Tag Archives: Russian election interference

Michael Flynn’s Fall From Grace Complete

Posted on by under Election 2020, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Trump's Staff Picks

Before reading the following post by our friend Jeff, I strongly suggest you do three things: 1) sit down, 2) pour a strong drink, 3) hold your jaw so it won’t drop to the ground. All set … then read what our friend has written about none other than the #$%&@ Michael Flynn! Thanks Jeff … I think. 😉

On The Fence Voters

In their Oval Office meeting two days after the 2016 election, President Obama warned then-President-elect Trump about including Michael Flynn in his new administration. New Jersey Governor Chis Christie also lobbied against hiring him.

But while initially considering those red-flag warnings, the new president decided instead to reward Flynn for his loyalty and hard work on the campaign by naming him National Security Advisor. It must have been too hard to resist rewarding the former 3-star Lieutenant General, especially for the constant “lock her up” chants he liked to lead at MAGA cult rallies.

His tenure as Trump’s top national security guy, as we now know, was short-lived. Soon, Flynn was fired after it came out that he lied to Vice-President Mike Pence about the nature and content of his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak.

And it was within that context that Flynn was…

View original post 1,063 more words

Telling It Like It Is — Reality

Posted on by under Election 2020, Global Issues, Racism & Bigotry

I remember 2015-2016 when I would ask friends and acquaintances what, exactly, they saw in this clown named Trump who was running for president.  Their answer was often an enigma: “he tells it like it is.”  Now, I was never able to pin them down on just what “it” was, but in their minds, they were convinced that whatever ‘it’ was, Trump told ‘it’ like ‘it’ was.  Well, we now know that he fed these people a bucket of bullshit, that honesty is not in his vocabulary, and that there is no ‘it’ that he understands well enough to talk about, but rather talks at the issues.  However, journalist Charles Blow is one who actually does ‘tell it like it is’, especially in his latest column in the New York Times …

America Shocked Itself and the World

Charles BlowCharles M. Blow

29 October 2020

How could we have been so blind? How could we have been so naïve? How did we not believe that the worst was possible until we plummeted into it?

We didn’t believe that a demagogic tyrant-worshiper could rise to the presidency.

The founders of this country worried obsessively about the rise of a demagogue, and the power of foreign influence on our democracy. And yet somehow, over the years, after centuries of American presidents behaving in ways that at least demonstrated a fealty to the country and its institutions and the power of precedent and legacy, those fears waned to a whisper.

Having a demagogue, partially installed by a Russian disinformation campaign no less, who exalted our enemies in the world and hammered our friends, was somewhat unthinkable. This was America. We would only go so far. We might race up to the precipice, but we would never hurl ourselves into the abyss. Wrong.

With the election of Donald Trump, America did the unthinkable, shocking itself and the world: It put the most powerful country in the world under the control of a lying, grifting, shady carnival ­­­­­conductor. He had no experience in governance and no expertise. His entire life was a game of smoke and mirrors, double talk and double-dealing.

Even Trump, not a student of history or much else, didn’t seem to grasp the awesome power he possessed until he systematically started to test all the fences supposedly restraining him, only to realize that the only thing holding many of them up was customs and conventions. Most could be run through or pushed down.

It was like a scene in the film “Jurassic World” where the scientist created a hybrid, Frankenstein dinosaur because people got bored of the conventional ones. Well, the dinosaur was clever enough to break out of its cage and run through the park, killing everything in sight. As one of the scientists said: “You made a genetic hybrid. Raised it in captivity. She is seeing all of this for the first time. She does not even know what she is. She will kill everything that moves.” He continued, “She is learning where she fits on the food chain and I’m not sure you want her to figure that out.”

Trump realized the power of the presidency, that it was uniquely at the top of the food chain, and so began his rampage.

We didn’t believe that in this era we could have a president who could be so regressive on issues of white supremacy, white nationalism and xenophobia.

To be sure, there have been other presidents more racist than their predecessors.

Andrew Johnson assuming the presidency after Abraham Lincoln comes to mind. Although Lincoln had professed his white supremacy during the Lincoln-Douglas debates, he led the nation to emancipation and into Civil War in part over the issue of slavery. Johnson’s racist reconstruction plan after the war excluded Black electoral and governing participation, led to the rise of the Black Codes and led to his impeachment.

