Election 2020 Update

Yesterday's Democratic debate was big since Michael "how in the hell is he a thing?" Bloomberg was involved. The general conclusion is that he did horrible with Warren really leading the way (though others joined and she didn't just "go after" him). Good thing. The necessary "he's better than Trump" aside, he has too many "Trump-lite" qualities. It is ridiculous to think of him as a credible general election Democratic candidate in 2020. And, I fear it, including turnout. Sanders, frontrunner, came out looking good. But, long term, his issues -- including a ceiling -- stands. Let's see how things work out after early March.

After it all, what was the value of the late intervention in support of Roger Stone that tainted the Justice Department and even scared some federal judges enough to make it public they were talking about such things? Loyalty to Trump and a message to others, not just the immediate Trump co-conspirator (key line by the judge: “He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the President, he was prosecuted for covering up for the President.”). Meanwhile, a crony moves into a key intel position, reaffirming Trump's mentality there. If one thinks about it, it's scary, and Republicans totally own it.

Trump also did his usual favored crowd pardons, including reportedly letting an old friend from NYC free of over 100K left on his fines. Ha ha. On some level, one can argue the corrupt governor from Illinois served enough time etc., but we aren't taking these on a vacuum. His pardons overall were trolls and/or benefiting friends. Net, this is a bad path for justice.