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Yearly Archives: 2018
Saudi Arabia: An Ally of Convenience Not a True Friend
In foreign and national security policymaking countries with ostensibly high ethical standards must make tough choices in whom they choose to ally with. A perfect example of this is Saudi Arabia. This has been demonstrated recently with Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The victim was far from a saint. He has been a member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and an uncle of his was high-profile Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi (1935-2017). Jamal Khashoggi was also a high-profile dissident who wrote for the Washington Post.
His murder, done with typical Islamist savagery, is a classic example of overkill. As a prominent critic of the Kingdom (as Saudi Arabia is often called), Khashoggi should have known better than to enter a Saudi diplomatic facility which is sovereign Saudi territory. Whether we will ever know the exact circumstances of Khashoggi’s death, who ordered it, and why 15 people were needed to carry it out, may never be known. Neither Saudi Arabia nor Turkey are known for their transparency about governmental activities. We should also not rush to the conclusion that the U.S. is omniscient or omnipotent in its intelligence gathering capabilities.
The U.S. has been right to impose targeted economic and travel sanctions on selected individuals in the Kingdom’s government. We should also work behind the scenes to make the Saudis be as open as possible in admitting their crimes. However, we must reject the temptation to throw them over the geopolitical cliff in an effort to show moral outrage.
Let’s remember the neighborhood Saudi Arabia is in. Across the Persian Gulf is a nuclear weapons aspiring Iran which seeks to destabilize if not overthrow the Kingdom. Iran’s Shiite regime considers itself the guardian of that sector of Islam just as Saudi Arabia considers itself the guardian of Sunni Islam. This is a dispute dating back over 1,000 years which will not be resolved on a therapists couch, in diversity or inclusion training, or in a 12-step program. Iran has sought to extend its influence in the Arabian Peninsula by promoting the Huthi rebellion in Yemen. Saudi Arabia has understandably sent its military forces to intervene to protect its security and interests. Unfortunately, it has committed atrocities in this endeavor, but we must remember that Islamist societies do not adhere to Geneva Convention rules of military conflict and that Yemen is perpetually dysfunctional country. Saudi Arabia is also adjacent to countries as varied as Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, who have varied levels of stability, instability, competent and incompetent governance.
It has been good to see gradually improving Saudi relations with Israel and both countries realize the threat Iran poses to their security and interests transcend increasingly irrelevant disputes over Palestine. We also need to remember that Saudi Arabia still plays a significant role in global energy markets due to its oil resources. Although the U.S. should be glad its newly developed oil and natural gas resources are lessening our dependence on Middle Eastern petroleum and natural gas, having dependable access to these resources is critical for European, Asian, and other countries economic growth and national security. This region reminds that hopes of a green and renewable energy future are illusory.
Saudi Arabia is a case study of how countries like the U.S. have to do business with unsavory regimes to further long-term national strategic interests. Do we want Saudi Arabia to collapse under Iranian subversion? Do we want to see global energy and trade markets constrained like they were during the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo? While we should be angered by Saudi Arabia’s sadistic overreaction to a dissident, we must not forget that it will do us no good to cut our ties with Riyadh. It is also counterproductive for us to significantly reduce our arms sales to Riyadh since they have other sellers they could purchase weapons from who are not as scrupulous as we are in our human rights standards. We should continually express our anger with the Saudis in private, encourage domestic reforms which have been occurring within that country such as increased rights for women, and let the Saudis know that their actions have caused them serious reputational damage in the court of public opinion. We must remember the wisdom of 19th century British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston that England does not have eternal enemies or eternal friends but eternal interests. That applies to our relationship with Saudi Arabia. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia will never be democratic or pluralistic soul mates. We both have a shared interest in maintaining some semblance of geopolitical and economic stability in the Middle East in an increasingly turbulent world. That is the past, present, and future of our bilateral relationship.
What a Democratic Congress Will Look Like
Three weeks from today American voters will decide what kind of government we will have for the next two years. The past two years have seen the Trump Administration make significant progress in improving the nation’s economy, national security, and international stature. Remarkable economic growth is occurring, unemployment is at its lowest levels in decades, two constitutionalist U.S. Supreme Court judges have been confirmed, and additional constitutionalist judges are filling vacancies on the federal district and appellate courts. Our military is experiencing a long overdue increase in defense spending and strategic support as President Trump and his national security team are formulating strategies and policies to deal with resurgent great power competition and making the U.S. military a lethal killing machine instead of focusing on social engineering.
