Below, the 53 Republican senators who voted not to see witnesses in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, even though some of them openly came out and agreed that he was guilty. In effect they just acquitted him.
Lamar Alexander, Tennessee
Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee
John Barrasso, Wyoming, Senate Republican Conference Chairman
Roy Blunt, Missouri, Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman
*The judges have also accepted “Death To America!”
How did we get here, to the end of democracy? Been thinking about this all week. About how at a certain point Americans stopped doing what was right and began doing what feels good in the moment. I’m sure it extends back before this, but for me it begins with the Rodney King verdict…which led to the O.J. verdict… which led to then-president Bill Clinton saying, “That depends what your definition of ‘is’ is.”
Continue on to the hanging chad election… and then the “weapons of mass destruction” ruse… the TARP bailout, when suddenly Wall Street, for one brief moment, embraced socialism and welfare and tried to tell the rest of us that we just don’t understand, i.e. TOO BIG TO FAIL. Time after time Americans in position to DO THE RIGHT THING have instead done the palliative thing in the moment.
And so here we are. The U.S. Senate cannot be bothered to adhere to the same strict standards as My Cousin Vinny. They don’t want witnesses, they don’t want evidence, they just want to acquit. And America is supposed to believe that November’s election will be fair?
Riiiiiiiiiiight.
This institutional practice of “If It Feels Good, Do It” was abetted by a few very intelligent and cunning outside actors, chief among them Vladimir Putin and Osama bin Laden, who decided that geopolitical jujitsu was the best way to take down the USA: In other words, you can’t topple the USA head-on. The only way to do so is to inveigle it to use its own power against itself. America must be destroyed from within. Bravo, gentlemen. You’ve succeeded.
The MAGA types don’t see it yet. They’re too happy celebrating the stock market or the death of an Iranian general, etc. But the core of this country—the rule of law—has been sacrificed, Perhaps for good. The rot is deep within. Now it’s just a matter of time until the tree dies.
Every great empire falls. You get the advantage of being able to tell your children and grandchildren that you were there when it did.
If this is how Tom Brady goes out, that’s cool. Honestly cannot see him playing anywhere else next season. Also wondering if the death of Kobe Bryant last Sunday in any way impacted whatever decision he’s about to make. Or has made. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that Kobe’s untimely and tragic demise (he was one year younger than Brady) is about the NBA equivalent to if this had happened to Brady.
B&B Snubs
Try the Beal!
Two notable snubs for next month’s All-Star Game. Both players are guards for teams who haven’t been to the postseason much if at all: Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards and Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns.
Beal: sixth in the NBA in scoring at 28.7 ppg.
Booker: eighth in the NBA in scoring at 27.1 ppg.
The only other player among the top 15 in scoring who failed to make the team is in the same class as these two: Zach LaVine of the Bulls.
If only LaVine were able to put on a show
Meanwhile, Chris Paul, who is not among the Top 50 in scoring or even among the Top 15 in Assists, was named as a reserve. It’s hardly the most egregious voting decision America has seen this week; just sports’ worst.
Hackman Turner Overdrive
Actor Gene Hackman celebrated his 90th birthday yesterday. He’s sort of been a middle-aged man forever in our minds. But man, one of the all-time greats as a character actor.
Films of Hackman’s that you absolutely must see if you haven’t already (I’m assuming you’ve seen Superman and Hoosiers):
—The French Connection (1971)
—Night Moves (1975)
—Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
—The Conversation (1974)
—Unforgiven (1992)
And if you think Hoosiers is his best performance, you’ll get no argument here. He plays against his type, and convincingly. He is the consummate pro’s pro.
Hackman was born in San Bernardino in 1930, but grew up in Danville, Illinois. From Hackman’s Wikipedia page:
In 1956 he began pursuing an acting career; he joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California.[13] It was there that he forged a friendship with another aspiring actor, Dustin Hoffman.[13] Already seen as outsiders by their classmates, they were later voted “The Least Likely To Succeed”.[13] Furthermore, Hackman got the all time lowest score at the Pasadena Playhouse at the time.
Five Films: 2006
I continue to be pleasantly surprised by the quality of films of this decade. For some reason I had my “OK, Boomer” hat on and thought everything after Saving Private Ryan was godawful. I was wrong. Again.
