The Impeachment Games: Now It Begins

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Accusations against Donald Trump today are actually a Hollywood remake of the great “Reagan – Iran Collusion Scandal” of the 1980s. Democrats were just as convinced that Ronald Reagan was an illegitimate President because Reagan stole the 1980 election. Reagan couldn’t have been a better president than Carter. He must have conspired with Iran’s Ayatollahs to delay the release of hostages from the U.S. Embassy in order to manipulate the election campaign. Democrats really do believe in recycling.

The Democrats just took control of the U.S. House of Representatives by 235 Democrats to 199 Republicans. The House will (predicts this author) hold impeachment hearings of Donald Trump and will hold a vote to impeach under the Democrats in 2019 through early 2020.

Articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump were immediately filed on Thursday, January 3, 2019, on the first day of the new session of Congress. Congressmen Brad Sherman (D-CA) (Northridge near Los Angeles) and Al Green (D-TX) re-filed their Articles of Impeachment they had previously filed in the last session of Congress on July 12, 2017.

Later that evening, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) — a Palestinian-American women — declared that the Democrats will impeach Trump: Tlaib quoted her son telling her, “Mama, look, you won. Bullies don’t win.” And then she said, “’Baby, they don’t.’ Because we’re gonna go in there, we’re gonna impeach the motherf@@@er.”

Rep. Tlaib was handed the microphone at a celebration about the Democrats taking over the House at a reception thrown by the leftist group MoveOn.org. Long-term political junkies will recall that MoveOn.org was created to stop the impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton. The group urged that the country should “move on” from Bill and Hillary Clinton’s dozens of felonies in the 1990s (like selling nuclear missile guidance technology to China in return for millions of dollars of illegal foreign campaign contributions) and focus on the nation’s important issues. Al Gore famously held a fund-raiser at a temple for monks sworn to poverty, clearly strawmen for money illegally donated from China. MoveOn.org argued that we should focus on the nation’s problems, not the Clintons’ and Al Gore’s crime spree. Yet on Thursday the MoveOn.org crowd roared approval Thursday night for talk of impeaching Trump.

Democrat leaders know better. They know it will be disastrous for their party. They know it will probably cost them the 2020 elections, both presidential and congressional. But the Democrats just can’t help themselves. It will be like daring a teenage boy to jump off the roof into an above-ground swimming pool. The Leftist activists will demand it. And Democrats just really want to down deep. [Update: Billionaire Tom Steyer’s campaign to impeach Trump has garnered 6,615,331 petition signers calling for Trump’s impeachment. No matter how much Democrats know impeachment will create a back-lash politically, they will not be able to resist so many of their supporters, that big of an activist mailing list, or Steyer’s political warchest.]

They can’t escape the fact that Democrats filed for impeachment before any report or results from Special Counsel Robert Mueller. So how credible can their claims be? Sherman and Green first filed their Articles of Impeachment in June 2017.

The grounds for impeachment Sherman and Green argue is that Donald Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey. The evidence keeps growing that Comey deserved to be fired. The only wrong is that Trump did not fire Comey on day one.

But this is all astonishingly similar to 1981 when Democrats were dreaming up excuses for losing the White House — to an actor! “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” warned writer and philosopher George Santayana (also credited as “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”).

They all mocked Ronald Reagan as a buffoon who had co-starred with a chimpanzee in “Bedtime for Bonzo.” Democrats, the overwhelmingly-dominant liberal news media back then, political experts, etc. portrayed Reagan the candidate as an ignorant conservative with primitive views who did not read or know anything. (And where politicos insist that Trump is unacceptable because we need a dignified president like Reagan, Reagan actually actually did co-star with a chimp. He was still a great president.)

So, then how could Democrats accept when Reagan defeated the saintly, wise, morally superior Jimmy Carter? When the Left demonizes and belittles a Republican during a campaign, how can they then explain it away when the Republican wins? Election after election, after telling the American people how awful the Republican candidate is, Democrats are in a bind when that Republican gets elected.

