Category Archives: Public Corruption

August 7, 2017 · 12:46 pm

From trash to treasure, or something like that

First, I’m doing a crafting update, but there will be some politics below that.

Another junk journal made with junk from my sewing room and a cereal box. The denim is from old jeans, which I have cut up into pieces over the years, intending to make “something” with those pieces. The picture is the front of a blank note card, and the trim and buttons were odds and ends sewing stuff.

I had put a thin pink velvet ribbon on this journal, as you can see in the spine view. I didn’t like it, but I had glued it onto the spine. I added the pink seam binding ribbon, but I decided to cut off the velvet ribbon this morning, as you can see in the front view photos. That thin ribbon was annoying to deal with, but these junk journals become thick as you add stuff to them and a ribbon closure is useful. This was made using part of a Special K value size cereal box for the cover, so the spine is 2 and 1/4 inches thick and I sewed three signatures into this journal, with 10 sheets of paper per signature (each sheet is a two-page spread, 4 pages, front and back).

I don’t think junk journals are practical for me to “journal” in, but they are fun to decorate and sort of addicting to make. I like simple lined paper to write on. I have no idea what I’m going to use this one for, but I had cut pages for the first junk journal from 12 inch X 12 inch scrapbook paper and I had the other half of all that paper sitting here. I decided to make another junk journal to use that paper. This scrapbook paper has been sitting in my sewing room for over a decade, from when I thought I really wanted to take up scrapbooking as a hobby… circa early 2000s. I have some finished scrapbook pages, but exactly ZERO completed scrapbooks. On the bright side, I do have a nice collection of scrapbook paper, tools and a lot of rubber stamps.

I also repaired my little prayer book. It’s not a professional job, but I stitched the pages together using quilting thread, which is strong thread and a tapestry needle. I used cardstock paper to glue the covers and signature together, then I used pink duct tape to cover the outside spine area. I probably should have used cardstock on the outside, to make a spine, before taping, so that’s a lesson learned, if I ever have to repair another children’s book.

My wrist is acting up with carpal tunnel pain, so other stitching is on hold for now.

Now, to politics:

President Trump scored a big win at the UN today, with a U.S. drafted resolution, imposing tougher sanctions on North Korea. The resolution was passed unanimously by the UN Security Council over the weekend.

Without fail, President Trump drowned out that message with his petty tweets. He’s been going strong this morning with ad hominem attacks onTwitter.

For those who hoped General Kelly would be able to rein in Trump’s erratic tweeting, well, forget about it.

The rest of this post, is my last time repeating that President Trump is using the same information warfare strategy and tactics, which the Clintons introduced into American presidential politics, with their “war room”, in 1992, which culminated in their “scorched earth” campaign in 1998. Trump’s “GOP Insurgency” is the same information warfare strategy and tactics. After this post, I hope to write about topics other than Trump and his trashy Reality Show presidency.

My political predictions have been totally wrong about Donald J. Trump. I did not think he could defeat the Clinton spin machine, with their lock on most of the mainstream media. Trump is like a repeat of the Clinton years, with their endless scandals and outrageous spin cycles. Then there was the impeachment debacle in 1998. I expected President Clinton to do the honorable thing and resign, to preserve the dignity of the Office of the President. Instead, he, with his wife leading the scorched earth effort, waged a vicious smear campaign on, not only Ken Starr, the independent prosecutor, but also on the truth.

President Trump, like his former golfing buddy, Bill Clinton, will do or say anything to “win”. As I’ve repeated often, he even borrowed the Clinton’s information warfare strategy and he lies more than the Clintons, which is quite a feat. My prediction is that just like with Bill Clinton, this scandal is heading toward impeachment, but I expect Trump will go one step further than Bill Clinton, by trying to incite his followers, to protest and “fight back”. This has already started, with Trump reverting back to his rallies to stir up his followers and a couple days ago, loon, Mike Savage, was spewing that if Trump is taken down, that would be the start of a civil war. Sean Hannity rails on nightly about the nefarious “Deep State”, fueling distrust of US intelligence agencies and the FBI. This is the same thuggish, violent propaganda, the Trump campaign and sycophants used to threaten violence at the GOP convention, if Trump was not the GOP candidate. The Trump tough talkers love to use intimidation tactics even more than the Clinton sewer rats, like Carville and Begala.

Republicans were too weak-kneed to stand up to Trump and his loudmouth, big name supporters during the primary, so it’s questionable how many of them will stand up to him if this investigation leads to impeachment proceedings.

There’s a lot of media hyperventilation going on about Robert Mueller’s investigation taking a very serious turn, with grand juries in place to hear evidence. Andrew McCarthy has a good explanation of where this might be headed:

Is Mueller’s Grand Jury Impeachment Step One?

The Trump loyalists, who used to be staunch, moralistic conservatives, confuse me a great deal when it comes to Mueller’s investigation. I don’t understand why so many of them are willing to sacrifice all their integrity to prop up President Trump, who is a shameless liar. Just like with the Clintons, I supported investigating them, because there were so many smoke signals, spelling out corruption. Trump’s smoke signals are flashing neon lights. After his son stated that he walked into that meeting with the Russian lawyer in 2016, expecting to receive damaging information about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government, it should be obvious that Trump & team were willing to do anything to win. His son’s admission, on national TV, clearly shows they were open to Russian collusion and expected to receive damaging intel from the Russian government.

Every American should want to know if their president has been in bed with Russian organized crime or has had financial dealings with them. If he’s compromised due to shady business dealings; we should know that. If he’s a crook; we should know that. It’s blatantly obvious he is a shameless, chronic liar. His whining about a “witch hunt” is as pathetic as Hillary’s years of playing the victim of a “vast, right-wing conspiracy”.

Justice would be having the public corruption of the Obama administration, the Clintons and President Trump completely exposed, so that America could purge itself of them, once and for all. It might be cathartic for America to have American leaders get back to protecting and defending The Constitution and our civic values again.

It’s going to be a long messy process, whether Trump’s presidency survives this investigation or not. It’s a safe bet, America’s never ending scorched earth information war will blaze on. We probably all need to take up other hobbies to get breaks from the political high drama.

