Russian Collusion

The New Chair Of The House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff Of California, To Engage In “Combat” With Trump Administration In 2019

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Southern California Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, who has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2001, will be the new Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, when the 116th Congress convenes on January 3, 2019.

Schiff is one of the most reputable members of the House, and has long taken critical positions on the foreign policy of Donald Trump, and of the Republican Party before Donald Trump.

Now, he will have the ability to engage in “combat” with the Trump Administration, and order investigations and subpoenas to get to the bottom of the Russian collusion scandal, and the obstruction of justice and abuse of power that has been going on without pause for the past two years.

Schiff is a true professional, and is not afraid or intimidated by Trump calling him “Little Schitt”, and Trump will rue the day that he decided to insult this reputable Congressman who is in the best tradition of statesmanship.

This author thinks that Schiff, becoming more influential, should be considered as Speaker of the House material to follow Nancy Pelosi in 2020, as he has the credentials, the experience, and the wisdom to lead Democrats into the 117th Congress in 2021 and after.

We do not know if Schiff has thought about this long range plan, but this author believes he should be on the short list of future Democratic party leaders in the House of Representatives.

Three Potential Democratic Presidential Contenders In 2020 From Virginia: Terry McAuliffe, Tim Kaine, Mark Warner

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As the 2020 Presidential campaign begins, there are three potential candidates who come from Virginia, which has become a very “Blue” state.

Former Governor Terry McAuliffe has hinted he plans to run. He is probably the most controversial of the three Virginians, having been the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the first George W. Bush term, as well as Chair of the Hillary Clinton 2008 campaign for President, and co-chairman of the reelection campaign of President Bill Clinton in 1996. He is certainly the most hard nosed politician of the three Virginians.

Senator Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s Vice Presidential running mate, may run, but does not seem drawn to the idea of running at this point. Many observers feel that Kaine did not help Hillary Clinton, and was a lackluster campaigner. Also, Kaine is seen as moderate in a party moving to the left rapidly.

Senator Mark Warner, also seen as a moderate, and about the wealthiest member of Congress, has long been thought of as a potential candidate, and he has been very active in pursuing the Russian Collusion investigation in the Senate, as the ranking member or Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Interesting point is that all three Virginians have been Governors of their state, and all three have been seen as successes in that position, leading to Kaine and Warner being elected to the Senate.

But none of these three seem at this point, even if they announce, to be likely to win the Democratic nomination.

The one who might have the best chance is Warner, but although he is a more dynamic person than Kaine, it still seems unlikely that he will get very far in the various primaries and caucuses in 2020.

But of course no one can be sure what will happen in any Presidential campaign, so it will be interesting to see if any of these three Virginia politicians move forward toward the nomination in 2020.

Matthew Whitaker Becoming Acting Attorney General Creates A Constitutional Crisis Over Robert Mueller Investigation

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The decision of President Donald Trump to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and temporarily replace him with Matthew Whitaker, who has clearly stated his belief in 2017 that there should not be a continuation of the Robert Mueller investigation into Russian Collusion, is an alarm bell in the night.

It is now clear that Trump has decided to take action on Mueller before he can issue a report, and before the Democrats take over the House of Representatives, and start investigations and issue subpoenas to the Trump Administration.

Trump’s bizarre performance in his nearly hour and a half press conference yesterday makes one worry as to what will happen next, as Trump is acting totally bipolar, whether he is or not.

The rumor that Donald Trump, Jr. may soon be indicted by Robert Mueller is probably the reason behind the suddenly rash action by Trump to fire Sessions.

But ordinarily, the Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, who has been overseeing the Mueller investigation, and who hired Robert Mueller in the first place, should be the Acting Attorney General.

So many observers think we are on the verge of repeating the “Saturday Night Massacre” of Richard Nixon in October 1973, which led to impeachment by the House Judiciary Committee, the decision of the Supreme Court in US V. Nixon, and Nixon’s resignation in August 1974.

The Facts About Barack Obama’s Achievements On The Economy , Corruption, And Health Care, As Compared To Donald Trump’s Record

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With the Midterm Elections of 2018 only ten days away, we are now in the season of lying about Barack Obama’s record by Republicans, who act as if the 44th President accomplished nothing while in office, and was an abject failure.

