Sunday, July 23, 2017

Pardon me!

It is being reported that the so-called President is considering pardoning his aides, relatives and even himself.

Section 2, Clause 1 of the Constitution: "The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment."

Please note that Pardons are to be granted for "Offences against the United States." This would seem to imply that only the guilty could be pardoned - not the innocent or those not convicted of a crime. You cannot pardon someone in advance for no particular offense or reason. They would have had to do something that the pardoner and pardoned would be acknowledging was wrong and illegal.

Thus a pardon would seem to be an admission of guilt if it is accepted BEFORE someone is even charged with a crime which then should be justification for impeachment if they are an elected official, such as the so-called President pardoning himself.

Also, anyone who has been pardoned cannot then use the 5th Amendment to refuse to answer questions oath that would incriminate themselves because they have no legal jeopardy at that point. Their only jeopardy would then be perjury. If they are then pardoned for perjury, that should also be justification to impeach the pardoner and the perjurer.


In other words, a pardon is not a perfect solution for the so-called President UNLESS the Republican majority in Congress has not shred of integrity. Unfortunately, that may be possible.

John McCain IS a hero

Just for the record, John McCain IS a hero. You can read a bit about it here: http://www.newsweek.com/sorry-trump-story-john-mccain-war-hero-355617

And here is what our so-called President said about this brave American:

“He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

“I think John McCain’s done very little for the veterans. I’m very disappointed in John McCain.”

From Politico: Trump received four student deferments from military service between 1964 and 1968... he told reporters another medical deferment he received after graduating was for a bone spur in his foot. When asked which foot, Trump told reporters to look up the records.

It is UNBELIEVABLE that the Republican Party nominated and helped elect a person who defames one of their own greatest heroes. The Republican party and their voters do not deserve John McCain. The so-called President, in my opinion, should shut up and go away.



The biggest news of our time: the normalization of insanity

The biggest news these days is NOT the so-called President's love affair with all things Putin or authoritarianism. It's not health care and the fact that the CBO believes that 32million Americans would lose coverage if Obamacare were repealed! It's not North Korean or Syria or Iran.

None of that compares with this: Public Policy Polling found the following: "Trump's right about one thing though - he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose most of his support.  45% say they would still approve of him even if he shot someone to 29% who say they would disapprove, and 26% who aren't sure one way or the other." That's 71% who would still support him or MIGHT support him even if he were a murderer vs. only 29% who would not!!!!

Also they found "only 45% of Trump voters believe Donald Trump Jr. had a meeting with Russians about information that might be harmful to Hillary Clinton... even though Trump Jr. admitted it.  32% say the meeting didn't happen and 24% say they're not sure."

They support the Trump family, while at the same time they do not believe what they say! Also, murder by a Trump is OK with them. Just as with Duterte of the Philippines.

This insanity is the biggest news of our time; widespread insanity that, in reality, has always been there, bubbling just under the surface of seemingly normal people. It's as if faith and belief have completely replaced reason and evidence in people's lives even outside of religious belief. It is now religion, faith and ideology ALL THE TIME WITH EVERYTHING. Remember this; 71% of the so-called President's supporters either have no problem with him murdering others, or are not sure they have a problem with this. This is not fake news - this is from the so-called President's own lips.

The poll:

From his own lips:

Alex Jones/Infowars greatest hits

This is a pretty good adaptation of Alex Jones words into music. Almost as surrealistic as "I Am the Walrus." Please note that the so-called President saw fit to come on this guy's show during the campaign (and indeed locked up the crazy vote) and compliment him! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJqLAleEnKw

Does ANYTHING matter? Do facts exist? Does right and wrong exist?