I’ll be making more “junk journals”, which are a good deal classier than listening to Trump’s trash talk.

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Filed under General Interest, Politics, Public Corruption, Uncategorized

July 22, 2017 · 2:42 pm

The value of a Goodwill book?

My kids were teenagers in the late 90s, so I got exposure to “reality TV” with garbage like MTV’s Real World. I hated it! There were others they watched too and I was a harsh critic, even back then. I rarely watch TV these days and if I do, I don’t watch reality TV shows. I never watched Donald Trump’s reality TV show, but now, as a political news junkie, here I am stuck watching The President Trump Reality Show. It is disgusting, demeaning to the Office of the President, a national embarrassment and exhausting. President Trump is as disgusting, perhaps even more so, than the Democrat partisans, who will do or say anything to advance their political agenda, that I’ve harshly criticized for years.

Frankly, if he gets impeached, I’ll probably breathe a sigh of relief, even though another impeachment drama would be very damaging to the country. At this point, I don’t know which would be more damaging – a full-term of this President Trump Reality Show or impeachment. It seems to me we are headed toward a constitutional crisis either way.

Yesterday was Jeff Sessions turn to be thrown to the wolves or under the bus, depending who was behind the leak of the Russian ambassador’s accounting to his superiors in Moscow, that Sessions discussed campaign-related matters in their conversations. This is high-level, national U.S. intelligence intercepts being leaked to the media.

When Trump’s tax return from long ago, showing he paid a lot in taxes, was leaked, I suspect that Trump was behind that leak. He played it for all it was worth, extrapolating that one tax return as indicative of all his tax returns. It was a self-serving leak, I suspect.

With the intel being leaked, it doesn’t matter who leaked it or why they leaked it, it’s completely illegal and beyond that this scorched earth partisan use of national security intel is completely corrupting the national security system. If high level officials, based on their own whims, can use intelligence for partisan political objectives, then what good are any of the rules?

Trump’s leaked tax return, well, if someone else leaked that without his consent, the law was broken, but even if he leaked it himself, while perfectly legal, lying and acting like someone else leaked it is very unethical and a corrupting influence on the country’s moral fiber. Yeah, yeah, I know – we don’t have much moral fiber left or the two major political parties wouldn’t have chosen Trump and Hillary.

During the election many conservatives, who should have known better, fell sway to Trumpthink, espousing morally bankrupt talking points to keep the Trump GOP insurgency ruthlessly laying waste to all rules and decorum, with a cutthroat scorched earth information war against, not only Hillary, but also the mainstream media. Hillary and much of the mainstream media were definitely colluding to wage a scorched earth campaign to dump anything and everything on Trump in an information war too. Here we are 6 months into Trump’s presidency and this scorched earth information war is still raging, showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Yesterday I had to go to the vet to pick up some dog medication refills and on the way home I decided to stop by the Goodwill to look for cheap books that I wouldn’t mind cutting up for this “junk journal” hobby. The picture at the top is a 1995 perpetual calendar book, I found. There are lots of great quotes in it and my first thought was, I can cut a lot of these out and put them in my new quote junk journal. I think the lady at the Goodwill charged me 39 cents for this calendar, but many of these quotes are priceless. I also found a few other books, like this 1941, A Treasury of Gilbert and Sullivan, filled with music for 50 cents:

Later in the evening, I sat flipping through the pages of The Little Book of Virtues and I realized that I didn’t want to cut this little calendar book apart. In fact, I doubt that I will cut the music book apart either, since it’s very difficult for me to tear any book apart. So, I spent some time thinking about books that matter to me and then I watched a few videos on how to repair old children’s board books. Yes, I want to repair my little, Prayers For Little Children book. I also have the old, large dictionary that came with our set of World Book Encyclopedias, when I was a kid, which is in need of repair too:

Instead of buying anymore books for “junk journaling”, I think my next purchase will be a Speedy Stitcher sewing awl, so I can properly repair my little prayer book….

I decided to set that virtues calendar book on a shelf here on my hutch and enjoy a new quote on virtue every day:

Since endlessly writing about how corrupt and unfit President Trump is for the presidency won’t help anyone or add anything to the political debate, I might share some of these quotes on virtue instead.

Of course, I also wish President Trump would have this book on his desk in the Oval Office, but I doubt he would read it.

He prefers tweeting…

I can hardly stand so much “winning”…

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Filed under Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Politics, Public Corruption, Quotes To Ponder, Things That Matter

June 26, 2017 · 8:42 pm

Soap opera continues..

Drudge has this Circa report highlighted:

Did the FBI retaliate against Michael Flynn by launching Russia probe? by John Solomon and Sara Carter

Guess this is the Trump counter-offensive. With the Clinton/Obama hacks leaking right and left trying to destroy Trump and Trump’s crowd fighting back, the Russians don’t have to work hard to undermine American democracy. Sure looks like our own rabid partisans are doing a bang-up job, without any hostile foreign assistance.

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Filed under Politics, Public Corruption

June 25, 2017 · 5:04 pm

Steamrolled again

After watching Donald Trump’s political media strategy for two years, his opponents, in the GOP, in the media, the panoply of enemies arrayed on the Left, and those who consider removing Trump from office a patriotic duty or perhaps revenge( Comey & friends), you’d think they would have learned how Trump operates. They haven’t learned anything and it’s pathetic to watch Trump outmaneuver them over and over and over.

Trump’s attacks don’t depend on facts or truth, they depend on optics. It’s a show and he takes charge of the stage every time. Trump’s opponents, many of them Tweet warriors, attack him relentlessly on Twitter and they recycle through all their old talking points – Trump’s taxes, his multitude of bold-faced lies, his chaotic White House, etc., etc., etc. Some hope the constant negative drumbeat will erode Trump’s poll numbers and aid in taking Trump down. I suspect only the political geeks follow all of this closely and most Americans just go about their daily lives, tuning it out.

Trump foes overplayed the “Russian collusion” hysteria and Trump has now seized the Russian issue and used the Friday, big Washington Post story to turn the tables on President Obama, leaving the big “Russian collusion” hysterics in a position where they were forced to admit that President Obama didn’t do enough last summer to counter the Russian cyber attacks.

