Our friend Jeff has some sobering thoughts, after today’s impeachment hearings. His words are both thoughtful and thought-provoking. Our world has turned upside-down, my friends. Please take a minute to read Jeff’s post …
Today we heard testimony from two more patriots. Today, we also heard more of the same from a political party that’s out of touch and out of defenses for the President of the United States. Indeed, the last two weeks didn’t go well for him.
And frankly, the next several weeks will not go well for him either. His impeachment is imminent, though it’s not clear what the Democrats plan is for the next stage. I’m assuming it’s a work in progress, but it does appear that witness testimony has concluded today.
Of course, there’s always the chance that former National Security Adviser John Bolton might reach deep into his conscience for some patriotism and decide to come forward. But, he’s got a book deal. That’s much more important.
Former National Security Council official Dr. Fiona Hill and State Department official David Holmes answered…
There is so much to write about that I simply cannot keep up … I need more than 24 hours in a day! Thankfully, our friend Jeff over at On the Fence Voters has written about yesterday’s testimony in the impeachment hearings by Gordon Sondland. I would only add that somebody needs to take Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan back to pre-school and let the adults get on with the business at hand! Thank you, Jeff, for this great summary of yesterday’s events!
We’re now on day five of the impeachment inquiry, and once again, the current President of the United States is having another tough day. His million-dollar donor, Ambassador Gordon Sondland, not only through him under the bus, but also just about anyone else who’s involved in this fiasco.
I guess when a few years in prison might await, the generous donation to the President for an Ambassadorship doesn’t seem all that important. In the end, instead of pleading the fifth as many in the media had speculated he might do, Sondland decided to come clean–kind of.
After his first deposition Sondland came to the realization that based on testimony from others such as Ambassador William Taylor, his recollection was a bit hazy, which led him to amend some of his original statements. Then today, the Ambassador decided that the President, Secretary of State Mike…
Today I would like to introduce you to Richard Miles of Dallas, Texas. When he was a teenager, he was arrested and convicted of murder … a murder he did not commit. On August 25th, 1995, at 20 years of age, Richard was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
The facts of the matter: Deandre Shay Williams and Robert Ray Johnson were shot through the open sun roof of a parked a car at a Texaco station near Bachman, Texas, on May 16, 1994. Johnson, the driver survived but Williams, sitting in the passenger seat died. An eye-witness claimed that Richard Miles was the killer.
More than a decade later, an organization called Centurion began investigating Richard’s case. Centurion, much like the Innocence Project, works to investigate cases of people who have been wrongfully convicted in order to attain an exoneration.
In Richard’s case, it turned out that the Dallas Police Department had failed to disclose two police reports containing possible exculpatory information, and the eye-witness came forth and recanted his testimony, saying that the prosecutor in the case had instructed him to lie.
And so it was that on October 12th, 2009, Richard Miles was released from prison and three years later was fully exonerated. Now, you’re wondering what makes Miles a good person, deserving of an entire post, aren’t you? Wait for it.
For two years, Miles struggled to get back on his feet. Ultimately, he found a job, a home, and today is married with a child. But that struggle was the impetus for what Miles went on to do.
“I was overwhelmed. I was 34 years old in age, but I was 19 from society standpoints. I had not dealt with the world, and I was literally scared. I didn’t know about taxes and employment. The world was totally different.”
A lot of people would be angry and bitter at having lost 15 years of their life in such a manner, then having such a hard time re-entering society. But Richard took a negative and turned it into a positive. He decided to help people coming out of prison to navigate their return to society. He founded a non-profit called Miles of Freedom that helps people transition and stay out of prison.
“I saw firsthand these points of despair for people coming home from prison. Yes, they committed a crime, but a lot of them wanted to do better, and they were just not in a space to do better.”
Miles received compensation from the state upon his exoneration in 2012, and he used a large portion of that to start Miles of Freedom. Operating in South Dallas, the nonprofit assists individuals returning home from prison by helping them obtain identification, enroll in college, and secure housing. The group also provides computer and career training, financial literacy programs and job placement.
