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Tag Archives: car accident insurance claims
Ontario insurance accident benefits claims: Can a relative make a claim on my insurance?
Ottawa Insurance Claims Lawyers David Hollingsworth
Is everyone entitled to an insurance claim?
Yes, any person injured in an automobile accident in Ontario can make an insurance claim. This includes claim their relatives and/or dependents.
Are there any restrictions on making an insurance claim in Ontario?
There are some limitations to their insurance claim if one has broken the law during the accident in Ontario. If this is the case, they cannot receive income replacement benefits, visitors expenses, non-earner benefits, lost education expenses, expenses of visitors and the housekeeping and home maintenance benefits.
What happens if the injured does not have insurance ?
The person injured may claim these benefits from their own insurance company. If they do not have an insurance company, they can claim it at the driver at-fault's insurance company. If none of the persons involved have insurance, the claim can be made through the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund.
Who can help me with my insurance claim?
Regardless if you have been at fault or not or have insurance or not, we can help you. There are options. We understand the stress you are going through and can help. Our Ottawa personal injury lawyers have been helping people with their insurance claims since 1999.
Contact one of our Ottawa lawyers for a free consultation and help with your Ontario accident benefits insurance claim.

subset: commoncrawl


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The 25 year old rapper has set new international standards for Danish hip hop. Dark tone, playful use of English, and a class sense of melody and narration.
A simmering presence, just teasing an already burgeoning fan base with only two tour dates, selling out VEGA shows in Copenhagen, and taking only one summer festival. Noah has created a world that seems to hang on to every word, with mounting expectation.
ETEP 2019 Artist Noah Carter has already created towering expectations, and a united press that anointed him an international star in the making.
Denmarks finest rapper to date? We think so. Do not miss the chance to see him at G!


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At Last by Susan Thatcher
sequel to These Foolish Things
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release date: Dec 1, 2013
"These Foolish Things" is a response to all the love stories that begin with young lovers and end immediately after mutual declarations of love. Life continues after youth and love can happen anytime, anywhere.
"At Last" picks up where "These Foolish Things" leaves off. Elizabeth Gardner and Ty Hadley seem destined for "happily ever after," but fate has challenges in store that could tear them apart. Is their love strong enough to survive?
She presently lives in Southern California because the climate and topography suit her. And she is writing more material.


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Urban delivery fleets are often considered the natural environment for electric vehicles, so it stands to reason that a logistics giant such as global parcel company UPS should be one of the pioneers of EVs in the British capital.
The company got into the London plug-in game early, with its first EVs going into service in 2008.
Peter Harris, Director of Sustainability at UPS Europe, said, "A lot of our routes in Central London are relatively short, so we don't have particular range restriction difficulties and it's ideal in terms of being able to address some of the pressing air quality concerns the city has."
Range anxiety is a frequent hang-up for businesses operating electric vehicles. UPS's London fleet hasn't been affected by it in the slightest but power supply, which reared its head when the firm reached 10 EVs, has been a far bigger issue. An upgrade to the local supply bought some time and capacity but it wasn't cheap, nor was it a permanent fix if the plug-in fleet was to expand, so the company looked for alternatives.
"We wanted [something] that would get beyond this conventional grid upgrade, so we're implementing a technology called a smart grid, which will make much better use of the available energy that was already present throughout the entire charging period but [which] we didn't have access to, because our vehicles were recharging in the conventional way."
Via the medium of various different tie-ups, including with Innovate UK – a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – UPS has embarked on a trial of a smart charging system, with the capacity to optimise the timing and the amount of available power based on grid loads and the fleet's needs.
Harris explained, "It will be a combination of a conventional grid upgrade with a smart grid, in conjunction with local energy storage. It's a two-year project that started in April, and we want to come out at the end of it with a strategy on the optimum way to electrify any of our urban fleets. We want to be able to take the strategy into any of our buildings in Europe, or indeed globally, that will allow us to lay out the optimum approach."
"If this smart grid is successful in the way that we think it will be, it will unlock the ability for us to effectively deploy an entirely electric Central London fleet – that's all 170 vehicles. If that is the case, then we will certainly plan to proceed down that road."
The move has allowed the firm to increase the number of electric vehicles based out of its Kentish Town depot. It currently has 52, was limited to 63 by its outgoing power supply, and can now handle a further 20, bringing the total to 72. The trucks themselves are 7.5-tonne items, converted from UPS's existing diesel vehicles.
"What we've been doing for the past five or six years is a conversion programme in conjunction with a German company called EFA-S. We take Mercedes Vario-based distribution vehicles – that already have UPS bodies on them – but at mid-life, which is about the seven-year mark, we work with EFA-S to convert them from diesel to electric. Some of the work is done in-house at UPS and some of the work is done in Germany. We've done about 150 of them across Europe now and about a third of those are in Central London.
"It's been a practice that has worked out well for us [but] it's not where we want to be long term; it's a bridge technology. We want to eventually to get to the point where we can deploy brand new vehicles from the ground up. The market doesn't yet supply those, so this is what we are doing in order to not be held back."
The first 10 of the new vehicles are due to hit the streets in the final quarter of this year, the second 10 in the first quarter of 2018 and, according to Harris, they will perform exactly the same duties as conventional, diesel trucks. "One of the things that we require from our alternative fuel programme is that the vehicles are able to step in and replicate what their diesel predecessor would have done. So if you looked at an electric P80, as we call them, they look exactly the same as their diesel counterpart; even inside as far as the driver is concerned, there is very little change."
Harris admits that pure electric delivery trucks don't work in every scenario but says the firm is also working on range extenders capable of switching between internal combustion for the motorway and battery power for zero-emission travel in cities.
"For most of our other locations, pure EV is not the perfect solution because [they] require a greater range than a pure EV can, at the moment, provide. To address that challenge, we are working on another technology, also with Innovate UK and in conjunction with a company called Tether, which is a British start-up, and we have developed a range extended EV. It's just like the EFA-S conversion, but this vehicle also carries a range extender engine, which acts as a series hybrid. It's not connected to the wheels, but it's able to drive a generator to put more charge back into the battery during the day.
"Take, for example, the ones that we're building at the moment, that we intend to deploy in Birmingham. We serve Birmingham from our base in Tamworth; with a pure EV we just can't get from Tamworth to Birmingham, do a day's work, and get back again. But what we will do is operate the range extender on the to/from routes, then switch it off at the boundary to the Birmingham city area, so the vehicle operates as a zero-emission EV all day, in Birmingham, just like our EFA-S ones do in London. The driver won't control it; it will be controlled by geofencing, and the range extender will just be used for that to/from route to enable it to cover the distance."