Trump now controls the Russian narrative and his loyal sycophant, Sean Hannity has begun spreading the talking point that “even if Trump had colluded with the Russians, that’s not illegal”. They are working to inoculate Trump from any damaging revelations that might come from Mueller’s investigation, by convincing Trump’s most loyal followers that this investigation is just an unfair witch hunt.

So, with all this being played out last week, you’d think the Comey group, who are working to takedown Trump, would be wary of Trump’s ability to use the media to his advantage. Nope, Comey’s friend, Benjamin Wittes, on Friday, after the big Washington Post story on the Russian threat, tweeted:

Benjamin Wittes‏Verified account @benjaminwittes Jun 23

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#NotesFromUnderTrump, Day 154: In honor both of the President’s “WITCH HUNT” tweet and of the expected magnitude of the detonation…

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Filed under Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Politics, Public Corruption, Twitter Tales

June 11, 2017 · 12:49 pm

Will Republicans act like Democrats now?

“No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character”

– John, Viscount Morley

Character counts most, especially in leaders.

I started collecting memorable quotes in my early teens. The above quote is one of my favorite quotes, because it goes to the heart of human character. Along with collecting quotes, watching people and trying to figure out what makes them tick (how they operate) is another life-long hobby, of sorts. Often, even as a child, I would point out something someone said or did that made me distrust that person. My mother had a very trusting nature and wanted to believe in the best in people. I, on the other hand, prefer to assess what people say and do, to get to the heart of their character.

President Donald J. Trump is not a hapless, naive victim and the darkening clouds around his presidency aren’t just angry #Resist partisans out to do him in. The darkening clouds are caused by how Trump operates.

Even if Comey is a disgruntled former employee, a grandstander, acted totally inappropriately in leaking his memos or going along with Lynch on using Clinton talking points language and his July 5, 2016 public statement exonerating Hillary Clinton, that still leaves us with Trump asking Comey to publicly clear his name several times and having 9 private conversations with Comey – all of them about the Russian influence matter.

There are Republicans and Trump supporters hitting the media with a barrage about this being a partisan “witch-hunt”, which it most assuredly is, but it’s also just like with the Clintons, that Trump acted in ways that give every appearance of being very corrupt. Democrats have been willing to sacrifice every shred of honor to go out and spin and do damage control for the Clintons for decades. It now appears that many Republicans are willing to do the same thing for President Trump and partisan political purposes.

The Republican Party allowed its party to be hijacked by Trump and his strong-armed, tough-talking thugs, turning this election into some “do or die” civil war, where Trump was the “GOP Insurgent”, who was America’s last hope. How low Republicans and conservatives will sink to prop up Trump remains to be seen.

All along, I have refused to support Trump, because I believe he is just like the Clintons – amoral and thoroughly corrupt. I noted early in his presidency how corrupt it was for the president to personally be making business deals using the Office of the President as leverage. He not only made deals, he publicly disparaged some companies, using the Office of the President to damage private businesses. Back during the primary, in August of 2015, I wrote:

“The first Republican debate ended with no clear winner emerging. Sure, there were plenty of gotcha questions, but Donald Trump didn’t answer any questions in detail, except the one explaining his support for Democrats in the past. His followers will latch onto his bombastic, red meat, xenophobic rhetoric, missing that Trump personifies exactly what these supporters hate about Washington. He eloquently described buying politicians and peddling influence. He represents the worst part of big money greasing palms in DC. I would have asked him why he wanted Hillary Clinton at his wedding, since he said his big donations compelled her to attend.

Nothing Trump said demonstrated he studied the issues and did some research prior to this debate. His performance reminded me of Sarah Palin, who reveled in throwing out the same sort of red meat rhetoric, devoid of any substantive details. If he doesn’t bother to read up on and research the complex issues facing America for this debate, one can only wonder how he would handle them as President. It speaks to a narcissism that echoes the current occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, another “I am the greatest” ego.”

https://libertybellediaries.com/2015/08/07/trump-the-influence-peddler-in-chief/

Shortly after this LB blog post, in August 2015, there was the Trump/Kelly debate dust-up:

“Last week I bought one of Trump’s books, as I mentioned before, and I read it. Assuredly, Trump offered many interesting insights into, as the book’s title stated, “TRUMP: How to Get Rich”. The pride he takes in his children comes across and he offers some worthwhile advice on investing and negotiating, but trying to get to the character of who exactly is Donald Trump, well, he’s a man who has chapters in his book like “Be Strategically Dramatic”, “Sometimes You Still Have To Screw Them”, and “Sometimes You Have To Hold a Grudge”, replete with examples from his life and his guiding principles. Here are some quotes (page 138):

“When somebody hurts you, just go after them as viciously and as violently as you can. Like it says in the Bible, an eye for an eye.”

Be paranoid. I know this observation doesn’t make any of us sound very good, but let’s face the fact that it’s possible that even your best friend wants to steal your spouse and your money.”

The chapter on holding a grudge is even more interesting, because Trump relates how for years he had donated huge amounts of money to NY governor, Mario Cuomo and when he called Cuomo to ask for a favor from Cuomo’s son, Andrew, who was running the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mario Cuomo refused to do the favor (which Trump doesn’t explain in detail other than to say it was an appropriate favor involving attention to a detail). Trump blew up and for any who are confused with Trump’s vendetta against Megyn Kelly on Twitter, calling her a bimbo last night or his refusing to entertain a question by Jorge Ramos from Univision this evening, well, this chapter on holding a grudge (page 142) explains it. Trump called in a political favor believing it was owed to him, because he donated a lot of money to Mario Cuomo (crony capitalism is what most people call this greasing of palms). Here is how Trump describes the phone call:

“I did the only thing that felt right to me. I began screaming. “You son of a bitch! For years I’ve helped you and never asked for a thing, and when I finally need something, and a totally proper thing at that, you aren’t there for me. You’re no good. You’re one of the most disloyal people I’ve known and as far as I’m concerned, you can go to hell.”