Lyndon B. Johnson being followed by Richard Nixon comes to mind. As a senator, Johnson had shepherded the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and as president he pushed through the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968. In addition, he nominated the first Black justice to the Supreme Court: Thurgood Marshall. Nixon on the other hand, was different. As Tim Naftali, an associate professor of history at N.Y.U., wrote last year in The Atlantic: “Nixon believed in a hierarchy of races, with whites and Asians much higher up than people of African descent and Latinos. And he had convinced himself that it wasn’t racist to think Black people, as a group, were inferior to whites, so long as he held them in paternalistic regard.”

But, in some ways, Americans came to see these occasional regressions as more minor — a hiccup, a stutter step in which the country took a small step back among much greater strides forward. We were not prepared for what Trump delivered: a generational retreat into darkness.

We had not seen a modern president so openly and blatantly court and even defend racists and xenophobes. We had not seen one refuse to clearly condemn white supremacist hate groups, instead retreating to a position of false obliviousness when condemnation was demanded. We have not seen a recent president who would stoop so low as to separate immigrant children from their parents, apparently with no plan to reunite them, as a matter of unwavering policy.

These are but two examples. But the list is legion. I could enumerate them until my fingers blistered. But they would all illustrate the same point: We, America, let our guard down for a campaign cycle, believing, surely, that the most qualified woman to ever run would defeat the least qualified man to do so. We didn’t vote with the intensity the emergency required. And in doing so, we allowed the country to be dragged to the brink of ruin.

We are now living the reality that the founders feared and that women, minorities and immigrants hoped was an artifact of former times.

A Bit More Snark …

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

It is a sign of the times that I cackle with glee upon hearing Republican Senator Ben Sasse say of Trump’s latest round of executive orders …

“The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop.”

Way to go, Ben!!!

Earlier today, I wrote about these executive orders and “presidential” memorandums, but I failed to comment on the venue in which Trump put his scrawl to paper to sign these dictums. Typically, he signs such things in the Oval Office with smiling sycophants gathered ‘round for the photo op, but this time, he chose to take his little show to his luxury golf club in New Jersey. Well-heeled members gathered with wine but without much social-distancing or mask wearing in the ornate ballroom to cheer his action … an action that is, as Senator Sasse said, ‘unconstitutional slop’.  But, what’s new, right?

In other news … yet another mass shooting, this one in Southeast Washington D.C.  As of this writing, at least 21 people were shot, a 17-year-old is dead, and a police officer is fighting for her life in the hospital.

From The Washington Post …

“D.C. police said at least three shooters opened fire from different locations at the gathering in the 3300 block of Dubois Place, in the city’s Greenway neighborhood, at about 12:30 a.m. Victims scattered over several blocks, creating a sprawling crime scene. Police found about 170 bullet casings.

Sunday’s shootings came three weeks after nine people were shot in front of a restaurant on 14th Street in Columbia Heights in Northwest. That shooting on the afternoon of July 19 left one of the victims dead.

More than 115 people have been slain in the District this year, a 17 percent increase over this time in 2019, which ended the year with a decade high. Those killed include an ­11-year-old boy shot at a stop-the-violence cookout on the Fourth of July and a 71-year-old shot while protecting her granddaughter.

Remember that surge in gun sales I told you about in the early days of the pandemic?  No surprise, then, that those guns are being put to use, is it?  Trump claimed to be so concerned about Portland that he felt the need to send militia in to harass citizens and terrorize the city … maybe he should be looking to clean up his own backyard first.

If you want to keep your job in the Trump administration, you must be willing and able to lie, lie, and then lie some more.  This is why the men and women of good conscience have left the administration and what remains is the dregs.  One area in which this is most glaringly obvious is the intelligence community where Dan Coats, former Director of National Intelligence, was fired last year for refusing to cover up the fact that Russia did and continues to wreak havoc in our elections.

