Whether or not we ever get a definitive answer on collusion, collaboration between now president Trump and the Russians, whether impeachment articles are ever served on that or obstruction of justice, whether anyone involved in any kind of criminal wrongdoing ever sees the inside of a prison cell it’s time to shore up the standards of the presidency…Or their other reoccurring misconception, opposite flag burning everyone agrees you shouldn’t do it, calls it bad but few are zealots shouting prison time be doled out sans extenuating circumstances, like people being severely injured/killed. That because people care more about direct issues effecting their lives— do they have a job, will they, their children especially one with preexisting conditions have healthcare, will I, we, my family be able to afford available healthcare, manage our premiums, stagnating wages, fighting for a $15 minimum wage because it’s the job they could get and are trying to raise a family, care for elderly parents, they don’t care about Russia in the slightest. Because they live in the heartland, farm country, the rustbelt any region/destination designated ‘Trump country,’ they don’t care about Russia; agree with their neighbors Russia is BS, nothing but sore loserdom. Well there’s a guy in Ayrs Iowa who wants to know about at least one section of the Russia sandal; astutely asking his congress person at a town hall if he was open to releasing Fusion GPS cofounders testimony on the collection methodology and truthfulness of the Steele dossier. Imagine what other non-deplorable, probably not his core base, Trump voters want to know. Bigger question, how do we convince people Russia is something to care about, the 1/3 of Trump supporters who don’t believe Donald Trump Jr.’s Russian lawyer meeting happened it matters, if they don’t cover it in depth, tell American’s why they need to care, how this impacts those very kitchen table issues in the long run…Held up against the endless questioning about Hillary’s health, the revealed medication regiment receiving new scrutiny post her collapse, it should be frighteningly simple; once you reach nominee status, you have been accepted by your party as the nominee representing democrats, republicans, independents, the green party you must within, say 30 days, release X years of your tax returns up to and including the current year you possess returns for. One of the reasons there was so much speculation was because of partial returns leaked to media and gargantuan losses listed, amounts making it feasible he might not have paid taxes over nearly 20 years; then the 2005 snippets indicated he did pay taxes and supporters shouted vindicated! Not really when the standard is release your complete tax return, he didn’t release so much as a scrap of a document someone instead sent it to the media; all of it unnecessary drama by design meant to confuse and perplex voters who can’t spend every spare waking moment following politics. Too it makes it much easier for the public to gage your truthfulness about your income, determine if you are wealthy are paying your fair share, see who you own money to foreign and domestic, where conflicts of interest might be; generating an informed decision about whether or not to vote for you Russia or no Russia. Once elected it makes it much easier for the government ethics office to navigate divesting your businesses, especially if you are an international business man, sans running afoul of the emoluments clause, conflict of interest statutes. Saving whole reams of paper and ink on news stories, countless hours of video news exposing the dozen ways he, president Trump hasn’t done that, the numerous laws he could be, is violating; freeing up various parts of the government to not investigate this, comment on it and focus on kitchen table issues facing average Americans. Once you reach nominee status you must release all relevant portions of your medical history: chronic conditions, medications, specialists you see, at minimum a statement from a physician on par with what Hillary Clinton released again after her pneumonia; continuing it has to be a practicing physician with a current medical license, general practitioner you’ve seen minimum in the last year, hopefully eliminating the Harold Bornstein factor. Considering the escalating radicalization of politics, bizarre behavior on the part of politicians not singularly attributed to religious ideology, stances on abortion, the 10 commandments in public places, on government property, but the regular public weeping of John Boehner earning him the derogatory nickname boo-hoo Boehner, to the candidate running for public office who tried to make his dog chief of staff, expletive filled rants of headline making Maine governor Paul LePage that had fellow lawmakers suggesting an intervention. Ben Carson who tried to connect Hillary Clinton Lucifer, another name for the devil, because she quoted a college professor who said on a book jacket “Lucifer was the first radical;” at least when Alex Jones suggested A- Clinton and Obama always smelled like sulfur and B- said smell meant they were demons he admitted in a custody case for his children he was ‘playing a character.’ There is an argument for insisting candidates for the highest offices president and vice president submit themselves to a cognitive and/or psychological exam. Ordinarily we would expect the voters to take one look at such displays and nearly instantaneously identify them as crazy, unstable, certainly unsuitable for the offices applied to, they were running to hold; as was the case of the guy who drank goats blood in college, Christine O’Donnell who equated masturbation with adultery additionally calling it selfish, proclaimed condoms wouldn’t prevent HIV/AIDS, inaccurate whether talking about the African continent epidemic or not. Yet with America’s increased aging population it arguably likewise has a hitherto undealt with senility problem viewing projections for Alzheimer’s alone, not including all forms of dementia, mental decline that could explain some Trump, GOP party votes. It’s a sad day when we potentially have to say to prove your sane, cognitively well before you run for office, nevertheless that’s where we are; unfortunately there isn’t a legal, logistical mechanism to take away the voter registration of someone diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, dementia, conative impairment. Complicating the issue exponentially with or without treatment, especially with it, there is a usually lengthy window where a person shows only mild impeding of function making them perfectly able to vote; thus denial of that right representing a true slippery slope argument, so the alternative is presenting voters with only predetermined well candidates. When there is as much circumstantial evidence preceding election day as there was pointing to a Trump mental health problem, cognitive impairment, psychiatrists were breaking the Goldwater rule to warn the public, associations and entities overseeing mental health are currently contemplating amending that rule to speak out on him during his short, to date presidency. There is now a book expressing the unanimous concerns of thousands of mental health professionals about Donald Trump who firmly believe their duty to warn outweighs their duty to refrain from diagnosing a patient they’ve neither met nor treated; the only real answer is to submit to testing conducted by a panel of phycologists, psychiatrists, neurologists specializing in cognition, dementia, Alzheimer’s, other impairing brain disease, combination of both expertise fields….Common expectation of privacy greatly diminished upon running to become, becoming president, because it is the presidency of the United States, an entire country not president of your local book club, librarian society; if we had to know Tim Kaine suffers from planters fasciitis (a minor foot problem), broke his collar bone, dislocated his shoulder and had his wisdom teeth removed, shouldn’t we know if our elected officials to the top positions are stable, more importantly the Goldwater rule never had to deal with Donald Trump, Donald Trump like persons. Panel issuing a majority ruling akin to the Supreme Court, dissenting opinions drafted, all available to the public facilitating an informed decision; if experts are found drafting opinions based on partisanism, financial incentives, kickbacks, bribery appropriate legal action is taken, image specialist hired at the guilty’s expense to repair the wronged party’s reputation. If the person is found in some way mentally, psychologically defiant, they are remitted to a medical or mental health facility for more extensive, in depth testing; it is taken to a judge to formally remove them from the ballot, institute a ruling they be barred from holding public elected office on the grounds of mental defect, until the symptoms of a previously undiagnosed mental health disorder are effectively treated, subsequently managed if possible…Trump’s own shady legal history should have barred him from being eligible to run for president; alleged mob ties, money laundering for Russians, foreign mob entities, years long relationship with legal gray area persons like Roger Stone…Creating enough serious circumstantial evidence that should prompt legal proceedings that say minimally, conclude your legal cases on felony grade charges before you are eligible to run for president; preempting the next Trump-esque problem to plague our political system trailing from the highest office, time to enact a law now asserting no convicted felon can be president. Or it be subject to election commission review to ensure the felon is someone who’s mentality as is follows: yes I am a felon, I was able to turn my life around, I want to be president so I can 1 show other people that’s possible for them too, 2 make things better from the top down so people don’t have to go down the path I did…the first time we heard about possible mob ties shouldn’t have been in the midst of the Russia investigation, major details of which were only available after election and inauguration day. Nor the first time we heard about the imploded Trump Tower Moscow deal, or his relationship with felon Felix Sater, whom he downplayed as no longer a Trump associate, someone he couldn’t pick out of a room; yet was working with Trump business lawyer Michael Cohen on the deal during the 2016 campaign to the point of Trump signed a letter of intent to move ahead said deal. It shouldn’t have been a largely British newspaper The Guardian only beside independent media reporting U.S. allies had spotted suspicious activity between Trump campaign officials and the Russians; it should have been reported in real time press conference worthy, regular programming interruption worthy news made public so voters could render a fully educated decision. Not hidden by, it seems, the intelligence community while they gathered more information, sat on their hands at the same time the media portions rendered to both reporters and voters got nicknamed ‘pee-gate’ because it opened with bizarre sexual proclivities Trump supposedly indulged in spending time in Russia, recorded with ‘Russian prostitutes.’ New law, all relevant such material in the future is to be verified and released to the American people via press conference by appropriate government department i.e. homeland security or the CIA; even only partially confirmed intel should be shared with clear messages to viewers the raw data is without pending context. Had they done this, staunch Trump supporters wouldn’t have been able to as easily dismiss claims of Russian ties and crucial swing voters might have rethought their decision, as U.S. allies gain nothing if their intel is wholly wrong…
Bringing us to, you can’t tell readers/viewers the American people are ok with the concept, idea, let alone solid evidence a foreign power tried to influence and did interfere with our election. To that end, if an incoming president is read in on detailed briefings explaining extensively, in certain facets as it happens, something as significant as Russians, any foreign power majorly attempting to actively tamper with our election, informed about bots, social media ‘fake news’ manipulation and can be completely nonchalant about it; it’s time to change some laws in this country. Because here are the parts that have far less to do with collusion by Americans, potentially a serving president and far more to do with intrusion the 21 to 39 states whose voting software was stolen, altered, weakened by hacking giving hackers opportunity to change name spelling, a single number in street address to prevent voting. Areas where someone, 99% likely Russians, literally did try to hack into voting machines roughly 2 days before voters hit the polls en mass; those now confirmed 21 states just notified by homeland security, though the breach was known about as far back as June. Facebook has similarly just acknowledged Russians both bought hundreds, possibly thousands, of ads on controversial issues aimed at swing state users, and created fake, American looking profiles meant to deceive fellow Facebook users into believing there were others who felt like them. One famous picture being of a father and his little girl, his a name that doesn’t exist in the town/state he says he’s from, picture actually of a man living in Brazil; on top of Russians, Russian cut outs using their event planning/organization tool, coupled with those fake profiles no doubt, to organize anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rallies. Exponentially more disturbing, until asked specific questions by congressional committees they weren’t looking closely at who was buying their ads some pertaining to decidedly American and decidedly election issues paid for in Rubbles. They first denied for months any such thing could happen, founder Mark Zuckerberg literally calling it crazy (his words), then only found hundreds of ads where thousands were used in France (a much smaller country) to attempt the same outcome they wanted here; problem much more extensive than anyone could have believed. The fact that just like hashtag Syriahoax following the Hillary Clinton hack, it may not be over; as this piece is being written ABC news obtaining a handful of the Facebook ads crafted by Russian actors using popular cartoons like Dora the Explorer to show how easily illegal immigrants can cross the border. Message to stop this we need Trump; possible Russian actors weighing in on the NFL controversy about athletes kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality siding with Trump stoked fires it’s disrespecting both flag, anthem and veterans who’ve fought across the globe for American ideals. Missing the chief point of what the flag stands for contrasted to blatant police violence against young, black and brown, predominately men, ending too often in death. Breaking, Russians apparently spent more money on twitter ads toward the same goals, fake troll farm news appearing more than bona-fide legitimate news; both merely removing ads directly traced to Russia not routed through intermediary countries, twitter only piggybacking off Facebook’s lead shutting down the accounts they flagged. Refusing to touch those identified by outside research; at present irritating congress with their lack of knowledge about what happened, their projected unwillingness to grasp the seriousness of the situation. More insidious is twitter has not banned anonymous accounts, may not collect enough information from users to do the little analysis Facebook has. A Ted Cruz aide coming forward talking about the odd skewing of social media response when his candidate went after Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton or other GOP rivals in the presidential primary, noting peculiarly the reaction was always strongest when coupled with criticisms against Trump; Google joining the growing list of social media and communication platforms to look for and discover Russian ads on YouTube, Gmail and elsewhere. Next we find out regarding Facebook, while they pretended to only recently find evidence of Russian bought ads, Russian activity on the social media platform connected to the election, twice last year they contacted the FBI about strange Russian activity tied to election proceedings. Leading watchers, journalists, reporters, news anchors to frustrating questions about are people at Facebook in bed with the Russians too, colluding too; because, it’s looking increasingly probable, not merely remotely possible, Russian agents, actors had help maximizing the impact of information, efforts down to individual voting precincts not limited to key swing states in general. If not people inside Facebook, floated as an annoyance rather than feasible reality, then who; whole reason for Mark Zuckerberg’s statement on increased scrutiny and filtering of political ads, clear labeling of content was, based on material/testimony given to congress, individual congresspersons are suggesting legislation that would regulate political ads on social media the same way the FCC has mandates for the same ads on television. Things they or the government entity monitoring the internet would have done well to previously have in place from the moment political ads could be bought on the site; bundled together with restrictions/standards for news available on the site, clear labeling of propaganda, satire, from the inception of news being fed into people’s social media feeds. Understanding 50% of Americans now receive the bulk of their news, cull their desired news from Facebook alone; excluding other social media feeds identical to the Facebook model accounting for 2/3 of online news consumption. Where was the cooperation between the internet regulatory entity, speculation there may not even be one since diligent congress persons can’t even figure out who polices, ensures foreign money isn’t used to buy American political ads on the internet against federal law, and Facebook to safeguard American consumers, world consumers really from precisely what took place, world citizens getting the wrong idea about Americans from social media propaganda doing far more than selling products? Assuming there isn’t one, an internet FCC needs to be formed immediately to deep dive investigate how it happened and mandate Facebook make relevant changes period, followed by twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, anywhere political ads and news feeds can be placed on the internet. Risking sounding redundant, we repeat what epitomizes incompetence more than being presented evidence of a cyber-attack on your democracy, voting systems, propaganda influence to change people’s minds and doing nothing; latest revelations about Facebook and our sitting president still only grudgingly acknowledges Russia might have hacked something to do with the election. Has made no major announcements, if not about what Russia has done, how involved it was and what specifically they used to pull it off, then what he/we intend to do as a nation to prevent cyber intrusion of the type discovered and more dangerous forms that can cripple our basic function. By comparison president Trump put together no less than a half dozen commissions on various issues, granted most participants left when they recognized what a farce it was, responding to his inadequate, inappropriate reaction to happenings like Charlottesville; but, while there was a business advisory council, manufacturing advisory council, one