This, in turn, is helping increase our international stature and nations now know that the days of leading from behind, as occurred during the Obama Administration, are over. We still need to do significant work to lower the budget deficit and national debt, reform entitlement spending, implement a consumer driven and market focused health care system, and enhance immigration by building a wall on the Mexican border, enforcing workplace violations of immigration laws, eliminating sanctuary cities, and ensuring that future immigrants are high skilled workers with the personal moral skills necessary to assimilate and become productive members of our society.
Yet, there remains the dangerous possibility that American voters will return control of Congress to the Democrats like a dog returning to its vomit and a fool repeating its folly. Let’s take a trip down memory lane to the last time Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress between 2007-2010. Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House and would become Speaker again if we make the mistake of entrusting Democrats with control of the people’s house. It is instructive to look at who would chair key House Committees in the event of a Democratic takeover. Remember, committees are where Congress does its substantive legislative work such as passing legislation and conducting oversight. If Congress goes to Democratic control let’s take a look at some Democratic demagogues who would become Committee Chairs. In the House Nita Lowey of New York would become the Appropriations Committee Chair, Virginia’s Bobby Scott would chair the Education and Workforce Committee, angry little girl and ethically corrupt Maxine Waters would become Financial Services Chair, New York’s Jerry Nadler (a stalwart defender of the Clinton’s during the 1998 impeachment drama) would become Judicary Committee Chair, Maryland’s Elijah Cummings would become Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chair, and snarky Adam Schiff of California would become Intelligence Committee Chair.
These vermin would be fixated on impeaching President Trump for nonexistent high crimes and misdemeanors, their monomaniacal Russian collusion fixation, encourage the maelstrom of activities systemic to illegal immigration, indulge Antifa, Black Lives Mater, and other criminal apologist organizations, and indulge in their nefarious penchant for group identity politics most vividly demonstrated during the Senate’s Kavanaugh hearings.
Let’s head over to the Senate side of Capitol Hill and see what a Dantesque Democratic controlled inferno would look like in that chamber. The insufferably obnoxious Chuck Schumer becomes Senate Majority Leader and is Illinois toady Dick Durbin becomes Majority Whip where they would pursue the same nefarious legislative and oversight agenda of the House. Vermont’s Patrick Leahy would become Appropriations Committee Chair, his Vermont brother demagogue Bernie Sanders would become Senate Budget Committee Chair and seek to impose his socialist superstitions and dogma on the federal budget, one-time wife beating Delaware Senator Tom Carper would become Environment & Public Works Committee Chair, congenitally corrupt Bob Menendez of New Jersey would become Foreign Relations Committee Chair, and the execrable Diane Feinstein would become Senate Judiciary Committee Chair. Talk about a vision of hell!
Americans have a clear choice before them in three weeks. Continue the progress and policymaking improvement occurring during the Trump Administration’s first 20 months by retaining a Republican House and Senate, or spitting in your face and electing depraved Democratic majorities who will coddle criminals, promote insidious group identity politics, prevent the confirmation of constitutionalist judges, engage in wasteful and ludicrous investigations of non-existent collusion, continue their dubious belief that the only acceptable form of health care is nationalized and top-down which is not free to all, panders to foreign enemies, restrict freedom of speech, religion, and the right to keep and bear arms, and endanger the security of our allies.
Do we want to empower angry little girls like Maxine Waters, Kamala Harris, Mazie Hirono, colicky papoose Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Diane Feinstein, along with their emasculated toadies Corey Booker and Chris Coons? Instead we could elect intelligent individuals like Missouri’s Josh Hawley, Arizona’s Martha McSally, Marsha Blackburn and other leaders who seek the good of all Americans regardless of their national origin, race, gender, or socio-economic status. This is a critically important election. Trump supporters need to vote en masse, like they did in 2016, if the Trump train is to continue moving forward.
