Mueller failed to fully investigate Trump

He also didn’t do anywhere near enough after Barr lied about the report.

Mueller's top prosecutor connects the Trump tax revelations to Russia https://t.co/Hywe19y8d8 pic.twitter.com/FgpJOOaqrX
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) September 29, 2020

Lots of books (A VERY STABLE GENIUS by @PhilipRucker/@CarolLeonnig, TRUMPOCRACY by @davidfrum, TRUE CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS by @JeffreyToobin and WHERE LAW ENDS by @AWeissmann_) have criticized Mueller's investigation.
Looks like Mueller's had enough: https://t.co/jrRayaVjw6
— Carlos Lozada (@CarlosLozadaWP) September 29, 2020

This is an indictment of Mueller but it’s also an indictment of the Dems on the other end of these conversations who opposed a broader impeachment only because Mueller didn’t storyboard it for them. https://t.co/ey1klxGzMU
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) September 22, 2020

NEW >>> Mueller team found sufficient evidence that Trump committed a crime, enough to charge him if he wasn't a sitting president. Prosecutor is still "flummoxed" that Mueller would not * just say it * in his report. https://t.co/FM58FybyW6
— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) September 21, 2020

The same business account that Cohen used to send hush payments to an adult film star also received “payments linked to a Russian oligarch.” ⁦@charlie_savage⁩ https://t.co/mpc3uduA9Y
— Adam Goldman (@adamgoldmanNYT) September 22, 2020

Climate update 9/22/20

If Biden is elected, he can roll back some of the damage done by Trump. He can’t undo the damage done to the climate during the Trump administration. That has caused permanent harm.

“I’ve been labeled an alarmist,” said Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist in Los Angeles, where smoke levels have been unhealthy for weeks. “And I think it’s a lot harder for people to say that I’m being alarmist now.” An elegy: @JohnBranchNYT @bradplumer https://t.co/u2lyi0sOEr
— John Schwartz (@jswatz) September 22, 2020

This melting wax panther is an artistic metaphor for the toll human-caused climate change is taking on Florida's wildlife and people. And scientists say it could get even worse. https://t.co/Eu0W1dLf18
— CNN (@CNN) September 22, 2020

“There’s sort of this sense that we can bend the world to our will,” said Kristina Dahl of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Climate change is exposing the vulnerabilities in the systems that we’ve engineered.”https://t.co/boRbbBp8HB
— NYT Climate (@nytclimate) September 21, 2020

"A climate emergency unfolding before our eyes." Arctic sea ice has shrunk to almost historic levels https://t.co/O9X6Qm1aB4
— TIME (@TIME) September 22, 2020

The Trump administration has tried to roll back 100 environmental regulations over the past four years. Left in place, they could have a significant effect on future greenhouse gas emissions — an additional 1.8 billion metric tons by 2035. https://t.co/UOkdltDLKn
— NYT Climate (@nytclimate) September 20, 2020

The Fire This Time: the irresistible force of accelerating weather disruption from #climatechange is colliding w/the immovable object of unyielding resistance to action from Republican voters & officials alike. My take. https://t.co/ZwtAz9g3L6
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) September 17, 2020

Dereliction of journalistic duty: “Between September 5 and September 8, ABC, CBS, and NBC aired 46 segments on the wildfires, but their link to climate change was only mentioned in seven of those reports across networks,” https://t.co/oES768v15F
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) September 17, 2020

Scientists say an enormous chunk of Greenland’s ice cap, estimated to be about 110 square kilometers (42.3 square miles), has broken off in the far northeastern Arctic. They see it as evidence of rapid climate change. https://t.co/yIfzR109ye
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 15, 2020

President Trump baselessly asserted that climate change is not playing a role in the catastrophic wildfires overtaking forests across the west, rebutting an official briefing him who pleaded for the President listen to the science https://t.co/7z1QufKj9E
— CNN (@CNN) September 14, 2020

Reminder that the Republican Party is the only major political party anywhere in the world that denies the reality of climate change.
— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) September 15, 2020

Climate change was the first thing @SenatorReid mentioned when I asked him what policy goals justify abolition of the filibuster. https://t.co/c7s8vfJbTf https://t.co/3fiVv82tkJ
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 13, 2020

