Thursday, March 14, 2024

UPDATED: RNC No Longer RNC: Trump Makes Three Top Picks for Him at the Top

His long range plan from 2020 loss
(Now he runs the whole show)

Top Man; Lara Trump (Banker); Mike Whatley (Figure Head)

Updated with third Trump sycophant at RNC
(Christina Bobb photo above)

Updated (March 16): This article (NBC News) is a historical reminder regarding Ms. Bobb and her lying on official documents at Mar-a-Lago vis-á-vis the classified doc case. She is now Senior Counsel for Election Integrity - I doubt she can even spell integrity let alone practice it...!!! Now more firm grip by Trump.

Original Post Follows Below: The danger is at the top with Trump – cite: 

After years of criticizing mail voting and so-called ballot harvesting as ripe for fraud as they blame DEMS and Biden, Republicans and Trump now at the top of the RNC (calling it the TNC (Trump National Committee) want that road opened for them in 2024.

Note: Ballot harvesting explained here.  

They are poised to launch aggressive get-out-the-vote campaigns for 2024 that employ just those strategies, attempting to match the emphasis on early voting Democrats have used for years to lock in many of their supporters well ahead of Election Day.

The goal is to persuade voters who support GOP candidates that early voting techniques are secure and to make sure they are able to return their ballots in time to be counted, thus putting less pressure on Election Day turnout efforts.

Since 2020, Trump was routinely sowing doubt about mail voting and encouraging his voters to wait and vote in-person on Election Day.

Republican activists peddled the stolen election narrative were telling GOP voters who received mail ballots to hold onto them and turn them in at their polling place on Election Day rather than use mail or drop boxes.

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Now Trump is asking donors to chip in for his “ballot harvesting fund” – saying in a fundraising email: “Either we ballot harvest where we can, or you can say goodbye to America!”

Republicans say the shift is needed to ensure GOP victories up and down the 2024 ballot, arguing they cannot afford to give Democrats any advantage.

At the same time, they acknowledge skepticism from many of their own voters conditioned by false claims of widespread voter fraud from Trump and others.

Former RNC Chairwoman, who recently resigned, Ronna Romney McDaniel, said she opposes ballot collection, then added: Do I think it’s the most secure way of voting? No, but if it’s the law, we’re going to have to do it just like the Democrats are.”

Related story on Trump/MAGA taking over the RNC posted here from POLITICO with this headline:

“Why the GOP Should Be Very Worried About Trump’s RNC Purge”

My 2 Cents: Well played, Mr. Trump to get your own political party – the TNC – not the age-old RNC and their massive funding pool, too, right? 

That is with Trump’s sister-in-law Lara Trump (Eric’s wife) handing the purse strings at the very top, um?

Already, big donors are resisting those takeover and even a brand new group calling themselves: RVAT (Republican Voters Against Trump) set to raise $50M to defeat him in November. Time will tell if that works, or not.

Thanks for stopping by.


Sunday, March 10, 2024

Trump Intel Brief: Like Giving Loaded Gun to 6-Year Old Telling Them Go Play Outside

Really, Really Recent Bad News
(President Biden Can Just Say No)

The original story is/was shocking when it first was published but not now since President Biden seems to be correcting the perceived wrong of the original story from the NY TIMES

An update reported below may or may not clarify the issue:

“Biden Bars Trump From Receiving Intelligence Briefings, Citing Erratic Behavior”

President Biden said there was “no need” for former President Trump to get the briefings, traditionally given to ex-presidents as a courtesy and to keep them informed if their advice is needed.

Now this story is more recent and a decision vis-à-vis as to whether it implies info to the former president (NY TIMES above) and how Mr. Biden may or may not hold his ground as stated in this version of the same story here from POLITICO that seems to show the Intel Agencies are preparing docs for Trump to have access to – which in my view is insane.

The POLITICO article above has this recent story headline:

“Intel agencies eye brief for Trump, amid fears he could spill secrets”

It’s standard practice to share classified information with presidential nominees, but the decision to brief Trump if he becomes the GOP nominee this year is loaded with political and potentially legal risks.