Does ANYTHING matter? Do facts exist? Does right and wrong exist?
In June 2016 Donald Trump Jr gets an email from a friend saying, "The documents (he would receive from a Russian attorney representing the Russian government) “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father... This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
Trump Jr. replied within minutes: “If it’s what you say I LOVE IT especially later in the summer.”
Let's review: a Russian attorney known to work for the Russian government in promoting the repeal of US sanctions against Russia, gets a meeting with the Trump campaign where she is expected to give damaging info about Hillary Clinton to the Trump campaign. This info, most likely, would be info hacked and stolen info. In other words, illegally obtained information. And in return, an intellectually honest person would conclude, Russia would deserve a reward, such as the repeal of those aforementioned Russian sanctions.
Let's compare this situation to the "yeah, but Hillary" argument we are often hearing as the Trump defense.
Trump apologists are claiming that the DNC worked with the Ukrainian government to get dirt on Paul Manafort. Indeed, it did come out that Manafort received MILLIONS of dollars from pro-Russian political parties in the Ukraine and indeed, Manafort did have to resign as Trump campaign manager.
Are these two things the same kind of "oppo research"?
Obviously not. As Politico reported in January 2017, "A Ukrainian-American operative who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation."
Yes an Ukrainian American citizen, Alexandra Chalupa, a consultant to the DNC, used her knowledge and connections to research Paul Manafort's connections with pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine and in her research did interface with the Ukraine government. Since Manafort represented pro-Russian groups in Ukraine and Russia did actually INVADE Ukraine, Ukraine was probably happy to confirm Manafort's Russian connections in the hope he would be nowhere near the White House in the future.
Here is the difference between what the DNC (not Hillary Clinton by the way) did and what Donald Trump Jr did; what Alexandra Chalupa did was research and seek verification of information that actually should have been public information - Manafort was actually supposed to have disclosed his status as a foreign agent - he had not done so then. No stolen emails, no hacking, nothing but asking questions about, as it turns out, real wrong doing. What this was not was a hostile foreign government trying to meddle with our democracy - it was the DNC, a US political party, trying to find info about their opponent. This was not a Ukrainian campaign to subvert US democracy.
In the case of Donald Trump Jr, he was hoping to get damaging info that would have been the product of ILLEGAL hacking; it could have been faked documents; in any event it was offered by a hostile foreign government hoping to get sanctions lifted and disrupt the US election. It was RUSSIA, a hostile foreign government, seeking an American co-conspirator to subvert our election and they found one in the Trump campaign.
Does the DNC have the right to investigate Paul Manafort? Yes. Can a DNC consultant ask Ukraine to verify that Manafort was paid by pro-Russian parties? YES. And subsequently, Manafort has confirmed that connection, but probably too late to escape punishment.
Does Donald Trump Jr have the right to receive hacked emails to use against Hillary Clinton? NO. Does Russia have the right to interfere with our election as part of "its government’s support for Mr. Trump”? NO.
Is it wrong to meet with a friendly government to confirm whether a US citizen has violated US law by failing to disclose that they were a foreign agent? NO.
Is it wrong to meet with a hostile government, Russia, to receive stolen and possibly faked info designed to hurt your opponent? YES!
IS it then wrong, disgusting and phony to be insulted when others suggest collusion with that hostile government and you actually did try to collude just a couple of weeks before? YES! Watch the incredible video of a person (Donald Trump Jr.) with no moral grounding:

Junior, Manafort and Jared meet to conspire with Russians

An extra amazing thing about this story is that it is possible that this story was leaked to the NY Times by a Trump advocate who realized that since Manafort and, in particular, Jared Kushner had just updated some required legal forms to include this meeting with the Russian agent, that this story was going to come out anyway. They figured that leaking this now may be advantageous for Kushner whose omission is a felony. So they are making Donald Trump Jr. the fall guy because he is at lower legal risk since he is not in the government.

Yes, a Trumpster leaked this; but the so-called President will not be complaining too much. Instead he will be making excuses that talking to the Russians about probable illegally stolen emails is no big deal and that everyone does it even though he has said all along that his campaign has never done this.

But what of the two stories that Donald Trump Jr has told? At first Junior only knew the existence of the meeting was about to be known by the whole world so he told a story of a meeting about reversing a Russian policy outlawing adoption of Russian children by Americans. Then he learned that the email described in the NY Times article below was discovered and he had to change his story to accommodate this fact. Oh.

Now all that is needed is a copy of the email which I'm sure Special Prosecutor Mueller will soon obtain.


Is there any chance that Manafort, Kushner and Junior did not Tell the so-called President what was in the email? Did everyone but the so-called President know the Russians were trying to help him?

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

What Trump has to do to lose his supporters

For his supporters to abandon him, the so-called President would have to do something WORSE than shoot somebody on 5th Ave. That would probably be something like behave with humility, be reasonable and consider others before oneself. And I am not joking when I say this, the greatest threat to his support from his base would be if he behaved normally, rationally and ethically.

Pence for President?

I need someone to explain to me that even if you support the White House agenda, how you can still support the so-called President when his ostensible replacement, VP Pence, would pursue the same or similar agenda? Exactly what would be the problem if he were removed and Pence was the President. I say this even though I disagree with Pence on just about everything. I also say this even though it is likely that Pence has lied about various things, such as whether he knew that Mike Flynn was a foreign agent until well after he was fired.  A liar is not a nut at least.  I would gain nothing from Pence being President except that the country would not be lead by a sociopath or worse.

He is obviously a misogynist; bragged about sexually assaulting women and has been accused of telling the truth about doing so; has tweeted races memes championed by white supremacists such as Stormfront; promoted the racist meme of Obama not being a citizen or being a secret Muslim; lied about the unemployment rate under Obama; lied about the size of the crowd in Washington DC for his inauguration; named Gen. Flynn as his NSA director despite being warned not to do so; lied about seeing a video of thousands of Muslims celebrating 9-11 on roofs in New Jersey; fired the FBI director in order to obstruct an investigation into the former NSA director and the Russia probe; lied about up to 5million people voting fraudulently in the last election and all of them voting for Clinton; lied about Ted Cruz and his father; lied about his support of the Iraq War; and so on.