Questions for Brett Kavanaugh’s Accusers
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is an exemplary individual and judge who is having to endure a moral ordeal that would destroy most people. Despite having gone through six FBI background investigations during his professional career which have not found a scintilla of scandal, the sudden emergence of two women claiming he engaged in immoral sexual behavior toward them over thirty years ago has thrown this confirmation process into a disgraceful descent into Dante’s inferno. None of these accusers has witnesses or evidence to back up their allegations yet this Thursday afternoon we will hear from social justice warrior and abortionist stalwart Christine Ford that Kavanaugh allegedly sexually assaulted her at a party in Montgomery County, Maryland in 1982.
Here are some questions Senate Judiciary Committee members should ask Ford and her other leftist conspirator in character assassination.
- Why cannot you not remember specifics about when and where this allegation occurred? Why have no witnesses come forward with evidence backing your claims?
- What judgement, if any, did your parents provide you about going to a party with people you or they did not know?
- What advice did your parents give you about consuming alcoholic beverages before the age Maryland and Connecticut legally permit such consumption and the effect such consumption has on your memory and judgement?
- What advice, if any, did your parents give you about having sex outside of marriage?
- What religious beliefs, if any, do you or your parents have?
- Would you uncritically accept the sexual abuse accusations of a woman if it were directed at a male friend of relative of yours?
- Why did you refuse to report these alleged sexual assaults to local authorities at the time they occurred? Do you really expect us to believe you forgot about them for over 30 years, then suddenly your memories “resurrected” when Kavanaugh was nominated by President Trump for the U.S. Supreme Court?
- Do you tell your children that it is okay to lie about activities which do not occur? Do you think promoting leftist secularist causes such as maintaining Roe v. Wade at all costs “morally” justify bearing false witness against an individual with no record of criminal and immoral sexual conduct?
- Why do you think Diane Feinstein refused to provide Senate Judiciary Chair Charles Grassley about this allegation when Ford mailed it to her instead of waiting six weeks to reveal it? Do you think political opportunism and calculation were key factors?
- Do you think it is ever possible for women to make false accusations about sexual assault? Do you think women are capable of making terrible moral judgements about the men they associate with? How do the cases of the Duke University lacrosse team and the Rolling Stone article falsely accusing a University of Virginia fraternity of creating a culture of rape affect your answer to this question?
- What other lies have you told in your life to promote your personal agenda or political objectives? Tell us about these lies and their impact on you and the people they were directed at.
- Do you think Senators Feinstein, Harris, Gillibrand, Booker, Blumenthal, Hirono, and former Senator Hillary Clinton are good moral models for young women to follow based on their behavior and actions during Kavanaugh’s confirmation? Tell us why or why not?
- Why do you think Democrats are so slow to criticize the moral behavior of their political luminaries such as the Kennedy’s, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Keith Ellison etc.
- Why should anyone believe anything you every say or write?
- Isn’t the #MeToo movement predicated upon promoting personal victimhood, making false accusations against men, and failing to demonstrate personal self-discipline in their own lifestyles and sexual behavior?
We can only hope and pray that the nation will soon see what depraved frauds and hypocritical cretins Brett Kavanaugh’s critics are. It’s time for Kavanaugh’s supporters in the Senate to take a smash mouth approach to his critics and delay a vote on his confirmation no longer.
Russian Interference: The Democrats New Lost Cause
In the years and decades after their defeat in the U.S. Civil War, hard core Confederate adherents and their apologists continually failed to accept the reality that they would inevitably lose their treasonous secession struggle. In their intellectual, psychological, and emotional refusal to accept this reality they developed all kinds of excuses to rationalize their behavior and deny their evil system of government. This included refusing to criticize Robert Lee, Jefferson Davis, their own governmental and economic incompetence, and placing the Union’s superior industrial power and tactics as being responsible for the defeat of their peculiar institution and secessionist aspirations. Blaming Abraham Lincoln also played an enormous role in Confederate victimology. In American historiography this has become known as the Lost Cause and its persists, at least in some limited circles, 153 years after the surrender at Appomattox.
The Lost Cause has resurrected itself in today’s Democratic Party as many of its most emotive adherents have created a new incarnation of this political and intellectual delusion. The lost cause of 2018 actually began soon after it became clear that Hillary Clinton would lose the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump. This was inconceivable for the fragile darling adherents of leftist group identity politics. They had convinced themselves that the eight years of leftist governance of Barack Obama that the historical cycle inevitably would produce eight years of a Hillary Clinton presidency.
