Tag Archives: 2016 election

national news

Now . . . the wait begins

Robert Mueller III has handed off the report the world has been waiting for to Attorney General William Barr.

Well . . .

His work is finished! Now it’s up to the attorney general to do the right thing, which is to say that he must release Mueller’s findings to Congress and to the rest of us. That would be you, me and the rest of Americans whose money paid for this two-year-long probe into allegations of “collusion” between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russians who interfered with our election in 2016.

Mueller has submitted a letter to Barr. He hasn’t revealed a single thing about what’s in the report. The AG likely has a good idea of what’s in it; he likely knew what it contains even before he received it.

I understand that there are limits to what the AG can and should release. He doesn’t want to implicate individuals who aren’t charged with crimes, if anyone has been implicated in potential criminal activity.

However, now that Mueller’s work is done, it should not take the attorney general very long to determine how much to divulge to Americans — such as me — who are waiting to know what Mueller has found.

To borrow a Watergate-era phrase: Do not, Mr. AG, keep us twisting in the wind.

national news

By all means, take POTUS’s word for it: release Mueller report

I shall disagree with Donald Trump’s view that Robert Mueller is not qualified to “write a report” because he didn’t get any votes.

However, I will agree with the president that the report Mueller finishes and submits to Attorney General William Barr needs to be made public.

A deputy attorney general selected Mueller to investigate allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives. He reportedly is nearing the end of his probe.

The president has declared that he’d be “OK” with Mueller releasing the report. He said the public deserves to see the result of his work.

Yes, we do deserve to see it!

Trump yammered a bit about Mueller not getting any votes. The president noted the “historic” nature of his 2016 victory for president. Yeah, it was “historic” all right.

The public has many questions that need answers.

I agree with the president. Release the report. Make it public. Let us all see what Mueller has concluded.

national news

‘Low-IQ’ Biden goofs up? Hmm, let’s think about this

Donald Trump accused former Vice President Joe Biden of being a “low-IQ individual” because of a slip-of-tongue moment in Delaware. Biden seemed to reveal that he’s decided to run for president next year, then he backed away from his (mis)statement.

That prompted the president to suggest that Biden isn’t very bright because he, um, misspoke.

I can’t stop giggling over that one.

Let me see if I have this correct.

Donald Trump stood next Vladimir Putin in Helsinki this past year and said he didn’t see any reason why the Russians “would” attack our electoral system in 2016. Oops! It took him a day or two, but then he said he meant to say that he didn’t see why they “wouldn’t” interfere as they did in our presidential election.

And then . . .

He recently referred to Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook as “Tim Apple.” He was heard saying it. Then he backtracked. Trump said he inserted “Cook” quietly before saying “Apple.” OK. Except no one heard him say it.

Low IQ? Is that how one could describe the president because of his own frequently clumsy use of language?

national news

The People’s House has spoken loudly about Mueller report

It doesn’t get much more explicit than that.

The U.S. House of Representatives, in a 420-0 vote, has approved a resolution demanding that special counsel Robert Mueller III’s report be released to the public once he submits it to Attorney General William Barr.

I want to thank the members of Congress for agreeing with me. And for agreeing with millions of their constituents who believe — as I do — that Mueller’s findings into whether Donald Trump’s campaign “colluded” with Russians who had attacked our electoral system be made public.

Hey, it’s our money that has paid for this excruciating examination into the president’s affairs. Mueller, a former FBI director and a stellar lawyer, has spared no effort in the eyes of many to get to the root of the questions that have swirled around the presidency since before Donald Trump took the oath of office.

Trump has said it is “totally up” to Barr to decide whether to release the report. I wish I could depend on the president to be true to his word. But . . . I cannot. He is a serial liar.

However, the People’s House has spoken with a clear voice. Its members want the report released to the public.

I agree with them.

Now, let’s just wait for the special counsel to finish dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.

national news

‘Otherwise blameless life’ has strange parallel

Paul Manafort has led an “otherwise blameless life,” according to the federal judge who sentenced him to 47 months in prison for bilking the government out of millions of dollars in taxes.

The federal sentencing guidelines recommended that Donald Trump’s former presidential campaign chairman receive 19 to 25 years in the slammer.

Oh, but he’s had an “otherwise blameless life.” Fascinating, yes?

Well, I am struck by the seeming symmetry between that logic and something that the late Marion Barry, the former mayor of Washington, D.C., once said about the crime rate in his city.

His (dis)honor once said with a straight face that if you take away the murder rate in D.C., “the crime rate isn’t so bad.”

So, without all the bloodshed, “otherwise, the city is a nice place.”

national news

Yes, I agree: Something is wrong with DJT

Bob Cesca isn’t a medical or a mental health professional, to which he admits. He writes for Salon. com and is a critic of the president of the United States, Donald John Trump.

That all stipulated, I have to agree with his essay in Salon: There is something seriously wrong with Donald Trump.

Just watch his two-hour tirade at the Conservative Political Action Conference the other day. I don’t know how one can reach any other conclusion after watching the president’s extraordinary rant in front of the CPAC faithful.