dealing with arts, another diversity, not forgetting the 2 remaining commissions on voter integrity and opioids. There was never one on cyber security; reiterating, not singularly what the heck happened with Russia, instead firmly acknowledging cyberwarfare is a real thing even on the unlikely outskirts Russia is not. Whether it was Russia who hacked the DNC/John Podesta or a disgruntled DNC staffer, several of them, known hacking groups i.e. Anonymous comes to mind; Roger Stone’s comments about him soon being in a barrel AKA hot seat where just hot aired bragging, he made a lucky guess rather akin to Mitt Romney in 2012 talking about Russia being our next biggest threat at a time when the middle east was the more present danger, we will face it in the future if we aren’t in the midst of it currently…Getting that section of our house in order so to speak, simultaneously it’s time to completely rethink the agency’s party line ‘the FBI doesn’t comment on ongoing investigations’; case in point Mr. Manafort, right there with him Cater Page also under FISA granted surveillance during the campaign for suspicious, unexplained trips to Russia, Page also having a history of giving information to bad foreign entities necessitating his testimony, ironically Russians then too. There is no way the Trump campaign shouldn’t have been made aware of these 2 characters shady histories predictably affecting their current hire; Imagine also how things might have been different in terms of election outcomes, public understanding if citizens had known both Hillary Clinton and the Trump campaign were in the crosshairs of the FBI, the reasons, able to make a decision on equal footing. Because, as far as this author is concerned James Comey was vindicated for his regulation breaking press conference the second it was revealed he did said press conference thanks to a fake circulating document purportedly from the attorney general under president Obama Loretta Lynch describing she would not let the Clinton e-mail investigation go too far. Of course she drafted not such document thought to be Russian in origin; one more on a pile of puzzle pieces law enforcement agencies had voters needed before going to the polls. We must likewise recalculate, reevaluate what it means to ‘influence’ an election, avoid influencing an election when it comes to law enforcement informing the public; there was enough probable cause, evidence to begin and FBI probe into the Trump campaign, though not Trump himself, yet, there was enough evidence to not only grant warrants but FISA warrants directly tied to national security and credible suspicion the subjects(s) of those warrants respectively were working illegally, dubiously as a foreign agents, what FISA warrants are used for. These are exactly the things citizens should be privy to if they can also be privy to negative attack ads getting the names of the candidates right and little else; these are exactly the types of information meant to duly influence an election, any weighty decision, because we don’t want criminals, conmen, grifters, unknown, unrepentant felons in public office let alone the Whitehouse. And if you don’t possess the judgement to avoid such persons in your personal and business life, suss out such persons when seeking employees, staffing a political campaign, then you are unqualified to serve…The Problem isn’t limited to his boss, president Trump, knew about Michael Flynn for 3 weeks, knew about his foreign agent, illegal at that point work, the web of lies he’d told before he fired him, isn’t compartmentalized to, had the media not broken this, he might still be in the Whitehouse; it’s that he never should have been there in the first place, in no way shape or form. Not exclusively because he was warned by none other than outgoing president Obama not to hire the controversial former DIA director who was fired for promoting, proliferating a litany of conspiracy theories, disparaging statements about Islam and Muslims painting all Muslims with the same brush as the violent, extremist ones when we know they aren’t all after the same goals, plenty want peace, call the violence, ‘holy war’ the antithesis of their faith, while working almost throughout his entire high level career in the middle east. The issue in Afghanistan shouldn’t have been that hard to dig up noting his résumé, asking around to his prior employer the U.S. military, U.S. government about a general opinion, feel regarding the man going all the way back to the campaign. Circling us around again to competence, you didn’t vet your campaign staff, you did a background check on Flynn before hiring him so you said, but seemingly ignored his foreign agent work and the compromising position it put him in, that his security clearance would be, should be null and void once that work was discovered? Feigned ignorance about his foreign ties though congress sent you a letter warning you he was being paid by a foreign government, twice Flynn’s own lawyers alerted your administration he might have to register as a foreign agent; and you didn’t rethink your national security advisor? Paul Manafort is a staggeringly worse case of breaking existing law who should have been warier about getting involved with dubious business dealings foreign or domestic, thought twice about ambiguous possibly illicit meetings with foreign persons in the middle of a political campaign previously tangled up in an influence peddling scandal. Blowing his case wide open isn’t merely payments from pro Russia forces over Ukraine, payments from a Cyprus bank, transactions that spell money laundering to those who can read such signs, but ties to Russians where he promised to benefit the Putin government by influencing politics and media coverage stateside; which follows his attaching himself to the Trump campaign culminating in the RNC platform change to a more pro-Russian stance on Ukraine. Manafort who has a long history of foreign agent work violating the Logan act preventing non-government official U.S. citizens from acting against American foreign policy during foreign agent work or negotiating with counties currently in disputes with the United States. Mr. Manafort uncovered to have had a role in protest attacks on U.S. military personnel circa 2006 showing up for a joint exercise between U.S. and NATO forces partnering with the Ukraine, resulting in soldiers fleeing, exercise being called off; backing behind it of course, the pro-Russian political party of Ukraine the party of regents, paying Manafort millions. Paul Manafort whose current job is supporting the Kurdish independence referendum in Iraq, totally opposite our foreign policy wanting the country to remain whole, rumored he was going there to see the vote. Pattern rearing its ugly head, again we aren’t talking about socio or cultural anthropologists, human rights, peace activists familiar with the different ethnic groups, long held histories contributing to the fighting there saying here is a way we can stabilize the region, give each group X piece of land where they currently live, make sure each section gets either equal parts of the valuable resources or 1 valuable resource only stipulation is free flowing trade between each country and freedom of movement with easily procured passport documents between each newly formed country. On the contrary, the only reason Paul Manafort cares one wit about Kurdish independence is whoever is paying him to get these people’s hopes up and anger the official government, cause fear in surrounding countries also housing numerous Kurds who might want the same where they are. News anchors astutely asking if he has a return ticket, was he coming back, or is this a convenient way to avoid his American legal troubles? Questions taking on new strength when the secession vote wasn’t marginally close, Kurds overwhelmingly voting for their independence prompting the Iraqi government to send troops to secure oil fields there and issued an ultimatum to release 3 airports encompassing the area or be shutdown with a flight ban; bringing us back to Manafort and if that flight ban goes into effect, extremely likely as Kurdistan has rejected the demand, can he come back, get back? Likewise for the hundredth time we are forced to ask where is high level governmental law enforcement, FBI, one of the alphabet soup of agencies waring Trump, Trump’s campaign apparatus about Manafort’s prior history, their suspicions about the 2006 Ukraine incident; intervening when it was obvious he was at it again manipulating foreign policy L.A. Times reporting on the RNC shift in stance on Ukraine, against an invaded nation? For god sakes you raided his home with a granted ‘no knock’ warrant to avoid destruction of key documents, data and you hadn’t/ haven’t gotten around to petitioning a judge to seize his passport, restrict his travel to/from non-extradition treaty countries? Latest intricacy to pop up, Manafort then used his position as campaign manager to sell access/intel to high level Russians (he says) in order to recoup debts owed to him; sharp journalists wondering if he was doing the reverse, using it to pay off debts since the Russian he contacted was a former business partner alleging Manafort stole his money? Behaviors that are or should be blatently illegal especially from the foreign involvement aspect, giving it to persons from a hostile foreign government; growing mystery is how Paul Manafort has avoided jail time, was not already in jail by the start of Donald Trump’s campaign. Kind of puts into new light the Ukrainian American doing independent research into him who landed in the Clinton campaign and continued her work now doesn’t it?