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Seibeb back in the frame… NCF flies off at a tangent
Windhoek: As widely speculated, justice finally prevailed when the red-faced Namibian Cycling Federation (NCF) resolved to lift the lid on the boiling pot containing skeletons of Costa Seibeb's shoddy suspension.
The Namibian cycling sensation was unfairly suspended by the trigger-happy NCF without a fair trial, coupled with an assortment of unfolding irregularities during the disciplinary process.
Seibeb was grounded from all international participation, but was strangely allowed to compete locally. That decision looks to have come back to haunt cycling officials as he took out his frustrations on his poor competitors by winning races like claiming first place on the podium was going out of fashion.
His exploits left cycling officials with egg on the face, obliging them to swallow their pride and acknowledge their error of judgement by lifting the ban, understandably with a grain of salt as this was not announced publicly, notwithstanding the fact that initially his sanction was widely publicized.
The in-form Seibeb has been included in the six-member Namibian cycling entourage consisting of six male and four female cyclists to the All Africa Games, slated for Brazzaville, Congo, next month. The rest of the team members will be announced later today.
Apart from cycling, Namibia will be represented in 21 other different sporting disciplines at the continental showpiece. The Namibian ladies cycling team will likely gauge their current standing, while it could also determine whether they are on track for their envisaged entry for the African Continental Road Cycling Championships, in Morocco, next year.
The continental championships will present an ideal platform for the Namibian ladies cycling team to earn qualification for the 2016 Olympic Games.
Meanwhile, in a somewhat low-key announcement, NCF informed the media that it had resolved to lift the suspension of both Seibeb and Till Drobisch. The latter's suspension was never made known to this newspaper before.
The decision to prematurely abbreviate was apparently motivated by the cyclists' commitment and dedication demonstrated during the time of their grounding.
Though he has been passed eligible for national selection, Drobisch will not be available as a result of team commitments, but the inclusion of Namibia's internationally acclaimed veteran cyclist, Dan Craven, will doubtlessly add weight to Namibia's medal hopes.
The pair of Heletje van Staden and Marie-Jeanne Ndimbira will accompany the team in the capacity of team managers, with Heine Kohne as mechanic.
The Namibian cycling entourage will depart for Brazzaville on September 5 – five days before they start their first assignment that includes the individual and team trials, as well as the gruelling road race.


