Acerbic Politics: February 2019

Thursday, February 28, 2019

Some reading for the news junkies out there.

Gaetz Denies He Told Trump He Was ‘Happy’ To Threaten Cohen: ‘Fake News’

Mystery Firm Racks Up $2.25 Million Fine

“The foreign-linked mystery company fighting to avoid handing over records demanded by special counsel Robert Mueller appears to have incurred a fine of $2.25 million as it presses its legal fight,” Politico reports.

“The $50,000-a-day penalty a federal judge imposed on the foreign-government-owned firm continues to grow and might be boosted to accrue at a higher rate in the future, one court order made public indicates.”

https://politicalwire.com/2019/02/28/mystery-firm-racks-up-2-25-million-fine/

RNC Chair Says Government Did Not Create the Internet

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel framed the differences between the two political parties as capitalism vs. socialism during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Said McDaniel: “It’s going to be a choice. Are we going to want capitalism? Look at all the great achievements of our country: flight, cars, the Internet. Sorry, Al Gore. The Internet. None of that came from government. It came from innovation. It came from the greatness of America.”

Philip Bump: “So here’s the thing. The Internet very much did come from government, quite literally.”

Source
https://politicalwire.com/2019/02/28/rnc-chair-says-government-did-not-create-the-internet/

The white-collar crimes Cohen says Trump committed wouldn’t necessarily produce serious penalties

Random Observations on Michael Cohen's Mob Hearing

Lawyer: Adelson’s health ‘dire’

Trump reportedly ordered Jared Kushner get a security clearance over multiple objections

Reports: House Intel Committee To Call Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg To Testify

Immigration groups file complaint over ‘alarming increase’ in detained infants at Texas center

Source
https://thinkprogress.org/immigration-complaint-infants-detained-texas-28f9de5f573d/

Trump says "No deal" to Kim Jong Un - GIF

Dan Rather's commentary on the Cohen hearing yesterday

Dan Rather

Yesterday was a headline-grabbing newsday. But there have been so many before.

We learned more grave ethical and legal concerns about the President, which added extra resolution to a picture that has been coming into focus for years.

We heard new lines of worthy inquiry, to add to the countless more that already exist.

We saw the Republicans try to bury a witness with no interest in the facts presented, thus marching to a tune composed long ago of fealty and protection for their party's leader.

Was I shocked by what I heard? Was anybody? I doubt it if you've been paying attention. But then I stepped back, and was shocked at how little I was shocked.

Michael Cohen was credible, but more importantly his accusations were so credible that the only defense the President's apologists and protectors could muster was to ignore the facts presented and attack the credibility of a man that the President had put in charge of his most sensitive business.

Michael Cohen has his own motives, and they are not pure. But he was careful in how he spoke and deliberate in what he would and would not say. This did not seem to be the unhinged ravings of a man bent on revenge.

And yet, as I took in the spectacle and the grandstanding and the honest outrage at what we were hearing, I felt mostly a profound sadness for my nation. I have seen many triumphs and setbacks for the United States, but I have not seen before such widespread embarrassment at what we have become.

The tawdry shame that hangs over our government is dangerous. There can be no illusions as to what kind of man our President is. But one senses that the journey to the truth is continuing, even accelerating, to a moment of even greater national reckoning.