID preparedness meetings, blocking experts and hampering response

Posted on by Hunter

At every possible moment Donald Trump and his team of Republican incompetents chooses the worst possible path. Reuters is now reporting via four administration sources that the White House "has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified."

"The officials said that dozens of classified discussions about such topics as the scope of infections, quarantines and travel restrictions" have been held in a secure room—excluding government experts who did not have the requisite security clearances, says Reuters. The administration has literally been keeping coronavirus response discussions secret from some of the government's own experts.

Did it make a difference? It likely did. Reuters quotes an anonymous official as saying "some very critical people" were not allowed in those discussions, which began in January. It also seems evident that the classification was used by the White House, yet again, to withhold information from the public that the White House believed could be damaging to Donald Trump: The news that the now-pandemic was all but certain to arrive here, would have real and damaging effects, and would cost American lives.

This is Sen. Moscow Mitch McConnell's fault, and the fault of the other Republican senators. They knew full well during impeachment that the White House was improperly classifying his discussions with foreign leaders so as to avoid disclosing them to the public. They knew full well he was placing his own interests, and his own ego, over public safety. They gave him full authority to continue doing it.

Trump’s self-absorbed incompetence continues to drive federal coronavirus response

Posted on by Hunter

Hello there. It is whatever day of the week it is, and Donald Trump's blazing incompetence is still severely hampering a federal coronavirus response that should have been in full swing many weeks ago.

But don't worry: Things aren't as bad as they seem. The Washington Post reports,"Inside the White House, some officials privately acknowledged Monday that Trump has exacerbated the problem with his misleading and false statements, as well as his callous comments."

See there? We may have lost our only chance to keep a new coronavirus from reaching epidemic levels throughout the nation, but White House staffers are willing to at least privately acknowledge that Trump may be screwing things up, even if they aren't willing to say so publicly. Feel better? No? Huh. Well, they tried.

Since the coronavirus emerged in China, the Trump administration's response has been focused largely on massaging Donald Trump's ego. Trump did not want virus concerns to disrupt the stock market, so Trump played down those concerns. Trump went further, claiming that those warning of the virus' danger were partisans whose only aim was to damage him.

Public officials either went along with these claims or did not—and when they did not, Trump appointed Mike Pence the new head of COVID-19 communications so that the administration's messaging could be better monitored and shaped.

That initial stalling for Trump's own personal benefit may turn out to be tremendously costly. Trump's blustering press conference performance on Monday, speaking almost exclusively in economic terms before bailing from the room early, didn't help. On Tuesday the White House continued to flog economic concerns, suggesting a vague program of tax cuts would soon be revealed but being stubbornly opaque about the status of virus testing and other medical details.

The common refrain throughout from White House officials has been the “bold” and “decisive” decision-making of Dear Leader. Mike Pence lathers it on thick and heavy in every televised appearance: Every decision Dear Leader has made has been bold and decisive and not at all similar to or worse than those of a potted plant. Even now, the primary concern of Trump's White House team is the stability of the notoriously unstable Trump; all other coronavirus concerns are voiced only after the requisite cradle-rocking to soothe Trump's nerves for another few hours.

It might be self-serving on the part of the coronavirus "task force." But it also might be necessary. Trump's incompetence and unwillingness to take the epidemic threat seriously has damaged the public response, but he is still incompetent and unstable, and can still damage the public response much, much more. If he believes public health experts are not properly praising him, he can replace them with full-time toadies, as he has elsewhere in his post-impeachment sweep of insufficiently loyal public officials. If he watches Fox News and sees people being angry about containment measures affecting their lives, he can go on television or on Twitter and demand that containment measures be lessened simply because he believes the public would praise him for it.

Trump's incompetence doesn't just matter. It's the driving force behind the federal government's disaster preparedness efforts, or lack thereof.

That continues, every day. Trump's reluctance to issue an emergency declaration in Washington state, for example, is hampering state efforts to expand medical capacity.

