We are at a critical time in the history of our country. We have criminal in the White House and a Congress that has failed us for decades.
Unlike other times, this time there is a question of treason hanging over everything going on in Washington, D.C. Our government has been compromised.
Our Department of Justice has been compromised as well. Attorney General William Barr is now running interference for Donald Trump.
Let's pause for the moment and orient ourselves.
1. Next year, 2020, is an election year.
2. The only thing the Democrats control at the moment is the House.
3. The House is the only body empowered by our Constitution with Impeachment powers.
Despite attempts to cover it up and suppress it, the fact is that our 2016 elections were compromised by Russia and the full extent of that is not known.
We know about the hacking and the spreading of false news reports, but we are just beginning to learn that some vote tallies may have been interfered with as well.
We also know that Russia is gearing up to do it again and Mitch McConnell has been blocking any Senate legislation that would prevent it from happening in 2020.
In the House, Nancy Pelosi tried to block Impeachment hearings from getting started. She was not being honest with us as to her intentions or her reasoning.
Despite Pelosi's attempts to prevent Impeachment hearings, a majority of the House Democrats favor them. Jerry Nadler, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has kept his committee working during recess.
Nadler has clearly taken control of his committee. He has publicly stated several times that an Impeachment Inquiry is underway. He has made it clear that they are going to do their job (translation: It's no longer up to Pelosi whether or not they Impeach Donald Trump).
As always, there is a lot happening. The most recent insanity has to do with the death of Jeffrey Epstein while he was in federal custody. Barr referred to it as a "suicide" before the medical examiner had performed the autopsy.
We've had a wave of mass shootings at the hands of domestic terrorists/white nationalists.
We've also seen more disgusting and abhorrent behavior by Trump. His latest was having a baby, who was wounded and who lost both her parents during the El Paso domestic terrorism attack, brought back to the hospital after being discharged so Trump could pose for a photo-op. Yes, that' him smiling and giving a thumbs up with the recovering orphan.
And then there were record breaking ICE raids in Mississippi. Raids in which over 600 immigrant workers were rounded up and taken into custody. Their children were left to fend for themselves - left at school and at home without knowing what happened to their parents or what would become of them.
Yes, it's overwhelming. Yes, it's non-stop. Yes, it is making us crazy. Yes, it's certainly going to get much worse before it starts to get better.
So what's a citizen whose country has been taken over by a crime syndicate working with a foreign enemy to do? The White House, the Senate and the Department of Justice are all compromised. Corruption is the new normal.
The House is all we have left and it's under attack.
The House of Representatives has become a modern day Alamo. It's the last bit of our government being held by people we elected to take our country back and restore our government.
The House still stands and we need to focus our efforts on what we can do to support them and send reinforcements. First, we must understand that it was us, relentlessly pressuring members of the House, who forced an Impeachment Inquiry. We must keep the pressure up. Call daily.
Second, we must unite in 2020 behind all Democrats running for office. We must support whoever is on the ballot. We must come out to vote and we must Vote Blue, No Matter Who.
We need to hold onto the House, take the Senate and take the Presidency. We all need to pull in the same direction.
Americans know how to take a punch and not fold.
Donald Trump is not and never was a leader. He's a rich party boy who has indulged himself all his life. He has nothing to offer us other than misery. He's in his element with the likes of Jeffrey Epstein. He needs to be Impeached and tried for his crimes.
Mitch McConnell and his posse need to be voted out of office and sent home in disgrace.
The rest can think about what they have to look forward to when they eventually come up for re-election.
Holy Moly!
Jeffrey Epstein is no more. He was found dead in his cell at about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.
So let's put this in perspective. The highest profile prisoner in any prison facility in the United States was found dead a few weeks after he had allegedly attempted suicide and he was not on suicide watch at the time and the two guards on duty at the time failed to make their normal, scheduled checks on him.
The day before his death, the courts released over 2,000 documents related to his sexual abuse of children with the promise of more to come..
He was running a sex trafficking ring supplying young girls for the rich and famous for decades. He had friends in high places.
Jeff was in prison because a sweetheart deal in a previous criminal case in Florida blew up and turned into a major scandal. That plea deal was done by prosecutor Alex Acosta who was subsequently appointed as Secretary of Labor by Donald Trump.
When the deal blew up, Acosta had to resign. It turns out that Acosta, like others, was not one of the best and brightest. He will forever be known for letting an international pimp for young girls off the hook.
I'm getting ahead of myself. Another important fact regarding the demise of Epstein is that Attorney General Bill Barr called the death an "apparent suicide", before the New York City Medical Examiner had made a decision as to the cause of death.
Yep, Bill Barr, whose dad, Donald Barr, was responsible for giving Jeff a teaching job at the Dalton School in New York City, was prematurely calling this a "suicide". What are the odds?
The Attorney General was not the only one jumping to conclusions. Donald Trump retweeted a link suggesting that the Clintons were responsible for Jeff's demise - obviously Trump is not suggesting suicide.
Okay, so lets look at the possibilities. I can break them down into 2 categories. The first to consider is suicide. I guess we need to wait for the medical examiner to make a determination on that one.
