A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
The Supreme Court ruled that the abortion pill Mifepristone can stay on the market. The justices found that the anti-abortion doctors did not have legal standing. NBC News' Yamiche Alcindor, MSNBC legal analyst Leah Litman and Reproductive Freedom For All President Mini Timmaraju join Ana Cabrera to discuss.
As I wrote, this passes for good news. However, it was decided on standing, as in the plaintiffs didn't have any, not on merits. That means that potential plaintiffs who do have standing could get a ruling in their favor, banning or restricting Mifepristone. In addition, Leah Litman and Mini Timmaraju both mentioned the possible use of the Comstock Act to restrict abortion access again. I find that alarming enough that I think the parts of Comstock Act that are currently unconstitutional need to be repealed, restricting the ability of anti-choice advocates to reanimate them. I have the same opinion of the Insurrection Act, which is also being touted as a way for the more extreme right-wing activists, including Hoover Cleveland, to suppress dissent. That's a topic for later.
Planned Parenthood Missouri Chief Medical Officer Dr. Colleen McNicholas joins Ana Cabrera to discuss the Supreme Court rejecting a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone. MSNBC legal analyst Melissa Murray also weighs in on the court's decision.
The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously preserved access to a medication that was used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. last year, in the court’s first abortion decision since conservative justices overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago.
I couldn't resist both hearing Kamala Harris's reaction and giving a Michigan station the last word.
"If we don't keep these stories continually in our minds, the history disappears," said Dr. Dora Ramirez, the director of Ethnic Studies at Boise State University.
Cinco de Mayo isn't a big celebration all over Mexico. Instead, it has its roots in the Mexican state of Puebla. A woman in Old Saybrook got the chance to celebrate Cinco de Mayo there and explains the history of this holiday.
Condado Tacos will be offering special dishes to recognize Star Wars Day and Cinco de Mayo this weekend.
I also couldn't resist the double celebration of Cinco de Mayo and StarWarsDay. My readers who are Star Wars fans can take another bite of that apple tomorrow for Revenge of the Sixth. Stay tuned.
Sue Craig, New York Times Investigative Reporter, Lisa Rubin, MSNBC Legal Correspondent, Rev. Al Sharpton, President of the National Action Network, and Harry Litman, Former U.S. Attorney, join Alicia Menendez in for Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House to discuss New York Judge Arthur Engoron dealing a body blow to the Trump Business Empire, ruling that Trump must pay $355 million in penalties.
While this isn't one of the four criminal trials, it is still a big deal along with the E. Jean Carroll judgment.
Michael Cohen, Former Personal Attorney for Donald Trump, joins Alicia Menendez in for Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House to discuss how damaging Judge Engoron's ruling is to Trump.
I will see a competent psychiatrist and get cured of all extremely unusual phobias and bizarre compulsive habits which could prove to be a disadvantage.
On another note, Cohen pleading guilty without a plea deal looks better for him all the time. It made him and his testimony appear more trustworthy when it counted.
Cohen mentioned that a Trial date set in Donald Trump New York criminal case as 13News Now (WVEC) in Hampton Roads, Virginia reported along with an update on the sideshow involving Fani Willis in Georgia, the other state criminal case involving Trump.
If it moves ahead as planned, it would be the first of Trump’s four criminal cases to go to trial.
Just as it was the first case to return an indictment, it is almost certainly going to be the first criminal case to go to trial. I find that appropriate, even if it's the weakest in terms of expected outcome.
"Jail to the chief" is a great line, but it's going to be a while. I expect he'll be sentenced to house arrest in Trump Tower with the Secret Service as his guards, at least for this set of crimes. He might get a more severe punishment if he's indicted and convicted for crimes in Georgia and Washington, D.C.
Trump will be lucky to have a Trump Tower to be sentenced to house arrest after his civil fraud judgment. That's O.K. I still have patience: "'The wheels of justice are grinding slowly in this case, but I expect they will indeed grind exceedingly fine.' May they also grind exceedingly fine for Trump and his seditious supporters, if not as slowly." Three years later, they're still grinding away. As I wrotelast year, "New York today, Georgia and the Federal Government tomorrow. Stay tuned." Be patient and have faith.
Most students had the day off at Michigan State University Tuesday to honor the victims of a mass shooting that shook the campus and traumatized both students and their parents.
A gunman killed three Michigan State University students and wounded five others on Feb. 13, 2023. This is where the campus and community stand one year later.