Somehow, the experts see it differently, as the C Span Poll of Historians in 2017 put Obama 12th of all Presidents, and the American Political Science Association poll of 2018 puts Obama as 8th among all Presidents.

Obama brought about the greatest economic revival from a economic collapse in US History, far better than Franklin D. Roosevelt and the ending of the Great Depression, only brought about ultimate entrance into World War II, while Obama brought about an end to the Great Recession without a major war. The stock market nearly tripled under him, and the unemployment rate went from 10 percent when George W. Bush left, to under 5 percent when Obama left office. But Donald Trump tries to claim that magic took place when he came into office, and that the present booming economy is all his doing, ignoring the recovery under his predecessor. It is clear that the economy’s improvement would have been much the same under Hillary Clinton had she won the Electoral College and become our President.

There was no corruption under Barack Obama of note, and no one was indicted or convicted, while the record of the George W. Bush administration had quite a lot of corruption, but already Donald Trump has seen more corruption in less than two years than Bush had in eight years. Trump’s cabinet and other advisers have demonstrated more corruption than any in American history. and so many people have been indicted or pleading guilty in the probe on Russian collusion.

Obama also promoted the protection of preexisting conditions under the Affordable Care Act or ObamaCare, which the Republicans have tried to destroy 70 times, although now all candidates for reelection are claiming otherwise, but a pure lie. Donald Trump has no concern about health care, and instead brags about the massive tax cut to the wealthy, which is leading to Republicans claiming that not only must ObamaCare be repealed, but also there is a need for massive cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Trump supporters who believe any of the propaganda coming from Trump and Republicans running for reelection, are truly delusional, and fail to understand that the facts are very different from the myths being perpetrated by Republicans who hope to keep control of Congress after the elections in less than two weeks.

The Jamal Khashoggi Torture And Murder The Greatest Foreign Policy Crisis For Donald Trump, Undermining Human Rights For Personal Financial Gain, An Impeachable Act!

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Donald Trump has just confronted the greatest foreign policy crisis of his Presidency, and it seems that he will work to undermine human rights for personal financial gain.

Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, and the heir to become King when his elderly father passes away, is clearly involved in ordering the horrific torture and murder of Saudi national but American resident Jamal Khashoggi, who was a journalist for the Washington Post.

The thought that Trump, and his Tea Party Kansas Congressman Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and his National Security Adviser John Bolton, would work to defend Saudi Arabia after this horrific assassination, and be more concerned about defense profits and financial gains, over the life of a human being so brutally murdered, is enough to make one vomit!

Trump is now reaching a new level of obscenity in defending torture and murder, and that makes him complicit with Mohammed bin Salman as a war criminal, and both of them should be immediately removed from power, and sent to the Hague to be tried for war crimes against humanity, and in the case of Trump, that would include his harsh treatment of immigrants and their children at the US-Mexico border!

How Vice President Mike Pence, who professes to be a “good Christian” can sit back and accept what is going on, and NOT condemn Trump and break with him morally and ethically, makes it clear that Mike Pence should immediately resign from the Vice Presidency as a moral degenerate, a crook who should be prosecuted for complicity in the same human rights violations of his boss.

This government, elected by Russian collusion, corrupt to the core, destructive of common decency, and promoting Fascism and undermining of the rule of law and the Constitution, needs to be repudiated in November, and action taken as soon as possible to remove this cancer from the body politic of America. That means movement toward impeachment, and pressure on the Republican Party to realize it is time for them to abandon their dictatorial leader, and vote to remove him in a Senate trial.

We have lived through 21 months of nightmares, and have reached a point of no return, and any decent American will see the need to remove Donald Trump and Mike Pence from power as soon as possible, and in the interim, break off diplomatic relations and economic relations with Saudi Arabia until reform comes to that nation, including the removal of Mohammed bin Salman from power and his prosecution and conviction for torture and murder of Jamal Khashoggi!

The Next Speaker Of The House IF GOP Keeps Majority: Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, Or Jim Jordan

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If the Republican Party, somehow, holds on to majority control of the House of Representatives in the 116th Congress, they will need to select a new Speaker of the House, as Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan is leaving Congress at the end of this year.