During a rally in Minden, Nevada, where the air quality is currently rated "unhealthy" & you can smell smoke in the air from nearby wildfires, Trump is touting his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) September 13, 2020

The northwest part of Oregon has dried out this year, in large part because of climate change, enabling flames driven by strong winds. “We’re seeing fires in places that we don’t normally see fires. Normally it’s far too wet to burn.” https://t.co/0KNmdcV36L
— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 12, 2020

Anyway, imagine how different the election would be if Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania were burning.
— George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 (@gtconway3d) September 12, 2020

Tucker Carlson calls climate change "systemic racism in the sky" https://t.co/rWSlkT09X0
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) September 12, 2020

https://twitter.com/cflav/status/1304185628049973249?s=11

“If you’re denying this exists, you don’t ask for a report on it.” President Trump has dismissed climate change as a hoax, but a report commissioned by his Commodity Futures Trading Commission warns darkly of global warming's impact on financial markets https://t.co/38F6CXJuxv
— Coral Davenport (@CoralMDavenport) September 9, 2020

As the world heats up, cities with heat-trapping asphalt and little tree cover have left residents sweltering and breathing in more air pollutionhttps://t.co/WREhfR9rvI
— Emma Newburger (@emma_newburger) September 2, 2020

#ImVotingForJoe because he's a decent human being. The more I learn about @JoeBiden the more I like him. And most importantly Joe Biden has an aggressive plan to address climate change: https://t.co/jobJpCMpqr
— Andrea Chalupa (@AndreaChalupa) September 1, 2020

Trump administration trashes another former high-ranking former official who criticized him

“Troye joins a long line and growing list of former Trump aides…who have spoken out in scathing terms about Trump. All but Mattis, Coats and Kelly have publicly called for Trump’s defeat in November.
This. Is. Not. Normal.” https://t.co/twdDvKW9lz
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) September 23, 2020

Of note: Kellogg has been trotted out by the WH to deny other allegations, so perhaps he was being less than honest before as well? https://t.co/drAwL0x2xb
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) September 22, 2020

After Kellogg claims he fired her, Troye brings a receipt > https://t.co/8iffsTKTh1
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 22, 2020

Olivia Troye: "He's not actually looking out for you. He's not looking out for these people. He's not looking out for them. He just wants you in that audience so he can have the camera shot of his fanfare …The truth is, he's putting those lives at risk." https://t.co/WcNPQgOtWF
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 22, 2020

SAD! @realDonaldTrump has created a lying epidemic, and people like Keith Kellogg have fallen victim. White House aide Olivia Troye wasn’t fired. She left on her own accord. You’re only saying that Keith because she’s speaking out. You’ve even waxed poetic about her to my face. https://t.co/yGtvUqTpz4
— Miles Taylor (@MilesTaylorUSA) September 22, 2020

Gen Keith Kellogg, a VP national security advisor, is now pushbacking on Olivia Troye, a former VP aide who said, Trump’s response to the virus showed a "flat-out disregard for human life" because his "main concern was the economy and his reelection." https://t.co/OSfJ1ikgnV
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) September 22, 2020

Olivia Troye, who worked as an adviser to Vice President Mike Pence before quitting the coronavirus task force, says President Trump’s disregard for science is costing American lives. Troye spoke with @mitchellreports about why she resigned. pic.twitter.com/ga209Pd391
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) September 22, 2020

Your main priority Mr. President, should ALWAYS be the safety & lives of the American people.

By the way, this also means respecting the national security community & our military who give their lives & sacrifice for the greater good of protecting our country. https://t.co/Wg0393cw9q
— Olivia of Troye (@OliviaTroye) September 19, 2020

Analysis: Charge that Trump fumbled the pandemic is strongly supported by available evidence https://t.co/rifxfsR137
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 18, 2020

When we first spoke last week, Olivia emphasized her respect for her professional colleagues on the task force. In her gracious resignation letter she praised them (as Dr. Fauci praised her on TV this afternoon). In the letter Olivia is altogether silent about the president. https://t.co/fm05NLo1nn
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) September 18, 2020

"This is what struck me most during my conversation: she is young, with a long career ahead of her, and she was willing to put it all on the line…Olivia Troye, with much more to lose…had much more courage than all of them." https://t.co/wxFs6BHzmH
— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) September 18, 2020