Cesca takes particular note of the time Trump — while running for president in 2016 — mocked New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski’s disability. Imagine him doing that for two hours, Cesca wondered. I can’t go there. The image of candidate Trump’s hideous mocking of Kovaleski is just too disgusting on its face.

Take a look at Cesca’s essay here.

And yet the Trump Faithful continue to hang on to his every idiotic statement, every one of the absurd insults he hurls at those who oppose him. They cheer him on. They whoop and holler. They chant things like “Lock her up!” even without prompting.

They have no sense of what they did when they managed to give this fool an Electoral College victory in 2016. Why, he speaks their language. It’s as if they all would do and say the same thing if they had a stage as large as the one occupied by the 45th president of the United States.

Indeed, there appears to be something wrong with this guy. I’m not sure if it’s pathological. It’s just . . . something.

Scary, man. It’s damn scary.

national news

Manafort gets off easy for serious crimes against the country

Color me surprised. Shocked, maybe!

Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who faced a sentence of as long as 25 years in prison, today got a 47-month prison sentence in what has been labeled one of the major surprises in the string of cases being litigated against political friends of the president.

Manafort was convicted of an array of tax and illegal lobbying charges. He cheated the country out of millions of dollars in taxes. He hid money in offshore bank accounts. He lied about it. He lobbied illegally on behalf of Ukrainian interests.

It’s all seedy and quite unseemly.

The president calls Manafort a “good person.” The judge said he had no criminal history prior to his involvement with the Trump campaign. Hmm. A lot of criminals commit single crimes in their lives and then get tossed into the slammer for the rest of their lives.

I am among many Americans who expected Manafort to get a much lengthier sentence than he got today.

Has justice been done? I suppose you could say in a technical sense that it has been done. A federal judge has wielded his substantial discretionary power in giving Manafort a light tap on the knuckles.

But . . . there’s more to come. Much more, indeed.

national news

Time for Schiff and others to put up ‘direct evidence’

U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said today he has seen “direct evidence” that the Donald Trump campaign “colluded” with Russians who sought to intervene in our 2016 presidential election.

Hmm. Direct evidence. Well, I believe there is a mountain of circumstantial evidence piling up all around the president and his campaign operatives.

The California Democratic chairman, though, keeps teasing us with sound bites alluding to direct evidence that the Trump team worked hand in glove with Russian goons who sought to bring dirt on Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee in 2016.

I am still awaiting special counsel Robert Mueller to deliver his report. It needs to be made public. Mueller’s lengthy and thorough investigation needs lay out clear evidence. I no longer want to hear from Schiff who makes statements about direct evidence but then cannot divulge the details of how he knows about such matters.

All this rhetorical teasing does is give Donald Trump ammo to fire back at his political foes.

political news

What a ‘horse race’ this is going to become

Good grief, man! I thought the 2016 Republican Party presidential primary campaign would be one for the books.

I suppose it was, given who won that party’s presidential nomination and then was elected president of the United States.

But this one? Wow! The upcoming Democratic Party primary field figures to eclipse by a good bit the size of the GOP field four years ago.

Seventeen Republicans fought it out for the right to succeed Barack Obama as president in 2016. The upcoming election campaign already features 10 or 11 announced Democratic candidates and we’re nowhere near finished seeing the entire field filled out.

How do you suppose the media will cover this thundering herd of candidates looking to succeed Donald Trump?

They’re already in full horse-race mode. Former Vice President Joe Biden is thought to be the frontrunner — and he is one of those who has not yet announced whether he’s going to run for POTUS in 2020. It looks like he’s going to do it.

The horse race aspect of the media coverage is the kind of thing that drives me a nuts. I get batty listening to and reading reports of who’s up, who’s down, who’s an up-and-comer, who’s the has-been.

I hope to hear more issues discussion this year than we’ve experienced over the past several election cycles.

Donald Trump likes to boast about crowd size, TV ratings and the scope of his intelligence. What will Democrats offer in response? I hope whoever emerges from the huge initial field will talk about how they intend to repair the damage that Donald Trump has done to the presidency — not to mention to the country.

national news, political news

POTUS disgraces himself — yet again! –with CPAC tirade

Mr. President, you keep outdoing yourself.

You stand before crowds of fervent supporters and fly off the rails. There you were again today in front of the Conservative Political Action Conference firing off an expletive-laden tirade against your foes.

You’re not sounding very “presidential,” Mr. President — and your performance today makes me wonder if I should even refer to you with that courtesy title. You haven’t earned it.

But I’ll do so out of respect for the office, even though I still cannot connect the words “President” and “Trump” consecutively.

How dare you mock the accent of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions! How dare you also refer to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff as “sh***y” Schiff.”

Get a grip, Mr. President

Mr. President, you don’t deserve the title you hold. I get that you were elected to it as prescribed by the U.S. Constitution. I so want to call you “my president.” Displays such as the one you put on today make it increasingly more difficult for me to bestow the respect to which your high office should entitle you.

You, sir, are a disgrace.