It becomes clear, oh really?

In response to Ron Faraday's posting of this on my Facebook timeline.  ( I have to write my response here as links don't work in the comment section below his post. )

Oh, it becomes clear, does it?  

ROTFLMAO!!  But, do go on.

Ron feels the need to post an article from another Right-winger.  What I love about it the most is the writer has a list of names of Republicans and Democrats who the writer claims are all tied to “sketchy Ukraine deals,” and that’s why they want to destroy Trump!  And the writer includes a parenthetical ( emphasis mine! ) without naming who the hell he or she is.  There’s a link below this crap article from the blog www.realityanddenial.wordpress.com that takes you to another blog, www.investmentwatchblog.com which still doesn’t tell you who wrote this tripe.  

Now quite a number of claims are made here, and typical of Right-wing tripe none of it is substantiated with any evidence.  So, while anyone tries to knock this garbage down a thousand more lies are told.  

Claim #1 – Mitt Romney’s advisor Joseph Cofer Black joined the Ukraine energy firm Burisma while Hunter Biden was also on the board.  

So, the F what.    

Claim #2 – “Hunter Biden was taking a salary of $50,000 per month from Burisma, and was simultaneously engaged in a relationship with John Kerry’s stepson, Chris Heinz, and mobster Whitey Bulger’s nephew, in a private equity firm, that allegedly appeared to be laundering millions of dollars in foreign money from China & the Ukraine, through Latvia, and back to the US.”

This run on sentence is ridiculous on its face.  What the hell are they trying to say? So, Hunter Biden and Chris Heinz worked with or for an unnamed private equity firm that “allegedly appeared to be,” nice writing there Mr. Anonymous, laundering millions.  Let’s stop there.  

Why can’t they name this private equity firm? Yet, they can bring in the name of the dead mobster Whitey Bulger to slime Chris Heinz.   

So, a little fact checking on Google reveals that the name of the private equity firm is Rosemont Seneca.  Now, why don’t they want you to know that name? It’s because as a New York Post article will tell you it was Hunter Biden’s decision to join the board of Burisma that led to a falling out with Chris Heinz thus ending their business relationship. 

So, that’s quite different to the BS false narrative Mr. Anonymous wants you to believe.  

So, you can remove John Kerry and Chris Heinz, and the dead mobster Whitey Bulger for that matter, from the list of people wanting to destroy Trump.  And I think we can remove McCain too, don’t you think, you know, because he’s dead.  

Let’s talk about Joe Biden, father of Hunter, former Vice President of the US and current candidate for POTUS.  Biden while VP under President Barak Obama criticized Ukrainian prosecutor Victor Shokin.  Shokin was special prosecutor under Petro Poroshenko who was president of the Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. Poroshenko replaced Victor Yanukovych, who was Putin’s puppet.  

The idea that Shokin was investigating Burisma because of Hunter Biden is a lie.  Shokin was under fire for not going after anyone during the time of Putin’s puppet Victor Yanukovych. For 13 months Shokin did little to nothing.  Meanwhile, the Deputy Chief Prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze had evidence Shokin was on the take. Shokin responded by opening a phony corruption investigation into Sakvarelidze which resulted in forcing him from his office.  In fact, the investigation into Burisma “only ever covered the period from before Hunter Biden’s involvement in the company.”

Shokin’s name is not mentioned in the blog post by Mr. Anonymous

Biden, along with the leaders of several western European countries, the EU, and the International Monetary Fund all wanted Shokin removed from office.  BTW, Shokin was removed from office in March 2016.  

This gets contorted by Right-wingers into Joe Biden got a Ukrainian prosecutor, who they never name, fired because he was investigating a company tied to Hunter Biden.  When you know the names and the full context and chronology, which Right-wingers always omit along with their names on blog posts, then you know the truth.  

The rest of the idiotic blog post by Mr. Anonymous is written in the same fact free, misleading, total lie fashion that I just debunked and is further debunked here and several other sites. 

Another claim, has Paul Pelosi, Jr. involved in oil importing from Ukraine.  And his company Viscoil is under investigation for securities fraud.  False.  Paul Pelosi once served on the board of Viscoil, but that company dissolved in 2010. It went out of business.  The scraps of that dissolved company were folded into NRGlab a Singapore based company.    

So, we can cross off Paul Pelosi Jr’s name from this list of people out to destroy Trump.  

Is Rep. Adam Schiff linked to a Ukrainian arms dealer? No.  Igor Pasternak hosted a fundraiser for Schiff in 2013.  Pasternik’s business, Worldwide Aeros Corp is an American company that manufactures airships for the American military.  In the past this company provided military hardware to Ukrainian forces fighting Russian forces in Donbas.  

And, btw, Pasternak is not Ukrainian. 

So, we can cross off Schiff’s name too.  

