Another week where not much happened: Trump’s DNI is breaking the law to prevent Congress from hearing about yet another impeachable offense. Millions of people around the world rallied to demand action on climate change. Trump discussed attacking Iran, but instead sent “defensive” troops to protect the Islamist monarchy of Saudi Arabia, because they “pay cash”. (And does he mean cash to the US arms industry, or to the Trump Organization?) Israel had an election, and once again it looks like Netanyahu is out. The EPA is trying to take away California’s ability to set higher emissions and fuel-economy standards on cars. I’m sure I’m forgetting something.
In the featured post, I’ll focus on the illegally suppressed whistleblower complaint, which apparently concerns Trump’s attempt to strong-arm Ukraine into digging up dirt on Joe Biden. After reviewing what we know so far, I’ll pull back to make a larger point: The impeachable offenses aren’t going to stop. There’s something fundamentally wrong with the way Trump views his presidential power, and that wrongness is going to lead to increasingly outrageous abuses of that power. Anybody (like, say, Speaker Pelosi) who thinks we can just go on from here and talk about healthcare is kidding herself.
I’m running a bit late today, so that post may not be out until nearly 11 EDT. The weekly summary will cover all the other stuff I listed, plus some unimportant stuff like the Democratic presidential race, a striking decrease in abortions, and the return of junk health insurance. Let’s predict that for about 1.
The Weekly Sift 