monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Also from Haaretz

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Israeli Hate Crimes Against Palestinians Were Fewer, but More Brazen in 2019
Data by the Israeli defense establishment shows less incidents in the West Bank compared to last year, but an increase in severity and scope of violence

Most -- but not all -- legal scholars believe that the evidence clearly shows the president engaging in behavior which would quickly be labeled as "unconstitutional" in different circumstances, say were Hillary Clinton president.

Congress can't just sit by and watch Trump defy the Constitution and, given his truculence there's no chance of any walk back on his part.

So what alternative is there to the impeachment process?

His supporters have circled the wagons and dug in so the constitutional provision is pretty much all that can be done to check presidential overreach, now and in the future.

How Trump Lost His Trade War

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Trade wars rarely have victors. They do, however, sometimes have losers. And Donald Trump has definitely turned out to be a loser.

Of course, that’s not the way he and his team are portraying the tentative deal they’ve struck with China, which they’re claiming as a triumph. The reality is that the Trump administration achieved almost none of its goals; it has basically declared victory while going into headlong retreat.

And the Chinese know it. Chinese officials are “jubilant and even incredulous” at the success of their hard-line negotiating strategy.

(...)

let's note that Clinton did not subsequently have an entire partisan media world tied into party operations that promoted his "defense"

Whereas Fox etc and GOP house members universally echoed Trump's lie in unison.

True, wouldn't have Clinton had loved to have had a Fox News and the rest of the conservative news successfully completely in his corner?

That's a big IF. It's amusing to see a Democrat blogger worrying about how well the Republicans may accept a defeat in the (unlikely) event of their defeat in the coming election, particularly following the hysterical denial and derangement that occurred among Democrats following Trump's victory in 2016. That said, such projection is their favorite pastime.

And Mr. McConnell was entirely unmoved by Ms. Pelosi's tactics, delivering a speech on Thursday evening in which he appeared barely able to contain his amusement at what he regarded as the speaker's missteps.

"I admit, I am not sure what leverage there is in refraining from sending us something we do not want," Mr. McConnell said with a wry smile from the Senate floor. "But alas, if they can figure that out, they can explain it. Meanwhile, other House Democrats say they would prefer never to transmit the articles. Fine with me!"

Bill was splitting hairs, but for most of the 60s, 70s, into at least the 80s, "sex" meant vagibal sex, and a blowjob was foreplay, not actual sex in general parlance. And Monica admitted it was consensual. Tacky but consensual. So whether bill lied falls in a gray area.

And of course we now have a sexual predator in the white house, self-admitted, and the gop and the religious right ignore that and go all holier-than-thou on the Clintons.

The gop is the original party witch hunting.

You are aware he was impeached?

As Richard Hofstadter has written, paranoid theories can be found everywhere but have their most common home on the right. That's true also of anti-intellectualism and the two are obviously tightly related.

Authorities suspected a hit-and-run when an SUV struck a teenage girl in Iowa earlier this month. The driver veered onto the sidewalk and sped off without trying to help the 14-year-old, officials said, leaving the victim with an array of injuries that kept her out of school for a week.

On Friday, Clive Police Chief Michael Venema said Nicole Marie Poole Franklin, 42, had confessed to being behind the wheel. Then, Venema said, she went a step further. Franklin reportedly told investigators she’d run over the teenager intentionally because she was “a Mexican” — a startling acknowledgment that has prompted local advocates to push for a hate crime charge on top of an attempted-murder charge.