the attitude with arnie arnesen the friday edition Feb 6

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Arnie Arnesen

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Mar 5, 2026, 7:07:26 PM (7 days ago) Mar 5
to AttitudeArnieArnesen
the attitude with arnie arnesen
opening thoughts: on impeachment
producers: Dave Scott and Stephanie Collins
Chloé LaCasse (the best of the attitude)
streaming live at wnhnfm.org noon EST on the dial-94.7FM Concord NH
podcasts available at
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/attitude-with-arnie-arnesen/id1634055179
opening thoughts 
AOC: This is about actual crimes happening in front of us. This is about shredding the Constitution and plunging us into war. This is about taking crypto money and money laundering… So if you’re asking me if I’d support impeachment, I do

from slate.com a conversation between Mark Stern and Professor Fidel
Eugene Fidel, a visiting lecturer and senior research scholar at Yale Law School and expert on the law of armed conflict,

Speaker A: Let’s talk about what happens between now and those elections. You wrote Congress should introduce and aggressively pursue articles of impeachment against Trump. I think, frankly, there are a lot of critics of this war who think that that goes too far and would be very surprised by that recommendation. Can you lay out why you think that Trump’s actions here constitute high crimes and misdemeanors that qualify him for impeachment and removal from office?

Speaker B: Wow. I can’t think of anything aside, perhaps from trying to overturn an election. I can’t think of anything that comes closer to being a high crime and misdemeanor and therefore impeachment bait, than what President Trump has done here, which is pursue a war not authorized in advance by the Congress. It doesn’t get more fundamental than that. So that’s an easy one. Now, let me say this. There are people whose opinions for which I have the greatest respect who believe that. That no political purpose, no wise purpose, is served by what is almost certain to be a failed effort to impeach, much less remove, President Trump from office based on this unconstitutional war. I get that, and I respect deeply people who hold that view. There are people who believe that the main event is the elections and danger lurks there in terms of the potential that this same administration might well interfere with the elections or thwart the desires of the voters. And I deeply respect that. On the other hand, there is something about the performative dimension of constitutional law. Just as President Trump is often said to be doing things for performative reasons, he’s not the only one that gets to do things in American democracy for performative reasons. And I think there is a valid performative reason for people to be furious with him to the point of trying to get him removed from office. Even if it fails, I think it’s important for people to take a stand on this and over history, as the column that you mentioned in the Boston Globe indicated. There have been members of Congress and senators who have taken on popular stance and history has been kind to them. I’m thinking of Representative Lee of California who voted against the aumf. There were two senators who voted against the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. A congressman from Illinois named Lincoln was very hostile to the Polk administration for bringing about what he thought was an unwise and illegal war with Mexico. I think those kinds of events are profiles in courage, and I’d like to see some profiles in courage here. And sometimes you have to show courage, even if you know that at the end of the day you’re not going to get what you think you should get, which is removal of this president. Condemnation and removal.

part one: if it is friday it must be texas a conversation with the publisher of the Quorum Report Harvey Kronberg
topics: 
Texas primary turnout breaks records  Turnout in the Democratic primary outpaced that on the Republican side for the first time since 2020, a notable distinction given the draw of high-profile Senate primaries in both parties.   https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/04/texas-2026-primary-turnout-democratic-republican/

Abbott-Endorsed Honey-Dealer Bids Sid Adieu


Who is Steve Toth, the outspoken state House hardliner who wiped out incumbent Dan Crenshaw? https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/05/texas-steve-toth-defeated-dan-crenshaw-texas-legislature-congress/


Dan Crenshaw was supposed to be the future of the Republican Party. So what went wrong? | Opinion https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/rise-fall-house-dan-crenshaw-opinion-21955491.php


Can James Talarico unite Democrats after a tense primary with Jasmine Crockett? https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/state/article/james-talarico-unite-democrats-tense-primary-21954899.php


Rep. Tony Gonzales, forced into runoff, admits to affair with aide who died by suicide https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/04/tony-gonzales-admits-affair-staffer-suicide-texas-23rd-district-congress/


Green, Menefee are headed for runoff in Houston clash of Democratic incumbents Newly drawn political maps put the incumbents into the same congressional district. https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/04/texas-christian-menefee-al-green-congress-district-18-democratic-primary/


Trump says he will soon endorse in runoff between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/04/donald-trump-endorsement-texas-senate-primary-runoff-john-cornyn-ken-paxton/


Oil prices are surging with the Iran war. Here’s what it means for Houston https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/oil-prices-rise-houston-iran-war-21950622.php