Trump's history of bold, decisive lying matters as well. During a public health emergency in which it is vital that the public believe and listen to health officials, Trump is a literally unbelievable figure. Trump has surrounded himself with liars proven on countless occasions to be willing to lie to the public; the White House has little credibility now, regardless of its declarations. Trump has claimed that any number of world events are "fake news," a conspiracy against him. His mocking dismissals of the seriousness of the virus have already spread to his supporters; will experts be able to reverse any of that damage?

This is what Republicans voted for when they ignored Trump's self-serving behavior, even when it became criminal. This is precisely the sort of national emergency that any president can face, at any moment: Republicans either presumed that this one would not face one, or that he would rise to the occasion (he cannot), or simply made the estimation that the damage done to the nation by having a president incapable of non-self-centered calculations would be worth it, because that damage would not be done directly to them.

That's quite the risk. But they knew, from Mitch McConnell down, that they were taking it.

The fight between Trump allies Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Rep. Doug Collins may be getting nastier

Posted on by Hunter

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that the primary fight between appointed Georgia Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and newly infamous Donald Trump ally Rep. Doug Collins, who is running to replace her in the Senate, is likely going to get much, much nastier, with "Loeffler's allies" forming "an outside group that will match anything [Collins] spends with attack ads.” The short version: Loeffler very much wants to keep her Senate seat, does not think much of the upstart Collins, and has enough friends with cash to make Collins' life as miserable as she wants to in coming weeks.

See there? And you thought there was no good news left in the world. Come for the Republican-on-Republican grudge match, stay for the AJC's reported Collins camp slap-calling Kelly Loeffler a "human-sized Mike Bloomberg spending the gross national product of Guatemala on her campaign."

It's fair to say that Rep. Doug Collins raised more than a few Republican eyebrows with his surprise announcement that he wanted to be a senator now. He appeared to believe that his aggressive, long-winded, and excruciating-to-listen-to defense of Trump during House impeachment hearings would result in Trump demanding that his loyal ally be given the Senate slot; unfortunately for Collins, Trump now has more lapdogs than the Westminster Kennel Club, and while Collins was able to get a bit of rote Trump praise, he does not seem to have stood out in Trump's mind as anything special.

Loeffler, however, has what Collins does not have: cash, and lots of it. Loeffler is a Republican mega-donor who claimed she would be spending $20 million of her own money to keep her seat. That made her a very, very attractive appointee for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to name to the seat while allowing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to devote his own Republican committee cash to other must-win races. Loeffler's appointment is part of the overall trend of big political donors getting impatient with the system and just demanding that they themselves hold the offices they have been paying others to hold.

Doug Collins can't compete with that. Also, Doug Collins is insufferable even at the best of times. Also also, Doug Collins appears to have peeved his entire party by inserting himself into a race that Republicans thought would be a nonissue this year, for no apparent purpose other than self-promotion.

And also also also, Doug Collins appears to have vastly overestimated the rewards he'd be getting for his ridiculous impeachment performance, in which he had a voluminous amount of things to say, none of which any of you remember because it was all rote, blustering nonsense. On the contrary, after the Senate voted to nullify the charges against Trump, it was Loeffler who got singled out for Trump praise. "She's been downright nasty and mean about the unfairness to the president," he gushed.

This is becoming a race to watch, if only to see how low two thoroughly terrible people can knock each other while their cherished Dear Leader watches on the nearest television set. Go, have fun with that. Spend as much money as you can while you're at it.

The House must demand Barr testify about Stone intervention—and be prepared to force his compliance

Posted on by Hunter

This cannot go on. Three top prosecutors (which may turn into four) in the Roger Stone case have now withdrawn after Attorney General William Barr's Department of Justice ordered them to revise their guideline-based recommendations on Stone's sentencing. This happened the morning after Donald Trump tweeted that he "cannot allow" the prosecutors' recommended sentencing of Stone, an ally and key stonewaller in the Robert Mueller investigation of the Trump campaign's ties to Russian government hacking in the 2016 elections.

It is time to haul Barr to the House to explain himself. Immediately. If he refuses a subpoena, then inherent contempt must be used to force his compliance. The House has broad but almost-never-used powers to compel such testimony: This is precisely the dire occasion they were designed for.