Pan’s Labyrinth: Easily the most pleasant surprise of the decade in terms of walking into a theater and being blown away by what was on the screen. Guillermo del Toro’s dark fantasy revolving around the Spanish Civil War is gripping and magical, tragic and sublime. Should have at least won Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. Was only nominated.
Once: Glen Hansard’s musical triumph about a busker in Dublin who finds a kindred spirit and a muse, if not romance. What a soundtrack. Passed Hansard as I was running along the Hudson in 2009 and he was on a bike. Gave him a smile and a thumbs up. He replied with a knowing nod and a smile.
The Last King of Scotland: Powerful performance by Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin (is this the same guy who went apesh*t against the rival high school after Spicoli crashed his car?) and James Macavoy as the young and slowly corrupted doc.
The Departed: Okay, maybe there’s a little too much of guys stealing glances at their cell phones, but too many good performances to ignore: Leo, Damon, Sheen, Nicholson, Baldwin and of course, Wahlberg: “I’m the guy doing his job. You must be the other guy.”
Borat: Verrrrrry niiiice!
Worthy but did not crack Top 5: “The Lives of Others,” “Children Of Men,” “Blood Diamond,” “Casino Royale,” and “The Devil Wears Prada.”
Two perfect metaphors for the Trump presidency. Number one, above, is the wasteland of detritus left behind after the president’s rally in Wildwood, N.J. Monday night… giving new meaning to “Dump Trump.” The Deplorables all get together and celebrate themselves and what’s left behind in the aftermath is a trillion-dollar deficit and an environment badly in need of oversight. “Don’t worry about it—the Democrats will clean up after us, they always do!”
Next up, in Calexico, Calif., 30 m.p.h. wind gusts blow over new paneling on the president’s “big, beautiful wall.” It wasn’t MS-13 that took it down. It was air. Some forces you just cannot see but they are implacable. Like wind. Or the future.
And Then What?
Question for GOP senators: If you don’t want a fair trial, why should anyone think you want a fair election?
Even if we get John Bolton‘s testimony, I still don’t expect this Senate impeachment trial to have a Frank Capra ending. Jefferson Smith himself could pass out on the Senate floor and and the Moscow Mitch mice would still vote to acquit. So, even with transparency, don’t expect justice.
Which brings us to November. And the tweet above.
I keep saying that if Trump loses the election in November, he's not going to leave. And I'll tell you why I keep saying that, because if Trump loses the election in November, he's not going to leave. pic.twitter.com/xLTwvUA8yi
And even if by some miracle we do get fair elections, Bill Maher asks a very simple question. Who thinks Trump will leave office willingly?
Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz: "If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment." https://t.co/jKErQcS1Iypic.twitter.com/zo4rL6Zbla
As Dershowitz argues here, if the president does something he feels is in the public interest, no matter what it is, then it cannot be wrong. So if the president refuses to leave office because he states it is in the public interest, who will be able to prevent the next betrayal of the Constitution?
Answer: it would take a few military leaders and a loyal battalion. And hopefully the Secret Service would comply. But you might get plenty of armed Virginia militia ready to fight that. They don’t want democracy; they want a white monarchy.
But before we leave, I do have a question for Mr. Dershowitz: Based on his argument, any action that is taken in the public interest, as the person taking it deigns it to be, is immune to prosecution. So if someone were to off the president because he or she deems it to be in the public interest, that is not a crime?
The Djok’er
In Melbourne, Novak Djokovic tops Roger Federer in straight sets to reach the Australian Open men’s singles final. Djokovic could win his 8th Aussie Open and his 17th Grand Slam overall, putting him two behind Rafael Nadal (19; knocked out previous round) and three behind Roger (20).
You have to go back to September 2016 to find the last time a male other than the three above won a Grand Slam singles title. Answer: Stan Wawrinka, U.S. Open.
And people were crying about Clemson-Alabama hegemony.
Tesla Soars
Well, I got that one wrong. Given the stock price’s run-up this month alone (about 30%) and then yesterday (an additional 2.49%) I figured Tesla stock would take a mild dive after earnings were reported after the bell. Not poorly, but enough to stay out of the game and wait until today’s opening at 9:30 a.m.
Instead, Tesla hit it out of the park and shares soared $46 (7.9%) to $626 after hours. It’s bizarre. Tesla is now the second-largest car company in the world behind only Toyota in market cap. The third-largest company, Volkswagen, sold THIRTY TIMES AS MANY cars last year as Tesla.