At this point, there are three key contenders for the Speakership in the Republican Party:

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana

House Freedom Caucus member Jim Jordan of Ohio

All three, honestly, make outgoing Speaker Paul Ryan look better by comparison, and yet, my readers know how much I dislike, and have denounced Paul Ryan, including when he was the Vice Presidential running mate of Mitt Romney in the Presidential Election of 2012, for which I was viciously attacked on several right wing websites at the time.

But seriously, Kevin McCarthy is practically the “lap dog” of Donald Trump, extremely loyal and obedient, and was seemingly aware of Russian Collusion in 2016, was talking about it at a Republican House conference meeting, until Paul Ryan told him to stop talking about it. He is a man without any principles other than the advancement of Donald Trump and his agenda, part of the Trump party, rather than the traditional Republican Party, and even more so than Paul Ryan, who has been unwilling to speak out against Trump’s disgraceful tweets and policies. McCarthy has refused to engage in Town Hall events in his Bakersfield, California district since 2010. He also promoted pursuit of Hillary Clinton for the Benghazi, Libya incident, where four diplomats were killed, gaining a reputation of promoting a “hit job” on her, when many more diplomats were killed at embassies during the Presidency of George W. Bush.

Steve Scalise, thankfully, recovered from being shot at the Congressional baseball game in June 2017, but it had no effect on his views on gun control, which is no regulation at all. Beyond that, Scalise used to be a friend of Ku Klux Klan Wizard and white supremacist David Duke, although now, of course, he denies it, and tries to claim it was not so. He would, in this author’s view, be a worse choice than McCarthy. However, for those who are uncomfortable with McCarthy, and might prefer a Southerner as the next Speaker, due to the strong GOP presence in the South, he might be seen as a potential favorite, and certainly less disgraceful by comparison, to the third choice, Jim Jordan of Ohio.

Jim Jordan, who is a co leader of the House Freedom Caucus, the most Far Right group in the Republican Party, has been accused of covering up abuse of athletes on the wrestling team at Ohio State University, when he was an assistant coach in the 1980s. He was one of the Republicans who promoted government shutdowns, and has done everything possible to block the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee from pursuing investigation of the Donald Trump collusion with Russia in the 2016 campaign. He also pursed the Benghazi, Libya investigation of the deaths of four diplomats, targeting Hillary Clinton in a total of 11 investigations, which found no evidence of wrongdoing, and which featured 11 hours of testimony by Clinton, with no sign of weakness on her part, as compared to the performance of many others investigated by Congressional committees. Plain and simple, Jordan would be the absolute worst of the three choices being considered by the Republicans, although others might join the fray after the midterm elections.

It is indeed a very sad situation when we can look back on John Boehner as being far better than Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, and Jim Jordan.

Let us hope that one of the latter three will be the Minority Leader, rather than the Speaker of the House in 2019-2020.

The Brett Kavanaugh Debacle Will Accelerate A “Blue Wave” And A “Pink Wave”, Which Will Transform American Politics

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I am writing this entry after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford has gone before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, September 27, 2018, and before Federal Circuit Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh has started his testimony on the charge of inappropriate sexual behavior toward Dr. Ford.

Dr. Ford was a very credible witness, but it will be unlikely to change any Republican votes in the Senate, which is hell bent on confirming Kavanaugh to a lifetime position on the high Court, despite many doubts about his honesty and veracity.

In any case, no matter what happens, it is clear that this is a turning point in American politics, and that this debacle will accelerate a “Blue Wave”, as well as a “Pink Wave”, both of which will transform our political system.

The Republican Party has tried, under Donald Trump, to maximize their support among white males, but now they have alienated intelligent, educated white women, and unless the Russians are able to collude again in 2018, and fix the results of the midterm elections, as they did in the Presidential Election of 2016, then the Democrats will have a massive midterm election victory, and it will carry over to the 2020 Presidential election and beyond.

The Republican Party, relying on the diminishing white male population, the South, the Midwest, the Great Plains, and rural America, are going to see much of the Midwest give up on the Republicans, for many reasons, but misogyny is one of those factors.

This is indeed a major turning point in American history, and will seen as such in retrospect.

The vast majority of the American people are sick to death of misogyny, racism, nativism, and the hatred of white supremacists and their ally, Donald Trump!

