The XYZelensky Affair and the Whole Impeachment Shebang

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Since we're not delving here, I'll add another story on the theory that cumulative dozens of such stories will stir the intellect to contemplation. From the Equifax class-action lawsuit (non-Americans look it up): They stored sensitive personal information in unencrypted plaintext accessible from front-end portals. Sensitive data served over the web was also unencrypted. They used "admin" as a username and password.

In a point for Sanders, he has called for eliminating these credit rating leeches and replacing them with a public credit registry - as well as making it unlawful to use credit scores as a discriminatory criterion in employment, insurance, and rental housing. Who can disagree on either?

Rental housing? Why would it not be a valid tool there? Credit should be an irrelevance to the other two as it is not germane, unless you are writing up some kind of credit-insurance policy.

[Montmorency]

Everything about the US Government is insane - you took all the wrong lessons from two World wars.

Here only the self-employed file their own taxes, which they do because they are operating as a business. If you think you've been over-taxed you can file you a change of tax code, at which point the Revenue will re-calculate and pay you the difference, with interest on anything from the previous tax-year.

You're unlikely to be in the wrong tax code unless you change jobs, or work more than one job.

Noted, but what do tax filing procedures have to do with the lessons of the world wars? The wars drove up tax rates and I'm sure led to innovations in administration, but what's the specific connection you're making?

Rental housing? Why would it not be a valid tool there? Credit should be an irrelevance to the other two as it is not germane, unless you are writing up some kind of credit-insurance policy.

For reference, see Sanders' overall housing reform plan and a think-tank paper that influenced the public credit registry idea.

The narrative as I know it is:

1. Financial and real estate speculation destroyed the economy in 2007-9.
2. Besides losing homes many people suffered unduly in their credit ratings.
3. Businesses and speculators who treat real estate as an appreciating asset have contributed to rising property prices and rents.
4. Credit score tests for rent have become more stringent, placing greater burdens and restrictions on middle-class renters and below.
5. Credit scores are often inaccurate anyway.
6. All of the above are subject to and perpetuate racial and other forms of discrimination, where people of color are more likely to be targeted for predatory lending in the first place (thus harming their scores among other things), categorized as high-risk or not have a credit history at all - further noting that all the above, including the 2008 recession and contributing factors, devastated middle-class black and Hispanic families in particular.
7. The current system of credit checks is deeply unfair to tens of millions of people who need access to credit to live.

As for why a transparent and accurate government registry of credit scores shouldn't be relied upon in residential leasing (including after medical debt is excluded from the algorithm as Sanders proposes), I'm not sure. I would assume to preclude any resurgence of the long-standing disadvantages referenced.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Noted, but what do tax filing procedures have to do with the lessons of the world wars? The wars drove up tax rates and I'm sure led to innovations in administration, but what's the specific connection you're making?

I'll repeat - everything about the US Government is insane.

You did ask for my opinion.

[Gilrandir]

I'll repeat - everything about the US Government is insane.

Which means: I wish they were like Boris and his posse (=sagacious and reasoned).

[Don Corleone]

I'm coming at this pretty late, apologize. Great points made on all sides.

I wish I could feel the optimism Seamus and others express about the failsafes of American Democracy, and that the American people "Will not stand..."

We are STILL TODAY putting children in cages, overseen by pedophiles, laying on concrete floors with mylar blankets. Refusing them medical treatment. Run by the companies that donated the most to Trump's campaign funds or PACs. STILL. This moral outrage continues. We have NO decency, no moral fiber, no core. We have been exposed as hollow men, and our children should never forgive us.

Relying on the American people to "Do the right thing" in November 2020 is a sick and twisted joke. Assuming it even comes to pass. Nobody seems to be asking why Moscow Mitch is so adamant that no changes be made to electoral processes... could it be that he'll recognize the urgent need in the 3rd week of October, 2020?

I've been saying it for 3 years now. You have already witnessed the last American Presidential election. Trump may not be able to hold the cabal together under his own personal leadership much longer (I'm personally convinced he is suffering from severe dementia), but his puppet masters aren't going anywhere.

[Greyblades]

I cant tell if this is poes law in action or not.

[Don Corleone]

Not Poe's law buddy. Maybe I got a little fired up, but if I had to choose a single word for the United States right now, that word would have to be "dishonored".

[a completely inoffensive name]

I'm coming at this pretty late, apologize. Great points made on all sides.

I wish I could feel the optimism Seamus and others express about the failsafes of American Democracy, and that the American people "Will not stand..."

We are STILL TODAY putting children in cages, overseen by pedophiles, laying on concrete floors with mylar blankets. Refusing them medical treatment. Run by the companies that donated the most to Trump's campaign funds or PACs. STILL. This moral outrage continues. We have NO decency, no moral fiber, no core. We have been exposed as hollow men, and our children should never forgive us.

