AND MANY WHO OPPOSE IT PREFER OUTRIGHT NATIONAL HEALTH:

WEALTH IS FREEDOM:

The first point of agreement between Republicans and proponents of UBI is about what the government is good at: relatively little. This is one of Yang's favorite points. A government program with a bunch of bureaucrats operating file-the-proper-paperwork mechanisms is bound to have some inefficiencies. But, as Yang points out, what the government does well is promptly and reliably sending out a load of checks in the mail. Republicans balk at the idea of UBI because it seems like an extreme version of your standard government handout. But it isn't. It actually eliminates most of the government subsidies against which Republicans have traditionally marshaled principled arguments.

The second point worth considering is what it means to put that money in the hands of individual Americans instead of the federal government. It is the ultimate vote for the free market. It's no longer the government dictating what the best use of that money would be. That money is going straight to the people who have the most intimate, on-the-ground knowledge of the particulars of their life circumstances: themselves. I can't personally imagine anyone more capable of doing the job--especially not a government bureaucrat. It is, in fact, the opposite of the government telling people what to do and how to do it.

SCRATCH A TRUMPBOT, FIND A...:

Former NSC staffer Fiona Hill is so right when she says in her congressional testimony that slurs against George Soros are best thought of as the new Protocols of the Elders of Zion pic.twitter.com/zAFrKAPsoe

— Daniel Korski (@DanielKorski) November 21, 2019

SWEET MYSTERY OF rIGHT:

For some perspective, let's go back to that New York Times story from May of this year: "Rudy Giuliani Plans Ukraine Trip to Push for Inquiries That Could Help Trump." That was the headline. It was pretty much all there:

WASHINGTON -- Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, is encouraging Ukraine to wade further into sensitive political issues in the United States, seeking to push the incoming government in Kiev to press ahead with investigations that he hopes will benefit Mr. Trump.

Mr. Giuliani said he plans to travel to Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, in the coming days and wants to meet with the nation's president-elect to urge him to pursue inquiries that allies of the White House contend could yield new information about two matters of intense interest to Mr. Trump.

One is the origin of the special counsel's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. The other is the involvement of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s son in a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch.

Mr. Giuliani's plans create the remarkable scene of a lawyer for the president of the United States pressing a foreign government to pursue investigations that Mr. Trump's allies hope could help him in his re-election campaign. And it comes after Mr. Trump spent more than half of his term facing questions about whether his 2016 campaign conspired with a foreign power. [emphasis added]

And then, of course, Giuliani went on CNN to admit that he asked Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.

We've seen the "transcript."

Mick Mulvaney held a press conference defiantly admitting the quid pro quo.

The military aid was, in fact held up.

Key players have testified what they saw and heard.

And know we know that everyone involved in the cleanup of this mess knew what was going on. Republicans tried to make an issue of the fact that Sondland made some presumptions about the linkage between the aid and the investigations, but, frankly, you don't have to be a Rubik's Cube champion to figure all this out.

As George Orwell--who would be enjoying all of this enormously--once observed: "To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle."

THE TIGHTENING NOOSE:

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s criminal investigation of the Trump Organization is scrutinizing the actions of one of the president's oldest and most trusted deputies, ProPublica has learned.

The focus on Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, a 72-year-old accountant now running the business with Trump's two adult sons, stems from his involvement in arranging a payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump (which Trump has denied).

Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, or SDNY, contended that the Trump Organization had improperly booked reimbursements for the hush-money scheme as "legal expenses," with the aid of sham invoices. They granted legal immunity to Weisselberg and later closed their 18-month investigation with the guilty plea of one Trump associate, Michael Cohen. But Weisselberg's immunity deal applied only to federal proceedings.

Now Vance's state grand jury is examining whether Weisselberg, among others -- and even the Trump Organization -- should face state criminal charges for falsification of business records, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Neither Weisselberg nor the Trump Organization responded to requests for comment. Vance, through a spokesman, declined to comment.