My screaming was so loud that two or three people came in from adjoining offices and asked who I was screaming at. I told them it was Mario Cuomo., a total stiff, a lousy governor, and a disloyal former friend. Now whenever I see Mario at dinner, I refuse to acknowledge him, talk to him, or even look at him.”

When you hear Trump whining about being treated unfairly, here’s what I believe he means: If you agree with him, fawn over him and puff up his ego, that’s treating him fairly. If you disagree or criticize him, I believe, he will wage an all out campaign to destroy you. So, I keep wondering how his character will play in the long, arduous rough and tumble of presidential politics, where being ripped apart by opposition research, pundits and reporters only escalates as the campaign wears on”

https://libertybellediaries.com/2015/08/25/trumps-his-own-bimbo-eruption/

The most disturbing aspects of Trump’s retaliation against Kelly were his supporters running hit pieces about her, digging up her Howard Stern interview to cast her as a “slut” and he called Roger Ailes to try and get her booted as a debate moderator. Trump encouraged his followers not to watch FOX News. Later, Trump refused to show up for a FOX debate, set-up a vet fundraiser, to try and upstage the debate and then months later, controversy arose with how the funds raised in that vet fundraiser were handled.

Kelly was a private citizen and it worried me how Trump would use the power of the presidency, when he was willing to use his power as a celebrity and leading GOP presidential candidate to try to harm not only her job, but to rally his followers to attack her.

Preet Bharara, a former federal prosecutor, may be friends with Chuck Schumer, may be angry Trump fired him, but this morning he stated that President Trump called him 3 times in one month, 2 times before inauguration and 1 time after inauguration. Bharara said he refused to take the third call, when Trump was president and reported the contacts to the chief of staff to the Attorney General. These phone calls left an electronic trail and that Bharara reported these calls to the chief of staff to the Attorney General can be corroborated. Do I believe Bharara? Absolutely. Bharara felt like President Trump was trying to cultivate a relationship. The interesting thing to find out is if Trump called other federal prosecutors around the country, where he didn’t have “personal business interests”.

Bharara is well-known for his fight against public corruption.

Trump is known for bragging about buying politicians.

Yesterday, some of the most ardent Trump pundits were out in full-force trying to smear Robert Mueller too and this scorched earth character assassination is the same thing the Clintons and Democrats have engaged in to bury Clinton scandals. It is corrupt, immoral and extremely damaging to the country, because it corrupts American culture.

Whether Republicans are willing to give Mueller the Starr treatment remains to be seen.

Will Republicans make propping up President Donald J. Trump, the “GOP Insurgent” and extremely corrupt crony capitalist, the hill they die on?

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Filed under American Character, General Interest, Public Corruption

June 10, 2017 · 12:17 am

Undercutting our American democratic institutions

The following is a repost of my December 13, 2016 blog post. Sadly, I was wrong. Hillary’s coup may have failed to prevent Donald Trump from being inaugurated, but the Left is determined to see that he is impeached. Trump’s own behavior may end up helping them succeed. Besides the Left’s relentless, Resist efforts, there’s a core Trump Flight 93 media attack squad too, who work just like the Left’s spinners. These Trump mouthpieces attack anyone who isn’t on the Trump Train, working to destroy them. They also defend Trump and make excuses for the many inexcusable things Trump says and does. The rest of us are stuck being bombarded by their propaganda barrages every day. This continuing 2016 Presidential Election scorched earth information war is severely damaging America, because America’s federal government looks completely dysfunctional and that is the biggest win for the Russians from the 2016 Presidential Election:

Queen Hillary’s failing coup…

Finished another plastic canvas box.

Here’s a rundown of the Clinton/Dem/Colluding Media talking points I’ve seen, being hysterically repeated on Twitter and various news sites in the last few days:

“Fake News” is a dire threat and only certain (Clinton colluding) media can be trusted to report “real” news.
Various incantations on popular vote should rule over electoral college – from the dramatically escalating popular vote total for Hillary (likely embellished) to contorted legal reasoning, to crap like Nate Silver tweeted some tripe that Hillary only lost in 4 states by 1%, so without the Russian hacking she’d likely have won – so based on a hypothetical situation, he created imaginary polling statistics, that he’s presenting as serious analysis???
More Comey attacks – Harry Reid claimed Comey downplayed Russian hacking.
Harry Reid claims Trump directly involved with Russian hacking.
Electoral college electors need a special CIA briefing on Russian hacking.
America needs a do-over election, because of Russian interference in the election.

The liberal media has shed all pretense of being objective journalists, in fact, many are little more than Democratic hacks. The hysteria over Americans paying attention to Wikileaks over American journalists’ reporting or Democrat mouthpieces speaks not to Americans being idiots, it speaks to people TRUST Wikileaks (a likely Russian front) over American journalists and the liberal media.

Following Twitter, is an exercise in frantic, sore-loser talking points, most bogus or deeply disingenuous, being breathlessly repeated by a cadre of big name “journalists” and news organizations 24/7. It’s like kids at summer camp, sitting in a circle around a campfire, whispering something in the next person’s ear and saying, “Pass it on!”

President Obama has had numerous rappers at the White House. Hillary had Beyonce and Jay Z campaigning with her, but Kanye West showing up at Trump Tower this morning represents some new low in lack of seriousness about the presidency, according to the likes of Andrea Mitchell. I thought she was traveling with Hillary’s campaign, but guess she missed seeing Beyonce and Jay Z…

I think Trump will be a disaster as President. I believe he’s very corrupt. However, I thought the same things about President Obama and America survived. I believe the same things about Hillary too, so I take solace in the FACT that America is much more than our President and we are still a very blessed and fortunate people, because we are FREE. There are millions of wonderful people in America and thankfully most of us encounter them and not these corrupt journalists and shady politicians in our everyday lives. We still are free to go about our daily lives, to dream, to set off on new adventures and to hope and dream. For me, needlework is a stress-reliever, so I’m stitching away… another tissue box cover – three sides done since Sunday:

I have a feeling the Trump years will be very productive stitching years for me, lol. Oh, the little yarn tails on the top center are just my marking the top, while I stitch, so I know which side is the top when I set my sewing down and then go back to it.