One of my students wore a Spartan Strong sweatshirt to class yesterday. I told her I appreciated that.
Following the deadly and horrific mass shootings at Michigan State University in February 2023 -- which occurred just over a year after the deadly mass shooting at Oxford High School in 2021 -- state lawmakers quickly passed a series of bills related to firearms in an effort to address gun violence.
Gun store owner Bill Kucyk was pretty pessimistic about how well the laws will work, but, as The Dude says, "that's, like, just your opinion, man." I think the new laws are a good thing.
That's a good place to end this post. Stay tuned for some non-holiday programming tomorrow. Comedy, anyone?
Monday, Oct. 9 is a national holiday called Columbus Day. But in Michigan, it's also Indigenous Peoples' Day. There are 12 federally recognized tribes in Michigan.
This is a Michigan-based blog, so I'm going to feature Michigan content when I can. I also occasionally feature U.S. government content when appropriate, like Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland wishing Americans Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day!
At Interior, we work hard to honor our promises to Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Island communities. Today, we celebrate the rich traditions, diverse cultures, and resilience of Indigenous communities. We honor the first stewards of this land, the Indigenous people who survived through periods of brutal colonization and forced assimilation policies.
A growing number of cities, states and universities are replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day, also known as Native Americans Day.
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The second Monday of October has been a national holiday for close to a century, but this will be only the second year that Indigenous Peoples Day has held that designation.
Last October, President Joe Biden signed the first presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples Day, a commemoration-turned-holiday that began in 1977 to honor Native American history and culture. That presidential stamp of approval was the most significant boost to date of efforts refocusing a federal holiday that for decades celebrated Christopher Columbus' discovery of America.
Although few Americans are arguing with the notion of being off work come Monday, Columbus Day and Indigenous People's Day have prompted political debate in states, cities and municipalities around the U.S., especially in the past decade, with some pushing against change and others favoring Indigenous Peoples Day instead.
This is a good explanation of why I generally stopped celebrating Columbus Day on this blog years ago and replaced it with Canadian Thanksgiving. I'm still observing Canadian Thanksgiving as well. Watch Canadian Thanksgiving Explained from Squirreled History, an updated version of the video I embedded last year.
We remade and updated our video on Canadian Thanksgiving, where it came from and how it's different from the American version.
I subscribed to Squirreled History after last year, but haven't used one of the channel's videos again until now. I should rectify that omission.
Leif Erikson Day (October 9) - Why do we not celebrate Leif Erikson Day?
On October 9, Nordic communities worldwide will celebrate Leif Erikson Day – remembering the explorer credited with bringing the first Nordic people to America around the year 1000.
Good question. Too bad the woman behind the account is no longer making holiday videos.
Each year on July 11th, people across America raise a glass to mark National Mojito Day. The cocktail consists of white rum, sugar, lime juice, sparkling water, and mint.
#NationalMojitoDay
The Mojito is a traditional Cuban highball, and while rumored to be a drink favored by the author Ernest Hemingway, it’s never been proven. It seems the story behind Hemingway and the Mojito is a tall tale to attract visitors and to sell drinks. Isn’t every origin story behind a drink designed to sell more of the original anyway?
Instead of traveling to Cuba, I'm staying here in Michigan to celebrate with the 13 On Your Side (ABC 13 in Grand Rapids) feature Thirsty Thursday: National Mojito Day from four years ago.
Celebrate National Mojito Day with a delicious recipe and pairing ideas from 18th Amendment Spirits.
I had to look up the 18th Amendment. It's the Prohibition amendment. The owners have a sense of humor about their business.
On March 11th, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.
What followed, were travel bans, stay-at-home orders and mandatory masking.
1.[1] million Americans have died from the virus the most of any country in the world and among them, more than 42,000 Michiganders.
Officially, the U.S. has the most deaths from COVID-19 with Worldometer listing 1,148,765, followed by Brazil with 699,310 deaths, and India reporting 530,780. I suspect all of them have under-reported deaths from the disease, but especially India, as I wrote last May: "I was always a little skeptical that India had fewer deaths than the U.S. from the pandemic. An estimate of 4.7 million may be higher than I expected, but I really do think India had more deaths than the U.S.'s 1 million." Still, that's merely a suspicion, not a fact.
On March 10, 2020, Michigan health leaders confirmed the state's first two cases of COVID-19. Three years later, the chief medical executive is reflecting on the pandemic, what has been learned and where we stand today.
