Saturday, June 24, 2017

Greatest Political Crime of the Century



The perpetrator was Vladimir Putin of Russia and the big winner was Donald Trump, now the president of the U.S. Russia, at least in the mind of Putin, also benefited.
As usual Trump showed he didn’t understand what the Washington Post story, and others meant when it was reported Russia had sabotaged the campaign of Hillary Clinton.
In a tweet, Trump admitted the Russians meddled but said it was former President Obama’s fault for not stopping it.
“Just out: The Obama Administration knew far in advance of November 8th about election meddling by Russia. Did nothing about it. WHY?”
The real why is why hasn’t Trump resigned now that he has admitted he and Putin stole our elections?
“It came several hours after the publication of a Washington Post report detailing the Obama administration's fight to punish Russia for its alleged election interference.
That report stated that the CIA informed Obama of Russia's hacking efforts last August, and that his administration chose to respond by approving a package of sanctions against the country in late December. Obama also authorized the planting of cyber weapons in Russia's infrastructure in a previously undisclosed measure that was still in its planning stages when he left office, according to the report,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
Clinton tweeted a report shortly after the elections claiming the Russians had succeeded in alterting votes, and that they had targeted the swing states they need. The report said it was odd that each of these states was won by 1 percent. Clinton had big leads in all of them in pre-election polls.
Most of the media is ignoring what happened. It wasn’t Clinton’s campaign that failed. It was theft by the Russians. The main anti-Clinton campaign attack was on her sloppy use of emails. This was reportedly based on a false email slipped to U.S. law enforcement by Putin.
Even as evidence grows, the media keeps insisting no votes were altered. That treats this like a basketball game. “No harm, no foul.”
Bloomberg confirmed voting machines hacked in 39 states. http://bit.ly/2sNvayH
Here is a blog from Maine that says quite frankly what happened.
The only positive angle here is that Putin’s economy is in a death spiral, partly because of sanctions and U.S. oil shale sales.






Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Wake Up America, Revolution May Be Ahead


Perhaps  the worst thing officials and pundits can say, thinking they are blowing it off, is that the shooter in Washington, D.C. was mentally ill.
One of the fathers of psychiatry, Carl Jung, back before mobile phones and the Internet, estimated one in ten people were psychotic.
Thursday’s attack was a 66-year-old man, a home inspector and construction worker, traveled 700 miles from Illinois to Washington.
He is being called a hero on some Facebook pages. He had been a strong opponent of President Trump.
The most important single national issue of late is health care. Was he angry that health care is likely to be denied to the poor, disabled and mentally ill.
This is an issue that is heating up.
And where that was the reason for James T. Hodgkinson to attack a field of baseball players made up of Republicans and their staffs may never be known,
Under the laws he would have just gone on security. Was he afraid President Trump might cut that off. He may have had pensions also.
Whether than argue on whether this is the start of more violence we should consider something that is quite likely.
Events like this, I remember Columbine very well, lead to copycats.
Efforts to repeal Obamacare may leave millions dying, with no health care.
Millions of Americans are armed. If one is dying because he or she cannot get decent health care what might they do?
Of course they should simply use their political rights but what if they will be dead before anything can be done.