So, much of this price is all about investors’ giddiness about Tesla’s future. Is it the next Apple? Will people (now including me) keep being wrong about its eventual downturn and keep revising their conservative price estimates higher? It was funny: CNBC had a “Tesla bear” on this morning who put his bearish price target at $440, which is higher than what Tesla’s price was when this month/year began.
We’ll see. Me? I’m buying 5 shares of TSLA at some point today just to be back in the game.
Five Films: 2005
If the previous year was the equivalent of putting your hand under your armpit in gym class to make that farting sound, this year movies returned to the grownups. It was, in fact, a very good year.
Grizzly Man: My favorite film of this millennium. Full stop. No movie has affected me as much. Timothy Treadwell was somewhat delusional, and yet he was also heroic. He understood the beauty and the miracle of nature and that it was worth everything to preserve it. Yes, he ultimately died. But who among us could ever have lasted as long as he did? The final minutes of Werner Herzog’s film, with the song “Coyotes”, is an elegy for the natural world. Heartbreaking. 2. Syriana: The problem with this film is that it may have been just a little bit too smart and a little bit too soon. I find myself thinking about scenes from it often, or quoting Matt Damon’s character. George Clooney’s least glamorous role and one of his top performances. Excellent. 3. Match Point: The darkest Woody Allen film out there is, I think, his best since Hannah And Her Sisters. Disturbing. Another excellent effort. 4. Cinderella Man: One of the all-time, If he fights again, I’m taking the kids to my sisters” films. 5. Cache: Brilliant French cinematic effort of lies and adultery.*
*In 2005 on a Saturday afternoon I was on the phone with our friend, Moose, who lived in L.A. She spoke of wanting to go see a film that night. I told her I’d read a glowing review in The New York Times about a film called Cache. I think they may have even written that it was the best film of the year. I told her that I was going to see it. So later that afternoon, I did. By the time I exited the theater in New York City, not quite knowing what I’d just seen but knowing full well I hadn’t liked any of it, Moose had already entered the theater in L.A. There was no way to warn her. It was 2005. I don’t even think I had a cellphone yet. Anyway, I sat at home waiting for the holy hell that would soon visit me in the form of Moose’s phone call. And it did.
She has never let me forget it. And so I have to fight back. Whenever talk of a movie arises, I’ll say something like, “Well, it’s no Cache.” Two years ago, for her birthday, I bought her the Cache film poster.
So the real No. 5 is Brokeback Mountain. Which, agreed, is no Cache.
Last night I was wondering, When’s the last time a trial of such momentous import took place without any witnesses. Then I thought, Oh yeah! How did that turn out?
Remembering Kobe
“I haven’t felt a pain that sharp in a while.. it definitely changes me.”’@SHAQ on the loss of his brother, Kobe. pic.twitter.com/dM5i0DDgGK
Last night TNT did something wonderful. It gathered its cast of NBA on TNT regulars (Ernie, Charles, Kenny and Shaq) inside an empty Staples Center and put on its studio show from on the court that Kobe Bryant made famous. Guests included Jerry West, Dwyane Wade, Rick Fox, Candace Parker, Derek Fisher, Reggie Miller and Steve Nash. Just people sitting in director’s chairs in an empty arena—last night’s Clippers-Lakers game was postponed—tossing out memories.
“Through it all, we had a tremendous amount of respect for each other.”
If you’re interested, visit @nbaontnt on Twitter to see most of the clips. Three of our favorites were from Shaq, Nash and West, so we’ve included them here.
Apple (AAPL) reported quarterly earnings after the bell yesterday and beat on the top and the bottom line and while I don’t know what that means, it sure sounds good. Anyway, shares of the stock were down to $309 at Monday’s close but should open today around $324. That’s about a 5% gain for arguably the most successful major stock of the past 20 years.
Tesla (TSLA), which has had an even more bullish past six months or so that Apple, reports after the bell today. Is it time to dive in (again)?
Some figures. Apple: On May 31st it was trading at $175. The stock is up nearly 90% in the past 8 months. Since January of 2010 (opened at $27) Apple is up about 11x in the past 10 years.
Tesla. On May 31st it sold at $185 per share. The stock is up almost exactly 200% in the past eight months. You could have bought shares on the first day of 2011 for $24, meaning that it’s up roughly 23x in the past nine years.