A handful of lawyers and investigators from Vance's office, led by Chris Conroy, chief of the DA's major economic crimes bureau, traveled to the federal minimum-security prison camp in Otisville, New York, on Oct. 30 to meet for the third time with Cohen, who is serving a three-year prison sentence, according to two sources knowledgeable about the matter. Much of the discussion involved Weisselberg.

JUST ANOTHER CORRUPT NATIONALIST:

hISTORY eNDS EVERYWHERE:

In September, Mohamed Ali almost toppled the Egyptian government by accident, posting viral videos about endemic corruption at the heart of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's regime that sparked rare public protests on the streets of Cairo.

That mini-uprising was quickly crushed by the military, resulting in more than 4,000 arrests, and Ali fled the country soon after.

But on Wednesday in the British capital, the 45-year-old emerged from months of hiding to unveil his new plan to oust Sisi by unifying exiled opposition leaders and presenting Egyptians with a referendum on how the country should be governed post-Sisi -- and he believes he can do all this in the space of two months.

"My plan is in the next month to start a political initiative in London to try to reunite the political opposition inside and outside the country," Ali told reporters in London. "I am in contact with all political waves, the Muslim Brotherhood, liberals and the April 6 movement. I will launch a reform plan with some experts from politics, the health sector, finance, education, and media. I will call all experts in Egypt to join this campaign."

BULLYING DEVIN:

Fiona Hill isn't here to play around, apparently pic.twitter.com/SYpk3VXBFJ

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) November 21, 2019

THE TWITCHY VS THE SHIFTY:

The Bulwark's Jim Swift talks with Matt about Young America's Foundation's decision to cut ties with Michelle Malkin.

This is the fringe of Conservatism Inc., not the main body. So it's good to know that, for now, the people eager to #StandWithMalkin for her defense of Fuentes, the Proud Boys, and the Groypers aren't running the show in the movement. At least not yet.

But the entire episode underscores the reality that while Conservatism Inc. quickly made its peace with Trumpian nationalism, the peace is one-sided. The existing structures of the conservative movement thought they could co-opt this movement over time. They can't. All of the ideological pathways of Trumpism eventually lead to white nationalism. And if the old-guard conservative institutions don't cut ties, then they will be the ones who eventually get co-opted.

This is what YAF said as it broke ties with Malkin: "There is no room in mainstream conservatism or at YAF for holocaust deniers, white nationalists, street brawlers, or racists."

That's a good ethos and YAF deserves a lot of credit for taking a stand.

The only problem is that it isn't true. Mainstream conservatism continues to harbor quite a few people who accommodate holocaust deniers, white nationalists, street brawlers, and racists. 

THE IDEAL LEADER FOR THE rIGHT:

President Donald Trump regularly struggles to "remember what he's said or been told," an anonymous senior government official behind a new exposé on the inner workings of the White House has claimed. [...]

"He stumbles, slurs, gets confused, is easily irritated, and has trouble synthesizing information, not occasionally but with regularity," the official warns.

Often, they say, "the president also can't remember what he's said or been told."

"Americans are used to him denying words that have come out of his mouth," the senior official writes. "Sometimes this is to avoid responsibility."

However, they say it often "appears Trump genuinely doesn't remember important facts."

One clear example of that, the official recalls, is when the president claimed he was not sure if he had "ever even heard of a Category 5" hurricane, despite having been briefed on at least four other Category 5 hurricanes during his time in office.

"Was he forgetting these briefings?" the author questions. "Or more problematic, was he not paying attention at all? These are events that affect millions of Americans, yet they don't seem to stick in his brain."

The official writes that while Trump has often claimed to be highly intelligent, they say they have "seen the president fall flat on his face when trying to speak intelligently" on a number of topics on which he claims to be an expert.

"You can see why behind closed doors his own top officials deride him as an 'idiot' and a 'moron' with the understanding of a 'fifth or sixth grader,'" the unnamed senior official says.