Relying on the American people to "Do the right thing" in November 2020 is a sick and twisted joke. Assuming it even comes to pass. Nobody seems to be asking why Moscow Mitch is so adamant that no changes be made to electoral processes... could it be that he'll recognize the urgent need in the 3rd week of October, 2020?

I've been saying it for 3 years now. You have already witnessed the last American Presidential election. Trump may not be able to hold the cabal together under his own personal leadership much longer (I'm personally convinced he is suffering from severe dementia), but his puppet masters aren't going anywhere.

I can't find a single incorrect statement in this post.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I used to think of myself as a Republican. Similarly to George Will and Max Boot, I no longer think of myself that way. I am a conservative, listed as a Republican in my voting district so that I might participate in primary votes, but not truly part of the Republican party.

I used to argue that Trump's core of support was not the majority of the party and that he enjoyed the support of many simply as a way to oppose our political left. This is clearly no longer true.

The Republican party is shrinking, shedding membership as the party becomes more and more an expression of Trump's fickle will. When "Dubya" took the oath for a second time, roughly 32%% of Americans identified themselves with the Republican party (and 34% with the Dems). That number is down to 26% now, meaning that the party has more or less rid itself of 1 in 5. While Trump earned roughly 45% of the votes cast in GOP primaries in 2016, the erosion of membership has certainly NOT come from that cadre, thus suggesting that his 45% has morphed into a commanding 57%. Add in those who are 'yellow dog' GOP types regardless of who/what is the nominee as the only thing that matters to them is the power earned by winning, and Trump truly does enjoy 80+% support in the Republican party -- it is the party of Trump and his creature.

As Trump has a well-earned reputation for breaking/destroying anyone who opposes him from within his own "team," he is in a position to force those within the party who would otherwise oppose him to do his bidding (at least until the primaries finish), as he can get his majority of party support to oust most of those who do not do his bidding. As Profiles in Political Courage reminds us, those pols who will oppose their own parties when it is difficult of risky for them are few and far between. It is simple, as with Ryan, to opt out. It is even easier for opponents who do not hold office to opt out (Will and Boot from above).

My political home for nearly 4 decades has cast me off as dross, melted away in the smithing of a purer form. Regrettably, Trump is almost the archetype of that form.

Small government? Fiscal responsibility? Free trade? Opposition to efforts at conquest?

Now we have a party in love with the powerful executive who is not the lead voice of an administration, but THE voice; we have a party that seeks the decrease of taxation (good) without any real effort to address the system of taxation or the process of budgeting and spending (bad - though to be fair the GOP has had a problem with this part even before Trump), and we have a party pugnaciously using protectionism to enhance US trade and, worse, as a weapon for other political objectives such as immigration. And while blame over the lackluster response to Russian aggression in Ukraine and the Crimea can be laid at the feet of Obama and the rest of NATO/EU leadership at the time, Trump has managed to give away Syria to the Russians and is assisting in the decoupling of Turkey from NATO.

I no longer even feel much of a sense of loss in the GOP no longer being my home. But I pity what our political culture has become overall.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

While I do not hold with the idea of a right-wing "cabal" in the sense that there is some kind of 'Illuminati' conspiracy, I do believe that Don C is functionally correct.

Those who have made a career of enhancing the polarization of political America, notably Limbaugh and Hannity, are no longer the voice articulating right-wing America's frustration with liberalism and the media, they have become the guiding spirit of a social movement that seeks its destruction. Hannity talks almost daily with President Trump, offering advice and counsel that is probably listened to more than those who hold official positions (however temporarily) in the White House. Listen to the Limbaugh program for a week or two and you will hear the "spin" or tactical approach put into practice by Trump or one of his minions within the month.

And both of those media types are interested in one only one thing, crushing the American political left.

So it becomes okay to ignore civility and revel in confrontation and vulgarity; it becomes acceptable to tolerate racist ass-hats rather than squelch them as they deserve; it becomes understandable that propriety and ethics must be set aside in order to defeat the enemy; it becomes acceptable to eschew small government in favor of an even smaller and more powerful executive, enabling this authoritarian to do what "must" be done....


This polarized movement is not fascism, as it lacks the socialist elements of it and carries more of an isolationist bent rather than expansionist. Yet is has all of the other trappings: The narcissistic leader reveling in the adulation of the crowds and the pomp and circumstance of long parades parading to honor his person, the ever shifting coterie of advisors and administration participants warring among one another for the favor of the leader and never knowing who will be praised or cast aside, the concentration of decision power in the hands of the executive himself, reacting as inspiration and intuition spurs his thoughts -- 'knowing' that he is the better leader and disdaining most advice. This is a leadership cult reveling in power and seeking to set aside too many of the constraints placed upon it.


I feel our institutions will eventually overcome this -- even with the ham-handed efforts of the Dems as opposition (they are themselves too polarized in their own way to be a 'better' alternative, only less bad) -- and I believe that this administration and this phase of our political life will pass. But we have managed to bring a demagogue to the fore, a leader even more divisive than Jackson at his obstreperous best, and this is a grave test of our republic.