WASHINGTON (NY TIMES) — President Biden said earlier that he would bar his predecessor, Donald J. Trump, from receiving intelligence briefings traditionally given to former presidents, saying that Mr. Trump could not be trusted because of his “erratic behavior” even before the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

NOTE: THE FINAL DECISION IS ALWAYS THE EXECUTIVE’S AUTHORITY.

The move was the first time that a former president had been cut out of the briefings, which are provided partly as a courtesy and partly for the moments when a sitting president reaches out for advice. Currently, the briefings are offered on a regular basis to Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

Mr. Biden, speaking to Norah O’Donnell of CBS News, said Mr. Trump’s behavior worried him, saying: “Unrelated to the insurrection that gave rise to the second impeachment.”

He then added:I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefings. What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”

The former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), said just before Biden’s inauguration, that Mr. Trump’s access to any classified information should be cut off saying:There is no circumstance in which this president should get another intelligence briefing, not now and not in the future. If there were, I think, any number of intelligence partners around the world who probably started withholding information from us because they didn’t trust the president would safeguard that information, and protect their sources and methods. And that makes us less safe. We’ve seen this president politicize intelligence, and that’s another risk to the country.”

The question of how Trump handles intelligence came up several times during his presidency.

For example, shortly after he fired the FBI director James Comey in May 2017, Trump met with the Russian FM and Russian ambassador in the Oval Office.  

Russian FM Lavrov; Trump; Amb. Kislyak (May 10, 2017)
(Trump says: I just fired FBI Director Comey)

Those two in the Oval Office chuckled when Trump told them that. The topic was about a highly classified piece of intelligence about the Islamic State that came from Israel. The Israelis were outraged.

Also, later in his presidency, Trump took a photograph with his phone of a classified satellite image showing an explosion at a missile launch pad in Iran. Some of the markings were blacked out first, but the revelation gave adversaries information — which they may have had, anyway — about the abilities of American surveillance satellites. 

Trump’s aides later said that because he declined to read intelligence reports — preferring an oral briefing — as he did not see the “S” and “U” markings indicating “Secret” / “Unclassified.”

But there was a deeper worry about how Mr. Trump could use intelligence now that he has retreated to Mar-a-Lago, his club in Florida. 

The former president has talked openly about the possibility of running for the White House again, perhaps under the banner of a third party. The fear was that he would use, or twist, intelligence to fit his political agenda, something he was often accused of in office.

Among those arguing to cut off Mr. Trump’s access was Susan M. Gordon, a career CIA officer who served as deputy director of national intelligence until 2019, when she left after being passed over for director. 

In an opinion article in The Washington Post, Ms. Gordon, one of the most respected intelligence officers of her generation, wrote that the danger of providing intelligence to a president whose business deals might make him beholden to foreign investors and lenders was just too great.

Gordon frequently briefed Trump saying:His post-White House security profile, as the professionals like to call it, is daunting especially after January 6” adding: Any president is by definition a target and presents some risks. A former President Trump, even before January 6 events, he might be unusually vulnerable to bad actors with ill intent.”

My 2 Cents: Biden was correct as the NY TIMES wrote and now he should say and do that again now as the Intel Community considers giving Trump access in any form. 

I say: Don’t give him any intelligence access. If Trump were to win in November, then the whole issue is moot, He would have full access – and deliver a horrible mess.

Who would benefit, probably: Putin, Xi, Orban, or Kim Jong-un, et al. Why, what for: Money, favors, leverage, hell who knows?

Thanks for stopping by.


Monday, March 4, 2024

Dictator Don: The Vision & Plan for a Second Trump Administration That He Promises

How he seems himself every day since 2020 loss
(Has never conceded losing to Mr. Biden)

Biggest documented liar in presidential history
(Nearly 31,000 lies in four years in office)

Rather long but critically-important post and information. 