So in 1981 Democrats invented a conspiracy theory of collusion between Iran’s Ayatollahs and the Reagan campaign: Yes, supposedly-serious Democrats firmly believed this. The Reagan campaign entered into a secret pact with the Ayatollah Khomeini to keep the Iranian hostage crisis alive to embarrass Jimmy Carter through election day. See: John Barry, “Making of a Myth,” Newsweek, November 10, 1991.

In 1979, after President Jimmy Carter helped create the Iranian Islamic revolution through foreign policy blunders empowering Islamic revolutionaries, militant Iranian students took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Fifty-two U.S. citizens, most of them diplomats and staff of the Embassy, were held hostage for 444 days. Iran released the hostages immediately after Reagan was sworn in as President.

In the absence of any evidence, Democrats decided that Reagan campaign official William Casey must have flown to Madrid from a conference in London to hold a secret meeting with Iranian interests. Casey must have convinced Iran to not release the hostages until after the election. It could not be that Iran released the hostages because they feared and respected in-coming President Reagan’s tough-line foreign policy. It could not be that strong men do not respect apologizing and weak liberals like Jimmy Carter.

Of course, Ronald Reagan’s Attorney General Edwin Meese III did not recuse himself thereby handing power to the entrenched deep state to indulge the hoax. Nor did Meese — despite being a mild-mannered gentleman — have the lapse in judgment to appoint a Special Counsel to look into a clear falsehood.

This story has been now reborn with astonishing similarity in a conspiracy theory that Donald Trump’s private lawyer Michael Cohen flew to the gloriously-beautiful city of Prague. The Hollywood remake of the 1981 story is that Cohen meet with someone “near Prague” with poorly-defined “ties” to poorly-defined “Russian interests.” In my heart if not in employment, this author is a scientist. If you can’t define something, you can’t prove it. As a lawyer, it is a red-flag when a concept is suggested that is so vague it is impossible to prove or disprove. What are “ties?” What are “interests?” This is scurrilous slander, not serious discussion.

The fact that there was no evidence that William Casey ever flew to Madrid led to the “obvious” conclusion that Casey must have been smuggled on a military jet fighter leaving no paper trail (while Reagan was a private citizen).

The lack of any evidence that Michael Cohen ever visited Prague does not dampen the spirits of Trump’s accusers either. The fact that it would be physically impossible for non-Russian computer hackers with vague “ties” to unidentified “Russian interests” to transfer 2 gigabytes of data over the internet from the Democrat National Committee’s computers in only 87 seconds doesn’t arouse any curiosity. The DNC’s refusal to allow the FBI or any government investigator to examine the DNC’s computers to investigate the alleged hacking does nothing to discourage the conspiracy theorists.

It is important to see how nearly every criticism of any Republican candidate or official is a rerun. When political insiders merely dust off old claims, cross out the old name, and scribble in a new name, can it really be all that convincing? Can nearly the same story be true again and again? (For more from the author of “The Impeachment Games: Now It Begins” please click HERE)

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Mayor Was Shot to Death Hours After Being Sworn In

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The mayor of Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca in Mexico, Alejandro Aparicio Santiago, was shot to death two hours after being sworn into office, The Independent reported. Santiago was on his way to Tlaxiaco’s city hall when a gunman open fire on him and his colleagues. He had been touring local city offices and was surrounded by his supporters when the attack occurred.

According to CNN, a Facebook live video was streaming when the shooting occurred and supporters appeared confused after the attack took place. Some held down the man they believed was responsible for the shooting.

Santiago and three others were taken to a nearby hospital. Santiago was shot in the chest, where the bullet punctured his right lung. He suffered internal bleeding and eventually succumbed to his injuries, CNN reported. Two others also died. . .

The state prosecutor’s office believes drug gangs were behind the attacks. They’re also believed to be responsible for injuring four other people, including another politician. (Read more from “Mayor Was Shot to Death Hours After Being Sworn In” HERE)

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Bolton: U.S. Withdrawal From Syria Will Happen Under One Condition

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On Sunday, White House national security advisor John Bolton made it clear the United States’ withdrawal from Syria is conditional. America needs to know Turkey will not target the U.S.’s Kurdish allies once our troops are removed, the Wall Street Journal reported.