The Miles of Freedom Lawn Care Service provides temporary employment for men and women in the program. Miles also offers a shuttle service that takes family members to see their loved ones who are incarcerated.
The stated mission of Miles of Freedom is …
To equip, empower, and employ individuals returning home from prison and provide support and assistance for families and communities impacted by Incarceration.
Simple enough but imagine what a big thing that is to someone just leaving prison with no idea how to get back on his or her feet. This year, Richard Miles is one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes of 2019. Below is snippet from an interview between Miles and CNN’s Allie Torgan …
CNN: In addition to the support and job training programs, what else do you offer?
Miles: We take a deep dive into financial literacy, which is taught by Frost Bank. We also have a nine-lesson curriculum that deals with the soft skills, diversity and change in the workplace, sexual harassment—and all this stuff gets our participants ready for employment, which is very key. Because they’re coming from an institution that did not provide these skill sets to maintain employment.
We also have a youth program. We have high schools across the street where we go in and talk about going to prison, challenges, making the right choices. We host different community events, back to school events, where we’re able to talk with kids and family members about incarceration, staying out of incarceration and needs for education.
Good people come from all walks of life, and their good deeds may be as small as rescuing a puppy, or as big as paying off student loan debt for an entire graduating class. Some choose to help the environment, others help the poor or the disabled, others take on caring for a community or knitting sweaters for the elderly. Mr. Miles has taken on helping a set of people who most others wouldn’t bother with, most would write them off as a loss. Who knows what good some of the people Mr. Miles is helping might go on to do with their own lives because of the help they received when they most needed it? I give two thumbs up to Mr. Richard Miles! 👍👍
I thought it was about time for a ‘toon post … a bit of humour to dull the pain of the 24/7 news cycle where we are always being bombarded with some new abomination.
There was one bright spot last Friday, when Roger Stone was convicted on all seven felony counts with which he was charged. Now, if ol’ Roger had been charged and convicted for every crime he’s ever committed, according to my calculations, he would be serving a 2,347 year sentence. The truth of the matter is I won’t be surprised if Trump pardons him, but let’s enjoy his downfall while we can.
Only trouble with this one is they made Trump look slim …
The thing that is on everybody’s mind, of course, are the ongoing impeachment hearings, and the cartoonists on both sides are having a field day.
Rather than either shutting up, or having some logical rebuttal to the witness testimonies, the republicans, most notably Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes, and Trump himself, are engaging in a smear campaign. Why, Trump even tried to blame former Ambassador Marie Yovanovich for the Civil War in Somalia!
And speaking of Jim Jordan …
Some in the GOP seem to be having a hard time these days. It must be difficult to have to give full support to a ‘man’ who has no values, no integrity, lies, cheats and steals. Surely some of them are considering whether Trump is worth them throwing away their own careers.
The foundation for our government is the U.S. Constitution. Presidents take an oath to protect and uphold the Constitution. The document has withstood many challenges over the past 232 years, but I have to question whether it can stand up to the constant shredding and burning it is being put through under Donald Trump and his cadre of oafs.
And just a few miscellaneous ‘toons …
Remember when the worst thing the opposition could find to criticize the president for was wearing a tan-coloured suit? I long for the good ol’ days.
Yep, friends, I know it’s hard to believe, but I have still more snarky snippets in my pack! There’s just so much material … sigh. I am working on a piece about Stephen Miller that I started last week, but frankly I’m not sure when it will see the light of day. I can only wallow in the muck that is Mr. Miller for so long before I am physically ill and have to step back out for a while. Stephen Miller is perhaps the most evil person I’ve encountered in many years, perhaps ever. Anyway, to release some of the pent-up angst, I found plenty to snark about …
Loyalty … to the country, not the prez
The representative for my district is Warren Davidson, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, therefore a radical right-wing republican. Last evening, he posted on Twitter:
“Executive Branch employees swear to faithfully discharge the duties of their office. If they disagree with #POTUS they should resign, not join in a ‘resistance.’”
He was referring, of course, to Acting Ambassador to the Ukraine William Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, both of whom testified before the House impeachment inquiry that Trump’s attempted extortion to force Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to open a false investigation of Joe Biden and his son, Hunter in exchange for military aid that was already approved, was disturbing, was wrong, and potentially damaging to the national security interests of both the Ukraine and the U.S. He referenced an OpEd in The Hill that claims, in a nutshell, that Trump can do whatever he pleases and that none of the people in his administration have a right to protest or to speak against his actions.
Bullshit. People who work in government do not work for the president. They work for We the People, and their loyalty is to the people of this nation, not the president. I well remember that Trump asked James Comey, former Director of the FBI, to sign a loyalty oath … an oath not to the country, but to Donald Trump. Comey refused. How many in the administration have signed such documents, though, that we don’t know about? This, my friends, is unconstitutional, plain and simple.
Mr. Taylor and Mr. Kent were acting appropriately and were courageously putting the best interests of this nation before the megalomaniac in the Oval Office. They were concerned with the manner in which foreign policy is being conducted, more like mafia tactics than respectable government negotiations. Not to mention, they were legally obligated to honour the subpoena by the House, which some in the Trump administration seem to have forgotten. My hat is off to both of these gentlemen. As for Mr. Davidson … I will work diligently to help people in his district see that he is a greedy, manipulative authoritarian who deserves to be given the boot next year.
Pardon Me?
When due process of law takes place, it should not be overridden by the ‘man’ in the Oval Office. Let’s get something straight here … Donald Trump is, for better or for worse, the president, but he is not the king, of the United States. Most presidents use their power as needed, but try not to abuse it, and try to act in the best interest of the country. Donald Trump is the polar opposite.
Major Matthew Golsteyn of the Army Special Forces was awaiting trial on charges that he murdered an unarmed Afghan in 2010.
Army First Lieutenant Clint Lorance was convicted at trial in 2013 for ordering the shooting of a group of civilians in Afghanistan, an order he then tried to cover up.
Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher of the Navy SEALs was charged with the murder of a captive in Iraq but was acquitted this summer of all charges except for the minor charge of posing for a photo with a corpse.
Last week, Donald Trump used his pardon pen to pardon these three war criminals, one of whom had not yet even been convicted. This is a bit different from your run-of-the-mill pardon. These pardons were issued against the advice of top defense officials and are largely seen as a sign of disregard not only for the decisions of military juries, but for the judicial process itself.
Oddly, the majority of the military’s rank-and-file are supportive of Trump. This surprises me, for he has done nothing for them, has done nothing for veterans, and even attempted to rip off veterans when he promised a donation from his charity, then attempted to renege. So … what’s the allure? But, the top brass are less enamoured with Trump, especially after these three pardons. Privately, many worried that Trump’s actions could erode discipline by sending a message to troops and commanders that in some cases the laws of war would not apply.
He doesn’t understand, he doesn’t think, he doesn’t care. Speculation is that he will also pardon Roger Stone … what a farce this government is becoming.
Sometimes it backfires!
You have to love this one. U.S. House representative Elise Stefanik played a role in last Friday’s impeachment hearings, accusing Democratic committee chairman, Adam Schiff, of trying to silence her and other members of her party, “simply because we are Republicans.” She also rather contentiously questioned the former United States ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch, who was testifying before the committee.
Donald Trump was pretty pleased with her, tweeting …
“A new Republican Star is born. Great going @EliseStefanik!”
I had to chuckle, though, for this one actually helped Ms. Stefanik’s opponent in next year’s election, Tedra Cobb! Ms. Cobb’s campaign received more than $1 million in donations over the weekend! One such contributor was none other than Kellyanne’s hubby, George Conway, who donated $2,800. Others included George Takei and Mark Hamill.
And, just because I sense you guys need a few laughs, I give you … Seth Meyers as he summarizes last week with humour for us!
Friends and family members were gathered in the backyard to spend time together, share a meal, and watch a football game last night in a neighborhood in Fresno, California. Today, four of those people are dead and at least six others in the hospital in critical condition. Why? How?