These dimwits failed to realize the American public was tired of slow economic growth, foreign policy and national security weakness, the emergence of unending negativity about America’s historic accomplishments, and the perpetual attacks against individuals adhering to political and moral norms. Consequently, the leftists, whose legion includes individuals such as Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Adam Schiff, Maxine Waters, and a host of other low IQ and lower moral leftists, had latched onto the idea that Russian interference in the 2016 election resulted in avatar Hillary’s defeat.
Ample government investigations have irrefutably proven that while Russia sought to interject itself into our electoral process, that no votes were changed as a result of this. It is clear the U.S. and allied countries must do significant work to bolster our cyber defenses and to take tougher covert and overt action against Russia. While the U.S. has bolstered its military and tightened economic sanctions against Moscow during the Trump Administration, the President needs to quit viewing Putin as a potential New York real estate collaborator, and recognize him for the geopolitical threat he and his regime are.
At the same time, it is beyond hypocrisy for Democrats to proclaim themselves as tough on Russia. This is the party which gave diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union in 1933 while Stalin was butchering millions of Ukranians, naively negotiated the Yalta Agreement in the foolish belief that Stalin would permit democratization to occur in Eastern Europe, negotiated the Salt II agreement with the Soviet Union which never received Senate consideration, was asleep at the wheel when the Soviet Union entered Afghanistan, and foolishly gave a reset button to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov during the early years of the Obama Administration. This button was presented to Lavrov by none other than Half-Brained Hillary Clinton.
Yet the Democrats persist to their Russian collusion lost cause ideology the way Confederates clung to their Lost Cause delusions and the way a drug addict clings to his or her needle. This has resulted in an absolute travesty of an independent counsel investigation headed by former FBI Director Robert Mueller which has found no evidence of direct Russian obstruction of our electoral process, resulted in tangential legal charges against Trump associates, and showed the U.S. is more concerned with infantile internecine political scrapping instead of confronting the serious geopolitical challenges Russia poses to us in multiple global regions. Most media outlets engage in infantile and imbecilic glee anytime President Trump says or does anything offensive to their social justice warrior emotional ejaculations. Nearly two years into the Trump Administration, Congress has to spend more time investigating the lingering obstructionism of Obama Administration holdovers within the Justice Department instead of being able to fully and effectively conduct oversight and implement policies in areas such as cybersecurity and immigration reform
Such is the inevitable result of refusing to accept the reality that Hillary Clinton was a corrupt, incompetent, and fatally flawed political candidate for the presidency in 2016. It has also resulted in the Democrats letting themselves succumb to the serpentine seduction of socialism which, despite its disastrous performance and manifold failures in Venezuela, and many other countries, is becoming a hallmark characteristic of Democrat ideology as the 2018 election cycle progresses.
Trump-Kim Jong Un Meeting
Next week a potentially historically significant summit will occur between Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in Singapore. This meeting is occurring due to the unflinching resolve of the U.S., Japan, and South Korea’s “maximum pressure” consisting of sanctions and other forms of subtle military pressure against Pyongyang’s Stalinist dynastic regime.
We should have realistic expectations of what this meeting can achieve and recognize that there are profound and irreconcilable differences between the U.S. and its northeast Asian allies, and North Korea. We must dispense with the fanciful notion that the Kim regime will suddenly become an exemplar of enlightened democratic governance and jettison utopian delusions that the Korean Peninsula will be reunified. As a Communist regime, the North Koreans are hellbent on retaining power at all costs and we must remember the sagacious words of the 20th century Australian anti-communist speaker Fred Schwartz that “you can trust the Communists to be Communists.” Lying is an intrinsic part of the totalitarian Communist mentality and “concessions” made by the North Koreans will be tactical measures to ensure they remain in power.
This meeting may represent the beginning of regular and normal diplomatic contact between the U.S, South Korea, Japan, and North Korea that could pay dividends down the road. Any definitive and enforceable end to the Korean War at this meeting or in the near future would be positive. However, this must be followed by North Korea ceasing to engage in provocative rhetoric or military action against the U.S., Japan, and South Korea. Achieving North Korean denuclearization is a laudable goal but will require intrusive verification measures which Pyongyang may reject. It’s worth trying as a long-term goal, but I think that may be something that is several years away.