From WSJ:

President Trump’s order to withdraw U.S. troops is a “cause-and-effect mission” that requires certain assurances from various players in the region before it can be executed, said Mr. Bolton, the first administration official to outline the conditions for withdrawal.

His comments marked the first public acknowledgment from the White House that the safety of Kurdish allies is being considered as part of its pending withdrawal plan, but it also indicates that a quick withdrawal was unlikely given challenging regional dynamics.

. . .

“Timetables or the timing of the withdrawal occurs as a result of the fulfillment of the conditions and the establishment of the circumstances that we want to see,” Bolton said. “It’s not the establishment of an arbitrary point for the withdrawal to take place as President Obama did in the Afghan situation…the timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to implement.” (Read more from “Bolton: U.S. Withdrawal From Syria Will Happen Under One Condition” HERE)

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National Park Service Makes an Unprecedented Move During the Ongoing Government Shutdown

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With the government shutdown going into its third week, the National Park Service has had to get creative with how to continue managing various landmarks nationwide. In an unprecedented move, NPS will utilize entrance fees to pay for operations.

Interior Department’s acting secretary David Bernhardt on Saturday released a memo detailing what park managers are allowed to spend the funds on. Additional staff can be hired with the fees to clean restrooms, haul trash, patrol the parks and open areas that have been closed while politicians in Washington continue budget negotiations. Typically, when shutdowns happen, the National Park Service resorts to having a skeleton staff, something that has become unmanageable at popular parks and monuments.

“As the lapse in appropriations continues, it has become clear that highly visited parks with limited staff have urgent needs that cannot be addressed solely through the generosity of our partners,” National Park Service Deputy Director P. Daniel Smith told The Washington Post. “We are taking this extraordinary step to ensure that parks are protected, and that visitors can continue to access parks with limited basic services.”

Some are questioning the legality of the move. The Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act says park entrance fees are expressly designated to support visitor services instead of operations and basic maintenance. Bernhardt’s Saturday memo made it clear that parks with available funds can use them on operations, like trash collection and sanitation, road maintenance, campground operations, law enforcement and emergency operations, and entrance staff “as necessary to provide critical safety operations.” . . .

“The Department of Interior is very likely violating appropriations law. I want to see our parks open, but I want to see our entire government open the right way, following the law,” McCollum told the Post. “We are certainly going to be doing oversight as the acting secretary moves forward with this, and he will be hearing from me directly. This will not open up the parks in any safe, effective manner for tourists to have a safe and enjoyable experience.” (Read more from “National Park Service Makes an Unprecedented Move During the Ongoing Government Shutdown” HERE)

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WATCH: Ocasio-Cortez Gets Asked How She’ll Pay for Her Programs. It Was a Disaster.

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Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was again unable to explain how she intends to pay for $40 trillion in far-left big government programs during a Sunday interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” with host Anderson Cooper.

This marks the second time that Ocasio-Cortez was unable to explain how she would pay for the programs that she wants the government to pay for, with the other instance occurring during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. . .

“We only ask how we pay for it on issues of housing, healthcare and education,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “How do we pay for it? With the same exact mechanisms that we pay for military increases for this Space Force. For all of these– ambitious policies.”

“There are Democrats, obviously, who are worried about your affect on the party,” Cooper responded. “Democratic Senator Chris Coons, said about left-leaning Democrats, “If the next two years is just a race to offer increasingly unrealistic proposals, it’ll be difficult for us to make a credible case we should be allowed to govern again.” . . .

“We pay more per capita in health care and education for lower outcomes than many other nations,” Ocasio-Cortez answered, as she still could not provide an answer about how to pay for her programs. “And so for me, what’s unrealistic is– is what we’re living in right now.” (Read more from “WATCH: Ocasio-Cortez Gets Asked How She’ll Pay for Her Programs. It Was a Disaster.” HERE)

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WATCH: Women’s March Leader Took Part in Anti-Israel Demonstration in Nazareth

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Years before Carmen Perez became a nationally-known co-chair of the Women’s March on Washington, she was part of a delegation of black liberation activists who promoted a Palestinian-led drive targeting the State of Israel. . .

