One of the most catastrophic failures by Dem leaders & the rest of our political elites is the failure to impeach Trump for ABUSE OF THE PARDON POWER.
(quote from blog by Constitutional law prof @FOBowman3 )

https://twitter.com/DanaScottlo/status/986861644696268800

1/ Trump was ALWAYS going to prove the case against him in real time by abusing the power repeatedly
It was ALWAYS CRUCIAL to show crimes of impeachment did not need to be crimes defined by criminal law & could be for abuses of powers explicitly granted in Art II
2/

In a best-case scenario, we have let future Trumps know how weak our response will be to a "soft coup" Even after a Capitol Insurrection, we'll let a Congressional leader use parliamentary maneuvers to stall urgent action
1/ We can hope we're through the worst of it. We can hope the Insurrection backfired by scaring Trump allies & making them think he's doomed to fail. We can hope that w/o Hope Hicks in the Führerbunker, Trump will be unwilling to try to hold out past noon 1/20
2/

Re the pardon power & "in cases of impeachment" clause, I found the article by @ProfBrianKalt pretty convincing that pardons given to a President's "accomplices & adherents" remain valid even if connected to his impeachment & conviction takecareblog.com/blog/regrettab…
1/ Federalist 69 still gives me trouble — reading it is, for me, like one of those optical illusions where it looks like one thing at first then looks like something else if you keep staring at it; but I'm starting to see why scholars have interpreted it the way they do.
2/

POLL ON THE IMPEACHMENT OF JOHN ROBERTS - Has John Roberts, Chief Clerk & Political Strategist of the McConnell Court, been derelict in his duty by delaying decisions on both the Trump tax return cases & the House subpoena for unredacted Mueller report & Grand Jury testimony?
1/ Commentators, pundits & experts who assured us for 3+ years our institutions would preserve the Rule of Law are breathing a sigh of relief but the Court is allowing Trump to run out the clock
2/

https://twitter.com/JoePaulson2/status/1278459997224079360?s=20

@jayrosen_nyu It would be a lot simpler if newspapers repeated, every day, about 5 or 6 quotes on propaganda in their stories on Trump's daily lies so that instead of debunking individual, isolated lies, people could start seeing him & his allies as engaged in a campaign of propaganda
1/ @jayrosen_nyu That's the forest for the trees which we are missing. The Newspaper of the Resistance (which will not of course be the NYT under Dean Baquet) would challenge the norms of the daily news cycle, countering Goebbel's "repeat a lie often enough & people will believe it" with...
2/

@tiediedgiraffe @jayrosen_nyu @Jon_Allsop I've said the NYTimes can at least begin by *reporting* on the Resistance. And by that I don't mean Dem leaders. But maybe the most important thing they could do, but won't, is to break the trap of daily news-cycle & treat propaganda qua propaganda ->
1/ @tiediedgiraffe @jayrosen_nyu @Jon_Allsop Instead of dealing with daily lies in isolation (an endless/exhausting task), treat them as evidence of a larger truth or reality - as proof the Ruling Admin is using propaganda tactics such as the "firehose of lies". Or Goebbels & "repeat a lie often enough & ppl believe it"
2/

Solution to Nunes memo is a panel led by exPresidents to review underlying intel. Americans have right to know if there is a crisis in which unelected officials are sabotaging ExecBranch. Or if someone's bluffing. 1/ The power of the idea is this - if it was discussed in the news, we'd find out quickly who has something to hide. 2/