I'm glad vaccines and more effective treatments exist to make COVID-19 less dangerous and scary. My wife and I are the beneficiaries of both, as I mentioned in 'The First Wave' wins three News & Documentary Emmy Awards. While we haven't had any lingering symptoms besides modestly lower energy levels and some slight brain fog, there are lots of people who are suffering from worse syndromes. The economy has also not fully recovered, either. Follow over the jump for two reports from outside Michigan about both.
I begin my promised posts about the election results with news from my adopted home state of Michigan and start at the top of the ballot with Governor Gretchen Whitmer winning re-election. WOOD-TV used the graphic announcing that news as the preview image for Michigan's Election Day 2022 results.
In addition, Hillary Scholten won Peter Meijer's current seat. That's a relief, as I worried about the tactic used to get her a more favorable opponent after the primary.
Not only did TFG go after Meijer, the DCCC did as well, running ads "attacking" Gibbs as too extreme in the hopes that doing so would make him more attractive to the right-wing of the Republican Party so they would vote for him. On the one hand, that's smart politics, as it makes the seat easier for Hillary Scholten to win in November. On the other, it's punishing a holdout for decency and democracy in the GOP by removing him from Congress. Sigh. It worked last night, but I hope it doesn't backfire in November.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is delivering remarks after being the projected winner of the gubernatorial race.
Whitmer was first elected in 2018 after years in the Legislature and has since become a leading voice in the Democratic Party, delivering the party’s response to former President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in 2020. She has said in interviews that she will not run for president in 2024 even if President Joe Biden doesn’t seek reelection.
Congratulations and go Big Gretch!
Follow over the jump for the rest of the election news from Michigan.
WOOD-TV only had "Aug. 3, 2022" for the video description, so I'm quoting the description for the equivalent video by 13 On Your Side: John Gibbs defeats Rep. Peter Meijer in primary election. "After a single term in the United States Congress, Peter Meijer has conceded the primary election for Michigan's 3rd Congressional District to challenger John Gibbs." I have two things to say about this result. First, as I wrote in Colbert and Meyers take closer looks at replacing Liz Cheney and Arizona audit last year, "this fight is not over conventional ideas of left and right. Instead, it is about loyalty to Trump, which is odd considering that major American political parties generally move away from losing presidential candidates. Not now — the GOP is sticking closer to Trump than ever." That has become even more true since then. Second, no good deed goes unpunished, especially when it involves standing up to TFG.
Michigan held its 2022 primary election on Tuesday, Aug. 2.
Again, the effect TFG has on Republican politics cannot be ignored, both in the contest for the GOP nominee for Governor of Michigan and in the Third Congressional District, where Gibbs beat Meijer. Second, I am not so sure that RashidaTlaib is as liberal as she's being made out. She's part of "The Squad," which the following image from Voteview shows is not as far left as they are portrayed.
As I originally described in a tweet and reproduced on Pinterest, "The Squad's isolation from the rest of the Democratic Caucus is even more apparent in two dimensions. They're way down and to the right of most of the party. Down is also 'liberal,' but not in the way everyone else is." If Janice Winfrey had gotten the nomination and then into Congress, Voteview very likely would have scored her votes as being to the left of Tlaib's and the rest of "The Squad."
That a third of precincts in Detroit may be ineligible for a recount is not good news for anyone having their hopes up that this recount will change the result of the election. If anything, Trump's lead may increase because of it. It also makes me even less enamored of both Janice Winfrey, the Detroit City Clerk, and Cathy M. Garrett, the Wayne County Clerk. Neither one of them appears to be running a tight ship, or otherwise these kinds of irregularities would happen so frequently.
That still seems to be true, six years later. No surprise, I voted for Tlaib.
I'm not surprised that Haley Stevens beat Andy Levin. While I don't live in the 11th Congressional District, my IP address does, so I've been seeing far more ads for Stevens than for Levin, indicating that her campaign and the outside groups supporting her vastly outspent her. It paid off. I'm not sad, as I voted for Levin's primary opponent in 2018, but voted for him in the general election in both 2018 and 2020. I'm not particularly a fan of political dynasties and I'm not shedding a tear over the apparent end of this one.
My last observation on the results is about my neighbor John James handily winning the GOP primary one county over from where he lives, at least for now. I'm not surprised that he won, only by the margin. As I wrote five years ago, "Impressive. The man has a future in politics, even if it won't be in the U.S. Senate."