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Tag Archives: documentary
One of our favorite things about Netflix streaming service is the access to hundreds of documentaries that would not have been on our radar without the "suggestions for you" section. Two that we've recently watched: Sons of Perdition, 2010 A … Continue reading
Posted in Movies Tagged 6 mangoes, 7 mangoes, advocacy, Class, diy, documentary, environment, FLDS, movie, sustainability, tiny house Leave a comment
One Liner Movie Mash Ups
Iron Man 3: Consider it a redemption from IM2. C:7.5, K:7 Andromeda Strain: Love that retro sci fi! C:8.5, K:9 Dredd: Better than Stallone. C: 6 Martian Child: Sweet required watching for parents. C:6.5, K:6 Star trek Into Darkness: Eggs … Continue reading
Posted in Movies Tagged action, classic, die hard, Disney, documentary, drama, family films, life of pi, michael crichton, movie, science is cool, star trek, summer blockbuster, super hero, techno-thriller Leave a comment
Movie Catch Up
Ssshhhh… C and I have been really busy lately. We are shopping for a house and are attacking it with our usual amount of obsession and neurosis. But we have been enjoying some movies, too!! Here's what we've been watching … Continue reading
Posted in Movies Tagged bourne franchise, classic, documentary, horror, jurassic park, men in black, movie, sequel, thriller, vincent price 2 Comments
The Interrupters, 2011
C and I watched a beautiful documentary called The Interrupters this week. The violence interrupters profiled in the movie are men and women seeking to stop violence on the streets of Chicago. The movie focuses a 12 month period and … Continue reading
Posted in Movies Tagged 8 mangoes, 9 mangoes, Chicago, Class, documentary, gang violence, Interrupters, movie, race Leave a comment
Surviving Progress, 2011
C and I are quite the fans of documentaries, and one of our favorite aspects of our Netflix service is that we get a chance to see so many that would've completely passed under our radar. Last week we watched … Continue reading
Posted in Movies Tagged 7 mangoes, documentary, environment, movie, progress, science is cool, sustainability Leave a comment


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The Home began a policy of camping out in tents for the whole summer in 1912, first at a berry farm near Freedom Plains, and later along the Wappingers Creek in Rochdale, where most children learned to swim. Neighbors entertained them with auto rides and ice-cream parties.
In 1919, the name was changed to The Children's Home of Poughkeepsie. At this time, the Board formed a committee to arrange for a new building "in the country."


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Siemens Healthineers song is a writhing, spandex-clad horror
Up above the sky was blue and cloudless. On the ground thousands of people stood facing a stage flanked by screens and with a scaffold of lights and cameras on a crane overhead. Loud music thumped.
It could have been Glastonbury if you didn't look too closely at the crowd, many of whom were in formal jackets and shirts. No one was swaying to the music. They were staring straight ahead, frozen. A few arms were raised bearing phones to capture what was possibly the most embarrassing corporate rebranding event.
Thus Siemens chose to tell its staff that henceforth its 120-year-old healthcare division, which makes sensible things like hearing aids and MRI scanners, was to be known as Siemens Healthineers. On stage, a couple of dozen badly coordinated dancers in turquoise and orange spandex bodysuits gyrated to lyrics spelt out in giant letters on the screens: "Reaching out for more / For the best and never alone... One vision / One mission / One focus / One name / One culture / One dream/ One team" - building up to the mighty chorus, "We are, we are, we are Healthineers."
The song dragged on for nearly four minutes, after which the audience gave the sort of polite clap born of relief that something awful is over.
A homemade video of the event has been attracting much attention online, where hundreds of people have posted comments variously saying: "This is how you destroy a company", and "Welcome to a more soul-crushing 1984". Some are suggesting that GE, Siemens' main rival, will be rubbing its hands in glee as customers decline to buy life-saving medical kit from a cheesy team of Healthineers.
I suspect Siemens will survive this naff folie de grandeur. One of the greatest mysteries of capitalism is the way that companies can say and do boneheaded things while their business sails imperviously on.
Even so, it has set an example to companies everywhere of how silly you can look when you ignore three basic rules of corporate communication.
The first says large companies must never turn to song. There is not a single example of a business putting its values to music without mass humiliation.
There was the terrible rendition of U2's One at Bank of America, in which a balding banker pretended to be Bono.
Then there was the Ernst & Young recruitment song: "Oh happy day / when Ernst & Young / Showed me a better way," featuring accountants swaying and clapping out of time.
The KPMG effort ("KPMG, we're strong as can be / A team of power and energy / We go for the gold / Together we hold / To our vision of global strategy") was ridiculed.
Songs are fine in church where the words tend to be decent and where people gather because they believe in the same thing. Pop songs are fine too, so long as the people singing them are either young or cool.
In corporations, any attempt to impose a system of shared belief is sinister, and as the average employee is neither young nor cool, songs are to be avoided at all costs.
The second rule is to resist portmanteau names, in which respectable words - in this case health, engineers and pioneers - are cut up and glued together to create something monstrous.
Recent corporate examples include "innovalue", "sustainagaily", "edgeunity" and "ideation". Occasionally, a company pulls it off: A few decades ago, Bill Gates and Paul Allen created the rather successful Microsoft, though I daresay with those two it would have flourished whatever the name.
The third law says claiming to be one team with one dream doesn't make you so. It just makes you look stupid.
"One" is the biggest corporate trend of the moment: One Heinz, One Sony, even One Microsoft. Every company that wants to show it isn't in a muddle launches a One programme.
What does it mean? And how can companies be so enthusiastic about being one, while at the same time banging on about diversity?
When Pearson, the former owner of the FT, announced it was One Pearson, I was none the wiser. And was less wise still when it decided that its oneness didn't preclude it from flogging the newspaper.
Explaining the new name, the CEO of Siemens Healthineers recently held forth about "leveraging expertise", "customised clinical solutions", and the "journey to success" before getting to the nub of it. "Our new name... expresses our identity as a people company."
In that case, he has forgotten that people, unlike MRI machines, have feelings. They can feel embarrassment and alienation and are most disinclined to feel more warmly about their jobs after receiving trite messages at 110 decibels and watching dancers in orange and blue spandex writhe.