We've become inured to it, but a WH Staffer who worked there LAST MONTH coming out and saying, basically, the president is a sick f*ck who doesn't care if Americans die en masse; absolutely do not vote for him, is wild. https://t.co/ZoMjt3U2j1
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) September 17, 2020

At a lunch in the West Wing of the White House @VP Mike Pence once told me Olivia Troye was doing an “incredible job” as his Homeland Security Advisor and thanked DHS for referring her to his Office. https://t.co/6lZ9b4UDpf
— Miles Taylor (@MilesTaylorUSA) September 17, 2020

Asked Trump about former VP aide Olivia Troye who criticized his handling of virus today. His response was a familiar one: “I have no idea who she is, she doesn’t know me.”
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) September 17, 2020

This is such a weird talking point. An organization that produces a shitload of disgruntled, troublesome ex-employees is ordinarily a poorly run organization. https://t.co/YcSpg5rpat
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) September 17, 2020

Pretty much sums it up. But @realDonaldTrump —Miles isn’t going anywhere. Neither am I. https://t.co/ldbEf19HO0
— Olivia of Troye (@OliviaTroye) September 26, 2020

I am being very sincere when I say this and talk about all of this. I think about my mom, and my family. I think about your families. https://t.co/HByvaO1WVr
— Olivia of Troye (@OliviaTroye) September 26, 2020

NEW testimonial from @OliviaTroye.
“We will no longer be America after four more years of Trump…I would say to my colleagues, if you’re going to speak out, right now is when it matters most…Now is the time to tell the truth.”@RVAT2020 (h/t @barubin)pic.twitter.com/WN4W4xHkoS
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) September 24, 2020

One ex-Trump admin official, @MilesTaylorUSA, writing about another, @OliviaTroye: "The dam is breaking. The number of people once close to the President who are now speaking out is growing. Many aren't doing it for political reasons. They're doing it because…
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 22, 2020

Republicans have made Supreme Court votes partisan

Republicans are basically now saying that a Republican president and Senate should select a justice because they are the same party. It wasn’t always this way. It used to be that the votes were based on whether the nominee was qualified, not if you agreed with all of their policies. 30 years ago (and under different nominating circumstances) I would have voted for Gorsuch even though I don’t agree with him on much. He’s qualified. I wouldn’t have voted for Kavanaugh since the allegations against him were not fully investigated.

Let’s look at some controversial nominations which show votes didn’t use to be almost exclusively on party lines. When Robert Bork was nominated, two Democrats voted for him and six Republicans voted against him. When Clarence Thomas was confirmed, 11 Democrats voted for him. He would not have been approved without them. Two Republicans opposed him.

Here are all the votes for justices that have been confirmed since 1970:

Justice	Confirmation vote	Year
Blackmun	94-0	1970
Powell	89-1	1971
Rehnquist	68-26	1971
Stevens	98-0	1975
O’Connor	99-0	1981
Rehnquist (chief justice)	65-33	1986
Scalia	98-0	1986
Kennedy	97-0	1988
Souter	90-9	1990
Thomas	52-48	1991
Ginsburg	96-3	1993
Breyer	87-9	1994
Roberts	78-22	2005
Alito	58-42	2006
Sotomayor	68-31	2009
Kagan	63-37	2010
Gorsuch	54-45	2017
Kavanaugh	50-48	2018

Though the votes got closer, there were still senators that voted for justices nominated by the other party. For example, 22 Democrats voted for Roberts. Lindsey Graham was one of five Republicans who voted for Kagan.

Because of Republican hypocrisy on Garland and the next Trump nominee, votes will be strictly along party lines indefinitely.

Confirmation vote information was taken from here.

Here's a massive list of lies that were told about Sotomayor: https://t.co/rEULqraMzM https://t.co/BV0pnF3u0M
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) September 22, 2020

Covers: Smack Dab in the Middle

“Smack Dab in the Middle” was written by Charles E. Calhoun, a pseudonym used by songwriter Jesse Stone. The best known version is by Ray Charles from 1964. I know the cover by Ry Cooder from his 1976 album Chicken Skin Music and videos from his 1977 tour. Cooder is not a great singer but the arrangement is an adventurous fusion of Tex-Mex and R&B featuring the great accordionist Flaco Jimenez.