WHEN THE SHAKENDOWN SHAKE BACK:

Gordon Sondland, a genial hotelier whose million-dollar contribution to Trump's Inauguration committee bought him the ambassadorship to the European Union, did not hold back when he appeared before the House Intelligence Committee's impeachment inquiry. The Ukraine scandal was Donald Trump's, from start to finish, Sondland told the panel, and his top advisers were all aware of it, enablers and facilitators of his scheme to pressure the new Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, to launch investigations that would help Trump politically. Sondland said he worked with Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to try to force Zelensky into probing former Vice-President Joe Biden and the Ukrainian role in the 2016 U.S. election, because the President told him to. "Everybody knew what we were doing and why," Sondland said. "Everyone was in the loop." Vice-President Mike Pence knew. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo knew. The chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, knew. The national-security adviser, John Bolton, knew. But, in the end, this was Trump's show, and the price of their service in his Administration was complicity, willing or otherwise, in his scheme.

"We followed the President's orders," Sondland said.

"Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the President of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the President," Sondland said.

"Was there a 'quid pro quo'? . . . The answer is yes," Sondland said.

"As a Presidential appointee, I followed the directions of the President," Sondland said.

The Ambassador seemed to relish his unlikely role at the center of the impeachment affair. He had real stage presence as he slowly and expressively read his statement. He had timing. He seemed unburdened, unruffled, adamant. He made clear his distaste for Giuliani, and for the very concept of pressuring Ukraine by withholding nearly four hundred million dollars in military aid and a White House meeting. If he was an agent of Trump's plot, he portrayed himself as a reluctant one. "We chose the latter course not because we liked it but because it was the only constructive path open to us," Sondland said.

DUDE, BEING A HENCHMAN FOR DONALD IS YOUR REPUTATION:

Donald Trump's secretary of state has reportedly told three prominent Republicans that he is planning to resign from the White House to run for a Senate seat.

Mike Pompeo had planned to stay at the State Department until early spring 2020 but he is now concerned that his connection to Mr Trump, particularly through the impeachment inquiry, is hurting his reputation, according to a Time report.

WASHINGTON'S CROSSING:

Leimert Park in the early 90s was a unique place to be. South Central LA: the birthplace of west-coast hip-hop, jam centre for the now middle-aged instrumentalists of spiritual jazz, historical home to Ray Charles and Ella Fitzgerald, the outskirts of so-called Black Beverly Hills. An area also recently infamous for its street crime and gang affiliations, it was here that young saxophonist Kamasi Washington first became versed in jazz.

At the age of 11, he was taken by his jazz musician father Rickey to see acts in the many clubs dotted around the area's backstreets: artists such as saxophonist Pharoah Sanders at the 100-capacity World Stage club and pianist Horace Tapscott, who would perform with his Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. Tapscott's work was particularly influential for Washington. He viewed the music he played not as spiritual jazz, nor even jazz, but simply "black music", and pioneered the use of spoken-word artists who would chant sociopolitically charged lyrics over his compositions. On Why Don't You Listen?, vocalist Dwight Trible lists jazz musicians from Billie Holiday to Duke Ellington to Dizzy Gillespie, interspersed with the titular refrain. Tapscott felt his work had a responsibility to its history and an ultimate emphasis on imparting this culture to younger generations. In his hands, this lineage would never die.

Over the street from Tapscott and the World Stage, another type of spoken-word culture was forming: hip-hop. Acts such as the Pharcyde and Freestyle Fellowship would hold jams at Project Blowed, extending Tapscott's lineage of black music and putting words to their heavily racialised social environment. A fluid scene was forming; in Leimert Park, the jazz kids would meet the hip-hop kids. Washington was both.

Almost three decades later, in 2015, Washington released his debut album, The Epic. It would spark the beginning of a mainstream jazz resurgence across the US and in the UK, and the radical, politicised reclamation of a genre that had become deeply unfashionable. It was unshackled from the confines of the hotel lobby and thrust back into the clubs.

UNUSEFUL IDIOCY: