Category Archives: Re-blogs

There Was An FBI Informant Asking Questions Of President’s Campaign Team In 2016

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary, Re-blogs

For several days, Donald Trump has been claiming his campaign was spied on, infiltrated, by the FBI. To what end? Who knows. It is a paranoid delusion from the mind of a madman, if you ask me. As always, our friend Gronda is on top of the story with a nice summary of what is true and what isn’t, and what Trump’s likely goal is — to shut down the Mueller investigation. A man who is innocent does not act guilty, as Trump is doing. Please take a minute to read Gronda’s summary, for it clarifies the issue nicely. Thank you, Gronda!

Gronda Morin

Image result for cartoons of fbi informant trump

The FBI has been resisting providing the name of one of its confidential informants to GOP members in the White House and the US Congress because this would risk the informant’s life. But the GOP who are doing the president’s bidding could care less.

President Trump and his supporters including the US House Intel chair, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) are convinced that finding this man could derail the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe being led by the Special Counsel Robert Mueller III.

Image result for cartoons of fbi informant trump

As per a May 17, 2018 Washington Post report, “President Trump’s allies are waging an increasingly aggressive campaign to undercut the Russia investigation by exposing the role of a top-secret FBI source. The effort reached new heights Thursday as Trump alleged that an informant had improperly spied on his 2016 campaign and predicted that the ensuing scandal would be “bigger than Watergate!”

The fact is that there was an informant…

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Eight Reasons Why Ending the Iran Deal is Stupid

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary, Re-blogs

I have been working for two days to try to put together a post that explains why Trump’s decision to dishonour our committment on the Iran deal is such a stupid move, and I have yet to be able to manage to say what I want to say coherently. However, when it comes to anything economic, my ‘go-to’ person is Erik Hare at Barataria, and tonight I found he had successfully accomplished what I’ve struggled with for two days. Not seeing much point in re-inventing the wheel when Erik has done such a great job, I am sharing his work with you. His explanations are concise and very understandable, and I urge you to take just a few minutes to read his excellent post. Thank you, Erik, for helping us all understand the total picture, and for your generous permission (given years ago) to re-blog!

Barataria - The work of Erik Hare

The United States has withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal. It is probably the stupidest possible thing to do at this time. Why? Here are eight reasons, most of which are fairly conservative in nature.

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Destabilisation.

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary, Re-blogs

Yesterday, a madman made a very stupid decision, against all advice. Today, tomorrow, and for a very long time, the repercussions of that decision will be felt globally. Our friend David Prosser has written about this much more sensibly than I can at the moment, for I am engulfed in a fury that only allows me to rant and curse. Dear readers, dear friends, please take a moment to read David’s post and ponder on how the world just changed. Thank you David … I did not ask your permission, but am taking the liberty of assuming implied permission to re-blog.

The BUTHIDARS

It was one of those very rare occasions when the majority of the World’s powers came together in agreement. It was not a good idea for Iran to have the capacity and the equipment to build a nuclear weapon. An agreement was made instead of putting sanctions in place, for the agreement to stop their building there would be concessions.

This year, this month sees the renewal of that agreement which will only go ahead if the signatories of the original agreement accept that Iran has honoured it’s side of the bargain. The European powers France, Germany and the UK all agree that Iran has kept to it’s word as do China and Russia. However, Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu of Israel has approached the other main signatory, the U.S.A.with a story that Iran has not held up it’s end of the bargain and had been secretly working to continue making a…

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Max Boot Argues Why the President Should Not Blow Up Iran Nuclear Deal Bur He’s Not Listening

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary, Re-blogs

Gronda has covered this one, for which I am so grateful, because I am too furious to write it! Today, Donald Trump made one of his most stupid decisions in his 15 months in office. He ignored the advice of all the people who understood what the Iran deal actually accomplished and why we needed it, and he withdrew the U.S. Our European allies are not happy, those of us who understand this are not happy, but Donnie made his buddy Bennie (Netanyahu) happy, so what else matters, right? Please take a few minutes to read Gronda’s comprehensive post, for she did a great job with it! Thank you, Gronda!

Gronda Morin

MAX BOOT is a conservative Russian-American author, consultant, editorialist, lecturer, and military historian. He worked as a writer and editor for Christian Science Monitor and The Wall Street Journal in the 1990s.(Wikipedia)

Today’s the day, 8th day of May 2018, when the republican President Donald Trump plans to announce his intent to have the US back out of the 2015 Iran Nuclear deal despite the advice by his own Defense Secretary General James Mattis and the allied leaders of numerous countries.

The president is instead listening to the professionals whom he has recently placed in his cabinet like the National Security Adviser John Bolton and the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as well as the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, all of whom are in favor of tearing up this deal and for promoting regime change in Iran.

See: The U.S. Will Withdraw From Iran Nuclear Deal, Trump Tells…

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Entertainment?

Posted on by under Re-blogs, Social commentary

Our friend Hugh, aka the Professor, is a deep thinker, as one would expect of a former professor of philosophy. Today (actually a few days ago) Hugh delves into the effects on society, on humanity, of television and other electronic media. It is something we often don’t think much about, but … we need to … we really need to. Please take a few minutes to read Hugh’s post, for it is, as always, food for thought. Thank you, Hugh, for both this post and permission to share it!

hughcurtler

I have suggested on occasion, sometimes generally sometimes pointedly, that the entertainment industry has been one of the more pernicious influences on the development of such things as intelligence and character that have been seen of late. It’s influence is felt everywhere and since we know that animals, including the human animal, learn from imitation it follows that the ubiquitous television and the social media (of late, especially) have had a tremendous effect on the development of young minds and hearts.

Robert Hutchins once pointed out that the invention of  television held out the greatest of possibilities for humankind. It could be an educational tool like none other and could bring about the elevation of minds and the enlargement of experience among all those touched by it. But we know that has not happened. Not only does public television — which was the last bastion of hope — struggle against…

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Two Western Leaders came to Washington

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary, Re-blogs

Last week, the U.S. hosted the leaders of France and Germany. Our friend Keith has written an excellent post, assessing those visits and how different the current U.S. policies are from those of Macron & Merkel. Please take a few minutes to read and think about the direction we are heading, as opposed to most of the rest of the Western nations. Thank you, Keith, for this thoughtful post.

musingsofanoldfart

Last week, the two leaders of the western world met with the US President, who has ceded the US role in the world. Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, and Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany visited with Donald Trump.

Of course, the US has the most powerful military in the world. We’d better as we spend far more than other countries. Yet, with our pulling back on diplomacy and the number of diplomats, with our imposition of tariffs on even our allies, with our retrenching from global agreements and with an unprecedented level of untruthfulness, we have ceded our global leadership role to China, overall, and Germany and France in the western world. And, while the UK remains important and formidable, I am sad to say Brexit will precipitate its decline from these ranks.

Macron and Merkel beseeched the US President to remain in the Iran Nuclear deal signed…

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GOP Beliefs About Poor People Are Myths To Justify Tax Cuts For Rich/ Cuts To Entitlement Spending

Posted on by under Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Today’s Congress is the richest in the history of the nation. These wealthy men & women have zero concept what it is like to choose between putting food on the table or taking their sick child to the doctor. They have no understanding what it is like to wonder how to pay the rent or electric bill. And thus, since they have no real life experience, they make up myths to justify cutting social services that benefit the lower income groups in order to increase their own wealth via tax cuts for the wealthy. Our friend Gronda has done an excellent job de-bunking those myths and showing our elected representatives for the greedy, self-focused people they are. Please take a moment to read, and remember this on November 6th! Thank you, Gronda!

Gronda Morin

I have observed the resurrection of the racist myth of the “Welfare Queen” as well as other misleading talking points to describe poor people by members of the GOP.

The GOP in the US Congress cannot be allowed to disseminate these myths as an excuse to enact cuts to current safety-net programs for the poor and/ or to justify additional tax cuts for the wealthy.

