When
the president does it, that means that it is not illegal -
Richard Nixon. 1977
In
the case of guess who came to dinner it's not the Russians I'm
worried about, it's our Commander-in-Chief. You can’t find more
ridiculous scenarios watching the WWE. On the President and his
Russian cabinet, I am forced to remember the innocent days of Richard
Milhous Nixon. All the poor guy wanted to do was spy on the DNC, and
hide his cassettes. We at least had a president who knew how to act
presidential in public. What we have today resembles someone going
through what most teenage boys go through, political adolescence. Or
political masturbation. Granted Tricky Dick was a piece of work
behind closed doors, he prolonged the already unnecessary Vietnam
War, he bombed countries that wanted to do right by their people and
supported despots, and told us the good elected foreign leaders were
communists. He was a drunk who beat his wife, he got the ball rolling
on blacks and mass-incarceration as best he could, and of course his
war on drugs was a precursor to Reagan's. Other than that he was a
pretty nice guy. Trump fails to make himself that interesting. He's a
24/7 idiot across the board.
Have
we become too desensitized by government corruption to be concerned
about Trump treason and borderline behavior? We've
been given a steady diet of Watergate, infidelity, 9/11 coverup, CIA
torture etc., over the past several decades, that by the time Trump
arrives the word Impeachment lost its sting. His blunders and
incompetence resemble a reality TV show. People compare Trump to
Nixon, in reality he compares best to late-Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia. The mere commonality between them is their raw hatred
for America or American democracy. In other words America on paper.
In fact Trump is such a fan of Scalia that his candidate (Neil
Gorsuch. 4/10/17)
that replaced him was based on his “Scalia-ness.
”I hear people (especially blacks) saying “Trump is doing
what he wants to do.” As if this makes him okay, or somehow
better than Obama, or imply Obama didn’t do what he wanted to
do. Decent people have no desire to do the things President Trump
wants to do. Back in 2009 Obama did what Obama wanted to do, he was
the last president to update the rules on classify/declassify:
This
order prescribes a uniform system for classifying, safeguarding, and
declassifying national security information, including information
relating to defense against transnational terrorism. Our democratic
principles require that the American people be informed of the
activities of their Government. Also, our Nation’s progress
depends on the free flow of information both within the Government
and to the American people. Nevertheless, throughout our history, the
national defense has required that certain information be maintained
in confidence in order to protect our citizens, our democratic
institutions, our homeland security, and our interactions with
foreign nations. Protecting information critical to our Nation’s
security and demonstrating our commitment to open Government through
accurate and accountable application of classification standards and
routine, secure, and effective declassification are equally important
priorities. NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, by the authority vested
in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United
States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Skipping
down to the important parts (no I’m not going to quote all 27
pages. You can see for yourself the whole doc on this
link.)
Sec.
1.2. Classification Levels. (a) Information may be classified at one
of the following three levels: (1) ‘‘Top Secret’’
shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which
reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to
the national security that the original classification authority is
able to identify or describe. (2) ‘‘Secret’’
shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which
reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national
security that the original classification authority is able to
identify or describe. (3) ‘‘Confidential’’
shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which
reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security
that the original classification authority is able to identify or
describe. (b) Except as otherwise provided by statute, no other terms
shall be used to identify United States classified information. (c)
If there is significant doubt about the appropriate level of
classification, it shall be classified at the lower level.
Sec.
1.3. Classification Authority. (a) The authority to classify
information originally may be exercised only by: (1) the President
and the Vice President; (2) agency heads and officials designated by
the President; and (3) United States Government officials delegated
this authority pursuant to paragraph (c) of this section. (b)
Officials authorized to classify information at a specified level are
also authorized to classify information at a lower level.
Even
though what The Donald disclosed the day he invited the Russians to
the White House was not illegal, the problem of course is, it was to
the Russians. And what was his relationship with them during election
time? And what exactly did they do regarding the 2016 Presidential
Election, before and during the voting? No other president would have
done this. Never forget that Trump was the first nationwide candidate
purely elected out of anger. Commentators like Fox’s Lou Dobbs
is calling the recent special counsel appointment of Robert S.
Mueller III by the Justice Department a “coup.” Trump of
course see’s himself as the poor victim of a “witchhunt.”
Right now Mueller is heading a probe into Russian tampering into the
election, nothing of course has been determined yet. More than a few
consider this a first step to impeachment, or at least are hoping it
is.
Of
course this is not an ordinary run-of-the-mill impeachment, this has
to do with suspicion of direct activities relating to one of the
candidates reaching out to a foreign nation to help him win an
election. In this case the usual set of rules related to impeachment
or the 25th Amendment shouldn’t apply, more extreme measures
have to be considered.
I
posted the following question on Facebook to get a general feel of
what the public thinks about this: “If it can be proven that
the Russians rigged the Presidential Election, then shouldn't Hillary
become the new President? Making someone from the Trump
Administration like Pence succeed him still means Trump's people run
the country.” This garnered a few interesting comments,
including Scotty Reid of Black Talk Radio who said “If
we go by that scenario, shouldn't Bernie Sanders become President
since the DNC is admitting in court it did not run a fair and
impartial primary and cheated to give Clinton the nomination?”
The
current problems relating to this administration stem from the
decisions of the man who runs it. It’s been said that
appointing incompetent people to serve under you can be grounds for
impeachment also. Who else is an incompetent president capable of
appointing to his cabinet, but like-minded people? Before Trump even
took office it was known he was close to people who believed in
flat-earth theories and they would eventually be granted key
positions. Steve Bannon, Betsy DeVos, Jeff Sessions. It is his
appointment of a man previously fired by then-President Obama which
could eventually prove most costly to him. Michael Flynn came with
warning signs, signs Trump clearly knew about and ignored, in fact
Flynn is reported to have told Trump’s transition team that he
was under federal investigation for working as a paid lobbyist for a
foreign country (Turkey)... without registering as a foreign agency
(American). Considering Trump’s alleged ties to Russia you
would think he’d pass on Flynn, like all the other presidents
would have. When it became apparent that Flynn had not only his own
ties to Russia, but enough to compromise Trump’s administration
(as if such a thing is possible), acting attorney general Sally Yates
tried
to warn him
about it. Some of you may remember Yates being more famous for
refusing to enforce President Trump’s insane travel ban, after
which she was fired on Jan. 30.
Some
feel she was fired for the Flynn warning considering the two events
were so close together. What baffles me is why would Obama warn Trump
not to hire Flynn, since it was the Obama Administration which
renewed his security clearance... after they fired him as head of the
DIA? Part of the strangeness of Obama is his reluctance to put the
final nail on the coffin on some erring white officials, whether it’s
the banks, military, or police. Even Flynn’s Turkish dealings
are suspected
to be Russian.
The over half-million dollars or so he earned as a lobbyist seems to
come from a Russian man operating several front companies with
Turkish names; Dmitri “David” Zaikin. Zaikin is said to
be close to Putin.
We
really have yet to know whether or not Flynn goes all the way back to
the beginning of Trump’s ties to Russia, and to be honest with
you, President Trump’s hardline supporters really don’t
care. They are busy making up better lies to these discrepancies than
Flynn does, which means there desperately needs to be a DOJ
investigation into any Russian tampering of Campaign 2016, as well as
an independent investigation. And if evidence is found the House must
make an across-the-board impeachment of the whole Trump
Administration, and senate votes must seal the deal.
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