Trump worries me, but the corrupt Clinton/Dem/Media cabal scare the crap out of me. The Russian hacking/ interference is bad, but so far there’s no evidence they tampered with ballot boxes, so the election is legitimate – end of conversation! The Dems with this recount fiasco, pushing the propaganda that the popular vote should count and not the electoral college, and now the desperation pitch for a do-over election, ostensibly because of Russian interference are trying to supplant the constitutional process all to prop up a very corrupt woman, who will do anything to be President. And her enablers are ready to discard The Constitution to assist her. I would have supported legal efforts to dump Trump as the Republican candidate before the election, but the general election is THE election, according to The Constitution and that’s FINAL!

Donald Trump deserves the opportunity to take office and be the President of the United States. The Americans who voted for him deserve that too. And frankly, respect for The Constitution demands we follow the rules. If he is a disaster, there are constitutional remedies for that too, but it’s ridiculous to talk about impeaching him before he’s even taken office (which some leftist loons are proposing).

Yesterday, John Podesta, who fell for a common phishing scam and gave the hackers his email password, supported a demand for a special CIA briefing on Russian hacking for electors. One of the chief organizers of this elector effort is Nancy Pelosi’s daughter. The electors don’t have security clearances, so anything the CIA can tell them, they can tell all of America – so cut the drama queen act and just have the CIA release the information. My bet is neither the Obama White House nor the CIA will do this, because they’ve exaggerated the facts.

Even President Obama has gotten into the Russian hacking propaganda blitz and it’s revolting. The Dems are demanding new investigations into Russian hacking, despite the fact there already are ongoing Congressional investigations into Russian hacking. Prior to this election hysteria, the Obama administration tried to downplay the Russian hacking threat.

So, the administration, where widespread use of private email was common practice, including by President Obama, now wants to champion fighting cyber-threats??? Be for real, the first line of defense against cyber-attacks is good online practices… like using SECURE systems for government business.

President Obama used his private gmail account to email Hillary at her private server email address. Huma Abedin was sure the Obama/Hillary email the FBI showed her, which was part of a classified CHAIN, had to be classified. Let’s start by finding out what kind of information President Obama was sending via his private gmail account, before we get too excited about the Russian hacking.

The Democrats are in mass hysteria about investigations into Russian hacking, well, sure let’s find out who they hacked, how they hacked and what was done to prevent their hacking.

It’s hard not to laugh at Democratic mouthpieces hysterically demanding an email investigation as the last ditch effort to beg, borrow or steal the election for Hillary. The clock is ticking…to December 19th.

If these people weren’t able to wield so much influence in America, I’d be laughing, because was there ever a more ridiculous leader to put forth as tough enough to take on Russian hacking, than Hillary Clinton??? She is the Democrats’ champion on facing America’s cyber-threats???

She couldn’t even keep track of her own blackberries, she had her Filipino maid printing out classified emails in the SCIF in her DC home, she and her State Dept. staff were sending classified information on her home-brew server, and she believed her private email server was secure, because the Secret Service protect her home… If foreign intelligence agencies around the globe aren’t laughing at the Obama administration, Hillary Clinton and fools like Michael Morell, I would be shocked:

“Former CIA acting director Michael Morell called the intelligence agency’s conclusion that Russia meddled in the U.S. presidential election to help President-elect Donald Trump “the political equivalent of 9/11.”

“A foreign government messing around in our elections is, I think, an existential threat to our way of life. To me, and this is to me not an overstatement, this is the political equivalent of 9/11,” Morell said in an interview posted Sunday on The Cipher Brief. “It is huge and the fact that it hasn’t gotten more attention from the Obama Administration, Congress, and the mainstream media, is just shocking to me.””

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/michael-morell-russia-us-elections-232495

Too bad these fools don’t realize that THEY and THEIR own weak policies and careless handling of information practically handed the information to the Russians. John Podesta did hand his emails to them…

“Fake news”…. yeah, the people who sold the SPIN cycle to the American people want to lecture Americans on fake news … what a farce!

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Filed under Corrupt Media Collusion, Culture Wars, General Interest, Hillary's Email Scandal, Politics, Public Corruption, The Media

June 9, 2017 · 12:47 pm

A pox on both your houses

Comey has done more to unify Republicans in the past 24 hours than Trump has done since he became the Republican nominee for president. Here are my observations from Comey’s testimony and the political fall-out.

Today the media is in full-throated defense of Comey. Pelosi is tweeting about #ProtectOurDemocracy from Trump & the Russians, I presume, and America’s War of Words continues (here and here).

Up for redefinition, courtesy James Comey’s testimony, are a “matter”, where Comey testified yesterday that Loretta Lynch asked him to refer to the Clinton criminal investigation as a “matter”. Comey did obey and used that Clinton spin language. Now, Team Lynch is rebutting that Comey was told to do that characterization and I saw one tweet explaining the goal was to use consistent language, not a spin effort to use the Clinton campaign language to downplay the criminal investigation:

Ari Melber‏Verified account @AriMelber 18h18 hours ago

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New: A denial/clarification of Comey statement about Lynch, from a source familiar with discussion, to NBC News: pic.twitter.com/vqsAmWsidF

Comey’s double-standard problem stems from his being a willing lackey for the Dems with burying the Clinton criminal investigation and aiding in Loretta Lynch’s Clinton clean-up effort. Lynch was caught meeting privately with the spouse of a target of a criminal investigation. She refused to recuse herself from the investigation, but instead, put Comey in a compromising position, by making a public statement that she would abide by the FBI’s recommendation on the Clinton investigation. It is NOT the FBI’s job to make a recommendation on prosecution, but Comey went along with that.

Comey compromised his integrity thoroughly on July 5, 2016. He went from mischaracterizing a criminal investigation to creating an intent provision in the law, exonerating Hillary Clinton using that made-up provision and then coining a new phrase “extremely careless” to mischaracterize and downplay her grossly negligent mishandling of highly classified information. Lynch promptly closed the criminal investigation (in Clinton/mainstream media parlance, that criminal investigation was not only a “matter” it was a “right-wing witch hunt”).