See: Why the UN is investigating extreme poverty … in America/ Guardian/ December 2017

Here is the rest of the story…

(Source for below AP report published by the Chicago Tribune on the 19th of December 2017 by Michele Gilman, University of Baltimore: (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Excerpts from “3 myths about the poor that Republicans are using to support slashing US safety net:”

“Republicans continue to use long-debunked…

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Letter from Senator Thom Tillis regarding Mueller

Posted on by under Political commentary, Re-blogs

For a long time now, we … well, many of us, anyway … have been tirelessly writing letters, sending emails and calling our elected representatives to share our views about the direction our government is moving. Our efforts go largely unnoticed, we are either ignored or receive a standard, canned response that leaves us wondering whether our letter was read, or our message passed on. However, there is an exception, and I wanted to share it with you today. Our friend Keith Wilson received the following letter in response from North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, and I was so impressed and encouraged by the response that I simply had to share it with you. Thank you, Keith, for allowing me to share this letter.

musingsofanoldfart

I received the following letter in response to my calling and writing Republican Senator Thom Tillis to compliment him on his bipartisan  legislation to make sure Robert Mueller is given a fair hearing if he is fired. The letter speaks for itself.

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Thank you for taking the time to contact me about S. 2644, the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act. I appreciate hearing from you.

I believe in the rule of law, regardless of who occupies the White House or which party leads the Justice Department. That is why in August I introduced a bill to create a judicial-review process to prevent the removal of a special counsel without good cause.

Over the past several months, Senator Christopher Coons (D-DE) and I have been working with Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), who introduced a similar bill, to reconcile the differences between the two proposals. On…

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Michael Cohen Marks A Turning Point Towards The End Of FBI’s Trump-Russia Probe

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary, Re-blogs

The head of the U.S. government is every bit as corrupt, as evil, as any modern-day leader in the world, bar none. How he got elected is still, and always will be, beyond my comprehension. Friend Gronda has put together this enlightening post keeping us up to date with the latest … please take a few minutes to read. If there is such a thing as justice remaining in this nation, Trump will be gone from the White House by the end of this year. If he isn’t, then justice is but another empty word in the U.S. Thank you, Gronda, for bringing us up to date and explaining the latest.

Gronda Morin

RJ Matson, CQ Roll Call

The “rule of law” has been under a full throttle attack-mode  by the republican President Donald Trump and his crony republicans. No institution is perfect but the FBI and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) have taken steps/ reform since the days of J. Edgar Hoover to where it is an entity we can count on.

Just look at what the judicial system and the free press which is what the president hates as he frequently disparages and tweets about both, have accomplished in just one week in April 2018.

1.) The president’s personal attorney/ consigliere  Michael Cohen’s office, house, hotel room was raided by FBI on 9th of April, directed by Southern District of NY, which is headed by a President Trump republican appointee.

See: UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK/ POLITICO 

2.) By the SDNY judicial office in Manhattan taking over this case involving Mr…

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Rule – of Law

Posted on by under Political commentary, Re-blogs

There is something chilling in blogger-friend Erik’s post today, and yet at the same time, it leaves me feeling that there is a chance that the right people are in the right places to save the day. I also learned some things from this post that I was not aware of … or at least picked up some food for thought. Please take a few minutes to read Erik’s post — you won’t regret it. Thanks, Erik!!!

Barataria - The work of Erik Hare

On a Friday the 13th when the sky hangs grey over what should be Spring, the world appears on the edge of catastrophe. The Trump debacle descends into the kind of madness that Shakespeare made a living out of, careening into the end of the second act when the stage goes dark.

Hollywood, for its part, depicted days like this as slasher movies, their idea of scary. There was never a cop to be found as people traipsed through a hellscape, dark and throbbing in surround sound.  There was no order, only survival – for a few.

Yet here we are, waiting for something. And into it comes James Comey’s book, “A Higher Loyalty.”  The former top cop appears to doing what we have so far been unable to do ourselves, coming in to rescue us all. But it’s still scary, and more in the Shakespearean way, because…

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