Covers: Police Dog Blues

Blind Blake recorded “Police Dog Blues” in 1929. Yazoo Records has a fine one-disc collection of his best records. Ry Cooder covered it in 1970 in a very similar arrangement.

Trump would use courts to steal the election

He says it right out in the open. We may not know the winner on election night and courts should have nothing to do with it. This is part of his campaign to sabotage mail-in voting because more Democrats will use it.

I am losing track of all the ways @realDonaldTrump will try to subvert the election. https://t.co/C8dsAtxVzy
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) September 20, 2020

Last night Trump said he wants to use the federal courts to cheat in November by denying Americans’ lawfully-cast mail-in ballots.

This is an open admission that Trump hopes to use the Supreme Court to steal the election. https://t.co/7zYqHxeegQ
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) September 20, 2020

Excellent stuff on why the Republicans have the Senate advantage and what they do with it

One other point of context about the Senate:

The battle for the Senate has often been quite *competitive* in recent elections, which might seem to contradict the notion that there's a built-in GOP advantage. But that's not necessarily how these things work. https://t.co/rxBXQvq7kY
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) September 20, 2020

We ran the numbers, and the Senate is currently around *6 to 7 points* (!) more Republican than the country as a whole, based on the position of the median states relative to the national average. That means Dems need ~landslide margins to win the Senate. https://t.co/0OejJ56Lia
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) September 20, 2020

i.e. given the choice between

a) Pursue a moderate agenda and win the Senate 80-90% because of the GOP's built-in advantage.

-or-

b) Pursue a very conservative agenda, which is unpopular, but still win the Senate ~60% of the time because of the GOP's advantage

They choose b)
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) September 20, 2020

And white voters are represented as though they're 68% of the country in the Senate, when they're actually 60%. It's basically as if you'd turned the clock back 20 years. pic.twitter.com/7nvWwhh4hT
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) September 20, 2020

PS the Senate skew toward Republicans (6-7 points) is both bigger and more permanent than the Electoral College one (2-3 points) or the one in the House (a bit tricky to measure but probably amounts to 2-4 points in practice right now and possibly less after 2020 redistricting).
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) September 20, 2020

Trump approves of attack on Ali Velshi

Absolutely heinous. @AliVelshi didn’t deserve to be shot by a rubber bullet, anyone celebrating that violence has something wrong with them, and it’s twisted for anyone least of all a president to call it “law and order.” No journalist should find this acceptable. https://t.co/1VDhdfoL1H
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) September 19, 2020

Celebrating government acts of violence against 1st-Amendment-protected activities is the very opposite of law and order. It is unconstitutional. It is shameful. It is evil. https://t.co/jO0DengPi9
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) September 19, 2020

This video is the President of the United States, saying it is beautiful to see an American journalist hit by gas and a rubber bullet while covering protests in a Minnesota.

This is not law and order; it is appalling and extremely dangerous. https://t.co/eo2Z1c3kGN
— Jim Golby (@jimgolby) September 19, 2020

Here's the President of the United States celebrating an American journalist getting shot with a rubber bullet while using his First Amendment right to cover a protest *in America*. Trump says it was a "beautiful sight" and frames it as "law and order." The crowd cheers. https://t.co/w2UBlA5Apm
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) September 19, 2020

So, @realDonaldTrump, you call my getting hit by authorities in Minneapolis on 5/30/20 (by a rubber bullet, btw, not a tear gas cannister) a “beautiful thing” called “law and order”. What law did I break while covering an entirely peaceful (yes, entirely peaceful) march?
— Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) September 19, 2020

Trump’s bigoted genetic superiority talk

Incredible bigotry.

Just the president using Nazi talking points on genetic superiority, on Rosh Hashana. https://t.co/AwVSUafO5K
— Amy Spitalnick (@amyspitalnick) September 20, 2020

Trump on eugenics in MN, a state that is 84% white https://t.co/Xrh3rF78v3
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) September 19, 2020

Holy shit. Master race eugenics rhetoric here. This was how the Holocaust was started. Don’t ignore. https://t.co/gath3L3UUV
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) September 19, 2020