Blog with a View began as a back-in-the-day lefty political art blog. It was designed as a praxis to witness political phenomena through my original art.
Such artistic witnessing was always more to me than an attempt to better understand political discourses -- more than a medium to express outrage or exclaim social justice -- more even than an idealistic hope to potentially change rather than merely reflect history.
My blog felt like an act of personal survival.
And, really, since the 2016 election, but viscerally more since yesterday's release of the (still censored)
Mueller Report, my little cyberspace speck is beginning to feel that way to me again.
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No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION. KEEP AMERICA GREAT!
--Donald Trump
Tweet, 3-24-19
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White House’s always have some tug of war with investigative committees over document production. Some level of that is a normal part of the process. That’s not what’s happening here. The President is refusing every request, subpoena and, notably, blocking cases where the Congress has the explicit statutory right to receive and review documents with no questions asked. In oversight terms, it’s an open declaration of war. As a process matter, with a lawless White House, the main recourse is to the courts. But treating these as ordinary legal processes is a big, big mistake. It creates the impression these are just standard legal processes that take time and must run their course. That creates a facade of legitimacy that must be torn down in the political realm.
In every portion of this Democratic leaders in the House need to be vocally and consistently making clear that what we’re dealing with is not a legal process but an on-going coverup, an unconstitutional refusal to obey the Congress’s lawful, constitutional mandate. That doesn’t force the President’s hands in itself of course. But it prevents lying to the public, pretending that what is happening now is a legitimate judicial process as opposed to a war on the constitution itself.
The President is a chronic lawbreaker. The Democrats have power in one half of one branch of government. The Democratic victory in the House in November is only reason we are seeing even one page of the Mueller Report. Ending Trump’s lawlessness won’t be easy as long as Republicans are committed to supporting his law breaking and the Courts are corrupted with Republican appointees committed to keeping him in office rather than enforcing the law. The demand is that the President must follow the law and his supporters who are keeping him in power, abetting his lawbreaking, must be held accountable.
--Josh Marshall,
Talking Points Memo,
4-19-19
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I hate to tell the Democrats, but millions of people worked themselves to the bone last year to give them a majority and it wasn't just so they could pass bills the Senate will never take up and the president will never sign. They sent them to be a check on this administration and force some accountability for Donald Trump's reckless, lawless behavior. If these leaders think that they can wash their hands of this and keep their anxious base engaged, they are mistaken.
Mueller and his team didn't write all that material out just so that Trump could claim full exoneration and carry on as if nothing happened. He wrote it with the understanding that while he could not indict Trump, Congress could and would fulfill its constitutional duties. To fail to call every one of the players in this drama up to the Hill to testify in public about these events is an abdication of that constitutional duty.
This dry recitation of the facts in Mueller's report, as dramatic as they are, was never meant to be the last word. It is an impeachment referral, and Democrats must take it up and do what the Constitution requires. If it fails, so be it. But at least the people will know that some leaders are willing to stand up in public and do the right thing. After reading page after page showing Trump and his lackeys refusing to ever do that, even once, it's pretty clear that's not an issue the Republican Party can ever run on again.
--Heather Digby Parton,
Hullabaloo,
4-19-19