Guns.
Not much is known yet, but police surmise there were multiple suspects who sneaked into the backyard and opened fire. Police are hoping to gain information from neighbor’s security cameras. No victims’ names have been released as yet, and few details have been reported at this time. Naturally, the usual and increasingly meaningless thoughts and prayers have been sent. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has expressed her outrage that gun legislation the House passed more than 260 days ago is being held up in the Senate …
“Enough is enough. The daily tragedy of gun violence continues to inflict terror and violence into communities across the country. Americans deserve real action to keep them safe, but Republicans continue to obstruct meaningful, bipartisan solutions to protect our children and communities. No one’s political survival is more important than the survival of our children.”
In my last post about a mass shooting, two short days ago, our friend Scottie provided the following information that I think is relevant here …
“The latest NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey finds that 89 percent of Americans favor expanded background checks for gun purchasers; 76 percent support “red flag” laws to identify dangerous persons and deny them guns, and 75 percent favor a voluntary buyback program in which the government would purchase firearms from current owners. Sixty-two percent of Americans favor a ban on the sale of semi-automatic weapons.”
89% … that figure includes a lot of gun owners. Only 11% of the people in this country are against gun regulations. It becomes obvious at this point that our elected representatives, particularly those of the republican party, do not represent the people of this country!!! How the hell many more people have to die before these jackasses get voted out of office???
Guns.
Only in the United States of America are guns more sacred than human life.
I awoke this morning to an odd noise that I couldn’t seem to pinpoint. At first I thought it was a car motor outside, but everywhere in the house I went, the noise stayed the same. I asked the girls if they could hear the noise (my hearing is strange … I don’t hear what is there, and I often hear that which doesn’t exist), and they said they heard it only when I was near. Hmmmm … a mystery. Well, we finally figured out that it was a low, growling sound emanating from somewhere deep in my throat. Well, you all know what that means, right? It means that it’s time for … Snarky Snippets!
Donald Trump, whose claim to fame is firing people, who even had a television show that was based solely, from what I’ve heard, on him screaming, “You’re Fired!” every week, is in firing mode this month. The latest in a series was Matthew Doherty, who until last week served as executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. What, you may ask, did Mr. Doherty do wrong? Nothing, as far as I can discern, but the timing is interesting.
The council was created in 1987 and is supposed to coordinate the government’s approach to tackling homelessness. It is unclear who will lead the organization now. Trump has recently promised to take action against California’s homelessness problem, arguing that homelessness hurts the quality of life and the “prestige” of some of its largest cities. One measure that has been discussed is razing the tent camps that house many homeless.
Did Trump fire Mr. Doherty because Doherty is a man of integrity and refused to go along with Trump’s inhumane ideas? And think about it … what does Trump plan to DO with the homeless people? Remember, we are talking about people here, not just some things that are lying about detracting from the “prestige” of the cities. Will he throw the children in cages? Since for the most part these people are citizens, not immigrants, he cannot send them “back where they came from”, so will he throw the adults into the Pacific Ocean and say, “Sink or swim”?
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Remember those tax cuts for the wealthy that Trump & Congress so generously approved in December 2017? One of the beneficiaries of those tax cuts came onto my radar just this morning. In 2017, the year prior to the implementation of the new tax cuts, FedEx paid $1.5 billion in taxes. Last year, however, was a different story … last year FedEx paid -0- in taxes. That’s right, folks … almost ever single person reading this post paid more taxes in 2018 than the corporation that saw a net income of $4.57 billion in fiscal 2018. Let that one sink in for a minute.
Now, the rationale for the tax cuts on corporations was that the companies would use the extra money they had on investments that would create more jobs … you know, that ‘trickle down’ theory that has never worked and never will work. Well, the company spent less in the 2018 fiscal year than it had projected in December 2017, before the tax law passed. It spent even less in 2019. Much of its savings have gone to reward shareholders: FedEx spent more than $2 billion on stock buybacks and dividend increases in the 2019 fiscal year, up from $1.6 billion in 2018, and more than double the amount the company spent on buybacks and dividends in fiscal year 2017.