It would also be helpful if North Korea reduced the size of it’s militarily, officially abandoned intentions to forcibly reunify Korea, significantly reduced the size of it’s military forces, and pulled large numbers of them away from the 38th parallel. If North Korea is serious about improving it’s domestic economy, it should start devoting its resources to domestic economic and consumer needs. This would be good leverage the international community could use to reduce existing economic sanctions on North Korea. If North Korea reneges on its commitments, as it has so many times in the past, then those sanctions can be reimposed.
Restoring some level of partial diplomatic relations between the U.S., Japan, South Korea and North Korea could yield some benefits and potentially lead to normal diplomatic relations if North Korea proves a cooperative international citizen. We should be aware of North Korea following the usual example of Communist regimes by using their embassies as covers for espionage and subversion and for attempting to compromise and physically endanger U.S. and other diplomats that may be stationed in Pyongyang.
President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the Trump Administration deserve significant credit for bring this meeting about. Trump has been wise in saying he’s willing to walk away if an arrangement geopolitically advantageous to the U.S. and its allies cannot be reached. We should resist the temptation to hand out meaningless Nobel Prizes, think Trump’s dealmaking skills alone will be enough to reach an agreement, or believe that greater security in Northeast Asia will immediately occur. We also must remain vigilant against attempts by China and Russia to encourage North Korea to remain a belligerent, terrorist-supporting, and psychopathic regime seeking to promote its evil in countries such as Iran and Syria.
Bringing North Korea to heel will be a protracted process requiring the U.S. and its allies to be eternally vigilant through diplomatic engagement, economic pressure, publicly expressing the necessity to use overwhelming military force if North Korea proves reprobate, and Machiavellian wiles to understand and effectively counter the despotic tyranny and corruption of the Kim regime.
Vote for Todd Rokita in Tomorrow’s Indiana U.S. Senate GOP Primary
I urge all Hoosier Republicans to vote for Todd Rokita in tomorrow’s U.S. Senate primary! We need to defeat Joe Donnelly in November and gain an extra Republican seat in the Senate to further President Trump’s agenda. During his 8 years in the House, Rokita has earned a 90%+ rating from the American Conservative Union. He is a valuable contributor in areas such as election policy, stemming from his service as Indiana’s Secretary of State, transportation, and education. While I disagree with his support on term limits and the tired blasting of the political establishment, when he is part of the establishment, I like his emphasis on traditional moral values, his support for a strong national defense and English as the official language, his support for a skills-based and assimilation oriented immigration policy, and his understanding of the importance of the 2nd Amendment in defending individual liberties and safety against marauding criminals and arbitrary state power.
I could live with Luke Messer as U.S. Senator. His ACU rating is almost as conservative as Rokita’s and he would represent Indiana’s values and interests with honor. However, he was wrong to fail to disclose a drunk driving conviction several years ago and I’m concerned the contentiousness between him and Rokita will poison the GOP well as Richard Mourdock’s idiotic campaign against Senator Lugar did in 2012 paving the way for Donnelly’s fortuitous victory.
Mike Braun is an obnoxious and annoying arriviste who thinks that because he is a businessman he has more “real world” experience than Rokita or Messer. Braun is really a Democrat who has chosen to pose as a Republican in an effort to fool a gullible electorate. He understands nothing of international trade as Rokita pointed out during a recent debate when Rokita educated him that presidents need fast track trade negotiating authority because we can’t have 535 congressional trade negotiators. Braun has an ignorant yahoo’s “understanding” of international trade and fails to realize how important it is for Indiana exporters to have timely access to a growing international market. Braun needs to understand that public service is an honorable career and that it takes many years to learn the political and policymaking complexities of U.S. and international politics. He needs to abandon his quaint belief that an antiquated ideal of temporary citizen legislators is a viable policy option in a complex and interlocked world of 2018. Donnelly will easily handle Braun’s simplistic platitudes and cardboard cliches.
Todd Rokita, in contrast, will promote a positive and effective conservative agenda against Donnelly’s lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 25% which is exactly the same as Evan Bayh’s. Indiana Republicans need to quit whining about a deep state and indulging in the leftist political rhetoric of group identity politics victimization. We can start doing this by selecting Todd Rokita as the Republican U.S. Senate nominee tomorrow.