FWIW: I own Apple. I’ve owned Tesla for months but I sold it all yesterday. Maybe my error. Feels as if the stock is waiting to be whacked over the head and it feels a little bit like that’ll happen after earnings today. You may want to jump back in tomorrow if there’s a dramatic drop. Related: I may be wrong. I’ve been wrong before.
The Best Basketball Player You Don’t Know
Who’s that dude in the white jersey? That’s Eric Demers, a 6’1″ senior guard at Gordon (Mass.) College. The reason we are featuring him isn’t because he’s married (he is), or because the Scots are so awesome (they’re 9-9) but because he’s averaging 4 more points per game than any male or female in college basketball, Divisions I, II and III.
Demers, an outstanding three-point shooter (42.5%), is averaging 34.1 points per game for Gordon. By comparison Markus Howard of Marquette, the leading scorer in men’s Division I, is averaging 28.3 ppg.
Pitt and The Pendulum of Stardom
Here’s Brad Pitt at yesterday’s Oscars lunch wearing a name tag. Giggles. He’s going to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar this year (he had plenty of practice being Angelina’s hubby for those years) and the room is going to erupt. He’s not just a handsome dude, he’s a good egg, it turns out.
Five Films: 2004
Ladies and gentleman, can I please have your attention…. Cannonball!(What makes this gold is the Friends of Distinction’s “Grazin’ In The Grass” kicking in as he leaps)
Napoleon Dynamite: Of the two highly quotable comedies of this year, this one’s is more genuine and has a better story arc. Uncle Rico absolutely steals the film and I bet he can still throw it over those mountains. Gol! 2. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy: See, you lose me with stuff like “whale’s vagina” and then you win me back the local news team gang war and “I like lamp!” 3. Sideways: Paul Giamatti was on quite a roll in these years. And it was satisfying to see Thomas Haden-Church get a role in a major film. Always wondered why he never got more. 4. The Incredibles: Only saw it once but loved how smart and self-aware it was. 5. Collateral: Tom Cruise playing entirely against type is very good. As is Jamie Foxx.
Never saw but would definitely like to: “Before Sunset,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Mean Girls,” “Shaun of The Dead,” “The Motorcycle Diaries” and “Man On Fire.”
As I contemplate this afternoon’s third and final installment of the White House/Republican defense of President Donald John Trump, I distill it to a simple question: Do the right thing or Do the white thing (or, if you prefer, Do the Alt-Right thing)?
The question of whether Donald Trump did what the House alleges has never been in much question and John Bolton’s book galleys are the final nail in the coffin. Moreover, the latest item, the fact that former White House chief of staff John Kelly has come out and said that he believes Bolton, is just another nail.
At least the O.J. jurors were given an out by Chris Darden: the glove didn’t fit. The glove not only fits here, but Trump has been wearing it throughout the proceedings.
So, 53 Republican senators. And most, if not all of them, appear to have a very myopic sense of historical perspective. They are worried about a nasty tweet from Trump; or a threat from Mitch McConnell; or an angry “base” who may not reelect them.
There’s no need to complicate it. Most of them are lawyers. Many of them have litigated in court. They have been on the side that asks a jury to study the evidence and follow the law. But now they’re conflicted—maybe there’s something more important than the law? Like unborn fetuses? Or their 401-Ks?
It’s so much simpler than that. Any person of character—good character—knows that you make decisions based on principles, not consequences. Because once you forfeit your principles for a short term gain, you are no longer a person worthy of being followed. Or listened to. No longer a person worthy to lead, or to represent others.
Do the right thing. It’ll be liberating. Suddenly you won’t be so hair-trigger angry any more. You won’t be defensive. You won’t ask people to repeat questions because you need time to think up a good lie or at least misleading response. You may even smile.
A vote for impeachment is not a vote against Donald Trump because you hate him. It’s a vote against a president who betrayed his oath of office. Nothing more, nothing less.
One final note: Imagine a black man is on trial for murder. Now, there are multiple witnesses who said he did it. The suspect even wrote a note claiming he did it. His defense team has no alibi. All they do is 1) quash any proposed witness from testifying and 2) make long-winded orations about how unfairly black people have been treated in America, bringing up slavery and Jim Crow laws and segregation and anything else they think will stick.
That’s their defense. You’re a Republican on that jury. Is that an adequate defense for you to declare him not guilty? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