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TDCAA TDCAA Community Juvenile Law Venue
Got a case going to trial tomorrow in which we have venue based on the fact that juvenile resides in our county and is on probation in our county despite fact that offense was committed in another county. How do you all typically prove up venue? I can certainly do it through his p.o. but i suspect that would raise an objection.
Is mom or dad on your witness list ?
If so, tell defense that you are going to call one or both or they can stip to it.
I generally put parent or guardian on wit list because I may need them to prove up DOB which is a jurisdictional issue.
I bet you can do it through the po too without objection. Most pos have the "client" fill out some paperwork and it will generally have their address and they have done interviews with client where he has stated where he lives or maybe if you are lucky have done a home visit.
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Is it just me, or does it seem to you, too, that your grocery money doesn't stretch as far these days? We're on a tight grocery budget, and every week, I feel like I'm getting less and less for my money. Since my family wants to eat, especially the three growing kids that eat a lot, I've found 4 easy ways to slash the grocery bill despite the rising cost of food, no coupons required.
Find Good Recipe Resources
The first of the 4 easy ways to slash the grocery bill happens before I even set foot in the grocery store. I start by choosing my meals for the week at some of my favorite frugal recipe sites. I love Budget Bytes, Struggle Meals, and $5 Dinners. When I choose recipes from one of these sites, I know I'll be preparing food for my family that is healthy and low cost.
Substitutions Are Key
Another way to save money is to freely make substitutions to a recipe based on what you have on hand. This week, we're having navy bean soup in the slow cooker. The original recipe called for ham, but at $6 per thick slice of ham, that wasn't in the budget. Instead, I found Polish sausage on sale for $3.50 a pound. That will be going in the soup instead of ham.
By making substitutions based on what you have on hand and what is on a sale, you can make your grocery dollars stretch further.
Shred Food Yourself
Buying food that is already shredded is convenient, but you can save a lot of money by shredding the food yourself. A head of cabbage might only cost $1, but buying a bag of shredded cabbage costs $1.50. I'd estimate that the bag contains about ½ of a head of cabbage, so I'm paying an additional $2 just for the convenience of not shredding the cabbage myself. Since I have a food processor with a shred blade, I don't feel the need to pay the extra money when shredding the cabbage would only add about 5 minutes to my food prep time.
Likewise, cheese as well as chicken, especially when bought in bulk, is much cheaper if you shred it yourself at home.
Buy in Bulk When on Sale
Finally, make buying in bulk a habit. When an item that you use frequently goes on sale or is on clearance, stock up. This summer, salad dressing was on clearance for .99 a bottle. I bought 10 bottles, so we won't need to buy salad dressing for the next few months.
Likewise, I only buy the crackers we like when they go on sale Buy One, Get Two free. This sale runs two to three times a year, so I buy enough to get us through until the next sale.
By buying in bulk when items are on sale, I'm able to pay the lowest grocery price possible for the items we eat.
Sometimes, saving money at the grocery store just requires a mental shift and the development of new habits. Make these small changes, and you'll see your grocery bill drop.
Have you noticed the price of groceries increasing recently? What strategies do you use to keep your grocery bill in check?