The Anonymous author of this Right-wing garbage thinks Colludy Rudy Giuliani is the world’s greatest detective who runs the world’s biggest private investigation firm.  A firm so big it cannot be named.  

Meanwhile Rudy’s two Russian born henchmen, Igor Fruhman and Lev Parnas were arrested as they were about to flee the US.  Parnas runs a company called Fraud Guarantee.  Don’t you love irony? 

Trump is going to be impeached because he committed crimes, crimes the “stable genius” admitted to and provided all the evidence any rational person could possibly need to convict him by producing a transcript of himself extorting the leader of a foreign country for dirt on his political opponent.  His moronic apologists claim there was no quid pro quo, no actual exchange of one thing for another. Umm, it’s the asking itself that is the crime you idiots.  

And in attempting to hide the evidence of this crime he hid the evidence in a place that perfectly preserved the evidence.  The evidence of at least 11 phone conservations between Trump and Putin are in the NICE computer system, as well as, at least one phone conversation with the man behind the murder of Khashoggi, Mohamad bin Salman.  

Giulianni is under criminal investigation for this shit and could wind up in a jail.  But, don’t pay any attention to that. 

Please do note that I don’t link to things people don’t put their names to. 

You should be listening to Mueller She Wrote

I advise anyone interested in Trump's crimes and eventual downfall to listen to the podcast "Mueller She Wrote."

The latest episode - July 7, 2019

TRUMP DEMOTES DNI TO EMPOWER AG BARR

TRUMP DEMOTES DNI TO EMPOWER AG BARR

President Trump issued a memorandum last week that transfers to the Attorney General the authority of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify intelligence information concerning the 2016 election.

The memorandum effectively amends Executive Order 13526 on classification on national security information, but in a highly customized way: It applies only to Attorney General William Barr (not any successors) and only to the investigation of the 2016 presidential campaigns. The memorandum was published in the Federal Register today.

Even so, the move represents a functional demotion of the Director of National Intelligence and a partial transfer of his authority to the Attorney General.

Executive Order 13526 gave sweeping authority over declassification of intelligence information to the DNI, who was authorized to "declassify, downgrade, or direct the declassification or downgrading of information or intelligence relating to intelligence sources, methods, or activities." (sect. 3.1c)

The new presidential memorandum adopts the same language but modifies the provision to state that it is Attorney General Barr who may now "declassify, downgrade, or direct the declassification or downgrading of information or intelligence that relates to the Attorney General's review."

No rationale for the change was provided, though it was understood to support the Attorney General's investigation into what he called U.S. government "spying" on the Trump campaign.

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) warned that the move threatened to politicize intelligence. "Selectively declassifying sources and methods in order to serve a political agenda will make it harder for the intelligence community to do their jobs protecting this country from those who wish to do us harm," he said.

For his part, DNI Dan Coats said that "I am confident that the Attorney General will work with the IC in accordance with the long-established standards to protect highly-sensitive classified information that, if publicly released, would put our national security at risk."

*    *    *

There is some precedent for overriding the judgment of the DNI concerning the protection of sources and methods.

A 1999 decision of the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel concluded that the presidentially-established Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel could declassify intelligence information over the objections of the Director of Central Intelligence.

While it is true that the DCI, and now the DNI, is obliged by the National Security Act to protect intelligence sources and methods from unauthorized disclosure, the Director's authority in this area is not absolute or exclusive.

Specifically, "If the President concludes that information concerning intelligence sources and methods should not be classified, the disclosure of such information simply is not 'unauthorized' within the meaning of the [National Security Act]," wrote Randolph D. Moss of the Office of Legal Counsel in his 1999 opinion.

Still, this OLC conclusion may not be correct (said a non-lawyer) because "declassification" is not the same as "disclosure." Even intelligence information that is declassified or unclassified may still be, and often is, protected from public disclosure by the DNI under the provisions of the National Security Act.

The new presidential memorandum does not address the question of disclosure at all.

Trump pulls another con job as he pulls U.S. out of Paris Climate Pact

Trump once again thinks he can govern by royal decree.  He has no clue the pact was VOLUNTARY.  he thinks this was something imposed upon the U.S.

The agreement comes with a three year moratorium on countries backing out of the agreement.  

So, no matter what Trump says or thinks we're still in this until 2020, which just happens to be the next presidential election year.  

Why are police wearing gear and guns like this at our airports?

From The Washingtonian:

The US Customs and Border Protection Agency at Dulles International Airport has refused to grant attorneys access to any detainees it may be holding, according to Sharifa Abbasi, who is coordinating the volunteer lawyer efforts underway there. Yesterday, a federal judge for the Eastern District of Virginia ordered respondents, who include CBP, President Trump, and the CBP Port Director for Dulles Wayne Biondi, to “permit lawyers access to all legal permanent residents being detained at Dulles International Airport.”