Since that time, numerous officials have come and gone, and the intelligence community as a whole is in danger of becoming a Trump parrot.  I would like to direct your attention to a piece published yesterday in the New York Times Magazine about Trump’s attempts to politicize intelligence — in particular by preventing the intelligence community from speaking honestly about Russian attacks on our elections.  It is a lengthy and chilling article, but one I think is imperative to read and comprehend.  An excerpt …

“The options faced by the intelligence community during Trump’s presidency have been stark: avoid infuriating the president but compromise the agencies’ ostensible independence, or assert that independence and find yourself replaced with a more sycophantic alternative.”

Since day #1, Trump has attempted to deny Russia’s assistance in his 2016 election, even though there has been incontrovertible evidence.  Today, with the 2020 election less than three months away, Russia is even harder at work, has more at stake.  According to William Evanina, a career law enforcement official who was chosen by Trump as director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, in a statement issued on Friday …

“Russia continues to spread disinformation in the U.S. that is designed to undermine confidence in our democratic process and denigrate what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment’ in America.  Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden … some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump’s candidacy on social media and Russian television … pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach is spreading claims about corruption — including through publicizing leaked phone calls — to undermine former Vice President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party.”

November’s election is our last, best hope for maintaining or regaining some semblance of a democratic nation.  Donald Trump cannot win honestly, so as is his modus operandi, he will lie, cheat and steal to maintain his power.  This does not come as a surprise, except, perhaps, in knowing the lengths he has already gone to in order to strip our intelligence communities of their ability to do their job to protect the people of this nation.  I hope you will take a few minutes to read this chilling article.

America Needs an Election Intervention

Posted on by under Election 2020, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

Jeff over at On the Fence Voters, like most of us, has been giving a lot of thought to the upcoming election. He shares some of those thoughts and a possible solution to the dreaded scenarios that have played through our heads, in his post tonight. Please take a minute to read his thoughts, and let him know what you think. Thanks Jeff!!!

On The Fence Voters

Since the year 2000, we’ve had three presidential elections that we could easily question the final results. We know about the fiasco with George W. Bush against Al Gore and the hanging chads, not to mention the purging of African-American voters by his brother and then Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush. Oh, and of course, the Supreme Court weighing in by stopping the recount as well.

There was also the election of 2004 when John Kerry lost Ohio by roughly 118,000 votes. Still, there were questions at the time of voting irregularities and purges of Democratic voters by then Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. It didn’t matter in the long run because Kerry conceded the election and never demanded a recount.

And in 2016, with a little help from the Russians and voter suppression, the future worst president of the United States was elected. Here we are on the…

View original post 959 more words

How Will ‘The Donald’ Spin This One???

Posted on by under Election 2020, Global Issues, Humour, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

Robert Mueller worked tirelessly for about two years investigating the Russian interference in our 2016 election, and he proved beyond a shadow of a doubt what most of us already knew, that the Russians did, in fact, attempt to help put Donald Trump into office with their high-level propaganda campaign, among other things.  Since Mueller was professional and cautious, and because Attorney General William Barr had already made it clear that Trump could not, would not, be prosecuted of any crimes, Mueller stopped short of recommending such an action.  Contrary to what Mr. Trump said after the report was released, the report did not clear or exonerate Trump, but rather left it up to the Department of Justice to decide whether his crimes ought to be prosecuted.  Trump called Mueller’s report a sham, a democratic witch hunt, and more, but the reality, the truth, was all there in black and white.  Except … the Department of Justice redacted so much of it that it was difficult to read three consecutive sentences.

So now, one year after the Mueller report was released, comes this from Politico …

The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday reaffirmed its support for the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal of putting Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

Tuesday’s bipartisan report, from a panel chaired by North Carolina Republican Richard Burr, undercuts Trump’s years of efforts to portray allegations of Kremlin assistance to his campaign as a “hoax,” driven by Democrats and a “deep state” embedded within the government bureaucracy.

[…]

Senators and committee aides examined everything from the sources and methods used for the intelligence-gathering, to the Kremlin’s actions itself. The 158-page report is heavily redacted, with dozens of pages blacked out entirely. But its final conclusions were unambiguous.

“The committee found no reason to dispute the intelligence community’s conclusions,” Burr said in a statement, adding that the intelligence community’s conclusions reflect “strong tradecraft” and “sound analytical reasoning.”