… Should a president now or in the future ever be caught doing what we know president Trump has done with his staff, firing Sally Yates because she allegedly warned him about Michael Flynn’s probable compromised position susceptible to blackmail, Trump’s use of the word betrayal in referring to her refusal to enforce his, majority opinion including hers, unconstitutional travel ban; daring to ‘squeal’ on Flynn, take your pick frightening pundits, analysts, commentators. Demanding the resignation of all U.S. attorneys including previously tapped to stay Preet Bharara speculatively for investigating Trump family finances as they had so far come across his desk. The entire James Comey saga, humiliatingly dismissed for ethically doing his job, refusing to abandon the Flynn investigation, refusing to put himself in the same box he did with Hillary Clinton and announce publicly the president wasn’t personally under investigation knowing how early it was into aforementioned investigation, how quickly that could change; president Trump demanding something no president should from an independent law enforcement entity, loyalty, from Comey at a one on one, impropriate dinner. Demanding the resignation of Jeff Sessions, regardless of if he refusal to accept it; never mind being dressed down, called an idiot for following the law and recusing himself, the documented meltdown he had upon being informed a special counsel had been appointed blaming that too on Sessions and his decision to follow the legal statutes of America. Forcing people out, think Walter Shaub former director of the government eithics office, because they feel they can no longer do the job they were hired to do; pushing a scientist to change their testimony on climate change realities before congress. Resignation of the acting head of the DEA as he slowly realizes our sitting president has no respect for the rule of law; presumably referencing his now former position carrying out directives of an attorney general who wants to re-declare war on pot when states repeatedly vote to legalize it’s use in various situations, who wants to reinstate mandatory minimums for drug crimes centered around marijuana, hardly noticing the opioid crisis, never mind understanding what to do about it aimed at literally saving lives, not stopping at prosecuting addicts. Not dismissing the personal element in the least, Chuck Rosenberg was friends with James Comey and has finally had enough; list not calculating the mass exodus at the state department, both those asked to leave and those who felt they couldn’t stay there any longer either. If this is how things are going under our current legal codes, then it’s time to change, better enforce some laws in this country; because, it shouldn’t be happening. As analysts stated discussing the Comey screed and the fact that while he, president Trump has the legal, job description given right to fire his previous FBI director; how and why he did it was wrong, amounts to obstruction of justice. Because, using parallel illustrations of their point i.e. commenting on possible military action, because you have the power to order military force doesn’t mean you can exercise it to punish, gasp kill, persons for sleeping with your wife; you can pardon someone, however if you pardon them because you received a bribe of thousands of dollars, you are still guilty of bribery, intent matters. Fairly obvious, you can’t fire people for investigating you whether that’s former FBI director James Comey or Mr. Bharara; relatedly people who work in adjacent government positions job descriptions don’t enfold protecting you from investigation of your potential wrong doing. The attorney general of the United States is not your personal attorney meant to shield you from legal consequence; members of congress, whether they serve on oversight committees charged with unraveling the Russia matter or mind simple governance, awaiting the day they’ll be called upon for comment, to decided articles of impeachment, what have you, are not there solely to provide this function either, minimum possessing their own workloads to manage for the American citizenry. Therefore you cannot berate them for refusing to show you loyalty, berate them for not protecting you as Trump reportedly did to Mitch McConnell among others. Concurrently Trump’s staff he’s on good, functional working terms with canceled its initial ethics training and has had no end of ethics debacles ever since; Kellyanne Conway hocking daughter Ivanka’s clothing line on Fox news has become the lease of it….Seeing what the Trump administration has done to existing law, the loopholes and side steps they have found, the ethical lines they are willing to dance on/over prosecutable laws need to function thus, a fast track to impeachment or constitutional removal if a president tries to ill-treat his staff as Trump has. Especially when it is piled onto a plethora of credible speculations about mental, emotional stability, a real uncertainty, fear regarding the duly elected official holding America’s nuclear codes; represents one more piece of evidence spelling out highest level criminality exceeding the prior precedent of Nixon and Watergate, adds to a collection of evidence to support firing due to job performance incompetence. Regarding the money aspect, A- inauguration funds law needs to be crafted beyond collected monies won’t be used in violation of the tax code, just meaning it won’t be used to establish a for profit corporation, sourcing must be disclosed; B- inauguration law should stipulate unused amounts be returned to the federal government for use on as needed Whitehouse upgrades to technology, building structure maintenance or divided equally between all government agencies for use in operations to benefit citizens, donated to charities, not dumped back into the pockets the president, used for legal bills, decorations, unless perhaps for a national holiday, but not for personal homes, like was done with the vice president. Ethics training henceforth is legally mandatory and you do not get your clearances to be in the building without attending the required ethics sessions and demonstrating you comprehend the topics covered. Why did the Whitehouse need to issue new, stronger ethical guidelines about private flights, use of taxpayer money, all travel expenses approved going forward through chief of staff John Kelly; they should be outlined in federal law for government officials at all levels. No taking private flights when commercial ones are available, expect in cases of extreme emergency, e.g. touring a natural disaster zone, catastrophic event area, no taking military flights unless it is deemed a matter of safety for government personnel or national security; if you want to take a private plane fine, you can, but up front you will cut the government a check for the entire cost of that plane flight/split equally between all government personnel hitching a ride apart from those seeing to its operation. And it will only go to approved work venues; not U.S, Virgin Island territory where you own land, have a house, not having lunch with your son in another town or state, stopping off at your permanent residence in Montana Mr. Zinke, giving a speech to the hockey team of one of your biggest donors. Donations to the RNC (republican national committee) as well as donations, contributions to super PACs, re-election campaigns are not, by law, to be used to pay for the legal bills of government officials at any juncture, level under investigation for wrongdoing in office or other charges, period end of sentence; Michael Flynn’s family setting up crowdfunding, go fund me page may be in extremely bad taste, but people know full well what they are giving money to. People donating to the RNC, Trump’s re-election campaign did not, which should meet the legal definition of fraud; similar to what Jared and Ivanka did with their Trump SoHo project that was neither Trump nor SoHo and not doing nearly as well as they led investors to believe. To that end, nepotism laws will be enforced, no hunting around for a deputy Whitehouse counsel who will draft a witty interpretation loophole, these people just don’t get jobs in the Whitehouse; because, we’re not talking about some intern pushing paper minutia and answering phones, which would require a review if its own, we’re talking about advising the president when you hold no experience. An HR equivalent division of high caliber specializing in the Whitehouse and staffing positions would, by law, review all non- congressional confirmed appointments; anyone found incompetent, unqualified, not holding the proper education, experience for the job would be fired and the president submitted a reasoning for the action and a list of suitable replacements to pick from taking the decisions out of exclusively the president’s hands. Also adding to what Bill Maher stated in his video, about not giving all tasks to your son in-law, job descriptions given advisors must be reasonable; leaving off the Middle East peace bullet point, the rest of the task list heaped on Jared Kushner would normally be the work of a single person per outlined point, not the job description of one person. Similarly on the subject of job descriptions when you work at the Whitehouse beyond the mailroom, janitorial you must have a clearly defined job description; none of the Sebastian Gorka phenomenon, people wandering around adjacent to the west wing, in the west wing with nothing productive to do others not knowing why they are there. Because, this is the Whitehouse not Random House, the Whitehouse not a halfway house for white collar, ‘reformed,’ mob criminals, alphabet agency screw ups; realities yet to dawn on Trump, Trump administrators… Read More
ROCKBANDS NETWORK
Russia Yes Kyle Kulinski, Independent Media Hold Outs, Trump Supporters There Is A There, There Part 2: Collusion Or No, It’s Time To Change Some Laws Don’t You Think?