Abbasi says late Sunday morning a border agent told lawyers that agents have been instructed not to speak with them. About 15 lawyers have been directed to call Steve Sapp, an official with the CBP Office of Public Affairs, but have so far have not had their calls answered or returned. Washingtonian called the number, which directed reporters to a cellphone number whose voicemail was full.

Abbasi and one other lawyer we spoke to say officials at Dulles have refused to engage with the lawyers since this morning. A border agent who agreed to bring the lawyers’ request for access to detainees, as well as a copy of the order, to her supervisor came back with this message: “It’s not going to happen.”

Lawyers at Dulles are currently considering motions to hold the government in contempt and to compel disclosure of any individuals who are being detained.

A Constitutional Crisis

From The Huffington Post

It took little more than a week in office for President Donald Trump to thrust the nation to the brink of a constitutional crisis.

Late Friday, Trump issued an executive order forbidding millions of refugees, hundreds of thousands of visitors and 500,000 legal immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States. Over the following 48 hours, massive protests erupted in cities and airports nationwide, courts temporarily blocked major parts of the order, the administration defied the courts and Democrats called for an investigation into the administration’s defiance. As the weekend drew to a close, an anonymous White House official proclaimed the whole episode a “massive success story.”

The federal courts thought otherwise. On Saturday night, a judge in Brooklyn ordered the Trump administration to stop deporting refugees and visitors immigration authorities had previously cleared to enter the country. Two judges in Massachusetts ordered that travelers who were legally authorized to be in the United States shouldn’t be detained at or deported from Logan International Airport for a period of seven days. A judge in Seattle halted the deportation of two travelers. And a judge in Virginia issued an order requiring the administration to allow lawyers access to lawful permanent residents — also known as green card holders — whom Customs and Border Protection agents had detained at Dulles International Airport on Trump’s instructions.

When federal judges rule, government officials — up to and including the president — are supposed to obey or risk being held in contempt of court. A government that ignored the courts would be able to violate the law and the Constitution at will. So for more than two centuries, the nation’s courts have had the last word on what’s legal and constitutional — and what is not. “We are and will remain in compliance with judicial orders,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Sunday evening.

But there was little indication that the Trump administration has fully complied with the court orders — or that Trump’s inner circle even believed the administration had to do so.

“Saturday’s ruling does not undercut the president’s executive order,” a senior White House official told NBC News midday Sunday in reference to the Brooklyn judge’s decision. “All stopped visas will remain stopped. All halted admissions will remain halted. All restricted travel will remain prohibited.”

CBP officials refused throughout the weekend to obey the Virginia judge’s order to allow lawyers access to detainees at Dulles. “It’s not going to happen,” they told attorneys who hoped to represent the detained people. When Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) showed up at the airport shortly before midnight Saturday, CBP officials refused to meet with him, according to reporting by The Daily Beast’s Betsy Woodruff.  

“I am now of the belief that though this was issued by the judicial branch, that it was violated tonight,” Booker said, brandishing the order. “And so one of the things I will be doing is fighting to make sure that the executive branch abides by the law as it was issued in this state and around the nation. This will be an ongoing battle ... I believe it’s a constitutional crisis, where the executive branch is not abiding by the law.”

The next morning, four Democratic members of the House of Representatives went to the airport and tried and failed to convince CBP to obey the order.

“We have a constitutional crisis today,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), one of the four House members who went to the airport, tweeted Sunday.

”I am deeply disappointed by what happened at Dulles… and how the order was ignored,” Booker added later. “There must be accountability for this.”

Detentions continued in California, too, according to the state’s junior senator.

“I have received reports from attorneys in CA that agents are continuing to deny or delay entry to America to visa holders and others,” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) tweeted shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday. “This violates the federal court orders and it is imperative [Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly] ensures all staff are notified and comply with the law.”

On Sunday night, Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Richard Durbin (Ill.), the second-highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general requesting an investigation into the agency’s handling of Trump’s executive order and response to the court rulings. The senators asked the IG to figure out whether any CBP officers disobeyed court orders, what they did, and who ordered them to do it.

“The United States Constitution means little if law enforcement agents disregard it,” Duckworth and Durbin wrote. “The American people are relying on your independent investigators to serve as a check against a powerful law enforcement agency that may be ... operating in violation of the law.”

The weekend’s events had all the makings of a constitutional crisis, two law professors told HuffPost.

Disobeying a court order “is a big deal for any government official — federal, state, local, executive, legislative, whatever,” said Abner Greene, a law professor at Fordham University. “Obedience to specific court orders is what keeps us from being a banana republic or fascist dictatorship. That’s a really big deal.”

The chaos “doesn’t just risk a constitutional crisis,” argued Michael Dorf, a professor at Cornell Law School. “Assuming the report is accurate, it creates one.” If the Trump administration believes that the court orders limiting the president’s executive order are unlawful, it can file an emergency appeal, Dorf noted. But “outright defiance,” he added, “can only be deemed disrespect for the rule of law.”