Lest anybody wish to say the report is biased, the Senate Intelligence Committee is chaired by a Republican, Richard Burr, and there are a total of 8 Republicans, 6 Democrats, and 1 Independent serving on the committee.  You can find the .pdf report here, but with all the redactions (including most of the Table of Contents), it’s really rather a waste of time.  Still, just how the hell many reports do we need before Trump’s band of loyal toadies finally accept what is right in front of their face???

Trump has openly criticized the intelligence community’s work, both as a presidential candidate and as commander in chief. His fury has only intensified since its inspector general alerted Congress last year of a whistleblower complaint regarding the president’s posture toward Ukraine, a process that resulted in his impeachment.

The president is still rejecting intelligence officials’ more recent warnings — delivered to lawmakers last month — that Russia is interfering in this year’s election and that Moscow has a preference for Trump.

Of course Moscow has a preference for Trump … he is both greedy and ignorant, meaning he is easily manipulated, used as a puppet in exchange for a small amount of praise and stroking of his ego.  What does this mean for November’s election?  Well, let’s see … the odds of a fair and honest election according to my calculations are slim-to-none.  Russia is and will continue to spout false narratives, gerrymandered states largely remain so, Trump still has an approximately 40% loyal following, Trump is fighting against mail-in voting that would level the playing field just a bit by encouraging everyone to vote … what could possibly go wrong?

We’ve been missing our occasional treat of a Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel monologue of late, so today in order to lighten the mood a bit (did I really just say that???) I found the latest ‘at home’ monologue by Jimmy.  Somehow, it’s just not the same without the audience, the band, etc., but still he tried.  At least you’ll get a bit of a chuckle.

Just Another Snarky Thursday …

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary

There are, apparently, only two news stories this week: Joe Biden & the coronavirus.

Joe Biden …

It was obvious from the day Joe Biden announced his candidacy in the 2020 election that he was the candidate Trump most feared.  Hence, the now-infamous call to the president of the Ukraine that got Trump impeached, and if we had conscionable senators, would have removed him from office.

Just to set the record straight before I go any further, it has already been proven that Joe Biden did nothing illegal when his son worked for Burisma in the Ukraine.  It has been discussed, investigated, etc., ad nauseam, and there is nothing.

For a time, when Bernie Sanders seemed to be coming out ahead of the pack, Trump dropped off on his rhetoric about Biden.  It was reported that Russia was not only intervening on Trump’s behalf, but also on Sanders’.  Why would they do that?  Well, Russia helped put Trump in office in 2016 because Putin saw a puppet he could use.  Putin could never have manipulated Hillary Clinton in the ways he has Trump, he understood that Trump would be easy to sway, and that was that.  It’s in Putin’s best interest to keep his puppet in the White House.  It’s largely believed that Trump could beat Bernie Sanders, if for no other reason that that label, ‘democratic socialist’, that Bernie wears.  So, if Russia helps Bernie, they help Trump as well.

But now, it appears that Trump’s nemesis on November 3rd may well be Joe Biden after all, so … the day after Biden’s Super Tuesday win, Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin attempted to plant a seed of doubt about Biden’s credibility.  He told reporters that the Senate Homeland Security Committee, of which Johnson is chairman, will be releasing an interim report on his panel’s probe of Hunter Biden’s ties to a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma.  Oh for Pete’s sake, get over it, Johnson!  ENOUGH already!  First, it has been clearly established that, while Hunter Biden may not have used good judgment, he broke no laws, and at any rate, it was nothing whatsoever to do with his father!  DROP IT!

But, Trump is clearly not going to drop it, either, for in an interview Wednesday night on Fox, he opined that it …

“will be a major issue in the campaign, I will bring that up all the time because I don’t see any way out.”

So … in other words, if you can’t win fair and square, then lie, cheat and steal!  Why should we be surprised, for that’s how he ‘won’ in 2016, though he didn’t actually win, for he lost by nearly 3 million votes!

Coronavirus …

In the U.S., it isn’t so much the virus itself that is making headline news, as the response of the loon in the White House.  He (Trump) has been on some sort of tirade for weeks now, as if somebody must have concocted the virus to personally offend him.  First, it was a hoax, or rather the media coverage of it was a hoax, designed to “bring him down”.  The latest?