CNN tracked 15 lies of the biggest liar ever to serve as President – guess who – that excellent article headline:

“The 15 most notable lies of Donald Trump’s presidency (posted January 16, 2021)

Also, related article here from NBC with their headline:

“Trump versus the truth: The most outrageous falsehoods of his presidency”

And this added piece from THE HILL with a grand score of trump’s lies with their headline from the Washington Post:

“Washington Post counts 30,573 false or misleading claims in four years by Trump”

Presidential historian Michael Beschloss said: “I have never seen a president in American history who has lied so continuously and so outrageously as Donald Trump, period.”

The full post from the three above articles:

Washington (CNN) — Trying to pick the most notable lies from Donald Trump’s presidency is like trying to pick the most notable pieces of junk from the town dump. His lies that stand out from his four years in power – for their importance, for their egregiousness, for their absurdity, or for what they say about the man.

1. It didn’t rain on his inauguration: It rained during Trump’s inaugural address. Then, at a celebratory ball later that day, Trump told the crowd that the rain “just never came” until he finished talking and went inside, at which point “it poured.” This was the first lie of Trump’s presidency. Like his lies that same week about his inauguration crowd, it hinted at what would come next. The President would say things that we could see with our own eyes were not true. And he would often do this brazen lying for no apparent strategic reason.

2. The coronavirus was under control: This was more like a family of lies than a single lie. But each one – the lie that the virus was (1) “equivalent to the flu”; the lie that the situation was “totally under control”; the lie that the virus was “disappearing” – suggested to Americans that they didn’t have to change much about their usual behavior. A year into the crisis, more than 386,000 Americans died from the virus. We can’t say with precision how the crisis would have unfolded differently if Trump had been more truthful. But it’s reasonable to venture that his dishonesty led to a significant number of deaths.

3. Sharpie ID’d when Hurricane Dorian hits Landfall: He tweeted in 2019 that Alabama was one of the states at greater risk from Hurricane Dorian than had been initially forecast. The federal weather office in Birmingham then tweeted that, actually, AL would be unaffected by the storm. Not great, but fixable fast with a simple White House correction. Trump, however, is so congenitally unwilling to admit error that he embarked on an increasingly farcical campaign to prove that his incorrect AL tweet was actually correct, eventually showcasing a hurricane map that was crudely altered with a Sharpie. The slapstick might have been funny had White House officials not leaped into action behind the scenes to try to pressure federal weather experts into saying he was right and they were wrong. The saga proved that Trump was not some lone liar: he was backed by an entire powerful apparatus willing to fight for his fabrications.

4. The Boy Scouts Congratulated Me: He claimed that “the head of the Boy Scouts” had called him to say that his bizarrely political address to the Scouts’ National Jamboree was “the greatest speech that was ever made to them.” One of the hardest things about fact checking Trump was that a lot of people he lied about did not think it was in their interest to be quoted publicly contradicting a vengeful president, but the Scouts confirmed that no call ever happened.

5. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MI) supports al-Qaeda: At a White House event in 2019, Trump grossly distorted a 2013 quote from Rep. Ilhan Omar to try to get his supporters to believe that the Minnesota Democrat had expressed support for the terrorist group al Qaeda. 

He went on to deliver additional bigoted attacks against against Omar in the following months. But it’s hard to imagine a more vile lie for the President to tell about a Muslim official – who had already been getting death threats – than a smear that makes her sound pro-terrorist.

6. The trade deficit with China used to be $500 billion: Trump, an incorrigible exaggerator, rarely chose to use an accurate number when he could instead use an inaccurate bigger number. He said well over 100 times that before his presidency, the U.S for years had a $500 billion annual trade deficit with China – though the actual pre-Trump deficit never even reached $400 billion. Trump made versions of the “$500 billion” claim so many times that it became almost physically painful to fact check it any more.