Adieu, Hopefully, to the Iran Nuclear Agreement
Tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. President Trump is going to announce whether the U.S. will continue participating in the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement euphemistically referred to as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Hopefully, the President will once and for all withdraw the U.S. from this exercise in delusion and futility. The Obama Administration, under the negotiating ineptitude of Beacon Hill bumpkin, John Kerry, the dimmest bulb in U.S. diplomatic history, foolishly believed that it and European powers such as Britain, France, and Germany could negotiate an agreement with Iran for Tehran to eliminate its nuclear weapons program. Kerry is so desperate to preserve his and Obama’s “signature foreign policy achievement” that he is frantically calling up European foreign ministries in the vain belief that his word still matters after Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017.
This was a perfect example of how mirror imaging diplomacy doesn’t work. Iran, as an amazing Israeli intelligence operation recently revealed, was never interested in discontinuing its nuclear weapons aspiration. Instead, it used the pretext of negotiating for an “end” to its nuclear weapons program, to get international economic sanctions relief. It has achieved this objective and garnered hundreds of billions in economic gain from the departed and disgraced Obama Administration and reaped significant trade benefits from various Britain, France, and Germany. During 2017 British exports to Iran were $291.26 million, French exports in January 2018 were $190.148 million, and German exports for this same month were $270.739 million. Talk about making a deal with the devil to generate jobs and export revenue. These governments have been as desperate to save this shameful capitulation to Shiite Islamist extremism as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings was to retain the ring!
Iran has undoubtedly used money from sanctions relief to fuel its terrorist aspirations in countries as diverse Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Lebanon. Lebanese election results appear to indicate that Tehran’s Shiite proxy Hezbollah is now the primary political kingmaker in Beirut. Iran has been a major supporter of Syria’s Bashar Assad and Israel was wise enough to recently kill some Iranian operatives in that strife torn country. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been quoted as saying Israel would rather fight Iran sooner than later so it can make maximum use of its superior leverage before Iranian entrenchment in the Levant becomes to strong.
Tomorrow, hopefully, will see the President describe Iran’s repeated cheating and violations of this agreement and how it never intended to surrender its nuclear weapons program. Iran is a dangerous geopolitical threat to the U.S. and its interests, to the interests of surrounding Sunni Arab countries, and even to delusional European countries who think Tehran’s mullahs are responsive to the secularist bromides of international law and a rules-based international order. In its nearly four decade existence, the raison d’etre for Iran has been to expand its millenarian Shiite apocalyptic vision of political and religious life and far as possible no matter what the cost. The U.S. and other nations opposing Iran’s evil aspirations will have to remain extra vigilant if the U.S. pulls out of this deal, but the world will be a better place with a realistic understanding of the irredeemable nature of Tehran’s regime and take more effective steps such as bolstering the sanctions regime and taking whatever covert or overt military or intelligence actions necessary to bring about the collapse of the ayatollahs reign of terror.
Out of Control Special Counsel Muller
Recent revelation that the home of President Trump’s attorney was raided by agents of Special Counsel Robert Muller, demonstrate this statute needs serious reform. This statute was enacted in the late 1970s in response to the Watergate scandal. It has gone through modest reform in subsequent decades but has also become a source of legal adventurism, financial and investigative excess, and protracted and meandering investigation that has delivered little justice or government accountability and left a trail of legal corruption and personal ruin for those with the misfortune of being caught in the Special Counsel’s rampaging path.
We should care very strongly that our federally elected and appointed government officials adhere to the highest standards of integrity. We should also care and be very concerned when those charged with “guarding the guardians” engage in ruthless personal and political vendettas seeking to criminalize policy differences and run roughshod over the civil liberties of defendants and their families. This is what has happened with Robert Muller’s investigation of purported collusion in the 2016 election between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and elements of the Russian Government.
The brutal facts for leftist conspiratorial fantasists is that Trump won that campaign fair and square due to Hillary Clinton’s manifold political weaknesses and personal corruption along with the American electorate’s desire for change after eight years of Barack Hussein Obama’s corrupt and incompetent presidency. This desire to criminalize political differences has been inherent in the political left since at least the Watergate era. While Paul Manafort and Gary Cohen may be far from political sanctity, they do not deserve to have their houses and offices raided in the wee hours of the morning using totalitarian tactics that would be applauded by the Soviet KGB and Nazi secret police. We are in acute trouble as a society professing adherence to constitutional governance when attorney-client confidentiality is trampled over by rampaging prosecutorial mobs and when prosecutors go on fishing expeditions by considering as a credible witness a pornographic actress who claims that she had an affair with President Trump long before he sought elected office as a credible witness and when they go outside the boundaries of the charge they are given by the Deputy Attorney General to pursue any lead no matter how tenuously that lead is connected to reality let alone with evidence relevant to the case.