Due to slow and insufficient response to the virus by the Trump administration, testing has been haphazard and inadequate.  But, since nothing can ever be Trump’s fault, it must be Obama’s fault, right?  BINGO!  He’s blaming Obama for the shortage of test kits (is there really a shortage of kits, or is it simply that they aren’t being distributed properly?) …

“The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what we’re doing and we undid that decision a few days ago so that the testing can take place in a much more accurate and rapid fashion. That was a decision we disagreed with — I don’t think we would have made it — but for some reason it was made but we’ve undone that decision.”

As I said in this morning’s post … don’t believe a word of it.  But, as if that weren’t enough, Trump called in and had a chat with his good buddy Sean Hannity over at Fox last night.  Hannity asked Trump about the new estimate by the World Health Organization (WHO) that the global fatality rate for the coronavirus is around 3.4%.  Trump, however, had a ‘hunch’ …

“I think the 3.4% is really a false number. Now, this is just my hunch, based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this, because a lot of people will have this, and it’s very mild – they’ll get better very rapidly, they don’t even see a doctor, they don’t even call a doctor. You never hear about those people, so you can’t put them down in the category of the overall population, in terms of this corona flu, and/or virus. So, you just can’t do that. You know, all of a sudden it seems like 3 or 4%, which is a very high number, as opposed to a fraction of 1%. So I think that that number is very high. I think the number, personally, I would say the number is way under 1%.”

I didn’t realize you could earn a medical degree at Wharton School of Business.  Obviously, Trump knows sooooo much more than the scientists and medical experts.  Who needs all those experts when we can just ask Trump for his latest ‘hunch’?

I don’t know about you guys, but I am getting damn sick and tired of the childish, harmful games that Trump and his republican sycophants are playing.  They have put their own interests much higher on their priority list than ours, and now are even willing to gamble with our very lives.  Let’s send them a HUGE message on November 3rd … Let’s send them all packing!

How to Win the Democratic Nomination if There is a Contested Convention

Posted on by under Election 2020, Political commentary, Re-blogs

Our friend TokyoSand, who last year brought us summaries of all the leading candidates, and every week brings us a compilation of great cartoons, has written a very informative post explaining how a contested convention would work, in the event that no one democratic candidate has a clear majority at the end of the primary/caucus season. Please take a look at it, for this may well be the year that we do have a contested convention! Thank you, TokyoSand!

Political⚡Charge

balloon.jpg

Here we are again. It’s like Groundhog Day but on a four-year cycle.

Every time another presidential election rolls around, talk about the potential of a contested convention bubbles up. It appears to be some sort of political pundit parlor game — going over multiple scenarios about what might happen in the case of a contested (or brokered) convention.

Except this year, a contested convention seems far more likely due to a large number of candidates who are doing well in the polls. The reality of contested convention was being talked about as early as last summer. So, how does this all work? How do you get the nomination in a scenario like the one we have in 2020?

The Normal Scenario

First, let’s do a quick review of how it normally works.

As every state and territory holds its presidential primary or caucus, a certain number of delegates…

View original post 531 more words

A Really Rotten Choice …

Posted on by under Election 2020, Free Press Issues, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Trump's Staff Picks

In early 2018, Trump nominated Richard Grenell as U.S. Ambassador to Germany.  I wrote then that Grenell was unfit for any number of reasons, not the least of which were that he was an aid to John Bolton, that he was a frequent contributor to Fox ‘News’, and that he was an outspoken critic of the Iran nuclear agreement.  As if that weren’t sufficient, Grenell had a history of criticizing women, especially those in high-ranking positions.  Grenell might never have been confirmed to the ambassadorial position if there had been equity in the Senate, rather than a republican majority Senate led by the unconscionable Mitch McConnell.

grenell

Richard Grenell

But, he was confirmed, and he went to Germany and almost got himself expelled within the first month, after he criticized Germany’s NATO spending, criticized Chancellor Merkel’s immigration policy, and took sides against Merkel, attempting to incite other EU nations to reject her policies.  All of which, of course, is unthinkable for an ambassador, but … it’s the era of Trump, and Grenell was hand-picked by Trump. Then, just last year, Grenell was back in the news when he had the unmitigated gall to actually criticize the budget proposals of Germany’s finance minister!