Benedict Arnold Committed Treason On This Date In 1780, And Now Donald Trump And Company Have Committed Treason

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On this day, September 21, in the year 1780, General Benedict Arnold, who had been trusted by Continental Army Commander in Chief George Washington, committed treason when he met British Major John Andre to negotiate the handover of West Point, New York to the enemy, thereby affecting the American Revolution and the loss of thousands of American soldiers, on the promise of a large sum of money and a high position in the British Army.

The plot was foiled, and Andre was captured and executed by orders of the American military, with Arnold fleeing to the British lines, and leading British troops in Virginia and Connecticut, until the British gave up their attempt to subjugate the new nation of the United States.

Arnold lost his reputation, and became synonymous with the word “traitor”, and is on a shortlist of such people.

But now, it is clear that we have an American President who is a traitor, and has collaborated with an enemy far more evil than Great Britain was 240 years ago, the Russian government under former KGB spy chief in the old Soviet Union, Vladimir Putin.

The case against Donald Trump is becoming clearer by the day and week, and eventually, Trump should be removed from office, and should face indictment, conviction, and life in prison without parole for the crime of collusion, along with many other violations, including obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

There is no legitimate way that Donald Trump can be excused for his actions, and the continuing cover up.

There is no comparison that can be made between Watergate and Richard Nixon, and the danger that Donald Trump represents.

While not defending the horrible violations of law by Richard Nixon, it is clear that Nixon looks like a “choir boy” in comparison to the dangers presented by Trump and his corrupt administration.

Donald Trump’s Attack On Bob Woodward, The Master Journalist With 45 Years Of Excellence, Falls Flat

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Donald Trump’s attack on journalist Bob Woodward, famous from Richard Nixon and the Watergate Scandal, and author of 18 best selling books over four and a half decades, falls flat.

Trump has been exposed for who he is, not only by Woodward, but also by the “Anonymous” op-ed in the New York Times; by Omarora Manigault Newman’s book; by the Michael Cohen guilty plea; the agreement of Trump Organization Treasurer Allen Weisselberg to cooperate; and now, most recently, by the Paul Manafort guilty plea.

The evidence of how dangerous and unhinged Trump is, plus his criminal activity of Russian collusion, obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, is magnifying, and when, as seems likely, the Democratic Party gains control of at least the House of Representatives in November, clearly shown in all public opinion polls, action will be swift toward impeachment and potential resignation of the President.

Trump is flailing at his “enemies”, but the nation has become clearly disillusioned with Trump, and particularly so with women, minorities, the young, and suburban educated people.

Bob Woodward is one of the greatest journalists and authors of modern times, and his new book will stand the test of time and veracity, without any question.

Woodward helped by his journalism, along with Carl Bernstein, to bring down Richard Nixon, four and a half decades ago, and now Woodward, along with others, will help bring Donald Trump down, and accountable to the justice system.

Donald Trump Public Opinion Support Collapses Into Mid 30s: Projection Of Midterm Election Disaster Coming

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A number of new public opinion polls demonstrate that support for Donald Trump has collapsed into the mid to low 30s, an all time low during his Presidency.

More people in polls want Special Counsel Robert Mueller to pursue the scandals around Donald Trump, and 60 percent do not think Donald Trump is honest.

Every indication is that there will be a massive and walloping repudiation of Donald Trump and the Republican Party, which has been willing to ignore, or often collaborate on preventing a full investigation, but the Justice Department under Jeff Sessions, as despicable as he is in so many ways, has refused to do anything regarding interference in the investigation.

So Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Robert Mueller, and FBI head Christopher Wray are moving ahead, and ignoring tweets by the President, and attacks by his congressional supporters.

A massive number of women, people of color, young people, and teachers are running for state and national office, particularly in the Democratic Party.

A “Blue Wave” seems clearly coming, with suburban educated women, people of color, young people, and college graduates ready to punish Trump and his party, and the Midwest, the heartland of the nation, seems to be turning against Donald Trump too.

But there could always be Russian collusion which distorts the results, and certainly, the Republican Party and Donald Trump have no interest in attempting to prevent such action, which shows how corrupt they are, wanting to hold on to power no matter what, to benefit the elite wealthy at the expense of the middle and working classes and the poor.