Whether or not we ever get a definitive answer on collusion, collaboration between now president Trump and the Russians, whether impeachment articles are ever served on that or obstruction of justice, whether anyone involved in any kind of criminal wrongdoing ever sees the inside of a prison cell it’s time to shore up the standards of the presidency…Or their other reoccurring misconception, opposite flag burning everyone agrees you shouldn’t do it, calls it bad but few are zealots shouting prison time be doled out sans extenuating circumstances, like people being severely injured/killed. That because people care more about direct issues effecting their lives— do they have a job, will they, their children especially one with preexisting conditions have healthcare, will I, we, my family be able to afford available healthcare, manage our premiums, stagnating wages, fighting for a $15 minimum wage because it’s the job they could get and are trying to raise a family, care for elderly parents, they don’t care about Russia in the slightest. Because they live in the heartland, farm country, the rustbelt any region/destination designated ‘Trump country,’ they don’t care about Russia; agree with their neighbors Russia is BS, nothing but sore loserdom. Well there’s a guy in Ayrs Iowa who wants to know about at least one section of the Russia sandal; astutely asking his congress person at a town hall if he was open to releasing Fusion GPS cofounders testimony on the collection methodology and truthfulness of the Steele dossier. Imagine what other non-deplorable, probably not his core base, Trump voters want to know. Bigger question, how do we convince people Russia is something to care about, the 1/3 of Trump supporters who don’t believe Donald Trump Jr.’s Russian lawyer meeting happened it matters, if they don’t cover it in depth, tell American’s why they need to care, how this impacts those very kitchen table issues in the long run…Held up against the endless questioning about Hillary’s health, the revealed medication regiment receiving new scrutiny post her collapse, it should be frighteningly simple; once you reach nominee status, you have been accepted by your party as the nominee representing democrats, republicans, independents, the green party you must within, say 30 days, release X years of your tax returns up to and including the current year you possess returns for. One of the reasons there was so much speculation was because of partial returns leaked to media and gargantuan losses listed, amounts making it feasible he might not have paid taxes over nearly 20 years; then the 2005 snippets indicated he did pay taxes and supporters shouted vindicated! Not really when the standard is release your complete tax return, he didn’t release so much as a scrap of a document someone instead sent it to the media; all of it unnecessary drama by design meant to confuse and perplex voters who can’t spend every spare waking moment following politics. Too it makes it much easier for the public to gage your truthfulness about your income, determine if you are wealthy are paying your fair share, see who you own money to foreign and domestic, where conflicts of interest might be; generating an informed decision about whether or not to vote for you Russia or no Russia. Once elected it makes it much easier for the government ethics office to navigate divesting your businesses, especially if you are an international business man, sans running afoul of the emoluments clause, conflict of interest statutes. Saving whole reams of paper and ink on news stories, countless hours of video news exposing the dozen ways he, president Trump hasn’t done that, the numerous laws he could be, is violating; freeing up various parts of the government to not investigate this, comment on it and focus on kitchen table issues facing average Americans. Once you reach nominee status you must release all relevant portions of your medical history: chronic conditions, medications, specialists you see, at minimum a statement from a physician on par with what Hillary Clinton released again after her pneumonia; continuing it has to be a practicing physician with a current medical license, general practitioner you’ve seen minimum in the last year, hopefully eliminating the Harold Bornstein factor. Considering the escalating radicalization of politics, bizarre behavior on the part of politicians not singularly attributed to religious ideology, stances on abortion, the 10 commandments in public places, on government property, but the regular public weeping of John Boehner earning him the derogatory nickname boo-hoo Boehner, to the candidate running for public office who tried to make his dog chief of staff, expletive filled rants of headline making Maine governor Paul LePage that had fellow lawmakers suggesting an intervention. Ben Carson who tried to connect Hillary Clinton Lucifer, another name for the devil, because she quoted a college professor who said on a book jacket “Lucifer was the first radical;” at least when Alex Jones suggested A- Clinton and Obama always smelled like sulfur and B- said smell meant they were demons he admitted in a custody case for his children he was ‘playing a character.’ There is an argument for insisting candidates for the highest offices president and vice president submit themselves to a cognitive and/or psychological exam. Ordinarily we would expect the voters to take one look at such displays and nearly instantaneously identify them as crazy, unstable, certainly unsuitable for the offices applied to, they were running to hold; as was the case of the guy who drank goats blood in college, Christine O’Donnell who equated masturbation with adultery additionally calling it selfish, proclaimed condoms wouldn’t prevent HIV/AIDS, inaccurate whether talking about the African continent epidemic or not. Yet with America’s increased aging population it arguably likewise has a hitherto undealt with senility problem viewing projections for Alzheimer’s alone, not including all forms of dementia, mental decline that could explain some Trump, GOP party votes. It’s a sad day when we potentially have to say to prove your sane, cognitively well before you run for office, nevertheless that’s where we are; unfortunately there isn’t a legal, logistical mechanism to take away the voter registration of someone diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, dementia, conative impairment. Complicating the issue exponentially with or without treatment, especially with it, there is a usually lengthy window where a person shows only mild impeding of function making them perfectly able to vote; thus denial of that right representing a true slippery slope argument, so the alternative is presenting voters with only predetermined well candidates. When there is as much circumstantial evidence preceding election day as there was pointing to a Trump mental health problem, cognitive impairment, psychiatrists were breaking the Goldwater rule to warn the public, associations and entities overseeing mental health are currently contemplating amending that rule to speak out on him during his short, to date presidency. There is now a book expressing the unanimous concerns of thousands of mental health professionals about Donald Trump who firmly believe their duty to warn outweighs their duty to refrain from diagnosing a patient they’ve neither met nor treated; the only real answer is to submit to testing conducted by a panel of phycologists, psychiatrists, neurologists specializing in cognition, dementia, Alzheimer’s, other impairing brain disease, combination of both expertise fields….Common expectation of privacy greatly diminished upon running to become, becoming president, because it is the presidency of the United States, an entire country not president of your local book club, librarian society; if we had to know Tim Kaine suffers from planters fasciitis (a minor foot problem), broke his collar bone, dislocated his shoulder and had his wisdom teeth removed, shouldn’t we know if our elected officials to the top positions are stable, more importantly the Goldwater rule never had to deal with Donald Trump, Donald Trump like persons. Panel issuing a majority ruling akin to the Supreme Court, dissenting opinions drafted, all available to the public facilitating an informed decision; if experts are found drafting opinions based on partisanism, financial incentives, kickbacks, bribery appropriate legal action is taken, image specialist hired at the guilty’s expense to repair the wronged party’s reputation. If the person is found in some way mentally, psychologically defiant, they are remitted to a medical or mental health facility for more extensive, in depth testing; it is taken to a judge to formally remove them from the ballot, institute a ruling they be barred from holding public elected office on the grounds of mental defect, until the symptoms of a previously undiagnosed mental health disorder are effectively treated, subsequently managed if possible…Trump’s own shady legal history should have barred him from being eligible to run for president; alleged mob ties, money laundering for Russians, foreign mob entities, years long relationship with legal gray area persons like Roger Stone…Creating enough serious circumstantial evidence that should prompt legal proceedings that say minimally, conclude your legal cases on felony grade charges before you are eligible to run for president; preempting the next Trump-esque problem to plague our political system trailing from the highest office, time to enact a law now asserting no convicted felon can be president. Or it be subject to election commission review to ensure the felon is someone who’s mentality