While in Nazareth, commonly known as “the Arab capital of Israel,” Perez participated in a solidarity demonstration calling for the boycott, divestment and sanctions against that country. A video documenting the flash mob-style spectacle shows her performing the dabke – a traditional Palestinian folk dance – along with Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors and other allies which Perez described as “my revolutionary freedom fighters.”

The ceremony began with participants being smudged with sage to rid the space of negative energy followed by a monologue from Marc Lamont Hill – a former CNN pundit who was let go by the network in November after making controversial comments about Israel.

“We came here to Palestine to stand in love and revolutionary struggle with our brothers and sisters,” Hill said in the video. “We come to a land that has been stolen by greed and destroyed by hate. We come here, and we learn laws that have been co-signed in ink but written in the blood of the innocent, and we stand next to people who continue to courageously struggle and resist the occupation.” . . .

Perez represented a task force she co-founded in 2013 called Justice League NYC. It is part of The Gathering of Justice network, where Perez serves as executive director. Fellow Women’s March co-chairs Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour were also part of that organization.

(Read more from “WATCH: Women’s March Leader Took Part in Anti-Israel Demonstration in Nazareth” HERE)

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Investigation Into Drive-By Shooting of Child Takes a ‘New Direction’

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Investigators are now calling the shooting of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes a case of mistaken identity after witnesses believed a white man in a red pickup truck was responsible for her Dec. 30 murder, but officials said Sunday that two different men have been taken into custody and one has been charged with capital murder.

Barnes was killed while sitting in the backseat of her mother’s car with her three sisters as they drove out of a Walmart parking lot in northeast Houston on Dec. 30. Her mother, LaPorsha Washington, was also shot when a car pulled up and began spraying bullets.

The case garnered national attention after Washington said she believed the case to be a hate crime after she and her family identified the shooter in the apparently random attack to be a white male. . .

Authorities originally reported the suspect to be a white man driving a red pickup truck based on accounts of the shooting from Barnes’s family, but the Harris County Sheriff’s Office tweeted late Saturday that the investigation had “taken a new direction.”

Homicide investigators subsequently filed a capital murder charge against Eric Black Jr., 20, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office, who had been identified as a suspect based on a tip. He later admitted to taking part in the shooting.

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‪I’ll go ahead and state the obvious. 24 y/o Larry Woodruffe doesn’t fit the description offered by the 4 different witness statements or composite sketch. Accordingly, this tip was difficult to believe. Assuming the confession elicited is reliable— it is possible the previously identified suspect seen fleeing by several independent witnesses was a bystanader attempting to escape the shooting. To observers, however, he appeared to be the shooter himself. ‬More information will have to be drawn out before there is a conviction. Nonetheless, the community is collectively responsible for obtaining evidence that has led to a credible arrest and we are closer to answers. That much is laudable.

A post shared by S. Lee Merritt, Esquire (@leemerrittesq) on

(Read more from “Investigation Into Drive-By Shooting of Child Takes a ‘New Direction'” HERE)

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Actress Wants Fat-Shaming To Be Considered Hate Speech

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“Body positivity” has been a rallying cry for many celebrities and women’s organizations that claim being overweight is not unhealthy. Now one celebrity in particular wants to make “fat-shaming” — remarks intended to make someone feel bad over their weight — to be considered “hate speech.”

Actress Jameela Jamil from “The Good Place” announced last week that she would start a company based on her Instagram account, “I Weigh,” which focuses on body positivity. She announced her new company in a tweet last Wednesday and said one of the company’s “main goals is to work towards a policy change that means this way of talking about people’s bodies is considered hate speech.”

The tweet was a response to one from another Twitter user who posted photos from a tabloid depicting two female celebrities in bathing suits with captions. In one photo, Rebel Wilson wears a one-piece bathing suit with the caption: “The stand-up comedian, 29, made a big splash in Pitch Perfect, and does the same when she hits the surf!”