The second is murder.
There is one other possibility to consider. Was he coerced into killing himself. Here's a scene from "Godfather Part II" that exemplifies this.
I don't know if we will ever know what happened to Jeffrey Epstein. Some people are suggesting his death was staged and he has been removed to a safe place. Maybe all we will ever know for sure is that it was fishy.
Certainly a pimp for underage girls catering to powerful and wealthy clients has a lot to worry about when it appears that he might spill the beans in order to avoid going to prison.
Poirot's suspect list would be bi-partisan and multinational. Netflix could do a series spanning several seasons on it.
Too bad there is no video or eyewitness accounts of what happened to Jeff. Apparently the cameras in 9 South Wing, where he was housed, were trained on areas that did not include his cell and he didn't have a cellmate.
About the only thing we do have is an abundance of bullshit and unanswered questions.
This is all so Putinesque - election interference, compromised investigations, and untimely demise of anyone regarded as a threat.
Welcome to Amerika!
Holy Moly!
I've just finished reading Volume II of "The Mueller Report". Volume II deals directly with Obstruction of Justice.
I've now read "The Mueller Report" in its entirety. It's a big book, but it's not the biggest book I've ever read. It is, however, the book that has taken me longer to read than any other book I've ever read.
This book should have taken me no more than 2 weeks to complete. It has taken me months. Putting aside my age (73) and the size of the type (tiny), there is no reason it should have taken this long - except for the emotional impact reading it has had on me.
Before I get into my emotional reactions, let me say Volume II clearly documents numerous instances of Obstruction of Justice. If you watched Mueller's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, you already know this. If you didn't, read the book. There is just too much there to summarize.
Volume II of the Report does not just list and detail instances of Obstruction of Justice. It analyses each instance based upon whether there was an obstructive act, whether there was a nexus to a criminal investigation and whether or not there was intent to obstruct on Trump's part.
It doesn't stop there. It also provides legal citings for each criminal statute that was violated with a full explanation of each citing and a full response to any objections to it raised by Trump's lawyers. For example:
"Finally, 18 U.S.C. § l 512(b)(3) criminalizes tampering with witnesses to prevent the communication of information about a crime to law enforcement. The nexus inquiry articulated in Aguilar-that an individual has "knowledge that his actions are likely to affect the judicial proceeding," 515 U.S. at 599-does not apply to Section 1512(6)(3). See United States v. Byrne, 435 F .3d I 6, 24-25 (1st Cir. 2006). The nexus inquiry turns instead on the actor's intent to prevent communications to a federal law enforcement official. See Fowler v. United States, 563 U.S. 668, 673-678 (2011 )."
"The Mueller Report" is a thorough and comprehensive examination of some, not all, of Trumps's criminal behavior. It's just a slice of the pie.
Page 157 of Volume II pretty much says it all:
"In this investigation, the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference. But the evidence does point to a range of other possible personal motives animating the President's conduct. These include concerns that continued investigation would call into question the legitimacy of his election and potential uncertainty about whether certain events-such as advance notice of WikiLeaks' s release of hacked information or the June 9, 2016 meeting between senior campaign officials and Russians could be seen as criminal activity by the President, his campaign, or his family.
Third, many of the President's acts directed at witnesses, including discouragement of cooperation with the government and suggestions of possible future pardons, occurred in public view. While it may be more difficult to establish that public-facing acts were motivated by a corrupt intent, the President's power to influence actions, persons, and events is enhanced by his unique ability to attract attention through use of mass communications. And no principle of law excludes public acts from the scope of obstruction statutes. If the likely effect of the acts is to intimidate witnesses or alter their testimony, the justice system's integrity is equally threatened.
2. Although the events we investigated involved discrete acts-e.g., the President's statement to Corney about the Flynn investigation, his termination of Corney, and his efforts to remove the Special Counsel-it is important to view the President's pattern of conduct as a whole. That pattern sheds light on the nature of the President' s acts and the inferences that can be drawn about his intent."
So why did I find this so emotionally upsetting? Part of that has to do with Barr's attempt to completely cover up Trump's crimes and misdoings.
The fact that the Attorney General of the United States is engaging in a further Obstruction of Justice is both scary and infuriating.
And then there's the fact that I didn't learn anything new. Yeah, I've know about this for months. This has all been reported and written about and rehashed over and over again.
So why hasn't anything been done about this? Why wasn't anything done about this months ago?
It's not just a question of corrupt leadership. It's the whole fucking Congress. It's spineless, corrupt politicians who have put their partisan and personal concerns over our national security.
It's also a question of stupidity on a galactic scale.
"The Mueller Report" is not just an indictment of Trump based upon his criminal activity, it's an indictment of us for our indifference and ignorance.
We've let this happen. Baa, baa, baa!
Donald Trump needs to be Impeached. He was never competent to be president. He should have been Impeached months/years ago. He is a career criminal who has colluded and conspired with our country's enemies. He is an abomination. He needs to be removed from office.
As for the rest of the pie that has not been covered in "The Mueller Report", Trump has to be held accountable for that too. That can be done after he has been removed from office.
Holy Moly!