Not only did TFG go after Meijer, the DCCC did as well, running ads "attacking" Gibbs as too extreme in the hopes that doing so would make him more attractive to the right-wing of the Republican Party so they would vote for him. On the one hand, that's smart politics, as it makes the seat easier for Hillary Scholten to win in November. On the other, it's punishing a holdout for decency and democracy in the GOP by removing him from Congress. Sigh. It worked last night, but I hope it doesn't backfire in November.
You've heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday – two days of deals and shopping. But Tuesday marks Giving Tuesday, a day that has become one for generosity when people give to their favorite charities.
NBC's Stephanie Stanton reports outside of the Texas Capitol where more than 5,000 people are rallying against Gov. Greg Abbot's new law that bans nearly all abortions in the state.
That report focused on Texas, particularly in Austin and Houston, but the important action will took place in Washington, D.C., where the Supreme Court, which begins its session today, will decide on a case involving Mississippi restricting the time period for legal access to abortion. CBS Evening News reported on that demonstration in Thousands gather in D.C. for 2021 Women’s March.
Thousands gathered in the nation’s capital Saturday for the 2021 Women’s March. This year’s march focused on reproductive rights as a response to abortion restrictions implemented in some conservative states. Nikole Killion has more.
Yes, that's Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel being interviewed at the end. Go Dana!
Across the country thousands of women rallied for their reproductive rights, becoming the largest women’s marches since 2017. This comes as Texas recently placed a ban on abortions once a heartbeat is detected.
While I find the circumstances distressing, I'm glad this event had the highest attendance since the first Women'sMarch in 2017. The causes needs that level of popular support.
Attorney General Nessel participating in the Washington, D.C., Women's March wasn't the only Michigan angle to this story. Follow over the jump for two reports from the west side of the state.
The first day of school for students across southeast Michigan is on Monday, and tens of thousands of kids are returning to the classroom for in-person learning.
I'm glad to see that the parents in Southfield are both eager to have their children return to the classroom and willing to comply with a mask mandate. I hope my students feel this way about both returning to in-person learning and wearing masks.
I'm not surprised by the mixed reaction to masks in Manchester. It's the nearest town in Washtenaw County to the Irish Hills, where I lived for seven years, so I'm quite familiar with the area. While Washtenaw County had the highest percentage vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris of any county in Michigan, Manchester Township is quite conservative and voted for Trump. A lot of people there would not support a mask mandate.
With public hearings in Kent and Ottawa counties lasting for hours over the use of masks in schools, public health officials say the debate has gotten out of hand.
I wish I could say I was surprised by the mask opponents' vehemence, but I'm not. Just the same, yikes!
Our Chief Health Editor Dr. Partha Nandi took your heatlh questions as kids go back to school on Monday.
I'm glad Dr. Nandi explained that the expert advice on masks, vaccines, and other public health measures changes as we learn more about the disease. Here's to hoping people get on board with it so we can end the pandemic.
Have you received checks in the mail from your auto insurance company? Many are getting refunds, because they didn't drive during the stay at home order.
While some of this report pertains only to Michigan, which recently changed its laws governing auto insurance, some of this should, if it isn't already, apply to the rest of the U.S., as most of us are driving much less.* Bill McBride of Calculated Risk has an update on that story in DOT: Vehicle Miles Driven decreased 26% year-over-year in May
Travel on all roads and streets changed by -25.5% (-72.9 billion vehicle miles) for May 2020 as compared with May 2019. Travel for the month is estimated to be 213.2 billion vehicle miles.
The seasonally adjusted vehicle miles traveled for May 2020 is 199.8 billion miles, a -26.1% (-70.6 billion vehicle miles) decline from May 2019. It also represents [a] 24.1% increase (38.8 billion vehicle miles) compared with April 2020.
Cumulative Travel for 2020 changed by -17.3% (-227.2 billion vehicle miles). The cumulative estimate for the year is 1,087.0 billion vehicle miles of travel.
emphasis added
This graph shows the rolling 12 month total vehicle miles driven to remove the seasonal factors.
The drop is even more dramatic in this graph than it was last month. On the other hand, the year-over-year comparison between May 2019 and May 2020 shows that driving is recovering, if still way down from last year.
Both of these graphs show the situation two months ago. For a more up-to-date depiction of how much Americans are driving now, I'm sharing the latest graph of gasoline consumption from the Energy Information Administration in Calculated Risk's High Frequency Indicators for the Economy.