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Friends, for the past week I have enjoyed sharing my favorite Norse love stories with you on Soldier's social media accounts. The more I learn from the Old Norse sources there more peculiar I find it that the Viqueens and Vikings, in modern times, are so closely associated with brute force and violence. As the poem below reveals, the ancient people of the north thought nothing of a life without love.
You have perhaps also noticed that I am particularly fond of the Norse love stories since they, without exception, feature daring women, heroines, and fierce goddesses. In contrast to more modern storylines, none of these ladies are in need of being saved by a prince or a hero. So, without further ado here is my list of the best Norse love stories:
- The Norse goddess Freya saving her protégée Ottar. The original version of the story is from on the poem Hyndluljóð sited in the Poetic Edda. If you prefer a more modern translation you can find my version of the Freya and Ottar story here.
- The Viking Age Romeo and Juliet – Svipdagr and Mengloth. I urge you to read this wonderful poem in its original form but if you prefer a more modern translation you can find my version of the Svipdagr and Mengloth story here.
- Parental love stories. The Old Norse literature features several stories on the theme of parental love. My favorite is Grógaldr, the song of Groa, about a young man seeking advice from his deceased mother.
No. 1. Freya – the "worst" love goddess in history
Hardly surprising we begin our countdown with the Norse goddess Freya, whom most associate with love. However, this is to a large extent a misrepresentation and there is so much more to this fierce power woman. In fact, Freya's original role was as a war goddess but, a woman being associated with war was simply too far fetched for the 18th- and 19th-century gentlemen poets that reintroduced her into modern day literature. So, they effectively erased her qualities as a powerful magician, her ferocious temper and her sexual independence from history. Luckily, we still have the original poems from the Viking Age featuring Freya in her primary role is as the ruler of war, the foremost of all Valkyries, i.e. the choosers of the fallen. It is she who selects half of all those who have died a heroic death to serve her, in her hall Sessrumnir, in the afterlife. Only thereafter the remaining half joins Odin in Valhalla.
In fact, there are no love stories featuring Freya in the ancient historical sources. There are poems portraying her magical powers, her riches (her realm, jewelry, and enchanted objects) and her sexual independence but with regards to traditional love-affairs history tells us nothing. Nevertheless, I have a favorite Norse love story about Freya, be it of an untraditional kind. In the story, Freya saves her devoted protégée Ottar from ruin. It is a story about loyalty, devotion, and friendship – all of which are key elements of love.
No. 2. The Viking Age Romeo and Juliet – Svipdagr and Mengloth
The love story of Svipdagr and Mengloth is an epic love story from the beautiful poem Fjölsvinnsmál (The sayings of Fjolsvinn) from the Poetic Edda. The story features the legendary Mengloth and the hero Svipdagr. Despite having been separated for an eternity, our heroine doesn't sit idly by waiting for her one true love. She works all day together with her maidens to heal the wounded and sick, in her own realm, surrounded by her own riches and she doesn't simply fall into anyone's arms - not even those of her long lost Svipdagr. I urge you to read this wonderful love poem!
No. 3. Norse Parental Love
The Old Norse literature features several stories on the theme of parental love. My favorite is Grógaldr, the song of Groa. The story is about a young man seeking advice from his deceased mother. He visits her grave mound and she comes forth to offer advice and comfort. For centuries the poem was known only in a rewritten format, in which the son seeks advice from his father. Luckily, the existence of the original poem resulted in Groa regaining her rightful place in historical storytelling again.
Finally, even the famous god Thor is depicted as an affectionate father. He is known to miss his beloved daughter and is described as "he who longs fiercely for Thrud". So let's say farewell to misrepresenting the Viqeens and Vikings as nothing more than malevolent warriors. The surviving parts of their poetry are without a doubt a testament of love and feature some of the most romantic words ever written on the subject.