Exactly why must he remain President when he is obviously unfit and the alternative is a more fit conservative Republican? It is time to use the 25th Amendment.

Obama, Trump and Russia

The news about the Obama administration trying to combat Russia's hacking in 2016 is an important story and many details about motivations are sure to be filled in. The main thrust is US intelligence discovered the hacking and that it was intended to hurt Clinton and help Trump and investigate what was done in response. There were public discussions of the Russian threat and covered in the news last year - but some ignored it or did not understand its import. One of those was, of course, the so-called President.

Here is the key point: if Obama announced in late 2016 that Russia was trying to hack our actual voter files in numerous states and help Trump, it would have been seen by many as mere "partisan politics" designed to help Clinton and hurt Trump. So they did not publicize this.

The Obama administration noted "that by August it was too late to prevent the transfer to WikiLeaks and other groups of the troves of emails that would spill out in the ensuing months. They believe that a series of warnings — including one that Obama delivered to Putin in September — prompted Moscow to abandon any plans of further aggression, such as sabotage of U.S. voting systems."

Also a number of cyber weapons were planted by the U.S. in response in Russian systems as well. But it was too late and probably not possible to do anything about the flood of fake news coming out of Russia or the bots they used to spread this news. News or ideas, like those of Al Qaeda or ISIS, are difficult to eradicate.

But now the graceless so-called President attacks Obama for not using the Russian hacks to effect the Presidential race - he criticizes Obama for not publicizing the fact of Russian interference in our election that the so-called President still refuses to acknowledge!

The so-called President wants to have it both ways: he wants to deny the fact of the Russian hacks while criticizing Obama for not doing something about the hacks. Also, the so-called President is behaving as if he is just learning about all of this when he has had access to security briefings since he became the nominee and and certainly since he became President 5 months ago. What is he talking about? From the Washington Post: "Trump tells Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth in an interview set to air Sunday that he “just heard today for the first time” that former President Barack Obama “knew about Russia a long time before the election, and he did nothing about it.”" Wait a minute - you, the so-called President have had access to this info for 5 months, probably more and you found out only now?

This is the most incompetent person ever to be President.



Was Rep. Scalise possibly a homophobe and David Duke wannabee, saved by a black lesbian?

The world is so strange - you can't make this stuff up!

One of the hero cops who most likely saved a number of Republican Congresspersons lives yesterday is a married black lesbian woman, Crystal Griner. She was shot and injured in the gunfight but will recover. One of the lives she hopefully saved is that of Steve Scalise who had been in critical condition but recovering.


Will Mr. Scalise learn anything from his experience? Will the so-called President who visited the officer in the hospital? Go see http://www.cnn.com/…/trump-hospital-visit-scalise/index.html  .

So should Office Griner have less rights than other Americans Rep. Scalise and Mr. so-called President? If so, you have the chance to tell her that to her face - why don't you?

Trump & Comey

The so-called President and his surrogates are trying to make a big deal that Comey has confirmed in his just released statement (6/7/17) to Congress that he indeed told the so-called President 3 times in private that he was not under investigation. Of course, this is irrelevant info that the Administration knows the base will think is important. They, of course, WILL think it's important because the so-called President believes, according to his own stated opinion, they have no ethics or moral grounding. More on that later.

Here is what Comey said to Congress back on March 20, 2017: "I have been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the TRUMP CAMPAIGN and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts. As with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed."

As you can see, Comey said the investigation was directed at the Trump Campaign. Duh. Why did he not announce publicly that Trump was or was not the target? Comey wrote in his statement today that he "did not tell the President that the FBI and the Department of Justice had been reluctant to make public statements that we did not have an open case on President Trump for a number of reasons, most importantly because it would create a duty to correct, should that change."

In other words, if something were to change, Comey did not want to have to announce that the so-called President was now under investigation.

So the point of the so-called President not being the announced target is not all that important. His CAMPAIGN has been the target and has always been the target and no one has said otherwise. To make a big deal out of this is to make a big deal out of nothing.

The so-called President's attorney has said "The President feels completely and totally vindicated. He is eager to continue to move forward with his agenda.” Here's how we will know this is a lie; when the so-called President and his surrogate do not behave as if they were totally vindicated when Comey testifies.

Finally, the so-called President's supporters will be unfazed by all of this. They will claim he is vindicated, the victim of a witch hunt and that this is all fake news. It does not matter what they say because, as the so-called President has pointed out, they have no ethics or moral grounding: "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters, ok? It’s, like, incredible.” http://www.snopes.com/donald-trump-fifth-avenue-comment/



Why would he think this would be the case? Why would he think that he could commit murder (if it were self-defense this would hardly be an "incredible" assertion) and his supporters would not care? Stupidity might work but more likely it is because the so-called President believes his supporters have no ethics or morals; what they have is blind faith. And that's just fine for an egomaniac and narcissist. Those are HIS words.