Fast forward to yesterday, when Trump named Grenell to be the acting director of national intelligence overseeing the nation’s 17 spy agencies.  Yep, you heard me right, folks.  Now, even with ol’ Moscow Mitch keeping a tight rein on the Senate, this is one that would never fly, so … Trump has simply done what he’s done with so many other cabinet positions, and has made him the ‘acting’, or temporary director.

Grenell has little experience in intelligence or in running a large bureaucracy, but he apparently possesses the one and only qualification that Trump values … personal fealty to Trump.

Since Dan Coats’ resignation from the position of Director of National Intelligence last summer, Joseph Maguire has been serving as acting director.  There is a 210-day limit for acting cabinet members who have not been approved by the Senate, so the end of Mr. Maguire’s time, March 12th, is quickly approaching.  Trump intends Grenell to continue as Ambassador to Germany, while at the same time serving as acting DNI.  Hmmm … does this mean that neither of those jobs require full-time attention, that both are only part-time jobs?  The two combined are paid in excess of $150,000 annually … seems we’ve been paying some pretty high salaries for ‘part-time’ help, doesn’t it?

On Wednesday, Trump tweeted …

“I am pleased to announce that our highly respected Ambassador to Germany, @RichardGrenell, will become the Acting Director of National Intelligence. Rick has represented our Country exceedingly well and I look forward to working with him. I would like to thank Joe Maguire for the wonderful job he has done, and we look forward to working with him closely, perhaps in another capacity within the Administration!”

There was some speculation that Trump intended to nominate Maguire to become the DNI for real, not just acting.  But wait … what’s this?

Sometime Wednesday, shortly before announcing Grenell’s temporary appointment, Trump found out that last week, a high-ranking intelligence officer, Shelby Pierson, reported to House lawmakers in a classified hearing that Russia wants to see President Trump reelected, viewing his administration as more favorable to the Kremlin’s interests (really???  What a shocker, eh?), and to that end are already plotting to aid Trump in the upcoming elections.

Devin-Nunes-cries

Devin Nunes

According to those in the know, Trump went ballistic when he found this out, and angrily confronted Maguire.  Trump initially believed, erroneously, that Pierson had given the information only to Representative Adam Schiff, the lead impeachment manager, and guess who provided Trump with that information?  None other than the little weasel, and Trump sycophant, Devin Nunes.

Trump angrily asked Maguire why he had to learn of what Pierson had said from Nunes and not from his own aides, and said that Maguire should not have let the Capitol Hill briefing happen — particularly before he received the briefing — and that he should not have learned about it from a congressman.  I ask you to think about that one, folks … Trump believes he should control the information that Congress is allowed to receive???  I find this more than a little disturbing.  If he would withhold such critical information such as election interference and tampering from Congress, what would he withhold from We the People?

Trump told Maguire and other aides in the Oval Office that he did not believe Russia was interfering to help him or planning to do so, and that the intelligence community was getting “played.” He said that the information would be used against him unfairly and that he could not believe that people were believing such a story again, reflecting his opinion that Russian interference in 2016 was a “hoax” made up by officials with a political agenda.  Now, Trump knows that the Russians helped him get elected in 2016 … it has been proven time and again.  However, it doesn’t fit in with his agenda, so … it simply cannot be presented as factual.

As acting DNI, Grenell would oversee the intelligence community’s efforts to combat election interference and disinformation, but that is problematic, because Grenell has publicly said that he is very skeptical of the claims that Russia interfered in 2016.  How effective, then, will his department be at working to ensure a fair and honest election?  Not at all is my best guess, and I think that was Trump’s entire purpose in putting him in this position.  At the outside, without Senate confirmation Grenell can only remain in the position of Director until September 17th, approximately a month-and-a-half before the election, but plenty of time to allow or even assist the Russians in their disinformation campaign to help Trump in November.

Trump has instructed aides to identify and remove officials across the government who aren’t defending his interests, and he wants them replaced with loyalists (aka boot-lickers).  This, my friends, is only the beginning.  Trump is working overtime to ensure that one way or another, We the People are kept in the dark, and he will remain in office by hook or by crook.