as is follows: yes I am a felon, I was able to turn my life around, I want to be president so I can 1 show other people that’s possible for them too, 2 make things better from the top down so people don’t have to go down the path I did…the first time we heard about possible mob ties shouldn’t have been in the midst of the Russia investigation, major details of which were only available after election and inauguration day. Nor the first time we heard about the imploded Trump Tower Moscow deal, or his relationship with felon Felix Sater, whom he downplayed as no longer a Trump associate, someone he couldn’t pick out of a room; yet was working with Trump business lawyer Michael Cohen on the deal during the 2016 campaign to the point of Trump signed a letter of intent to move ahead said deal. It shouldn’t have been a largely British newspaper The Guardian only beside independent media reporting U.S. allies had spotted suspicious activity between Trump campaign officials and the Russians; it should have been reported in real time press conference worthy, regular programming interruption worthy news made public so voters could render a fully educated decision. Not hidden by, it seems, the intelligence community while they gathered more information, sat on their hands at the same time the media portions rendered to both reporters and voters got nicknamed ‘pee-gate’ because it opened with bizarre sexual proclivities Trump supposedly indulged in spending time in Russia, recorded with ‘Russian prostitutes.’ New law, all relevant such material in the future is to be verified and released to the American people via press conference by appropriate government department i.e. homeland security or the CIA; even only partially confirmed intel should be shared with clear messages to viewers the raw data is without pending context. Had they done this, staunch Trump supporters wouldn’t have been able to as easily dismiss claims of Russian ties and crucial swing voters might have rethought their decision, as U.S. allies gain nothing if their intel is wholly wrong…
Bringing us to, you can’t tell readers/viewers the American people are ok with the concept, idea, let alone solid evidence a foreign power tried to influence and did interfere with our election. To that end, if an incoming president is read in on detailed briefings explaining extensively, in certain facets as it happens, something as significant as Russians, any foreign power majorly attempting to actively tamper with our election, informed about bots, social media ‘fake news’ manipulation and can be completely nonchalant about it; it’s time to change some laws in this country. Because here are the parts that have far less to do with collusion by Americans, potentially a serving president and far more to do with intrusion the 21 to 39 states whose voting software was stolen, altered, weakened by hacking giving hackers opportunity to change name spelling, a single number in street address to prevent voting. Areas where someone, 99% likely Russians, literally did try to hack into voting machines roughly 2 days before voters hit the polls en mass; those now confirmed 21 states just notified by homeland security, though the breach was known about as far back as June. Facebook has similarly just acknowledged Russians both bought hundreds, possibly thousands, of ads on controversial issues aimed at swing state users, and created fake, American looking profiles meant to deceive fellow Facebook users into believing there were others who felt like them. One famous picture being of a father and his little girl, his a name that doesn’t exist in the town/state he says he’s from, picture actually of a man living in Brazil; on top of Russians, Russian cut outs using their event planning/organization tool, coupled with those fake profiles no doubt, to organize anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rallies. Exponentially more disturbing, until asked specific questions by congressional committees they weren’t looking closely at who was buying their ads some pertaining to decidedly American and decidedly election issues paid for in Rubbles. They first denied for months any such thing could happen, founder Mark Zuckerberg literally calling it crazy (his words), then only found hundreds of ads where thousands were used in France (a much smaller country) to attempt the same outcome they wanted here; problem much more extensive than anyone could have believed. The fact that just like hashtag Syriahoax following the Hillary Clinton hack, it may not be over; as this piece is being written ABC news obtaining a handful of the Facebook ads crafted by Russian actors using popular cartoons like Dora the Explorer to show how easily illegal immigrants can cross the border. Message to stop this we need Trump; possible Russian actors weighing in on the NFL controversy about athletes kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality siding with Trump stoked fires it’s disrespecting both flag, anthem and veterans who’ve fought across the globe for American ideals. Missing the chief point of what the flag stands for contrasted to blatant police violence against young, black and brown, predominately men, ending too often in death. Breaking, Russians apparently spent more money on twitter ads toward the same goals, fake troll farm news appearing more than bona-fide legitimate news; both merely removing ads directly traced to Russia not routed through intermediary countries, twitter only piggybacking off Facebook’s lead shutting down the accounts they flagged. Refusing to touch those identified by outside research; at present irritating congress with their lack of knowledge about what happened, their projected unwillingness to grasp the seriousness of the situation. More insidious is twitter has not banned anonymous accounts, may not collect enough information from users to do the little analysis Facebook has. A Ted Cruz aide coming forward talking about the odd skewing of social media response when his candidate went after Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton or other GOP rivals in the presidential primary, noting peculiarly the reaction was always strongest when coupled with criticisms against Trump; Google joining the growing list of social media and communication platforms to look for and discover Russian ads on YouTube, Gmail and elsewhere. Next we find out regarding Facebook, while they pretended to only recently find evidence of Russian bought ads, Russian activity on the social media platform connected to the election, twice last year they contacted the FBI about strange Russian activity tied to election proceedings. Leading watchers, journalists, reporters, news anchors to frustrating questions about are people at Facebook in bed with the Russians too, colluding too; because, it’s looking increasingly probable, not merely remotely possible, Russian agents, actors had help maximizing the impact of information, efforts down to individual voting precincts not limited to key swing states in general. If not people inside Facebook, floated as an annoyance rather than feasible reality, then who; whole reason for Mark Zuckerberg’s statement on increased scrutiny and filtering of political ads, clear labeling of content was, based on material/testimony given to congress, individual congresspersons are suggesting legislation that would regulate political ads on social media the same way the FCC has mandates for the same ads on television. Things they or the government entity monitoring the internet would have done well to previously have in place from the moment political ads could be bought on the site; bundled together with restrictions/standards for news available on the site, clear labeling of propaganda, satire, from the inception of news being fed into people’s social media feeds. Understanding 50% of Americans now receive the bulk of their news, cull their desired news from Facebook alone; excluding other social media feeds identical to the Facebook model accounting for 2/3 of online news consumption. Where was the cooperation between the internet regulatory entity, speculation there may not even be one since diligent congress persons can’t even figure out who polices, ensures foreign money isn’t used to buy American political ads on the internet against federal law, and Facebook to safeguard American consumers, world consumers really from precisely what took place, world citizens getting the wrong idea about Americans from social media propaganda doing far more than selling products? Assuming there isn’t one, an internet FCC needs to be formed immediately to deep dive investigate how it happened and mandate Facebook make relevant changes period, followed by twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, anywhere political ads and news feeds can be placed on the internet. Risking sounding redundant, we repeat what epitomizes incompetence more than being presented evidence of a cyber-attack on your democracy, voting systems, propaganda influence to change people’s minds and doing nothing; latest revelations about Facebook and our sitting president still only grudgingly acknowledges Russia might have hacked something to do with the election. Has made no major announcements, if not about what Russia has done, how involved it was and what specifically they used to pull it off, then what he/we intend to do as a nation to prevent cyber intrusion of the type discovered and more dangerous forms that can cripple our basic function. By comparison president Trump put together no less than a half dozen commissions on various issues, granted most participants left when they recognized what a farce it was, responding to his inadequate, inappropriate reaction to happenings like Charlottesville; but, while there was