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The resignation of three top names from Stone's case signals clearly that the federal prosecutors involved believe Barr has acted with corrupt intent in reaching down to order a reduced sentencing ask. They, too, should be subpoenaed immediately so that they may describe the situation that led to their self-removal. This is an extraordinary situation: Even if a teetering-toward-fascism Republican Party will not so much as pretend at "concern" for Trump and Barr's move, the House can expose it without their assistance.

It must be done. The Department of Justice has within the span of days been turned formally into a tool for "processing" allegations against Trump's political opponents and, now, overriding the sentencing of Trump's criminal allies. Barr will resist, but it must be done regardless.

Sen. Chuck Schumer is calling for the inspector general at the Department of Justice to “open an investigation immediately.” That internal review, however, would be obviously insufficient. Rep. Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee and lead House manager in Trump's Senate-stifled impeachment trial, sent out an initial statement calling the reported Barr-Trump intervention a "blatant abuse of power" and, coupled with Trump's retaliatory firings, "the gravest threat to the rule of law in America in a generation." But it does not yet threaten subpoenas.

Schiff is correct in his diagnosis—and now the House must once again act. It is not optional; it cannot be danced around. Barr has committed an act of corruption so blatant that prosecutors have resigned rather than carry it out; he must explain himself under oath.

GOP senators alarmed by firing of Sondland, a Republican donor—but not by the rest of Trump’s purge

Posted on by Hunter

We now know that a handful of Republican senators were, in fact, alarmed by Donald Trump's Friday firings of government officials who testified to House impeachment investigators about Trump's Ukrainian extortion scheme. More accurately, we now know that a bare handful of Republican senators were concerned only about the firing of U.S Ambassador Gordon Sondland, while remaining unconcerned by Trump's removal of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his brother, who did not testify.

The likely reason? Gordon Sondland, unlike the others, was a big-money Republican campaign donor.

The New York Times is reporting that Republican Sens. Susan Collins (yes, Susan Collins), Thom Tillis, Martha McSally and Ron Johnson contacted the White House to try to halt Sondland's firing. Sondland, who was made a U.S. ambassador after giving $1 million to Trump’s own inaugural fund, was signaling he was planning to resign; the Republican senators wanted Sondland to be given a graceful exit. That was not to be: a vengeful, frothing Trump was insistent on making a public example of him.

Why were the senators concerned about Sondland but not the others? Sondland, reports the Times, was "a donor to Mr. Tillis and other Republicans."

So there you go. We now know the one, the only thing that would get the slightest pushback from the now-fascist Republican Party: Trump humiliating a top-dollar donor. The rest of it they're fine with.

That's not hyperbole. Sen. Susan Collins, in particular, made a special point of telling the Times that her prior "hope" that perhaps Trump would learn a "lesson" from impeachment was excruciatingly narrow. It didn't apply, she explained, to Trump's purge of the witnesses who spoke out to confirm the Trump-Giuliani Ukrainian plot.

“The lesson that I hoped the president had learned was that he should not enlist the help of a foreign government in investigating a political rival,” she told the Times. “It had absolutely nothing to do with whether or not he should fire people who testified in a way that he perceived as harmful to him.”

So yes, Susan Collins is fine with Trump retaliating against those who testified to his "perfect" actions. It was just the Republican donor whose plight roused her enough to make a simple phone call.

Her new statement is, yet again and of course, another reversal of a prior Susan Collins statement of supposed principles. On Friday she told a Maine crowd that "I obviously am not in favor of any kind of retribution against anyone who came forward with evidence." This new statement clarifies that she is not specifically against such retribution either.

In a non-authoritarian, non-fascist movement, Dear Leader retaliating against those who testified under oath about his own actions would be astonishingly corrupt. It would be close to the very definition of corrupt, in fact. It is now considered an acceptable act, by Republicans, subject to mild private pushback only if the purge happens to touch on one of their own campaign donors. And even the most "moderate" of Republicans, Susan Collins, is now releasing statements clarifying that she is in fact not expressing any concerns about that.