August 2, 2023

Opinion Why Trump Was Indicted (Again)

You can thank the Jan. 6 committee.

Believe it or not, President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland did not enter office planning to criminally prosecute Donald Trump. They practically had to be dragged into it.

You could be forgiven for questioning this claim considering that Trump was just indicted by the Justice Department for the second time in a matter of months — this time based on his efforts to overturn the 2020 election — and that does not even count the superseding indictment that was filed late last week for allegedly mishandling sensitive government documents and obstructing the federal investigation.

Republicans and Trump supporters on Capitol Hill and in the conservative media have certainly spent much of the last year laying the groundwork for the tendentious narrative of a “weaponized” DOJ — literally going back to the day that Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago was searched by the FBI, before any of them could possibly have known what was going on in that case.

But the notion that Biden or Garland was somehow determined to prosecute Trump relies on a serious distortion of the public record. Indeed, that record vexed some observers, including me, who repeatedly expressed frustration over how the two men seemed to be going out of their way for most of the first two years of the administration to avoid investigating and potentially prosecuting Trump.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/08/01/trump-indictment-jan-6-committee-00109235

March 12, 2023

Pence says 'history will hold Donald Trump accountable' for January 6th

Source: CNN

Former Vice President Mike Pence made his most blistering comments yet about former President Donald Trump’s role in the January 6th attack on the US Capitol during remarks Saturday evening at the annual Gridiron Club Dinner in Washington, DC.

Pence began his remarks at the dinner, which traditionally features politicians making jokes about notable Washington figures, with lighthearted comments about Trump, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and several Republicans expected to run for president in 2024, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.

He then took a serious tone, noting the attack on the Capitol was “one thing I haven’t joked about” and calling January 6th “a tragic day.”

Pence rebuked Trump for his role in the January 6, 2021 attack, saying he was “wrong” for claiming Pence had the authority to overturn the results of the 2020 election in his role presiding over Congress that day, saying “history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/11/politics/mike-pence-gridiron-dinner/index.html

January 5, 2023

A good wish list.

But I predict Democrats will approach a GOP moderate, to offer their support in the vote for Speaker. I don’t know who this person will be, but it won’t be McCarthy. After all, this same scenario just played out in the election of Speaker of the Ohio state legislature.

None of us knows what will happen next but this is my guess.

September 17, 2022

Ukraine war: this map holds an important clue about Kremlin fears of NATO expansion

I am not defending Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but this is their side of the story, so to speak. They feel threatened by the expansion of NATO.

August 20, 2022

Mexico arrests ex-attorney general in missing students case

Source: Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Federal prosecutors said Friday they have arrested the attorney general in Mexico’s previous administration on charges he committed abuses in the investigation of the 2014 disappearances of 43 students from a radical teacher college.

Prosecutors also announced they had issued arrest warrants in the case against 20 army soldiers officers, five local officials, 33 local police officers and 11 state police, as well as 14 gang members.

The roundup included the first arrest of a former attorney general in recent history, and one of the biggest mass arrests ever by civilian prosecutors of Mexican army soldiers.

Jesús Murillo Karam served as attorney general from 2012 to 2015, under then President Enrique Peña Nieto. The office of the current attorney general, Alejandro Gertz Manero, said Murillo Karam was charged with torture, official misconduct and forced disappearance

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/mexico-caribbean-arrests-4d219a28ac3294e76b3254a93ac855fa

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I'm sure some of you remember the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico during 2014. Looks like the perps have been brought to justice.

August 18, 2022

Liz Cheney releases call to Trump-backed opponent who said she didn't concede

Why do they always tell such horrid lies? Maybe she didn't have time to check her voicemail.

July 30, 2022

Sinema indicates she may want to change Schumer-Manchin deal

Source: Axios

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) had a message for her Democratic colleagues before she flew home to Arizona for the weekend: She's preserving her options.

Why it matters: Sinema has leverage and she knows it. Any potential modification to the Democrat's climate and deficit reduction package — like knocking out the $14 billion provision on carried interest — could cause the fragile deal to collapse.

Her posture is causing something between angst and fear in the Democratic caucus as senators wait for her to render a verdict on the secret deal announced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin last Thursday.

Driving the news: Sinema has given no assurances to colleagues that she’ll vote along party lines in the so-called “vote-a-rama” for the $740 billion bill next week, according to people familiar with the matter.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/2022/07/30/sinema-schumer-manchin-deal-democrats

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We might have celebrated too soon.

June 24, 2022

New Scholar Ranking of US Presidents just out today (6/23/22).

The above is from Wikipedia. Here is a link to the new Siena survey, just in case any of you want to drill down:

June 6, 2022

Exclusive: Michigan widens probe into voting system breaches by Trump allies

Source: Reuters

LANSING, Michigan, June 6 (Reuters) - State police in Michigan have obtained warrants to seize voting equipment and election-related records in at least three towns and one county in the past six weeks, police records show, widening the largest known investigation into unauthorized attempts by allies of former President Donald Trump to access voting systems.

The previously unreported records include search warrants and investigators' memos obtained by Reuters through public records requests. The documents reveal a flurry of efforts by state authorities to secure voting machines, poll books, data-storage devices and phone records as evidence in a probe launched in mid-February.

The state’s investigation follows breaches of local election systems in Michigan by Republican officials and pro-Trump activists trying to prove his baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

The police documents reveal, among other things, that the state is investigating a potential breach of voting equipment in Lake Township, a small, largely conservative community in northern Michigan's Missaukee County. The previously unreported case is one of at least 17 incidents nationwide, including 11 in Michigan, in which Trump supporters gained or attempted to gain unauthorized access to voting equipment.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-michigan-widens-probe-into-voting-system-breaches-by-trump-allies-2022-06-06/

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More good news.

April 23, 2022

Dozens of New York City teachers placed on unpaid leave for using fake coronavirus vaccine cards

I have long suspected that fake vaccine cards are more widespread than we know.