Month: March 2019

Can there be obstruction if no underlying crime was committed?

by Dave

Yes.  See the link below.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2019/mar/25/martha-stewart-donald-trump-can-there-be-obstructi/

Per Fact Checking sites.   They really are very good.  I can see why recently Trump attacked Fact Checking websites.  Many of the worst lies (fake news) are disseminated on Facebook by bloggers.  But on occasion,  statements by Donald Trump join the “Pants on Fire” group.  So, do not trust anything posted anonymously by a blogger.  Same goes for Trump’s tweets.   Secondly, there are a ton of commentators particularly on Fox News, who live by selling books and videos, on grand conspiracy theories and deep state nonsense.  I will not vote for anyone with a track record as bad as Trump’s in the 2020 election.

Learn to separate out serious news reporting from late night “news show.”    If you ever watched a Lou Dobbs broadcast, you know what I mean.  Lou makes it very easy for his guests to respond, as there’s hardly a question embedded inside of a question, except,  “Don’t you agree with me?”.

As per the Mueller report,  I support the Attorney General’s approach.  The amount of speculation of what is contained in the report, is really incredible.  His letter cited just two conclusions contained in the report.  Redacting sensitive information from a report, particularly one related to counter-intelligence, requires considerable time.  I reject the call from impatient Democrats, saying they want everything right now.  For our justice system to work, not everything should be disclosed, including FISA subpoenas.

Barr released his letter two days after he got the report because to do otherwise would have politicians claiming he was concealing information.   It is difficult to tamp down or narrow the scope of speculation on what the report concludes.

Stay tuned,

Dave

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solid Information on Mueller’s Investigation

by Dave

Any discussion on the Mueller probe which begins with a half dozen assertions made by President Trump, or highly biased commentators on both liberal and conservative leaning cable stations, has immediately veered off course.  There have been so many claims by commentators that getting to the facts at times seems hard.  The truth is always a bit more complicated and considerably longer.

There are numerous unbiased sources of information on the internet.  I am not about to launch into a discussion of “intellectual honesty”  but this is severely lacking in many of the broadcast networks.

The probe is officially over so Robert Mueller can go home.  Well sort of.  He will be called to testified in the House Judiciary Oversight Committee as to his findings.  The Justice Department has stated there will be no more indictments.  At present, the Justice Department is reviewing the Mueller’s Final Report, to identify what may be provided to Congress.  Under the law, the AG is not obligated to provide any part of the report, but only a summary of the important findings.  The Attorney General William Barr and Deputy AG Rob Rosenstein worked over the weekend to produce the summary and it was posted in the previous blog.

The probe began as a counter-intelligence investigation by the FBI, when they received information that Russia was attempting to meddle in US elections in 2016.  I believe the report will provide very similar details as given in Wikipedia, that the “triggering event” into the investigation was comments made by George Papadopoulos in a London bar to an Austrian diplomat about the Russians had damaging information on Hillary Clinton.

The Mueller investigation is now history.  His investigation was limited to Russian involvement in the 2016 election.  As the investigation proceeded, evidence of other criminal activities were discovered and Mueller referred these to other federal jurisdictions.   The remaining criminal cases will be handled by federal prosecutors.

I believe the best unbiased source on the internet is from Wikipedia.  It is constantly added to keep up with events.  There are over 450 references provided on the Mueller probe and most of them are available just by clicking on the links.

President Trump has attacked the Special Counsel’s investigation over 1000 times, according to Wikipedia.   Many of these attacks are unprecedented by a president, as he has the authority to appoint his cabinet officials and the Director of the FBI.  I feel particularly bad on his attack and firing of AG Jeff Sessions and FBI Director James Comey.  His attacks now seem aimed at the House Oversight Committees’ investigations.   Note, as far as honesty, Trump’s track record is dismal, as only 4% of his statements are judged to be true, by Politifact.com .   Many of them are on immigration, but I think more will come on the Russian Probe.

I can understand that there is information within Mueller’s report which must be redacted because it deals with national security or future prosecutions.  I believe a redacted version of the report will be released.

Russia seems committed to meddling in elections where it can have an influence.   The US will continue to be a target of meddling going forward, because our country is now very evenly divided between Republican and Democratic states.  The 7 to 12 “toss up” states will determine the winner in the 2020 election.

It takes a bit of effort to search for the facts, instead of what comes via Facebook, Twitter (never use it) or other sources.   There are some very good honest information on the internet, if one is selective of the source.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Links:

Wikipedia:  Mueller Investigation

Wikipedia: Robert Mueller Biography 

Jeff Sessions

Politifact.com

(see his latest comments,  none of them are true.  The last truthful statement dates back to November 18, 2018).

Factcheck.org

Another excellent fact checker.

AG Barr’s summary of Mueller’s Report

by Dave

“It was a total and complete exoneration” 

Donald Trump

No it wasn’t.

AG Barr’s memo:

The Special Counsel’s report states that “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

However, consistent with the President Trump’s statement:

“the Special Counsel did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts, despite multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.”

No clean bill of health.  Not for Trump nor his campaign officials.

I guess it’s best just to read AG Barr’s memo.  It’s only 4 pages.

AG March 24 2019 Letter to House and Senate Judiciary Committees

Normally, I would include links, but there is just so much out there, you can take your choice.

Stay tuned,

Dave

 

 

 

Representative Iihan Omar

by Dave

I like her, but she would really do herself and the causes she supports, to resist getting into the limelight, at least for now.   What did she say that was so horrible?

It was that our support for Israel is “all about the Benjamins,” which is slang for 100 dollar bills namely money.   Of course, money and politics go hand-in-hand.   Trump wants good relations with the Saudis, in hopes of getting big military contracts.  Not for the US government, but for companies like Boeing and dozens of military equipment manufacturers.    I think the Vox website got it right:

” It was false — support for Israel is complex and related to many more factors than just lobbyist money — and it played into centuries of conspiracy theories about Jewish money corrupting Western politics.”

Her four words went viral and totally blown out of proportion.  There was another comment where she seem to give support of a dual loyalty theory, that implies Jewish politicians were conflicted between what was best for America and best for Israel.  She really has back tracked on her offensive comment.  However, Trump is really on the war path.  Again, it is not her statements per se, but the exaggerated impact which is  being tossed about the social media.  Social media can act as a distorted echo chamber.

I worked in Kuwait, and listen to some pretty anti-Israel comments.  It was, in my opinion, rooted on a biased history of how Israel was formed, and its intentions to its Arab leaders.  We had some lively debates at that time.  At the same time, Muslims and Jews were just fine working together.  It was never personal.

The US under the Trump administration will never present a practical plan to resolve the hostilities between Palestine and Israel, because it will simply agree with Israel.   We have given up our role as a neutral party, and gone way too far in aligning our interests with Israel.  That’s very bad for us.   For Arab extremists,  the anger and paranoia begins with hatred towards Israel, and then all countries associated with Israel, most obvious today is the US.

As I said in the beginning, I like Representative Omar.   I think she has a lot of “John Kennedy” type zeal in her and is strongly involved in the really big issues facing the world – such as hunger, environment  and climate change.  Getting it right on access to health care services and education for our country are critical to make this country great again (after Trump).

I hope she can weather this storm.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Links:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/12/18220241/ilhan-omars-twitter-tweet-anti-semitism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_All_About_the_Benjamins

(I honestly didn’t know how popular this slang expression was, and I thought they were talking about Benjamin Netayahu.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilhan_Omar