Comey appeared before Congress to explain his decisions and he sounded more like Hillary’s defense attorney than the director of the FBI. Loretta Lynch, likewise testified before Congress about the investigation. Her testimony was akin to giving the Congressional Republicans questioning her the middle finger. It was a disgraceful stone-walling effort.

President Trump is an epic liar, just like the Clintons. No need to rehash the endless, ongoing partisan War of Words, but America was the big loser yesterday. There were no “winners”. Comey damaged himself in some ways, helped himself a bit in others. Trump came across as corruptly trying to influence a FBI investigation and putting political pressure on the FBI director, but he won big on some other points.

Comey admitted that he personally leaked his memos of his meetings with President Trump to the media, through a third-party, a friend. This admission made Comey appear to be out for revenge and a partisan leaker. That Comey’s friend, Preet Bharara, a Trump-fired DOJ official, was sitting in a reserved seat, courtesy of Chuck Schumer, added to the partisan political aura surrounding Comey. Today, the pundits are debating if Comey’s memos were personal notes or official FBI records and if what Comey did was “leaking” vs. whistleblowing. Anonymous Trump sources suggested that Trump’s lawyer may demand Comey’s leaking be investigated. Comey legal eagle friends are countering that such a request would be Trump abusing power… to silence a whistleblower.

Comey is not a whistleblower. His notes are not like his personal diary and per his own testimony, those notes were FBI documents at the center of several high-level FBI meetings about the ongoing investigation into Mike Flynn. If these memos were part of the official FBI decision-making process on an important investigation, that would make them official records, I believe. Jonathan Turley, Georgetown Law Professor, argues that Comey’s memos are FBI documents:

“The problem is that Comey’s description of his use of an FBI computer to create memoranda to file suggests that these are arguably government documents. Comey admitted that he thought he raised the issue with his staff and recognized that they might be needed by the Department or Congress. They read like a type of field 302 form, which are core investigatory documents.

The admission of leaking the memos is problematic given the overall controversy involving leakers undermining the Administration. Indeed, it creates a curious scene of a former director leaking material against the President after the President repeatedly asked him to crack down on leakers.”

https://jonathanturley.org/2017/06/08/did-comey-violate-laws-in-leaking-memo/

Alas we move from Bill Clinton’s server, for his foundation emails, being cast as Hillary’s server, to the contents of that server being divided into State Department records and Hillary’s personal emails, with Bill Clinton’s foundation emails disappearing literally and from any mention by the media, to now Comey’s memos are being cast as Comey’s Dear Diary entries… Psst, don’t forget that David Kendall’s office reported to the media that they had saved the entire content on that server on a thumb drive. Patrick Kennedy, the State Dept Clinton email fixer, testified to Congress that he believed the FBI had that thumb drive (along with Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson’s laptops).

From Comey’s public pronouncements exonerating Hillary Clinton, going so far as to insist she had no criminal intent, it’s not surprising that Trump, being as corrupt as the Clintons, assumed Comey would play ball and be willing to play with him too. Comey admitted to telling Trump three times that he was not under investigation and Trump became angry that Comey would not exonerate him publicly. Comey decided not to compromise his integrity for Trump as he had for Hillary Clinton.

Paul Ryan characterized Trump as being “naive” about how things work as an excuse for Trump’s highly inappropriate pressure in those private conversations with Comey. Trump isn’t “naive”, in fact, if there’s one thing Trump is an expert at it’s reading people and leveraging power. Trump expected Comey to play politics with him, just as Comey had done for Lynch/Clinton. Trump will overplay his hand, trying to fight Comey, Dems and the media and go too far attacking Comey. He was back on Twitter this morning, rallying his base by branding Comey “a leaker”.

All of this endless redefinition and spin highlights the complete dysfunction of our political parties.

Comey played the martyr:

“Maine Sen. Angus King was pressing Comey about how he interpreted phrases President Donald Trump used in a one-on-one February dinner, in which Trump urged Comey to drop the probe into just-fired national security adviser Mike Flynn.

King, an independent, asked Comey if he interpreted language like “I hope” as directives from the President.

“Yes. It kind of rings in my ears as, ‘Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?'” Comey said.”

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/08/politics/will-no-one-rid-me-of-this-meddlesome-priest/index.html

I prefer to go Shakespearean:

“A plague o’ both your houses!”

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/14450.html

Or in the modern vernacular:

A pox on both your houses!

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Filed under Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Hillary's Email Scandal, Politics, Public Corruption, Twitter Tales

June 7, 2017 · 10:14 am

“Assault” on our institutions

Former DNI, James Clapper, a liar under oath, was on TV lamenting about the “assault” on our institutions with the Russian trying to interfere in our election and Trump’s attacks on the intelligence community.

The media is stuck on moral preening about the “dangers” Trump poses to our republic daily, but here’s the one truth the media and Dems completely ignore:

The Dems colluded with the mainstream media to the tune of millions of dollars in free media to aid and abet Trump’s “GOP Insurgency”. Without their CORRUPT collusion, it is very unlikely Trump could have gained traction and been taken seriously as a presidential candidate. The media SOLD Trump to the American people as a viable candidate and they also sat on negative Trump stories until Trump’s GOP insurgency had succeeded.

The Russians ability to engage in cyber attacks is a direct result of the Obama administration (of which Clapper played a vital role) failure to act aggressively against escalating Russian cyber attacks and influence operations.

All the moral preening, from those who were a part of the Obama intelligence failures and corrupt Dem mass media spin operations (EVERY Democrat in Congress included) is deflection.

The GOP failed to defend its own party from a “GOP insurgency” waged by a loudmouth, Reality TV host.

And the American people have no respect of “our institutions” or they would not have settled for two completely corrupt candidates.

Our institutions were under assault long before Trump, otherwise a scorched earth information war between two extremely corrupt candidates, like Trump and Hillary, would not have been tolerated by the American people.

The Russians took advantage of the weaknesses in “our institutions”. Clapper should be held to account for his large role in the security failures, but the political class, the media and most of all the American people will have to wake-up and face their culpability too.

Blaming the Russians for attacking our institutions won’t save America.

Only a united America can do that.