a business advisory council, manufacturing advisory council, one dealing with arts, another diversity, not forgetting the 2 remaining commissions on voter integrity and opioids. There was never one on cyber security; reiterating, not singularly what the heck happened with Russia, instead firmly acknowledging cyberwarfare is a real thing even on the unlikely outskirts Russia is not. Whether it was Russia who hacked the DNC/John Podesta or a disgruntled DNC staffer, several of them, known hacking groups i.e. Anonymous comes to mind; Roger Stone’s comments about him soon being in a barrel AKA hot seat where just hot aired bragging, he made a lucky guess rather akin to Mitt Romney in 2012 talking about Russia being our next biggest threat at a time when the middle east was the more present danger, we will face it in the future if we aren’t in the midst of it currently…Getting that section of our house in order so to speak, simultaneously it’s time to completely rethink the agency’s party line ‘the FBI doesn’t comment on ongoing investigations’; case in point Mr. Manafort, right there with him Cater Page also under FISA granted surveillance during the campaign for suspicious, unexplained trips to Russia, Page also having a history of giving information to bad foreign entities necessitating his testimony, ironically Russians then too. There is no way the Trump campaign shouldn’t have been made aware of these 2 characters shady histories predictably affecting their current hire; Imagine also how things might have been different in terms of election outcomes, public understanding if citizens had known both Hillary Clinton and the Trump campaign were in the crosshairs of the FBI, the reasons, able to make a decision on equal footing. Because, as far as this author is concerned James Comey was vindicated for his regulation breaking press conference the second it was revealed he did said press conference thanks to a fake circulating document purportedly from the attorney general under president Obama Loretta Lynch describing she would not let the Clinton e-mail investigation go too far. Of course she drafted not such document thought to be Russian in origin; one more on a pile of puzzle pieces law enforcement agencies had voters needed before going to the polls. We must likewise recalculate, reevaluate what it means to ‘influence’ an election, avoid influencing an election when it comes to law enforcement informing the public; there was enough probable cause, evidence to begin and FBI probe into the Trump campaign, though not Trump himself, yet, there was enough evidence to not only grant warrants but FISA warrants directly tied to national security and credible suspicion the subjects(s) of those warrants respectively were working illegally, dubiously as a foreign agents, what FISA warrants are used for. These are exactly the things citizens should be privy to if they can also be privy to negative attack ads getting the names of the candidates right and little else; these are exactly the types of information meant to duly influence an election, any weighty decision, because we don’t want criminals, conmen, grifters, unknown, unrepentant felons in public office let alone the Whitehouse. And if you don’t possess the judgement to avoid such persons in your personal and business life, suss out such persons when seeking employees, staffing a political campaign, then you are unqualified to serve…The Problem isn’t limited to his boss, president Trump, knew about Michael Flynn for 3 weeks, knew about his foreign agent, illegal at that point work, the web of lies he’d told before he fired him, isn’t compartmentalized to, had the media not broken this, he might still be in the Whitehouse; it’s that he never should have been there in the first place, in no way shape or form. Not exclusively because he was warned by none other than outgoing president Obama not to hire the controversial former DIA director who was fired for promoting, proliferating a litany of conspiracy theories, disparaging statements about Islam and Muslims painting all Muslims with the same brush as the violent, extremist ones when we know they aren’t all after the same goals, plenty want peace, call the violence, ‘holy war’ the antithesis of their faith, while working almost throughout his entire high level career in the middle east. The issue in Afghanistan shouldn’t have been that hard to dig up noting his résumé, asking around to his prior employer the U.S. military, U.S. government about a general opinion, feel regarding the man going all the way back to the campaign. Circling us around again to competence, you didn’t vet your campaign staff, you did a background check on Flynn before hiring him so you said, but seemingly ignored his foreign agent work and the compromising position it put him in, that his security clearance would be, should be null and void once that work was discovered? Feigned ignorance about his foreign ties though congress sent you a letter warning you he was being paid by a foreign government, twice Flynn’s own lawyers alerted your administration he might have to register as a foreign agent; and you didn’t rethink your national security advisor? Paul Manafort is a staggeringly worse case of breaking existing law who should have been warier about getting involved with dubious business dealings foreign or domestic, thought twice about ambiguous possibly illicit meetings with foreign persons in the middle of a political campaign previously tangled up in an influence peddling scandal. Blowing his case wide open isn’t merely payments from pro Russia forces over Ukraine, payments from a Cyprus bank, transactions that spell money laundering to those who can read such signs, but ties to Russians where he promised to benefit the Putin government by influencing politics and media coverage stateside; which follows his attaching himself to the Trump campaign culminating in the RNC platform change to a more pro-Russian stance on Ukraine. Manafort who has a long history of foreign agent work violating the Logan act preventing non-government official U.S. citizens from acting against American foreign policy during foreign agent work or negotiating with counties currently in disputes with the United States. Mr. Manafort uncovered to have had a role in protest attacks on U.S. military personnel circa 2006 showing up for a joint exercise between U.S. and NATO forces partnering with the Ukraine, resulting in soldiers fleeing, exercise being called off; backing behind it of course, the pro-Russian political party of Ukraine the party of regents, paying Manafort millions. Paul Manafort whose current job is supporting the Kurdish independence referendum in Iraq, totally opposite our foreign policy wanting the country to remain whole, rumored he was going there to see the vote. Pattern rearing its ugly head, again we aren’t talking about socio or cultural anthropologists, human rights, peace activists familiar with the different ethnic groups, long held histories contributing to the fighting there saying here is a way we can stabilize the region, give each group X piece of land where they currently live, make sure each section gets either equal parts of the valuable resources or 1 valuable resource only stipulation is free flowing trade between each country and freedom of movement with easily procured passport documents between each newly formed country. On the contrary, the only reason Paul Manafort cares one wit about Kurdish independence is whoever is paying him to get these people’s hopes up and anger the official government, cause fear in surrounding countries also housing numerous Kurds who might want the same where they are. News anchors astutely asking if he has a return ticket, was he coming back, or is this a convenient way to avoid his American legal troubles? Questions taking on new strength when the secession vote wasn’t marginally close, Kurds overwhelmingly voting for their independence prompting the Iraqi government to send troops to secure oil fields there and issued an ultimatum to release 3 airports encompassing the area or be shutdown with a flight ban; bringing us back to Manafort and if that flight ban goes into effect, extremely likely as Kurdistan has rejected the demand, can he come back, get back? Likewise for the hundredth time we are forced to ask where is high level governmental law enforcement, FBI, one of the alphabet soup of agencies waring Trump, Trump’s campaign apparatus about Manafort’s prior history, their suspicions about the 2006 Ukraine incident; intervening when it was obvious he was at it again manipulating foreign policy L.A. Times reporting on the RNC shift in stance on Ukraine, against an invaded nation? For god sakes you raided his home with a granted ‘no knock’ warrant to avoid destruction of key documents, data and you hadn’t/ haven’t gotten around to petitioning a judge to seize his passport, restrict his travel to/from non-extradition treaty countries? Latest intricacy to pop up, Manafort then used his position as campaign manager to sell access/intel to high level Russians (he says) in order to recoup debts owed to him; sharp journalists wondering if he was doing the reverse, using it to pay off debts since the Russian he contacted was a former business partner alleging Manafort stole his money? Behaviors that are or should be blatently illegal especially from the foreign involvement aspect, giving it to persons from a hostile foreign government; growing mystery is how Paul Manafort has avoided jail time, was not already in jail by the start of Donald Trump’s campaign. Kind of puts into new light the Ukrainian American doing independent research into him who landed in the Clinton campaign and continued her work now doesn’t it?