7. The burly crying men who had never cried before: They were almost always male. They were almost always large. They were almost always blue-collar. And, according to the President, they kept walking up to him crying tears of gratitude – even though they had almost always not previously cried for years. Trump’s series of Tears Stories – which sometimes doubled as Sir Stories – helps us see his lying as a kind of performance art. The stories were oddly grandiose, like something you’d hear from a two-bit foreign strongman. They were also pure shtick.

8. Trump didn’t know about the payment to Stormy Daniels: Trump is not your traditional political liar. One of his distinguishing features is that he lied pointlessly, dissembling about trivial subjects for trivial reasons. But he also lied when he needed to. Like when he told reporters on Air Force One in 2018 that he did not know about a $130,000 payment to porn performer Stormy Daniels. And, that he did not know where his Attorney Michael Cohen got the money. It all was audacious – Trump knew, because he had personally reimbursed Cohen – and kind of conventional: He was lying to try to get himself out of a tawdry scandal.

9. Trump ended border family separations: Much of Trump’s lying was clumsy, half-baked. Some of it was almost art. Here’s what he told NBC’s Chuck Todd in 2019 about his widely controversial policy of separating migrant parents from their children at the border: “You know, under President Obama you had separation. I was the one that ended it.” He signed a 2018 order to end the family separation. What he did not mention to Chuck Todd is that what he had ended was his own policy – a plan announced by his own AG who had made family separation standard rather than occasional, as it had been under Obama. All of Trump’s words in those two sentences to Todd were accurate in themselves. But he was lying because of what he left out.

10. Biden will destroy protections for pre-existing conditions: His 2020 re-election campaign was consistently and consciously dishonest, especially in its attempts to cast Joe Biden as a frightening radical. When Trump claimed in September that Biden would destroy protections for people with pre-existing health conditions – though the Obama-Biden administration created the protections, though the protections were overwhelmingly popular, though Biden was running on preserving them, and though Trump himself had tried repeatedly to weaken them – Trump was not merely lying but turning reality upside down.

11. He got the Veterans Choice Bill into Law: Trump could have told a perfectly good factual story about the Veterans Choice health care program Obama signed into law in 2014: It wasn’t good enough, so he replaced it with a more expansive program he signed into law in 2018. That’s not the story he did tell – whether out of policy ignorance, a desire to erase Obama’s legacy, or simply because he is a liar. Instead, he claimed over and over – more than 160 times – that he is the one who got the Veterans Choice program passed. That he said was after other presidents tried and failed for years. And why not stretch it? He knew he probably wouldn’t be challenged by a press corps drowning in other Trump drama. It wasn’t until August 2020 that he was asked by a reporter about the lie to his face, and he promptly left the room.

12. Windmills cause cancer: It was a problem for the country that Trump was not only a conspiracy theorist himself but immersed in conspiracy culture, regularly stumbling upon ludicrous claims and then sharing them as fact. For such a fierce critic of the media’s use of anonymous sources, Trump sure liked to use a lot of unnamed sources himself. His stories were full of nonsense he attributed to “people” or that he claimed “they” say. One of the most bonkers “they say” items was his 2019 declaration that “they say” the noise from windmills “causes cancer.” After Trump amplified another conspiracy lie in 2020, NBC’s Savannah Guthrie admonished him by saying that “You’re not, like, someone’s crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever.” Except he was, that is until Twitter took down his account.

13. That his healthcare plan was coming in two weeks: Trump’s big health care plan was eternally coming in “two weeks.” So were a bunch of other plans and announcements. Trump is, at his core, a huckster. Every moment of his presidency was a chance for him to sell someone on something, whether or not that something actually existed. And if they asked when they could actually see the magic elixir he said was being brewed just over there behind the curtain, he would just have to delay them until they forgot about it.

14. He was once named Michigan’s Man of the Year: Trump never ever even lived in Michigan. Why would he have been named Michigan’s Man of the Year years before his presidency? Simple: He wouldn’t have been. He wasn’t. And yet this lie he appeared to have invented in the final week of his 2016 campaign became a staple of his 2020 campaign, repeated at Michigan rally after rally. It’s so illustrative because it makes so little sense.