In a nutshell, the country’s national debt is higher than ever before, the budget deficit (you remember, the one that republicans were so concerned about when Obama was president?) is in the tank, but a lot of rich people got even richer, thanks to their rich friends in the U.S. Congress and in the Oval Office.
Oh, and one last thing … this year, FedEx cut back on employee bonuses in an effort to reduce labour costs.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Just so you know, my friends, Attorney General William Barr says that We the People (those of us who still use our brains to think) are “undermining the rule of law”. Yes, that’s right. Trump can break the law, trample the Constitution, and even shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, but it is those of us who disagree with him that are undermining the rule of law!
“Immediately after President[sic] Trump won election, opponents inaugurated what they called ‘The Resistance’ and they rallied around an explicit strategy of using every tool and maneuver to sabotage the functioning of the executive branch and his administration. The fact of the matter is: that in waging a scorched-earth, no-holds-barred war of resistance against this administration, it is the left that is engaged in the systemic shredding of norms and undermining the rule of law.”
He forgets that after Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, it was the right that formed the Tea Party movement, and republicans in Congress who conspired to oppose every effort put forward by the incoming administration. He forgets that the Koch brothers initiated the “Tea Party” movement immediately after Obama’s election, to shout down democratic lawmakers, protest in the streets and at state capitols across the nation, and even protest violently outside of the U.S. Capitol building. Some of them reportedly spit on lawmakers as they were walking into Congress to vote on healthcare legislation, and some called black lawmakers the N-word.
Yet it is those of us who want the madman out of the Oval Office, who wish to restore some integrity and intelligence to the position of president, who are “undermining the rule of law”???????
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Okay, folks, I think I’ve growled so much that my throat hurts, so I’ll stop here and leave you with a bit of humour.
Yesterday, I was stunned by the statistics in this post by Brendan Birth … I think you will be too! The United States has the largest military budget in the world, in fact it is larger than the next seven nations combined!
And yet … we have homeless veterans, and military families who must rely on government assistance simply to put food on the table. There is something wrong with this picture, folks!
Thank you, Brendan, for this eye-opening post!
“Support our troops.” People in the United States frequently hear and see this phrase in a variety of settings: on cars, from politicians, and from friends posting on social media, to name a few. We hear it especially on days like Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
And I agree. We should support our troops. While my personal opinion is that we should avoid war except in the most extreme of circumstances (example: if our own nation is attacked, like with Pearl Harbor), people who risk their own lives on behalf of the entire country should be supported. Since people in the military serve our country, our country should in return serve our military veterans. It’s the least we can do in the United States.
Many people who support Trump, both in and out of government, claim that what Trump has done is not an impeachable offense. Some even go so far as to claim his extortion of the Ukrainian president, holding up much-needed military support in exchange for President Zelenskyy announcing he would investigate Trump’s rival Joe Biden, is “business as usual”. I can talk until I’m blue in the face, and those people will say I’m just a sore loser, still angry because Hillary Clinton didn’t win in 2016. They’d be wrong … Hillary actually did win by nearly 3 million votes. The unfair skewing of districts in many states, however, handed Trump enough undeserved electoral votes to carry him into the Oval Office.
But, about impeachment … though I studied Constitutional Law for two years, and have read the Constitution probably 30-40 times, I am not an expert on Constitutional Law. But I know of someone who is.
Robert Reich
Robert Reich is an American economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. He was Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997. He was a member of President Barack Obama’s economic transition advisory board.
Reich has been the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley since January 2006. He was formerly a professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and professor of social and economic policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management of Brandeis University.
Suffice it to say that this man knows how government works, and knows the Constitution far better than, say, a president who has never read the short, 8.000-word document. So, let’s hear what Mr. Reich has to say about whether what Trump has done is impeachable.
Well, folks, there has been another school shooting. This time, the shooter, Nathaniel Tennosuke Berhow, was a sixteen-year-old student at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California. His mother dropped him off at school, he went into the school, pulled a gun from his backpack, fired all but one of the rounds in the gun, then turned it on himself and shot himself in the head.