One might not necessarily see this as cruel, but the comment is made among other photos mocking celebrities for their looks, including Tara Reid’s “botched surgery.”

Another photo posted by the account shows “Glee” actress Lea Michele in a bikini bending over with the caption: “The 28-year-old singer’s most famous role was on Glee, but her biggest rolls are…” the photo cuts off. The image includes a circle around her torso and the words “roll player.”

(Read more from “Actress Wants Fat-Shaming to Be Considered Hate Speech” HERE)

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Jihadist Beheader in Oklahoma Cleared for Execution

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This fall, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially cemented the execution of America’s least known Islamic terrorist. Jihadist convert Alton Nolen is now set to be put to death in Oklahoma, likely by nitrogen gas inhalation.

The Supreme Court’s October 1, 2018 rejection of Nolen’s final death penalty appeal went unremarked upon by news media so, partly as a result, I missed it. But the Nolen case is very much worth remembering, along with all terror attacks that occur on U.S. soil, if not just for the victims and their survivors but for lessons that can and must be learned.

The September 24, 2014 attack in Oklahoma is somewhat notable in the annals of many officially uncalled terrorist strikes in that Nolen emulated a favorite ISIS death tactic no doubt learned online: he fully beheaded a co-worker—the beloved wife, mother, and grandmother Colleen Hufford—inside the Moore, Oklahoma food processing plant where they both worked. Shouting “Alluah Akbar” throughout the attack, Nolen used the same oversized butcher knife on the neck of a second co-worker, Tracy Johnson, when the company’s chief operations officer, a reserve law enforcement officer named Mark Vaughn, burst in with an AR-15 rifle. He shot and wounded Nolen as Nolen disengaged from his second victim and charged at him with the bloody knife.

Such an attack must generate a particular horror in its witnesses and, when Nolen is finally put to death, one should keep in mind what Hufford must have experienced in her last moments. . .

This attack and its repercussions warrants our full national attention and should be properly memorialized until all related matters are finally resolved, not least for any comfort this can still bring the victim, survivors, and witnesses. Terrorism acknowledgement and media treatment can encourage the nation to comfort those who were there and help them close the emotionally important loop of knowing why loved ones and innocents died, who did it, and for what cause. (Read more from “Jihadist Beheader in Oklahoma Cleared for Execution” HERE)

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The Syria Controversy Is a Proxy War Over America’s Foreign Policy

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The great game never ends, but the American people are tired of playing. While members of the foreign policy establishment (or experts, as they prefer to be called) continue the work of empire, with its interests, alliances, and intrigues around the globe, the people they are supposedly working for want out. This divergence, exemplified by the debate over Syria, imperils the legitimacy, as well as the efficacy, of American foreign and military policy.

This is why the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis has been presented as a crisis. Losing a skilled, honorable man’s services due to irreconcilable differences with the president would be a blow to any administration, let alone one as chaotic as Trump’s. . .

The debate over our involvement and strategy in Syria is important in itself, but it is also a proxy for the fight over who has the authority to direct American foreign and military policy. Continued American intervention in Syria is being pushed everywhere from National Review to The New York Times. But whatever its merits as policy, it remains unpopular beyond destroying ISIS, which is largely accomplished.

Congress, sensitive to public opinion on this at least, declined to authorize the mission creep the ostensible experts favor. Although Congress has also fecklessly declined to do anything to restrain American involvement in undeclared wars, the Constitution still requires positive authorization for war, which is supposed to be declared and directed by elected officials answerable to the people.

Regardless of the wishes of the people, Congress, and even the current commander-in-chief, the foreign policy establishment has kept playing the great game, presumably on the theory that it is easier to ask forgiveness than to seek permission. These officials believe their policies are correct, and the broad strategy of maintaining American influence and protecting American interests justifies involvement in a particular crisis or hot spot. President Trump’s flaws provide them with a ready excuse for ignoring, and even subverting, political leadership. (Read more from “The Syria Controversy Is a Proxy War Over America’s Foreign Policy” HERE)

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