15. Trump won the 2020 election: Trump’s long White House campaign against verifiable reality has culminated with his lie that he is the true winner of the 2020 presidential election he clearly, certifiably and fairly lost. To so many people it’s ludicrous nonsense, but to Americans who support him – MAGA sycophants – it’s the truth, and that got people killed on January 6. The nation’s truth problem, clearly, isn’t just a Trump problem. It remains his deception and that event shows how detached from reality he and MAGA are.

My 2 Cents: I enjoyed the research into this topic of Trump’s lies. It comes today (March 4) just as the 9-0 SCOTUS decision says he can stay on ballot as they tossed the 14th Amendment challenge to keep him off.

Now the nation awaits the biggest decision ever: Whether the high court will approve his demand for them to grant him absolute immunity for the crimes pending against him.

I want to ask people who still cling by him (his MAGA cult members): After all of that news and his over 30,000 documented lies, deceit, and utter BS how can you vote for him and especially with the promises he has made about “Project 2025” if he wins in November.

Do we truly want the path that Trump advocates: He as a one-man ruler taking over all branches of government and running his way and no other way? Boy, I hope not, but I also have some fear about people around him and who support him that do not comprehend what that would mean – that is: The U.S. under Trump’s total control and the only rules or laws that applied to anyone about anything would be what he says and wants – that is what he has said he will do if reelected and that part believe he will try to do.

To me it’s utterly mind-boggling how anyone can stick with Trump. Let’s hope they do not – he does not deserve to be anywhere near the Oval Office never again, period.

Thanks for stopping by.


Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Trump CPAC-24 Speech: Same Lies and Threats and His Treatment Like Under Stalin

Kisses the flag hello and America good-bye 

A two-sourced post on the same subject: First, is Trump’s speech at the CPAC-2024 annual conference in Maryland (February 24) reported on here from THE ATLANTIC with their headline eye-popping story:

“Trump Delivers Another Autocratic Tirade”

Trump’s CPAC speech was wild and full of falsehoods, but more important, it was yet another fascistic rant, full of fear, rambling half-thoughts, delusions, and, direct threats warning: “Our country is being destroyed. And the only thing standing between you and its obliteration is me.”

The New York Times, previewed the speech with a headline and predicting that Trump Will Outline a Thriving U.S. Amid a Second Term and in his words that has the potential to connect powerfully to the fears and lives of millions of Americans and that the upcoming presidential election with saying:Will be our new liberation day and that for Americans I consider to be liars and cheaters and fraudsters and censors and imposters who have commandeered our government, it will be their judgment day. The sinister forces trying to kill America have done everything they can to stop me, to silence you, and to turn this nation into a socialist dumping ground for criminals, junkies, Marxists, thugs, radicals, and dangerous refugees that no other country wants.”

This year, he added some new tropes, including referring to his legal problems as Stalinist show trials orchestrated by the Biden administration, a historical reference that is probably lost on the CPAC crowd (and might not be understood by Trump himself) but that serves as another marker of his contempt for the American judicial system. 

He smeared everyone involved in his prosecutions as a “Mob of radical-left Democrat partisans masquerading as judges and juries and prosecutors who want to steal my liberty.”

In previous years, CPAC apparently tried to screen out neo-Nazis and white nationalists and supremacists, but this year, members of such groups were this time observed wearing badges.

So, a former president of the United States went off on an autocratic soliloquy — happily ditching his teleprompter for some of it — to a group that included self-identified Nazis.

He warned that he was the singular figure: The last chance standing between ordinary citizens and the bloodshed, chaos, and violent crime” that he claims has now arrived at the hands of roving gangs of terrorists and criminals.”

And, at the ballot box, he said: “They will get a reckoning, like they haven’t even imagined before. We’re gonna straighten out our country.”

Who is they? They are the people, it seems, who do not support Trump, his fellow citizens who are in his eyes vermin and whom he referred to at CPAC as “…thugs and tyrants and fascists, scoundrels, and rogues.”