Now, according to the New York Times, investigators are trying to understand why he took the gun out of his backpack and shot his fellow students. I think the more basic question becomes, “Why did this sixteen-year-old boy have access to a gun to begin with?” Police say there is no indication that his mother knew he had the gun in his backpack, but police also say they found six other guns, some not even registered, in his home. It seems to me that the mother (his father is dead) should be under investigation for a) having what qualifies as an illegal arsenal in her home, b) leaving guns unsecured and able to be accessed by children, and c) child neglect/endangerment.
Of the five students he shot, two died from their wounds, three others are hospitalized. The shooter did not immediately die but was rushed to the hospital where he died a day later, Friday afternoon. The two students who were killed are Gracie Anne Muehlberger, a 15-year-old girl, and Dominic Blackwell, a 14-year-old boy. One of the three injured students has been released from the hospital, the other two are expected to be released sometime this weekend. All three are expected to survive … thankfully.
Police say they have no motive … the shooter did not leave behind any manifesto or letter, though it was obviously a planned attack. The FBI are combing social media, looking for some clue as to what may have caused the boy to commit this horrendous crime.
Those are the facts, as they are known today. The story made the news, but it seemingly paled in comparison to the impeachment news, Donald Trump’s hate-filled tweets, Roger Stone’s trial, and Rudy Giuliani’s stupidity. Perhaps it was because this time, only 2 students died? Perhaps the people in this nation are becoming inured to gun violence? Perhaps there is a new feeling of hopelessness, in light of the fact that the National Rifle Association (NRA) appear to control enough of our legislators to keep any gun regulations from passing into law.
So, you are probably asking yourselves why I am even writing about this one, given that I have said it all before, time and time again, and that there is not much that can be added at this point. Well, I’ve asked myself that, as well. Why bother? I’ve said it all before, I’m preaching to the choir because my readers are 99% in agreement with me on this, my words won’t reach the ears of those who need to hear them, and even if they did, they wouldn’t heed my words.
But, it seems to me that if we allow ourselves to fall into that trap, if we throw our hands up in the air and say, “Why bother?”, then we have lost the battle … the good guys will have given up and turned the nation, the lives of our children and grandchildren, over to the thugs. At the very least … the very least … Gracie Anne Muehlberger and Dominic Blackwell deserve to be recognized, to be remembered, to be honoured. But, I believe we owe them more than that.
I believe we owe Gracie Anne and Dominic and the other 842[1] children under age 18 killed by guns so far in 2019, and the other 2,447 children injured by guns thus far this year, to make our voices heard, to keep on shouting loud and clear, to work to bring about an end to the corruption of our politicians and the NRA. WE OWE IT TO THE CHILDREN!!!
Only in the United States is there free and unfettered access to guns by every man, woman and child, bar almost none. Only in the United States do we send our children to school, never knowing whether they will return at the end of the day. The people who could stop the madness, won’t. Their children haven’t been affected … yet.
Please, friends, vote out the bastards in Congress who take donations from the NRA. Let’s start using some good sense. Find out who in your state is taking NRA money[2] and get them out! Surely the lives of our children matter more than our right to own a killing machine?
Note to readers: Saturday Surprise is on hiatus for this week … I felt this was more important. Apologies, and Saturday Surprise will, hopefully, return next week.
Good people come from all walks of life, and their good deeds may be as small as rescuing a puppy, or as big as paying off student loan debt for an entire graduating class. Some choose to help the environment, others help the poor or the disabled, others take on caring for a community or knitting sweaters for the elderly. Mr. Miles has taken on helping a set of people who most others wouldn’t bother with, most would write them off as a loss. Who knows what good some of the people Mr. Miles is helping might go on to do with their own lives because of the help they received when they most needed it? I give two thumbs up to Mr. Richard Miles! 👍👍
And yet … we have homeless veterans, and military families who must rely on government assistance simply to put food on the table. There is something wrong with this picture, folks!