The pathetic desire of some in Congress to protect Muller’s rampaging activities is a pathetic example of the desire to deify legal mob rule at all costs. The Special Counsel law needs drastic reform by Congress. Essential elements of such reform include:
- Limiting the time period of the counsel’s commission to one year.
- Assigning a strict budget to the counsel and requiring them to seek congressional approval to increase that budget if they go over it’s initial public appropriation.
- Reporting to Congress every three months on the progress made in the investigation and stating how close they are to concluding the investigation.
- Requiring that counsel staff not be associated with a political party contrary tot he heavily Democratic tilt of many of Muller’s personnel.
- The counsel and staff being subject to disciplinary action including firing and disbarment if they violate the civil liberties of investigated individual(s) during the investigative process.
- Being required to publicly testify before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees at any time these committees request it.
- If the counsel and their staff fail to complete their work in one year, their commission is terminated and any further legal proceedings must be initiated by normal federal court judicial procedures following standard criminal and or civil rules of evidence along with constitutional protections.
Dueling Intelligence Committee Memos
Recently, House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes of California released a carefully worded memo describing how the Obama Administration’s Justice Dept. had targeted a Trump campaign envoy with an intelligence community investigation. This individual may have had some contact with Russian representatives, but the memo’s findings demonstrated that Obama’s Justice Dept., the Democratic National Committee, and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign were so desperate to win that they abused federal power to target an American citizen who was not an emissary of Russia or any other foreign government.
Based on the histrionic responses of the Democratic illuminati, you would think that the public release of the memo and it’s approval by President Trump, constituted a Pearl Harbor like decapitation of national security, and did grave injury to America’s criminal justice system. This is particularly rich coming from a party who has glorified criminal thugs such as Black Lives Matter and the Black Panthers in recent decades, sought to reduce the ability of law enforcement and intelligence professionals to carry out their missions against criminal and subversive activities, and had former Attorney General Rassenfuhrer Eric Holder held in contempt of Congress for refusing to disclose information to Congress on the botched Operation Fast and Furious.
House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff, an unctuous and self-serving prick from California, has written a 10 page memo which he and Democratic cognoscenti claim will present the Democrats view of Obama Administration abuses of power. Normally, in the instance of public disclosure, I would favor releasing this delusional screed so the public can see how the “Democratic mind” remains swallowed up in conspiratorial fantasies. After reading this document, President Trump and his legal advisors wisely decided it was so full of conspiratorial and libelous assertions, along with revelations of U.S. intelligence sources and methods, that it should not see the light of day. Giving the Democrats propensity for leaking anything perceived to be injurious to Trump, I would not be surprised if it eventually shows up in the Washington Post or some other leftist toilet paper and given the adulation Bradley Manning’s Wikileaks disclosures received.
Congressional intelligence committee members have a sacred responsibility to keep the secret the intelligence operations, methods, and analysis they oversee. Disclosure of such activities has cost the lives of U.S. intelligence agents and informers and those of allied countries and movements. The Democrats delusional efforts to paint the Trump Administration as being in collusion with Russia have gone beyond the point of partisan angst had reached McCarthyite and Salem Witch Trial levels. Democrats conveniently forget that it is their party which once contained large numbers of Communists or Communist sympathizers, established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China, excused Soviet active measures during the Cold War, and started a disastrously failed reset policy with Russia. While Republican Administrations have not been without shortcomings in dealing with Russia, the greatest successes in advancing U.S. relations with Russia have occurred under Republican presidential administrations and the supposedly collusionary Trump Administration, has sanctioned Russian oligarchs, provided weapons to Ukraine, and designated Russia as a major threat to U.S. national security in its national security strategy and recently released nuclear posture review. This administration has also seen through Congress passage of a significant increase in defense spending, which will began to strengthen our geopolitical bargaining power and retaliatory capabilities against Russia’s revisionist power aspirations.