… Should a president now or in the future ever be caught doing what we know president Trump has done with his staff, firing Sally Yates because she allegedly warned him about Michael Flynn’s probable compromised position susceptible to blackmail, Trump’s use of the word betrayal in referring to her refusal to enforce his, majority opinion including hers, unconstitutional travel ban; daring to ‘squeal’ on Flynn, take your pick frightening pundits, analysts, commentators. Demanding the resignation of all U.S. attorneys including previously tapped to stay Preet Bharara speculatively for investigating Trump family finances as they had so far come across his desk. The entire James Comey saga, humiliatingly dismissed for ethically doing his job, refusing to abandon the Flynn investigation, refusing to put himself in the same box he did with Hillary Clinton and announce publicly the president wasn’t personally under investigation knowing how early it was into aforementioned investigation, how quickly that could change; president Trump demanding something no president should from an independent law enforcement entity, loyalty, from Comey at a one on one, impropriate dinner. Demanding the resignation of Jeff Sessions, regardless of if he refusal to accept it; never mind being dressed down, called an idiot for following the law and recusing himself, the documented meltdown he had upon being informed a special counsel had been appointed blaming that too on Sessions and his decision to follow the legal statutes of America. Forcing people out, think Walter Shaub former director of the government eithics office, because they feel they can no longer do the job they were hired to do; pushing a scientist to change their testimony on climate change realities before congress. Resignation of the acting head of the DEA as he slowly realizes our sitting president has no respect for the rule of law; presumably referencing his now former position carrying out directives of an attorney general who wants to re-declare war on pot when states repeatedly vote to legalize it’s use in various situations, who wants to reinstate mandatory minimums for drug crimes centered around marijuana, hardly noticing the opioid crisis, never mind understanding what to do about it aimed at literally saving lives, not stopping at prosecuting addicts. Not dismissing the personal element in the least, Chuck Rosenberg was friends with James Comey and has finally had enough; list not calculating the mass exodus at the state department, both those asked to leave and those who felt they couldn’t stay there any longer either. If this is how things are going under our current legal codes, then it’s time to change, better enforce some laws in this country; because, it shouldn’t be happening. As analysts stated discussing the Comey screed and the fact that while he, president Trump has the legal, job description given right to fire his previous FBI director; how and why he did it was wrong, amounts to obstruction of justice. Because, using parallel illustrations of their point i.e. commenting on possible military action, because you have the power to order military force doesn’t mean you can exercise it to punish, gasp kill, persons for sleeping with your wife; you can pardon someone, however if you pardon them because you received a bribe of thousands of dollars, you are still guilty of bribery, intent matters. Fairly obvious, you can’t fire people for investigating you whether that’s former FBI director James Comey or Mr. Bharara; relatedly people who work in adjacent government positions job descriptions don’t enfold protecting you from investigation of your potential wrong doing. The attorney general of the United States is not your personal attorney meant to shield you from legal consequence; members of congress, whether they serve on oversight committees charged with unraveling the Russia matter or mind simple governance, awaiting the day they’ll be called upon for comment, to decided articles of impeachment, what have you, are not there solely to provide this function either, minimum possessing their own workloads to manage for the American citizenry. Therefore you cannot berate them for refusing to show you loyalty, berate them for not protecting you as Trump reportedly did to Mitch McConnell among others. Concurrently Trump’s staff he’s on good, functional working terms with canceled its initial ethics training and has had no end of ethics debacles ever since; Kellyanne Conway hocking daughter Ivanka’s clothing line on Fox news has become the lease of it….Seeing what the Trump administration has done to existing law, the loopholes and side steps they have found, the ethical lines they are willing to dance on/over prosecutable laws need to function thus, a fast track to impeachment or constitutional removal if a president tries to ill-treat his staff as Trump has. Especially when it is piled onto a plethora of credible speculations about mental, emotional stability, a real uncertainty, fear regarding the duly elected official holding America’s nuclear codes; represents one more piece of evidence spelling out highest level criminality exceeding the prior precedent of Nixon and Watergate, adds to a collection of evidence to support firing due to job performance incompetence. Regarding the money aspect, A- inauguration funds law needs to be crafted beyond collected monies won’t be used in violation of the tax code, just meaning it won’t be used to establish a for profit corporation, sourcing must be disclosed; B- inauguration law should stipulate unused amounts be returned to the federal government for use on as needed Whitehouse upgrades to technology, building structure maintenance or divided equally between all government agencies for use in operations to benefit citizens, donated to charities, not dumped back into the pockets the president, used for legal bills, decorations, unless perhaps for a national holiday, but not for personal homes, like was done with the vice president. Ethics training henceforth is legally mandatory and you do not get your clearances to be in the building without attending the required ethics sessions and demonstrating you comprehend the topics covered. Why did the Whitehouse need to issue new, stronger ethical guidelines about private flights, use of taxpayer money, all travel expenses approved going forward through chief of staff John Kelly; they should be outlined in federal law for government officials at all levels. No taking private flights when commercial ones are available, expect in cases of extreme emergency, e.g. touring a natural disaster zone, catastrophic event area, no taking military flights unless it is deemed a matter of safety for government personnel or national security; if you want to take a private plane fine, you can, but up front you will cut the government a check for the entire cost of that plane flight/split equally between all government personnel hitching a ride apart from those seeing to its operation. And it will only go to approved work venues; not U.S, Virgin Island territory where you own land, have a house, not having lunch with your son in another town or state, stopping off at your permanent residence in Montana Mr. Zinke, giving a speech to the hockey team of one of your biggest donors. Donations to the RNC (republican national committee) as well as donations, contributions to super PACs, re-election campaigns are not, by law, to be used to pay for the legal bills of government officials at any juncture, level under investigation for wrongdoing in office or other charges, period end of sentence; Michael Flynn’s family setting up crowdfunding, go fund me page may be in extremely bad taste, but people know full well what they are giving money to. People donating to the RNC, Trump’s re-election campaign did not, which should meet the legal definition of fraud; similar to what Jared and Ivanka did with their Trump SoHo project that was neither Trump nor SoHo and not doing nearly as well as they led investors to believe. To that end, nepotism laws will be enforced, no hunting around for a deputy Whitehouse counsel who will draft a witty interpretation loophole, these people just don’t get jobs in the Whitehouse; because, we’re not talking about some intern pushing paper minutia and answering phones, which would require a review if its own, we’re talking about advising the president when you hold no experience. An HR equivalent division of high caliber specializing in the Whitehouse and staffing positions would, by law, review all non- congressional confirmed appointments; anyone found incompetent, unqualified, not holding the proper education, experience for the job would be fired and the president submitted a reasoning for the action and a list of suitable replacements to pick from taking the decisions out of exclusively the president’s hands. Also adding to what Bill Maher stated in his video, about not giving all tasks to your son in-law, job descriptions given advisors must be reasonable; leaving off the Middle East peace bullet point, the rest of the task list heaped on Jared Kushner would normally be the work of a single person per outlined point, not the job description of one person. Similarly on the subject of job descriptions when you work at the Whitehouse beyond the mailroom, janitorial you must have a clearly defined job description; none of the Sebastian Gorka phenomenon, people wandering around adjacent to the west wing, in the west wing with nothing productive to do others not knowing why they are there. Because, this is the Whitehouse not Random House, the Whitehouse not a halfway house for white collar, ‘reformed,’ mob criminals, alphabet agency screw ups; realities yet to dawn on Trump, Trump administrators… Read More
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