Saturday, June 10, 2017

Ignorance of law is no excuse, not even for a president



Lawyers learn at the beginning of law school that a rule that came from ancient Rome is still true.
“Ignorantia legis neminem excusat.”
President Donald Trump hasn’t caught on to this, and many cable news providers don’t seem to understand it either.
Republican House Leader Paul Ryan prefers to view obvious law violations as simply part of the learning curve.
CNN asks; “Would the President's ignorance of the complex obstruction laws be a defense? Could Trump, a president with no prior government experience, argue in his defense that he didn't think what he did violated any law?
“It's all up to Congress to decide.
“The general, well-known rule is that ignorance of the law is not a defense to a crime. So ingrained is this maxim that most lay people can recite it.”
But CNN says Congress can always override this rule.
The Supreme Court has already overridden the rule in a case that involved police. No should be expected to know the law better than police, it would seem.
ThinkProgress reports: “In a splintered 8–1 ruling, the court found that cops who pulled over Nicholas Heien for a broken taillight were justified in a subsequent search of Heien’s car, even though North Carolina law says that having just one broken taillight is not a violation of the law.
“The ruling means that police did not violate Heien’s rights when they later searched his car and found cocaine, and that the cocaine evidence can’t be suppressed at a later trial. But it also means that the U.S. Supreme “The Court declined the opportunity to draw a line limiting the scope of police stops, at a time when they are as rampant and racially disproportionate as ever. Instead, police may have considerably more leeway to stop passengers on the road, even in a number of jurisdictions that had previously said cops are not justified in mistakes of law.”
Using that kind of reasoning it is possible to see how the court would excuse Trump, the leader of the land. How could he be expected to know all laws. Of course some would say he has plenty of staff who should help him stay within the law, if he will listen to them.
While legal opinions are divided on whether Trump committed  obstruction of justice, and whether he could be prosecuted if he did.
One thing is clear.
No one with any credibility, this side of Russia doubts that they intervened in our last election to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House.
Even Nixon did not consort with Russia.
Many are saying Trump should removed from office from not stopping the Russian. Indeed, by most accounts, he is friends with Vladimir Putin. Our foreign allies have disowned Trump, even Canada. Ex-FBI Director James Comey spelled it all out.






Thursday, June 1, 2017

Putin Throws Trump Under Atvo




Given Trump's lack of language skills let us warn him. It is a Russian word for bus.
The Russian president scored a major victory with President Trump showing once more that he couldn't care less about the environment. Even Russia and China support the Paris environmental agreement.
Of course Putin praised Trump just like a dog at the dog show.
Trump announced he was pulling out of the world-wide environmental agreement. European leaders refused the American's call for renegotiation of the agreement.
Leading CEOs of companies from Apple to HP to Tesla condemned the decision. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, whose state is a leader in clean energy, said: “It is a serious mistake to back out of the Paris Accord. This is a historic global agreement between almost every nation on earth to address the single most pressing issue facing humanity. Abandoning this climate deal is like ripping off your parachute when you should be pulling the ripcord."  
Trump, the nation’s "truthnayer" in topics from climate change, to Russia, Obama’s birthplace and lately #covefe, may have run out of luck.
Millennials strongly support the government, 
as do most college-educated voters. The brown clouds and haze over major cities, dramatically reduced by environment controls, will be back.
Even Russian President Putin admits Russians hacked the U.S. presidential election, though he says the government was not involved, according to the New York Times.
The Times reported: “Raising the possibility of attacks by what he portrayed as free-spirited Russian patriots, Putin said that hackers “are like artists” who choose their targets depending how they feel “when they wake up in the morning.”
If you believe that there is a bridge for you on sale in Arizona you may open your mouth to put the hook inside. Anyone who tries to get on the Internet without permission in Russian risks arrest, or worse.
Europeans, including our NATO allies, want nothing to do with him. They would be just as happy if he left the Paris Climate Accord so he cannot destroy it.
Our military allies want him to stop telling Russia, ISIS and our other enemies our military secrets.
And they may have foxes in their own chicken coops. Brexit leader Nigel Farage is now
under investigation, the Guardian reports. He was a big Trump supporters.
Israel, which had already had its intelligence betrayed by the orange-now-white-haired buffoon, now has seen him break another campaign pledge. He will not support moving the U.S. Embasst to Jerusalem.
Trump also faces a threat from Putin, who now considers him a liability.
The FBI director he fired will testify before Congress.
Writer James Patterson could probably do a dozen books on this. One key question is did the Russians, at Trump’s behest, trick James Comey into pushing a major investigation of Hillary Clinton over alleged emails.
Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner is accused of setting a secret communications channel with Russia during the election campaign.
Comey is scheduled to speak to Congress on June 8.
Democrats want Attorney Gen. Jeff Sessions investigated for his alleged meetings with Russians.
It is all so sad coming at Memorial Day when many our parents who fought the Soviets for more than half a century are buried.