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Filed under American Character, Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Politics, Public Corruption

June 2, 2017 · 8:29 pm

Another shoe dropped

Another shoe dropped. Susan Rice, Samantha Power and John Brennan were mentioned a couple days ago, as being subpoenaed to provide information to the House Intelligence Committee on their unmasking Americans names from surveillance intelligence.

Trey Gowdy questioned John Brennan on unmasking at the May 23rd hearing. Gowdy asked about unmasking Americans’ names on the last day an official served in office. So, based on Gowdy’s questions and the subsequent subpoenas, it will be interesting to see which Obama hack(s) unmasked Americans’ names, who unmasked names on his or her last day in office and who has been leaking all this information to the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Gowdy’s questioning begins at 28:24 and he also has more questions for Brennan at 41:42.

Americans should be very concerned when intelligence is used for partisan political attacks on American citizens by high officials entrusted to protect The Constitution.

“Russian influence” operates the same way. The Russians excel at smear campaigns, vicious character assassinations, using ill-gotten information to advance their political agendas using mass media to disseminate their messaging. The Democrats relentless, hysterical “Russian influence” spin is as destructive as Trump’s endless spin and misdirections. And both might be more destructive than any influence operations the Russians could dream up.

Who needs foreign enemies, when domestic partisans are tearing the very fabric of our republic to shreds? Hillary has come out of the woods and with the help of much of the mainstream media, she is ready to refight the 2016 information war, in hopes of destroying Trump. Trump is rumored to be considering bringing his “GOP Insurgent” scorched earth talking points street-brawler, Corey Lewandowski, into the White House to help fight the Clinton/Obama/Dem/media machines who are colluding to destroy Trump’s presidency (the Resistance).

Putin really doesn’t have to exert much effort to destroy Americans’ trust in their own government, when we’ve got the two most vile, corrupt, narcissistic sociopaths still engaged in take no prisoners, scorched earth information warfare.

Who knows what will be left when Drumpfzilla and the Witch of Chappaqua get done fighting. It’s a safe bet that America will be worse off for enduring Trump vs. Hillary.

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Filed under Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Politics, Public Corruption, ThatWitch2016, The Media

May 23, 2017 · 12:06 am

We need to understand how we got here

“My fervent hope is that both Hillary and Trump get fired – she to face charges and he as a total lying, conniving fraud, but of course, due to the state of America and the worship of celebrity, my hope rests as, at best, a forlorn one. She will not be held to account for jeopardizing national security on an epic scale and Trump, a TV clown act, who definitely does not possess the integrity, intellectual heft, work ethic or frankly good manners to be President, just might insult his way into the White House.”

– Drumpfzilla vs. the Witch of Chappaqua, April 19, 2016

Before we can move on, we need to understand how we got here and truthfully we need answers about the 2016 presidential corruption, as well as uncovering and understanding the extent of the Russian influence operations. There was plenty of extreme corruption underway before Trump even entered the race. Podesta and the Clintons had their Pied Piper strategy mapped out, which was detailed in a leaked Podesta email, from April 23, 2015. That strategy, like all the mass media saturation information warfare the Clintons engage in only works because of mass media collusion, that saturates the media with their talking points and spin (LIES). Bill Clinton called Donald Trump weeks before Trump entered the race, so it’s reasonable to wonder if Bill Clinton encouraged Trump to enter the race… Trump was supposed to be the easiest candidate for Hillary to beat.

Donald J. Trump, whining, shady, puffed-up windbag Reality TV star is the President of the United States. Any attempts to gloss over his glaring character deficits is a wasted effort. Early on in 2015, when he entered the race plenty of people, myself included, wrote extensively about his lack of character and just like the extremely corrupt Clintons, he corrupts everyone and everything within his orbit.

There were his staunch defenders proclaiming he was a victim of unfair media, that it didn’t matter if he didn’t understand policy (or even the basics on our constitutional republic) or that the stench of corruption clings to him as tightly as dirt and filth cling to the Peanuts character, Pig-Pen. Trump defenders proclaimed that none of that mattered, because once Trump was president, he could hire the “best” people to guide him and in regards to Hillary Clinton’s corruption, Trump wasn’t so bad.

Frankly, very few of the “best” Republicans or conservatives will work for a “loose cannon” like Trump. The Clintons had an easier time getting Democrats and liberals to carry water for them, because most of the political Left in Americav values politics above integrity or character. President Trump is anything but an organized and competent leader of the executive branch, but he was legally elected President of the United States.

Unless and until real evidence shows otherwise, there are no grounds to impeach him. The Democrats and many in the mainstream media, with their highly corrupt “Resist” effort are working feverishly to destroy President Trump and remove him from office, by any means necessary. Their relentless scorched earth information war against President Trump is making America look more like a banana republic than Trump’s ineptness. The constant stream of anonymous leaks of classified information, from within the US government and by former Obama officials are felonies being committed, not whistleblowing. And due to President Trump’s shameless playing his own staff members against each other, there are plenty of leaks of classified information coming from within the White House too. Trump does not create an environment of trust and loyalty among his staff.

The Democrats, mainstream media and twitterdom pundits rail daily about Russian collusion and allege nefarious, corrupt and inept actions that President Donald Trump is guilty of committing. And yet so far, there is no “there” there in the allegations, despite the breathless, breaking news tag-team efforts of the New York Times and the Washington Post ranting about Trump/Russian collusion. With this backdrop, it’s time for a retrospective of the loose ends from the 2016 presidential election that were never satisfactorily explained.

There are plenty of leaked DNC and John Podesta emails, in addition to released Hillary Clinton emails and FBI Notes to conclude conclusively that many journalists in the mainstream media actively colluded with the Clinton campaign to advance the Clinton campaign talking points and media strategy.

In fact, that is how Trump waged his “GOP Insurgency”, with millions of dollars in free media being given to Trump during the GOP primary.

Who really was behind the “GOP Insurgency”?

Who were the real Trump advisors during the GOP primary, who advised Trump on talking points, how to spin and who colluded with the mainstream media, especially news outlets like CNN, MSNBC and FOX, to give Trump 24/7 free media during the GOP primary?