An OUTRAGE!

Posted on by under Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry

Roger Stone … he’s a nasty piece of work.  He’s part of the reason we are in the mess we’re in today, with a president who thinks he’s king, with the wealthy calling the shots while the rest of us are lied to and our rights diminished on a daily basis.  But let’s go back a little further …For many years in the 1980s and ‘90s, Stone was a lobbyist for Donald Trump on behalf of his casino businesses.  Stone has been involved in so many scandals that I’ve lost count.  Stone is also associated with Proud Boys, a far-right, fascist, white supremacist group.  He has been affiliated with Alex Jones’ Infowars, Breitbart, and the conspiracy theory that claimed President Obama was born outside the U.S.  Stone has linked his fortunes with so many nasties that it would take me the whole day to tell you about them all.  But his most recent crimes landed him, finally, in very hot water.stone-angryRoger Stone was largely responsible, along with Russian operators and Julian Assange, for hacking into Hillary Clinton’s emails during the 2016 election.  On January 25, 2019 Stone was arrested on seven criminal charges in relation to Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election:  one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements, and one count of witness tampering.

On February 18, 2019, Stone posted on Instagram a photo of the federal judge overseeing his case, Amy Berman Jackson, with what resembled rifle scope crosshairs next to her head.Amy-Berman-JacksonAfter a week-long trial in November 2019, the jury convicted Stone on all counts.  His sentencing hearing was originally scheduled for February 6th, but his attorneys requested a delay until sometime after March 9th.  Stone’s attorneys have argued for no jail time, but only probation.  Yesterday, prosecutors recommended a sentence of between 7 and 9 years.  Immediately Donald Trump tweeted inanely …

“This is a horrible and very unfair situation. The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!”

And now I come to the part of this story that should horrify you.

Stone-orange-suitThe Department of Justice plans to reduce its sentencing recommendation.  No word yet on whether they will recommend only probation, or perhaps a sentence of only a few months.  But think about this one, folks.  The man is a criminal, has been a criminal all his adult life, has been proven to have broken countless laws including lying to Congress and threatening a witness, and he is a large part of the reason that Donald Trump is sitting in the Oval Office today, though not through legitimate means.  And yet, because Donald Trump threw a hissy fit, the Department of Justice, under Trump’s lackey William Barr, is going to actually override justice to please the “president”.  In other words … we have no Department of Justice and Trump is now calling the shots.

Think about it … it can work in both ways.  Say I’m arrested outside the White House for protesting something that Trump has done … if Trump told William Barr he wanted me put away for life, no amount of arguing by my attorneys would change the verdict.  Is this what we’ve allowed to happen in this nation? Paul Manafort is serving a 7 ½ year sentence for his crimes … why should Stone get any less, for his crimes were every bit as serious as Manafort’s?

broken-justiceJustice.  It’s a funny word, for it’s open to interpretation.  There are grey areas, for sure.  But, when the ‘man’ sitting in the Oval Office can literally override the courts, can decide what he wants and the Department of “Justice” will accede to his whims and wishes, then … there is no justice.  If the court gives Roger Stone no more than a slap on the wrist for his very serious crimes, then this nation is in deep trouble … the last bastion of hope for salvation from a cruel dictator will have crumbled.

The Truth About the IG Report

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

All week, I have been planning to do a post on the IG report, but obviously hadn’t gotten it done yet. I am eternally grateful to Jeff over at On the Fence Voters for stepping up to the plate and doing such an excellent summation of the report — both pros and cons. Thank you, Jeff, for doing such a great job on this!

On The Fence Voters

And an Inconvenient One

Now that I’ve had a few days to think about it, I’d like to weigh in on the recently released Justice Department’s IG Report regarding the opening of the investigation into the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election.

First, I want to state that I did not read the entire Report. I did, however, read a substantial amount of it. Enough, in my opinion, to come to a few conclusions, that is.

The Most Important Truth

For years now, we’ve heard the President of the United States whine and stomp up and down that the whole thing was a witch hunt. That everyone was out to get him, and the deep state had it in for him from the very beginning.

Let me state unequivocally that the IG Report found no such outcome. They found NO evidence that political bias was the reason…

View original post 866 more words