Meanwhile, he decried the incarceration of the “hostages” who are serving time for the January 6 insurrection, claiming: “There’s never been in the history of our country a group of people treated the way they’ve been treated.”

Part Two is from THE AP with their Trump headline:

“Trump calls himself a ‘proud political dissident’ in CPAC speech”

Highlights from that AP article (formatted to fit the blog):

Trump cast November’s presidential election as “judgment day” and declared himself a “proud political dissident” during a speech before conservative activists outside of Washington Saturday as he again cloaked his campaign in religious imagery.

Trump said in part: For hardworking Americans, November 5 will be our new liberation day. But for the liars and cheaters and fraudsters and censors and imposters who have commandeered our government, it will be judgment day. When we win, the curtain closes on their corrupt reign and the sun rises on a bright new future for AmericaI stand before you today only as your past and hopefully future president, but as a proud political dissident. I am a dissident.”

Last year, at CPAC Trump said that his 2024 campaign would be one of “retribution,” saying:In 2016, I declared: I am your voice. Today I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”

This time, Trump cast himself as a savior standing between his supporters and near-anarchy as he spoke of “Hoards of illegal aliens stampeding across our borders” warning that the country’s social safety net and education system would “buckle and collapse under the gangs will be invading your territory. These are the stakes of this election: Our country is being destroyed and the only thing standing between you and its obliteration is me while Biden’s leadership express train barrels toward servitude and to ruin. (Sic)”

Trump then added:A vote for Trump is your ticket back to freedom, it’s your passport out of tyranny and it’s your only escape from Joe Biden and his gang’s fast track to hell. And in many ways, we’re living in hell right now. The unprecedented success of the United States of America will be my ultimate and absolute revenge.”

KEY FACTS TRUMP NEVER MENTIONS:

(1) Violent crime is down nationwide according to the most recent FBI statistics

(2) Despite public perception, recent data on the economy has shown that growth accelerated last year.

(3) Inflation returned closer to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, thus proving wrong both Wall Street and academic economists who had been predicting a recession.

Trump said the 91 felony charges he faces in four jurisdictions are attempts by Biden to damage his candidacy. FYI: There’s no evidence whatsoever that Biden influenced Trump’s charges in any way.

My 2 Cents: Ladies and gentlemen who stop by and read the above please keep in mind what Trump says and believes he will carry out if he wins the White House again, but, then we will have to duck for cover as we see the nation crumble under his “Jackbooted promises and pledges.”

I believe he would try all those things, but I won’t trust him for one single minute about being successful to carry them out or even winning in November – I trust the voters NOT Trump. Hope you agree, too.

My other related same subject post is here – FYI.

Thanks for stopping by.


Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA): Weak, No Spine, Direction, or Skills to Lead GOP House

A pitiful dismal man answering only to Trump

Interesting and very troubling story here from RAW STORY with this their headline (formatted to fit the blog):

“We're wounded: Speaker Johnson struggles to lead GOP after unnecessary purging”

House Republicans are divided over what to do about their internal divisions – or even whether anything’s the matter at all. Welcome to Speaker Mike Johnson’s Capitol.

Related updates from CNN here (Johnson pressured) and here (Sen. Schumer demands Speaker Johnson pass the Ukraine aid package).

After a string of recent tactical blunders – from a failed impeachment vote to pulling the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (or FISA) reauthorization measure he put on the floor this week – some Republicans in the House of Representatives are reassessing the successor to deposed Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Johnson, Republicans’ replacement speaker, has now been on the job 114 days. Yet the GOP still feels rudderless. He is hardly a phoenix, but the GOP is covered in plenty of ashes from the house fire that is the 118th Congress' Republican conference.

Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) told Raw Story:We're wounded. I'm not saying that's because of Mike Johnson. It’s because of the situation we put ourselves in, no matter who came out of that. There's a lot of things that are out of his immediate control with the suddenness of this happening.”