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Trump and the warping of democratic governance
Not for the first time, President Donald Trump has revealed the fragility of this country's democratic system. Three years into his presidency, the evidence of a weakened system is all around. It has happened in plain sight.
The latest involves the president and Ukraine. Based on what has so far been reported, the president asked, encouraged or demanded that the leader of a foreign government undertake an investigation designed to produce information that could damage a potential 2020 campaign rival.
Whether this also involved a quid pro quo is in question. The full story is not yet known. The biggest reason the details are not known is because Trump's White House and the Justice Department, which is supposed to operate independently, have so far prevented Congress from obtaining the information that could help reveal what is missing.
Over the past few days, reporting first by The Washington Post and later by other organizations has provided the outline of a disturbing story. Unless there is substantial countering information, it portrays a president abusing his powers purely for political gain.
The outlines are these: According to multiple reports, on July 25, the president spoke on the phone with newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In that conversation, he pressed the Ukrainian leader to reopen an investigation into a company that at one time had Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden, on its board.
Shortly after that phone call, Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and Trump's personal lawyer, met in Spain with an adviser to Zelensky. Giuliani further pressed the Ukrainian government to pursue the investigation involving Biden's son, as well as one about alleged Democratic involvement with Ukrainians affecting Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman who is in prison.
Meanwhile, during this period, $250 million in military assistance for Ukraine, money appropriated by Congress, was, for a time, held up. Was that directly connected to Trump's efforts to pressure the Ukrainians? That question also remains unanswered.
The contents of the Trump phone call prompted someone in the government to file a whistleblower complaint, an unprecedented grievance aimed at the president. The inspector general for the intelligence community found the whistleblower's charge credible and urgent, in which case the information should have been relayed to Congress. That hasn't happened because the White House and Justice Department are fighting it.
That is roughly where things stand as of the weekend. Congress will fight for the information, and a lengthy court battle could ensue. That would be par for the course, as Trump's White House and Justice Department have consistently and persistently resisted any efforts by House committees to obtain documents and testimony from administration officials for various investigations into corruption or abuse of power. Resistance has been the posture of the administration ever since Democrats took control of the House in the 2018 midterms and began to launch their investigations.
Trump and administration officials see these investigations as pure harassment, just as Trump complained that the investigation by former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was a witch hunt, until he, wrongly, claimed that the Mueller report had totally exonerated him. White House resistance has prevented Congress from carrying out its constitutional authority to provide oversight of the executive branch.
Trump has responded to this latest case as he has in previous instances when he has been challenged. He has cast the whistleblower - though he says he does not know the identity of the person who filed the complaint - as a partisan Democrat in an attempt to discredit the allegations of wrongdoing.
He also has refused to say what he said in the call with the Ukrainian leader, other than to assert that whatever it was, it was totally appropriate. "It doesn't matter what I discussed," Trump said. And with statements and weekend tweets, he has redoubled efforts to draw attention away from himself and shift it to Biden and Biden's son. "Someone ought to look into Joe Biden," he said Friday.
America's democratic system, the world's oldest, is said to be resilient, with institutions strong enough to defend against runaway actors and with checks and balances designed to prevent too much power from building up in any one place or with any one person. Earlier in Trump's presidency, that appeared to be the case. Right now, however, that is in question.
When the president asserts executive privilege to prevent testimony before Congress by a private citizen who never was on the government payroll - as happened last week when Corey Lewandowski, Trump's former campaign manager, appeared before the House Judiciary Committee - it is clear how much Trump is prepared to test his belief that his powers are unlimited. "I have the right to do whatever I want as president," Trump once said, and that appears to be the basis upon which he is operating.
Three years into his presidency, Trump has helped to reveal the weaknesses of the system. In the executive branch, and especially in the White House, there are few if any officials willing to challenge and check the president. To the extent that administration officials could do that, those who tried are gone. He has also demonstrated the degree to which Congress is dependent on a president who operates with at least some respect for the norms of the system created by the Founding Fathers.
In a Saturday tweet, the president claimed that this latest story is a "witch hunt" by his desperate opponents. At least part of the electorate probably fully agrees with the president on that assertion. Already it's easy to see the partisan battle lines forming.
In the case of Russia and the 2016 election, Trump campaign associates were certainly open to accepting damaging information about Hillary Clinton, but Mueller said there was not an illegal conspiracy on that question. On the issue of abuse of power, Mueller laid out possible evidence but stopped short of encouraging Congress to move to impeach the president.
The Mueller investigation did not deliver an ironclad case against the president. That is an important cautionary warning in the absence of additional information about this episode. Before all the information is out - if it ever comes out - this is quickly becoming another partisan conflict, more fodder for the coming presidential election.
If it is simply reduced to that, to noise along the campaign trail, then the most important issues will be obscured or ignored, which are how much stress the system already has taken and how much more it can take.