It is likely there will be more memos coming from Chairman Nunes and other congressional oversight panels documenting the Obama Administration’s determination to destroy Trump’s presidential campaign as they released the full train wreck of Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations. The Democrats will continue their banshee like bloviating as the American people and the world realize what a pathetic bunch of poseurs they are seeking to hold on to power at all costs due to their realization that the defeat of Hillary Clinton would expose their criminal conduct and incompetence in national security affairs during the Obama Administration.
Let me Crash at Your Place Chuck Schumer
We’ve managed to land in the bizarre world of a government shutdown. Although Republicans have tenuous control of the House and Senate, along with the presidency, the U.S.’ Senate’s inefficient and obsolete rules requiring the approval of 60 Senators to move forward with business has been one of the key factors facilitating this shutdown. Another key factor in bringing this about is Senate Minority Leader New York’s Chuck Schumer.
Schumer and the Democrats have developed such a romantic infatuation with the children of illegal immigrants, euphemistically known as Dreamers, that they have thrown all common sense out of the window and decided it is worth shutting down the government to reward the behavior of illegal immigrants and their families. There has even been public rhetoric from some Democratic circles that they support illegal immigrants in the hopes that they can become a permanent part of the Democrats electoral coalition and restore the party of Jackson and Jefferson to the halcyon status of controlling Congress and the presidency.
Since the Democrats now favor trespassing by illegal immigrants as a core component of their political platform let me, in the spirit of Jonathan Swift, make a few modest proposals. Do Democratic members of Congress favor allowing illegal immigrants to stay in their residences from Manhattan’s Upper East Side to Malibu at their own expense? Are they willing to personally pay for these individuals education, health care, food, drink, legal expenses if they actually get caught breaking the law again, transportation expenses, recreation expenses etc.? Let me make another modest proposal Senator Schumer. Can I crash at your place and have you take care of my expenses and aspirations for la vie belle?
I don’t know which New York City borough Schumer lives in, but it would be nice to share his undoubtedly luxuriant domicile with him. I could get exposed to his high-flying leftist financial and politico amigos. He could take me to eat at the Big Apple’s many fine eateries including Delmonico’s and the Russian Tea Room and I wouldn’t have to pay a cent. Uncle Chuck would let me have free subway and taxi passes along with free medical care. Maybe I could travel with him on various domestic and international junkets at taxpayer expense. I would have an unlimited line of credit at New York’s finest retail venues. Chuckie should also know that as a renaissance individual with interests encompassing sports and culture, I would also need to have ready and timely access to numerous sporting events, Broadway shows, the Metropolitan Opera, and museum memberships. So I would need to have a premier membership at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Put me down for the $600 level, Uncle Chuck.
Since Chuck is so fond of appearing on TV, I can be his consigliere and appear on TV with him. If I’m really nice to him, maybe he’ll let me comment on affairs of state.
This shutdown illustrates how far leftist group identity politics has taken hold of the Democrats. Working class Democrats who voted for Donald Trump in 2016, should know by now that the Democrats are no longer a tribune for the working class which they have unctuously proclaimed they are for over two centuries. Instead, they have become the party of isolated sections of affluent secularist cognoscenti from both oceanic coasts and isolated enclaves in between. They are totally indifferent to the economic and social costs of illegal immigration demonstrated by phenomena as varied as Islamist immigration, the growing drug trade which, unfortunately, has been aided and abetted by morally bankrupt Americans who think consuming illegal drugs gives them purpose, and by the murder of Kate Steinle and other law-abiding citizens who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Now the congressional budget process is heavily dysfunctional. I have written before that Congress should have a new budget ready to go by October 1 (the beginning of the fiscal new year) and that if it doesn’t members of Congress should go unpaid until the budget is complete. This repeated reliance on continuing resolutions to fund the federal government is a procedure that individual consumers and businesses cannot do. The federal government should demonstrate similar responsibility in its own budgetary processes.
If, however, we’re going to practice fiscal irresponsibility, political brinksmanship, and glorifying illegal behavior by immigrants who refuse to play by the rules, then I want Senator Chuck Schumer to become my sugar daddy and let me parasitically share his life in the Big Apple, Washington, and elsewhere.
Burkean Librarian 