This is what I expect the graph comparing the year-over-year change in monthly driving will look like in two months. Even so, the rolling 12 month total vehicle miles driven will continue to go down for at least the next year, although I expect it will start to bottom out in the second half of 2021. I don't know what it will mean for auto insurance rates yet.
Meteorologist Paul Gross shares scientific climate data showing a warming trend in Detroit.
The video does a good job of explaining how the local climate has gotten warmer even though I haven't written about record warmth in the Great Lakes State since Warmest February on record in seven Michigan cities as well as major cities across U.S. more than three years ago. The daily lows getting warmer faster than the daily highs is a good way to hide a warming climate from casual scrutiny, as record daily highs get much more attention. After all, it's been four years since I posted Detroit just had its warmest summer on record. Even then, the trend was apparent.
Detroit had a week fewer of days over 90 degrees Fahrenheit this summer than in 2012 and more than two weeks fewer than the record-setting summer of 1988, which I just missed when I moved here. In addition, the Detroit News reported that there was never a day over 100 degrees all summer. Instead, the nights were consistently warm, which fits my recollection of them being muggy and not fun to sleep in without air conditioning.
In addition, this month's flood resulted from the second highest single-day rainfall in Detroit history. Welcome to four precipitation records in four years.
The third-biggest snowstorm in metro Detroit's recorded history has plows humming among tall snow piles on roadways across southeastern Michigan this morning.
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With 16.7 inches of snow since the storm arrived early Sunday, it's the most to fall since Dec. 1 and 2 in 1974, when 19.3 inches fell, as recorded at Detroit Metro Airport. The snowiest was April 6, 1886, when 24.5 inches were reported...
Add the snowiest month in Detroit history and that's now six precipitation records in four years. As I wrote in the first entry I wrote about the storm, welcome to weather weirding in the 400 ppm world.
I haven't been keeping as close track of Michigan precipitation records since then, as this blog has become more national and international in its focus, but it wouldn't surprise me if the state has racked up more in the past five years.
Climate change has already affected the Great Lakes state. Research shows that the average temperatures in all of Michigan's counties are higher today compared to 30 years ago.
I'm glad that the report also included Senator Debbie Stabenow to deliver some good news about the climate. We could use it.
After months of speculation, Rep. Justin Amash (I-Grand Rapids) announced Tuesday night that he launched an exploratory committee to seek the Libertarian nomination for president.
The congressman made the announcement on Twitter.
Amash said two weeks ago that he had put his congressional campaign on pause to consider running for president. Since then, the congressman said he took time to talk with family and friends about what a run for the White House could look like.
Amash's nomination is not a foregone conclusion, which is why I'm waiting to follow up on the rest of what I wrote last July.
I will likely analyze his ideology at both Voteview and On The Issues, as IhavefortheDemocrats, but that will only happen after I report on the latest scores for the Democrats at On The Issues, which have changed just since last month.
Wednesday around noon, numerous cars caused traffic jams near the capitol building in Lansing as people took part in a protest against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's recent executive orders.
The main order people are taking issue with is the extension of the stay at home order and what businesses are considered essential and non-essential. On Thursday, April 9, Whitmer extended that order through the end of the month and also introduced new restrictions on garden centers and stores selling furniture and paint.
As far as I could tell, there were notaxmarches on Tax Day. Instead, several states saw protests like this.
That was Wednesday. Yesterday, President Trump tweeted "Liberate Minnesota," "Liberate Michigan," and "Liberate Virginia," apparently to encourage more protests like this in swing states. CBS This Morning reported on those tweets and the protests they supported in "Trump goads protesters to defy stay-at-home orders."
President Trump took to Twitter to back right wing protests in several states, staged against the stay-at-home orders of the Democratic governors of those states. Mr. Trump's expressive "LIBERATION" tweets were met with swift replies from the governors of Minnesota and Michigan, asking what he thought the states could do better and expressing hope that he is not encouraging more protests. Nikole Killion reports on the back-and-forth as well as Mr. Trump's ongoing feud with New York Governor Cuomo.
Happy Flashback Friday! I told my readers to stay tuned yesterday for a retrospective about the second most read entry posted during the ninth year of this blog and others on the same topic today. According to the default counter, that entry was Joe Walsh walks away from the Republican primary and says he'll support the Democratic nominee, which earned ~1,640 default and 1,719 raw page views between being posted on February 7, 2020 and March 20, 2020. Since it was about the 2020 election, I'm using it as the theme of today's retrospective. Since the big story right now is the coronavirus pandemic, I begin by looking at the pandemic's effect on elections and voting.