Notable Aggie alumni warn politics is reshaping Texas A&M leadership: 'Excessive and damaging' https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/tamu-alumni-politics-21347577.php


part two:
bill curry  was a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. He has written for Salon, the Daily Beast, the Huffington Post and the Hartford Courant and has provided commentary on National Public Radio, MSNBC and many other news outlets.  
tim noah  an American journalist, author, and a staff writer at The New Republic. Previously he was labor policy editor for Politico, a contributing writer at MSNBC.com, a senior editor of The New Republic[2][3][4] assigned to write the biweekly "TRB From Washington" column, and a senior writer at Slate, where for a decade he wrote the "Chatterbox" column. In April 2012, Noah published a book, The Great Divergence, about income inequality in the United States.
topics:
Texas elections
Bill's thoughts on Talarico
James Talarico's come-from-behind primary win may prove truly historic. Democrats have spent the last year searching for a message to beat Trump and save America from fascism. Talarico's not all the way there but he's closer to it than any other national Democrat. I just pray the rest are taking notes.
After November, people asked which Democratic message worked best: the centrist affordability-light of Mikie Sherril and Abigail Spanberger, or the populist vision of Zohran Mamdani.
It's a made-for-cable-TV debate that misses how alike all three sounded and, importantly, how small the differences are that divide Democrats and the 60% of America that now really dislikes Trump.
If you read more of my posts than anyone should, you know I believe Democrats spend too much time on 'message' and too little time on policy; way too much time on who we're for and not nearly enough time on what we're for.
From the first, it was clear Talarico was thinking policy, not just message. In that, he's like Mamdani. He was said to be more centrist than Jasmine Crockett, but as with Mamdani vs. Sherril and Spanberger, you had to look hard to spot the policy differences. Mamdani was bolder in offering relief to our embattled middle class. He could be bold because he'd emancipated himself from the party's big donors. The center and right called him radical but on most economic issues, 60 to 70% of voters want what he's having.
Left partly unresolved by Mamdani were two questions: one, how to talk about social and cultural change issues and two, how to talk, period.
The answer to both questions is 'humbly.' The best way to teach cultural enlightenment is to model it, not lecture those you suspect of being less highly evolved than yourself. It doesn't mean running away from tough topics. It does mean you don't just assume the role of teacher, and when you do teach, you never forget that a teacher's job is to lead students to the good already within them.
Democrats need to be better teachers. Eleven years of Trump made us itch for leaders who match his bellicose style, who can own him the way he's forever trying to 'own the libs'. But we don't want to become what we hate, and anyway it won't work for us the way it does for him. Fortunately, there's a better way and Talarico is on to it.
Much is made of the seminarian Talarico's professed Christianity. While it would be really great to rescue Christianity as well as democracy from Trump, Talarico's appeal is based not on theology but on simple respect for our differences and a call to a more loving community.
On Talarico's website the first item on his list of issues is public corruption. The whole website reflects a populism that is bold but bile-free. If only his whole party had as much conviction and good sense, it could then settle its historically small differences and get on with winning. There's still time.
Democrats are ahead in their fight to retake the House. To take the Senate, they must defend their few vulnerable incumbents and knock off four Republicans. Right now they're tied or in the lead for Republican seats in four states--Maine, North Carolina, Alaska and now, I believe, Texas. Behind the great populist champion Sherrod Brown they are well within striking distance in Ohio. Recent campaign polls show a populist independent tied in, of all places, Nebraska. With the right campaigns and a modest blue wave, we could win all six.
Every day Trump does all he can to ensure his own defeat, and for that I thank him. But we can't let him do all the work. Our job is to forge a populist economic agenda, then present it to the voters with clarity, humility and respect. Like James Talarico just did. We now have a map. All we have to do is read and follow.
White House Says We Had to Bomb Iran Because Trump Had a “Feeling” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had a shocking explanation for why the U.S. launched a new war in the Middle East.  https://newrepublic.com/post/207384/white-house-karoline-leavitt-trump-bombed-iran-feeling
Trump’s Immigration Policies Are Making Us Poorer—and SickerDespite what the president says, evidence shows that immigrants do far more to aid the American labor force than to hinder it. https://newrepublic.com/article/207357/immigrants-crucial-health-care-jobs


Why Are Democrats Struggling to Respond to Trump’s Iran War? Some lawmakers have a clear message on the war. The party’s leaders are not among them. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/03/trump-iran-war-democrats-response.html

Why are the US and Israel framing the ongoing conflict as a religious war?

US troops reportedly told the war in Iran is intended to bring about biblical end times, Armageddon. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/4/why-are-the-us-and-israel-framing-the-ongoing-conflict-as-a-religious-war


Noem Flails When Asked if She Had “Sexual Relations” With DHS Adviser Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was asked point-blank about whether she’s sleeping with Corey Lewandowski. https://newrepublic.com/post/207390/noem-questioned-relationship-lewandowski-congress

Time to End the American-Israeli Alliance Alliances are built on shared interests. Those do not exist here. https://prospect.org/2026/03/05/israel-america-alliance-iran-war-trump-rubio-netanyahu/

Gavin Newsom—GAVIN NEWSOM!—Calls Israel ‘Sort of an Apartheid State’  Today on TAP: And calls for stopping U.S. military aid to the nation.  https://prospect.org/2026/03/04/gavin-newsom-calls-israel-apartheid-state-democrats-primaries/

Kristi Noem Misled Congress About Top Aide’s Role in DHS Contracts ProPublica

Trump’s tariff hike to 15% likely this week, Bessent says Business Times



--
KEEPING THE POT STIRRED SO SCUM DOESN'T RISE TO THE TOP -  Anonymous 

D. ARNIE ARNESEN
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