Then Raw Story asked LaMalfa: It feels like there’s a little more unrest. Or that the unrest is now bubbling to the surface?” 

LaMalfa responded:I think there’s some underground bubbling going on.”

The GOP still hasn’t healed since members ran McCarthy out as Speaker – and then ran him out of Congress. 

Even though Johnson hasn’t had his speakership challenged by the gang of eight who ousted McCarthy, he’s constantly under pressure from every faction of his fractious conference.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) told Raw Story:In fairness, I think the problem changes every day, depending on where he's got to focus. Sometimes it's just the issue of the day. It's just a tough, tough time.”

Johnson’s job is only getting more complicated now that the 2024 election has fully engulfed the U.S. Capitol. Campaign considerations helped derail a bipartisan Senate border security compromise and cast a broadly bipartisan foreign aid package – to U.S. allies Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan – in limbo.

Speaker in empty suit only? Looming over everything, including Johnson’s speakership, is Trump, who for example, single-handedly killed the border bill before lawmakers even finished drafting it as Johnson said it was DOA after Trump told him to kill it and he did.

Full article continues here:

My 2 Cents: I don’t ordinarily offer advice to the GOP but under these circumstances it is warranted, and especially if they truly want to serve good for the nation (which I doubt many of them actually do, except in floor speeches), then oust Johnson and do the job you were elected to do for: “We the people.”

It’s just this simple: Work on bipartisan bills that help our allies in trouble (like Ukraine), try to help get Israel a cease fire and to stop killing innocents and get the hostages freed – and then they can just focus on getting Hamas which is proper after Hamas attached them in October, just stop acting like Hamas with needless killing of women and children.

Thanks for stopping by.


Sunday, February 11, 2024

Biden Doc Case: S/C Hur Slammed for Unjustified Remarks in His Official DOJ Report

S/C Hur’s statement on Page One 
(Says no evidence to charge & prosecute)

S/C Hur's statement totally uncalled for 
(It violates DOJ rules as personal & opinionated)

Excellent CNN rundown on the recent S/C Robert Hur (R) report on President Biden’s classified doc case, and Hur’s official report and personal comments compared to the 2016 Hillary Clinton email scandal and the blowback we are seeing and hearing all across mostly GOP media la-la land with this headline reminder:

“Former FBI Dep. Dir. Andrew McCabe: Nauseating similarities between Biden report and Clinton report”

That statement from McCabe can be seen and heard in the video interview posted below of him on CNN (about 8:00 minutes) hosted by host CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. 

She questioned him about the similarities between the recent special counsel’s report on President Biden’s handling of classified documents and that back in 2016 when former FBI Director James Comey reported Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.

CNN 8-minute video of McCabe interview:

My 2 Cents: The similarities are stark and quite scary, too – why do I say that: I believe as stated in the interview that it plainly shows that the GOP is harsh and raw and way out of DOJ policy line in in both cases. 

Comey said initially there was no reason to prosecute Hillary Clinton back in 2016 and in his later remarks (10 days before the 2016 election) probably lost her the race against Trump when he said new evidence has been found (which is was not). 

Now, we see in S/C Hur’s report (refer to the two slides above of his two statements) he said there was no reason to charge or prosecute President Biden in the classified doc mess he had vs. that pending for Trump and his woes same subject at Mar-a-Lago. 

But the side bar remarks that damaged Clinton then, and now facing President Biden perhaps and in a way that violates DOJ guidelines for such S/C reporting, which as Andrew McCabe says simply: “Just make and submit the official the report and leave the personal opinions aside.” (Or words to that effect). 

The GOP legal system also seems to protect Republicans while going after DEMS dating back to the Watergate era right until today as stated in Hur’s report with his unnecessary added personal opinions,

We shall see as time passes until November 5, 2024 (Election Day) won’t we?

I say to the DEMS leading up the November election that they must keep the public focused on GOP tactics like stated above by Comey and Hur and others to prove that the GOP is nasty, mean-spirited and way out of control as they seek to gain power and stay in office and the country can be damned.