Who colluded with the mainstream media to sit on Trump dirt during the primary?

There was a string of orchestrated protests and media reporting in early 2016, that led to Trump being painted as a “fascist”. Admittedly, Trump aided in his own fascist caricaturization by his “strong-man” talk and antics, especially, his campaign rally where he read a loyalty pledge and had rally participants raise their right hand and repeat the pledge. Who on earth thought up that pledge rally and organized it? The media immediately was prepared with the Nuremberg rally imagery comparison… almost like it was a set-up.

Who came up with the phrase “GOP Insurgency”?

By May of 2016, when it was a certainty that Trump would be the GOP candidate, the Washington Post had 20 reporters working full-time to dig up dirt on Trump. 20… And dig they did, pouring into every aspect of his life and assuredly many of them are still hard at work on the Russian collusion smear campaign. Yes, the breathless reporting on “Russian collusion” with endless “anonymous sources” leaking classified information ( that’s a felony btw) is part of a concerted information war against Donald Trump. It is the continuation of the Clinton scorched earth campaign effort. You’d think with all the people working to expose Trump/Russian collusion, that by now they’d have smoking gun evidence, if it really happened.

Trump really is so thin-skinned and emotionally-stunted that if someone says nice stuff about him, he thinks they love him and if they criticize him, he considers them mortal enemies. He reacts in a catty teenage girl manner, hysterics included, and when Putin praised him, Trump thought Putin really likes him. Trump is that easy to play.

The Russians can be called many things, but stupid isn’t one of them. They assessed Trump’s personality and bio and they already know Hillary Clinton inside out, so they have played their own information war, playing American partisans against each other. I don’t believe that Putin and the Russians would ever trust Trump with details of any of their plans, so I doubt actual collusion exists. Instead, I believe the Russians continue to manipulate Trump, agitate both Left and Right, along with fueling paranoia and wild conspiracy theories among the American political fringes.

The Wikileaks leaked DNC and Podesta emails clearly show media collusion with the DNC and Clinton campaign. The mainstream media, instead of admitting to the corrupt media collusion, rails against Wikileaks as a source not to be trusted. Except the leaked emails, despite being stolen, appear to be legit.

“Never underestimate the Clintons when it comes to underhandedness.”

– August 5, 2015 blog post, Buyer Beware

Now, back to Hillary’s emails server scandal, which James Comey declared was “extremely careless”, but not criminal and he asserted there was “no intent” on Hillary Clinton’s part to mishandle highly classified information. This despite copious evidence to the contrary. So, let’s look at the loose threads from her email server scandal.

David Kendall, the long-time Clinton friend and attorney, handled the sorting process of the emails on the infamous home-brew server, which was referred to as Hillary’s email server. His office decided which emails to return to the State Department, as official records and which were personal. However, that server was really Bill Clinton’s personal email server, which he had set-up in his home for his Clinton Foundation business.

David Kendall’s office had the email server and according to media reports, his office turned over official State Department business emails and a thumb drive to the FBI. This thumb drive was mentioned in a House Oversight Committee hearing when Patrick Kennedy, the State Department official doing damage control for Hillary, was asked about the thumb drive of the emails and he stated he believed the FBI had the thumb drive. The FBI was reported to have Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson’s laptop computers too. Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson worked with David Kendall to sort Hillary’s emails on her server and to collude with Platte River Networks to destroy the Clinton emails they had on their server.

So, when the email investigation was reopened in October 2016, the leaks came pouring out of the FBI about ongoing investigations in several states into Clinton Foundation corruption and information that the FBI did not destroy Mills and Samuelson’s laptops per the Obama Justice Department’s shady agreement.

Who has the thumb drive of the Hillary server emails?

Who ordered the destruction of the emails? David Kendall had the server, Hillary claimed she did not order anyone to destroy any emails, so that leaves Bill Clinton as the real owner of the server, which housed his Clinton Foundation emails (a Clinton Foundation which was reported to be under FBI investigation for corruption in several states)… It seems very improbable that David Kendall would take it upon himself to decide to destroy tens of thousands of the Clintons’ emails without consulting one or both of the Clintons.

At the time Kendall’s office destroyed “Hillary’s personal emails”, those emails were under subpoena. Destroying information under subpoena is clearly obstruction of justice. Heather Samuelson, one of Kendall’s team that worked to sort the server emails, refused to tell the FBI what keywords were used in the sorting process of those emails. Why did James Comey go to such efforts to exonerate Hillary Clinton in regards to her “intent” in using a private, unsecured email server and jeopardizing highly classified information, during his July 5, 2016 statement and while testifying to Congress, when he knew blatant obstruction of justice had occurred? Comey knew tens of thousands of emails from her server had been destroyed and he knew that server housed not only her yoga schedules, wedding plans and her State Department emails, but also Bill Clinton’s foundation emails… a foundation reportedly under criminal FBI investigation is several states.

While the media twitters about Trump’s handing classified information to the Russians in the Oval Office, it’s important to investigate that, but it’s also important to continue investigating the extent of Hillary’s reckless handling of classified information. And while they’re investigating Hillary’s emails, perhaps they can find the approximately 1,000 missing emails between General David Petraeus and Hillary Clinton.

What ever happened with these reported ongoing FBI criminal investigations of the Clinton Foundation in several states?

So many unanswered questions about the corruption in the 2016 Presidential election and all the media fixates on is Trump/Russian collusion. The corruption of both candidates and the American media created a culture that made it easy for Russian influence operations to flourish. The greater threat to America comes from home-grown public corruption, because that is tearing apart the framework that supports our constitutional republic.

You won’t see American partisans on either side wanting to root out the public corruption within their own political parties. It’s easier to blame the Russians for all our problems.

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Filed under Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Hillary's Email Scandal, Politics, Public Corruption, The Media

Category Archives: Public Corruption

From trash to treasure, or something like that

The value of a Goodwill book?

Soap opera continues..

Steamrolled again

Will Republicans act like Democrats now?

Undercutting our American democratic institutions

Queen Hillary’s failing coup…

A pox on both your houses

“Assault” on our institutions

Another shoe dropped

We need to understand how we got here

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