As part of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay at home executive order, all Secretary of State branches will close through April 13. The SOS will also be mailing all May ballots.
That Michigan will be voting by mail in the May election is good news. Let's hope that, if the pandemic persists, the same will happen for the August and November elections as well.
Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams tells Chris Hayes that the $400 million Congress set aside for election funding is a start. But not enough. Aired on 3/26/20.
I agree with Abrams. $400 million is a good start and better than the $140 million Republicans originally proposed. However, it almost certainly isn't enough. FiveThirtyEight reported that "Democrats were initially demanding $4 billion to expand voting access; the Brennan Center estimated it would cost about $2 billion to implement voting reforms." I'll take the Brennan Center figure, which makes $400 million a mere down payment on what's required to make voting work during a public health crisis.
Follow over the jump for how the second most read entry according to the default counter got its page views along with the other top posts about Election 2020 from the ninth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
Wednesday is World Kindness Day and one Grand Rapids woman is doing more than just warming hearts -- she is warming those in need with free coats and clothing. 13 ON YOUR SIDE's Angela Cunningham shares her story.
The only Republican in Congress to accuse President Trump of impeachable acts says he's leaving the Republican Party. In a Washington Post op-ed Rep. Justin Amash said he's becoming an independent. He said he’s leaving the GOP because "modern politics is trapped in a partisan death spiral."
Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, the only Republican in Congress to call for impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, said Thursday he is leaving the GOP because he has become disenchanted with partisan politics and “frightened by what I see from it.”
ABC 13 in Grand Rapids covered much of the same territory then added reporting on the Republicans competing for the nomination to run against Amash and whoever the Democratic nominee will be in Amash announces departure from the GOP.
The only congressional Republican who publicly argued that President Donald Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct has announced he is quitting the GOP. Rep. Justin Amash made the announcement in an op-ed in the Washington Post Thursday morning.
Amash's Washington Post op-ed is currently the most-read page of the online version of the newspaper's Opinion section, so it's making a splash. For those of my readers who aren't registered or subscribed to the Washington Post or don't want to use up their free articles, the Detroit Free Press has article that summarizes Amash's piece and quotes extensively from it as well as including reactions. I recommend reading it, either in place of or in addition to Amash's own article in the Washington Post.
Note that the ABC 13 clip reports that Amash has not ruled out running for the Presidency as a Libertarian. Because of that, I will likely analyze his ideology at both Voteview and On The Issues, as IhavefortheDemocrats, but that will only happen after I report on the latest scores for the Democrats at On The Issues, which have changed just since last month. Stay tuned.
The decision to step down from the conservative group that he started back in 2015 was because he didn't want to be a "further distraction." Justin Amash is still dealing with the aftereffects of saying Trump committed "impeachable conduct" as laid out in the Mueller report.
Yes, Amash is the first Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives to call for impeachment, which the following video from Bloomberg pointed out three weeks ago.
Representative Justin Amash of Michigan, a libertarian who’s often at odds with most other congressional Republicans, said Donald Trump has engaged in “impeachable conduct,” drawing a rebuke from the president as a “total lightweight.”
Amash said on Twitter Saturday that he’s concluded -- after reading Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted 448-page report -- that Attorney General William Barr “deliberately misrepresented” the findings using “sleight-of-hand qualifications or logical fallacies.”
“Contrary to Barr’s portrayal, Mueller’s report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment,” said Amash, 39, who arrived in Congress as part of the Tea Party wave in 2010.
Amash’s manifesto-like string of more than a dozen tweets stopped short of actually calling for Trump’s impeachment.
The Bloomberg video noted that this isn't the first time Amash has defied Trump, citing two votes he cast against Trump's policies. In fact, Amash has been the most likely Republican to support impeachment, as CBS News reported two years agoGOP congressman among first to say Trump impeachment possible.
Congressman Justin Amash, R-Michigan, said Wednesday that if true, Trump's allegations regarding former FBI Director James Comey are grounds for impeachment.
That was on May 17, 2017, just about two years to the day before Amash tweeted that Trump had engaged in impeachable conduct. Anyone who was surprised that Amash would be in favor of impeachment has not been paying attention.
Finally, the man has principles. I may not agree with them, but I'm glad he has them and sticks to them.