The facts in McCabe's remarks prove my point I honestly believe – what about you?

Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, February 8, 2024

Judge Cannon Another Wild Ruling: S/C Smith Ready to Challenge Her Latest Demand

Hey Aileen: Keep delaying, it seems to be working
(Oops; Here comes Jack Smith again, damn)

Another disturbing article from SALON.com regarding U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon (So. Dist. of FL) and her Mar-a-Lago classified documents case pending against Trump, and also related coverage here from NEWSWEEK:

Awful and unethical: Legal experts say Judge Cannon could face removal for disturbing order

Legal experts sounded the alarm after the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s classified documents case rejected special counsel Jack Smith’s bid to keep government witnesses secret.

Smith’s team opposed making information public that could reveal the identity or any personal identifying information of any potential witnesses in the case or any transcripts or other documents they may have provided, citing concerns about witness intimidation.

Cannon ruled in Trump’s favor on the subject matter, writing: Following an independent review of the Motion and the full record, the Court determines, with limited exceptions as detailed below, that the Special Counsel has not set forth a sufficient factual or legal basis warranting deviation from the strong presumption in favor of public access to the records at issue. The Special Counsel’s sparse and undifferentiated Response fails to provide the Court with the necessary factual basis to justify sealing.”

FYI: The Press Coalition, which is comprised of major media companies, also asked the court to unseal Trump’s redacted motion in unclassified form, citing public interest.

Jeremy Foley, a Berkeley College law professor specializing in judicial ethics, told Newsweek:It is unusual for a judge to make classified documents public. Before doing so, Judge Cannon was required to weigh the factors favoring disclosure: potential aid to the defense and the public interest argument asserted by the media groups against those identified by the government: release of the documents could harm national security, impair an ongoing investigation, or compromise potential witnesses in the caseIf the government is concerned that the judge's order will cause harm, it can seek emergency relief from the 11th Circuit, which could stay the order pending review. We should know very soon if that happens.”

Cannon’s order also raised concerns among legal experts who have long worried that Cannon may be tilting the case in favor of Trump, for example:

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance wrote on Substack:Judge Aileen Cannon continues to make rulings that are disturbing. Perhaps we’d view any one of them, on their own, as a judicial aberration. But the pattern of ruling upon ruling that is out of the legal mainstream and results in delay well past the point where this case should have been ready for trial is something that shouldn’t be ignored. Judges should not put their fingers on the scales of justice either for or against a defendant or any other party. Here, it’s impossible to avoid the conclusion that the scales are being tipped. Smith’s best option may be to ask Cannon to reconsider, but the judge’s dismissive tone towards the government suggests that there is little they can do to persuade her.” 

Vance further wrote:A big test will come next week when Cannon holds a hearing under Section 4 of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), where she will make rulings on what classified material in discovery can be used at trial. Trump is expected to seek additional delays in the case, asking Cannon to postpone the deadline for some pre-trial motions and revisiting his presidential immunity and Presidential Records Act claims that border on being frivolous at this point, and using them to further delay this case would be a travesty. The time for Smith to decide whether to actively seek Cannon’s recusal, or at least hint to the Circuit that it’s merited, will be after the Section 4 hearing rulings are issued. Forced recusals are rare. But at this late date, even if the 11th Circuit were to move quickly, as it has in the past, and force Cannon to step aside, it would take a new judge some time to get up to speed. There are no quick fixes for the damage Judge Cannon has done.”

Longtime Harvard Law Prof. Laurence Tribe said he hopes Cannon’s order:Will trigger a motion to remove her” then he tweeted: “The 11th Circuit might well agree this was the last straw. Compromising national security is a bridge too far.”

Norman Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) added:It is impossible to overstate how awful and unethical is Aileen Cannon. Clearly she has no business being a judge at any level.”

My 2 Cents: The above renowned former prosecutors and legal experts said it all above and I totally agree and in short: Judge Cannon as to go… and the sooner the better.

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